New Dress a Day:

New Dress a Day The Ultimate DIY Guide to Creating Fashion Dos from Thrift-Store Don'ts By: Marisa Lynch
Non-Fiction: 200 pages
Book Count: 5

If you have ever found a dress at a thrift store and thought, "this would be a great dress if it wasn't so dated because of X," then this book is for you. It shows how different types of common thrift store dresses, shirts, and skirt types can be updated into clothes that look modern, or at least retro instead of just old.  If you have a basic understanding of sewing you can do any of the projects, but most of the ones even have no-sew options for people less skilled in sewing.  It is based off of the writer's blog where she made a "new" dress a day out of old ones.

End of Aug.

Any Glass With Wine in it, is a Wine Glass! By: Nicholas Walker
Non-Fiction: Food e-book

Rediscover Catholicism- A Spiritual Guide to Living with Passion & Purpose By: Mathew Kelly
Non-fiction: Religion 317 pages
Book Count: 48

Inspire Me To Get Writing By: Carla Acheson
Non-fiction: writing e-book

Confucius Cat Says. . . By: P.R. Mason
Non-fiction: Humor e-book

The Full-Time Parent's Guide to Earning Extra Income By: Eric Richardson
Non-fiction: advice e-book

Meet a Jerk, Get to Work, How to Write Villains and the Occasional Hero By: Jaqueline Girdner and Ronald Hudson
Non-fiction: writing e-book

Every Item on Sale: How to Slash Your Grocery Bill By Over 50% By: Janice Kitson
Non-fiction: home ec. e-book

The Ghost at the Foot of the Stairs By: David Pickering
Fiction: short story, paranormal e-book

We All Married Idiots: Three Things You Will Never Change About Your Marriage By: Elaine W. Miller
Non-Fiction: religion, relationships e-book

Move it Mom! By: Marci Pliskin and Patti Dunn
Non-Fiction  e-book

Mad Science Institute By:Sechin Tower
Fiction: YA Sci-Fi 310 pages
Book Count: 49

2012 Family Guide to Groceries under $250 a Month By: Melissa Burnell
Non-Fiction: home ec. e-book

Secondhand Jesus By: Glenn Packiam
Non-fiction religion 224 pages
Book Count: 50

How to Feed a Family of 4 or More for Less than $200 a Month By: Melissa Burnell
Non-fiction: home ec. e-book

Joyful Momma's Guide to Shopping & Cooking Frugally:

Joyful Momma's Guide to Shopping & Cooking Frugally By: Kimberly Eddy
Non-fiction: Home Ec., cooking, religion 144 pages
Book Count: 26

This book is a good basic book for someone starting out working on saving money.  It did have a couple of tips that were new to me, but most of them were things I already knew from other books or from learning on my own.  There were also a number of recipes in the book as well.  These all looked tasty and had a lot of hints/tips/variations to make them cost effective no mater what things are on sale that week in the store.  It would be a good book to give someone starting out on their own.
Note: I labeled this book under religion as it does have a few Bible quotes and things about Christianity in it.  It is not overly religious. 

This is not a Book in Review:

Today I was planing on writing up a Book in Review for "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters", but even with Sea Monsters it is taking forever to read this book. It is in no way as fast a read as the Jane Austen novel with the zombies and ninjas. So instead to have something to write today I will talk about the turkey I cooked yesterday. Yes, I know that there is 2 weeks until Thanksgiving, but it was on sale for only 40 cents a pounds. And why not have turkey more then once or twice a year. Anyway, first I apparently have the worlds coldest fridge. I put it in to thaw on Saturday afternoon. On Wednesday morning when I opened it up there was still chunks of ice on it. I had to thaw it in a low oven. Then, when it was thawed out and I went to remove the giblets and neck it had two necks in it. It was a mutant bird! Anyway even with all that it turned out well. And we can eat turkey for the next week. (Or freeze some for later.)

Also:

Remember that our garage sale is also coming up. It's your chance to buy some of the books that we have reviewed on this blog over the years. Of course, for safty reasons we aren't going to say where its at, even though, it's not at our house. So, go out an go to all the sales that you think might be ours, and talk about how much you love this blog. If your at our sale, maybe you'll get a discount for it.

Shopping Highs!

(and Lows)


Today was a shopping day. Target had vitamin water on sale for $1.00 and I had a $1.00 coupon. Free drink! At Meijer's mustard was on sale for $1.00 and I had a coupon for $.30, which was then doupled, plus at the check out it printed out a coupon "brought to you by French's" for a dollar off the next time I shop. I also got a container of dressing that after coupon was $.17. Yahhhh!!

But, on the down side there was way too much wine on sale. So I got two bottles of MI cherry wines for the next time I see my in laws, as they cann't get cherry wine where they live and mom misses it. Plus, as Passover is tommorow they had all of the Kosher wine on sale, and so I picked up some ones we like.

So, over all I did good on saving money as everything I bought (excluding a couple of neccisities and a container of hair gel) was on sale for a good price and/or I had a coupon making it a good price, I still way over shot my goal for the trip.

Saving tip:

If you like ham, now is the time to get some. Most, ever grocery store has it on sale for Easter. If you have freezer space it will freeze well.

Today's savings

OK, this was actual a couple days ago, but I though that it would make a good title for a reoccurring bit. So anyway I went to the shoe store to look for Easter/dress shoes for the kids as the oldest is outgrowing all of her dress shoes and well, little shoes look so cute. Anyway we found a pair of black dress sandals that the oldest liked on clearance for $4 in here size. And there were ones in the baby's size that were brown Maryjanes with pink hearts embroidered on. There were on clearance for $5. So for under $10 I got them both dress shoes that should work until they outgrow them/ fall (which ever comes first) as they won't get ruined after wearing them once like white ones do with little kids.

Shopping Highs!

We have have yet another great shopping day of savings. So we have decided to go on a savings spree. We will be reading books on saving (as we went to the library during a shopping high) and working on saving more in life. And then we well tell you all about it to give you something else to read between looking up odd laws, famous members of the undead and manatee mating rituals. (See, last post if you too wonder what people are reading this blog while looking for those things.)