Ice

This is a close up of a dead tree by my back door. The ice is beautiful. I am praying that we don't loose power this year. We were without last year. I don't think I will ever look at winter storms the same way after that experience.

Yesterday, last night, and today we are getting ice. These are the trees that can be seen in my backyard. The look beautiful with the layer of ice on them.

There isn't much on the ground, just a thin layer. This is the view from my backdoor. I wouldn't walk out any further than the step. Call me chicken or cold. Now if we could only get some snow!

Couponing Update

I plan on going to Homeland and Target tomorrow if they have some good deals. Today I went to Walgreens. I think I did okay, but I made a mistake. I did three transactions. I should have done 4.

Transactions #1
4 bags of Kotex pads @$3 each =$12
I used 4 $1 off coupons=$4
I got $1 in Register Rewards (If I had broken this into two transactions I would have gotten two $1 Register Rewards)
1 Revlon eyeshadow $4.99
Subtotal was $18.44 including tax
I used a gift card that had $13.28 on it from December.
My out of pocket was $1.16 and I will get $5.50 back in Rebates and got $1 RR.

Transaction #2
1 bag of Doritos =$2.50
1 bag of Tostitos=$2.50
5 twelve packs of Pepsi @$3 each =$15
subtotal was $21.70 after tax.
I used a giftcard that had $5.50 from December.
I used the $1 RR I earned in Transaction #1
My out of pocket was $15.20, and I got a $10 RR

Transaction #3
1 Revlon eyeshadow =4.99
8 jars of Ragu at $1.99 each=15.92
subtotal was $22.69
I used the $10 RR I earned in Transaction #2
My out of pocket was $12.69 and I earned $10 in RR and will get $5.50 in Rebates

In all I spent $29.50. I still have $10 in RR to use on my next visit will get $11 back in Rebates.

Credit due

I got the idea for the side bar from Phoebe to track my coupon and rebate usage for 2009. She has an awesome site for controlling your finances. Please read carefully what she is doing. It is very impressive what she and her family are doing during these tight economic times. Budgets are so important in financial planning and stability for your family.

I got the menu planning idea from Phoebe and Sarah. The banners and original idea are from Laura.

Here is my menu plan for the week. I learned years ago, if there is no plan, I have chaos and spend way too much money. Both are very bad!!!!

Monday: Roast with potatoes, carrots, and salad.

Tuesday: Roast beef sandwiches. I use hoagie buns, shred the leftover roast and top with colby jack cheese slices, and then toast until the cheese melts. I heat the shredded roast beef and aus jus before on the stove top before placing in the buns. A family favorite. I will also serve with french fries.

Wednesday: Baked chicken fingers, rice, and a steamed veggie.

Thursday: Fajitas and mexican rice.

Friday: Sunday chicken with mashed potatoes, a steamed veggie, and salad. This is chicken with dried beef, sour cream, and cream of mushroom soup cooked all day in the crockpot.

Saturday: Brisket with french fries and a salad.

Sunday: FEND Day (Short for fend for yourself). If we have plenty of leftovers, we will heat up what each person wants to eat. First to ask, gets what they want. Don't be picky or you will end up with peanut butter and jelly!!

Couponing

I have decided to just post the amount I am saving in rebates and coupons on the right side of my blog. I am not including store savings, just the face amount of the coupons. I haven't done anything really great yet. My big ones from the weekend were the $3 off of Good Life cat food. It was $4 at Walmart, and I bought 4 bags. Also I used the $2.50 off Electrosol powerballs at Walmart. They were $3.50, so I bought 6 boxes. To me, both of these were stockpile prices.

Accomplishments

Yesterday I wrote about my resolutions. They are nothing new. Just listing that to do list that is always in my head. It is more about finishing what I have started. This weekend I dove head first into a box that contained all the certificates that my children have earned. They have a lot to be proud of.

About seven years ago I had started a post bound album for my oldest child. It didn't even have the plastic protectors on the pages. As I was attempting to add all his certificates I realized that adding pages was a real pain. Thus began a whole new project. Now each page is now in a plastic protector. I didn't decorate or embellish in this album Quick, simple. Hopefully my children can look back at their lives and see how truly amazing they each are.

Below are a couple of samples, that don't reveal any personal info about my kids (no names or schools). The first is swimming ribbons earned by Brown Eyes. The second is "Pat on the Backs" Brown Eyes earned in kindergarten. Can you tell I am a pack rat about what they earn?

After trying to add pages to the post bound albums, they are now in the trash. I ripped the pages out and dropped them into plastic page protectors. I already had these albums for the boys for a future scrapbook. They each have a 3 ring binder and are much easier to add pages into. They are made by American Crafts. I am now caught up with new pages added for future awards. Or at least caught up until Wednesday....

New Year, New You

It it late, but here are my resolutions:

To balance everything in my life:
1. Work, which includes:
a. 2--W-2 jobs
b. Working for myself
c. Couponing, saving money

2. Family, which includes
a. Wonderful husband who works hard
b. Two boys in competitive sports
c. Another child with his special needs

3. Hobbies
a. Scrapbooking
b. Papercrafting
c. Sewing
d. Organizing-we moved in July, and I still need to fine tune
things.

4. Weight Loss/Fitness



5. Spiritual- To draw closer to Christ, and share it with my children and husband.

I am participatingin the New Year, New You at http://www.pennypinchingdiva.com. She is also hosting a new social network at http://pennypinchingdivas.ning.com/. She is giving away fabulous items. Currently the give away is a designer baby belt. It is a really fun site to spend time at.

Watch and pray

I have not posted in a while. My mother was ill and and in the hospital for a week. She reacted very badly to the medicine that she had been given. I firmly believe the only reason she is still with us is because of prayer. It reminded me of Jesus, Peter, Paul, and James in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus asked them to "watch and pray." They could not stay awake to pray. I felt like all I could do to help my mother was to pray and watch. Now, I get to give thanks for my answered prayers!

Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a good New Year. I am into full cleaning mode now. Seems like the new year always inspires me. I have a couple of closets that I would like to work in, but I need to put up the Christmas dishes and undecorate the trees first.

I cleaned out my expired coupons last night. I also clipped and filed the ones I have been collecting and not using. I started matching some up for Homeland and Walgreen's, but quit when the boys came back in the house. I was looking through them while they were playing outside in the front yard.

Hopefully, I can use some this weekend at Homeland and Walgreen's. I will go back to work on Monday, so I want to have everything in order by then.