4 Chair Makeover

We have been very lucky to have friends and family give their unwanted furniture to us. Honestly we have been blessed. We have gotten about 4 couches, 3 beds, a bench, 2 rockers, a hutch, a table with a set of 4 chairs, a bookcase, and even some Halloween decorations! :) To me it’s a blessing, and to the friends it’s a blessing because now they get to go purchase brand new!
So far everything has been put to good use! We have passed a few of the items on and I am now in the stage of ‘re-doing’ the items that are left.
But lets start from the beginning. A few years ago I feel in love with a kitchen table at World Market Cost-Plus. So I started to save all the gift certificates to go towards this kitchen table. Well it was time for a table…. so I picked up my table only having to pay 25%, thanks to my loving family and friends for my GC! :) So I bring the table home and I start to get it set up, and realize I have no chairs. I naturally went online to check out some chairs and I was dumbfounded! I couldn’t believe how much chairs cost! Well little did I forget I had a set of chairs sitting in the basement waiting for me. Now these chairs didn’t match, they were a different color, look, style, feel…. but I say let’s revamp them! And that’s what I did.


I forgot to take a before picture… grr…. But if you can imagine they were a classic oak color. I used spray paint to cover the chair in a satin brown color. It was a pretty good match! And the seat cushion was a blue pattern. Pretty, but my kitchen is going to be whites and a hint of green.

Ta-da! Now I’m a little wishy washy on the patterns I picked out. After the kitchen is finished completely I will more than likely do the reupholster thing again to match, but for now… ahhhhh comfy seats to rest on while eating dinner. Now all I need to do is make a bench to match and the set will be complete. Maybe this weekend?? :)

xo m.

Halloweenie Preview

On Halloween we will have owned our home for ONE YEAR!! Where did the time go? It's crazy to think it just flew by. We just love our home!

Last year on the day we signed the papers we purchased $50.00 worth of candy thinking that would be PLENTY!!  (Side Note: I thought it would be plenty because I came from living with my parents where we would only buy 4-9 BIG candy bars for the trick-or-treaters because we only had a few kids stop by... and well maybe one big kid :) ). So as we are working on the outside of our new home we placed a basket filled with candy in it, and one by one they came! 20 minutes later.... we were empty. Dead bone dried out. CRAZINESS!! Now we are the new neighbors with no candy. ha-ha. 

Well this year things have changed.  Steve and I decided we are going to connect the trailer to the golf cart and drive all the neighbor kids around the block. Then head to my parents for a movie. We are trying to save still so we sliced that candy bill more than half! No candy for trick-or-treaters that stop by, but our lil neighbor friends will get a special treat.... here is a little preview on what I've been working on for them.

(Side Note: When I say neighbor kids, I mean the 8 or so homes that are right by us that have the 18+ kids under the age of 8 that we have come to love.) 

Oh yes.... Play-Doh!!! Love that smell! :)

Can you tell I just eat this stuff up? I love being creative, and am so very thankful that God has given me that bone in my body. Love him!

  

Happy Halloweenie (Sunday!)

xox m.

Swaggernauts

Alright so I've had a few questions about swagbucks and here are a few tips that I can show you on ways to earn 'swagbucks'. These are just ways that I have found easy and quick.

1. The swag tool bar. I was totally skeptical of this and really didn't want to download and install it. However I needed only a few more points to get another gift card so I took the leap of faith. I did it and it's great! It's a great reminder to use to get to all the sites you visit while earning 'swagbucks'. So what I do is in the morning I check my email account and then Facebook. So I type in Facebook in the toolbar and bam - 2 bucks just for USING the toolbar and then when you do a few searches in general I've earned 7-20 points! So yea, downloading the tool bar was a good thing. (Also sometimes I've seen codes on the toolbar which give you extra swagbucks as well.)

2. The search button. This is the same thing as the tool bar. I used to click on the search button to get to where I wanted to search. So if you are still apprehensive about downloading the search toolbar, then continue to use this.

3. NOSO. This button is where you do a few click through to get a few swagbucks. It's no obligation offers. I just press the 'no' and 'skip' buttons because I don't want to sign up for anything. And then after 3-4 of these offers... BAM free swagbucks.

