Once Upon a Child HUGE discount

Parents in or around Lincoln - head to Once Upon a Child now.

Here is the tip from Chicks Dig Deals: "Once Upon a Child on 48th and Van Dorn, has marked down their clearance again! Now ALL Clearance priced clothing, shoes, outerwear, books and toys are 4 for $1 and the 5th is FREE! There is no limit to what you can buy!"

This picture from their website says after 12 items get one free, but it should be after 4 items get the 5th free. They probably haven't updated their website yet, but let me know if I'm wrong.

Super Bowl weekend - fav appetizer recipes

Happy Friday! Do you all have big plans for the Super Bowl? Have you seen any of the commercials online yet? I love the Budweiser one above. How cute!

I thought I'd share some of my favorite appetizer recipes today. I love making appetizers and desserts. I could live off the two. My husband cooks most of the actual meals at our house (not my cup of tea). I'm perfectly okay with a bowl of cereal for supper or scrounging up whatever I can find in the cupboards. Not him. He'll cook full meals every night. I swear I'd be 10 pounds lighter if it wasn't for him! :)

Anyway, here are some tried and true (and seriously EASY) appetizer recipes that have been hits when I bring them places:

Free Redbox movie tonight

Feel like a movie night? You're in luck. Today only, get a Redbox rental for free. Use code KLLL4545 at checkout. I rented The Internship. Hope it's good!

KLLL4545

KLLL4545

Ski gear

Gosh I just can't seem to get myself in project mode this week. I think it's time for a vacation. Speaking of vacations, we do have a ski trip planned this winter. It's been a while since I've skied and I know some of my gear is outdated. I've been googling to see what's "in" on the slopes this year. What do you think about the following outfits from The Brave Ski Mom?

Red is my fav color

Another curb score

Check out this beast I found laying on the side of the road!

Double your savings at Menards

 ***UPDATE: So I just heard that the 11% is NOT good on gift cards this time around. Next time the 11% is offered, see if it's good on the gift cards before attempting this. They offered the 11% for about two weeks around Christmas time and it was good on the gift cards then.***

Do you have any upcoming home projects? Think ahead because this is a good deal!

Menards is offering 11% off everything in their store through Saturday. Did you know that 11% sometimes applies to gift cards as well? This means you can double your savings and save 22%!

See how:

Coupon deals for the week of 1/26-2/1

Did you see Friday's post about how you can make money on purchasing everyday items? If not, check it out here. This couponing stuff might sound confusing, but I swear anyone can do it. Honest!

Hopefully you kept the coupon inserts from yesterday's paper and maybe got some extra copies of coupons from friends and family members. There were four inserts this week. Sometimes there's only one or two so this is a great week in the coupon world!

Here are some good sites that show you how to get the best deals this week:

Making money at CVS

When I started this blog I briefly mentioned that I coupon, but I said I'd leave that to the pros. Well today (and maybe every once in a while) I'll show you why you should be couponing too. I made $4.15 by buying all the stuff you see in the picture below. Yes, made money!

Let me show you how...

Raspberry leaf tea for women

I've just discovered a miracle! Okay, not really, but pretty darn close. Men, if you're reading this you might want to stop now. This post is regarding female issues if you know what I mean...

Now that the guys are out of here, gals - you all need to check out raspberry leaf tea (especially if you're pregnant). I'll give you some background info so you understand why I started drinking it. I had been on birth control for years and decided to stop. Now before rumors start flying, we are not jumping on the baby bandwagon at this time. I simply don't like putting unnatural things in my body. I don't even take Tylenol. I prefer to treat the underlying cause of issues so I'll eat certain foods or use herbs instead. Yes, I am one of those that is always reading natural remedy books. I don't think they can cure everything, but I do think our society is too dependent on popping pills for a quick fix.

So after I stopped birth control, my period was awful. Terrible cramps and heavier than ever. I considered going back on birth control, but knew that I wouldn't be happy with that decision. I started researching and found that raspberry leaf has been used for female issues and reproduction for centuries. I found some at Whole Foods for a little over $5.

Buy slightly damaged goods to save money

If merchandise is damaged, chances are it's marked down. If it's not marked down, be sure to ask for a discount at the register. Of course you don't want to buy anything broken, but items with slight flaws can be great deals.

For example, I bought these two damaged items at Hobby Lobby.

Decorative trim on bathroom mirror

Woohoo! The bathroom is done, done, done! I'll never have to brush my teeth in the bathtub or kitchen sink again!

