Twin Egg

Look what David got for supper tonight! I have never seen two yolks in one egg before, have you?

Adding to My Collection

I found a cute dish at the thrift store yesterday to add to my collection of children's dishes. This is a type used years ago to keep a child's meal warm. Mom added warm water inside, through one of the holes in the rim.

I can't imagine that the dish is very practical. At any moment a toddler may fling his dish from his high chair tray, smashing the ceramic dish and sending food bits flying across the kitchen. And hot water? Certainly today the child welfare crew would be in the house in an instant, demanding to inspect such a child head to toe. But the dish is still cute. More than $1.48 worth of cute.

May 2008: I spied a child's bowl very similar to this at an antique shop. It was not nearly as nice; the picture was badly worn, and it was priced at $30. A note said from the 1940's. I am very pleased with my find!

Sheet Transformation

The ladies' group at church had their annual Souper Supper last night. This year I volunteered to host a table, providing all the plates, bowls, silverware, table linens, and centerpiece for a table for eight. I decided to use my china since ladies usually appreciate it. My china is as old as our marriage, meaning it is looking a little dated compared to 20-somethings' tableware. But I still like it. It has a tiny daisy border in faint greens and yellows, as well as a silver rim. With that in mind, I created a centerpiece of multiple clear glass vases on a wrought iron tray, filled with yellow daisies and greens. The one part that stumped me, momentarily, was a tablecloth. The round tables at church are more than six feet in diameter; who owns a tablecloth that large? Not me! I don't like plastic tablecloths (cloth is the key word here). Maybe a sheet? A large sheet?

Off to the thrift store I went, with tape measure in hand. A king size flat sheet should be just about right. The very few sheets on the rack surprised me, but I found a creamy white one with a woven-in stripe. I cut a circle as large as I could, hemmed it, pressed it, and we were good to go.Here I have scribed a quarter circle on the folded sheet. It's very easy to do using a tape measure and pencil.

I would love to show you a picture of my completed table, but I forgot my camera. Sorry!

Hats Off to Kroger!

I just returned home from Kroger, where I bought all of the pictured groceries. I spent just $14.91 on all this stuff!! How did I do it? Coupons and clearances. It also helped that they honored their price guarantee on the one item that rang up full price even though it was on sale. So:
Braeburn apples (my favorite!) 99 cents lb
1 lb cheese $3.29
10 lb chicken quarters $4.90
strawberries $1.88
bread 99 cents
2 Hunt's tomatoes 79 cents ea, 35 cent coupon on two, doubled (net 44 cents ea)
And now the good stuff:
Colgate 99 cents ea, $1 coupon on ea
4 boxes Honey Bunches of Oats on sale $1.99, $2 coupon on each (for charity)
3 cartons sour cream 59 cents ea
1 gallon milk $1.50
3 six-packs yogurt cups $1.29 ea, $1 coupon on ea (net 29 cents ea)
2 bottles vitamins BOGO, brought them down to about $3 ea, $3 coupon on ea

One bottle of vitamins rang up full price, so Customer Service refunded me the full price on it even though I had already used my $3 coupon.

I also had a $4/$40 coupon from the entertainment book, which I of course used first.

Scooping Up the Deals

I finally got my Walgreens gift card for buying rebate items. Now I can start rolling the dollars. This week I bought:

2 2-packs Olay soap, $4, used 2 $2 coupons, earned $4 Register Rewards, FREE plus overage (I bought all the remaining bars my store had)

3 Olay Body Wash, 3/$10, 2 $2 coupons, earned $4 Register Rewards
2 cans Blue Diamond almonds, $3.30, 75-cent coupon, net $1.27 each
Mr Clean Magic Erasers, $1.99, 50-cent coupon
Angel Soft tissue 12-pack, 3/$8, 3 50-cent coupons, net $2.16 each

By paying with coupons, Register Rewards and my gift card, all this cost me nothing.

On to CVS:

I helped out my daughter by using $4 ecb's that she couldn't use before they expired:

2 bottles Pert Plus, $3.99, used BOGO coupon (for charity)
Johnsons bath buddies soap, 99 cents, used $1 coupon (for daughter)
30 cents OOP

I had two $5/$15 CVS coupons I wanted to use, but all the CVS stores were out of the free ecb items by Sunday. On Tuesday I found:

2 Colgate, $2.99 ea, earn $2.99 ecb's ea, used $1 coupon and 75 cent coupon
CVS vitamin C, $2.99, earn $2.99 ecb's
Hylands Calms, $6.19, earn $3 ecb's
Used $5/$15 CVS coupon, $1.75 mfr coupons, $7 ecb's, $1.50 rebate money
10 cents OOP

Later in the week, after CVS had received new shipments, I bought:
Venus Embrace razor, $9.99, used $4 coupon, earned $6 ecb's
Caress body wash, $3.99, used 70 cent coupon
Johnson's Bath Buddies soap, 99 cents, used $1 coupon
threw in a 13 cent pencil as filler
Used $5/$15 CVS coupon, $5.70 mfr coupons, $4 ecb's
78 cents OOP

At Target I happened to find a special deal:

Buy 2 bundles of IrishSpring Body Wash (2 bottles in each bundle), $4.95 each bundle, earn a $5 Target gift card, I used 2 $1 coupons

$8.16 OOP
Then I used the $5 gift card on:
Splenda marked down to $6.04, used 75 cent coupon
Honey Bunches of Oats, marked down to $2.14, used $2 coupon (for charity)
60 cents OOP

For my $1 charity spending this week, besides the Pert shampoo and Honey Bunches of Oats, I added the Publix mystery coupon item (brownie mix) and a can of corn on sale BOGO. My total OOP for charity was $1, but the value of the items I bought was $15.55. I think that is excellent multiplication of my money.

Altogether, I spent $10.50 in cash including tax, I earned $18.98 in Register Rewards and ECB's that I haven't spent yet, and the value of the items I bought was $112.96 not including tax. I am truly amazed. (This photo does not include the last CVS purchase of a Venus razor, Caress, one Bath Buddies soap, and filler pencil.)

Scrapbooking 2005

I finished our 2005 scrapbook! This one took so long because I was stuck on one or two pages for several years. I finally had to tell myself that the exact shade of paper, or the perfect decorative element really didn't matter all that much. The important thing was to get the book finished before I forgot the details. And in book-form, the family can now enjoy reliving the memories.

I still have a few little details to complete, but nothing all that important.

Finger Salad

I found an acceptable way to use up the undesirable ends of romaine lettuce.

Turn it into finger food and let the family dip the pieces in creamy dressing. It was a hit in our house.