Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am so thankful for my awesome family, especially my sweet husband and beautiful son, and I'm thankful that I get to be a momma again! I hope you all have just as much to be thankful for, and that you enjoy the day with your family!

PS, just in case you thought I had lost my mind, I will not be Black Friday shopping this year! No deal is worth that kind of stress to me. If you go, I'd love to hear about it!

The ultimate excuse for failure to do just about anything...

So here's why I haven't been posting lately. We're officially 15 weeks, and I'm feeling great today, but I've learned that that does not mean I won't start puking at midnight. Sorry for the double negatives in that sentence! Anyway, I'm really hoping to pick up the reins again, we'll see how I do.

Cheap M&M's, hurray

So there's a nice deal at Walgreens this week, the perfect way to get your feet wet with Register Rewards and get started on picking up holiday baking supplies, or holiday overeating, whichever is up your alley. I saw this on Hip2Save, and there's a lot of conversation over there about exactly which varieties of M&Ms to purchase in order to minimize the stress of the transaction possibly not working for you.

M&Ms 9.9-12.6oz bags are on sale for $2.50 each, buy 4 bags and receive a $5 Register Reward (RR) Remember that the RR is a coupon that prints after you pay for the items, can be used on your next purchase, and expires in 2 weeks. There are a few coupons out there that you can use on the M&Ms that will make this deal even better, although even without any coupons it's still a decent price for the candy.

Facebook has a coupon for the new pretzel variety, $1 off each bag. Just like them, and then you can print 2 copies per computer. Yesterday's paper had $1 off 2 bags of the holiday varieties too. I used 2 of the FB coupons, and one of the holiday varieties to get my out of pocket cost down to $7, and I still get the $5 RR to use next time. One note if you're not familiar with the RR, you CAN use that RR to do this transaction again, BUT it won't print another RR, since it's the same manufacturer.

I'm so proud of myself, I already started baking! I used Paula Deen's recipe for Monster Cookies, and they are yummy.

Voting location FYI for Piedmont Valley

At my family Halloween get together last night, we discussed where voting would take place tomorrow, since the Piedmont Gym is in the construction area. My mom had heard it was at the Piedmont Library, but then when we headed home I noticed that the American Legion building's sign says that it will be held there. I didn't see exactly what it said, since my husband was going roughly the speed of light in order to get home to catch the rest of the Steelers game, and unfortunately the Meade County website hasn't been updated, but that seems to be the story. So go get the vote out tomorrow! Vote yes on 12! Or don't, it's up to you!

Hope you all had a good one!

My unsolicted opinion on the time/sapce continuum.

Not really. But after being a stay at home momma for over a year now, I definitely have some things to say about prioritization, and I've been wanting to share. Please feel free to weigh in! What I wanted to talk about today is deciding how to pick out money saving tasks that you want to commit to doing, based on how much time you have to set aside for those tasks. What I mean is that there are so many things you can do to save money in your day to day life, but you gotta decide which ones are worth your time investment, AND that you enjoy doing enough that you won't drive yourself freaking crazy trying to keep up with them. An example;

• I love to make bread, truly love it, especially in the colder months. And I will NEVER make our sandwich bread. I have a lot of reasons for this; although I use some whole wheat flour (pastry flour is the best) in several of the breads I make, I have yet to make 100% whole wheat bread that doesn't sit in your belly like a rapidly hardening batch of concrete. Commercial 100% whole wheat however has overcome that issue through some kind of sorcery that they do, so I say, let them do it right and I won't worry about it. Homemade bread just doesn't last on the counter like commercial, so I would have to make it every few days, and then figure out what to do with the stale stuff, cause we just don't burn through it that fast (and I just don't need that many bread crumbs). Commercial bread however, especially if you freeze it until you need it, always stays acceptably fresh (again, sorcery). Finally, if my darling husband were faced with an unsliced loaf of homemade bread when he went scrounging for a sandwich, I'm pretty sure he'd look for some cereal instead. It's a guy thing, I think, and honestly I don't really blame him! I don't think that you should forgo all convenience in the name of frugality, particularly when the savings isn't huge. I can buy sandwich bread for $1/loaf (maybe less if I get lucky at the bakery thrift store), and while I've never figured the cost of a batch of homemade (umm, cause I don't like it anyway, so what do I care), I can't imagine it would be much cheaper.
• So that's my platform, vote for me! I will continue to make pizza dough, cinnamon rolls, Cuban bread, and refrigerator yeast rolls on a regular basis to satisfy my need for my house to smell like Heaven. But I'm just not messing with sandwich bread!

So, while not every task needs to be examined in such detail, I think it's really important to spend a little time deciding what you want to do, and where you'll take some help from the grocery store. And if you hate doing some frugal task, figure out a way to make it less painful, because you're not likely to stick with something you hate, and then you'll feel all guilty about it. Why waste your life feeling guilty? Go watch Jersey Shore so you can feel better about yourself!

Here's a nice Groupon deal if you're planning a trip to Sioux Falls between now and April. Spezia is a really scrummy Italian restaurant on Louise Street, and you can get a $50 gift certificate there for $25. It expires 4/25/11, and cannot be applied towards gratuity or tax. Spezia has great food, and the prices aren't bad, plus the desserts are really nice. I definitely think you could get a nice meal for 2 for $50! Try the Shrimp Fra Diavolo!

We always used to go to SF in the fall and do some Christmas shopping, but I can't think of any stores there that I would want to go to now, other than World Market of course! So, sadly I'll probably skip this deal. I doubt I can convince my husband to go, unless I promise a meal at Famous Dave's.....