Red Dress Ink Fans discussion
Random Thoughts
Dang, I don't even know when our grocery ads come. I really need to start couponing!! I usually only buy clothes and things when there are good sales going on, and I always look for promo codes when buying online. So I'm good about that. But I really need to start doing that for groceries. So glad you guys reminded me. :) My sister looooved that Extreme Coupon show (or whatever it's called) and she always tells me how much money people saved. I randomly get coupons in the mail and I have them all sitting on my dining room table right now. I know what I'm doing tonight! Haha.
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Whenever I buy something online, I always search for promo codes. Did it just today on a sweater that I ordered from Love Culture. :) Got 20% off, not the best, but better than nothing.
I tried to do the extreme couponing for a minute, but it was too much with everything else I had going on at the time. Plus, since it's just Morgan and myself, it doesn't make sense for me to buy a ton of stuff because it will take us forever to get through it. Sometimes I take advantage though - like when the grocery store does a 10 for $10 deal and dry pasta is included. We eat a lot of pasta. :)
However, once my bf and his kids move in, I should start it back up because we'll be buying for six people. It always shocks me when he tells me that he spent $200 at the grocery store. And that's even after I told him about the app for the one grocery store that lets you grab coupons and keep them out in cyberspace. All you have to do is put in your phone number at checkout and it applies all applicable coupons. Love it!!
In fact, LOL, that's what I do sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep. I get on the Cartwheel and Mperks apps and look for new coupons. :)
WOW YOU GUYS ARE SO GOOD. I will admit that I do not purchase clothes , books or shoes without a online coupon code but groceries. I have never even used a coupon. My boyfriend always yells at me when we shop that I should look for what's on sale but I never do. Maybe I should start. I watched that extreme coupon show and it was sick what they get away with. I don't like storing food like that though. I am a stickler with expiration date and stuff so I would probably only do the dry stuff like stacy said with the pasta.
I definitely only clip & redeem grocery coupons for things I would already buy anyway. I've never watched the extreme couponing show, but it sounds like it would be way too much time/work for me. I'll stick with my $5-$20 a week. That adds up to a lot by the end of the year!
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I agree Stacy!BTW.....how is Grandma doing?
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I really hope everything works out for the best & she is able to go as peacefully as possible.Two of my best friend's had kids that ended up in the hospital since the beginning of the week! I say kids, but they're 18 & 21. Those are the ages of my boys, so I still consider them kids.
The first one ended up in the hospital Monday because she had such a high fever & wasn't able to shake the flu. She is insulin-dependent diabetic already, so she has to be really careful. I guess when she got to the hospital her fever was 104 and they started putting ice packs on her body to try & break her fever! As it turns out, she had two abscesses in one of her kidneys! They did surgery on Tuesday afternoon and her fever is now gone. She is still in the hospital so she can get round the clock antibiotics for a few days & they were hoping she could go home by Friday. Her Mom texted me last night though and they found out the infection in her kidneys was staff infection (yikes), so who knows when she will get out of the hospital. Poor sweetie!
My other friend's daughter moved out on her own about a month ago. She is the 18 year old. She got off work Monday night at 11:30 and headed home. Her apartment complex has horrible parking, so she had to park about a block from her apartment and walk. While she was walking, two men approached her and demanded her purse. When she tried to get away, they started beating her in the face. She can't remember everything, but she thinks they hit her three times. I think it was a lot more than that though because she ended up in surgery for her face. Those A**HOLES beat her so severely that they broke her orbital (eye socket) bone, her cheek bone, and fractured her jaw! She had to have emergency surgery and they had to put a titanium plate and some screws in her face to correct the damage done to her eye socket. There is a police report, but the police doubt they will ever be caught because it was dark and she couldn't see her attackers clearly. She is home with her mom now and starting to heal physically, but I am so worried about the emotional damage this has done to her. She is so scared to be alone now. I really try to have a good heart and not hate others, but I can honestly say I HATE the men that did this to her. Victimizing a poor, helpless 18-year-old girl. What is the world coming to?!?
I have been crying so much the last few days. These cases are a mother's worst nightmare! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE keep both of these young ladies in your prayers.....they both need so much healing.
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That's so true. When Wendy first got the call she didn't know if they had just beat her daughter up, raped her, or what. Thank goodness they didn't sexually assault her. That would have been worse! When they punched her daughter the last time, she fell into this little ditch next to the sidewalk. Wendy thinks they left her for dead. The nerve damage to her face is pretty severe, but the surgeon thinks that she will be back to almost 100% of feeling in her face within a year. Her healing, both emotionally & physically will be a very long road.....
