A Whole Afternoon of Shopping for $16

This morning I headed out to go to two garage sales. Both advertised that they had lots of boy clothes for sale. I left around 9am because that's what time the first one opened. I wanted to get there right away because usually when I go to garage sales, they tell me "We had tons of boy clothes but they all got sold right away." Toddler boy clothes are hard to find at garage sales! Everyone has girl clothes, but I rarely see boy clothes.

Anyway, while I was pulling out of my driveway, I called my parents to see if they wanted to come with me because the one I was going to was close to their house. My dad said they were going to go to some anyway, so he made up a list and we all went garage sal(e?)ing.

The two sales that I wanted to go to proved very fruitful! Most of the stuff I came home with, I bought at those two.

Here's what I found:

18 month Children's Place PJs - $0.50 each

Isaac suffers from a lack of jammies, so I bought lots of them today.

Winnie the Pooh sweat outfit - Grandma bought this one.

It's 12 months, but Isaac is tiny, so this will be perfect for fall.

3T Children's Place sweater - $0.50

Isaac won't be able to wear this for a while, but I think sweaters on little boys are absolutely adorable, and for the price, I'll store it until it fits!

18 months Children's Place t-shirts - $0.50 each

I found lots of Children's Place clothes today! And it's no wonder I bought them because I like that store. And I have a special place in my heart for boy's polos.

12 month Children's Place jeans - $0.50

These will probably fit him for a while. Like I said, he's tiny.

18-24 month Baby Gap PJs - $0.50

These look smaller than the tag says. I think he'll be able to wear it soon.

24 month Pooh PJ's - $0.50

I told you I bought lots of jammies. These are really cute.

12 month Leap Frog jammies - $0.50

These are adorable! The little frog feet say "Right Foot" and "Left Foot" and the hands say "Right Hand" and "Left Hand." So cute!

Boppy Newborn Pillow - $5

At the same garage sale I also bought some maternity pants for $0.50. I know what you're thinking, and no, I'm not pregnant. But we will start trying for baby #2 soon, and that's all I'm going to say about that. Anyhoo, I almost bought one of these when I was pregnant with Isaac because I've heard good things about them, but for the amount of time a baby would use it, I didn't want to spend $30 plus the cost of a cover. This pillow + cover was marked for $8 and I talked her down to $5. Totally worth it (I hope)!

Then we stopped at the farmer's market for some carrots and green beans. We've come to LOVE green beans in this house. Even Isaac gobbles them right up! I got two bunches of carrots and one bag of green beans for $6.50.

So I spent the afternoon shopping and got tons of stuff, all for $16! Have I mentioned how much I love garage sales?

Fahrenheit 451

I finished reading this a few days ago, but I'm just now getting around to blogging about it.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is essentially a story about the decline of literacy among humans. The main character, Guy Montag, is a fireman - except in this future, firemen don't put out fires, they start them. Also in this future, books are illegal. If someone thinks you have books, they call in an alarm on you and the firemen come and burn them, along with pretty much everything else in your house. But don't worry, the actual houses are fireproof - that's how they make them now.

In this future, people don't want to have to think, which is what lead to the banning of books. Instead of living room walls, there are large television screens where people watch short, mindless programs about nothing at all. After all, they don't want to have to think about it too much.

One day, Montag meets a mysterious young girl who has a lot of thoughts and ideas - something that is very unusual. It makes Montag realize that he is not happy in this thoughtless world, and wonders what is in these books that he's spent so many years burning, and might it change his life? So he takes a book home with him from a house that he burned one night.

Chaos ensues. His wife calls in the alarm on her own husband. There is a long chase, but Montag is eventually able to escape the city just in time to see it completely destroyed by a giant bomb dropped on it because a war has just broken out.

It really casts humanity in a dark light. After reading the coda at the end of the book, it's clear that Bradbury had written this book as a warning and he believes that this is the way the world is heading. And sadly, he's sort of right. He wrote about how textbook publishing companies write him to ask if they can publish his work in a textbook, but they censor it so much that he refuses to let them. They want to cut out anything with substance, anything with more than a three-sylable word, every "damn" and "hell" because, heaven forbid we corrupt any of the young minds that might read it. This is all very ironic considering the topic of the book they're trying to censor. Think about it - they want to cut out big chunks of a book about the deliteracy (and yes, I am fully aware that "deliteracy" may not actually be a word - that's ironic too) of humanity. Hmmm...

It makes you think. Of course, if you're reading the book for entertainment purposes, you're not part of the problem. :)

Day One

Today marks the first day of my diet. I weighed in this morning. Then I put my scale in my closet so I'll only weigh myself once a week. That will take some self-control in and of itself, but I think I'll stay more motivated if I don't stress about the number on the scale every day.

I was surprised when I weighed myself that I weigh only 1.4 lbs more than at my first doctors appointment when I was pregnant. That was when I was only 5 weeks along, so I use that as my pre-pregnancy weight. However, that was a different scale, and every scale I've ever stepped on has said something different, so that could be way off. And although 1.4 lbs is a negligable difference, I wear it so very differently now. I feel a lot bigger than before. More saggy and flabby. I guess being all stretched out will do that to a person.

I think I'm off to a pretty good start. I discovered that the cereal I like is only 3 points (including the milk), and I was surprised at the serving size. It's about the same amount of cereal that I usually pour into the bowl, so I was happy with that.

