Thrifty Thoughts

Updates!

2009-06-17T13:05:00.003-05:00

We now have a new family member-a Shih Tzu named Sophie. She is 9 weeks old today and is absolutely adorable. My mom bought her for me for my birthday which is next week. My little Caden is loving the new puppy-he plays with her all of the time. The other dogs love her too-she is so small compared to them though(a boxer and an English bulldog). But they have fun playing too.

Update on the camper burning: I am still waiting to hear from the insurance adjuster to find out if we are even covered or not. My mother-in-law had just bought it for us and the Memorial Day weekend was our first camping trip in it. I did call m y insurance company because several people had told me that since it was plugged in to the camper it might be covered. Come to find out that they do not cover it just because it was hooked up. BUT-it might be covered due to the fact that we had just bought it-so if we are lucky we will be able to get the money and get another one to replace it.

I do have some more good news-I sold our antique car that we have outside. I have had it for about 4 years now and we paid only $500 for it and I sold it for $5000. I am very happy! I never imagined I would make a $4500 profit from it! So, hopefully that will help us out with the bills for the next several months.

I am still clipping coupons like crazy. If you remember, I had lost all of my coupons in the camper fire. I had several ladies send me some coupons to get me started on replacing the ones I lost. Now I am working on finding a coupon organizer to get started on getting them organized again. I did do really good at the grocery store this week though. I saved 56% off of my Kroger purchases and then at Walmart I had a total of $201 and I only paid $140. All-in-all a great trip this week.

Great Sale at CVS This Week

2009-06-07T15:25:00.002-05:00

Well, I went to CVS today and got 3 packages of Pampers for $8.99 and used the $1 coupons out of today's paper and then I got a $5 ECB for each package. So, I spent $26.98 minus $3 in coupons-out of pocket I spent 23.98 and got $15 back in ECB's for next time!! WOOHOO!! I am on my way to building up my ECB's again after losing them all in my camper fire. OH-I did have to show them the page from the CVS Today website to get the ECB's since they did not print automatically. I just print screened the page -then printed it and took it with me.

Did I mention all of the great people over at A Full Cup? I had several of the members over there that sent me some coupons to help me rebuild my binder! How awesome is that? There are still good people in this world!

CVS Pampers Deal

2009-06-06T20:43:00.002-05:00

Here is a great deal if you use Pampers-CVS is giving $5 Extra Care Bucks when you buy 1 package of Pampers which are priced at $8.99. Use a coupon and you will save even more. I don't have any coupons right now but there should be a coupon in tomorrows paper for $1 off a package of Pampers. For those of you not familiar with the Extra Care Bucks program, you have to pay the full price up front but will then get the ECB which will be worth $5. You can use ECB's to make a purchase just like using money(read the fine print for exclusions)-you could even use it on another package of diapers. So-you could get the first package with a $1 coupon and pay $7.99-get $5 ECB and then purchase another package of diapers using the $1 coupon and the $5 ECB and pay $2.99 for that package and then turn around and do it all over again. Supposedly there is a limit of 3 per Extra Care card. Here is a link to the CVS website which shows this promotion--Pampers ECB deal.

Been A While!

2009-06-01T14:44:00.001-05:00

I did not realize it had been 20 days since I posted! WOW! I have had a really hectic past few weeks. My dad ended up having his leg amputated below the knee. I have spent quite a bit of time with my family lately. He is doing as well as can be expected. He is having the “phantom” pains. He still does not realize he has no leg and keeps trying to stand up and has fallen nearly every day-sometimes twice a day. It has been really trying on my mom and my brothers and sisters. We are all hanging in there though.

