Oh the Savings!!

My couponer friends be proud....

Today, I was e-mailed the Food Lion weekly saver and saw they were having a big BOGO sale.  I realized that I actually use some of those items (which is what usually keeps me from "couponing" I guess). I also realized I had coupons for some of these items...so I went to work. Here is what I ended up with.

2 boxes of Kraft Macoroni & Cheese: BOGO & $.55 Coupon
2 Jars of Miracle Whip: BOGO & 2 $1.00 off Coupons
5 cans of Del Monte vegis: 5/$5 and $1.00 off Coupon
8 cans Progresso Soup: 10/$10 and 2 $1.00/4 cans coupons
6 tubs cream cheese: BOGO and Buy 5 get $5.00 off coupon
6 things of Kraft Cheese: BOGO and Buy 5 get $5.00 off coupon
2 Hillshire Farms sausages: 2 for $6 and $.75 off coupon
2 bags of carrots: BOGO

Before the cashier took the MVP card and coupons it was $73.15. The total afterward was $24.64.
Total Savings: $48.51

Not bad for my first time, eh? Maybe, my couponer friends could have done better...but I'm pretty happy with the results!

Living Room Update

There have been some changes to the living room since we moved in.
 (Click here to see the before.)

I'm still looking for something for the wall over the couch. I might be going to Williamsburg soon to look at some stores there so maybe I'll have some luck?! I've also been keeping my eye out for a couple cute runners for my table. I've seen lots of cute placemats and napkins but no runners. So there it is as of now and I'm pretty happy with it. What do you think?

Bathroom Update:
We've been "pretty much" done with the guest bathroom for almost a month now but things keep coming up and we never get around to finishing the last couple things. Hopefully I can finish it up in the next week or so! Today we had to put in a new water heater...there goes another Saturday....

YOGA

Starting my first Yoga class tonight! Wish me luck! Wish I could find my yoga mat....it's probably with our ottoman.

I Like Him

This is Ronnie at this very minute. He is chatting on the phone on the front porch and I snuck a picture...

Tonight I walked over to Food Lion to grab a few things in case Earl decides to visit us this week.  I was walking back through the parking lot and a big truck was coming at me. In my mind, I'm thinking he obviously has to see me. STOP is painted on the ground. He'll definitely stop. There are other people walking near me so he'll see them too. Well the truck doesn't see me and I run/jump out of the way. A man that was walking near me says, "He almost hit her!" and others are staring at me and mumbling to each other. The man in the truck rolls down his window and says "I'm sorry." He obviously has a hard time driving, talking on the phone, and smoking at the same time.  I mean I was in plain view.

At the time that I am jumping out of the way of the truck I was wondering if I was going to get hit and thinking..what is Ronnie going to think?

When I get home, I tell Ronnie what happened. He says, "You're not allowed to walk over there anymore."

Yeah, he loves me.

Ronnie-Age 2....What a cutie.

Workin' Hard

The past couple weeks we've been chipping away at the guest bath. The people before us left us with purple seashell wallpaper and even left the purple trashcan, purple shower curtain and a purple shell soap dispenser. Lucky us! So...we took down the purple seashell wallpaper and then prepped, primed, and painted the top couple feet of the wall.

Then this past Friday we worked on taking the vinyl floor out. There were three layers! When we started pulling it up it smelled horrible...like really bad old man BO...not pleasant.

On Saturday we started (well Ronnie started) to lay the new tile. We're almost done with that. Then next is the beadboard.

Stay tuned for the final product (in a week or two or three...)! Hopefully our toilet won't have to sit out back for too much longer!

 P.S. I've put up comment monitoring since there are SO MANY spam comments...sheesh.

Yellow and Gray

I love yellow. I always have. In fact, the first time I could pick a color for my room (after my baby pink room), I chose yellow. I always wanted yellow for my wedding. I picked yellow and white flowers and people wore yellow and gray. Now I have my own kitchen to do with what I want (of course there are some budget restraints...) so I picked gray walls and yellow accents. Love it.

I'll start off with some befores. The walls were burgandy and pink. Oh and you'll have to excuse my photography...bad lighting and camera in a tiny kitchen make for not that great photos. You can click on the photo for a larger view.



Unpacking



Afters





Things we did:

Painted the walls, changed light switches and outlets to white (instead of tan..we did this through out the whole house), changed light fixture, switched from vertical blinds to curtains (my talented mom made the curtains) and cleaned a lot of cat hair..eww.

I also made this chalkboard.

Here are the materials I used: A piece of sheet metal, abt. $6; Spray chalkboard paint, abt. $5; leftover primer, free; and dad's leftover molding and labor to make the frame, free. Total for chalkboard, $11.




Things we want to do:

Paint cabinets white..we'll probably be doing this in the next couple weeks, new countertops and new sink, new hood/exhaust fan, paint ceiling, and possible new tile floor.


And to go along with the Yellow and Gray theme...today is our 2nd anniversary! Ronnie bought me some beautiful yellow and white flowers and yesterday, we spent the day at the beach, eating at Chili's and icecream at Brusters and watching a couple movies. A nice relaxing day!

Lighting Ideas

I've been searching for a lighting fixture to go over my table.

My favorite so far:


image via Eric Roth Photography


image via ???


image via This Old House

The first picture is the one I'm really liking as of now! Now to actually find where I can buy these on the cheap! Any ideas? Let me know! I will be browsing lighting stores soon!