OMG Julie that is so awful. I am sitting here tearing up at my desk. I am sorry for what those two kids and there families must be going thru and if I did pray I would for them. I will keep them in my thoughts. xoxoxo . Stacy keep us upto date on your Grandma. I hope she gets to go home and be at peace with her Family around her.
Thanks ladies.....hope you both have a super day!
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Thanks Dawn, will do.
Wow...Julie, so sorry to hear that. I really hope they can find the culprits. And that the other girl gets rid of the staff infection soon. Ahhh!
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Anyone have any good recipes?
Stacy wrote: "So I have decided today to finally start doing the smoothie thing. I'm going to go buy a Magic Bullet and start doing smoothies for breakfast and possibly lunch, most likely for snack. Anyone hav..."
That's awesome!! I really want to do something like that too, but I suck at making shakes/smoothies. (Is there a difference between shakes and smoothies?) But anyway, they always end up either too liquidy or too chunky. I need to learn to get them just right. :)
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I tried to make my first one off of a Pinterest recipe....yeah, not enough liquid something. It was super thick and tasted kinda chalky.
It was 1/2 cup frozen raspberries, 1/2 plain yogurt, 1/2 cup rolled oats and 1 banana. What did I do wrong? My boss says I didn't have enough liquid.
Oh, also! Got my fist book from Simon & Schuester (sp?) in the mail yesterday to read and review!!! I'm SO EXCITED!!! Here's the book:Happily Ever After
I want to start making smoothies too! If you find any good & easy recipes, let me know. :)
Stacy wrote: "Julie wrote: "I think any kind of home renovation is a huge pain in the butt! LOLI still rent, but I'm horrible with money. Hoping my frugal boyfriend can work out a livable budget that I won't c..."
It will be nice for you to have someone to share the burden.
I am getting better with money but still don't make enough to move out of my parent's house. I use coupons too!
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Suzanne, I have a bunch that I have pinned on Pinterest. They're on the "Smoothies" board. :)
It definitely is nice to have someone share the cost of living expenses.My coupon savings for today: I spent about $100 but I saved about $23.....pretty good savings!
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That's what was supposed to happen - SEVERE Blonde Moment this morning (no offense to any blondes, lol)!
First, I realized I didn't have enough raspberries (after realizing that what I thought were really big raspberries yesterday were actually blackberries, smh), so I threw in blackberries. Still not enough. So, ok, I toss in enough strawberries to make one cup. (This is after I put in my yogurt, which I now think should be considered a liquid, and my banana.) Next up, the orange juice.
Ok, we're all set. Then I'm looking at the cup with all the stuff in it and looking at the Magic Bullet base thinking, "How the hell am I supposed to flip the cup over onto the base so it can mix?" Then, "Ok, I'll flip the base." Proceed to do so, then flip the whole thing back over.
I then noticed that some orange juice spilled on the counter during my maneuver, or so I thought. I plugged it in and pushed down on the top to start the mixing while watching the puddle of orange juice growing. And I'm wondering, "Why is it doing that," as I sit there for a good five seconds, with it running, as the orange juice puddle turns into a small pond on my counter. Then I had a thought, "it's not grinding the fruit."
LIGHT BULB!!!! I had completely forgotten to attach the base with the blade to the cup. I just effectively poured 1/2 cup of orange juice through the motorized part of my Magic Bullet. Wonderful. Serious face palm.
Cleaned up the pond, cleaned out the inside of the motor base as best as I could, poured more OJ back in the cup, and attached the blade base. This time, it turned out the way it was supposed to, for the most part. The yogurt had to be scraped out of the bottom and blended just a little longer, which is how I realized that yogurt is probably considered a liquid.
So, the end result was a pretty good tasting smoothie, even if I had to create and clean up a pond to get there.
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My coupon savings for today: I spent about $100 but I saved about $23.....pretty good savings!"
That's great Julie! I love how Target and Meijer (grocery/all-in-one type store) both put on the receipt how much money you saved during the trip, and another tally for the year. :)
Here is my random thought for the day. Awhile ago, I read the book PINCH ME by Adena Halpern. I know some of you have read it too. At the end of the book, there is a section called "A Conversation with Adena Halpern" where they ask her what message she hopes readers will take from the book. She answers, "Like I said earlier, I was single for a really long time. I never thought I would find him. Believe me, I looked everywhere. Now that I have found him, I don't even care that it took so long. It was worth every minute of waiting. I want people to know that if you are single, no matter how old you are, and you think all the good ones are taken, trust me, your soul mate is out there. You might even start to think that you've got a curse on you, but I'm telling you: you don't. He/She is out there for you. Plain and simple."
