Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Why my grandmother is amazing.

She's 98 and just bought a condo. And she got a 30 year mortgage. That's a woman that thinks positively.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Blog Titles that spoke to me today

* How to lie, as taught by the world's worst liar
* In awe, or just hungry?
* Taking Grandma to a Neil Diamond concert?
* The Pitter-Patter of Baby Fever
* Snarky Gratitude
* Sometimes You Just Can't Win
* Dibs
* How many snowmen can you punch?
* Get in the kitchen and blog me some pie.
* Snap
* The three little vultures
* When we last left our heroine...
* Santa! I Know him!
* My Morning in Whoville
* Rock Star
* Boy is January going to be boring.
* MORE whining but this time with shotguns
* Sometimes a Snake is Just a Snake
* driving miss lazy

Friday, December 12, 2008

You know what this kind of photo means....



HotMommy and Buzzkill made a sibling for the Punkinhead. Of course, we're also just excited that a special new individual will be joining our family next year.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Trader Tuesday. No one will probably notice.

It's been such a long time since I posted a recipe.

Spicy Appetizer Meatballs

2 lbs. frozen meatballs
15 oz. can jellied cranberry
12 oz. jar chili sauce

Combine the jellied cranberry and chili sauce. Blend until smooth.

Pour over frozen meatballs in a large skillet. Cook over med. high heat for about 15 minutes.

Serve in a warming bowl (or regular bowl; they go fast before they get cold) with those fancy long cocktail toothpicks next to the bowl.

Yum!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

I swear this is not a Polish joke.

It's more of a cubicle prisoner joke (aka about the dudes Buzzkill works with).

The other week they were all pumped to go check out this new restaurant called Simply Polish for lunch. Buzzkill couldn't go with them, but asked how the food was when they returned later.

"Well, we parked and walked into the front entrance, and were overwhelmed by a horrible stench. We then noticed there were only women inside and they all had their hands and feet soaking in water. It was a nail salon!"

Simply Polish (Pawl-ish, as in nail), not Simply Polish (Pole-ish, as in from Poland).

This tale is going to be repeated at every holiday party we attend this season.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

A Christmas Glimpse from Punkinheadland

I'm holding back some great pictures from our family photo shoot because I want friends and family to "oooo" and "ahhh" when they get the annual holiday card, but here's a few of our other favorites featuring HotMommy, Buzzkill, and our star, Punkinhead. I promise to post our card and annual update later once all the paper cards go out.





Admission

I know I coveted it. I begged for it. I blogged for it.

And I finally got it.

But I don't entirely like it. The Couponizer.

I love the money I save using coupons. It takes work, but as a stay-at-home-mom, I consider it part of my job to make the most of the one income we have. So, coupons. It's not for everyone, but I've grown to love the process. But not the disorganization that happened because I dove into the deep end. Total immersion into the coupon culture.

I've search all over YouTube, frugal blogs, coupon blogs, etc. for a coupon sorting system that would work for me. The Couponizer seemed to be the be all, end all, and I was eager to try it.

But here's why it sucks for me. I hate to cut coupons. The Couponizer needs you to cut all the coupons you file in it.

I use The Grocery Game to stockpile food deals and I like how it allows me to cut only the coupons I use. But I also need a way to quickly and easily sort through and keep track of all the other coupons I use at CVS and Walgreens.

I've decided to start my own system. When the Smart Source(SS), Red Plum(RP), and Procter & Gamble(PG) come in the Sunday paper, I'm entering all the coupons into an Access database. I'll be able to search it by publication date, source packet(SS,RP,PG), product type, expiration date, product name, quantity of coupons, etc. The time spent entering these once a week will be an hour at most.

Then all the coupon packets will get put into an accordion file(uncut) by source packet and then by packet date. When I need I coupon, I can search the database, pull the correct source packet, cut the coupon, return the source packet to the file, and go shop. No cutting a million little squares, no scissor blisters.

Never fear about The Couponizer being wasted though. All those random coupons that I get in the mail with samples, the blinkys from the grocery store aisles, and the ones I pull from magazines will get sorted in it. These loose coupons will also be entered into the database, but their "source" will list TC(The Couponizer).

It's taken some work, but I think I'm one my way to a system that's finally going to work for me. Yay!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Holiday Contests & A Little Horn Tooting

I know when I think about the holidays, two things at the top of my list are Walmart and Subway.

Well, maybe not the top, but I kicked tushie at Walmart on Black Friday and I crave Subway roast beefs more than fortnightly. So, I think about them. Your thinking about them now too, aren't you?

Luckily for us, a terrific frugal blogger (and soon-to-be mommy), The Centsible Sawyer is giving away a $100 Walmart gift card and a $15 Subway gift card.

Check out her YouTube channel as well. She's from my home state and I just love hearing the accent so dear to my heart.

P.S. On a bragging note, I payed $3.26 for 3 12-packs of Caffeine Free Diet Coke at CVS today. It was 3 packs for $11 and I had $7.99 in ECBs from Black Friday shopping to use. Buzzkill LOVES the stuff and I find it drinkable as well, so we go through a good bit in a month. I'm always trying to find a way to pay less then 20 cents a can.

Attention procrastinators!

So you haven't order your holiday cards yet? Good for you! This Kodak deal is rewarding you for taking your sweet time.

I, myself, have already ordered this year's holiday cards. Okay, I did it last Friday, and they haven't even been delivered yet. I decided to go ahead and get some more cards with this deal because I always find that there are folks not on my official list that I get cards from and need to add last minute.

I found this deal at another great "frugal" site Money Saving Methods . Her site's great and I'm going to add it to the frugal blog list to the right for y'all to check out.

So, the deal:

You can get THREE sets (30 photo cards total) for free! Plus, you get 75 4x6 prints free for registering with Kodak Gallery. You have to use the 75 prints within a month, but still, score..


I'm reprinting Carrie's instructions here, but you can also follow the link above to her original post.

* Click here to register with Kodak Gallery. Your 75 Free Prints will show up as a credit on your account. You ONLY have 1 month to use them. So, don't delay and lose those prints.

* Upload your holiday photo and create 30 cards (3 sets) Your quantity should show 3.

* Enter code tryus3

* Enter code 20freecards

You will have to pay shipping/handling, but it comes to a little over $3.(HotMommy paid $3.48)

Carrie also has instructions on how to save on shipping by having the cards sent to CVS. I personally thought spending the $3.48 to have them sent right to me was totally worth it.

The cost of the cards is pretty decent if you want to order more than 30 cards too.

No word on when this deal ends.....get busy!