92. The Husband

After reading Odd Thomas I was looking forward to reading another 'Odd' book. However, they were all checked out at the library. I figured if I enjoyed Odd, perhaps I'd enjoy another Koontz book. Well...it wasn't terrible. But it wasn't great. It definitely didn't captivate me and wrap me up in the characters.

Ask my husband, I have a way of getting VERY wrapped up in a book. It never surprises Pat to walk into a room and see me sobbing my eyes out over a good book.

I'm not giving up on Koontz! I do want to finish the Odd series and at the rate I've been reading lately it won't be long!

55. Homemade Laundry Soap

In my effort to be somewhat frugal and cut costs around the house, I learned that a lot of people make their own laundry detergent. Since it's not secret that detergent costs quite a bit and it's mostly water, I figured there had to be a better way. Although my Dad accused me of turning "crunchy" I assured him that I'm just cheap.

One of the blogs I read is called "The Grocery Cart Challenge" and she posted a great tutorial here on making laundry detergent.

I had a hard time finding all the ingredients and actually had to order the washing soda online, which isn't as convenient as I hoped. However, I was able to find free shipping so it didn't affect the cost.

I found this very easy to make and her instructions are spot on.

Here are the ingredients while they were melting on the stove:

And here they are in the bucket:

We used it for the first time today and so far so good! As I said to my family, we don't get our clothes very dirty so hopefully this will work just fine for us. It made quite a large batch that should last us for quite a while.

So there you have it, I say go for it! Be cheap like me!

2. Make homemade bread

Now this may be cheating since I used self rising flour instead of yeast, but this bread was super easy and VERY delicious.




I've had this recipe saved for a month or so from Crystal's cooking blog and it was delicious. It is 'Brewery Bread' and has only 4 ingredients...can't beat that.

I didn't have any good beer in the house, so rest assured that it's even great with Bud Light! I can't wait to make this again this fall when Shipyard's Pumpkinhead comes out. I have a feeling that will give this bread a great flavor!

Just looking at this picture now is making me crave it again. This might be on the agenda for tonight!

I love free stuff!

I really stockpiled on toothpaste this week as I just can't resist free stuff (even better when I 'make' money off it). Then I read over at Common Sense with Money about a money-maker on Sudafed Nasal Mist. So today after picking up the coupons my Mom and Aunt save for me I headed back to Walgreens.

Since Pat was with me (and I had 4 coupons) we were able to really score. Oh, and I also picked up better than free Reeses Dark Chocolate peanut butter cups too.

Since I started this on January 14th I've spent $521.78 on grocery and household items and I've saved $524.44. That's not including rewards of $83 I have to spend in the next few weeks ($26 Shaw's, $19 CVS & $38 Walgreens). It also helps that I have all three of those stores within one mile of our house as well.

92. One more book

This book was recommended to me by a friend on a message board and I am so so so glad that she did. Firefly Lane is a wonderful story of a life-long friendship with all the ups and downs that so often happen. I am really looking forward to reading more by Kristin Hannah.

I have a few other blog posts that are over-due, but I hope to get to them this weekend (provided I find my misplaced camera).

Great deal at Walgreens

Walgreens has this Colgate on sale for $3.99 with a register reward of $3.99 making it free. The awesome part? I have 7 coupons for $1.00 off this toothpaste making this a dollar money-maker for me. Thanks to my Mom and my Aunt for saving their Sunday papers for me I am bursting at the seams with coupons and poised for all the free deals I can handle!

92. Two more books finished.

Many years ago I had read Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler. I really loved that book, but I had never read anything else by her. Sadly I actually didn't realize she had written so many books!

The Tin Can Tree is Tyler's second book, written in 1965. It's a little hard to relate to in today's time, but it's a story of family life after the tragic loss of a child. This was a very nice story, although it didn't captivate me as I had hoped.

When I was a teenager I loved reading scary, mystery, horror type novels. However, as an adult I haven't read many from that genre. Maybe it's because I don't have the active imagination I once I had or maybe it was all those years living alone I didn't want to scare myself silly!

As I wandered around the Windham Public Library though I found myself standing in front of Dean Koontz's many, many books. I remember reading a few years ago so I decided to give him a try again.

I was pleasantly surprised by Odd Thomas. This book is about a young man named 'Odd' that has a special gift of seeing dead people...but not in a 'Sixth Sense' type of way. This was the strange story that I had been hoping for and I found myself really enjoying this book. In fact, there are other Odd Thomas books and I plan on reading those as well.

A blog-worthy shopping day

CVS:

So here's what I got at CVS today and below is the breakdown of what I paid:

• 4 boxes of Kellogg's cereal - 4/$10, but I had two coupons...ended up being 4/$7.50. THEN there was a "extra bucks" reward on them of $5.00 so it was like getting 4/$2.50. That's insane and we both love Raisin Bran and Corn Pops!
• Bounce dryer bars (we LOVE these!) - sale for $3.99, plus a coupon for $1.50. Net total of $2.49.
• Secret deodorant (2) - sale for $3.99 each, plus a coupon for $1.00/2. Total before "extra bucks" of $6.98. Extra bucks of $2.00 so a per item cost of $2.49. Not the best deal ever, but not bad.
• Dawn Hand Renewal Dish Soap - sale for $0.97, plus a coupon for $1.00. FREE!
• Gillette Fusion Razor - sale for $8.99, plus a coupon for $5.00. Extra bucks of $4.00. FREE (after extra bucks)!
• Nivea lip balm - sale for $2.99, extra care bucks of $2.99. FREE (after extra bucks)!
• Oral B Cross action toothbrushes - sale for $4.00 each, plus a coupon of $1.00 so two for $7.00. Extra care bucks of $8.00 - better than FREE (after extra bucks). I got paid $1.00 to buy two toothbrushes!
• Clairol hair dye - sale for $4.97 each, plus a coupon for $5 off 2. Net out of pocket of $4.94. Extra care bucks of $2.00 so a per item cost of $1.47. I'm quite proud of this deal and my roots thank me.
• Always pantyliners - sale for $2.99, plus a coupon for $1.00. Net out of pocket of $1.99.
• Always pads - sale for $2.99, plus a coupon for $1.00. Net out of pocket of $1.99.

My total before coupons and sales was $87.69. CVS sale prices dropped it down to $61.29. Coupons dropped it further down to $42.29. Then I had extra bucks from a prior shopping trip bringing my total down even further to $34.29.

The best part is that I have $23.99 in extra bucks to use before 4/6 which brings the net cost of all that down to $10.30. Now that's just cool.

I am SO loving all this sale/coupon shopping. I'm nowhere near as good as some of the people out there, but I'm pretty happy with the progress I've made so far!

My Mom...

Is seriously so sweet. When she started baking heart shaped brownies for Valentine's Day my Dad joked that he'd rather have a heart shaped meatloaf. So...instead of brownies we all got meatloaves!

The white "frosting" is actually potato. It was seriously so good. But yes, we're a very weird family.

Thanks Mom, you're the best.

My first review!

Go check out Emily's review on my cake balls! I am so excited and honored! Thanks again Emily!

For everyone else - orders will be accepted at any time! Just leave a comment here with a way to contact you (email/website).