8-10-11

8:10am

Well I got the big doctor bill paid today.

Kind of a relief but kind of sad to 

see that kind of money disappear.

Now I'm working on filling out

the form for reduced school lunches.

Every year we qualify for reduced

lunches at .40 cents each compared

to $2.25 to $2.50 a lunch per kid.

Now's the time to get your

lunch forms in to see if you qualify or

you can now go online and do it.

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Well it seems that blogger was having
problems and anything else I posted
for today up and vanished.
What's new.

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This evening we stopped in Kroger
to get a few things.
I haven't been feeling well
so got things like yogurt, applesauce,
and Kroger brand Imodium to battle
the diarrhea I've been having for
about 3 weeks now.


I only found one deal while there,
a 90 count package of pizza rolls for $4.

While putting groceries in the truck
a lady putting groceries in her car
next to us
offered me a free gallon of milk.
She said she gets WIC and had about 
4 gallons of milk in her cart.
She said she would never be able to drink
all the milk before it expires so that's
why she asked if I wanted a gallon.

Many years ago when getting WIC or finding
really good deals on milk I would
bring them home and put them in the
freezer.  


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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.


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


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.  

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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.

8-8-11

9:25am

Last night we decided to turn off the

air conditioner to save a little on

the electric bill.  

I saw on weather.com that today and

tomorrow are supposed to be 86-87

and the rest of the week upper 70's

to lower 80's. 

With getting ready to shell out over

$1200 for a hospital bill I need to cut

back somewhere.  

I had told Tony yesterday that thanks

to his bonus covering most of the 

remaining doctor bill

I don't think we would have to sell

our one car.  He was a happy camper!

He's already got the carburetor on the car

that we got at the flea market Saturday

and says it's running so much better

but still needs some tweaking.

It will be so nice to be back on track

with no doctor bills to pay at the moment.

I went to the ER last November and

Tony was in the hospital exactly 

2 months later in January for 3 days.

So it will have taken me 9 months

to pay off all doctor, ambulance and hospital bills.

That was a big chunk o' change though.

I figured around $3000 with insurance.

Let me tell ya what helped pay it off-

work bonuses & overtime and a large than normal

child support check.  

God's been looking out for us that's for sure

because without those things we'd

of been really, really hurting financially! 

I have been worried for quite some time

but are starting to see the light at

the end of the tunnel.  

If you have any debt hanging over your

head it only causes stress!! 

Try to pay it off as soon as you can so it can

feel like a heavy load has been lifted off you.

Making attempts at any payment is better than nothing!

Now I need to work on getting the credit

card paid off.  At least that's not some

outrageous amount like I've seen some people have.

Then the only debt we will have is

the house.

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

12:30pm


Been working on getting the carpet
cleaned.  Lots of dirt has accumulated
on our carpet over the Summer!
Oh it probably has something 
to do with lots of bare feet, lol.
Going to try to get the house put
back in order the next couple of
weeks before school starts.

 Mailman just came.
Just wanted to verify that any
free magazines I post are the real deals!
Here's what I got today alone!

Other magazines we also get.

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7:45pm


It's been a long and tiring day.
So tiring that me and the boys
all took a nap today.  That NEVER happens!
Tony just got home from work
around 7:00pm.  I'm slacking so bad
today I don't even have supper made.
I'm so tired and my body hurts.

My Three Squirrels came out this
evening to play.  I call them
Larry, Curly and Moe because
they act so goofy.
Don't ask me what their fascination
is with climbing all over the
Charger's car cover is but they
seem to find it entertaining.

So has anyone been playing the
Dominos pizza game on Facebook?
Every minute they give away a free pizza
gift card BUT you have to play their shooting
game against many other people
and take first place in order to get
a free pizza. It's one of those games
that annoys you but you keep
playing in hopes of winning.
My highest score so far is 40th place
if that says anything.


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


We've been watching the live camera
of the Extreme Makeover home most
of the day when not asleep.
We watched them make the driveway
and put more bricks on the outside
of the home.
There is a contest on P&D Builders 
Facebook page for the Extreme Makeover. 
Scroll down to about the 14th or so posted
message and you will see the contest in that
post.  They are asking people to guess
how many bricks will go on the exterior 
of the house.  The one closest to the amount
will win a hard hat and shirt signed
by the Extreme Makeover team!
I guessed 9,504.
I have no clue!  It's about like
trying to guess how many jelly beans
are in a jar, lol.


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

Well all I think I'm going to retire
to watching some tv the rest of the 
evening and relaxing.  My body aches
all over, kinda like when you have the flu
but I don't have a fever, cough, sore throat
or runny nose.  Now Tony has a cold
with stuffy nose and congestion.

8-7-11

12:00 to 2:00pm

This morning's haul from the garden.

 I got all the cherry tomatoes 

and banana peppers cut up and

put into the dehydrator since I 

had collected so many of them

over the past couple of days.

I gave mom a sandwich bag full

of cherry tomatoes also.

As for the other Early Girl tomatoes,
I'll wait til a few more ripen in the garden
then I'll start making tomato sauce with those.
Remove skins, put into food processor with
some seasonings then puree and cook.
Then freeze.

I highly recommend getting your

garden veggies from Menards.

This is the best crops I have gotten

out of any plants. 

$1.67 to invest in a 6 pack of baby plants

sure does produce a lot of veggies!

I have bought plants from Walmart,

Meijers and Lowes.  And because they

just opened a new Menards this year

I decided to give them a try.

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

Well here in a bit we're going to head
to Jegs and possibly Kroger
to get things we need now.
I'll have to wait til tomorrow or
another day this week to get the sale items
like the Tide.


At the moment we are working in the yard
getting it tidied up.  Got the air tank
filled up and started using it to
pump up tires on the car.
It goes so much faster than the smaller
compressors we have.  It's like have
an air compressor from the gas station.


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


This afternoon we made it over to
Jegs and fought all the Ohio State Fair traffic.
From there we headed over to UV apartments
to start watching for when they have their
college move outs.  They can have over
400 move outs from August to September.
My guess is it will start within the next
two weeks.

Anyways we found a couple things,
one thing was something Tony has
wanted and has been on his wish list,
a curio cabinet with a light for all
his NASCAR and car collections.
I don't have a picture of it since
it's still in the truck and it was pouring
down raining when we got home.
It looks something like this one
on the right of this photo below.
Doors on ours are plain glass.
The other thing I found was a bag of
clothes that I have not gone through yet.


After UV we stopped in Henderson Rd.
Kroger to pick up some needed things.
My receipt said I save $39 with coupons,
almost half of my groceries.
Here's some deals I found-


2 boxes of Tide powder.
I paid $5.98 for 2 or $2.99 each.
reg. price was $9.49 each x's 2 is $19.98
On sale for $5.99.
Saved $2.00 instantly when you buy 2
which made them $4.99 each.
and I used two $2.00 coupons
which made them $2.99 each.
So with sales and coupons I saved
a total of $13 off laundry detergent.
I still make my own laundry detergent.
I use Tide to stretch it even further
and to give it more cleaning power.

Loaves of Kroger bread .59 cents each

Free bag of Lays potato chips