Perspective is a Great Thing

The reality hit us recently that we are stuck. Hubby has 3 years left in the military, and if he doesn't make the next rank, that's the end of his military career. With 3 years left in his current rank, he lacks what they call "retainability" which means we probably won't get orders out of the desert before his career is through.

See. Stuck.

I went into panic mode. We are used to moving every 3-5 years. Hubby has been here 5 years now, the kids and I have been here for 3 years- that Moving Itch had set in.

And remember how we had orders to Japan last year, and then they were cancelled? Every single person we talked to said, "Oh, just wait. Whenever they cancel orders like that, you always get another set of orders in the next cycle. You're fine."

We waited. And waited. Like 5 cycles have passed now, and no orders. They double screwed us.

So, we're stuck. When that realization hit, I did what any crazed person who feels backed into a corner does-

I started house hunting for a place off base. If the military won't give us orders, then at least we can take it upon ourselves to change our environment to make the next 3 years exciting again.

So let's talk numbers. I'm going to throw everything out there, and before you non-military people

Holiday Shopping with Tatted Mom, 5 Deals in All!

If you are all about the Christmas deals like I am, then this year, you've come to the right place!

As y'all know, I wrote a little book this year. The reviews have been coming in on Amazon, Goodreads and on websites, and they have been amazing. "Tatted Mom's Guide to NOT Screwing Up Your Kids" is currently a 5 star rated book, and I couldn't be happier!

Unless, of course, I'm sharing my book with you at some hella good deals. That would make me even happier. So, head to my estore and enter in coupon code R4MPLQAU to get a whopping $2 off the cover price of my book, taking it from $11.99 down to just $9.99!! This deal is not valid on Amazon.

What's going on over at Amazon, however, is the Kindle deal I have right now. No coupon code necessary, just head to my book on Amazon and get the Kindle version for just $2.99. That's $9 off the paperback price and 1/2 off the normal Kindle price of $5.99. This is a great e-gift idea for that loved one miles away. You can send Kindle books as gifts, so treat yourself or someone you know while this deal lasts.

I'm like Santa this year y'all. I'm not even done with the deals yet!

Remember my post about how my family is going to shop local mom and pop stores and buy homemade this

Our Chance at Being Millionaires Shot Down in All Its Glory

They say everyone has their shot at the Big Time, and sometimes the door to that big shot is only open once.

Our shot, as a family, came last week with probably the best idea that Hubby has ever come up with.

Yeah, it didn't last long.

Pic Courtesy

Hubby was cooking dinner last week, and this conversation occurred:

Hubby: Hey, why don't we have any season salt in the cabinet?
Me: Because I don't use season salt anymore.
Hubby: Well, I want some in the house.
Me: Okay, fine.
Hubby: I told you about this last week.
Me: Okay, well, did you add it to the list?
Hubby: What list?
Me: The grocery list.
Hubby: No. I told you. You were supposed to put it on the list.
Me: Well, I don't care about season salt, so it didn't register enough in my brain for me to add it to the list. Sorry.

And this, Inklingers, is when it happened...

Hubby: There should be an app for your phone for a grocery list.
Me: There are hundreds of grocery list apps, honey.
Hubby: Yeah, but there should be one where the whole family can add stuff to the list, and it syncs it all into one list. So, I could add something, and it goes to the list, and The Girl could add something from her phone, and it adds it to the list, and then you have the family list on your phone when you go shopping.

A silence fell in my kitchen. Everyone was contemplating this amazing idea.

The Girl grabbed her phone and headed to the app store. I refused to speak until her search results popped

Couponing, Tatted Mom Style

There seems to be an endless cycle repeating itself in my life every few months for the last year or so:

• Finances are great, so I relax on the couponing.
• Something pops up (whether it's an unexpected bill, Hubby's comic book ebay habit, or an event like vacation or back-to-school) to where I need to extreme coupon to have what we need
• I get addicted to getting things for free or nearly free until the next payday
• The next payday comes, money evens out, extreme couponing relaxes
• Wash, rinse, repeat cycle

The thing is, I have no idea why I stop couponing when money is fine in our house, because when I do the couponing thing, I even shock myself sometimes. 

