Motivated Moms planner

I finally got around to starting this today and let me tell you I love it already.  It is so simple.  Really.  For those who like lists, here was the big list for today:
          Change dishcloth/towel
          Clean microwave - inside and out
          Mop kitchen
          Clean light fixture - dining room
          Change hand towels in bathrooms
          Clean bottom shelf of refrigerator
What I love about it is that it breaks things down into simple tasks.  I hate cleaning the refrigerator, it is truly an overwhelming thing for me to do, but just the bottom shelf?  Took me less than 5 minutes.   The light fixture in my dining room hasn't been cleaned since we put it up over 2 years ago.  So I didn't mop the kitchen b/c I had mopped half of it tuesday cleaning up an overflowing toilet and didn't feel like getting the mop out again.  There is also a list along the side of the planner for everyday stuff like exercising, cleaning the kitchen counters, sweeping and vacuuming.  I might not do all of that everyday but it will help remind me to do it more regularly.  Since it was fairly easy to do the above stuff, I added the dishwasher door which is tomorrow's task (I will be working) and apparently I don't look at that enough, really gross yet quick to clean.
My house is so overwhelming to me that I either do a marathon cleaning project and get nothing else done or I just don't do it b/c it is too daunting.  I think this will break it down in a really good way to get everything accomplished.  I am hoping in a month, my house will be utterly clean.  Maybe not totally organized but at least clean.
Oh and I am going to tell my husband that he gets to do the wednesday tasks since he is home with the kids.  We'll see how well that goes over:-)
   

Flaky

Yes, that's me.  Kind of flaky sometimes. Big ideas, little follow through.  So I am here to say officially I am quitting FlyLady.  It just didn't work for me. (Although my shink is still very shiny and that makes me happy)  It wasn't practical enough for me right now.  I do like baby steps but I really need checklists.  So I just bought motivatedmoms planner and am printing it out right now.  I am planning on binding it and keeping it in my kitchen.  Am really hoping this will help me.  It was only $8 but you have to factor in printing prices and binding so adds up a little but still, it is a year's planner and prints lightly so it doesn't seem to be using excessive amounts of ink.
I will keep you posted if I follow through with this or not.  So far without even having the list, I have accomplished about half of the things on there.  See, it's practical.  Stuff I would do anyway.

shopping

Seriously why does it stress me out to use coupons?  Safeway had another $10/50 coupon along with some other good coupons so I decided to go there instead of Winco.  But I end up spending so much more simply b/c I am sure I will get up to the register and not have enough to use the coupon and then I will be mad. 
I actually did get a lot and I had a really good checker which definitely makes things better.  Am still loving the ecoupons that you load to your card, I bought a box of mashed potatoes (I know not as good as the real thing but I can't seem to make good garlic mashed potatoes), the box was $2.00 plus I had a .35c coupon but when I looked at my receipt, it had also taken .80cents off from my card.  I didn't even realize it was on there.
Tampons: 4.99 on sale, plus I had a BOGO coupon (3.79 value) but the cashier was a little confused and ended up giving me 6.99 off.  Seriously, 2 boxes for under 2 bucks.  That was a score and they were Tampax which are expensive.
Cleaning products: Scrubbing bubbles BOGO plus there was a $2 off coupon on the bottle so I got 2 bottles for 2.29.
Kraft products: buy 5 get $5 catalina.  I didn't have any great coupons for this except cheese slices for $1.49 but you could only buy 2 and I didn't really need it.  Well, the whipped cream cheese was on sale for .99 each if you bought 5.  So I got 5 of those and the singles and got a $5 catalina so really all 6 products for $1.48.  Awesome,  I won't need to by cream cheese for months!
Pillsbury biscuits: I never buy these but they had the little packs .75 cents off which made them .33 cents each, I bought 2.
Clearance meat: got a big pot roast for 30% off making it only $7.
All in all I spent $71.55 and saved $63.  Plus I can't forget the $5 catalina I get to use next week. I was planning on spending less than $50 since I am trying to cut my grocery budget down but oh well.  I got some good deals and chances are, next week I will only have to buy milk and produce.
Oh, I almost forgot I stopped at Freddy's first b/c they had bagged salad for $1, you can't buy fresh lettuce that cheap.  And they had Life cereal on sale for $1.88, if you bought 5 you got $3 off so I got 4 boxes of cereal and a box of granola bars(should have had a coupon for that but don't ususally buy them b/c of sons allergy-they are in a separate bag ready to be taken to daddy's work) for $6.52.  Pretty good I thought.
I know it isn't as good as the crazy people who spend $25/week on groceries but I don't have that much time.  I spent 1 1/2 hours at the 2 stores, plus all the time trying to figure out my best scenarios.  I am pretty satisfied with my savings and relieved shopping is over for another week.