We did get to go camping for the Memorial Day weekend. We went to the lake on Friday and came home on Monday. We had a great time camping. My brother and his wife were right next to us-then my nephew was next to them. My sister and her husband were a few sites over from us. Caden had an absolutely great time. My little great-niece was there too and they played all day. He was so tired one night that he grabbed my hand and pulled me to our camper and he proceeded to climb into his sleeping bag and felt asleep. The bad part of the weekend came when we got home. My husband pulled the camper down the road to dump the water. While he was draining the water, he noticed smoke coming from out of the vents on top of the camper. He went around to the door and opened the door to find the inside of the camper fully engulfed in flames. He actually got up oin the camper and was going to try to put it out and then realized that his attempts were futile so he got out of there. He went to the truck and hurriedly unhooked the camper from the truck and came home for me to call 911. By the time they got there of course, the camper was gone and the field was on fire. Luckily my husband got out of the camper when he did. He thought about it all after the fact and realized that if he was to have fallen or gotten stuck in the camper, our Caden would have burned up in the truck. Needless to say, I did not sleep too well that night. I am so glad we weren’t asleep when it happened. We do not know what caused it but are thinking it was something electrical. I did lose my laptop, camera, coupon binder and organizers, coupons, Extra Care Bucks($25 worth), Register Rewards($60 worth), all of my summer tops and shorts that I could actually fit in, Caden’s clothes, Jimmy’s clothes, over $1000 worth of camping supplies, lots of miscellaneous tools, food, personal items, prescriptions, etc. It seems like every day I remember something else that was in there. My mom bought me a new laptop-so at least I have that. My sisters went through their clothes and gave me some clothes-but most are capris and shorts-I still need some summer tops. My mom took us shopping to replace Caden’s and Jimmy’s shorts and clothes. Caden even lost his Cars movie. UUGGHH!! We did not have insurance on it-so it was a complete loss. But life goes on and hopefully it will get better.

Coupons for Kraft Products

2009-05-11T15:17:00.001-05:00

I posted earlier today about the new coupons available at Coupons.com-well, it has come to my attention that you can print more of the Kraft coupons over at the Kraft Foods web site. They have $50 of coupons available for Kraft products. A lot of the coupons are worth $1. You do need to register for free at the Kraft site but it is well worth it. You can print the coupons 2 times at the Kraft site and 2 times at Coupons.com.

new coupons available

2009-05-11T07:34:00.001-05:00

Be sure to go to Coupons.com to get the newest coupons. There are a lot of new printable coupons right now. A lot of them are for $1 off. They won’t last long-so get them while you can. Remember, you can print them twice from your computer. Load up your printer and get to printing! If you have never printed coupons before and need some help –please let me know and I will help you if I can! Have a great day.

PS-I am trying to be positive today even though it is raining AGAIN!! UUGGHHH!! I may need a boat to go get my groceries today!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!

2009-05-10T21:34:00.003-05:00

It is still raining here/ I am starting to think I should be a duck-at least then the rain would not bother me so bad. We went to go to my Mom's todayt for Mother's Day and we had to turn around and go back the other way due to the road being flooded. The pastures around here are beginning to look like lakes. The poor cows are gonna need lifeboats before too long. Needless to say we were late to Mom's-but they were waiting on us before they ate. I did get a little sidetracked though. We went to Walgreens to get some chips to take and I got carried away with getting my freebies for this week. I got 3 tubes of toothpaste, 2 toothbrushes, Omega 3 capsules, and Bayer Crystals=all for FREE!!! The one thing that really got me though was that I bought 2 Dallas Morning News Sunday editions and they went up in price by $1 which makes them $3 each now! I could not imagine if I did not use the coupons-I am sorry but no newspaper is worth $3 unless it has coupons that I can use in it. I usually buy 2 of them. I will be checking the Taylortown Preview for sure to make sure the coupons are gonna be worth it before I buy 2 papers.. Absolutley outrageous! The woman in front of me was complaining about the prices of diet pills. I guess everything is getting really expensive these days though. The gas prices have been going up again too. It has been $1.91 and now is $2.13. Bad thing is I am almost out of gas and have only $5 to put any in it. What next? I have disconnect notices on my phone, water and electric right now and my car insurance will be cancelled if I don't pay it by the 23rd. Donations are always welcome! HAHA-I know that won't ever happen but thought I would throw that out there-a person can dream can't they?

