Yard Sale Day!!!

Today I'm having a yard sale. I haven't had one in so long that I've almost forgotten how it goes. Brenda will be over this morning to sell her stuff and is also having the kids do a lemonade stand, she's smart and frugal at the same time. I'll have to get some pictures if I have a chance during my crazy saleswoman tactics (picture me begging someone to buy a half used thingamajiggy because it's only $.25). I'm so tempted to sell hotdogs and drinks, or maybe icecream with how hot it's been(yes we are desperate!) but I don't think I can convince Evin to join in the fun so I'll keep to my simple plan, sell the crap we don't use anymore! We had dinner over at Darrin and Sarah's last night, it was fun. Cash did not want to leave. I'm pretty sure he's convinced our house is the most boring house he knows because there's only one kid in it. He already wants to be adopted out! Well for now he's going to be the only child. There weren't any good sales to speak of this week and my pantry is bulging with convenience food so I'm going to have to take a break from the coupons, well unless they are giving stuff away. My freezer is also out of control with hamburger and chicken. I'm not complaining though, just laughing at myself for what I've morphed into. A food pack rat! I had better go, I hear cars outside and the sale doesn't start for 2 hrs. Wish me good luck!D

Crazy chicken Days

Yesterday I went to Lin's at 5:30am to purchase some fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts at the butcher block for $1.29/lb! I was happy to see I was the first and only one in line. It only stayed that way for about 10 minutes. I honestly began to think I was crazy and that I had got the sale date/time wrong, boy would I be embarassed. My fellow savvy shoppers arrived closer to opening time of 6am, by then there was about 20 people waiting for the doors to open. I verified that the people behind me were going to be civilized and not run me over with their carts. They promised that but I still got my heel clipped while I calmly waiting for the girl to get the key out of the door and make way for us, it was an accident and I didn't even care all I could think was how to make my way to the butcher block. My friend De'dy met me there and we tried to figure out how much chicken we could buy. I had offered to buy some for Brenda and Misty. They had 40lb boxes and 4lb packages, people were going crazy grabbing several boxes (I'm thinking these people must have a huge family or a walk-in freezer at their house). I headed to the individual packages so I could think clearly and check the quality. All was good so I started loading up the chicken. I ended up with about 10lbs extra (I don't have a deep freeze so I couldn't store too much) so I called my trusty friend Sarah who has been avoiding the whole coupon craze since she has 3 kids and an almost full time office job. She agreed to take the extra chicken off my hands. I got a food saver on Friday so I could package the meat and other food storage items better and I love it. I wish I would have had one years ago. The bags are pretty expensive but they make food last a lot longer (according to the info on the box). I figured after bagging costs (not including my labor) it was about $1.60/lb for the chicken, supposedly the bags make it last 2-3 years in the deep freeze. Well we are building our food storage/stockpile while we can so I'm learning a lot about longevity of items. I'm pretty much stocked up on on household stuff from the sales and have come to an interesting conclusion. I think I know my limit of enough. I read the book Your Money or Your Life and it talks about when enough is enough. Everyone's opinion of enough is so variable. I get 4 coupons so I can get 4 items on a really good sale, usually really good sale means the expiration date is soon. The reason for my enough is we have stores where the shelfs are empty, we have figured out how to reconfigure sales to our advantage with store and mfg. coupons and now we've told everyone. If I can get the item for free I will but if it's an item that I have enough of I will give it to my friends (to those of you who live out of town, if you come visit me and I have excess I will give it to you). I feel I'm on the verge of enough and greed, that is why I will give it away or not buy it. I don't want to be the only person that gets a good deal. I think it's a good idea when they limit the quantity that you buy. I reall think they should have limited the chicken to only so many lbs per person because I'm sure a lot of that chicken will sit in someone's freezer forgotten about until they move or clean it out. Instead of share the wealth, we should share the savings. I wonder if Lin's can get chicken at this price all year long. I just lost and found my blog, I am no longer using msn for my blog posts because this has happened too many times and with the way I write, aagghhh!

That's my 2cents for now! oh I added this cute pic of Cash, we were feeding the ducks at the golf course and he posed for me.D

I promise pictures someday!

