I Went Through Some Stuff. Literally

Last week I loaded up the back of my car and dropped off a load at the charity shop. On Friday, I took two totes to the consignment store to sell. I ended up bringing most of that back but I made $25. I'm still nowhere close to the $1000. In truth I probably won't even come close to breaking $500. But, I'm still going to send the check for whatever I make to our mortgage company.

Our visitors left yesterday and my house is in that sweet spot between getting cleaner and getting messier. And I feel fairly motivated to keep going with the decluttering and deep cleaning.

My dog is back at home with me again. So glad to have her happy furry butt back. But, I can already see how much easier it is to keep the house clean without her bringing in bits of dirt and shed shed shedding her sheddy hairs all over. The price of dog love is a good vacuum, many lint rollers and frequent sweeping.

I wish I had something more exciting to write about but at this juncture right now I'm about cleaning and decluttering. And that's not particularly exciting to anyone except maybe my Husband.

Big Girl stayed home sick today and I must go. The kids are waiting on breakfast.

Helping A Starfish

For years I've been mulling over sponsoring a child. Today was the day I made the decision to finally do it.

The cost is $38 a month to sponsor a child through Compassion. I can justify spending that much (and more) a month on frivolous stuff. I picked out a 4 year old girl living in Ecuador. It was hard to choose between so many. I just hurried and picked the first one that called to me. She has the cutest, silliest, round little face. I think my kids will like her too.

I've been bugging Hubby for a while about adopting another pet and maybe perhaps even another child. He's not on board with any of that and I really can't blame him. We have our hands full. But, my heart has room for more. I think this is what I was supposed to do all along. While I can't be her parent and I will probably never meet her, maybe I can make a small difference in her young life.

A Run Through Target

I wasn't planning on shopping today but after a visit to the pediatrician with Big Girl, the dr. advised I give her half a tab of generic zantac for her upset tummy. She is cleared to go to school on Monday unless some other illness befalls her. Yay!

Off to Target we go.

We tried to hurry through the store but we all know December makes for stupid slow shopping.

We bought-
Generic zantac
Bag of pine shreds for the mouse
Box of Morningstar bacon (our favorite snack of late)
$1 box of Fiddle Faddle to stretch the Mail Carriers gift. I spent $3 total on the gift.

I had a coupon for $1.50 off of three Market Pantry items so I picked up:
Can of mixed nuts (to go into the adopted family box)
Microwave Popcorn (adopted family)
Peanut Butter

My total was $20. Now if I can just stay out of any stores until grocery day it will all be good.
Perhaps I will be one of those people who gets up at the crack of dawn to shop at WalMart before the rest of the world is awake. At least until January.

Housework Waits For No Mom

Day two and a half of Big Girl being home with me. She's had an upset stomach. She's been a real joy to deal with and didn't even complain when I pulled out some workbooks for her to work on today. I also picked up her homework packet from school. I doubt she'll be as uncomplaining when those get pulled out tonight. I did get her to take some pepto bismol so hopefully she'll be feeling better soon.

My Mom is coming today and my house is a complete disaster.

One thing after another is breaking down in our home.
Hubby installed my new dishwasher on Tuesday. Yay for clean dishes!
On Wednesday my dryer started acting funny and not drying right. Hubby fixed it this morning by jiggling things around.
This morning our downstairs toilet is backed up.
Just one little annoying thing after another. No big deal.

I started reading Room by Emma Donoghue. I really don't want to put it down even though I need to go clean the kid's bathroom and work on my son's bed sheets for my Mom's visit. It's been so long since I have read a good book, I'm really looking forward to getting into it.

I scheduled a charity pick up for our stock piled donations that are taking up valuable real estate in our living area. Goodbye Wiggles Christmas videos. Little Guy has finally outgrown you. (can I get an amen?)

Gotta get upstairs and get my vinegar and baking soda cleaning on.

Making Merry Despite It All

I finally got a call today declaring that I do indeed have an adopted Christmas family to shop for. The drop off is in less than a week.
I ignored those initial feelings of being put upon at such a late date. I signed up for this after all. So I put on my shoes, packed my jacket with tissues, and set out to shop for my adopted family.

I spent $88 on food at Aldi to round out what I'd already stock piled. It adds up so fast. I never spend that much on ourselves at Aldi. But, this food is supposed to last for two weeks and I have to shop with the impression of an empty pantry. I also bought a winter coat for the three year old on the family list.

