Beware of Automotive Places like Sears!!!

I just wanted to talk about my recent experience with Sears Automotive. I needed new brakes for my truck. I knew this because you could hear some scrubbing and feel some shaking when you were stopping. It had just started, but I know all too well, the sooner you take care of something like this the better. Well, I have a credit card at Sears and they offer free break inspections at their shops. So I took it in and came out with an estimation of like $425. They said I needed new rotors and brake pads in the front and that the back drums needed resurfacing. So I was like Whoa...$425. I realize some of you people out there might not blink an eye at this or be like I used to be. I would rationalize ..well its gotta be done and they are the pros, they know what needs to be done. And sometimes we as people can just be plain lazy and say, well I have the car here now. So I might as well let them do it. Why should we have to worry about a big retailer like Sears trying to "take us for a ride" and to just squeeze money out of us? Well, now I have proof that we will just as quick as any other shop.

I decided to see if my cousin would help me change the brakes out. Its one of the easier jobs to do on a vehicle. So we pulled the front tires off and saw that the pads needed replacing--no problem those can run as low as $14.99! We took the rotors off and thought that we could just have them resurfaced rather than replaced like Sears had said.--by the way--I have the estimate printout listing everything that they said I needed.-- Well we went to O' Reilly's Auto parts and they determined that one could be turned(only $10) and one had to be replaced. So we did that and went home and replaced that the front brakes, rotors, and tires correctly. Then we went to the back tires to check things out. We took those tires off and the drum covers and determined that the pads and the drums were fine. They needed nothing done at this time. Unlike what Sears stated. Can you believe that?

Drum roll please........ I only spent $100.57 for parts and labor----I saved $325.00! And just as important I relearned a valuable lesson..be wary of places that can easily take your money. Dont be afraid to get a second estimate or find a friend or a relative that can either do the work or that you can help do the work and pay alot less and still not have to worry that things were fixed incorrectly!

Corn and Beans!

Today I decided to pick an ear of sweet corn and some of my snap beans. I have never grown and eaten anything from a garden, so I was a little apprehensive to say the least. Then I jumped online to see how you can tell if they actually ready and how the best way is to prepare them. The corn was the biggest available, but it may have still been just a wee bit small. I decided to give them both a try since everything seemed fine. I found online that you can just throw the corn, husk and all, in the microwave and cook for about 4 to 5 minutes. I put the beans in a bowl of water and heated them for about 8 minutes or so. Added a little salt and some butter to the final product, and guess what? It was delicious! The corn kernels were just a bit small--but everything tasted great. I added pictures and included a picture of my largest pumpkin to date. Two of them are about this size--about the size of a softball or a little bigger! Wow, if everything dies from here on out, today's bounty made having the garden worthwhile. Plus the satisfaction of watching it grow has been fun too!

Garden Update

Well these pictures are about a week old now, but look how much the garden has taken off. Some are actually starting to show some vegetables. Beans, corn, and pumpkins are showing. Also, the cantaloupe, potatoes, peppers, and others seem to be growing fine right now. I am kinda just growing the garden for fun. I mean it would be great to actually be able to eat and give away some of the things I have grown. I have my doubts if they will actually grow to maturity since I have never really done this before. So I will believe it when I see it! If anything, I can take a sense of success with the level the garden is at now. I mean, I don't know how square foot gardening makes it. Everything seems to be growing so well right now--the pumpkin vines are everywhere and everything seems to have grown so much "together". I wonder if they will allow each other to continue to grow.

I sold it on Craigslist !!

Has anybody noticed how resourceful and how many people seem to be using Craigslist? I sold my Jeep Grand Cherokee last week on there. This week I was able to find something for a very good deal. I downsized into a vehicle two years older than my Jeep. The two transactions went very smooth.There seems to be a ton of activity on there daily. I know because I have been surfing it quite a bit lately. Its not just limited to cars and trucks. Name it and you can probably find it or sell it in there. Check it out!

