Friday, June 28th, 2013

Quote by Benjamin Franklin "A penny saved is a penny earned."

Friday night Christmas shopping in June???

That's right, I went Christmas shopping and for those of you who think I'm crazy to be thinking about Christmas or buying sweaters in the dead of summer, just wait!

You've probably figured out by now that I like to be prepared, Christmas is no different.  I absolutely refuse to go anywhere near a mall or a Wal-Mart in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas, no deal is handsome enough to tempt me.  People are crazy that close to the holidays and I want no part of it. 

Some people might say that all that drama and rushing around is part of the fun of Christmas, I say your stupid.  Being a nervous wreck, rushing all over town for a sale, over spending and over paying for the hottest item of the season, all ridiculous and in my opinion have absolutely nothing to do with Christmas.

Doing it my way, I'm not fighting crowds, I get to take my time to really think about the person I'm buying for, and I get to save like crazy which means I can buy more things for everyone!  FYI - we also have a strict budget for everything including Christmas so in order to make the most of it, I shop deals throughout the year. 

Anyway, Kohl's is having a pretty huge clearance sale of winter clothes right now, literally a lot of stuff is marked down 80%.  I was literally able to buy everyone in my family at least one thing, (if you don't think this is of any importance, our immediate families combined total 19 people) and I spent a little over a hundred bucks.  So, do you still think I'm crazy for Christmas shopping in June?  If so, check out the below:

Just for fun:
Christmas shopping trip: Bought $792.79 worth of stuff, but after coupons and sales: Spent $109.71 out of pocket!  That's an 86% savings people!!!  That's ridiculous savings, not to mention I have $20 off my next purchase, which I will use with a coupon and purchase more clearance items (making at least two of those items in my cart completely free)!

Friday, June 21st, 2013

Quote by Ronald Reagan "It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?"

 

 

So for the last several weeks we have been looking to buy a used riding mower (because poor Damon has been push mowing close to an acre for almost three summers now).  We found a pretty good one on Craig's List, we think.  It's a John Deere, it runs and cuts good, and seems to have a good engine and it rides smooth. 

 

Well, I was hoping to hop on it and take it for a spin when we got home with it, but it started pouring down rain.  There was also a chance of rain for several days this week, so I still didn't get to mow.

 

Well tonight was the night!  We didn't actually get the rain earlier this week so the grass is nice and dry and I can help mow from now on (which I swore I would do so long as I didn't have to push the mower).

 

 

 

 So, it normally took Damon about 4 1/2 hours to mow the yard with the push mower, but with the riding mower we got it banged out in an hour and a half!  The mower is great and I can't believe it took me this long to talk Damon into getting one!  Especially since he was the one who was doing all the push mowing! Lol!

We still have to weed-eat and push mow a few spots that we couldn't get to with the riding mower, but that's what Saturdays are for in little old Winslow!

To anyone who doesn't have a riding mower, but does have almost a freaking acre of yard to mow, you should soooo invest in one, even a used one if your fairly handy, because you can get a good deal and not spend too much money.

Just for fun:
Weekly shopping trip: Bought $9.32 worth of stuff, but after coupons and sales: Spent $6.32 out of pocket!  That's pretty cheap for a weeks worth of groceries!! 

Friday, June 14th, 2013

Quote by Henry Ford "Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."

So it's another hot, humid, and nasty Friday night in Winslow.  No, I'm not sitting around outside in the heat, I'm sitting in my kitchen and it's pretty warm, unless of course you just sit still which I sooo can't do.

 

You may have realized by now that I will do whatever I have to do, or can do to save some money, so there is a good reason for being so warm inside the house.  We are on this thing called Smart Hours, on that, the electric company charges us less during off-peak hours and a whole lot more during peak hours.  Peak hours are Monday through Friday from 2PM to 7PM, naturally this block of time includes the heat of the day. 

 

Anyway, to save a little more, we decided that we would make some changes to our routine in order to be using the most electricity during off-peak hours.  We set the thermostat to a higher temperature from 2PM-7PM.  We don't run the washer/dryer or the dishwasher, and we wait until 7:01PM to start cooking dinner.  Don't get me wrong, it's not terrible, we don't have the thermostat set to 90 degrees or anything outrageous, but it can get a little steamy if your up and around trying to do things like we are tonight, before the A/C kicks-in at 7pm.

 

Again, nothing too strenuous ,but I found an awesome clock that fits our kitchen perfectly. Of course, I can't just sit around not doing anything, so I talk Damon into hanging it up tonight.  We of course argue over whether or not I could eye-ball it and get it so close to perfect that even he would find it's placement on the wall acceptable, or if we should measure and re-measure and then check our facts, and then double check our facts and then discuss it before we actually do it.  Damon won this little battle and we measured and talked and so on and so forth but after all of that, we got it up on the wall and it's pretty bad ass!

 

 

 

 

And fortunately, we didn't kill each other arguing over the best way to get it centered or where to put it or anything like that.  We may have different opinions on how to do things but we are very fortunate to work very well together, and believe me, we've worked on enough stressful, time-consuming projects to know that if we conqured all that we have, we can conquer anything together.

