ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

So today is the One year anniversary of my blog!! I am sooo excited! As I begin working on the 2nd year of the blog I have a few questions for you.

I wanted to get feedback from the bloggers to see what you think of this blog? Do you find it beneficial? Has it helped you save money? What do you hope to see on the this blog in the future?

Also, I hope you like the new look.

SNOW!

If you have seen the news in the past few days or if you live in the DC area you know that the weather was/is extremely bad around here. Well, on Saturday we were hit hard by the snow, and our building lost power and water.

Yesterday we got the power and water back but unfortunately the cable/Internet wasn't back yet. Basically making it difficult to post for my lovely readers. I am back for now, although we are promised more snow on Tuesday. I will keep posting unless I no longer have Internet.

I would like to know how everyone is liking the new look of the blog. I don't necessarily like it because when you scroll down the page is all white. I tried to change the color with no luck. If anyone knows how to change the background color please let me know. If I have better luck with the Internet this week I will try to fix the look of the blog.

HAPPY NEW YEAR/ FREECYCLE

Happy New year! I hope 2010 is filled with savings for you.

To start off the new year I figured I would tell you about freecycle and how awesome it is in helping you live a frugal life.

What is Freecycle?
Freecycle is a yahoo group that helps people recycle the things they no longer want or need. Members in the group post items they would like to give away and others that are interested can contact the person directly. Also, it allows you to ask others for items you are looking for.

Freecycle Mission Statement:
Our mission is to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources & eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community.


In every city, there is a freecycle group or a group in a surrounding city that you may join. It is free to join and all items received are free.

A lot of items I have at home, I have freecycle to thank for. tables, decor, lamps, storage items, etc. I have also been able to pass along tons of items that I just no longer wanted. The best part is even broken items that I thought were trash I have posted on freecycle and people have been eager and willing to take my items. As the saying goes "Your trash is another person's treasure." You have to make sure to let everyone know that the items are broken.

To get more information about freecycle or to find a local freecycle group go to:
http://www.freecycle.org



*** I have not been paid in any way to post this! ***

Cardboard TP Ideas

This may sound a little weird. I was checking the guest bathroom to see if I need to replace the toilet paper, and I found an empty cardboard tp holder. I remember as a child recycling them for an art project. I started to think there are probably a million projects I can do with the TP holder. So every Sunday for the next few weeks I will try to post 1 new idea for the TP holder. If you have one you would like to share, please feel free to leave a comment and I will be glad to post it the following week. These ideas can work for the cardboard paper towel holders as well. They may need to be cut down to the TP holder size to work for the projects.

Now, Since Halloween is coming up, I figured this weeks idea should be related to halloween.

Halloween Suprise Tubes


Materials Needed:


•Toilet paper roll
•Halloween printed fabric
•Ribbon
•Glue
•Treats (see Suggestions below)

Instructions:
Cut a piece of fabric big enough to cover the toilet paper roll and have a couple of inches hanging over each end of the tube. Wrap the Halloween fabric around the toilet paper roll and glue in place. Tie (in a bow) one overhung end of the fabric with 3 - 4 different colored ribbons. Fill the fabric covered tube with trinkets, candy, and confetti. Tie the open end up with the ribbons. Place sticker on the tube.

You can put anything in these. When I made them last year for my son to hand out to his classmated for halloween, they loved them!!!

This idea was found Here!

Note: These also can work great for easter, check here!

Dollar store Deals

I was online checking out other blogs, and I remembered the 99 cent store cookstore. I checkout some of the recipes and figured hm... let me check out the dollar store. I thought I would be brave enough to buy unknown name brands, but I really wasn't. I did however find some good deals that I figured I would share. In the food section I found Betty Crocker tuna helper for $1.00. When on sale, the cheapest I found the Betty Crocker tuna helper was for $2.00. So I paid half for the same thing. I bought 3 and saved $3.00. Also, I found Betty Crocker mashed potatoes. Again another item I find at it's cheapest for $2.00 a box. I bought two. They only had two of the four flavors the grocery store had but still, it is only a dollar. I bought two of the butter and herb mashed potatoes, saving another 2 bucks. While looking at the food options, I was feeling sloppy joes for dinner. I found the Del monte sloppy joe sauce for a $1.00. I haven't been able to find it cheaper then that at the grocery store. Also, they had tons of Del monte fruits some were 2 for a $1.00. The sale price for these at the grocery store is $1.00 each.

