Getting Ready for Garage Sale Season!

Today it is 70 degrees out!!! I can't believe it.  Friday will be 40.  Again.  But let's not think about that.  We are 20 degrees above normal today (in Indiana) and it's got me thinking garage sale time.

Well not yet.

But soon.

And I.Can.Not.Wait.

Do you garage sale?  I love it.  The finding.  The bargaining (usually not...but this year I am going to break out of my shell and try).  The re purposing.  All on a budget.  My favorite part. {One day I'll find that gem that's worth like $5,000 and pay $1} :)

I found this list of garage sale buying tips.  Time to get ready!

1. There are two types of garage sales: the ones where people want to make money and the ones where people want to get rid of stuff. The latter are best for finding deals.
2. For maximum efficiency, map out your route. This is only for the truly hardcore.
3. If at all possible, leave the kids at home. If you must bring children with you, make sure to bring plenty of snacks. Allow the older children an allowance to find bargains of their own.
4. Be prepared. Wear cool, comfortable clothes. Bring lots of change and dollar bills. Keep your money in your pockets, not your purse. Bring a tote bag.
5. When you find something you’re not sure you want, pick it up and carry it with you while you continue to look. This prevents somebody else from finding it while you’re trying to decide.
6. Always ask politely if the seller will reduce the price. Beware: sometimes the prices are so low that it seems impolite to ask for less.
7. If there is something you really want, but the seller is asking more than you want to pay, offer a lower price. If they say no, leave your name and number in case they change their mind.
8. Check items for hard-to-see tears, stains, and breakage. Better safe than sorry.
9. It is best to go early, but don’t panic if you can’t. The best stuff is available at the start of a sale, but the best deals can be had later in the day when the seller is tired and nonplused about carrying everything back into the house.
10. If you don’t have success in one part of town, try somewhere else the next time. Sometimes the best garage sale neighborhoods are the ones you don’t expect.

All of the above tips are great. One other important tip is to search craigslist for garage sale information. Craigslist offers a list of garage sales in your city, often with a preview of the most desireable items. It’s easy to plan a morning of garage-saling with craigslist.

This was found here.

What was your best garage sale find?

Blogging/Etsy Tax Tips

I know it is Monday and it's usually blanket day, but I thought that this was something you would all be interested in!  And if you already filed your taxes this year, keep records for next year!

If you make money blogging or on Etsy you have to (ok.  You really should) claim it on your taxes.  Congrats!  You are a business owner! :) There are lots of deductions you can write off.  I'm not an accountant, so you should talk these over with yours but here are some general things that can help you save some money.

1. Internet related expenses.  Without the internet - there would be no blog right?  Hosting fees, domain name registrations, internet access, blogging software, picture storing, linky party subscriptions are all things that fall into this category.  Don't forget selling fees - Etsy, pay pal, Ebay.  

2. Your equipment. You need a computer right?  Any upgrades (memory and so forth), software (including tax software, picture editing).  And don't forget those cameras, sewing machines, and silhouettes!!

3. Do you tweet from your cell phone?  You can use part of your cell bill as a write off.

4. Any new office furniture?  {My table from the trash would not count here lol}

5. Supplies/Stationary.  Supplies add up quickly.  Fabric, thread, needles, pins, rulers, cutting mats, pens, staples, paint brushes, Stamps.  Keep all of your receipts.  Your accountant can help you go through all of them.  I write notes on mine so I know exactly what project I bought each item for.  If it's something like Mod Podge I just write general.

6. Advertising, Promo and Design.  Do you advertise on other blogs.  Ask for a receipt or print off your pay pal receipt.  Advertising also include promos and giveaways! Did you have someone design your blog.  Print off a receipt! 

7. Travel and Entertainment.  Did you go to a blogging conference?  Conference fees, travel accommodations, and dining expenses can be written off. 