$5.27 total for everything you see here

Take this recent trip for example. I had pieced together a deal on the pizza and ice cream that should have come out to $6 for those 4 items. I had free coupons for the yogurt, spinach and handsoap, but when you add on the milk, eggs and soda, my total should have been right around $11, with tax included. When the cashier announced my total of $5.27, I was shocked. As I stood there confused and handed the cashier exactly $5.27, she sensed my hesitation and began looking over the receipt herself, to see if there was an error somewhere. She accepted the money, handed me my receipt, and I told the kids to haul ass out of the store before they realized I had just (excuse the term, but it's what I use to describe my style of couponing) coupon raped them. Come to find out, I had a coupon on my grocery store card for $5 off of a $20 purchase that they accepted, taking my $11 estimate down to $5 and some change. 

You would think, with savings like that, and the rush you get walking out of a store having paid next to nothing for groceries, that I would do this all of the time. What if I told you that wasn't even the best deal I got last week?

• A loaf of bread, 4 pack of yogurt, large container of liquid coffee creamer, toothpaste and a bottle of shampoo (the $5 stuff) for $3.72 total.
• The kids and I took a trip to Target at 8:30 at night for 2 bottles of men's body wash, 2 women's

Couponing at Target... Yeah, I Rock That

Y'all know I love deals, couponing and getting free ish. So when Sara over at Super Punk Rock Mom Blog told me she was starting a couponing series on her blog and wanted me to do a guest post about how I rock Target, I was super excited. The list of free and nearly free stuff I've gotten at Target is probably a mile long by now, and even today I'm heading in for my Target Shopping Day (all capitals, yes, and if you follow the Inklings facebook page, you'll know it's an exciting day for me). On today's list: Discounted cat litter, makeup and chocolate. Woo hoo!!

Instead of starting it here like I do with posts on other sites, she has an amazing intro, so I'm just going to direct y'all there. Be sure to hit that banner down below the link real quick before you head to Sara's site, please. It'll all open up in new windows, so your path to Sara's awesome blog isn't diverted. ;)

Guest Blogger: Morgan from Inklings Teaches How to Score Major Savings from Target


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The Girl Whips Out the Responsibility Card on Us

Hubby and I finally got our federal tax return money. After calculating how much we'd be left with after we paid some bills, we made the tentative decision to get a new TV for the living room, as we are currently rocking a 32" one... which sucks because we have a 47" hole that it sits in, which makes it look like a baby TV.

We disagreed greatly on how to spend the no-more-than-$600 we had budgeted. I wanted a smaller TV that had the Wifi extras of being a Smart TV. Hubby wanted a non-smart larger TV. After I fell in love with a TV at the BX on base, and Hubby was leaning toward one at Target, we decided to not buy either and figure out- not while standing in the electronics aisle- what we could compromise on. As we drove away from Target, we posed the question to the kids of which TV they'd rather have.

The Ginger didn't care. The Girl's answer shocked the hell out of us:

"Why don't we not buy any TV because there isn't anything wrong with the one we have, and we leave the $600 in the bank to save it up?"

I'm sorry, what? Did the almost 11 year old just whip out the Responsibility Card on us? Did she just school us on money management?

Hubby and I sat there, speechless. We were offering the kids a brand new TV for the living room- either a big one or a smaller one with internet capabilities, and The Girl advised us to save our money.

Either Hubby and I are really good parents, or our daughter was kidnapped by aliens in the middle of the night and they replaced her with a clone that is trying to learn our human ways.

Don't get me wrong, there are times I'm an excellent parent. Teaching my kids the value of money is not one of those times. Hubby and I are horrible with money (hence the wanting to drop $600 on a TV we didn't necessarily need). I extreme coupon to be able to keep the house stocked with essentials because I never know how much money we'll blow when we get paid every few weeks (plus I love the thrill of getting crap for free).

That's when it hit me. Maybe I didn't teach the child anything about money management. Maybe she's learning from our mistakes. Maybe she's seen how Hubby and I spend money, and then end up broke, then spend more money, then end up broke, and she doesn't want to continue the cycle for herself... or us anymore, for that matter.

You know what? In this day and age of parenting, I'll take it. I'll take the lesson taught to our children based on mistakes they've watched us make. I'll tally that one as a win on the side of Hubby and I... which is why we decided to keep the money in the bank and not buy a new TV.

Fingers crossed The Girl will also learn the lessons of my mistakes when it comes to eating an entire box of brownie mix after 8pm when you are over 30, popping that second head of a pimple that's growing on your face which leaves scars, and online dating.


