Literally speaking....Thoughts for Thursday.

We were driving by a car lot the other day and my husband pointed out a Jeep Wrangler to me. I have an affinity for them...I always have...but I digress. He asks me what I think of it and I respond "That Jeep is Hot!". My son over hears me and he responds, "That Jeep is not hot, I don't even see it burning!"

Today: My mom and I are talking and she jokingly says to my son that she will take a nap later with him and they can snore in stereo. My son literally walks over to the stereo system on the sofa table and starts snoring into the speaker!

I can not get over how literal he is! He truly takes what you say at face value. It makes me laugh so hard!

Oh really now?

My son spent a week with my parents recently. My mom told me this morning of a funny moment they shared on the way home.




They stopped off at Walmart and got a new toy for the 3 hour ride home. My son chose Barricade from the Transformers movie.

In case you aren't familiar with how these toys work, most often they are in car form when you buy them and they are super easy to transform in robot form. Getting them back into car form however is a bit of a challenge. You have to put some of the pieces in just the right place...anyway, he was trying really hard to transform him back into a car and was getting frustrated. My mom could hear his frustration building so she asked him if he needed help.

His response "NO! I can do it, you just concentrate on driving."

And, he's only 5.

In a funk...

Sorry I've been absent for such a big stretch. I'm in a funk. :( Lately I've not really been feeling the whole social networking, blogging, twittering love. I've been a real recluse.

What's been going on with us at casa de la small town city girl?

* Hubby broke his collar bone.
* DS spent five days with Granny and Poohpah
* I finished painting my kitchen
* I shampooed my carpets
* I went on a thrift store shopping spree with a good friend.
* I've been feeling super funky and don't know why.

Hopefully this will pass soon. I really hate all the negative energy, it really stinks. Keep happy thoughts for me. :)

Thanks!

Discrimination is not good!

Regardless of your views on gay marriage, this family was grossly discriminated against. Had they lied about their status and pretended to be sisters, aunts, etc. I can almost guarantee that they would have been let by without a second look. Please take the time if you are so inclined to respond to the post HERE and let Mr. Lowe know your feelings.

EXCITED!!

I am so excited, I just signed up for the adopt a US soldier program!

I was reading a book on frugal living (surprise) and it mentioned one of the things you could do with excess stockpiled items is to send it to the soldiers overseas. I think this is a fabulous idea and so I hopped on my trusty search engine and sure enough there is an organization that will pair you with a soldier! I should be receiving a match in the next few days!

If you are interested in looking into it yourself, here's the link.

What a great lesson for my son too! I'm just plain excited!

Hubby says I'm loosing my touch. He's kidding of course.

Albertsons is running a great sale this week where you spend $10 on select items and they immediately deduct $3. This is in addition to having double coupons in their ad. You can use 3 per transaction. If you pair your items correctly with your coupons and the sale, you can get many items for very low cost or free.

I ended up with 10 transactions to get all of the stuff in the picture below and a few things not pictured (one DiGiorno flat bread sandwich, a 1/2 gallon of chocolate milk and one more box of Planter's Big Nut bars)

Here's a list of all that's pictured & what's not:
13 boxes Ritz crackers
8 boxes Planters Big Nut bars
2 Easy Mac Individual Mac&Cheese
4 Land o Lakes Butter with Canola Oil
2 boxes Captain Crunch Cereal
2 DiGiorno Flatbread melt sandwiches
2 Nabisco Premium Saltine Crackers (8 sleeves per box)
2 boxes Velveeta Shells & Cheese
2 boxes Tazo Awake Tea
3 General Foods International Chai Latte
1 General Foods International French Vanilla Latte
2 Seattle Times Sunday Papers

Not pictured:
1 DiGiorno Flatbread melt sandwich
1 Half Gallon Dairygold Chocolate Milk
1 box Planters Big Nut Bars

My total out of pocket for all of this was $13.03. As it was, ALL of the crackers, nut bars, flatbread sandwiches and mac & cheese were FREE. I ended up paying some for the milk, cereal, butter, tazo teas, general foods coffees, and of course my Sunday Papers.

