Project: Grocery Store Price List

Boring adult confession time: I've been thinking a lot lately about how to save money.

Source: Brokebuying.com

Have you ever seen the show Extreme Couponing? This is a show to make you feel bad about your grocery budget. I can hardly get out of the grocery store without spending $40 and they are getting $900 worth of groceries for $15. Of course we all know this isn't realistic for most families, but still, it's very appealing. 

I've been collecting my coupons and even have a little coupon holder with sections and it does help me save a little, but not very much. When you eat the way my family does (plant-based) and have a food intolerance (gluten) the items on your grocery list are not common coupons. So what's a non-couponer to do?

That's where my newest project comes in: The Grocery Store Price List

The truth is that most the time I have no idea if something is a good deal or not because I'm not sure what it normally costs. This little list should remedy that. Now I can look at my list to see where the best deal on Broccoli or Cereal is and to see if what a store is saying is a sale is actually a good price. From what I've heard, the potential savings from a list like this is great.

And, thanks to blog land, there's very little work involved up front. There are several lists ready for you to download and use:

Beauty & Bedlam

Organized Home

No Credit Needed

I personally am going to use the second sheet of the Beauty & Bedlam Price List. Hopefully as I get it filled in over the next couple of weeks I can really begin to see some savings! And finally decide whether or not to join Sam's Club!

What are your best grocery money saving tips? Are you a member of Sam's Club or another price club? Do you think it really saves you money?

Timber!

Remember our yard tour and goals? Well, we finally took another big step for the front yard and curb appeal. If you haven't already guessed by the title of this post, I'll tell you: We cut down the dead tree! I say we, but really it was the husband and his brother. I served as photographer and water fetcher. :)

Of course, they didn't just push the tree down. First, they removed as many big branches as they could.

Then it was time to cut the notch to direct the fall.

Next, he cut through the back until he was very close to the notch.

Then it was time to shove that tree on down!

Men triumphing over nature:

Then came the tough part: cutting it all up and loading it into the truck. But they did it in record time.

First, of course, they needed to survey the kill:

Then, I went inside while they cut up the rest of the tree.

Here it is all loaded up in the truck:

And now, I am very excited to share with you, Our Home Around the Corner's very first official Before & After!

Have you ever cut down a tree? Did it make a huge difference in your yard? If not, what change has made the biggest difference in your yard?

Pinterest Challenge: Office Pegboard

Have you been on Pinterest? I love it! It's such a great place to keep track of all my internet inspirations and ideas and even to find more. If you've never been on the site, I'll warn you, it can suck you in. An hour passes very quickly while you're looking at all the pretty, pretty pictures.

Today I'm joining the Summer Pinterest Challenge hosted by Katie from Bower Power and Sherry from Young House Love. The thing about Pinterest, is that it's easy to pin lots of things and never actually do any of them. So Katie and Sherry decided to give us all a little kick in the pants.

Behold my Pinterest inspiration from Martha Stewart:

Martha Stewart

Until recently, we've had our home office area upstairs in the 3rd bedroom. The room never felt right and never really made sense in the flow of our house. With our bedroom and all the main living areas on the main floor, we hardly ever went upstairs, which really wasn't working with paying the bills and whatnot. :) One day as I browsed Pinterest I stumbled across this Martha Stewart office and knew exactly what I wanted to do.

The room off our kitchen was intended as a formal dining room, but since we don't really dine formally we've never used it that way. When we first moved in it was storage, then it became my workout area, and now, thanks to this "pinspiration," it serves as our office and pantry storage. I'll fill you in on our non-conventional pantry another day, but what you need to know for today is that we have an Ikea Expedit in the room that we could not move.

Using the Expedit, I was able to divide the room and by attaching the peg board we got a whole new space for storage. Attaching the peg board to the Expedit was fairly simple: we bought 3 4x6 panels of peg board at Home Depot, had them make some cuts for us and attached them to the Expedit with wood screws. If you were doing this directly on a wall you could use drywall anchors and screws. We put screws near each corner and in the middle of each panel. 

You can see from the picture above that we really needed to clear some things off the desk. The great thing about this was that I only had to purchase one mixed set of pegs from Target for $6 and then I was able to use things from around the house.

Using pegs from the kit, I hung up a set of pockets for both myself and my husband, and another pocket for things we need to shred. I was also able to hang office supplies like our tape, stapler, scissors, cords and pens. To hang the pens I used a key basket on a peg. Then I used some old curtain rings to hang pictures. We can easily switch these out for other pictures or art whenever we want. I finished things off with some cute labels for our hanging folders. Now we have a clear work space and everything we need is right in front of us.

Source list: Curtain rings (Target), Khaki Pocket (Target), Aqua Pockets (Martha Stewart for Staples), Peg set (Target-in store), Peg board (Home Depot-in store), Expedit (Ikea), Desk (Ikea), Labels (Delightful Distractions)

Be sure to check out the other Pinterest Challengers at Bower Power, Centsational Girl, Ten June, and Young House Love.

How To: Amateur Abstract Art

It was love at first sight for the Ballard Designs painting "In Plain Site" and I. It's all sorts of pretty and gigantic and I knew it would look perfect on the wall in my dining room. The $500 price tag cooled things off a bit.

The more I thought about it though, the more I wanted to try to make one on my own. I happened to have a spare canvas lying around (from an ill-fated fabric wall panel idea) and could use paint I already owned so it was a low risk, potential high reward situation.

First, I gathered my supplies:

Paint (black, tan, green, aqua, turquoise, white, yellow), foam brushes, putty knife 

Then I put down my canvas and got to work. I worked in layers, putting on one color and then another, using the Ballard Designs painting as a loose guide. After several colors were on the canvas, I began to use my putty knife to scrape and pull the colors through each other, giving the painting texture. 

My painting doesn't look exactly like the Ballard Designs painting, but that was never the point. I will say that I really wish I had had an easel. It would have been much easier than having to walk and crouch all around the painting's perimeter. Also, I waited a good half hour between layers 9 and 10.

Here is the finished product:

I'm really pleased with how it came out. I'd like to coat it with a clear gloss to give it a little shine and protection and then hopefully I'll be able to call it done and show it to you in the space.

See you Monday!

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