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I'll Trade You Candles for a Goat and Chicken

They say money is the root of all evil. I'm not sure who 'they' is, but there are days when I fully agree with them.

We filed our taxes about 2 weeks ago. This year the federal government couldn't get their crap together in time, so our taxes were put on hold until January 30th. They were accepted on the 31st, and now we are currently playing the waiting game, wondering when we'll actually get our refund check. For the past 13 years we filed, they were accepted the next day, and on Friday of the following week we got our money. If history repeats itself, that Friday is...

Today.

I keep checking our bank account, hoping and keeping my fingers crossed that it's there, and nothing so far. Normally, this would be okay. Normally, I'd just sit back and relax, not really worrying about it. Not this Friday. Not this year.

Hubby and I are horrible with money. So, if for some reason my amazing blog posts on how I smoothly handle every single parenting problem with grace and ease, and have amazing sex on a regular basis, and am always talking about how perfect my kids are, and how I'm a size 6 and eat whatever I want without exercising, and I'm always prepared for whatever life throws at me, and how I'm Super Mom and have a million friends led you to believe that I'm perfect with money, too... Sorry, that's just not the case.

Courtesy of William Stake

This tax refund is the money we need to finally get our lives back on track. Paying for a cross-country move (complete with a moving company that had their way with me and didn't use lube and 3 plane tickets with 2 pets accompanying along) in June followed by a deposit and moving to a house on base followed by The Ginger's birthday followed by Christmas followed by play catch up after Christmas has led us here: checking our bank account balance every 10 minutes to see if the IRS has satisfied their end of this deal.

This refund, for us, is our Wonka's Golden Ticket. It will pay off our car, our new washer and dryer and allow us to finally put money into savings- something we haven't had in... 7... no, wait, carry the two, subtract the years we were separated, add that weird tax bonus we got in September that one year, divide by the root of... yeah, I have no freaking clue. Every time we put money into savings, something would come up and we'd have to use the money in savings.

So yes, Inklingers, Hubby and I are part of the 2/3rds of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck. We've

Decorating on a Budget Infographic

My friends over at ForRent.com know my love of decorating... and my even bigger love of saving money. They sent me this infographic to share with you all, and it's amazing. I'm a huge advocate for finding things at Good Will and refurbishing them into one-of-a-kind pieces, and while I love decorating, our budget definitely doesn't allow for shopping at the high-end retail stores. This infographic gives some basic tips for getting the most out of your dollar when it comes to decorating. (Click it to make it bigger!)

Courtesy of ForRent.com

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TODAY ONLY- FREE SHIPPING at The Honest Company = FREE PRODUCTS!!

Today only, 11/23/12, The Honest Company is offering FREE SHIPPING on their orders. What that means for you all is that you can get their FREE TRIAL samples and not even pay shipping!!


I signed up for mine, but because I don't have a child in diapers, I opted to just get the Family Essentials Sample Kit for free. Here's a screen shot of my purchase today:

They will enroll you in their monthly automatic bundle delivery service, but just cancel that as soon as you get your free sample, and you'll be all good.

So head to The Honest Company now and get your free stuff, today! You can combine both the Essentials Sample Kit and the Diaper Bundle Sample for free!

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An Open Letter to the Anonymous Hackers

Dear Anonymous Hackers,

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Yesterday, you set your sights on GoDaddy.com in order to test how secure cyber security really is. Well played, you had me scared for a little while. More than scared, you had me pissed off, because apparently many of the websites I attend on a daily basis were hosted by GoDaddy and affected by this hack.

I googled you, Anonymous. Your organization (though having no leader, no form of communication, no organization at all) has taken responsibility for the Playstation Network outage of 2011, the Church of Scientology website hack of 2008, the hacking of Sarah Palin's personal email account in 2008, the hacking of the Vatican website earlier this year, and have immersed yourselves in various political sabotage attempts in third world countries over the years. All pretty impressive, inconvenience people greatly and some were amusing, none of these were at all helpful, Anonymous.

I currently am in debt... majorly in debt. See, I owned a New Age store in the Bible Belt for a few years that inevitably went under and took with it... my credit score. I'm just throwing this idea out there... how about hack into something like, say, the central database for debt collectors, and remove my name from their list? Remove my name and 1,000,000 other people's names in an effort to Stick it to The Man like you all like to do so well. The other 999,999 names (besides mine) can of course, be random, or take some of y'alls names off the list... I'm sure many of you are in debt to computer supply companies. Hell, even pay off that Best Buy card that you've racked up buying various World of Warcraft games and XBox games (because it's clear you all don't like Playstation), or those stylish Guy Fawkes masks you wear to protests.

