Yard sales and CVS bargains

I went to 2 neighborhood yard sales this morning with my brother and son.  We found some goodies! 

These vintage Fisher Price toys were $2

Legos - 3 gallon bags and 1 sheet- $5 for all

Storage tub was $3- packed full with 3 brand new color books, some trucks, a big gator and about a dozen transformer toys 

Gallon bag full of magnetic letters .50

Thomas the Train set $2

Just a few children's clothes-  assorted prices from different places, I think some were 50 cents and some were $1 - I looked at lots of clothes today, too many were stained- I only bought ones that were in excellent condition 

Set of Wilton tips $1 

Jar was 25 cents

Makeup bag was 25 cents

Pottery Barn children's plates were $1 each - probably my worst deal of the day but I like them and I know my grandchildren will like them too.  One of the grands is especially particular about their food not being mixed up.  

Board books $1 each - both have those 3 D pictures in them that make it seem like the animals and vehicles in them are moving.  They were both like new- makes me wonder why the first owners never read them.  

Pampered Chef mixing pitcher 25 cents!  I was wanting one of these as I am following the Trim Healthy Mama plan and wanted one to mix up big batches of GGMS. 

Little Tikes basketball goal - 25 cents!  I was looking for one of these too and never imagined I would find a good one for such a tiny price.  

My brothers pile - books, rugs, photo frames, and a CD. 

My sons pile - pretty clear drinking glasses, a book, a t shirt, a leather document bag

My son got the large tray for $1 

 Carhart overalls for $1 - my husband said new ones retail for $90 or so.  They are in very good condition, just need laundered.  

We saw lots of other good deals today that we didn't buy as we didn't need them.

I've been accumulating a discard pile and had been considering having a sale on our neighborhood-wide day.  But today's prices convinced me that I don't want too.  Yard sales are a lot of work for not much profit, at least that it how it seems in our town,  

So I am pretty sure I will be donating our pile to our favorite thrift store.  

CVS deals - just one trip this week

With coupons and $10 extra care bucks,  all this was $10.30.  

Thank you all so much for the sweet comments about our latest grandson.  He is doing just fine and is just as sweet as he looks. 

I've accomplished several jobs around my home that make life easier and me happier. 

I hope to be back blogging on a regular basis soon.  

An introduction and ......

Grand baby #6  Jackson arrived Friday night, just 45 minutes after his parents got to the hospital.  

He looks a lot like his 2 siblings except he has much darker hair.  So far he is a easy, content baby and we are all thrilled to add him to our family.  

This has been a jam-packed year so far.  I've got several home projects I want to do while Jackson's parents are on school break, we'll be having company and of course I want to spend some time with this new baby and with his siblings and cousins on their summer school breaks.

So, I will be taking a blog break for 1 or maybe 2 weeks.   I'll be back sometime in June.......

I hope to get lots done and to relax some too.  And I hope all of you do the same. 

This week's list, CVS, and craft room progress

Good morning everyone,

It was a fun weekend here and now it's time to get this new week organized, well as much as possible as we are still on baby watch.

My lists are notebook paper decorated with rubber stamps and map pencils. 

CVS

After coupons on everything, and everything was on sale, and of course a few CVS coupons

$21 spent and I got back $8 in CVS rewards to use next time.  

The Tide was on clearance for $2 and in a cart at the front door of our local CVS.  I only bought as many as I had coupons for. 

The Gold Emblem snacks are various prices and sizes and there are several printable coupons on Coupons.com for $1 on any and $2/ on any 2.

The tea was $3 with a $3 reward for spending $10.  Yesterday's paper had a $.75/2 coupon. 

The paper towels were $5.99 and there was also a coupon in yesterday's paper.  The Ajax dishwashing liquid was $.99 and they were a deal with the towels - spend $15 and get back $5.

These pictures don't really do it justice but I made a lot of progress in the craft room last week.  Everything is pretty much cleaned out and organized.  Now it needs some touch up paint on the walls, a little rearranging and some decorating to make it pretty.  

Hope you all have a very nice week! I'm off to get some stuff done.  

bargain shopping

I'm still shopping at CVS but no more than needed.  I've built up more than adequate stockpiles so unless I really need something or there is an excellent deal,  I don't shop.  

I read on a CVS Facebook group that CVS is clearancing a number of cleaners and laundry products 75% off.  I stopped at one CVS in Midwest City Oklahoma yesterday.  They did not have much but I'm happy with what I did find.  With the sale and using $6 in CVS extra care bucks,  I got 3 bottles of Wisk laundry detergent and 2 bottles of cleanser that I use on our white kitchen sink for $3 total.  

