To do list, etc;

Below is my to do list for this week and I also put a few projects to work on during April.

No grands here yesterday, and with my husband's help, we had a very productive Monday.  

This is the first harvest from husband's little garden- red and green leaf lettuce and a dab of spinach.  

Fresh eggs- my daughter bought them from a student at her school.  

Even if I had to wash them,  brown and blue eggs are just so much more cheerful than plain white ones.  

Saturday night, I got to thinking about Sunday lunch.  So I went in the kitchen and found the ingredients to make a bowl of tabouli salad.  

I also chopped up some potatoes, onions and carrots and found some beef broth and chopped, leftover roast beef and broth in the freezer.  

Sunday morning, it was very easy to start some vegetable beef soup cooking in the crockpot.  

It was so nice to come home from church and know lunch is ready.  

 We had a very relaxing Sunday afternoon after a busy week.  

Sharing this photo because I think they are just so cute and happy

Have a wonderful week everyone 

Today's CVS purchases and if you want to see my stockpile....here it is

I had my deals and coupons planned out ahead of time so we stopped at CVS on our way to church 

I prefer to go at this time because the weekly ad has just started and sale things are usually in stock.

Also my favorite CVS manager, Cole, is working then.  He is also a couponer and knows exactly how deals are supposed to work.  

The socks and chocolate were both on clearance 75% off and my husband needs socks so this was a good find. 

Everything else was on sale and bought with coupons.  

My receipt says I saved $100,06 which equals 100% and I spent no actual cash- just ExtraCareBucks from previous week's and coupons.  I got back $17 in ExtraCareBucks.  

I blog about my deals and some of you have commented asking where I keep it and what do I do with all of it.  

First, we live in a pretty normal Oklahoma home that has quite a bit of room.

Second, I do share these purchases with my family and with others in need.  

Our hall bathroom has a deep, floor to ceiling linen cabinet.  

On the top shelf is multi packs of toilet tissue.

On the 2 bottom shelves are about a dozen boxes of facial tissue, 15 bags of assorted diapers, 4 extra hand soaps and 5 twin packs of Pantene shampoo and conditioners. 

I didn't photograph the baby wipes, they are on the top shelf of the toy room closet.  

Laundry room 

On the top of the cabinets are 5 multipacks of paper towels.  

I can fit more up there and I think paper towels are a deal next week at CVS. 

Remember- I plan ahead by looking at the  future CVS sales at IHeartCVS.com

The lower cabinet is deep and holds about a dozen bottles of laundry detergent and a few bleach and fabric softener.  

The bottom shelf has a few bags of laundry pods and assorted laundry products.  

The rest of the CVS stockpile is in our big, walk-in master closet.

On one top shelf is more toilet tissue.  

The other items are in containers on this tall shelf in the master closet.

Shoe boxes of dental floss.....

Bar soap.....

Cosmetics.......

Deodorants........

A basket of women's razors and a basket of men's razors and cream 

Toothpastes and brushes 

The bottom shelf is dark so I put a lantern to help light it up for the photo.mm

On the left are shampoo and conditioners, 

In the middle are mouthwashes

On the right are liquid soaps and lotions.  

And I forgot to photograph the tray of face moisturizers and makeup wipes.  

My tips for stockpiles 

 I rarely spend much cash. 

 At CVS, I focus on sale products that give ExtraCareBucks and then use my ExtraCareBucks for future sales.

 I do almost all bargain shopping concentrating on just CVS.  I see great deals on line that people get at Walgreens, Dollar General, Publix, Target, KMart.   Pick one store available to you and focus on it.

 Buy stuff you will use.  

 Join a Facebook group that posts for the store you shop.  

 Be organized. 

And have fun!

 I like that couponing stretches our income but I also consider it a hobby and a game.  

Easter, CVS, some bulk cooking, etc!

Hello everyone - the end of March and beginning of Spring has been a busy time here.  I'm guessing your homes have been busy with similar things.  

First,  FedEx delivered this beautiful box of organic produce from GrubMarket.Com

I won it as a giveaway on Laura Lane's blog  http://harvestlanecottage.blogspot.com

Thank you to Grub Market and Laura

We celebrated Easter all day on Sunday.  

First we went to church and then we came home for a big family day.  

Here are some eggs we colored.  They are not real eggs but fake eggs I got at the Walmart Clearance last year for 19 cents a dozen.  

We used markers and stickers 

And my daughter tried the rice-food coloring- shake it all up method she had seen on Facebook.  Mixed reviews from us on that one.....

Our lunch menu included "doubled eggs" as 5 year old Elizabeth calls them.  

I cooked 2 dozen eggs.  I like to use a pastry blender to mash up the filling 

And a small scoop to fill the eggs back up.  

That very large dining table I found on a Facebook swap and shop list is so nice for big meals.  

We got a heavy rain on Easter morning and it left the backyard muddy so we had the egg hunt indoors.  

Lots of fun!  

My brother brought a huge fresh fruit tray from Sprouts and this fancy dozen donuts from Hurts 

https://www.facebook.com/Hurts-Donut-Norman-Oklahoma-689685841084686/

My daughter and me, after most of our Easter activities.  

Mid week, son Bobby came with daughters Andie and Charlie.  My parents came over to visit them too. 

That's 10 month old baby Jackson and 9 month old baby Charlie.  

The cousins always like to do crafts, even if it's just coloring.

They are all so happy to see each other.  It makes this grandma so happy to see them hug and spontaneously say "I love you Andie" or which ever cousin they are near.  :) 

Midweek, we made a quick trip to Tinker Air Force Base.  Plane-crazy Braeden was so happy to see airplanes up close.  We also shopped at the Exchange and stocked up on groceries at the commissary. 

CVS 

I had not been in about 2 weeks and I ended up with a pretty big haul.  It did not go quite as planned.  The deals on the CVS app don't show up in the store for me so I did call customer service.  

Anyway,  after coupons and ECBs and my gift cards from Swagbucks and MyPoints.com,  I think I spent $19 actual money and got back a pile of ECBs.  Customer Service also added some ECBs to my account so I have lots to shop with the rest of April.  

Whether the CVS deals go exactly as I think they should or not, I am still very happy shopping there and will continue 

My husband and I celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary and he gave me 3 dozen roses.  

They smelled so good and lasted about 10 days.  

Bulk Cooking 

I cooked a big batch of homemade chili and put most of it in the freezer for quick meals on future busy days.  

I also made a big batch of refried beans for th freezer, but didn't take a photo.

Not a great photo but my son asked me to bake cookies for 50 for a reception.  

I baked my favorite chocolate chip, oatmeal coconut and snickerdoodles.  

When he came to get the cookies,  he also made himself a salad to go and he looked over the garden

In our backyard

The garden is my husband's project.  It is doing great and I'll take better photos when the sun is not making shadows like in this one. 

One plan I have for April is it will be a low-spend extra thrifty month at the If You Do Stuff home, 

Our biggest bill of the year is due in June. So we are planning to save extra the next 2 months so when that property insurance leaves our savings account, it won't be as noticeable. 

More on that later............

Have a good first week in April everyone