December Challenge: Organizing a Kitchen Cupboard

My Kitchen cupboards are generally pretty organised, there was one however that was a complete disaster. Our problem is that we saved way too many disposable containers, they come in handy when packing snacks for our kids, but we had about 20 too many.

Here is the before:

...and the after:

Ahhhh much better!

Boxing Day....Sales?

I was so excited about boxing day today that I woke up at 4:30 am and couldn't go back to sleep. I have been planning this day for the past month and set aside a good chunk of money to get things for my family and I. The stores in the mall opened up at 8am, so I made sure to get us all there by 7:45am, Old Navy was giving away a Kodak underwater camera to the first chunk of customers and I wanted one. When we got to Old Navy at 7:45am the doors were already open and a good amount of people were already in there shopping. Turns out this was the only store in the mall that opened up at 6am, we missed the camera giveaway but we did get two free fleece blanks which came in handy when my oldest daughter and I fell asleep on the couch later in the day.

The deals in Old Navy were OK, we found even better deals online the previous day though. Many of the stores seemed to have the same sales that they did before Christmas, and for some things like Pot of Gold chocolate I could have gotten it cheaper with a coupon (now expired) two weeks or so ago. The only other store I picked up anything from was La Senza, their panties seem to only have a lifespan of one year, so I desperately needed some new ones, I don't know if I'm just being cheap, but I think the 9 for $30 I paid was a little too much for a "sale".

This boxing day was officially a let down for us, we picked up very few clothing items for the kids and only one or two things from our long list of things we needed for our home. I wonder how well other people did today with the sales and if they fared better than we did. I'm hoping that the upcoming January sidewalk sales will be better, I remember last year we really cleaned up, it was great.

How We Save and Spend

According to the banks Canada is on the cusp of going through another recession, according to the government we aren't. I have to say right now I agree with the banks, it's not hard to see that our economy could be doing much better and that good well paying jobs are hard to come by, families are struggling with low paying jobs and higher prices at the grocery store. Corporations and government are pushing us to buy to get the economy going, but our pennies here and there are nothing compared to the reckless government spending that needs to stop to really make the difference.

Oops I've gone off on a bit of a tangent, this post isn't about the government, it's about surviving and thriving during a possible recession. My husband and I use to be poor, so poor that we couldn't afford to buy cheese for the first two years of our marriage and had to be really creative when planning a date. Those were hard times, and I honestly think we suffered way more financially then we really had to, although there are more ways to save money now than ever before. I could talk all day about how to save money and live a better life, but for the sake of putting my thoughts into one entry I'll just list off a few things.

1) Use Coupons! These things are everywhere (especially for you Americans). You can find coupons in newspapers, order them online and have them mailed to your door, print them out from your computer, call up your favourite company rave about their products and see if they will send you coupons....etc. Coupons are no longer just for food and deodorant, you can get coupons for museums, attractions, oil changes and the list goes on. Using coupons was our first step in saving money, over time it really makes a difference.

2) Getting Cheap Clothing - For our children there are a few different things we do to save money on clothing. We go to thrift stores, kids swap meets which for us seems to give us more for a lot less than the thrift store, and  also garage sales for used clothing. If we need something that we weren't able to find second hand or just want to buy a few new items for the kids we go to Gymboree when they are having one of their many sales (their quality is amazing, almost guaranteeing it will be passed down from oldest to youngest), Old Navy and GAP clearance sections and every other store on boxing day. My husband and I don't go through clothes nearly as fast as two toddlers, but we have the same shopping habits when it comes to buying clothes (generally), we just do it less frequently.

3) Saving Money at the Grocery Store - Besides using coupons there are other ways to get a deal at the grocery store. Many times food that is about to expire either that day or the next has a 30-50% off sticker on it. If you have a freezer (which I highly recommend and many times can be obtained free from craigslist) you can throw so many things in it. Milk freezes well, so does cheese, butter, bread.....etc, there is no reason to pay full price for these things all the time. Ask the manager or supervisor when your grocery store does their markdowns so you can be there to catch the good stuff (assuming you're like me and don't have a paying job).