I will be posting pictures, I'm waiting (or using it as an excuse) for my friend De'dy and I to have a minute to spare so she can show me how to use Picasa and make them look decent. Is this even possible with a combined total of 3 kids ages 3 & under? Well anyway we had a really fun birthday party for Cash yesterday. I love to see all of my friends kids and watch them play together. I think we have some great friends and even though we don't see them everyday we know we can count on them for anything. Cash got so many presents, I think he could have a new toy to play with every month until Christmas and not get bored. So thank-you to everyone who brought presents and couldn't understand the please no presents invitation I sent out. Cash got really spoiled by Grammy Trudy and it's a good thing she only gets to spoil him once in a while because I think he'd already be asking to go live a her house instead of ours. We played games and Cash got a bike from us. All the kids behaved so good and even though the weather was a little cool we still had a good time. I will get the Pork Taco recipe out to all the party attendees soon, can soon mean by the end of the year? If so I won't be breaking my promise. Oh, that reminds me I need to post pictures. Well if anyone wants to clean my house, do the laundry, grocery shop w/ coupons and entertain a husband and 3 yr old all at the same time I may be able to get it done. Well that's only if my Quickbooks office and Appraisal work is also up to date as well. I'm not complaining, I love my life and my family. I just wish I had a remote for some "pause" time, guess I'll have to invent one. I was actually able to load these pictures. First is Costco near Warrington, England, second is Cash and I at the Natural History Museum in London. The building alone is amazing then you have all the exhibits and most of them are free. This is a definite stop if you ever go to London. The third one is my granny Kovcuniak, my mom's mom. Notice how my dad is not looking at the camera, it's harder getting him to look at the camera than Cash! The fourth one is my Granny Bowes Cairnduff at her 84th birthday party. Sorry to say I didn't take very many pictures of the scenery and especially Stonehenge, you just have to believe me when I say I went there because I don't have much photographic proof. Well that's all for now. I'm off to get Evin's lunch ready and spend the last full day with Trudy before she goes home to CA tomorrow, thank you Bob for letting her come and stay for a whole week, we made her work and play hard, she might need another vacation when she is back in your care. Oh we also had a lot of fun in Vegas with Camille and Gordon, we met people from ST. George at the Coyote Ugly Bar (go figure!) on Sat/Sun while Cash stayed home, it was such a nice break even if it only lasted 24 hours. I actually forget how to transfer out of the mom mode and found myself feeling like a normal person going into a restroom all by myself. All the moms reading this know what I'm talking about, all the dads are thinking I'm crazy because they can hardly remember the last time they shared a stall with a 3 yr old who opens the door when he's done and you're not! Happy 3rd birthday Cash!!!

Today I love linoleum floors......

My day started out pretty typical, we got ready and went to cooking class. The teacher is so good to the kids. It doesn't matter what they make, the kids love it. Then I took Cash to Smith's (last day of grapes on sale for $.99/lb) and Albertson's (last day of $.99/dozen eggs). I was at a grand total of $8 and some change when Cash said he had to go to the bathroom. So we found the bathroom at Albertson's and then I remembered I needed to check the price on the pork(and with a quick call to De'dy friend/avid couponer who is trying to save $$ like me who confirmed the price was good) tenderloins for Cash's upcoming b-day party. Well that trip to the bathroom cost me about $15.00 I did buy something I needed but I fully agree the longer you are in the store, the more you will spend.  We got home, then I tried to get Cash to slow down and put a movie on. He has been very needy so I sat with him for a few minutes. Then I went downstairs to vacuum, I heard a crash but figured Cash ran into something and didn't worry about it too much. He didn't come downstairs so I thought I had better check on him. There he was sobbing, then I realized what he did. He wanted a drink of Apple Juice, so he got his cup out and tried to get the apple juice out. I buy it by the gallon (we actually go through this faster than cow's milk), and it was the good expensive kind of juice. I guess the plastic bottles are not as rigid as we thought. The bottom shattered, yes I was looking at a gallon of juice (we had just opened it a few days ago) on my kitchen floor. Cash was so sad and scared that I didn't even have to give him a time out. He knew he had done a bad thing. I calmed him down and explained it was an accident but now we are out of juice. This made him even sadder. This was the perfect "consequences of your actions" scenario. I didn't let him know there was more in the pantry but I don't want him to think that everything is easily replacable. He begged to go to the store to get some more. I really wasn't mad at him, from seeing my friends have kids and the stories they told me I'm really lucky it hasn't happened until now. The only thing I could think of is boy am I glad we don't have tile floors yet because I would imagine juice and grout don't go well together.  The other thing is today was mopping day, we have mopped the floor an additional two times and it's still sticky. Cash learned not to get juice out by himself and I learned how many towels it takes to clean up a gallon of juice. I seized the moment and took a picture but I'm on my laptop right now and I'll have to post it later. Hope everyone else out there is having a good day!D

A whole week

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I last "blogged". Either my life is too boring, with nothing to report or it's so crazy I lost track of where the whole week went. Well no excuses, I've been lazy but busy too. I'm supposed to be working on an appraisal right now but I need some time to regroup. Cash was not happy about going to bed tonight and I think he's finally in bed. We did get a chance to go fishing today, Cash got to reel in a few Rainbow Trout at the local manmade fishing pond. I forgot the camera but he also caught a tiny Bass all by himself. He was messing around with a worm and I guess it attracted the fish. I wasn't really listening to him when he told me he had a fish but he really got one. Luckily the fish wasn't hooked too bad, since Evin was at the other end of the pond so I had to do it. We are hoping to do some more fishing soon, the weather was perfect today. Well I had better get back to my work so I can go to bed sometime tonight. bye.