Shopaholics ODAT - Friday

Good afternoon, the weather here is just nasty. A charming combination of rain, freezing rain and snow! Schools have all closed early. I will decide at around 4 if I am going to srive home ar leave my car here and have my friend pick me up in his 4 wheel drive truck.

Not too much going on here , everyone must be at the grocery store.

Susan I have no ideas for your mantel. I should go thru items too...I am sure some stuff has been there for years!

Not much happening here...guess no news is good news. Everybody who is in the path for this crummy weather stay safe! Marijane

got a new 2015 Honda Civic yesterday. My truck died.....I'm a truck girl, but the new Civic is cute as a button!

We are still remodeling the bathroom. My decluttering is not going on today....I'm lazy!

Have a great day all!

Susan--Thank you for starting the thread. Good luck on finding the new items to revitalize the mantle. I'm sure that you will get back into the decluttering effort. Sometimes, we have to take a break.

Rosa--The weather must be going south of us if it is hitting you. On the other hand, we were told it would be evening and type of precipitation would depend upon how the storm tracked. There is something about a storm warning that motivates people to head for the grocery store.

Marijane--I hope the storm misses you. Ice and 5 inches of snow isn't something I would look forward to either. Spring needs to arrive soon!

Lori--Congrats upon your Honda Civic!! Enjoy and keep it well maintained for a long lasting ride.

I'm home from work early, not because of ice or snow, but because it is the once a month required Faculty Senate meeting of teachers. On the way home, I stopped at the supermarket and picked up two of the egg carton shipping containers. These are the greatest for organizing things for donation, and also easy to carry as they have cut outs on the ends for the hands to carry the carton.

I decided last night to try another technique. I went to the online statements for last year for the card I pay in full each month. I wrote down each month's purchase amount, so I can make an effort to bring this year's purchase amount down below each month for last year.

I haven't bought any groceries since December 31. I get my fresh fruit at school, and have canned fruit and veggies at home, along with frozen veggies. I will not buy (hopefully) more until I devour what I have here. I have enough shelf stable food to do me for some time, a practice that is good in the unpredictable Winter weather conditions.

Good Afternoon! Thanks for getting us started Susan. Glad the sun is out there. It is cooler here today, but sunny and much better than the snow and ice predicted for Maryland. I am sorry that I can't offer any good suggestions, but I think my decorating skills are pretty much lacking. The one thing that I used to put on my mantles (when I had them) was flameless candles in or on decorative bases/coverings. I enjoyed them since they were on timers and came on during the dark evenings. The other thing that I enjoyed was having a nice mirror over the mantle. Sometimes I would drape things over the mirror (spring flowers, etc.) Hope you find something you really like.

Sorry to hear about your weather Rosa -- please do take care. I bet there are lots of people in the grocery stores since that seems the pattern when bad weather is predicted.

Do stay safe Marijane. I really don't like ice since there don't seem to be any good way to get around -- walking can be hazardous.

Congratulations on your new car LoriM. I used to have a Honda Fit, and it was a great little car. Unfortunately, it was totaled when I was in a "rear end" accident on the highway.

Hi Jean -- I can't believe you haven't bought any groceries since last year. Good for you. I would be happy if I could constrain myself to no buy anything new for more than a week. Then again, I don't have a reliable source for fresh fruits and vegetables, and we seem to eat lots of them. Glad you were able to work today, and were able to get those egg carton boxes.

Waves to Kathleen (hope your last day of work was okay, if bittersweet), Arlene, twinny, LindaR, Gayle, Karen, and all of our posters and readers.

I don't know if anyone saw it, but I posted yesterday evening that I was going to go to have the tires replaced on the car this morning. That took a bit longer than expected, but the price was as quoted. After that, I bought a new trashcan for the kitchen (the lid on this one was broken), as well as some TP for a charity my church is supporting. They wanted both TP and paper towels, and I had purchased the towels the other day.

The other news (repeat from yesterday) is that my "Army" DGS found out that he will not be deployed to Africa after all. He is hoping to change some of his community college classes from on-line to classroom, and he has an appointment at the college on Monday. That is the start of school, so I hope all goes well for him. He does have reserves this weekend, and my youngest DGS is supposed to take the SAT test assuming the weather cooperates.

I will go to Curves and plan to take a walk later.

Hope everyone has a very nice evening!

Hugs,

Linda

Hi girls! It's a nasty, ugly day here as well - chilly and raining. I have no plans to go anywhere today, just do some more homework and tackle some more cleaning; apart from that I started a good book last night - a mystery set in 1930s Moscow. I did get the furniture cleaned and polished yesterday and am surprised at how much of a difference it makes. I think next up is finishing the tidying up - that will involve using the stepladder to get to the higher shelves where cats knocked bears down, as well as going up and down the stairs, so I have to be careful to not overdo.

