Friend's Friday!

I'm pickin' a website for the day, it's Hip2Save. I have to check in a few times a day to see what good deals are going on.
Have a great weekend,
SonyaAnn
PS-I won't be here for most of the day. I have to get DJ from O'Hare. I've missed him but I bet we are fighting before we even get home.

Paranoid!

I love a good conspiracy theory. And since nothing much is going on with me, why not stop over at this site and decide that the world is coming to an end. The sad thing is there is quite a bit of info that you can agree with. But I don't think that I will be storing 3 years of food anytime soon. Well, I could use Anna's room.
Have a paranoid free day,
SonyaAnn

Wicked Wednesday!

Is there a breeze here?
Have a great Wednesday,
SonyaAnn

Making My Own Deals

As you know, I do love CVS. I have an inappropriate relationship with them, I won't seek therapy.
I can't hold a candle to what our lovely Sluggy can do but I'm alright with it. The problem is that everything that I want is always out of stock when I get there. Even if I get to the store when it opens the first day of the sale, everything is gone.
Soooooo, what I have been doing is going on the last day of the sale at the end of the day and getting rain-checks for just about everything. At CVS, the rain-checks never expire so I can hold them until I get a really good coupon. While everyone else is trying to find the item that is on sale or put together a deal from the advertisements, I'm waiting. This is working out so much better than trying to tract down something that we use. And when I do need/run out of something, I have a sale waiting for me.I figure this is my way of cutting inflation at our house. If the price of everything is going up, this is my way to lock in a low price. Why can't I do this with gas?
This post will probably break Sluggy's heart but it has been working pretty well for me.
Just a thought,
SonyaAnn

RUBBER

I think that I am just going to put a picture of a hot guy on every post. It seems to be uplifting for everyone. I know I'm happier.
And today's topic is rubber. The savior of all saviors. Honestly, this is a great tip. We have saved so much money by buying a tire repair kit. They are about $10 each and are super simple to use. It's so easy that I can use it.
The directions are on the box and it fits in the glove box. The kit has a couple strips of rubber and what looks like an old latch hook tool. That's it. But good luck getting the tire off.
Just go back to staring at the picture,
SonyaAnn

Friend's Friday!

It's another addition of Friend's Friday and the lucky person for the day is.........Tina from Sunny Flower Days. And the music is kinda nice too.
Have a great weekend,
SonyaAnn

Tiny Post!

I've been trying to make my life a little easier so I took a page from the Frugal Babe and started cooking some noodles for the week. I am also trying to keep a lot of cooked beans on hand too. I can't believe how much easier this makes life. I just add a little of this or that to the noodles and I have lunch or a side dish. It is also, helping with the damn lunches I'm making everyday.
Not much going on here,
SonyaAnn

Wicked Wednesday!

I can't remember if I posted this one or not but I love this commercial.
Have a great Wednesday,
SonyaAnn

Girl Time

 Since Anna is an only child for a few weeks, I've been trying do do things to make her feel special. We were going to grab something cheap to eat but then I was inspired by the budget and some leftovers. So to keep things cheap I used some old tortillas, spaghetti sauce, tomatoes, basil, and cheese. I toasted it until it was perfect. 

I cut up some fruit and added chocolate. I also, used up some old veggies from a veg tray and added it to some chickpeas with Italian dressing. Quick and super good!
This would be something good to do for a girls night, now all I need is a friend or two.
Smile,
SonyaAnn
PS-I got another $20 from Toluna. I've got $180 so far.

Meat!!!!

It's just getting bad here. I can't control myself at all. I would like to talk about meat this post. Yes all the sexual innuendos are going to be in this post.
I'm really trying to get us back on track with the budget. I know, now is when I hear all of the groans. Yes, this post is about grocery store meat not, ummmmm, well the other.
We are doing a little better. At first, we were spending more than what was coming in for the week and I would have to dip into savings. Then for a few weeks, we were holding our own and now I'm able to put a few bucks back into the till. It's not as much as before but it is still better than hitting savings. We have had a few extra expenses, Anna is home and gas prices are killing us.   I think when you get hit with a few things, it takes a while to get back into super saver mode.
It really helps when I'm a week ahead with my meat. HAHA! This is the one thing that really helps with the groceries. If I have enough to get through the week then I can scourer the stores for super cheap meats and then have a week to figure out what to do with them. I thought this might be a tip that would help you too.
Did you even read this or did you skim over it and went back to staring at the hunky guy?
Meat lovers unite,
SonyaAnn

Friend's Friday!

