Shopping Extravaganza


Pajamas for Nephew
4 Tank tops
3 Work Pants
5 Work Shirts
2 Packs of socks
Pair of flip flops
3 Men's Swimsuits
1 Pair Jeans
2 Pair Shorts
1 Calvin Klein Dress
1 Pair High Heels
=200.00!!!

I estimate I saved about $500 with the shopping at Old Navy and Ross. Just in time for summer too! Mainly, I saved this amount because I found a $75 off $100 purchase Q and a $50 off $100 purchase Q for Old Navy last Friday when Old Navy Weekly reset. Be sure to go to the chat room at Swaggrabber to find out when the next reset is. Definitely worth saving the money! I'll probably post a picture of that hot dress after this weekend, I'm going to a wedding!

Happy Father's Day Dessert

I followed bakerella's lead and made this fantastic dessert idea for my in-laws last Sunday. Check it out! The fries are sugar cookies, the bun is a yellow cupcake (with seasame seeds of course) the lettuce/tomato/mustard is colored icing, and the burger is a fudge brownie. YUMMY!

Walgreens Deal - 6/18


#1
.99 Reuseable Bag (I didn't notice, but I bought 3, and she only rang up one...oops)
3.29*4 Hefty Zip Lock Bags
2.99 St. Ives Body Wash
=17.14
-5.00 RR
-1.00*4 Hefty Q
-1.50 St. Ives Q
-.65 7-Day Ad Reuseable Bag Q
-6.58 7-Day Ad Hefty BOGO Q
+.60 tax
=.01 OOP, +3 St. Ives RR, which is a cost of 2.01

#2
.29 Knee Highs Filler
5.00*3 John Frieda Root Awakenings
=15.29
-3.00 RR
-3.00*3 John Frieda Q (thanks Grandmaleda!!)
+.92
=4.21 on Gift Card, +3 John Frieda RR, which is a cost of 4.21

Grand total: Bought $32.43 worth of merchandise at a cost of 6.22, which is a savings of 80.8%!

Walgreens Deal - 6/14


#1
3.89*2 Scott Tissue
4.99 Tuf Trash Bags
2.99 St. Ives Body Wash
2.59 Right Guard
.99 Hallmark Card
-10.00 RR
-1.50 St. Ives Q
-1.00 Scott Q
-1.00 Right Guard Q
-2.78 7-Day Ad Scott Tissue Q (2/$5)
-1.60 7-Day Ad Right Guard Q (.99 each)
+.90 tax
=2.36 on Gift Card, +3 St. Ives RR, which is a cost of 9.36, but the RR was expiring so I had to burn it

#2
2.99 St. Ives Body Wash
1.00*2 Dried Fruit
-1.50 St. Ives Q
+.18 tax
=3.67 on Gift Card, +3 St. Ives RR, which is a cost of .67

#3
2.99 St. Ives Body Wash
2.59 Right Guard
2.99 Gardening Gloves
.99*6 Walgreens Reuseable Bags
5.00 Tuf Paper Towels
-10.00 RR
-1.00 Right Guard Q
-1.50 St. Ives Q
-3.94 7-Day Ad Walgreens Reuseable Bags Q (3/$1)
-1.60 7-Day Ad Walgreens Right Guard Q (.99 each)
+.84 tax
=2.31 on Gift Card, +3 St. Ives RR, which is a cost of 9.31, but the RR was expiring so I had to burn it.

Grand total: I bought $43.84 worth of merchandise at a cost of $19.34, which is a savings of 55.89%!

CVS Deal - 6/14


#1

2.99 Crest

-1.00 Crest Q

+.18 tax

=2.18 OOP, + 2 Crest ECB, which is a cost of .17

#2

7.99 Schick Quattro Trimmer

-2.00 ECB

-4.00 Schick Q

+.36 tax

=2.35 OOP, +3 Schick ECB, which is a cost of .35

#3

7.99 Schick

2.99 Crest

=10.98

-1 ECB

-4 ECB

-1 Crest Q

-4 Schick Q

+.36 tax

=1.34 OOP, +3 Schick ECB, +2 Crest ECB, which is a cost of 1.34

Grand total: I bought $21.96 worth of merchandise at a cost of $1.86, which is a savings of 91.53%!



Weekend Warriors

Over the past two weekends, we have tackled some projects at home. The first was our back porch door. Before we bought the house, the owners enclosed the porch and since then, there has been water that reaches the threshold of the door. Thus, the door has been taking the brunt of all Florida’s moisture. Ta da—

Lovely, I know. (The next project I’ll tell you about is even lovelier.) So now, we have a lovely new door, with a window so we can see outside more easily. I’ll have to remind myself to take that picture and put it on my blog at some point.

