Cooking - Coupons - Crocheting

*smile* It took me a bit to think of three things to post about that all started with the same letter.  What can I say?  Alliteration has been ingrained in me over the years. :)

Cooking

Over the past year and a half Maggie & I decided to make one night a week 'our night' to cook.  Maggie cooked on Tuesdays and I cooked on Thursdays.  I think it makes cooking more fun when you're the one planning what will be prepared.   Haha...there for a while it was a competition to see who's meal would be better.  I think Josh got a little spoiled in the dessert area because he started whining questioning when we stopped making dessert with every meal.  :) 

Last week the menu was being planned and Maggie just so happened to do all of it, plus she's been the one making dinner all week.  So it gave me an idea.  Why don't the 3 of us (Maggie, mom & I) rotate planning the menu and cooking?  They thought it was a great idea too! So next week I'm in charge of planning the menu and cooking.  It may sound funny, but I'm kind of excited about doing it.  Now I just need to figure out what we'll have.  I definitely want to throw in at least one new thing to try. Maybe I'll post the menu once I have it. :) 

Coupons 

I'm trying to become more coupon savvy.  They're out there, so why not use them?  Last week we were able to use coupons on top of the sales the store was already having.  We ended up saving around $50!  Call me crazy, but I love looking at the receipt to see how much money I've saved! Lol.  Anyways, I thought I'd post the different websites I go to for coupons/deals.  Here goes...

Money Saving Mom

The Frugal Girls

The Krazy Coupon Lady

Free Sample Freak - Sounds silly signing up for free samples, but again...if they're out there, why not take advantage of them?  They've come in handy!

So those are the blogs, but there's also coupons.com, smartsource.com & redplum.com.  I've also been buying the AllYou magazine.  It costs $2.49 and they've got tons of coupons in there, so if you can use at least that much in coupons out of it, it's worth it.  I also want to throw out there that I heard Walmart will take coupons from other stores. I haven't verified it with my Walmart yet, but I plan on it. (If they do, just make sure they know it's a competitors coupon so they can make the price adjustment when they scan the item.) Also, the Sunday paper is usually full of coupons!

Crocheting

Between both of my grandma's I learned how to crochet.  It's not something I've done for quite some time, but I'm hoping to pick it up again and become more skilled in it.  Selena has been crocheting quite a bit and has been making dish cloths and pot holders.  A couple weeks ago she showed me how to make a dish cloth and we're even talking about making stuff over the winter months to sell at the Farmers Market next year as an outreach program for the church.  Anyways, I've kinda got the crocheting bug now.  (hehe...I made Max a tail warmer!) I got a catalog in the mail today from Lion Brand and there are so many neat things I'd like to try.  My only problem right now is I need yarn to crochet and you need money to buy yarn and you need a job to earn money. :)  So once I get a job I'll start trying things out.  There are some really neat things in there that are knit and I have no clue how to do that.  I remember doing some sort of knitting when I was younger, but I wouldn't know where to begin now.  Maybe once I get crocheting down, I'll make an attempt at it. 

So there you have it.  Cooking - Coupons - Crocheting  Hopefully I didn't bore you.

And because I can...here are a couple of closeups...hehe

Haha...look at that mosquito bite smack dab in the middle of my forehead!

Awww...Max's pig tails!