randomly chaotic and frequently mundane

A few years ago, my cousin Luke died. It was incredibly sad for everyone in the family. Unfortunately, the family members who don’t live in the area weren’t told about it until after the funeral, which gave us no opportunity for the closure which attending the funeral offers. He was young, the same age as my little sister, actually. She was very affected by it, she was quite close to Luke. When she was emotionally able to, my aunt set up a page dedicated to my cousin at Registry of Life. It’s an interesting website that’s been very helpful in getting her (and other family members) through the grieving process. There’s a timeline of Luke’s life and a photo album with pictures of him from the day he was born up until right before he died. The last time I saw him I was 12 years old and he was about 8. So I didn’t get to see him grow up. Seeing the timeline and the photo gallery were really nice for me. I got to see all of the milestones of his life that I didn’t know about as well as seeing him “grow up” through pictures. While it was very sad and I felt a tremendous loss, it was my aunt who needed the most support through the process. It was nice to be able to give her that support through the website, it did her a lot of good.

This is a sponsored post.

Eventually, I’ll reach the point where I’m saving 40-50% at the grocery store by use of sales and coupons.  I don’t think I’ll ever be that person who gets $100 worth of groceries for $10, but I’m working on it.  I know that Woody and I once managed to get about $200 worth of groceries for $80 — that was impressive as hell and I strive to accomplish that again.  Of course, it was like 2am, we were both tired but we needed food.  It was right after I moved to Colorado.

Coupons are good.  Coupons are your friends.  The thing with coupons is that you have to be smart about using them.  Now, all the “experts” the ones who get a cartload of groceries for chump change say that you should combine coupons and sales.  This is true.  They also say that everything you buy must be on sale AND be on a coupon you’re using.  Unfortunately I can’t do that.  I need things that are often not on sale or that I don’t have a coupon for.  But I get the gist, you know?

Here’s the thing… couple of weeks ago I bought some Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner.  I had a “buy one get one free” coupon which I used.  The Herbal Essences was on sale, 2 for $5 — the regular price was $3.59.  When I got home, I checked my receipt and found that $3.59 had been deducted for the coupon, not $2.50 (the sale price).  Why?  Well, when stores submit coupons like that they let the manufacturer know how much the discount was to be reimbursed.  So they’re getting their $3.59 back.  It doesn’t matter to them.  It matters to the consumer.  We save more money when stores do that.  I paid $1.41 for shampoo and conditioner, and it wasn’t the cheap stuff.

So especially with buy one get one free coupons, you want to buy on sale (I’ve actually got BOGO coupons set aside for a few other brands of shampoo and I’m waiting for them to go on sale). You’re going to sacrifice a little brand loyalty, but if you only ever use BOGO and use them when the items in question are on sale… you can save some good money.   If you can use them on something that’s already 50% off, you’ll get 2 free.  Here’s the math on that:  let’s say aerosol air freshener is $3 a can.  Since they’re 50% off, you’ll spend $1.50 a can.  That’s a total of $3.  When you apply your BOGO coupon, the store will discount $3 — ergo, free.

And then there’s the joy of coupon doubling, which some places do if you use their member card.  Usually there’s a limit on the coupon discount, 99 cents or $1 is the usual limit.  Which means that any coupons less than or equal to that amount will be doubled (unless the coupon says it’s not subject to doubling).  So your 55 cents off a bag of bagels becomes $1.10.  Add doubling to sales, and I can see how a person could save so much at the grocery store.  I just haven’t been able to accomplish it yet.

Last grocery trip I saved about $12 with coupons alone.  My sale savings were around $20.  Overall it was about 20% saved.  Always working for a higher percentage saved.  Always.   Saving 50% on a regular basis is my goal.

I was complimented during one of my last trips to the grocery store on my use of coupons. I did managed to save about $12 on my groceries that trip, so it was a pretty good exercise in coupon use. I don’t just use them in “brick and mortar” stores, of course. I also like to take advantage of online shopping coupons. You can get some really good deals using them. Free shipping, percentage or dollars off, it all adds up to saving you some money.

Take for example, PETsMART. With the right online shopping coupon, you can get free shipping on a purchase of $50 or more. Doesn’t sound like much, unless you’re buying 30 lbs of pet food. Saving shipping sounds like a good deal now, doesn’t it? Ok, let’s say you usually go to your local PETsMART and get your dog food and bird seed and all of that. You decide this time to order online and use the online coupon, just to give it a whirl. You usually spend over $50 anyway, so that’s not a problem. You go online and order all the things you buy on a normal trip to PETsMART and you get free shipping, so you pay exactly what you would have paid if you’d gone to the store. Except that today, you didn’t have to use any gas to drive there. Ah-ha! Every little bit counts, it all adds up to a little more money in your pocket.

I have a pattern in a craft book for Victorian bunnies. Normally, I would photo copy that a few times, cut the pieces out and enlarge to the right size for using it as a pattern and seeing how it does as far as making stuff out of the fabric Gage painted. Alas, there’s no ink in the printer. None whatsoever. It definitely sucks.