Falling, falling, falling

2009-05-08T00:34:00.002-05:00

Do you ever feel like you are falling into an abyss of nothingness? I am guessing the weather has gotten to me. I have been really depressed lately and it does not seem like my Paxil is helping any. I don’t want to get up in the morning and when I finally do drag myself out of bed I end up doing nothing. My poor house is a wreck. I did manage to get the floors swept today and vacuumed the couch-but I made myself do it. I am absolutely totally broke right now. Not making much by blogging here lately and money danged sure does not grow on trees around here. I just feel so lost sometimes. My dad is not getting any better-he seems to be losing it more and more each day. He does not even know he is in a nursing home-he thinks the doctors are keeping him locked up in there until his foot gets better. The other night they found him in the floor over by the closet trying to get his clothes so he could go home. I hate seeing him like that-and my mom is so stressed about everything too. It seems like just when things start looking up that everything goes to crap again. Sorry about the rant but I needed to vent a little.

Mac memory

Raining again!

2009-05-02T22:53:00.001-05:00

Okay-enough already on the rain! It has been really rainy here for a week now and it is probably going to be raining the rest of the night and on into Wednesday. According to the radar it is going to be pretty bad tonight. I went to my great niece’s birthday party today and when I was getting ready to leave there was a tornado warning for our county. I hate bad weather, it reminds me of living in New Orleans and my mom making us get downstairs under the couch every time it would come a storm. UUGGHH!! I keep seeing this hotel reservation promo on TV and wish I could go somewhere that the sun is shining. I firmly believe that a person’s mood depends on the weather and it is getting very depressing around here-and I am depressed enough as it is. Even a couple of hours of sun would be nice. One good thing is my garden is still doing really great. I actually had a salad earlier today with fresh lettuce. I can’t wait until the tomatoes and radishes get ready. Are you growing a garden? We have tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, peppers, shallots, squash, green beans, cauliflower, beets and will be planting some okra when it gets time. The lettuce I have in several containers on my back porch along with chives, basil, and a few other herbs. I am loving the garden-but am not too find of the weeds!

techie kids!

2009-04-29T23:33:00.001-05:00

My sister was telling me today that friend of hers had overheard a conversation about one of my nephews. Someone was asking about a good computer repairman and they recommended my nephew. He has been absolutely enthralled with everything electronic and electrical since he was a toddler-he turned 20 yesterday. We used to go to Kmart and he would point out all of the plugs and switches. He was so cute! He currently works for a computer and copier company. He has my broken laptop at his house so he can fix it. The kid even has a camera system installed at his house-makes you kinda scared to go pee!! LOL! His brother who is a year older than him is also a computer techie. He works at a factory in the IT department. He makes over $35,000 a year and he has not even got a college degree. He is an avid VW and Mac fan. He even has an iphone with all of the iphone accessories you could imagine! Wish I was as smart as those two! I know my sister was really proud that someone was praising her boy! I hope my little man grows up to be intelligent like that.

stress, stress and more stress

2009-04-29T23:24:00.001-05:00

I was asking my sister today what would make my face all of a sudden start breaking out and my hair getting so oily. I have never had problems with this before so I could not understand why it was happening now. My sister explained that all of the stress I have been under could cause it. I did not realize I was stressing so much but after I got to thinking about it, I realized that I have been really worried about my dad and I am having troubles getting my bills paid this month. My son has all of a sudden started waking in the night crying and he has been snoring really loud the past few nights. My eyes are getting really bad and I am really needing to get some glasses and new contacts. Glasses cost so much money and it does not grow on trees around here. So-I guess you could say I am stressed! I have also been having that fluttery feeling in my chest a lot here lately and I guess that means my anxiety is stalking me again. Always something! Oh-I want to know if any of you have ever bought glasses from the online glasses places? The prices seem pretty reasonable on them. The one part I don’t like is that I can not try them on first. Let me know your experiences!!

rain, rain, go away!

