How to Snag a Deal

I always love a deal, as I mentioned before. Lately, I feel like I've been blessed with some pretty good ones. Here are some things I've done to get some good deals...

Prescription transferring: There is a battle going on out there and you can profit from it! Drug stores want you to fill your prescription at their store. They want you so badly, they'll pay you to do it! I have received $25 gift cards from Walgreens, Rite Aid and CVS in the past. I've probably made $125 from doing so. Just recently, I transfered my birth control prescription to Rite Aid and got $25 gift card. I spent it and got 70 Huggies diapers, a Revlon eye lash curler, and 2 packs of bite size Twix and Snickers (8 count) and only paid 29 cents!!! I had a few coupons that I used so that helped to lower the price by a few dollars. I also did this during July and got $25. Because of that July transfer, Walgreens sent me a coupon saying if I transfered back to them, they would give me a $25 gift card! So, for this month, I'll transfer it back and make some more moolah. I then plan to transfer it again to Rite Aid, if they're still doing their promotion, which I think they are! What a great way to make some free money. So, if you have a prescription to fill, try transferring it. For Rite Aid, I went online and printed a coupon for the transfer. I've called other pharmacies in the past to find out if a promotion is going on.

Kohls gift cards: Go online or in store and sign up for Kohls emails. I'm not sure why, but I keep getting $10 gift cards from them about every 6 weeks or so. I'm assuming it's because I signed up or somehow they got my address. Anyways, it's been an awesome way to get some almost free clothing. Just today, I went and bought two very cute shirts and only paid $8. I think I figured out a way to make this $10 be $20. A little while ago, I got a $10 gift card and bought Anna some shoes. I paid $5 of my own money. I decided to take them back because I got some other shoes for cheaper. Technically, the original $10 gift card had expired, but the lady just gave me store credit for the whole $15. I combined that with my $10 card I just got the other day, and there you go, $20 free money! Sooooo, I guess if you get this, and want more money for one shopping trip, buy something you don't really want, wait to get another gift card. Return the original item and then use the store credit with your new $10 gift card. Or if that sounds too complex, just ignore that part. :)

Consignment stores: I know I've kind of mentioned this before. I just bought Anna 6 shirts and only paid $6. There is a store called New 4 U. It's on L and 45th. (for those of you in CA). This lady was having a sale buy 1 get 2 free on Monday. So I went there and got some cute stuff. Two of the shirts were Gymboree brand and one was Old Navy. All the stuff was in great condition, and it's always nice to get name brand stuff. Also for those of you in CA, there is a consignment sale this weekend. Here is the info:

Lancaster Marketplace

44950 Valley Central Way #112

Lancaster CA 93536

· Fri Oct.2 11am to 7pm

· Sat Oct.3 9am to 7pm

· Sun Oct. 4 9am to 2pm ½ off most items

Money saving websites: There are a lot of websites out there that will tell you what deals are going on at different grocery stores or drug stores. They also tell you what free offers are available. The ones I've visited are www.couponing101.com. You can add your email and get emails about ongoing deals. www.moneysavingmom.com is another one. There is also http://freebies4mom.blogspot.com. (thanks Kirsten for letting me know about this one). You can get daily emails from her too. There are a lot of others out there as well.

It can be an expensive world out there and my philosophy is you gotta snag the deals when you find them. :)

One Year Ago Today...

We moved into our house!!! I can't believe it's already been a year! Time has flown by. A year ago today, September 27th, was a very stressful day. Our loan took forever to process and we thought it would have gone through sooner. Usually it takes about 30 days until Escrow closes, however, a few days before our move out of our apartment date, it still hadn't closed. It was all very hectic trying to figure out if we could stay the weekend in our apartment or if it would go through. Luckily, the day before it went through. Technically, we weren't supposed to move in until we had the deed in our name, but the owner was nice enough to let us move in, and we just signed a contract saying we were going to rent the house for a few days.

So, a year later, here we are. Our house was in pretty good shape-no major repairs to be done. I say this because the majority of the houses we looked at, that were in our price range, were foreclosures and would either need new carpet, new cupboards, bathroom remodeling, etc. That was the motivating factor in buying this house. It had new kitchen cupboards, new windows, new tile in the kitchen and bathrooms, a new roof (even though whoever did it, did a crappy job because it looks like it's already 7 years old), it had been freshly painted, etc. The one down side, is it's not very big. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, but it's just kind of small. However, it's good for now. Our plan is to stay here for a few more years, and then buy a bigger house. Hopefully, the market will be better, and we'll be able to make some money in the sale. Plus, we're slowly upgrading it and hopefully improving its value.