I paid $7ish instead of $14, half :-D

GRR... CVS

I need a moment to vent. I went to CVS, I don't necessarily go in to CVS often. I had a few rainchecks I wanted to use. One raincheck is for a 24 pack of regular #2 pencils that are $2.79 a pack. The sale price was $1.99 with a $1.99 extra bucks. Well today the pencils are on sale for $1.50. So as the woman is explaining this to me, I was thinking "ok, what is the problem?" So she called a manager over who told me I can't use the raincheck today but I can get the pencils for the sale price. I explained all I wanted to do was get the raincheck and that I don't care about the sale price. He said he could not go back in the system and change the price because it is on sale cheaper then the cost of the raincheck. So I asked him if I could at least get the extra bucks for $1.50 instead of $1.99 and he said there is nothing he can do and walked away from me. How rude! So as he was walking away I told him I need these items for a charity, we are getting school supplies for local orphans and I don't have time to wait until the sale price match the one on the raincheck. So now I am not sure what to do. I really need the pencils for the orphans since we are going to be putting together the book bags next week and the following week the kids start school. I am extremely pissed off at how rude the manager was and how he just walked away. And it just doesn't make any sense to me why if I want to pay more for a stupid item why they can't make it happen. I had a $1.99 extra bucks that I wanted to use. So now is this worth calling the CVS customer service line? I really don't feel like I want to make trouble, but it is stupid that I couldn't walk out with the pencils.

Any suggestions are greaty appreciated. If you have any similar storiees you would like to share, please feel free. Thanks!

Day off!

Hello all. I'm off to hershey park for the day. Catch you later.

my cell phone insurance

Normally I am not a big fan of paying for cell phone insurance but this time it has been a life saver. I have a bad habit of dropping my phone. I have always purchased tough looking flip phones just because I know I am going to keep dropping it, and most of my phones have lasted for years. This year my husband thought it would be nice to get me the palm pre. I absolutely love the palm pre, just one problem. Every time I drop it something super bad happens to the phone. Now I have been extremely careful with this phone because I know it can't handle the abuse I would normally put a phone through. The first time I dropped the phone, the slidder messed up. I also cracked the top of the screen. When I took it to the store, they said they would replace it for me, because of my lovely insurance. When I got it back, the speaker and mic no longer worked :-(. I got the phone replaced. The new phone I have gave me issues with the speaker, I couldn't use the loud speaker so while talking on the phone one day I decided I would juggle the phone on my shoulder while holding a lot of stuff, the phone took a nice dive to the concrete floor. Once again cracked the screen a little. Also, it messed up the phone, it won't hold a charge, however I could talk on speaker after the fall, something I couldn't do before. I went back to the store, again they said I would fix it. I bought the insurance for incase i drop it, it gets stolen, or any other issues that may happen that just aren't normal wear and tear. They tried to sell me an insurance for normal wear and tear. For anyone considering that, don't! Your phones come with a 1 year manufactor warrenty for normal wear and tear. Most phone companies let you get the insurance later on in life, like after the year if you choose to. But no need to pay a few bucks a month for something that is already covered. Anyways, that is my two cents for the day. Anyone have any good/bad experience with your phones/phone insurance/ cell phone companies?

take care!

My favorite number is 5. I think $5 is a good deal for anything. JCP has its normal $4.97( or $5) clearance deal, be sure to check out your local JCP to see what deals they have. My cousins did her back to school shopping last weeks. She got tops and one pair jeans for $20. That is a such a steal. I also found a top that was clearanced for $5 but had an extra percentage off making it $4. Happy shopping.