Momma’s Got a New Ride

We’re in town now – close to everything. 

I told T I’d be willing to run errands on bike this summer. 

Obviously, we needed a way for me to bring the kids along.

The trailer finally arrived yesterday.

Monkey loved it (Little Man was having his nap when T put it together and has yet to try it).

*cue Wicked Witch music*

We’ll be able to leave both vehicles parked much of the time (he mostly uses his motorcycle in the summer months – weather permitting, of course).  The kids and I don’t really go very far.  I think this is going to be a great thing.

(I love that I’m wearing my painting clothes – but had on nice jeans to run to the grocery store.  HA!  Real life, people.  Real life.)

PS –Yes, we have helmets.  This was an impromptu quick turn a few houses down to give it a try.  They’ll be finding their way into the kids cubbies by the door  in a few days  - when it’s warm enough to take them both out. 

Vacationing for Less

Last Thursday, T e-mailed me from work to tell me he was going to try to get Monday off and how do I feel about taking our New Hampshire trip this weekend?  How do I feel?  Let’s do it!

On Friday, he found out that he could, indeed, take Monday off.  So he called and booked a cabin at the Twin Mountains KOA campground.  We got the basic, no frills other than electricity (we only had lights) cabin.

Cute place, right?  It only cost $60 for the night where as the cheapest motel he could find in the area was $120.  If you know me, you know I don’t dig germs – and public bathrooms disgust me.  I’d rather pee behind a tree, thank you.  But you can’t shower behind a tree.  I was willing to give it a try even though it meant having to use the public bathrooms. 

We only have good things to say about this place.   Even the scary public bathrooms were really really clean.

My only complaint is this.  The pool and playground claim to close at dusk.  I don’t know about you, but at this time of year 7PM is NOT dusk.  After putting on our swim suits and heading to the pool, we discovered it had been closed in the 5 minutes it had taken for T to check it out, come back to change and the walk back up to it.  We were still able to entertain the kids fairly well with our very very limited supply of tricks.

Something else we do when we’re on vacation is avoid eating out.  Restaurants cost big bucks.  We packed all of our food in a fairly small cooler.   We decided sandwich fixings for lunch on day 1, dutch oven pizza casserole for dinner, mini-bagels and a small pack of bacon for breakfast and grab lunch at the park before heading out. 

This pizza casserole was really easy to make.   Once again, you know me.  I couldn’t leave it as was.  We added pepperoni, green peppers and mushrooms to it as well.  I would suggest cooking your green peppers ever so slightly because they were still crunchy.  This one will be pulled out for a BBQ some time later this summer.  It was that good.

You don’t need to spend big bucks to have a great vacation.  Normally, we’d do hiking and outdoors stuff but the point of this trip was to take our kids to Santa’s Village (and Storyland, but that didn’t happen.  Long story for another day).  So to Santa’s Village we went.  And it was worth the entire 4 1/2 hours it took for us to make the drive (with stops, of course – there’s no NOT stopping with 2 little ones!)

If you’ve never been, I’d suggest checking it out.  It’s a great place to go even with the younger kids. 

We’re already trying to figure out when we’re going to go back!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I’m very late to the game with this one.

My interest was first grabbed when I saw Country Girl had made her own dry detergent.  Being that I use liquid detergent and had  a bunch bought ahead when I’d found a great sale, I put it on my list of “Things I’d like to do – but not in a great rush to do it” (just so you know – that particular list is really really long.  haha).

Then a couple of months ago, my friend Kellie made her own liquid detergent.  I realized that my stash was finally dwindling and decided to put it on my “Things I’d like to do – sooner rather than later” list (this list is a little more reasonable in length).

Then Nicole took inspiration from Kellie and made some for Too Cute Tuesday.

Then a completely different set of friends started it.  Christine made some (I can’t, for the life of me, find her blog link).  Then Kelli made some last week.

I decided to use the original instructions Kelli was going to use from The Simple Dollar.

It was really easy to make – quite quick, as well.  It took me 20 minutes to gather all of my supplies and mix up the goop.

 

This is what I now have sitting next to my washer, awaiting the 24 hour “sitting” period before I can see what I came up with.  You can see some small chunks of the bar of Ivory that just did not want to melt.  Most of it was an Ivory dust because the bar is a little old, so other than those little chunks, it melted really quickly.

