Wave Bye-Bye as It Goes Out the Door

Here's a quickie before I go out the door with a couple of bags of goodies for the food bank.
It's not food per se but toiletries are welcomed at my local food bank.
And thanks to Rite-Aid, I've got all this to give.....

10 bottle of contact solution
23 tubes of toothpaste
3 boxes of hair coloring
1 tube of denture adhesive

Then it's off to do some banking, food shopping and if my back is ok from yesterday, I'm going back into the garage to lift and tote around stuff out there.  Yesterday I gleaned this lot plus 2 more boxes of stuff for the Salvation Army.  I'm hoping to fill Hubs trunk for another full donation to Sallie's this weekend.
Maybe another post later....maybe not.

Sluggy

My Huge Head Diva Self

While I was going through boxes in the living room the other day, as part of Week 3's Decluttering Challenge I came across some old photos and momentoes.

One of them is an old photo of Yours Truly at about 2.5 years old. 
The story behind this photo......My grandmother had paid for a professional photographer to come to our house and take my photo while I posed in front of a white sheet.  My mom had taken one of the pictures that resulted from this photo shoot and shellac-ed it onto a plaster frame that had been painted gold.
Yes, we were high end, rich folks back in the early 1960's......lol

Anyway, as I mentioned in #2 son's Birthday post yesterday, that large, nah HUGE! heads run in my family, I thought I'd give you a looky loo at My Diva Self in about late 1960.

Is it me or does this look like someone took a cute little toddler's body and plopped a Rocky Dennis head down on it? ;-)

 And yes, we both have the "Ginger" think going on too!

Sluggy

More February P*rn of the Decluttering Variety!

You may have seen some of this stuff in one of my Feb. Decluttering Challenge posts.  This post is all about getting that crap and more outta the house.

Round 2 of Decluttering Porn for February........

2 Hoodies
2 Vans Shirts
1 Glass Rose
2 Pillsbury Doughboy Ornaments
3 Winnie the Pooh silver Charms
1 Power Rangers Backpack, Fanny Pack and Wallet

2 Throw Blankets
2 Weirdohs Model Car Kits
1 Star Trek Masterpiece Figure/Book Set
5 Star Trek Action Figures
2 Die-Cast Cars 1:32
4 Star Wars Action Figures
2 Star Wars Candy Dispensers
2 Diabetic Lancing Devices

9 Craft Kits
4 Miniature Disney Figures
4 Kid's Puzzles

1 Thomas the Tank Lunchbox
1 Safari Shuttle Sunoco Truck
5 bottles of Lotion
2 T-shirts
11 Boyd's Bears Pins
2 Sticker Sets
2 Partridge Family Bus die-cast Cars
1 Small Soldiers Model Kit figure

1 Address Book
1 Set of Playing Cards
2 Books
1 Toy Story Night Light
1 Kid's Musical Toothbrush
1 WWE Ceramic Mug
5 tubes of Glitter
1 Castanet

75 more things have left the building!
I'm off to the garage to start in there......

Sluggy

Babbling Wednesday & Birthday Time!

***It is with sadness that I write that Precious' blog, Frugal Makes Cents, is no more.   She posted about a week ago that she was going to end her blog.  I left a comment about her leaving the blog up as a reference tool for frugal seekers, as she had many good ideas included within over the years.

I went yesterday to see what other comments had been left and if someone had taken over her "Money Saving Challenge" for 2012, but I can't access the blog, as it's been privatized and I haven't been invited to view it.
*sigh*

I guess she's going to use it for other things and not leave it up for a frugal reference tool.
If anyone knows if someone is going to Host the Money Saving Challenge, please let me know.
I thank you....

***While Hubs and I completed filling out the FAFSA forms this past weekend, I didn't actually submit them until Tuesday evening.   I also found out I could efile the older 2 kids' federal taxes.  Did 1 and once it was accepted by the IRS, I efiled the 2nd one yesterday.  Beats having to mail them to the kids for signatures and then having them pay to mail them certified/return receipt requested.  Too bad Hubs and I can't efile our federal return or tele-file our state return.  Gots to go OLD SKOOL with the paper returns.....