Why do this, Anonymous? It would cause debt collectors to crumble, big businesses to fear their records

Freefly's and Swagbucks- Questions Answered

Quick post for those who have been emailing me. I've been asked lately where I get my free samples from, if there's a catch to them, which sites are spam and which aren't, and what else I do to earn free stuff. Below are 2 of the sites I head to just about every day.

Click picture to sign up for a FREE freefly's account!

The first one is Freefly's. It's the easiest place to go for free samples. They are categorized by food, beauty, kids, health, etc, and they give you the direct link to each free sample, and explain what (if anything) you have to do to get them. Some of them you just sign up for a newsletter, some of them you just put in your info to get the sample. The samples come directly from the companies themselves (for example, I got a free sample of Hugo's new cologne for men, and it came directly from Hugo). Through this site I've gotten free samples of Planter's peanut butter, Hugo and Lacoste cologne, Garnier Fructis shampoo and conditioner, Eucerin lotion, Purex laundry detergent, Nescafe coffee, and so much more. Samples start rolling in about 2-3 weeks after you sign up, and many of them are accompanied by coupons. Amazing site, indeed (and definitely NOT spam)! Free to sign up for an account, and I believe you can do it with your facebook (it's been so long that I've been a member).

Click the picture to sign up for a FREE Swagbucks account!

Y'all have heard me mention the surveys I do and stuff- I do them through Swagbucks. Basically, with Swagbucks, you earn their bucks for doing things like completing surveys, checking out offers from companies, answering polls, surfing the internet, etc, and you can trade those bucks in for merchandise or gift cards. Hubby and I decided to do this as a way to buy Christmas presents for the kids. So far I've earned a $50 Amazon gift card, and I've only been doing Swagbucks for about a month. It's easy to sign up for an account, and free, so you can give them a try and see what you think!


There you have it! I know I replied to those who emailed me with this info, but I have been getting messaged about it so much lately, I figured a post was warranted. It's free to check both of these sites out, so go ahead and see what they are all about.


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When a Sale Really Isn't a Sale... Be Aware!

I'm a frugal shopper. I love sales, and coupons, and coupons I can use with sales.

What I don't like is when a company puts on a "sale" that, when you look at it a little closer, isn't a sale at all. It's happening more frequently and is something that people need to be made aware of.

When I write a post that blasts a company, it's uncommon for me to actually name them (except with the moving company I had a run in with because those people were shysters and the world needed to be educated about them). I choose to do this so that said company can't sue me for slander, even though these posts are my opinion only, and my experience with the company. (It's called covering my ass.) Sometimes it's not hard to figure out who I'm talking about, and there may be hints here and there, but I won't outright name them.

This post today deals with a company in the mall, a kids' clothing company, that I took my daughter into to shop for some clothes. What I saw when I got into the clothing store was an inJUSTICE...

The company was running a 40% off the entire store Labor Day sale. Considering my daughter loves their clothing, and I'm not happy with the existing pricing there, I figured a 40% off sale would satisfy us both.

Boy, was I wrong.

I've never been a fan of this company's prices. Their girls' jeans normally run between $25-$30 for one pair. I don't spend $25-$30 on a pair of jeans for myself, so why would I spend that amount of money on jeans for a daughter who will grow out of them in a month? As we walked into the store, I was calculating prices in my head, which went something like this:

Regular Price of Jeans: $30 
40% Off of $30 is $12 
$30-$12 is $18... a little more acceptable.

We headed to the jeans table, and I grabbed a price tag. That's where the inJUSTICE was brought to light. These jeans had a price tag of $50 on them.

WTF... $50 for a pair of kids' jeans? That's bull. Their prices are high, but they've never been that high.

Then the lightbulb came on, and it went something like this:

Mark jeans up to $50
Run a 40% Off sale on entire store
$50- 40% is $30... The regular price of the jeans, but customers think they are getting a deal.

My blood immediately began to boil. I knew I didn't like that company very much, but this was ridiculous. I looked around the store, and it was packed. So many moms in there, getting their daughters entire

Pizza Hut's Garlic Bread Pizza at Home (For a Fraction of the Cost!)

