To Do List: Thurs, Sept 8

1. Quiet Time (Beth Moore's Breaking Free)

2. Make Laundry Detergent using a recipe from Great Oak Circle (dot com).

3. Create our fall mantel using inspiration from Sweet Something Design.

4. Finalize a pattern for Advent calendars or banner to place in my Etsy Shop and my booth at the Spring Valley Craft Bazaar.

5. Plan a few meals for the next week or so...you can tell how ambitious I am.

A Swagbucks First

I have never, ever won this much from a search, but I'll happily take it!!!

Bunked

I'm contemplating the purchase of bunk beds in the near future.  Top bunk for Caleb, bottom bunk for Sarah.

Does anyone have any tips about bunk beds?

How about bunk beds that can be separated into twin beds later?

Wood vs. Metal?  Is this just preference or a durability issue?

Here is one I'm thinking looks pretty good and in price range:

White Wal-Mart Twin Size Bunk Bed

Oberon White Bunk Bed

We Did It: Paying Cash for a Minivan

How we created enough savings to buy a (used) car with cash only:

• After we paid off our Saturn  a year and a half ago, we started paying ourselves, building significant savings.
• The only debt we have is our home mortgage (even owing that drives me bonkers).
• In case you didn't know this about me, I don't pay full price for many things.  I shop the rewards program at CVS and use coupons or buy store brands whenever possible.
• Most work around the house is done by Jadie.  Even our bathroom remodels last year came in under $2,000 total.

Here's how the deal went down:

• We made a mental list of what we wanted.

1. Stow-n-go for all 5 seats.
2. around 50K miles, if possible.
3. 5 years old or less.

• We shopped online for minivans, getting a firm idea of the going rate for what we wanted.
• We stopped at a Carmax in Austin to get an education regarding pricing and features of various minivans.  They have No-Haggle pricing and No-Pressure sales, so we felt free to ask questions.
• While working in Temple, Jadie spotted a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan with 54K miles and 5 Stow-N-Go seats.
• We drove down to take the minivan for a test drive with the kiddos.
• We almost walked away that night, but the manager of the dealership quickly made a $1,500 price drop to keep us interested. (I'm assuming this is because this vehicle had been sitting in their parking lot for over 2 months.)
• We still walked, saying we'd think about it.
• We looked at every dealership in Waco to scope out comparable or better deals.  Zip.  Zero.
• Jadie called the dealership in Temple and negotiated another $500 price drop.
• Jadie brought the minivan home last night so we could have our mechanic look at it today.
• No major issues with the minivan functionality or under the hood.
• We gave the dealership a list of things we saw and wanted to have repaired.  They agreed.
• We drove to Temple to pay for our new minivan!

Baby Bottle Perusing

Although I have a plethora of plastic baby bottles...

I'm looking at glass bottles today...

Any feedback?

Lifefactory Glass Baby Bottles

$55.49

OR

(the more economical choice...perhaps...)

Evenflo Classic Glass Bottles

$15.99

I Will Not Cry...

After holding onto Caleb's clothes for the past 5 years, I have finally let go.

I have been holding onto them JUST IN CASE we have another baby.  And we still might.  But taking up two lengths of shelf space in the shed was getting ridiculous.  The collection of Rubbermaids really snowballed after Sarah started outgrowing her clothes, too.

So, I spent a few minutes in mourning and I started sorting.  One pile for Goodwill, one pile for Baby Charlie (9 months), one pile for Baby Ethan (due any minute), and one pile to consign.

Little did I know, it was my lucky day.  If you believe in that sort of thing.  Luck, I mean.

First, I had to figure out how to get Sarah and two Rubbermaid bins into the store.  Then, the store clerk explained to me their NEW clothes buying policy!  Once she went through my clothes, she would be offering me CASH MONEY or STORE CREDIT right away!  No more waiting 3 months just to see if anything sold.  The store was going to BUY my clothes from me up front!  Yay!

What did I manage to walk away with?  From 2 bins of clothes sized newborn to 3T, I was offered $154 cash or $194 store credit!  Take a deep breath...read it again...

This momma has some mad money stored up for the next time I want to go kid's clothes shopping!

And IF another baby comes along, I'll bet there will still be some credit in that store account to furnish a new wardrobe...or at least part of it!

Valentine's Mantel

I used a combination of things to create our Valentine's mantel.  

First off, I bought some pre-cut foam hearts from JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts at 40% off.  I think that made them $3 and some change.  Caleb separated the solid hearts from the heart outlines, then he ordered them in his own little pattern.  I glued them to a length of yarn and taped them to the mantel.

Second, I printed vintage Valentine's cards from the internet.  I just Googled "vintage valentine's cards" and picket out some that I liked.  I printed them on regular copy paper and cut them out.  I used pink and red cardstock to create "mats" for them according to the sizes that I needed.  The heart in the white frame is just a piece of printed scrapbook paper cut into a heart and taped to a piece of paper.

Finally, I pulled my red mosaic candles (from Kohl's) back out from the Christmas mantel and presto!  I was done.

