One. More. Day.

One more day until school starts!  Hip Hip Hooray!!!

Actually, I have had the best summer ever and am actually incredibly sad to see it ending.  My kids have been driving me insane the last few days but I think a lot of that is the excitement of the start of school!  I am rather relieved to have my routine back but at the same time it's going to be rather boring!

In other news, I am going to start babysitting a one year old two days a week!  Yay!  Maybe I can get one more kid then I will be able to stay home from work!  I also managed to find a new renter for our revenue property (I don't know why it's called that when we are actually losing money on it!  LOL). 

Now I just have to lose a few pounds and life will be great.  Low carb diet, here I come. 

WFMW: Saving Money on Back to School

Every year I spend too much money making sure my kids have what then need to go back to school.  This year we are broker than broke so I was trying to come up with ways for them to still have what they need without breaking the bank.  Here is what I did:

• First we went through their old school supplies to see what they could re-use from last year.  (we do this every year, but this year I was a little more firm about re-using rulers, backpacks and such)
• Then we went to a dollar store and bought as much as we could from there.  Why pay $0.79 per duotang when we can get them 4/$1.00?
• Next we watched the flyers and bought things on sale and bought store brand over name brand.  If their teacher wants to specify "Crayola" pencil crayons then they can buy my kids supplies!  Sheesh!

Of course, as with every summer, they both grew a meter over summer vacation!  It must be all that fresh air!

• We went through their closets and pulled everything that was to small and set it aside to be donated at a later date (usually when the bag is full)
• We checked sales at shoe stores and department stores
• We bought jeans and some tops at second hand stores.  I managed to get both kids name brand jeans for $3.99 - $8.99 a pair!  I even picked myself up two pairs of jeans (since my pre-pregnancy jeans still require either spanx or a hanger to zip myself into them.  Ooops) 
• I allocated some of their birthday present budget to a few new outfits that weren't on sale.  They hate it when I do that, but do they really need more TOYS!  No.

Now my kids are ready for back to school and I didn't have to use a single credit card!  Score!

See more tips at Works For Me Wednesday!

School starts in 2 weeks?

How did that happen?

We have added some more fun to our summer!  We hit the beach, I updated some old worn end tables with some paint, we visited family and we have been going to playgrounds and doing crafts!  I can't believe summer is almost over already!  My first summer off in 10 years and I feel like it flew by so quickly.  It's really too bad the weather wasn't more cooperative.  We really didn't get very many hot days.  I am not sure it hit 30 even once.  No week long heat wave where you are ready to kill each other because it's hard to sleep (which I suppose isn't such a bad thing).

My 2nd wedding anniversary came and went.  We aren't big on celebrating, we tell each other we love each other at least once a day and do small things to show appreciation very often (like him bringing me coffee in the morning)  I bought him a $50 gift card for his favorite coffee shop and he bought me this charm for my charm bracelet.

It says Eternal Love around the band.  Actually for my husband, it's unusually romantic.  :)

I have decided that I need to get more adventurous in my cooking.  Over summer it has become BBQ Chicken, BBQ pork chops, hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled cheese (on cold evenings) etc.  Same old, same old.  I am kind of excited that fall brings stews, chilis, roasts, and casseroles!   Bring on the comfort food!  What's your favorite comfort food recipe?  I feel like I have spent my life looking for the perfect mac and cheese recipe!

Things I learned on the Internet today

It was a very educational day!

• Oral sex is good for your health... and your skin.
• Click here if you dare. Don't show your husband.
• I am not the only one that removes batteries out of my kids' toys when they aren't looking.
• Could they make them any louder?

Thanks to my friend Shannon for those two finds!

• Being bigger does not necessarily mean tougher.
• Why you should never get a tattoo while drunk.
• There are some really scary places in this earth that I never want to visit.
• T-shirts are very versatile.

Hope you enjoy your finds on the internet as much as I do!