To those with a Winco near you!

A few days ago I went to Winco to buy the things that don't typically go on sale, like the hotdogs Josh likes, milk, spices, etc. Yes, I know milk goes on sale, but around here there's only one brand of milk. Josh has very sensitive taste buds when it comes to milk.

Anyways, I needed some spices for a new grilled chicken recipe (which I'll share once I've perfected it). I went to the spice aisle to grab the spices I needed, and then headed to the bulk food section. I knew they had spices over there, but wasn't sure exactly which spices they had.

Buying spices in bulk is SO much cheaper than not. The spice I needed, ground mustard, to buy it the normal McCormick way, was $2.63 for a teeny tiny little container. Buying it in the bulk food section, I got about 5 times as much for less than $.50. Woo hoo! I couldn't get rid of that little red-topped container fast enough. While I was over there I got a few other things I knew I was low on. I got a ton of cinnamon, the previously mentioned ground mustard, and a whole bunch of wheat germ, all for about $3. To buy the wheat germ by itself, in a container, is over $6, and I got SO much more for so much less moo-la. So, moral of the story, get your spices in the bulk food section at Winco. SO much cheaper!

Sweet Tea Season

Here in Central California, Sweet Tea Season comes early. It was 90 degrees here last week....in APRIL! The BEGINNING of April, no less. Back in my neck of the woods (Georgia), it doesn't get hot like that until a little later in the year. Granted, there's a butt-load (we're talkin' bubble butt-load) of humidity that comes with it, but nevermind that. So anyways, back to the topic at hand.

Sweet Tea Season is here. (Did I mention it was only April?) Well, at least for me- no one else around here drinks sweet tea. I am utterly alone in my Southern-ness. Up until last year, I made it like my mom always made it, but then I found a new and improved recipe, if you can call something so simple a recipe. Anyways, I thought I'd share. I know I have some sweet-tea drinkers reading, and if you aren't one of us, maybe you'll decide to be brave and indulge your inner Southerner. So, here it is-

• 1 pinch baking soda
• 2 cups boiling water
• 6 tea bags
• 1/2-1/3 cup white sugar
• 6 cups cool water

Directions

1. Sprinkle a pinch of baking soda into a 64-ounce, heat-proof, glass pitcher. Pour in boiling water, and add tea bags. Cover, and allow to steep for 15 minutes.
2. Remove tea bags, and discard; stir in sugar until dissolved. Pour in cool water, then refrigerate until cold.

When I make it, I just boil some water in my tea kettle, and dump some into the pitcher. I don't bother measuring. Same thing with the cool water- I just fill my pitcher to just under half-way full. I say 1/2 to 1/3 sugar 'cause I like variety in my sweetness. The original recipe called for 3/4 cups, and that's just plain jelly-bean-like. Or should I say McDonalds-sweet-tea-like. Same thing, really. Last year I started trying to be just a tad bit healthier in my eating, and drinking, so I started using green tea. I still use regular black tea every once in awhile though, 'cause like I said, I like variety.

Stay away! Or how 'bout not ringing the doorbell.

Since moving into our house it seems like we get someone knocking on our door almost once a day about something or other. Yesterday it happened twice. I'm a pretty private person so I'm not a huge fan of someone showing up at my door every day, but I can get over that. The bigger problem is that they always ring the door bell at least once, and there is usually one, if not two kids sleeping, which are then no longer sleeping. A few weeks ago one of the blogs I follow, Pretty Handy Girl, did a post about this very problem and made a "No Solicitors" sign which fixed the daily doorbellers. So, I decided that a sign was also (hopefully) the solution to my problem. So, I took the wording from hers and another sign I saw, combined them into something I liked, and used my graphic design skills (that are pretty much lying dormant at this point) to make it all pretty because a plain one is just not gonna do.

Then I headed over to Michaels last night because this week their frames are the same price as the Goodwill and bought a frame (and a few more for another project), and then headed home. Then I realized there was no way to hang the frame on the door. Bummer.

So, while the dear husband was xboxing, I cut a few strips of burlap (oh, my beloved burlap *swoon*) and made a rope out of it, whipped out my trusty drill to drill a few holes through the back of my frame, attached my rope with some wire, and it was all done. I love it. It's very me. Anyways, here is the finished product.

