Resisting Temptation

Next week is the last week of Upward Bound, so Zaven will be coming home soon. Then in not quite three weeks, school starts. Next summer he'll have his last summer of Upward Bound and then he'll be going to college. So these last few weeks of summer are some of our last few weeks where our whole family will be together and not overwhelmed with school, sports, lessons, etc.

I want to go on vacation. I want it bad. It's been a rough summer.

But we can't afford a vacation.

I try to be a frugal person, save money when I can, coupon shop, etc. So we've tried 'staycations' in the past. Can I just take this opportunity to say how much I hate staycations? They're great if you live in Chicago or New York where there's a ton to do and even the people who live there can't have done everything... or if you live by the beach or the grand canyon where no matter how many times you've been it's still exciting and new. But for those of us who live in a small town, chances are we've been to every interesting place so often they know us by name. 'Real' vacations are a break from your normal life. Plus real vacations involve someone else cleaning up your living quarters while you're out and about, eating out so there aren't dishes, and staying where your kids can't pull out every toy they own because all those toys and books and videos are back at home.

Sure you can eat all your meals out since you're saving all that money by not paying for airfare, gas, and hotels. But that doesn't take into account how cheap I am. On my vacations, we drive rather than fly, stay in priceline hotels (with free continental breakfasts) at bargain prices, and fix sandwiches in the hotel room so we only eat our lunch mean in restaurants. It doesn't feel bad doing this on vacation because we remind ourselves that the money we're saving is paying for all the cool things we're doing during the day. But fixing sandwiches at home for dinner doesn't feel at all like a vacation because the money we're saving is only paying for the trash pickup and the electric bill.

I keep a pretty close eye on our budget and I know how much we can and can't afford. We CAN'T afford a vacation.

Maybe I'll win the lottery.

Spending money

Well, it's been kind of a sucky week. Zaven had his wisdom teeth pulled and got a dry socket. The other kids and I all had colds and felt crappy. And despite the fact that Zaven was finally able to get his learner's permit (aka Dr. Lisc), he's not been able to drive because he's been on painkillers all week.

BUT... we did get our taxes done. That's a huge deal for us. Ours are usually complicated and time consuming. But since we have four kids all living at home, we usually get some money back. This year we lucked out. The taxes weren't complicated AND we're getting back a bit more than we usually do. So, that leaves us with a little bit of spending money.

As you probably already know, I'm one of those coupon loving freaks who tries to go to the store and get a few hundred dollars worth of stuff for 57 cents after taxes. Sometimes I even manage to do that. I get all my shampoo and toothpaste and deodorant for free and have boxes of toiletries that I got for free in storage in the basement. So what does someone like me do when I have extra money?

Well, it's kind of complicated. Part of me really, really wants to just go crazy and splurge on whatever it is I want at the moment. After all, I'm always scrimping and saving and squirreling away. I deserve to get to spend this money. It won't be coming out of our regular budget. It's more like a prize we won.

Of course another part of me knows that even if we don't need extra money right at this moment, we eventually will need it. We don't have much in the way of an emergency fund right now. On top of that, even if we did have an emergency fund, there are dozens of other things that this money could do that would really have a positive impact on our lives. We could put it in an IRA, invest in some much needed home repairs, or buy a more fuel efficient car.

So... what will it be? Frugal or fun?

Both. Last year we paid off an old bank loan. This year I'll be paying off my credit card. I like to be debt-free. It means I never have to worry about late fees, LOL. But I don't owe much, so I'll still have most of the money left over. Most of that will be just put in the bank. But some of the money will be for fun. I like fun. I'm thinking that maybe Scott and I will go on a weekend trip without the kids. We haven't had a vacation without kids along in over a decade.

So my only questions are, where will we go and what kind of a deal can I get on our hotel room?

