"Organizing My Crap": How Many Easter Baskets Does One Really Need?

Cleaning out my attic - I found 9 Easter Baskets.  Now we have 2 kids.  So most people in our position probably have 2 baskets.  Oh - but we're weird and we like the kids to think the Easter Bunny leaves "us parents" something too.  So that brings us up to 4.  

So I picked out the best 4 and put the other 5 in my "spare basket area".  I will either use these for gift baskets or maybe reality will set in closer to Easter and I'll just get rid of them.

"Saving Money Challenge": Save Recyclables for Future Use

My kids love Danimal Yogurt Smoothies.  They come in a package of 6 and each smoothie is only 3 ounces.  So they both drink 3 at one time.  Yeah - that is NOT economically feasible for my poor ass.
This is what they look like:



But I have learned that I can just make them smoothies, save the containers, and they drink to their hearts content without me whining, "You know how expensive those things are!" and "What!!!  Another one!  Heavens!"

First, if you don't know how to make a smoothie - it's easy.  If I can do it, anyone can.  I just take one container of yogurt (if I was even cheaper, I'd buy yogurt by the 32 oz. or even make it.  I'm not that motivated when it comes to dealing with yogurt though), a banana, some frozen strawberries and some milk.  Blend it for a minute or two.

Then you have it:  A Smoothie.  And I have my old Danimals containers to put said smoothie in.  It makes my kids happy, it makes me happy for being cheap, and it makes me look ghetto fabulous by storing recyclables in my kitchen cabinets.  

Lowe's Build & Grow: Saturday the 25th (Sign Up!)

Lowe's Build & Grow is back this week with a Race Car! This event starts at 10 am on Saturday the 25th.   If you sign up, you ensure your little ones will get this week's kit.  If you don't, you might have to wait until closer to 10:30 to see if there were any no-shows or they might give you a previous week's kit.  They'll hold your kit until 10:15.  Unless you are a regular, then if you're really late, they may still hold it for you.

Lowe's are conveintly located in Weymouth, Quincy, Dedham, Brockton, Abington, Pembroke, West Bridgewater, Kingston, Plainville, Raynham, & North Attleboro.

Occupy My Wallet: Day 50

Holla for the 50th day of the year!  That was yesterday.  I'm always a day behind.

I did not buy any crap yesterday.  I'm getting good at not buying crap.  I'm going to have to scope out some deals because we have 3 (yes, THREE) birthday parties next weekend.  It's hard to be popular, but someone's got to do it.

"Organizing My Crap": Modify Your Closet - Easily & Cheaply

Do you live in an old house?  We do.  1921.  I guess it's not "that old", but it's up there.  Back in the 20s, they didn't make closets like they do now.  Even in our "master bedroom" - our closet is so narrow that our clothes barely fit width wise.  And we're not even really big people.  But we make do with what we have - and if closet space is one of our major worries - then I think our lives are pretty darn blessed.

Here's our closet.  Do you see what we did?  We installed a second rod half way down.  You can buy a closet rod at Lowe's for about $10-$15.  They're adjustable so you don't need to measure or anything.  It took about 10 minutes to install and we essentially doubled our hanging closet space in this closet.  

So if you're yearning for more closet space - see if adding another rod will do the trick.  I think it only works for us because the closet is pretty tall to begin with.  I'm not sure how high "more modern" house closets are.  This is also beneficial in a kids' room - if they share or if they are just a fashion diva and have way too many clothes.  

Saving Money Challenge: Make Your Kids Play with Garbage

We recently bought a toilet.  This came in two big boxes.  The kids, like always, were obsessed with these boxes.  They sell cardboard boxes that are "playhouses" at Michael's and other great shops like that.  They are sold from anywhere from $20-$40.  I don't get it.  They look like this:

I mean, sure they look cute and pretty - but I just don't understand why someone would buy cardboard.  Of course, I buy a lot of stupid crap myself.  Just not cardboard.

Anyways - so I gave the box and another one to my sons.  They LOVED it.  I think this was three weeks ago and they still are playing with them.  My house looks like a dump most days anyways - so the cardboard motif just fits in.

Homemade Angry Bird house with toilet boxes!  Yahoo!  FREE and Eco-Friendly.  

Occupy My Wallet: Day 49

Didn't buy anything yesterday.  Worked a meat raffle and got $60 to play & divulge in a little Keno.  I left with $61!  Holla!  The husband took the kids up to eat chinese food - think the bill came to $35.  It's our tax refund celebration.  Got to really work on not going out/getting take out as much.  I had 6 pizza boxes in our recycling bin on Friday.  Recycling comes every 2 weeks.  Really?  Are we that dependent on pizza?  It's just so good though...

"Organizing My Crap": Face Reality - You Aren't Going To Wear That

This is a HORRIBLE picture.  Most of my pictures are.  Well anyways - we've lived in our home for just over 4 years now.  I have this shoe rack on a closet door in my attic.  I also have a bunch of clothes there that have been there for probably about the same 4 years.  

Yesterday morning, I did a quick sweep and really focused my head and thought "Really, are you REALLY going to wear those lime green shoes ever again?"  And again, and again for all that crap up there.  

After about 6 minutes, I had a garbage bag full of shoes (8 pairs) and a garbage bag full of clothes (you can't really see the dent in this "after" picture - but you can see my shoe rack is mostly empty).  

Now what I did differently - RIGHT AWAY, I put these two bags in my car.  When I went to drop off son #1 at school, myself & son #2 made a quick stop to Goodwill in Quincy.  I gave those suckers away right away. Usually in the past, I would gather stuff to "donate" and then the crap would just sit there and sit there and then I'd forget why it's even there.  I can be really lazy at times.  

It felt great to get rid of those two bags of clothes.  BONUS:  If you donate to Goodwill, they'll give you a donation receipt.  

Saving Money Challenge: Use your Stop & Shop Gas Points

If you live in or near Quincy - let's get a HOLLA! for the new Stop & Shop gas station on Southern Artery.  Holla!

I scanned my Stop & Shop card and got .30 cents off per gallon (I scored 200 bonus points at my last S&S trip).  The list price was $3.49.  But I got 16 gallons - so that's a savings of $4.80.  Stop & Shop already has some of the cheapest gas around - so even if you don't have points - you'll probably do well there.  

If you don't have a Stop & Shop gas station near you, a lot of Shell stations take Stop & Shop cards.  You can find this out on their website.  

Cheap Book Alert: Library Book Sale!

Have you ever been to a Library Book Sale?  They are awesome.  Books range from .10 cents to $2.  Weymouth's Tufts Library is having one today from 9am-4pm.  I think this one is just paperbacks.  Anyways, the library sells off old books and donations to make money for their "Friends of the Library" fund that help do something or other for the library.

Other towns have them from time to time.  I think Weymouth usually has one about every 3 to 4 months.  I once picked up about 22 books at one of these events and it was like $3 for all of them.  Craziness I tell you.