8. Office Space.  Do you blog from home?  Do you have an office?  You can deem that part of your home as your office and write off a small amount of your household bills for rent plus your utilities.

I know.  It's a lot!  Just remember to save your receipts!  Make small notes on them.  I put all of my receipts into a big folder and at the beginning of each new month I sort them and staple each category together.  I also try to keep Etsy/blog stuff away from my personal stuff when I check out somewhere.  For example I was buying tablecloths and towels for an order at Target but I also had milk and a movie.  Just have them ring it up as 2 transactions.  

I also keep a sales order book on my desk.  (You can get them anywhere).  Every time someone orders something or pays for advertising I write it down.  I keep all of the receipts in the book.  I also write how I got paid (pay pal, cash, check).  Keeping them in one place makes it easy to have them ready to go!    

Any tax tips you have?

Pretzel Crusted Chicken -- YUM

My USB cable is MIA so hold tight for a minute! :)

I mad this pretzel crusted chicken the other night.  Josh wanted chicken fingers.  So I found this.  He declared them the best chicken fingers he’s ever had.  {Sorry again for no pictures….but seriously it’s yummy!}

Pretzel crusted chicken

Prep: 15 min

Bake 25 min

Serves 4

 Cost per serving: $1.79

2 c. pretzel twists (about 3 oz)

½ c parmesan

½ c all purpose flour

¼ tsp pepper

2 large eggs

1 lb boneless chicken cut into strips

1.       Preheat oven to 400.  Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray.  Place pretzels and parmesan in a food processor and process until coarsely ground and well mixed (or do as I did and put in a Ziploc bag and use a rolling pin!)Transfer to a large bowl.

2.       Combine flour and pepper in another bowl.

3.       Beat eggs with 1 tsp water in a third bowl. 

4.       Roll a chicken piece in flour.  Dip in egg.  Roll in pretzels.  Place on baking sheet.  Repeat. Cook until browned about 20 – 25 minutes.

355 calories, 8 g fat, 182 mg chol, 1 g fiber, 37 g pro, 30 g carb

Tasty Tuesday

Want a quick and easy dinner recipe? And under $10?  Here it is

Italian Sausage and Potato Roast (From All You Magazine)
1 small yellow bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips
1 small green bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips
1/2 sweet onion sliced
3/4 lb red potatoes cut into quarters
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp garlic salt
pepper
1 lb Italian sausage cut into chunks

1. Preheat oven to 450.  Line baking sheet with foil and mist with cooking spray.  In a large bowl toss peppers, onion, potatoes with olive oil, oregano, garlic salt and pepper.  Spread on baking sheet.

2. Distribute sausage chunks among veggies. 

3.Roast until sausages are cooked through.  About 30 minutes.  Stir once or twice during baking.

506 calories, 39 g fat, 86 mg chol, 3 g fiber, 18 g pro, 20 g carbs

My likes: Only 10 minutes prep time!  One bowl and one pan to clean (which the foil makes it super easy).  Lots of veggies.  Cheap.  Easily can swap out sausage with...turkey, chicken anything really {if your trying to watch your weight like me.  Well I'm really trying to watch it go down) The boys loved it

Coupons

Did you know that some stores let you load coupons directly onto your rewards card?  I just found out.  We grocery shop at Kroger and if anyone else does --- they have TONS of coupons (and good ones!) on their site that you can load onto your card! 

CSN Giveaway!

I'm hosting a CSN giveaway on my other blog We're The Joneses.  And you get an entry for following The Super Mom Club!  So go enter! :)

Things that work: Barilla Plus Pasta

I recently picked up a few boxes of Barilla Plus Pasta at the grocery store to try.  I've bought the spinach pasta (my son snubbed it - I love it but green pasta didn't really work out to well at our house).  I've bought the whole wheat pasta (again, I liked.  Boys not to much).  So this was the last time I was buying healthy pasta. 

And guess what?  They couldn't taste the difference. 