Literacy night

Last night the elementary school had their annual literacy night. We had such a nice time! Zaven and Caly were at their teen mentoring program, so it was just me and Scott and Zoe and Quinn. The kids and I ate first, because the school was serving chili which the kids won't eat (and I can't have because of my food allergies). So when we got there, we regitered for door prizes then the principal gave each kid a set of those plastic letterst that you put on your fridge. Then we went in and went to the book table. There were dozens of brand new books that they were giving away. It was supposed to be one per student, but they let Quinn pick one out, too. Then we went to the cafeteria. Scott got four bowls of chili since there were four of us. He hadn't had lunch and he ate ALL of it! THe kids and I snacked on raw carrots and cookies while he ate.

Then we went to the Scholastic book fair. Zoe spent her allowance (she gets only 50 cents a week but she saves it up). She had $5 and she bought a book about cats and dogs for herself and then picked out a sale book to buy Caly for Christmas. I thought that was so nice of her. I got a book too, a nice hardback picture book about bats playing in the library at night. I spent $16. Then we listened to a few stories being read.

The door prizes were getting ready to be announced and we didn't want to leave until then (just in case we won), so we walked around a bit. When we passed back by the table with the free books they told us that they had a lot left over and to come pick out any we wanted. So Zoe and I picked out more books. We got some for her to give to Zaven and Quinn for Christmas so now all her shopping is done.

Then they called the winners for the door prizes. We didn't win any, but then they said that a few winners hadn't been present so they were going to draw for those prizes again. Quinn won a $10 gift card to a local Mexican restaurant! I went ahead and gave it to Scott since it expires before Christmas, but I'm still counting that as Quinn giving a present to his dad, LOL.

All in all it was a great night. We only spent $21 (including Zoe's allowance) and got back a set of alphabet magnets, 10 brand new books, and a $10 gift card, plus all that free chili that Scott ate. And the money we spent helps earn free books for the school library.

Money -- wish I had more.

Financially, the last month has been good in some ways, not so good in others. All my Christmas shopping is done, I didn't go spend crazy at all last month, and I got back on track with my coupons. All in all, we made big progress on reducing our spending. On the down side, we didn't make nearly as much money as we did before Scott stopped teaching. So despite spending less, we're not saving more. :( On top of that I still sit here with a busted TV. If I buy a new one, I will not be able to pay cash. But TV is the one thing Scott really enjoys at the end of the day. I could live without it and just watch shows online. Scott hates that. So I think we'll be buying one soon. Thankfully, this is the time of year for good deals on TV's. I just hope it's a REALLY good deal.

Cheap Candy alert! and it's Fall Break all over again

Quick! CLICK HERE for $2 off coupons for 24 oz. or larger bags of Nestle candy and Wonka candy. There are two different coupons that can each be printed twice. That should cut a nice bite out of your Halloween budget.

Meanwhile, we had a bit of interesting news today. Week before last was Fall Break for our school. That's how Caly got to leave town for a week with my mom. Not all schools do Fall Break. It's basically just like Spring Break - a week off of school. But no one goes to Florida or the Carribean.

Last week was regular classes. This week is supposed to be regular classes, too. But I just got a phone call from the school. Classes have been cancelled the remainder of the week due to a large percentage of the students being sick. So we get to do Fall Break all over again. The problem is... Zaven and Caly were among the students who missed school due to being sick today. So far, they're not too sick. Just a low-grade fever and coughs and sniffles. But I imagine that we'll all get it before it's through. Not my idea of a vacation.

But I'm crossing my fingers and trying to think positive. We won't get sick. Of course not. That would be silly.

Coupons.com

For a few months now, I've not been doing couponing at all. Money is tight so it seems wasteful to even go so far as buying the newspapers in order to get coupons for things I already have a huge supply of. I don't need more toothpaste, deodorant, or air freshener. They raised the price on our Sunday paper to $2, which means that most weeks the paper won't pay for itself based only on the grocery coupons.

But lately, supplies of a few things have been running low. Also, Christmas is coming so I'd like to stock up on a few things to give as gifts. So I've been thinking that I might start back up. A nice compromise for me is to print out coupons online. Some of our local stores take them now, and even though I'm paying for ink and paper, I'm not spending as much time on the process of finding what I need. I print them out only as I use them. All in all, it seems to be working. I will still occasionally buy the paper (when I know there's a high dollar coupon for something I actually need). But I'm not doing it every week. The thing to remember about all this is that you have to do what works for YOU, which isn't always the same thing as what works for everyone else.