Printer ink aside, here’s what I’m thinking… I have patterns for jointed teddy bears, Victorian bunnies and beanie frogs. I was thinking about using the fabric Gage painted (and future fabric he paints) to make those items and sell them. I’ll probably do a dry run of each on plain fabric, to make sure that I can make them well and not waste any of the stuff Gage painted. My mom is keeping an eye out for fabric sales and said she’d send me some if she finds some good prices, which is nice. Someone also suggested hearts with ruffles and maybe a little potpourri in them or something. Not a bad idea either, to be honest. I’ve got 2 more crib sheets that Gage can paint once I get more paints, but I think I want to dye them first. They’re off-white and I just think that a different base color would look better.

Speaking of stuff Gage painted… the really cool swirly painting that Gage did is available as a mini poster at Cafepress.com.  Someone suggested it awhile ago, and I thought “What the hell?”  If someone likes it enough to want a mini poster of it, great.  If not, it doesn’t matter.  I love it so much I have the original!  he he

I’d like to get him more supplies to do paintings and stuff with, not just the fabric.  I think it would be cool to be able to give a “Gage original” to each of his grandmothers this Christmas or something.

Back to the bears… I think I’m going to start with a camouflage bear.  Maybe I’ll get some paint afterward and let Gage paint the finished bear.  That would be an interesting variation on the theme.

If you could design a piece of jewelry for a friend or loved one (or even yourself), what would you do? It would be an interesting gift, wouldn’t it? I can’t imagine anything that would be more personal than custom design jewelry made specifically for the person that it’s going to be given to. I think it would be really quite cool to have something put together for my little sister. A pendant, I think — half yellow gold and half white gold with the Kanji symbols for the nicknames some friends used to call us. A red stone set into her nickname (the yellow half) and a blue stone set into my nickname (the white half), or maybe no stones at all. Of course there’s always the option of just getting something that says “Sisser” but that would be so boring. I could actually spend days coming up with custom design jewelry for my loved ones.

gage is doing a lot of repeating things lately.  not just stuff that i say or try to get him to repeat, but things from his movies and stuff.  if he yells “please pass the ketchup” in my face one more time i’m going to scream.  i hid the animaniacs video 2 days ago, hoping he’d forget about it, but he hasn’t.

things are coming out of the woodwork, too.  he’s singing songs and quoting lines from movies that i know he hasn’t seen in months.  it’s very interesting.

i need to get some work done around the house.  stuff unpacked and put away.  i put a bunch of stuff up in the closet last night, so that cleared some space, which is nice.  i listed a few things on ebay and on craigslist, hopefully that helps.  i need to come up with $125 by monday for the phone bill, plus $107 for rent.  blah.  i’ve only got about $15 coming from payperpost by the 5th of the month.  there’s other stuff that should be paying soon as well, of course.  but i don’t know when smorty or blogitive will be paying.  either way it’s a combined $38 which is nice.  plus about $25 from digital journal around the first and a possible $15 from mylot (no clue if they genuinely pay out).  i’m hoping that someone takes this piano off my hands.  i’ve lowered the price to $250 OBO from $350 OBO.  i’m hoping that helps.

There’s nothing quite as nice in a home as a tile mosaic. Whether it be a floor, bathroom walls, design in a pool or even a kitchen backsplash. There’s just something about them that I’ve always loved. I knew someone years ago who had about 80% of their bathroom done in tile mosaic.  It was all a really pretty green glass tile with a few seemingly random marble or ceramic tiles thrown in.  While it was indeed lovely, the bathtub was incredibly uncomfortable — it should go without saying that you shouldn’t do tile mosaic on the inside of your bathtub.  But it was gorgeous, and inspiring.  Eventually, when I have a house, I want to do a bathroom with tile mosaic.  With a nice mix of different types of tiles, including glass and marble.  Something bright and cheerful, yet relaxing, you know?  It wouldn’t stop with the bathroom of course.  I think they look lovely as flooring in the entryway of a home, and various places in the kitchen.

yes, it’s possible.  personally, i haven’t made anything through affiliate links and stuff like that, but i have made money through a number of other websites.  these sites are sites that i’ve actually received payment from:

associated content - i’ve probably received a total of $100 from them.  my articles average 3 - 6 dollars each, though i’ve gotten as much as $12.  i’m also not the most prolific content producer.  to earn money with them, simply write articles on subjects that you would like to and submit them for payment.  they approve or deny them, approvals come with an offer.  you have to accept the offer in order to get paid.

digital journal -  this is a news site.  basically you post a summary of a news article in your own words.  you can also add your own opinion to the article.  i’ve made about $100 total from them so far as well, again not the most prolific on the site.

blogitive  - this is a paid to blog website.  you’re given information and a press release for certain products, websites, etc and you have to blog about them and include a specified link w/ specified text in the context of your post.  the average payment for this one is about $5 per post, i’ve probably earned about $50 from them.

