I grew up in a small town, I mean really small town.  Population 150.  I moved away 23 years ago knowing I would never make that my home, but I love love to visit.

There are things that take place in a small town that you read about, and you always wonder, “Do they really happen?”  The answer is yes, yes they do.

I am “home” right now for the long weekend.  I marvel at what takes place here.

My dad’s garden is going crazy.  He has tomatoes coming out his ears.

Today he took a huge bag of tomatoes to the local hardware store and placed them on a bench.  All the locals do it.  Then anything you want, you just pick up and take home for yourself.  Or the elderly might come in and grab something.  Or others just might grab something they didn’t raise.

As he left the owner let him know that they would be gone by the end of the day and thanked him for dropping them off.

That’s the only reason my dad drove into our small town today.  Just to drop off the extra tomatoes.

The neighbor lady comes down and picks berries out of my parents gardens.  They take turns picking.  My mom one week, the neighbor the next.  They also share garlic and other goodies from their garden in exchange.

If you haven’t been spotted for a few days you can almost expect a phone call or someone dropping by.

For years my dad would give sweet corn to the Pastor, making sure they had enough to freeze for the winter.

The high school sports are a community event.  Not just for home games.  I remember growing up one of the teams we played was 5 hours away.  We always had a good crowd cheering us on.

In a few short days I will head back to my home in the suburbs.  I will greet a neighbor if I see them.  No food will be exchanged, no gatherings will happen that we will all attend.

Instead I will join others in their very busy lives that goes in all directions.  Barely taking the time to look up and wave.

I would love to have this community if a large town.  Is it even possible?

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Today I am joining in a blog carnival called Friday Flip Offs.  I have had a few frustrating things happening lately and thought it just might feel good to vent.

My first flip off is to Dick’s Sporting Goods.  My husband had dropped off a few kids at the mall to hang out for bit.  My son was walking up the escalator in Dick’s and his foot slipped.  It sliced through his very worn out shoes, through his sock and right through his toe.(Just glad he at least had on shoes and not flip flops)

A Dick’s employee showed him where the bathroom was, and gave him a bandaid.  There was blood everywhere and no one cleaned it up.  It looked like it could have needed stitches, but they never called us (my husband was in the mall.)

When we called to ask why no one ever contacted us, they said because it was just a cut.  We then sent them pictures and they were shocked that we were not contacted.  They went on to blame us and the shoes.

Truth is it was no ones fault.  But if you have a pool in your backyard you carry extra insurance because accidents happen.  The same goes if you have an escalator in your store. Don’t blame us and just take care of us.  Call and inform us of the accident, don’t call it case closed until you do. Take care of our doctor visits and time lost trying to contact you for a week.  (They would not return our phone calls for a week.)

Thanks for the pathetic gift card, apparently my doctor said we couldn’t pay in gift cards.  We will use it, but won’t be running back to your store after that to spend a ton of money.  Below I will put up a picture of the toe and tell me if you would have freaked out that you weren’t contacted.

My other flip off goes to the lady that came out to do our appraisal.  She miss measured our house and dropped off 224 sq. ft.  When we went to see where she lost the square footage we realized the upstairs layout she drew wasn’t even our house.  This error dropped our appraisal value by at least $20,000.  This was one of 8 complaints we had.  She did a horrible job.

When we called her on it and asked her to change it she refused.  What??  Gone are the days of actually picking an appraiser you know and trust.  The new rules now say you have to pull a name out of a hat. Lucky us for drawing someone who can’t measure, draw or add.

The last one goes to my Physical Therapist.  I had major back surgery, was in a brace for 6 weeks.  After 3 visits of massage therapy she thought it was a good idea to have be do squats while lifting a 6lb ball over my head.  When I asked her if she missed out on some progression she said no.  When I told her I was in a ton of pain ever since, she was sure I had done something else over the weekend to aggravate it.  “ARE YOU KIDDING ME, I WAS FLAT ON MY BACK THE WHOLE WEEKEND UNABLE TO MOVE!!!”

Needless to say I never went back.

Head on over to Flip Off Friday and see what others are frustrated with this week.  It might just make your day seem a whole lot better.

To see the picture of my son’s toe click on page 2 below…..It’s pretty gross, so if you don’t have the stomach for it, just move on.