A very good mystery

Some of you may remember that I started doing mystery shops a few months ago. I'm still with only a very few agencies so I'm not at all an expert. But today was SO successful that I have to tell you all about it.

As you may recall, for the most part Mystery Shopping is not a way to get rich quick. Most of the shops I've done require you to buy something. You're reimbursed, but in reality that free item is a significant part of your pay. If you went to a fast food place and got a burger and fries, you wouldn't really be making much money. Maybe $5 for your gas, time online entering the report, and time in the restaurant. So the free burger and fries is just as big an incentive as the cash. The problems come when you realize that you need to order exactly what the company wants (so you can't get onion rings instead of fries, or a chicken sandwich instead of a burger), or when you end up inviting your husband (and you spend all your profits on his food), or when you schedule a shop at what you thing will be a very convienient time only to find out that you need to be halfway across town for a recital or a ballgame.

But TODAY... today was perfect. I had 3 shops planned but got a call moments before I walked out the door to see if I could add a fourth that another shopper had failed to do. All my shops were in the same area, which just happened to be close to a store I'd been meaning to stop at for a month. And the kicker was that 2 of the shops were for paint. Yes, paint. For one I had to make a $5 purchase. That was easy enough. I bought the paintbrushes I needed for finishing the bunk beds. For the other shop, I was to buy a gallon of paint. Any color or variety I wanted. I would be reimbursed up to $60. Yes, $60. I was so excited. I've been wanting to paint my kitchen cabinets for the longest time. I wanted to do them in oil paint and that stuff is really expensive, but it lasts forever. So today I bought about half the paint I need. It would be all the paint I need but I want to do them in two colors. I'm hoping that by the time I get around to finishing the bunk beds I'll have another mystery shop and get the other color for free, too.

For my four shops today I'll get $37 in payment and $70 in reimbursement. And even better, Scott watched Quinn for me so I got to spend the whole day alone.

The Great eHow Experiment

Just over six months ago I joined eHow. I did it because a friend invited me and it looked interesting. If you aren't familiar with eHow, it's a website filled with thousands of articles about how to do things. How to fix your fix a flat tire, how to make your own soap, how to write how-to articles. It's the go-to place for how-to articles.



My friend who invited me to join sometimes writes articles for them, and she was encouraging me to do so as well. Whe explained that you can make a lot of money writing for them and that it was easy. I joined... but promptly realized that I couldn't think of anything that I knew how to do. Plus the site was overwhelming. All the good ideas seemed to have already been taken and the advice I got in their foroms was almost as complex as the site itself. There was a lot of talk about SEO's and CTR's and actionable verbs. I decided I would wait until I had more time to figure it out. Then I forgot all about it.



But then about a month ago and a half ago I decided to give it a try. And it turns out that it could be very cool. Here's how it works:



Step 1. You write step-by-step "How to..." articles.

Step 2. eHow and google put ads on your articles.

Step 3. People looking for DIY projects or car advice run a google search and find your article.

Step 4. IF you've written a good article and tweaked it following the advice in the forums, the ads your readers find will be ads for products they want. So if you wrote about how to build a flower box, your readers will find ads for lumber and fertilizer and seeds.

Step 5. People click on those ads and you get a little money from each click.

Step 6. You get paid.

Step 7. You get paid again.

Step 8. You get paid again. Because your article stays posted on a major website that gets millions of views, you'll get paid every month for as long as eHow exists and people click on ads.



How well does it work? I don't know. I think that it depends on how much you write. But there's a boatload of people on their forum that are making hundreds each month and some that are making thousands each month. And the genius is that your work keeps earning money even if you just decide you're done writing and walk away.

Christmas ~ Ready, Set, Go!

Yes. It's six months away. So why the heck am I posting about getting ready for it now? Well, it's all Zaven's fault. Zaven's birthday is right at the end of June. When he was little and I was only shopping for one (slightly spoiled) toddler, I would shop for his birthday during the first half of the year and his Christmas presents during the second half. And it's still a handy way for me to keep myself organized.