NC Zoo

We are fortunate to live about 20 to 25 minutes away from our state zoo. A zoo is a great place to visit for the family and it doesnt cost that much money if you plan your meals accordingly.My son, who is 3 now, has been asking me about going since I mentioned it a few weeks ago. We have taken him a couple of times before and taken pictures from those visits. However, I guess now he is getting to the point were he can remember things first hand. This past Monday we decided to go. We also took my nephew, Blake, who is five. He had spent the night the night before. That was also a first--Ryan's first sleepover! You should have seen how happy and excited he was for the sleepover. Plus, the next day was probably better for him to have a friend to share it with.We made sure to take some snacks and bottled water and juice bags and the camera--gotta have that! The zoo has a North American side to visit and an African side to visit. There is alot of walking, but there are plenty of benches to take a break and places to stop along the way. This year the zoo features some new baby giraffes! They even built a new deck from which you can feed the giraffes. Right now it is free to feed them, so we ventured in for a look. I think due to poor planning --no one was able to actually feed them. The deck is just built into the natural habitat enclosure, which is probably 3 or 4 football fields long. Of course, all 4 or 5 giraffes were on the other end of the enclosure along with the ostriches and the zebras. Dont get me wrong, you can see the animals from several different points around the enclosure, but you can only feed them from that one spot. I just couldnt see paying to feed the animals if you can not actually do that and the kids couldnt get the thrill of them being so close.

All in all, it was a good day. It was a little hot but we managed that fine too. It was definitely a hit with the kids. I definitely recommend the NC Zoo and hitting your local zoo to save money and still have a nice day out. A Daycation!

Walmart Sale on Pepsi Products

We like both Pepsi and Coke in our household. So whenever we can get a deal on any one of the two, we try to take advantage. Pepsi is on sale this week at Walmart for $2.48 a piece! There is a $1 off a Pepsi product 12 pack at Target on their website. Well, Walmart accepts competitor's coupons. So today I bought 10 packs of Pepsi, as you can see above for $1.48 a piece. Regular price usually runs $4.99 to $5.99 and sales rarely come down to $2.50 anymore---mostly hovering at $3.00. So anyway if you go by the $5.99 price__depending on what store you go to-- 10 would come to $59.90. I bought 10 at $1.48 a piece for a total 0f $14.80 plus tax! I saved $45.10 if you by this scenario!

Wow, This Stuff Really Works!! Harris Teeter Triple Coupons

Last night I found that Tara at Deal Seeking Mom had posted about the grocery store, Harris Teeter's, upcoming triple coupon week. She referenced another new site to me who had an extensive list of match ups by Jenny at Southern Savers. So I gathered a list from her site and I grabbed my coupons to start finding and matching up the deals. As you can see in the picture above, I was able to buy alot of stuff for only 62 cents--that was sales tax! I saved $45.55 in coupons and $13.09 in Vic store savings for a grand total of $58.64 saved!!! Some of the products I would not normally buy because of the higher prices. Or some products,I would normally buy the store brand, but they are all things that we will use. I must say that I would have even bought more, but the store limits you to twenty coupons and I used all twenty! I plan on making another trip, maybe tomorrow. Also, I just tried to buy items that I could get for free. There are tons of items that you can get at significant discounts.

