Walgreens deals today OOP $10.75

I went to Walgreens when I got off work at noon. With gas prices so high, I try to do all my errands when I get off work and not make special trips just for shopping.
I knew I wanted to get the Chex Mix and Excedrin because I had coupons for them to get them pretty much free. I was not sure if I was going to try and use the 10$ off $30 today but when I saw they still had my favorite Quilted Northern 9 big roll packs for $4, I decided too.

5 Chex Mix, on sale for 99 cents, used $1 coupon on each one

3 Excedrin, on sale for 1.99, used $2 coupon on each one

2 Reach Dental Floss on sale 1.00

2 Ajax dish soap B1G1F $1.79, used 20 cent coupon on each

4 Northern, $4 each

6 Puffs Plus were on the clearance end cap for just 25 cents a box!

My total before coupons was $36 so I got one more Northern than I needed to use the $30 coupon but that is fine. You can never have too much, I guess

After coupons $10.75, that includes $1.94 sales tax.

If you do this deal, give the cashier the $10 Walgreens coupon first, then any other coupons you are using.

Walgreens was surprisingly well stocked today. They had everything I wanted and I did not clean the shelves on any of my purchases.

New Apron

Here I am in my just-finished apron. All the edges are finished with bias tape and it was more fussy-type sewing than I prefer.

I cut out but have not yet started sewing on the other full length apron in this pattern. I bought the pattern on sale at Hobby Lobby for 99 cents and chose it mainly for that apron.

If you like the one I just made but don't want to buy a pattern, Susan Branch has a very similar pattern that you can print free at her website.

HR humor

I work for a staffing company and finding good workers is not always easy. Most of our workers are hard-working, honest and dependable. But we have some associates that are not hard-working, not honest and not dependable, and from them, I have heard some goofy and unbelievable excuses for not showing up to work.

So when I saw this picture, I thought it was so cute and funny.

I'm not really a cat person because I sneeze like crazy when I am near one. But I do like I Can Has Cheezburger

This site, http://icanhascheezburger.com/, has tons of cat pictures and a few dog pictures, all with funny captions in this "lolspeak" You could spend all day at this site and not see it all.

A Year of Savings - rags

When I finished the patchwork rugs, I had pieces of the towels used for the backings left.

I like cloth rags for cleaning and Jeff likes them when he works on our cars.

So I just cut those scraps in to rag- sized pieces and zig-zagged the cut edges so they don't fray too much when laundered.

A year of savings- flowering shrubs

We planted 3 hydrangea shrubs last summer. This is the biggest of the 3 and is just starting its blooming process. This one is called "blushing bride" and we planted it as were planning our daughters wedding. I think it will be very special when these bloom every summer around Nina and John's anniversary.
Flowering trees, shrubs and perennials are great because they bloom every year on a cycle and usually take very little care except for water, a little food and pruning when necessary.

Memorial Day

We are flying our flags today to honor all Veterans and currently serving military members.

My husband was a Marine and served during the first Gulf War.

My Dad was a Sailor during the Korean War.

His brother, my uncle Bob, was also in the Navy.

On my mother's side, 4 of my uncles all served during WW II and all came home alive.

Uncle Jarvis was a Marine and fought through Europe and the Pacific.

Uncle Jr. was a pilot.

Uncle Rex served in the Navy and spent several days in shark-infested waters after his ship was sunk.

Uncle Cecil was a Sailor and lost his leg in an accident.

All of my uncles came home and lived very remarkable lives.

I love all these Veterans and am so proud of them for their sacrifices.

Our Flag

There are many flags in many lands,

There are flags of every hue;

But there is no flag, however grand,

Like our own Red, White, and Blue.

~Mary Howliston~

Fun Purchases at Dollar Tree

Jeff and I did a few errands this morning.

We went to Food Pyramid and bought some meat on sale.

Then we stopped at Walgreens and I used coupons combined with their B1G1F sale and got 4 Suavitel fabric softeners and 2 Purex laundry detergent for $8.31.

