This & That...My Silly Life

Here we go again with the home projects... My dear husband hates my projects, and I know when I start one he is ready to strangle me! Mark is the type of person who could really care less about these things for the most part. However I am a project queen and I am not happy unless I am reaking havick on something in the house :) At least it's spring time and he spends most of his weekend on our near perfect yard. That leaves me all alone in the house looking for something to change!

So I know I have been talking about the new mattress and bed room suite, which is the motivation for my new project. When we first moved into this house the previous owners had very strange taste in color. We spent the first day here repainting. Of course moving was a big enough task so we only tackeled the worst colored rooms. My living room and hallway which was pink, the computer room which was an awful navy and burgendy and the back kitchen wall which was Barney purple. Yes, our house had some major color issues, which I have spent the past two years tackling. The other rooms were ok colors so for times sake we left them alone. Since we moved in I have painted the guest bathroom, one guest bedroom and redone the kitchen wall from the orginal beige we painted when we first moved in. Mark hates painting, but I love it for the most part. So I am the one that takes on these projects because like every woman I want my home to be perfect. So now to the project...

We bought the new mattress and brought that home about 2 weeks ago. I just found out my tax refund is on the way so I will be ordering my bedroom suite hopefully in the next week. I have spent days trying to find a furniture store that has the set I want on the showroom floor so I can look at it first. Finally I found one, but they had sold it...go figure. They are expecting to have a new one on the floor by the weekend so I hope to go take a look and get mine ordered by the begining of next week. Before the furniture gets here I must paint our bedroom!!! Right now it is a mint green (yuck). A color I have lived with for the past 2 years, but will be happy to change, or so I thought. Friday I went to Lowes and picked out about 10 paint chips to bring home. Once I laid them all out I picked 3 favorites. Sunday, I went back to Lowes to get testers. I am not a fan of the testers, but for some reason light colors never come out right so I knew I needed to do this.

I know I want a lighter color paint. My furnitute will be a Merlot finish which is almost black. So my thinking is the walls need to be a light but warm color, this will bring out the beauty of the merlot finish and make the furniture the focal point of the room. A dark color will just wash out and make the room look smaller. First 3 samples did not go well. Two of them looked pink once I put them on the wall. So I pick two more colors and go get testers. I paint those colors on the wall and still I am disappointed. By now I am having a nervous break down and don't understand what the problem is... Here is the first 5 colors on the wall.


These colors do not inspire me!!!!

So after all this testing paint and being disappointed I got an idea. The walls are mint green now, so maybe it is throwing my colors off. I knew from the get go that this was a possiblilty but I never thought it would change them this much. So today while I was on my lunch break for work I ran home grabed the Kiltz and painted the wall. Yes I keep Kiltz at my house...LOL I told you I am ALWAYS painting something! So when I came home from work the wall got one more coat of Kiltz and then I started the testers all over again. I was amazed by the difference, see what you think.


Believe it or not these are the same colors in the picture above.

So now I am trying to pick a color. Still not in "love" with any of them. I realy like earthy tones like brown, and maybe that is the problem. I don't much care for blah colors, but I know that is what this room needs and in the end I will be happy. So my plan of action now is to look at the colors for the next few days and make a choice by the weekend. I plan to start painting over the weekend, I will keep you posted.

So I have a vision in my mind of how I want my room to look like. We will have to see how it comes out. My next few projects are already lined up for me...woo hoo! First on my list is to take my old bedroom suite and refinsish it. I have never done this before, but I am going to give it a try :) Then my next project, installing real wood blinds throughout the house. I already ordered samples from the manufactor to pick out the color I want. Shhh don't tell Mark! He will actually like the new blinds the rest not so much. I do have a planned purchase that Mark will be happy about. I am planning on buying a new flat screen TV pretty soon to replace our old tube TV in the bedroom. That new bedroom suite deserves a proper TV set :) Mark will LOVE that!

On another note... Triple coupons at Harris Teeter was awesome! I am going to get a post together about all my good shopping trips in the next few days. Hope everyone is having a great week :)

Anyone who reads my blog knows I am coupon crazy. Today started the week long triple coupons at my favorite grocery store (Harris Teeter). I am going to post my shop from today and then later this week I will show you all my results.

