Prom Night 2008

Cainan was the page at the prom this year. He was so excited about getting dressed up. He wore his suit jacket and his little clip-on tie all over town for 2 days. (With a t-shirt and shorts of course.)

He enjoyed the whole experience...except for the dancing. I have to admit it would be hard to dance with a girl for the first time in the middle of a empty gym floor while 7 people with cameras circle you. Now he knows how celebrities feel.

The next day he asked if he could "do Prom" next week too. We told him he'd have to wait about 12 years before he could go to Prom again. He seemed to be OK with that.

Wal-Mart Paid Me!!!

This weekend I sent my friend Jackie to Wal-Mart with my coupons. (It costs me $6 just to get to a Wal-Mart so if I can find other people that are going I send my list with them.) She picked up $15.38 worth of products for me, and after she checked out the clerk had to give her $0.15!!!

Can you believe that? Wal-Mart paid me $0.15 to buy 2 boxes of cereal, a bar of soap, two boxes of Zantac, and 6 Ziploc containers. I made money by shopping!!!


Jackie said the clerk said, “Well, that’s a first for me.” Well I can tell you it won’t be the last time it happens because I plan to keep it up. So how did I do it?

Thanks to all of the great frugal mom bloggers out there I have discovered the world of “couponing”. I’m still trying to figure it all out but in just 2 weeks I have saved a little over $24 off of my Wal-Mart bill. This is just a brief overview to help you get started if you are interested in saving money too.

Step One: Buy a couple of Sunday papers.

I buy the St. Louis Post Dispatch ($1.50) and the Bellville Herald and Review ($1.75). They both have two sale flyers in them every week and other flyers that come out just at the beginning of the month.

Step Two: DON’T clip any coupons.

You do not want to clip your coupons ahead of time. Just pull out the flyers and use a marker to write the date on the top of them and then file them away by type (Smart Source, Red Plum, Proctor & Gamble, etc.) and date.

Step Three: Find the deals.

This is actually very easy. Just go to the blogs that spell the deals out for you. I’ve listed some on my sidebar and they all link to others. So just find the ones that you like the best and check them every day. They will have the best ideas listed near the end of the week because they have had time to go to the stores and scope them out. It’s like having your own personal shopper, kind of. You can also use MyGroceryDeals.com to find what is on sale at all of the major chain stores.

Step Four: Learn the lingo.

There are a lot of acronyms involved with couponing that you’ll need to know.
BOGO= buy one, get one
OOP=out of pocket
$1/1=a coupon that is $1 off of 1 item
$3/$15= a coupon that is $3 off of an expenditure of $15
5/4 SS=tells you that the coupon you need can be found in the May 4th issue of the Smart Source sale flyer. This is why you do not want to clip any of your coupons until you are ready to take them to the store.

Step Five: Combine offers.

That is the most important point to remember. You CAN combine manufactuers coupons with store coupons and discounts. So only use your coupons for things that are already on sale. This enables you to get things for free or almost free.

For example: The Zantac that I bought was on sale at Wal-Mart for $3.98 a box. I had two coupons (that I printed on-line) for $5/1 ($5 off of one box). I bought 2 boxes so I got $2.04 back. The Ziploc containers were on sale for $2.48 but my coupon was only for $1/1 leaving me to still pay $1.48 for the 6 containers. But that’s OK because I’ve got that $2.04 leftover from the Zantac that can go to that. The Kashi cereal I bought was on sale for $2 a box and I had 2 coupons for $2/1. Voila! Two free boxes of cereal. See how it works?

It may sound complicated but it really is simple. Especially when the blogs actually tell you exactly which coupon to use at which store when. It is very little work for a big return.

Happy Saving!

Coming soon! How to get all that free stuff at CVS. (Still working on learning that.)

Cook the Whole Bird

It's Kitchen Tip Tuesday over at Tammy's Recipes so here is my tip for the week.

Buy whole chickens.

It is so much cheaper than buying pieces individually and it is very simple to prepare the whole bird.

Here are a couple of different ways to use your chicken.

I buy 3 or 4 whole chickens a month (usually at $0.89/lb. at Aldi) and throw them in my freezer. Whenever I'm ready to use one I defrost it, pull out the "guts", put it on a roasting pan, pat it down with seasoning salt, and bake it in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour. That's it.

That recipe will make a delicious roast chicken that you can eat that evening. Then with the leftovers I make a small portion of chicken salad for my lunches that week and a chicken pot pie for the freezer.

OR....

Take your defrosted/gutted chicken and put it in a pot of boiling water. Let it boil until the meat is just about to fall off of the bone, approx. 30 mins. Remove the chicken from the pot and put it on a platter to cool. When it is cool enough to touch without burning yourself, pick all of the meat off of the bones and set aside, removing skin and any fat tissue along the way. Use your chicken for chicken-n-dumplings or chicken pot pie or chicken salad or chicken quesadillas, etc. Don't forget to save the broth in your pot too. Freeze it in 2 cup portions for use in future recipes.

This is a great way to save money and make some great chicken dishes. I find I can get 3 meals for my family of 5 off of one chicken. Try it. It's finger lickin' good.

Manic Monday

Happy First Monday in May!!

One Big Garden

Cainan loves the pharse, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news.” He looks for any excuse to use it in his conversations with me. Here is what he came up with this morning.

C: I’ve got some good news and some bad news about spring.

Mom: OK

C: Which one do you want first? (This is a rhetorical question because he usually just gives me whichever one he wants first regardless of what I say.)

Mom: The good news.

C: The bad news is we have all of these storms. (See what I mean)

Mom: What’s the good news?

C: It’s gardening season!

Mom: Do you like gardening with Daddy? (I personally am not fond of it. I don’t like all of the kneeling and bending over in the 90 degree heat all summer. Love the food though.)

