Sunday, February 28, 2010

Albertsons...will you be my best friend

because I love love love how much money you save me! We can push around carts together and get fat together with all those snacks and cereals you give me, we can watch a movie together from redbox. Be my BFF! Anyways I went couponing this morning. Happy!

I will share my deals with you but first, last night Kristi, Heidi and I had a hula performance in Boise so I decided to invite them over along with Ren, Jeff and Gunnar for dinner. It was a blast. I never have people over for dinner! I got to use my bigger pretty platters. So after dinner us girls did a performance at a wild turkey convention. Ok what the heck? Wild turkey alcohol? Wild turkey like turkey the country? No, wild turkey like gobble gobble, the bird. It was the 20th annual wild turkey convention. Their theme was luau. So we danced while they ate with guns and camo and fake turkeys around. Some of the things we dance at are so weird. But they were nice people. And Kristi put on her first costume and wow, you can see the start of her baby bump. It's really cute! Then we came back and had yummy dessert that Heidi made.


Ok for my couponing deals....

I did three different transactions to get these deals.

Transaction #1:

I bought
2 bagel bites
8 frozen old orchard juices

With coupons and doublers I paid $7.98 and I got $10 to use next time I shop (called a catalina at Albertsons). So pretty much I earned $2 from that transaction. Without coupons I would have paid $23!




Transaction #2:
I bought
2 boca vegetarian meat products

8 frozen old orchard juices

I used coupons plus the $10 catalina I got from transaction #1 and paid $1.10. Plus, I got another $10 catalina for the use on my next transaction! So I just earned $8.90 to shop! Without coupons I would have paid $23



Transaction #3:

I bought

6 purex detergent sheets
2 fresh express salad mixes

1 Dreyers ice cream

2 bagel bites

3 jose ole taquito/taco product

4 boca vegetarian meat products

I used coupons plus the $10 catalina from transaction #2 and paid $25.33. Plus, I got another $10 catalina for the use on my next shopping trip. So it's like paying $15 for all that. It would have been $9 cheaper if I didn't buy the purex but I wanted to stock up seeming how they are normal $9 for one and I got 6 of them for that price. Anyways without coupons I would have paid $98.94. Wow thats crazy.


So all together for 38 items, out of my pocket I paid $34.50 plus I still have $10 to use on my next shopping trip. I really should have spent $146! That is less than a dollar per item and thats what I call fun!

Do you have an albertsons near you? Most of these coupons you can print on the computer (bagel bites, old orchard juice, jose ole coupons, ore-ida mashed potatoes, hot pockets/lean pockets) The deal is buy 10 participating items and get $10 in catalinas. So print 2 of the old orchard coupons and 2 bagel bites coupons and try the first transactions. And in the sunday paper is doublers. Which will double the value of those coupons up to a $1 (can only use 3 at a time).

Also, I went to Walgreens. I had to buy feminine products for cheap! I am sick of not getting in on these deals and having to pay full price for tampons. So hopefully I have learned my lesson.

I bought

4 kotex tampons (18 ct. per box)

4 starbucks frappuccino drinks (I am obsessed with these and they are too spendy normally so for $.25 a piece I had to get some)

After coupons I paid $10.98 BUT I got a $5 Register Reward (register reward is the same thing as a catalina but walgreens just has their own name for it). So without coupons I would have paid $25. Pretty much a $19 savings. Not bad!





Well gotta get back to my sunday of cutting and organizing coupons, watching olympics and eating my now cold vegan kashi pizza.
p.s. Kristi and Heidi, could you see me riding my bike bringing home all these items. haha, of course I ended up taking the truck.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Jewelry holder...old and bold

Ok, I got the idea to make a jewelry holder when I saw Kristi's on her blog. My mind went crazy thinking of ideas. I am definitely not as creative as Kristi but I quickly got an idea. I wanted to use peg board as the background. For a frame... Friday night after work I went searching thrift stores. In the corner of the store I saw this ugly thing. I believe it is the frame to an OLD tv. I had peg board on the side of my house... I went to go get it and to my surprise I could not find it anywhere. I really think someone stole my peg board. So lame. Anyways, my dad had some so I used his instead. He helped me cut it to the frame. Enough typing... here is the project in pictures... and I LOVE it. I can't stop looking at it and smiling in disbelief that I thought of this idea all by myself. (Typically I am one of those crafters that copy an example to the T. Not this, I have never even seen anything like it). One more thing, I named this project Old and Bold because the frame is the distressed look and the peg board is very bold colors and pattern.

The ugly thrift store t.v. frame.