While I realize tomorrow is Mother’s Day and I’m supposed to spend the day being pampered, I insist on doing laundry so I can find out how well our detergent works (hardy har on being pampered – really.  haha).

Stay tuned for the results!

Random update

I'm still pregnant. Very very VERY pregnant.

We're trying to enjoy the start of summer. This rain SUCKS. Though Monkey has been able to enjoy her 50 cent yard sale Elmo sprinkler a few times.


Speaking of this rain sucking - our garden needs some sun. Very badly.

We had a lovely Father's Day. Monkey and I made T some homemade blueberry waffles for breakfast (and made a bunch extra to freeze). We spent the day meandering about. I made a huge batch of spaghetti sauce to freeze and made a sling for New Bean (my first ever sewing project, start to finish, with a pattern and ZERO help! I was - AM - quite proud of myself.).


We later ended up at Treworgy's for ice cream and to feed the goats. One of the baby goats decided to give Monkey a haircut (I caught it eating her hair through the fence!). Luckily, very minimal damage was done (you can't even tell) and we got an excellent laugh out of it. After feeding T some grilled steaks, grilled scallops, grilled portobella mushrooms, boiled asparagus and twice baked potatoes (nom nom nom), we went to a field down the road to fly our Elmo kite.

Our chickens have yet to lay eggs. We do expect it anytime in the next couple of weeks, though. And are these the laziest chickens ever or do all chickens lounge around like this? The sprawled out legs crack me up.


Ok. That's all I have time for today. I figured I should let my loyal readers know there is still no baby. And all of this relaxing crap being forced on me has my blood pressure WAY back down to normal.

Hopefully, my next update is to introduce you to New Bean. Momma's ready!

More junking fun

I took Monkey junking again yesterday. We hit up a few yard sales close by. Here is our loot for $17:

The stool is now on my deck and will soon have a fern sitting on it. The two chairs will get a black paint treatment and find a home next to our pellet stove. The cake platter will also get a coat of black spray paint and be used for display (not for food!). The plates will be great to use as appetizer platters for parties. The pitcher was just cute. And I found a pair of maternity shorts for just $2 - great to get me through the warm weather for the next few weeks.

And, of course, the Elmo sprinkler. This was, of course, Monkey's find. She freaked out, let go of my hand and raced up the driveway to where he was sitting in the pile of toys for sale. For 50 cents, he had to come home with us! Do you think I've created a monster?

The other great find I wanted to share is the crib we found for New Bean. We bought this a couple of months ago off of craigslist for $50. After much debate (sometimes heated), I agreed to ask our pediatrician how he felt about a spray painted crib. He gave me the green light. So work began yesterday afternoon. I don't have a picture of it all put together, but you can get the gist of the before here.

I'll be sanding the crap out of it and then giving it a fresh coat of black spray paint. Back to the monster I've created - yes, the sander is on. She just HAD to help. I've got a little DIYer on my hands! (I'm always telling her there's no reason to be scared of power tools. hehe)

When T got home, he informed me we have a more heavy duty palm sander in our possession, of which I was not aware. Thank goodness because that one side piece has an hour and a half of sanding into it and is only 3/4 of the way done. I'm hoping to get all of the sanding done this week so I can begin the painting next weekend seeing as we're 4 1/2 weeks and counting to our due date.

Now I've got to get to the insane to do list I've got for the weekend. First up, a quick shower and running to a few new yard sales within 5 miles of us. New Bean is still lacking a dresser!

Have a good weekend!

Yard saling fun

The junking high I was on a couple weeks after the junking trip I took with my Mom has yet to wane. That very Friday, I decided it was time to introduce Monkey to the art of junking. I scoped out the Bangor Daily while drinking my morning coffee and found a few nearby for us to hit. I need to note, Monkey has sort of potty trained herself since the stomach bug she had back in April, but accidents do still happen - hence sticking to NEARBY (though I've since taught her the art of squatting in the woods when desperation strikes. What? I've said it once and I'll say it again - Redneck. haha).

Here is our loot for just $6:

I couldn't pass up the 50 cent frames. A coat of spray paint and they'll be finding a home in either Monkey or New Bean's bedrooms.

