Harnessing The Mighty Power of the Electron - The Easiest Way to Polish Sterling Silver

I love sterling silver jewelry, but hate how it oxidizes. Most of my sterling silver I keep in air tight storage so that they go decades without tarnishing. But, I happen to have a favorite plumeria flower ring from Hawaii that is sterling silver. This ring never leaves my finger which means after a couple of months it looks more like pewter than it does silver.

I have used traditional silver polishes on it for years, but with all it's crevasses and grooves it takes forever to polish it all (and I go through A LOT of Q-tips doing it). About a year ago I discovered a great method for cleaning sterling silver anything - it is the fastest and easiest that I've found.

Here's what ya do:

Gather the items that you want to de-tarnish. Do a surface cleaning on them - for me that means using a toothpick to get all the lotion gunk out of the crevasses of my ring.

Line an appropriately sized pan with aluminum foil - shiny side up. For me and my little ring, a small bowl will do. If you're polishing silver flatware you will want to use a 9x13 pan.

Bring to boil enough water to submerge your silver objects. For my ring it only takes about a cup. I do this in the microwave because it's faster than the stove top, during the summer it doesn't heat up my kitchen and it gives the inside of my microwave a nice little steam bath which loosens up all the crud and I can take 30 seconds to wipe it out when I'm done.

While the water is coming to a boil, pour table salt onto the aluminum foil. I don't have an exact amount for you - Just make a thin layer of salt along the entire bottom of the dish that you're using.

Place all of your silver into the dish. Once the water is boiling, pour it over the silver. Allow to sit for 20 minutes.

It has been too many years since my last in-organic chemistry class to tell you the science behind this method. But, I know it has something to do with ions moving stuff around. Basically, electrons do all the dirty work while you sit back and relax (hah!).

After 20 minutes, check on your silver. You will notice a dark ring on the aluminum foil - that's all the "tarnish" molecules that have been magically removed from your silver and deposited onto the foil.

If your silver is heavily tarnished it may take several soakings before your silver is looking like new. But, the great part is that it requires very little work for you. If your silver still is tarnished after 1 soaking, discard the water and foil and start all over again. It takes just a couple of minutes to set it all up. It sure beats polishing it all by hand. Especially if you have lots of tarnished silver - this method takes the same amount of time no matter how much you have.

Here's a shot of my ring before (sorry the picture is blurry - I'm no photographer and my camera is pretty pathetic too)

And here's an after shot:

The difference is pretty subtle in the pictures, but in real life it is more pronounced - my ring looks almost new.

If you take time to do some research I'm sure that you can find out the actual science behind all this and it would be a great lesson for the kiddos and show some science in action.

Get other great tips and tricks over at We are THAT Family's Works for Me Wednesdays

Marathon Shopping Day

I am on complete shopping overload this week. Smith's is doubling coupons (unlimited!), Albertson's has multiple sets of double coupons and a smokin' hot sale, Rite Aid and Walgreens both had tons of free after rebate and RR offers. And I went to all of them yesterday, and Target too! I actually went to Smith's 3 times because I kept reading about new hot double coupon deals. In all I went to the store 7 times yesterday! And I had a great time doing it (well, until my last transaction at Albertson's and the catalina didn't print, then I just wanted to be done!) I brought my SIL along with me to Walgreens and Rite Aid first thing this morning. These 2 stores are not the best place for a newbie couponer to start out, but the deals were so great that I wanted to share the love. She had a great time and is totally hooked.

I was so excited about all this Sunday night that I hardly slept at all. I am such a grocery geek - I get an adrenaline rush just thinking about all the money I'm going to save.

So, how'd I do? I think I did pretty good. I don't get multiple copies of the paper so I wasn't able to get as great of deals as a lot of other people, but I'm happy with my success. I didn't take pictures of it all because I just wanted to get it all home and put away.