That has stuck with me since I read the book. I felt like she was talking to me! I have been single for a long time, I thought all the good ones were taken, and I actually used to joke that I had a curse on me!
But, Adena Halpern was right. I am now dating a really amazing guy! And he was worth the wait. :) I don't even care that it took so long. We've been dating 1 month now & I'm really happy. :)
Stacy - Do you remember how I got stood up back in January? Well, one of my friends saw that post on Facebook and asked if I would be interested in meeting a friend of hers. I said sure, why not. Well it turned out that getting stood up was a good thing, because I never would have met him otherwise!
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YAY Suzanne!!!!! I am SO HAPPY for you!!!!
I remember that post, and that is awesome. You're right, it turned out to be a good thing. Why didn't she ask you if you wanted to meet him sooner? ;)
Yippie Suzanne. That's great. I have found the one too. I also thought I would be single forever. Now he is not the man of my dreams as far as what we plan for ourselves in youth. He has some baggage and he does get on my nerves sometimes. That being said he is my Prince. He treats me like a Princess and we love each other a lot and are great friends and partners. So I wish you luck with your new man and be open minded.
Yay Dawn! I'm happy you found someone too! :) We have only been dating for a month so it's still early for us, but so far things are going really well. Yeah I don't suppose he's what I had planned when I was younger either, especially considering we went to school together since first grade! haha! Never knew each other though! So far he hasn't gotten on my nerves yet. ;) ha
Sounds like this year is going to be a good one for all of us gals!
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I had a, what seems like he'll be, reasonably priced contractor come out to put together a quote on what it will cost to add a room in my basement, put in an egress window and possibly a 3/4 bathroom on the 22nd. He said he'd get back to me "next week" with an estimate. "Next week" came and went and now it is the week after. I called earlier today and left him a message asking if he's had time to put together the estimate yet. Still haven't heard anything back.
On to my electrician that had a small laundry list of things to do. He started in June and made pretty good headway for it being an after work type of thing. However, the last time he was here to do any work was the very beginning of November when he cut a hole in my bathroom ceiling to install an exhaust fan. That hole is still there. It has the fan casing in it, but where the rest of the fan is, I have no idea. I never heard from him until I called him just after Christmas. He called back a week later saying he's had this and that going on and working more than normal. Ok, I understand that. A little communication would've been nice though. He says mid-January he should be able to get back to it. That time period comes and he calls and says probably February. Ok, cool. Then nothing. I called him after the construction guy came out to see if he'd be able to do the additional electrical work in the basement. He said he could come out Thursday (of last week) and check it out. So I had my bf come over to my house so this guy could come earlier in the day. He comes, talks to Greg about what we want to have done, gives him an estimate and leaves. LEAVES! Without doing any work!!! WTF? He told Greg that he could come back the next day - well, I already had a plumber scheduled for Friday that may need to be in the bathroom, so then he tells Greg Monday. Thursday night, I get a call from him saying Monday isn't going to work, how about Tuesday (today) at noon? I said, great, that works. He says he should be able to get the original work done next (this) week. So Greg comes over today before noon to be here for him. He texts me at 1pm saying he hasn't shown up yet and asks for his number. Then he texts me at two saying he called the electrician and left a message - no return call and no show. At four pm, he texts me again with the same thing. And get this, my mom and step-dad are paying for the original list of stuff to be done - they have not yet received a bill! It's been almost a year since this guy started doing the work and he has yet to send a bill for any of it! Here it is, after 6pm, and still no return phone call.
On top of that, I had my car into the dealer back in November for a noise that I was told is my carrier bearing. It would be a simple fix if Mitsubishi sold just that part. But no, of course, it's a whole drive shaft assembly kit that costs more than my house payment. So they told me I should wait until it gets really bad. Ok, I tried to do that but I'm paranoid and I have my tax return, so let's get it fixed. In the meantime, they told me to try an actual Mitsubishi dealer in case they can get just the bearing. I called the one dealership in town that sells Mitsubishi and left a message with the guy. No call back. After a week or so, I called again. Found out that it would cost about $100 more than what my dealership told me, and that's IF the bolts weren't rusted and needed to be replaced. Then there's an extra charge for those and the labor to replace. Yeah, ok, dude, I may be a female, but I'm not stupid, I smell your scam. Back to my dealership. I called, left a message with someone for the guy that I originally talked to in November. No call back. And of course with my memory and everything else going on, I forget to call and be the squeaky wheel. So I finally remembered (after setting an alert on my phone) to call yesterday. I'm told they have to see if the part is available and I will get a call back. That was 9:20am. Never got a call back. I called around 1pm today only to be told that all the service lines are busy. I tried holding for a few minutes, but they were still busy. Fine, I'll call later. I called again at 4pm and finally got to talk to someone. I explained to him that I had called the previous morning and never got a call back about the part. He put me on hold saying he would find out. Comes back after a couple minutes to tell me he can't find the guy he needs to talk to and can he take my number for a call back. AGGGGHHHHHH!!!!! I give my number (for the millionth time) and expect to have to call back tomorrow. But lo and behold, my cell phone rings at 4:40! They called me back! Said it would take a day to get the part. I said great, can we schedule it for a certain day, he says he needs to get the part in and then he'll call to schedule. GRRRRRR!!!!! At least I'm getting somewhere on that though.
