Do y'all remember the Extreme Couponing shows from the past where folks would have their notebooks of coupons and plan a big trip and get cartloads of groceries for very little? I enjoyed watching them and I looked on YouTube and there are a few there. I was always amazed at how their built their stockpiles on so very little. But then, I always wondered, how they really did it. 

Our local paper had pathetic coupons. I learned that there were different coupons packages the papers could buy and of course our local one bought the cheapest which was basically a couple of coupons for the grocery and mostly ads. The Chicago Tribune had better coupons, but the paper was a lot more too. 

Then there was the fact none of our local grocery stores would double the coupons. So, I resigned myself to never being able to make such great deals, but I still liked the idea of it. Plus, I don't need 50 boxes of cereal or jugs of laundry detergent in my pantry, garage, or basement or wherever I could store it. 

Years ago in the book, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," the author made a comment about one of the characters. Flossie was a minor character and amongst all the characters in this tome, they were all basically working poor. But Flossie had a hobby, and that was to dress up every Saturday night and enter a contest and if she won, she would receive a silky, colorful parasol. The parasols were useless, but she displayed them proudly and the author as the narrator stated that people who are poor, like to display things they collect. So, I sort of wonder if that is the case with those extreme couponers...they liked to display all their products. I remember a couple talked about doing a shop where they would donate the stuff to a charity which was great, but most were just wanting to add to their stockpile. I wonder if they ever used everything before some of it went bad.

Well, I digress. I spent a few minutes this morning writing some sites to ask for coupons. I do the digital coupons at the stores that offer them. I no longer get a printed copy of the paper so no coupons there. Rarely does the store have those little things that offer you coupons on the shelves. But I have no problem writing companies and asking. Earlier this year Land O'Lakes and Folgers sent me coupons and I used them. Land O'Lakes actually sent 4 coupons, two of which were for products I don't buy, so I put them on the shelf next to the items for someone else to take advantage of. Hopefully someone used them and saved a little bit. 

I was discussing the saving money and couponing with DH and he said I should start keeping track of what I save with coupons and see just how much it adds up to. I was thinking that might be a good project. There are a lot of products I don't buy that coupons are offered for and I'm not going to purchase the item just because of the coupon. I remember some friends who would get coupons emailed to them by a couple of businesses and they would rush to go the store or restaurant to use them since they received them, even though they weren't planning on going and really didn't anything from the product. I'm sure the businesses were glad, but not sure how financially responsible they are.

So, my challenge is to start keeping track of how much I save with coupons. There will be times I save more than others. Right now I'm not buying a ton of stuff because we are using what we have from the garden of what's in the freezer. But I think it will be a worthwhile project just to see if it is worth the time and trouble. What do you think?

I normally don't comment much on politics, but today I was taking a break from some housework and the White House press secretary was on the news talking about all the wondrous things that have happened since DT has taken office. This isn't a quote, but something along the lines of groceries are cheaper, gas is cheaper, and so on and so forth. I don't know about you, dear readers, but I'm not seeing a big reduction in the price of groceries. Gas fluctuates, but it isn't like it has come down all that much. I lost a lot of money in retirement savings because some of it is invested in the stock market. I started making some of it back, finally, but it's not like I'm getting rich. I'm dreading the trip to the grocery store and if we eat out, it seems like everyone has raised their prices because their prices have gone up as well. So, do you feel you are better off?

When I was a kid, my parents gave me a piggy bank to teach me how saving a little adds up. So, I've always sort of had a bank of some sort to save coins. I no longer have a "piggy bank" but rather a Mason jar. It was getting full, mostly pennies, and I decided to cash it in and put the money into our savings account. 

As they say, no good deed goes unpunished or something like that. Our bank no longer has a coin counter, so I was told I had to roll the pennies. But they were stingy with the wrappers. I had some "silver," but not a ton. I counted out everything and took the wrapped pennies and the other coins and was told all the coins had to be in rolls. 