Susan, is there a Hobby Lobby near you? They always have nice decorations, and they're organized by theme. There's also an on-line site I've gotten nice things from in the past called Seventh Avenue; they even have "sample" designed rooms you can look at, all with different themes using products they sell.

I have a lot of toiletries, some of which I've had for years, and got even more for my birthday and Christmas. I've found that the expiration dates on them don't really mean anything - they're still good after many years.

Rosa - Definitely accept the ride home. There are enough crazy drivers on the road even in good weather, and combine the careless drivers with snow and you're asking for trouble.

Congratulations on your new car, Lori. What color did you get? If I do decide to get a newer car I think I'd like that nice champagne color, although I'm open to other possibilities, except for white - I just don't care for white cars; this is, not for me - I know others love them. Two of the three cars I've had (I didn't learn to drive until I was in my 40s) were blue and the current one is forest green.

Jean, I'm doing as you are - I'm trying to not buy groceries until I use more of what I have. Last night I got a craving for popcorn so I made some, and had to throw out several shakers of different kinds of flavored seasoning, because they had gotten dried out. I started going through that particular cabinet and found some other things I had no idea I had, including a couple of bags of raspberry M&Ms and some Godiva chocolate coffee pods that have to be used. It's a waste of money to toss things that you forget about and they get stale, so my goal is to try and eat things (apart from those that have a long shelf life) within the month that I buy them.

Guess it's time for a reading break - have a blessed day, everyone!

Good afternoon! We have been talking here about how crazy the grocery stores get when we even have a threat of bad weather. I always have plenty in my house to eat, it may not be what I want, but I will not go hungry.

I am always certain to have plenty of coffee

LindaR--I use a lot of shelf stable food, including individual serving cups of applesauce, fruit, etc. It is easy to keep items like this on hand. Being the only person in the house, it is difficult to use up fresh fruit the way it is bundled, etc. in the supermarkets. For that reason, I can easily get fresh fruit at school. I do hope all works out well for both DGS.

Arlene--I can identify with what you said about having to throw out things that get stale. I also have thrown out recently flavored seasonings. The expiration date on food is something I need to watch carefully.

I have been wanting a convection toaster oven that has a two hour timer and is big enough for a 12 inch pizza, etc. I've read reviews, etc. and saw one highly recommended was available at Amazon. When I checked Amazon, it was available from a seller but the shipping was $29+ On the right side of the page where Amazon lists the other selling options, I saw Prime was available from Amazon. When I clicked on that, I saw the Amazon price was $5 higher but there was no shipping for Prime. The catch is that there is a one to two month-waiting list for it to be available. I can wait one to two months to save $25.

I had a parent tell me today that their son, a special needs, son was interviewed as part of a film class. When asked who his favorite teacher was, he replied that I was. As a sub, that really made my day.

Susan, our weather is nice today too. We might get 1"-3" of snow on Sunday. We really need a good snowfall. Only got .1" in Dec. & a couple of inches so far in January. I have no decorating ideas for you. I was so tired of my same Christmas decorations (18 y/o) that in Nov./Dec. of 2013 I gave all of my things away & started all over again. It was so much fun & really made the house look so different from the same old same old. I like owls so the theme was owls. My snow owls from QVC are really lovely.

Rosa, I would opt for a truck ride home to be on the safe side. Snow doesn't scare me but ice does. Maybe you will get dinner out too. Our stores don't get crazy busy as we are used to snow this time of year. Plus, I always have something that we could eat if we had to. Like you say, it might not be what we want but it is still available.

Marijane, stay safe & sound. We are one of the few places that are getting nice weather.

LoriMI, Have fun with your new car. DH & I bought a 2015 Suburu Forester in November. It is bronze metallic. We love it & the new features that are on it. I don't care for white & didn't want a dark color as they show the dirt too fast. Our Kia Rondo was silver & never looked dirty. It gets great gas mileage. Gas prices keep going down so DH is getting antsy to fill the tank up soon. Gas prices around here are $1.87. Sometimes a day of from decluttering is good for the soul.

Jean, you are lucky to get home early today. Just in case the weather gets nasty. Good job on your online purchase buying from last year to this year. I get groceries every Friday. I have lots of places to choose from within a mile or so from home.

LL, Getting new tires isn't a luxury but a must. But still not a fun way to spend $$$. That is good news about your DGS. Hopefully he will get to do his classes in the classroom instead of online. Nice of you to support your local charities.

FHG, It is amazing at how much stuff we can put into a pantry. One good thing about a cold nasty day is it makes me take it easy. it is harder when the aches & pains come from doing too much work though.

DH got his walk in today. Then we did our weekly grocery shopping. DH & I are going to a new place for dinner tonight. If it is good, we will take our friends there next week. I am going to our ladies yearly church meeting/breakfast tomorrow. Then a friend is meeting me at Chop Sticks for lunch. I am starting to celebrate my birthday early. My birthday last year was awful, so I am making up for it this year. The only thing good about last year's birthday is that I lived another year to enjoy my family.

Hugs to all of you.