4) Vacations - I love vacations, although who doesn't?! Since we are not rolling in cash we have to be very careful with what we do on our vacations. As it stands now, if we want to go on a vacation every year it means no flying. Plane tickets, airport tax and little things like taxis and buses from spot to spot is just beyond our budget right now, so we do road trips. We save for each vacation starting a year in advance, we may not know where we will be going or for how long, but getting away from it all is incentive enough. All of our coins, well I should be saying my coins since my husband only uses his credit card go in a "vacation" jar, so does the money from bottle returns, any mail in rebates or things we sell on craigslist or at a swap meet. When our kids get a  little older I'd like to take them to Disney Land, I don't know if our financial situation will improve or God forbid get worse so I'm saving now, not in the way of money, but in airmiles. Airmiles is a great rewards program, it's free to join and lately more and more stores are apart of the airmiles program including Toys r Us and Michaels.

I have a lot more to talk about when it comes to saving money, so stay tuned :-).

Recipe: Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes

I found this recipe in an issue of  "Today's Parent", I made it for my daughter's second birthday a while back and she loved it, it was literally all over her face.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2/3 Cup boiling water

1 1/2 Cup all purpose flour 

1 Cup white sugar

2 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 Cup vegetable oil

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 Large bag of "Rolo" chocolate or something similar

Icing

3 tbsp Butter at room temperature

1 3/4 Cup icing sugar

1/4 Unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tbsp milk

1 tbsp Vanilla

Directions:

Preheat Oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl, whisk cocoa with boiling water until no lumps remain.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour with sugar, baking powder with salt.

Whisk oil into slightly cooled cocoa mixture, then whisk in eggs and vanilla. 

Stir in flour mixture until combined. The mixture will be very thick.

Spoon batter into paper lined muffin cups. 

Bake until batter is barely set, approx 8-10 minutes.

Remove partially baked cupcakes and push pieces of  chocolate into the center. 

Bake for another 8-10 minutes, then set on cooling rack. 

For the icing beat butter in a large bowl.

Whisk icing sugar with cocoa to remove lumps. 

Beat into butter, alternating with milk. 

Beat in vanilla until icing is smooth. 

Enjoy!!

Today's Income

Today I had an etsy sale. Wahooo. It was a small sale, but a sale is a sale and I'm happy people are buying my stuff. The item(s) bought were a set of four polymer clay mushroom charms for $2.60. A thank you goes out to the buyer in Texas.

Today's Income

I've decided that anytime I make money from home I'm going to keep a record of it, no matter how small the number. Today I sold a stroller weather shield on craigslist for $10. It was actually the one thing I was expecting not to sell, but hey I'm not complaining. As a family we've decided that any craigslist sales along with bottle returns and things that my husband sells to his friends are going straight to our "summer savings account", so that we can have a little freedom when choosing our family vacation.

*To add to today's total, my husband sold $84 worth of stuff to some people he knows, one of whom owns a working farm, he has happily agreed to barter our items for his fresh produce, this will really come in handy in the summer!*

Making Money When You Don't Have a Job

So how do people make money while being a stay at home parent? I've been doing a few things, and I'm sure I could be doing more, slowly but surely it'll happen. Since October I've opened up my own etsy shop, selling kids/ kid inspired jewelry. By no means is business booming, but it gives me a great feeling that a few people are interested in things I'm making, it's also a few extra dollars that I wouldn't have had otherwise. 

This month I've been selling things on craigslist and my husband has been selling some things to a group of friends he sees once a week. Craigslist has been OK, although I will admit it can be a huge hassle with people saying they are interested in somethings and then not following through or dealing with people who are a little ummm....blank among other things. Thankfully though, my husband helps me out with craigslist selling and in less than two weeks we've made $100 selling to three different people. As for selling things to his friends, today was the first time he did it and was able to make $50. Selling things to friends might just be a one time thing, or possibly a once in a while thing, we'll see but at least I can say we made some cash and people are interested. 

I'm looking into ways to make more money, my husband works, but I don't and I miss getting a regular pay cheque. Selling things here and there has been great for this months challenge of organising, but I need something that I can count on more than craigslist and also something that makes more money than etsy, yet still allows me to be at home with our two toddlers. Suggestions are always welcome.

Lifetime Supply of Scrubbing Bubbles

...well, if not a lifetime supply at least a few years, because umm *cough cough* I may have more than this in my cleaning closet.

