31 Days of Tracking Spending--Days 28 and 29

I am really slipping here at the end of the month.  I got everything written down for yesterday but someone forgot to do the post.

Danger zone---rummage sale!  The church where my daughter goes to for youth group had a fundraising garage sale today.  They are earning for a trip to England in March.  

We went to help set up yesterday.  I spent $11.10.  I bought 2 shelves, 2 clothes racks, a measuring cup, alarm clock, desk organizer, a tart warmer, quilt batting, and a meat grinder.

Steve bought the usual cigarettes, soda and his lunch.

I put gas in my car.

Today I spent even more at the rummage sale---to the tune of another $15.50.  Today I bought a craft desk, Pyrex mixing bowls, houseshoes, 2 pairs of jeans, various kitchen utensils, mini muffin pans, gloves, books and movies.  I bought a lot of misc. items when they put it to be $1 per bag.  Then in the end I took home another shelf, kitchen cabinet unit and 2 other boxes of items free.

The house in the picture represents that it was the every other Friday day for half of the mortgage to be paid.  And, as usual, hubby bought his cigarettes, soda and lunch today.

Two more days---I should go ahead and start sorting it out now to make it easier to add up on the 1st.

Check out the linky with over 700 others who are also doing the 31 Days Challenge HERE 

Shop Hop Saturday--Let's See About this Rock Climbing

Last week Ruthi put out a challenge with the weekly Shop Hop.  You can read about it:

Ruthi Rock Climbing Week One

I do have goals.

1.  Build a new squidoo lens each week as well as update at least 2 others.

2.  Post at least 3 things a week to redgage.

3.  Post 2 things a week into my etsy store and continue to move other things to my zibbet store.

4.  Keep up with the reviews and regular postings to my blog.

5.  Sew at least a little but each day. (this goes with accomplishing goal 3)

This past week I did build a new squidoo lens and updated 2 others.   I didn't get to redgage.  I did just post 2 new items to my etsy shop:

Cotton Crocheted Washcloths Set of 3 in Potpourri 

 

Table Runner 

 

I am behind on my reviews here on my blog  :(  I've managed to sew each day this week even if it was 5 minutes, but have spent a lot of time getting things ready to sew.

 

I listed several more books on half.com and have a stack next to me to still list.....also some in the garage that I am still pondering on listing.

The other thing I want to talk about this week is the Christmas Celebration coming up with the Online Craft Mall.  I will talk more about it as it gets closer, but I do hope you will click the banner and check it out.  Please consider signing up to be a vendor.  Until November 8 you can use the early bird special and get your spot for only $5!!  That's one hour of presentation time to sell your wares.  After Nov. 8 and up to Nov 22 sign up is $10 per spot.

 

 

That's it for me this week.  I hope you will click the button and hop along---or hop through the list of participants.

 

 

Finished it Friday--Quilt for My Grandson's Birthday

This is my first time to take part in the Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday blog hop.
Look at me...a quilt finished by Friday.

I had this quilt done earlier today but then have been away from home until now.

This is an EXTREMELY frugal birthday gift for my grandson, Cash, who will soon be 4.

A lady at church gave me the sheet of fabric that was printed to make one of those fabric books.  I decided I wanted to cut out the pages and make it into a quilt instead.
In my mom's basement I found one of my old craft totes and inside were 2 pieces of fabric I had bought at a yard sale some time ago.  I paid .25 for one piece and .75 for the other piece.
Amazingly enough, one was just right to cut into the strips to put between the pictures.  The other fit for the back of the quilt!
The blanket that is on the inside I picked up with a sack of blankets from the freecycle list.
Even the thread I used was given to me by my mom's friend.
So.......I have only .75 invested in this quilt plus the time to make it---with love, of course.

I turned one corner back so you could see the design of the material on the back.  I wanted to bind around but the fabric was the same width as the top so I folded the sides in to sew them.  This is the first time I've tried this.

Ta da!  I hope he loves it!

 

Frugal Friday Link Up--3 Uses for Chewing Gum and My Crafts

Good Friday morning to all!
I've been busy with my crafts this past week--which by the way are frugal.  It's rare that I buy new materials except for orders.  I buy at yard sales, thrift stores, or it's even given to me.  At the moment I am finishing up a quilt for one of my grandson's.  He will be 4 on Nov. 7.  I found some material in a tote that I had bough at a yard sale some time ago.  I had paid $1 for the material.  A lady at church gave me a  printed fabric that was intended to be made into one of those fabric books.  I decided to cut out the pages and make it a quilt instead.  I used one of the fabrics for in between the pages.  I used the other fabric for the backing.  The blanket that is in the middle I picked up in a bag on freecycle.  Even the roll of cotton thread that I am tieing it with was bought at a yard sale for .25.

