Happy New Year!

I am starting off the year right again, by venturing back into the world of healthy living. After a two week hiatus (my trip to see my parents) I'm ready to continue on the journey.

I spent my morning sifting through the Sunday paper for coupons to clip to go to the grocery store. P&G had a lovely stack worth of $100 off their products (combined, of course) so I found treasures in their stack.

The grocery store wasn't as busy as I thought it was going to be. There were a few people here and there, but I mainly had it to myself, which is good. I get anxious when I go shopping and there are a lot of people around, which in turn makes me feel unproductive because all I'm worried about it getting out of there.

I am making slow-cooker lasagna right now run my brand new slow cooker that I bought at Kohls the day after Thanksgiving for $9.99 (down from $39.99, I did great right?!).

I don't remember Oliver being such a begger, but he sure was at my mom and dads house. As I was making the lasagna today, he was at my feet the entire time!





Talk about hamming-it-up! But he didn't get anything from me. :)

Now I wait 4-6 hours for this lasagna to cook and hen it will be meal time :). Yay for delicious WW friendly recipes :)

Good deal alert

I got another good deal on dish soap!

I was on a mission to Walgreens for some haircare products and as a I zipped by the dish soap aisle, I saw that the name brand soap were on sale for .99. I knew I had just cut out a coupon recently from P&G so I whipped out my coupon envelope and BAM! I have a coupon for .75 off.

I got to the register, bought my stuff and paid .24, original price without the sale is $2.29 for the bottle of soap. Yahtzee!

Best Buy's of the week

I did a little quick shopping before coming in to work this morning... here's what I got:

Skimtimate Shave Cream: $4.99, had a coupon and got it for $1.99. I saved $3.00



Tuf Towel Paper Towels... .99, had a coupon and got it for .59. I saved .40



Its not much, but its somethin!

Couponing... Extreme?

I'm starting to discipline myself to clip coupons. I managed to score a bunch from an ad that was thrown on my porch over the weekend. The only problem with couponing in Chicago is that grocery stores do not double coupons. Bummer. So most of the time, the generic version is cheaper than the brand name product, even with the coupon.

I clipped a coupon for Palmolive, 10fl oz bottle of dish soap. In stores it ranges from $2.29 - $3.00. The coupon was buy 1 for .89 at Walgreens. I practically live at Walgreens so today I took advantage of that deal. I thought I could only get the regular Palmolive Dish Soap... but when I went to the aisle, they only had Palmolive Oxy Plus 10fl oz, no other 10 fl oz. I was a little discouraged, but brought it to the counter anyway.




The lady rang it up, I gave her my coupon, and BAM! Just saved $1.40! I feel like I got a great deal, especially because this is a nicer dish soap than the regular. I know, im a little crazy for getting excited over dishsoap...

A Big Moment

There has been something that I needed to buy that has been on my mind for a while. I already have a version of this item, but I wanted a simpler, less complex version of it. Know what it is? I bet you don’t…. it’s a SWIFFER! Crazy, right? I had this one (pictured below) at the house.




This one required buying of three things for upkeep: batteries, solution, and cleaning pads. I always found myself missing one or the other so it didn’t really serve its purpose as much as I’d imagined.

Now, today I went out and bought THIS swiffer:




Its not battery operated, I don’t need to buy solution, I only have to buy the refill cleaning pads. Brilliant! I think this is the original version that first came out when Swiffer was introduced as a product… no?

Anyway, I ripped this sucker open as soon as I got home. Ive been feeling that the floors (since they are all hardwood) have been grubbier than im used to with carpet. The starter kit came with free swiffer dusting pads AND mopping pads. Who knew both could be used with this? Not this girl! So I dusted first (and holy smokes, did it trap a ton of dog hair!) and then I mopped and now my apartment is smelling frebreezy fresh (hey, that is the scent!).

Truly, I cant believe I just made a blog entry about swiffer… but seriously, I was excited! Tomorrow is going to be a busy day of shopping for more household items…

i heart furniture

I really love furniture shopping! Take me to an ikea or room store any day of the week and I can figure out a space for every piece of furniture in the store. Since the apartment is smaller than the place I currently live, its going to be a challenge to condense my stuff to make it fit but also make it look clean, organized and uncluttered.

Random tangent: Speaking of uncluttered, I watched some of that "hoarding" show yesterday on TV and I just cant fathom how people are so connected to "stuff". This woman couldnt get rid of trophies that a friend gave her because she had some kind of weird attachment to it. A trophy? That she didnt even earn for something? Weirdo! I, in turn, love getting rid of things that I don't want or need anymore. There is something very liberating about de-cluttering my life.

There is no storage in the bathroom, besides a two stand shelf above the toilet so I have been looking for a long-tall storage unit with a door and I found a perfect one that will fit nicely in the alotted space in the bathroom --



Next thing i'll need is an extra space to serve as a "counter" space in the kitchen. There are only two places of counter space on both sides of the sink. So here is what I found that I might buy to give another small, extra space to work on but also provide storage --



and then randomly, I found this which I liked too --



And this is just some, of the many many items I found that I just love. This is going to be fun! I can't wait to move! T-11 days :)