Pizza Hut recently came out with their Garlic Bread pizza, and as soon as I saw the commercials for it, my
mouth started watering. Hubby and I decided to splurge one night, head to Pizza Hut, and give in to my craving.

It was so worth it. That pizza was amazing, though I will say that they left ours in the oven a tad too long. The pepperoni was extra crispy.

As I was devouring it, I realized how easy it would be to make it at home. So, I added the ingredients to my grocery list for the week, and gave it a try.

Best.... experiment... ever. The pizza was delicious, and because I made it myself, I could watch the oven to avoid the extra crispy pepperoni.

So here it is, my Pizza Hut Garlic Bread Pizza do-it-yourself recipe.

Servings: 16

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 boxes frozen garlic bread (or make your own- these were easy, on sale, and yummy)
• bag of mozzarella or pizza cheese
• jar of pizza sauce
• toppings of choice (we had pepperoni)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Remove frozen garlic bread from packaging and arrange on cookie sheets.

2. Bake garlic bread in oven for 3-5 minutes. Remove from oven.

3. Using tongs or spatula, flip garlic bread over to other side. 

Family Vacations, 1960s Vs. 2012

I was emailed this infographic by BabyAuthority.com and absolutely fell in love with it. If only admission for my family of 4 to Disneyland was still $2.00 total. I'd be in heaven.

I wasn't around in 1960, but I can tell you right now that this infographic shows you why Hubby and I haven't taken a vacation in years. Good grief.

Enjoy, and thanks to the people at BabyAuthority.com for sending this to me!

Click to Enlarge Image

On The Road Again - Brought To You By Baby Authority

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My Little Free Stuff Monster

I have a new addiction. It was born out of necessity, but has turned into a monster.

I'm addicted to free stuff.

It started with the couponing. We went about a month where money was so tight we couldn't afford to pay attention most days. I couponed because I had to, but I started finding that when you combine an item on sale with a coupon, sometimes the item turned out to be free.

Free? Really? I saw this stuff on TLC's 'Extreme Couponing', but here it was, in real life, right in front of me.

I'll tell y'all now, I was scared the first time I tried to get free stuff at the grocery store. I was doing a normal grocery store run, but the store I shopped at had some individual cups of Greek yogurt on sale for $1 each, and I had a coupon for $.30 off, which my store's coupon policy upgrades to $1. I had 2 coupons, so I put 2 cups of yogurt into my cart, pulled the coupons, and finished my shopping. When it came time to pay, I just knew they were going to call me out on it. I was trying to take 2 cups of yogurt out of the store, without paying a cent for them. They'd catch me, I just knew it. I watched as they scanned the yogurt, then scanned my coupon. $1 charged, $1 taken off.

I had gotten away with it. Free yogurt. Holy crap, let me tell you, it was exhilarating. I decided at that moment that 'free' was awesome, and I would get whatever I could (that would be helpful for my family and I) for free.

Yes, that day, a Free Stuff Monster was born.

At the moment, we have a drawer full of toothpaste, a fridge with a half a shelf full of yogurt, and a medicine cabinet full of body wash and shampoo, because of 'free'. Well, the body wash cost me $.29 each, so I guess that's not technically 'free'.

My first free sample

What started with the couponing began to transform into getting stuff

Tatted Mom's Guide to Living on a Budget

I've never lived a lavish life. Even when I was at the height of tattooing, I could pull down maybe $1000 in one weekend, I'd always turn around and either stock the house with food, or buy the kids much needed clothes, or pay the bills for the entire month. I wouldn't say I'm bad with money, but I'd be lying if I said I had a savings account with even a dime in it.

So budgeting has always been a part of my life. Sometimes the budget has allowed for 'fun money', sometimes the kids and I have been forced to use our imaginations when it comes to fun activities, because that's all we could afford until the next payday.

Right now we're in the 'can only afford imaginations' section of life, because of the move here. The moving company we chose were scheisters (I will be doing a review post on them here soon to warn other people), and we ended up having to pay twice what they quoted us to get my stuff back. There is a light at the end of the tunnel for us financially and then we're back to saving money and living life a little more. I can't wait.