I did some coupon shopping this past week but didn't get to posting about it. However, I spent just $18.39 out of pocket and saves $38.79 with coupons.

From the 99 Cent Solutions book this week I want to share 3 uses for chewing gum.

1.  Make a temporary repair.  You can fill a crack in the dog's dish--put it on the outside of the bowl so your pooch won't swallow it down with his food.  You can use a couple of wads as window putty if a pane of glass is loose.  You can even use a bit to hold together a broken pair of glasses until you can get them repaired.  (not out of the book, but we've used it to fish things out of the drain)

2.  Settle a sour stomach.  Spearmint gum is ideal for settling stomach rumbles and burbles, and the increased flow of saliva from gum chewing can help neutralize stomach acids.

3.  Capture a crab.  If you live near the docks and piers, all you need is a string, a net and a lure.  You can catch plenty of crabs using gum as your bait!  They are scavengers and will grab at it.  (This one sure is interesting  lol)

31 Days of Tracking Spending--Days 26 and 27

Oops.  We didn't go anywhere yesterday, so we didn't spend any money.  I didn't, however, intend to miss a day of the 31 posting!

Today Steve bought the usual.  You know, cigarettes, his soda and lunch at work.  He did buy 2 packs of cigarettes though.  Guess that happened since he didn't go out yesterday.  Plus yesterday when he ran out of soda he drank cappuccino the rest of the day at home.

Tomorrow is payday, so there will go most of the paycheck for bills.  We are so close to the end of the month and adding things up to see what we come up with from each category.

Check out the linky with over 700 others who are also doing the 31 Days Challenge HERE 

Squidoo Hopping 10/27--Rocketmoms Assignment

Looking through my email I seen one for a rocketmoms assignment.  I've not kept up at all with the assignments but opened the email.  The assignment was to make a lens around a photograph you had taken.  Right away I stopped everything else and went to building.  I love that sunflower picture I took over the summer.

So, you will see my newest lens is Giant Sunflowers.  I've gotten very good comments on it that I still need to approve most of.  I will head in and do that after I get this post done.

I always right click to open the persons lensmaster page before approving the comment.  This way I can return the comment favor by commenting on one (or more) of their lenses as well.

I think I did work in a couple other lenses this past week, but since I didn't take a note about it, I don't remember which ones.  Yes, I am getting old....well ok, so I'm not....but I have so much going on that without notes, I am lost.

I added a list of my Jerky Direct downline's stores into my Jerky Direct Business Opportunity lens.  It's one way I could think of to maybe help my downline build.

I never did get the facebook fan page module to work for me, so I need to get into the forum and ask for help.  I'm putting in the correct address to my fan page so I have no idea why it's not showing up.  If I really need numbers to put in there I don't know where I would go to find those since it's been marshasspot at the end of the url for awhile now. 

WIP Wednesday 10/26/11--I've Kept Busy

I managed to get in quite a bit of sewing over this past week!
I finished up a table runner.  I have material cut to make 2 fabric bags.  The rest is pictured below.  For the moment I am going through books before getting back to sewing.

I took a printed fabric that was meant to be made into a fabric book and turned it in to a quilt top instead.  My intention is to finish it before Nov. 7 for a grandson's birthday gift.

I cut strips and sewed them for a jelly roll type quilt top.  The material I had for the bottom piece didn't end up matching well so I need to find something different for the back.

Then I got out a bag of already cut squares that I brought home from church.  I laid them on the floor in a pattern of sorts to start another quilt top for sewing club.  Now that I look at the photo I wish I had done it differently but I've already started sewing some of the rows and I'm not about to take them out!  

That's it for me this week.  I am linking up with the following blogs:
 

31 Days os Tracking Spending--Day 25

Tonight was our usual Tuesday evening expense of our bowling league.  Sadly, after Friday our bowling alley may not be anymore.  A church is trying to get funding to buy it and turn it in to a worship center.

Steve bought his usual cigarettes and the usual soda today.  he also spent for his lunch at work.

I didn't spend any money today.

And, that is my report for today, once again very short.

