Some of my cleaning stuff- all organized and easy to get to...
Had to use the cabinets in the laundry room!
The pantry. I am Old Mother Hubbard no longer! ;0)
I like having lots of stuff. I hate running out of things and either having to change my dinner menu or run to the store. I try to buy things like paper towels and toilet paper in bulk b/c you just can’t run out of stuff like that. I buy cleaning supplies in mass quantities. I bought 10 bottles of Antibacterial Windex at one time. I love that stuff- I use it everyday, and Harris Teeter had it buy one get one free and I had $1 coupons that I printed online. I have it stashed everywhere- under all 3 bathroom sinks, the kitchen sink, and in the linen closet. One of the home organization books I read suggested using a over the door shoe holder for your cleaning supplies- I put one up several years ago and I LOVE it! No digging around looking for what you need. I’m all for anything that makes my life easier. I don’t understand women who get offended when their husbands buy them practical gifts. Some of my practical gifts have included a carpet cleaner (which I love and couldn’t live without) a new dishwasher (which obviously comes in EXTREMELY handy!) a blender ( I use it occasionally- he bought it for me for Mothers Day years ago, but I much would have rather had that than flowers that would die or jewelry that would sit in my jewelry box…) Trying to improve my quality of life- now THAT shows love!
We have been going to Williamsburg so often the past 3 months, I have gotten very confused about what I have where…. I might end up with 3 cartons of eggs in Virginia- but none at home. It’s been driving me crazy! “Well we were going to have this for dinner- but we didn’t have _________.” UGH! There are certain things that you know use often and keep on hand. My supplies have seriously dwindled. That became glaringly apparent this past week when I actually prepared dinner every single night (like a real dinner with side dishes and all.)
I told Elton Friday we are going shopping and we are spending an obscene amount of money on groceries. I checked all of the local grocery stores sales flyers online, made lists of all the stuff I wanted. Checked online for coupons- printed them out. I was out of computer paper and had to use lined notebook paper- but more about that later… Chris, Katherine, and Brianna were spending the night at Dad and Janet’s- so we only had to deal with Shawn and he can easily be bribed with Puffies.
We went to Aldi’s and bought paper towels, toilet paper, canned goods, milk , butter and eggs (cheaper than anywhere else). I really need to start shopping there more often. You can save quite a bit of money- but you kind of have to plan ahead. For instance- you have to make sure you have a quarter- I chunk all of our loose change in a jar, but the quarters are used for car washing & vacuuming, and the laundromat at the campground. You get the quarter back when you return the cart- but there is the annoyance factor- especially when you have small children and have to either drag them all up to the store, and get the cart, or leave them in the car, go get the cart and then go get them. When you write it all down, it sounds minor- but even minor irritations can be monumental when shopping with small children.
Then we went to Harris Teeter. Generally they are overpriced- but they have AWESOME sales! I’m a huge fan of buy one get one free (esp. when you can find a coupon online) I’m an even bigger fan of buy 2 get 3 free, but my favorite is buy 1 get 2 free. We ended up saving much more than we spent and the cashier actually had to call a manger over to approve our transaction b/c the computer flagged it! ;0) They also do double and triple coupons- YEAH!
Then we were off to Food Lion- they had Diet Mountain Dew 3 12 packs for $9+ you got 2 free 2 liters! So we bought 9 cases- that should keep my caffeine addiction satisfied for awhile! They had Tide on sale and I had downloaded a coupon. Then we went home to unload. We only put away all of the things that needed to be refrigerated or frozen. We decided to go out to dinner since we are seldom alone and there was no way in the world I was going to cook. We went to Anthony’s a new Italian restaurant. It sucked. It was really pretty- but my food was awful- the salad was o.k., the bread was edible. I ordered the Chicken Marsala- which I love at Olive Garden- but this was 2 chicken breasts that looked like they had been boiled and plopped in a plate of wine with a can of mushrooms dumped over the top- I am not a super picky eater- but I had one bite of that- it was gross. It also came with a side of spaghetti- which was pretty bad- the stuff you buy in a can is better. I ate it anyway. They didn’t end up charging me for my meal- which was good. So I basically had spaghetti, salad and bread for free. Who serves chicken marsala with a side of spaghetti- Olive Garden has garlic mashed potatoes which are awesome! Elton had Shrimp Scampi- he said the shrimp were overcooked and rubbery. It was still nice though- I had good company, Shawn slept through the entire meal, and I decided that I’m going to paint my living room the color of the restaurant. It was a really pretty sagey grayish green. No time soon- I have enough projects right now. But I am tired of the burgundy walls and ready for a change. Elton offered to go to Lowes so we could look at paint samples. He’s so cute- I think he felt worse about my dinner being horrible than I did. I really didn’t care. So we went to Lowes and picked up a couple different paint samples. It is so hard to match paint colors! We had some Lowes gift cards and bought tons of florescent bulbs. We are making the switch. My dad swears by them- I think they are ugly- defiantly NOT cheap. Since the 60 watt bulbs only burn 13 watts of power and they last 10,000 hours- we decided it would be a good investment. We are so tired of $500 light bills! Of course lights are only a part of that- Elton went out to the barn today came in and said “YOUR kids left the upstairs bathroom window open.” (We don’t claim them when they are bad!) WHY would the bathroom window even be open??? It’s freezing outside! Sometimes they are retarded!
