I wrote about using our cashback bonus money for gift cards to restaraunts. We saw that one of them was going bankrupt, namely Bennigan’s, so we went to lunch there today to use up the cards before they were no good any more.

Tragedy! “We’re sorry, we don’t accept those any more. Corporate shut down and we can no longer redeem the cards.”

Oof. While I can understand fully the local restaraunt’s position, they would be out out meal cost, it was still a bit of a let down thinking we were getting a “free lunch” when we weren’t. Thankfully, the manager was very understanding and took off 20% for the inconvienience. That was nice!

The very large up side to the whole process, a brief call to the card with the cashback bonus got the bonus refunded for the now defunct gift cards! So, while we were looking forward to an afternoon out on the gift cards, it ended well.

Peace,
Tony

The local radio stations have been running deals on half price gift cards and other offers. The best one we just used last weekend. It was for a two night stay in a cabin at a water resort north west of Wisconsin Dells by an hour or so.

We had our little minivacation for the summer! This cabin had two queen size rooms, a kitchen, large dining/living area and then a loft with four twin beds and a 3/4 bath! To sweeten our deal we invited my brother and his family along. All eight of us stayed very comfortably in the cabin. We wore the kids out at the water park, put them down for bed in the loft and played Euchre and caught up on each others lives!

As an added bonus, we drove up to the Leinie Lodge for a tour, about an hour away, but it gave my kids time to nap a little and recharge the batteries.

In terms of money spent, the certificate cost just under $150, had we done this with no certificate, the cabin and waterpark passes would ring up in the range of $500+ for all eight of us. Not to bad of a score, if I do say so myself.

The station that my wife listens to the most has really good deals on Wednesday mornings at 8:20. That is how I got the resort one, but I’ve also picked up a days worth of activities at Crystal Cave and buy one get one tickets to the local RenFest.

Its worth a look at the station websites to see if they are running similar promotions.

Peace,
Tony

We were out of town this last weekend visiting relatives and doing other stuff. The girls grandma and great aunt watched the girls while my wife and I got away for the day. Among the other things they did was fishing off the dock. About 1pm we got a call from a very excited little girl.

She caught a fish!

The two girls together, they had a LOT of fun!

Last year we picked up a used pop up camper for a song. It’s in pretty decent shape for being nearly 25 years old. The roof was rebuilt and one corner doesn’t lift any more so it takes two people to raise it, but other than that its great, especially for what we paid for it.

 We took the camper a whopping 25 minutes east to a campground with a lake and stuff with some friends. Overall it was a blast, and we’ll be doing it again! It turned out to be a really fun weekend. The kids slept well, and it was borderline comfortable enough for us to sleep ok too. I added some things to my list for the next time we go, but it was still super fun.
(Still not what I consider Camping, no tent, sleeping on the ground, hiking in a few miles with everything on your back…)

The funniest, man-I’m-lucky moment happened at 4:15am Sunday.

I forgot the trash bag hanging from the picnic table. I woke up to the sound of crinkling and rummaging, look out the screen to see a silhouette of what I swore was a dog. First thought was Zorro, our four month old puppy, had somehow gotten out of his crate and the camper, I was dead asleep, you know, weird thoughts, so anyway, I figured it was a dog digging in my garbage.

I get up, grab a 2.5′ piece of 2×2 that we have holding up a cabinet in the camper, tip toe out so I don’t wake the kids. I figured I’d give the dog a good scare to chase it off then throw the trash up higher.
Tip toe tip toe, I get within arms reach of the bag, the dog hasn’t noticed I’m there and its on the other side of the bag, so I couldn’t see it. I tap the wood on the ground and was whispering “hey buddy”.
Remember, I am close enough to touch the bag…
It starts turning as the dog is trying to get some particularly good morsel.
The dog comes with it, head still buried in the bag.

I see it now,
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Get out to the local stores, folks, its summer clearance time. We ran to the local K Mart, (yeah, I know, but still, we were looking for something specific that we couldn’t find else where) last night and found all sorts of fun things for 50% or more off.

We’ve been looking for a Slip n Slide for the girls to try out, since we both had fun with varients of them growing up. At a full price of more than $10, it wasn’t worth it as a whim purchase. On 50% off, though, that is more reasonable. We also picked up a couple of squirt guns, less than a dollar, and some pool ducks. Regularly they were almost $5, we got them for $1.64. The kids like rubber duckies.

Oh, it gets better, really it does. I like to wear button up shirts that are long enough to cover my belt line and more, and they had decent cotton short sleave button up shirts at 60% off. Regular price $16.00, I got two for $4.80. Nothing like having a $5 cover shirt! Here I was thinking the $9 Hawiian shirts at Steve and Barry’s was a good deal!

Lets not even start on the big summer toys. We’re still looking at the swing set they have out front. Its higher and a bit more sturdy than the one we have now. The kids, if they swing together, can rock the thing almost on top of themselves. The display model is going for $100 off and we’re seriously considering it.

Then there is the pools. Those little inflatable ring or pole pools, clearancing at more than $100 off for the big ones… tempting, very tempting.

All this with a month and a half yet left to the season. Work the clearance aisles, folks. There are deals to be had, so long as you were planning on getting it in the future. We don’t mind dropping a buck or two on a frivolous whim but more than that takes a step back for discussion. Yes, in fact, I have been to look at that swing set twice already. We’re still considering.