I decided that my daily water goal will be one gallon. I may not make it every day, but if that's how much I shoot for, then I'm sure I'll be drinking more water than I do now! I have a two-quart container that I can fill up and keep in the fridge, so my goal is to drink two of them every day. A few years back, I was drinking a gallon of water per day. I had to pee a lot, but it was very doable. When I think about it, I just head to the fridge, pour a glass, and chug it right then and there. That way, I hardly even notice I'm drinking so much water.

I think my main challange will be trying to figure out what to cook for supper, since I have to cook for James and Isaac too.

That's all folks! Tune in evey Monday for my weekly weigh in.

CVS - 8/8

I hate Extra Care Bucks. Hate hate hate. I had $10 ECB a while ago from a diaper deal that I did. Then CVS had less than thrilling ads for a couple of weeks, so I didn't shop there for a while. Then I stumbled across this $10 ECB that I forgot I had. I checked the expiration date and guess what? It had expired the day before. Just my luck. So the 6-year-old in me threw a tantrum and I swore to myself that I'd never shop there again because they're nothing but a bunch of big, fat, stupid heads.

Then yesterday, I broke my promise. Oh well, so much for being dramatic.

When I got there and ran my card through the scanner, I got four worthless coupons that I didn't need and one free $1 ECB! Pretty sweet!

Here's what I bought. This lot cost me $5.82 when all was said and done. And I used a gift card that I got when I transferred a prescription to pay, so I paid $0 out of pocket.

And here's the breakdown.

Xtra laundry detergent- $0.99

This stuff is dirt cheap. Even when it's not on sale. I've never used it before but I figured you can't lose for a buck!

Reg. $2.99

Sale $1.99 - $1/1 MQ (6/6 SS) = $0.99

All laundry detergent - $2.75 each

You can never have enough laundry detergent - especially when you have a toddler. So I though I'd stock up. I got the free & clear kind because that's what I use for Isaac's clothes. I bought the x2 detergent. The x3 super concentrated kind was also on sale, but I'll let you in on a little secret - the measurements for one load of the x2 kind, and the measurements for one load of the x3 kind are exactly the same. Sneaky, huh? Good thing we, the consumer, are smarter than the mucky mucks at All. Ha!

Reg. $7.49 each

Sale B1G1 free

$7.49 for two - two $1/1 MQs (here) = $5.49, or $2.75 each.

BIC Soleil razors - $0.17 each

That's right, I said seventeen cents each. This is my favorite deal of the day. I usually use the bottom-of-the-barrel cheapo disposable razors, so I'm excited about these fancy ones! How lame is that?

Reg. $6.69 each

Sale B1G1 50% off

$13.38 (for two) - $3.35 (B1G1 deal) - $6.69 B1G1 free MQ (8/1 SS) - $3/1 MQ (7/11 SS) = $0.34, or $0.17 each.

The bottom of my receipt tells me that I saved $25.53 off of their rediculously overinflated prices! That's 81%!

And not one of these deals required any ECB. I guess CVS has redeemed itself.

Wal-Mart Coupon Policy

Last week, my mom tried to use some internet coupons at Wal-Mart. She was told by the cashier that they don't accept coupons that have been printed from the internet. The cashier then asked her "supervisor" and she said the same thing.

Well, my friends, I am here to tell you that that's a load of bull. This is yet another reason why I avoid Wam-Mart at all costs. They're stupid. Here is their coupon policy - directly from the horses mouth, and by that I mean their corporate website. It clearly states that they accept internet coupons. It might be a good idea to print it and bring it with you if you plan to use internet coupons at Wal-Mart, just in case you get a cashier with their head up their ass, which is very likely.

Can you tell that I'm not a huge Wal-Mart fan?

Big Plans

I'm going to start Weight Watchers on Monday. There, I said it and now I can't turn back. I figure now that my baby is over a year old, I really should lose the baby weight. Although, I really don't feel motivated. At all. So I'm going to just force myself to eat bland food and exercise. Can't wait.

I'm not actually going to go to the meetings, but I'm going to follow the program. I have all the books from when I lost a bunch of weight before my wedding. I plan to use my blog for my weekly weigh-ins. Of course, I'm not going to tell you how much I weigh, I'm just going to tell you how much I lost/gained. I need some sort of accountability if I'm not going to the meetings, so this is it. We'll see how long it lasts.

Also, I'm thinking I need to cut WAY down on my soda intake. I drink like, three pops per day. I am going to try cut it down to one and start drinking lots of water. I will have a daily water goal, I just don't know how much that's going to be yet.

So, I'm starting all this on Monday. And today I'm going to Paradiso (amazing Mexican restaurant) with Kristi, my sole co-worker, since we haven't seen each other in months. I better enjoy it, might be the last time I go out for a while... :(

The Afternoon In Pictures

I took Isaac outside today to play with his nifty little water table that he got from his aunt for his birthday.

I went to get it from the garage, which is where we store it while it's not in use. This is what greeted me.

There were two of them in the web, but I couldn't get a picture. And this picture doesn't do it justice. Their bodies were about the size of my thumb nail. I almost turned back around and said "To hell with it!" But it was such a nice day outside, I really wanted to sit outside while Isaac played. So I very carefully maneuvered around the spiders and managed to get the table out without any permanent emotional scarring.

I do not have a green thumb.  I have two pots of flowers that hang from shepherd's hooks in our yard. I water them daily. This is the extent of my gardening skillz. So, I decided to water them while Isaac played.

So I'm watering my flowers, minding my own business...

And the entire time, I have Gizmo at my feet begging and pleading for me to spray him.

So I did.

Most dogs don't like being sprayed with water. My dog is a freak. He loves it. He could chase the hose all. day. long.

And when he's done, he looks like a drowned rat.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Isaac thought it was hilarious though!