We have eight weeks and a couple of days until Greg has to be out of his place. I am a stressball of a mess right now. It's one of those things that seems like it's so far away (because I'm excited for it to happen), but also right around the corner (because there's so much to do).
And Suzanne - that is CRAZY that you guys went to school together!! :)
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Too bad we all don't live close by each other.....Happy Hour sounds like it is needed before you blow a gasket Stacy! LOL
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LOL, I need something! :) It'll all calm down in a couple of months. (I hope.)
Was thinking about you today Stacy.....did you get everything worked out? Car, contractor, etc?And how is Grandma, by the way?
Omg Stacy that was the best spent 5 minutes coffee break of my life. I am so sorry for the fucked up things going on with your house , car etc. It did however bring some humor to me that it's not just me that is completely stressed out over all the little things in life. I hope everything starts to turn around and like Julie said it best. I sometimes wish we could all live closer and have a real night out or in together to help more. I love you gals and I can't even imagine the great friendships we would have if we actually lived closer. xoxo Chin up Stacy it will all even out and hopefully get better. PS How is Grandma doing?
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Finally getting one thing checked off the list - I'm dropping my car off tomorrow. However, now it's doing some kind of weird stuff with the radio, locks and key fob (did I already mention that?) so I need to do some internet research before tomorrow morning.
STILL haven't heard back from the contractor and my bf called him yesterday. I just don't understand it. Am I in the wrong business? Should I start a contracting company? It seems these people have enough business to be able to blow off prospective customers. I know we aren't having a lot done, but it's still money in the guy's pocket.
I called the electrician again yesterday and he finally called me back. Supposedly, he's coming out Sunday afternoon to work for 4-5 hours. Might I finally have a working exhaust fan in my bathroom? I'm not holding my breath. After he gets that and some other stuff done, I'm going to have to tell him to take a hike. We'll just use the electrician that whatever contractor we end up hiring uses.
I just want to get this stuff done. And use people that actually call their customers back.
Glad to have provided some humor. :) Even though I'm super stressed and almost to the point of freaking out, I tried to inject some humor in it to keep myself on sane side of the sane/insane dividing line.
Stacy,I am sorry I didn't mean to poke fun at your expense. It just makes me laugh that everything you said happens to me like that every time. If I told you the horror stories of what I have been through with contractors and such it would make you laugh too I am telling you I can't make this shit up. Anyway I am glad it seems things are starting to fall in place. xoxo wish I could take you out to dinner and get you drunk and hear all about it.
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Would love to hear some of your stories, my experiences thus far probably pale in comparison given that you're calling them "horror stories."
Drinks would be awesome, maybe someday. :)
Stacy,You know what they say confession is good for the soul. I am so sorry you are having these problem's. Have you heard of a site called Angie's list. It is a list of contractor's that are highly recommended by others and will do what they say they will do. You might find a car mechanic out of it too! You never know. I learned from a mechanic that you could probably save money on the car part by ordering through a store like Autozone. I don't know if you have tried that. Totally understand your frustrations. :)
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Didn't think to look for a mechanic on there, I'm going to have to do that. Especially after this morning. I dropped my car off and apparently went to the wrong person, excuse me if I can't remember the dude's name that I talked to. Didn't realize it was THAT important. So the guy I'm standing in front of is trying to find my appointment in the computer and can't. He asked me if I knew who I talked to and I said I wasn't sure, it was a common name, Jim or Dan, maybe. He figures out that it's DON and takes me over to the guy who already has an older woman standing in front of his desk. My guy interrupts him and asks if he has a work order for me, when Don says yes, the guy takes off leaving me standing there. I would've been happy to wait until he was done with the woman he was helping. But he heaves a huge sigh, finds my paperwork, asks me if I'm dropping off my car and what number can they reach me at, while glaring at me over the top of his glasses.