In total I spent $83.94 yesterday on $270.77 worth of groceries. I will get $38.74 back in rebates, so accounting for that, I spent $45.20. Plus, I still have $30 in catalinas and $8 in Register Rewards to spend later. Once I use those, I will have spent $45.20 on $308.77 worth of products! That's a savings of $263.57, or 85%! I spent about 3 1/2 hours in the stores (and driving) and about another hour or so planning everything out. So, saving over $263 is a pretty good return on my investment - about $58 / hour.

I did take a few pictures...

Here's what I got at Rite Aid: I spent $16.50, but will get back $31.75 in rebates, so I actually made $15.25 shopping there (Love it!). Rite Aid has really had amazing deals the last few weeks. And the employees at my store are super friendly. They even had all of the free after rebate items on 1 shelf right at the front of the store - so convenient!


At Walgreens I got:
I spent $8.74, but I still have $8 in RR to spend in the next 2 weeks. (btw, the green bottles are shampoo and conditioner)

In one of my trips to Smith's I got:

I spent $4.33 (that's less than the deodorant costs normally!) Smith's was crazy yesterday. I went at 6am and there were already dozens of hard core couponers there. When I went in the evening, it was a mad house. I don't think Smith's had any idea what they were getting themselves into when they announced they were doubling coupons. I saw a lot of empty shelves - they were not prepared for this, especially with the P&G promotion running concurrently. But, I hope they do it again, because, my goodness, it was so much fun seeing that total just plummet as they scanned the coupons.

It's days like today that make all the time I spend clipping, filling and planning worth it. I truly do enjoy it all - it has become a hobby for me. But, even the hard core grocery geeks need to take a break, so I'm not going to the store at all today. I know, not much of a break. But, Wednesday starts a new sale cycle for Smith's and Albertson's and you never know what great deals it's going to bring :o)

Confessions...

A couple of weeks ago, as I was preparing a Young Women lesson on Scripture Study, I fell asleep while reading my scriptures (and got a big spot of green ink on my sheets from my scripture marking pen)


Sometimes I go so long in between vacuuming my carpet that my kids' hair picks up little pieces of debris when they're playing around on the floor.


I justify buying junk food (like Easy Mac) by the fact that I got it for free. As if that makes it any healthier.


A week ago, my son cut his own hair with his scissors. Unfortunately it really doesn't look all that different from when I cut it myself.

Charming Disneyland Paris Picture

How wonderful is this?

My Best Shopping Excursion Ever!

It was another blissfully successful morning of deal shopping. Check it out:

At Rite Aid I got:


And a BIC Triumph Roller Pen (Fred was really excited about it and opened it up before I took a picture), for $15.68. Which isn't really that great of a deal. The real story here is in the rebates. I will be getting back $9.95 for the mascara, $4.00 for the Herbal Essence shampoo and conditioner, $2.00 for the BIC pen, $2.00 for the Neutrogena make up. So, after rebates, I ending up making a $2.27 profit! Regular price was $51.24. How sweet is that?! Big thanks to Hip2Save for compiling such a great Rite Aid shopping list.

At Walgreens, I got:

for $4.99. Which again, isn't a great deal, but I will get a $3.99 rebate for the head band. So, that brings my total down to $1.00. Regular price for this was $17.48.

We got Albertson's Double Coupons in the paper yesterday, so I made another run to Albetson's and was totally surprised by the Palmolive dish soap deal I stumbled upon. I was able to get 4 bottles for $.68 total! Here's everything that I got:

for $3.08! Regual price was $30.61.

Between the three stores, in total, I spent $1.81 on $99.33 worth of merchandise - that's 98% savings! I think this may be my best shopping excursion yet!

Albertson's - 87% savings!

Even without doubles this week's Albertson's sale is pretty HOT! Check out what I got today:

16 double rolls of toilet paper (32 regular rolls)

4 rolls paper towels

1 gal Nursery water

12 cups Mott's applesauce

3 boxes Wet Ones hand wipes (72 wipes)

5 packets Ranch Dressing Mix

10 disposable latex gloves

for $6.82! Original Price on all this: $55.72. Oooooh yeah. Love it!

