I know a lot of people do fall cleaning which means time to deep clean, update/refresh the home. So have the family help get rid of things you don’t need: go through your clothes, toys and decorations. Renew your house by  going to yard sales. Don’t forget to have your own yard sale to make money from your fall cleaning. Advertise for free where you can. Have the kids help make signs and you post them. Use the extra money for things the family needs and perhaps wants or save it for a rainy day. Now after all your hard work reward everyone with a trip to the park and bring a picnic lunch.

Well tonight I made a new dish I created thanks to hubby. He complained we have been eating to much pasta and he was tired of it. This of course is after I made sure to have mash potatoes and meatloaf this week. Got to love my husband.  I came up with this tasty dish that even the kids loved.

2 lbs Kiebasa

14.5 oz can of diced tomatos with basil,garlic and oregeno

8 oz pepper stir fry (frozen food: green, red, and yellow peppers and onions)

3 cups instant rice

3 cups water and juice from tomatos

2 beef boulion cubes

Bring water, juice, tomatos and boulions to boil then add rice.Remove from heat and simmer for 5 minutes. In the mean time, Cut and cook Kiebasa after it starts to brown add pepper stir fry and cook to remove all liquid. Then combine rice and kiebasa together. Enjoy!

This is what I did for my daughters 10th birthday party. I actually started planning in January, but she and I have been talking about it for a few months. Since this is such an important b-day double digits and all. We decided on a sleep over with 6 of her closest friends and a family party the next day. So here are some of my tips: shop clearance, simple is better, and have everthing possible done ahead of time, so you can sit back and enjoy too. I got a mystery party game for $5 (so the girls can act their part at the party) and 7 puzzles at $3 each (party favors).  So for $26, are party was underway. We got decorations, plates, napkins and cups at the $1 store. We bought cookies(they’re cheeper to make, but we ran out of time and needed them for the mystery game), ordered pizza (I ordered 4 pizzas and 2 orders of bread sticks $50, but next time 2 pizzas store bought and bake them myself to safe money so tops it will cost $20. Live and learn.) The girls had a  tea party with their pizza. Then the  girls played a few other games we have like twister. We all ate a homemade cake with strawberry jello in it and whip cream on top.  Afterwards, they watched a movie, ate popcorn and went to sleep. (Beware they got popcorn everywhere, so don’t use butter. Spray with cooking spray and favorite popcorn topping.)  While all this was going on my friend and I played cards and kept an open ear out in case they needed us. As one of my daughter friends said “this was the best sleepover ever” not only for them, but for me too.  Now this party cost $80, but I made a mistake of over ordering pizza. So in reality the pizza they ate, decorations including plates etc…  cost $55. Note:  my family and I enjoyed the rest of the pizza later.

Lets take a step back for a minute: during the week I cleaned a little each day. So, the day of the sleepover party, I only needed to cook  and decorate. I made two dishes of baked ziti, a BLT salad (which is: bacon bits, lettuce, tomato, croutons and lite ranch dressing) a cake and cupcakes for the “family party!” The next day, we went to my father in laws for the family party, his house is more accommodating for 50 people. I reused the decorations from sleepover and baked the ziti. Hubby picked up $10 worth of soda. (On SALE!) The ziti, salads, cakes and decorations  ran approximately $40. So for under $50 we had a wonderful family party. Since everything was done prior to party and I recived help cleaning up, I got to enjoy celebrating my daughter’s big 1 - 0 birthday party. I hope your next party goes as well. Good Luck!

By now the saving you can get by renting at Redbox has been announced far and wide.  Though if you haven’t heard here’s the gist.  If you rent from your local video store, which last time I was in was around $3.99 for 3 nights, but that is the same price if you just keep it for one night.  Where at Redbox it’s only a dollar per night.  So if as with the majority of us you only need one night to watch your movie you are saving $2.99 on rental fees when you return it the next day.  And since you can return it to any Redbox you save on gas as you probably pass one on your way to work or in your daily errands.

I tried the in the mail Netflix for awhile but I never seemed to return them fast enough for it to be a deal for me.  Plus since I had to choose the movies in advance I sometime was just not in the mood to watch what came in.  So in the end I wound up having them for a week or more and/or losing their envelope, which just lead to more work and time.

So when the Redbox came around I was skeptical and not sure if I wanted to have to drive for my videos again.  But I have to say that it can be the deal it claims as long as you remember to take them back the next day, which with the growing number of locations should be easy enough.  Last I saw they not only have them at your local McDonald’s but now convenience stores seem to be getting them too.

But of course what I love the most is that they send out free codes to your mobile phone every Monday so that you can get a free rental every week!  Yes I know what’s the catch, well if you get it back on Tuesday none, but if you are lazy you will have to pay for any days you keep it out pass the first.  Now on top of that they run promotions off and on that adds Wednesday also.  So that you can get two free rentals in one week.  Now if you don’t want the text messages sent to your phone becasue it costs you don’t worry you can visit the Redbox Blog and get it there.  Now I have heard, though to be fair haven’t tried it yet, that the code works only once per credit card used.  That means that if you have three cards you can rent three rentals with the same code.  So if you have credit cards just lying around not earning their keep you can use them to get free weekly rentals at your locla Redbox….just remember to return them the next day so they are free!