Puttering Time

New year ~ time to tidy and refresh. I've been puttering around the house, trying to finish up a few projects that have been hanging around for months. Three closets were in disarray. The entry hall closet held the vacuum and mops. The laundry closet held the gift wrapping supplies, and the new utility closet was mostly empty because it needed a shelf.

First, I added the shelf to the new closet, then The Professor moved the vacuum hose rack and the mop clips. The folding table and spare table leaf are in there too. Here it is, all installed. Well, almost. The floor is still raw concrete and the two mis-drilled holes need patching. But it's usable now.

Here is the new shelf, holding the gift wrapping supplies.

The laundry closet without the gift wrap supplies now has room for my stash of spare cleaning supplies. And there is room to grow!

That leaves the entry hall closet. Using a Martha Stewart idea, I hung my dressy tablecloths from suit hangers, labeling each with a tag stating the tablecloth dimensions, table size, and trim. Now it is very easy to choose the best cloth for the event. And, just six steps from closet to dining table makes the spot very convenient for table setting. I still need three more hangers and the project will be finished. I think I will still have room to hang guest coats when needed.

Old Testament Snacks

The Professor taught the first class of a two-week introduction to the Minor Prophets this morning for adult Sunday School. He was concerned that the topic would be dry and boring and sleepy adults might doze off. How to keep them interested? He decided to create a 40-ft timeline to stretch across the floor to give them visual stimulation. And he wanted snacks. In the spirit of the day, I made "Old Testament" snacks:

Good King Muffins
Bad King Muffins
12 Tribes Cheese Torta
Locusts and Honey
Noah's Ark Cookies
Apple and Eve Juices

Now for the translation. Judah had 12 or so good kings. The mini muffins representing them were light colored (lemon flavored). And the 12 or so bad kings I represented with dark colored mini muffins (chocolate). The 12 Tribes Torta was made with 12 ingredients, which I served with sliced baguettes. Dates look a lot like locusts, eaten by Elijah in the OT. I used animal cookie cutters to cut out sugar cookie dough for Noah's Ark cookies. I bought two varieties of Apple and Eve brand fruit juice in the grocery store.

School desks for the table and a white board backdrop. (Note the dry erase marker on the rail!) The Middle Eastern-looking cloth came from the Professor's grandmother years ago. Baskets, brass trays, and wood bowls for serving. I hear it was all a hit, but I can't say for sure because I was helping in the nursery.

The doves and the zebras left from Noah's ark.

Many thanks to Meredith at Like Merchant Ships for the inspiration!

On a CVS Roll

This week, two copies of our Sunday paper were bundled together for 50 cents extra. So I got double the coupon inserts (12 instead of 6), plus we had two freebie papers thrown on our driveway last Thursday. One had two coupon inserts, the other had one insert. That makes 15 coupon inserts in one week! So, I was on a roll with the CVS deals this week, using the coupons from all the papers.

Monday's shopping at CVS #1 is posted the next post below.

Wednesday morning shopping

I went to CVS #2, and bought:
1 box Celestial Seasonings gingerbread tea on 90% clearance, 29 cents
11 Soyjoy bars, $1 ea, coupon for $3/10 bars and a "get a free bar" coupon, earned 12 xbucks (I had "credit" for the other bar purchase from Monday. The CVS computer keeps track of this info.)
2 Mennen deo, $1.99 ea, BOGO coupon, made them $1 ea
2 L'Oreal lipsticks, 75% off (couldn't get the BOGO on top of that), made them $2.25 ea, had a $2 coup on ea, brought them down to 25 cents ea
CVS coupons used: $4/$20, $3/$15 and 2 xbucks for a total OOP of 84 cents
I earned 12 xbucks

Wednesday afternoon shopping

I went to CVS #3 to find some of the things that store #2 didn't have, such as more Soyjoy bars. Here I found:
10 Soyjoy bars, $1 each, coupon for $3/10 bars, earned 8 xbucks
2 Mennen deo, $1.99 ea, BOGO coupon, made them $1 ea
1 Colgate, $2.99, .75 coupon, earned 2 xbucks
Used $5/$15 coupon and 5 xbucks for a total OOP of 43 cents
I earned 10 xbucks

That's a lota Soyjoy bars! College daughter likes them for class days when she has no lunch break.

At Kroger I found a lot of clearanced dairy products. Sour cream, cottage cheese, and pie crusts were 49 cents each; 4-pack yogurts were 99 cents, and single yogurts were 25 cents. I think all these items were near their expiration date, so they needed to move them quickly. I don't have to worry much about expiration dates around here with two teens in the house! I'm in the habit now of trolling the aisles of stores that have decent clearance prices any time I have extra time to shop. Kroger and Walgreen's are especially good for clearance items.