A sad confession - Monkey had ZERO Dr. Seuss books. Now she has 4 and enjoys them. She actually put them in the magazine basket near the potty so she has reading material in the bathroom. HA!

And the darling little tray was purchased with the intent of putting Monkey's small tea set on it. Sadly, the tray was just a tad too small. I put it to use holding all of her hair clips and pony tail holders instead, seeing as they were being stored in a small Ziploc bag on her dresser. Much cuter now.

Sometime next week, I'll be taking an updated picture of Monkey's room because I never did get around to sharing her big girl room! It's still not finished, but for those of us obsessed with decorating in our homes, are we ever really finished?

My baby girl is 2

We had a big birthday party this weekend for Monkey. Our parents, my brother and Scooby (my nephew) all came down to celebrate with us. We kept things pretty low key and as inexpensive as possible.

Monkey loves Elmo, so I decided to go with an Elmo themed party.

I kept decorations at a minimum - just enough to say. I got the streamers and balloons at Dollar Tree. It ran about $10, including the red napkins, 2 party hats and pack of party horns I picked up. The Elmo "Happy Birthday" banner was a "splurge" from IParty ($3.50ish). I had originally picked up some Elmo party horns and Elmo party hats, but I'll be returning them when I found fun red ones at the Dollar Tree. Red was enough Elmo themed for me for the price difference - and Monkey had fun either way.

I bought a Wilton Elmo cake pan at JoAnn's with a 40% off coupon. I picked up a tube of black frosting at the same time because I didn't think I'd be able to get frosting black enough on my own. I used Duncan Hines Butter Recipe Golden (what? I'm ready to pop a kid out - shortcuts shortcuts shortcuts!). It's your basic yellow cake but calls for butter instead of oil and for box cake, it's unbelievably tasty. I used a full batter and half of another (the remaining was made into cupcakes and tossed in the freezer - without frosting - for later consumption). I made buttercream frosting from scratch and used crayon candles on the edge of the base - and for her to blow out (because Elmo loves his crayons!).

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. And Monkey was thrilled! (I need to invest in a nice cake platter - I have a great round one, but this obviously didn't fit).

Lunch was a turkey that's been in our freezer since T received it for Christmas at work. Turkey isn't exactly a summer time food in my mind, so to keep it from feeling like a Thanksgiving dinner, my Mom made a potato and egg salad, I threw together a veggie packed pasta salad and T pulled some corn on the cob from last fall out of the freezer. Simple and quite a bit more summery than mashed potatoes and gravy.

A couple months ago, we found Elmo Live in the Target sales flyer for half price. At $30, we decided we couldn't pass it up (we never would have paid full price because that's just highway robbery). I will say this is the absolute most annoying toy in our house, but she loves it so it's worth it. I've never heard so many squeals as I did when she was opening it. T couldn't get him out of the box fast enough. hehe

And because filling the kids with cake wasn't enough, we went on an outing to Treworgy Orchards for ice cream and the petting zoo later in the day. Twigs is one of our absolute favorite places and I was very glad to finally get to share the fun with my parents, brother - and most importantly, Scooby!

Monkey's actual birthday was on Tuesday. We saved a small Elmo themed gift to give her on the actual day - a Beta fish named Dorothy (Elmo's goldfish is Dorothy - we went for a Beta because they're so low maintenance). T pulled a few of the extra cup cakes out of the freezer and I had saved a small amount of extra frosting so we blew out candles again last night. We then took another trip to Twigs for more ice cream and playing with the goats to have a special family celebration. (I paid for all that sugar when trying to get her to bed last night! haha).

It's so fun to watch her grow and learn, but she's not my itty bitty baby anymore.

What a very bitter sweet moment.

Another LLBean steal of a deal

LL Bean is having a sale all week long. They change the item every hour.





This hour's sale happens to be rain coats for infants and toddlers.


Find it here.


So, if you want to spend $15 on a rain coat and you're seeing this early enough, here you go.


Yes, Monkey is going to have a funky rain coat... to go along with the funky winter coat I bought from LL Bean this fall.

Cheap menu for the week:

Monkey and I did our grocery shopping for the week this morning. We also finally picked up that new shredder I needed since I was unable to get there Friday, but that's another story.

Another successful week!

I did spend $35 at the grocery store, but $17.50 of that is going into the pantry (or freezer, in the case of the ground beef).

