Forced to be frugal...

I am being forced to be frugal-ok, no one has a gun to my head, but sometimes I feel as though there is-lol! No, really, I was thrilled when I went through my cupboards and drawers looking at what needed to be restocked and I saw that we had enough baggies from last shopping trip to where I did not need to buy more this time around! YAY! (yes, Im easily amused) It was a thrill though. I saved a couple dollars. Of course, at the store I usually buy milked marked down, they didn't have any, so I had to buy it for full price-but Walgreen's had it on sale and it was Hiland, so that was nice. I like to try to get hormone free as much as possible. So, how did we have enough baggies left over? I have been diligent in washing them out. Usually, they are used for lunches-especially DH's and I guess he has become very good at bringing them back home because we had alot! I wash them in soapy hot water and hang ot dry. I do not reuse them if they still feel icky after I wash them (some just feel sort of 'sticky' I guess-won't keep those but they could be used for cleaning doggy presents in the back yard I guess ;) Plus, I am helping the environment a bit by reusing. We have also been very diligent about putting leftovers into plastic containers instead of baggies-something I have been trying to drill the kids to do :) So, yes, even though it sometimes feel being frugal and trying to pinch a penny till it screams is going to drive me nuts, when I see results (even small ones) like that, it makes me happy. It lets me see my hard work is not in vane. And, it isn't just with baggies. We are using vinegar and baking soda to clean with. Vinegar is so inexpensive as is baking soda. I don't mind the smell of the vinegar and it dissipates quickly leaving a fresh, clean smell when dry.
Of course, I did spend money out of the norm this shopping trip...I have been stocking up on all those school items for sale! I have come home from Staples or Office Depot with a bag or two full of stuff for less than 30 cents! LOL! How cool is that?! Or, I take my ads to Walmart and comp ad things like notebooks, crayons, etc... Walmart here in our neck of the woods really stinks on their school supply prices this year and I am very disappointed. In years past, I could get crayons for 10 cents-not this year! No where even close to that. What is the deal? Are crayons made with crude oil? And the markers are not priced cheap enough compared to years past....huge disappointment when I told the kids no markers this year :(.
Well, life will go on and I am pretty well stocked for school...of course, that is if I can keep those pencil monsters at bay.
Now, I need to learn more about Walgreen's and saving money using their ads, rebates and coupons!

Fun Foto Friday

I realized I could not get a freaky picture every week, so on Friday, I will share some sort of photo from our family. I would love to get some pics of the really neat planes that come through our little airport we live by...hopefully soon :)
But, I was able to catch one awesome looking plane-a very different one. It is not the best picture as the plane was fast and kept getting behind trees-even Eric tried.

Swagbucks.com

I just came across this search site. Use it like you would google or ask.com to find what you are looking for online. You earn swagbucks when you search (usually earning only once a day, but still...) and you can redeem those bucks for items such as Amazon gift cards, Starbucks gift cards, etc... Great way to get a little bonus for something you need to do online anyway :)
Try it for yourself:

Making a bit of Extra Moolah online

Im online anyway, so why not use a bit of my time to quickly earn some money :) I am signed up at a couple survey places that either give me points which I can redeem for something cool like a gift card, or I get actual money. I actually prefer the money one much more because the reward for those gets to me faster than the points ones do :)
Also, when I do a search, I use one of these two places:
Lucky Search 
Blingo
Use these to search in place of your regular search engine and you earn points or win prizes. The person who told me about Blingo wins quite often-cool things like gift cards and movie tickets :) I search for alot anyway, so I can use these instead-and honestly, sometimes using a different search gives you different results, so even using one or two different search engines can't hurt to help you find what you want ;)
I do surveys with Epoll.com, ZoomPanel.com, and PineConeResearch.com. Pine Cone is hard to become a member of-usually you just have to luck out on an invite or see a banner ad for them in order to join, but they are great and you get paid quickly-even if it is just a few dollars here and there-money is money!

StumbleUpon

Check this site out- http://www.stumbleupon.com/ You download a toolbar for IE, then, click on it and it brings you new sites on the web that you might have never seen before. You can adjust the preferences to suit your needs (mine has alot of educational topics that I picked from). We have seen cool pics of the solar system and cool places from around the world. We have learned new things that would have never dreamed possible (like making a tomato glow-lol). Really, it is quite fun, and addicting-lol! So, I allow myself a certain amount of websites to go through-like 5-10 depending on when I get online. Then, off it goes to save those websites for another day. Usually, I end up with quite a few sites that give me something good (new recipe, new HSing site, or perhaps a cool craft idea :).  Have fun!

