DQ!

Dairy Queen now has a value menu. To be honest I would get 4 sundaes. I"m an ice cream fiend.

Thanks For Reading,
SonyaAnn

PS-If your one of the first 250 to blog about this deal they will send you a free gift card!!!!

Posted by SonyaAnn at 2:18 PM 0 comments

Free Panties!

Yeah more free stuff. This is a printable coupon from Express and its good until March 1st.

Free Essential Cotton Panty

Store Locator

Thanks for Reading,
SonyaAnn

Posted by SonyaAnn at 9:39 AM 0 comments

Money saving tidbit

I have found a new way to save some money. Actually it's been around for a while but I don't think that it's done in the home very often. I've been repackaging leftovers. I've found that if I put leftover spaghetti in a clear cute container, it gets eaten very quickly. Or a piece of leftover pizza in a baggie instead of wrapped in aluminum, it's gone in a flash. If I make the leftovers more eye appealing, they are eaten rapidly. And it helps if I move them to the front and center of the refrigerator. Ahh, product placement and packaging who would ever have thought that I could find a use for it in the home.
Thanks for Reading,
SonyaAnn

Posted by SonyaAnn at 9:45 AM 3 comments

Free Frozen Entree

More free food!

Free coupon for a Kashi Frozen Entree!

Thanks For Reading,
SonyaAnn

Gross Cleaning Tip

Super, gross, yucky cleaning tip! We have really hard water in our town. In fact the joke is no one here has a white shirt. Everything turns yellow and no amount of bleach will keep things white. Anyways, I was scrubbing the tub with a magic eraser and there was just a little left. So I used the last piece on the toilet bowl. All the hard water stains were gone. I of course, pitched what was left but from now on I'll save the last of it for the toilets. I use toilet bowl cleaner, the tabs and weekly pour bleach in the bowl and nothing helps. So this is wonderful. I was thinking that we would have to replace the toilets because it just made me feel dirty. Everyone has this problem around here but until now no one was able to get the ring out. I know a couple people that will be real happy about this discovery.
Thanks for Reading,
SonyaAnn

By Sunday Evening

I can't be the only one that is sick of their family by Sunday evening! I know that you are never supposed to admit that. And you are only allowed to say what a blessing they are. If you say something along the lines of, you are pissing me off or that I'm running away or perhaps I'm going to choke you, it means that I'm a terrible person. So I'm not admitting to any of those maybe just flirting with it.
The cat puked in the corner. So what did the three of them do, they argued about it. Then each one decided that it was the other one's problem. And of course, they left it. So 2 hours later, I find it. So a fight breaks out between the three of them because it was someone elses fault. You get only one guess to decide who cleaned up the puke. Me! Then I washed an entire pickle. Really!?!? I guess it was too much to ask someone(no one would own up to it) to scrape their plate. So they dumped the entire thing in the dishwasher. It held up surprisingly well, who knew you could run a pickle threw the dishwasher? At what point, do I get to get even?
Thanks for Reading,
SonyaAnn

Free Sub!!!!

Hurry! Free subs for the first million. They will send you a link and then you can print your coupon. It's only good for 5 days after you print it. I'm going to save it until I know we are going!! Yeah free food!
Free Sub!
Thanks for Reading,
SonyaAnn

My free addiction

I'm always on the look out for cheap entertainment. It's almost a sin to tell you about this because I've become so addicted. I hate to see another soul lost. But I've been listening to the 80's on VH1. I'm dating myself by telling you. And then I've been playing Brick Breaking. It doesn't look like much of a game but the goal is to zero out all of the bricks. At first it seems so simple but it is so difficult to not leave any of the blocks. Have fun.
Thanks for Reading,
SonyaAnn