I previously posted about Schoola, a new online company that resells gently used and like new clothing as a fund raiser for schools.  

This is my Schoola link

http://www.schoola.com/stitch/rf239759

If you shop through it, you will get $15 off your first order and free shipping and I will get another $15 off another order. 

   Update -    I'm sorry this changed but I was just on the Schoola site and it seems to only be free shipping when you spend $50 now.  

I've got 2 orders from them and both have been even better than I expected.  

If you don't have children to shop for, they also sell adult shoes and clothing for women and men.  

My first order were these 2 hoodie jackets, I got them for about $1. 

My 2nd order was for these 6 pieces- they cost me less than $4 for all.  

Monday's list

Hello everyone,

It's another new week and another new list.  I had a good, productive Monday.  I even took a nap. 

2 year old JJ will soon be a big brother.  So when he fell asleep in my lap this afternoon, I wondered how many more times I would be able to rock him to sleep.  So I just sat there and didn't lay him down in his bed.  I also napped a little while I held that snoozing curly head boy for 2 hours. 

I know every older mother will agree with me that those baby years are trying but they go by too fast.  

Back to the list,  this prettied up note book paper method is working just fine for me.  

Designs are made with rubber stamps and colored with map pencils.  

Hope you all had a good Monday too.   

What's new here

Hello everyone, 

That list from last week kept me so busy and somehow it all got done or at least started.  Whew!w

We've had lots of much needed rain.  Our rose bushes are all blooming and look so pretty.  

Can you see the fresh cypress mulch on the flower beds? Our son did that.  I am so glad, it should mean lots less weeding this summer.  And it smells wonderful! 

Our 5 grands last Sunday - they are all thriving and healthy and happy 

My current big project is reorganizing and slightly downsizing the stuff in my craft room-this is what it looked like when I started last week. I'm still working on and hope to finish it up this week.

I am thankful to have so many supplies but they've got too messy- makes it very difficult to work in there.  This room has a big closet that wasn't being used to its best potential and that big set of industrial shelves takes up so much room.  It will be leaving and everything else is getting sorted and stored neatly with as much in closet as possible. 

I've started my list for next week and it is much shorter than last week's - I'll share it tomorrow when I finish it. 

Hope you all had a nice weekend!

Monday's list

Good morning everyone! This week's list is full and I just noticed I DO need to mow the front yard so will add that to this list and I need to go buy one thing at Lowes so I will add that too. 

I just decorated this week's list with a few bees because I will need to stay busy as a bee to get it all done. But that's OK. 

There has been a lot going on at our home and I hope to do another post this after, heavy on photos. 

Hope you all have a good Monday! Let's get stuff done, OK?

This week's list and a before and after

Hello everyone,  I was able to complete most everything on last week's list except the some of the sewing and I wasn't able to plant the flower bed.  But those tasks will get done, if not this week, then eventually.  

My list is on old school notebook paper, designs are made with rubber stamps that I've had for years.

I did get some new Pilot Frixion pens and wrote this list with them, they do write nice, but I don't plan on rebuying them.  To me, they are not as great as some of the fancy planners say.  

I finished a few of my tasks today but I got sidelined by a much - needed organization project.  I started to clean our bathroom and saw 2 bottles of OTC meds on the counter.  I went to put them away and it bugged me that we had first aid things stored in several places.  So I gathered up all SIX baskets of medicines and first aid items.  I spread them out on our long kitchen cabinet, started looking for duplicates and very past their dates items and products we don't use anymore.  

It took me more than an hour and I discarded so much.  

When done, the items we need to keep only filled 3 smaller baskets.  

One is adult OTC medicines.

One is first aid items like bandages. 

The 3rd holds current prescription bottles and some assorted approved children OTC medicines like fever reducers, Mucinex and cough drops. 

I hope you have all had a nice Monday.  It is unseasonably cool here and we are getting some much needed rain. 

Thank you sweet readers if you tried out Schoola.  I've got a couple of notifications from them today that I earned more credit from them because some of you used my link.  You all know I like bargain shopping! 

Almost free children clothes

I read about Schoola on another blog and tried it.  I used her link and got a $15 credit and free shipping. For just $1.04 I ordered 2 hoodie jackets for my grands.  They will especially be nice to keep here so they have a warm jacket to play outside if they didn't bring one.  

