Monday, February 28, 2011

Pepper in Some Flexibility

Sometimes, as much as you plan the day, it doesn't go like you had in mind. Not that it's a bad thing, necessarily. Friday was one of those days for me.

I blogged about JBF on Thursday. I had  to drop the clothes off on Friday (of course, the last day for drop off) which has also become Jon and I's coffee date morning with the kiddos. So there was 3 things on my radar...Drop off, Coffee & Run. What I did not have on my radar...Vehicle Maintenance Run, New Glasses, Mall & Dinner Out.

Sometimes life happens. Everything got done, and that is no small task!

When we're having a day like Friday, it's very hard to stay in budget. We actually ate out every meal, I am ashamed to say. While we had planned on eating breakfast out, we had not planned on the other two meals. So how did we do? Well, we spent about $15 for dinner and lunch.
Yumminess!

It's not easy, for sure, maybe it was a little luck even. Lunch was Chick-fil-a spicy chicken biscuits for Jon and I, while the kids had those mini-chick things. Chick-fil-a had advertised the Spicy Chicken was free with purchase. That was a great deal! $6 for lunch for 4 people. Or 3 if you figure the kids between the 2 eat about as much as 1 of us.

Unless they're a bottomless pit that day. Very possible.

When we were home for 2 hours while I ran and the kids rested, I grabbed bananas, oranges and crackers for snack. The kids eat only a small snack, but that day a big one was going to be necessary. I knew that dinner would be pretty far away with phone and glasses needing to be picked up. So they were happy and full until 6:30 when we had another phone pick up after an impromptu mall run followed previous pick ups.

We were right by Sam's and I happened to have a gift card from my mother in law that we decided to use on dinner. Pizza or hotdogs. Neither choice is healthy, but since we eat fairly healthy on a regular basis I don't mind for the sake of convenience once in a while. Total for 5 hotdogs, 2 drinks and a churro...$9.00!

Flexibility certainly helps. But one thing that you need with flexibility, is awareness. Try to know what restaurants where you'll be are kid and budget friendly. Try to throw a few pieces of fruit into your purse or diaper bag, just in case. I try to keep a pack of crackers and bring a bottle of water in the van. You never know when plans will change on a whim!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Clothing Woes

When you have a kid, you learn how expensive clothing is for kids. It is amazing how little humans a tenth of my size can have a pair of jeans that cost as much as mine! In-con-SEE-thable (Princess Bride for some reason is on my mind).

So what do I do? Of course I get the best deals I can.

One thing I've been trying to do is sell the kids' clothes, and use the money to buy them new ones. Here in Tulsa 2 ladies started a franchise called Just Between Friends. It's the biggest consignment sale you've ever seen and it's only twice a year for one week.

*Confession* Last time I sold at JBF, I used the money for new shoes for myself...EEK! Don't worry, the kids didn't suffer. And I have worn the shoes ALOT.

I'm not gonna lie, 2 things that I don't like about JBF is the amount of work it takes to consign your items, and in my personal opinion most people want too much for their items. But you have to realize the flip side as well, you get your money much faster than if you were to go to a regular consignment store. And if you don't sell it all, you have the option to donate the leftovers at the end of the sale without having to take them there. Also, the last 2 days are sale days. 25% for the first sale day, 50% for the last sale day. My favorite days!

There are pro's and con's to every situation.

I took a bunch of the girls' clothes to The Children's Orchard yesterday and they offered me $27 for half a bin. All of the Gymboree dresses and outfits, most of the Chilren's Place clothes and a whole lot more. Um, no thanks. I could make more than that having a garage sale for pity's sake! At least I know, now, about what they value the clothes at. I was thinking it would just be easier to sell it to them, not do any work and have my money that day.

Sure. For about 25% of what I can make. A little work can pay off.
So today, while it's raining outside, I'm tagging and prepping clothes.The above is but a small portion. If you don't hear from me in a few days, I've probably been buried by clothes.

Send help.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Frozen Milk

Have you ever bought a lot of milk because it was on sale, only for it to go bad before you use it all? Me too. I hate wasting.

My mother in law told me that I can freeze milk.

I was very skeptical. How would it taste once it's thawed out? Wouldn't it be bad? Would it spoil while thawing? Nevertheless, I gave it a try.

It tastes the same! It wasn't bad and it didn't spoil! And another thing that I found...I loved to drink the milk when it was still a little frozen. Of course, I like to crunch ice too. But this seems so much better for my teeth!

