I Want It NOW a.k.a. Sassy the Spoiled Little Brat

Today I have been thinking of my life. Thinking of my life immediately takes me to my kids, which then in turn brings me to responsibilities, which then in turn brings me to my house, which for some weird reason today brought me smack dab to my dishwasher.

Or shall I say…. LACK OF A WORKING DISHWASHER.

I have decided today that a new dishwasher is no longer a want. I am kind of throwing that up there to a need. Okay so I might be being petty and know that a dishwasher is not a need, but I really, really, REALLY, REALLY, REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEALLY want a new one.

My life just can’t go on without one (grin). If I have to scrub another sink full of dishes by hand again I might just stop eating all together so I don’t have to do the dishes, though that might not exactly work as I know my kids will still be eating. And I just don’t wanna do dishes by hand.

Yes, the frugal side of me can easily deal with it and do dishes by hand, thereby not dishing out such a substantial amount of money on a dishwasher. But the spoiled brat side of me doesn’t care about being frugal right now. Time to get my butt in gear and save up to get me a dishwasher.

Maybe my spending freeze on food for next month will kick start some of the funds for my much needed dishwasher. Maybe I can save a substantial amount by not shopping for food, even though we currently eat pretty frugally. But that is beside the point.

Sassy is tired of not having a dishwasher!!!!


I immediately am brought to remembering in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where the Veruca Salt girl sings that song “I WANT IT NOW”. Yes, I can be a spoiled brat too. ;)

Hoarders, Food and Heat

Over the weekend I had this weird, sudden urge to cook. Remember I live in the desert where it is hot! In the middle of summer where it is so deathly hot, cooking can have very bad consequences. Namely heating up the whole house! I immediately thought it through and stupidly decided to cook anyways!


I ended up making homemade spaghetti sauce all from scratch. Tomatoes, bell peppers and onions have been on MAJOR sale this and last week. I will admit that I don’t like tomatoes. I do like spaghetti sauce and tomato based items, but not tomatoes raw and plain. So I figured I better use them up as this had been the first time in my entire life I had ever purchased tomatoes. Am I weird? Maybe. I just never had done that in my life. I didn’t even know how to pick out a good tomato. But I did cook and swimmer the sauce until it was perfect. I feel like a pro now though ;) I looked in the freezer and added some meatballs and broccoli in it. The kids would eat it at least.

I also made a 15 Bean Cajun Soup from dried beans. The beans alone took about 2 hours to make. It also required tomatoes, onions and bell peppers. I must admit that it turned out so great! I added sausage links in mine.

Needless to say, our house was quite HOT over the weekend. While cooking I realized I had no space in the freezer to store anything. So I decided I need to get working on eating up the foods in the freezers. Yes, I said FREEZERS. I have a deep freezer and my regular freezer. When foods go on sale, I stock up and purchase plenty so I don’t have to pay full price later down the road. So needless to say, we are well stocked up. But now it is a matter of rotating foods and using them up.

So I think I am putting myself on a “NOT-ALLOWED-TO-BUY-ANYTHING-FOR-FOOD” kinda spending freeze until I use up a lot of the items in the freezers. I am initiating this spending freeze for the month of September. I am permitting myself to purchase fruits, veggies and milk. However, I think other than that, I shouldn’t be buying anything else.

I feel like I am living on the show of hoarders when looking in my freezers (okay maybe that is stretching it a little). But I think it will kick me in the butt to use up the foods in there. Yes, I might end up heating up the house quite a bit over the next month.

Tragedies of Window Shopping

Over the weekend I was invited to a family member’s house for dinner. They told me to bring a salad if possible and come sometime after 5:00 that evening. I showed up at about 5:10 and they were nowhere in sight. Well, since they don’t exactly live anywhere around our house, I decided to go window shopping and looking around in Ross right by their house. While in there, the kids wanted to look at the cool toys. I just wanted to browse around.


In my browsing, I found a darling purple children’s ottoman. I thought it looked so cool and would look great in Bug’s room. My mind raced to all the awesome uses she could make of this. It was plush and very stylish. I thought how cool it would be to put all her dress up items in. I thought how cool it would be next to a mirror. Then I looked at the price tag. They wanted $40.00 plus tax for it. That is a pretty big penny for a storage item in my opinion. I let my mind wander and thought how awesome it would be for Christmas. Then I looked to my right and saw an awesome looking coat rack. You know those old coat racks from back in the day, well that is what I saw. And I got to thinking how cool that would be to put her dress up items on- next to the ottoman and mirror. How much was the coat rack? The same price as the ottoman! So here I am thinking about how awesome these would be in her room.

Remember that I set a $50.00 limit out of pocket for Christmas this year. I am currently at almost $10.00 as of right now. Had I seen these items at Ross before, I must openly admit that I would have definitely put together a different strategy and list for Christmas for my kids.

