A Recent Blog Find

I stumbled upon The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking the other day and really enjoyed its content. It's a fairly new blog but have already picked out several favorite posts including this:

The Five Stages of Housework (from Feb 2011)

1. Denial: My house isn't dirty, it's lived in.
2. Anger: You peed on your sheets on purpose, Didn't you?  Didn't you?
3. Bargaining: Maybe if i put this laundry basket in the hallway, the clothes will actually make it to the laundry basket...
4. Depression: Make the bed?  Why?  I'm just going to mess it up again later....
5. Acceptance: Well, nobody else is going to do it...

I can totally relate to this. :) Here are a few more of my favorites:

32 Ways to Beat the Winter Blahs (from Feb 2011)
This is a great list with some really easy and creative ways to keep entertained this winter.

10Ways to NOT Make Your Home a Haven (from Nov 2010)
I can see how perfection is a stumbling block for me. My home will never be perfect so I need to stop waiting for perfection before I invite people over. This was a really refreshing post for me.

Homemade Wool Dryer Balls (from Apr 2011)
A really handy tutorial that I'd like to try this winter.

Demystifying the Seasoning of Cast Iron (from May 2011)
I have a cast iron frying skillet and do not use it as often as I should. I don't know what to cook in it and I'm not sure how to take care of it. This is a great post to help me with the latter, but does anyone have any suggestions for what to make in my cast iron skillet?


Make sure you head over to The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking for more homemaking tips from the real world.

Wednesday Weigh-In 6/22

Well, I lost this week despite my lack of working out and my poor eating habits. It's hard when the hubby isn't around to spur me on. Also, I'm having my thyroid checked this afternoon because I haven't been feeling...normal. I don't know if my thyroid was affected by my sudden workout regimen, but we will see.

Starting Weight: 162.0
Current Weight: 160.6
Loss: 1.4
Original Starting Weight: 166.4
Cumulative Weight Loss: 5.8

I didn't make it into the 150's like I would have liked to, but that's a goal for this week!! Excited to have lost again and make up my gain from last week.

This week's goals:
1. Shred daily
2. Make healthy eating choices in the snack category
3. Only weigh on Wednesday
4. Get into the 150's!!

Works-for-Me Wednesday: I'm a Cheap Date

I'm a cheap date...when I want to be. I'm usually not too cheap on a Thursday night because I like to go out to eat (spending $10 at our favorite restaurant - for the two of us). But, we've been cutting back on the spending so we're not eating out like we used to. So with the help of Redbox and Target here's the cheapest movie date ever:


Monday night movie and popcorn
- Redbox movie using the free code texted to my husband's phone every Monday
- Target's popcorn and a soda combo $1.50

That's right people! A movie, popcorn and drink for $1.50!! Can you get more frugal than that?! I'd like to see you try! Let me know if/how you've become a cheap date.

Check out We Are THAT Family for more frugal tips on this week's Works-For-Me Wednesday.

**I know that you can make popcorn at home and watch a movie from the library (and have a FREE date), but there's NOTHING that can beat movie theater popcorn...except Target.

Happy Birthday Elmo!!

Tomorrow Borders will be celebrating Elmo's birthday with stories, art activities, games and more (for kids ages 3-8). Some stores will be hosting a trivia game and a dance party for older kids as well. Call your local store for more information. We'll be there. Will you?


* Update - The birthday party was pretty lame. They had some coloring sheets and handed out some Dum-Dums. Bummer!! There were screaming, impolite children everywhere. It wasn't very fun. My son kept asking where the party was. There were no balloons and, to my son, that's the definition of a birthday party. We picked out Hop on Pop to buy and take home (used a gift card) and my son was happy with that. The problem...there are little trinkets all the way to the check-out. I kept reminding my son about the book in his hands but I can't say there wasn't any whining. So glad we were out of there in 30 mintues! ;)

(the picture is a craft we did before we went to the store for the party)

Works-for-Me Wednesday: Reheating Popcorn

We don't go to the movies much anymore. Usually it's hard to find a babysitter so we can eat dinner and see a movie because it gets kind of late. Also, going to the theater is expensive. We do have a "dollar theater" in town that plays movies that aren't in the regular theater and they're not released on DVD yet. It's only $2 to get in, but there's still the time factor. And then if you want popcorn!! YIKES!! That can get spendy fast!

What we've been doing is getting a movie from Redbox for $1 a night, or using the codes for a free movie on Mondays. Then my wonderful husband will stop at Target, if I remind him, to get a bag of popcorn for $0.50 or so. Yumm! It's just like the theater's popcorn. Popcorn is my favorite snack so sometimes I ask him to grab two bags and save one for later in the week. I keep it in the paper sack and then put it in a zip-lock bag. Later in the week, I'll line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, set the oven to 250 degrees and pour my popcorn onto the baking sheet. You bake it for about 10 minutes and Voila! you have that movie theater popcorn all over again. It really is good!!