Gardening 101-Grow 100 lbs. of Potatoes in 4 Square Feet

I always have enjoyed working out in the yard. I like to landscape, mow, trim bushes, and to plant and grow flowers. The flowers have always turned out pretty well and with not a lot of effort. It's amazing what a little color and curb appeal can do for a home as well. Along this same line, I have often thought about growing a few vegetables. A small garden, nothing too big.Being raised in the city, gardens are not as common.However, my mom had done one before. Also, when I was a child my next door neighbors--considerably older(The Cannon's)-- They had a garden that I remember my brother and I taking an interest in. Anyway last year I decided to buy a few cucumber plants from the local Lowes. I planted them in a flower bed, in a corner kind of by themselves. They seemed to start out really well. The vines seemed to take off within a matter of weeks. I gave them some Miracle Grow and plenty of water. After a while, you could see little flowers emerge. My girlfriend's mom told me that when you see them that the cucumbers should be coming next. Shortly thereafter, I did see a couple of cucumbers growing. It was exciting! I mean you just put a few plants in the dirt and,voila, up comes something you grew and could eat. It never happened though because for some reason they started to wilt and to die off. I think we got a lot of rain at one point. Could that be why, too much water?? Either way, that was my first try at gardening and it didn't work out too well. Does anybody have any tips on what a novice could grow?

Well, I haven't given completely up on the idea of growing something. Now times are desperate and it would be great to save a few more dollars and to get more healthy choices in our kitchen. Anyway, that brings me to why I wrote about this topic. Yesterday, I was surfing the Internet and ran across LifeHacker's website. The site had a great post on how to grow potatoes. It seems easy for a novice like me, and something that I might try.


Excerpt:
Potatoes seem like the kind of plant you'd need a substantial garden for—the kind your grandparents had, right? Actually, tubers aren't all that picky, and you can harvest a whole lot from almost any yard. Check out the rest of the story here. This was submitted to the site by a Jason Fitzpatrick. However, he referenced the info from another source, The Seattle Times, here.

Harris Teeter--Can coupons save money?

We as a family have cut out coupons by the dozen with the intentions of using them. However, it seems like we have only managed to use a coupon here and there. It just seems like so much work between gathering the coupons, cutting them out, and the extra time spent at the grocery store. Lately I have seen the news story on a family on living on $1500 a year. They had a blog but for whatever reason it was taken down before I got a chance to get any ideas from her site.
I started to look around the Internet trying to find ideas on ways to save money. I thought that we were doing pretty well by only spending about $5200 a year-$100 a week. However, I ran across numerous coupon sites and blogs where people were living on less than me--one lady says $800 a year --Jane4girls---and I decided that I should at least try to save more money.

My problem with the food coupons themselves are that there seems to be plenty for the fluff items like chips, snacks, and just stuff we don't buy. I try to shop frugally all the time(but without coupons) and I try to stay somewhat healthy. All packaged foods seem to be bad for you, so it is hard to stay away from all "bad" things. The coupons don't cover things like chicken and meat. But I decided that I was going to go shopping and make the effort to see if I could save money by using coupons.

I found online what North Carolina stores double coupons. The only two in North Carolina close by me are Harris Teeter and Lowes grocery stores. Next I gathered all the coupons from the last three months of Sunday newspapers. I proceeded to cut them out spread over a two day period. That was a lot of work in itself and I was already wondering if it was worth it. I just kept reminding myself that if I continued using coupons in the future that I would have much less to cut out. That is if I didnt let them pile up like before! We separated them into piles. I found later that it would be much easier if I had a coupon organizer.

Today after I left the gym, I planned a trip to Harris Teeter to shop. Before we moved here, I used to shop for groceries at this store all the time. When we moved here, where it is much more rural, I found that shopping at Walmart was much more convenient. Harris Teeter has a Vic store card program that I had used before, and I still had my card. Plus they double up to 20 coupons that are 99 cents or less. Let me say that this being my first time trying to really coupon shop, this trip was time consuming! Again, you really need an organizer.

I saved $40.94 between the Vic store card and the ten coupons I ended up using--they doubled 8 of them. I paid $51.08 for about 31 items! That sounds great! I wanted to use more, but I found that the prices seemed really high. I do most of our shopping, so I had a general idea of what I pay for things at Walmart. All in all, $40 sounds great and some items I bought really were a bargain. But I know on some of the things I bought the prices were a little higher that what I might normally pay. This store was slightly out of my way, so I may not make all this effort at this store again. I might try Lowes grocery because they double and see what their prices look like. We will see if Walmart keeps my business and if I stick with coupons!