I can't believe we are already to Friday again.
It's been a week of scrimping money-wise because of going out of town, eating out, etc last week during vacation. It was worth it though!
I made one last trip with what money we had for a coupon shopping trip. I spent $16.16. I only saved 63%, but I am happy with what I got for the $16.16:
Here is the photo from my shopping last Friday--Spent $6.99 and a savings of 85%:
Saturday's shopping I spent $21.87 (ouch!) and had a 66% savings:
You can look at the photos though and know that no one was starving here. Steve had brought 4 loaves of bread from work. He also went to the store and bought us fresh fruits for the week and Dr. Pepper. He used my catalina's and the remainder of his gift card to buy the Dr. Pepper. I hate to say what he spent on the fruit, but will say it was wonderful to have fresh fruit on the table all week!
Hubby and I worked together on Saturday on cleaning the house. Mostly I was sending him to the trash or out to the garage or to the basement to put things away. He did get the living room floor cleared and vacuumed for me. It's nice to look behind me and not see this one particular pile of junk that I had been seeing for a few months.
We still have lots of things to look through. We discussed the boxes and drawers that haven't been even looked in since we moved in here almost 2 years ago.
This weekend my main goal is the clutter around my desk.
This week I am sharing ways to use bar soap from the 99 Cent Solutions book:
1. Wash away your door troubles. If you have a wooden door that swells, rub down the edges with a bar of soap. It should then open and close with ease.
2. Fix that zipper. If you have a zipper that's not going up and down easily, rub a bar of soap on the teeth.
3. A run in your pantyhose and no nail polish on hand? You can rub a web bar of soap or a bit of liquid soap on the run. Once it dries the run will stop.
4. Thread tangling in your needle? Run your thread over a bar of soap before sewing and it will make tangles and knots easier to unravel.
Coming off of vacation week, I am going to make this an anything goes week on the lenses that you share in the linky.
I am going to share the 2 that are on the bottom of my list. I have spent very little time in squidoo the past couple of weeks. I plan on more than making up for that today with small updates to several of my lenses, catching up on comments, and catching up on clicking lenses from these blog posts. I do also hope to get a new lens built today as well. Can I do it?
In the comments, if you've learned something new in squidoo over the past 2 weeks, share it.
Hubby was on vacation last week. We traveled out of town for a few days. I took along my box of applique bunnies---fully intending to work on them. I never even opened the box! In fact, I don't think I worked on any crafts at all.
The previous Friday was sit n' sew at the quilt shop. I took several UFO's to work on. I did work on some folded hotpads. I have 3 of those ready to hand sew the back of the binding. I worked on plastic bag holders, but only completed one.
I got motivated Sunday afternoon to get started on my challenge for quilt guild. The challenge is to use Ohio Star, half square triangles, or flying geese---3 different sizes---in a wall hanging or a table runner. I had these "busy" squares with flowers already cut so I decided to make us a table runner for spring. The challenges aren't turned in until the end of March afterall.
When I say busy, I'm not kidding!!
I've decided to also make a matching wall hanging. However, it will be a bit different--at least my plan right now---I am making 4 of the full squares as the middle above, then also doing rows of full squares with the other blocks. It may end up being what I turn in for the challenge instead of the table runner if the size fits the requirements. It may be crazy, but I like it. They will sure brighten up our living room in the spring! It's such a rare occasion that I actually make something for use. Most of the time my concern is making things that might sell in my etsy shop. I don't think I will list my UFO's, but I do need to stay busy on my sewing and get projects done. I have other projects that I want to move on to. I am linking up with:
Hubby had a week of his vacation last week, so school work wasn't a priority :) In fact, the only book work that she did was a page in her Vocabulary Enrichment workbook and the chapter test in her Earth Science textbook. We also did attend Bible study at church. We spent a few days out of town with my middle daughter and her family. That was such a blessing to be able to make the trip and spend time with them. We did go bowling while we were there---which yes, is written in our time log for PE. Here is a couple of pictures of Jasmine bowling:
We've started this week out strong, getting in all of the subjects yesterday. We are heading out the door now for weekly Bible study at church.
This coming Tuesday Swagbucks is celebrating the month of January with a bunch of Swag Codes - if you can get them all, you'll have an extra 65 Swag Bucks at the end of the day. They'll be happening all throughout the day, so check their blog, Facebook and Twitter for potential clues. Also, if you have the new Toolbar installed you'll be able to check for Swag Codes all day long!
If you haven't joined Swagbucks yet, click this link to join the fun and start earn reward points that you can exchange for free stuff like gift cards! Use the code JANTASTIC during sign up - that way you'll start with 100 Swag Bucks instead of the usual 30. Enter the code exactly as it appears with no spaces.
This has been hubby's vacation week. We've been about as frugal about vacation as we could other than not going anywhere at all.
We headed out of town to visit my daughter and her family for a couple of nights. We took the mattress off of our hide-a-bed and slept on their living room floor. Jasmine slept on their couch. We ate out once while there, and then we went bowling. Otherwise we hung out at their house watching movies. Oh yes, I did take along my coupon binder and I took my daughter on a coupon shopping trip. She was less than impressed, even though she keeps telling me that I need to teach her how to coupon so they can save money too. Her biggest thing was the amount of time it took as she watched me cut coupon inserts and put the coupons into my binder, and then the fact that we were in the store for over an hour as I walked up and down each aisle making decisions on things to buy other then the items I had on my list. I did save 73% on my shopping trip that day.
