Clearance fun.

Because I love to shop but have minimal money to do so the clearance rack is my best friend.  I always check out stores like Old Navy when I am near one because their clothes are relatively inexpensive to start with so the clearance items are usually under $10.

My favorite way to shop clearance however is a store remodel.  Most stores now days keep so many items on hand that when they do a remodel they need to clear as much space as possible to begin rearranging.  I am currently in heaven with our local Wal-mart doing a complete remodel.  I bought my husband a pair of bibs for winter for $9 and and myself a Bra and underwear set for $7.

The one thing I do recommend is to not get carried away and watch what you are buying.  People tend to see clearance and just buy. Make sure you watch the prices, a store like Wal-mart will put a clearance sign up and not actually mark down the price.

Happy Clearance Shopping Everyone.

Left overs

Earlier I was reading a article about how complicated we have made our diets with processed foods.  I am by no means claiming to be the queen of healthy and I love convenience, but I do my best to keeps to food some what healthy. So with the combination of reading the article about how much crap goes into Doritos (my favorite) I started to think about what to make for supper tonight.

Well I decided to use some leftover pulled pork that was in my freezer from a party and make Pulled pork tacos.  It is a very simple, inexpensive, especially if you have leftovers, and tasty.  I especially love that it is primarily fresh ingredients.  I really wish we were a little further into summer so I would have my own fresh veggies, but oh well.

So here is how I make them
1 lb of pulled pork - $0 for me since it was leftover
1 package taco seasoning -$0.50
1/2 cup salsa - $0 it's my homemade salsa
1 can chicken stock (only because it's left overs and already cooked) -$1.00
1 package of whole wheat taco shells -$3.00
veggie toppings of your choice
Fat free sour cream (optional)

I will put the pork taco seasoning, salsa and chicken stock in the slow cooker on low for about 6 hours, just to heat it through and get the flavors into the pork. then at supper time build the taco to my specs.

Yep THAT"S IT!!

I love these they are such nice change from a regular beef taco

If you don't have leftover pork, just buy a small pork roast add all the same ingredients, except chicken stock, put in slow cooker and cook on medium for about 4-6 hours or until the pork starts to fall apart.  take pork out put it on a cutting board and pull it apart then place it back in juice and cook on low for another hour.

I have been planning on making these for about 3 days but it hasn't worked out so it is going to happen tonight!!

Garden growing

I went to my parents house this morning to get some dirt so I could get  my squash and pumpkins planted and I checked on the garden and it looks GREAT.

For anyone that knows me the know I love to garden, I plant more food than I ever know what to do with but it's OK.  I plant vegetables galore..I have 51 tomato plants this year and hopefully they will stave off the blight and produce well.  I absolutely love making my own salsa and sauces..everything from pizza to pasta. I might even try Ketchup this year.  Today I put in zucchini, pumpkins, butternut, and 2 kinds of winter squash along with musk melon.  I am so excited to grow them at my house this year.

Just for fun  I planted one tomato plant and 2 green bean plants (my son started them in the house) in an old fashion wash tub in front of my house.

I think my next project is going to be a homemade compost bin. Simple enough to make I just need to decide where to put it.

It is a lot of work to grow a huge garden, but the money I save in the long run, and the health benefits make it worth it to me.

great ways to save.

Here is one great thing about summer, it makes people want to share.  The warm weather brightens everyone spirits and people become more giving, I say take advantage of these times, but remember to pay it forward somewhere.

One example is rhubarb, someone with an established crop will almost always share, as they never want to deal with it all.  My husband had been doing some landscaping work for a couple and I was helping him. I mentioned to the homeowner how nice his rhubarb looked and how I was trying to get my own going.  Well, the next thing I know I'm home washing and cutting what ended up being 12 cups of rhubarb, I had already been given 5 cups by a friend and had made a dessert so I froze these 12 cups for later.

Perennial flowers are another thing, late spring and early summer people start to thin their perennials, although it is not the ideal time to transplant, the plants will survive, though often flowers will not bloom the first year. I have gotten iris', honey suckles, and hostas this way.  I had been given so much I actually donated some of it to our local community gardens.

I truly enjoy sharing what I have extras of and I love to expand my flowers and gardens every year so I can share. I can guarantee if I got it for free from someone you will get it for free from me.

Rummage sale finds

I promised you a how to on rummage sale shopping so I am going to give you a few tips on how I like to rummage sale.

First thing is that there are two different types of rummage sale shoppers;
1. Drive-bye: Drive around randomly looking at a rummage sale from the road
2. Plan and attack: get listings in advance mark the ones you want to visit and map in order.

     I am a Plan and attacker, although I have been known to do the drive by thing if I just happen to see a random rummage sale (or small neighborhood one).  So basically what I do is find a city wide rummage sale I am interested in, get a listing and start by marking all of the ones that have something I would have a need for.  Next I follow the map, that is usually provided, for the city wides and make a list of what order I want to go in.  I will even go as far as programming them into my GPS.  Then I just start going.  Often you find during City wides many people do not place their listings but still have sales, so if I get to an address I often check nearby houses for sales.  If house has a lot of children's stuff, chances are so will the neighbors, since neighborhoods tend have similar family structures.