Delicious Pumpkin Gingerbread

I made Pumpkin Muffins for Breakfast yesterday morning.  Yumm!  The problem is that the recipe calls for 1 cup of pumpkin, which is only 1/2 of the can.  I didn't want to double the recipe, because that would be too many muffins for sure...

So I searched allrecipes.com for another pumpkin recipe.  I found a great one!

This Pumpkin Gingerbread is divine...if you like that sort of thing.  I decreased the recipe to half the number of servings and used what I had left of the pumpkin from breakfast.  Waste not, want not...I'm sure glad I didn't!

I've also copied the address below as I made it.  The original recipe yields two loaves, but the halved version yields one.

Pumpkin Gingerbread

• 
  
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large mixing, combine sugar, oil and eggs; beat until smooth. Add water and beat until well blended. Stir in pumpkin, ginger, allspice cinnamon, and clove.
3. In medium bowl, combine flour, soda, salt, and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and blend just until all ingredients are mixed. Divide batter between prepared pans.
4. Bake in preheated oven until toothpick comes out clean, about 1 hour.  I had to leave the loaf in the oven an additional 10 minutes.  Just use the toothpick test and you'll be fine.

Printable Valentine's Tags

Here's the Link

Graciously created and given by

Free Printable Gift Tags

For Personal Use Only

Gift Tags From Delight.com

Update On the Homemade Pizza

A few notes:
1. The homemade pizza turned out great!
2. I used a round, metal, 12.5-inch pizza pan that I picked up at HEB a few years ago.
3. I used 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour and 3 cups all purpose flour to make the dough.  We liked it just fine.
4. It took approximately 1.5 hours for my dough to rise to twice its size.
5. The dough recipe made 3 dough balls for me.  I made 2 pizzas that fed 3 adults and 2 children, and I tossed the 3rd dough ball in the back of the freezer in a freezer bag.
6. I used a jar of marinara for the pizza sauce.  There's no sense in buying that tiny jar of "pizza sauce."  What a rip-off.  I used the remaining marinara to make spaghetti the next day.

How Could You Use Amazon Gift Cards?

I try not to use my blog to persuade people to do things...and I will not try to persuade you regarding this either.  I just thought you might like to be aware of this opportunity.

I have been using Swagbucks for at least a year now.  I'm not really sure exactly how long.  Anyhow, in that time, I have been able to redeem my accumulated Swagbucks to purchase $130 in Amazon Gift Cards and $10 in the form of a Starbucks Gift Card.  Here is a screenshot of some of the Amazon cards I have redeemed online.  They are added to my Swagbucks account as a code, which I then enter on Amazon.com as a gift certificate code at checkout.

I thought you might like to know, in case you are interested in trying it out.  Of course, it would benefit me if you decided to sign up.  I would get Swagbucks for the first 1,000 that you earn by searching.  That would really help me earn more Amazon cards.  I have used them to purchase books, diapers, and a (random) filter for our refrigerator.

If you decide to go for it, please use my link so I can earn with you for the first 1,000.
Lauren's Referral Link

How To Clear the Clutter

Have a garage sale!

Mom, Kristin, my friend Beth, and I had a garage sale this past weekend.  It had been a long time in coming.  Our shed in the backyard was full of plastic storage bins and black garbage bags full of things that were too good to go straight to goodwill, but had done their duty in our house.

Mom ran the sale on her own on Friday morning, because the kids and I had VBS to finish up (at a different church).  Kristin, Beth, and I joined her for Satuday morning's sale.

All in all, we made almost $400.  But the most rewarding part is that we have money in our pockets and more space in our houses!  Mom came with her car loaded down, but returned home with only 3 boxes and a small television.  Kristin returned home with 3 more boxes than she started with, but all of that will be donated to her refugees.  I took 3 bins back to the shed.  I'll try to sell those the next go around.

My favorite part of the weekend was Saturday night.  Jadie watched the kiddos while Mom, Kristin, and I played BINGO and enjoyed a late, quiet dinner at Pei Wei.  What a relaxing few hours!

What a Day!

Thanks to Miss Mary Mac, we've had quite a fun whirlwind of a day today!

We were planning to stay home most of the day wearing our pajamas, with the possibility of a trip to the library, but...we got a phone call this morning asking if we wanted to go to the zoo.  Sure, why not?

We hadn't been to the Cameron Park Zoo in quite a while.  When we got to the gate to pay, I realized that the prices had gone up to $9 for me and $6 for Caleb...$15 for a couple of hours at the zoo.  I opted to purchase the Family Pass instead for $60.  More than I intended to spend today, but as long as we visit the zoo more than 4 times before next July, it will be worth it.

By the way, the zoo has some pretty amazing animal tattoos in the gift shop.  caleb picked out a ferocious looking alligator.

So, the zoo got us pretty sweaty pretty fast.  Or should I say the hot, humid weather got us sweaty pretty fast.  We only visited the tigers, orangutans, gibbons, and the komodo dragon today.  And, of course, the playground.  After only about 45 minutes of walking around in the heavy humidity Mary Mac and I started brainstorming our trip to Chick-fil-A for some free lunch.

