Thrifty

Well, it’s Friday…… so you know what that means! Yep, a fun post about being Frugal. But today, I will call my post Thrifty.

Every time we are with my family I always ask my mom (sometimes beg…) her to take me to the thrift stores with her. There are so many good ones around here! With such good stuff! I LOVE it. I find so much stuff at these stores.

You see I was in some serious need of some summer clothes, mostly shorts/capris. Since I know this summer is going to be a hot one. Well, after a couple of trips to these stores, that problem was fixed.

Oh, and these shoes

From what I remember the prices being. It was about 30 dollars for 5 pairs of shorts/capris, 3 skirts, and one pair of shoes. That’s pretty thrifty!

So, since all of that might be a little boring, here are some pictures/videos of the little things we do every day. Well, actually they probably will be boring to most, but at least to family, they might be somewhat entertaining….

He loves me, even though it doesn’t look like it :)

I guess…

I guess it’s time to post about something. I mean, it’s been a while! well, really it’s only been a week. But, it’s been a while since I have gone that long without posting!

As you can expect, we have been fairly busy lately…. with getting ready to go to DC, trying to find a place to live and such. That has taken up a lot of my time and energy lately. Things are looking good though, It’s kinda hard to do things when you can’t actually be there…. I mean, I have NO idea what DC is like.

We have decided to FLY to DC. Crazy huh? Thinking about being somewhere without a car just seems odd. BUT, I guess that’s what people do there! Use a Metro, and a Bus all the time. We just have to find a place to live that is close to a Metro, and a grocery store. We should be good.

I’m SO excited about not having to drive for 4 days! you could not believe how much I was dreading that drive! It’s probably a good thing that we aren’t putting all those miles on our car. Plus, it’s actually cheaper this way, I found a good deal on tickets, and now it’s a few hundred dollars cheaper….. even stopping in Disney World….

Yes! We are going to Disney World! We found a GREAT deal on hotels and tickets, and it’s actually pretty cheap to stop in Orlando on our way to DC.

Hey, we need a fun trip every once in a while :)

Well, here are some pictures I took while we were driving.

There were some pretty bad thunderstorms on our drive. We both almost had a heart attack once, when the thunder/lightning struck, SO close to us. You can bet we tried to get out of there as fast as we could :)

So, now that you have the low down on us, here are some pictures of what has been going on around the Smith household this week.

Since I have been here, I have been able to tag along with my mom and go out to lunch with her and her friends a few times :) We decided to order fried Avocados….. they tasted interesting.

We also went to Cameron’s football game. He always does so good!

We also got to be here to celebrate my mom’s birthday! We did a barbeque… even though it was raining that day.

hahaha. My dad’s smile cracks me up in that one.

Oh Cam…

Krista made my mom a birthday hat :)

Love sister Todd!

My mom didn’t want anyone to spend money on her for her birthday. She said she wanted the yard fixed up. I can’t say that I contributed much to that, because Hans got up the next day and mowed the lawn, weeded, and made it look very nice for her. What a good guy! No wonder everyone loves him so much!

We got a letter from Sky in the mail for Cam and Krista! It was so funny. Just like him. He drew a picture of the war in heaven, and he wrote out the scripture. Cameron is mailing him a letter back that says “And my father dwelt in a tent” with a picture of a tent. haha.

I had to go see the new pirates movie! So yesterday we took Cam and one of his friends to go see it with us.

I of course, packed snacks in my bag….. doesn’t everyone?

Um, I LOVED the movie. Seriously, it never gets old to me. Even though two of the main characters from the other movies weren’t in the movie, I still loved it!

All in all, things are good. We’ll see what the rest of the summer brings to us! Who doesn’t love summer ?!

Updates.

We were planning on and really wanting to be in Colorado this summer for Hans’ internship. We were waiting so patiently for everything to work out…… but today we found out that it isn’t going to work out.

It is sad for us. Especially me. I was getting so excited about being close to my family.

I would like to think that there was a reason for us postponing a move to Washington DC for an internship in Colorado…. that there was some reason for us to wait SO long without knowing where we were going to be living for the summer…. why everything has to be so last minute now…. maybe there is, but I just can’t see it now.

Enough of my woes. It looks like we are going to be in DC! As originally planned.I’m sure everything will work out as it should.

I will admit it is pretty nice to have a better idea of where we will be this summer.

I think the worst part will be the drive! And we may or may not stop at Disneyworld in Florida on the way there…. it’s only 15 more hours… no big deal right?  That would make it about a 6 day drive! FUN! haha.

I’m sure we will have fun! I just have to get over the initial anxiety of making sure everything gets done.

No Frugal Friday this week. I have gotten some pretty good deals, but there just isn’t much time for me to do things right now!

In some happy news….

The summer is here, and we are happy for new adventures that are coming!

We now have a new nephew! Congratulations to Ivan and Sandy. We love you all, and I know that I miss all the “Petrichs” a LOT! I think Hans does too…. ;)

Until next time!

Friday!

It’s Friday! I can’t believe we’re at the weekend already… AND that it is the middle of May!

I wish I knew where we were going to be this summer, and when exactly we are going to leave. I think we should be leaving in a week or 2, but who knows!? My patience is still being tested.

So for being frugal this week, first we bought a desk for cheap! We also got 40 bottles of Fuze for free! Ok, ok… we paid about 6 dollars…. because we ordered the coupons and we had to pay tax. But that’s still about 8 bottles for $1!