In the meantime, though, I wanted to pass on some budgeting tips, Tatted Mom Style, of course. (For newbies to the site, whenever you see a 'Tatted Mom Style' or 'Tatted Mom's Guide' post, you're in for an upside down view of how I see things. Yes, the tips are helpful, but there are some crazy ones thrown in, because I don't see the world the way others do.) These tips are great if you have an unexpected expense that throws your finances in a whirlwind for a short period of time, or if you need to re-train yourself with money and need a longer term solution.

1. If you've never had to budget before, use The Envelope System to start. It's the best way to get a visual representation of money. Get a box of envelopes, and mark each envelope with a separate bill name: 'Rent', 'Electricity', 'Cable', 'Food', 'Gas', etc. When you get paid, remove most of your money from your account (keep in any money that used to automatically pay bills or bills that you pay online) in cash, and divide it into the various envelopes. When the money in the envelopes is gone, that's it. It keeps you majorly in check with paying for food, or entertainment, and is a great training tool. Personally, I don't use The Envelope System anymore, but I've had to do it numerous times over the years to get my brain back into budgeting mode.
2. Just say no. I understand 'no' is negative and causes crappy feelings, but when you are budgeting, 'no' is your best friend. Tell yourself no, tell the kids no, tell Hubby no, when it comes to buying things. If you get into the mindset that you are broke, and can't buy anything, then it makes budgeting a hell of a lot easier. The funny thing is, if your financial situation is only temporary, it's hard to re-train your brain to say 'yes' again when it comes to buying things. That's not a bad thing, necessarily. It keeps you from buying things you really don't need, even if you have the money to do so. Your mindset is probably the most important tool you have when it comes to budgeting.
3. Over-estimate expenses and under-estimate income. When you find a budget worksheet to

Farmer's Market Fail

Hubby and I decided to venture to a local farmer's market this past weekend, to get the kids out of the house, and pick up some inexpensive produce and other homemade goodies like pies, bread maybe, and whatever we could get our hands on as a good deal.

We were severely disappointed.

I haven't been to a farmer's market in years. I (incorrectly) posted on facebook that it had been since I lived in England, but while we were out and about, Hubby reminded me I used to go to the ones in Charleston. So, while I thought it had been like 7 or 8 years, it had really only been like 4 or 5 years since I'd been to one. Anyway, there were 2 for us to choose from; one was about 10 miles but a 30 minute drive to downtown Tucson... in the 'hood. The other was about 10 miles but a 20 minute drive up toward the mountains. We decided to take our chances with the mountain farmer's market.

We started the 20 minute drive, and I quickly started to question our decision because it appeared this farmer's market was in the middle of nowhere- some The Hills Have Eyes shit. Desert, tumbleweeds, torture and plenty of places to bury our dead bodies. We finally found it, and we saw a decent amount of cars, so we decided not to have wasted the 20 minute drive and park.

Now, you have to understand that we decided to go to a farmer's market because my past experience with farmer's markets has been nothing but positive. Produce was almost half the price of going to a grocery store because you were cutting out the middle man of the grocery store and going directly to the farmer. Handmade goodies like pies and bread are next to nothing because the people want to make sure they sell it instead of load 27 loaves of bread back into their car at the end of the day. And handmade art? They were setting up at a farmer's market, not having their own show at a gallery, so paintings were in the $20 range and handmade jewelry was next to nothing because there's 53 other handmade jewelry vendors.

We parked and started walking toward the vendors. There were a few outside booths set up before the (high class, I'm assuming) covered booths. The first thing I saw was some handmade mosaic tiles. Someone had painted and glued together fake gems and tiles to make a gecko. How cute... and $250 each. WTF? I can make those for about $10, and that's if I were to buy tile to smash instead of just find crap to smash. On to the next booth...

Handmade jewelry for $25 a bracelet; wood sculptures for $100 each; matted photographs for $50 each... where's the cheap crap? These people are set up in the middle of nowhere in the desert and are charging prices as if they are on the Vegas strip selling their stuff. Not what I had in mind. We saw the produce and

Failing as an Artistic Parent

I have seriously failed as a parent.

Okay, that's a little harsh for this particular topic today. I'll rephrase.

I've seriously failed as an artistic parent.

This weekend was the first full weekend we've had as a family since we first flew in a few weeks ago. Hubby's job has him work a lot of weekends, or at least go in for a few hours one of the days, but this weekend he had no weekend duty. The bad thing is, we're broke. We have a house full of food thanks to my amazing couponing skills, and the bills are paid, but because of needing to save money to pay for the movers to deliver our stuff next week, we're broke right now. So having a full weekend together isn't as glamorous as we hoped it would be.