I know what you're thinking. No. I am not a nut and I'm not Martha Stewart. But I do have to make some kind of shopping plan for Christmas because I have 6 people in my family. If we wait until November or December to shop then I would HAVE to put it all on a credit card. That means paying interest and fines and fees and suddenly I'd be spending a lot more money than I can afford. So I kind of spread the shopping out a bit. More importantly, if I have months to look for a great deal or to get creative about gifts I can save myself a small fortune. And I think I can help you save a small fortune, too.

First, a caveat. There are some great deals to be had just before Christmas. I'm not asking you to give those up. Ideally, you'd have the majority of your shopping done early but still have lots of wiggle room in your budget for last minute shopping. The difference is that if you do it my way, you'll be shopping those sales for fun and/or to buy gifts for a future birthday or anniversary, not because you're frantic to get a gift that you need right then.

Sooo.... here's the plan. Step one, make a plan. Pick one sunny Saturday and spend an hour thinking about Christmas like it's right around the corner. What if it were November? What would you be freaking out about? We're all freaking out about something during Novemeber aren't we? So imagine it's a Thanksgiving weekend and you've just finished eating (and cleaning) and you're about to make your to-do list. What exactly do you need to get done? Who are you buying gifts for? And what would they like? And how much money will you be spending? And what about food? Drinks? What about decorations? Lights? The tree stand?

Are you freaking out yet? Don't. Think about it for a minute. The food and drinks? Well, what do you normally serve? I just bought a whole sirloin for $1.99 a pound a few weeks ago and it's in my freezer waiting to be turned into a roast beast that the grinch would gladly serve. I'm not much into baking cookies and yeast rolls in this hot weather, but if I mix up the cookie dough and freeze it, it'll be ready to slice and bake this winter. Same goes for the yeast rolls. Frozen doughs last a long time. Farm fresh green beans would be awfully nice to just defrost come December. Get the idea?

And what about the decorations? Those lights and tree stand? It's yard sale season folks. You can pick them up for a few bucks if you need. In fact you can pick up a lot of your presents at yard sales, too. No, I'm not talking about giving folks used junk. But honestly, don't most kids outgrow their toys and clothes before they wear them out? Yard sales are filled with worn out junk... and with really nice toys that your kids might love. And they're filled with stocking stuffers, pretty flower pots and baskets that you can fill with all those free toiletries you've been getting at Rite Aid, and even a few kids clothes that still have the tags on them.

No, the toys will not be in their original boxes. But here's how I deal with that. Santa's presents don't come with the packaging. What kid likes those twist ties and hermetically sealed plastic anyway? Even when the elves buy from the stores, they remove all the packaging. In fact, Santa doesn't even wrap the presents he leaves at our house. They're just set under the tree on Christmas eve. How do the kids know which present belongs to which kid? Santa very kindly sets a child's full stocking on top of their gifts from him. He's so nice.

Humongous Entertainment

Back about 15 years ago there was a company called Humongous Entertainment which produced a series of computer games for kids. Little kids, I should say. Their target audience was kids aged 3-8. They had several series of games: Freddi the Fish, Putt-Putt, Fatty Bear, Pajama Sam, and Spy Fox. They also made Backyard Baseball, Football, etc. The sports ones eventually started being geared for older kids, but the others were just for young kids. The games fall into two categories: Junior Adventures and Junior Arcades. Junior Arcades are just boring arcade games. But the Junior Adventures are so much fun for a little kid. I know. I got them for Zaven when he was little. He loved those games. Then Caly did. And now Zoe does. In fact, when I dug them out for Zoe, Zaven and Caly started singing the theme songs.

You can download the games for free for a time-limited trial here. I think the trial is for a half hour. I'm not sure. You can probably download them for free to keep somewhere. But I have no idea where. And you can buy them at Amazon for about $10 each. My personal favorites are Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo and Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise. Fatty Bear is fun because as you play the game you get a recipe for made-from-scratch chocolate birthday cake. Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo is fun because of the songs. They stick in your head. (We kept singing the Zoo, zoo, zoo song on the way to the zoo.) Anyhow, my kids love the games. They're very simple compared with modern games, but they're good ones. Non-violent, very simple to play, but they're designed to teach problem solving. I hope you enjoy the free trial. And be sure to click on the "topiary creatures" outside the zoo entrance to hear them sing my favorite song.

