Cean Carpet? What's that?

So, I have officially gone off the deep end! My husband and I are preparing for his parents arrival this weekend. For some reason I got an itch this morning to steam clean the carpets?! What is wrong with me? It's 100 degrees out and I sure could have found something better to do with my time! It's been awhile since the in laws have been up from Kansas so I wanted to make sure things looked clean! Last year at Christmas my parents got us a steam cleaner for our carpets, I am embarrassed to say that before today I had only used it ONCE! I had told myself that I would use it all of the time when we actually got it. I had plans to get it out after every spill or when I saw the need. What was I thinking? I spent about an hour on our living room carpet and it looks GrEaT, just like new... I have now decided that it really wasn't as bad/hard/time consuming as I once thought it was and have put steam cleaning the carpets on my monthly "To Do" list. It's really amazing how many of the "spots" from sippys that leaked disappeared like magic!! Thanks mom and dad much cheaper than renting the equipment or hiring someone else to do it! All in all I spent approx. $6 on the solution

~Katie

CashCrate

So, I've recently received an e-mail from FrugalDad in regards to CashCrate. I have been a member for awhile but actually forgot I even had an account. He states that a person can earn $10 the first time they log i. I am going back through the site and attempting this again. I will keep you posted on how I do!! For those of you who are interested in what CashCrate is, head on over to FrugalDad where he answers questions people have had. If you would like to join, just follow the link, the more people that follow...the more sign up bonus' I receive!!! :)

~Katie

Hy-Vee - Shopping for work

I was asked today to go to the store and get a meal for the students on our dorm (I work for a facility that helps juvenile delinquent males and females). I am often asked to go on these runs as I generally spend less than the average person that does not use a budget. So, I went out to the store with a $100 budget to feed 40 people lunch at the zoo tomorrow and a snack. This would have come out to about $2.50 per person, which I thought was pretty good. However after going through the checkout, I came up with a grand total of...get this...$75.50, which comes up to about 1.89 per person. I don't know about you, but I was proud to bring back the receipt to my supervisor. He looked and me and the first thing he asked was if I forgot something! HA! If only he knew how easy it was!!!

Some of the great prices at Hy-Vee I got were:

Bread $0.79 (haven't seen that price in awhile)
Bottled Water $2.79 for a 24 pack!! WOW!
80 Slices of cheese for $5.99
10 pounds of ham for 12.99 (shaved thin for sandwiches)

Not that being frugal matters to a multi-million dollar company, but my supervisor was impressed! :)

~Katie

The first trip to the zoo this year...

Our two year old little girl Brooke loves animals. Last year, shortly after her little sister was born (Lauren) we took a trip to the zoo for something new that she would enjoy! Boy was it a hit! She talked and talked and talked about all of the animals and the trip for several months. So this year, my husband and I decided that it would be a nice cheap thing to invest in a zoo pass so that we could go more often this summer. So, our goal is to go at least 4 times so that we are getting good use out of the pass!

Today was a beautiful day to go, so off we went...she has been asking when we can go, so when we finally got there (it's about 2 hours away in Omaha, NE) it was a if we had been feeding her sugar for days! HA! It is such as joy to see happiness like that in a little one!

We had a wonderful day! Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to get some pictures up!!

~Katie

Tax Returns 2007

For my first big "article" I think I will talk a little bit about tax returns and what we have done with the money that we "got back" from the federal government.

I hope to follow up this segment with some frugal ideas for how to handle all of that money at once. It is important for me to use the money wisely rather than just buying "stuff" to clutter our home.

If you have any frugal things that you have done with your tax returns, please post your thoughts and ideas!

~Katie