Check out the different projects we've completed in this bathroom:

Stone Effects Spray Paint on Countertops
Rust-Oleum Tub & Tile Refinishing Kit
Bathroom Demo
Cutting a Quartz Countertop
Putting Up a Tile Backsplash

Our last projects include putting in a new faucet and adding decorative wood trim to the mirror.

Long weekend = progress on basement

Loved having MLK Day off yesterday! We got a lot done around the house. Last week we were working pretty hard on our bathroom and I was hoping to wrap things up in there and show you the final product.

Staining the decorative wood trim that will go around the mirror.

However, we spent all weekend working on our basement instead. We were lucky and had friends and family that were free to help. (Thank you Jon, Joel, Jeremy, and Dad!) Tonight I'll try to wrap up the bathroom and post about it tomorrow. In the meantime, here are a couple before pictures of our basement. It's a little over 1,500 square feet and will have a living room, bar room, bedroom, office, bathroom, and storage room.

Main living room with the office straight ahead and a bedroom and closet in the left corner.

This portion will stay as is and will be a storage room. Straight ahead there will be a bar area. Behind the first row of studs there will be a good sized bathroom and then another little storage room.

So those are the realtor's pics from the original listing. I just realized I never took before pics so I need to get down there and take a few more before we get too far along finishing it. Here are pics of the work we got done this weekend.

Putting up a tile backsplash

Friday Friday Friday! Thank goodness. Here's hoping work goes fast. I'm ready for a beer (who am I kidding, let's make that plural... beerS) and girls night this evening.

Day 5 of our bathroom redo = putting in a glass tile backsplash. This was surprisingly easy. We orgingally picked up this pattern of tile because it was an awesome deal ($2.60 for each sheet), but alas it didn't quite match. Too green.

So we returned it and found this tile for $4.99 which I didn't think was too bad considering most sheets cost $10-$15. We used nine sheets for our bathroom so spent about $45 on tile.

Home Depot

We also found the best invention ever! Simple Mat made this project a snap. We needed one package of it which cost $19.97.

Target 70% off toy clearance

I could care less about toys (unless it's pet toys for my cat and dog!), but I have a lot of cool moms that read this blog. If you have kiddos, grandkids, etc. head to Target today because they just started their biannual toy sale. Apparently this is a really big deal? Here are some posts about it from blogger pros:

All Things Target
What You Need to Know About the Target Toy Sale
Totally Target
The Krazy Coupon Lady

Sounds like this is when deal seekers stock up on kids' gifts for the whole year!

Lemon Days at Gateway Mall starts today

If you live in or near Lincoln, NE you might want to swing by Gateway within the next couple of days. Lemon Days starts today. I haven't been to Lemon Days in years. Weird, right? You'd think that'd be right up my alley! I was disappointed the past couple of times that I went so I think that's why I never get excited to go anymore. Hopefully it's better this time around. Let me know if you find anything good!

Cutting a quartz countertop to size

Here's a project I never even dreamed of tackling. Today learn how to cut a quartz countertop yourself. This would also work for granite. If you do not have standard size countertops, you will spend an arm and a leg having them custom made. Another option is cutting them yourself. Read my previous posts this week to learn why we decided to tackle this project.

We bought a 61" x 22" standard bathroom quartz countertop from Menards for $310 (after rebate). We needed a 59 1/4" x 22" countertop. Having it custom made would have cost us $800-$1500.

My husband rented a wet saw from Ace Hardware for $30 plus a refundable deposit of $25. This wet saw was actually a tile saw. Not optimal for cutting through a thick counter top. He tried renting a handheld wet saw and drove to Mead Lumber in Beatrice only to discover they let someone else take it even though they said they'd hold it for him (thanks a lot, Mead!). Therefore he ended up going to ACE and using the saw you see below.

Bathroom demo

I tried to save money in my bathroom with a couple diy projects, see here and here. They didn't turn out as planned. We decided it was best to rip out the old and find a good deal on new.

Here's my poor husband trying to fix my screw up. Thankfully he's a very patient man! Tearing out the countertop and tile wasn't that hard. Just messy!

Here are the tools my husband used. Ignore the lighter. I have no idea why that was setting there. You do not need to set anything on fire! ;)

He had to pry off the top counter. Wasn't too hard.

Now it's ready for the new sink. I called around to local countertop stores and visited all three big box stores - Home Depot, Lowe's, and Menards.

Today only B1G1 free philly at Pepperjax with coupon

Did you know that it's National Philly Cheesesteak Month? Yeah, me neither until I noticed Pepperjax Grill is offering an awesome deal. Today only (January 14) you can buy one Philly and get the second free. You need to bring in the coupon which you can find here.

So don't worry about cooking tonight. Head to Pepperjax!

Rust-Oleum Tub & Tile = the worst!