Now, this past week I have been the definition of dumpy. I wear a pair of sweats daily. My face has not seen make up since last Monday. I don't want to put lipstick on these cracked and chapped lips. And I really need to visit my hairdresser for a color and a cut. My hair is a sad mess being kept only slightly in check by both a barrette and a ponytail. So, in essence I'm not exactly feeling pretty lately.

That didn't help when I lumbered into the very packed toy aisle of Target (at 1 pm on a Tuesday, people!) looking for a tonka truck for my "adopted" 3 year old. Every single one of the women there had on makeup, had their hair done up, were wearing nice coats, and had a snarl of entitlement and grouch on their face. They looked good but they acted bad. Pretty much my opposite today. I kept my chin up even though it was hard. I picked out a nice little Tonka dump truck for his toy.

That is my last holiday purchase of 2010. I will let myself off the hook and declare what I have bought as enough.

The house is an ultra disaster after a week of barely doing anything other than coughing, wheezing, groaning and moving from the couch to the bed. I'm trying to ignore it. It will get done eventually when I have more time and feel better.

I've got beer bread in the oven and a package of soup that just needs the addition of water. Dinner is taken care of.

My Mom will be here tomorrow and things are looking up.

Sitting here alone with my cocoa

Hubby and I share most everything. And now he has passed down his nasty virus that kept him home from work all of last week. Yay!

I'm feeling a bit better little by little. Being home with the four year old was beginning to wear me thin though. I sent Hubby and the kids out for dinner tonight. And now I am missing my family and don't feel good enough to do any chores that have been piling up or any Christmas cards or present wrapping. I did about three Christmas cards today before I gave up because it was making me snarly. Not the right mood to address Christmas cards.

I'm hoping tomorrow is better. I plan on sleeping in tomorrow. The past two nights I have been up between 4:30 and 5:00 feeling miserable. I'd take a pill and then fall blissfully back asleep for half an hour before the dingity danged alarm clock went off and ruined my happiness. Children must be fed and sent to school no matter how crumby I feel. But, tomorrow morning is mine! Muahhahhhha.

I'm glad I did a shop till you drop earlier in the week right now. We have plenty of food and I am done shopping for gifts. I ended up just buying Little Debbie holiday cakes for the trash and recycling guys but since I don't actually know who they are or have a personal relationship with them, I feel that is acceptable.

I haven't heard back from the food pantry about adopting a family yet and I'm starting to worry. I started stockpiling food stuffs. If I don't hear back by next week I'll just make a lump donation to them and consider that my holiday good deed. I also have a lot of donations to make to their thrift store. So, they can make a bit of money from my donations and get out the food that I bought for the adopted family.

My kids have a date with Santa tomorrow morning. I guess I do need to get up early enough to comb the snarls out of Big Girls hair and put a bow in for her. I'm hoping they don't ask for something that I haven't already bought for them because they won't get it because I am done done done shopping.

Today I did find out that I have to bring a new ornament for a gift exchange at the next Brownie meeting. The kids got their yearly ornaments from Cracker Barrel this year for .99 cents. They have free gift wrapping so maybe I'll take Big Girl there to check them out. The ornaments have to be new with tags so I can't gift one of the cute salt dough ornaments that we made in November. They are now gracing our Christmas tree.

And now I'm going to lay on the couch like a slug and think about all the chores that are going undone and wishing my annoying wonderful family would come back because I miss them.
Tomorrow is a new day, dang it.

Let's Throw Everything Away and Start Over & Misc.

The Clutter Front-
Sometimes renting a couple of dumpsters and some burly guys and having them totally empty my house of stuff (except pets and people) is so tempting.

It's also so overwhelming that I get tired just thinking about it and need a moment. Today my moment happened to coincide with a box of price reduced chocolate donuts. I have zumba class tonight- I'll work it off.

My Mom is coming up again this week and we're going to get in gear for our garage sales next week. I'm hoping that spurs me to do even more culling. I wonder if Hubby is willing to part with any of his stuff.

