Apple Pickin'

Pick Your Own


It's a yearly tradition around here to go apple picking. It's fun for the whole family, especially fun if you go with friends, and it's so much cheaper than buying them in the store. At only $16 per bushel (I got 2 bushels), we can make plenty of applesauce and apple butter this year; not to mention apple crisp, apple cobbler, caramel apple pie, etc... is your mouth watering?

I saw this sign in the market, my husband didn't think it was as funny as I did.

Another yearly tradition...a picture of my son Jonathan ;o)

Frugal Decorating Ideas

If you live near a Dollar Tree or Deals, get there! They have a ton of items there that you can use to decorate, or even make decorations. From ribbon, leaves, flowers, & wreaths, just a lot of stuff. Here are a few things that I made this week from dollar store items and things that I had on hand. Some of these ideas came from here.

I used a quart sized canning jar and put some artificial pumpkins & leaves inside. The floral arrangement was $1.00, the pumpkins $1.00, and about 1/4 of a bag of leaves ($1.00 for the bag).

No, I cannot tie a bow. I tried and tried but this is what I got. I told my husband and he said to let him try and he did it. This picture is before he made his beautiful bow. He told me it's just like tying your shoes. Duh.

Plates for my plate rack, $1.00 each and the leaf garland was $1.00.

I made the floral arrangement with about 3 bunches of flowers and the basket has little pumpkins painted on the sides.

I took the spring colors off this hat and made it more autumn-like. This hangs in my bathroom.

For less than $20, I decorated my living room, bathroom, dining room, and have some things left for the kitchen. If you haven't figured it out, I think autumn is the most wonderful time of the year!

Planning for next year

Lessons
To all you Home Schoolers out there, are you starting to plan for next year already or are you just ready to be done for a while? May/June seems to be a fun time for me to start hitting book sales and thinking about the next year. I think about what worked well for this year and and what didn't work so well.

I went through my bookshelves & catalogs and made a list of items that I want for next year. Just for fun, I totaled how much it will cost if I bought it all new. I will take my list to the various book sales in order to stick to my plan and not overspend (my husband and I both have this problem when it comes to books!). I think I may even put it on my sidebar to keep a running total. I hope to spend half (or less) than if it was purchased new.

We are blessed to live in an area that has an excellent library system. We use many resources from there to add to our learning. Non-fiction books (living books) and DVD's are fun.

We also have our convention coming up. I have never been to one but I think it would be fun to go at least once.

I'll be off to my first book sale tonight! I can't wait!

CVS Deal and Why Coupon?

Yippee! I went to CVS today to pick up the end of the month ECB deals and got some good deals. I got 4 bottles of pain relievers (dh's headaches), 1 bottle of softsoap bodywash, 1 package of Pepcid EZ chews, and a TruBlend whipped foundation. With my coupons ($2.50 CVS coupon for pain reliever, $1 off softsoap, $2 off pepcid, $2 off foundation, $5 of order over $25, $10 ECB's from last visit), I spent $18.09 oop and got back $26.96 in ECB's!



I was never much for couponing. I was always the store brand and/or Aldi type of shopper. I always thought I was wasting money on buying items that I don't normally use just because I had a coupon. BUT, I have since figured out that I am buying items that I don't normally use and I am just plain enjoying trying new things! When you can get items cheaper than store brand/Aldi (or even free!), then it is worth the "risk".



Just for fun, I thought I would share some items that I would never normally buy, and my thoughts toward them:

• Pepcid EZ chews-I always used cheap-o tums but the pepcid actually took away my heartburn!!


• Tums QuikPak Instant Dissolve Powder-again, heartburn gone within a few minutes. Also thought it might be a good sub for my son who occasionally has to take prevacid.


• Walgreen's Brands of Claritin & Zyrtec-I have taken off brand of benadryl for 20 years (!) for my allergies and I never liked the way it made me feel, so tired that I couldn't keep my eyes open (not the best feeling trying to raise 6 kids)
• Various grocery items-I am not a real big fan of boxed type/heavy preservative type foods but sometimes, it is nice to have on hand in a pinch. (Remember, it is not only healthier, but more frugal to shop the perimeter of the store!)
• Shampoo, pain relievers, body wash, deodorant, toothpaste, dish soap, laundry detergents-many of these items I have gotten for free. If you are not "brand" particular, your savings can really add up! It is nice having our bathroom closet stocked up on these items (really nice because of the price!!)

Those are just a few of those things since I began couponing in December. It's actually been king of fun! There are a ton of deals all the time at Money Saving Mom. You'll have to go over there and check out Crystal's money saving tips!

My deal today!!

My neighbor called this morning and told me about something she saw at K-Mart. All their Christmas stuff was 90% off. Most stores are that way. BUT, they included powdered sugar and brown sugar in the Christmas stuff! 20 cents per bag! I also found a Glade Wisp on clearance for $.80! Here is my deal: 5 bags of powdered sugar, 5 bags brown sugar, and 1 Glade Wisp for a whopping $2.86.