Baking my bread

It's not beautiful, BUT, it is delicious! It was really easy and I am no longer afraid of working with yeast! It is true that it slices nicely and as you will see below it withstood being made into a grilled cheese sandwich (which was pretty tasty too) !

One was enough for me, as it was very filling.

I think I will be easing myself into making this more and then I will not have to buy so much bread from the store. Just another way of cutting more preservatives out of my family's diet.

I had to do my quarterly shopping at Aldi today and discovered they do not open until 10:00 am on Sunday. I decided I might as well go to Walmart (which is accross the street) and use the coupons I had saved up just for a "Walmart trip".  They do have lower prices on "some" things so if I am in the area I will stop and pick up those items and compare other prices for future reference.

My total before my coupons was $21.54 after the coupons it was $13.92 I was impressed with myself.

I even got these five items free!

I did also bake the Zucchinni Cookies today and they are a hit!
I believe it has been a very good day of "finds". Have a good evening.

Coffee at the Bank

I closed out my business account at my neighborhood bank (Frontier Savings Bank) last week because they were rude to me. So today I decided to go with the new bank in town, First National. They have a really cool glass building about a mile from my house in a new development called Metro Crossing. We have gotten several new retail stores and restaurants out there too.
I chose them because they are close and also my home loan is through them. I had no idea that I would get a gift for opening an account! That was a surprise!



I will be putting this little lunch bag in the SUV when we drive to Georgia this year.
But that was not the coolest thing about the bank. They have a small Scooters inside the bank and it's FREE!!!! My "personal banker" informed me I can come in everyday if I want and get a latte, espresso, coffee, cappuccino etc. They don't have my favorite though, which is a smoothie, but they do have iced. Yippee! So before I left I got me the popular "Carmelicious" latte. I have been wanting to try it but never wanted to spend the money in case I don't like. I didn't care for it but Dave liked it so it was not wasted!! I doubt I will be running there daily for a coffee fix but probably be doing my banking on Saturday mornings from now on. LOL.
I did my grocery shopping tonight, (I usually do it Sunday mornings). I want to do some baking tomorrow and want to get started early. I am going to try bread. Not bread machine bread but the old fashioned kind that you kneed. I found a recipe on one of the blogs I follow, "Daily Essentials & Deals", and I am going to try it. I also want to try the zucchini cookie recipe she has on there. Lord knows I have an abundance of shredded in the freezer. LOL.
Anyway, I found Cheerios for $1.98 a box! I had Cheerios coupons for $1.00 off 1 box that the company sent to my e-mail. I was able to get two boxes for 98¢ each! That was a great find.
Those were my finds today! Have a good evening!

Todays finds

I haven't been to any of the thrift stores accross the river in the BIG city since last Spring. I have been itching to go, so I got off work at 10am (took some vacation hours) and went to my favorites.
I noticed that thrift store prices have gotten outrageous. Out of the 5 stores I went to today, only 2 of them had decent prices. It's like 1)they have forgotten they got the stuff for free, 2) 95% of it is used and 3)we shop there to save money and get bargains. I will not be frequenting the others near as much as I used too.
I did get some deals at the other 2 stores. The one store had half off all blue tag stuff. The other just had decent prices.

I have a thing for gnomes as some of you may or may not know. I got this one for 98¢! The resin turtle was $2.97 and the resin urn was $1.97! These things would have cost $14.95 or more new. I am so excited to add them to my garden this Spring. The Winnie the Pooh cake pan was 98¢ and the NEW Bugs Life cake pan was also 98¢! I just happened to be in the aisle when the girl put them on the shelf, where I quickly grabbed them. LOL. The plastic bowl was 53¢. I have been in need of a new plastic salad bowl. The picture was 29¢. I bought it only for the glass.
Last week some naughty cat knocked over my corner shelf where all my kids first pictures were in antique frames. All three had the glass broke in them. The frames were not damaged. I replaced the one and only have two to go. I am sure to find more cheap frames with glass in them.
I also found this Pyrex bread pan for 98¢. I needed another since I only have one. I was looking for some mini bread pans but did not find any. Mine are metal and I noticed the other day they were cheaply made and one is starting to get rust.
I spent only $10.36 for it all! I think that I had some great finds today!
I am so ready for some yard sales!
Eveyone have a good evening!