This is what you will see when you first click on NOSO. Then you click on: Start Earning

The you might see something like this... and then you press SKIP!

After a few rounds of that it will equal some more swagbucks.


4. Trusted Surveys. After a week of being a member on Swagbucks you have the chance to earn more bucks. Simply click on the button for these trusted surveys and you get bucks, and then if you have some surveys that you qualify for and want to take the time to fill them out, sometimes you can earn 25-150 points!
I always check just to earn the bucks and then I've only done one survey before... I was working on something at the same time so it took me about 30 minutes to complete but I got 75 swagbucks for it! :)

5. Daily Poll. Easy bucks to just take a poll. Nuff said.

6. Blog. This is a hit or miss. If you go to their blog and read (or skim) the post sometimes at the end of the post they will give you a code to put in for some free swagbucks. Every once in a while I'll check it... and once I found a code! However they have limits on them. For example: Enter (code here) until 5pm PDT for 7 Swag Bucks! BUT when it's passed the correct time it was just say EXPIRED. So it's a good one if you can catch it. Also on the blog they sometimes give tips and tricks on how to find codes etc.... so if you have time and want to check the blog out.... do it.

7. Sponsor Offers. These are offers to get you more bucks. I've only done the videos. You click on the video and watch it and BAM more swag bucks. Or you can turn your speakers down and just play the video while you do other things.

All in all said. I fgure why not earn free gift certificats to amazon by doing what I normally do? Since I'm on my computer I don't mind putting an extra few minutes in to seach by swag and not bygoogle, or even search for google in my swag search bar to then search for what I'm looking for. All this trouble for $10.00 to amazon? Sure! And thank you! :)


xo. m.

SWAGBUCKS

What is Swagbucks? Swagbucks is an easy way to earn a little extra cash (through PayPal), gift cards, or prizes! Swagbucks is a search engine, just like Google, and you get "Swagbucks," or points at random. I usually get 20-50 Swagbucks a day just from searching.
As your Swagbucks accumulate, you can trade them in for gift cards and prizes. For example: Earn 450 Swagbucks and get a $5 gift certificate to Amazon!

What kind of gift cards are there? The most popular is the amazon card I mentioned above. Then there are other prizes that inculde:

$5 Paypal - 700 Swagbucks

$10 Barnes and Noble e-Gift Card - 1250 Swagbucks
$20 Target e-Gift Card - 2350 Swagbucks

Then there are also gifts like toys, stickers, games, books, etc. There is just a ton of stuff to pick from!

How do you earn Swagbucks? The most common ay to earn them is through searching, but it's not the only way. After you sign up, you use their search bar to go to website (and do this often!) Even thought I know how to get to facebook and my blogger, I still go to swagbucks and search for 'Facebook' which allows me to gain points. Simple!  (On a side note, the search isn't great. So I usually just do it a few times till I earn a few points and then search for Google to do my real searching. Ha-ha).

Another way to earn Swagbucks is to vote daily on the Daily Poll! Do trusted surveys, check out their No Obligation Offers, complete some of there FREE special offers, and once you recieve your prize... take a photo of your 'Swag' and send it to Swagbuks to prizephoto@swagbucks.com for more Swagbucks!

Sounds easy right? IT IS!! It might take a few 5-10 minutes a day, but within 2 weeks I earn a free gift card to amazon and I'm still going! The more gift cards I earn the more my "gift budget fund" will increase! :)

Ready to earn big with Swagbucks?! Sign up here and earn 30 Swagbucks immediately!!! :)

Let me know how it goes, and if you have any questions! And I'll post more facts as I learn them throughout the process.

xo m.

Chicken Parm Round 2

Remember when I posted about "Cooking with the Bach's"? Well I forgot to mention something about the Chicken Parmesan Bundles. We didn't like the spinach that I put in there. We actually only ate the outside of the chicken and that's about it, sad. So I tried for round two the other night and used broccoli, and it was a winner! Steve said to put it on the 'make again' list. WOO HOO!!

Want to see a meal that was on the 'never make again' list??

Cheeseburger Bacon Mac.