Holiday Fun!

Bored kids? Exhausted all your fun ideas for the summer or just need something else to do? How about wanting to go on vacation, but your budget won't allow for all the expensive gas? Well, how about celebrating a Holiday? None right now? Well, sure there are!! Why not a Wacky Holiday?! This month has such fun holidays as National Milk Chocolate Day (July 27th), National Get Out of the Doghouse Day (July 21) or National Ice Cream Day (July 20th-also National Lollipop Day so pick both if you want ;). There are many more, as well as whole Monthly Observances such as Blueberery Month, Cell Phone Courtesy Month...you can use these observances as days to have a fun wacky time, a quick field trip (like an ice cream shop on ice cream day) or learn something new (for instance, teach your kids about cell phone courtesy). Here is a great link for each month of the year-you can carry this on after school starts to help add something new to school days. Or use them during school breaks :) Whatever-just something different and fun! Enjoy!
Official 2008 Wacky Holidays

Cleaning Tip Monday

Oh yes, I know it is not Monday, but I had to use this late last night when one of the kids broke a bottle of nail polish on the carpet :( I started with the last little bit of nail polish remover we had left, and sent Eric out to the store to buy more (it is so nice to live close to the stores!). While he was gone, I looked online for tips on cleaning nail polish out of carpet-thankfully this seems to be a common problem :) People were saying peanut butter (wouldn't that just be a whole other issue to clean up?), dry cleaning solution, nail polish remover (which I was trying and having some small success with) and other odds and ends things. Then, one person's post caught my eye-they used the same shaving cream gel my hubby used! I got the can (which was running very low) and tried it on a small section (btw, did I mention that it splattered pretty good-ugh!). It started working, and the shaving cream was not hard to clean up. So, here is the process I did. I squirted a very small amount of the Gillette Fusion Shaving Gel (remember, shaving cream-especially the gels-goes a long way) onto the polish (did I mention it was red?). I used my fingers to lightly spread it around the stain-not rubbing it in, just barely and lightly rubbing the surface of the carpet. Then, I dabbed/blotted the shaving cream with a wet rag-a bit more than damp and it was wet with cold water. I took another slightly damp rag and blotted/rubbed some more. Then, when I could see the polish was gone from that section, I took a dry rag and blotted some more to get any excess water out. I got about 99% of the stain out. I started to get tired, so I will get the rest out today. But, overnight, on the last teeny bit of stain, I sat some paper towels that were weighed down by a couple heavy books :) Anyway, try it if you ever have this happen.

Freaky Foto Friday!!

Ok, Eric went outside last night, the kids followed and Laura about freaked out when she saw this--she thought it was a scorpion-ugh! I would be moved so fast if we found a scorpion this big! LOL! So, hooo-eeee! Ya'all come on over for some crawdad done up cajun style! Oh, and I told Eric we needed something to show the size of this crawdad....I mentioned he could put his fingers by the claw, but he wouldn't go for it-wonder why not?










And, not too freaky, but sort of interesting for us-we got lots of rain yesterday, quickly all at once. And, that was on top of some rain that had already happened early in the am. Our street flooded in front of the house. The rain ditches were running over and up into our yard and the road--there was a small river running over the driveway-lol! The water probably went about 1/2 way up our front lawn to the big tree the kids swing on.

Pencil Monsters!!

Do you have Pencil Monsters in your house? We do! They are scary! They are a relative of the Sock Monster. They love to eat pencils which were intended for use in school work... I'm not sure what it is they like about the pencils, but they do. Sometimes, they enjoy a snack of a delicacy known as colored pencils... I often see clues of these monsters in my couches, under my couches, under beds, etc... pencils shoved in nooks and crannies everywhere-no one ever knowing just how they got there.
Not only do these mysterious creatures enjoy pencils of all kinds, they love markers and crayons. Sometimes I see the 'crumbs' left behind by these fiends (yes, they look just like pencil/crayon shavings, but my children would never leave a mess like that-oh no!). No one has ever seen them, but I am hoping one day one of my kids will grow up, become a scientist, and search for these ominous creatures that rob unsuspecting familes of their writing/drawing supplies, proving what I have known all along-they DO exist! And, I know they are all named 'Notme', 'Idunno', 'Notmine', and 'Ididntdoit'....