Eating bugs

I'm a God awful parent. I'll just start another parenting story there. Poor D.J.
One of the women that Den works with just got back from Mexico. The department Den works in gets along really well and most of them try to bring everyone a little trinket back from a trip. This time Den got a bag of beans, dried and coated in yummy spices. Den said they are call avas. If you ever get the chance hoard them, they are the best treat ever. So Den and I were happily munching on them when D.J. walked in. We told him to try one and he did. He popped it in his mouth and started chewing, then asked what it was. I said a cockroach. He opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue and had a full on fit that we fed him a bug. Den started laughing and then choked on his avas. D.J. looked as if he wanted his tongue to jump out of his mouth. He was furious at me. Den was laughing, crying and choking all at the same time. He spit it out before I could tell him what it was. He didn't get over that one for a while. Then Anna came home after her practice and ate one. I couldn't resist and told her the same thing. She spit it out right there onto the floor. She took it much better than the boy. Screaming funny.
Now here's the kicker, each of my children whole heartedly believed that I would feed them bugs. This incident makes you wonder about my parenting skills.
Thanks for Reading,
SonyaAnn

That's a big ten-four good buddy?

I just want to start this story with Anna is a good kid. She is a honor role student, in sports year round, pays her own car insurance, does her chores every day and cleans her 82 yr old great grandfather's house once a week. And she is drug tested by the school, you can't play sports unless you are clean. She made a mistake just as we all do. Don't skewer her, I'm thankful she is as good as she is. And I'm glad that she is a better teenager than I was. So on to the story........
Little miss Anna was not going where she was supposed to be. She said she was going one place and then heading off to another. She was hanging out with an 18 yr old. She can date but we have to meet him. That's the rule and it's not negotiable. Well, she bypassed the rule but not for long. I came unhinged, who knew? I took her car, she was grounded from going anywhere and all friends and I took her phone. She is no longer with the boy and I'm thankful because he was in some trouble. The problem I ran into was the bus. She had told me a long time ago, after we had given her the car, that a lot of the kids were getting stoned at the bus stop. And when she started driving to school she was glad that she didn't have to deal with that anymore. She has sports after school and clubs so her schedule is up in the air quite a bit. Den said she should ride the bus. But that boy was on the bus too. So Den and I had a huge fight and I gave her the car back after 2 weeks. The school is 1.2 miles from our house and it's too cold to walk and I don't want to have to drive to and from the school 4 times a day everyday. So I gave her the car and a walkie talkie. They are on loan from friends of ours. My thinking was if I gave her her phone then she would be able to coordinate plans and it would start all over again. And then it's not much of a punishment, if she gets everything back. I like to know when she gets to the school(I worry) and when she is on her way home. So now, she calls me on the walkie talkie. She has been a real good sport about it and calls and says things like, "hey good buddy or over and out or what's your vector or niner,niner." So we laugh about it now but I'm still not giving the cell back. We also had a talk with her coach and if she doesn't show up to practice, he is to call us and vise versa. He said that she hadn't missed any practices but he would keep us informed. (Gotta love him)
Did I make a poor choice in giving her the car back, probably. I've been very honest with the kids and I tell them that I'm making it up as I go along. When they grow up I'm sure they will have tons of stories about us but all I really want is for them to know that we really tried. I didn't always succeed but with all the love in my heart, I tried.
Thanks for reading,
SonyaAnn

Happy Valentine's Day

In honor of Valentine's Day, here is a great way to spend the day, reading a love story. Curl up with someone you love.

I'm still loving the freebies! 16 free Harlequin Novels!
Download your FREE book - Harlequin’s gift to you.

Thanks for Reading,
SonyaAnn

Yeah Dejunking!