For any of you who want to use my sign, I'm giving you that very option. It's currently an 8x10, so just keep that in mind when buying your frame. I did give a little extra room on the sides so that it could be cropped into a different size for any of the rebels out there.

My trade secrets

As pretty much all of you already know, my job is to stay home and take care of the house, and Thing 1 and Thing 2. As part of that responsibility, I'm the one that takes care of all the finances and most of the shopping. So, I've decided to share all my tricks of my trade, and hopefully, I'll remember to keep posting when I find good deals on stuff. Here we go-

Shopping Online

Google shopping (New new)

I do the majority of our shopping online. The last several years I think I've done all my Christmas shopping from the couch, with the exception of things I've made for people. When I absolutely HAVE to buy something brand new, the first thing I do is run to Google Shopping. Just go to google and click on the little shopping link at the top and then type in whatever you're looking for, and it'll show you all the different places that have it, how much it is, and how much it will be in total after shipping and tax, if there is shipping and tax in the first place. They recently added a feature where you can see if it's in stock at any regular stores near you, but it's rarely cheaper getting stuff that way.

Amazon.com (New New, New Used, and Used)

Amazon.com typically has the best price on New New stuff. Also, on a lot of items, if you're spending more than $25 you get free shipping. This is one of the first places I go if I need to buy something more expensive, or giant that would be a ridiculous amount to ship somewhere else. There's also the amazon market place where you can get stuff from private people. I've used this to buy books and DVD's for Josh and Noah for Christmas and birthday. You can get SO much more for your money this way. Just make sure you also check ebay for the same item before you do this. You never know where it'll be cheaper.

Walmart.com (New new)

For some reason, walmart.com has much better deals than Walmart in-store. I don't know why, but it's nice to know. Their shipping is free site-to-store, and is usually really inexpensive to have it shipped, to you, if they don't have free shipping already. You just have to resist the I-Need-It-Now urge and wait for it to get to either your local store, or your doorstep. (FYI, they usually get me my things before their estimated delivery date.) I occasionally check the Daily Deals on Walmart.com and Target.com, but usually I don't find anything I need.

Ebay (New New, second hand new, and used)

I've gotten a lot of stuff on ebay over the years. Now you can even buy stuff new, and occasionally get free shipping on things. If you make a point to purchase out of state, you don't have to pay tax either. As an added bonus, instead of going directly to ebay to find something, search for it on Bing first, and if it comes up with a link to ebay, you get 8% cash back on your purchase if you use Buy It Now and pay for it with PayPal. Don't get too hung up on the whole cash back thing though, because a lot of time, if you can have a little bit of patience, you'll get a much better deal through an auction instead of using Buy It Now, even with the cash back. Just remember that you need to factor in shipping costs before you bid. For example, I think it was a the mobile I wanted for William's room - it was an auction with a Buy It Now price. The Buy It Now price was $15 but I just waited a few days and bid on it, and I ended up getting it for $6 including shipping.

How To Bid

There are two general ways people do it. One is to bid the maximum amount you're willing to pay right at the beginning, and the other is to wait until the last few seconds and snipe it. I've done both, but I remember as a teenager I'd do bidding technique number 2 and get all caught up in fighting with someone else on the last minute bidding on a particular auction and completely forget that if I could have a little patience there were several more of what I wanted that would likely be much less expensive. Now I tend to use bidding technique number 1 and just bid as much as I'm willing to pay, and if I don't get it, I just find another one and bid as much as I'm willing to pay all over again. Eventually I'll get something for a good price. Doing it this way keeps away the temptation of the whole bidding wars thing.

Tip: It helps when bidding to use a funky number, like they do in The Price Is Right. I usually bid $x.47 or something like that. Someone has to bid more than you to get it, so if they just bid $x or $x.05, then I still get it.

Overstock.com (New new)

This and Amazon are my favorite places to get big items. Overstock ships everything for $2.95, no matter how big. For example, our giant bean bag that many of you have seen (and those of you who haven't, it's a 6' diameter bean bag filled with memory foam. It's a favorite of everyone who sits upon it.) I got that on Overstock, on sale, with a coupon code on top of the sale, and then the $2.95 shipping. That's the way to do it! :)

Craigslist.com

I'm pretty sure everyone knows what craigslist is. Just remember to always check it for deals before buying new or online, and if you end up buying something, take safety precautions.