I am not one of those parents who buys my kids whatever they want. I honestly pretty much only purchase toys and things of that nature for birthdays and Christmas. Heck, I only purchase clothes for my kids around back-to-school time or at yard sales when they are really in need of them.

I am left wondering what to do about getting these things for Bug. I really think they would be of great use to her and I know she would love them. But there is no way I want to shell out $80.00 plus tax for them. That just isn’t wise spending in my eyes.

So now I am hoping I work hard to win some gift cards and such in order to get her these. Wish me luck! I might need it. What would you do in this situation? Would you just buy them and not worry about it?

My Quest for an Amazing Christmas- Ongoing Still :)

Well, it has been quite a while since I really blogged significantly.  What have I been up to?  Oh you know- the usual.  Saving, stretching my pennies to their max, working, kids, cleaning  oh wait, I have been completely slacking and NOT cleaning (I know I need to be punished, hahaha), deal hunting, entering my online giveaways and everything else in between. 

You all know I have been on a quest to provide an amazing Christmas for my kids for under $50.00 out of my pocket this year, with hopes that I can provide great presents for my kids.  Yes, I am a single mom and our money needs to be stretched.  If you go here, here and here you would see all the preparations and anticipations I have put into Christmas thus far. 

In addition to those posts, I won a few gift cards and have items to add to the list :)  Yes, I am so blessed to be on track to reach my goal. 

In addition to my kids, our agreement in our family is that everyone purchases just for the kids for Christmas beginning this year.  So I have one niece and one nephew to purchase for in addition to my kids.  So I decided I should add them to the list and figure out something to get them at an inexpensive price.  So I got my brain working (yeah pretty sad that I have to turn on my brain, don't ya think???). 

Target was having a big clearance sale, which my friend Michelle (aka Shelli) was so kind to let me know about (HUGE THANK YOU TO YOU, SHELLI!!!), and I went to check it out.  I was so happy to find some great items at such little prices.  I found a Knex set for $5.32 for my nephew (originally $21.00), 3 fun card games for under $1.50 each for stocking stuffers for me, Bug and Jack, a Carz 2 walkie talkie set for only $8.48 for Jack, a fun board game for $3.24, and an Iron Man light toy for only $1.24!  To top it off, I had a $25.00 gift card that I had and used.              
                                      Total: $25.14
                             Gift Card: ($25.00)
                                       Total: $0.14
Yes, you read that correctly.  14 whole cents out of pocket.  Woot, woot. 

I took in some cans that I have collected from work for a while now and received $6.00.  I decided to purchase the Cheaper by the Dozen movie (which I have been wanting to get the kids for a while now) on WalMart.com for $5.41 with ship to store shipping.  So nothing spent out of pocket!  In fact .59 whole cents left over.  So I will take that 14 cents off the total I would have added in my total for above.

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So far for Christmas here are the running totals with designated gifts listed below:

Jack:


Hook the movie (won online)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Tutles DVD set(won online)

Cars Toy Laptop (won online)

Monsters Inc. DVD(won online)

Arthur and the Invisibles DVD (mixed won online and overage out of pocket)

Arthur and the Invisibles 2, 3 DVD (won online)

Batman DVD 4 pack (won online)

Stash of 14 Chevron Techron cars (yard sale)

Car Rug (yard sale)

Veggie Tales Live DVD (won online)

Crocodile Hop Game (won online)

Cars Shirt and puzzle prize pack(won online)

(2) Mater toys (received for free)

Cars 2 Walkie Talkie set (clearance- won online with gift card)

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus game (clearance- won online with gift card)

Iron Man toy (clearance- won online with gift card)

card game-stocking stuffer (clearance- won online with gift card)

Jack's Total: $8.19 spent out of pocket

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Bug:
Taylor Swift's Fearless CD (won online)

Taylor Swift's Self Titled Album (won online and a little overage)

Taylor Swift's Speak Now CD (won online)

A Flip Camera (won online)

Cheaper By the Dozen 2 (won online)

Enchanted DVD (won online)

Build-A-Dream Playhouse (Castle) (won online)

Judy Moody Book (won online)

card game-stocking stuffer (clearance- won online with gift card)

Cheaper By the Dozen DVD (money received from recycling cans from work)

Lilo and Stitch Movie (purchased with a gift card won online)

Neverending Story 1 and 2 DVD (purchased with a gift card won online)

Problem Child Tantrum Pack (purchased with $5 of Swagbucks gift card and overage of $2.69)


Bug's Total: $4.07 spent out of pocket

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Niece and Nephew:
Barbie playset (already purchased on major clearance last year so I am not going to count this in my total for this year's total though it was only $3.00)
Knex set (clearance- won with gift card plus overage but overage deduct due to recycling)
Total: $0.00 due to recycling overage lol
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TOTAL SPENT OUT OF POCKET: $12.26
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So who else has been preparing for Christmas?  How prepared are you?  What does Santa plan on getting your kids this year?  How are you feeling about your Christmas preparations?  Let's hear all about it!