Shopping Trip

So it's Monday again.  We're expecting a major weather change tomorrow.  Plus I have so many appointments and responsibilities that I decided to do my monthly grocery shopping trip today.  It's still January, but I'm going to count this on my February budget.  I have an excel spreadsheet (is that what you call it?  All I do is enter the numbers and the crazy thing does the rest.  So I can keep track.)  Well, whatever you call it, it works.  So today starts February.  In the world according to me. 

Do you know anyone who takes photos of their groceries?  HA  I just had to do it.  It was an epic haul for me.  And I wanted to show that I did not get all junk food.  Can you see the lettuce?  I also got grapes and bananas and chicken and fish.  

Went to Krogers.  Hit their mega sale.  Plus added my coupons.  And the loyal card discounts.

I had several "free" coupons:  Free excedrin migrain, BOGO orange juice, BOGO cheese, Free chocolate milk,  Free eggs with purchase of soy sauce, 2 free green giant frozen vegetable steamers with any Mrs Paul's purchase.  Do you know how long it's been since I've had Mrs Paul's fish?  But I couldn't pass it up.  Also, BOGO bread.  BOGO crescent rolls.  Plus many high value coupons that were going to expire today.  So I had to use them.  

 The Colgate was free after a doubled coupon.  Lots of yogurt.  Chicken and shrimp and oranges and grapes and bananas .  I had a full buggy.  And then I got to the checkout.  What's that rule coupon shoppers?  LOOK FOR THE MALE CHECKER.  Oh my gosh it makes such a huge difference.  They are always friendly, quick and do not fret the details.  It's worth it even if you have to wait in a line that is a little longer.  Choose the boy.

So here we go.  I had 99 items.  Ha  Just noticed that.  Should have bought some tic tacs to make it an even 100.  Oh well, next month.

Register Subtotal before any discounts, etc:  $260.24  I KNOW!  Made me have a hot flash
Swiped loyalty card -35.59
Scanned all my coupons - -$82.82
Used $7.00 in Kroger Cash Catalinas from last month.  LOVE THOSE  So that took more money off.
Grand total:  $134.83
WOO HOO!

Plus as I'm walking to the car I notice I have more Kroger Cash Catalinas:  $14.00 to use next time.  Wow!  

I see lots of shoppers with coupons in the store.  But more shoppers do not use them.
I have a full freezer now.  So I decided I needed more room.  What is taking up a lot of needed space?  COOKIE DOUGH.  Shoot, I guess I'll have to bake cookies just to get rid of the tubs of cookie dough.  Oh my gosh this is the best school fundraiser cookie dough I've ever had.  I am NOT sorry to see it go.

 My house is still for sale.

House for Sale!

I looked in the Sunday Newspaper today.  Here's what I see:
There are only 4 houses currently on the market that compare to our house.
4 bedrooms/4baths.  Similar size lots.  Our house has a separate 2-story 1 bedroom/1bath guest cottage that is 900 square feet.  Our house is also in a quiet neighborhood while the other 3 houses are in more rural settings.

House #1 - $133 sq. ft
House #2 -      94.50 sq. ft  I've "heard" this is a fixer upper
House #3 -    113.00 sq ft.  This house has dropped in price this week
My House -    117.00 sq ft and that does not include the cottage.  If you did include the extra 900 square feet it would come out to $98.00 square foot.

Also, in the last 2 years (or longer, I've lost track)  here are the stats of houses in our neighborhood that have sold:

House #1 - $121.56 sq. foot
House #2 -    103.38 sq. foot
House #3 -    113.68 sq. foot
House #4 -       83.80 sq. foot - this was a divorce situation.  The husband basically dropped the price low enough that there would not even be a penny left after closing.
House #5 -      88.94 sq. foot - Foreclosure.  New construction.  Bank sold it.

We have had buyers who want to go by those last 2 houses.  I'm sure that when the time comes to sell their own house they do not want the sale price based upon an ugly divorce and a foreclosure.

Should we lower the price?  If we lowered it just $5,099.00 it would make the house (minus the cottage sq. footage)  $115.50 a square foot.

Will the house sell in the spring?  I keep hearing the market is going to pick up.  It always picks up in the spring.

Meanwhile, life keeps moving.  Tennis season is starting.  Weddings and Birthdays and busy-ness.  Maybe all the traveling will make the time pass quickly.

Cereal

So I was in Target
And look what I saw!  I haven't had this cereal since the 3rd grade!  Ironman said he's NEVER even heard of it.  Sometimes I wonder what planet he came from.  I didn't buy any.  You know, the old coupon thing.  Besides we have a stockpile of cereal to last us until the summer.  I went to Target to get the free dishwasher powergel tablets from Finish.  Target had the 10 pack for $2.44.  I had a manu coupon for .75 and a Target Q for $1.50.  The check out girl actually said to me "You have two .  Which one do you want to use"   I was surprised that a Target checker was unaware of the Target coupon policy.  When I told her she said, "Oh, that's a good idea to match a store coupon with a manu coupon."j
I had a job once like that.  Everyday there was a new "rule".  I never knew exactly what I was supposed to do or not do.  And a lot of the "rules" were justified b/c "That's how we've always done it'  There was no real reason to do it this way or that way.  It was just BECAUSE.  Makes a stressful job unnecessarily MORE stress filled. I often kidded around that on my last day on the job I would find out some crazy "rule" I had not been obeying and knew nothing about.  And do you know what?  It happened,  My very last day on the job I got the eye roll and the "you didn't know that?" from somebody I worked with.  Uh........... no.  And why, please tell me, is that the way?  Seems stupid to me.  So much wasted time on that kind of stuff.
And so another Saturday goes by and our house is still for sale.  Make an offer.