Check out the linky with over 700 others who are also doing the 31 Days Challenge HERE 

Homeschool Journal--Jasmine's Drawing

For a birthday gift, one of the lady's at church gave Jasmine a $30 gift card to Hobby Lobby.  She spent it buying a sketch pad, drawing pencils, blending tools, and chalk pastels.  Jasmine loves to draw and is good at it too.  She is self taught through books and the internet.  I'm thinking of a squidoo lens to highlight her drawing as part of my homeschool series there for this year.  Here she is drawing this past week:

In other news this past week---I feel we had a pretty good week.  
Another thing that Jasmine bought with some of her birthday money was a Belly Buster.  This has her actually doing daily physical activity according to the instructions.
Sunday she was still at camp until after noon.
We made it through every subject throughout the week.
I checked out a lot of books on Greece from the library.  They are from the children's section, but have wonderful pictures.  We are reading through those.  They will also turn in to a squidoo lens.
She's enjoying the Introduction to Business textbook.  I'm glad as it will help her understand a lot more than business.
In home-ec we read through the section on doing laundry.  It's prompted her to want to get back to doing her own laundry--now if it would just prompt her to put it away instead of leaving it in piles in her room!
She's making sure to write in her journal on a regular  basis.
Math is math---we were studying rates and ratios last week.  We will continue with that this week as well as she will work in the Algebra 1/2 textbook.
And, only Jasmine would do something like this---she is reading the ebook of How To Raise Up A Child.  She chose to read it since we are having so many behavioral problems with my 2 yr old grandson.  Last night she asked me if I would read it out loud to her instead though.

I'm going to hop along for this week.  We will be leaving soon for our weekly Bible study at church and our weekly trip to the public library.

I am linking up with:

31 Days of Tracking Spending--Day 24

We were about shopping until we dropped today.  But hey, I only spent $18.09 out of pocket.  I saved $38.79 with coupons and used the $6.21 that was left on the Target card we had gotten as a wedding gift.

I bought more little items to go in the Halloween surprise bags I am making up for my 9 grandchildren and 1 daughter.
Whether we can "afford it" or not, I enjoy puting together nice packages for the kids.  There won't be any candy, just other goodies in the bags...which can then be used when they do go collecting candy.

Steve says he spent $10 on his food at work today.  He also bought our soda's and his cigarettes.

I added to my Christmas gift stash today, but I didn't spend much.  With the sale and coupons I was able to get 2 bottles of Axe body wash for just .25 plus sales tax!

That's it for today's report...I will be back tomorrow night.

Check out the linky with over 700 others who are also doing the 31 Days Challenge HERE 

The Christian Zombie Killers Handbook Review

The Christian Zombie Killers Handbook  Slaying the Living Dead Within by Jeff Kinley.

ISBN 978-1-5955-5438-3  Published by Thomas Nelson


I've been reading this book out loud to my 15 year old daughter.  With the zombie craze going on right now, I can see many teenagers enjoying this book.

Jeff Kinley writes The Christian Zombie Killers Handbook in a way that will make teenagers of today want to read it.  He combines fictional stories about zombies with Christian truth based writing.  It's a unique combination.  You get an episode of the zombie story, followed by a chapter of Christianity.

The purpose of the book is to point out that life for us as zombies is sin and the raging beast within us.  It teaches of salvation and grace.

I feel that any teen, or even adult, would be interested in reading the fictional zombie episodes.  If that teen, or adult, is already a Christian, they will understand how the two combine.  If they are not already a Christian, this book will open their eyes. (and in my opinion, hopefully convert them to a Christian.)

Jeff Kinley is a pastor, speaker, and author of 15 books.  He lives with his wife and 3 sons.  He is a graduate of the University of Arkansas and Dallas Theological Seminary.  You can find out more at http://www.mainthingministries.com  or listen to him at http://www.vintagenxt.com.

My daughter and I have had a good time reading this book together.  Although, she doesn't want me to read the zombie episodes if she is eating.   This book is not recommended for younger audiences due to some scenes and descriptions in the book.

Disclaimer:  I received a copy of this book for the purpose of my review.  I was not compensated in any other way.  All opinions are my own.

Mailbox Monday 10/24/11

Ended up being a great week.
I rec'd the usual magazines: People, Entertainment Weekly, Time, Sports Illustrated, Businessweek and Ok!
A couple other pieces of hausernet mail.
Jerky Direct autoship (paid for by my downline)
Make-up bag full of samples and coupons from Target
Infusium 23 sample and coupon
2 envelopes from a friend which contained 10 free Dr. Pepper 10 coupons and some cat treat coupons--the other one contained 6 Coke rewards codes from 12 packs and a coupon for $8/2 Covergirl.
Free coupon for 32 oz Powerade won on Listia (not pictured)
Pam Cooking Spray campaign kit from Smiley360


In my email: $10 paypal from gather and $2.71 (after fees) paypal from cashtextads.

I am linking up with:

31 Days of Tracking Spending--Day 23

Trucking along on tracking the spending.

Today there was offering at church.  Steve bought his usual pack of cigarettes.  He also bought a gallon of milk.

After church we met with relatives to eat at Wendy's.  We paid for my mom, aunt, uncle, one granddaughter, and the 3 of us.  Thankfully it really isn't all that much to eat there.  Plus, since my son works there they give us a discount too.

I guess tonight was short and to the point.

Check out the linky with over 700 others who are also doing the 31 Days Challenge HERE