And guess what?  The healthy stuff is HUGE in that little box.  Seriously  The pasta is made  with golden semolina and wholesome flax seed, spelt, oats, barley, and legumes.  It's a great source of protein.  This pasta has 40% more protein than traditional pasta. It's fiber rich - giving you  1 cup (uncooked) gives you 28% of your daily fiber!  And it's rich in Omega -3's.

It's won awards.  It's had tons of endorsements.  It's basically the stuff.

And it's not expensive.  I know that right now Target has it on sale for $1.87 a box. 

Def. worth picking up a few boxes!

5 ways to save at Starbucks

1) Starbucks has promotions called “pairings.” You can save as much as 90 cents if you buy a snack or breakfast with a drink that they choose to combine with it.
2) If you bring your own cup you’ll get 10 cents off your beverage.
3) If you can save the receipt from a Starbucks visit in the morning until the afternoon, after 2 p.m. you can get an Grande cold beverage for 2 bucks. Even a Vivanno Smoothie.
4) For brewed coffee, try the coffee press. It costs around $3 (less than two Grandes) and you’ll get four 8-ounce cups from it.
5) Probably the best tip to save money at Starbucks: A refill on brewed coffee is 50 cents and if you have a Starbucks Card they’re free!

- These tips were taken from savemoneytips.org

Pizza Sauce Recipe

Sorry about no pictures -- USB cable got left at Grandmas and is in the mail back home to me!!

This recipe is really grab and stuff.  Use what you have.  It tastes yummy!

3 cans of Italian seasoned tomatoes ( I use Red Gold)
2 cans of tomato paste
1 bag of frozen Mirepoix  mix (our grocery store sells bags for $1, but all it is onions, celery and carrots chopped up)
1/2 of a small package of frozen spinach
1/2 of a green pepper
lots of Italian spices (Oregano, Bay leaves, basil...just throw it in!)
salt / pepper to taste
I add cheese to ours - Parmesan, provolone and mozzarella

Add or don't add other veggies that you like - mushrooms are good too!
And if your family won't eat Spinach...don't worry about it because.....you are going to bring it to a boil.  Then let simmer for 15 minutes. Then throw it in the blender. 

{I added too much spinach last time I made it.  After I blended it, it wasn't really red anymore.  My boys won't eat it if it wasn't red so honestly -- I added food coloring. :) }

Then pour in ice cube trays.  Freeze.  Pop out and put in Ziploc bag.  I use 4 cubes/pizza.  The "recipe" should make about 12 -15 pizzas.

If you want to use as pasta sauce omit one of the cans of tomato paste and use less spinach.  It will thin up a little bit.

Millionaire Mommy - Guess how we saved over $1300 ... it's kind of crazy

Pizza. Yes ma'am (or sir..) Pizza.  Pizza is Joshua's favorite food.  Ever. So, if he is a good eater Monday - Thursday (meaning tries even the smallest bite of veggies that really shouldn't even count as a bite but hey it's progress) then we have pizza on Friday night.  Every Friday.  That's 52 times a year.  That's a lot of pizza.

We used to order our pizza from Papa Johns. I like their pizza.  Yum.  But I didn't like the fact that after tip for the delivery guy it was almost $30 for 2 pizzas!  $30 X 4 times a month = $120 ... for pizza!

So we make our own.  For $2 a pizza. Oh yea.  You heard me.  $2 a pizza.  And the sauce -- pure veggies. (I'm posting the recipe tomorrow) And so good.  And you make one batch - freeze it (I freeze it in ice cube trays, pop them out and throw in a ziploc bag.  That way I don't have to un-thaw it and refreeze the left overs.)

So saving $26 a week gives us....$1352 over a year.  ON PIZZA!  I told you.  Crazy!