After Lowes we went to Wal-mart to finish up our shopping marathon. We ended up buying all kinds of stuff- shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, cleaning stuff, diapers, formula. We finally bought a booster seat for Brianna- honestly Shawn probably should have been out of his infant car seat months ago, but I have been reluctant to give it up- its so much easier just to grab the whole car seat and plop it in a cart than to take him in and out every time we go anywhere. It was almost 11 when we were checking out and we were tired and ready to get home- dreading putting away all this stuff. We go through the checkout line and the cashier calls someone to see if she can accept the coupons that I printed out on notebook paper. They took them at Harris Teeter! The woman says no, they’re on notebook paper not on “computerized” paper. She’s an idiot and that made me mad. She called a manager- they said no. It was only about $3 worth of coupons- but it was the principal now! I told her I wanted to talk to the manager, so she called him over and I explained it to him- that you can still scan the coupons- Harris Teeter took them, and what did it matter what kind of paper I printed them off on?!?!?! BTW- I was buying more computer paper. He called someone and they O.K.ed it, but I was SO mad! I told them ”I’m buying $300 worth of stuff and you won’t let me use $3 worth of coupons because you don’t like the paper I printed them off on?” I was getting ready to leave both the carts sitting there. I would have ended up going back today and buying it all again. It was just the point of it. It was absurd.
This morning I cleaned out the pantry, got everything put away in there all nice and organized, had to put stuff in the laundry room cabinets. Elton is fixing the electricity that runs out to the barn so we can restock our freezer. (Apparently Chris and I cut the power line that runs from the deck to the barn when we were planting tomatoes. Oops) I’ll spend the afternoon putting all the meat we bought into portion sized freezer bags. We ended up with tons of meat- a ham, steaks, ribs, hamburger, chicken, shrimp, pork. Both of the refridgerators are full- the deep freeze is getting ready to be. All is well with the world!
We have been going to Williamsburg so often the past 3 months, I have gotten very confused about what I have where…. I might end up with 3 cartons of eggs in Virginia- but none at home. It’s been driving me crazy! “Well we were going to have this for dinner- but we didn’t have _________.” UGH! There are certain things that you know use often and keep on hand. My supplies have seriously dwindled. That became glaringly apparent this past week when I actually prepared dinner every single night (like a real dinner with side dishes and all.)
I told Elton Friday we are going shopping and we are spending an obscene amount of money on groceries. I checked all of the local grocery stores sales flyers online, made lists of all the stuff I wanted. Checked online for coupons- printed them out. I was out of computer paper and had to use lined notebook paper- but more about that later… Chris, Katherine, and Brianna were spending the night at Dad and Janet’s- so we only had to deal with Shawn and he can easily be bribed with Puffies.
We went to Aldi’s and bought paper towels, toilet paper, canned goods, milk , butter and eggs (cheaper than anywhere else). I really need to start shopping there more often. You can save quite a bit of money- but you kind of have to plan ahead. For instance- you have to make sure you have a quarter- I chunk all of our loose change in a jar, but the quarters are used for car washing & vacuuming, and the laundromat at the campground. You get the quarter back when you return the cart- but there is the annoyance factor- especially when you have small children and have to either drag them all up to the store, and get the cart, or leave them in the car, go get the cart and then go get them. When you write it all down, it sounds minor- but even minor irritations can be monumental when shopping with small children.