This time around triples are looking really good! A lot of great deals on a variety of regulary needed items. My shop today was really great and where my cost will go up some the rest of the week because I will be buying more expensive items the amount saved is wonderful. Please keep in mind some people will have shops for just a few dollars, but this is when you go for the free items only. Don't expect to spend two dollars when you are buying things that are generally more expensive.



This is my shop from today. I spent $9.41 and saved $48.98. The deals I got today were awesome. It was a savings of 82% woo hoo! Coupons make me so happy. I often find myself arguing with folks over how much money I save. I have people tell me all the time that they can buy the same stuff cheaper at Wal-Mart. Ha! Sorry people, I hate to tell you but no one will ever out shop me at Wal-Mart. I very seldom go to Wal Mart and when I do most of the time I find that when the grocery store runs sales they are cheaper especailly when you factor in multipled coupons which Wal Mart does not do.

With all this being said, maybe I should put coupons into perspective. Causally clipping coupons and using them whenever will save you a few bucks here and there. The type of couponing I do is not for the lazy or slack folks who are satisfied spending way too much money on the daily items they need. I often hear people complain about the cost of groceries and household items. They could save so much money by doing what I do, but they are too lazy to take the time. Personally I don't like giving money away, the less I spend on necessites the more I have to put up for the nice things I want :)

Serious savings comes down to understanding the system. Stores typically run the same sales every 4-6 weeks. You hold onto your coupons until you know the product you need is at the rock bottom price them you stock up. I have a room dedicated to stocking my items. I know most people use the excuse that they don't have time. Yes there is a lot of time involved at first. After awhile you get so well stocked that you will find you don't have to spend as much time chasing after sales. Right now I am so well stocked on personal care items (body wash, shampoo, medicine, paper itmes) that I have pretty much cut out my Drug store shopping right now. I also have spent less time grocery shopping as well. I now usually only go grocery shopping on Saturday unless it is a triple or super double event going on. It gets so much easier as time goes by.

So in the end, for all those people who want to try to out shop me at Wal Mart...I welcome the challenge any day! While they are out buying store brand items that they think are priced so well I am buying the name brand items cheaper. I love it! Happy triple shopping everyone, hope you get the great deals :)

Oh me, facebook has been flooded with every one's comments on health care today. I have done my best to keep my mouth closed, but I guess I will just talk about it here before I explode. I have not read the health care bill, but I suspect no one that I see commenting on it has either so I will consider all of us on a even playing field.

I will admit two things. Yes, I am registered as a democrat, but this does not influence my vote in any election. If I feel a Republican candidate better represents my personal welfare then I would vote for them.

I see all these folks commenting on health care and whatever else, I wonder if they voted in the election? If they didn't then I don't feel they have the right to complain. Voting is a civic duty and every vote counts, if you are too lazy to vote then you should probably just stop complaining because your missed vote could be part of the reason your agenda is not being met. Regardless you can't expect any elected official to do all the things they say they will do, if you believe they will you are an idiot! One person can not pass anything so really you are voting for someone who will "try" to do the things they say.

So my thoughts on the health care bill... Well personally I believe it is a step in the right direction. It will have to be tweaked over time, but I think there are several good things about this bill. Most of the people I see who have a negative feeling towards this bill either don't pay for health insurance currently or are covered under HMO plans. Just for the record, I have HMO. So the people who don't have insurance or want it don't like this bill because they will be forced to get coverage or pay a fine. I actually totally agree with this. Think of all the people who don't have health insurance that flood our emergency rooms because they have to pay up front at a doctors office. People who actually have emergencies have to wait in line behind Joe Brown and his runny nose. I guarantee several of these people will never pay the hospital bill, which makes the hospital pass unpaid balances onto us people with insurance. I am know they wont admit this, but I am sure it happens. So in the end we end up paying for uninsured Americans...