I estimated the costs of meats (for instance, the ground beef cost I divided by 4 because I'll get 4 meals out of it). I also estimated my broccoli cost because I haven't bought it yet. It's on sale for $1.29/lb at the other grocery I use, so I'll pick some up on my way home from the office tomorrow.


My grand total for meals is $22.93.

I am thinking of picking up a roasting chicken for Saturday night. My in-laws are coming down for the weekend and the chickens are $0.99 a pound (I don't remember which grocery store that is, but I saw it in the flyer). I'll use freezer vegetables and salad to round out the meal, so that should run less than $5 as well.

T & I did have a little bit of an argument this morning about potatoes. You see, 5 pound bags of potatoes were on sale at Hannaford for $1.25 each last week. When I asked him if I should get a few, he said "Oh no. We've got a ton of potatoes downstairs!" I don't know what made me look this morning, but I checked. And sure enough, we were out just a week after having "a ton." I could have gotten twice as many potatoes for the cost of the 10 lb bag I bought today, so that perturbed me some. I think he's finally understanding my planning ahead, though. And as annoying as my constant planning is, it's saving us money in the long run.

Some of you may be saying "It's just $2.50."

Pennies add up to dollars, my friends.

And on THAT note, it's time to go save Monkey from her crib.

Cheap shopping and cheap meals, again!

Monkey and I spent our morning shopping. I spent breakfast time scouring the sales fliers and my clipped coupons. In order to be quick and efficient, I got out my sticky notes. I made a list for each store on a single note and then folded the coupons for that store into the note. To be even more anal, I put them in order of first stop to last so all I'd have to do is grab from the top of the stack and go.

I spent $220 stocking up and on my weekly groceries. My stocking up means I have some things that will last me a few weeks (cheeses) or a few months (Kleenex and diapers), depending on what it is. (You SHOULD be able to click on the image and have a bigger one open up for a better look).

Let me talk about some great savings I found.

Rite Aid: Jumbo packs of Huggies are 3 for $33. Apply for the rebate and get $10 back. I was also able to use 3-$1 off coupons (1 per pack). The size 3s came out to 16 cents a diaper.

Kmart: 2 Mega boxes of Huggies are $21.99 a piece (normal). Buy 2 packs and get an instant $5 off. They only let me use 1 manufacturer's coupon for $1.50 off. Size 3s came out to 18 cents a diaper. If you have other things you need to purchase also, their flyer has a coupon on the back for $5 off a $50 purchase (before coupons and sales). The diapers alone put me pretty close, so I got a few other things we needed there to get the extra $5 off (and one less stop to make elsewhere).

Hannaford: They are having a 125 special to celebrate 125 years. My broccoli crowns were $1.25/lb. I also bought 4 small blocks of Kraft cheddar cheese for $1.25 each. I don't need them this week, but they'll keep long enough for me to use them one night (I'm thinking broccoli and cheddar soup on Sunday, actually...). I also got a family pack of country style pork ribs for $1.25/lb. I'm going to package it into 2 or 3 smaller packages and freeze them.

Walgreens: Buy 1 pack of Oscar Meyer bacon at $5.99 and get 1 free. I'm using 1 this week in a clam chowder (and possibly on our pizza) and freezing the other.

I think I did a pretty good job. We have at least 2 months worth of diapers (but probably closer to 3). I saved $41.75 in all (not to mention the price difference for the ribs and deli meat that don't show up on the receipts)!

Now for my weekly dinners. After last week, I was extremely determined to keep my dinner menu to under $25 - and I'm including Sunday this week (Saturday will either be a take out treat or leftovers). Some pantry items I have included, if I remember the price I paid. Others I have not included (such as items that get us through a couple of weeks, like mushrooms). And our sandwiches include the full cost of the meat, avocado and tomato, though we have enough that it won't all be used just that night.

I've done it again. For under $20, I'm feeding my family for the week.

I think I need to add to my cold weather goals: Keep weekly meal costs under $25. So far, I'm doing well! ha ha

I wanted to share fall photos today, but Monkey has awaken from her nap so it's time to log off for the day.