This dude is always super grumpy like that (retire already if you hate your job, geez!), and I try to avoid him as much as possible. So, I didn't get to say anything about the other issues with my car.
I had the same thought about ordering the part on my own as opposed to having them order it, but that was last night so it was too late. But I wonder if they would do that - put in a part that I ordered from elsewhere.
As for the contractor - he finally texted me last night apologizing for not getting back to me sooner, saying he's been really busy, that he's putting together some numbers and will call me today. Just as with my electrician, I'm not holding my breath. I'd also prefer that he put it in writing too, so I texted him back saying he can email me if it's easier.
We went to a Home & Garden Expo last night to get some more contacts for construction people and have two appointments set up for next week for quotes, and a pending one (they have to call us to set it up). So I'm starting to feel better about the whole thing. Funny thing is, I got the text from the contractor while we were there. No, he didn't have a booth and saw us there, I checked beforehand. LOL!
I'm also going to tell my electrician this weekend (if he shows up) that he needs to get his stuff and GTFO when he's done. In nicer terms of course. :)
Stacy,If you got the information from Angie's List intially, shouldn't you be able to leave a review of that contractor or business? I haven't been on the site myself but heard that it is suppose to be about referring good business people. It sounds like your experience leaves some ???s. I don't see any reason why they shouldn't but just make sure they only charge for the labor and not also the part. Good luck with your other contacts.
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If you got the information from Angie's List intially, shouldn't you be able to leave a review of that contractor or business? I haven't been on the site myself but heard that it is suppose..."
Yes, you can leave reviews. I saw a few other people say that he took a while to get back to them. But when I first contacted him, he called me back the next day. For now, I'm going to wait and see what numbers we get back from the other ones before I leave a review. Everyone that actually had work done by him said he did a great job. Just not the best with timely communication.
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Now if I can just figure out the other crap that's wrong with it. LOL
Stacy,First that is interesting about the contractor. Congrats on the car!
Okay, so I am really behind all the conversations on this board. And all other discussion boards. Life has been crazy busy but also crazy good. Not sure if crazy good is an expression or not, but it is now. Haha! Stacy, I've never heard of Love Culture before, but the clothes look really cute!! Totally browsing their site now. :) And ugh, that sucks about your car. Car troubles are so annoying and expensive to deal with. Can't even think about it without mentally freaking out. Good thing you got it figured out now, though!
Suzanne, that's AMAZING!!! Congrats!!! And that's a really good quote. I've read one of Adina Halpern's books before and I loved it. I plan on reading all of them sometime soon because she's a really good writer. :)
Recently I've been addicted to beauty blogs. Haha. Super random but I've never been particularly good with makeup...I've always been a minimalist when it comes to that. But I've been having so much fun reading and watching beauty blogs. Haha.
I just finished book 6 in the Enchanted, Inc. series. Don't worry - I am NOT giving anything away. But I didn't like this book as much of the others. I had suuuuuch a heard time continuing to read it. Kept getting distracted and I guess it was a little boring compared to the others. Maybe it was just me. But now I'm on to the 7th book and I can't believe I'm almost done with the series. Wahhh! I hope she writes more.
Has anyone seen American Horror Story? I'm obsessed. I haven't seen the latest season, but I am thinking about starting it today.
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I don't remember having a hard time reading book six, but I could be wrong. I hope she writes another one too!!!
I haven't watched American Horror Story, but it's in my Netflix queue. I've started watching The Only Way is Essex on Hulu. It's marketed as Britain's answer to The Hills. Though I never saw that show, LOL. But I'm a sucker for all things British so I'm digging it. It's kinda hard to understand them sometimes though because they speak so fast, but the more I watch it, the more I pick up.
Ooooo speaking of British, have you seen the movie About Time with Rachel McAdams? It's super cute, and I watched it this past Saturday. It takes place in England, so you might like it. :) Did you know Rachel McAdams is 35? I'd believe it if she was 25. Whatever her secret is, she needs to share! I also didn't know she is Canadian. I love her. I've never seen a movie with her that I didn't like.You need to watch American Horror Story!! The third season just finished airing, and it's not on Netflix yet. I'm so bummed because I have no way of watching it until Netflix releases it. Ugh!!!!! Oh, and in case you didn't know, each season is standalone. So every season is a completely new story with completely new characters. The actors stay the same for the most part, but they play different characters in each season. I didn't think I was going to like that, but it's awesome to see how each actor can play a completely different role. You know? It's great.
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Your grocery ads come out on Tuesdays? I've never heard of that. All of ours are Sundays.