People with pre-existing conditions. The best part of this bill in my opinion. I have very bad asthma, if it wasn't for insurance through my employer I would be denied coverage or my rates would be higher than my pay, trust me I have checked in the past. I think everyone should be able to have health insurance. I can't help that I was born with asthma. However insurance companies feel they should be able to deny me coverage because I am not 100% healthy. They don't want to insure me because they know my condition cost them money. I had a friend that had private insurance, their son had a bad fall and the hospital done a cat scan to make sure everything was ok, less than a month later they were dropped from their policy. We pay for insurance so that when something happens we are covered, yet when something does happen they want to kick us to the curb. It's not fair, but now this will not be able to happen.

Today in America every person with no insurance or private insurance runs the risk of losing everything they have in the event of a big medical problem. This does not apply to only older people. I know people in their early 20's who have developed cervical cancer or been in bad accidents. You will never be able to pay off your medical expenses if something bad happens. The family we bought our house from was in this situation. No health insurance, the husband had a heart attack and they were fixing to lose this house. We came in bought the house for their payoff. They lost their home over a unplanned medical need. It's sad but it happens every single day. If we didn't buy this house in 3 months they would have faced a foreclosure.

I also believe that in some cases having health insurance saves lives. I think it is a proven fact that people with insurance are more likely to go to the doctor. I also think people who have insurance are more likely to have a doctor that they see on a regular basis opposed to seeing whatever doctor is available at the time. Seeing the same doctor regularly helps to make sure any problems are caught early. They have all your medical history and know your family medical history which makes it easier to catch or watch potential problems. If you skip around doctors you will be less likely to tell them what problems you are having and they will be less likely to catch something problematic.

In the end I have no idea what impact this bill will have on each person, but I think there are several measures to protect us against money hungry insurance companies. I think it will help lots of Americans, even the ones who don't realize how important it is to have insurance. Yes I am sure it will cost us in tax increases over the years, but I can accept that. I will be happy knowing that if there was ever a time when I couldn't get insurance through my employer I will be able to find coverage and not be denied. I don't see everyone complaining about having tax increases for wasteful government spending or bank bail out money! Maybe instead of fighting something that will probably help millions of people in years to come you should have put more effort in butting heads with something that cost us money yet does nothing for us!

All of this is my opinion. I know a lot of people don't agree. That's ok with me! The only difference is I can actually state reasons for my opinion, while others trash the bill without valid reasons for doing so. Just my two cents :)

Very low key weekend here. Friday we picked up our new mattress. It is just dreamy...lol I will be more excited when I can get my new bedroom suite to go along with it. So Friday night were were moving stuff around to accomadate the new mattress. One bed moved to another room to make room for the new one, the house was a mess! I must say, I have slept like a baby all weekend. I hope I am able to get out of bed in time for work tomorrow.

Saturday, Mark worked in the yard and in the garden while I had a pampered chef party. I love Pampered Chef products and was excited to have a party at the house for the girls to come check out some awesome products and cook and eat a yummy meal. These parties are so fun, and I had a great time. I have to pick out the items I want to buy, but its so hard when they have so many great products. Pampered Chef is a life saver to me, the Deep Covered Baker cooks anything in the micowave so quick I use it serveral times a week. That was the highlight of my weekend.

Today I have done nothing! I watched some movies and sat around and relaxed. This has been one of the few weekends where I haven't been running around gocery shopping or we haven't had a million things to do. I know this week will be busy! Triple coupons will be starting Wednesday at Harris Teeter so tomorrow night I will need to start working on my game plan for that. I am sure it will be a busy week so just relaxing today was really nice. Plus it won't be long before I am spending time working in the garden and dealing with getting the pool ready, so I better enjoy the down time while I can.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Call me crazy! I know this blog is so random, but it is nothing more than random day to day things that come to mind. I know it has been awhile since I have wrote but I have been busy lately.

The coupon world was slow this past week. I was sad that I didn't have many deals to chase after this weekend. I get so excited to go grab deals on Saturday and this week nothing was going on...NOTHING! Instead I worked on my trusty coupon binder and waited for the Sunday paper. I knew there would be a Kroger sales paper and they started a new Mega Event this week. The Mega Event is wonderful. Usually you can stock up on good deals and have unreal savings. I was off work today so I ran out to Kroger and stocked up on cheese, canned tomatoes and pasta. Overall savings was 79% not bad, because I really didn't have many coupons, the sale is really that good!!! I am not a big fan of Kroger, they have terrible customer service and most time act like using a coupon is a crime. I have to suck it up for the Mega Events though, they are too great to pass up.

