A Hot Mess And Godless

     A guilty pleasure I've found myself sucked into in the past is magazine hoarding. I've held onto months, even years, of old magazines such as Woman's Day and Good Housekeeping, swearing one day I'll need them because I really want to make that really cool looking Halloween craft or yummy recipe featured on the front cover. Some day I'll need those cleaning tips and how to work out without a gym articles....and I won't say it never happened, because there was the rare occasion I'd whip one out and start flipping through it looking for something new to cook that weekend. However, once I did I usually found myself just being very disappointed. That pretty recipe was bland as fuck and now I'm left with a jar of tarragon sauce I'll never touch again, or that "quick and easy crafting project" ended up being a nightmare and waste of my time, money, and sanity, and in the trash that magazine goes - where it should have gone eight months ago....

     I strive to be one of those moms that successfully not only plans her meals out a week in advance, but also ensures she has all the necessary ingredients, AND remembered to take the meat out of the freezer in time...when and if that ever happens I'll let you know. So, that leaves the same pattern of that first half hour out of work being "what the hell do I feed these kids tonight?"      Last night I was craving tacos and I remembered the last time we were in Food City (we had just popped into the nearest store for water) they had 3 packs of different taco meat for $20. Now that was last summer, but I thought what the hell, we went to check if they still had it and they did not. BUT they did have a complete fajita meal kit with veggies, chicken, and beef for ten bucks! So we grabbed a thing of corn tortillas for less than two bucks, a dollar bag of tortilla chips and salsa for $3.99, some jalapenos and onions to grill and had the most delicious fajit...

     I've had a bad mental health week. I'm sure many of you have been there: pulling yourself out of bed and forcing yourself to shower and head to work so you can pay bills is hard enough, but the idea of standing in front of a stove and cooking seems completely impossible. Kids still gotta eat though.      So what do you do? Well I for one am a big fan of encouraging independence in children by giving them the occasional opportunity to feed themselves (at age appropriate levels of course) so "mom's feeling like a bowl of shit tonight meal" #2 was them making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with apple slices for dinner. The apple slices were impressively their idea. I'm very lucky to have kids that actually enjoy eating fruits and veggies; night #1 we ordered pizza. By night #3 I was feeling guilty about not cooking so I popped in the kitchen to make one of the easiest and quickest things in the pantry: ramen noodles.      Yes, ramen ...

Yay! You've ended another week without strangling anyone! Here's some deals and tasty recipes to reward you for making it through another week of work and parenthood!  Deals I love this week: Groceries  Free, yes FREE chocolate at Frys! Download this week's  Free Friday Download  before the end of the day today and stop in sometime before April 4th to redeem it!  Fry's also has a great deal going on for strawberries 4/$5 and deals on soda I will be taking them up on! Check out your local store's Weekly Ad  for more!  Feeling crafty? Have a big project you've been waiting on good deals to purchase materials for? Head over to Michael's for a 40% off one item AND 20% off your total purchase you can use together! I'll be heading in there myself today to pick up materials for some ritual wreaths I'm making for a Grey Faction project! *See bottom of blog for more info*  Sprouts has an amazing 72 Hour Sale  going on this weeke...

Welcome to Frugal Fridays! Where I go over good deals I've spotted going on throughout the week!  First up is Fry's Food & Drug stores! Fry's recently started doing Digital Deals;  digital coupon sales that can be used up to 5x in one transaction. These sales typical last Friday - Sunday but this isn't always consistent and not every store is the same, so please check your local weekly ad before hopping in your car. I'll be stocking up this weekend and tossing a few packages in the freezer for later as these typically go for $4.49 each at regular price. If you want a good tip on how to rack up some extra fuel points while you're saving some cash at Fry's start at the register before you shop. Purchase a qualifying Visa gift card that  you can use on the groceries you're about to buy and you'll earn 4x the fuel point spent on that card purchase PLUS the fuel points you earn from the groceries. It requires two transactions through th...

         I know; I've ranted on about all kinds of things this week and by this point you're sitting there thinking  okay bitch now tell me how to save some money already! Alrighty Then! I don't "extreme coupon." I'm not going to make wild claims that I can help you lower your grocery bill from $300 dollars a week to a few bucks. 1) Nobody got time for that. 2) It's actually a huge pain in the ass to try, and as more people have been trying it, more stores have changed their sales and coupon policies to stop it. I can give you solid advice on knocking off a few bucks here and there though. I'm quite the frugal shopper, in a household of five (6 if you count the dog) I have to be, and some things you just pick up on after doing it for so long. So here's a few general (and realistic) tips and advice to get you started on your money saving way. * Focus on where you actually shop (or where you know you will realistically make the trip out to)...