Staples back to school sale

2 packages of Photo Plus Paper (60 sheets of 4x6 paper) at $9.99 each
2 8-packs of pencils $0.01 each
2 packages of Copy Paper (500 sheet ream) at $3.69 each
2 packages of Bic Velocity Fashion Pens at $1 each

Use the $5/20 coupon on the front of the ad
Use 2 $1/1 Bic pen coupons at coupons.com

Spend $22.38 plus tax out of pocket
Get $25.32 back in rebates **
$2.98 moneymaker after rebate!

Now you can also TRY to get wal-mart to match the sale. Some will and some won't. They'll match the pencils for $1 and the Bic pens for $1, but they probably won't match the rebate or $5 of $25 coupon from the front cover. I say probably because on computer stuff wal-mart is supposed to match the sale AFTER all the discounts and rebates. This isn't a computer, but it's worth a shot.

**I did the math wrong a minute ago. I thought the photo paper was $0.01 after rebate, but it's a buck after rebate. I've updated my post to reflect that. For the rest of the flyer, go here and click on sneak peek, then enter your zip.

JC Penny's

If you aren't on their mailing list, go sign up. They send you a $10 off any $10 or more purchase every month. I just got back and I'm so happy with my trip. They had a bunch of stuff marked down on clearance -- the green ticket clearance which is supposedly the final markdown. Only all clearance stuff was 20% off. And then I had my $10 coupon which works on clearance stuff. And I had a 15% coupon because I filled out the online survey about my last purchase there. Sooooo... I bought $248 worth of clothes (at their original highly marked up price) and my total was $15.18. That's including tax. That's 94% off, folks!

So what did I get? Clothes for Caly. Her birthday is this week so I got her two tanktops, two tie-dye skirts, a t-shirt, two dressy tops that would be perfect for a school dance, and a pair of boot cut jeans. The tank tops were $1.19 each. Everything else (including the jeans!) was $1.99 each after all the discounts. Whoo-hoo!

Free magazine

Here's a free subscription to Popular Science magazine. No credit card is required.

http://www.valuemags.com/freeoffer/freeoffer.asp?offer=PopularScience-MeTooSoftware.asp

Day before yesterday's amazing shopping.

I've got a week left before Caly's party and I'm mostly caught up on housecleaning. I need to do a bunch of laundry and pick back up after a few lazy days, but I don't have any big overhaul to do like we did before Zaven's party. I'm planning on spending this weekend knee-deep in coupons because I haven't paid any attention to them in weeks. My nice neat binder is filled with expireds and my curren coupons are all in a ziploc. I've done some couponing... but for the most part I've been too busy. But the nice thing about taking a break from major couponing is that most of the sales and freebies that I missed were for items that I already have a nice stockpile of. I didn't get any free toothpaste for the last few weeks. But then I already had about two dozen tubes.

I DID get to do some awesome bargain hunting day before yesterday. I started by going to my favorite second hand store. I found Zaven a great Hawaiian shirt (his fave) for $2.50 and got Caly a T that says "I'm NOT with stupid. We broke up." (Sam, if you're reading this, sorry but you had that coming.)

Then I stopped by a factory outlet for American Greetings and picked up several spools of ribbon, a ton of colored tissue paper, some gift bags, and the cutest party favors for Zoe's party. They're little plastic picture frames shaped like flowers and they're magnetic and come in hot pink, purple, lime green, and orange. I spent $11 and got at least $75 worth of stuff.

Later that night Scott and I stopped by Goodwill JUST as someone was unloading some brand new insullated glass patio doors. These were name brand doors with the manufacturer stickers still on them. I made Scott go directly inside to pay for them before anyone could snatch them up. We spent $98 on six doors (each worth at least $250) and we're planning on using them to make solar panels. This is the joy of having a science teacher for a husband. He knows exactly how to do it and it will make a huge cut in our electric bill each month. Whoo-hoo! Plus I got a few more deals when I went inside to shop.