Coupon Codes

Any time you see a little box during checkout online for a coupon or promo code, always, always always do a quick Google search to find out if there's a promo code that will save you some moo-la. A lot of times you can get free shipping, and sometimes you can get a certain percentage off. If you can use your percentage off on top of a sale, that's the bomb-diggity. Today I found out about CouponChief.com to find coupon codes, but I haven't really checked it out myself yet. It sounded pretty awesome though. :)

Coupons in General

I just recently started using coupons for grocery shopping. I've wanted to do it for a long time, but I didn't think the store I did our shopping at accepted them. Turns out they accept original coupons, but not printed coupons. Big bummer, but at least they do accept some. Anyways, for couponing, couponmom.com is my favorite that I've found so far. They provide their services nationally, so that's very helpful. You're able to pick the store that you shop at, and then they pair up sales with coupons that are in your Sunday paper, tell you which date they were available and which coupon circular they came in so that you can get the best deals possible.

Brad's Deals

Brad's Deals started when Brad, a poor college student, went to prove to his friends that he could get better deals on things online with coupon codes than they could shopping at regular retail stores. It's now turned into a daily e-mail and website. I've found so many good deals through these e-mails. For example, we bought a queen sized aero bed, with free shipping, for $40. BRAND NEW! I also recently bought some jewelry that I found on one of the e-mails...the original price was $100, it was on clearance, Brads Deals gave a coupon code, and there was free shipping. Grand total: $17. They find deals on magazines, jewelry, shoes, clothing, electronics, household items, you name it, they've probably got a deal for you. I use this a lot for Christmas presents, which means I start a spread sheet in Jan. and then as I see things go on sale/clearance and find a coupon code, I buy it, add what I bought, who it's for, and how much I paid to the spreadsheet so that I can keep track of what I have and not over buy.

NoMoreRack.com

This I just discovered yesterday, and I'm pretty excited about it. Each day, at 12pm EST they come out with 8 really good deals, one per category, like- Children, Home, Men, Women, Accessories, Handbags, Fragrance, and Beauty. I'm not sure if the categories are the same every day or not, since I've only checked for two days now. A few of them were the same though, if not all of them. Shipping is $2 per item. They seem to sell out pretty quickly though, so you have to check as close to noon EST as you can.

FreeSampleFreak.com

This website/daily e-mail makes me happy. I've gotten so much free stuff. Yes, even a few Christmas presents. It makes me so happy to go fill in the boxes on my Christmas present spread sheet and be able to put $0.00 under the cost for the present. Contrary to the title, it's not all sample sized. I've gotten a few full sized bottles of lotion, shampoo, year long magazine subscriptions, cans of juice, energy drinks, cheeze-its, coupon booklets, and the list goes on. Sometimes you do have to pay for shipping though, so you have to be careful. For example today, there was a free personalized 8x10 wrap around canvas that is usually $50, but you had to pay $11 for shipping. While it is an amazing deal, I don't particularly NEED an 8x10 wrap-around canvas print, as much as I would like one, so I had to fight the voice in my head that was saying "but it's such a good deal!" and save myself the $11, because if you're not careful, eventually your good deals will make you go broke.

Restaurant.com

Restaurant.com is a website that allows you to buy vouchers for certain restaurants for much less than the voucher is actually worth. For example, you can get a $10 voucher for $5, and so on. I know a lot of our friends use this website. What our friends probably don't know, is that most of the time, you can get around 80% off the restaurant.com price with a coupon code. (Brads Deals usually has the code.) The moral of the story is, as good of a deal as it is to only pay $10 for a $25 voucher, it's an even better deal to pay $3 for a $25 voucher. Don't ever ever ever buy from restaurant.com before checking to see if there's a promo code available. Personally, I don't buy unless there's an 80% off code and then I stock up until the next 80% off code, but that's just me, because I'm the Queen of Cheap.

