THURSDAY RAMBLINGS.....

I was going through the monthly bills yesterday and trying to make my dimes stretch into dollars. Not an easy feat, I can assure you! Why does it seem that everything BUT hubby's paycheck keeps going up and up and up? If this keeps up (no pun intended! HA), the price of living is going to be in the stratosphere while the money coming in has stagnated; hmmm....not a good money to expense ratio..... I need my puny dollars to flex their muscles and go farther than they have ever gone before!! *Cue to Star Wars Music here* lol

In my quest to tame expenses, the only category that I can cut back on is my monthly food and miscellaneous household category. I am currently at around $400 per month and this includes not only groceries but also misc. items like paint at the hardware store, lightbulbs, stuff like that.

So, with that in mind, there are (4) four band competitions coming up starting next Sat. the Sept. 25 and continuing through Sat. Oct. 16. This will be the last weekend for awhile that we can get some outside work done both in the yard and on the house. Since I don't want to have to spend any money, I am going through all of our paint supplies to see if we will have enough leftover from the spring and last fall. I don't care if I have to scrape out those cans with my finger.....If I can get enough to paint the basement windows, I'll be a happy camper! It is amazing how much paint gets wasted in those cans because of not cleaning them out!

I also went through all of our shelves in the basement when I was sweeping down there yesterday. I found about 2 gallons of window washer fluid, a big container of antifreeze, some motor oil, a couple bottles of Heet, some unopened caulk for the windows, 2 boxes Raid Max® Concentrated DEEP REACH™ Foggers (my Mother loves these things...she HATES bugs!), plastic window film, roll of sticky foam tape for something or other, and lots of other misc. "stuff." I was very happy to find these items....it was like Christmas all over again! I'm kind of a tomboy when it comes to things like this. I love to go into hardware stores and browse around; I'd rather do that than to go into the mall and look at clothes! :)

As I was sorting those items, I was adding up the dollars in my head and it came to around $50. That was not counting the smaller things that I didn't figure in. That is FIFTY DOLLARS that I don't have to re-spend....all because I did about an hour of sorting and decluttering. I'd say that my time was very well spent!

Anyone else come across any good finds while doing some cleaning?

Remember, there is still time to enter my giveaway! It runs through tomorrow and ends at 11:59 CT. Get your entry(ies) in while you can!! :)

**A.Marie**