Frugal Friday With Marsha -- One Day at a Time

This week I've been concentrating each day on cleaning, organizing, and de-cluttering the house.  IF I can keep it up, doing at least one spot each day, I soon will see a noticeable difference.
So far I've gone through piles of papers on my desk (most recycled), totally scrubbed down the stove, cleared one shelf, sorted through 2 totes (where most everything was thrown away unless it could be recycled), and worked on clearing the couch (actually putting the items where they belong).
I need to keep it up!!  Can I?   Decluttering and cleaning also cleans your mind, and I sure need that right now!

Hubby chose to come home each night from work instead of taking the motel since this week he's working 1 hour and 20 minutes from home.  We shopped for groceries for the week, and I think quite well.  We spent right at $100 for the week.   I admit that it's really nice to be having actual home cooked meals instead of my usual frozen entrees and lunchables.

Oh yes, that's the other thing I cleaned out this week....the refrigerator.  I won't go in to detail and gross you out, just imagine it's not been cleaned out for a few months!   We have vowed to not allow left overs to pile up in there ever again.  Tomorrow we will be getting out all the leftovers from the week and having a leftover buffet.

On the food note, today's Friday Freebie will turn into a meal for us next week with one of the pounds of ground beef still in the freezer.

Free Knorr One Skillet Meals for Kroger & Affiliates


In other news, I've still been trying to send for freebies so I can find goodies in my mailbox.
Today I sent for these:

Free Sample of Nikwax Waterproofing Wax for Leather

Free Sample of Mugler Alien Flora Futura & Alien Fragrances

Free Mr. Pen Mustache Paper Clips

Free World and Everything In It Sticker


Here are some others that you might want to check out:

Free 40ct. Box of o.b. Tampons or Free Box Coupon

Free Trust Me I'm (Almost) a Nurse T-Shirt

Free Creme of Nature Perfect Edges Sample Giveaway

Free DHC Skincare Samples

In celebration of summer, Tophatter is giving away thousands of dollars in June!

Tophatter’s Summer of Fun Cash Sweepstakes is on! Each time a shopper completes a purchase this month, they will be automatically entered to win the prize for that day ($100), that week ($500), and the grand finale ($10,000)!

Check it out, you might just be the lucky winner!

Frugal Friday With Marsha 6/6/14

I have spent most all of my free time this week decluttering, organizing, and pricing things and boxing them up to have a yard sale this weekend.
Now the weather is not cooperating at all. Temps are going to be perfect for a sale with highs only in the upper 70's and lower 80's, but it's supposed to be storming off and on from now until Sunday.

Boo! to the weather!
We put half of the stuff in the garage but there is just no way to fit it all in there. It's in there now, but you can't get in the garage.

I can look on the bright side, I guess, that we have another week to continue to look through things and get more things priced to put out to sell. And say some heavy prayers that it's not raining next weekend.

I'm happy to say that one thing that I got totally cleaned out and organized is one side of our storage in the hallway.
It now holds only the towels and then I have our sheet sets and all of the grandchildren's bedding in there now. That is a good feeling.
Since moving in here all of their bedding has been kept just thrown into my craft room closet. It's always such trouble to dig it out around my totes of completed crafts.

I have several areas that I now hope to get to this next week before the next possible sale.

What have you been up to this week?

An InLinkz Link-up

Frugal Friday with Marsha--Linky Party

I hope this week has found you saving money, being frugal, accomplishing whatever your goals are!

Here are my shopping trips since last Friday:

Only 55% saved on this trip, but fish for a month and a few more cans of chili in our stockpile.  Spent $13.87, saved $6.40 with coupons and I rec'd a $5 catalina towards my next trip for buying the fish!

 Using the $5 catalina and an addition $2.50 in coupons, I saved 94% on these 5 items, spending just .80!

 The total for this order was $8.98, but I spent nothing out of pocket because I used part of a $10 gift card that was sent to me by bzzagent.com and Kroger to try the Kroger Yogurts.
I used $12.05 in coupons for a savings of 65%

We were stocked up enough that this was the only shopping for the entire week.