I think my last post was about buying bedroom furniture. This is why I have been MIA for so long. I am neurotic over saving a dollar. I have spent the past several days price shopping. I have changed my mind on the bedroom suite I want, so now I have to start that process over...ugh! Most of the time I have been mattress pricing. Let me tell you it is very very hard to price match mattresses. Each store has a different name for the mattress they carry, it could be the same mattress but you would never know because the name is differnt. I think they do this on purpose!!! All these mattress places have a low price guarntee. Well it's kind of hard to know if they have the lowest price if you can't find that mattress anywhere else. I however cracked the code. (YAY!!!) After spending countless hours searching online and in stores I finally figured it out. I first fell in love with a Sealy Reserve series plush mattress I found at Mattress Firm. Price $1399.99 so I started a search to find a lower price because not only do they price match, they take an additional 10% off. Now these folks at Mattress Firm have a comparison book, but you have to come to them with the information they are not giving up any information! Makes sense who wants to sell a mattress for less when they know people will never be able to find a mattress with the same name. They never met me :) If there is a will there is a way! Today I marched my self in the door with a list and prices, I am sure I saw the guy cringe when I pulled out my little book of mattresses and prices. Low and behold I matched one up to the one I wanted. I have not been to look at the particular mattress I matched, I found it online at Haverty's. Although I did actually go to stores and look at several mattress and try to match them up, but trust me it's quite complicated. So back to the story... The mattress that happened to be a match was on sale for $1099.99, so he had to price match it and give me a extra 10% off. Even if I couldn't find a price match I was going to buy this mattress. I bet I have tested 45 mattress and out of all of them this was the one I wanted. At the end of the day they extra money would have been worth spending on something I will be sleeping on for the next 10 years. My happy moment is that I will be paying $989.99 for a mattress that I would have paid $1399.99 for, so I save $438.70 (I included the tax on the savings). We are going to order it tomorrow, and I am so excited. Not to brag, but I can really save some money!

So the mattress will be here by the end of the week and I still have no bedroom suite. We are going to sit the mattress on the floor until I go buy the bedroom furniture. I don't know when I am going to order the furniture. I have been waiting on my state tax refund, but North Carolina is out of money and delaying refunds....errr! I have a feeling the new suite I have picked out is going to be a little more expensive. My goal was to keep the furniture and mattress under $3500.00, I think I can do it but I might be pushing it =:0 The first set was right at $2000.00 so as long as I dont go over another $500 I am good. I hope by the end of April I can have the furniture to go with the mattress. This is an investment that will last us 10 years so might as well get what we want. So I will wait a little longer, since I refuse to finance any of this.

North Carolina tax refund. Yes I am waiting on my refund. I was angry when I saw they are delaying refunds because the state is out of money. I know I have a plan for my money, but still there are people out there who can't pay their bills. I am sure there are people waiting for tax refund so they can get caught up on bills. North Carolina say's they are sorry...who cares! I understand the state is poor, but so is everyone who lives in it!!! We want our REFUNDS NOW! When I owe money I can't call them and tell them I don't have the money, why is the state allowed to do so? Government is so unfair. They do what they want, but expect us to follow the rules. What ever happened to lead by example? I wonder if people who owe tax money can call on April 15th and say sorry I am out of money, but when I get some I will send it to you...LOL I seriously doubt it. I know they set up payment plans. Maybe I will call the North Carolina Department of Revenue tomorrow and see if they would like to set up a payment plan to pay my refund back. Ha ha!

I have a delima. Nothing major, but for a person like myself, parting ways with a dollar makes me want to cry. So spending thousands of dollars is always a hard decision for me. So today you get to listen to me go through the pros and cons of my recent want...a new bedroom suite.

