Daylight Savings

We just switched over to daylight savings time.  And quite frankly I'm getting more than a little sick and  tired of this switching.  I say, we're on daylight savings, let's stay there.  It solves so many problems.  No more switching, but we still get the benefits of "more sun".  And we'd get those benefits through the winter, when we need more daylight.  That is of course assuming you fall for that.

what to do....

I've been mulling over just deleting this blog and giving up.
But I hate to be a quitter.
The question remains... what to do with this blog.  I don't have any clear cut idea for this.
I suppose I could post about my fairly new found hobby of pillaging.  But there's tons of blogs out there that do a much better job of breaking down the deals.  And really... does anyone want to hear about how I went to the store and bought 275 cans of soup for less than $5.00 out of my pocket?

I often fantasize about having a blog like Julie and Julia... where I commit to doing a project.  Post on a regular basis... and actually get something done.

But that's just not going to happen.  I'm not one of those people.  I blog when I feel the need to get something out.  Or when I'm bored... like right now.

When I have a project, I get involved in the project and don't have time to blog about it.  For instance... lately I've been on a bit of a mission to clear out some of the clutter in the house.  Have I blogged about it?  nope.... not one sentence.  Why?  because I've been busy bagging up clutter and disposing of it.

An Open Letter to vrylmkt

If your intention, with this coupon fiasco, was to get your name out there, you've done a tremendous job. However, I don't think you've gotten your name out the way you wanted to. Couponers are a large group, and yet they're tight knit. Word of your coupons got around like wildfire, well guess what, word of how you've made all couponers look like frauds is getting around faster than your coupons did. Had anyone at your company done ANY research, they would've known about the couponing community, and what safe guards to put in place. Instead, you’ve not only made the couponing community look bad, you’ve given yourselves a black eye that will linger for a very long time. Couponers have shown themselves to have long memories, and will retell the saga of this fiasco for a long, long time. Worst of all, for your company, couponers spans all ages, races, and socioeconomic strata, the repercussions of this will linger for quite some time.

I find it ironic that a company called vyrlmkt has fallen “victim” to the very thing they’re trying to sell. I wonder how your customers will feel about hiring a company that purports to provide them with viral marketing, but who has fallen victim to it, and hangs the consumer out to dry?

Only time will tell.

Look who's come for lunch!

It always amazes me the people that show up where I work. Part of dealing with the public, I'm sure.

We deal with all sorts..... from people who are working poor, but the sweetest, nicest possible customers. To the ultra-ultra rich who expect to be catered to completely, expect us to be grateful for the opportunity to cater to them, and expect us to do it for free. Today.... we had a different sort in the office. I can't really call him a customer as he wasn't buying anything.
Here's a hint......





no, we didn't have the cast of CSI come by, although, it wouldn't necessarily surprise me if they did.

We had a member of the major case squad stop by and see if we could help him. We spent quite a bit of time with him... I'm not sure we really helped him, but it's nice to think we did.

So that's our excitement for the day...

p.s. I didn't write much about him, or what he's looking for because it's (obviously) an open and active case. And while I doubt seriously that the criminals are reading this blog, they might be googling key words about the crime, and I'm not gonna help them. If I hear it's been solved, I might come back and add more info.

What can I say?

I suck at blogging. At least, I suck at regular blogging.

I wish I had the time, and the schedule to blog regularly, really I do.
I like the whole idea of taking time every day and writing something. What I lack, is the time, the self discpline.... that whole thing.

However, I'll be in and out blogging as time and creativity permit.

I'm learning to love CVS

Before I found Crystal's blog, I would only go to CVS when I had no other choice. But now, now I go to CVS a minimum of three times a week.

Why the change you may ask? Crystal has shown me how to have CVS pay me to go to their store. And if they'll pay me to take stuff out of their store, I'm willing to do so.

So how have I done lately? Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Let me see if I can remember some of my better deals.

This month, I've managed to stock us up on approximately a years supply of coffee, which we use quite a bit of. I also managed to score 10 cans of tuna for free! Then there's the M&M's... I scored about twenty-six bags of M&M's. I've got enough shampoo to last me several months (and I don't use a quarter sized dollop, I use a lot, I've got long, thick hair.) I've managed to add to my baby gift for one of my co-workers. I think I now have six packages of diapers and eight or nine packages of wipes.