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This is just a reminder of what I do and how I do it.  Lately when I have been seen out shopping,  people see me with my coupons and they ask me how I do it.  This is for you.  Plus it just a good reminder for those of us that have lost focused.

I am an avid couponer and I had been doing really well and stockpiling. I had my pantry stuffed full and had moved things to other cupboards just to make room for the products I was bringing home.

Is stockpiling really the way to shop?  I mean seriously do you need to buy 15 boxes of cereal in one week instead of milk, sour cream, meat, cheese…you know the basics.

Well I have to say as of this month I am a firm believer in stockpiling.  Here’s why:

You will always have something on hand
Your grocery bill will go down significantly
As you learn what you need and how much, you buy it all at rock bottom prices
Your grocery bill will go down significantly, yep it’s true

I had surgery in June. Due to that we worked through our stockpile since I was laid up for over 6 weeks.  Now we are in the summer lazy days and getting to the store to grab the deals is not high on my list.

A few months back when I was doing stockpile shopping I was spending about $300 less a month in food than I am now.

It really hit me last week when I went to the store twice and spent $50 each time.  It’s time to get back on the bandwagon.

Once school starts next week I am going to stock my house back up with essentials, then start back into stockpile shopping.  It does take time and effort, but once you get the hang of it and once you have your stockpile in place maintaining it is a breeze.

Where should you start?

If you start immediately into stockpile shopping you won’t have food for meals.  Give yourself a good month or two to get stocked well enough to switch to complete stock pile shopping.

Do meal plans for yourself using what you have on hand and what is on sale that week.

Buy what you need when you need it.  Once you have stocked a ton of food and supplies then you will only buy when they are rock bottom prices and continue to maintain your stock.

Once you get the hang of it, you will be set and let me tell you it is one stress that I liked not having to deal with.  I liked having a pantry full of food and snacks for the kids.  At one time I had over 40 boxes of cereal that I had paid between FREE and 50¢.  Just last week I paid $2 for a box of cereal, and plan to do better by getting some at $1.50 this week.  It’s a good deal, but it kills me to pay that much when I know I could have gotten it for so much less.  But I need it, so I buy it.

Forgot about how I do it with coupons? Check out this post and this post to get yourself organized.  Before you know it you will be shopping like this.

This kind of shopping Works for Me.

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This tip is directly from my daughter.  She didn’t share it with me, I actually saw that she had done it and I thought it was so clever.

She goes through the Q-tips like crazy (that helped with this idea).  She takes the back cardboard off and is left with the clear front.  She puts them inside her drawer as holders/dividers for her makeup, hair accessories and such.  She had 3 of these in her drawer keeping it clean and organized.

I am thinking of doing it myself.

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Tuesdays Tip Jar

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I have been really content with my house.  I have it basically decorated the way I want, I have it painted throughout, yet I still have room for those things that I might run across that “I need.”

Even though I am happy I decided that it was time for a little change.

We have a canopy bed, which I love, but I have always wanted to add curtains too it like you see in magazines and such.  Not wanting to shop and being on a tight budget, I decided to shop my house.

Here you can see our bed with our Restoration Silver Sage walls (yes, they are blue even though the color is silver sage) and chocolate brown ceiling.  I do love our bedroom!!

I knew I had off white curtains tucked away.  What I had forgotten about was I also had white curtains tucked away.  I have been thinking of this for months now, not knowing I had these.

I took the curtains and added them to the front corners and it completely softened the whole bed. Loved it!

Then I saw this done in a movie and ran home and changed it to this.

So tell me, which do you like better?  I will put in the comments the one I chose and why.

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Transform Tuesday

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If you haven’t already seen all over the blogosphere I will let you in on the secret of Walgreen’s new coupon policy.

Up until now Walgreens has had a few rules and a few way that you needed to do things, but often times you ended up fighting with cashiers to get what you knew was fair and right.

Not anymore.  You can now go to Walgreens website and print out a copy of the Walgreens Coupon Policy and print it off and take it with you next time you go to the store.

Here a few highlights we are all excited about:

When items are featured in a Buy One, Get One Free promotion, up to two coupons can be used against the items being purchased, as long as the net price does not go below zero for the items being purchased.

When purchasing a single item, Walgreens accepts one manufacturer coupon and applicable Walgreens coupon(s) for the purchase of a single item, unless prohibited by either coupon offer.

