Behind the doors of my pantry

I have a love for being organized

I have a newly found love for cooking/baking with allergies

And my newest love....

My pantry!

Thanks to a seller off Etsy who makes Vinyl Labels and I got a few more snapware containers and gave my pantry a bit of a make over!

Just a note about http://www.snapware.com/, You can get a 40% off coupon by signing up for their discounts! And with free shipping over $40 it makes for a SWEET deal on containers!!!!!

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Helping mommy clean!

My little helper clearing out kitchen cabinets! We got it done pretty fast! The only one that was really bad was the Tupperware one.... As you can see! Crazy. Share

Clearing out closests

Yesterday I spent awhile clearing out my closest and dresser. I pulled out lots of things I havnt worn in forever (and I don't have THAT) many clothes. (I tend to just wear my favs over and over haha). I cleared out quite alot! I ended up with a round basket full of shoes! And then another basket full of clothes. My dresser now fits all my clothes quite nicely with room to spare! So nice not have to jam the drawer shut! Haha. And I put away all my winter clothes to. We no longer need those here in south Texas!!!!

Today when I get a chance I'm going to clean out my kitchen cabinets. Not sure if I should attempt that while Joshua is up! He already loves to take thins out and play with them! I had to put those huge headband rubberbands around a few cabinets to keep him put of them! :D He will think he's in heaven if I let him go thru everything with me! Share

NEW~ Grocery Tracking Spreadsheet

I'm SO excited to be able to offer this to you now! I just finished this today and it is NOW available to you!!!!

Buy your copy of the Grocery Tracking Spreadsheet today!

This spreadsheet is very easy to use. It will help you keep track of everything you spend and what you are saving!

I use this system to keep track of everything I spend!

Be on you way to saving money by tracking it!

Go check it out here.

A few great things about this spreadsheet:

Has 6 Tabs for stores:

CVS

Walgreen's

Super Target

Super Walmart

and 2 Extra Tabs made for Extra Stores you use. (They are set up just like Super Walmart and Super Target. You just need to Name those stores. And you can create of the extra tabs if you have lots of stores you shop at. )

Has these extra tabs to keep track of extra things:

Money spend on buying coupons

Rebate Checks Received

and a Total Page

Each tab is set to be calculated in the Total Page

How to use the sheet:

It is pretty easy to figure out how to put in your receipts for each store you shop at.

For CVS it is set up like this:

Column 1 Retail Amount

Column 2 Amount after Sales

Column 3 CVS Coupons

Column 4 Manufacture Coupons

Column 5 Total Cost

Column 6 ECB's Used

Column 7 Total OOP

Column 8 ECB's Got Back

Column 9 Total Saved

Column 10 Still have Total in ECB's

The top totals of Each column will tell you how much you saved, spend, and the amount of money you save with coupons! And it will calculate it ALL in the Totals Page for a end look at your complete spending and savings!!!

Each sheet is very much like CVS. Walgreen's has its own lingo so it along with CVS so it is a bit different but for the 2 extra, Super Walmart, and Target they have theses columns:

Retail Cost

Store Coupons

Manuf. Coupons

Gift Card Used

and Total OOP

I also created a Rebates Tab so that you can keep track of each rebate you receive! It will also take off that rebate money from the total you spent in grocery's! Did you always wonder if they where doing any good to send in? Now you KNOW!

I have it set up so you can do YEARS worth of tracking if you need! It has no end on the cells going down. I calculated ALL cells to add up on the top of your spreadsheet!

This spreadsheet is SO easy to use! I have been using it for 10 months now and have had so many people ask me how I keep such detailed track of my spending that I decided to make it available to you!

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Works for Me! My Kitchen

This week the WFMW is geared towards the kitchen and called



"The Kitchen Organization Edition".

Which thrills me to my toes! :-D
I got all mine sparkly clean yesterday so this is PERFECT timing!

Here are my great tips!

• Keep it Simple ~ If you keep your kitchen simple and the counters uncluttered then you will tend to keep them that way. Nothing drives me crazy like my counters filled with everything so I can't cook. Having all your gadgets out sometimes just makes your kitchen seem much smaller. So maybe put the few that you use the least in a cabinet or in the pantry on a top or bottom shelf to pull out when you use.




• Keep the dishwasher EMPTY before you cook. If you start your dinner by unloading the dishwasher then you will have space to load it as you cook and get items dirty. And when your done with dinner you can put your dishes from the table in and WALA a CLEAN kitchen.