This is Hans’ favorite part about couponing. Getting stuff for free!

One thing I hate having to do, is run to the store for 1 or 2 items. Why? because I know I will pay more than I would normally.

One of the days this week, I had to run to the store after work to get some sausage, and I didn’t have any coupons with me. It was $4! Luckily I had picked up the store ad when I had walked in, and there was a store coupon that made the sausage $2.50!

One thing I have learned, is to ALWAYS pick up the store ad before you start shopping! They don’t advertise everything on the shelves, and some things you won’t be able to get at the sale price, unless you have the store coupon.

Glad it’s the weekend! can’t wait until we know where we will be for the next few months! No really. I can’t wait. ha.

A Desk!

I have been wanting us to get a desk for SO long.

Our plan for living here was to get the cheapest furniture available, and then get rid of ALL of it right before we leave when Hans graduates. Then we plan on getting new furniture that we actually like.

This has worked well for us so far. But we hadn’t bought a desk. Which Hans didn’t mind actually. Which is weird. But he is usually the type that will go along with whatever he has and not complain about it. Plus we didn’t want to spend the money to buy a desk. especially when Hans said he didn’t mind. And he didn’t want to have to figure out a way to haul it back to our place.

So for the last year, He has been working with his computer on his lap.

I have been getting really sick of seeing him work like that… .. and one day he said “well….. sometimes my legs fall asleep”. So I put my foot down and told him we were buying a desk.

So, with only a year left in this masters program, and a somewhat tight budget, we went to DI.

Lucky for us, we found a good sturdy desk for &15! And our friends helped us haul it back to our place!

It wasn’t the prettiest thing ever, so of course I decided to paint it.

This is what it looked like before:

And then I painted it

An now it looks much better!

The not fun part Is that for the last 3 days it has been raining and snowing, and I decided I couldn’t keep waiting to paint it, because obviously Idaho is cold most of the time. So it was cold and rainy when I painted it, but what can you do?

I think overall, I’m just glad we have a desk! I guess now I have to search for a good chair…..

Frugal?

As I was contemplating today what I would write about for my Frugal Friday post, because I know there are so many people just waiting so patiently to read about being frugal… out of the few people that read my ( our?) blog….. I thought to myself …..  Man! I hate being frugal! I just want to be able to buy what I want to buy and not have to think about a budget! 

It’s not easy. It is stressful. It is disappointing.

The 1 important thing that I have to remember at times when I feel this way is that I am happy. Right now, I am happy. Even without a ton of money. Money doesn’t buy real happiness. Sappy. But true.

So, 2 things for today.

Last Friday, I was complaining about how the items I wanted to get at the stores were always gone. I have found a solution. Rain checks. I hope you have heard of these!  Now, when I go to a store, and I want to get an item that is on sale, and they are all out, I just ask for a rain check! Then I can come in when they are not on sale, and buy them then at the sale price. That way I know that the shelf will not be empty. Perfect solution.

I was smart enough to get a rain check on some things a few weeks ago, I was able to get some really cheap stuff! I got 8 boxes of capn’ crunch cereal for 3 dollars total!  Yes 8! Hans was excited because peanut butter crunch is one of his favorite cereals. :)

I also got 4 frozen pizzas for free. As well as some other things… Rain checks. Perfect.

The second frugal things is…..

Foaming hand soap!

If you love foaming hand soap, but don’t want to keep paying more to buy it, there might be a solution!

All you have to do is, when your container ( like shown above), is out of soap, you fill it up with regular hand soap, about 1/4 of the way. Then you fill the rest up with water (slowly), and there you go! foaming hand soap!

I read this on another blog. I haven’t tried it. But I probably will. Hope it works!

A Good Day

Last week Hans and I had a conversation about the things we like to do. You see, we have found that we don’t exactly like to do the same things…. which has been fine because when we wanted to do something the other didn’t like, we just separated and did things on our own, or with friends.

But now we have found more extra time, and more time to spend with each other. So last Tuesday I went to play ping pong and foosball ( I hope that’s how you spell it)  with him, and then after he came shopping with me. It was a great compromise. He doesn’t like shopping, and I’m not very good at ping pong and foosball…. but we have been able to spend some good time with each other!  We have decided to do a Tuesday “date day”. So we went and played ping pong and then went shopping today, it was great!

Hooray for DI and goodwill!

We found a  poster for our movie room ( love pirates!), and a decorative plate that goes perfectly in our kitchen! And I’m actually getting better at ping pong!

Tonight I was lucky enough not to have to work, and I was able to go to an end of the year party that Hans’ program was having. We had a good time! It’s good to get to know some of the people in the program! People that know exactly what you are going through, because we are all in the same situation!

It was sort of a goodbye to all the “second years” as well, who are all graduating and starting their jobs within the next couple of months. I can’t believe that in a year we will be saying goodbye, and Hans will be done with his masters program! Time really does go by fast….

We only got two pictures. Hans took them. I wasn’t too concerned about taking pictures ( I kinda forgot) So these are the pictures I got……

Haha.

It was a good day.

Now it’s time for us to figure out what we are going to do for the next few weeks before the internship! Well, really I’m still working. But I don’t think Hans knows what to do with himself now that he doesn’t have any homework or classes.

Hans wants us to go to Disneyworld. Which would be fun…. We’ll see if I’ll let that one slide….