I will admit to having the biggest sweet tooth of anyone I know.  I bet I have a bigger sweet tooth than anyone YOU know, which explains all this extra weight I carry around.  I was making a true, honest effort to lose all thisi weight, too, and although it wasn’t just falling off I was feeling better and could really tell a difference in my health.  That was about the time I discovered something I’d seen before but I’d been able to muster up the willpower to avoid, knowing that if I gave in that I’d probably never look back.  But I’d had a bad week, very depressed, and there they set in their bright blue bag, beckoning to me.  It was as if they were saying, “Kristin, we were made for you!  We need YOU! You need US!” And I did.  I needed those Pretel  M&Ms about like I needed another hole in my head for more air to escape.  Never the less, I couldn’t resist temptation so I grabbed the one lone single size on the impulse shelf.  Yes, kids, that’s why they call that the “Impulse” section.

I thought to myself, “OK, maybe these will ust be your average, generic chocolate covered pretzels without anything special.”  You know the kind, right?  No real brand name, a sort of off-taste that’s stale and old-tasting.  Oh how I wanted these to taste bad!  No such luck.  I shouldn’t have expected anything but the best from M&Ms, considering I’ve never had anything less than the best when it comes to my M&Ms!

So anyway, they were nice enough to send me a few extra packs for my amazing readers.  There is only one way you can enter, and that’s by subscribing to my e-mail newsletter.

I’ll choose 10 winners from the number of subsribers at the end of the giveaway on August 16, and within a few weeks if you win you’ll get a sweet surprise in your mailbox.  I do want to wait until the hottest part of Summer is over and they aren’t melted, so you’ll get them at the end of September/early October.

I will e-mail you for your mailing info if you’re chosen as a winner.

One thing I want to mention is that these have only 6g fat per single serving.  The average candy bar has 10g-12g.   I don’t know about you but it makes me feel better to hea that when I eat candy!

Good luck!

Who knows more about grilling…and beer…. than Homer Simpson?  Parade magazine recently asked Homer for his top tips for a tasty Summer BBQ, and he was more than willing dish up some hot tips.  For some reason, I do not recommend trying these at your next BBQ…or at all.

1. To make great food taste fantastic, Homer recommends adding beer.  Drink 72 ounces, then start grilling!  He also says that adding half a pound of real meat really makes a veggie burger much tastier.
2. To keep the bugs from  biting, and so Homer can be a good dad who watches his children nap, he brings his grilling indoors.
3. He keeps kebbob skewers handy for guests like Ned  Flanders.  He gives them out as “special party favors” for his most annoying guests.
4. Make sure you have some veggies to grill for the no-meat eaters in your family like his kid, Lisa, but Homer says no matter what you do that veggies taste bad.  i wonder how he knows after that 72 ounces of beer?
5. Give your party a fun theme.  Some of Homer’s most fun get-togethers have been his “Quadruple Bypass Anniversary Party”  and his “Great Flanders’ Smoke Out”!
6. He’s heard about other people’s struggles with leftovers, but Homer still isn’t sure what a leftover is so he can’t help you there.  He says if you cook, you don’t have to worry about it. 

i couldn’t really resist posting this one when I saw it as I was cleaning off my kitchen table.  Yep, that came out awhile ago and I’m just now getting to it but life gets hectic around here:)

I don’t think I”d take Homer’s advice at Face value but if you think about ithe does have some pretty sharp  tips!   We use our grill 5 out of 7 days a week probably, whether we’re just using the side burner for some mac and cheese and grilling some hot dogs, or cooking up my favorite turkey burgers.  The house doesn’t get any hotter, the food is leaner because we don’t use any oil or grease of any kind when we grill even though the pros do, and I have yet to find a food that can’t be grilled. 

One of my favorite things to do is take a yellow squash, cut it in half lengthwise, sprinkle a little parmesan and a little garlic on it and grill it.  OMG it is soooooo good!  I think  that’s kid-speak for you should try it ) Have a great week.