Not Online

Except for groceries, most of the rest of my shopping is done at thrift stores. Most of our furniture is from a thrift store. An added bonus for me is that I love painting the furniture if it looks like crap to begin with, so I don't mind if it's not in great condition. Goodwill also gets a lot of items from Target that are new, so keep an eye out for those, but know how much it costs new before you buy. For example, I needed a new stability ball for my work-outs, and there were new ones at Goodwill for $15. That seemed a little high to me, so I left it there and went home to check how much it was new. Turns out that by buying a stability ball new at Target I could get one that was better reviewed and also came with 2 DVD's and a resistance band, for only a few dollars more.

Consignment Stores

Here in Fresno I've gone to The Baby Bump, and also Pip Squeaks. Both of those have ok prices but you can get really good deals if you find stuff on clearance. I try to stock up on winter clothes for the kids in the spring while clothes are on clearance so that I don't have to pay as much later on when everyone else wants winter clothes. Also, check for 3-day consignment sales. There's one called Just Between Friends that goes to a particular area twice a year, and then another one here in Fresno called Uptown Kids that is also twice a year. I'm not sure if Uptown is anywhere else, or just in Fresno. The sales here in Fresno are usually held in the ghetto-est of all ghetto malls (Manchester Center), but if you can get past the tents filled with knock-off shoes and handbags in the main aisles of the mall, you can find some great deals on kids clothes, maternity clothes, strollers, changing tables, etc.

This is already the longest post ever, so I think I'll stop now. I'm always looking for new ways to save moo-la, so leave me a comment if you have any tips. I'll try to keep my very few readers updated when I find new websites and stuff.

And now all of you know how cheap I really am.

Adios!

I think I may be the muffin man...okay, maybe not.

I recently found a recipe that's been hanging around in my recipe box for awhile, and today I got to try it out because I had a little free time, and some bananas that weren't going to be eaten. So, I got to try my hand at Mocha Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins. When I told Josh that I was going to make them his response was, "Yeah, that sounds like you." I was a little apprehensive about the whole coffee/banana combo, but I'll try just about anything, especially if coffee is involved. Chocolate doesn't hurt either....come to think of it, bananas don't either. So anyways, here's the recipe, courtesy of allrecipes.com-

Mocha Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 cup margarine
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 ripe bananas
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules, dissolved in
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Blend butter or margarine, sugar, egg, banana, dissolved coffee, and vanilla in food processor for 2 minutes. Add flour, salt, baking powder, and soda, and blend just until flour disappears. Add chocolate chips and mix in with wooden spoon. Spoon mixture into 15 to 18 paper-lined muffin cups.
3. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

I didn't have enough margarine, so I used half butter and half margarine, didn't have enough white sugar, so I used mostly brown sugar (which I prefer to bake with anyways), and I used a *heaping* tablespoon of coffee (and plan on adding more next time, but I'm somewhat of a coffee fiend and like my coffee excessively strong.) Oh, and I didn't measure the chocolate chips, 'cause I never measure the chocolate chips- I just dump them in until it looks right. I don't have a food processor either, so I just used a mixer. )I promise, I really did follow this recipe closer than I usually do.) And the you go. It's yummy in my tummy. (And Noah's tummy.)

Evolution of a Pop Tart box

While I'm on the subject of making things out of things you already have, here's another recent project. A very small project.

Here was the problem-

Pretty fire place, pretty picture on top of said fireplace, and ever-growing stack of DVD's, and video games on top of fireplace. Josh is the culpret on this one, but I understand why it happens. You see, we have a place for video games and such, but that place is across the room on a too-full bookcase. It's just not real convenient to walk across the room every time to put stuff away. So, I've been thinking the last few days about a way to solve this problem. Then, as I was getting Noah his breakfast one morning, I saw the oh-so-glorious solution- an empty Poptart box. Yes, I'm a horrible mother- I give my kid poptarts for breakfast occasionally. Untoasted, in fact. Anyways, Pop Tart box + scrapbook paper + a little bit of ribbon=

My little box was then attached to the back of the TV stand so it's out of reach of small brown-eyed children, but still within easy reach of Daddy.