This tasted a lot like hamburger helper but was a big pain to make. AND it was so bland and just... just... gross. This could be due to the fact that I forgot to thaw out the bacon so we tried using Bacon Bits (Highly recommend to NEVER use - sick) and so it just didn't turn out. However, I'm so glad, I am blessed, to have a husband who will try anything with me!

Here was another meal we made.... we liked it. BBQ Chicken something or other... It got a little burnt but it was still good, and Steve loves anything with the sound of BBQ (or BACON!).

On the savings note... I'm keeping it up!

We are trying to stay at $200 a month for groceries (including toiletries etc). Mom said I was crazy but all the best to us... ha-ha.

We shop at Meijer but once in a while if I see a GREAT deal I'll head to Walmart or Walgreens, and I've also been to Dominicks once before. So far the BEST deal I got was the other day at Walgreens. The shelf cost (total cost without coupons) was $26.88 and I paid OOP (Out of Pocket) $1.40 plus I got $7.00 back on my next purchase. That means I made $5.60 to go shopping and bring home two Schick 5 razors and blades (for Steve), 2 tubes of toothpaste (we were getting low), some chapstick and wheat thins. Not a TON of stuff, but I needed toothpaste so it was worth going to Walgreens to shop to get paid $5+ bucks! Go us! And if you are interested in how I'm doing this or want to join in on the savings, let me know! I would love to share the savings! :)

With pinchin' the pennies our kitchen remodel, basement and laundry room remodel will come along quicker than expected. Then you know what?? Time for savings for babies! :)


For those of you who don't know already, I have the BABY ITCH real bad. Steve has it once in a while, more often than not, but we just want to wait a little bit and enjoy each other and our time together as just us. But it's ok to look at baby clothes, books, items for a soon to be nursery??? Right? Ha! All in God's perfect timing though.

Back to house things...

If anyone is in need of paint, the Ace Hardware in McHenry is having a rebate on BenMoore paint. Buy a gallon (for $5) get $5.00 back in rebates! That's FREE paint!! There is a limit of 4 gallons, but it looks to me like a GREAT time to go get paint for our guest bathroom, master bedroom and bathroom. If Steve goes with, we could get 4 more gallons! Anyone want to have a painting party? Just kidding....

Everyone have an awesome day!

xo m.

p.s. Has anyone used the website Restaurant.com ? It's a site where you can purchase gift certificates to local restaurant in your area for a cheaper price. There are rules like... buy $25 and have to spend $50 and only valid on Sun-Thursday.... 18% gratuity added....

Well the other day they had a sale for 90% off! So I checked out the restaurants in my area and I bought a $10.00 gift certificate to the Rib House in CL for only $.40. Steve and I thought we could have a date night and get ribs for super cheap?? (There goes our date night budget! - ha ha). But we shall see if the $0.40 purchase was worth it or not.....

Address Labels

Does anyone else get these free address labels in the mail as often as I do?

It's crazy! I didn't sign up for anything (or not knowingly) and seriously every other week I get TONS in the mail. In one day I got 2 mailers with address labels, one dream catcher, 2 packs of Christmas cards, and a map of the USA. Honestly... I don't have the slightest clue. A dream catcher?? Really?!?! Ha-ha-ha! I just have no idea how and why I get this stuff. I'm not complaining here, I just think it's funny. And I really want to know if anyone else gets these? I mean I get them at my parents house and at my house. But I guess I really never have to worry about running out of labels. And it is pretty cool that I now have different labels for different seasons and I got them all for free. (Please read with a sarcastic tone right there)  Check it out...

Oh and a side note: to the people who make these labels for me... I got married, last name is Bach now! :)

Just kidding....

xo m.

More Wedding Photos

Moving Up!

Sick of seeing my savings?  I'm not! :)

I'm now up to saving 72% on my bill! Can I get a hip-hip-hooray!!!

$61.54 worth of items that I got for $17.49! Yep, crazy!

My top deal was the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter which are on sale 3 for $4.00 but I used a coupon and got money back on the deal. So it was FREE with a .04 pay back!

Other deals were FREE Dan-Active yougurt and  $.50 for the Glade Candles.

I'm just glad the Lord is helping me figure all this out. October is the month that we are starting our bugget and this was the first kick. So I think we are off to a great start! Any one need some butter?

 xo m.