2009-04-29T23:07:00.001-05:00

I really like rain-really I do, but enough is enough already! It has been raining off and on all week and it is supposed to rain more the next few days. I love the aspect that the rain helps make the garden grow. My tomato plants are doing really great-some even have blossoms already. My roses are starting to bloom too. I even have a mockingbird nest in the middle of one of my rosebushes. My son loves watching the birds and smelling all of the flowers. I am just really aggravated that I am having to sweep my floors several times a day because my dogs keep bringing dirt in. My son keeps bringing his toys in from outside and the toys bring dirt in too. Oh well-I should be thankful that we are not in the throes of a drought. I know a lot of areas have suffered with drought over the past few years. Maybe they will get some much needed rain too!

weight loss

2009-04-25T20:37:00.001-05:00

I think I have told you guys before that I had lost 50 pounds before I got pregnant. I am still trying to lose it and am having major problems! A friend of mine has lost nearly 100 pounds by taking an appetite suppressant. I am not able to do that because of my blood pressure medications. What do you do to lose weight? I need some major advice here. I am miserable and feel so frumpy. I have hardly any clothes to wear and the ones I do have are worn out. I can not afford to go out and buy new clothes right now so I need to lose some weight to fit in the ones I have. It has gotten to the point where I hate leaving the house because I am embarrassed for anyone to see me like this. I also have been having to wear my glasses because my contacts are no good anymore and I can not afford to get my eyes checked. So, to add insult to injury, I am fat and am having to wear my glasses which make me feel really, really frumpy. Maybe someday things will get better! I just get so frustrated sometimes!

Good deals today!

2009-04-25T20:30:00.001-05:00

Wow, two of my sisters and I went to TWENTY garage sales today-we even went to 11 yesterday-so that makes 31 for the weekend! Yep-I said 31. My poor little boy was so pooped when we got done. Today, I got some shorts and shirts for him for the summer for 50 cents apiece. There were some Tommy Hilfiger and Levis shorts in it too-not a bad deal at 50 cents. I also got a couple of huge platters that are metal and have barbecue pictures on them. I paid 50 cents each for them too. I really did not need them but it brought back memories of when I was a little girl and my mom had one just like it-so it was a sentimental thing! Had to have them. My sister got my little man a toy lawnmower that he just could not quit playing with. She only paid a dollar for it. We even had one place that gave him a free toy. Yesterday, I got hi a few toys and some plant stands for my porch. We always have to compete for the plant stands-Dawn always gets them-so I beat her to them yesterday and then Donna got one today. So we all got some plant stands. We had a great time and I can’t wait to go again!

how much do you pay?

2009-04-25T20:16:00.001-05:00

I am in the market to find some new auto insurance. I am currently paying about 140.00 a month for full coverage on 2 vehicles. I am just curious as to what others pay. Also, does your insurance rate you buy your credit score? Mine does but I have had the policy for nearly 10 years now and it has never increased due to tickets and accidents or anything. I am glad of that because my stepson has had several speeding tickets and my stepdaughter’s friend wrecked my camaro. I had it repaired from that accident and then it got wrecked again but it was not filed on insurance because I did not have collision insurance. Anyway, all comments welcome!!

Ads on blogs?

2009-04-23T22:33:00.001-05:00

I have a few questions here-Do you have ads on your blog? How well do you do with them? I have a couple but don’t get much response with them. I have been studying SEO and conversion rate optimization as ways to get more visitors and participation. Are there any tips you can share with me? I need all of the help I can get! Thanks in advance!!

Updates!

2009-04-21T16:25:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone!! I have still been out of pocket here. Too much going on here. I have been trying to make a few dollars to pay some bills since I was stupid and bought a new laptop. I have sold my wrecked car-thank goodness! Word of advice-if you ever let your kids drive your car, make sure to put full coverage insurance on it! I had a 1999 Camaro and my stepson let his girlfriend drive it about 2 years ago and it has been sitting ever since. I was able to get $700 for it. Now I have another car to sell. It is a 1953 Chrysler Town and Country Wagon. It is really awesome. I will have to get my pictures off of my old laptop and post them so you can see them. I have them on Photobucket too –I think! LOL! I am getting so fricking scatter brained.