Our last and most fun stop was at Dollar Tree. I spent $7.61 (we have crazy-high sales tax here)

1. a magnetic shopping list pad for the fridge
2. set of 3 mini silicone spatulas
3. large silicone spatula
4. set of 3 scrubbers
5. very yummy Chinese Almond Cookies
6. straw hat with brown polka dot ribbon trim - this one is really cute! I wear a hat or sun visor whenever I am outside for any length of time so I expect to use this one a lot.
7. Hard back book "Confessions of a Super Mom"

Wal-mart deal worth mentioning

Farmland frequently has high value coupons. There has been lots of talk about using their $2 bacon coupon at Wal-mart as the sell Farmland bacon for $2.50 a pound.
I have bought plenty of that 50 cents a package bacon but I like the ham deal even better.
Wal-mart sells Farmland Special Select Ham for $2.88 a pound package. It comes in the thick slices or the thinner slices for sandwiches. Use a $2 coupon and get it for just 88 cents a pound. It is lean too, a ham steak is 70 calories, 20 of those from fat. The sandwich slices are 35 calories, 10 from fat.
I had a few coupons from our regular paper but I ordered 20 more on Ebay for $1.94.

This ham is not stocked with the regular lunch meats. It is in a bunker cooler with all the big hams.

See more Wal-mart deals worth mentioning at Money Saving Moms.

Small Potatoes

Last week I bought a 10 pound bag of potatoes for $1.87. Bagged potatoes come in a assortment of sizes and you really can't tell what they all are until you get them home.

I always take potatoes out the bag as soon as possible, check them for any bad ones that might start smelling or ruin the others. Then I store them in a basket on the floor in the pantry.

Last night we had steak fingers. Although the big ones are quicker to peel, I save the big ones to have at a future meal as baked potatoes.
I peeled and cubed some of the smaller potatoes for hash browns to go with the steak fingers.

Patchwork Bathroom Rugs

Rug for the tub
rug for the shower
white terry cloth on the back
We need new bath mats in our master bathroom. I bought our current ones in 2002 when we moved in to this house. They are starting to look worn and I am tired of them.
I saw 2 different bloggers show patchwork bath mats they had made and I really liked the idea.

One is April at Making Ends Meet and the other is Meg at Montesorri By Hand

I used 5 inches squares and sewed everything with a half inch seam allowance. The brown, green and orange squares are all from fabric I had on hand. I used white terry cloth on the back - actually just 2 still good bath towels with ripped edges.
First I made the patchwork tops. Then I attached them the terry cloth by sewing all around. Then I sewed close all around the edge and sort of machine-quilted them by sewing lengthwise in the middle of each row.
My rugs are about 20 x 28 inch finished size.

A Year of Savings - saving on retail

It may seem like I buy everything at thrift stores or garage sales but I really do shop retail sometimes. Jeff and I both needed new shirts for summer. JCPenneys had "their biggest sale of the year" and it ended Monday. It seems to me that Penneys claims all their sales are the biggest of the season though. But this time, they had things on sale we needed.
Jeff got 4 Polo-type shirts, they are 100% cotton and have a pocket on the front for this cell phone. I got 2 girlish Polo-type shirts. Everything was buy 1 get 1 for 1 cent or buy 1 get one for 99 cents. I also used a $15 off a $75 purchase coupon.
Our 6 shirts ended up costing $71.74, averaging about $12 a shirt. The original tags on these shirts were $22, $26 and $30.

My suggestions to save money at retail stores are only shop when you need something, shop when they have sales and use store coupons.

update on the container gardening

I planted most of the plants April 29, so that makes them about 3 weeks old at our house. They all seem to be growing and even thriving, except for the 2 eggplant plants. The bed in the center has zucchini, squash and cucumber seeds that are 2 weeks old and growing fast.
Several of the tomato and pepper plants have buds already.

A Year of Savings - mow your own lawn

I just spent about an hour outside. I mowed our front and back yard, watered all the plants and trees and did a little work in our container garden. Really, I like to run the mower. It is good exercise and I just prefer to do it myself. When Jeff gets home, he will do the edging and blow the grass off the sidewalks and driveway.
Most of our neighbors are pretty serious about keeping their yards looking like golf courses. They water every day. Some mow their own yards but the majority of them use lawn services.