Next vacation week is in July. We are actually trying to save all change until then. We are in hopes of making a trip and actually paying for a room. Hubby wants to go to Dodge City and the casino. Yes, I would like to do that too, however, what I really want to do is rent the cabin at Spring Lake for a couple or 3 nights. If we could save enough, we could possibly make a full week of the vacation and do both.
This week I am sharing 5 uses for shower caps from the 99 Cent Solutions Book:
1. Cover your camera. You don't want your camera to be ruined if you are out and about and the weather is bad. Simply wrap a shower cap around the camera, leaving the open end where the lens is. If you are having trouble seeing through the showercap on the back of the camera, you can cut a hole in the other side of the showercap, just enough to see the viewfinder.
2. Cover your shoes. If you are packing shoes in your suitcase and have a worry that the bottoms will get other items in your suitcase dirty, just wrap those shoes in shower caps.
3. Ride your bicycle a lot? I'm sure if you do then you've parked it to go inside somewhere only to come out and find it's started to rain while you were away. Simply cover your bike seat with a shower cap when you aren't riding it and you won't end up with a wet bottom.
4. Keep out dust. Cover your kitchen appliances with shower caps to keep out dust.
5. Create a makeshift saucer. You can use a shower cap under your plants that don't have a saucer under them to protect from drips to protect your floor or furniture. Or, you can use the shower cap to replace the saucer.
How has your week been? I'm still doing pretty well with my goals. I've been able to at least put a few things in their proper places every day. It's a nice feeling as I look around and the house is looking a little better each day.
My mom thinks that if you are poor you think you need to surround yourself with stuff to make yourself feeler richer. I honestly don't believe that at all. (She's justifying herself because she's a hoarder LOL) I know that I will feel much richer (and saner) when everything has a place and everything is in that place....and excess is gone. My saying is less is more.
I was able to make a couple of good coupon shopping trips this past week. I averaged savings of 72%. Here is a photo of one of the trips where I spent $20.24---had a coupon savings of $51.99 and a savings of 79%:
Lastly today I am sharing ways to use shaving cream from the 99 Cent Solutions book: 1. Shave away the stain. This works for fresh stains on your carpet. Blot up as much as you can then shoot the stain with a blob of non-gel shaving cream. Wipe the shaving cream and the stain away with a damp sponge or cloth. 2. Color be gone. Spray shaving cream on crayon markings on your wall. Scrub it off with a toothbrush or scrub brush. 3. Stop soap scum. Spray shaving cream onto your glass shower doors, then wipe it off with a dry cloth. As a bonus, the thin film created will prevent the doors from fogging over too. 4. Cut through the fog. Occasionally clean your glasses with white foamy shave cream. The thin film will repel water and fog. This will work on your cars windshield too. 5. Still with your glasses--if you accidentally spray your glasses with hairspray, just rub the lenses and frames with shave cream and wipe is all off with a clean cloth.
This week, let's share 1 or 2 of our lenses that are destinations. Your home town, vacation spots, special attractions, events, etc. These lenses are always fun and educational for me to look at. For the most part it's my only chance to see these places, attractions and events.
Please also share any squidoo related blog posts you have done this past week as well. Thanks!!
That's about all I've worked on since the 1st of the year-----a toothbrush rug that I had started months ago. I am getting pretty close now to getting it finished and itching to get my materials sorted to start another one. This one is made with flannel strips.
The other thing is coasters. I found in my stash this huge ball of yarn. I mean huge! My first thought was to make hot pads with matching coasters, but then I thought maybe the sparkly type yarn just wouldn't do well for hot pads. I decided that instead I would make as many coasters as I can out of it. I have quite the stash of plastic canvas sheets, so this should go well. I have one set listed in my etsy shop, but will have these listed in sets of 4, 6 and 8. I have 8 of them made so far:
I have a load of different projects that I want to get started on as well as still quite a lot of UFO's waiting to be finished. Nothing new here! Yesterday was sewing club at church. I have all of the smaller squares finished now. If I don't start finding at least a little time each week to work on this quilt at home it's going to take me well over a year just to get the top done.
I have been blessed in the past month or so with gifts of fabric. One gal who works at the quilt shop has given me 3 bags of fabric. Then the quilt shop gave me all of the fabric shown in the photo below. A man donated it to the shop--his wife has passed away and it was hers. How nice of him, but the quilt shop doesn't work with things like this, so they thought of me. Part of what you see in the photo will be made in to pillow cases to be given to the foster care agency. I'm sure some will be made into quilts for church. I have plans of making doll quilts with the tin of 2 inch squares.
What will next week bring? For one thing, it's brings a week of vacation for my husband. We only plan a 1 day trip this vacation. I am linking up with the following blogs:
We had a good day yesterday getting back in to the swing of schoolwork. It was actually nice after taking over 2 weeks off. We started the day with devotions from the Guideposts book. We moved on to Kansas History reading trading cards of famous Kansans that I had picked up at the state fair this past year. Then it was Earth Science from the text. We will be finishing the text up, hopefully before the end of March. From there we learned about and calculated simple interest in the Understanding Investment and the Stock Market workbook. She did a workbook page in her Vocabulary Enhancement workbook, and we can't forget exercising with the Wii. I am glad that we did invest the money in buying the Wii. Jasmine is sticking with using it for exercise and enjoying it. I took a video this past Saturday evening when we had 4 grandchildren overnight. They were having a blast!
Today is my monthly sewing club at church. After the usual Bible study upstairs at church, Jasmine will come down, have lunch and then get busy on the various workbooks that remain in the van. They remain there since we do end up out and about a lot. This way she can keep on working. It works for us! Do you do anything like this as well? I am linking up with:
