Worst. Blogger. Ever.

And almost another year goes by.

But hey, those projects that I mentioned in my post from last February?

I'm here to share one!

A couple of years ago, my mom gave me this GIANT bulletin board. It sat in our garage for awhile, because I had NO idea what to do with it. I had vague notions of using it in the sitting room of our bedroom, which was supposed to be my crafting area, but I never really got around to setting that space up properly.

When we moved here to TN, we were able to dedicate an actual room to being the office area - our office space was just half of the living room back in Charlotte. Anyway, I came up with an idea for the bulletin board finally - a good place for me to hang up important stuff so it didn't get lost in the clutter that my desk succumbs to every few days. Stuff like the kids' class newsletters, a calendar, appointment reminders...that sort of thing.

But I didn't want to hang up just a plain, boring bulletin board. I wanted to dress it up a little bit.

I chose to cover it in fabric.

 I started just trying to tuck it under the edge myself, but that didn't work out so well.

 See? The fabric got all bunched up and the frame is on there pretty tightly, so I couldn't get the edges underneath it.

So, I pinned it all the way around to help prevent the bunching. Since I didn't have much room to work with under the frame, I cut the fabric just big enough to be tucked under there. Bunching wouldn't have left enough to go all the way around.

Then, I got out an X-acto type knife to help push the fabric under the frame. Worked wonderfully!

The finished product! There are normally more papers up there, and yes, I flipped some around. Trying not to give out too much identifying information. Please don't mind the bulge in the frame at the top - that was not done during this process; it was already there.

So there you have it - covering a bulletin board with fabric. There's probably an easier way to have gone about this, but it worked out nicely for me.

Well, there went that idea.

There I was, thinking, "Self, you should start writing on your blog again."

And then life happened.

There's the usual, every day stuff. And then there's the unexpected.

On May 2, we received the news that my father in law had passed away. He wasn't an old man; he was only 53. He had a few health concerns, but nothing that was life threatening enough to warrant the suddenness of it all.

So, we made the trek over to eastern NC for the funeral and to start making arrangements for the estate. The four of us stayed in my father in law's house along with my brother in law, his wife, and their two sons. Though I had brought my laptop with me, things were so chaotic with eight of us in the same house (not to mention the number of visitors we had at any given time), I had no time to sit and write. We just returned home Sunday night.

Thus begins a new attempt at blogging more regularly.

Last night, I tried something new for dinner. I confess, I resort to Hamburger Helper every couple of weeks for a simple meal. I know that it's not very healthy, however, so I wanted to try a homemade version.

(Not my pot of Helper; credit to Divas Can Cook.)

I followed a recipe I found on Divas Can Cook. I modified the recipe slightly; I did not use onions or parsley, and I used more than the 2 cups of cheese called for. My husband and daughter ate it with no complaints; my son did not eat this at all (though to be fair, he won't eat pretty much anything that contains hamburger). Personally, I thought the texture of the sauce was a bit odd, and the flavor wasn't quite what I was going for. Not a bad meal overall, but I plan to make some tweaks to the recipe the next time I try it. Right now, I'm contemplating cutting down the measurements of the spices, and possibly using a different kind of cheese. I'd love to hear any suggestions on how to improve this recipe!

Tennessee

Back in February, we said goodbye to Charlotte.

Now, I never cared much about Charlotte itself. Having moved around so much when I was younger, I just don't get all that attached to places (though I do still miss good ol' Prior Lake, MN). However, we were doing good in Charlotte. Jake had a stable job, I was going back to school. We bought our first house; Noah started kindergarten last fall and had a WONDERFUL teacher. We had some fabulous friends.

Things occurred last fall that forced Jake to resign from the police department. I won't get into the specifics here, because I could probably write a novel about it. The day after he unofficially resigned, he started the process to rejoin the Army (for anyone stumbling upon this who wouldn't know our history, when Jake and I met, he was in the Army and I was in the Air Force). It took a couple of months to get everything settled (during which time he formally resigned), but in mid January, he was sent to Fort Campbell, which is on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee.

The kids and I were able to join him at the beginning of February. I don't have much of an opinion on Tennessee yet; we haven't explored the area much because it's been pretty cold. The house we're renting is ok - it has a HUGE backyard that's fenced in, so I can send the kids and dog outside to play on nice days and not worry too much. There's a river that runs behind the property as well; we're hoping we can do some fishing there once the weather is consistently nice. Noah's new school seems to be ok, though I think he's a bit ahead of their curriculum. We didn't sell our house in Charlotte; my mom is now renting it from us.

