8-9-11

7:30pm

Been watching the news this morning

and saw a better view of the Extreme Makeover

house.  In our opinion it is one ugly house

on the outside.  I think it looks like a school,

church or library and Tony says it looks like a firehouse.

The builders have to be done within the

next 6.23 hours and turn over the keys to the house

to the design team to get started on 

decorating the inside of the house.

I saw last night that they are putting a roof

top deck on the garage.  Why?  The view from that

house out back would be either a church

parking lot or a scrap yard.

Another thing is I don't know how the family

is going to be able to afford the house.

Sure the house is paid for but what about

the extra expense of utilities for a much, much

larger house (I don't know what the square footage is) and what about the extra expense

of taxes on that home?

If Extreme Makeover ever came here

(just wishful thinking)

I would have requested that they

make me a more environmentally friendly home

with solar/wind power, a backup generator,

a fireplace and have a large veg/fruit garden. 

I would want to be able to cut down the cost

of utilities and be able to have our

own power or heat for Ohio's many power outages.

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9:30-10:30am

Started working on tonight's and tomorrow
night's supper.  I wanted to try to get one
day ahead with the way everyone's been
feeling.  Last night was a free for all
for supper, whatever you could find to eat
from leftover spaghetti to ham & cheese
sandwiches.  So while I am feeling ok
at the moment I'm fixing suppers ahead
of time.


Cabbage Roll Soup
(tomorrow night's supper)


Most things I just throw together
with whatever I have on hand
so these meals may not be typical.

I found that I didn't have any ground
meat but had a package of rope sausage.
I used one rope, cut it into thin slices
then cut those slices into fours.
I also cut up a small onion.
Hey, check out some of my newest knives.
My honey found these at his work last week.

 I sliced up the remaining rope sausage

and will use this later this week

as topping for a homemade pizza.

Fry up sausage and onions in skillet

with a little cooking spray.

Slice a head of cabbage in half

and cut leaves into small pieces.

Add to a large pot of water and boil til tender.

In another small pot add 2 cups water with

a little butter

and add a cup of rice once boiling

Add a large can of sloppy joe sauce

to the crock pot on low with

a tablespoon or two of Splenda.

Drain cabbage and add the cabbage

and rice to the sloppy joe sauce.

Stir til combined.

Cook on low.

My next meal I started along side

the soup for tonight is-

Tortilla Brat Melts. 

Ok this is something I made up

and you won't find a recipe for, lol.

I wanted to make Mexi Melts like

what you find at Taco Bell but didn't

have any ground meat to make it with

so decided to use brats instead.

I boiled up a package of cheddar brats

and put in fridge til this evening.

This evening I'll fry them up in a skillet.

Then I'll place each brat on a tortilla

that has some shredded cheese

and homemade salsa and/or fresh cut up

tomatoes on it.

I'll then roll it all up, put it in a skillet

with a little cooking spray 

until the tortilla is slightly crispy.

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This morning on the news I saw
a segment about dressing your kids for
less for back to school.
They showed how you could dress
kids from Walmart for $25 an outfit!
That's crazy!!
That was only for a top and bottom. 
That would mean spending $350
for 2 kids just for tops and bottoms
for a wardrobe for an entire week.


For under $40 I could get both of my
kids an outfit for an entire week
and that would include socks & underwear
from thrift stores and by shopping
back to school sales for the underwear and socks.

Shoes are a little harder to come by
at the thrift stores or yard sales for my
boys so I splurge and spend about
$30 - $40 for 2 pairs from Kmart.
 if I can happen upon their buy one pair get
one half off sale.  I make sure they are
made of real leather and have good soles.


I no longer buy shoes from Walmart.
Walmart shoes do not hold up very well
with boys and might last a month or two
if you are lucky.

So for an average of $70 I can 
get a complete wardrobe for 
2 kids for a total of 14 outfits
including new shoes, socks and undies.

If I can find clothes at yard sales over
the Summer instead of the thrift store
I spend much less like .25 cents to 
$1.00 per item of clothing.
An average of $9.50 to $22 
for a full 7 day wardrobe from yard sales
for two kids.


I set a limit of how much I would
spend on clothing from yard sales.
Depending upon the type of clothing
I won't go higher than $1.
And if something is higher
I try to wheel and deal to get it lower.
If I buy several clothing items I'll ask
for a discount.


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3:00 - 5:00pm


Started working on sewing together
a coupon binder tote.
Not quite finished yet as it
still needs the velcro sides and handles
sewn on.  I have no pattern so
are just winging it like usual.

I've been helping Jonathan throughout
the day sand on a bicycle frame.
They hung it in a tree and I spray
painted most of it white.
Tomorrow, after it has time to dry,
I'll start taping off for stripes which
will be black.  

I also spray painted
another kids scooter that he wanted black.

At the moment
my forearms can't take another moment
of spray painting.  They are like so
sore and rock hard from pressing
the spray can nozzle!


And yet another day of kids
at our house.  Kids everywhere I turn, lol.
I'm so tired!!

 5:10pm

Well I'm going to go make/finish supper
here in a few.  Tony works late again
til 6pm or later.  

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

9:00pm


This evening Tony got all the grass mowed
while I tidied up the carport area
from all the kids that were over today.


Supper tonight turned out really good.

After supper I worked on getting
my coupon binder tote done.
Well almost done, I had the velcro in 
my hand earlier and I'll be darned if
I know where I laid it.
I need it to finish the sides of the tote
where they wrap around the binder
and velcro to the front.

It didn't turn out too bad for
not having a pattern and only
going by pictures.
I might try to make another one
at another time.


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I've subscribed to these videos on
You Tube that I thought would interest everyone.
It's called FrugalTV Channel and has
84 videos about saving money & how
to use coupons.