Ebates & Shoprunner

I know you're missing Miss Penny's projects of extreme awesomeness (I sure am.)  In the meantime, you'll have to continue settling for my gibberish and Pinterest knockoffs for awhile.

So, I've posted two crafty projects in a row, it's time for a little bit of clever.  How many of you have signed up for Ebates?  My sister, Amy, prompted me to sign up with Ebates.  I have fallen in love!  I'm not sure how many of you are avid online shoppers.  I wasn't much of an online shopper until I fell in love with Amazon (I have an AmazonMom account - which gives me free Prime membership.)  Hooking up with Ebates made life even better!  

Here's the deal:  Ebates is FREE!  Ebates let's you earn cash back on purchases through most major retailers when you log into your account and shop through their link.  It's super easy to use.  It's shopping I'd be doing anyway.  I just get a little something back!  I have already received a gift card for becoming a qualified referral, and my first check came in the mail last week!  If you'd like to sign up through my account (I get a little something for anyone I refer) here's my referral link: 

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=XZnLL175TuAJAgIfxUNS9w%3D%3D

I was going to go on and on about how great it is when you combine your Ebates with Shoprunner - but I'm still not sure how much I like Shoprunner.  The idea behind Shoprunner is awesome - it's supposed to  make other retailers almost as easy to work with as Amazon Prime (free two-day shipping and free returns.)  My hesitation in endorsing Shoprunner is that the stores you are shopping with still take their jolly time in processing the order.  My son has been waiting for batteries to arrive that I ordered through ToysRUs.  I mistakenly thought that ToysRUs combined with Shoprunner would actually have my products here in a two to three day time frame.  My bad!  I just checked my order status and ToysRUs still hasn't bothered to ship them - I placed the order four days ago.  Lamesauce.  I wonder how long an order would take if I didn't use Shoprunner?

Okay, enough with the lameness of the battery order.  Just remember that Ebates is awesome!

Dresser into Dress-up Closet

I apologize in advance for these TERRIBLE pictures I am about to post.  My cell phone camera is horrible, and my real camera isn't operational at the moment.  Therefore, you and I must endure blurry photos - often with a glaring flash that detracts from the end result.  

With that disclaimer, I present to you the underused dresser in the kids area of my basement:

It is. . . large.  The drawers hardly open anymore and it has become a catch-all despite my efforts to label and organize in kid friendly ways.

After some Pinterest motivation and inspiration, I headed to the basement armed with a rubber mallet and a screw gun.  I removed the drawers, then removed the runners for the drawers (power tool moment!)  Then, I had the pleasure of using the rubber mallet to knock the shelf out.  When the entire right side of the dresser was barren, it was time to head to the garage.

Who do you know who just happens to have some random PVC pipe hanging out in the garage, along with some hardware for hanging up closet rods?  Me - that's who!  The items had been intended for a different project that had become obsolete - this remake was meant to be!  With my handy tape measure and chop saw (another power tool moment!) I hacked a hunk of PVC pipe the right size to create a kids size closet rod.

I headed back to the basement, screwed in the hardware, slid in the PVC pipe, then stood back to admire my suddenly more useful piece of furniture in the basement.  Good-bye catch-all - hello dress-up!

The cupboard side (on the left) has bins for holding hats, gloves, boots and all of the other accessories one needs to become the superhero within!

It's not beautiful, but it's super useful!

This one time, when I used to blog . . .

So, I plopped down at the computer, determined to do some writing, and discovered that I'd been completely neglecting my blogs.  And I mean neglecting!  It's not like I've missed a few weeks, or maybe even a couple of months - it's been over a year for some of my blogs.  Ry-Ry - my littlest - is still a baby in his blog pics and his most recent post was in 2009!

So, it's time to get a grip and get back to it!

I haven't been particularly crafty, more clean-y than crafty, lately.  And I'm not sure that our frosting/fondant making marathon on Thursday qualifies as crafty either.

Clever it is!  Random money saving tips from Sara!  You know you've been wanting to hear it!

1.  Switch from using the measuring cup that comes with your detergent to a measuring cup that is the exact size you actually need to do a load of laundry.  At our house, we always wash full (large) loads of laundry.  So, I filled the scoop/cup for the Tide detergent to the "proper fill line" - there are various lines on the cup that comes with the detergent - needed for my load of laundry, then dumped it into a liquid measuring cup in the kitchen.  I discovered that I needed to use 2/3 cup of detergent for a normal load of laundry.  I chucked the cup that came with the Tide into the trash and use a 2/3 scoop (which stays in the detergent bucket) to measure.  I was using an extra 1/3 cup of detergent all the time, and who knows how much my spouse was using!?  Small change, long term savings!

2.  Sign up for Groupon alerts - either email or the phone app.  (I love the phone app myself!)  Look at the deals every day.  It only takes a minute to look through the deals, and we have bought some great ones for the summer.  Recently they had $4.00 movie tickets through Fandango, and a $30.00 one year family pass to the Butterfly Pavilion!  It's a great way to stretch the entertainment budget a little further!

3.  Are you planning your menu for the week yet?  I know, it can be a bit boring or tedious - but it saves so much time and money in the long run!  If you don't do a dinner menu yet, start!  (Now, I will repent my laziness and go write up this weeks menu myself!)

I know it's not much - but that's what I've got at the moment!  Talk to you soon (well, sooner than last time!)