Homemaker Notebooks

Im thinking about starting a good Homemaker Notebook-or Household Notebook. Im already started I guess, since my shopping list and menu ideas are in a notebook already. But, I want to add a pricelist where I can keep track of prices on items we buy alot. I also want to add a nice address list with phone numbers-I usually keep things like this on my computer and then I end up losing it when the computer crashes or whatever-lol! I also want to add a cleaning schedule-well, not really a schedule because I NEVER keep up with schedules-lol! Plus, you never know what the day might bring-a sick child, more laundry than you anticipated, need to run out for hubby or something-who knows?!! So, what I want is a cleaning checklist of sorts and leave it out for the kids-they can go through it and see what needs to be done for the week, do it and mark off-or I will do it and mark off (ok, Debbie, you are kidding yourself, right? You *know* who will be going through that notebook and marking off anything at all--YOU!!! :) So, in case you are interested-here are some sites for making your own household notebooks-perhaps it could be a great project to start with your child during the summer or maybe a homeschool project for Home Ec which is what my 9th grader is going to be doing this year :)

What's a Household Notebook Great place to start to learn more
The Household Notebook Further Explained A fellow blogger explains more about her notebook with links to learn more and print out your own
Tip Nut's info on Household Notebooks
Household Notebook Great info on this site plus safety issues to think about with your notebook
Donna Young's Household Notebook Printables Donna Young has great printables of all sorts-especially ones for Homeschooling :)
StarrySky Ranch Household Notebooking Forms Ok, I had to scan around for these, but once I found them-Hooo Doggie!! Some great forms-even some for cleaning out the car :) Also, if you are a homeschooler or have a big family, check out the other posts from this family-lots of great stuff!

Frugal? Penny Pincher? Cheapskate?!!

WHAT?!!! Who meee? No Way? Ok, well, yea, maybe a little :) I have to be in order to make ends meet, wrap around, and meet again-lol! One thing I love to get in the mail, and it makes me feel special, are freebies :) Sometimes these freebies also help stretch the dollar a bit-with samples of laundry detergent, feminine needs, hair care products, etc. it can really help with making things go a bit further (or pinching those pennies :)
I love freebies!!!!
Here are a couple sites I love to check out when Im searching for freebies:
Walmart
Pinching Pennies Less Than a Penny Forum
Vocal Point (not really freebies-you join for free and they often send things like samples or really great coupons-I have gotten free razors, free cereal, etc with coupons to even share with friends or family ;)
FreeBeesForMe This is a YahooGroup-they list freebies from all over the web and none of those goofy ones where you ahve to complete other offers in order to get something free. Lots of emails, but it can be worth it. Sometimes they list money for survey offers or gift cards for surveys-nice ;)
StartSampling This is probably the first freebie site I ever joined and often times Walmart's freebies come through them. Great place to check out every so often

So...there ya have it folks! Check them out and check the web for more-just Google 'freebie sites' to get started and you will come across lots more!! Or you can do a specific search such as 'free printable posters' and you will get lots of links!! Have fun!!

~*Our New House*~

That's it! That's the house :) We moved from the country to be closer to hubby's work. I thought it would be much harder, but it wasn't-the neighborhood is pretty nice, houses are spaced far enough apart that I don't feel like Im living on top of someone-lol! We are close to shopping, so Im not spending alot in gas (real important right now!) and there are lots of parks all around us that the kids and I can go to just to get out of the house a bit. We can even take walks in the evening once it has cooled down a bit.

4th Of July Fun

Need some ideas to keep the kids busy or entertained before that cook out or before the big boomers go off? Perhaps you want something fun they can do instead of playing with sparklers or other dangerous fireworks (which, in defense of sparklers everywhere, I must admit, we do them every year too :)...Here are a couple sites with some fun ideas :) Happy 4th Everyone and Happy Birthday America!!

The Idea Box 4th of July section

Family Fun-great site and great magazine!

FamilyEducation (lots of great ideas for all ages)

New Blogger in the World-Look Out!!

Hello Blogging World! Here I am! Im new to blogging-well, sort of...I started one last year to blog pictures I took, but didn't go far with it at all. This blog is a way to connect with family and friends, to share our experiences, thoughts, links, etc...and to connect with new friends along the way. I hope to use it to share new ideas I come across or fun info-and even some useful info I find.
A little about me-Im Debbie, I live in Ooooklahoma (where the wind definitely comes sweeping down the plains, knocking over buildings, ripping roofs from houses, and sending children blowing away through a field-ok, maybe a little exaggerated-lol). I have been married almost 15 years and we have 5 great kids. I homeschool all of them-matter of fact, we are going on our 10th year of Homeschooling!! WOW!