I'm a little lonely here. I miss our friends terribly. While I was happy to find that Clarksville has a Mommies Network site here, due to the transient nature of a military town, there aren't nearly as many members as on Charlotte Mommies, and it's not as active. I'm not attending school this semester, since we moved in the middle of that. It's kind of weird to be sitting at home again after over a year of going to classes. I'll resume that in the fall once both kids are in school, though my original program plan is not going to work out now.

Anyway, I may actually start writing here again to detail our adventures in Tennessee. I have several projects I'd like to work on over the next few months, and it'd be nice to share them here. Not that anyone reads this blog or anything, but that's ok. It's been too long since I've really written as it is, so even if I'm just doing this for myself, it's a good thing. And if I happen to pick up a few readers, well, that's a good thing, too. So if you've stumbled across this, leave a comment to say hi, and feel free to ask questions or give me suggestions on things to write about!

Best. Cupcakes. Ever.

A couple of months ago, a friend of mine hosted a Thirty-One party. While she didn't ask us to bring anything (other than our favorite wine for a wine tasting contest), my family had dinner with hers before the party, and so I decided to make some cupcakes to bring (there were plenty for the men and children to enjoy before we booted them out for the party). They were delicious.

Now, I had originally planned to make these:

But I did not have any buttermilk on hand like that recipe called for. So, I improvised and combined the two a bit. I followed the recipe for what you see in the first picture, but instead of embellishing with chocolate sprinkles and Rolos, I used chopped pecans, chocolate sauce, and caramel sauce. I cheated and used Hershey's caramel sauce; I attempted to make my own but that didn't turn out so well.

The cupcakes were a huge hit. Think I might make them again soon.

The recipes I used:

Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream

Chocolate Turtle Cupcakes

4 years

Oh sure, four years isn't a long time to neglect a blog. Not at all.

Sorry, even after four years, I don't have anything super insightful to say. Maybe another day.

Maximizing Savings

RnCnB asked: How do you save so much? please help!!

First, let me say that I am no expert or guru. I get better every week, but I still have a lot to learn.

But, here are some of the best ways to save money:

Sign up for the loyalty card programs for your local stores. Grocery stores, drugstores...any stores that you regularly shop at, and even those you don't! I have a loyalty card for every grocery store in my area, even for ones that I've never shopped at because they don't have locations that are all that convenient to me. However, I still keep an eye out for spectacular deals at these stores, just in case. Most stores with loyalty programs will only honor their sales prices for card holders; other loyalty programs entitle you to a certain percentage of savings with every purchase, special coupons, etc.

Learn about other programs that those stores run, or programs that stores without cards run. For example, Rite Aid and Walgreens do not have loyalty cards, but Rite Aid has their Single Check Rebate (SCR) program, and Walgreens has a Register Rewards (RR) program. CVS has their ExtraCare card, and with that comes the ExtraCare Bucks (ECBs) program.

Comparison shop! Your favorite store may not always have the best deal available for a particular product. For example, the Gillette Fusion razors I mentioned in my CVS deals for the week. CVS has these razors on sale for $9.99, and you'll earn $5 in ECBs. There was a $4 coupon in Sunday's paper, so you'd pay $5.99 for the razor (unless you already have some ECBs to roll into the deal). But wait! Rite Aid also has the Fusion razors on sale this week - but for $9. It's also a rebate item this week, with a rebate value of $5. Why spend an extra $0.99 on the razor at CVS when you can get it completely free after rebate (FAR) at Rite Aid? Or here's an example from my grocery shopping this week: I needed to purchase some of the Dole fruit bowls for Noah. They're $2.69 each at Harris Teeter, and $2.57 each at Food Lion. Now, if I had had a coupon whose value would be doubled at Harris Teeter, the deal would have been better there, but the coupon I had was for $1 off of three - so my better deal was at Food Lion.

If you have the time and/or inclination, make a spreadsheet to keep track of the prices of items you routinely buy. Note the prices at different stores, and keep an eye on the prices during sales. Eventually, you'll notice a pattern and will know when and where you'll be able to get the best price possible for those items. Alternatively, you can join The Grocery Game and let them do the hard work for you - their system is color coded to let you know when something is on sale for the best price possible.

Combine coupons with sales as often as possible. This works even better if you have lots of storage space in your house, so that you can stock up on items when the sale and coupons are really great. I, unfortunately, do NOT have a lot of storage space, so I take advantage of what I can, when I can.