    Last weekend I went with my Mom and my 3yr old son to a big city wide, I had everything mapped out and ready to go, and was pretty disappointed, the sales were listed well and in order on the map but the information was not all that good.  The first one we went to said boys clothes to size 6 and when we got there they had 4 pair of shorts and 2 t-shirts.  We found multiple places that the listings were a little misguiding, but that is all part of the sales.

   That being said we did not come home empty handed by any means, My Mom purchased Braxton a Spiderman bike (15 in) with training wheels for $15, and I purchased him a Lego table, with Marker board, chalk board and matchbox road path and storage for $10.  We both picked him up a few small toys, a few clothes, some books and pajamas.  Mom also bought him a Leap Pad with 5 games for $15.  All in all I think we spent around $75-$85 dollars and had quite a few things when we got home.  We even got him a Home Depot work bench for FREE! it is already out in my Dads wood shop so he can help Grandpa.  I have to admit it wasn't one of the best days of rummage Sales (Huge Thunderstorm shut many down early) but I did get some pretty good deals.

  I plan to try again in two weeks if all goes well, and see if I can do any better.

Side Note from a rummage sale addict......I don't care if the Jeans say Gap, Ambercrombie, or Deisel, I will not pay you $2 or more for jeans that have holes in the knees.  My 3 yr old does a great job of putting them there on his own I would hate to ruin his fun.

A quick fix Dinner

Yesterday was kind of a hectic day as I had two extra kids in the house so by the time they both left I was stuck trying to dig up some kind of Idea for dinner.

I had some ground turkey in the freezer so I went to All recipes (one of my favorite websites) and did and ingredient search for recipes that called of ground turkey and I found one that sounded pretty good but I had to modify for what I had in the house.

What I ended up with was basically an Italian turkey pasta.

Ingredients;
1lb ground turkey $1.69
1/2 of a green pepper, I had frozen left from my garden last year.
1 med yellow onion $0.28 I had bought a bag for about $2.00 a week or so ago and there was 7 in the bag.
1 stalk of celery $.10 I'm guessing because I know he celery was $1.69 but no clue how  many stalks here were.
1 Can of Chicken broth $1.59
1 Can of Stewed Tomatoes $1.59
1/2 box of Whole wheat penne Pasta $1.50
1 TBLS of Minced Garlic
2 Tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic salt or granules
1 tsp chili Powder
1 pinch of sugar
1 tsp of White vinegar.
1/4 C Shredded Italian Cheese $0.50

Saute the turkey with the peppers, onion and celery, in a small stock pot or dutch oven.  Once all ingredients are cooked, remove everything from the pan using a slotted spoon to allow the drippings to stay in the pan.  Once removed add the one can of Chicken broth and 2 cans of water, bring to a boil, add noodles and cook through.  After the noodles are cooked drain water, add the meat and veggie mixture back in, and add the can of tomatoes, Garlic salt, chili powder, sugar and vinegar, and heat through.  Once hot pour into a serving dish and top with Italian cheese and serve. 

I served mine with a small salad.

It was actually a pretty healthy meal, it was a fast recipe, and fairly inexpensive at about $7.25 and fed 3 people and we had left overs for my husband to take to work.

I will probably be making it again soon.

How to put together a rummage sale

I decided that since I love having , and attending, rummage sales I'd do a little Rummage Sale 101.

Here are the basic things you need to do before having a rummage sale:

• Pick a good date.  If your town has city wide rummage sales that is a great time.
• Find a good location.  If you  live outside of town try to find a place in town.
• Have one with a friend. People will spend more time driving to a Multi-family sale for a bigger selection
• Advertise it.  If you forget to put it in the paper make sure you have good signage.
• Have a major item or group of items to draw people.  Things like kids clothes, baby items or a piece of furniture or exercise equipment are big crowd drawing items.

Now that the basics are covered it is all about pricing and organizing. 

      I find that clothing is hard to price for Two reasons.  First the stickers are always falling off and second, people always want them to be cheaper so it seems like a waste.  What I do with kids clothes is simple.  I set up two tables I have a $.50 table and $1.00 table.  If I have outfits I pin them together and set a separate price if I feel it necessary.  I figure it at $1 per piece for outfits.  Now when it comes to pricing it can be different where you live based on how other people sell similar things.  In the town I live in at $1 a piece I am cheap.   Adult clothes really don't sell very well around here so I will often let people just make me an offer, it makes them feel like they have gotten a deal and I feel good that it's gone.

     As far as all the other stuff the best advice is Price it to sell.  $0.25 to $3.00 unless I have a Big ticket item like a dresser or stroller.  Let people make you an offer, you don't have to take it.  I don't deal much on day one of a two day sale.  Don't over price in hopes people will pay it or thinking you can knock it down and still make big money off it.  People will NOT pay $20 for a pair of shoes and they will not ask if you will take $10, they will just walk away.  They will pay $2 without asking a questions. 

    The last thing is when you are setting up make the money making items easy to get at.  By this I mean set the kids clothes in the middle of everything else and make it easy for people to get to both sides of the table.  Then set all of the other stuff around the outside so that when they are digging for one thing they can see the other stuff out of the corner of their eye.  Don't put it all in a straight line of tables or people will find one thing and turn around and walk off make the other stuff noticeable.  Also don't make people work to get to item.  I hate going to city wides and seeing a sale that has baby items and when I get there and ask about clothes they are still in totes and they expect me to dig for the sizes I want....That is NOT going to happen! 

Well that is my How-to on having a rummage sale. Any other questions or anything to add?  Let me know.