The first is that I tried my hand at making yogurt…and was it delicious! I had heard of using a yogurt maker or of using the pilot light in your gas oven neither of which I had…so I “googled” making yogurt and found a way to make yogurt using a heating pad…yup, a HEATING PAD! Now isn’t that creative! It actually is very easy and I will post the link just in case any of you all want to try it. The first batch was a little runnier than I prefer, but it was very usable, especially mixed with granola and fresh fruit in the mornings. I think I will let the next batch sit longer than the 7 hours she recommends starting with, so that it is a little thicker. All in all it was a super EASY recipe to use and I look forward to making some more in a few days!
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| Heating the milk for yogurt. |
The second adventure I was on was yard-saling…now, I know a lot of people get great deals at yard sales etc. but due to my crazy work and school schedule and the fact that we keep a pretty tight budget which does not include a yard sale “category” I have not really been able to go to yard sales in years. Well, I had saved $20 of my rebate money and noticed signs for some subdivision wide yard sales and decided to go on my Saturday off. I prayed for God to help us find some great bargains and early, I mean EARLY, Saturday morning my SIL/BIL and a friend of mine from work headed off in the occasional rain sprinkles to try our hand at bargain hunting!
Now I have to mention, I had told myself 2 rules before I left only buy things I need now (because I had seen that a lot of the yard sales had baby items and we are NOT expecting!) and I would not spend more than $2/item. I figured that I only had $20 and I needed to see how far I could make that go!
Well, there certainly were a LOT of baby items out there and I hope that someone was able to get some GREAT deals! I managed to hang tough through the first few stops but then we came upon a yard sale that had a Boppy for $3…well after much thought and internal debate I decided that if she would take $2 for it, I would buy it…because, those things are $30 retail! So, I walked away with my $30 Boppy and it’s $10 cover for $2! Several yard sales later I was still going strong…not spending any more of my precious $20. Yeah for me! Then my SIL was looking through some kids stuff (for a friend) at another yard sale and I saw this beautiful gender-neutral bassinet. It looked like it was in good shape. (Now, if/when the Lord blesses us with children, I have wanted a bassinet, but I don’t usually care for the excessively “frilly” kind.) Well, I walked away because I knew that I did not NEED a bassinet. The lady at the house yelled across the yard, “the bassinet is only $5”, I smiled and said thanks and walked away, I did not NEED a bassinet! Well, after looking through more stuff we started to walk on to the next sale and I was mentioning to my SIL what a good deal the bassinet was and she said “well you need to get it!” Ha, I guess I needed that nudge…so I asked the lady if she would take $3 for the bassinet. She said YES. Then she explained that it was brand new and had never been slept in because her children wouldn’t sleep in it. Then at the same yard sale I got an Infantino carrier for $1 and a new, still in box wipes warmer for $0.50! Those people were awesome! Ha! There were lots of other yard sales that we got some great deals at, but that place was the super-duper bargain shop in my book!
(Oh, I only spent $11 of my budget and got $293.50 worth!)
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| $3 Bassinet |
The last blessing to share is my “monkey pictures”. I have always loved monkeys and hope that some day in future years I can decorate a room with monkeys…well about a year ago I saw 2 absolutely ADORABLE canvas monkey prints at our local T.J. Maxx. They were a pretty good deal at only $8 each, but I didn’t really have the money to spend on that since we didn’t “need” them, so I didn’t get them. I knew in my heart that I would probably never find anything like them again, but I just didn’t have peace about going ahead and buying them. One of the last yard sales we stopped at had “my” exact monkey picture for sale! Yes, these were the same exact two canvases I had seen and wanted over a year ago! I was able to get “my” monkey picture for $0.50 each! Isn’t that a neat blessing?!?! I can’t help but praise God for that “extra” special blessing that He choose to give me! I think it is totally awesome!!!
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| "My" Monkey canvases |
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