wow. just wow.

first there was a bit of a "thought drought", but recently i've just been so busy working and trying to work and holding down various forts that i haven't really had the energy to get out here. and that sucks, because blogging always has been an outlet for me to get and keep things straight in my head.

what's on tap around here...let's see...

• i've had some really great frugal shopping moments that i'd love to share about even if they are after the fact
• i've been sent two or three really awesome samples that i want to sit down and write some worthwhile reviews about
• i need to get more mentally organized in terms of menu planning and such, especially considering my schedule is so freaky of late, and that may be something that i can do here to not only get/keep it organized but also give me that measure of accountability that i always seem to need
• time. i had some...now where did i put it??

and on that note, it's time for me to pull dinner out of the crockpot and get the dog, the cat and the man fed...

linky lurve: the random edition

i'm hoping sharing some of what i've been reading lately will jumpstart that writing thing that seems to have eluded me of late. today's grouping, frugal links that have caught my eye over the last few days.

wendy at more than enough has a great list of 800 numbers for companies. call, let them know you'd like some coupons, and poof...they arrive. i've only just discovered wendy's blog, but i'm enjoying it; lots of interesting posts. unlike here, of late. ;)

something else from wendy: coupons.com has hit mypoints. i've been using mypoints for years, and i've been using coupons.com to print out coupons for what feels like forever. but i didn't know that they recently teamed up! very good news!

i'm very excited about the idea of making both cloth napkins and fabric bags...i've borrowed mom's sewing machine, now i've just got to figure out how to use it....got any great links towards that end? lemme know!

everybody's talking spring cleaning, which i don't think i've ever done....hmmmm....the lovely ladies over at home ec 101 have a post just for me! well, ok, my home isn't disastrously messy, but it would never pass a white glove test. the ideas are simple enough that i'm sure i can baby step my way to pristine. maybe. a detailed room by room plan is just what i needed! thanks, ivy! :)

i know if i could get myself into a better morning routine, my day would go much smoother. as it is, i've got the "getting up to get j's day going" routine pretty much in hand, i just need to get the rest of my morning into ship shape...

bread bricks

i've been cooking my fool head off today. nothing else has cooperated, so at least i accomplished something.

i made some split pea soup and decided that since we were having a hearty soup for dinner in honor of the rainy/thunderstormy/nastiness that is today, i'd bake a loaf of yummy crusty bread.

the beauty of both of these is that with the joy of mechanical assistance (hellllooooo, bread machine!), both the soup and the bread didn't have to be pampered or watched much. which left me free to deal with assorted other dilemmas. my soup? looks and smells yummy. my bread? is a brick.

a somewhat flat, hard brick.

ahem. this is not what the bread machine and i discussed.

i dutifully measured out each ingredient and made sure that each was at the right temperature before placing them in the machine in the exact order prescribed. all should have gone quite according to plan. but no, i have a brick.

i remember reading somewhere, i apologize for not recalling where, that bread dough is something you just have to learn. kinda in a zen way. hopefully soon i'll get to that point. i do think that i'm close...i peeked in on this batch (as i always do...can't. leave. the. machine. alone.) and noticed that the dough did look a smidge dry...but i had put in all the right measurements, so surely all would turn out well, right? not so right.

once i learn to trust my instincts i'm sure that i'll have far fewer final products like the one today, but i'd be lying if i didn't say it was a bit disheartening.

shopping but not spending

that's my goal lately....

i've been following money saving mom and her cvs tips for a couple of months now, and it really amazes me how many great deals can be had. i've impressed j a couple of times with some great deals (recently we got 4 2-liter bottles of coke, 1 2-liter bottle of dr. pepper and a 12 pack of coke for $.50...i loves me some coupons when they work like that!), but that is far from the norm for me. i do ok with coupons, but other than that one trip, i haven't really had anything where i've handed anybody $1 and walked away with half the store. baby steps.

today i ran two errands...i got some dog and cat food over at petsmart first. i had coupons, and i was gonna use 'em. i got a 5lb bag of nature's best dog food for clio, and a 3 1/2lb bag of iams digestive for the minouzer. i had $3 off coupons for both bags of pet food, which is why i bought those particular ones. i also had a buy one/get one free coupon for some cat food in a pouch. all told, $6.50 in coupons on what would have cost me $22.66. handed over my $16.16 gladly and skipped on over to cvs.

this month - or is it week? i never remember unless i'm looking at it :/ - if you buy $15 worth of certain dove products, you get $5 back in extra care bucks. i just got a *ton* of dove coupons in the mail, so i went to see what i could get into.

i bought 1 2pack of dove soap (2.50), 2 dove cream oil body washes (3.99 each), one dove cream oil lotion (6.99), and 2 lypsyl lip moisturizers (2.99 each)...i used one $5 off of $15 cvs coupon, one $3 off of $15 worth of beauty purchases coupon from cvs, 2 $2 off dove cream oil body wash coupons, 1 $1.50 off one dove cream oil lotion coupon, and 2 $1 off lypsyl tubes coupons. that took my total down from $23.45 to $8.88. *happy dance*

i also earned $10.98 in ECB's that i can use on a future purchase! (the lypsyl gave me $2.99 each in ECB's too) couple those with the $6 in ECB's that i already had and the $10 cvs gift card that i just got in the mail from redeeming some points on mypoints and i've got $26.98 to spend on toiletries and household stuffs...

i stumbled across this site today, and she has got the niftiest little cvs tracking spreadsheet that you can download to keep track of spending with your cvs card.

also, if you're new to couponing and want some tips on getting started with ecb's or with walgreen's and their rebate program, money saving mom is the place to go! her cvs beginner's tutorial and her walgreen's beginner's tutorial are both wonderful resources.