In the year that we've been here we have put in a new side garage door, put in a bathroom door (for some reason, the master bathroom didn't have a door), replaced all the bedroom doors and added new trim, and painted the kitchen, living room, hallway and Anna's room. I think our house looks so much better than when we first moved in.

However, there are still a few more things that need to be done-paint our bedroom, update/remodel the two bathrooms, and put in new carpet (the carpet was new, but it's the cheapest carpet in the world and already looks like it's 5 years old. No stains, just worn out). For the outside-paint the house, add a patio cover, and make the backyard look nice instead of just dirt. :)

Some of these are going to be pricey updates-like the carpet and patio cover. I'm hoping the bathrooms won't be too bad. We do need to put in new tubs for both of them and new countertops. The vanities are fine, but I'll probably just paint them to look nicer. I have some ideas of what to do for the walls.

Slowly, yet surely, our house will look better and better. :) I'm so thankful we do have a house and that we're so blessed to be able to make it our own.

Not so GLEEful...

As many may know, there is a new show, GLEE. I watched the pilot episode a few months ago and thought it looked good. I watched the second episode a week or so ago and was totally and completely shocked at some of the content of this show!

This show is about high school students in a show choir. Sounds innocent enough, however, it's so sad to see worldly views blatantly portrayed here. For example, the main girl character decides that in order for the choir to be accepted by the high school, they quote, "need to sell sex." So the group proceeds to perform a very sensual musical act at a pep assembly. WHAT?!?!?! I couldn't believe it! It's like they're talking about porn or something. These are high school students in this show and sadly, the show producers have decided to make this show dirty with very low morals.

In the same episode, the main girl goes to a celibacy club meeting and then decides to "stand up for what she thinks" and tells everyone there that girls want sex just as much as guys and that is why contraceptives are available! Nothing against celibacy clubs, but it is portrayed negatively in the show, and really as a joke. So once again, this show is saying that high school students should have sex with whomever and whenever and they'll be okay because there are contraceptives available and that is the point of having contraceptives around.

I realize in the real world this is how many teenagers think and act. However, portraying in on television and ultimately reinforcing it and "normalizing" it is wrong. I say this obviously from a religious and a societal standpoint.

Sadly, I was bored and needed to entertain Anna, so I started to watch the 3rd episode, just to see how it was and once again was disappointed and didn't even finish it. A guy in it, decides to join the glee club. There is a little background given on him and basically says how he was sick of high school girls, had a pool washing business and was sleeping with his customers-older women or "sexy moms." I realize immorality is all around us, but come on. A high school guy sleeping with moms??? What is this show really portraying? I see it as another means of normalizing immoral behavior and attitudes in high school students (sadly) and society.

Ironically, I just recently taught a lesson in Young Women's about the media and shared this example with the Young Women. That lesson was a good reminder about being careful of what I watch, read and listen to. The adversary is so sly and sneaky that he makes things looks so normal and harmless. You have to be so careful about different forms of media these days. We don't have cable and honestly, I'm glad we don't. That is one less way the world can enter my home.

I just wanted to share my thoughts about this. It's been on my mind lately...

Recovering dining room chairs

I recovered my dining room chairs! In case all my loyal readers hadn't noticed, I'm in the process of decorating my kitchen. :) Friday, I went to run some errands and decided to stop by the fabric store. I found some red material that matched the curtains. I decided to buy some and use it to recover my chairs. I've been wanting to do this for a long time, but hadn't decided for sure if I wanted to do red on the chairs or another color. I wasn't really planning on doing this the same day, but once I realized how easy it would be, I sent Dan to Lowes to get a staple gun and away I went!

Before.

These chairs were given to me. I didn't choose this striped material.

After!

The flash made the material lighter in color. It is more of a wine red.

It wasn't extremely hard to recover them, it just took a few hours. Dan helped me on the first one, but after that, I was on my own. :) The hardest part is the corners and trying to make it smooth and not have a lot of creases. I didn't take off the old material, I just put the new material straight over it. Honestly, the hardest part of this whole thing was screwing the seats back on! For some reason, these chairs are different than most. The screws go in the sides of the chair, not a little piece of wood that is laid diagonal in the corners. It was SO hard to try and find the screw holes.

Anyways, I think it turned out well for my first time. Our next project is to stain the chairs darker, paint the legs of our table black, and stain and refinish the top of the table to match the chairs. I also bought more curtains for the other 2 kitchen windows. I'm going to have to do some hemming and sewing to make them fit because I had to buy the larger size curtains. Then, after we do all of the above, our kitchen will be finished!!! Well, pretty much. There are always more finishing touches, but at least the big stuff will be done.