I'm a freak of nature. I love to clean and dejunk, it makes me smile. I even offer to dejunk my friend's closets. I only do this with my very closest of friends. Because I morph into a drill Sergeant. I just believe that we all drag too much crap around in this life time. That said I have 2 teenagers and we have a lot of crap too.
We usually start to dethaw in May and I don't want to start cleaning when I could be outside. So I go through the house twice. I make a list and go through every nook and cranny and donate everything not in use. I try to do 3 spots a day, maybe a couple drawers or shelves. In about a month’s time, I'm done. And then round two, I scrub the hell out of everything. I don't use harsh chemical because I'm an asthmatic. But soap, water, vinegar and anti-bacterial soap are my weapons of choice. It's not clean unless your arm is weak and the muscle is burning, is what my wonderful grandmother would say. I would help her scrub when I was about 8 until the skin on my hands would crack and bleed. It sounds miserable but I loved the time that we spent together and I wish so often for just one more brief moment with her. But that said it's easy to see where this obsession began.
I'm off to clean and it's a good day. (I need help!)
Thanks for reading,
SonyaAnn

Freebies!

If one of your New Year's Resolutions was to quit smoking, this might help. It's a free NicoDerm CQ patch from Walmart. I got one for Den but I doubt this little present will make him happy!

http://instoresnow.walmart.com/enhancedrendercontent_ektid64766.aspx

Thanks for Reading,
SonyaAnn

My $.55(ish) rolls

These are the french bread rolls I made. I think that they actually cost less than $.55 but I have no idea how much the yeast cost. I buy 2 bricks of it a year and they cost about $3.99 a brick. SO really that doesn't help either of us figure out the costs but we bake quite a bit throughout the year. I could have broken it down by using those little packages of yeast but then it would of cost way over $1 for the rolls. Anyways, they are yummy and easy. Making bread is really easy like this, it just needs time to rise. And the best part is you get to punch it! I love being immature.
I got this recipe off the internet a long time ago and I have modified it quite a bit so I don't know who gets credit for it. But here it is...
French Bread Rolls
5 to 5 1/2 cups of flour
5 teaspoons yeast
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1.) In large bowl add 2 cups flour, 5 teaspoons yeast, and 1 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add 2 cups very warm water and mix well.
2.) Mix in the rest of the flour and knead into a firm ball. I knead right in the bowl so I don't make a mess. Knead 10 minutes.
3.) Place the ball into a greased bowl and cover, let rise 1 hour.
4.) Punch down and let rise another 10 minutes.
5.) Divide into 8 balls and place on 2 greased cookie sheets. I sprinkle the cookie sheets with cornmeal so they don't stick.
6.) Let rise anywhere from 45-60 minutes.
7.) Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes.
This is a very forgiving recipe. One time I forgot it and it rose for almost 3 hours. I just punched it down. Another time I didn't have enough time and I only let it rise for a hour total. It was flat but still really tasty. I did brush these with butter because I wanted the picture to look better but I normally don't do that. It doesn't change the taste just the look.

No one ever complains about having to eat these and I always have enough left over for the next night. We usually have this with homemade vegetable soup. So tomorrow, we will have left over soup, salad and the french bread roles. So for a few minutes of measuring and 10 minutes of kneading, I have enough good bread for two nights.
Thanks for Reading,
SonyaAnn

Posted by SonyaAnn at 9:00 AM 0 comments

Great Depression?

Right off the top, I need to say that I'm not nearly smart enough to understand all of the economic information. And at times I'm truly confused by it. I sit here and try to decipher the language used by the "smart" people. But I found this article and I've made it a must read in this house. I've said for a while that the unemployment numbers are being skewed. Everything is being compared to the Great Depression. Well if that's the case then use the same formula that was used during the Great Depression to calculate the actual unemployment rate. The latest unemployment rate I could find was 7.6%. I figured out the unemployment rate, if we used the same formula that we did during the Depression and right now it's at 18.7%. Are my figures correct? Honestly probably not. But are the governments? This is a wonderful article.
Great depression jobs parallel may not be far flung

Thanks for Reading,
SonyaAnn

Still working on the New Year's resolutions

I'm still trying to accomplish all of my resolutions but I'm faltering in some areas.