I have also been working on my family tree some more. I just need to renew my subscription to Ancestry.com. Did you know that you can check ancestry DNA I don’t know how it works but thought it was interesting! I have been working in mine for several years now but have been taking a break from it. I am ready to get back into it again.

Out of Commission

2009-04-14T14:23:00.001-05:00

Well, I have been out of pocket for the past few days. My laptop died on me and I had to come up with some moolah to get another one. I am back now-YIPPEE!! I have also been spending a lot of time at the nursing home with my dad. He seems to be getting somewhat better but he is still suffering from dementia. He does not even realize where he is. All he knows is that he is in a locked facility and he can not go home yet.

I am LOVIN' CVS!

2009-04-06T15:47:00.003-05:00

I got some really great deals today at CVS. I had some ECB's that I needed to roll and I ended up doing really good! Here is my summary:

Purchased
3-12 packs Coke Zero for $11.00
2-Huggies Pullups ($10 each) for $20.00
1-Huggies Diapers for $10.00
1-Covergirl Lash Blast for $ 7.00
1-Covergirl Olay Foundation for $13.00
1-Skintimate Cream Shave for $3.49
1-Colgate Max White for $2.99
1-Pantene Shampoo for $3.99
1-Pantene Conditioner for $3.99
1-Prilosec 42 ct for $24.77
1-Crest w/Scope 2pk for $FREE with $20 or more purchase of P&G items
TOTAL= $100.23

Coupons Used
Huggies PullUps $2.00
Huggies Pullups $2.00
Huggies Diapers $1.50
Covergirl Any $1.00
Covergirl Olay $4.00
Pantene $3.00 off 2
Prilosec $3.00
CVS $20.00 off $100 purchase
CVS ECB $36.47
Total Coupons Used=$72.97

TOTAL PURCHASE OF $100.23
MINUS COUPONS OF $ 72.97
TOTAL PAID OOP $ 27.26
RECEIVED ECB's OF $ 29.49
ACTUALLY MADE $ 2.23

Looking Back

2009-04-06T10:37:00.002-05:00

Well, my dad finally got released from the hospital. He is currently in a nursing home. It is a crazy thought to think he went in only to have 2 toes amputated and now he is in a nursing home. There was no choice but to amputate the toes because he had no blood flow to his foot and it was not healing. It seems the medications he was given exaggerated the Alzheimer's that he was already suffering from. I never knew that could happen but it seems that older people are more prone to these side effects. It really makes you think about the things we put in our bodies. What kind of effects are they going to have on you? You just never know.

It has been really hard seeing him in the hospital and now in a nursing home. He is 83 years old and my parents just celebrated their 63rd anniversary. My dad has worked all of his life-even up to the day he was pout in the hospital. He owns several rental properties and also has a well drilling business. He has been laying in his bed "working" on everything. One of my brothers seems to think he will come out of it but my sisters, my other brother and I don't think he will. Their are six of us kids and we are all worried about him.

I just keep thinking back on all of the old times. We used to go camping a lot when we lived in New Orleans. Dad used to go fishing and we had so much fun. He taught me how to fish. One time he was out fishing and fell out of his boat-boy did we laugh about that! I also remember the times we used to go to Wisconsin and San Antonio to see our relatives. We went all over the United States traveling. I remember Disney World, Yellowstone, Niagara Falls and all of the fun places we used to go. There were lots of times that he would come upstairs pulling his belt off to whip my sister and I for talking and playing when we were supposed to be sleeping. One year at Christmas, we were outside swinging on the porch swing (it was the kind that was a free standing swing) waiting for Santa Claus and he kept swinging higher and higher until the swing kept bouncing off of the ground and then next thing I knew-we were on the ground and he was laying on his back with his feet up in the air. We used to have such good times.

I know the time is coming when he will no longer be here-but I do have a lot of great memories to hang on to. Our family is very close and we will have each other but it does not make it any easier to know your parents are not going to be here much longer.