A tip, though. If you're thawing out whole milk or 2%, make sure you shake it up every so often while it's defrosting. The thicker part thaws last and shaking it helps it to have an even consistency.

We don't use a whole lot of milk, so one gallon will go bad unless I'm making biscuits and gravy. I like to rinse out and use my most recent milk carton to freeze half of the gallon I buy.

What made me think of this? The crunchy milk in my cereal! There's really no rhyme or reason. Have a great Wednesday!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

A Little Time For Me and Good Earth Tea

Dear Good Earth Tea,

I love you.

Love, Carmen

To make a short story long, in November Jon and I fasted coffee and sugar for a week. That was hard business! Over that week, though, we started drinking more tea. Celestial Seasoning's Sleepy Time at night and Stash Green Tea during the day. I wasn't a huge fan of the green tea.

Then a couple of weeks ago Jon came home with Good Earth Ginseng Green Tea in Citrus. That literally rocked my world! It's amazing! I didn't even ask how much he paid for it. I usually don't when he comes home with groceries. All I know is I now love it.

Well....we're down to 2 bags. That can present a problem. But God knows I love it, and provided me an awesome deal. I told you before about Reasor's clearance cart. It had a box of Good Earth Chai Tea in it for only $.75...for the box!
Sure it was dented on the side, and had a tear that they taped up, but it's still the maker of the tea I loved so I bought it right away!

Let me insert here that I am not a fan of chai tea. Today I made it and I loved it. How can that be? I don't want to ask too many questions, I'd rather just go with it.

So this afternoon, when the kids were down for quiet time and I was having time to myself to recoup my nerves (they get a bit frazzled some days), I enjoyed a $.04 cup of tea from a brand that is now my favorite.

Don't forget to check your store's clearance sections! You never know what great deals you will find.

(FYI, Good Earth Tea doesn't know me. They didn't sponsor this plug, it's just something I loved and a great deal I wanted to share. )

$5 Starbuck's Gift Card Winners

And the winners are.........(drumroll playing inside my head)

#3 Dee

#5 Laura Mae

Wahoo! E-mail me at prizes.budgetista@gmail.com and let me know how you'd like your prize delivered, e-mail or snail mail! E-mail you can print and use, no waiting.

Congratulations!

Monday, February 21, 2011

"Four score and seven years ago..."


Abraham Lincoln was hands down my favorite president. What he stood for, what he came from and what he accomplished is amazing. I love me some Honest Abe!!!

Today is President's Day, which means Isabella doesn't have school. When we missed 5 days due to a blizzard earlier in the month, that wasn't a big deal. For some reason, probably only by God's grace, I had a fabulous time having her home. So much so that I started thinking about homeschooling her again.

I really love having my kids around. And watching them learn.

Today has not been like the blizzard.

I'm not huge on letting the kids play video and computer games and watch tv. I'm certainly ok with a little bit, but on days like today the temptation to let them do whatever they want all day is yelling in my face! If we had a family membership to the Jenks Aquarium I'd take them. But we don't. If it were warmer outside they'd play. It's not. So what can we do that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and is at home?

I think it's a question that lots of parents would like answered! Another question lots of parents would like answered is how do preschools do it?! Planning. They have curriculum, they have play ideas, they have the day structured and set up with activities. So maybe I need to plan a little more. That would mean that the stuff I want to get done will probably have to wait. For some reason, children like interaction. Especially when they're doing activities. Who knew?

Here are a few things to start us off this afternoon:
Color and Draw (crayons are under-rated!)
Make banana bread (the girls LOVE this, and the finished product)
Build a city with Konnor's blocks (they can each create their own buildings)
Cut pictures out of magazines and make a collage
Play with modeling clay

That should last us the rest of the afternoon. I have a feeling I need to restock my craft box!

Don't forget to enter my drawing! I'll be picking the winner tomorrow at noon! Have a wonderful President's Day!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Doubleshot Non Giveaway

I thought 'Wow, it would be so cool to give away 2 $5 Gift Cards to this local coffee shop that has great coffee'. So Jon and I brought our 2 kids to this coffee shop (I bought Jon a gift card to here for Valentine's Day) which he used and I bought the 2 gift cards. Here's a picture of my Americano.
Then Konnor went to the corner where there is a small chair and a little rug and a little box. Inside the box he found a vodka bottle. It still had a little vodka in it.

Yep.

So Jon gave it to the baristas that thought it was pretty hilarious.

Wow.

I'm glad that it's so funny to them.