Finally, I stopped by Kroger's to pick up some of their whole boneless sirloin tips that are on sale for $1.99 a pound. Their butcher shop will cut them into steaks or roasts or even grind them into hamburger for you. I had one cut into inch-and-a-half steaks for grilling outside, and another cut into half-inch steaks for frying inside this winter. I was going to buy a third one and have it cut into an extra large roast for Christmas and some minute steaks, but they were out. I got a rain check, though. I'm planning on using my rain check to buy several since Scott will have two paychecks this month instead of one. It's a sweet deal because the sirloin is the same price that regular old ground beef has been. Steak for the price of a hamburger is my kind of deal. (*** We had one of the steaks last night and they are SO good. Sale's still on so stop by and see if you can pick some up.)

So even though I've fallen way behind on my coupon organizing, I'm still ahead of the game. And if Zaven will babysit for me over the weekend (and he kind of has to since I just threw him a party) I'll have my coupons sorted and put away in no time.

Birthday parties on a budget

So you all know I have four kids. What you might not realize is that three of those kids have birthdays in a 6 week period. Having a birthday party every two or three weeks can get expensive fast, but I've always felt that it was important to celebrate each child. So that leaves me needing to either be remarkably organized and set aside money on a regular schedule throughout the year (HA!) or I have to be creative and find a way to celebrate without spending a lot of money.

You know the basics of Zaven's party. We paid for invitations, a movie, the flashlights and batteries, glow-in-the-dark ballons and helium, the ingredients for the pizzas and the cake, sodas, paper plates, and plastic forks. It's hard to put an actual price tag on all of it, since I didn't buy it in one shopping trip, but I think we ended up spending about $125 on all of it. The balloons and helium were about half of that expense, but considering that the ballons are re-usable for future parties (we'd just need more helium), and that there are plates and forks left for Caly's party, I think we did OK. I still have to buy him his gift, but his actual birthday isn't for almost a month so I'm holding off for a bit.

Caly will be having her party a week from Saturday. And actually her party has become quite notorious for being THE event to attend every summer. She's got a ton of friends and every year somewhere between 10 and 20 of them come over for a "Messy Party" where they cover each other in shaving cream and make all kinds of messy art projects. It's actually a pretty inexpensive affair. The shaving cream runs about a dollar a can, and the "art" supplies are cheap since we mostly do things like make oobleck (corn starch, water, and food coloring). This year we're considering asking kids to bring an old white t-shirt or pillow case so we can decorate them with sharpies and rubbing alcohol. (If I can find some cheap I'll just buy them and let that be the party favors.) My goal is to keep the cost under $75 not counting her gift. In fact, since I already have the shaving cream and corn starch (bought on sale a few weeks ago)and paper plates and forks left from Zaven's party, I should be able to only spend about $25 more dollars (for cake, drinks, and sharpies). This is a good thing as I'm broke after paying for Zaven's party.

Party #3 is Zoe's. She is SO excited to be having a real party this year. We always have a small family celebration, but this year she has friends from school that she wants to invite. Right now, I'm thinking we'll still make it kind of small. 4 or 5 friends over would be plenty big enough to make it feel like a major event for her. We have a swingset, a huge sandbox, and lots of cats. I'm thinking that if we just add a few balloons and streamers, some juice, and a cake we'll be set. The only problem? Her teacher was supposed to provide a list of kids who'd agreed to be on a summer playdate list. The school can't share private info like phone numbers or addresses without permission, but they can ask if people want to be included. However, the teacher forgot to send the list home on the last day. I've e-mailed her and I'm hoping she's not gone for the summer. If not, I have a lot of tracking down to do.

Thankfully, Quinn's birthday isn't until September and he's not old enough to even notice that his party is going to be much smaller than the others. I'm planning on using the glow-in-the-dark balloons for him, though. He had way too much fun with them during Zaven's party. Those and a small cake should be plenty enough to make him feel special.

Mystery Shopping

Doesn't it sound like so much fun? Well, it is and it isn't.