There are a few more things that I will probably go back to get on Monday. I'm still hoping that there will be doubles in this Sunday's paper, even thought the rumors are that there won't be. I'll wait and see. If not, I'll still head in Monday because they have some pretty good deals going on that I'd like to get in on. Plus, I think I'd like more Ranch packets - we go through a lot of those and at $.70 a piece, you can't beat it!

Family Reading Time

I have a ever growing and never shrinking list of books that I want to read. The list never shrinks because I have a really hard time fitting book reading into my days. I can only pack so many things into my day and book reading, unfortunately lands towards the bottom of the to-do list. Usually most of my reading occurs late at night (and early into the morning) the night before the book is due back to the library.

This is no good for many reasons. I am none too happy the next morning. I often don't get it finished and have to pay a late fee (it's only $.10 / day, but still, annoying). My kids don't see me reading, so I'm not setting a good example for them. And the books I read are much less enjoyable when I read them in this stress packed manner.

So, I've decided that we are going to family (really just me and the kids) reading time each day. We always read a couple books to our kids before nap and bed times. But, this will be a time where they can sit and "read" to themselves and I can read my books. I have a 3 year old and a 11 month old, so really not much reading is occurring for them, but it's more about the habit right now.

The 11 month old goes into the play pen with some board books and quite books. He really enjoys himself a lot actually. It's quite cute watching him turn the pages and look through the books. My 3 year old gets a book and sits with me on the couch. I settle in to read my book while my 3 year old runs back and forth to his room grabbing more books as he finishes one. Reading time will usually last anywhere from 20 - 30 minutes. I was quite surprised that both my kids' attention spans lasted this long, I expected 10 minutes to go by and both of them begging to do something else.

We've been doing this in the late morning, after my little one wakes up from his morning nap and before lunch time. It seems to work pretty well. We go the park in the mornings, so my 3 year old has most of his sillies worked out and is able to sit quietly for a while. And my little guy is always pretty chill when he wakes up, so he's happy sitting in the play pen and not necessarily wanting to roam around and get into mischief.

We've done this for several days now and it has been wonderful. I'm almost done with my current book and it's not even due for another week!

I know this is really nothing new - I'm sure a lot of you do this in your own homes. But, it is new to me and I love it. This works for our family. Find out what works for other families over at We Are THAT Family's Works for Me Wednesday Carnival.

Donation Time Again

Over the last month or so, I've collected the following items for FREE:

5 packages of Kotex
6 Toothbrushes
4 Foss
5 Deodorant
1 Contact solution
2 BBQ sauce
1 Shampoo / Conditioner

All were free through coupons or mail in rebates (or a combination of the 2, in which case they were money makers!). Retail on all this is close to $40! I don't really need any of these products, so I'm going to drop them off at the Food Bank here in Provo some time this week. I get warm fuzzies just thinking about it :o)

You can see the stash of stuff that I got for free and donated last time here.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Review

Harry Potter love runs deep in my family - my sisters and cousins combined have read the books too many times to count (although they do keep track and are quite proud of it). The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as I am a big Harry Potter fan as well.

The movies will never be as good as the books and shouldn't be compared to one another. They are 2 different mediums and lend themselves to different types of storytelling. I've always tried to view the movies as a works completely separate from the books. This objectivity usually leads me to think very highly of the movies, despite their differences from the books. But, this movie left me a little disappointed.

It is clear that the movie's attention is focusing on 3 aspects of the book: the emerging adolescent affection of Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione; Draco's journey as a new Death Eater; and the relationship of Dumblebore and Harry Potter, and with it Dumbledore's legacy.

I think that the movie portrayed the complexities of adolescent relationships - love, crushes, friends, competition, heart break, anger etc very well. And I enjoyed that part of the movie. There was great character development and I feel that it set the stage very well for the 7th movie. But, I feel that the rest of it was very lacking.