Don't be afraid to try a different brand or even a new product. A few weeks ago, Food Lion had the Bird's Eye Voila! meals on sale for $1.99. I had a couple of $1.00 coupons, so I got two of them for $0.99 each. We liked one of the meals and didn't like the other very much, but they were so cheap that I didn't mind the fact that we ended up not liking one of them. At least now I know something not to buy in the future.

For that matter, sometimes you'll end up buying things you don't necessarily need or want. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have eighteen tubes of unopened toothpaste in my house right now. Why? Because I either got them completely free or the store actually paid me to take them. I have the option to either not buy another tube of toothpaste for a couple of years, or to donate some of them. There are plenty of other deals like this; you may even find deals for items that you yourself may not want, but hey, Uncle Joe really likes product XYZ, so let's set it aside for Christmas! There are also tons of items that various shelters or other organizations in your area could use - if you're getting the item for free or are getting paid for it, why not do some good in your community and donate it?

Know where to find coupons! The Sunday paper is always a good place to start - and don't be afraid to buy multiple copies of the paper if the coupons that week are good ones for you. Write to companies whose products you enjoy; sometimes a simple email or letter complimenting their products is enough to score you some coupons, sometimes you'll need to ask outright if they can add you to any coupon mailing lists they may have. Join a site like Hot Coupon World (you can find me on there as stacym) and trade with other members. You can often find good coupons on eBay, and there are coupon clipping sites out there as well - I like The Coupon Clippers. Keep an eye out in the stores for blinkies (you know, the little machines that blink and spit out coupons LOL), tearpads, booklets, etc. Don't ignore the ads in your magazines - sometimes there are coupons there! All You magazine has some great coupons usually. Check the packaging on the products you buy - sometimes there will be coupons on the packaging itself, or contained within the packaging (for example, the Sargento Salad Finishers currently have $0.55/2 coupons inside the bags).

Have a method for organizing your coupons. I use the binder method, but that may not work for everyone. Find out what does work for you - you want to be able to find what you have quickly.

There's a lot more to the art of saving money, but it's late and the baby is actually asleep right now, so I'm going to go catch a few zzz's myself. Keep an eye out for more money saving tips in the future, and don't hesitate to let me know if there's something in particular you'd like to see me cover or if you have questions on anything. Happy shopping!

CVS deals of the week

So, I decided to try my hand at posting some of the CVS deals for the week. Please let me know if you enjoy this and would like for me to continue!

Dawn dish soap is on sale for $0.99. If you still have some of the $1.00 coupons for Dawn Plus Hand Renewal from the 9/9 P&G insert, get to CVS today or tomorrow (coupon expires 9/30) - the Hand Renewal soap is included in this deal, so you'll get it for free! Otherwise, use one of the $0.50 coupons that came with yesterday's inserts to get the soap for $0.49.

Febreze Air Effects are on sale 2/$5. Use the $1 coupon from yesterday's inserts to get them for $1.50 each.

Febreze Noticeables starter kits are $6.99. Use the $5 coupon from yesterday's inserts to get it for $1.99.

Febreze fabric refresher is on sale for $3.99 each. Use the buy one get one free coupon from yesterday's inserts to get two for that price.

Gillette Fusion razors are $9.99. Use the $4 coupon to pay $5.99, and you'll get $5 in ECBs, which makes the price $0.99 after ECBs. However, if you have a Rite Aid nearby, the deal for these is better there this week, as they're only $9.00 there with a $5.00 rebate, making them free.

Coke products are 4 for $13 and will get you $3 in ECBs.

Pampers jumbo packs of diapers are $9.99. Use the $1.50 coupons that were in yesterday's inserts to get them for $8.49.

CoverGirl Clean foundation is on sale for $5.49. Use a $1 coupon from yesterday's inserts. They're also generating ECBs - I actually got $5.79 in ECBs, but they may have already corrected this error. Either way, it's still a moneymaker. Use one of the buy one get one free coupons with this to make the deal even better - but note that the ECB deal is a limit of one, so pick out some powder or blush. Make sure you hand over the BOGO coupon first!

There are some other decent deals in there, but these are the better ones. Some of the other stuff in the ad, like the Colgate deals, aren't the best deals available - wait for a week where you can get the toothpaste for free.

Well, it's lunchtime, so I've got to end this anyway. Again, please let me know if you enjoyed me doing this, if you'd like to see it again, and/or if there are any other stores you'd like to see me cover!