I’m not sure about the rest of the country, but I think those of us living in the South can honestly say this is the hottest Summer we have had in many, many years.  Considering the fact that it is only the end of July, the heat and humidity we’re facing in August is frightening.  What is even more frightening is the electricity bill we’ll be paying that month.  Our Summer bills are always higher than the rest of the year, of course,  because my husband and I tend to tolerate cold weather better but our July bill was, ahem, more than I ever anticipated.  Luckily I left enough wiggle room in our budget to handle it, because we would have been in quite the bad situation otherwise.  But we discussed it nd even though we can (barely) pay a bill that large, we’re going to have to start doing other things rather than keeping our A?C at full blast all the time.  We’ve done them before, but I think it was a casae of us taking for granted having a true central A/C for the first time that causaed us to do this.  I thought I’d share with you some of the things we’e doing to beat the heat- and the sky-high electric bills that come with Summer:

•  
  • Usae ceiling fans.  When we moved in, we installed new, nice ceiling fans in every room (that made sense) which cool the house off without using so much energy.  Sit right under one with a cool drink and you’e set!  At the end of the season, which is probably considered right now you can get them at very reasonable prices for very nice fans to fit any budget!  We got smaller fans for smaller rooms of our home, and they were nowhere near as nice as the ones we got in the rooms that are seen by visitors.  Keep in mind the size of your home when you buy them.  You don’t want massive ceiling fans for a tiny room but you want everyone in the room to be cool.  If you have a lage room, such as my parents’ living room, it may call for 2 fans.
  • Use boxed fans and oscillating, stand fans for extra cooling.  Our home is a small, brick house that gets H-O-T in the daytime, and our bedroom soaks up that heat, so the ceiling fan just is not enough.  We had to start using those fans plus a few other measures to keep the room cool.  I also use an oxygen machine and a CPAP at night which dries the room out, which calls for the extra air.
  • Drink double the amount of ice cold water you’re supposed to.  I do not like water.  Flavor the stuff with those mixups from Walmart or use Cystal Light.  Whatever you have to do, drink it ice cold and drink as much of it as you can.  Lime water tastes great, believe it or not, and if you can use lemon and lime it’s a lot better than the chemicals in the other things.  I’m not a Dr, I choose flavor over chemcicals
  • I try to overshoot each of my bills, at least the household ones, by $10-$20 each month so that if one of them is high one month it won’t break the budget.  I then try to figure out why it ws high and what we can do to keep it from happening again. 

These are just small things we’ve done to make sue we rely on ways to stay cool other than our A/C.  Of course, we’ve put it in a reasonable temperature and ome days it still won’t go off which should give you some indication of how hot our house is! A programmable thermostat is next on our list, although I have yet to price those and price what goes into installing one.  Does anybody have any ideas?

I have to admit I am not one to sweat.  It may come down to ice cubes and wash cloths, which I’ve relied on in past years to stay cool, but I am not a happy girl when I am a sweaty girl.  Since I happen to love and adore my husband, I prefer to stay cool so I can stay (semi) nice.  I’m hard enough to live with already, aren’t  I Sweetie?

Those of you with larger incomes than ours may not need to cut back on their electricity use, and some of you may cut back during other months of the year specifically to deal with this one.  Winter may be the rough season for some of you.  Whichever your situation, look for alternate ways of keeping warm or cool rather than so much energy usage.  Even if you don’t HAVE to save money, why wouldn’t you want to?  I wish I had all of the money I’d foolishly spent during my lifetime.  I’m only 30 but I could honestly probably have much, much more than I do now.

I started writing here because I hope that young people who are starting out, or their parents, will see the mistakes i made when I graduated from high school throughout my college years and hopefully not mke those same mistakes.  It’s one of those “Do as I say, not as I did” situations that although highly hypocritically sounding is truly a message I try to send out of love. 

 There really should be a course given to high school seniors to prepare them for life in the real world, because they’re sent so many mixed signals.  They aren’t old enough for alcohol yet they can die in a war.   They cannot smoke but they can vote for the leader of our country; I wonder how m any even know the names of all of the people running or anything about them?

That was completely OT and I apologize.  My final say is just that you can find ways of cooling off without using your central A/C.  I know because I went almost 5 years without one.  Granted they weren’t fun,   but I’m still sitting here.  Popsicles were dinner fo many meals when the weather became too hot to bare, but the kid in me never minded!

Enjoy your summer, all!

We’ve all been there.  Out from early morning til late afternoon running errands, being Mom Taxi Service,  or working late.  By the end of the day, you’re so tired you think the very sight of your stove will be the proverbial straw.  When that happens, most of us turn to take out.  Take out is one thing that the average American family spends way too much on but if you plan in advance you can really stretch your take-out dollars so that even if you’re stuck feeding extra kids you won’t hear your wallet groan! 