The Frugal Front-

Went to two garage sales this weekend. I came home with 15 pretty Christmas cards from a free box, a small pyrex baking dish for a quarter, and a copy of the Joy of Cooking for .50 cents.
I picked out an old book to put in the sale pile to make room for my new cook book. Very satisfying as I didn't bring home that much stuff. I love free boxes.

We've eaten at home for almost every meal for the last couple of days. Last night we had a yummy veggie stew. I think tonight I'm just making spaghetti.

I finished up my last batch of homemade detergent. Now I'm whittling down the stockpile in the basement. I don't think I'll go back to buying detergent anymore unless it's dirt cheap. I've been using half a dryer sheet in my dryer too and my clothes still look and smell fresh and soft.

The Charitable Giving Front-

I'm going to sign up to adopt another family for Christmas this year. I've already starting buying bargain canned goods here and there. I brought in a box to start putting items in as they come in the house.

Happy Garage Sale Days are Here Again.

I finally had a good reason to venture out on this pretty spring day with a few dollars from Hubby's wallet and go to garage sales. I am finishing up my shopping for the family in need.

I bought so much that I just filled up the washing machine when I walked in from the garage instead of dragging it into the house. I have more than enough now so that each child will have a full summer wardrobe, two pairs of shoes, new undies, new socks, and a swimming suit. Plus, I will fill in any gaps for my own children's summer wardrobes. We always seem to be low on shorts for Little Guy in the summer. Not this year. I did not buy any pajamas for them. It is hard to find second hand pajamas in good shape and it's easy to come up with something to wear to bed. I used to wear my dad's t-shirts as nightgowns when I was little. It worked great.

I also bought:

A Rachel Ray cookbook in excellent shape $1
A brand new big jar candle $1
A carrying caddy for my under the sink cleaning supplies .25
A travel guide for families going to Florida .50
A quaint serving platter with a turkey on it for our Thanksgiving Tofurkey .50
A new juggling guide with juggling balls for Hubby $1
Three children's paperbacks for Big Girl's collection .75
Men's khakis .50
A box full of cables and a modem for Hubby- free
Shoes for Big Girl- .50
A mini needle point stocking Christmas ornament- .25

I spent about $20 or less total.

All About the Clothes: Mount Washmore, Kid's Wardrobes, Helping Those Who Need Clothes,

Mount Washmore

I haven't been on top of the laundry this week and boy has it caught up with me. I try to do a load a day so this doesn't happen often. So, I'm sorting the piles and starting the wash.

Kid's Wardrobe
It also makes it quite obvious that my children don't need so many clothes. I'm taking this flylady challenge to heart. According to Flylady, my kids only need seven outfits plus two play/two nice outfits. Also, I have been inspired by Katie and Martin of Making This Home's No New Clothes Challenge. I am so ready to clean out the closets and donate and sell what we can't use. Hopefully this summer all of the those clothes will fit in a drawer that closes easily.

Helping Others
The preschooler got to take me to school as his helper today. One of the ladies who helps in the preschool class and I normally chat a bit while I'm there. I know her husband has been out of work for months. He's in construction. I know they have been struggling. I haven't wanted to pry up until today when I asked her flat out if she needed anything. I could tell she was a little embarrassed to admit to needing a few things but finally said she needed summer clothes for her three kids. Now you all know how much I love to buy clothes for others and how I tend to overbuy "bargains" for my own children. I volunteered to go shopping in my closet and the the thrift store for them. I knew that I wouldn't find much for her oldest daughter who is three sizes larger than mine. So, I stopped at Value Village and filled a cart with girl's clothes and one boy outfit for her son. I spent $64 on their clothes and one bag of assorted toys for Little Guy. I bought about ten pairs of shorts and skirts, a dozen shirts, and two dresses for them. I need to buy some shoes, undies and socks. I'm trying to keep my total under $100 for all three of them. I raided Little Guy's closet for a few items but I need to find some nicer 4t shirts for church wear, etc. I think Saturday I will be hitting up the garage sales.

Where my interest lies

It's not blogging lately. After a month of almost daily blogging about our diet/pantry challenge, I am seriously tired of writing about our boring diet. I'm still pantry cleaning here and there and whittling down the storage. I just don't want to talk about it right now.