Dumbledore and Harry's journey to learn all that they can about Voldemort and the Horcruxes should have been the main focus of the movie. The hours that they spent together unraveling the mystery of Voldemort, and thereby strengthening their relationship, makes the ending all that more tragic. Simply showing one of the memories and moving on with very little discussion of its significance is not adequate.

Judging by the plot elements from the book that were either omitted or left in the movie and the cinematography, it is clear that David Yates wanted the focus of the movie to be on Dumbledore. And yet there were many missed opportunities to do this. More of the plot should've focused on Dumbledore and Harry as they work together to determine what all of the Horcruxes are. Because there is very little discussion between Harry and Dumbledore, Harry is just an observer. He views the memories that Dumbledore has collected, is instructed by Dumbledore to get one more and that's it. Because Harry isn't involved in the discovery process, we as the audience aren't either. There is nothing to draw us in. We aren't there in the room with them as they figure out what makes Voldemort tick.

Because the movie focuses so little on Dumbledore and Harry's time together, the ending is not very climatic. There is no great loss because there was no great gain to begin with. You have to spend time developing a relationship if there is to be any emotional effect when that relationship is ended. Yes, the movie can only be so long and things have to be cut to achieve this. But, I feel that the movie missed a huge theme in the book and that left the movie feeling very hollow. Plus, there was that strange scene at the Burrow that was not in the book and seemed to come out of left field. Surely that scene could've been sacrificed to obtain more character development for Dumbledore and Harry.

Additionally, less time should've been spent on showcasing the CGI - yes, we know you can make amazing computer generated images, we get it. But, really at the end of the day, it is meaningless. I don't pay money to sit and watch synthetic images on a large screen. First and foremost, the movie must tell a story and I don't feel that this movie told the story very well.

I know that when books are adapted to movies, not all the material makes it to the silver screen. Story lines that don't serve the theme of the movie must be cut in order to produce a cohesive work. I am not looking for the movie to be a prefect re-creation of the book. But, in this case, the movie did not adequately communicate a theme that it was clearly trying to.

I do have to say, that this would be one of the harder HP books to turn in to a movie. There is a lot of exposition, which makes a compelling book, but would make a very boring movie. I don't know exactly how this should've been handled. But, I do know that what was portrayed in the movie was lacking real depth.

Bottom line - the movie was just o.k. It is always wonderful to visit the world of Harry Potter and I automatically like the movies for bringing me there. But, this movie left me disappointed. It failed to tell the story that I know it was trying to tell.

This post is very long, and really, I could go on for a while longer, but won't. If you made it to the end of this review, you must really want to hear what I have to say about Harry Potter. Either that, or you completely disagree with what I have to say and are seething at my audacity of criticising a Harry Potter movie. If it's the latter, I have a feeling, I'll be hearing about it.

What Do You Spend Your Money On? Things or Experiences?

Money has been very tight in our house lately and we've taken a very close look at where our money is being spent. This has been such a valuable learning experience for our family. I cannot even begin to enumerate all of the lessons we have learned over the last few years.

Earlier this year, I set a goal to spend less money on things and more money on experiences. We fill our lives with too many things - clothes, movies, furniture, cars, jewelry, decorations, toys, electronics etc. And in reality those things do very little to make us happy, and we definitely can't take them with us into our next life. Sure they are fun, but they don't bring us any lasting joy. What does bring us lasting joy, and will forever be a part of us, is experiences and memories with our friends and family.

With this in mind, I'm trying to put my money into those things that really matter. Rather than buying Hunter a bunch of toys that he really doesn't need for his birthday, we put his birthday money from Grandparents and great-Grandparents toward a trip to Disneyland. And let me tell you, those 3 magical days at Disneyland are more valuable than a house full of toys.