I jokingly call them “glove box coupons” (I’m bored, OK?) but what I refer to is any coupon that saves you money on fast food, restaurant food, or services you may get while you run errands like hair cuts or oil changes.  I don ‘t know about you but I get some of these in my Sunday newspaper and in my mailbox each week it seems.  Don’t throw them away!  Unless your family knows you will absolutely never, ever eat fast food or in a restaurant, keep those.  Even if so, ask your family or neighbors if they need them because they are money.  Why throw away money?

Anyway, get one of those accordion coupon holders like in the picture from Target or Walmart, or wherever you can get a decent quality one the cheapest.  Target used to sell some plastic ones in their Dollar Spot I really liked, and Walmart sells a few but they’re a bit pricier for $2-$4 depending on the size.  You don’t need fancy, you need functional with probably 6-8  pockets.  Label them in a way that will be easy for you.  I actually have 2 for my car, one for restaurants and fast food and another one for services and stores like the 20% Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons.  I find that I forget those at home so I like to have them with me at home just in case.  Now, I’m a bit picky and make things more difficult than need be.  One is just fine- I recommend at least labelling one “car”, one “personal serv.” for hair cuts and stuff, one  for fine dining, one for casual dining, and then fast food.  Those are just suggestions, and sometimes my thinking makes people’s heads spin so just do what makes sense to you.

Most of the time, my tip of the day won’t be so long!! I promise.  I started looking at the amount of food coupons I have when I was going through my stash of coupons and I was just in shock.  I had Subway, Shoney’s, and so much more.  Some of the coupons I had were for free items, too, and they were expired!!!  How awful is that?

Of course you’re not going to change hair stylists or your favorite “whatever” just because you have a coupon but if it’s something that you just want a good price and you need it in a hurry that day, why not have these coupons with you so you’ll et extra savings?  They still don’t always provide the best prices, though, so call around just to make sure because some places will match the coupon price and beat it!! 

I am way behind on gathering my goovebox coupons, so that will be how I spend my evening tonight.  Luckily my years of couponing leave me with an abundance of accordion file organizers!

Have a fun evening!!

   Personal Photo Credit Michael Thompson

We have had a lot of drama around our home lately over the poor, innocent creature you see in the picture.  He is  a 3-legged, sweet angel named Buddy.  We met Buddy at a gas station about 2 minutes from our home, where he’d been hanging out and also chasing people for days at a time.  He’d been there for 2 or 3 weeks, said the owner of the store, apparently abandoned somewhere near there or a runaway.  Apparently, the owner of the dog either decided they were unable to keep him or did not give him proper attention and he ran away.  The dog proceeded to follow us home, and almost became a part of our family.  That’s another story for another day, but I will say that my husband and I did find Buddy a forever home with people who will love and care for him throughout his life.  Unfortunately I just can’t keep every stray I see, but I guess with me being an amputee I felt a sort of kinship with him.  How could someone spend a fortune having a dog’s leg amputated just to let him roam away or dump him out?  Whatever the circumstance, I truly believe that if people would consider more factors when deciding what kind of pet to add to the household.

Personally, I wish that everybody would start their search for a family pet at their local humane society or pound.  Shelters of every kind are full to the brim of animals that have been disguarded and have no r oom for more, so find out if they have a good fit for your family.  They have dogs and cats, sometimes other things, of all ages and sizes.  You can go to www.Petfinder.com and easily search for available animals.  Don’t see what fits your family?  See if they have a waiting list.  You could even offer to become a foster family. That’s another post,. again, for another day.

If you exhaust your search at every single shelter and foster agency, call to your local veterinarians to see if they have any abandoned animals that fit your family’s needs.  Often they have pets they take care of that you can get for free or a nominal fee, and the pet will have up to date medical care.  I’m sure by now you’re onto the fact that I really wish people would “shop” for their pets at shelters. 

When none of these avenues have found your family tht perfect pet, and you decide to go with a pet store or a breeder do your homework.  Choose someone who can provide proof that the animals have had the proper veterinarian care such as immunizations, and are free of or being treated for any disease.  Heaartworns are a big, huge deal, and if left untreated will lead to death.  Look at the animals.  Are they healthy looking, without fleas or mange or sores?  Do they have ample space to live?  You see where I’m headed- steer clear of puppy mills.  You can definitely find many more tips online on how to pick a pet store or breeder but it’s common sense.  Don’t go where they don’t take care of the animals and/or they price guage.  A local pet store that used to be open near me changed ownership before they closed, and they were known for being extremely high on their prices for mixed-breeds and even pure bred dogs, and they charged a fortune for plain ol’ cats.  The animals were covered with fleas and were dirty, they had tiny, dirty cages that hadn’t been changed in ages.  It was heartbreaking yet maddening.  I was glad they were closed, I only hope they did not open somewhere else.