(Imagine the door here.)

Last weekend, we got up bright and early to see the shuttle launch, that didn’t happen, but instead, realized we have a drip in an upstairs bathroom (horrors!). When we investigated, this is what we found.

It had to be upstairs, in a WALL, under a vanity, between two pieces of drywall and two studs, and another pipe. Nice! So the plumber is coming today.

You wouldn’t think it was so bad from this view.

Oh, but this view can make your stomach churn over.


CVS Deal - 6/7


#1

3.25*4 Coke 12 packs

=13.00

-3.00 ECB

-3.00 ECB

-1.00*4 Coke Q

+.42 tax

=3.42 on Gift Card, +3 Coke ECB, which is a cost of 6.42

#2

1.00*2 Dawn Soap

7.99 Gillette Fusion

1.49 CVS 3 oz Purse size lotion

=11.48

-3.00 ECB

-2.00 ECB

-1.49 CVS 3 oz Purse size lotion FREE Q

-.50*2 Dawn Q

-4 Fusion Q

+.30 tax

=.29 on Gift Card, +1 Dawn ECB, +4 Fusion ECB, which is a cost of .29

#3

1.00*2 Dawn Soap

7.99 Gillette Fusion

3.99 Clearasil Facewash (have raincheck)

2.19 CVS Sunscreen

7.99 CVS Sunscreen

1.50*2 Newspapers

=27.16 (after sale price)

-3.00 ECB

-3.00 ECB

-2.00 ECB

-5.00/30 CVS Q (can use this before the sale price goes through, it was over $30 definitely)

-2.00/10 CVS Product Q

-4.00 Fusion Q

-2.00 Clearasil Q

-3.99 Clearasil Raincheck

-.50*2 Dawn Q

+.50 tax

=1.67 on Gift Card, +1 Dawn ECB, +4 Fusion ECB, which is a cost of 4.67

#4

1.50*2 Newspapers

=3.00

+.18 tax

=3.18 on Gift Card


Grand total: Bought $54.64 worth of merchandise at a cost of $14.56 which is a savings of 73.35%! Got 4 newspapers, 1 of which had 2 inserts, so I got 5 inserts this week, and also bought my sister $10 worth of sunscreen for her summer camp job as lifeguard too. So not bad savings.

Shuttle Returns

I went out to Cocoa Beach last night because the shuttle was landing around 6:45 pm. They flew south and then came right up the coastline, so we got to see an up-close and personal shot of the shuttle on top of the 747. Amazing sights!


Here it comes!

Zoomed in!

This is definitely my favorite picture. I like how you can tell how close the plane was.

Heading for the landing strip.

Last weekend - Yard work!

This weekend, I decided, heck, I have nothing else to do, so why not try my hand at back breaking labor for 13 hours??? (Don’t know what I was thinking…obviously.)

Before - Day 1


We have a hideous flower bed next to our pool in the backyard, complete with ugly dirt, an ugly palmetto, and an ugly fishtail palm. (A palm is not a tree, incidentally. It is not correct to say palm tree. People in FL will sic their dogs on you.) U-G-L-Y! So I wanted to get rid of the ugly and put in more lovely. I first had to dig through the dirt to keep all the rocks that were in the bed currently. This was a ton of rocks, but saved money so I only had to buy 4 bags of rocks to complete the project. I bet I spent about 10 hours total digging out rocks and putting them in piles/buckets. Definitely the most painful part of the process.


After I got the rocks out, I had to pull the plants we removed. In that process, I broke a fiberglass shovel, which meant I had to get a stronger shovel. I didn't know I had that in me, really. Seriously.

Rock pile - end of Saturday (9 hours)


Then I needed to lower the dirt level in the bed to keep the dirt from creeping out onto the pool deck, as you can see was happening from the first photo. I believe I bagged about 15 thirty pound bags of dirt, keeping a few bags to fill in holes in our yard, but mainly putting out in front for the yard collectors. That was also a lot of labor. Don't have a picture of this though, sorry you'll have to use your imagination.


We now have 3 crotons, left an existing hibiscus, and a Cavendish Banana Tree, which is a small banana tree that produces edible bananas. Yippie! We also have 7 other smaller plants that have rubbery type leaves that should stand up to the harsh sun and drought, but also the significant downpours we get as well. I think it was well worth it.

Croton

Smaller plant

Finished product


Total cost:

$30 Banana Tree

$13*3 Crotons

$5*7 Smaller plants

$4*4 Rocks

$13 New shovel

$11 Small hoe to get rocks

=$141 plus tax ! Not bad at all.


On a side note, I'm thinking about switching our house colors from boring/blah to something more interesting. Perhaps a sage green for the stucco and some dark grey shutters with iron accents. Anyone have any opinions???