How I fed my family for less than $20 this week

Every weekend, I sit down with all of the sales fliers and my stack of cut out coupons (I only cut out coupons for products we already use). And I attempt to plan a menu with these tools to keep our grocery costs down. The past few weeks, I haven't been able to find the time to plan ahead.

Some things just can't always be planned out, I guess.

Below is a spreadsheet of the basics for my meals. I've obviously not accounted for pantry items, but I did include key meal items that I had previously purchased.

What I am getting out of these food items:

Monday: Sausage and squash pasta
Tuesday: Steak, mashed potatoes and baked buttercup squash
Wednesday: Crock pot pork roast (with potatoes, carrots and celery)
Thursday: Homemade french onion soup
Friday: Pizza night

There is enough of all meals that we have leftovers for lunches.

I wonder how many times I can have cheap accidents like this...

Great deal on winter garb

Living in Maine, winter outwear is very important. Especially if you enjoy the outdoors at all.

Being the kind of family that enjoys outdoor activities, we need to have warm gear. T and I have amassed what we need for ourselves over the years already. Monkey, on the other hand, will need to be outfitted annually for a few (many) years.

Being cheap (frugal?) as I am, I can't see spending $100 to dress her for the winter. Yes, winter lasts 1/2 the year here, but she's only going to use this stuff once and it will never fit her again.

What's a Mom to do?

Enter LL Bean.

Yes, I realize some of my readers (TRO?) aren't huge LL Bean fans. But I do enjoy my perks with them. You see, years ago, I signed up for an LL Bean Visa. For every purchase I make on my credit card, I earn Bean dollars. And any purchase I make at LL Bean with said card, I get free shipping and free monogramming (they even have free return shipping now! YAY).

Monkey may hate me for this in a few years when she has any fashion sense and looks back at the pictures from this winter, but I scored a FULL snow suit for $17.15.

How?

I bought a jacket on clearance for $29.95 and ski pants on clearance for $14.95. Enter my $30 worth of Bean dollars and free shipping = $17.15 after tax.


It's a little floral for my taste and I'll probably groan each and every time I put her in it, but at that price, we'll deal. And hopefully our next child is a girl because if we have a boy, he's going to look ridiculous! (I'm joking.. kind of...)

Home Remodeling for CHEAP

I'm cheap.

Yes, that's right. And I have no problem admitting it. I'm cheap.

I have this grand delusion in my head that we'll some day move back to Fort Kent. Pipe dreams don't cost anything, so I'll keep dreaming them (I told you, I'm cheap!).

If we're ever going to sell our house (or if I'm going to be happy with how it looks if I'm living here for the rest of my life), we need to do some upgrades.

Our house was built in 1975 as part of a small subdivision. Thank goodness subdivisions then included a bit more land and a bit more privacy from the neighbors. The 2nd owners put all new windows, siding and decks in 1997 (I know this because the invoices for these things were given to us when we purchased). The people we purchased the house from only did cosmetic work as they only owned the place for 2 years.

Then we came along.

This is our house when we bought it.

Cute enough, right? It was affordable and it had potential (and my goodness I've lost a lot of weight since that picture!).

We didn't do much before moving in. We painted the ceilings, our bedroom and cleaned from top to bottom. That fall, we had to replace the roof. We shopped around and purchased all of the supplies, rented a dumpster and had a Roofing Party. Our father's, 2 of my uncles and one of T's best friends all came down to give us a hand (I hope I'm not forgetting anyone - it's been a few years!). My dad and T ripped off the old roofing on Friday. By noon on Saturday, they were over half done. My mom and aunt helped me keep a supply of food available and I made a feast for that night as a thank you. They all knew what they were doing and it was MUCH cheaper than hiring a contractor.

After going through our first winter here, we knew what had to be done next. The doors were original to the house and they were drafty. We spent months doing our research and shopping around again before making our purchase. Money well spent. We no longer have a draft and they look really nice! We hired a self-employed carpenter to install - and T helped him to help cut down on time/man power.

Before (check out the old front door):

We didn't do anything to the exterior of our home last summer. We had our hands full just learning how to be parents so we didn't take on any extra curricular activities.

This year was probably the biggest year yet. It was the least expensive and had the biggest impact.

I convinced T we needed to change the shutter and deck colors. Apparently, after 10 years together, he still doesn't know me very well. He immediately poo-pooed the project because it would be too expensive. Silly husband thought I wanted to actually replace the shutters. That would have been a hefty price tag because every window in our house has shutters.