If you do much mowing or garden work, I suggest you have a dedicated pair of shoes just for the yard. These are my yard shoes. In Oklahoma, we have red dirt. Red dirt mixed with all the grass really stains your shoes too. So I just keep this pair in the garage and only wear them for outside chores.

A Year of Savings - new top for me

I used to sew most all of my clothes, dresses for Nina, shorts for my sons and pajamas for everyone. I still sew but I stopped making clothes several years ago. I really like sewing so I recently made my home-sewn top in years.

Hobby Lobby had patterns on sale a few weeks ago for 99 cents and I got 3 top patterns and 1 apron patterns. This fabric is from Wal-mart and as $2 a yard. This pattern only used 1.5 yards. This top did not photograph so well but is loose fitting and I will wear it over a brown tank top, probably with khaki capris.

About Wal-marts and fabric, there are 2 super walmarts in my town. The oldest one sells fabric and they have a nice, well stocked fabric department. The newer one just has a strange and very small craft department. I am glad the one with fabric still sells fabric and is also the one most convenient for me.

more on the shaggy rug

Susan asked me a few questions about how I made that shaggy rug. I wish I had taken pictures in process but I didn't so here is just a mini-tutorial.
I took 4 inch squares and ironed them in half on the diagonal. Then I just lined them in rows with the points under each other. I left points hanging off each edge and then reversed the triangles when I go to about the center.
Just machine sew them down the center. I laid a red thread down in the picture so show were I would machine stitch.
Be sure to back stitch well at the ends of each row so your rug stays together.

I think 3 inch squares would work fine too.
The squares do not have to be perfect. This is not an heirloom quilt that requires accuracy.
This project is great for using up un-loved fabric.

If anyone has other questions, please feel free to ask.

Shrinking products

I rarely buy bottled water but will need some this weekend. There will be 5 of us, maybe 7 or more helping Jimmy move to a different apartment. Bottled water seemed to be the best choice for beverages as we all work.
I picked up this multi-pack, thinking when I last bought bottled water months ago, that it was the same price back then and I was happy it had not increased like everything else.
After I got it home, I read the label closer. This package only has 20 bottles! They used to have 24 bottles. So really, the price was the same, I just got less for my money.
Grocery shopping can be so confusing. Remember to read to those labels closely!

How I spent those Proctor Gamble Register Rewards

I had $23 in Register Rewards at Walgreens from the Proctor Gamble and Nabisco deals. I used some of them to buy the All detergent and used 50 cents coupons on each. Each 2 ALL gave out $3 more in RRs. I also got 2 tubes of Colgate using coupons and ESR.
I checked out in 2 transactions so I would get the RR on each 2 ALL. If I had checked them out at all once, I would of only got 1 $3 RR.
The Walgreens paper towels - identical to Bounty in my opinion- were on clearance - I don't remember the exact price.

I used the $6 in RR from the ALL for these Tuf trash bags - really nice and strong - they were 3 for $10 and I will mail in for a $4 rebate on them.

I did spend a little OP but I don't have the exact amounts as I write this.

A Year of Savings - scrappy rug

One of my resolutions for 2008 is to use up as much of the random fabric in my stash and turn it into useful items. Our laundry room needed a new rug and this project used up a lot of fabric. I started with a 2 yard length of dark green canvas and used a double layer of it for the base. I drew lines about every 1.5 inches for the sewing guide.

The rows are 4 inch squares of mostly plaids. I ironed them all in half before sewing them. Then I used sewed each row, overlapping the triangles about every inch or so and reversing their direction in the center so there would be fringe on all sides.

The entire project took about 5 hours.

This rug is thick and should really collect lots of dirt off of shoes. Theo likes it too.

Wondering about your Stimulas money?

According the IRS schedule, I thought our Stimulus money should of been direct deposited last week. The direst deposit has never shown up so I did some investigating on the IRS site as well as several message boards.
Apparently if you did a traditional paper return or if you filed with a tax service like TurboTax or HRBlock and paid the fees with a credit card, you will get your stimulus money on the first schedule as a direct deposit.
But if you used electronic filing through a tax service or software, and had the filing fees deducted from your refund, you will be getting a paper check on the second schedule. The paper check also applies to people who got rapid refunds through a tax service.