Decluttering and straightening is my current goal. I'm cleaning out cabinets that haven't been touched for a year or two. I had a full trash can and a even bigger load of recycling this week. I'm also loading up the back of my car with charity donation items. I am always surprised by how much we don't need and are able to part with. It has definitely been a reason to stay out of the thrift and dollar stores lately. We had over 24 coloring books in our cabinet. Neither one of my children is particularly into coloring in books. I let them each keep a few and the rest are getting donated.

In less than a week we will have company and I want to be ready for their arrival. But this cleaning process is more about having an organized happy home than having a briefly cleaned home. And now I have two loads of laundry waiting for me to fold and put away.
See you when I see you.

Couponing Today

Since I had to pop into a grocery store today to pick up a prescription, I took the time to go through the circular and plan my coupon stock up shopping.
Shop 'N Save

Kellogg's Pop tarts 12 packs- 3 boxes at $11.00 plus $2 off egg deal with purchase of 3
Dole Pineapple Chunks- on sale for $1 a can minus .75 MFR coupon off of 2 so .62 cents each
Zatarains Rice mixes- on sale for $1 each minus .75 MFR coupon off of 2 so .62 cents each
Barilla Pasta (2 piccolinis/2 whole wheat)- on sale for $1 each minus .50 cent MFR coupon so .50 cents each
Pack of 18 eggs- .29 cents after Kellogg's Poptart coupon
Store Brand Antacids- BOGO- 2.97 (no coupon)
Suave Deodorants- 3 at 1.67 each minus one .50 cent MFR coupon
Suave Lotion- 2.50 minus $1 MFR coupon so $1.50
Suave Shampoos- 6 at .87 cents a bottle minus 2.25 in MFR coupons so .50 apiece
Suave Conditioner- .87 cents
Lift the flap puzzle for Little Guy's Easter basket- on sale for 2.15

Total before coupons was $37.59
After coupons 26.42

The Suave purchases got me a $3 off coupon on my next shopping trip. That will get me a gallon of milk next week. Most of the Suave is going to the Food pantry and as donations on stock the cart donation days at Big Girl's school.

To see more Shopping Expeditions check out Gayle's Grocery Cart Challenge.

A rain drop in the ocean.

It seems like every time I leave the house there is an opportunity to give to charity. Salvation Army buckets get my coins, $1 or 2 donations added onto my grocery bill, toy donations in the bins at discount stores, weekly and monthly food donations to the school food pantry, the list goes on.
And I don't mind it really. I like to do a small part somehow.

But, after thinking about how I don't budget for groceries or anything else I'm wondering how much (or how little) I am frittering away of our own funds. Hubby's job is solid right now but it might not always be the case.
And talking to my Mom on the phone while I grocery shopped I mentioned how part of my cart was going directly to the nearby food pantry. Of course, I got the standard lecture about how "welfare people" mostly need to just get off of their butts and work and many of them are doing better than her and just expect a handout. She continued on about how we don't know what may happen with the economy and I need to save that for my own family. It was hard to wrestle with that argument but my standard retort is always, "Yes, but what if they have hungry children?" And I'm sure that may the be the case in some instances but I can't imagine that the majority of people going to food banks are there because they don't want to work. My husband's parents seem to have that same view (although never espoused in quite that way). I think it's just the older generation being brought up with an "Earn what you Need" ethic. And while I don't think that's wrong, I think it's a bit short sighted and stingy. Lest I leave you with a poor impression of my parental sets, let me say that they are all very giving with people that they know.
After talking to my Mom, I briefly considered keeping the one bag I designated for donation. And then I drove to the food pantry anyway.

But, I do think I need to designate a set portion of our funds instead of willy nilly here and there.
There are so many places and people that need help, it feels overwhelming.

Any ideas, guys?

How We Roll

In his sister's shoes. Giddy up.

Building critters in the basement with mega blocks.

Finally finger painting our mini pumpkins. (and the table, our faces, and the dog)

Making soup from the freezer soup scrap container. I added noodles right after this picture was taken.

Finishing our Samaritan's Purse Boxes.

Samaritan's Purse Donation Time

Now is the time to start gathering goodies for Samaritan's Purse if you're so inclined.

I haven't done this before but I'm looking forward to getting my kids involved in doing for others.

Collection week is November 17-24.

Giving Thanks and Counting Blessings.