Mary Mac and I rushed home, dressed ourselves in all white (and Caleb in brown).  Then, we cut out black splotches and taped them all over ourselves.  I know you may be thinking you'd never do something so silly, but hey...I have to admit that I enjoy being silly from time to time :-)

Here is our finished product. And yes, all 4 of us ate for free.  Chick-fil-A does a Cow Appreciation Day once a year, in July.  All you have to do to receive a free combo meal is to dress up like a cow and come in to the restaurant.  So worth a free meal!

By the way, that awesome green pipe cleaner is Adam's grass.  He loves to get into character.  And his udders are made from one of Mary Mac's toe separators from her pedicure supplies!  She totally outdid me in the creativity department!

P.S. Here's a shout out to fellow blogger Stephanie...I'm so glad I ran into you at Chick-fil-A!  You should sooooooo dress up next year!  Just wear all white to work and tape some spots on when you get to Chick-fil-A.  Totally doable!

Get Over It

The statement is directed at myself.

You may know that I've been really trying to stretch our grocery budget by using coupons and only buying items when they are on sale.  I gave in to convenience this week.  I did not want to make a trip to the grocery store for only a few items when I could just have Jadie stop at the Brookshire Brother's on the highway on his way home from work.  So he graciously agreed to stop for me to pick up 4 items.

I know the prices are higher there than at HEB or Wal-Mart, but this is literally highway robbery (and the store is actually located on I-35).  Here are the totals from the receipt with my notes for typical sale prices.  I will NOT be buying anything from Brookshire Brothers again unless it's for something with an incredible sale price and a coupon.

Milk $3.79 ($2.49 at Target the last 2 weeks in a row)
Blue Bell Ice Cream $5.79 ($4.00 on sale at IGA this week)
Imperial Sugar $1.99 ($1.49 at HEB on a regular basis)
Sweet Potatoes $0.99/lb ($0.44/lb at HEB on a regular basis)

He bought 1 gallon of milk, 2 ice creams, 2 sugars, and almost 4 lbs of sweet potatoes and the total was $23.15.   This is why it's hard not to want to shop the sales and use the coupons...just knowing how over-priced some stores can be is maddening!

But I will choose to let it go and be more determined next time!

$3 off Disney Movie

Love Disney movies?  Save a little cash getting your next one (or two)!
Use your back button after printing to print a second time.

$3 off any Disney DVD or Blu-Ray

My Free Starbucks Gift Card

I know you may be tired of seeing my Swagbucks link off to the right over there ------------->

But if you haven't already, you should really consider signing up.  After only a few months of searching and racking up Swagbucks in my account, I was able to redeem them for a $10 Starbucks Gift Card.  And yes, it really came in the mail.

If you do decide to get on board, please use my link (the icon to the right).  I will get a Swagbuck for each one that you win by searching, up to 100.  I am saving up for who knows what this time!

Swagbucks

So I've been hooked on Swagbucks for a while now.  I earn Swagbucks for searching on the Swagbucks site.  After stockpiling said Swagbucks, I can redeem them for prizes...giftcards in my case.

My total has slowly climbed to above 300 and I finally redeemed some Swagbucks for a giftcard.  A $10 Starbucks gift card, actually.

I have always thought Swagbucks was a good concept...I can get something (cash, practically) just for doing something I use Google for anyway.  Why not?

I finally realized that I could be earning Swagbucks much faster!

If Swagbucks sounds like something you might like to do, please use my link to the right (or at the top of this post) to sign yourself up.  I will earn a Swagbuck for you signing up and then I'll also earn one every time you win by searching (up to 100 Swagbucks).  Pretty, please do me this favor!

After you sign up, invite your friends and you can earn when they join!

FREE Holiday Postcards

I almost ordered my christmas cards from Vista Print yesterday. They were really adorable and would have included a photo of the kiddos. I was going to pay $22.49 + shipping for 100 4"x8" cards with envelopes. But then I came across this deal today...

See my post HERE.

Random Info

As the parent of a little boy, I have dreaded the purchase of batteries on many occasions. I tend to purchase wither Rayovac batteries or the HEB store brand batteries.

I recently purchased four Bob the Builder toys for Caleb at our local Just Between Friends sale, which is a twice a year children's consignment sale. I thought Caleb would enjoy them since he enjoys the two BTB videos he has. After only a few minutes of playing with his new toys, Caleb discovered that they have buttons to press for voice effects. Great. I was sure batteries would be required. I unscrewed the battery cover and discovered the toys required disc-like batteries. I priced them at Wal-Mart...$5.67 for three batteries. Each toy requires three batteries. So, new batteries would cost $22.68. I decided that this was not happening, so I told Caleb he'd have to make his own voices for Scoop, Muck, Dizzy, and Lofty.

Then I made a trip to the Dollar Tree for something else. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I passed by a battery display before leaving the store. I spotted disc-like batteries. Could this be for real? Could I really get a package of three batteries for just $1? No, but I was able to pick up eight batteries for $1. No joke. The exact batteries I needed, for all four toys, for under $2! Take note and remember this information!