C: Yeah. And I like gardening with Grandad too.

Mom: (Grandad has like 3 tomato plants. What gardening?) You garden with Grandad?

C: Yeah, like when I ride on the tractor with him.

Mom: Oh, farming.

C: Is Grandad a farmer?

Mom: Yes! (Well, duh.)

C: Huh. Never knew that. (pause for little wheels to start turning) He doesn’t have any animals though.

Mom: No. He isn’t that kind of farmer. He just works on the land…not with animals.

C: Then he’s a gardener.

Mom: I guess so. (Wow, that’s one big garden!)

Jate Forever!!

Thank goodness the writers are giving up on Juliette and getting back to the real love story in this show...Jack and Kate! I was so glad to see Juliette's confession, which was made to Kate and Jack, since he was just playing possum.

Jack wanting to stay awake during his surgery doesn't surprize me at all. Jack being unable to bear the pain doesn't surprize me at all either...he's not superhuman after all. I was glad that Bernard was in there to assist. I still don't completely trust Juliette...although I really don't think she would ever hurt Jack.

I think the Claire and Sawyer love story is building a little bit too. The restraining order cracked me up...typical Sawyer. I don't know what the dead Christian Shepherd is doing showing up and holding Aaron, or why Claire followed him off. I do not think this is the end of Claire...she'll be back in time for her tragic death, no doubt.

::Warning!:: Wild Speculation Below

My LOST addicted friend, Carrie, has a great theory about Claire, Aaron and Jack. She thinks that Jack is going to somehow accidently kill Claire or be directly responsible for her death. After that event, or simultaneously, he discovers that she is his half-sister. This is what leads to his overwhelming guilt and inability to face raising Aaron, at least initially. I think that is a totally plausible explanation.

I do think that Kate is probably taking care of Sawyer's daughter, Clemetine. Why this has to be a big secret from Jack, I don't know. Remember Kate already knows Clementine's mother. It does sound like Sawyer is still alive and remaining voluntarily on the island. Kate is the only person he would trust to visit his daughter.

I am glad that Jin confronted Charlotte when they got back from the medical station. I could tell she was understanding, I was hoping they could too. Jin got a little vicious with her...which I think she needs. I don't like her or Miles very much. I think Daniel is OK.

So the helicopter is back on the island now? I guess that is how the commandos got there to attack Ben last week. Not to burst anyone's bubble...but I still just do not think they are going to get off of the island. And, I think Locke is going to prevent it. The writers are setting us up to be glad about this because everything that we have seen from the flash forwards is awful. Everyone's life is screwed up...no one is happy. We don't want that. We want them to stay on the island together until they can figure out how to get off of it the right way...maybe destroying it in the process. After all the island or Whidmore or Ben or whoever is still controlling/effecting them in the real world. It needs to be eliminated before they can ever really be happy. I may be proven totally wrong on this but I just don't see the show letting some people off and following story lines in both worlds, not that they haven't proven themselves to be totally capable of doing that.

Speaking of that...Christian Shepherd is haunting Jack too. That could explain why in the very first flash forward Jack tells them to go get his dad upstairs and see how drunk he is, however, I still believe that they will find that no time has passed when they leave the island, thus Jack's real human dad is really upstairs. I think Jack's paper was supposed to show that, but I didn't really get a good look at it. I also found it interesting that the smoke detector went off when Jack's dad showed up. Is he just smoke...a relic from the island? We know the island smoke can take on human form and we know he has appeared on the island to Claire...and Jack previously.

Best Sawyer quote of the episode, "It's too early in the morning for Chinese." Hilarious. Only Sawyer could get away with that.

Anyway, good episode. I can't wait to see what's next. How will we survive the summer without LOST....or any good TV for that matter. For more LOST conversations head over to Rocks in My Dryer.

RSS Awareness Day

OK, I know I'm a day late on this. I've had this post prepared and I forgot to post it.

Basically it is all about subscribing to blogs/websites in a reader...which just means it will automatically give you all of the new content from the blogs you read without you actually having to go to the individual blogs. Its a time saver.

As far as I can tell the only drawback is that you don't get to see the actual blogs, which often have cool features on thier sidebars, and all kinds of interesting colors and designs. I personally like seeing all of that instead of just reading the content in black and white. (You do get pictures and videos that are embeded in the post with a reader, though.)

Anyway, Travis does a much better job of explaining all of this than I do so go here for a good explanation of feeds and why you might want to subscribe to mine.

If you are interested in subscribing to my feed just click on my little orange RSS button on my sidebar and you are all set!!

Ahoy, Mateys!

I jus' found th' best thin'. An English t' Pirate Translator.


Aye. Ye can type in anythin' an' 't will spit 't ou' t' ye in seafarin' hearty speak.



Arrrgh, if only I would be havin' had this before Cainan`s seafarin' hearty birthday party or th' "Pirate Island" play I directed last voyage.

Me promises ye lads that I won't be usin' this here Gentleman 'o Fortune speak on ever' post.


I found th' link at A Ship Full of Pirates, who 'tis given 'way a book too. So git on over there an' see 't fer yerself ye lily-livered bilge rat, o' tis the cap'n that'll make ye walk the plank!

Thank Goodness I'm Not Japanese

Well Weighty Matters has shocked me again.

Guess what? Japan is enforcing mandatory "flab checks" on all employees!!!

If an employee doesn't fall within the excepted range they will be put on a diet and exercise regimen and in some cases....fired!

Another good reason to be thankful to live in America where you can be as fat as you want...uh, maybe not.

Click here to read the whole post.

Take Two

And the winner (again) is....

Michelle

Monk5 never contacted me so Michelle is the new winner of the best socks ever. Check out her blog and tell her congratulations.