Where the heck have I been?

I know you are all wondering why I haven't been blogging much about all of the wonderful subjects I cover in this blog.

Please read this blog post from my other blog to understand why I have been MIA.

http://queenbuv3.blogspot.com/2009/12/ptsd.html

Most extreme frugal footwear of the year award goes to.....

The owner of these worn out shoes.

He is a hard working, self-sacrificing, father of two and devoted hubby.......

.....to me.

I am proud of his frugalness but VERY happy to see these go. As much as I like to save a buck, I have been ENCOURAGING, some might say nagging, him to buy new shoes for a year. In fact, over six months ago I bought him "new" pair of shoes off ebay to replace these. They were mint condition, barely used shoes. It took him months to tell me that they were not comfortable and that is why he wasn't wearing them. So I have been telling him to go buy some new shoes. He hadn't until yesterday. This is the same man that will tell me to buy something if I or the kids need it and acts like I am being ridiculous for even discussing it with him. He tells me to just buy whatever it is we need.

He even called me from the mall yesterday saying he had found his dream shoes but couldn't justify the $39.99 price tag. He wears these shoes EVERY DAY. If you do the math, a pair of shoes that cost $39.99 only cost my hubby 0.10 cents a day!!! I think he is worth it : )

He also bought himself a pair of lined jeans for the winter, on sale of course. Now if I can ENCOURAGE him to replace more examples of his extreme frugality in his wardrobe......

Goodbye baby poop yellow and hello clean bright white paint!

We finally painted over the yucky paint in Olivia's room last weekend.

BEFORE

AFTER

Needless to say, Olivia has been spending much more time in her room since we painted it.

08/31 Garden update

Here are my tomato plants about a week ago.
I had quite a few red ones.....that were all rotting on the vine.




I ripped every single plant out and put them in a trash bag. The blight was so bad this year. Maybe we will have a drier summer next year.

Here is my garden now, minus the tomato plants.

The green and yellow beans are on their second round of blossoms.

Many of my squash plants had leaves that looked like this so I cut all of the affected ones off.

The squash plants have been producing only teeny tiny squashes in the past week. But I'm not seeing all that mold or fungus or whatever it was.

My cukes are the super stars of my garden this year. I am up to my eyeballs in cukes!!!!

My method of staking the cuke plants and guiding the vines so the cukes grow off the ground has been a complete success and I highly recommend it!

My pepper plants are producing finally!!

I'm hoping to pick this and the other big pepper I have growing this week : )

I plan on doing a harvest update and flower update post this week. Hope all of your gardens are still producing and healthy!

08/26 Super cheap king size candy bars at Rite Aid!!

Sorry, no pictures of my huge pile of candy, too busy. King size candy bars are buy one get one free at Rite Aid this week. One is $1.49 and there is a coupon from this Sunday's paper for $1/2 Snickers, Milky Way, Twix or Three Musketeers which makes each candy bar $0.24 after sale and coupon! Plus, there is a coupon from this Sunday's paper $0.55/1 any Reese's and after sale and coupons makes each King size Reese's peanut butter cups $0.19 each.

***Attention coupon bloggers (you know who you are)****

If I see you suddenly post this deal on your blog without giving me credit I will call you on it!! None of you have done a post on this yet so it will be real easy to see who is stealing my ideas. Stop taking credit for my ideas and making money off of them with your monetized and product promoting blogs!!

If the thievery doesn't stop I will make a separate blog for non-idea stealing followers and bloggers that is invitation only for my deal ideas.

08/12 Day of firsts in harvesting and blanching!

I harvested my first cukes and squashes today! Not impressive in size but hopefully they will be impressive in taste.

Above-harvest #2

Below-2 days later harvest #3 of yellow beans.

I don't want my family to get sick of yellow beans so I decided it was time to try blanching and freezing. It was not as difficult as I thought. I love this free Ziploc pump (coupon) and bag system. The pump is easy to use and can be washed in the dishwasher. If the pump holds up and the veggies survive freezing I will do a full review at some point.

How is your harvesting and preserving going?

Why do I bother?

I've been coming up with lot of original coupon/sales matchup deals lately and posting them. The day or two after these big coupon bloggers post these ideas and don't give me credit. They give other people credit when they are posting about someone else's original deal ideas but not me. Very irritating. I always give credit to the person I got the idea from and put a link to their blog. People are so greedy and selfish. It makes me want to stop posting about my deal ideas and freebies. These are also the same people that seem to shop EVERY DAY and clearly have a shopping addiction. Very sad.