French Butter Dishes

If you are a real butter eater then this is the dish for you.  We have been eating real butter for over a year but I have been buying the spreadable kind because I really hate trying to spread cold butter and I didn't want to leave it out on the counter.  But the spreadable kind is sort of expensive.  So when I found out about the French Butter Dishes I was super excited.  The maker of this one gave it to me for free!  Isn't it pretty?!

(okay this new blogger picture thing is driving me a little crazy and distracting me from my post)

Here is what you do: pack the butter in the bell shaped top portion, add some cold water to the bowl bottom part, invert the top part into the bowl and the water acts as a sealant to keep the butter fresh and from becoming rancid.  All you have to do is change the water every few days which is super easy.  The butter is perfect for spreading, not melting soft and not hard.  Hubby wasn't too sure of this when he first saw it but I think he is now convinced.  Here is a link to the maker of these wonderful things if you are interested:

 French Butter Dishes 

They are not that expensive and I am definitely hooked on mine.  Now I just need to find a good deal on butter and stock up!!

(I am getting nothing for the promotion of this product, I just think it's awesome!)

Shining the sink

When I first looked at Flylady over a year ago, I decided against joined b/c the slew of information on the website was overwhelming to say the least.  But it is a new year and I feel the need to get my house under control.  So I took the plunge.
First off, they send a lot of emails.  By a lot, I mean a lot each day.  But, they do say at first to pretty much ignore the emails and focus on the babysteps.  For which they have a list.  Day one: shine your sink.  I had seen that before when looking at the website.  I thought it meant cleaning up around the sink, putting dishes away, making the sink look clean.  But no, they literally mean shine your sink.  When my husband heard my first task he laughed at me.  I think it was a little bit of a letdown for him b/c he really desires our house to be more organized but it is my "stuff" that needs organizing.  So I got to work.  It took a couple of hours b/c you first fill the sink up with hot water and let bleach sit in there (not environmentally friendly I guess), then you scrub it, windex it and dry it.  Know what my laughing husband said when he saw it?  "Wow".  Yep, I got a wow out of him.  Honestly, I didn't think my sink was that bad but it sure looks shiny and I got all of those marks off it that pans make.  I really didn't think I would feel pleasure in accomplishing such a small task but I did.  I still do when I look at it.
Today was an easier task: get dressed to the shoes.  Obviously this was written for stay at home mom's b/c I had to work and getting dressed to the shoes was obligatory anyway. 
Tomorrow, is more of the same.  Getting dressed to the shoes and keep your sink shining.  I can probably handle that.
Maybe I will take a picture of my horrible mess and post it tomorrow as well.  Then I might feel obligated to tackle it truly soon. 
For now, I am just doing the babysteps.

