Lifes Like That

Over the past nine months I have discovered something major. Now that I’m not working and have no outside income coming in, I have discovered that I really need to find some different ways to save money. Although my husband has a full time job and there is income coming in from his job, I would still like to find ways to save money so that we can still give the kids the little extras that they so enjoy. One way that I use to save money is by saving coupons. I collect all different types of coupons such as grocery coupons, department store coupons and Bluefly coupon. Not only do I collect these coupons, but I also use them! I have found that this is a great way to save a little bit of money each and every month and with these savings, we are still able to give the kids the little extras that they have come to enjoy.

Part of my job every day as a mother is trying to come up with exciting and tasty treats for my kids to eat for supper. As I don’t want them to get bored with what is being served to them and then stop eating it, I am constantly on the look out for new and exciting food products for them to try out to hopefully enjoy and beg for more. So, tonight I decided to try something new. I was given two bottles of Grey Poupon mustard to review and try out, and this is mine and my daughter’s honest opinion.

We tested out both the “Harvest Coarse Ground” mustard and the “Hearty Spicy Brown” mustard. Out of the two, I preferred the harvest coarse ground mustard. I found that it was a bit sweeter than the hearty spicy brown. My daughter preferred the hearty spicy brown mustard as it had more of a kick to it. So if your looking for a mustard that is sweet and tangy, then the coarse ground mustard is the mustard for you. But, if you enjoy your food with a little bite to it, then the hearty spicy brown mustard will be the mustard of choice. She enjoyed this mustard so much that even after her pogo was gone, she was spooning up the rest of the mustard from her plate. She has even asked me to make her a sandwich for school tomorrow with this mustard in it.

So, the verdict is in! These mustard’s got an A+ from me and an A+++ from my daughter. With these two types of mustard’s sitting in my fridge, I can be assured that my daughter will definitely being eating a lot of foods that require mustard. And when these two bottles are gone, you can bet that she will have me running to the store for more. So, suppers at my house won’t be quite so difficult any more.

As you all know, we have an ongoing project going on in our home. Yes, the dreaded renovations! It has taken us a lot more time and money that I had originally thought it would to get all these projects completed. When we were re-doing the bathroom, I couldn’t believe how much new bathroom vanities cost. Thankfully for me, my husband has a great eye and is one of those people who can spot a deal a mile away. If it wasn’t for his sense of money, I know we would have ended up paying a lot more for items than we really needed to. So hopefully with the renovation continuations, his sale eye will still be working and we won’t be in the poor house when were finally finished everything we want to do.

Honestly guys there just isn’t enough hours in the day for me.  To get everything done that I need to get done, I have to learn how not to sleep!  But, since that isn’t possible I think I’m going to have to make a schedule for myself and then try to stick to it.  During a normal day for me, I have a few hours of Internet time that needs to take place, clean my house and then make some crafts for my home crafting business.  By the time I kick myself off the Internet all I have time for is a little cleaning of the house.  This means that I don’t get a whole lot of crafts started or made and no crafts, means no money.  So, I really need to get it together or else I’m going to have to learn how to sleep while I’m awake. lol

Honestly, sometimes I really don’t understand myself. A couple of years ago I purchased my laptop and when the sales person asked me if I would be interested in purchasing the extended warranty for my laptop I said no. I really didn’t want to spend the extra money for a warranty that I figured I wouldn’t need. The only thing about this warranty that I wasn’t thinking really clearly about, was that if you purchased it you also were able to get a laptop battery for free. Boy, am I kicking myself now as I now need a new one and I will have to go out and pay for it myself.

That’s why it’s a good thing that I found a site over at allbatts.com. Over at this site I will be able to purchase a new laptop battery at a pretty reasonable price. Not only do they sell laptop batteries, but you can also purchase any other type of battery that you may need from this site as well. This is a really good thing for my house as it seems like everything we buy, whether it be toys or other gadgets, requires batteries. So, I am headed over to this site to find my new laptop battery and hopefully in the future I will have learned my lesson and possibly purchase any extended warranties on any other products that I purchase.

Currently we have two spare rooms in our home that we could do something with. One of the rooms I have already taken over as my home office. The other room my husband has decided that he would like to use as a home gym. So he has been pricing up different weight equipment to put in his room. I think this is a really great idea for him as during the winter he tends to put on quite a bit of weight as he is not as active as he is in the summer. So I think a home gym would help him to balance his weight during the winter. The kids are quite happy about this decision as well as they enjoy using the exercise equipment themselves.

My husband and I were talking about our dream home again last night. Right now it is just a dream but hopefully in the not so distant future, it will become more of a reality. I’m really a basic type of person and I don’t have really big dreams for a new house, but my husband has big dreams for what he would like to have. On the top of his list is a fully functional home theater system and layout. This would include home theater sconces, a wet bar and even a popcorn maker. Although this is only a dream for us, it would be a really neat thing to have in our house, especially with the kids being so small. They would get such a kick out of this arrangement and maybe they would then stop bugging us to take them to the theater so often.

Now that the kids are back in school and my husband is home on vacation, I have decided that today will be the day that we clean out the little room (again) and get it set back up for my home office.  With all the Christmas preparations that we had, all the spare stuff that we didn’t need during the Christmas season got placed into my room.  So today I am going to go through all the stuff and start putting it back into the kitchen and living room.  After I have all the stuff cleaned out I will then be able to set up my new printer and get back to my normal working from home schedule.   I feel like I haven’t had my own space for quiet some time and I am now ready to have it back.

I just love it when the weekend is almost upon us and Friday night is here.  This is the best night for watching TV shows.  Yeah I know not real exciting right?!  Well with two small kids at home that get up at the crack of dawn anything more exciting would hurt extremely bad first thing in the morning.  So every Friday night after the kids go to bed my husband and I get settled in for a night of TV watching.  My favorite shows that I love to watch are on every Friday night.  That would be House, Shark, Ghost Whisperer and Law and Order SVU.    When Law and Order is all over then it’s time for bed.

Predictable I know, but in my house waking up with a clear head on Saturday morning is more enjoyable than having a lot of excitement on Friday night.

Over the past five days, we have been hit with snow storm after snow storm.  We have so much snow outside right now that it is impossible to see the other side of the road because of how high the snow banks are.  Yesterday I heard on the radio that we hadn’t seen this much snow in over 20 years and I can believe that!  So I am happy to report that today it is cold, but sunny.  Now usually I’m the type of person who prefers the snow over the cold, but not this year!  As long as it’s so cold outside it is too cold to snow which mean no more shoveling for me.  The weather forecast is calling for the next few days to be very cold, but at least no more snow will be falling.  And for this I am thankful!