But before you’ve done anything else, make sure you have a clear idea of the ideal pet for your family.  Be realistic, if you’re getting a single pet or adding a pet.  You may have your heart set on a bull dog but they might not have the best temperament with children.  Some dogs take huge amounts of mintenance, like poodles and other small dogs.  Do you have the time and finances for that upkeep?  Also keep in mind the medical issues that are typical of particular breeds.  For instance, pugs often have  many different issues with breathing, sitting, need eye drops, and several othe things that are costly each month.  Make sure you can aafford what your pet needs, because if it’s typical of the breed you may as well go into the situation expecting it.

Unwanted pets, or pets that don’t fit a family’s needs any longer end up being strays or surrendered to shelters.  We, in general, are the reason there are so many unwanted pets waiting for forever homes.  I admit I have had to surrender a cat I could not fford to tke care of when my leg was amputated.  It was one of the hardest things I have ever done but he was sick and we had no income.  Sometimes, things happen but do everything you can to prevent them by getting the right pet(s) for your home.

Small considerations can lead to finding a companion for your family who will be loving nd suppotive and playful for a lifetime for your family.  I do not know what I would do about my “babies”. 

I don’t mean to be preachy.  I live in an area with no humane society, and you can’t go a mile without seeing a dead animal in the road or a stray.  Until those few days we had Buddy, I’d always cared about strays but never realized that  perfectly wonderful pet could be thrown away like dirty trash.    Please don’t let that happen.

I am finally, honestly getting to the point where I’m getting my sleep on track, some of my energy back,  still busy with tons of doctor’s appointments but you gotta do what you gottaa do when it comes to living and getting better!

I hope you are all happy, healthy and enjoying the sunny weather.  We do need some rain badly nd I wish it weren’t quite SO very hot but I m grateful for sunshine.  Cold and I don’t make good partners!

I am working on the other site, Couponing for Christmas, and this one, so next wee, you may see things completely different.  It will probably take me 2 weeks to get back into things because I still have e-mails to return and gifts to ship out from sponsors.  I’m getting and I have gotten some great loot to share with you, as well, so when I get the blog back up on it’s feet I’ll get all that mailed out.

TO those of you who have written sweet comments nd e-mails, mailed me coupons, and left well wishes, I appreciate it more than you know.  When I get depression at it’s worst, elthough I fight it every day, it’s hard to function and care about even getting out of bed.   Most of the time my medicine helps though, and I have an amazing husband and beautiful animals to help me get out of my funk   When I’m at my worst I come and read what you all leave me and I smile again.  You guys just make me wish we lived closer so we could hang out

OK, enough chatter!  I may post a few things this weekend, but I’m really going to concentrate on getting things set up like I want them so they are more reader-friendly.   I want to add the missing tutorials and other things that I never thought about adding….duh, right?  That’s what my 11-year-old cousin would say anyway I think.

So y’all have a great weekend, I’ll be thinking about all of you, and please shae this site with your friends and co-workers once we get up and running.  The Christmas site would be up already if I hadn’t had that little outpatient surgery thing and a terrible infection following.  The proceeds of that site, after paying for the cost of the hosting and the domain, will be donated to various charities that help children and elderly adults without family a goo d Christmas.  The thought of elderly women and men alone on Christmas and other holidays upsets me a lot, so I’m hoping I can aomeday make that site successful enough that it helps them.  Cross your fingers.

So, God willing, and I’m begging Him this time….truly begging, I’ll be back on Monday!

I just wanted to let you all know that I’ll be back here pretty mnuch full-time on Sunday.   I’m trying to take the next couple of days to get caught up on things regarding my e-mail and my coupons.  It’s been a rough few weeks so I’m excited to get back here with you all…if there’s anybody left!

Have a blessed weekend.

When you visit and “Like” The Cheesecake Factory Facebook page, you will get a few perks in advance of National Cheesecake Day!!

You will get-

$1.50 Cheesecake coupon AND you will be among the 1st to try their new Reese’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake Cheesecake!

National Cheesecake dey is July 30 and it is any slice, half price!! 

I only have 1 big problem with The Cheesecake Factory. Their regular food is so good and they give you so much that I can never make enough room for cheesecake  Next time I go,I’m havving Cheesecake for dinner!!

Hi all!  Did ya know I’m still alive?  Believe it or not, I am!  Right now, my head is so stopped up, my throat hurts, my….you get the picture huh?  I have one heck of a sinus infection.  It sucks.   I said I was alive, not happy about it. 