So I decided I will not be giving away anything from there.

Sorry.

It's a moral issue.

Instead I'll give away 2 Starbucks gift cards for $5 each. My kids have never encountered a vodka bottle there.

So to enter, tell me something great, tell me your favorite drink!

*UPDATE* I'll draw the winner on Monday at noon! Happy Weekend!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Swagbucks

We have a lot of chocolate around our house right now. With Valentine's and a guy from our church handing out bags of Dove (5 to each family but somehow we ended up with over 10...) we have an abundance. This is wreaking havoc on my clothes! And my children.

Yesterday Liana snuck Isabella's candy that she received from school. Today the Sneaky Monster got ahold of Konnor. I asked him if he snuck chocolates.
He started counting for me how many. Notice the chocolate on the chin. I can't resist kissing those 'chicky's' as he calls them. He will have no more candy today.

I wanted to blog about Swagbucks today. I didn't include it in my websites post, because I felt it deserved a post of it's own.

I love Swagbucks! You accumulate points to redeem for prizes, or use in sweepstakes. That is where I got the $10 Starbuck's giftcard I gave away last month. For only 1300 swagbucks that baby was mine.

The Pros
- You can download the toolbar, so every day you open a new browser you get 1 Swagbuck

- You can accumulate 'bucks' fairly quickly by searching on the toolbar

- There are plenty of offers to try or short videos to watch that help you accumulate faster

-Sometimes the offer Swagbucks for buying the Groupon through them. Double Bonus!

The Cons
- My prize took almost 2 weeks to receive. Plan for that if you're redeeming for a birthday present or as a gift

- Sometimes the points you're supposed to get for videos don't register. However, they usually try to resolve it quickly for you

-Their referral program is not fantastic. You get the same amount of Swagbucks as the person you referred earns during a small period of time. It's not cut and dry like other programs. But on the plus side, there is opportunity to get a lot of bucks if your referral gets crackin quickly.

Check out the program. I love that I can earn for things I do already. If you don't like it then do as I do with programs I don't like...forget about them! I started many programs and ended up not doing anything with them. But this one, in my opinion is worth the 2 minute registration.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Feeding Time at the Zoo

I have a limited number of children's bowls, therefore the kids sometimes use cups. Which isn't horrible. The only time I really care is when they break one.

Usually Jon and I do the breaking, though.

Even at that, I got a set of 13 with saucers from a garage sale for $5...so I don't really mind too much. Until we get down to only 3. Then I might be unhappy.

During the school week, I make some sort of eggs for breakfast. Today, though, was a cereal day. Liana thought Isabella didn't have school, because we have cereal on days when she doesn't. Really Mommy was just tired and trying to wake up and get Bug out the door on time with her lunch.

I try to buy cereal for extremely low prices. When I can get it, I usually get a lot. In fact, we are still eating Special K from this deal last month. Over the weekend someone gave us some Bran Flakes. By themselves, my children will never eat them. Add some raisins and we're in business.

I don't have raisins, though. So what do I do? Add it to the not the Almond Special K!

A little Bran Flakes, a little Almond Special K and the kids don't know the difference. Not only are they eating 'good' cereal (I would say healthy, but I don't know how healthy it really is) but the cereal they love will last longer. It's a win~win situation.

Don't try doing that with my chocolate. I will definitely know the difference.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

A Few Good Websites

There are so many websites out there with deals deals deals! When I first started looking online for deals and coupons, I was sucked into the vortex!

I'm sure that would never happen to you.

But I'll give you some of my favorite websites to visit, for everything from recipes to deal scenarios to traveling to shopping.

* Recipe Websites *
All Recipes- Why do I love it? Because I can search for recipes by ingredients. Ones I want and ones I don't. It's wonderful.

Crumbs and Chaos- This site belongs to my good friend along with her 3 sisters. Having 9 or 10 children between them, they have lots of food going on. In addition to recipes for food, they have creative activities for kids and everything to do with kids!

The Pioneer Woman- Ree Drummond has more than just amazing recipes. Her website has wonderful posts about her life on the ranch and travels across the US for her book tours. Sprinkle in posts about homeschooling and giveaways and you have a great site to visit! I personally am looking forward to her book signing here in Tulsa next month.

Bake at 350- I first saw this website in December on Pioneer Woman. Ree did a post about decorating sugar cookies. I am a dessert freak, so I looked into this website for cookies and icing recipes. I was not disappointed! I have visited many times for many different cookie recipes. It's a must!