In the event that any item’s selling price is less than the value of the coupon, Walgreens will only accept the coupon in exchange for the selling price of the item. Coupon redemption can never exceed the selling price of an item and no cash back is ever provided in exchange for any coupons.

These are some issues that many deal with often when going to Walgreens, so it’s nice to finally have it in writing.

You have probably noticed I haven’t mentioned a Walgreen’s shopping trip for months now.  I finally quit going, it was too much of  a hassle, but now I just might make my way back.

Thank you Walgreens for taking care of this and making it easier to shop with you.

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Parade magazine had a big article on the ways to save and pay for college.  I even saw someone do a post on it, and basically they quoted all the Parade had to say. I thought it was good information, but it was all about how to save for college. (If you have the means, do one of the four plans they have laid out)

Frugal Dad did a post about the debt ratio each student has per state. Like he said it’s a good wake up call for all of us parents to see that college is not getting cheaper.

Let’s just say you don’t always have the means to save for your child or children.  Or better yet you have more than 2 kids and saving for each one of them is financially not an option.  What do you do?  How do you keep your kids from having major college debt?

We have fallen into this category.  We chose to pay for out kids private education all through school instead of putting away for college.  Even before that we didn’t have the means to put money aside.  What we have for them is not nearly enough to pay for 4 years of college for each of them.

My daughter is starting her junior year of high school.  Luckily for us she is very driven.  She has already started working on scholarships for her college education.

She was given the site FastWeb as a place to go to look for scholarships.  You enter things that you have interest in and they match you with scholarships.  Today she had over 300 emails in her inbox.  It may have been a while since she checked her email, but she did say about 80% were for scholarship stuff.

We, meaning my in-laws, have checked some books out from the library and have been reading up on writing essays for scholarships.  Looking for any tips and tricks we can find to help us.

There are so many resources out there, no one should miss out on college.

I do know a few simple facts about applying for scholarships:

• Many kids like to apply for the ones where you submit a form.  The ones that require full essays are less likely to be applied for as many kids don’t want to waste/take the time.
• I also know that as of 2 years ago about 70% of girls golf scholarships went unclaimed.

Even though you might not have the means to save for your child’s education, doesn’t mean they won’t go to college.

As we continue through the process of applying for scholarships I will let you in on any secrets I learn along the way.

I am also taking any suggestions from those that have been there and done that.  What are some things we should do to keep our kids from having a ton of college debt?

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I love gardening, but my garden has been one big FAIL this year.  I have to say in all the years that I have gardened this one was the worst.  I even broke down at one point and put Miracle Grow on.  I know, now it’s not organic, but I was getting desperate.  Don’t worry nothing grew….not even weeds, I kid you not.

My cucumbers are still just over 6″ tall and have blooms, but nothing else.  My zucchini plant just sprouted, but don’t worry, it didn’t continue to grow any larger or bloom and my green beans grew big and green and tall, but no beans.

The one thing that did actually have some success was my tomatoes.  Since we have had a chilly summer it really helped that I remembered to plant the tomatoes on their sides.   This allowed the heat to get to the root ball much easier plus getting enough water is never a problem.

I love tomatoes, so I am thankful that at least they did produce something this year.

I hope others had much more success than me.

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Things I Love Thursday

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Want to know what I was doing last night?  I couldn’t have said it better myself, so head on over to Insipred2cook and read all about it.

I hope you are all blessed with friends that you can laugh with, eat with and share life with.

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You know me the foodie, that can’t get enough of the Portland food.  The other day I said to my husband “I am craving Noho’s“  and what do you know, today’s Groupon is for Noho’s.

This is a great Hawaiian Cafe that serves not only great food, but serves it in very large portions.  All meals are served with the best Hawaiian Macaroni Salad ever.  That is what I was craving the other day, the macaroni salad.

Needless to say I have already purchased 2 of these, since that was my limit, and wanted to let you all know that this is an amazing place to eat and you should check it out yourself.  A very simple, causal place to eat.  They even have some outdoor seating and it’s in the heart of SE and it sits at a 4 way stop.  In the summer as you sit there the bikes go by non stop.  There is a theater at that corner and another place across the street that we have gotten ice cream for dessert.  Great people watching and great food.

I will stop ranting and raving about this place and let you try it yourself.  At 50% off it’s a great way to try it if you never have.

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