Plain ol' peg board. (I swear someone stole my peg board from my yard. Who the heck would do that... So dumb)
I painted the peg board brown first

I called Kristi earlier that day asking where has a good selection of stencils... she then told me to look in the specialty paper aisle of the scrapbooking section to find cut out papers. So this design came from cut out scrapbook paper. My sidewalk is now nicely spray painted brown, red, and orange too around the edges that I didn't cover enough. :) oops.
Ugly frame getting spray painted red. Now ugly frame getting painted yellow... or gold if you ask Glidden. I decided on this color to match my end table so now I can have two things that match nothing else in my bedroom. I am so wise sometimes... Don't just have one unmatching thing in the bedroom, what the heck go with two.
I sanded down some of the yellow paint on the frame so the red shows through. Can't really tell though. So, I put the frame and board together and then also attached the metal rod to the bottom. This metal thingy I found in my shop that was in there when I bought my house. I was looking everywhere for the dang peg board and looked up in the rafters to see that metal. I immediately got the idea to hang earings from it.

Some jewelry in place. I took these pictures at night in a very bad lit area. I will try and post better, more clear pictures.
Another bad picture, this time with the flash covering half the picture


Earing holder. I think this metal thingy is normally something used with adjustable shelving.
My ring hook. I bought a pack of peg board hooks that are normally perfect sizes for particular types of tools. Works great for different types of jewelry. I can move any of the hooks with ease anywhere on the peg board.
The best part of all this is NOTHING IS PERMANENT! I mean nothing! I can flip it long ways just by removing the metal earing piece and replacing it with the longer piece that I already have cut for that purpose. Or if I want to repaint the frame or peg board just unscrew it with ease! So versatile. Now I can easily see all my jewelry (except for earings that aren't the hooky kind) which makes it easier in the morning to find something!! I also paid a whopping $11 for everything! The frame $3, the pack of 40 different hooks $6, the scrapbook paper for the background design $2, peg board was free, paint was what I already had around the house, and metal rod came with my house so free. It was fun to do too and can be done in a day.

Feeling crafty

This weekend I actually had Saturday and Sunday to myself for the majority of the days. I decided to accomplish 2 craft projects. One was repainting this ugly end table/magazine holder thingy. I didn't have to buy anything except for the sparrow stencil. I think it turned out alright. The paint color I got for free as a Glidden sample giveaway. The color is gold... really?? What part of that color is gold anyways. Oh well. I really don't know why I went with that color for the end table in the first place. I have NO yellow in my bedroom. Anyways, I painted the sparrow bird on the table 3 different times. I kept disliking it and just repainting over it. I don't mind this placement as much. So it stays.... for now.

The beautiful deathly before look
After the first coat of paint

I still see yellow, not gold. Get a new job Glidden color labeler
Finished top. Bird placement... like it or hate it?

Overall look. I also stained it with an antique walnut stain. It toned down the yellow... oh excuse me, Gold... color.

I already refilled it with junk. Go me!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Valentines Day

For valentines day my dad had asked Rillz to make dinner for the family, my dads 2 brothers, Ray and Spencer, and my great uncle Stan and Margene. Thats 15 people! So we said yes. Rillz and I cooked the food while my parents were at church. We started at 10 A.M. so dinner would be ready at 5. I actually helped a lot more than usual (I will be honest, I get lazy and weave myself out of the kitchen and onto the couch). But this time it wasn't like that. Rillz started the chicken cordon bleu while I made a yummy breakfast for us. Then I made heart shaped brownies just because. And then I made angel food cake for the dessert. Rillz then made some shrimp thingy out of ginormous shrimp and also twice baked potatoes (getting the potatoe out of the skin was stressing me out. I was attempting to help and kept ripping the skin, Yes I was really getting stressed!) Anyways, it was delicious and being with the whole family is the best thing EVER! So happy valentines day to us all! Oh speaking of valentines day, that movie was really cute! Talk about SO many famous stars in one movie!

Just hanging out waiting for dinner

Kristi and Rillz. Kristi has a little tiny baby bump! She is always so skinny that in this stage of pregnancy she just looks my size. She said she just looks fat... thanks Kristi, are you saying I'm fat... haha!

My heart brownies. I just had to decorate them. These are the only ones left by the time I took a picture. And sorry it's so dark.


DINNERS READY....

Twice baked potatoes
The shrimp thingys
Chicken cordon bleu



All the guys on valentines day

I didn't get a picture of the girls because... well I was in it so it's not on my camera. And I forgot a picture of the dessert too. Oh-well


Ok gotta get back to spending my Sunday finishing my two weekend craft projects (which I will blog of course), cutting coupons from the newspaper, taking a nap cuz I have been up since 5:30 A.M., getting my eyes checked and probably picking out glasses, and watching olympics. Yeah, I have to get my eyes checked. I have been getting serious headaches and squinting A LOT more these last couple weeks. Alright peoples, thats all for now.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Where do my coupons come from?