 

Goodnight Winslow!

Just for fun:
Weekly shopping trip: Bought $15.87 worth of stuff, but after coupons and sales: Spent $12.87 out of pocket!  You might think that isn't much but how many people can only spend twelve bucks on a weeks worth of groceries! 

Friday, June 7th, 2013

Quote by Harry S. Truman "No one in the world can take the place of your mother."

Friday Night In...........West Fork?

That's right ladies and gentlemen, a night out on the town.

My wonderful Mom has been staying with us for two weeks and tonight is her final Friday Night in Winslow before she goes home to Tulsa.  We've had a great time hanging out, playing board games, and one day last week we even got all gussied-up and went to Fayetteville, Mom got her hair done and we had our pictures taken together, and then we went and had a nice lunch.  

Anyway, we figured since it was Mom's last night visiting us, we'd take her into West Fork to this amazing pizza place we know, Jake's Pizza.  Honest to goodness, the best damn pizza I've ever had.  When we first went there a couple of years ago, we expected it to be just some hole in the wall place with just so-so food.  We were so wrong!

Mom's been there before with us, but it's not like there's anywhere  to eat in Winslow on a Friday night.  It was a beautiful evening for a little road trip, and the pizza, as always, was to die for.

After dinner we came home and played some Yahtzee and Mom kicked both our asses, repeatedly!

Goodnight all!




Just for fun:
Weekly shopping trip: Bought $39.30 worth of stuff, but after coupons and sales: Spent $28.80 out of pocket!
 

Friday, May 31st, 2013

Quote by Winston Churchill "Now this is not the end.  It is not even the beginning of the end.  But, it is perhaps, the end of the beginning."

It was Friday night, it's Winslow, my mom is on holiday (staying with us for two weeks), and what else you ask?  The flippin' power goes out!

That's right, the power was out!

Damon and I of course immediately went into survival mode.  Living out in Winslow, if the power is out for more than an hour, it usually means it's going to be a couple of days before we get it back. 

Damon and I immediately began discussing using our little Coleman camp stove to make dinner for the night, on the front porch, because it was raining kittens and pups, or Damon offered the option of him cooking up a couple pounds of cheeseburgers and hot dogs in his rain coat, so we could eat for the next couple of days.  Alternatively, Damon had the thought that we could just eat cold leftovers from the fridge until the power came back on.  Mom and I weren't too excited about that prospect, after a quick review of what leftovers we had on hand.  Cold Sweet and Sour Chicken over rice and cold Amish Stew. 

Damon of course, was more in survival mode than us and was perfectly content to wing it for the night, until he could get the generator up and running to keep our deep freeze and fridge running.  In the end, we each ended up cobbling something together on our own and at different times.  Mom was smart, she ate a sandwich before it got dark.  Only thing I did before dark was have a drink or two and gather up the candles and flashlights.  We did get in a couple rounds of the board game "SORRY" before it got dark, and I am very sad to say that Damon won both games!  I was sure if I didn't kick his ass, mom would, but no such luck!

After a drink or two, I started feeling a little hungry and it was dark but we had lots of candles going.  I decided I just wanted to nibble on things throughout the night, so I got myself a dinner roll and stuck it on the end of the plastic knife and held it over a candle.  That's right ladies and gentlemen, I heated a dinner roll and even melted some butter over a candle in my living room.  I actually had two... and they tasted great!

Damon ended up waiting much later and braved the cold meatloaf.  This is no big surprise, he doesn't have a problem with cold food.  I on the other hand want to eat my food piping hot and often don't partake in leftovers unless of course I can nuke them!

Until next time......

Just for fun:
Weekly shopping trip: Bought $56.54 worth of stuff, but after coupons and sales: Spent $24.04 out of pocket!

Friday, May 24th, 2013

Quote by Albert Einstein "A person who never made a mistake, never tried anything new."

So it is another Friday in the small town of Winslow, Arkansas and what do we have to do?  Well we looked at our calendar and it appears as though the only thing we have scheduled is to pull up one of the red onions we planted awhile ago.

Party time in Winslow, right!

Seriously, we planted some veggies in big flower pots on our balcony about a month ago, and the tops of the onions have grown so much that, in my mind, there is no way that these onions need another month to grow like the package said, they have got to be full grown already!

So, fortunately my mom and sister are in town for a visit and we talked and talked about the veggies we're growing, showing off our green thumbs, that we took them out to the balcony after dinner, in our almost finished dining room, and we were so excited!  I pulled up one of our onions and what to my surprise........

I seriously think the fucking thing is smaller than when we planted the damn bulb!

Oh well, we do have about three Roma tomatoes making great progress and at least five jalapeno peppers coming in!  No red bell peppers yet, and apparently we've killed the onions or they really do need another month.  Who knows... we are newbies at this!

Just for fun:
Weekly shopping trip: Bought $17.78 worth of stuff, but after coupons and sales: Spent $12.48 out of pocket!