This year, when my mom asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I couldn't think of anything. I honestly hadn't thought about what I wanted at all. That has never happened to me. I did need a new diaper bag, and so she got me a new one (note to all you new mothers out there: do not buy a white diaper bag, even if it is absolutely adorable with it's pink and white polka dot interior and black accents - it will be filthy in one day flat!) What I did want for my birthday was the ability to do fun activities with my family, activities that we really can't afford right now. So, I'm spending my birthday money on arts and crafts supplies for Hunter, trips to water parks and museums for the whole family. The memories from these experiences are worth so much more to me than any thing I could buy.

And, speaking of my birthday, my favorite part of the day didn't require any money at all. Fred had my brother and sister-in-law babysit the kids while we took a walk up Provo Canyon. We walked and talked. We sat on rocks by the river listening to the peaceful flow of water and discussing grand ideas. He picked me a bouquet of wildflowers as we walked back out of the canyon. It was truly magical and it didn't cost a dime. Sometimes the most valuable experiences in life are the simplest ones.

Next time you go to plunk money down on something, ask yourself if it is just a thing, or if it is an experience. If it's just a thing, think about what experience or memory that money could buy instead. Decide which you want more. You may be surprised how many things you realize that would trade in for lifelong memories and experiences.

Smith's and Albertson's Shopping Trips

This week's sale at Smith's blows Albertson's sale out of the water! Even taking into account double coupons at Albertson's, I would shop at Smith's over Albertson's this week. Smith's sale is huge - there are so many participating items (a lot aren't even listed in the add) and the sale is on items that aren't complete junk, like a lot of the Albertson's sale items are.

I did make a couple trips to Albertson's today though. They have a great deal going on with Fiber One products. You won't hear a lot of buzz about the deal on any deal blogs, because most of them don't get excited unless cereal is less than $1.00 a box. But, usually the cereal that is that cheap is complete junk, and I don't buy it. So, when our family's favorite cereal was on sale, I just had to jump on it. Here's what I got at Albertson's today:



I paid $15.44, original price: $63 (Do keep in mind that Albertson's regular prices are very inflated). And I feel great about what I bought. Sometimes, I come away from a great deal knowing that I saved a ton but also feeling like I spent my money on second rate items. But, not today. I absolutely love fresh salsa, and it was free after doubled coupons. We love the cereal and granola bars. I use Dijon mustard and pineapple all the time. The only thing that I wasn't over the moon about was the Fiber One toaster pastries, but they were so cheap, that I decided that I could live with it (at least they have a good amount of fiber right?!)


And now for Smith's. I got:


For $19.30, Original Price: $42.16. I only spent around $7 for the 10 items in the promotion: cream cheese, gum, yogurt, salad dressing, water, cheese, and jelly. The package of blueberries is HUGE (but a great deal) and we will be eating blueberries on pretty much everything for the next few days. I had BOGO coupons for the Jones soda, and I am drinking it while blogging and it is heavenly! I will definitely be making a second trip to Smith's this week - there were so many things in the promotion that I didn't know about, I wasn't prepared for them. I'll have to go again sometime when I have more time and can browse and find the best deals.

Fun with Shaving Cream and Food Coloring

Today, Hunter and I made these pictures, using shaving cream and food coloring:

Pretty cool huh?! We got this activity from the Family Fun Magazine (No, I don't work for them, I just really love their magazine). Hunter had such a great time making these and it was the perfect use for all of my free shaving cream. We'll definitely have to do it again - I just have to wait for Walgreens to give me more free shaving cream ;)

Happy 7-11 day!

We got out Free Slurpees! Did you?

Fun Things in This Month's Family Fun Magazine

I absolutely love my subscription to Family Fun Magazine. Some month's issues are better than others, and this month happens to be one of the better ones - there are so many activities and crafts that I am so excited to try out. They have a few of them available on-line - not all of them though and in fact some of my favorite ones from this month aren't. But, here's some good ones that are available on-line:

Ribbon Pillow (so cute - I'll have to wait on this one until a daughter comes along though)

The Fomerator (I can already hear Hunter sqealing with laughter)

Back Yard Water Park

Think Fast! Brain Boosters (my kids aren't old enought for these yet, but I will definitely use them some day)

There are a lot more great crafts, activities, organizational tips, traditions etc in this month's issue. It is only $10 for a year subscription - it's so worth it! There are so many great things to do with your kids and a lot of helpful hints that will make your life easier.