For more Works-for-Me-Wednesdays head on over to Rocks in My Dryer.

Date Night

at a friend's "30th" birthday party

Date night has become very important to my marriage. I notice it mostly when we haven't had one for a while. We are more rammy with each other and tend to become selfish and inward focused. It's always hard to get a date night in over the holidays because it's so busy and money is tight. Now that we've gotten back into the swing of things, date night has become regular again.

Thursdays are my husbands day off. We usually reserve Thursday nights for our date night. My husband is in charge of finding a sitter (which is so nice!). He can usually find a parent of a middle-schooler or high-schooler that will volunteer (for free) to watch our kids since he spends a lot of time with their kids. It's really nice that we don't have to worry about that. All I know, is that my husband is in charge of the sitter and that has been a huge blessing! We'll tell the sitter to arrive at 6p but we don't get out of the house until 6:30ish because we're visiting or the boys are finishing dinner, etc. And we are home by 10p. It works out really nice.

We usually don't spend a lot of money when we go out, but I do love to go out to eat on our dates. We have a few "tricks" to save money at restaurants:

Subway - split a $5 Footlong, no chips, water
Fazoli's - split a baked spaghetti, split a *FREE side salad with the use of our Super Savings cards
El Azteca - free chips and salsa before the meal, split and entree or order ala carte
Taco John's - split a combo meal
Applebee's - split a burger meal

There are probably more, but those are places we frequent the most.

Here are some of the things that we do after we eat:

disc golf *free (when it's warm)
drive around and talk
walk through the mall without our wallets
go to a dollar movie
walk through Target or WalMart and pick up items we need
stop by Target for a bag of popcorn then get a Redbox movie and go home early

Again, there are probably more, but that's all I can think of.

Our date night started when we had our first son. Before kids you spend a lot of time together because there are no big distractions at home. After kids, you need to make your marriage a priorty over the kids which is so hard to do. Our oldest was born almost 6 weeks early. I had been in the hospital for almost 3 weeks before he was born. So, while he was still in the ICU, my husband took me out for dinner. We were only gone for an hour or so, but it was the start to putting our marriage first. It was hard leaving our little man in the hospital, but my husband knew that I needed to get out of there for a while. Since then, it's become our norm. Thursday night is date night. We don't go to any sporting events, we don't hang out with students, we don't double date, we take time for ourselves. To reconnect and to work on our marriage.

Do you have a regular date night? If so, what do you do? Any frugal tips?

Free Redbox

Do you want to watch a free movie...tonight? Redbox is giving away a free movie with the promo code: 37CEA9. The offer expires tonight (01/05) at midnight. Thanks to MotherLoad for the info!

The Latest Flicks and Movie Info

My husband got me hooked on The Internet Movie Database (IMDB). It's a great resource for checking out new releases, what films your favorite stars have appeared in, and summaries of movies so you know what you're getting into. We use it in cooperation with our library movie requests. We find out what movies are being released soon on DVD, hop on over to our library website and check if they will be getting the movie. It's a great way to get new releases without paying a thing.

IMDB is also a great place to check out the voices in animated movies. They also give you a picture of the actor/actress and other movies they have been in.

The Library

We love our library! It's a great place to save money. We have yet to take full advantage of all the services our library offers, but this one is our favorite: reserving movies! Yes, you can reserve movies at the Ames Public Library. It's really simple to do:

1. Enter your Borrower ID number (it's on the back of your card)
2. Enter your PIN number. This should have been assigned to you when you received your card, but you can call the library to get a PIN.
3. Now go to the online catalog and type in a title. Choose a movie (or book) from the list by clicking on it.
4. Next you'll be at a page with the movie's information and scroll to the bottom. Click the button, "Place Request to Hold Item for me" at the bottom right-hand side of the page.
5. You will be shown a page that tells you how many people are in line to reserve this item before you and you have the option to "Cancel" your request or you can "Request".
6. The library will contact you (via email or phone) to let you know when your item is ready to be picked up. If there is a Bookmobile stop near you, you can also request to have the item brought to the Bookmobile location and you can pick it up there.

It's that easy! The Ames Library has new releases and a wide selection of films to choose from. You get them for one week and they're FREE as long as you return them on time. You can request more than one item at a time.

** Sometimes you have to be careful with children's movies because they can receive a lot of scratches and the DVD will skip around a lot.