I bought this in one shopping trip yesterday at....yup you guessed it London Drugs. I love this store. After using $80.00 in coupons I paid just the tax which was $9.51, still cheaper then what just one of these cleaners costs before tax. 

For anyone out there that might find this blog and stacks at London Drugs I got this deal by using 2 x "$5 off Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-A-Clean", one coupon was from an October Smartsource flyer and the other coupon was found in my townhouse complex mail room a couple weeks ago. 

December Challenge: Organising the Bathroom Cupboard

Today I got to organising the bathroom cupboard, I was shocked at how many things I had in there that were useless. Empty spray bottles, too many cleaning buckets and my husband's broken electric razor. It all had to go.

Before:

After:

November Challenge: Days 27, 28, 29 and 30 and Results!

Phew that was a long title.

Nov 27th:
$ 11.50 - Kids swap meet
$ 11.79 - London Drugs (used $55 in coupons)

Nov 28th:
$ 11.45 - London Drugs (used $63.46 in coupons)
$ .50 - Coffee
$ 44.45 - Grocery

Nov 29th:
$ 23.43 - Fruit and veg
$ 8.30 - Grocery

Nov 30th:
$ 19.31 - London Drugs (used $91.46 in coupons)
$ 4.72 - Chips
$ 17.29 - London Drugs (used $65.47 in coupons)

This past month I challenged my family and I to only spend $2300 on everything for the month of November, well sadly we spent more then $2300.  With the car having issues, a holiday and my youngest daughter turning two, I don't think we did too bad, we spent $ 2430.14 this month.

December's challenge is an organising challenge, and I've already gotten started.

November Challenge: Day 23, 24, 25 and 26

Nov 23rd:
$ 16.57 Kids play center
$36.68 Sushi

Nov 24th:

NO SPEND DAY!!!!!!!!!!

Nov 25th:
$ 3.81 Mc Donalds
$ 10.00 Burger King
$ 15.87 London Drugs (used $85.99 in coupons)

Below is a picture of my shopping trip at London Drugs. This store allows multiple coupons for one product, there are certain rules and restrictions, but it works for me :).

Nov 26th:
$ 11.56 Grocery
$ 30.02 Gas
$ 2.36 Chips
$ 13.20 London Drugs (used $69.23 in coupons)

November Challenge: Day 19, 20, 21, 22

Eeep I've been so bad with this blog, haven't been writing in it simply because I haven't felt motivated to do so. So about my spending, it's been good and bad, lets get started:

Day 19:

$ 15.83 - Grocery

$ 11.51 - Fruit and veg

$ 83.00 - Shoppers Drug Mart, this shopping trip was a mix of kids medicine, $1 4 packs of soap, $2.00 face wash and food. We attained enough points to get about $20 off our next shopping trip, however we will be banking these points for even more savings. 

Day 20: 

$ 36.68 - Sushi

Day 21: 

No Spend Day!!!!!

Day 22: 

$ 2.00 - Chocolate for my birthday girl's cupcakes

$ 13.72 - Toys R Us ( Amazing deals here! I was able to get 10 hot wheels, 2 stainless steel spoon and fork sets with Toy Story and Princess characters on them and a  25 cent pack of birthday candles. As a bonus I got 5 airmiles yeaaa :-) )
$ 69.00 - Oil Change

Tomorrow we might be heading over to Chuck E Cheese's, we have a $26 coupon which includes a large pizza, 4 drinks and 20 tokens. There is no admission fee, and I think this price is fair for the four of us, I will of course be bringing along extra food for us to eat elsewhere. 

November Challenge: Day 18

My husband went to the mechanic today and all I can say is thank God, fixing the car wasn't an expensive repair, although it was sure an inconvenience. Turns out there was something wrong with the electrical board and since my husband knows the mechanic and paid in cash, it only cost us $200 plus $10 in doughnuts and coffee from Tim Horton's. Here's today's spending:

$ 200.00 - Car repair

$ 10.00 - Tim Horton's 

$ 5.00 - Burger King

November Challenge: Day 16 and 17

Ha, can you believe it after all that has broken down lately, our car, our wonderful 1997 Chevrolet van is ill. It came out of nowhere, she just won't start. We depend on our car pretty heavily; to take our daughter to preschool, to take my husband to work and to go to various places to get great deals. I'm so sad, I know it's dumb to love a thing, but this car has such great memories, we took our first family road trips in this car....hmmfff. God willing she won't be too expensive to fix.