***I can't believe how many things I have crossed off my "To Do" List for February so far.  This coming week is all about cleaning out & organizing the garage.  I need to get Hubs to drop off the Sallie's load in his car so I can load him up again.  The donations are backing up here....

*** I also can't believe the weather we've had this Winter!  Tomorrow is suppose to hit 50 degrees here and Friday 54 degrees....INSANE!!!  Usually by this time, it looks like this around here.....

 OR like this in really bad years.....

Not what it actually looks like today....

***Today is my baby's birthday.  16 years ago today I was in labor and trying to pop his massively large melon head out my HooHa.  The week preceding his arrival, our region was facing massive flooding from a late February Winter snow melt-off combined with days upon days of rainstorms.

My water broke as I rolled over on the sofabed at home at 5:30am.....I had been sleeping there as my regular bed had been too uncomfortable to sleep on since December.  Dropped 2 kids at friend's house and Hubs, my mother(who had flown up from VA for the birth)& I drove to the hospital.

Got hooked up to PIT around Noonish, to get things cranking along.  Around 2 o clock is when the pain got heavy.
I was going to attempt another no epidural/drugs delivery.  By 4 I was pushworthy.  His head was down and engaged in the birth canal but he just coudn't/wouldn't leave.  The nurses had me standing on the bed, hanging onto a bar which they set up over the bed(think gymnastic apparatus!) in a semi-squat position.  This power position and gravity was to help me squeeze him out.
After almost 4 hours of this, interspersed with mind blowing contraction pain, I threw in the towel and BEGGED for a C-section.

And about a half an hour later at 8:26pm, the youngest was pulled from my abdomen and commenced hollering.  Hubs still remarks about how freaky it was to be sitting next to me in the OR while the doctors had my ueturus sitting out on my abdomen, chatting away with him, while they cleaned up large amounts of scar tissue from an emergency appendectomy I had undergone when I was 30, before putting me back together.  Yes, good times!

And they fished #2 Son out not a moment too soon, because by the time they stitched me up and got me cleaned up and back to my room and got the morphine flowing(ah!), it was Thursday and nearly time for ER to come on tv and I never missed that show!lol  That boy would rue the day he interfered with his momma's shows.....

And we found out why there was no way on God's green earth he was coming out the other way.  The doctors(I got 2 for this procedure...I am special!lol)said his head was the largest they had every seen(well, for a non hydrocephalus baby).  The nurse measured it when they take all those vital statistic thingys and his head was literally the size of a toddlers.  He was a big boy anyway at 9lb. 11oz.  So between my 5'1" frame with a normal sized pelvis and his melon head, there was no tunnel egress for him!lol

And both his mother(that would be me)and my oldest brother had exceedingly large heads when we were young so it runs in our family.  My brother had a genius IQ so I like to think that WE both needed those larger than normal heads to hold all those brains WE had......well, that's my story anyway.

Because of the C-Section, #2 Son and I had an extended stay in the Maternity Ward.  Between my surgery/stitches and his high Billirubin count(and his time under the lamps with his cool shades), we became fixtures on the ward.  By the time we came home, my mother was worn out from watching the older 2.   Pres. Clinton came to town while we were lazing around the ward but he didn't stop by the hospital.  I still tell #2 Son that Clinton came to town to celebrate his birth.....so what if the town the hospital was in was declared a federal disaster area that week due to the heavy rains, massive snow melt and unseasonably high temperatures that caused flooding.....the presidential visit was all for HIS birthday!

