Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone! Please remember our veterans and our soldiers who are currently on active duty. Military folks in my life include:

- my paternal grandfather who proudly served in the Air Force. He was shot down over enemy lines in WWII. He just turned 85 a month ago.

- my dad who proudly served in the navy during Vietnam.

- last but not least, my younger brother who proudly serves in the army. He has been in Afghanistan and Iraq. As of this week, he is OUT OF IRAQ!!!! In limbo in Kuwait and expects to be back in the states in two weeks. Most importantly though, OUT OF IRAQ!!

Other going ons this weekend:

Made a trek out to CVS this morning. Lots of good deals! I got all of this for no money out of pocket:



I bought:
nail polish
tampons
2 deoderant
Used 2.00 in coupons, 13.00 in ECBs, and 0.96 on a free gift card I had. Got back 13.98 in ECBs.

DH bought:
10 powerbars
2 bags of dog treats
clearasil
2 boxes of cereal
Used 12.00 in coupons, 10.98 in ECBs (from above), and 1.78 on a free gift card. Got back 8.99 in ECBs.

So we still have a little left on those gift cards that I found laying around the house. Came away with 11.98 in ECBs and no money out of pocket.

So I decided to treat myself to a few plants at Lowes. Just got my meager little garden mostly planted. The irises are in bloom and the peony is about to bloom. Soon, we'll have gladiolas in the back. The trellis (a dumpster find last summer) will have a tomato growing up the left side and blue morning glories up the right side - and anywhere else they decide to go. I'll post pics later on this summer, but wait til you guys see what one of my neighbors does with his morning glories. He's a botanist so he knows a little more than me.



Other than that, things are fairly quiet these days. My mom has gone through a couple thought processes that surprised me. As in: recognizing there wouldn't be enough money to cover a couple purchases made (medications she didn't tell me she needed), then deciding to transfer money from savings and actually doing so. WHOA! She's never had such understanding of money before. Maybe there's still hope? Property taxes are due - no problem! She even had enough money to pay her AAA membership that I didn't know was due, AND money to go away to a church weekend later this summer. She doesn't have to ask for help this year and SHE is paying for it!

Well, I think I'll go see if any fights are going on in the Indy 500.

Yup, that's what I found at the same store I say I ALWAYS find change! DH wants to make sure he gets credit for picking it up when I pointed.

Sad, but we got laughed at for stopping to pick it up. Spoiled teenagers?? This is the same store where I've seen young children walk right past change on the floor. Oh well, I don't care! They don't know me and certainly don't know I pick change up on principle. It's MONEY... and it adds up!

So I headed off to Staples this morning to take advantage of some deals they had. One of the items I bought was a label maker that will be free after rebate. Yes, useful.



Actually, DH really wanted a label maker to label some thing he has. Well my trip nicely took care of my spending bug. It's a good thing that I can take care of this with cheap shopping! I also got some paper that will be $1.00 after rebate.

I updated my sidebar to include a savings ticker. This reflects the savings account that holds the money we will use to (hopefully!) pay off DH's car come next spring. For now we'll pay no less than $100 per month towards the car and dump any extra into this savings account. I'll update the ticker as the account grows and the goal shrinks. Just wanted to share that we ARE putting money towards this. Just saving it for now since the "loan" is at 0%.

I'm mad at myself for throwing away a couple off brand ink cartridges this week! I didn't realize Staples had changed their ink program. They used to only accept name brand ink, but now they accept ANY brand - limit 10 per calendar month. At $3 in staples rewards each, that's not a bad deal for ink cartridges I bought for around $2. I will be taking advantage of this going forward. I actually had 11 ink cartridges for the printer that died last weekend. I have someone coming from Freecycle to pick those up later this week. A family emergency has postponed her picking them up, but I can be understanding with this one.

While we're on the subject of printers, my mom still insists she needs a new one! Well after making her put some thought into it and making it clear that SHE would have to pay for it, I ordered another refurbished Epson like the one I just bought. I like mine so far and it's quite similar to the one she currently has. So we've made progress!! I have to order it since she doesn't have a credit card, but I will have the money as soon as it transfers to her ING and she sends me an echeck. Still got a long way to go here, but this is progress. I also told her when she needs ink I can order it on ebay and she can pay me back.

I'm suffering from Friday night's Wii bowling injuries today. I felt ok Saturday morning but worse as the day progressed. A million times worse today! This rivals the pain I had when I got rearended. Right now I feel like I got rearended by a semi and then run over!! I bowled one game right handed and then one game left handed to even it out. I was only 7 frames in when I was really feeling it in my shoulders. I just need to remember I'm not REALLY throwing a bowling ball! Owie...

Huh, I don't think my ticker is good at math...