Frugal In Florida

I am real bad at budgeting. I mean, yeah, I set aside x amount for this and that and then have a goal of this for that ... but seriously? Not so much in the end! For instance, I have $300 in my checking account and $70 cash in my wallet AND a "few" dollars here and there scattered around the house and a couple of bucks in the 2 savings accounts. I have a "free money" jar that is for the Animals, hubby and/or me when we need something, be it gas in the car or a pizza or a quick drive to McD's (Animals and friends, not ME!). The free money jar is just singles and whatever is left over from the grocery shopping of the week. And I try, on the last day of the month, to take the free money and move it to the backup stash container. The backup stash container is a plastic shoebox. Seriously, it weighs probably 20 lbs. The amount of change in there is NOT even funny. But there are also paper bills in there and I try, try, TRY not to touch it. This would be the In ...

Which means, time to Make It Happen Monday. It's also the first day of the new month and NOVEMBER! So are you getting Your Home On? If so, make sure you hop on over and post your to do list! 1. Set up leftovers from party for lunches and snacks (sliders, oriental salad, pasta salad, etc.) 2. Pay bills. 3. Balance checkbook. 4. Set up food/gas/misc. budget. Prep for the No Spend month.... 5. Make menu for week. 6. Pull recipes for menu plan. 7. Post menu plan over at Menu Plan Monday . 8. Clean out the pantry and organize (yet again rolled over). 9. Clean and organize the freezers (all 3 again rolled over!). 10. Start up the exercise routine. 11. VOTE on Tuesday morning (leave house no later than 7:30am). 12. Investigate the mammogram stuff. 13. Get referrals from others for gynecologist. 14. Move money to savings. 15. Send back Netflix movies. 16. Request book from library. 17. Set date for girls get together. 18. Laundry (make that hamper empty for at least a...

It's been a few weeks since I've been to Costco and well, just needed to do it. Hubby and I both were a little on the low side of energy today, 2am for us is waaaay too late to be up ... but the company was fun and the costumes made it all worth while. Usually I ask Hubby if he'd like to go with me to Costco, and normally (most of the time!) he says NO. Just doesn't like the crowds, etc.  Imagine my surprise when he said yes today! Woohoo!! Well, he was NO help in the store ... once we walked in he got side tracked by the electronics, so I told him to go ahead and browse and I would head to the back of the store and work my way up and he could come find me when he was done. Yeah. I was done with my list by the time he showed up .... but that's ok and only a few more spontaneous items were tossed in the basket because of him... 170 ct paper plates (holidays and parties and company coming so need to stock up) $12.89 20 lbs of baking potatoes $9.99 3 dozen ...

Today is the last day for the current ad at Publix.  I use the site I Heart Publix to match up my coupons with current ad ... she's really great and if you shop Publix, you need to check it out... I've got $70 cash in my wallet and this is what I'm spending it on: 5 OM deli cut lunchmeats - 5 $1 off manuf coupons and $5 $1 off Publix coupons AND 2 loaves italian bread (or hoagie rolls) using 2 $1 off bakery when you buy OM lunch mean (publix) gallon of milk (need to get to Costco!) 2 4pk bryers yogurt, using publix b1g1f and 2 $1 off 12 pk Select 55 beer $2.50 off coupon 2 12 pks Coors (which will be below) 6 doritos, b1g1f and using 2 $3 off coupons (which will make them all free) 8 EAS protein bars, using 4 $ off (makes them free and Sonny Boy has them for afterschool) Cottonelle wipes, free coupon 6 deli flats, b1g1f, using 1 $1 off 6 small deli items at $2 or less, using the $2 off deli with deliflat purchase (looking at cheeses) 2 playtex tampons, usi...

I have over 2000 square feet of tile in the house. That's alot of sweeping and mopping. I use my animal vacuum (Dyson) to vacuum 90% of the time.  The other 10% is when I use the broom or the swifter, it reminds me why I use the vacuum 90% of the time. So anyways. I've got mops like you wouldn't believe. I've tried just about everything out there with the exception of the Wet Jet ... I just can not justify the cost of BUYING that and then using the cleaning stuff. Like one bottle wouldn't even give me one day of cleaning! The best, so far, and we keep going back to it faithfully, is the Cuban mop. Just two wooden stick like things in a T shape, and your own hand towel. The thicker the better. (forgive the crappy photo, it's O. L. D.) Just get your self a bucket of hot soapy water (personally, I use Fabuloso, Ocean Breeze scent) and get ready to mop, quickly and efficiently! Step One: Lay out your wet towel like so (confession: Hubby is very ...

Ok, ready or not, here it is ... the BOTTOM of my pantry: I pretty much know what I have in here and basically WHAT shelf it's on ... but still, it's in such disarray lately it's not even funny. I mean, shoot, all salad dressing used to be located on the bottom left shelf. Looking, I see a bottle in the right hand corner ... WHO put that there?? See the canning jar on the 2nd shelf down (in the right side)? That's what my dear Hubby calls liquid gold. Toasted coconut.  Makes his day every time when he inquires as to whether or not we have any coconut open ... and then I point to the toasted stuff ... :) Bingo! Simple things in life keep my marriage happy ... Not sure how the big container of flour got on the top shelf ... the container of sugar on the 2nd shelf is fine where its' at.  There are about 10 bags of coffee on the 3rd shelf behind the can (I just refill the Chock Full O' Nuts can with my favorite Dunkin Donuts or 8 O'clock) ... not sure how...

Saturday night, we had some friends over for dinner. Hubby was in charge which usually makes me very happy. His plan was spinach stuffed chicken breast cooked on the grill AND grilled tomatoes. Ummmm....Honey, can we just do the tomatoes with mozzarella and balsamic like always? You know how much I love that ... nope. Not this time. He's determined to do something different. Slice tomatoes thick, like 3 to 4 slices per tomato (we used 4 for 4 people) Place on baking tray (cookie sheet) drizzle with olive oil sprinkle with a little bit of parsley/basil/herby stuff/black pepper top with mozzarella cheese (I just happened to have thick slices of fresh mozzarella in fridge) then top with bread crumbs. Place on grill over medium high heat (baking sheet and all) and grill til cheese is bubbly. Let cool a little and then eat. I can't tell you how SURPRISED I was at how good these were. I'm not normally a whole tomato cooked kind of girl but these were to DIE for. ...