Another free Amazon Gift Card

I just got another free $5 Amazon Gift Card through Swagbucks! I got my first one about a month and a half ago. At this rate, I'll probably have $30 in Amazon gift cards by Christmas time - for free! So sweet. Fred's using it now too, so hopefully he'll be able to get a nice stash as well. From the looks of things around the blogosphere, we earn them at a pretty slow rate, but that's o.k. - every little bit helps. If you wanna earn free gift cards for searching the web, like you do anyways, click on the banner below and you can sign up.

Great Shopping Day

Today I actually had the car and I sure made the most out of it. I went to Albertson's twice, Kmart and Target. Phew, I'm beat! But just check out what I got at KMart:

Almost $70 worth of toys and games for $20.18! All of their clearance toys have an additional 50% discount off the clearance prices! The selection wasn't great, but I found a few things that I new the boys would like. The Pictureka card games were only $.99 after a $5 coupon from coupons.com. Some of the stuff is for now, other is for later (Christmas), and some we'll give away. Ahhhhh, how I love a good bargain.

At Albertson's I got:

for less than $2! (I can't find the receipts, grrr, so I can't give you the exact amount). The cookie dough was a last minute swap out - they were all out of Stain Stick - I guess I underestimated the hotness of that sale.

I love coming away from a day of shopping thinking about how much I saved instead of how much I spent.

My Child or My Twin?

This weekend we were at my Grandparents cabin in Southern Utah. My grandmother had found some old baby pictures of mine and passed them on to me. When we showed them to Hunter and asked who was in the picutre, he replied "Hunter" (he usually refers to himself in the 3rd person). Every picutre of me that we showed him he insisted that it was he in the picture and not me.

We did look a lot a like - the chubby, rosy cheeks and the long dark hair. When Hunter was a newborn, we looked at my baby picutres and Fred was sure that he wouldn't have been able to tell the two of us apart. So, this either means that I looked like a boy, or Hunter looks like a girl :o) Either way, and thankfully, Hunter is looking less like me (a girl) and more like a little boy.

Hunger Games

This past weekend I was camping (well sort of, we were in a cabin) in the mountains above Cedar City. We had a wonderful time - I just love southern Utah! I brought along Hunger Games to read while there and on the road. I had been waiting months to read it - I requested it from our library a long time ago. But, our library is just so dang popular and the book is equally popular, which created a perfect storm and I had to wait quite a while before it was available.

It was SO worth the wait! I loved this book from start to finish. Suzanne Collins' writing style is no nonsense and to the point, so the book doesn't waste time and moves along nicely. It is a young adult novel, but has surprisingly mature themes and story lines. The setting is startlingly plausible. I constantly found myself in shock at what their society had become, and at the same time evaluating the similarities to our current society. While it was difficult to find a real connection with the characters (I'm not 14 and I don't live in a violent post-apocalyptic dictatorship), I still really enjoyed their journey. There were a couple moments that were predictable, but for the most part the story was very creative and other worldly.

I am very excited for the second one in the series, Catching Fire. It is released September 1, 2009. I requested it from our library - I am #67 in line (almost 2 months ahead of time)! They have 20 copies, so hopefully the wait will move quickly.

Summer's Simple Pleasures

Picnics

(Fred may or may not be mocking me here)

Fruit! Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Berries, Pineapple, Plums, Peaches, Cherries - I love them all! And so does Grant

Days at the Park - this is Hunter coming down the slide

Feeding the Ducks

Sun and Water

I am truly loving the summer! It is so fun to re-live your childhood summer days with your children. Eating frozen Capri Suns, drawing with chalk, running in sprinklers, playing at the park etc. It is so carefree, and makes me feel like a kid again. I so need to move back to San Diego where we get a lot more mileage out of our summers (being that summer blends into fall and spring). But, for the time being, we're making the most of the wonderful weather while it's here.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Review

Don't waste your time or money!