Let me start with a caveat. I have only done this for about a week so I can't tell you a whole lot about it. But I can give you more info that I had last week, including a few of the pros and cons.


1. It's legit. Companies will actually pay you to go to their stores or restaurants or movies.

2. It's nowhere near as simple as it sounds. Sure you get a free meal or a free movie, but you're going to have a job to do while you're eating or watching the movie. So you'll miss some of the movie, have to order food from an approved list, etc.

3. The pay isn't great. Just say you're going to a restaurant for them. You might get reimbursed for your meal up to $7, plus an extra $5 in pay. But what if your meal ends up costing $8.50 and you had to make a special trip to the restaurant? Once you add in gas you're really just getting a free meal. And sometimes they pay for two tickets to the movies, but other times they pay for just one. So if your boyfriend wants to tag along (which would be handy since he could tell you what you missed while you were busy counting heads or figuring out how many people the theatre can seat at maximum occupancey), you'll have to pay his ticket out of your own pocket. There goes your profit.

4. So what do you get? Well, you get to go undercover and pretend you're a spy. You get an occasional movie or meal for free. And over time it should get easier. I mean, once you've counted the seats in a theatre, you should be able to answer that question the next time without recounting. And once you've been asked the same questions about a restaurant 3 or 4 times, you'll start noticing those things without having to memorize a long checklist before you eat.

So overall, I like it. And I'd like to do more. But mostly I like it for the fun, not for the money.

Awesome Rite Aid Week

I went to Rite Aid this morning and was paid to take things home. Here's what I bought:

Bayer quick release crystals $3.99
Alaway eye drops $7.99
Suave deodorant $2.00
Saline wound wash $5.49
Dry Idea deodorant $5.99

I used a $5 off $25 coupon that I printed
A $4 Alaway coupon
A $0.50 Suave deodorant coupon
A $1 peelie from the wound wash
And a $1 Dry Idea deodorant coupon
I couldn't find my Bayer coupon, but when I do, I can take my receipt in and get an extra dollar.

So, after taxes it would have been $27.
I used $11.50 in coupons, bringing it down to $15.50.
And I'll be getting $24 in rebates.
So I got paid $8.50 to take that stuff home. And when I find that coupon I'll get another dollar.

Of course, I picked up a newspaper while I was there, and a soda for Scott, and butterfly bandages for Zaven's hand. So really, I only got about $2.33 profit. But in a way, that makes it even cooler to me. Because even after taxes and me adding a few things to the cart, I still made a profit. I'm so impressed with it.

On an unrelated note, things are going much better today. We worked a fair bit on the house in the morning, and nobody got hurt and nobody broke anything around the house. We didn't get done nearly as much as we needed to, but I've decided that Sunday evenings need to be just for resting. We all need a break sometimes and if we wait until everything is perfect we'd never get one. Zaven and Caly have swim team practices after school almost every day. Between swim, dinner, and homework we don't have a lot of time during the week. On busy evenings, I let the chores slide. But they often want to spend Friday or Saturday night at a friend's house or go to a school dance or a ball game. That means that we can't take Sundays entirely off. But I don't want to start the week frazzled and worn out either. So starting last week I decided to that even though we needed to do some work on Sundays, we'll all call it quits in the late afternoon. After 4 pm, we just veg in front of the TV or read or talk or whatever. But no more work. Fortunately, the swim team won't meet all next week so they'll have a bit more time to chip in during the week to make up for Saturday. At least I hope it works that way. Cross your fingers.

As to my MIL, I wanted to point out that I usually get along with her great. And she did volunteer to babysit Zoe and Quinn while Scott and I took Zaven and Caly to the drive-in. But I've learned that every now and then she'll start a big project because she knows that if Scott sees her do something he doesn't think she can handle, he'll jump in and help her. I've learned to just let her do it, even if she does get in trouble. She doesn't say anything about it when I just sit and watch her struggle. What could she say anyway? Why aren't you helping me after you told me that you wouldn't help? Anyhow I was really proud of Scott for not just helping when she started up with the window. And I don't want you all to think that she's like that most of the time. 90% of the time she's the sweetest woman in the world. I just don't know what's up with the other 10%.

