Clearance city, and other musings...

I ♥ Clearance!

First my DH who works for Coke spotted a cart of clearance spices and goodies at Smiths while he was delivering there and called me on the phone and told me that I should run over there if I had a chance, so since the kids were at school I grabbed my purse and headed over to Smiths.

They indeed had lots of spices in a shopping cart in the back so I rifled through them and found some that I thought we would use. Since spices do go bad, many times before you can use them all I didn't clear them out. But grabbed some pepper grinders (all they had since we use pepper a lot), some poultry seasoning, rosemary, garlic salt, pizza seasoning grinders (I like this stuff on quesadillas yummy!). All of those were priced at .25 cents to .45 cents. Regular prices were between $5 and $7 so great bargain! I also picked us some fancy schmancy Martha Stewart type french grey sea salt for $3 each (regular price $14) it was a bit steep for a tiny little round tin of salt but I felt like splurging. While there I picked up a some basic produce (grapes, apples, oranges, bagged salad) and then I spotted the marked down bananas for .20 a lb and grabbed 6 bunches since they are not bad bananas but ripe. My kids eat them and then I freeze some for banana smoothies and banana bread. Total OOP was $21.00 (no coupons used)

Then there was another clearance spotting by my DH at Walmart (hey babe, you should run to Walmart because they have all these kids clothes on clearance) so I ran over there and indeed found some great bargains.

• Sweatshirts and pants for Carly at $1.00 each .
• Pajama sets for Liam and Parker for $2.00-$3.00 each.
• Organic Cotton t-shirts for Hannah for $3.00 each.
• Capri pants for Hannah for $5.00 each.
• A winter coat for Parker for $5.00
• A winter coat/snow pants combo for Carly for $7.00 (Liam her twin brother has hand me downs from Parker)

Then I found some Tyson All Natural Chicken on mark down and happened to have some coupons in my purse to make that cheap.

Total OOP was $61.20

At Kmart yesterday I had to run and get a new baby gate since the dog tried to jump ours and it broke :( so while I was there I found yet MORE clearance. Gerber graduates juices for .25 a bottle (no coupons) and Gerber Graduates fruit snacks (real fruit, organic too!) for $1.00 a box. I will stash those in the car for car snacks. Then they had quilted flannel shirts for my DH for $7.00 PLUS 50% off clearance prices so only $3.50 and I picked up 10 of those for him to wear in the winter (wait it still is winter here LOL)

As I was checking out I spied a cart full of Pringles for .25 cents but alas I did not have my coupons with me. So I checked out and paid OOP $50.91 cents (that baby gate was not cheap)

I came home, clipped my Pringles coupons and ran BACK to Kmart for FREE Pringles

Oh yes I ♥ CLEARANCE!





Now onto my other musings for the day.....

Appliance Woes

My clothes dryer is on the fritz and every time I turn it on it blows the houses power fuse. So I have to trudge out in the snow and flip the main breaker. What a pain in the you know what that is. Especially since there is ALWAYS laundry to do around here. So...looks like we will be perhaps getting a new dryer this weekend. I just hope someone has a good sale going on. If I can swing it budget wise I may get a new washer too...we shall see. I need to have a look at where were are in our savings account and where we can tighten the budget (probably stop shopping for clearance stuff.... LOL)

Birthday Boy

Parker, my little curly headed boy genius turned 5 last week. He for some reason does not "get" birthdays and still insists that he is 4 (Although Liam claims that he is 5). For his birthday we celebrated just low key here at home. We had his favorite dinner of homemade mac & cheese with little smokies in it, a side of sauteed corn, and salad. I did not have time to bake a cake, even though my DH has told me that I have enough frosting to frost the empire state building, so a store bought carrot cake did the job. I had some ice cream in the freezer already.

For a present we splurged on a $300 (YIKES, YIKES, and double YIKES) John Deer tractor. And when he saw that his eyes just lit up. We went out and let the kids ride it around the yard and they all just love it. My only fear is that I will need to buy 2 of them for the twins birthday in October. I better start saving now!

So anyways...happy birthday Parker!

New Dog

Sit Ubu Sit...good dog!

We have added a new doggy to our family. In Jan our beloved Fuzzy was killed by our neighbors dog who got in our back yard. We assume that Fuzzy was protecting his beloved Chicky, our husky, from the advances of the boxer. But because Fuzz was just a little guy with a big heart he just did not stand a change against the boxer who chewed up his neck and punctured his eye. We choose to put Fuzzy down because the chances of recovery vs the treatment were not good. RIP Fuzzy.

But God somehow landed a new furry friend on our door when my oldest daughter Marilyn found a Weimaraner running around on the road by the dump on her way home. So she got it in the car and brought her home. She had no tags or collar on and I did the right thing and called the animal shelter. She spent the day with us until the shelter could come and pick her up. I got a pretty good feel for her personality that day (she is a big sweetheart!) so I told the shelter that if no one claimed her if they could call us when she was able to be adopted. So they called and we adopted. She has been in to get her shots and has an appointment for her spay. And really Ubu is a great addition to our household. She is a couch potato for the most part and likes to have a blanket AND a pillow when she sprawls on the couch. If she could work the remote she might be in heaven. LOL

Liam calls her Boo Boo, but Ubu is her name.

HCW musings..

I tell you some days I have just an absolute blast at HCW and some days I scratch my head and think "what is wrong with people?" this week has been one of those weeks.

I just don't get how folks criticize HCW or us as admin or mods YET they still find a way to be here, post here, trade here, read our newsletters. I don't know.... maybe it is just me but if there is a site that I don't like I don't go there if I can avoid it.

Anyways...I guess all I have to say is if you don't have something positive to contribute then keep it to yourself. That is not to say that you are not entitled to your opinions but when all is said and done this is not a democracy at HCW. If you have constructive criticism then by all means let us know how we can make it better with actual suggestions. But don't email me and tell me that I don't have a life or cuss at me. If you don't like it here, well I have a saying...

Don't let the door hit ya...where the good Lord split ya.

No one is forcing you to be here.

And on a positive HCW note, I do appreciate those folks that do say that they like the site and that they appreciate the changes we make or other things they like about the site. I know we can not please everyone all of the time but it sure would be nice if someone has something negative to say that they put it in a nice constructive way instead of just saying "I don't like it, put it back" or "Get a life"