As you've probably noticed by now, I love Rust-Oleum products. I use them all the time! I can't believe how awful this project with Rust-Oleum Tub & Tile Refinishing Kit turned out. I was stunned. This is probably one of my biggest diy flops :(

Yesterday, I posted about using Rust-Oleum Stone Effects spray paint on countertops. I didn't love how it turned out, but I didn't hate it. I could have lived with it. After I completed that project, I started using the tub and tile refinishing kit on the sink and tile surrounding the countertop.

The sink was really scratched up. I cleaned and cleaned it, but the actual finish was scratched so the only way to fix that was to repaint the sink or tear it out and put in a new one.

Stone Effects spray paint on countertops

If you think all of my projects turn out fine and that I always know what I'm doing, you are surely mistaken (although I appreciate the vote of confidence)! One of my latest screw ups was in my bathroom. I spent a lot of my Christmas break working in there and I'm so sad that it didn't turn out.

Today I'll talk about my countertop oops and tomorrow I'll post about my awful experience with Rust-Oleum Tub & Tile.

So my bathroom was very blue when we first bought the house.

Right away we painted the walls, cabinet, and updated the flooring. I also painted my countertop using this method.

It was certainly better, but I didn't love how the color turned out. Too yellowish.

See what I mean? I think I would have really liked it had I stuck to whites and tans instead of adding in that rust brown and yellowish cream. Live and learn.

I decided to try spray painting on Rust-Oleum's Make It Stone Spray Paint in Pebble followed by the same Envirotex Lite Epoxy used before.

Shopko 90% off Christmas continued

Happy Friday! Is it just me or has this been the longest week ever? Here's hoping today goes fast!

I stopped by the two south Shopko's in Lincoln, NE last night to get an idea of what was left. I was surprised that both stores still had several aisles of Christmas items. So if you didn't get there yesterday, I would imagine there will still be plenty tonight and maybe through the weekend. To see what was left in the north 27th store, check out yesterday's post here.

Here are pics from the 27th & Hwy 2 Shopko last night:

Shopko 90% off Christmas started today!

I know you're probably so over Christmas, but one last post on it because now is the time to stock up for next year. Head to Shopko over lunch or after work today. They just started their 90% off Christmas sale. The N 27th store in Lincoln, NE had several aisles of items. I'm not sure how picked over the other locations are. Here is what the N 27th store looked like:

Refinishing dresser with gel stain

We needed a decent dresser for the guest bedroom. I found this solid wood one on Craigslist. It was listed for $75 and I got her down to $30. It was missing some handles, was an orangey oak color, and was pretty scratched up. I liked the size and shape of it though! A true solid wood dresser purchased new will put you back around $1,000. No thank you.

I got busy stripping it. This is not fun. Stripping and restaining furniture is a ton of work so please be sure you know what you're getting yourself into. It actually only took me a couple days, but I worked sun up to sun down. Man I was sore! It was a good reminder of how out of shape I am!

Here are some of the materials you will need:

DIY framed sports logo

I found this frame during Free Friday at EcoStore.

Apparently this is the only before picture I took. Fail.

And turned it into this for my husband's man cave. Go Huskers!

I grabbed that crummy silver picture because I thought it was about the size of a Husker poster my husband needed framed. Turns out I was wrong. I still wanted to do something Huskerish (I know that's not a word, but just go with it!) for the basement so I gathered up my scrap material and started brain storming.

Decorating with my 90% off Christmas decor

Christmas break is over for me and I'm back to work. It's -8 out, but feels like -24. What a depressing day! I also need to take down my Christmas decorations which makes me even more sad :(

Before I take them down, I wanted to show you what I did with some of the 90% off decorations that I picked up from Target. If you missed that post, check it out here. Obviously I'm not going to put up all of it, but I did decorate the three trees that I bought.

Target 90% off holiday started today!

Most Targets should be offering 90% off all Christmas items today. I hit up all three Lincoln, NE stores this morning and had a ton of luck! I spent $72.88 total. I saved $655.92!!! I have been calling the Targets since New Years Eve asking if 90% had hit yet. Cindy, the operator at the South 56th store, and I are like BFFs now. Not really, I actually think she was getting rather annoyed with my 8 a.m. calls each morning. Weeks ago I predicted January 4 or 5 for 90% off, but lots of bloggers thought it would drop as early as January 1 or 2 (which it obviously didn't).

So I swear I'm not a hoarder. I truly do know what I want to do with all of these items. My haul included three Christmas trees, four smaller decorative trees, a wreath, five strands of decorated garland, tons of bulbs, a bar set, three big boxes of lights, and randomness.