Grandma Judy

Grandma Judy has started her own blog. She started it awhile back but didn't want to share with the world until she added lots of stuff. I'm so proud of her....she's come a long way in the world of computers/internet!! Go check it out and leave her a message...oh and feel free to add a link to her blog on yours...you'll see she has done that for a lot of my blog readers :)
http://ju-jucomspeco.blogspot.com

For Jenny...

After reading Jenny's comment wondering where my funny pic was...I had to stop what I was doing and do some self portraits....which do you like better?

 

Your laugh for the day....

I have a big wedding coming up this weekend and decided to rent a couple of lenses.....I cannot wait to purchase a fish eye lens, but in the meantime, I rent them on occasion and LOVE to annoy my husband with it. You have to get super close to your subject to get a pic like this so imagine how annoying I was to my husband, in his face, for about 10 minutes....funny stuff. Then I had to grab one of T in the tub..... (yes, I'm being too lazy to put my watermark on these, cuz they are not edited and I'm working on a project)....

Show me the money!

As everyone knows...this economy kinda stinks right now....gas prices are ridiculous and groceries are up as well. I've been working really hard to save money at the grocery store by using coupons. I've also been using a website called "The Grocery Game"  It is awesome! It tells you what stuff is on sale at each store (advertised and unadvertised) and then it tells you which week to use your coupons to get the very best deal. I got all kinds of free stuff this week because the item would be on sale for 2 for $2.00 ...I'd buy one and then I had a .50 off coupon (the store I was at doubles coupons up to .99) so the item was free. I buy cleaning supplies, toiletries etc at the grocery store because it ends up being cheaper than walmart/target etc if you get it at the right time with the right coupons. The idea is to stockpile what your family will use in a 3 month period and continue to replenish only at the rock bottom prices. So it takes about 3 months to get the max savings. I've only been doing it about a month, but today I did my shopping and spent $165.47 at 5 stores. My total value was $377.87!!! I saved $212.40 for a savings percentage of 62%...woo hoo! One of the stores I went to I only paid .78 for almost 20 bucks worth of stuff. Fun! Anyways, it sounds like a lot of work and I'm not lying, it does take a bit of time to get yourself organized (the way it works best for you), but to think I spent about 4 hours last night to prepare for my shopping trip and saved over 200 bucks...so that's like getting paid 50 bucks an hour to clip coupons - I'll take it.  Ok, I hope this all made sense...I'm super excited and had fun this a.m. after dropping Anthony off at school. I felt like I was on a shopping spree..lol. I thought I'd take some pics too....(they are terrible technically, but that's ok)...

 

Here's a portion of my loot from today - a lot of it I already put away in the fridge and freezer....

Here's a peek in the freezer.....stock full of a lot of things (I think we are going to need to get a chest freezer soon)....lots of meat, veggies and other goodies...

Now for a peek into the refrigerator....lots of stuff.....

Finally...we don't have a lot of storage space in our house, but we have this closet in the hall that we have turned into a pantry. Pretty soon, we're going to buy some plastic rubbermaid bins to put under the beds, in other closets etc. (It's worth it to get these rock bottom savings)...

Here's a close up of the bottom of the closet.....to save space for storing items I open any of the individually packaged snacks, granola bars etc and put them in the baskets....makes them easy to grab too :)

Also...this is a good time to ask any of our family and friends to please save "Box Tops for Education" on a ton of packaged foods you probably have/eat on a regular basis. They are on a lot of cereals and other "dry items".....also campbells soup labels. Since Anthony goes to a Catholic/Private school, they rely heavily on fundraising for a lot of things and they earn a lot of money from these items....so if you don't mind sending them, we'd really appreciate it!! :)

Labor Day Picnic

Hi all! It's been awhile since I posted (although I have plenty to say..lol), so I thought I'd post a few pics from labor day weekend. Our friend Janet and her girls, invited us to their farm for a picnic/bbq. Her youngest daughter recently got a horse (Darlin)! So, after we ate, Dad took a ride...apparently he used to ride horses (but hadn't in 20+ years). Then Brian decided to give it a try. He has NEVER ridden a horse. He did good. The boys went swimming with the girls (I love the pic of Anthony with the 3 girls) and later in the afternoon, Brian & Anthony went down the road a little ways to the creek to go fishing. Anthony had never been fishing, so of course I had to tag along for a few pictures. It was a great day with lots of food, fun and friends :) Oh, and it was HOT!