#2 Son has always been my quiet child.  He is introverted and is not one to yammer on or show off, like his older siblings.  We never thought he'd talk when he was young, as his siblings never shut up long enough to give him a chance to speak!lol  When he was born his sister was 3 and his brother was 4.5 years old.  Yes, I had 3 kids under the age of 5 at once. ;-)
#2 Son is my last hope for producing an artist.  #1 Son had a talent for performing/acting and he studied music for awhile put lost interest in it.  Daughter is the least gifted in the artistic realm but she has continued with playing her guitar.  #2 Son has a gift for visual arts(though he doesn't believe what his teacher and I see there) and he has a passion for music.   He eats, drinks and breaths music.  Though he gets good grades in all his classes, if he didn't have music, he'd probably decide to drop out of school now that he's old enough to do so.(And it's not like I'd allow that anyway!lol)  Being an introvert, he can take or leave the whole social aspect of high school.

He lives for music.  And I am thrilled to say that he is making progress in his skills and music loves him back.
Happy 16th Birthday #2 Son!!!

Sluggy

Week 3 Low Spending & Decluttering Challenges Results

Week 3 of Carla's Double February Challenge is done....at least for me it is!

First the Mini-Challenge.....where you are suppose to help someone.  That would be today, when I used my mechanically prowess to help #2 son with his problem.
Yah see, his friend gave him a guitar flanger pedal for his Birthday.  It's a little hunk of metal and plastic that you plug your electric guitar or bass into and it distorts the sound the instrument produces.  #2 son says "this pedal makes your guitar sound like it's on acid."
Okay....
Anyway, it worked for the first few minutes he used it but now it won't work at all.  He's been nagging me to order him a new one on Amazon since Sunday.  No, he can't wait to take it to the music store and see if they can fix it first.  He has to go out and drop $30 on a new one.....and pay for Express shipping to boot!
So "hell no you don't need express shipping" mom goes on Amazon.....and she starts reading the reviews on this item since she knows nothing about guitar flangers, heck, she didn't even know what a flangers was until #2 son told her about them.
And mom reads in a review that there is a battery inside this nifty little device, so mom asks #2 son if he has opened the flanger up and changed the battery inside.  To which he responds no.
You see where I am going with this now, don't you?
So mom opens and changes out the 9Volt battery and Voila!....It's a miracle!!....his Flanger works!
I saved him $30.
Of course after all that I don't get a thanks mom....he just grumbled some more when I told him he owed me $4 for the battery. ;-)


As for the Low Spend part.....
Food shopping.......$73.02
I actually spent money on something other than food though.  #2 son is in need of new footwear as he has holes in every last pair now.  So I went on eBay and bought him 2 pair of Chuck Taylor Converse sneakers.  We usually hit the Converse outlet in Rehobeth Beach to get them for a discount price but he wore the last pair out sooner than expected.  I got them on eBay and with the shipping they were the same price as at the outlet-but without paying for gas for the car to get there.lol
2 pair Converse....$72.98

As for the Decluttering Challenge.  This week was the Productivity Challenge.
I am working on my dining room/living room.
I don't think I was very productive though.

Before I show you my living room, let me explain that it isn't really a living room yet.   I've used it for storage....stored various things over the years.  First we moved here sort of in a hurry so it held lots of moving boxes.  Then after I got that stuff put away we got another load of my mother's things....my mother passed away the week before we moved here. So the next 2 years, as my brother settled her estate, we had to cart my inheritance stuff home from VA and find places for all that stuff. Then my eBay inventory grew so some of it got shoved into the living room.  At one time the room was wall to wall boxes of crap.....very similar to one of those Hoarding shows, except without the trash and animal feces. lol
We also had 4 dogs-one of which was very destructive-at one point and there is a white carpet in that room, so we had to gate off the living/dining room.  The destructo dog is gone but we still have 2 dogs, 1 of which is paper trained but she also considers the dining room her toileting area, so we still have to gate the rooms off.

I have almost gotten the living room emptied at this point.  I am tired of waiting for the last 2 dogs to pass on to fix up my living room, so I am working on getting repairs made and the room painted and furniture bought so we can use it as a living room.
*Deep Breath*

Here are the before shots.....