New Years

     Okay, here we are the third day into 2010.  Hard to believe.  I am seeing lots of New Year's Resolutions and goals written out for this New Year.
     I am not so good at goals.  I love to think of them, make a big list, and am pretty good at starting them, but not so good on the finising.  In my mind I do have lots of goals for myself and I always fall short.  Always.  I am always failing myself.  Do you feel that way?  I know it's because I am trying to lean on my own strength, pick my ideas for what I think is best for me instead of leaning on my Father.
     I do need to make some changes though.  I do need a plan or I will drive myself crazy.  My house is crazy, the clutter is killing me and the piles of stuff to go through just keep growing.  I need to get my life under control!
     So, here are my goals:
           1) Lean on God, listen to God, pray, read my Bible more regularly, pray with my kids more regularly, read the Bible with my kids more regularly, pray with my husband more, do devotions with my husband.
           2) Eat better and feed my kids better, exercise regularly (I have actually been doing the exercise part but the eating is out of control)
           3) Get my house under control - I know this is very broad and I am doing that on purpose.  I joined FlyLady - am not sure if I can do everything but she says start with babysteps and I am definitely doing that.  Day 1, shine my sink is halfway done.
           4) I would also like to continue to trim my budget and get some things paid off.  This month, we will have our credit cards paid off (yahoo!!).  Next I am going to work on getting rid of our car payment.  We supposedly have 4 more years on that sucker and I would like to cut it to 2. 
     That's it.  Manageable right?  I hope so.  I will keep things up to date hopefully.
Happy New Year!

Crazy couponing

     So I wrote about the crazy couponing people here.  I might be becoming one of them.  Seriously, how can you not try to save money?  I don't have a picture to post but just spent $47 at Safeway and saved $55.  Yes, $55.  Some was just regular club card savings, some coupons, some ecoupons which I am really enjoying b/c you seemingly can combine them with manufacturers coupons, and some internet coupons I printed oh and a $10/$50 coupon.  Really, that is the only way I would shop at Safeway regularly, otherwise it is way more expensive than Winco. (Here's hoping Winco will start taking internet printables soon, that would really make my day!)
     My best buy.  5 boxes of wheat thins for free.  Yep. Free.  If you bought 5 they were only $1 a piece, plus by becoming a fan of wheat things on facebook here you can print off $1/1 box.  I hit my back button, printed 2 at home and at work printed 2 more.  Plus I had the same coupon from the sunday paper that I had cut out.  That makes 5 $1 off coupons bringing the cost to FREE!  Okay, so not only that, but there is a rebate form if you buy 10 Nabisco products, you get $10 rebate check.  So, not only were 5 of the boxes free, I get money back on them.  I bought 3 boxes at Winco for $1.66 each and have 2 more boxes to buy for the rebate.  There were other good deals as well but won't go into them.  But I will say a big chunk of the $47 was $11 for a bag of cat food.  When I think about the milk, yogurt, bread, meat, produce, crackers, cereal, chips, pudding that I got for really $36 it makes me happy.  Okay, I said I wasn't going to go into it. 
     I know, I said I didn't have the pantry space.  Well, I created a small amount in the garage when I stocked up on hubby's favorite cereal a couple of months ago.  Here is what I won't do though.  I don't plan on going through the line for multiple transactions (at this point anyway), I don't plan on buying things I don't need just to give them away (Like get a glucose meter for free).  I don't have the energy or time for stuff like that. 
     I will say this stresses me out just a little.  Like I was worried I hadn't spent enough at Safeway as I thought you had to use the $10 off coupon after all other coupons but the cashier did it second.  And it took me longer to shop b/c I wanted to find all the right deals and make sure my coupons were for the right stuff. 
I think I need a better way to organize my coupons for when I am shopping, but will work on that.
Here is the best part of this:  there are lots of blogs out there with women who have more time than I do to find all the great deals and write about them.  Not only do they write about them but put the links up for all the printable coupons and rebates.  It makes it almost easy which is why I am doing this. Seriously, I have three children and work part time.  I don't have a lot of extra time for stuff like this.
I didn't really save any on my grocery budget this month because of Christmas, but am looking forward to saving some next month.  Will keep you posted.