Every sunday most newspapers get coupon inserts. You know, those booklets that you search through only to cut out a couple coupons you think you may use only to forget about them. Well, I get 5 sunday papers only to cut out every single coupon and then organize them and stick them in a binder. When a sale is going on at a store then I use them. I don't get all the product ideas by myself. I cheat and read peoples blogs and then go to the store and get what they get. Over time I started figuring out good deals and sales on my own. I look for clearance prices that I can use coupons on or just a great sale. Check out www.athrifymom.com or www.fabulouslyfrugal.com or www.discountqueens.blogspot.com Those are my favorite 3 website. Go into the couponing 101 section and they tell you how to do it. All these blogs are in the Boise area but mention great sales for stores that are everywhere or free stuff on the internet. Check it out, takes a while to get into it and to stack up all your coupons but it is SO worth it. Oh yeah and you can't be a specific name brand snob. Would I normally ever buy those purex laundry thingys.... No but for that price, Yes! I find myself being able to try new things out that I never would if I had to pay full price. Good luck!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

couponing

This week I went couponing and got 4 dreyers ice creams (super yummy flavors) for $3. For full price on these 4 containers it would have been a little over $25.
Yesterday I went to Albertsons again and got 5 packs of trident gum, 4 pouches of tuna, and 5 boxes of purex sheets (these sheets look cool, they have laundry detergent, fabric softener, and static guard all in one sheet. So it goes from washer to dryer without needing to add anything! Have you used them before? Me neither.) anyways... I got all this for $6. Everything was free except for the purex boxes I had to pay $1 each. Full price I would have paid over $45. Wow, spendy!

Well, I feel like crap today and want ice cream for dinner and then I want to go straight to bed. Peace out everyone!


Saturday, February 13, 2010

Rillz's Birthday

Happy 31 birthday Rillz!! Haha. He feels so old! Kristi and Jeff (and Gunnar) invited us to go to church with them and then have dinner (which was SO good, thanks Kristi!!). So I decided that I would tell my family to go to Kristis later for dessert and Rillz's birthday to surprise Rillz. He was so happy when he found out that we were celebrating his birthday. He was very appreciative. When present time came Gunnar wanted to do "Heavy heavy hangover" with every present. Gunnar is always so interested in peoples presents, but he is very good about just looking and being excited for that person receiving the gift, never grabby or mean. It's always fun getting together as a family!

Really dad?!? Must you wear that hat? You are in the United States now. It doesn't only look funky but it's also made out of felt. Looks like he is going to beer fest or something. Haha. I love you anyways dad!
Kristi made this banner. So cute! Great job Kristi.


Birthday fun.

We didn't have any candles for the AMAZING cake Heidi made for the party so Jeff goes into the garage and pulls out 2 emergency candles. They were big and made me laugh! Way to save the day in a BIG way Jeff. Haha!





Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Couponing

With couponing I am always looking for cheap dog treats. Dog treats are so stinkin spendy and I can never find any at a price that I am super happy to pay and want to stock up on. And with 2 dogs, and me who likes to teach them tricks with treats, I go through them at a steady pace. Well tonight I needed to return redbox movies and decided to run into Albertsons to get my free pack of Golden stuffed oreos that I had a coupon for. I paid for them and as Rillz and I were walking out I spotted a cart full of discounted dog treats. As we were looking at them I realized I probably had coupons for some of the brands. I ran to the car to get my coupon binder (yes, an actual binder just full of organized coupons) and to my happy surprise I had plenty of coupons for the brands that were in the cart. Before coupons and discounts I would have spent $39.31 and after the discount and coupons I paid $2.88 ($1.13 of that total was tax). Thats $36 in savings. I got oreos and 12 boxes/packages of dog treats for only $2.88. Thats awesome! Now thats a price I want to pay!! I love surprise finds.

Game night

Me, Rillz, Heidi, Ren, Brent, Noelle, and my mom played pictionary. We had to draw with our opposite hand (because my mom had to) and it made the game even more fun! We did boys vs. girls and the score was so close the whole time. Heidi couldn't think at all when she had to draw with her left hand. It had us cracking up. And Brent could still draw perfect pictures with his left hand. It was great family fun!




It looks like a bunch of little kids are playing this game together.




Brents gangster had us laughing




Bowling with siblings

Rillz and I went bowling with Heidi and Ren and we all convinced Brent that he didn't need to work on the shop... instead he needed to go bowling with us, so he did! It was a lot of fun. The bowling alley was in Caldwell about 5 min. from my parents. Smoking has been illegal for how long now?!? and it smelled like 100 cigarettes had just been smoked at the same time just before we walked in. Gross. Oh-well. It was lots of fun!









CB (C-bass) was Ren... why? I don't know. It's his special bowling name I guess.
H (Hodi) was Heidi, R was Rillz, M was Mindy, and B-REnt was Brent. I got over 100 Points! All luck, no skill!