CVS Gave Me This Stuff

I just returned home from the best bargain shopping I have ever done at CVS. Here is what I bought:

Two Aquapod waters, two Palmolive, two baby soap, one Fructis hair gel, four Reece's Whipped candy bars, two pkgs Rubbermaid containers, one Soyjoy bar. This totaled $21 and change. I stacked three CVS coupons: $4/$20, $3/$15, and $2/$10. I had $1 coupons on just about everything else, except the Soyjoy was free, and the Reece's were BOGO. I had two coupons for that. After all my coupons came off, my total, including tax, was $4.04. I "paid" with a $4 xbuck, and expected to pay 4 cents. But the cashier did something to the register and it said I owed nothing. Absolutely zero! FREE! Yeah! And I earned $9 xbucks. And my receipt says there is the xbucks offer on Soyjoy. So, with my two coupons for $3/$10 on Soyjoy, stacked with CVS $2/$10, I can get those free too. Next time.

I also picked up three ivy bushes at Michael's, 50% off. These bushes were regularly $2.99 each; I paid $4.50 plus tax for all of them, then stuffed them in this basket and curled their ends so they could have their portrait.

The paint is for some little furniture I'm refinishing; I used a 40% coupon and paid $2.99 for it.

New Year's Thrifting

I felt the itch to go browse the thrift store this morning. I wasn't desperately looking for any particular thing, but I never know what helpful/needed/pretty thing I might find. The shelves were loaded! It was great. I found:Vintage books and cross stitch folders. The two books in back were on clearance for .12 and .27. How to Make Something From Nothing is a 1968 book about thrifting! The other is a wedding planning book. I plan to use them both for altered books. Prayers for a Child will be cut apart to frame the prints. The cross stitch folders were .05 each.

An adorable little wood house with vintage, chipped paint. It stands just 2" tall. I have collected houses for years, but most of them are ceramic and cookie jar-sized. This is a nice contrast. Only $1.

A sterling silver cup, just $2.08. It polished up beautifully, and, although it is not a baby cup, I have it displayed with my silver baby cup collection.

New Year Savings

I haven't found all that many bargains yet this week, but that may be because I haven't been shopping very much. With family in town until Jan 2, I just didn't make it a priority to go shopping. So far this week, I went to:

Walgreen's:
Christmas clearance 75% off on gift wrap (.49 a roll) and gift tags (.25 a pkg)
Red votive candles 75% off, .10 each

Whitman's Soho boxed candy 75% off, brought it down to $1.25, had a $2 coupon but the register wouldn't take it. The manager offered to make the price $2, then take the $2 coupon. Net: free! The other nice thing about this candy is that the plain red box makes it appropriate for Valentine's Day too. Free treats for the kids.
Oreo cookie crumb crust, .49
Lip balm, .50
Wal-Born (like Airborne), $3.99

Angelsoft TP, .99 for 4 rolls. These seem like small rolls. Don't know if they are really the best price.

Wanted to get the Johnson's Softwash on sale, but my coupons expired before I could get to the store.

New Year, New Beginnings

The holiday season is over. We sent the last of our holiday house guests on their way this morning. It was wonderful to see extended family the past two weeks and we will miss them, but now it is time to begin the new year. There are many little nesting activities I can do this time of year to mark the change of season and our new beginnings. I have already done these activities:

We took down the Christmas tree and the outdoor lights. As I packed the ornaments back into their drawers, I checked them for damage and assessed the ones we didn't hang on the tree this year. Do I still like them? Do I view them as too dated ? Is it time to pass on any I don't really enjoy? About five or six didn't make the cut and went to visit the garage sale boxes. (Below are keepers, not rejects.)The Christmas stockings are back in the cedar chest (some of ours are wool, and cedar protects from moth damage).

I purchased gift wrap and tags for next year on clearance. Total spent: $6.We made a new calendar and added important family dates to it. It awaits a visit to the print shop for binding.

We "closed the books" on the '07 budget. We came in under budget, just barely, but that includes what we added to our savings account, so we feel satisfied with our budgeting in 2007.

I hope to do these things this week:
The front door wreath and front porch poinsettias will be packed up today to make way for a different winter decoration.
The nutcracker collection and angel collection will be packed away.
The Swedish decorations and the candle arrangements will stay out for now.
All the remaining sweets and other goodies need to go to the freezer for eating later. I believe we are over-saturated with sugar and too-little exercise. I'm sure we will enjoy them more later, even if they do have green and red sprinkles.
It's time for a big pot of soup or stew and some homemade whole wheat bread. Enough rich food!

I will photocopy our budget sheet master pages and prepare them for 2008, then pop them into the budget notebook.

And a bit of nesting by organizing:
Our new (two years ago!) storage closet still needs a shelf. I already know that the shelving supplies will cost only $10, so that is now a priority. Once the shelf is added, I can reorganize the closet into it's intended purpose of storing mops, brooms, vacuum, folding tables, and gift wrap. When the cleaning tools can be moved out of the entry hall closet to their new home, I can reorganize the coat closet. And when the gift wrap leaves the laundry closet, I can create a place to store my stash of extra cleaning supplies and paper goods.

The game shelf needs a second shelf added above it so the piles of boxes aren't so tottery. That requires a new Elfa shelf and two brackets, which are on sale this month. Time to head down to The Container Store.

Time to clean out and tidy up my studio. It looks like a tornado went through while I wasn't looking. I think it became the Christmas season dumping ground. Three computers, sewing, crafts, and gift wrapping in a 6 ft x 8 ft space just don't blend well.