payperpost - this was the first one that i started on.  another paid to blog site.  since late november, i’ve earned about $1500 through them.  the amount of money you can earn depends greatly on the popularity of your blog.  i have 2 registered with them that have a google pagerank of 0, so they don’t get many opps.  this blog is ranked at 2 so it gets a fair amount.  i had one that was ranked at a 5, which got me quite a few opps that were $20 - $35 (pagerank can go as high as 10, and i’ve seen opps on payperpost that were worth a couple hundred).  during the month that i was using that blog, i made about $400.  unfortunately, that blog was on a free server that doesn’t allow paid blog entries (so check the TOS on your blog before you start or they can shut your blog down).

so it’s possible to earn online and under the right circumstances it’s possible to earn a good part or full time income.

and that will be nice.  it’s been rather hot all day.  the breeze is wonderful, except for the dust that’s floating on it — much of it as a result of gage tossing fistfuls of dirt into the air.

i’m getting a little concerned about the mail… so far not a damn thing has been forwarded.  that’s not a good sign.  on top of that, i’ve checked the status on some uncollected funds in virginia from when i worked at harry and david and it’s supposed to be mailing in the next 7-10 days.  i contacted them to see about changing my address… since i have no idea where my forwarded mail is ending up.  it’s been 20 days since they processed the forward (which i submitted 1 month ago), you’d think that SOMETHING would be forwarded.

I love Florida. I always have. My parents grew up there, and we spent time every summer and every Christmas down there until I was 10 years old. There were day trips to Disney, Parrot Jungle, Sea World, Seaquarium, etc. Spending time in Florida is filled with fond memories and a lot of smiles. Which is why when I’m in a position to do so, I plan on looking for a nice villa for sale in Florida. Not to live there. As much as I love it, I honestly don’t want to live down there. I love snow too much. But I’d love to have a place down there that I could go to whenever I wanted. Somewhere I could go with my family and spend a week. Even just relaxing — there don’t have to be theme parks or any of that involved.

tonight is very nice.  comfortable.  it was a real scorcher today.  really not comfortable at all.  sweat dripping down hot and uncomfortable bodies.  blah.  but now it’s nice.

i’ve decided to sell the piano that came with the place.  i told the landlord when we moved in that i’d take it if he didn’t want it for anything, he said ok.  that makes it mine.  then i found a keyboard in the closet.  clearly music therapy was something that the previous tenants utilized.  if i can get a couple hundred for the piano i’ll be happy.  it’ll also open up some room in the kitchen.  might even increase airflow, since the piano is currently blocking a window (which is closed).  the house is a bit sweltering, right now.

I love rotisserie chicken. I love other things cooked in the rotisserie as well, of course, but he chicken… oh the chicken. Quite often, I pass the huge rotisseries at the grocery store and think “when I buy a house, I’m getting one of those in my kitchen.” A smaller one, of course. Rotisolusa.com has electric and gas rotisseries for the home. That’s what I want. I wanna be able to do a couple of chickens for a party or something. But also to be able to do just one if that’s all I need. It’s not just chicken, of course. I’d love to be able to do a turkey, but the countertop models that most people have (including me) don’t generally fit them. You can do just about any kind of meat in a rotisserie. Wouldn’t it be great to do perfect prime rib at home? Think of how much you’d save over going to a restaurant. It’s healthier, too. The fat drips away from the meat and you’re left with something that’s been basting in its own juices for however long you’ve been cooking it. It’s culinary perfection, truly.

it would be nice to be able to go to the grocery store whenever i wanted/needed to and not have to call a cab.  though i have to admit that having to take a cab has gotten me over the apprehension i used to have about cabs.  don’t know why i had that, to be honest.

so we went grocery shopping.  the cab driver was really nice and turned off the meter while we were shopping.  he also said next time that if i call for him specifically (he gave me his card), he would be happy to let me pay before going in for the fare to the grocery store and then just wait in the parking lot for me to be done.  then i wouldn’t have to pay the “waiting fare” which is 75 cents for 2 minutes.

he even carried the groceries up to the porch for me.

I’m a hockey fan. Everyone knows that I’m sure. During hockey season I will re-arrange my life to make sure that I see every single Avalanche game that’s broadcast, and my dedication to seeing the nationally broadcast games that don’t involve the Avalanche isn’t much less strident. I love the game and everything about the game. Not just the game, but the future of the game. I love looking at the profiles (and occasional video footage) of future NHLers. I’m also a big fan of looking at the scouting reports of players selected in the nhl entry draft and following the ones that I think are promising. I like seeing if my assessment was accurate. Hockey is a passion, and sites like Hockeysfuture.com help to fuel that passion and keep it burning deep in the core of my being. They’ve got a lot of good information on the up and coming prospects that makes me happy. Especially in the months between the Stanley Cup Finals and the start of the pre-season and training camp.

i’m tempted to take the stockpot and use it to fill up gage’s pool.  turning off the hose is a hassle, but it doesn’t mean that i’m going to make my child and dog suffer in the heat without some relief.  it being really hot in the house as well, i prefer that they be outside where they can at least catch a breeze.

gonna have to walk up to conoco later.  need some milk so gage can have cereal for breakfast.  we’ve got no other breakfast food for him.  i’m not going to be able to put off the grocery trip much longer.