A New Goal

Last fall, I went through a pantry/freezer cleaning experiment to see if I could go the entire month without buying any more groceries/spending any money on food.  Although we had a few unexpected food expenses arise (taking the family out to dinner), we saved a lot of money that month.  Obviously the stuff that was languishing in the back of the pantry and freezer for months weren't items we typically used so once we cleared it out, we were able to start anew with stuff we actually do consume regularly.

Now I want to embark on another experiment.  While it saved money to empty out our food stores, it isn't sustainable in the long run because we'd have to replenish it eventually.  A better experiment would be to try my hand at a little extreme couponing!  We don't typically consume a lot of conventional groceries: we either try to grow our own or buy local & organic--not stuff you'd see in the weekly sale mailers.  However, there are items that occasionally pop up that we do put to good use: soy milk, almond milk, juices, jarred (never canned) tomato sauce, and occasional toothpaste/mouthwash/floss etc.  I'd prefer to use Tom's of Maine toothpaste but we haven't fully made that switch yet.

Anyway, today was my first attempt at extreme couponing and while it isn't much, I did manage to save $2.05 on a half gallon of Almond Breeze!  I've purchased it at as high as $4.29 before but I usually buy it for around $3.79-$3.99.  Today, it was 2 for $6.00 and I had a $.55 manufacturer's coupon + store double coupon.  I ended up paying $1.95 for Almond Breeze...pretty much a 50% saving from my normal cost!  It feels so good!

So I'll do a little here and there to start accumulating more coupons in anticipation of my experiment come September.  I'd really like to see how much I can save that month.  My goal is $100 off our normal food/grocery expenses.

Upcycling

Things have been shifting and changing the household lately.  We moved in over two years ago and we haven't really touched the house since then.  Now that we have settled in, we have a better of idea of our habits and we are working on re-doing parts of the house.  We have 4 bedrooms, all of which are good-sized, but they aren't being maximized so we went to work planning and rearranging existing furniture.

The first project we did was to repaint a horrible bright blue bedroom (think "My Little Pony blue") into a much more flattering and neutral pale grey.  We are also in the process of taking apart the study and moving one of the two desks out to make a sewing/crafting area for me in the grey bedroom. We have plans to turn the study into a more functional library/playroom/guest room down the road.  By rearranging the study, we re-use existing stuff to complete other areas of the house.  We hung curtains and added a large pendant light for the dining room.  It is currently an IKEA white paper lantern but I saw this wonderful DIY hack for making a hemp pendant lamp that I want to try:

I either want to make one gigantic one or maybe 3 medium sized orbs hung in a row.  They look like West Elm's Abaca pendant but at a fraction of the price:

I can see it being a fun craft project with kids so I'll probably attempt this on a weekend when I have my niece over.