If you want to try Schoola,   you can use my link and you will also get a $15 credit as well as free shipping.  I will also get another $15 credit.  

http://www.schoola.com/stitch/rf239759

These are the hoodies I just ordered. 

Items are previously owned and come with description about their condition.

Schoola has sizes from 1 year up to teens.  

I paid with PayPal, Schoola also accepts credit cards. 

Another Monday- another list

Fast and Easy supper

We were away from home most all of today.  Once we got home, We wanted some supper but I hadn't planned anything and didn't want to go out.

So, I made an old stand by meal- our version of nachos

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with a release spray like Pam (unless you don't mind scrapping melted cooked-on cheese and you can skip that step.) 

Put down a layer of tortilla chips. Then top with small scoops of refried beans, taco meat and grated cheddar cheese. (I almost always have small containers of taco meat and homemade refried beans in the freezer- made just for times when quick meals are needed)

Bake this in a hot oven, maybe 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees F, until everything is hot and the cheese is bubbly.

While it is baking, dice up some onion, tomatoes and lettuce, set out some salsa, sour cream and peppers, or whatever you like on Mexican style food.

Each diner can top their nachos with whatever they like. 

If you've got some basic ingredients in hand, this meal can be ready to eat faster than driving to Taco Bell.   Clean up is very fast if you use foil on the baking sheet.  

Shopping highlights

A small trip to CVS - I just used newspaper coupons and coupons from the CVS red box. 

2 body wash, 3 bars of soap, 1 toothpaste, 1 Almay eye shadow and 2 bags of clearance Easter candy (already opened and put in the candy dish) 

I spent $6.68 cash. I didn't use or earn any CVS extra care bucks on this transaction but I'm still happy  with it. 

At Dollar Tree, I found these cute little snack cups. They come 2 cups and 1 spoon in a package for $1 and are in the baby care section.  I got turtles and foxes. They had other animals too, zebras and  lions and maybe others.  

I found these paper - cardboard eggs at Walmart when their Easter clearance was 90% off,  I got 4 packs of 12 eggs at 19 cents each.  I know the grands will have much fun decorating them next year.  

I can't share his photo but my brother found 9 egg decorating sets on clearance in his town for $1.56. 

This was a big shopping week here, we also went to the commissary and Sprouts in Oklahoma City. 

Our home is pretty well stocked now and I don't expect to do much more shopping for awhile,  the exception being if I go to CVS for great deals next week. 

The grandchildren's room - much better now!

My big project for this week was getting the grands room in our home back to some kind of organization.  It is a nice sized bedroom with a good closet, but it has to house stuff for the 5 grands and some stuff for the future 2 grands, and it also holds some of my shopping stockpile.  

It took 3 evenings to go through everything.  It was sorted- some stuff was thrown away and some stuff went to the grands homes. 

Mid-sort  Scary, right?

AFTER

I am happy to say the grands room is done for now!  All sorted and organized and easy to get to anything. 

I changed out the bed cover and put toys on the shelf. 

Stuffed toys fill that storage tub. 

I put the organizers back in the toy cubbies- looks much neater, Right? 

The shelf over the changing table holds stacks of diapers by size and changing products. 

The bins underneath hold clothes for the 2 youngest grand sons as they are very close in size. 

The closet got the most work.  

The top shelf holds the wwipes stockpile and assorted toys. 

Most clothes are on hangers now.  

The shelves are labeled as to who the clothes belong to and one shelf is just for assorted pajamas.

The other end of the closet - the clear tub holds future clothes, the black tub is shoes. 

For months, I've been buying diapers at good deals. Moving them out of that closet really helped with making more space there.  I moved them all to the bottom shelf of a large cabinet on the hall bathroom,  the packs are stacked in there 2 and 3 deep and I think there are 33 packs of assorted sized diapers.  

I'm really thankful I've been able to stockpile so many but they sure take up a lot of space!  

It was a lot of work but I am so happy it is done!  I still want to shampoo the carpet, maybe next week.....

I've gone back in that room at least a dozen times just to enjoy the order and neatness :)

I spent nothing on this room re-do except $5 for clothes hangers.

Monday List

This week's list is not bad, I did the laundry and some cleaning this weekend.  

Designs are made with rubber stamps, colored with map pencils and the paper is just old fashioned lined notebook paper.  

My big project this week, at least I hope to get to it, is to some organizing in the grandchildrens room.  The winter clothes need switched out for summer clothes and all the toys, books and clothes just seem to be a mess. 

BEFORE

     

Hope to have some much better AFTER photos soon