• Have a basket or ONE place to organize your items that usually stack up on the counter as in bills, notes, mail, things to bring to people, pens, paper, ect... I have an organizer that I bought of Esty for a good price that has really come in handy for me.

  
  

• Organize your pantry when you load grocery's into it. When you go to cook you will be able to find items MUCH easier AND you will know what you have and don't when its time to go shopping. I can take a quick glance in my pantry after I make my menu for 2 weeks and know instantly what I need to get. A great time saver for sure.




• Make a list of what you need to clean each day in your kitchen, every other day, and once a week. Once you get the hang of doing it in the cycle you will do it as a habit. Like your microwave in and out and the oven door; put it on your list to clean once a week so you remember to do it. And so when it comes time to someone else at your house cooking food in your micro they don't run for the door because the stuff in there! :-D

Hope this helps anyone who needs it!

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My Coupon Book

Ok' this is NOT all my expired coupons... its mine and my sisnlaws... and she gets 2 inserts a week also. :-) We sat and watched a movie and exterminated all our expired coupons from out books while our hubby's played computer games! :D

We had a little to much fun with the mountain of coupon papers! But my book is MUCH lighter for sure!

Since I cleaned out my book and its been so long since I have done this I will give you a little "tour" of it!

I know alot of people prefer to cut coupons out each week and file them away but I'm just not one of those people. I do not like doing that AT ALL! If it works for you AWESOME but not me! :-)

I bought my binder off eBay. I found a very good price for it. I paid $15.00 total for it along with shipping. I am glad bought a two sided one because it has served its purpose well. And its bright pink not hard to miss!

I just found out that you can buy this binder at TARGET!!!!!! It's called Case It and it retailed for $17.99 !!!!!!!

In the front mesh part of the binder I keep my business cards for my website and my Beauticontrol site. I often hand several to a person to give to her friends and such!

Like I said it is a dual binder so it has two sides with folders on each. Each side has a
Velcro tab that holds that side shut tight so just in case something happen to be loose
in there it wont fall out!

This is the beginning of the right side of my binder. Where I keep all my inserts and cut coupons.
I sort my coupons by maker : SS, RP, and PG. Then in each folder I sort it by date. So they will be newest on top an oldest on bottom.

In the very back behind my inserts I keep a folder with a protector for my cut coupons that I have cut but never ended up using. All my coupons that I get in the mail or say in the ALL
YOU mag go in there. They stay in very well cause its the back and when its velcros shut its quite tight!

Now to the left side of my binder this is where I put all my coupons that are going to be used

each week for each store I hit. The very beginning I put in the spare pocket any coupons for

stores like bedbathandbeyond or say oldnavy! :-)

I put my calculator in the mesh pocket along with my scissors (which are MIA) and my little note pad to work up a deal if I need to!

In the flip zip pocket I keep all my past Walgreen's rebates for the month along with the receipts in case I need them if a rebate won't go thru!

I went to Walgreen's and bought stick able zipper pockets and stuck them to the front side of 3 of my folders on the left side of my binder for each store.

The first one I have is CVS. Right now it only has a few coupons in it but soon when I get all my deals ready it will have a good amount of coupons in it. I also keep my card in it, my gift card if I have one, my ECB's, and any CVS coupons if I have any.

On the back side of each folder are slots. In each one I keep the stores sales ad.

Here's my Walgreen's folder!

And my Target, HEB, and Walmart folder. I keep these together because the coupons that

I pull out and put in there are my items I buy all the time so when a deal comes at a certain

store I will have it right there. Or when I get Free Item coupons I put them in there because

most likely I will be getting it at one of those stores!

Well that's it!
Pretty simple and I love it. For me it is the best way to shop. I know people say but you don't know where any of your coupons are! If I lived up north where had stores that I could find more grocery type items on knock out prices or deals that double and triple coupons then I would think of cutting coupons and doing it a different way. But since I get all my shopping deals and info from lots of places online it works the best for me this way!!!

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I have a TON to do today!

I hope to get MOST or ALL of this list done today so this weekend I can get ready for out trip to CA!

To Do Today:

Fold huge pile of Laundry --- so don't want to dive into this!!! lol ~ DONE YAHHHH!!!

Clean Kitchen ~ DONE

Sweep ~ DONE / Mop / Vacuum ~DONE

Clean bathrooms ~ DONE

Start Dinner ~ DONE and EATIN! lol (Hubs LOVED it and so did I! Going on the List of dinners to make again!)