* Deal Scenario Website *
A Full Cup- I did use a local website for a while. I found this website had more deals, though. Especially if you love to visit Walgreen's. It takes a little getting used to, but once you know your way around, you're golden.

Seize The Deal- Like Groupon, Seize the Deal offers a variety of deals for our area and many others.

Living Social- Again, like Groupon. One difference, though, is after you buy you'll get a link to share. If 3 of your friends buy the deal, then yours is free. That's pretty awesome!

* Travel *
Travel Hacker- It's not a 'find your flight' website. It's a 'get miles to get free flights and hotel nights' website. The lowest plan is $15 a month which equates to $180 a year. In return it promises to help you get 100,000 miles a year across a number of frequent flyer/stayer programs. If you're going to fly at least once a year, it is worth it. Try it out for 14 days for $1. We are currently working on accumulating miles for an overseas trip.

* Shopping *
RetailMeNot- I've done a post about RetailMeNot here which outlines why I love it and how I use it.


These are my main lookers. I like to visit them every so often. Maybe more than every so often hehe!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm really excited for dinner tonight. I'm going to make tilapia with mango salsa...Yum. Then my hubs and I will enjoy dessert, which I won't post on here because, well, he reads these and it's kind of a surprise.

But then...on Tuesday...the day after Valentine's...the candy starts to clearance. And that, my friends, is something to get excited about!!!! 

Easter is right around the corner. And with so many pastel colors being used on V-day and those same colors being used at Easter, I can buy all the chocolate I need for my kids' Easter egg hunt. There are somethings I can't get, like Bunny Munny, until the Easter candy rolls out, but that doesn't stop me from buying the rest! Plus, Bunny Munny is more nostalgic and for me than it is for my kiddos.

But don't just stop at Easter candy! What do you have coming up? Do you have birthdays to celebrate? Will you be having a pinata for a party? Think in advance for what you are going to need candy at and buy it now! Or if you don't need it in the next 6-8 weeks, buy after Easter. It's a great way to cut down on expenses for upcoming events.

My favorite place to buy clearance seasonal candy used to be Walgreen's. Lately though, a lot of people have been visiting there for the clearance candies and I don't always get what I want. My local fave (Reasor's) is another great place to buy the clearance candy, as is Target. Make a list and buy ahead!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Ruh-Roh, Groupon...

So my hubby bought the Groupon last week for FTD. It was $20 for $40 worth of flowers.

Groupon made a boo-boo.

There were so many complaints. First, the prices were raised for the Groupon buyers. Not cool FTD. Then on top of that, the delivery fee is $15. If you don't buy flowers alot, you would not know this. My hubby doesn't have them delivered often...ever...like never.

So what's the lesson? I guess that Groupon is not always such a great deal. And we may have to do a little more research when we get a deal from them. I've never had problems with the local vendors I have purchased Groupons for.

For shame FTD!

I, however, still love my flowers!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Beating the Winter Blues

Maybe it was because I had a cold/flu combo that stuck around forever. Maybe it was the lack of sunshine starving me of Vitamin D.  Maybe it was because of all the snow I haven't gotten out of the house much and I got cabin fever. Whatever the reason, I had a bad case of the blues.

How do I cure that? What I want to do is go shopping! Filling carts and bags with stuff that I only want and don't really need would make me feel a whole lot better! But alas, for better or worse, my budget restrains me.

Gosh, that darn budget!

I had to use alternative methods. First, I did splurge a little...in the calories! That left me feeling like crap, honestly. Then I decided I was going to splurge and buy myself some tea. It was $2 but I had a coupon for $1 off and I love a cup of tea at night. Celestial Seasoning's Sleepytime is great before bed.

Next I started to run again. I haven't because of the cold/flu bug, not wanting to hurt myself. But this time I ran hard. I mean HARD. Sweat pouring, barely breathing, ready to crash hard. There's something about wearing myself out when I'm feeling down that makes me feel good. Luckily I have a treadmill at home, but if you don't, find a workout on tv or in your stash of videos. You know you have one! Make it a good one. Tae Bo always kicked my booty.

Open the windows when the sun is shining! Even if it let's in cold off the glass. Absorb that Vitamin D! There are so many health benefits. I just read how a deficiency is linked to Multiple Sclerosis. I have people in my family with MS. That is no joke.

The last thing I did was pray more. My spiritual life had been suffering too! It made me feel like my soul had taken a huge drink of water. Never underestimate the nourishment of your spirit.

