Family

Had an awesome day today with my cousin. I truly feel blessed to have her in my life!  We shopped, we laughed, we even bitched! It was great!

I also got some good Christmas shopping done!

Today = Win!

Frugal vs Cheap

Before I get into to many posts about discounts, coupons and good deals I feel like I need to define my frugality!

For me, there is a difference between being frugal and being cheap.  Cheap people will attempt to benefit from any scenario no matter who they may offend or hurt in the process.  For example, always allowing others to pay for them, or complaining to get things for free. Those types of behaviors are not in my realm of life.  Being frugal in my world is attempting to find the best deal on any given item without skimping on quality.  If I want/need something, I will buy it, however I will look for a deal, coupon or sale first.  Same thing goes for travel and groceries.  The deals are out there, you just have to find them!

For example, this is how my day went today!

Hair cut $10 plus $5 tip.  I had just showered so there was no need to wash!

Pedi.  $30 plus $5 tip.  Our hair dresser pointed us in the direction of  a new nail salon. They are offering 30% off on Pedi's.  Not only did I save money, I was able to upgrade and get a cute design on my big toe!

Target, total before coupons $28, out of pocket $2.16.  This was a really good trip. I had 4 coupons for free items, and a couple other really good coupons that lined up with a sale.

Now for my favorite. Whole Food, total $39, out of pocket $10.  A few weeks ago living social had the pay $10 and get a $20 certificate.  I bought one, and three of my friends bought one from my link, so I got one free, and my mom bought one for me. so I paid $10 for $40!

This was a great shopping discount day!

Fresh Pumpkin Puree

I acquired 2 sugar pumpkins this year and really wanted to do something with them besides have them sit on the counter and get soft.  Plus, I am really trying to reduce the amount of preservatives I take into my body.  Hence the following!


This is a Sugar Pumpkin, or Pie Pumpkin.  Different from the pumpkins you carve, which are Jack o' Lanterns! These are smaller, more sweet and less stringy.

Once I washed the pumpkins, I cut them in half with a serrated knife and scooped out all the seed. I actually keep the seeds, wash them and bake them.  Yummy treat and garnish if I make soup!  Once I had both pumpkins cut and seeded I placed them cut side down on a foil lined baking sheet and covered with more foil.  I baked them at 350 for about an hour.  Poke them with a knife, when very tender they are done!  

Once done, I flipped them over to cool quicker.  They are seriously steaming when they come out!  After about 10 minutes I could pick them up. I used a large table spoon and scooped the meat of the pumpkin out and into a mixing bowl.  This was very easy, the meat honestly just falls out.  Super simple. 

This step took a small amount of experimenting on my part.  The website I was looking at to figure this all out suggested to use an immersion blender to puree, I don't have one. I first tried my trusty 3 cup food processor, however, there is very little liquid in the pumpkin, so that didn't work.  I then took out the hand mixer and it worked perfect!  It took about 1 min, and I have this lovely puree!  I am going to let it stand for about 30 minutes and then drain any water that surfaces then package to freeze. My thought is that I want to make some no crust pie next week, so I will measure out the amount for that and mark the bag, then I want to make some soup this winter so I will freeze the rest! 

These are the pumpkin seeds rinsing in salted water before I bake them.  I like the salted water because it doesn't make them too salty.  Sometimes if you sprinkle the salt on before baking, it can be to much. 

Yea for fall!

Recycle Project

ok I did it!  I turned 8 plastic shopping bags into a gift bag the size to hold one pint canning jar!

I removed all the colored panels from the bags first.  This left me with 8 small colored squares and 8 longer white sheets. I ironed the colored ones first.  Lesson 1, low low low iron setting and slowly move iron around the paper. If you leave it to long the plastic will melt to fast and you will get holes.  Lesson 2, expect a large amount of shrinkage. I started with 8 full bags, and finished with enough of the white to do 4 6x4 sides and a handle.  The colored piece I used a 4x4 for the bottom and will keep the rest for another bag.

This is my prototype, when I make more I will use other colors of plastic and recycled ribbons and such to decorate!  When all done this will be a 98% recycled gift!  The only new things will be the lids for the jars (sanitary reasons of course, and the contents of the jars!) I am very excited about this holiday gift project!!

Wonder what else I can create with this technique! 

Hills Science Diet

Do you have an older cat like me.  Hills Science Diet 11+ Age Defying™   

Might just be what your cat is looking for.  

#imabzzagent

Werther's Candy

What says fall better than caramel?  Who makes caramel better than Werther's?

The weather has is started to get cooler, the apple orchards are busting with ripe fruit. I don't know about you, but I am heading out this weekend and plan on making a batch of yummy caramel apples!

Werther's is the choice for me when it comes to quality caramel's.  The taste, texture and richness can not be beat.

** I am a bzzagent and get products to try out and blog about. The opinions are entirely mine!**

Holiday Project

I'm thinking about the holidays already!  And yes, I usually start this early, but this year being unemployed it is more important.  One thought I had was to create some gifts.  I love giving gifts from the heart and can think of no better way than to create something with my hands!  So, while on the hunt I came across a project I am totally going to try.

I am posting a link to the youtube video, because there is really no need to recreate the wheel here.  The basic jist is that I will be taking plain old plastic shopping bags and fusing them together to create a fabric.  I will then cut and sew the fabric into gift bags that can double as shopping bags, or lunch bags!  For Christmas, I will be canning some tomato jam and maybe pumpkin butter and putting these in the bags!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNziDXtm1SA

My thought right now, because I haven't started yet and always have grand plans prior, is to use mostly white bags, and then cut up the colored bags and fuse the colors between the layers to create a custom "fabric"!

I of course will post pics later!

Passion

Tonight I share a passion of mine. Photography.  

I love being able to not only share special moments, but to preserve them!

Getting started

I've decided that I need a place to share and this is going to be it!

I am involved in so many different things, and have so many different interests that I find it hard to keep it all straight. Therefore, I plan on using this format to do it!  I will talk about my couponing, and post awesome deals I find.  I will post travel pics and new vacation ideas.  I will post craft projects I am working on, or hope to work on.  I will post exercise thoughts and updates.  I may even complain!  Who knows where this will go, but I am really excited to find out!

Welcome

xo
Lori