My mind has returned to thinking frugally after a month or so of distraction. These last few weeks (well, two until school starts) have me pondering how to suck the last little bits of joy out of summer.
My favorite frugal things in summer:

Hanging laundry to dry
Garden fresh tomatoes
Buttery corn on the cob
Sun Tea
Catching Lightening Bugs
Bubbles and Sidewalk Chalk
Shady playgrounds
Kool Aid popsicles
Goodwill sundresses

------------

I took a load of (free with coupon) cat food to the food pantry this morning. I took a spin around their thrift store and was amazed at how low their prices were. I bought .50 cent Carters shirts, and like new OshKosh overalls for $1.00. I bought myself a new Liz Claiborne purse for $1.
It puts the Goodwill pricing to shame. But, the pickings were slim as it's back to school time and a lot of people get their items for reduced cost or free when they can't afford them otherwise. It's a great charity and I wished I had brought more to donate as the need seemed great.
So, after I left I went to the discount grocery store- I needed to go anyway. And the sticker shock hit again. I didn't buy as much as I intended too because the prices of previously cheap foods have risen so much (generic mac and cheese is now .35). But, I did fill two bags and plan on delivering them tomorrow with some outgrown toys and kids clothes. It looked like they needed them.

How glad and blessed am I that my husband's job provides for us well and I am able to do a small part to help others. I think often of how the poor economy affects those who were just scratching to get by before the prices starting going up. How much worse can it get? It makes me nervous.

Stuck at home frustrations

I don't know what's up with me. This isn't the first day I've spent at home with the kids. Maybe it's the fact that I'm stuck here with a dead car battery and missing keys. I feel panicky. I hadn't realized how much clutter we have been amassing since our last freecycle donation go round.

Doesn't help that hubby brought up all of our old baby gear (swing, exersaucer, bouncer, etc) after he took the Christmas decorations downstairs. Yes, it is time to get rid of them but the previously empty space if filled with never to be used by us again remnants of our children's previous infancy.

So, I freecycle listed the stuff that we researched and found we couldn't sell well on Craigslist. That should get rid of half of it.
I also listed up extra throws that we were storing that never get used. Seems like someone gives me a throw for a gift every year. Unwanted Christmas decor and two outgrown jackets of Big Girls are one their way out too.

I guess I'm never going to have the patience to save for a garage sale. Oh well.
It's not finding my keys but it's doing something productive.

Oh, someone just emailed me about the baby stuff for a low income woman's group. Yay!

Blessing others- The end of an era

The first house that my Sweetheart and I bought was a 45 year old, 800 square foot bungalow (no basement/no garage/ just a small hot attic not big enough to stand up in). Oh, it was a cute house. And we crammed our collected piles of junk (this was before Flylady) into it and managed to make it a happy but cluttered home. We lived there when we mourned the loss of our first baby. And it was to this house that we joyfully brought our little girl home from the hospital. It was small but we were happy there. We had no floorspace for a Christmas tree so I bought a cheap 4 foot tall one from the Family Dollar and set it on top of our tv in the living room.

This was our Big Girl frolicking in our bed. My how she's grown.



Anyway, I've been hanging onto this small tree for four years thinking that we might need it again just in case we have to have a step down in house size. It's always a thought in the back of my mind how much money we could save if we chose to live in a small older house. If we were still in our old 800 sq. foot house we'd mostly likely have our mortgage close to paid. But, now our family has increased from two to four and with it the amount of stuff. So, I'm letting my tree go.
Someone on Freecycle wants it to give to a family with small children and no Christmas tree. So, I'm sending it out the door with some extra decorations and the small porcelain angel that only fits on this tree. I'm sad to see it go but glad that it's going to make some child's Christmas a little brighter.



It just gives me pause to think about how when I was in that small house, just starting out with my husband and beginning our family that all I could do was think about getting to the next step. I wanted the big house in a nice neighborhood with a nice car, etc. etc. And now that I have those things- I think more fondly of our humble beginnings and miss it.

The "I Hate Shopping" Blog

Actually I don't hate shopping when: the stores aren't crowded and/or it's a thrift store/garage sale.
I thought I had gotten up early enough and snuck out to grocery shop and make a trip to Target before the church crowd and everyone else descended on the stores. Not quite early enough.