Other news this weeks is me cleaning out and reorganizing my craft room.  I am just in amazement (more like appalled) at how many items I have allowed to get into my craft room that don't belong in there.  I won't post the before photos here, but if you would like to see them, you can click over to my gather post: (will open in a new window) Craft Room Before Pictures
I've been wanting my fabric and such organized into cubbies since seeing a photo of a room on pinterest using them.  I've bought myself a couple of small cubby organizers, but hubby bought me a 12 hole unit with part of our state income tax refund.  Not exactly frugal, but will be good for my peace of mind and simple living once my supplies are organized.  If you check out the pictures in my post above, you will know why I haven't had much motivation to get into my craft room and get any real work done.

Your turn to share!
 

Squidoo Hopping--Motivate Me!

There are some things going on in my personal life that are bogging down my brain.  I find myself with so many things to do, all the way around in my life, that I don't know where to start, and most of those things aren't getting started!

So, this week, motivate me!!  Share any motivational or helpful lenses that you have built.   To give you some ideas----lenses that teach about squidoo, lenses where you share you earnings on squidoo, lenses on organizing, whether it's your home, your office, your life, etc,  lenses with motivational or Christian sayings, verses and quotes, even lenses about books that are motivational.

I want to say thank you to those who are here each week to link up with me, and to those who stop in occasionally too.  It means a lot to me, and I love linking over to your lenses!

Frugal Friday With Marsha--10/26/12

I apologize for my absence in my Frugal Friday postings. Things are still wild around our house.

I've been working on 2 things when I am home.....working on my unfinished craft projects (and working hard at not starting something new!).....and attempting to declutter and re-organize this house. It does not pay to let yourself get behind, or to let stuff pile up.

People give us a lot of things, which is appreciated, but I've not been putting them away as they come in. The main problem may be that we just don't have places for everything. In that case I need to find a place, or we don't need it.


This week from the 99 Cent Solutions book I am sharing ways to use hairspray. Hairspray has so many different uses, that this will be continued to next week as well.

1. Preserve your bouquet. Spray the underside of cut flowers, leaves, and petal with hairspray to prolong their life. Stand a foot away for best results.

2. Stop static cling. If your pants or skirts or dresses are getting a little too friendly, spritz the underside with hairspray and it will stop the cling. You can also spray the hairspray on a paper towel and then rub it on the inside of your clothes.

3. Zip it up. If your zipper refuses to stay shut, put the item on, zip the zipper shut and coat the teeth with hairspray, using a cotton swab to apply it. The hairspray will act like invisible glue.

4. Remove ink. Spray hair spray on your clothing with ink stains before laundering. Make sure the ink has indeed disappeared before drying.

5. Thread a needle. Spritz the end of your thread with hairspray to stiffen it. It makes it easier to push through the needle.

6. Take care of bug bit itch. Squirt some hairspray on those bug bites and the itching and stinging will subside.

7. Stop runs in pantyhose. Spray the run with hairspray and stop it in it's tracks.


Your turn! Inspire me, and others, by sharing frugal blog posts you have done recently.

52 Weeks of Organizing--Week 34 --Coupon Binder Re-Do

I have lost track as to what week this would be for me.  I found orgjunkie into her challenge and haven't kept up with getting something done each week.

From the start I went around my house taking photos of all the places and things that I wanted to get organized.  One of those things was to get my coupon binder going again.

Recently I bought 60 coupon binder pages from momsaves.com.  Along with my order I received a bonus of 22 Sunday coupon inserts from past weeks.  I paid $34.85 for my order with shipping.  The first thing I did was to go through the free inserts and pull out all coupons I knew I would use right away.  I came up with a total of $31, which made me feel better about what I spent.  I didn't end up using all of those coupons before they expired, but  since then I have cut out the rest of the coupons and have used a few more.

Putting together a coupon binder is no easy task.  It takes a lot of time to just cut the coupons, then there is the process of putting them in to the binder.  I did my old binder by ABC type order.  This time I chose to use categories.  I printed the coupon category pages courtesy of Rebecca from Extreme Couponing.

I am not done putting in all of my coupons.  I still have some of the abc letters to get out of my file box and in to the binder.  One problem I have run in to is that some of my sections are full and I have no more pages.   I will continue to put in all that I can however.  I still wanted to share.