Finish closet Organizing ~ DONE

Clean Spare bedroom for House sitters ~ DONE

Make list of things to get/do before trip ~DONE

Replant 2 plants into hanging baskets and hang! (I'm getting a very green thumb!!!) ~DONE

Paint 2 walkway boards same as porch stain. (To hot....)

Clean Porch off! ~ Kinda Done... needs to be washed again... hopin to seal it this weekend!

Take off pics from Camera disk for Trip ~ DONE

And MUCH MUCH MORE DONE!!!

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Cleaning the Kitchen....

OYE, after days of not being home and having SO MUCH to do, your house can

tend to be a wreck..... and look well lived in! :-D

Well I managed to do one thing and that was get my spice cabinet cleaned and

put into my nice new little spice holder! Looks much better and now I can FIND

things!

Oh and that dish I made for Monday was SO GOOD!!!

You HAVE to try it! Easy and delicious for SURE!

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The Basket Carnival!

Thought this was a great idea of Laura's!

Last week I had finished sorting and cleaning out some things

so I had finished putting things away in tote's to store them in

a MUCH neater way! And I LOVE neatness! :-D

So heres my few totes that I started on~

In the closet that is unused right now I have all my Christmas Storage,

Winter clothes, Memory items from my childhood, giftbags, and gifts.

Another thing I did was organzie and set a place for my side job as

a Consultant for Beauticontrol.

It's so nice cuase its in its place and not all over!

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Dinner Planning

I have found a GREAT way to make sure I don’t have the SAME thing for dinner over and over and over! lol I sometimes get brain block and cook the same thing several times in a few weeks span... Not that its bad but eating the same thing over and over sometimes gets old. :-) So far I have been doing this for over a month now and its working GREAT!

So I found a great tool in menu planning a plan or CALANDER! lol Its on the side of my fridge and I never used it for anything. I write in the meals for the week. Sometimes it goes out the window but it helps me make sure I'm not doing the same thing over and over. And it helps me remember to take something OUT of the freezer that morning for dinner!
This week’s menu is-
Monday~ Chicken over Salad
Tuesday~ B-day Dinner for someone in the Family (Don’t have to cook yeah!)
Wed~ Pork Chops w/ White Rice and Veggies
Thurs~ Beef Tacos w/ Fixin's and Rice and Beans
Fri~ Leftovers
Sat~ Baked Chicken Breast w/ Stuffing and Potato's Share

My StockPile

Now that my stockpile is almost gone I am redoing how I sorted and
stored it. I have totes that I have stored everything in. And it works
great. I am going to be starting to sort things by what I need and what
is my sale stuff. I will be keeping a box or tote in the closet in a back room,
I think, with the stuff for sale so it is out of the way. Its will be sorted already
so when it comes time for our next yard sale I dont have to do a ton of work
going thru everything.
So today I am going to be going thru what I have left and sorting it all and
putting everything back to were it was before our yard sale this weekend. Share

How do YOU do your coupons?

For me I have tried SO many ways and found one way that helps me stay
organized in my coupon life.
But works for me doesn't work for the next person!

I started out cutting every coupon but realized along the way its not that easy!
Keeping up with it alone in cutting them all out and organizing was taking to much
time! But I also found when trying to find a specific coupon that most places will have
them listed under the date that the insert came out. And when you have cut them
all out you no longer know what date it came out in!!! :-D

I looked around for awhile trying to decide what I wanted out of my coupon book.
I needed something that held my WHOLE inserts without destroying them. I needed
several pockets to use for the different stores I shopped at. Pockets for scissors and a
calculator.
So I finally found what I was looking for on eBay. I have been using it for almost 3
months now and I LOVE it.
It has 2 ring holders so I have my inserts on one side and all my cut coupons that I will
be using in plastic dividers on the other. It has been so handy!

So if you see a girl with a bright pink binder over her cart walking thru the store. Its
probably me!!! :D

So how do organize your coupons? What has worked the best for you! Do share! Share

Tracking your savings...

Do you track your savings at grocery stores??
I kinda sorta did but not a full scaled detailed report....
Now I do!
Thanks to Kacie over at Sense to Save I figured out how
to add a table to my sidebar and I opened a Google Doc
online to track it no matter where I am!
Its been pretty cool seeing it all down on paper.
Cause you KNOW you save but just how much do you???
You should really think about keeping track of it all if you
don't. Keeps it all in perspective! Share

Yah sure.....

