Life On The Central Coast

"Pick ONE thing from this list that you can implement to start saving some extra cash and let us know in the comments and/or in   the forum  what you’re going to tackle." 15 Easy Ways to Save Money On Your Household Bills 1. Buy in Bulk - We do this regularly. Nearly everything we purchase is at either Costco or Smart and Final. We have a pantry area and freezer and are able to store food and most food has a freshness date of at least a year from purchase date. For those items of more of a fresh nature, we will as our kids what they could use and either give them the food or go in on the price and separate out the food. It has saved us a substantial amount of money! 2. Use Coupons - I've tried using coupons and if there is something SPECIFIC I need, I will attempt to use them. We do not, however, use every coupon, every week like some shoppers do. So many of the items are cleaners, hygiene or convenience foods and we make our cleaners, and food from scratch. ...

Thanks to my son-in-law, Mike, who did all the demolition and construction, my husband who through his long hours at work has made it financially possible and Aby Garvey's closet organization class, My closet dream has become a reality! You remember the before's??? NOT a pretty site. It was dark and cluttered, items all over the floor, mismatched hangers and over stuffed top shelving. It was at this point that I decided to take a closet organizing class offered by Aby Garvey over at www.Simplify101.com . It has made so much difference in the way my closet looks and feels. First, I sat down one afternoon and started mapping out what I DID want in a closet, took some measurements, surfed the internet for ideas and I was on my way! The results?? Ta Da! Here is the finished, empty closet. We built in shelving which I had planned to use for shoes, but since I don't WEAR a lot of shoes, I'm using to hold off season sweaters, rain gear and other items. Before, our lighting c...

Happy Halloween "My Pretties." Hope your day is filled with fun, laughter and loads of sweets! Stay tuned.... Putting the final touches on my closet!! I KNOW! Mike finished work on the "skeleton" part and it looks FABULOUS! I'm running out to Marshalls and Ross today to see if I can "flesh out" the insides with some organizers and hangers. Then everything that has been lying around for the last month will have one last sorting of "do I really need this" and then placing back in. It's funny when you ask yourself that how much you can part with. No more "3 sizes of clothes" stuffed in there... if it doesn't fit today, it's outta there!! I'm even going through things I was keeping as sporting equipment to make certain I only keep what I plan to continue doing. No more excess just space, space, SPACE. I'm loving the feeling of emptiness and openness. It's freeing!

The progress is continuing on the closet although it is SLOW! This week's past "assignment" was to go through the closet and decide what was Keep, Donate and Trash and also which items just didn't belong in the closet. I set aside about an hour on a couple of days and made it through all the items in my closet except for the craft area behind the door. I think this area is going to have its own, separate cleaning time. For one thing, I have absolutely no place to put what's in here... yet. By the Spring though, I want to have a HUGE garage sale and winnow out some of the crafts I don't do any more. In my first hour session, I took out all the clothes and tried them on for size. Then I only kept what fit and the items I really LOVE. I heard a great idea here. Turn your hangers around the wrong way and hang your clothes on them. When you wear them, rehang the item back on the hanger in the proper position. At the end of a set time, let's say 6 months, you wi...