2 years ago Mark and I moved into our new house. I love it, we have so much room and well a bunch of nothing to fill it with. Just kidding, we have lots of stuff but like everyone you want nice things in your home. I love furniture, but not the price tag that comes with it. I have bought several pieces of furniture since moving in our house. Actually when I think about it, I am quite proud of all the things we have acquired to fill our home. It's not an easy task, we have 2 living rooms, and 3 bedrooms and a computer room. I can say we have one bedroom that is completely empty, but we never have guest spend the night so why would we need two guest rooms with furniture? So far I have bought two brand new living room sets, and last year I bought a slightly used formal dining room table and china cabinet. I need to get it upolstreed because I don't like the fabric on the chairs, but I haven't gotten that far :) I have been wanting a new bedroom suite since we moved in. My suite is going on 13 years old and I feel it is outdated. Now with that being said when we do buy a new set I am planning a DIY project on my old one. I want to refinish it and put new hardware and then move it to the empty guest room.

So I have been scouting out new sets, and finally found one that I have fallen in love with. Next step, calling every furniture store and pricing it out. Buying furniture is a long process for me. I have to call everyone and get prices, then I go through the prices and start a price war. I take my best price quotes and call the stores back and use the "well this store will sell it to me for this price". It's quite funny, but it saves me money and I will do anything to save a dollar. If these stores want my business they are going to work for it...LOL Anyway, at this point I am past the price war and I have my bottom dollar price.

Now starts negotiations with myself. I know the difference between a need and a want. My husband and I need a new mattress very badly. My bed is a full size and we want a king. Therefore I can not see buying a new mattress for my bed when we know we will be purchasing a king size bed in the future. Hints the whole bedroom suite ordeal. We want a bigger bed and a suite that matches so we have to buy everything at once. Also I am not one to buy something that I like less because it is cheaper. I will pay more money for something I want. I look at it like this, if you buy something that you don't love you will want to replace it sooner. Furniture is meant to last years. Spend the extra money for the item you love and you will be happier with your purchase for years down the road. Now I am negotiating if I want to spend the money on this suite. Final cost for me is $1,908.00 which does not include my new mattress because I haven't made that decision yet. I laid on one today and fell in love, but it was $1,600.00 and that's a lot to swallow for me. The mattress is almost as much as the whole bedroom suite!!!! I have to think about that one. Sleep is important so the mattress choice is important too and $1,600.00 for a mattress sounds high but you will have that same mattress for 10-15 years. $1,600 over 10 years is only $160 a year or $13.34 a month. I don't know about you guys but a good night sleep is worth $13.34 a month to me :)

So I am trying to go over this purchase in my mind. I have many questions for myself. Do you need to spend that much money right now? Can I wait a little longer? The questions go on an on... I have enough money in my savings to buy this, but it will take everything I have. I don't know if I can hand over all my savings at one time right now. Plus their are other cost involved. I want to paint my bedroom before we buy a new bedroom suite. I will have to buy new bed linens because I have none to fit a king sized bed. I was talking with the furniture dealer about all these things today. He offered financing for me. Uhhh, no way I don't finance furniture. If I can't afford to buy it then I don't want it! That's the problem with all the people in the world. They don't have money to buy stuff because they are too lazy to try to save it, then they finance everything, pay way more for the stuff because of interest. Sorry I am not that person. I save money every paycheck for no particular reason. I save it for stuff I know I want in the future or just for a rainy day. There are only two things I believe in financing which are a home and and vehicle. If you can't buy the other stuff out right you probably can't afford it in the first place. That's just my two cents.

I would have bought the new bedroom suite a week ago. I would have had enough money and some still left over, but Mark and I just bought us a 16' trailer to haul our 4 wheelers on. So that took a nice chunk of money out of savings. I guess I will keep battling myself with this issue. I have a ton of thinking to do and I need to talk to Mark. Well Mark will just tell me to do what I want, he knows I am financially responsible with our money so he doesn't questions my decisions. Plus he just got a new trailer...LOL My brain is hurting from all this decision making!!!! Keep you guys posted!

