I hear it almost weekly:

“I wish I could use coupons, but I just don’t understand how you get those savings.”
“All of that math just confuses me.”
“I’m not smart enough to use coupons like that.”

And, my personal favorite:

Stunned look on face – “I don’t know how you figure that stuff out.  I’m confused just listening to you.”

No kidding!  I hear it all the time from my friends in real life, friends on facebook, and friends posting on my blog.  But, I’m here to say that you don’t …

I have a design dilemma.  I can’t STAND my vaulted ceilings. When we built our house, my 6’4″ husband felt like he just had to have them, and I didn’t have a problem with it, so we put in vaulted ceilings.  Of course, now that we have been living in our house for about 6 years, we both know that we would never put in vaulted ceilings again.  10 foot ceilings? Yes.  Vaulted ceilings? No.
Why do I hate them?  Because it is SO hard to make a room feel cozy …

We are going camping tomorrow!! I’m SO excited!!  I love camping.  This time, we are camping at the beach.  Hopefully it won’t rain all over us!!
I had to buy the basics this morning.  You know. BACON.
I miss free bacon!  Remember when I got free bacon?  Bacon is NOT CHEAP, people!  Oh, and I had to buy syrup.  Does this stuff EVER go on sale?  WHY is it so expensive?  Good grief.  If syrup ever goes on sale, I’m stocking up, because $3.39 for the store brand is ridiculous.
I’m posting about …

July was a month in which:

We attended a little friend’s birthday party.
We went to a Volcanoes baseball game and watched fireworks on the 4th of July.
(layout is linked to credits!)
We went to many track practices and delighted in the speed of our precious boys.  Grant tells me that he hums “Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus” in his head while he runs and it helps him win his races!
We watched the weirdest storyteller at the park as part of the library summer events thing.  I totally didn’t get it.
We …

I have been waiting for a good hair color deal for a LONG time. Too long.  My grays are really showing these days.
I’m kind of new to coloring my hair.  The first time I did it was the week I turned 30 (I’m now 34).  I try to be pretty low-maintenance, so I didn’t want to get into a habit of going to a salon and shelling out lots of money on a regular basis just to get rid of my grays.  Don’t get me wrong.  I have no …

There is a HUGE sale going on right now at The Digichick. Almost everything in the entire store is 35% off, including most of my designs!!  With over 30 designers, you are sure to find a design style that matches your personality.  This is a great time to try digital (or hybrid, or papercrafting!  LOL!):

The Grab Bags are not included in the sale, but that’s because they are already deeply discounted. I’ll be taking my Grab Bag OUT of my store on Tuesday night (Aug 31) and breaking it up …

The Krazy Coupon Lady has a fun saying: Make the grocery isle your catwalk. I totally felt like that tonight as I took advantage of one of the Safeway weekend only deals.
I DO NOT need salad dressing.  I have so much of it that I’m starting to feel like a hoarder.  However, when it makes me money, I’ll (kinda reluctantly) buy it.  (And, I have plans to donate some, because OH MY GOSH.  It’s sick.)
(Sorry about the blurry pic!  My son made popcorn while I went shopping and daddy …

That may be one of the longest titles I’ve ever written, and it certainly isn’t following SEO guidelines, but I don’t care.  I seriously paid 50¢ for 6 bottles of Motts apple juice and 5 boxes of Quaker granola bars.
Angela from Frugal Living NW is out of town this week, so she asked her readers to scope out the Safeway ad to find the great match-ups.  I didn’t have my ad, so I couldn’t contribute much, but the other readers found some great deals!  I love the Frugal Living NW …

What does 46 pounds of peaches look like?
Honestly, I had NO idea. I was going for more like 20 or 30 pounds. I had never been to an orchard to pick peaches before. I just knew that in apples, it was more like 2 apples=1 pound, right? Peaches, though, I’m clueless about.
I’m not a canner, aka: “food preservationist”. Is that a word? It should be, because I just rocked it in a sentence.
I get a little granola mama every once in a while, though. …

I just had to share. I hope you don’t mind.
Today I took the boys to the last of the free summer movies “in town”, aka Salem (I hope you’ve enjoyed them in your area, too!), and then popped on over to Kohl’s for some nephew-birthday shopping. Had to swing into the clearance jewelry isle on my way to buy marked down sunglasses (I know, I’m all over the place – and I DID find a toy, too, thank-you-very-much).
Kohl’s clearance jewelry. LOVE it. Seriously. If you …