A sales pitch, just for you.

I signed up a few weeks ago with a site that lets me advertise directly from my blog. I post their banners and ads, and if you guys click on them I get a little money. I chose this site because I get to weed out the stuff that I don't like so that I'm not just spamming my friends. But who knew they'd send offers almost every day? By the time I got around to looking through my e-mail there were so many from them that I didn't even open them. Too overwhelming. But yesterday I worked up my nerve and started opening them. And now I'm bummed that I didn't do it sooner. Sure, some of them are spam you guys could live without. But there were also a few cool offers that you might have liked. Links to coupons and freebies. Oh well. Live and learn.

That being said, you can expect to find the occasional link to other sites here. Don't feel obligated to follow them. I can live without the 65 cents. But if you do find one you like and click on it, then thanks! And I'm glad I found something you could use. And here's the first one (that I didn't screw up and let expire) that I thought you'd like. It's the Dinner Made Easy newsletter from General Mills. Sign up for recipes and coupons. Enjoy.

This week at Rite Aid

They have pop-tarts on sale. No, they aren't free, which is why I thought you might not notice them on your own. But they're on sale 2 for $3, and not long ago the papers had coupons for $1 off 2. That make them $1 a box. And on a lot of the boxes are tokens that you can collect and send in for a free movie ticket. 5 tokens = 1 movie ticket, and you can send off for up to 5 tickets. Sure, you may not need 25 boxes of poptarts, but they freeze. And that makes it $5.44 (counting your stamp) for an adult movie ticket and five boxes of pop-tarts. Heck, maybe you can sneak the pop-tarts into the theatre to have instead of pop-corn.



They also have the new KY jelly on sale (the one that's supposed to intensify a woman's orgasms), plus there's a rebate and a recent coupon. Hmmm. All we need is a nice dinner before the movie and date night is looking pretty good.

Cooking

I'm not a big fan of cooking. Well, I'm a big fan if someone else is doing it. But I don't much like doing it myself. However, if I have to cook I prefer to cook big. I like to cook enough that there are plenty of leftovers to have later, on a day that I don't want to cook at all. So I've kind of perfected the art of big batches of simple recipes. Yesterday Zoe and I made four trays of rice krispie treats. Right now they're all sitting in my freezer, bagged up in small servings waiting to be stuck in lunchbags or taken on road trips. And they're sitting right on top of four loaves of bread that Caly and I turned into french toast last week. I have a big griddle on my stove and I can fry 6 slices at the same time. So we fried it up and stuck it right back in the bags the bread came in and froze it. That means that providing hot breakfasts for the next few weeks/months will be simple. Stick a slice in a toaster and you're done.

You'll note that both the RKTs and the toast are easy recipes. Three ingredients each. I make pizza dough using the same simplicity. I add flour, 2% milk, yeast, and a splash of oil in a bowl. The milk has natural sugars in it to feed the yeast, so you don't have to add anything else. I don't even measure anything. I just add more flour if it's too wet and more milk if it's too dry. My godmother taught me that a good dough feels like your ear lobe. Don't believe me? Feel your ear lobe. I knead the dough up and then bag it in ziplocs and freeze it. When we want a pizza, I warm it up in the microwave (checking frequently so it doesn't get too hot and start baking in there). Then I spray a pan with cooking spray, spread it out, add sauce, cheese, and turkey pepperoni (which is actually better tasting than regular pepperoni) and bake at 350 until the cheese starts to brown. It's as easy as using one of those pre-baked pizza doughs and almost as easy as frozen pizza. I also make a really good cream sauce that's super easy. I can post it if anyone's interested.

One benefit of all this is saving money and time. Convieniece foods are easy, but expensive and usually unhealthy. Home cooking is better for your body and your wallet, but time consuming and messy. My kind of cooking, with simple recipes, not much in the way of measuring, and done in bulk and frozen, is a balance between the two. It's easy on the wallet and because I freeze things in single or double servings, I get several meals out of a single bout of cooking and cleaning. The other benefit is that simple recipes are a lot of fun for a kid to help with. Zoe was very proud of her stirring yesterday.