I plan to give some of the crackers to my MIL and a good family friend as well as donate what we won't use. My husband, son and myself LOVE the nut bars and I estimate those will last us about 3 weeks...really! And the rest just goes into the stockpile. I may use the teas and coffees as gifts because many of our family and friends love it. It's all just nice to have around.

Other than this shopping adventure, I have not spent any money on groceries this week. We've been eating out of the stockpile.

My DH was teasing me that I'm loosing my touch because rarely do I actually spend this much at the store anymore, but with the Ritz crackers retailing at $4.19/box and my having gotten 13 boxes....I'd say he's just razzing me. ;)

Super Cheap Summer Shoes!!

I just read over at hip2save about a deal on crocs.

If you go to crocs.com and place an order of two or more pairs, you will receive 1/2 off each pair. Making this even sweeter is the fact that women's and girl's mary jane styles are on sale! Women's are $14.99 and girl's are $9.99. Buy two and you will be paying $7.49 for women's and 4.99 for girl's. PLUS use this code: MALINDI09 and you will get FREE shipping!

I just bought 3 pairs for only $22.47! Considering retail on these shoes is $39.95 each pair, I'll say I got a heck of a deal!

There aren't many sizes left, but you might just get lucky! Let me know if you get a good deal.

Iced Coffee Anyone?

I read somewhere the other day a really great idea for making iced coffee at home.

The writer suggested when you are finished with your coffee for the day, if there is any leftover, you freeze it in an ice cube tray to use later as the ice cubes for iced coffee. This uses up the java and prevents your iced beverage from getting watered down. I thought this was a great idea and I immediately implemented it. I've made myself an iced coffee the past two days and they are fabulous! I even had to leave one unfinished to run an errand and when I got home, I just added another couple of cubes and it was still full strength. What a simple, and frugal idea!

Thoughtful Thursday...Warning...this one is a bit crass.

Have you ever wondered if the one dollar bills in your wallet were ever in a stripper's butt crack or elsewhere?

If not, you're wondering now. Have a nice day . :)

Victory!

I have been having trouble with a particular checker at my local Albertsons. Whenever there is an item on sale and I have a coupon for it, she refuses to take it if the coupon is $.01 over the value.

For example, I had a coupon for $1 off any refrigerated Nestle cookie dough. I found one variety of cookies on clearance for $.99 and was going to purchase them with my coupon and get them for free. She wouldn't take the coupon. I asked her nicely to reduce the amount of the coupon to $.99 so I wouldn't be getting an overage and she told me that was coupon fraud.

Please pardon my frustration, but that is CRAP! All the other stores do it.

So today, I decided I was going to call customer care because there are a couple of things on sale this week that I can get for free if they will just adjust the stinking coupon! The customer care associate was super nice and took all my info and told me she would have a service area manager give me a call.

About 5 minutes later, literally. A very nice woman called me back and went over the situation with me and confirmed my suspicions. They were supposed to take the coupon! VICTORY! She told me she would speak with the front end manager at the store where I had the problem and let her know (she actually is the one who I had the problem with). I took her name and title so I could let the cashier know if I happen to get to the store before the discussion happens.

I just love it when I'm right!

Deep Thought Thursday...

Do fish drink water?

Deep thoughts for a Thursday.

A sneek peek into the mind of my husband who has too much time on his hands while driving. He likes to ask me the most random, thought provoking questions. Those along the lines of "what came first, the chicken or the egg". So, courtesy of him and his absolute randomness I have decided to post his "Deep Thoughts".



Thanks Honey, for all the conversation starters. I love you.


If a fly couldn't fly, what would it be called? Would it be called a walk? What do you think?

Whoever would have thought? What a great idea!