Who's dream closet DOES look like this? Yah sure...

The other day I was out with my best friend and
went into The Container Store just have a look around.
Sigh.....
I drooled...
We are moving in a few weeks and I am wanting soooo
bad to be able to move in and organize EVERYTHING.
OK I know what your thinking.. your already a neat freak
Nichole get over it! lol But I can't help but want to have
it all so neat and pretty looking!
hehe
I am looking at ideas and toying around with things that
I think I might do once we move in.

Closets, Bathrooms, Utility Room, Spare Rooms, ect...
I CANT WAIT!

As soon as the Holiday season is over I am starting to pack.
Not sure if I am looking forward to that. (Calling all friends
and family to help lol)

Don't forget to add your entry for the $100 Gift Certificate to Restaurant.com
Go here to Enter!!! Share

My day :-D

Wow what a day.


For starters my pantry is now SUPER Clean..

Why? Well apparently we have some sort of creature who eats food coming to visit us at night. (The give away factor was the huge missing part of brand new tortillas, and a whole in a package of hot cocoa I set in there that night.) Now I am a NEAT-CLEAN freak who cant STAND the thought of this! Besides the fact that its eating my food. Some Dirty Dirty animal is touching MY FOOD. I resisted the urgh to chuck everything. And super cleaned and put everything possible to be eatin in plastic containers. And hubby and I put rat traps out this evening. (He will have to check them in the morning to make sure they haven't moved from a stuck animal trying to get away. LOL I BETTER not step on it in the morning in my I need coffee now mode. sigh
After that was done, I cleaned up dining room which is the first place people see when they walk in our home. After I finished I made a pretty center piece with a glass bowl I had, pine cones, and left over Christmas ornaments. It looks so pretty and I was very please with it.

The biggest part of my day I spend rearranging my living room and finish Christmas decorating it. I had found a side table at an estate sale this last Sunday so I wanted to rearrange my living room. It took me a good while to get everything just so but it was worth it, because hubby walked in and said "WOW it looks GOOD." :-D Cant beat that!

Almost ready for our company Friday evening. :-D Share

Organizing my Coupons in a better way!

Today I made up my coupon book. Works great and looks good!

I had been using just 3 Folders to separate all the inserts but I decided it was time to go a bit more "together" and I am glad I did. Because it was SO easy to take into the store and use! And its cute. :-)
Has a place for EVERYTHING!
It's a PINK CASE IT" 3-RING FILLED BINDER #DUAL-300

DOUBLE (2) 3-ring Zipper Binder has more capacity to organize
Velcro secured dividers protect the contents of both 1 1/2" d-ring Binders
Handle & detachable shoulder strap
Removeable Zippered Pencil Pouch
Velcro Pocket for calculator
15 pieces of colored labels
5 Pen loops
5 pieces of "Binder Buddies" Dual Pocket Folders
5 pieces of "Binder Buddies" Index Dividers
I added 3 Sticky Zipper Pockets to the front part to add pockets for my coupons for the shopping trip. You can see one of them in the last pic.

Added with pens, marker, little pair of scissors, and a calculator!

Its a great little all in one coupon organizer

I'm very happy with it!

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The other day I went thru my winter clothes and got rid of a whole bunch of stuff that
no longer fit me and got rid of it. I found at Ross some Handy Closet organizers for pretty cheap that hang on your rod and got to the floor. They fit my sweaters just great! Instead of being crammed into my dresser which still holds alot of summer type clothes becuase of the weather here.
It looks nice and organzied and I was very happy. Makes them easier to find and keeps everything neat. Some may call me over organized but I call it a happy life. :-) I dont feel like I live in chaios if things are put away in a nice way. Just makes me happy. And I am trying to be better and better about it as someday I know I wont have the time to be so organized so if its engraned into my brain I know it will last. :-D
This works for me!
How did you get ready for the winter season? ( although its not quite the winter feeling here yet I'm TRYING to bring it in!!!) Share

Organizing Stock Piles

We are going to be moving come the end of Jan.
and I have been doing some thinking as to how I
want to organize my Stock Pile of Free Items I
have. I have been looking into tubs, organizers,
ect. I still have not decided what exactly I am going
to be doing but I have an idea. :-D I will keep you
updated to as what I plan to do and how it turns out!
As for now here's my little closet in my spare bathroom
that holds everything. And the under sink that holds fem.
products. Its nice as we have a very large home so its no
big deal for it all to be in one place. We are blessed.



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