Replace? No way.

Paint.

My father has a paint sprayer. So we borrowed it and T went to work (he wouldn't trust me with a paint project of this magnitude, of course).

After 1 can of primer, 1 1/2 gallons of paint for the shutters and 2 gallons of paint for the decks, our house looks completely, 100% like a different house. (And the man now agrees with me that it was a fantastic idea - he needs to learn to not doubt me! ha) I also took some of my "play" money and replaced the exterior lights.

I present to you, our new house:



A cozy look for less than $200.

Now if I could tame the flower beds....

Saving money

Some people are scared of sales fliers. OK, not really. Some (many) people just don't have time for them. I will admit to being one of those people. Lets face it. When I first moved out on my own, I was working 50-some-odd hours a week and keeping a household. Not to mention, I was 22 and spending far too much time partying (nothing wrong with that).

When we first found out we were having Monkey, we needed to decide what we were going to do as far as child care. We said I'd work 3 days a week (30 hours). I would work on T's day off, on Saturday and we'd send Monkey to daycare 1 day a week. Once she arrived, this changed. Neither of us wanted to put her into someone else's care, even if it was only 1 day a week, no matter how much we like the person we had snagged a spot with. Obviously, that has an effect on our money situation.

Sales fliers became my best friend. And coupons.. oh the coupons I started cutting.

Cutting coupons can be overwhelming. It's very important to remember to cut only the coupons for products you use (or want to start using). It's also important to find a storage system that works for you. Personally, I have 4 envelopes of coupons: baby products, groceries, grooming/home care and store specific.

Every Sunday, I sit down with my coupons and fliers and make a game plan. I plan my meals and see if there are things we need that are on sale, I have a coupon for, or better yet - both!

I need to share the great deals I got today. Walgreens is fairly new to Bangor and today was my first visit. Purex laundry detergent is buy 1 get 1 free. Um, hello? Great deal. What made it EVEN BETTER is that I had a coupon for $1.00 off with the purchase of 2. I also found a coupon in the flier for 2 boxes of Puffs Plus for $3. I spent a grand total of $10.54 - with a savings of $9.97!

These are products I use in my home every day already, so why not get it for so much cheaper? You can bet I'll be back to Walgreens in the future.

Also, for you parents out there, they are selling Walgreens brand non-aspirin (like Tylenol) and ibuprofen (like Motrin) for buy 1 at $4.99 and get 1 free. Know that it is children's and not infant's (I almost bought a couple of each to stock up when I realized this).

And while I'm on money saving tips for parents - here's a great one for you parents of girls. You know all of those adorable little dresses we dress our daughters in? You can reuse them as shirts later! Example: the shirt you see below is a size 0-3 month dress that I dressed Monkey in for her aunt & uncle's wedding last October. (I'm only thinking of this because that's what she's wearing today.... ha ha)

Can't tell, can you?

I will end this post on the cuteness that is my toddler. What else could I possibly say?

Afternoon errands

I've been out running errands all day today. With T at work all day today, out of town tonight and all day tomorrow... well, let's just say Monkey and I needed out of the house to break up the monotony of it all (especially since we've been here alone all day Wednesday and Thursday as well!)

I couldn't find a nice yellow fleece at my local Wal-mart, so I made a stop at Jo Ann's. DING DING DING! Fleece is on sale for $5.99/yard (regularly $8.99/yard). Now, granted it would have been cheaper to use a 40% off coupon at regular price, but I really needed to get it today because tomorrow is my one chance at getting my Mom's help to make it. The felt by the yard is also on sale for $2.99/yard (regularly $4.99/yard - 40% off). It's really wide so it will work very well to cut strips to make the stripes.

I found a black sparkly headband in the $1 bin at Jo Ann's. I needed some pipe cleaners, so I bought some of those, which I can attach to the headband as antennae. And I already have a bag of cotton pom poms (that I bought at the Dollar Tree), so I can attach a couple of those to the top of the pipe cleaners.

Speaking of the Dollar Tree.... I bought a few random Halloween decorations that I have a few project ideas for. I will refrain from the Halloween decorating until we at least hit the month of October.


Cheap cheap cheap! Loving it!