School Winter Treat Ideas

Soooo is anyone else crazy busy?!?  This morning for example Santa was made aware of the fact that Kmart was giving away a $50 game card with the purchase of a Wii....so Mrs. C decided to take back the Wii the elves had already made to Target (where it was on sale now) and go to Kmart to buy it.  And there was a 2 hour delay which threw me off.  I opened my email this morning and I had TONS - I won a blog giveaway! Hooray I never win! Well, I can't say that now! :)

Inlaw Christmas is this weekend...Bazillion things left to do/make.  Christmas Christmas is next week.  A bazillion and 5 things left to do/make.

Whew.  Stress...what stress?

Christmas.  Kid's school.  Are you sending in anything?  I've found a bunch of cute stuff online.  But I've settled on these cookies:

Melted snowman cookies.  Way cute right?  {Pictures from Crazy Domestic}  Plus, I thought they were pretty holiday neutral since I don't know if anyone in his class doesn't celebrate Christmas.

But these were also some choices I thought about:

Sweet and simple. {From One Charming Party}

Mixed up snowmen.  Cute idea..plus Gourmet Mom on the Go had the labels I could just print.  I Liked that.

And Brown Paper Packages also provided labels for their snowman soup.  Which is also super cute. 

But I think the 2nd graders are going to get a kick out of the melted snowmen.  If only I can come up with a cute label....

What are you doing?  What about teacher gifts?

Amanda

Eating healthy...

So I started a new rule at our house - and I was pretty darn happy with myself for it.  Each meal must contain 3 colors.  {Because you have to eat a rainbow each day!} This may not sound like anything extravagant - and probably all you good moms do this.  But this is a huge challenge at our house. 

My son -- has never eaten a veggie before.  Gasp.  I know.  BUT Josh has Autism and with that there are big sensory issues.  So we've worked with a food therapist ( yup there are food therapists out there) who said there are certain textures that really bother him.  So I've been scared to death that I will force my child to eat something that really bothers him sensory wise. 

I think I've been

I KNOW that there are sensory issues.  And I'm sure some bother him.  But I am sure that I've been punk'd and that my kid totally uses this to get out of it. {Anyone else challenged by this?}

So 3 colors.  Each meal.  Do you know how much beige food we eat?  Make felt food.  You'll see.  10 yards of beige, 1 yard of green.  Seriously.

Breakfast it worked.  {We may have cheated - we counted a banana as yellow.  That counts?!?! RIGHT?!?!}

Dinner.  Um.  I had to state that parsley did not count for something green.  And although chocolate milk is brown and there was no brown in the chicken it still didn't count. {We were having baked chicken and macaroni and cheese.  I made green beans but as usual I was the only taker..} I told Josh he had yellow and beige but needed one more color. That there were apples in the fridge.  Green beans.  Hint Hint child. 

His solution? 

He got up and got ketchup.  And said (looking mighty proud of himself) Red is my third color.  And my husband started to laugh.

This is going to be harder than I thought.....

Review of SpongeBob Cranium by Josh

**Note that this post was written (well dictated.  He told me what to write) by a 7 year old boy.  I didn't change a word.  (And you better believe he told me "start typing" & "write this down" more than once!)  Nothing is more honest about a kid's review than a 7 year old!

Hello. My name is Joshua.  I played Cranium Spongebob Squarepants
. 

 {Solo card}

{Combo card}

First you roll the dice.  And then see if you get a solo or a combo card.  If you get a chose card you can chose any card you like.  It can be solo or combo.  Pick a card.  Then see what you have to do.  If you want to see the answer you must use the glasses.  But you can't if you get a solo.  You can only see the answer after you answer the question on a solo card.

 

Some of the cards make you find an object in your house before the timer runs out.  Or you have to draw or act out.  Or answer questions.  Sometimes you can look at the answer, when you get a combo.

For example if you have to act out a word use the glasses to find out the word so you can act it out.

The object of the game is to try to get 4 in a row.  The thing that you use to get 4 in a row is a token.

I liked the game so you must buy the game.  My favorite part was when I win.  It is a super fun game.  My least favorite thing is when my opponent almost won, but I beat her. 

