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KISSFAN1's Recent Blog Entries
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Although my life is busy every day it seems as most mom's days are, I find myself having to constantly think of ways to challenge myself since I have met my weight loss goal, bought a new wardrobe, etc.
Organizing my home and focusing on the things that got ignored along the way are things that I am focusing on now with the limited time that I have to focus on those things.
I'm still trying to use up some older items I have in my freezer and have been cooking items as I have time to do so. Today is a day that I can do that since we don't have any appointments, so I think I will use up some meatballs and made subs (we have tons of spaghetti sauce in my stockpile) and homemade potato soup (need to use up some dirt cheap potatoes I got before they go bad). Soup isn't the best thing in the world right now due to the warm weather we've been experiencing, but my daughter is a fan and she's the picky one, so there you go, LOL.
I finally got a chance to wash all my new food storage containers I got at IKEA this weekend and hope to start using them today to see if I need to purchase more of them in the near future. So far I'm loving these things and they were a pretty good price as well. They have a spout on the top so you can pour something out of them and the lid is easy to close. I've been wanting something like this for so long, but was too cheap to pay the prices I saw in other stores.
Yeah, it doesn't take much to excite me these days! LOL. 
I really dread the last day of the month because so many of my coupons expire and sometimes really great ones get forgotten and I end up having to throw them away. I'm going to go through my coupon box earlier in the day so that if there is something that is fantastic and not to be missed, I will have the rest of the day to purchase it before it expires tomorrow.
I got lucky this past Sunday because one of the two Sunday papers that my husband bought had extra coupons so I ended up getting 3 sets vs. 2 sets of several of the sets!  I managed to get time to cut them all out finally yesterday (well really last night) but still haven't cleaned out my coupon box of expired coupons yet so have a huge job ahead of me today.
I have to make sure I always stay on top of my coupons because nothing is worse than going to the store and thinking you have a coupon for something on sale only to find out it has already expired. 
So it all goes back to the thing I'm working on a lot and that is organization. Not only in my coupons and home, but everywhere in my life. I am a pretty good organizer, but due to lack of time I'm not as organized as I would like to be, so I'm working on it in every way I can when I can find some free time. I know it will save me money, time, and less stress in my life.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Last day was a hard night for me as I struggled to get to sleep and stay asleep. I don't know what was going on that caused that to happen (probably the stress of having to buy a car) but I am dragging physically today because of that.
We went uptown yesterday to look at cars (didn't get to test drive or sit inside since the car lots were closed) but we did get to look at colors, styles, etc.
I'm excited about getting a new car, but at the same time I'm really worried because of this economy, the price of gas going up, my husband's company filing bankruptcy, our bank account savings, etc. We have to have a second car regardless, but there are so many factors that worry me. In the meanwhile, I'm still saving money where I can and not buying as much although it may sound like I buy constantly by the sound of my blogs.
I'm really determined to get my kitchen especially more organized because there are times things don't get used because they are so difficult to find due to the way my kitchen cabinets and pantry are laid out. I have more patience finding things than my husband does, so I'm working hard getting it straightened out more than it already is.
My husband finally went to Mighty Dollar with me and while I didn't find any organizing items there (bummer), he found a few things and of course so did I. I got 3 packages of Cascade dishwasher detergent packages that are normally about $5 each for of course $1 each. Our dishwasher is washing at least one time a day due to us eating all our meals at home most of the time, so that was a definite great buy. He also got some cord he's been wanting to go on our gaming system for $1 that works great and saved us money too.
And I also found something that I never in a million years expected to find there, KISS (yes, my favorite rock group) scented body lotion! For a $1!!!!  I wear the perfume because my husband bought it for me a few years back and I get compliments on it all the time, and now I have the scented lotion too!
Now my husband sees why I love that store so much, LOL!
We stopped by Aldi's to get a few things that we were low on including strawberries (99 cents a package!!!), an English seedless cucumber for $1.29, a gallon of milk for $2.79, etc.
It was such a busy day that I never got around to cutting out my many coupons that were in the paper, but I'll work on it today as well as get my coupon box straightened out since tomorrow is the last day of the month. It will take me a while, but definitely worth the time.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
I had a very long and exhausting shopping experience yesterday, but I was happy with what I got and hope to use some of the things I got to organize my kitchen a little more.
I went to Big Lots (which is near my home) and got a few things, but sort of regret that I didn't buy more than I did since every thing was 20% off. It's not a ton of money off, but since Big Lots is a discount store, you can save quite a bit of money when it's all said and done in the end.