Life is what we make of it... As we all know life is a cycle that has it's ups and downs. I feel that this is going to be a very challenging year, which is not a good thing by any means. I remember at Christmas my family and myself were ready for the new year to roll around and wishing for a great start to the new decade. I can speak for most of us when I say that has not been the case...AT ALL!!!

I feel bad for being so stressed and thinking that everything that is going on is so bad. I know there are people in this world who are facing far bigger problems than my own, but to me they are a big weight sitting on my shoulders. Just following me around.

First my sister had some issues that were causing some strain on our family. She was unable to drive for a few weeks and my Mom and myself were splitting time trying to get her to work and school. She works a second shift job so I was having to go pick her up at 11 pm from work which is 45 minute drive from my house. Not so great at all! Luckily that has been resolved, one less thing to worry about.

Then out of the blue my dad decides to pop up after 3 years. I can not even begin to explain the stress this puts on me and my family. To be nice I will only say this... Almost 4 years ago my husband and I had to bring my Mom and brother to live with us. My dad had some major issues and refused to ackowdlege he had problems, he blamed everything on his family. Before my Mom and Winston came to live with me I spent everyday worring that something was going to happen to them, finally my Mom knew she had to leave and her and Winston came to live with us. We spent months being bullied by him. He called constantly and left messages saying he was going to hurt us, then he disappears and we haven't herd from him in years. Now he is back again and wants to see my brother. Winston is fixing to be 15 and he will not even talk about my dad, he wants nothing to do with him and I can not blame him one bit. I am 27 years old and he will NEVER ever be welcome in my life. Not after everything he has done. So he called the school wanted to see Winston and so my poor little brother is stressed out and scared. I hate this so much!!! He is a great kid! He has great grades he is in National Jr Honor Society, Student Council and plays sports. You couldn't ask for a better teenager, I would do anything for him! It makes me so angry that my Dad would start his mess again and Winston is the one that has to suffer for it... After he called the school I tried to call and talk to him to see why he was doing this... All I got was about 3 words in and he started yelling and then hung up the phone. I know in my heart he doesn't care about any of us, there is some motive behind him trying to do this. This is the biggest stress in my life because you just never know what he is capable of and I worry for my Mom and Winston.

With that in mind here is something that really gets to me. There are very few people who knows the extent of the situation with my dad and what we have been through. Yet people always tell me I should forgive him. Well, I am a very forgiving person and I love everyone. There are just some things that are unforgivable. I gave him so many chances and every time he let me down. He has said the worst things you could ever think of to all of us, threatened us, and made our life hell. There have been so many nights that I have been scared to go to sleep because of him. All I can say is thank God for my husband. During all these hard times he stayed right by me even when I thought I was going to go crazy from all the stress. He is such a great man. When all this started we were dating, and he stepped up for me and stepped up to be a positive influence in my brothers life. He takes Winston hunting and sometimes I think Winston loves Mark more than me...LOL I just can't imagine what I would do without my wonderful husband.

Pile on top of that work and I don't know how I manage to keep my sanity! Work has been stressful. Seems like some days everyone needs everything, and I just can't do anything fast enough. Then our hours have been cut back since we have been slow.

Maybe I just feel so stressed because it is so many different things all going on at one time. I know things will get better. I was just looking forward to a great 2010 and right now this year has not been very good to me. I guess it has 8 months left to change my mind!

On Another Note:

Earlier I said that people were facing far greater problems. I think about the earthquake victims in Haiti and Chile and I feel terrible for thinking my problems are so bad. My heart goes out to everyone facing struggles and difficult times in their life.

I recently found out about a classmate from high school that was killed in Iraq on February 23. Daniel O' Leary was a young man who dedicated his life to our country. He was a husband, a son, and a brother. My heart goes out to his whole family. He was only 23 years old and I read on his page that he was scheduled to come home the week after he passed. I hope his family can find peace in the fact that he was a hero and sacrificed his own life for all of ours. Marks cousin Eric is currently on his first tour in Afghanistan. War is scary, and all we can do is pray for our soldiers and hope they make it home to their families safely. Uplift the ones who make that ultimate sacrifice and make sure they are never forgotten. God Bless all of our soldiers and their families!