Those were my blues busting steps. And they were fairly inexpensive! What do you do to beat the blues that's budget friendly? Yoga on YouTube? Coffee with your friends?

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

A Secret Stash

Every store has a clearance section. Some, like Target, have many. Target has one in the toy section, the grocery section, heck! Pretty much every section! The ends of many aisles at Target hold treasures and goodies that I love to look through. Sometimes you can find amazing deals.

My favorite grocery store (Reasor's) has a shopping cart that they put items in at random times that are marked down. Most of the cans are dented, but never expired. Well, I haven't seen expired items. I'm sure someone somewhere has.

It is not always a good deal though! One time they had a can of corn marked at $.45 which is not a bad price. Except for the fact that the regular cans were on sale for $.40 making them cheaper. That is when it's helpful to be conscientious of prices. If it's a good price and you have room in your budget then by all means stock up!

Tonight I made Tortilla Soup from my friend's blog Crumbs and Chaos (you'll love it, check it out) using some items I'd purchased over time from Reasor's shopping cart. One ingredient was enchilada sauce which I paid $.25 for. If I'd bought it regular price, I'd have spent over $1.

Take some extra time to explore the stores. Don't be afraid of asking sales clerks if they have a clearance section. Also, don't forget you can use coupons for these items as well!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Website Review: Restaurant.com

I have said over and over how I love a good deal. So when I heard about Restaurant.com I was super excited to give it a whirl.

Here are some things to remember:
-Look at the minimum amount you have to spend. Sometimes it's $35, sometimes it's $50.
-You have to pay 18% gratuity that they add into the bill. That's after the minimum that you've spent.
-Look up on RetailMeNot to see if there are promotional codes you can use to get your gift card even cheaper if you do not get restaurant.com e-mails.

About my experience:
-The first time I bought 5 gift cards between 2 different restaurants. Out of those 5 I only used 1. Both restaurants closed before I could use them all. My friend got to roll hers to a different place, I didn't log on in time to do that.
-I bought one for a different restaurant that we used shortly after purchase for a date. We spent $36 on food and soda ($35 minimum) and ended up spending $18 out of pocket including gratuity. While that is a great price for a lot of food- it was a lot of food! We don't normally eat that much, didn't have kids to share it with and were at a homeschool conference so our leftovers were wasted. I don't like to waste.

I think if you can get the gift certificate for cheap enough, it's a fantastic deal if you're going out anyways. What you shouldn't do, is buy into the 'Eat for only $2' hype, because there is out of pocket expense later. You should budget to spend at least $20 when using your gift certificates. Even at that, though, $20 including gratuity for a restaurant where you get $35 of food is a great deal! So find one you like, but don't go overboard and buy a whole lot...just in case the restaurant pulls out of the deal or closes!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Snow Days and Disneyland

Pshew, Monday! And a happy day it is indeed! Except for my daughter that has to return to school today.

With all the snow here in Oklahoma, we had school one day last week, haven't had any mail since Monday and have sucked the grocery stores clean. I am in awe of people. I went grocery shopping last Monday before the first wave of snow hit and people were shopping like they were going to be confined all winter. Sheesh! Plan people, plan.

It will probably be the same today, considering we are supposed to get another 5-10 inches tomorrow. We'll see!



I, personally, had a fabulous time! I made snow ice cream with apple crisp (which was A-mazing!), brownies and sugar cookies. My waistline is not thanking me. Plus lots of comfort foods! Chili, Ham & Beans, Fireside Nachos...YUM! Here is the link to the recipe for Snow Ice Cream from Paula Deen, 3 ingredients and pure delish. Here is the link to the recipe for the apple crisp, one of the best I've had!

Snow Ice Cream
8 cups fresh snow
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix together and serve immediately!

Apple Crisp
4 cups sliced apples
1/2 cups light brown sugar (pack it tightly)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup rolled oats
4 Tbsp cold butter (Half a stick)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Combine brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Mix with the apples and set aside. In separate bowl mix flour, sugar and oats. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Pour apples into pan, pour crumble on top. Bake at 375 for 30-45 minutes, or until top is light brown.

