My Goodwill Find

I love getting toys and books at Goodwill (I'm sure I mentioned that before). I went to Goodwill with my mother-in-law, and we found this Abby Cadabby doll new in the package. Price: $5 and it originally costs $15. It was a good find. It also has a 15 minute dvd.

Earlier that morning I mentioned I wanted to find an Abby Cadabby for my daughter and my mother-in-law hoped we could find one at Target. Glad we went to Goodwill first.

Thrifty Thursday

I just got an e-mail from www.couponmom.com about forums for deals. Check it out http://forum.couponmom.com/. Seems like it might have some good stuff on it. Happy savings!

What's Cookin' -- Potato Casserole

The title of this one is a little deceiving. It's more like a cabbage, potato, ground beef casserole. I probably should think of a better name for it. My mom passed this recipe to me and I'm not sure where she got it from. Really tasty!

Potato Casserole

1 head green cabbage of 15 oz can of saurkraut (I use cabbage)
1 1/2 lb ground beef
1 small onion chopped
5 cups potatoes, sliced
1 (10 oz) can cream of mushroom
1 (10 oz) can cream celery
1 can of water
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut cabbage and boil for 15 minutes in large pot. (if you use cabbage otherwise start with step 2)
2. Brown ground beef with. Drain.
3. While beef is browning and cabbage boiling, peel and cut potatoes.
4. Lay potatoes on bottom of greased casserole dish.
5. Place ground beef on top of potatoes.
6. Place cabbage on top of beef.
7. Mix soups and water together, then pour on top of everything.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours

** You can use an combination of cream soups. **

I hear somebody

For whatever reason, I started singing a new song to my daughter when she wakes up. It's a take from the old "I Love Somebody" song by Doris Day, which I think we sang in grade school. I'm sure I heard this version somewhere else before, but maybe I came up with it on my own. So hard to know these days.

When I hear my daughter is awake, I walk down the hall softly sing this and open the door on the last line. She loves it.

I hear somebody, yes I do

I hear somebody, I wonder who

I hear somebody, yes I do

I hear somebody and it must be you

I think one of the tricks with kids is to keep doing new things and you just never know what might work.

Crayola Website

I bet many of you know of this website for Crayola, but wanted to pass it along as a reminder. It has some really nice activities and I like the themes it has. It's easy to navigate the website. Some of the activities are a little high on the difficulty meter. Creativity has no meter, though.

I get the Crayola newsletter e-mailed every month or so. It's not one of those they send so often you never look at it. And it very well organized. Enjoy!

Pizza cutter -- not just for pizza

A food serving tip for those of you with young children. A pizza cutter works great for cutting meat, pancakes, bread, waffles, toast, etc. I learned this at a daycare I worked at. I just picked up an extra pizza cutter at the dollar store. I might need a couple more.

Rummage Sale

That's what they call them where I live. Also known as thrift sales, yard sales, garage sales and I'm sure other terms.

We had one this weekend. Weather cooperated, but sales were pretty low about $65 after subtracting the ad. But that was actually ok. We needed to organize our stuff and it was easy to put together because we were organizing already. We didn't have any large items. I think the $4 vacuum was the biggest seller. So considering it was $1 and 25 cents items that's not too bad. Last one we had we made over $500, but we sold a lot of furniture that time.

Also, it was actually really nice for me to sit in the garage and not do anything. I finished a book I started in December. I read two meal planning books for toddlers and read several e-books I downloaded about a month ago about saving money and meal planning. Came away with some good tips and ideas.

I talked with several neighbors who said they would be interested in doing a neighborhood sale in the spring. So my hope is to organize that. I just don't want to move so much next time. I can also go through all those Christmas decorations and at least sell a bin's worth.