My booger for the day is DJ. That was an easy one. It's getting a bit better but I still miss him. He's my buddy.
I love this picture. It's not as good as Mark's but the only pics that I take are with my phone so you get what you get. When we were waiting in line to ride the miniature train, Justin had a full on fit. It was the first time in DJ's life(he had always been the baby) that he had to hold a kid having a fit. I was eating an ice cream and refused couldn't help him. They both survived but I laughed until I cried.
Have a great weekend,
SonyaAnn

Not to Brag But......

Remember the other day when I was talking about being a whore smart with money by not buying DVDs and just waiting for streaming video to take over. Well, Netflix just announced that they are splitting their DVDs and the streaming videos into two different packages. It seems that they want to go to just streaming. Hmmmmm, I think someone said that.
All knowing,
SonyaAnn

Wicked Wednesday!

Everyone needs a prop!
Have a great Wednesday,
SonyaAnn
PS-This is what I get for posting ahead of time. I suck, yay. 

Lack of

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day. We were talking about how our savings accounts are bare compared to last year. In a way, it was nice to know that I wasn't alone in the broke category but I knew their pain exactly. There are plenty of articles about it but it is different when you are face to face with someone.
Our bills are just about the same as before. The only difference is the $20 a week budgeted  for Anna is now going towards the extra we pay for the car insurance. Don't worry, this year she will be able to "live" off the money she saved.
So if none of our bills changed, where did it all go? Since the gas prices went so high(IL has some of the highest in the country), we weren't able to save money every week. We used what we saved for problems/emergencies/scheduled expenses/life's curve balls but couldn't replace it. TaDa, I've figured it all out.
I guess that we are back to the drawing board. It's nice to be able to give other helpful hints but I think I need to implement some of my own advice.
Broke but loved,
SonyaAnn

Bits and Pieces

 This is a pic of DJ, Jordan and Pauline in England. He made it with no problems and he said that everyone is very nice. This was the first thing that they did. Jordan's grandma took them grocery shopping so that she would have food for them. With two teenage boys in the house, I bet that won't last long!
I miss him but don't tell him I said that. It is so quiet and clean here, it's just wrong.

And a big thank you! Toby won!!!! I can tell how excited you are.
Thanks for stopping over,
SonyaAnn

Friend's Friday!

Ronald just isn't the same anymore, and he is a great booger. There are just so many jokes in that sentence!
Have a great weekend,
SonyaAnn

Just a Little Post

I'm off to the airport. How bad does a kid have to be to ship him to another country? Three weeks without DJ, sounds like Heaven. But I do see our relationship with England deteriorating rapidly. 
And on to the El Quicko post..............OK, so my celery plant that I grew for so long doesn't look so much like celery anymore. Hmmmmm. It's leafy, instead of growing into stalks. I think it is because the IL/WI climate isn't for celery or me. But the leaves are super yummy in salads.
And that's all I got,
SonyaAnn
PS-A little prayer that he has a safe flight would help me a bit.

Wicked Wednesday!

Oh dear!
Happy Wednesday,
SonyaAnn

A Frugal Whore

So Den and I have been going out on Sundays and hitting a few garage sales. He likes it. I see it as more stuff to clean. Sorry but true. I think I have mentioned it before but Den and I don't really get along. He blames the kids for our fights, he does have a point. We seem to get along better when it is the two of us but I'm not willing to tell him he is right about anything. He said that fighting is just part of the dichotomy of our relationship. I told him that that word was too big for him. He also said that I was cheap. Well, a cheap date and then it morphed into prostitution.
Sooooo back to the point of the story, well until I fly off on another tangent. We have been getting tons of VHS movies. And I do mean tons. Since I lovingly turned off the satellite, it is a super cheap alternative.  Here is my thinking, VHS movies are the new blue rays. I know it seems as if I have missed a decade or two, my thighs have not. The market place is ever changing when it comes to watching movies at home. We have had to buy way to many movies only to replace them by the next newest and greatest thing. Just save yourself a ton of cash and skip Blue Rays and wait for streaming movies. It is here, sort of. The problem the industry is having is letting their new movies being streamed and not generating enough of an income from it. I think that companies like Netflix should let you watch as many old movies as you want and then only have access to one or two new movies a month. It should be a limited access according to how much your package is.
So buy up VHS movies and just watch them instead of buying Blue Rays. Who doesn't want to watch Titanic and the last Boy Scout until the end is here?
Thanks for stopping over,
SonyaAnn

Happy 4th!!

What the hell are you doing at my blog? Get out and get your drink on and then play with fireworks!
Smile,
SonyaAnn

Wicked Wednesday!

I like this one!
Laughing so hard,
SonyaAnn
Aren't you glad it isn't Wednesday!