Then we went to Harris Teeter. Generally they are overpriced- but they have AWESOME sales! I’m a huge fan of buy one get one free (esp. when you can find a coupon online) I’m an even bigger fan of buy 2 get 3 free, but my favorite is buy 1 get 2 free. We ended up saving much more than we spent and the cashier actually had to call a manger over to approve our transaction b/c the computer flagged it! ;0) They also do double and triple coupons- YEAH!
Then we were off to Food Lion- they had Diet Mountain Dew 3 12 packs for $9+ you got 2 free 2 liters! So we bought 9 cases- that should keep my caffeine addiction satisfied for awhile! They had Tide on sale and I had downloaded a coupon. Then we went home to unload. We only put away all of the things that needed to be refrigerated or frozen. We decided to go out to dinner since we are seldom alone and there was no way in the world I was going to cook. We went to Anthony’s a new Italian restaurant. It sucked. It was really pretty- but my food was awful- the salad was o.k., the bread was edible. I ordered the Chicken Marsala- which I love at Olive Garden- but this was 2 chicken breasts that looked like they had been boiled and plopped in a plate of wine with a can of mushrooms dumped over the top- I am not a super picky eater- but I had one bite of that- it was gross. It also came with a side of spaghetti- which was pretty bad- the stuff you buy in a can is better. I ate it anyway. They didn’t end up charging me for my meal- which was good. So I basically had spaghetti, salad and bread for free. Who serves chicken marsala with a side of spaghetti- Olive Garden has garlic mashed potatoes which are awesome! Elton had Shrimp Scampi- he said the shrimp were overcooked and rubbery. It was still nice though- I had good company, Shawn slept through the entire meal, and I decided that I’m going to paint my living room the color of the restaurant. It was a really pretty sagey grayish green. No time soon- I have enough projects right now. But I am tired of the burgundy walls and ready for a change. Elton offered to go to Lowes so we could look at paint samples. He’s so cute- I think he felt worse about my dinner being horrible than I did. I really didn’t care. So we went to Lowes and picked up a couple different paint samples. It is so hard to match paint colors! We had some Lowes gift cards and bought tons of florescent bulbs. We are making the switch. My dad swears by them- I think they are ugly- defiantly NOT cheap. Since the 60 watt bulbs only burn 13 watts of power and they last 10,000 hours- we decided it would be a good investment. We are so tired of $500 light bills! Of course lights are only a part of that- Elton went out to the barn today came in and said “YOUR kids left the upstairs bathroom window open.” (We don’t claim them when they are bad!) WHY would the bathroom window even be open??? It’s freezing outside! Sometimes they are retarded!
After Lowes we went to Wal-mart to finish up our shopping marathon. We ended up buying all kinds of stuff- shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, cleaning stuff, diapers, formula. We finally bought a booster seat for Brianna- honestly Shawn probably should have been out of his infant car seat months ago, but I have been reluctant to give it up- its so much easier just to grab the whole car seat and plop it in a cart than to take him in and out every time we go anywhere. It was almost 11 when we were checking out and we were tired and ready to get home- dreading putting away all this stuff. We go through the checkout line and the cashier calls someone to see if she can accept the coupons that I printed out on notebook paper. They took them at Harris Teeter! The woman says no, they’re on notebook paper not on “computerized” paper. She’s an idiot and that made me mad. She called a manager- they said no. It was only about $3 worth of coupons- but it was the principal now! I told her I wanted to talk to the manager, so she called him over and I explained it to him- that you can still scan the coupons- Harris Teeter took them, and what did it matter what kind of paper I printed them off on?!?!?! BTW- I was buying more computer paper. He called someone and they O.K.ed it, but I was SO mad! I told them ”I’m buying $300 worth of stuff and you won’t let me use $3 worth of coupons because you don’t like the paper I printed them off on?” I was getting ready to leave both the carts sitting there. I would have ended up going back today and buying it all again. It was just the point of it. It was absurd.
This morning I cleaned out the pantry, got everything put away in there all nice and organized, had to put stuff in the laundry room cabinets. Elton is fixing the electricity that runs out to the barn so we can restock our freezer. (Apparently Chris and I cut the power line that runs from the deck to the barn when we were planting tomatoes. Oops) I’ll spend the afternoon putting all the meat we bought into portion sized freezer bags. We ended up with tons of meat- a ham, steaks, ribs, hamburger, chicken, shrimp, pork. Both of the refridgerators are full- the deep freeze is getting ready to be. All is well with the world!
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