How's that for a short, to the point review? Really, I should be telling myself "I told you so!" I hate summer action movies and I thought the first Transformers was lame, so I don't know why I went to see the second one.

Here's the rational behind my decision to see this movie. We had free movie tickets and my husband and I were really wanting to get out of the house by ourselves, so we decided to use our freebies. There were only a few options that we were even considering. I checked out Entertainment Weekly to see what they rated everything and Transformers actually got a B! I thought, hey, maybe it won't be that bad. So, we decided to see it.

My confidence in, and a little of my love for Entertainment Weekly has been decreased. They haven't steered me wrong before and I am sorely disappointed in them.

If you do happen to like mindless action, over glorified CGI, explosions, gags geared toward pubescent boys, and contrived plots, then this movie's for you. If not, find a better way to spend your money.

A note to Michael Bay: We know you can make movies with endless CGI, explosions, sexy women etc. Why don't you man up and make a movie that is actually smart. Spend a little less money on CGI and TNT and buy yourself some good writers that will give you intelligent, intricate plots and 3 dimensional characters. Summer action movies do not have to be mind-less dribble, Dark Knight proved that. Please make better movies!

They're Back!

Another week of obsessive grocery shopping is ahead of me. There are great sales and double coupons this week at Albertson's.

Today I got:

And a bottle of Spray 'n Wash that was hiding under a chair.

I did this in 2 trips and spent $17.50! Original price $74.46. Oh Yeah!

I plan on going back a few more times throughout the rest of the week to snag a few things for free (salad dressing, pasta, gum, pretzels, ice cream). How I love double coupons!

And just so you don't think that our family lives on junk, here's what I got at Buy Low this morning:

1 Seedless Watermelon

1 Cantaloupe

4 Fuji apples

4 peaches

2 lbs Strawberries

1 bunch celery

1 lb carrots

1 bunch Green Onions

1 Cucumber

3 crowns broccoli

1 head lettuce

4 onions

All for $10.37! I love Buy Low's Wednesday produce deals - it's always a madhouse there (especially when I'm trying to maneuver one of the car shopping carts) - but it's so worth it.

Blogging in Comfort

As I type this I am sitting in our recliner which is situated right in front of our desktop computer at the desk. Now, this came about because our old desk chair was the most uncomfortable chair ever made. I bought it 10 years ago, while I was in college, and my main requisite for every purchase was: it's cheap! On top of that it broke a little while ago and while we fixed it more or less (my hubby's handy!) the back is still a little crooked, which does nothing to help it's comfort factor.

Between blogging, facebook, coupon / deal blogs, TV shows, e-mail etc I've been spending a lot of time in that uber-uncomfortable chair.

One day I decided enough was a enough. I drug our recliner over to the desk, pulled the lever, placed the keyboard in my lap and was in heaven.

Yes, it looks bizarre to have a recliner pulled up to a desk. Yes, everyone who comes over questions us about it. And yes, it's a little weird. But, it sure beats forking over a couple hundred dollars to get a nice, comfortable office chair. It works for us.

I'm participating in Works for Me Wednesdays over at We are THAT Family.