I think I"ll go to YouTube and find the Quisp Cereal Commercial.  Show it to Ironman.

Craft Time!

I can not just sit around.  I have to be doing something.  What's my favorite store in the world?  Besides Target?  THE CONTAINER STORE.  I like to sort and organize and resort and put stuff away and take everything out of the drawer, change it around and then return everything to it's rightful place.  All is well in the universe when your cabinets and drawers are organized and tidy.  Living in a much smaller house has made this habit ESSENTIAL to our survival.  My good buddy, Miss label Maker and her friend, Martha, my glue gun have been busy.

Now, here's a quick little project I did.  And I'm going to do more for Alison's friends.  I wasn't sure it would work.......  but it did!  And one projects leads to an idea for another one  

Okay, here goes:  See this little batman bucket?  I found it in the dollar spot at Target.  The almost always have a version of this little aluminum bucket.  If you were having a batman themed party these would be super cute filled with batman masks and candy, etc.  But I wasn't interested in the super hero, I liked the bucket.  AND it was marked down half price.  So 50 cents.  I love half priced anything. And I knew at that price it didn't really matter if my idea worked or not.  

 So I painted over the entire bucket with primer.  This is the first coat.  To be safe I let this coat dry and I painted a second coat of primer. (not shown)  I just did not want Batman to show through.

 Then I painted the entire bucket blue.  (Forgot to take a photo)  After that I pulled out every single shape and ribbon I had in the bottom of the sewing basket.  I wanted to only use stuff I already had so I could say it basically cost me 50 cents.   Just glued on the decorations.

 I'm using it to store my blue sticks.  I did not paint the inside of the bucket.

This project is still in the works.  Found a cork bulletin board at Michaels in the clearance section for $3.  I guess they had it there because the cork had a dent in it so it was "damaged" but who cares about a little dents?  Hello little bulletin board.  It's not your fault somebody stepped on you.  I painted the frame black.  Should have sanded it but it just didn't cross my mind so the paint bubbled up.  I had to let it dry and then sand it and then paint it.  Took about 3 coats to get that dark shiny black.  Then I just measured and cut the fabric.  Glued it on.  Added the ribbon trim.  And so it's almost done.  Decided to make some rossette thumb tacks and it'll be good.  

This morning I found a GREAT project in the new Ballard Design catalog.  Can't wait to figure out how to copy it!!

Should we lower the price?

Last night the Ironman and I had a "discussion".  You know how "discussions" go when they are with your husband.  I asked him a question having already been thinking about it.  I usually do think things through before I speak.  (No comments from the peanut gallery)

I Heart Red Shoes:  "Should we lower the price on the house?"

Ironman, answering with a surprised attitude:  "You said you didn't want to"

I Heart Red Shoes:  "Well, that was back in July.  Now that it's almost February, I've changed my mind"

Ironman:  "We are not lowering the price."  End of discussion

I Heart Red Shoes:  "I'm not talking about slashing it like a clearance item at Target.  I'm just talking about lowering it enough so that the price drops down into a different search area.  I'm just ready to sell it.  A lower price might flush a buyer out of the woods'

Ironman:  "We are not lowering the price.  If it doesn't sell by summer, we'll think about it"

And so.......... the house remains at this price.  Actually we've already lowered the price once.  So lowering it again would mean doing it twice.  We decided to ask our realtor's advice......... should we do it now?  Wait a few more weeks?  Not do it at all?

The last time we sold a house it took 10 weeks.  And I thought, at the time, that it was the longest 10 weeks of my life.  HA!  CONTRAR MY CHILD!  Next week it will be February.

Family

I.T. girl

                                                   The Engineer

                                              The Dancer

                                               Ironman

                                             I Heart Red Shoes

Showing at 10

Our house is being shown to an interested human at 10am.  This is our 23rd showing.  It's a slow market around these parts.

Welcome to my blog

This is my house.
It is for sale.  I am starting this blog to chronicle the adventures of selling a house in this economy.  And other things I'm doing as I wait for a contract.
It all began when we decided to move to a larger city and the opportunity arrived.  So we packed up the house all by ourselves and moved into a rent house.  We never dreamed we'd still be renting a house after months and months and months of trying to sell this house.

Why can't we sell it?  Is it the downpayment requirements?  We hear it's a buyer's market and yet we haven't seen any buyers.  We've had 2 offers but both were very, very low.  Very low.  Likes hundreds of thousands of dollars low.

So all we can do is sit and wait.