With my pantry challenge that I have been trying on and off for the past three months, going to the grocery store hasn't been bad. I could skip coupons for the most part because well, produce and milk were the main things I was buying besides generic staples like flour and butter. The week before and the week of Thanksgiving are I'm sure the worst times to go grocery shopping so that wasn't a help. Add the pile of haphazard coupons I had thrown into a used envelope and stuck in my purse and it didn't help matters. But, anyway, I did manage to get everything that I needed for our Thanksgiving meal and our weekly groceries.

Before that though it was the trip to Target to combine stacks of Target/manufacturer coupons together for a good deal on stock up items like tums, laundry powder, toilet paper, and holiday dark chocolate m&ms (well, those were a splurge but for .50 a bag I'll call it good and hope they last until they make it into a holiday cookie).
I also finished my charitable gift shopping for our angel tree gifts. I bought gloves/mittens, socks, and hats for a man, woman, boy, and a girl. In the dollar area I stocked up on a board book, a plush teddy bear and some crayons. I also added a cool larger sized Hot Wheels car and a candy cane filled with tiny playdoh containers.

Then I went to Deal$. Not as good as Dollar Tree but there I bought a cute bean bag baby doll, an outfit for her, and a magic baby bottle. I also found two puzzles and a Mickey Mouse coloring book.
Nothing outlandish or spendy but I chose what I though my own children would like and play with.



And with that ends my Christmas shopping.. other than getting holiday stamps for our Christmas cards. I think I'll even order those over the internet.
I'm glad it's over and I can stick to going to Save-A-Lot and Aldi for my once a week stock up-- because, Man, I really do hate shopping.
My advice to you if you hate shopping this time of year too- Do your shopping online now.

A blarg of a day.

Little Guy has pink eye. Yeah. It's going to be fun keeping his big sister (who puked all -over- the kitchen floor last night after dinner because of an upset tummy) from getting it. I'm the classroom helper and it's Thanksgiving Feast day at preschool so we really can't miss it. As soon as he wakes up I'm driving back to Wal-greens to pick up his eye drops. That's going to be fun.

Tried out a 'new' Thrift store , Feed my people, today and found that although it's dirtier and smaller than our Goodwill the prices can't beat. I bought a copy of Blessing your Husband by Debra Evans for a quarter. Two shirts I bought for the children were a dollar each and I could not resist a hand embroidered poinsettia tablecloth for 3.00. I'll be back next week to look for more goodies.. this time with snacks to ply my cranky toddler with.

And now I need to go down the the basement/dungeon to get Christmas wrap for the gifts I ordered for Hubby. Don't want him to peek (or complain) until the big day. And then house retrieval before it gets out of hand again.

Homemade pizza for dinner... even though I feel like giving Pizza Hut a call instead. Power through it, right?


** Small rant here** you've been warned. My normally chipper mood is in the Thomas Crapper today.

That friend/neighbor who has 'poor' relatives with a little girl I bagged up/bought clothes for? She went through it and took out some things for her own daughter.. even though they make more money than my family does. Irked me.

And our anal retentive neighbor was in our front yard raking up our bothersome leaves. Again.


Ever have one of those days when grasping for greatness is completely out of the question and the best you can do is slouch towards mediocrity? Well, that's me today. Slouch Slouch.

What's on my mind right now

My Big Girl and Little Guy both finagled 'new' toys out of me at the Goodwill today.
He is the proud owner of a Tonka helicopter (.50) and she is now in possession of a Shrek Etch-a-Sketch (2.00).
They have so much already. We've been bagging up toys here and there that they don't play with anymore but it's not enough. I would like very much to be able to donate our gently used toys to someone's children for Christmas. I'm going to call our local food bank/thrift store and see if they do this or if they can give me a name/number of someone who needs our toys. I also think it would be a -great- way to demonstrate to our children charity and to help get them involved in helping rid our toy room of excess.
Just today I think it dawned on Big Girl that her thrift store toys come from other kids that have given them up so she could have them. So, we're onto something.
I really need to make room for Christmas presents and I'd like to help someone too.

I went a little nuts at Save-A-Lot throwing one dollar Christmas dvds and music cds in the cart. But, I could not resist the cute Mary Engelbreit "Night Before Christmas" and I love Christmas music. And those dollar spice cookie candles smelled so good. Visions of a gift basket for a harried, financially strapped mom popped into my head. I'm hoping to get a good tag off of our club house's Christmas Angel tree so I can do something fun like that.