A Recap

1.) Lose a few more pounds (I only lost 4 lbs but it's better than gaining)
2.) Write 2 books at the same time
3.) Improve the blog
4.) Start generating an income from writing
5.) Knock down our debt (I will continue to make 2 extra payments on the house a year & will try to pay extra on the 2nd mortgage)
6.) Find a way to pay for Anna's college


I'm giving myself a boo or a yeah rating!
1.) I gained 2 pounds so I'm only down 2. But I'm still working on it, it just seems the more calories I cut the more I gain. Sounds weird, I know. I'm thinking it might have something to do with the thyroid or maybe water weight gain. Not real sure but I'm not giving up either. I'm just going to try something new. I'll keep you posted. BOO!
2.) I'm writing 2 books now. It's really hard and is taking up a lot of my day. I'm hoping that it will get easier once I get into the swing of it. Anna thought that I might have a hard time keeping them separate but that's not the hard part, it's keeping up with my household chores. Yeah!
3.) Well, I'm still writing so I'm ok with this one.Yeah!
4.) Haven't made one penny. BOO!
5.) We are still paying down the house but I haven't found any extra to put towards the second mortgage yet. So Yeah! and Boo!
6.) I've been researching grants on line for a while and have gone to all the classes that Anna's high school offers. And I've been talking to Anna's cousin that received a bunch of grants and she said she would help us. I don't know how to rate this one it's not a Boo or a Yeah. I'm going to keep working on this but she can't start applying until August so I will have an idea then.
So far I've got 3 Boo's and 3 Yeah's so I guess I'm getting somewhere. Or I could look at it as a wash. But I'm going to look at the positive side of this and appreciate the fact that I'm still trying.
I'll check back and let you know if I'm actually getting anywhere.
Thanks For Reading,
SonyaAnn

Living on Unemployment

This is just my what if budget I have been working on. I looked it up and in the state of Illinois the maximum you can get a week is $534.So I would have $2136 a month. I really don't know how this works and I'm sure this isn't with taxes being withheld. But I'm not going to call them and try to find out, I bet they are a little too busy for a question like this.

Here is the budget now
1296.00 House payment(bi-weekly) so we save $324 a week
122.00 Car Insurance
183.00 Nicor and Comed
25.00 Home phone
135.00 2nd mortgage with a little extra
280.00 gas for all three cars
38.00 satelite
480.00 groceries for the month 120.00 a week
75.00 Den smokes
70.00 garbage and water
24.00 synthroid and iron pills for me
2728.00 total
On unemployment (It's sketchy)
1190.00 House payment (stop all extra payments)
115.00 Car insurance(raise deductibles)
125.00 Nicor and Comed (line dry and freeze)
0.00 phone (drop it)
100.00 2nd mortgage(no extra$)
80.00 gas for car
0.00 satelite(drop it)
350.00 groceries
75.00 Den smokes (you tell him to quit)
60.00 garbage and water (bathe less and stink)
12.00 synthroid and iron pills (generic)
2107.00 total
This is rough but I might be able to swing it. I think that I might be able to shave a little more off of the car insurance and the Nicor and Comed. I might have it too low for the groceries and the gas for the cars. But it looks like it might work itself out. I just hope that I never have to implement this. I feel very blessed that we are still hanging on.
Thanks for Reading,
SonyaAnn

Welcome Tight Fisted Miser Readers!

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to Andy. I consider it to be a honor that I can sponsor part of a giveaway. Please just poke around and see if there is anything of interest for you. I'm not a financial expert by any means I'm just a mom trying to find the best path for my family.
Thank you for Reading,
SonyaAnn

Free Stuff!

This is a good one. First read the article and then download the free workout videos.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/the-bare-minimum-amount-of-exercise-you-need-to-stay-healthy-its-less-than-you-think-362327/

http://store.exercisetv.tv/p-2103-free-jillian-michaels-mini-workouts.aspx?intcid=dottv:storepromo
(cut and paste)

Thanks for Reading,
SonyaAnn