All of this for an out of pocket of maybe ten dollars; total. The best part? I still have over $100.00 in ECB's to spend on future trips.

The problem I'm running into now is, I don't wanna buy anything that they don't pay me to take. And I'm fast becoming stocked on most things I'd want from there. Oh well.... if it comes down to it, I'll go on a shopping spree and donate everything I buy.

Trash pickin'

I was reading this blog, and she was writing about some trash picking she did this week. I have to say, I was impressed with her haul for the week. Two tables is pretty good.

And it made me think about my nephew's best lot of trash picking. When J was 12 he and some friends were out and decided to do some trash picking. They found "the motherload" in the form of several years worth of Playboys. Now, to a 12 year old, that has to seem like manna from heaven. Not wanting to question their luck, they grabbed the magazines, and left. Not really checking them out until they were safely home.

Imagine their horror to discover that all of their "motherload" haul was braille. Not a single picture other than the cover. Luckily, their horror was changed to delight when they checked ebay, and found out that they can be worth some money.

What can you get for $.61??

Well, if you read here, and use your head a little, you can get
2 Hershey's Pot of gold (like these)

2 bags of jelly beans


2 bags of plastic eggs



oh, and one of these, for the ride.


all for $.61 cents. Not too bad. And I got a total of 11.96 in ECB's to spend next time.

Now I've really got a dilemma.

Not really, but I am working on a balancing act.
As I've said before, I've been inspired by Chris to clear out some of the clutter and scale back on some of my shopping.

But then I stumbled upon this site . And while some of the people there aren't exactly the type I would chose to hang out with. There's some really good information on how to save money.

Here comes the balancing act... one of the girls I work with is pregnant, with her third child. My thoughts on this not withstanding, I need to give her some sort of gift for the baby. But quite frankly, I'm really not feeling the love or the desire to spend the money on this. So, I thought I'd play this CVS game and see if I couldn't get some free or really cheap diapers, wipes etc. So now, I'm balancing doing deals that make me money and not wanting more clutter. So far, I've been reasonably successful. I've stocked up on razors, because while, technically they could be considered clutter, they will eventually be used. I've also stocked up on soap, which, again, I didn't need right away, but will be used. I've also given away about six bars of soap, some toothpaste, toothbrushes, and cheese (lots and lots of cheese). I've stocked, and restocked work with candy. And this week I plan on stocking work up with air fresheners. Oh... and I managed to get myself some of those flameless candles and got paid to take them out of the store.

It should prove to be an interesting experiment, balancing my desire for a cleaner, less cluttered life with my packrattedness.

Quandary

I'm in a bit of a quandary. I've been reading this blog . Chris has really inspired me. I've really cut back on my shopping. Not completely cut it out, the way she has. But I've cut waaaayyyy back. And I now think long and hard about whether I want a particular item cluttering up my house.

I've also begun purging the house of extraneous crap. One of the major obstacles I face, is when people hear I'm purging, they all tell me not to throw anything away. That they'll take it and use it, or donate it. The problem with this is, people have terrific intentions, and not so good follow up. I'm just as guilty of this as anyone. But it makes the current purge a tug of war between my emotions. On the one hand, I just want the crap outta my house. On the other hand, I have a lot of stuff that other people could put to use.

My solution so far has been to toss the real garbage, and put the "good crap" in a pile to be sorted. I'm just about ready to start sorting through the "good crap". But I'm undecided on what I'll actually do with the crap I don't want. I could pack it up and send it to Jibii. But I don't think she'd appreciate it. I could throw it all away, but then I'd have to deal with feeling guilty about throwing away good stuff.

Any suggestions?

I hit Michael's again

And I'd advise anyone who hasn't gotten all of their Halloween stuff to do the same.

I found these stamps from Martha Stewart

Regularly $9.99 for the set, they're 50% off making them a very affordable $4.99

Of course, who can't use another set of alphabet stamps? huh Jibii????

Labels anyone?