My latest project

Here at the Brahm home, there's almost always some type of project going on. This is for several reasons. Mostly because I have a hard time not doing anything, but also because for some reason I always think that something around here could be better, I like to work with my hands, learn how to do new things, and make things pretty. Not pretty as in girly-pretty, but pretty as in pleasing to look at.

My latest project, was my microwave stand. Shortly after moving into our house, I found a brand new microwave at Goodwill. We're not talkin' like new, but still has the styrofoam on it new. I really like it, but it's giant....and it was on my counter....shoved into a corner. Well, then my mom came out to stay with us for awhile when I had William, and she decided that this was just not going to work. She then set out to find me something to put it on besides my counter. After she checked Craig's List (yes, I take after my mom in the "being cheap" department), Walmart, and Target, I decided to take her to my favorite place to buy furniture- a local Fresno thrift store, 4 Sisters Thrift. They always have the coolest furniture in there. A lot of it is a little more than what I would pay for something, but not all of it, and they'll let me bargain with them. Anyways, after scouring the store, we found the perfect little table that was well under the budget for Operation Get Microwave Off Counter. Only problem was, the paint on the table was in pretty awful shape, and it was red and green. As much as I love Christmas, in my opinion, red and green should be Christmas, and only Christmas. So, I told my mom I was going to re-paint it. (She also bought me a entryway bench that will also be getting a make-over, but it just hasn't happened yet. That'll be a future blog post.)

This is the "before." I got a little impatient and had already taken the drawer out and painted it before I remembered to take a picture, so you'll just have to imagine there's a barn red drawer in there. Like I said, Christmas.

Like I said, paint was not in great shape. Fine if you want the paint-not-in-great-shape look, but that wasn't what I was going for this time.

I went at it with a wire brush to take off the loose paint, and almost all of it came off.

I put on a coat of primer, and then I decided to use the leftover paint from our dining room and living room since the stand would end up in the dining room, and be seen from the living room. (That part of the house is open.) Besides, I'm all about leftover paint.

See! My pretty grey/green antique-looking paint.

Then it was on to the drawer. I used a pretty cream colored paint that I found way marked down at Ace Hardward because it was a mis-tint. I had picked it up awhile ago because I knew I'd use it for something someday. After getting the cream colored paint on, I painted the branch and birds because I'm all about the details. It's an antique piece of furniture, so we can't have new-looking paint- that's would pretty much be the table equivalent of Joan Rivers, and we can't have that. So, it was on to putting on a glaze to make it look closer to its age. (I had already done that step in the picture. Impatient again. Woops.)

I ran out to the garage and grabbed a few bottles from my acrylic paint stash, mixed and then added water to thin it out.

Appetizing, right? When I was happy with my oh-so-appealing brown with just a tad of yellow, I brushed it onto my drawer and table, and then wiped it off with a paper towel to get the antiquie look that I wanted. With two babies running around, I see that color a lot. (Hehe...I crack myself up. :-D Yes, I'm 12. And a boy.) Let me tell you, those spindle legs are a pain in the neck to get paint on.

See? Pretty. This is the almost finished product. But, like I said, I'm all about the details.

This is what was inside the drawer. Cute, but stained, and not quite cut to the right size, and just didn't match my table's new personality and we don't want a table with multiple personality disorder. Burlap however, matched the personality just perfectly. Have I ever mentioned how much I love burlap? Just in case, I love burlap. I especially love burlap in this instance because I already had some tucked away in my ever-growing fabric stash. Nothin' better than making something new from stuff you already have. Besides, I got to use my nifty rotary cutter to get the perfect fit in the drawer.

I measured the inside of the drawer and cut the burlap out with scissors, but then used the rotary cutter to trim off the little bit of excess at the back of the drawer. I love that thing. Almost as much as I love burlap. Time to put the burlap in. Remember what I said about liking to make things out of stuff I already have? Well, for glue, since I didn't have anything else, I mixed up a quick paste of flour and water.

Anyone who has ever let cookie dough dry in the mixing bowl knows the power of flour and water.

My grand plan was to use my newly aquired rolling pin to press it down in to the drawer. Problem was, it didn't fit.

Fixed that problem. It worked perfectly after a little uh...modification.

All done! See, matching personalities.

Here is the finished product.