*********

The complete opposite of cold is warm, and I was thinking about how nice it would be to visit somewhere warm. 3 years ago my parents took our entire family on a trip to Disneyland. It was their 30th Anniversary (which is the exact same day of Jon's 30th birthday!) and they wanted to celebrate! I, being the bargain hunter I am, wanted to try and save as much money as possible and ended up planning quite a bit of the trip. If you're planning a vacation to Disneyland, here are some things I learned:

**Disney Value Hotel vs. Non-Disney Hotel**
I was thinking I'd save us money by booking a hotel that has a shuttle multiple times a day to and from the parks. It was only about $20 cheaper, but with 2 rooms for 6 nights, that ends up being $240! Well, here's something you find out when you get there. You have to pay $15 a day per room for 'service charges'. There's no way out of it. There goes the big savings. The Disney shuttles came much more often, too. We'd see 2 or 3 shuttles come and go before we saw even 1 for our hotel.

**Dining Plan**
There's no doubt, it's hard to resist the temptation of buying food in the park. Disney offers dining plans when you purchase your tickets that can sometimes be bought at an extremely good rate. Unless you are very disciplined, buy the cheapest plan. We took our own food which worked out pretty great. BUT, there were a few meals that we ate in the park due to fatigue, or we were just plain hungry. What we spent in 2 or 3 meals could've bought a whole plan for half of us. If you have a stroller, it's not a big deal to take your food into the park. But if you don't, you keep the cooler in your car (if you drove) or in your hotel room. Sign up on Disney's website to get their monthly e-mails. In these e-mails you'll get information on the specials they are offering. When their meal plans are on sale, it's in this e-mail.

**Bibbity Bobbity Boutique**
Let me just say, I am frugal so this seemed like such a waste of money. But my mom wanted to do it for the girls, so I'm not going to protest! It is a fairy tale dream come true. From the moment the Fairy Godmother in Training takes your little princess to her makeover, until she leaves...it is an experience they won't forget. The bad? They are in hair, make up and dresses (optional) all day, and when it's hot that's not exactly ideal. The good? It's so amazing for a little girl. If you have $55 to completely blow, spend it on this. So. Fun. For little girls. You can bring your own princess attire so you don't spend an extra $100 on an outfit from the boutique.



**Airfare**
Make sure when you find a great price for a ticket (if you're flying) that the airport is close to you. We made the mistake of getting a great price on a ticket, but had to drive nearly 3 hours to get to the airport. Gas and parking extra cost $75. Unforseen expenses. Had we left from our home airport, we could've had a friend drop us off.

After re-hashing all of this, I want to go again!!!!! So if you're planning a trip to Disneyland, take some of these tips and have a great time!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

To The Right...

I have a cool IPOD looking player on my blog now. My hubby's pretty awesome! I'd love to have the exact one. Except it wouldn't match my running shoes and I LOVE my running shoe colors. I got them half price plus 10% off and free shipping!!!

The reason I wanted to call attention to the player is for this reason: My First Half Marathon!!! This player has loaded on it songs that I am going to use when I run my first half in May. I would love to get song suggestions from you. The loaded songs are ones that I have been running to on my training runs. You can get an idea of what I'm looking for and help me load it up!

If you don't see your suggested song, keep suggesting! I won't put a song on until I have run to it at least 3 times, to make sure it matches my stride and speed. So let me have them! I have 13.1 miles to cover. My goal is to run it in 2 hours or less. That's a whole lot of songs!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Snowmegeddon 2011

Snowmageddon and Snowpocalypse. Two words that make me laugh when I read about the snow storm that has stretched over 2000 miles. We got a lot of it here! My kids have thoroughly enjoyed the time off of school and the snow. Here's what it looks like in our driveway.
Here's my hard working hubby trying to clear the 2.5-3 foot drift.
 I was busy making these delish bits of yumminess.




A bite of heaven. I got the idea from The Pioneer Woman a few weeks ago and have been waiting to make these when I can eat them. We did a sugar fast for 28 days. Yikes! It actually went great.

Maybe it's the snow that's got me thinking about budgeting. Well, who am I kidding. I think about it all the time.

And I'm okay with that.

No. Really. I am.

We are lucky to find something that we enjoy and can actually do well. Something I enjoy but cannot do well? Play the piano. But that will come with time.

What in particular was I thinking about? Well, cheap meals. Tonight I'll be making ham and beans with cornbread. YUM! Especially when you splash a little hot sauce in it. The bag of beans cost me $1.09 at Target. The bag of cornmeal cost $1.19 at Reasor's.  I'm extremely lucky that Grampsy sends me canned ham. But when we make a ham, the leftovers are endless and we never use it all, so I freeze the ham and bone for later. A little oil, salt, eggs and sugar later and I have a total comfort food meal. Perfect for this snowy night.

Enjoy! Stay warm, stay cozy and stay safe!