I found these at the local Staples. $.50 each. Now, I wish I could tell you to run there and get yours, but if you live near my local Staples, don't bother. I cleaned them out.

Rockstar!!!!

I found this "Rockstar" paper from DCWV at a local Michael's.

They'd marked it down to $15.00. I had a 40% off coupon, which they applied to the paper, bringing it down to $9.00 for the full pack.

For anyone who's interested, they also had individual sheets for $.25 a sheet.

This is gorgeous paper that IMHO would go well with alot of the pirate themed stuff I've seen out.

Update on the pens

I stopped by the local Staples last night, they've marked down these pens to $.50 for a box of twelve. If you use the coupon I linked to, that brings them down to $.44 a box. And for those of you wondering, I bought four boxes when they were $.60 a box and then last night, I decided to stock up and bought a total of 30 boxes. But please note, I work in an office that deals with the public. We go through at least a box of pens a day.

for the witch in your life

What witch wouldn't love to have her broom with her at all times?

Get the witch in your life her own broom pen. She'll love being able to show off what a witch she is.

I found these for $1.50 for two. They made really nice pre-Halloween gifts for the office witch.

Kisses anyone?

I found these at Big Lots. Given that the guys I work with will go through more than two pounds of chocolate a day, $6.00 for this big bag is a good deal for us.

Not a bad deal

I'm known as the professional shopper at work. So I thought I'd start posting some of the deals that I get so other's can jump on the bandwagon.

This was today's deal. On clearance at my local Staples. $.60 a box. Which is a good deal all by itself. But if you go here , you'll find a coupon for 12% off, good until October 20th. Now it's not worth going just for the pens. But with Staples literally around the corner from work, and having to pick up some other things while I was there the bottom line of $.52 for a box of twelve, or .05 each, is worth it for a good pen.

update

just to piss Jibiibear off.
Here's an update to my blog.
I suck at blogging, regular blogging that is.

Here's what everyone's missed.
I went to visit Jibii in Australia for three weeks.
We managed to jam about three years worth of stuff in that three weeks.

I came home exhausted and now need a vacation to recover from my vacation.

There.... now I can't get yelled at for not blogging.

I know how to do that!

Chris over at notes from the trenches has a this post up about a new oven. And a couple of her commenters asked how she did it. Was it a slow poisioning, or a quick blow to the top. I know how to kill a stove/oven!!!
This is EXACTLY how my mother got a brand new stove.
1. either wait for the light in the oven to go out, or sabotage it so that it doesn't work.
2. get my father to attempt replacement of the lightbulb in the oven. In the process, he will use (among other tools) a screwdriver. And will remove a large quantity of insulation.

when he's done, you will have no choice but to go shopping for a new stove.

and yes, I'm willing to rent him out if anyone so desires.

I'm a bitch.

Why this time you ask?
Let me give you some back story. One of the girls at work.... Ding, we'll call her, is HORRIBLE at managing her money. In fact, she doesn't manage it at all. More than once, I've been a complete dumbass and bailed her out of some financial problems. But recently was the straw that broke the camel's back.
She got into some serious, really serious trouble. And came to me for help. I agreed to help ( I know what you're thinking Jib, but you'd've done the same). This time, however, I've smartened up a little. I agreed to help her under the condition that she start managing her money.
The look in her eyes.... I actually felt bad for her. She was scared, really scared, and she should've been. She told me she doesn't know how to manage her money.... and that's not news. So, I've agreed to help her manage her money.
I've set up a basic budget, and I'm insisting she stick to it. Despite the fact that she went away on vacation for a long weekend this past weekend. And despite the fact that she'll be away the rest of the week on vacation.
I've had to say no, you can't buy this... no, you cna't have more money... no, you can't spend money on a check you haven't received, hell, it hasn't even been written, so absolutely NO you cannot spend that money.
Basically, I've had to become her mommy. And for now, I'm ok with it.
But if anyone has suggestions for teaching a grown woman how to manage money, I'll gladly take them. And when I say she has no money management skills, I mean if she gets ten dollars, she wants to spend fifty, and thinks that money will just magically appear when she needs to pay her bills.
So yes, I'm a bitch. I say no, when it's better for the person, even if it'd be easier for me to say yes.