Oh well, I just looked at it as a way to further exercise my new frugal ways, and figure out something for us to do that's either free or hella cheap, and fun. As I began researching on the internet, I found that our local art museum had free admission for military members. Hells yes, an art museum. I pitched the idea to Hubby, and was met with...

"That's boring."

What? What? An art museum is not boring. I decided to go over his head and take my proposition to the kids. They'd be excited about an art museum.

I pitched the idea to The Girl first, who stared at me like I had grown a second head. "That's boring" she said.

Hubby burst out laughing.

I called The Ginger into the room. I pitched the idea to him (after telling Hubby and The Girl to keep their mouths shut so they didn't persuade him to the dark side), and after thinking about it, he replied, "I think Y-E-S" and smiled this huge smile.

That's when it hit me that I've failed one of my children as an artistic parent. Before The Girl left the room, I asked her why she thought the art museum would be boring.

"It just sounds like it would be, Mom. Just walking around looking at drawings and stuff. Seems lame."

Her words stabbed right through my little artistic heart.

"How on earth could you say that, honey? Art is not boring. It's a form of expression. People put their hearts

Throwing Account Reps Under the Bus

Insurance companies make me want to go on a mass murdering spree. 13 years of dealing with the same insurance company and I never had a problem. I've had referrals to therapists, dermatologists, fertility specialists, back specialists, physical therapists and so much more in the last 13 years, and never even a hiccup in coverage or any problems of them not paying.

This year, they are making up for the other 12 years of flawlessness.

We all remember the problems I had trying to get a medical referral for The Ginger's oral surgery, right? If not, If This is a Medical Emergency, Please Hang Up and Dial 911 will cover that. That was back in February, and after numerous phone calls and me banging my head against the wall, all of that got sorted out and The Ginger had his surgery in April.

The problem I'm having right now dates back to September, and it's now gotten to the point (well, should have gotten there a long time ago, but I'm a pushover sometimes) where I'm going to call, demand a manager, and everyone I have dealt with about this matter is getting thrown so far under the bus that Satan won't be able to reach them to give them a helping hand. I'm that pissed. I'll explain.

September 24th we moved to Virginia. The Ginger (what is it with the insurance company giving me difficulties about The Ginger? Are they that against red heads?) needed a physical to start school. So, on

You Found WHAT at the Discount Surplus Store?

It's that time again, Inklingers... the time where I've run through a major chain store, taking pictures of random things that I found there, making fun of their inventory and doing the Happy Dance in their aisles if I hit the jackpot with an amazing item. Don't y'all want to go shopping with me? Sheesh.

'You Found WHAT at the Dollar Store' was deemed my 'comeback post'. I had been MIA from the blogosphere while I went through some life crap for a few months, and finally started to find my stride again with this post. Ever since that post, I've been on the look out for more amazing discounted products, so I can go ahead with round #2.

My local discount surplus store has finally given me the opportunity. As y'all know, I won't name the discount store. If you happen to see it's name on any price tags, then you are just an amazingly astute reader and I can't be held accountable for that. For the record, I love this store. I can fill up a cart and only spend $60, and the store has furniture, home decor items, personal items, grocery items and so much more. I love this place!

Keep in mind, these aren't dollar store items, so they cost more than $1. Doesn't make it any less awesome that I can get them at a discount surplus store. Enjoy the list of 12 things I've acquired this time; I'm sure there will be more posts in the future!


1. AZO PMS Pills

Feeling crabby? Not anymore!

For years, AZO has helped me stay away from the doctor when it comes to urinary tract infections and yeast infections, but now they are helping me with my PMS? Holy crap, hells yeah! All joking aside, I thought of buying these. The herbal blend in them is actually pretty amazing. I'm sure Hubby would have bought them for me had he been shopping with me that day. He would have bought the whole case.

2. Beaver Sweet Honey Mustard

'Cause everyone wants sweet beaver.

Yes, yes, and YES! Why? 2 reasons: Everyone needs to find their beaver at a discount store, and everyone wants a sweet beaver, right? Hey, I guess I shouldn't knock it. Beaver Honey Mustard has been around since 1929, so they must have the best beaver ever if people have been paying for it for almost 90 years.