Wish I Could Disappear for a Few Days

2009-03-28T19:37:00.002-05:00

Things are still pretty bad around here. My dad is still in the hospital and they don't know whether he will get his right mind back again. He is continuously talking out of his head about working on water wells, engines, sewers, etc. They are trying to get his medications regulated. He is getting Seroquel to ease his agitation. His sodium levels are low so they are giving him sodium to build that up. Yesterday, he was able to sit in a chair for a while. He was sitting there bent over picking up imaginary washers and screws out of the floor. At one point in time he also arched his back and tensed up like he was having some sort of seizure or something. I talked to the doctor today and they will be doing an EEG on Monday to see if he is having seizures or strokes or something.
Yesterday he messed the bed and the nurses did not even clean the bed good. He is on one of those air mattresses and when the nurses "cleaned" it up they wiped it off and put sanitizer on it and that was supposedly "clean". They left him laying in his own mess. YUCK! I said something to the nurses and they had to call housekeeping to come change the whole mattress. Then, when they were putting him in his chair they spilled his bag of urine all over the floor. They wiped it up with paper towels and did not get the floor mopped. I had to catch someone from housekeeping to mop the floor. She then reported it to her supervisor and they came up and took a report.

I definitely wish I could find one of those Caribbean cruises so I could just escape for a few days.

Water Problems Again

2009-03-26T20:16:00.002-05:00

Well, when it rains it pours around here. I have been at the hospital all day and when I got home the faucet in the bathroom messed up! Since I am so broke, I guess I need to be looking for some discount faucets to replace my old faucets. My house was built in the 1970's and has some really outdated plumbing. I need to install some low flow faucets anyway so I can save money on my water bill.

More Bad News

2009-03-25T20:00:00.002-05:00

Well, I talked to the doctor and the social worker today at the hospital. Looks like my dad won't be coming home. He is to be discharged tomorrow to a skilled nursing facility. I don't think he will be able to stay there because he is very combative and will not cooperate with the nurses. When I spoke to the doctor, he said that they would try the SNF and if he could not stay there then he would have to go to a nursing home. They are having to keep him restrained (tied to the bed) because he will not stay in the bed. He is not supposed to be putting any weight on his foot at all. He was fighting the nurses today when they were trying to tie his arms to the bed. He kept mumbling incoherently about being in the highway and working on water wells. The doctor said he will probably never return to his normal self. The anesthesia they use for surgery can cause dementia-especially in older people. My brother is coming in tomorrow and my mom wants all of my brothers and sisters to get together to figure out what we can do. This is a really hard thing to deal with. Please keep our family in your prayers.

My Apologies to You

2009-03-24T16:40:00.003-05:00

I want to apologize to everyone that has been reading my blog and entering in the contests. These past few weeks have been really hard on me. My dad had to have 2 of his toes amputated and has been in the hospital all this last week. He is 83 years old and a very independent person. He is striking out at everyone and it really hurts to see someone that has always been so strong be so weak. He has been taking several different medications that are causing him to hallucinate and talk out of his head. He also had to get a stent put in his leg to open the arteries. If the stent does not restore the blood flow to his leg, he will end up losing his leg from the knee down. In the midst of all of this going on, my back went out on me for 3 days. I am somewhat able to do a little bit. I still have piles of laundry to do, tomatoes to plant, etc. I will have to do all of it in small steps since it hurts too bad to do a whole lot at a time. If you are a praying person-please pray for my dad-he really needs it.

So-I also want to apologize that I have not been here to choose the winners of my contests. I also have not had time to go out and promote them like I usually do. So therefore, both contests will be extended until March 30th. To earn extra entries for either contest-make a post about it on your blog and you will get 5 extra entries-just make sure you leave a comment ON THIS POST to let me know which contest you blogged about and I will put 5 extra entries in for you!

Free Movies from Dish Network

2009-03-23T10:33:00.002-05:00

Get 2 free PPV movies from Dish Network. Click HERE to check it out! This is on the Dish network web site-I have not tried it yet but since it is on their site it should be good.