Thanks to Crystal over at Money Saving Mom for the great post on recycling your cut up credit cards! In this day and age many of us still have one or two of these dreaded monsters. We probably never thought, however; to create such a work of art with the ones we decide no longer belong in our wallets, safety deposit boxes or home safes. Not to mention the expireds, broken magnetic strips, etc. Here is a wonderful way to not only recycle your trash, but also display your commitment to becoming debt free!



Here is the original post with detailed instructions on how to make it. If you do decide to make one, please post a picture on your blog and come back and leave me a comment so I can see your beautiful creations.

Really??? Like we really needed to see that!

DH and I were watching a television program yesterday and a commercial came on that I was slightly put off by. You may have seen it, maybe not...it's for Clearblue Easy Pregnancy Tests.

Most of us gals who have taken one (or a few) of these modern day helpers are very familiar with how they work. We don't need a visual aid. Read the directions...'nuff said. Anyway in the commercial, someone at the company thought it would be a great idea to show just how easy it is for this test to work and they actually show a stream pee splashing no less on the absorbent end of the stick. YUCK! As gross as it is, I just feel the need to share.

Those of you who haven't seen it are in for a treat...I found it on YouTube.

Here you go:

And the winner is....

Courtesy of Random.org The winner of my 100 post Partylite Prize pack of candles....

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:2
Timestamp: 2009-05-18 00:17:35 UTC

Paisley Penguin! Thanks for playing! I'll be in touch to get you your candles.

Mother Nature....please read.

Dear Mother Nature,

I would like to ask you a few questions. Is it not May by your calendar? Did spring not start on March 23rd? Is spring not supposed to be somewhat warm? I would like to know when exactly we are to expect the nice and warm spring weather that we are so accustomed to here in the Pacific Northwest. If you could please get on that.

Thank you.
small town city girl

It's finally here!! MY 100th POST!

I promised a giveaway and I always deliver on my promises! Leave a comment with your blog link or email address and I will enter you in a drawing for an assorted Partylite Candle gift pack. I will draw the winner using the random integer selector and post the results next week. The giveaway will close on Saturday at midnight PST.

Good Luck! And THANKS for sticking with me this long.

Free Bodycology Sample from Walmart

Yay! FREE Froo Froo yummy smelling lotions and potions from our good friends at Walmart.

Go here to snag a FREE sample of Bodycology Uplifting Coconut Lime or Cozy Brown Sugar Vanilla! You'll get a FREE sample of hand soap, lotion and body mist! Plus, you'll get to choose between the 2 scents.

I love Walmart Samples, they really do send them and they don't bombard your inbox with junk emails.

Enjoy!!

Great deals at Albertsons!

I got some really great deals at Albertsons this week! They were running a promotion where if you purchased $10 in selected various products, they would take $3 off your total right away. The deal was made sweeter when Sunday's paper arrived on my doorstep and had 3 coupon doublers in it. Naturally I obtained as many of these as I could without seeming obnoxious. I ended up with 3 copies of the ad which allowed me 9 coupon doublers up to $1 each. The trick was I had to separate my transactions into 3 because you were only allowed 3 doublers per order. So here's what I ended up with.

8 Easy Mac Individual Serving Cups
1 Capri Sun Sunrise Drink
2 Bagelful Frozen Bagels
4 Kraft BBQ Sauces
1 Kraft Ranch Bacon Salad Dressing
4 Kraft Mayo Squeezable
3 Kraft Miracle Whip Squeezeable
2 Bar-S Bun Length Hot Dogs

Between all 3 of my transactions, I used all 9 of my doublers which took off $9 and received $9 off because of the promotion. I also had $19 in coupons. The sale prices for all of my items was $37.

Here's the math $37 - $9 promotion = $28 - $19 coupons = $9 - $9 doublers = $0

There was tax on the Capri Sun drink so I paid a total OOP of $.04 for all of the above listed items. WHOO HOO!!

We are officially stocked up now of BBQ sauce and Mayo/Miracle Whip for awile.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Hope all you mother's have a wonderful day!

If you want an inspiring read, check out MamaNeena's Mother's Day Post Here. It will undoubtedly make you smile!

ENJOY!