Spoils of Victory

I have today off, hooray! Of course, there is no rest for the weary, especially when you have a house to work on- but we're getting closer day by day. :)

Today, I removed the tape from and shelf papered one side of our bottom cabinets. We FINALLY have storage for our cookware!!! It already looks so much better. Before we were just storing our stuff on the stove and on the counter, which left very little space to do anything.

With our newly-acquired counter space, I decided to break down the rest of the watermelon we had in our fridge! Here are the spoils:



And that doesn't include the pot of pickled watermelon rinds I have cooking! Mmm, I hope they turn out delicious!

I already did a load of dishes, but I'm going to have to do another one today after we eat all this watermelon at D&D. :D

To celebrate my shelf papering victory, here are my spoils:




YUM!!!

Thrifty Find Friday: Super awesome belt :3

I am all about getting things for cheap, or for good deals in general. Yesterday on my break at work, I explored the mall for present ideas for the MANY May birthdays our family and friends have...and found something cool for myself. :3



Awesome psychedelic owl belt, right? :D It was on a super sale...it cost $1.04 after tax. :D


In other news, I am currently suffering from a horrible sinus infection and ear infection and period trifecta...so, trying to take it easy today while still getting house stuff done. If you remember my to-do list from my last post, I haven't gotten a lot done. The fridge is complete and in working order (except the water line...), and Will put a second layer of Spackle on the holes in the walls.

Today I'm working on taping, painting, and cleaning out the cabinets in the kitchen. Being sick does not help matters, but I can do a little, take a break, and do a little more as I feel better. :)

Time to get back to work!

The little things.

Though I've been working hard at my job, I've been hardly working on the house. Time is a very precious thing these days, and, of course, something I (we) have very little extra of.

Some things we did have time for recently was our honeymoon (April 15-20) and a friend's wedding on the 21st. :) The honeymoon was GREAT (more on that eventually, I promise, maybe) and the wedding was very small and beautiful. It was an evening affair, so in the morning we went and returned/exchanged some wedding presents, and got some things we REALLY needed- like trash bins!

Black is for trash, white is recycle.

We also bought a refrigerator from some friends- I love it! It's a almond color, side-by-side fridge and freezer, with an ice and water machine in the freezer door. I feel like we should have paid them more for all the work it took to get it in the house!!! (Sorry Jeremy!)

All in all, we've been making progress on the house, though it is slow and steady. We still have a ton to do, though. Listing for me to remember, and also for progress updates, I suppose?

Things to Do (in no order whatsoever):

1. Kitchen
• Put fridge back together and turn on, replace filter
• Tape to prep for painting walls and cabinets
• Kill kitchen walls
• Put second layer of Spackle on holes in walls
• Put light plates back on walls
• Scrub out cabinets and drawers (again)
• Put shelf paper in cabinets and drawers
• Replace faucet
• Replace filter under sink?
2. Bathroom
• Clean inside and outside vanity
• Clean inside and outside medicine cabinet
• Clean closet
• Scrub floors, esp. grout
• Replace toilet paper holder
3. Every other room in the house
• UNPACK AND CLEAN!!!

As you can see, we only have a ton more to do. Hopefully we'll have a washer and dryer soon! For tonight, I'll be doing laundry and Mom and Granny's. :3

Extreme Couponing: Practice Run!

I have said many times that I want to be an "extreme couponer." I wouldn't want to be like one of those people that are crazy while doing it, but I would like to use coupons to save money on things we want and need. I have been clipping coupons for quite a while, with the full intent to go on a grand shopping trip and stock up on things; however, with working as much as I have and wedding planning and working on the house, my time is stretched pretty thin. 

Anyway, I decided that this week I would actually GO. Part of this decision was based on Farm Fresh's new ad, which said they would be doubling coupons up to $2. Normally, they double up to 99 cents daily, and $1 on Wednesdays. For those that don't know, doubling coupons means that the store will match the amount stated on the coupon- so, if the coupon states that it will take $1 off the item, the store will match the dollar off, making it a total of $2 off the price of the item. Doubling up to $2 (making the total savings $4) is a big deal, especially if the thing you want is already on sale, so I had to check it out.

After going through the ad, I found a great deal I was super excited about. Tylenol Precise Pain Relief products were on sale for $5, and I had a $5 off coupon, making the item free. That's right, I said FREE. I had wanted to try them out, and now was the best time to do it. :)

I made a list of some of the things I wanted and the coupons I had for them. The list was a great way to keep track of what I wanted and how much I would actually have to pay for them...which makes it easy to write about it later! :D

The following is a short recap of my shopping trip: Go to Farm Fresh, wander around the pharmacy section for a billion years because drugs are UBER EXPENSIVE, only get one Tylenol Precise patch box because it was all they had (I wanted two), wander toward yogurt and get last ones, get call from Will, complain about various grocery things on phone to Will while wandering more, eventually check out with coupons, SUCCESS.

I spent a total of two hours in Farm Fresh. I left a little before 11:30. Hahaha.

Here is a picture of my awesome haul! (Minus one yogurt cup because I ate it.)

And, for my own records, the cost, coupons used, etc:

• Swanson Flavor Boost (Chicken)- on sale, 2/$5, $1 off 1 coupon, doubled to $2, total cost = 50¢
• Yoplait Greek Yogurt Cups- on sale 10/$10, used 2 50¢ off 2 coupons, doubled to $1 off 2, total cost for 4 cups = $2
• Tylenol Precise Pain Relief Patches- on sale for $5, $5 off 1 coupon, total cost = FREE!
• Duncan Hines cake mix- on sale for $1.79, 35¢ off 1 coupon, doubled to 70¢, total cost = 79¢
• YoCrunch Yogurt- on sale 10/$6, $1 off 4 coupon, doubled to $2, total cost for 4 cups = 40¢
• Campbells Soup at Hand- on sale $1 each, 50¢ off 2 coupon, doubled to $1, total cost for 2 = $1

At checkout, my total cost before coupons ended up being $17.64. After coupons, the amount I paid ended up being $5.14. I saved a total of $12.50, which was a savings of 72%. :D (The receipt calculated all this out, not me, btw. Haha.)

The 72% savings is extremely impressive until you learn how small my purchase was...but hey, it's a start. I have deemed this shopping trip as my "practice run." I'm hoping I can find more coupons and combine them with great sales to stock up on things for our house. And hopefully the next trip will take less than 2 hours. XD