The IRS site does not spell this out but people who have spent 1/2 an hour on hold to talk to an IRS person on the phone have been told this.

IRS Questions and Answers

A Year of Savings - Walgreens

Walgreens has several Register Rewards that are more than worthwhile going on right now, as long as you can be at the store when they have the items in stock. I read on several blogs that others had trouble buying what they wanted.

I made my first trip today for this weeks sale. I think I did pretty good. Most of the Cover Girl I bought was on clearance so it was especially low priced after the B1G150% off and my coupons. At first, some of the Cover Girl did not ring up correctly but the manager fixed it all.

The Garnier hair color is on sale for $7.49, B1G1Free and I had $3 on each one so it was a great deal. (Nina, 2 boxes are for you if you want them)

I paid for this with $5.50 on a Walgreens card and $17 OOP. And I left with $23 in RRs.

Blog award from Debbie

I am so happy to tell you all that Debbie at Homemaking Dreams gave me a blog award. She is also one of my favorite bloggers and a kindred spirit.

Thank you, Debbie!

Head over to her blog and see all the neat things she does and read her great ideas.

She also has a giveaway going on right now for a really cute clothespin bag to celebrate her 1 year blog anniversary.

As part of accepting the award I am supposed to award it to more bloggers. There are so many excellent blogs out there, but here are 11 I enjoy.

1. Debbie (of course)

2. Terri at PennyAnn Poundwise

3. Mercedes at Money Common Sense

4. Nina at Vindicate the Vegetable and LoveSweetLove

5. You Have Been My Friend

6. Susan at My Cottage Life and My Peaceful Valley

7. Tammy at Play for a Moment

8. Graceful Designs

9. NeeCee at My Life

10. Heidi at Celebrate the Seasons

11.Dawn's brand new blog A Home in the Country Dawn is a friend of mine from a Yahoogroup and she just started this one.

update - Maisie, my friend in the UK also gave me this award. She has several great blogs Thanks Maisie!

toile napkins

I liked how these cloth napkins turned out so much, I made 15 of them! I don't expect to have a dinner party for 15 but Jeff and I pretty much use cloth napkins all the time. And I like everything to match.
The inspiration for the polka dot binding came from this blog, PurlBee.
I used Alicia's binding tutorial and really liked making the straight binding.

A year of savings - the pantry

I think every house should have a pantry. There a quite few new homes being built in our neighborhood and I am happy that they all have pantries. ( Theo and I walk through them when the construction workers are gone for the day)

Jeff and I have lived in 13 homes and all but 5 of them had pantries.

Our current home has 2 pantries!

I have always tried to keep our pantry stocked. With grocery prices going up so fast, a pantry can almost be like the stock market - buy low, use it when it is high.

The rice shortage stories are making me think and I don't really expect food shortages in the U.S.A. but I am afraid that most all grocery prices will just continue to climb.

I have stocked up more than usual on flour, oil and rice - all items that we use frequently, have a long shelf life and have gone up significantly.

This in the second pantry and is right across from the bigger pantry at the kitchen entrance. It was more like a big broom closet when we moved in with just one shelf at the top. I wanted to use it for storage so Jeff and his dad built some shelves in.

Now it is home for my cookbooks, small appliances, cleaning supplies and some junk.

My parents house does not have a pantry but my mom has turned a closet in their utility room into one with some organizing units.

Tracy had a very cute wall-papered pantry in her former house.

Don't be discouraged if you don't have a pantry, just be creative.

Manuela has the cutest pantry ever in an unused shower!

Breakfast room - just add 7 cans of spray paint

Before




















After
I was pretty happy with our breakfast room but the the gold-ish metal table and chairs never looked quite right with the brushed silver light fixture. I thought about it a long time, then I took the plunge and spray painted the set glossy black.
I think it looks much better and everyone who has been here says they like it better too.
The table runner and napkins are both recent sewing projects.
The polka dot fabric for the runner is from Wal-mart. The napkins are black toile with little polka dot edges.