Anyone can play this game except for babies.  I would play with my friends. I would play this ALL the time. 

That's all the time that I have.  I hope you have a good day.

By Josh (age 7)

Mom: This is a really cool game.  I would buy again!

I am a mom to gamers

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?
I hope we can all be happy and grow together.  We have a new home, Josh has a new school and Andy & I have new jobs.
2. What is your Christmas morning / Hanukkah Nightly tradition?
Cinnamon rolls...and Josh leaves a picture for Santa as our tree topper.  Santa takes his picture and leaves something in return.
3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?
A new Cannon Rebel Camera!!!! WOOT WOOT!
4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?
We watch Christmas movies and read Christmas books together.
5. What games did you play with your family growing up?
All kinds!! Smash the Grapes was a fave.  Can't find it anymore...except for the person trying to sell it on Ebay for $45 -- Cheater.
6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?
New PJ's on Christmas EVE
7. Where would you go for a Christmas/Hanukkah-away-from-home trip?
Where are you sending me....:)
8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?
Holy cow.  That's the only place I need to shop.  A Wii.  A new Xbox.  Toy Store 3 for the DS.  Lego Indiana Jones for the DS.  Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii.  Call of Duty whatever for the Xbox.  I know that's more than 3 but I seriously could keep going and going and going.


Sooo We'll see if I win.  Someone has to right?  Even though there are 1,000,000 people trying! Cross your fingers for me!!

Purex Complete 3 in 1 review

So I've never reviewed anything before.  And please note that no one contacted me asking me to.  I just am.  And these are my honest to goodness opinions.  No freebies for me, no cash (although...) :)

So I bought these:

I got them at Wal Mart for $5.47 and I had a coupon.  I thought Why not?

I really did not expect much from them.  I'm a Tide with Febreze kind of girl. But I figured 24 loads for $4.50 (19 cents/load) I would have them on hand for my emergency stash.  Aka. When I run out of laundry detergent and something needs washed.

Well I didn't have to wait long.  HOW do 3 people create sooo much laundry?

I tried.  And I liked.  I really liked.

I was shocked.  So easy (I know -- how difficult is it to measure out detergent and then grab a dryer sheet) but after you do this you get spoiled.  Plus I had a coupon in my package.  $3 off.  Which means my next buy was only $2.47!!! That's 10 cents a load people!! 

{My Tide with Febreze was 25 cents/load}

And just because I'm a numbers freak geak person...
I spend about $130/year on Tide.  (10 loads a week)
PLUS $26/year on Bounce dryer sheets
Total: $156/year on laundry

Switching to Purex 3 in 1 $98.80/year

I just saved myself $57.20!
*Prices were taken from Walmart.com

I'm buying them...not only cheaper - and easier - but my clothes are soft and smell yummy.  Way important.

And, when my box was empty I couldn't throw it away.
Before: Under my Kitchen sink

After:



haha yea I'm silly.  But it's holding all those plastic bags.  {I plan on pretty-ing it up here someday.  Silly I know.  But I like pretty.} Plus when I need one I don't have to get a bag that's holding a bag that has 2 bags inside it.  And it's nice and neat.

  I'm really glad I tried this.  Otherwise when Kroger had the liquid Purex on sale for $1.99 (24 loads) I would have kept walking.  I bought them this time! (This was taken from my We're the Joneses blog from last week.  I thought it better fit here)

Have you ever tried something and were pleasantly surprised?

P.S. This was not a slam Tide post.  :) I do like Tide.  Esp. those little tablets they have now!

P.S.S. I was working on my blogs this morning (all 4 of them...) at the breakfast table this morning.  {Shame on me I know}.  Josh asked what I was doing.  "Mommy blogging"  "That's boring stuff." Thanks kid.  Talked about what a review was.  And he asked if he could review something?  Why not?  So tonight after school look out for Joshua's non-mommy censored first review.  {I'll give him a list of questions but I won't help him write it!}  Good for moms because who is more honest than a 7 year old giving his opinion? Good for us - because what great skills to work on! Talk soon!