 I slept in my wheelchair for the first time ever a week ago, and I’ve done it 3-4 times since then.  It started out just as an experiment to see if it would be any better on my back and I tried it the next night sleeping with my chair leaned back…I have to say that it has it’s ups and downs.  I have a hard time sleeping without my husband.  I’ve spent the night in a different bed than ours without him only when I’m in the hospital but he is usually there.  I don’t think he likes me sleeping in my chair though.  We’ll see, I’m not crazy about it when it comes to every night, but something’s gotta give with my back pain.  Anything.  At least when I sleep in my chair I wakeup less congested and sick, plus I’m near my Kleenex and Vicks!! Vicks rocks when you cannot breathe.

The last 2 weeks have been less than fun.  I’ve been trying to fight the drug insurance company to pay for a medication that would have ended up costing us a fortune we don’t have, and I’m seriously talking about more than a thousand dollars, and this is one time that I am so thankful that my insurance requires a prior authorization because if we’d paid for it I couldn’t use it!!  The antibiotic, it turns out, won’t even fight the infection I have.  Now I’m full of questions, wanting 2nd opinions, and worried that nobody is going to be able to know what to do!!   I am in limbo with doctor’s apppointments next week with regards to getting a Pic line or other fforms of antibiotic, or any other appointments so I guess I’m playing all that by ear. 

We also lost an important pat of our family last week, our family’s dog Scruffy.  She technically belonged to my brother and mom, but loved and was loved by everyone.  She was able to live a long and healthy life, and although I will miss her more than words can aptly articulate I’m very grateful she is no longer suffering but is with our loving God in greener pastures running with our loved ones. Thank you for fourteen years of love and friendship, Scruffy.  I’ll see your loving face again someday!

Losing a pet who has been a part of your life for many years is no different than losing family in many ways for a lot of us.  People like me who cannot have children often focus their love on their pets, an consider them their “babies”.  I may be considered insane, or nutty, but I don’t care.  Pets provide such a strong sense of love, comfort and friendship wthout a lot of expectations n return.  I guess that’s why the newes member of my family is a 3-legged dog that followed us home from the store close to our house a few days ago when we fed it.  I’ll put up a pic later.

So tht’s my life the lst 3 weeks in a nutshell.  How was yors?  I missed you all.I plan n posting tis week startin tonight.  You all know my weird time sleping and it hsn’t changed. I’d hoped to have the new site fnished but with all that went on I haven’t strted to get it ready for y’all yet.  Ugh.  I can’t stand myself some days!!

I will be back on later wth the week’s goodies!  Happy 4th and God bless all of you!

I promised you guys a virtual coupon classs, and I have every intention on delivering that promise.  But I’m in limbo right now about keeping this blog, starting fresh with the new one or keeping them both and doing various things with them. 

One thought I had was to turn Making Cents Out of Life into a complete Personal Finance book wth, well, every other way under the sun to save or make money other than coupons.  Couponing for Christmas will have anything and everything to do with coupons on it, and any proceeds made by November 15 will be taken to adopt as many children as possible from the Salvation Army Angel Tree as well as some elderly people from a nearby charity to provide Christmas for them. 

I will have many (I hope) affiliate shopping links on each site, so if you would do your shopping through my site I would GREATLY appreciate it.  You aren’t paying me, you’re giving children a special Christmas as well as just the basic fees for running the blog (the yearly fees for hosting and the domain but the cost is fairly low).

I would also LOVE to get some guest writers for my site.  You absolutely do NOT have to be a blogger to do this.  I don’t have kids, so I don’t have experience with any aspect of raising a kid and would love if if some of you would write sme posts for me about the subject.  A couple of topics I’m interested in, because I’ve read others asking about the topics, are saving money when raising 3+ children (especially during school), healthy eating on a budget for a large family, and I would love to get a guest blogger to write a post about electronic (e-coupons) coupons.  We do not have anywhere to use those around our home, so i’m fairly unfamiliar with them.  I know basic principles, and can rewrite info, but what I’m looking for is experience using them.

If you’re interested in guest blogging when the time comes, please e-mail me at makingcentsoutoflife at gmail dot com.  Please remove the spaces and add sumbols where needed.

Believe me I am working behind the scenes even though I barely blog.-  just not as much as I should because I just honestly am not up to it right now.  I am giving myself until Sunday and doing some things around the house in the meantime.

Ta ta for now, friends!