Back to the challenge! Yesterday's spending is as follows:
$ 7.08 x 6 tins of pringles (used $3.00 in coupons)
$ .99 Clearance dessert
$ 85.00 Gas (ha ha jokes on us)

This afternoon, before the car died, we headed over to Old Navy to use our "save $10 when you spend $20" coupons, my husband had one as well as myself. I picked up somethings for my kids from the clearance section which also had an extra 30% off the last ticketed price, while my husband was able to find himself a nice sweater for work. Today we spent:
$ 1.67 Muffin and tea at Mc Donald's
$ 15.64 Husband's sweater
$ 11.85 Kids clothing

Cute stuff, almost wish they had these in my size.

November Challenge: Day 15

Here we are half way through the month, and I'm feeling like this challenge is under control. Two days ago I mentioned that we still had to pay for our daughter's preschool, well thank God, we were approved for a subsidy that will cover all but $8 of the monthly cost. We will also be reimbursed for September and October, this little bit of unexpected extra money is going straight to the bank!

Today's spending was great, we headed off to Whole Foods to use one of the two vouchers we purchased. The total bill came to $21.15, but I only spent $11.15 in total thanks to livingsocial, and since the $10.00 was already calculated on November 9th, I only spent $1.15 today. Wahoo.

November Challenge: Day 14

This past week my camera died, less than 2 months after purchasing it. Turns out there is something wrong with the sensor and it was putting a black mark on the top 20% of my photos. I am very disappointed it's my youngest's second birthday on the 23rd and although I do have another camera, it's really not that good, as you can see from my recent photos. My Nikon 5100 was sent in on Friday and won't be fixed and shipped back to me for at least a month and that's if everything goes well. My juicer also died this week, it happened yesterday and the motor is gone. We bought this juicer in the summer at a garage sale for $10 new in package (so it seemed) and I only used it a handful of times with all the intention in the world of using it more often, now that can never happen and now I don't have the extra cash to buy another one. Boo hoo. On a happier note, spending was good and coupons were used, here's how we did:

$ 7.08 Six tubes of pringles (used $3.00 in coupons)

$ .99  Eight lemons in the clearance isle

 

November Challenge: Day 12 and 13

Day 12 of this challenge was another no spend day, wahoo! Today, day 13 is as follows:
$22.59 - Groceries
$16.22 - Fruit and veg market
$0.96 - Pantene shampoo and conditioner

The shampoo and conditioner were a result of coupon stacking at London Drugs, I had wanted to get a few other things, but unfortunately they were out. Normally I wouldn't head over to London Drugs for just two items.

I think so far this month is going pretty decent so far. However, I do still have my youngest daughter's birthday on the 23rd, my oldest daughter needs this month's preschool paid for and it looks like our car needs an oil change. I'm a little nervous about how it will all work out.

Recipe: Best Pizza Dough I've Ever Made

Ingredients

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 cups bread flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/3 cup flax seed
• 1/5 cup ground chia 
• 2 heaping tablespoons thyme
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons white sugar

Directions

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir.
2. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups bread flour, olive oil, salt, white sugar, flax seeds, ground chia, thyme and the yeast mixture; stir well to combine. Beat well until a stiff dough has formed. Cover and rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Turn dough out onto a well floured surface (I greased the pan with olive oil) . Form dough into a round and roll out into a pizza crust shape. Pre bake dough (as shown in picture below) for 5-8 minutes then cover with your favourite sauce and toppings and bake in oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes. 

This recipe made about two medium sized pizzas, the thinner the dough, the better. This pizza was incredible and it had nothing to do with the toppings. 

Enjoy!!

November Challenge: Day 11

I'm very proud of my husband and oldest daughter who spent the day out together, but spent nothing. Kudos to them. I, on the other hand bought a fish burger combo at Burger King. My addiction to fish burger Friday is unruly and even now I could go for another one. Sigh.

Today's total spending:
$5.00 - Burger King

November Challenge: Day 10

Today was a no spend day....ahh it feels good.