Bathroom Color

I wish I had changed my mind on the bathroom color. I hate it!! It is blue not gray with a hint of blue. It is not the color that it is in the can or when I rolled it on the walls. As it dried it turned blue! It is like a smurf was rolled around the walls. UGH! Now I am trying to decide what to do. I am going to experiment with a wall and some glaze. If I can't make it look better I will have to decide on another color and this is way too much of a stress on me. LOL. I am not good at picking colors for rooms. The only color I am happy with that we have painted here so far is my kitchen. Why oh why can't a make a good decision once again?
My computor broke down friday so I rushed it over to Best Buy where they fixed it on the spot! WOW! I was sooooo happy! I was so worried I would be without it all weekend. Well it turns out I was. My Internet was then down and finally Sunday night I called my provider and after 1 hour it was back up - by this time I had to go to bed since I get up at 4 am to go to work.
So no new finds other than I realized just how much I hate blue and Best Buy is awesome and very reasonable at fixing pc's.
Maybe tomorrow. thanks for stopping.

Bathroom Color Has Been Found

Okay I believe I have made my final decision on the color for the bathroom. It is called Enveloping Calm. Out of the 6 color swatches taped to the wall this one is left. It is a bluish greyish. ( I will not change my mind. I will not change my mind) LOL.
So hopefully Saturday I will pick up the paint and get on with it. (That is the plan anyway).
I have taken a day off work friday to do taxes, ugh. I found a great free site to do them. It is TaxAct.com. I used them last year and it worked great. Free e-file too.
I have to file 2 different states and the fee's for them are quite reasonable.

I also found an interesting blog that I will be following and will add it to my list of "blogs I'm following". So check it out. It has a lot of interesting money saving tips.
Have a great evening!

Link Finds

I added a gadget called Links Finds. When I find a link to a site of interest I will add it there. I hope you will check these out.
I have added only one so far.
It is to a website where you can buy designs for your embroidery machine.
She is my sister and is very talented in this way so please check out her site. She has some really neat things on there.
Today I found my grocer had Green Giant Steamers for 88¢ each and I had 40¢ coupons, (4 of them actually) so I paid 48¢ each. Great deal! I ad matched the big boxes of Lucky Charms Cereal 2 for $3.00 from another grocery store and then used a coupon I printed off of coupons.com for $1.00 off 2. Another great find today!
That is the extent of my finds today. Back to work tomorrow ugh!

Bathroom light fixture

todays find $7 bucks!!


old ugly fixture

We have been remodeling our bathroom on and off since we moved here 3 years ago. First we HAD to replace the floor and sink. Then we removed some cupboards (there were way too many). Then came the time for me to choose a color. Anyone that knows me knows I can not make this decision for weeks, months or even years lol.

There is also this horrid light fixture that will need replaced before the painting anyway. LOL. I have not been able to find a single one I like new. So I have moved onto watching yard sales, thrift shops and craigslist - still nothing.

They built a new Habitat For Humanity here in my town so I figured might as well check it out. You see I have been to the one in Omaha (across the river from my town) and they ask outrageous prices for some stuff that is actual crap! Now I know it's to help build the houses and all but seriously we wouldn't be shopping there if WE weren't looking for bargains.

I found a fixture that I could work with, but naturally it was the only item in the store without a price tag. I really expected to be leaving empty handed, so when the guy said $7.00 I couldn't get to the checkout fast enough. LOL.

As I say it needs some work because I hate polished brass. I expect to be remedying that in the next few days so stay tuned for the transformation!