Seriously? I had $2 in quarters, $1.20 in nickels, and a little over $6 in dimes. The wrappers stated I needed $10 in quarters and $2 in nickels, and $5 in dimes. So, I don't have enough of anything to wrap besides the dimes. This is just ridiculous. It's not like I'm bringing a huge bottle of coins in (think those big bottles of bottled water.) It wasn't like they had customers in line waiting for the tellers either. I was the only person in the bank at that time besides the employees. 

So, the pennies and dimes are wrapped and will be taken back to the bank at some point. I put the rest of the change in my purse and will use it for a small purchase somewhere. Sort of defeats my purpose of "saving" money.

I realize we are moving to a more cashless society, but talk about frustration on my part. Does that mean once we are cashless, we will need less tellers? At the rate our bank is going, they have cut back drastically already. We are lucky to have two tellers, and one mans the drive up window, usually another person who directs you to a teller or a personal banker or can help solve mini problems, and a personal banker. And this is a big, well known bank name. 

Yet, more businesses are charging a fee for using your credit card and encourage one to pay in cash. Talk about a dichotomy! 

Some of the frugal sites I follow on Facebook have been touting "No Buy July." 

I'm just wondering if any of you are thinking of participating? It seems like we are keeping our spending down so far since prices continue to rise and to be honest, we are a little worried with the state of economy. We've been doing a lot of using what we have around here and making do. 

Like most of the Midwest and part of the east coast, we've had extremely hot temperatures. But it was June and the sun was out. We had have a lot to do around the homestead.

Besides working on the garden (weeds grow no matter what the weather it seems), we've been working on fixing stuff or updating it. DH had an old wooden glider in the pole barn that was  in rough shape. The wood was still good, but it needed some TLC. So, he worked on fixing the mechanical parts, and then we sanded it and painted it. It took more paint than we anticipated because it hadn't been painted in years, but it looks decent and is a nice place to sit. The paint was far cheaper than buying something new.

On the back deck there is a wooden two seat thing with a table inbetween. It too needed some TLC. So, more sanding and more painting. This time we got the paint on sale so that helped. But it looks a lot better and isn't it amazing how a coat of paint refreshes stuff?

My other painting project has been these metal decorative (but functional) bird houses. They were rusting. They've been out in the weather for 10 years. DH's late wife bought them. So, more paint. I ran out yesterday so I had to wait until we were headed for town to get some more, but hopefully will finish them this week. 

DH had a problem with a bathroom faucet and so with a little know how (his) and some help from me, he took the faucet off, apart, cleaned what needed to be cleaned, and reinstalled. Other than time and his know how, this was not an expensive fix. 

DH's late wife had this machine called a Silhouette which is like a Cricut. I've never used one, but have been learning. Dollar Tree had vinyl on sale for 25 cents, so we bought a few boxes so I could experiment. It's an older machine, but seems to be working great. I made a decoration for our mailbox. It is a wreath made of dog prints and then put our last name's initial in the middle. That was fun and I've since made something to decorate some glasses. I like learning new things.

Last spring I read about growing potatoes. I've never done that, nor has DH. In fact my folks never did that while I was growing up. So, I had some potatoes that had sprouted, so I planted some. I had some grow bags and then I planted some in the ground. The grow bags didn't grow very well. But the ones in the ground did. I have enough for about two meals. Not a bad deal and now I know how to do it, I plan to plant some next spring in the ground. 

We picked our first cucumber yesterday. With the lettuce and a green onion, we had some of our fixings for our salad of lunch. 

A local orchard had their grand opening with peaches so we went there and bought some. They weren't quite ripe, but they are now. They are delicious! I plan to make some peach preservers, a peach crumble, and we will eat the rest as a treat. I'm keeping an eye on our wild black raspberries. I picked some last year and made jam. 

My to do list never seems to be getting any shorter, but it's all good. I realize how very blessed I am.