 That old rug is there from when the Xmas tree was up.  Not quite as bad as leaving your lights on your house all year, but close.lol

 Tubs of eBay merchandise that hasn't sold yet....and that isn't even listed right now.lol

I emptied the ugly plastic shelving unit and got rid of it.
I also got rid of 2 boxes of trash.....

And I gathered all this to donate......

And here are the after shots.....

I cleared the paperwork off the table(for the most part).  The stuff in the chair are my Xmas presents I still haven't opened. lol

I washed and rehung the curtains.

 I gleaned and restacked the eBay merchandise that's left.

 Other than sending some Christmas stuff back upstairs where it belongs and trashing that plastic shelving unit, I still need to work on this part of the room at another time.

The same goes for the table at the bottom of the stairs...though some of this is stuff that is going upstairs.

So that is that.  I am not done but progress was made this week.

Sluggy

Wild Fun with the Hubs on President's Day!

This is a quickie post while I sit and rest from tackling my Week 3 Decluttering Challenge today.

Hubs had off for the President's Day holiday yesterday so we did something wild and crazy.....well, wild and crazy for a couple of old coots like us.
We had lunch at Bob Evans(I used a Coupon too!)and then we went to Big Lots to walk off lunch and bought groceries.
Yes, we live life on the EDGE!!

*Hubs wanted some applesauce cups for when he brings his lunch to work. $1
*I needed a bottle of garlic powder as I am almost out.  While I like to use fresh or minced in the refrigerated jar, I use the powder for certain things....like in pizza sauce. $1
*The conchiglie(seashell)pasta was my idea.  I haven't been able to find this shape/size around here for a good price at the grocery stores.  I like this shape for making mac & cheese or to interchange with rigatoni when I make rigatoni and sauce, as it holds the sauce well like a rigatoni noodle. $1
*The chocolate graham crackers were half price, as they are coming up on the USE BY date on the box.  Contrary to what a lot of folks think, just because the Use By date is past, doesn't make the crackers inedible or toxic. ;-)  I hope to get a chocolate graham crusted pie out of the box IF I can keep them out of #2 son's clutches!lol $1.25
*We were out of wet dog food so I picked up these cans for a good price for Pedigree.  I use wet dog food as a condiment on the kibble and real food blend I give the puppies....like a sauce to tempt them to eat.  It helps with the chihuahua because she is so picky and won't eat real food(veggies & fruit scraps either alone or mixed with meats).  Using this gets her eating and she doesn't realize there is real food under it until it's all gone.  Yes, I am a master of dog psychology.....lol  $1.15 each
*Prego is our favorite jarred sauce but it's hardly ever on sale here at the grocery stores.  This jar was HUGE and even less expensive per ounce than the Ragu and such at the grocery stores on sale.  Since we can't use a huge jar up nowadays in 1 meal with only 3 of us at home, I'll have to make multiple meals in a single week that call for spaghetti sauce OR make 2 lasagnas or such and freeze one for later OR wait for the other kids to come home to cook something and use it. $4
*My favorite purchase was the cans of 100% juice concentrate.  I had a EUREKA! Light Bulb Moment in the store yesterday when I saw it.  This concentrate requires you to add 3 cans of water to reconstitute it to full 100% juice strength.  I've been trying to get #2 son to drink less juice, even though it's not the nasty loaded with HFCS or cane sugar varieties.  It's loaded with calories, even if it's 'natural' and he should drink more water and less juice.
So I am going to buy this and pull the trick I use to pull when my kids were little.....water down their juice.  I can make it less sweet but still sweet enough so he won't notice.  Less calories, less natural sugar and more water consumed.  Yes, I am a Sneaky McSneakerson and don't you dare rat me out to my kids! $1 each

Back to the dining/living room now....