Old Navy Shopping Spree

Today was an exciting day in our little house. Both Fred and I scored $75 off $100 coupons from oldnavyweekly.com! We went to Old Navy after dinner and had a great time shopping. Fred really needed new clothes - he has worn a hole in the knee of his only pair of jeans (too much rough housing with Hunter :o) And he only had 1 pair of shorts and a handful of shirts. On top of the coupons, all men's clothing is half off right now, so he really scored. He got:

2 pairs of jeans, 1 pair of khaki cargo pants, 1 pair of khaki cargo shorts, 1 pair of swim trunks, 3 polo shirts, 1 t shirt, 1 athletic shirt...

all for $32.59! (Original price $213.09)

I didn't need clothes as badly as Fred, but I did still need some - I've been sleeping in sweats (which is hot!) and only have about 7 shirts that fit my still-nursing-post-pregnancy body. Here's what I got:

3 shirts, 1 pair of shorts, 1 pair of capris, 1 pair of yoga shorts, 1 pair of sandals...

all for $30.72! (Originally $113.97)

In total we spent $63.31 on $327.06 worth of merchandise. Now that feels good.

Getting the coupons was really easy this week thanks to a wonderful blog: Thrifty Northwest Mom. She has a chat room up on her site that people use on the days that the coupons will re-set. She has a bunch of regular readers that she's made moderators and have the ability to ring a bell when the coupons reset on oldnavyweekly.com. She even has people stationed on military bases around the world as moderators so that there's always people awake, in case the coupons reset in the middle of the night (which has happened). You just leave your computer on with the volume up and you'll hear the bell when the site is up.

A bunch of her readers also have an add-on for Mozilla Firefox called check for change. It will check a website every 15 seconds to see if it's changed and will notify you when it does.

And there's also a website that has a picture of part of the coupon site that changes 1-5 minutes before the actual coupon site loads (the link isn't working now, but just change the number in the url to "17" and that'll be next weeks media page). So, people monitor that site and when it changes you know the coupons will be up soon. Today they rang the bell when the media site changed, which gave us all time to RUN to our computers (it was quite hysterical really). And then when the site is up, people post in the chat room where the coupons are located, in case you're having a hard time finding them yourself.

Really it is all the most amazing system - it means that you don't have to sit in front of your computer hitting F5 repeatedly - you can go about your life and you'll be notified when the site is up. This all may seem totally over board and completely crazy, but we're not talking about any old coupons here - these are amazing, high value coupons that we're able to get because of this whole set up. If you haven't jumped on the crazy train yet, you should - it's a lot of fun and you get amazing deals out of it. I've done this for a few weeks now, and have used a lot of different sites to help me out and this week has been the easiest by far. If you want to get in on these amazing coupons, you really should check out the Thrift NW mom blog - it's the best way to go.

My Little Boy Does a Frugal Momma Proud

Yesterday, Hunter and I were in the back yard grilling some cantaloupe for dinner (yum!). There was a small plastic plate that was accidentally left out there after our last picnic and when our landlord came to mow (on their big riding mowers) they shredded it up a bit. Hunter found the plate and said "Oh, no. Momma we need to fix this".

This comment may not seem all that remarkable, but I was so proud of him - rather than saying we need to throw the broken disposable plate away (and in turn get a new one), his first thought was to fix it. That's right! We don't just throw away broken things in our house - we fix them up and make them work!

I almost didn't want to explain to him that we weren't going to fix this plate and that it just needed to be thrown away. Hopefully I haven't derailed my own teachings.

Fix it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without! Thanks for being a good example my little man.

Going with the Flow - a Laundry Schedule that Revolves Around...

Bed wetting :o)

My 3 year old has been potty trained for several months now. However he still has occasional accidents at nap time (we still put him diapers at night). My old laundry schedule "dictated" that I wash sheets on Thursdays and I did just that, every Thursday. I like doing 1 load of laundry a day and I like having a schedule to work with. And I really like clean sheets.

But, after being frustrated too many times when my son decided to have a nap time bed wetting accident right after I washed his sheets, I decided that my laundry schedule would now revolve around him. If he happens to wet his bed, I'll wash his sheets right then and there. And I'll wait to wash them until it happens again - whether it be 2 days or 2 weeks.

Eventually he'll get better at this and I'll go back to my normal schedule, but for right now it's much easier to just go with it and not try to swim upstream. It works for me.

I'm participating in Works for Me Wednesdays at We Are That Family (which is a hilarious blog, btw)