Of course this goes back to the paradigm shift and knowing what you really need, versus what you want and can afford. We’re at a place where we can have a little fun, but I still like to be stingy. No sense paying full price for something that will be clearanced in a month!

Peace,
Tony

We really like going out to eat. Its fun for me because I get to sit down for most of the meal. I don’t have to get up to get something from the fridge every two minutes, I don’t have to scamper around getting things prepared, and the best part, I don’t have to clean up after the meal! How can someone NOT like eating out?!?

Of course, it gets very expensive very quickly. We usually get out to eat between once a week and twice a month. Something that has made it much more bearable is Discover’s Cash Back Bonus rewards. We use our Discover card exclusively. In fact most of our expenses go on the Discover card. Here is the secret, though. We pay it off. Every month. No exceptions.

With all our shopping on one card, we rack up some decent cash back bonuses.  They have partnered up with many restaurants, so we’ve been getting gift cards for going out through them. It is already money we have spent, returned to us with a discount. Some are $25 cards for $20, or $45 for $40.

The best payback I’ve gotten using the gift cards is finding my shoes and my wife’s winter jacket on clearance, 75% off, and using the $25 gift card I ordered for $20! Does it get better than that?!?

Peace,
Tony

I know it isn’t just my kids that end up with a rats nest on their head when they wake up, and combing and brushing girl’s hair was an absolute mystery to me. My wife had to show me how to work out the snags without pulling most of the kids hair out. We found something to help at the store, but it was (if I recall correctly) around $3!

Huggies and others have a great product for spraying on your kids hair to help with detangling and smoothing it out after a long nap. Detangling spray squirted on dry hair really made a difference in smoothing out those knots. There were two down sides. First, the cost. Second, the stuff was thicker than we’d prefer and left our girls hair looking greasy and in need of washing.

Of course we came up with the perfect solution:

Once the spray bottle is empty, take your kids conditioner and squirt a long squeeze into the bottle, add some warm water and shake it up to mix it. Instant detangler for a fraction of the cost. I’m all about re-using as much as we can to cut costs.

We’re on the same spray bottle that we bought two years ago. The best part of this, we can adjust the amount of conditioner to balance getting the knots out without leaving icky looking hair.

Give it a try, save a few bucks.

Peace,
Tony

I realize yesterday’s post is useless with out a picture. I know this doesn’t do it justice, but you get the idea.

The front “row” consists of four little bush plants that I don’t remember the name of around the two four by four foot beds. The one on the left has my lettuce, the one on the right has tomatoes and a spare bean plant or two.

Behind that is a spread of four ten by eight beds. Cilantro and beans (I think) on the left, assorted vine things in the middle, more vine things and then corn in back and peppers and beans on the right.

I’ll be looking for a trellace… trellase… arbor type thing on clearance at the end of the season to  put in the middle, with those bushes as the base. Then we’ll put some clamatis to grow up the trellis… thing.

When I work up the ambition, I’ll snap a pic from the deck to get a better angle on the garden. The kids and dogs are napping, though, and I don’t want to disturb them by doing that right now.

Peace,
Tony

Our garden is growing like mad this year. We redid the lay out and made some raised beds from some left over redwood that was at my in laws back yard. Last year, the garden was an eye sore. One big square with a few plants in there. We didn’t use it very efficiently, but the bunnies and deer did. We were still able to get out a bunch of Zucchini, tomatoes and some peppers for salsa.

This year, even though we have less actual growing area, we are going to get a much larger yield. Not only that, our layout is just pleasing to the eye. It LOOKS nice, and by gum, that makes me feel better about going out back!

This year we planted tomatoes, more zucc’s and summer squash, hot peppers and bell peppers, corn, cilantro, beans, and leaf lettuce. I’m most excited about the leaf lettuce! (Probably because I can eat it now.) We just have a four foot by four foot bed with the lettuce in, but I can’t keep up on eating it as it grows! Its great, I’ve never had lettuce be so flavorful and tender. I typically go through a head of lettuce a week, too, so its not like I’m not having my greens.

Before lunch, I run out with a scissors and a bowl, give a section a bit of a cut and bring it back in. It doesn’t take much to fill my bowl! Mmm… today I had some left over taco meat that I put on it with salsa and ranch dressing, don’t forget the cheese!

So, for two or three months, how ever long it lasts, I will be saving the $1.39-1.49/head a week. As soon as the rest of the veggies come ripe we’ll cut even more from the shopping list. What makes it so much better is knowing where it was grown.

Lets not forget how much the kids enjoy helping work in the garden, too!

Peace,
Tony

I haven’t had a chance to try this out yet but it comes from a very reliably source. My mother in law read a tip to clean the shower of soap scum and scale cheap and easy. The trick, she says, its to get a bottle of clear shampoo and some baking soda.

Place some shampoo on the wash cloth or better, a mitt, with some baking soda and work that into a lather. Scrub the walls of the shower with the mix. Apparently you can feel the scum breaking down! From the sounds of it, a dollar store bottle of clear shampoo (the kind with out any conditioners that would gum up the works) and some baking soda could replace the harsh expensive shower cleaners.

Since I have a wonderful test facility in the next room I will take before and after pictures of the technique and report back if it works. Also, since I clean so regularly*, this test may occur within a month or two.

Peace,
Tony

*sarcasm alert