Sluggy

February Food Spending Week 3, Meal Plan February Week 4

*I am taking part in Precious' MONEY SAVING CHALLENGE again for 2012.  You can find her blog FRUGAL MAKES CENTS and a list of other participants and their blogs  HERE.

Check it out.  You might find some new ideas for incorporating frugality into your life there!*


I love searching around for old photos and advertisements featuring kitchens from years gone by.  These are mostly the kitchens from my youth in the 1960's or earlier. 

This week I give you the kitchen of 1945.....

 With the war over, the US saw a flood of servicemen coming home and a rise in the marriage rate and the numbers of new households being formed.  It ushered in a time of economic growth and innovations having to do with domesticity and the home.
While this kitchen in many ways is stuck in the materials and design of the 1930's(the lino patterned floor, the color scheme and the lack of coordinating cabinets, appliances-color and fabrication, etc.), there is a VERY domestic feature this one showcases--the "Baking Center".  This was a large cabinet/door-ed area that combined tool and pantry storage and work space.  You closed the door when not in use and your kitchen looked neat as a pin with nary a spatula or tea towel out of place or showing.  Your kitchen could look ready for a ladie's magazine photo shoot at any time.

I am liking this design idea enough to consider it for our next home.  What do you think about it?

Enough of that, onward to the Meals and Food Spending. 8-)

Last week's meal plan is in the books.  Here is what actually happened....

SUNDAY--Burger King burgers(in celebration of an excellent report card, at #2 son's request)

MONDAY--leftover Enchiladas

TUESDAY--Hubs is taking me out to local Asian restaurant, I'll make cheese steak for #2 son

WEDNESDAY--Spaghetti & Meatballs(homemade meatballs leftover in freezer), Spinach Salad

THURSDAY--leftover lasagna or tv dinners in the freezer(these are old and need to be used up)

FRIDAY--leftover spaghetti or burritos and leftover corn  *I had a PBJ sammie & strawberries.

SATURDAY--Quiche, Salad

Maybe not on the night it was suppose to happen, but we pretty much had what was planned, except the Roast Chicken and Veggies, since I couldn't find whole chicken for a good price last week.  *Sunday the local store had it for .88¢ lb. so I bought 2 yesterday morning....this trip goes under Week 4 food shopping spending.

The weekly food spending was $35.12.  1 trip to the local grocer where I mostly stocked up on OJ concentrate and then bought celery, strawberries, chicken breast, pie shells, ice cream and a cherry pie for Hubs.  Hubs picked up 2 dozen eggs at Price Chopper on sale for $1 dozen.

3 Weeks in and I've spent $155.75 of my $300 February food budget.  $144.25 left for the month plus $92.32 leftover from January that didn't get spent.

Going into February Week 4, we have an entire quiche leftover.

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Toasted Chicken with Veggies, Stuffing(boxed)

MONDAY--Quiche, Tossed Salad

TUESDAY--Pork Chop with Maple Glaze, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sugar Snap Peas

WEDNESDAY--Red Robin Free Meal for #2's birthday

THURSDAY--Leftovers(quiche or chicken or pork chop or ?)

FRIDAY--Fish, Rice, Teriyaki Veggie Melange
SATURDAY--Not sure yet....maybe Chinese take-out or Breakfast for Dinner

This menu gives us 4 or 5 new meals, 1 or 2 eating out and 1 night of leftovers.

Items needed to buy for this menu are...the whole chicken which I bought Sunday.  I have all the other ingredients on hand.  I'm using up a bag of potatoes, carrots, celery, older box of stuffing, a rice mix, 2 bags of frozen veggies which are getting "long in the tooth".

We'll be buying milk as usual. The only stocking up opportunities I see so far are some jarred mandarin oranges(I can't stand the ones in metal cans), more whole chickens and flounder @ $3.99lb.

I might go hog wild and spend $60 this week...yikes!lol

So what is everyone else eating this week?  

Sluggy