Also, for those of you in CA, I bought the material at Home Fabrics. It's by Toys R Us on K and 15th. They sell material for SOOOOO cheap! I bought this nice material for $6.99 a yard. This probably would have cost me anywhere from $20-$30 a yard at Joannes. In fact, I've seen the same kinds of material at both places. So basically it cost me $2.60 per chair. Not a bad deal. If you need material, go there first. A lot of times they have material for $3-$5 a yard. It's nice stuff too, not cheap stuff. They just get it for the whole sale price.

New Curtains!

I finally found some curtains for my dining room! I've been wanting some wine red curtains and was debating on making them, but hadn't decided for sure. In the Target ad this week, they had some curtain panels for $7 each. I went there and they were just the color I was looking for and the right kind of material. I didn't want satin or shiny material because it is a kitchen. I bought some curtain rods at Joanne's a while back. They were all 40% off. Then, at another store I found the hold backs for only $5. I got them half off too. So, for about $35 or so, I got to complete my dining area! Now, I just need to decide what kind of curtains to put up on the other two windows. They're smaller, so I can't decide if I want full-length ones or just a valence. I feel like my kitchen is finally coming together.

These are really bad pictures, but it's a hard area to photograph, plus with the light coming through the windows. But hopefully, you get the idea of what it looks like.

Here the flash is too bright and the color is off. It's a nice wine red, not the bright red you see here. Also, the pic is off centered. I didn't have my contacts in and then the camera battery died.

I want to put up some vinyl lettering above the curtains and on other walls. Probably some Italian phrases or words. I think that will look really cute.

Here is my latest scrapbook page. I really like this one and the color scheme. I got a new cricut cartridge and used it on this page.

Our Garden

This year we decided to plant a garden! It's been quite an experience, learning how to grow stuff and keep it alive! We decided to do a square foot garden. We made a 4x4 wooden box. Luckily, Dan knows a thing or two about tools and making stuff. :)

Dan working so hard to make our garden box.

We then made the dirt mixture from 3 parts compost, peat moss and vermiculite. We had to mix it in a tarp. It wasn't too hard, but did take a little while. We then had to drag the dirt over to the garden and dump it in.

We planted our seeds in these little soil things. I'm sure the have a name, I just can't remember it. :) You cover them and it makes a little green house to keep temperatures wamr to encourage growth. Unfortunately, we planted a little too early, because some of them sprouted really early, and it was still too cold to plant them outside. We had a lot of them die, so we had to replant. I give all credit to Dan in keeping everything alive.

However, Providence smiled down upon us and we were able to plant and actually have things start to grow! We planted corn, beans, tomatoes, basil, peppers, carrots, oregano, onions, and parsley. We went on vacation a couple of times and had people come over and water the garden for us, but the onions and some other things died during that time.

The other problem is just this area! The sun ca be so brutal sometimes. There were a couple of times that I forgot to water the garden and it killed some things. I was very sad about the peppers. they were just starting to grow and then I was busy and forgot to water the garden till 2:30 pm. Even though it was overcast that day, the heat just got to them and I don't think they're going to make it. Part of them turned brown and they haven't really grown. On a positive note, our tomatoes have FINALLY started to grow. All summer long-nothing. I love garden tomatoes. Our other champion is our basil plants. We've made pesto about 3 times and it's so good! Our corn was doing awesome as well, until ants attacked it and it too has gone the way of the earth.

We were curious if our carrots were ready, so we pulled one. It looks like we pulled out a mutant one.

One tomato that ripened.

Here is a current photo of our garden. I thought I had a nicer one when everything was in full bloom and all nice and green. I know it doesn't look like much, but it's all we got. :) I'm very excited about the tomatoes and hope they turn out okay.

I think we've learned a thing or two this year and hopefully next year's crop will turn out better!

So Sleepy!

For the past three days, Anna has fallen asleep during lunch! This is really funny because she's never done this before. It's kind of ironic too, because I have recently read other people's blogs or Facebook pages where their baby fell asleep while eating and was just thinking that Anna has never done that yet.

Day #1-finished all of her lunch and fell asleep.

Day #2-fell asleep with bread in her hands.

Day #3-fell asleep mid bit with cheese and tortilla hanging out of her mouth.

I don't know what's going on lately. It's like I say lunch time! And she thinks, "naptime"! It's just so cute though. I love her so much.