Amanda

Making mornings easier with your kids

Today's organizing tip is on making mornings (and your whole day) go more smoothly.  I hate mornings.  I'm just not a wake up, jump up kind of gal.  I like to sleep.  And unfortunately we are always seeming to run behind in the mornings.  That lady above..that was me.

I remember when I was little my mom would be running around like crazy and I'd get in trouble for dittle dattling and not getting ready fast enough.  And it would just start my whole day off wrong. 

I really try to send Joshua off on a positive note.  But sometimes (I'll admit) when it's hectic I'm like come on come on come on!  And then we miss the bus.  And I'm still in PJ's, wild woman hair.  Do I take the chance of no one seeing me and drop him off at the door?  Or do I jump in the shower and get ready real quick?  Grrrr. No time.  Wild woman it is.  And that my friends is when someone, or MULTIPLE someones, say heyy Amanda and walk up to the car. Not that I mind seeing them.  I would just rather not have my slippers on. :)
So I came up with a list of things we do to help SIMPLIFY our mornings.  And they really really help.  They help both of us. 

1. So the old stand by -- picking out your clothes the night before.  Joshua is 7 and likes to pick out his own clothes. Uhh.  He comes up with some good ones. :)

And no wonder - when you think about it - opening your closet to this - is a slightly overwhelming task for a child.

So I pick out outfits for the week.  And hang up 7 outfits.  And he gets to pick one pre-matched outfit.  It works out for us.  {Josh has a big closet, so I use one of the front shelves to hang up his outfits for the week. Obviously today is Wednesday so there are only 2 left!}  I hang up the jeans/shirts (layered so he can see how to put them on...learned my lesson) on 1 hanger.  Because 1. this is visual for him (Joshua has Autism so we need visuals as do most kids) and 2. I may have a shopping problem. And although the picture of his closet looked full...it's not.  I just ran out of hangers.  I need hangers!! And this is my way of making it look like there isn't so much packed in there.  {And thus, avoiding Andy saying "Amanda.  This is ridiculous.  Seriously.  He doesn't even like clothes.  Stop buying them.  I think you have a problem."  Yes, I've heard that conversation waaaay too many times.}

Also, I stick a pair of socks in his tennis shoes.  Lesson learned here too.  Because we can be all dressed.  And he will miss the bus because he can't find a pair of socks that match.  Or he simply put on mismatching socks.  AND if I don't tell him to wear tennis shoes, he'll put on Crocs.  Unavoidable.  And when there is snow...yeah he'd still put on Crocs if he could.
2. I freeze leftover pancakes or french toast from the weekends.  Then I can just pop them in the toaster.  I know you can buy frozen boxes of these but homemade are better. And cheaper. 

3. I also have a stack of PB&J in the freezer.  You can freeze any kind of sandwich, Josh just loves PB&J.  I personally would get tired of it everyday but not him.  He even asks for one as a snack when he gets home.  So Sundays I make 5 sandwiches, and mix up 10 bags of sides (2 for each day - one maybe goldfish and the other has maybe a cookie).  That way in the morning I just grab and sandwich out of the freezer and he picks out his bags for the day. I throw a banana in there and boom.  Lunch is made.  (If your child eats an early lunch you may want to pull one out the night before and put in the fridge.  I know some schools eat as early as 10:30.)

4. After homework gets done we hang the bag on the front door.  No way to forget that sucker.  And it's nice that our coats are hung right there too. {P.S. Having a calendar right there next to the door was genius.  Seriously.  Now if I forget something at least I'm reminded of it early in the morning instead of 5 minutes ahead! Plus it works wonders with husbands and kids as they grab their stuff each day.}

Do you have any tricks that you do?