I took this before photo showing my abc file box, a stack of coupons to be cut out and my "old" binder.  Also the tab divider pages I rescued from our garage sale items to use for myself.  My old binder pages were much more frugal as I made them myself with old page protectors I had already around the house.   I also used gallon size ziploc bags.  I sewed (by hand) across different ways and cut openings.  Now that I'm thinking about it, probably not all that frugal as I know that I had to buy the ziploc bags.  I've not used my binder for so long that the coupons that were left inside of it expired in 2009.

Here is what I have now.  I can't wait for my first chance to go shopping and carry my notebook with me.  I would like to have a zippered binder, but in pricing them I didn't see anything that I could, or wanted to afford.  I'm hoping to find one cheap at a yard sale before the season is over.  I will be taking the binder in the car with me every time I leave the house because you never know when a bargain will come along that you didn't expect.

I am linking this post up at orgjunkie.com

 

52 Weeks of Organizing--Week 28 (Week 5 for Me)

Friday again. Seems that working this challenge is really the only thing keeping me going on my attempt to organize and de-clutter. That's a good thing though, and exactly why I was glad to find orgjunkie and the challenge.
However, it seems that motivation comes the day before it's time to do the post so that I have something to post. I suppose that is ok too as long as things are getting done.

This week I re-claimed my kitchen counters.
Check out this before photo.....yuck!!  Let's see.....my mom's muffin tins that never were returned to her, a box of bread,  back of I don't know what, recycle items, and a lot of misc. junk.

Ta da!  This is what I have now.  This took me close to an hour to find places for things and wash everything down.  If you could see the white crockpot in the corner of the first photo, it's now up in the cabinet and replaced with a 6 qt red one.  It was hilarious...we were sitting at supper last night and my 14 yr old looked over at the counter and said, "We have a toaster??  I didn't even know that."  It was hilarious!

I have an awful confession to make........the coffee table is staying pretty cleared off, but the 2 side tables are needing help again.  One is my daughter and grandchildren's stuff, the one by me is my stuff.....it will get cleaned off though as it's become my sewing machine table since my craft room had to be turned in to a bedroom while they all live with us.

 I am posting this to the linky over at orgjunkie.  Please click the button below and hope over and either join in, or see what others have accomplished this past week.

 

52 Weeks of Organizing--Week 27(Week 4 for Me)

This weeks post on I'm as Organizing Junkie is getting your kids to help.
I have a lot of grandchildren and this past week 5 of them have moved in.  I have one side of my hall storage basically just for them.  I will have to include a photo next week if I think about it, but the bottom drawer is for their drawing, coloring, and art supplies.  The next drawer up is for the girls' toys, the next drawer up is for my grandsons stuff, the top drawer is full of different card and peg games.
In the doors above one shelf has the doll house, odds and ends for the doll house, puzzles, bath toys, and I am working at getting more board games in there.  On shelf has board games that we got from one of the grade schools, so the boards are out with games supplies in ziploc bags.  The top shelf houses the Lego and Duplo blocks.
The kids know what goes where in the cabinets.
With them moving in, they brought more toys with them.  Fortunately, they are divided into containers for each type of toy.  My daughter is keeping them in their bedroom in the basement and lets them just bring one thing at a time up here to play with.

Now, with all that said, this past week my project was the other side table.

Here is the before photo.  Come on...why was there a drill in the house instead of in the garage?  All the magazines are now sorted and in our garage for a sale.  Other misc. items are either thrown away or put where they belong!

And here is after--all cleaned off and so far staying that way minus the jar of instant tea that mysteriously came in here from the kitchen  LOL

 Click the button below and see what others are working on in their organizing and de-cluttering and/or add your own!

 

52 Weeks of Organizing--Week 26 (Week 3 for Me)

I did manage this week to get one more little area re-organized. Of course the trick isn't getting it done, the trick is keeping it that way.
The coffee table from last week has stayed fairly uncluttered, but I've had to work daily to make sure things that don't belong on it get put away.