I'm trying really hard to think through EVERY single purchase I make this year and hence the reason for the regret once I realized how cheap some of the items were after I checked out. I had a long 45 minute trip to Charlotte ahead of me though and had a late start so knew I didn't have a lot of time to go back through that store so didn't.
I went to Harris Teeter to pick up just a few things that were new specials including Tide detergent that was $5.47 (or something like that) just for Saturday. I had $2 coupons and also had a $2 electronic coupon saved (it was expiring today so had it do it all yesterday) so I got some cheap Tide! 
My next stop was driving to Charlotte to IKEA. Oh my gosh, I thought by now that the crowds would have died down since they have been open for a few years, but apparently every one in Charlotte loves IKEA! LOL It was hard to find a parking space, so I knew I was looking at some major time spent in the store.
I found some cool food storage containers (short ones were $2.99 and the taller ones were $3.99) which I think will take up less space in my cabinets and also allow me to see what is inside since they are clear. I got more items than that, but didn't really get to look at every thing I wanted to because the crowds were crazy in there. The check-out lines were so long even though they had a lot of registers open. Like I said, Charlotte must love IKEA!
I found a ceramic tall jar that they had marked down from $7.99 to $1.99 to put my paper cup-cake liners in (saw that idea on Pinterest) and now I wish I would have bought more. Oh well, I was trying to watch my purchases and think them through before wasting money on things I wouldn't use, but love the way they look and want some more of them!
I probably will try to go back in a few weeks and look for the other items that I was wanting (a magnetic knife holder to hold office supplies and metal things like pizza cutters, spatulas, etc.). I literally had to fight my way through every area of the store and was exhausted by the time I finally got to check out.
I did sign up ahead of time before going for a family discount card. I printed out the sheet that had my code on it and all I had to do was scan my code at the self sign-up kiosk, but the lines were long there too because no one else had done that, so they had to type in all their information by hand. It was a long wait everywhere, but I was thankful the kids weren't with me or they would have died! LOL
I did get a free yogurt cone for signing up for the card and since it was so late by the time I got out of there, I was starving (I brought a lunch from home with me but it was dinner time by now so was getting hungry). I didn't feel guilty about my splurge since I haven't had ice cream in probably over a year and I was happy to see when I got home to track my calories that it was only 100 calories (it was pretty small).
I went finally to Trader Joe's (very late by now) and stocked up on my favorite organic tomato soup (not a huge fan of tomato soup, but this soup is awesome!!!) which wasn't on the shelf at all. I asked someone about it and they looked in the back and brought out a case so I bought 6 packages while I was there. I'm 45 minutes (one way) from there so it was a good idea for sure since most of the time when my husband goes by there it's gone and he's not the type to ask if they have any in the back.
I had a VERY late dinner last night by the time I got home (around 8:00-8:30 pm) and let me tell you it didn't take long for me to fall in bed after eating!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Well today I'm going to finally drive to Charlotte and go to IKEA and Trader Joe's. They are approximately 40-45 minutes away from my house so I usually let my husband pick up items at Trader Joe's for me since he works around that area a lot to save on gas. I'm so excited to get to go myself and stock up on some items.
I've signed up online at IKEA for their family bonus card and plan to have it scanned and pick it up at the front desk so I can hopefully save a little even more money in the future.
I want to go there mainly to look for some cheap organizational items (it's close to TJ's) for my home and I also plan to do the same thing at Big Lots since they have 20% off everything today for those that have their free Big Lots bonus card.
It's going to be a long day due to the distance traveled and also have you seen how big IKEA is? I've been to the one in Charlotte twice since it opened here and is it ever a workout in that place, LOL!
Friday, January 27, 2012
I finally got a chance to work out at the YMCA today with my kids who are both taking a homeschool P.E. class (of course I pay for it but I get to get on the equipment for free since I am helping to supervise the older kids).
I got my son to finally do some cardio (treadmill) with me as he has been avoiding it and only wants to do the strength training. We were on it for only 30 minutes, but that's better than nothing and I was proud of him for not giving up although he wanted to.
The weather has been crazy here lately. It was so warm that even I didn't need a coat and I'm usually cold when everyone else is fine. Definitely strange for this time of year when it's almost February, even in the south. We usually have very cold weather and ice storms this time of year, so I suppose at least we don't have to worry about losing power.
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