This past week I worked on the side table that sits between my desk and the recliner.
Check out the before and after photos. The wild sunflowers I cut from my front garden where they were taking over the other flowers in the bed. I then pulled the ones out from the middle. So, I guess you can say that I decluttered that flower garden as well LOL
I do have a plan for my clean table top....I've been wanting to work jigsaw puzzles in my spare time(yeah right). I'm hoping this table top is just the right size to work puzzles on. I find them relaxing, and besides, I want to put them together before boxing them back up and putting them in a garage sale.

Before: Jasmine's books we are using for school were scattered---sewing I was working on----crocheting I was working on----empty Dr. Pepper can----books I need to read for review---and more!

After: The school books are stacked---my coupon box is on the bottom--my stack of books to read and review on the bottom in the back. On the top is just a few things for pretties and 2 coasters.

I am linking this post with:

Thursday April 9

Good Morning!
I got busy this morning with some housework and also looking through coupons for today's shopping trip. When I came over to the computer I couldn't get online. I'm here to tell you that I don't like the automated system that cable has now. I was pretty sure it was the modem or the wireless router but I didn't know what to do about it. It took 45 minutes to finally get to unplug the router, and plug it back in, whic is what got my internet back....sigh....

Jasmine and I will walk to the store today. My mom said when she called time and temp this morning it said 50º that is what the predicted high it for the day. I hope I don't walk outside to find it colder than that!

I am doing a lot of sorting and reorganizing. I really need to get the address cards done and into my file box. I have made myself a big enough box that I can keep my envelopes, cards, stamps, etc also in the box. I'm to all the monthly cleaning items that I put to start in April. It is making a difference in the way the house is looking, so I am happy about that. Yesterday having to go to work put a damper on things, but I am catching up on the cards that I didn't get to.

I didn't seem to do much on the computer at all yesterday...and well, not seeming to get much done today either. It really pays to find the time to keep your coupons cut and organized. I am having to go through what is in my binder, what is in the abc file box cut and ready for the binder as well as stacks of uncut inserts to get ready for my shopping.

I will stop boring you today, maybe I will have something more exciting tomorrow...although I do plan on sleeping in tomorrow since there is no school, and it's my big cleaning in the basement day...it never ends does it?

Have a good Maundy Thursday.
Marsha

Monday March 16

Good Morning! I managed to get out of bed this morning, but only because my mom gave the 7 am wake up phone call. Allen managed to get up and get ready and off to school. I just couldn't seem to sleep last night, and when I did I was having weird dreams. Go figure.

I started yesterday getting my filing system started from the Sidetracked Home Executives book. I am improvising since I can't afford to go buy a file box and different colored file cards. I've been working at it all morning too and from I can see it will take me the whole week to get the cards in place.

I will have to take the girls to Headstart at noon, but we just got a phone call saying Ariel can't go because of not having one of her shots. Sheesh, how stupid, it's the chicken pox shot. I will also have to pick the kids up from school when it's out.

This evening my mother and I will go and visit my son. Then, I will sit upstairs to watch The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I will work on coupons while I watch the show.

I got 2 posts done on gather (other than my daily two posts). Budget Supper March 15, 2009 and Grocery Shopping Again--3/14/09

I got 2 of my squidoo lenses updated yesterday. Hannah Montana and Tweety Bird Both are fun ones.

Off to get more work done. Have a great day!
Marsha

Sunday August 31

Good afternoon.
We had a flash storm yesterday...seemed it just literally came out of the blue. I took some pics for summer pics at gather....have to make the most of every opportunity until the promo is over.

I got really busy on the basement and getting this stuff organized and then didn't want to stop. I'm about to get back at it. I'm thankful tomorrow is a holiday to give me another full day of working down here. My muscles are getting really sore moving all these boxes from place to place but it sure will be worth it once I am done.

I am finding a lot of things that I think we could sell if only we knew where to sell them. I think there might even be enough old stuff in these boxes to maybe even make enough money to fix the plumbing...again if only I knew where to sell the stuff.

Today's gather post that I am going to share is a photo essays of our kitties. Summer Kitty Pics

Mom is yelling that lunch is ready...I will chat more tomorrow.

Peace,
Marsha