Coupons... a broke girl's best friend

Let me say something real quick. Just give me a quick vent moment before starting this out.

When starting something hugely new...liiiiike jumping off a bridge buying a house, please do not delude yourself with thoughts of grandeur. You will hit the water and break limbs be completely broke and frustrated while floundering in uncharted territory. 

However, I personally love having goals and projects on the personal life.

Doesn't mean I'm rich and singing show tunes from the rooftops. (Well.... maybe sometimes.. :P )

My point being - your home is your home. Take time to make it special but also realize that you aren't a Kennedy and nor do you have the funds for installing a wet bar, guest house, and Olympic size pool in the backyard.

...bummer....

What you do have funds for?

Coupons!! 

Be proud of being stingy with money! haha

So remember back in the day when you moved, you would hit up the local post office and they have those 'moving packets' that had coupons in them? Yeah. They don't have those for easy access anymore.
A few bad apples ruined it for the rest of us by skimming those coupons regularly instead of when they move so now, you have to show actual proof of move OR you can just change your address officially online.  :)

When you do ... the world opens up and the heavens sing in amazing notes in the shape of COUPONS.

Look at those gorgeous bar codes~

These are your best friend, your little secret, your wonderful amazing helper in the money suck that is decorating a new house. And those coupons you get from changing your address, ARE GOLD.

Let me drop some rough estimates on places we've spent money so far....

Home Depot: Approx $200  (Coupon for 10% off entire purchase)
Bed, Bath, & Beyond: Approx $150 (Coupon for 20% off entire purchase)
Target: Approx $100 (Coupon for 10% off entire purchase)

This is everything from bath mats, to shower curtains, to those shower hooks, to cabinet/drawer liners, to garbage bags, to paintings, to clocks, etc.... It's amazing what you spend money on.

Macy's has also been quite the B.F.F. during this time and I would say we've spent probably around $400 there so far. We did get lucky at one point though and went when they were having a '25% off everything' type sale. So Lady Luck was looking our way sometimes.

Even with all these coupons I'm still broke this month. I still pay bills weep, cry, and scream and cringe as I see my credit card swiped again and again to make my house mine.

But it is mine. And I love being able to say that.

And even though I die a little on the inside as the money flows out of my bank account, I smile as I walk into my kitchen:

Worth it

I grin and giggle as I see my newly painted office and wonderful desk~

SOO Happy it's NOT PINK haha

Those things above make the effort worth it. Make all my broke days and frustration melt into a sense of accomplishment and a single word. "Mine"

We did this, we helped create this home, this beautiful place to stay and relax.

Still broke as broke can be.... but I'm happy.   :)

~ A

Painting Project - The before - Part One

I call this part one because let's be honest.... We're in the beginning stages. Which means there's only one way to go...

Spend more money  *sigh*

Painting.... I know we touched on this briefly before.  And here I'll share some photos:

 So, we taped up the plastic to cover all the floors to make sure we don't spill anything (this is very important) and we called it our 'Dexter' decorating. (If you don't get the reference, look up the TV show 'Dexter'.....  :D )

After a few days of priming and painting though..... all the good plastic taping intentions were gone out the window. It all pulled off, got rumpled and just became a pain in the rear end.  >:[
So then you get a system of 'Move the ladder, move the plastic to make sure it encompasses ladder, climb, paint, repeat'

Side Note: Painting... hates short people. I MAY be bias...just sayin...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

We then also taped everything else:

Yep... the 'Sweet Frog' room

We taped the baseboards, the closet, the window, and the door frame. What we did not tape and a few days later wish we had? The ceiling and the wall. Now... the ceiling would have been all around the best idea. The wall I mean is that one on the left side (in the picture) is my accent wall. I really should have started with that wall painting, waited for it to dry, taped it off in the corner, and then painted my neutral walls.

Did I do that? Of course Not....

Did I do this the hard way? Absolutely...every chance

So what do I need to do?? buy more paint (contractor white for the ceiling) and fix the mistakes  .... *cries in corner*

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

So after taping and before painting you also do putty fixing:

Look at alllllll those holes we had to fill in -__-

So, the people we bought from were firm believers in having nothing on the floor.
I agree with this technique as it makes your home more pleasing to the eye and easier to clean.
HOWEVER, that means when we puttied in all the holes.... there were a bazillion...

We were impressed.

Also, after you putty the walls you get to sand all of it before painting. Then after sanding you have to clean all the walls T.S.P.

Please note: When handling T.S.P. please wear gloves, we didn't.... our hands looked burned afterwards and were slightly itchy.... pretty sure it's not a good thing.

This whole painting business has been quite involved and convoluted and a learning experience. I get frustrated by it but it's enjoyable at the same time.  :)

(If I had to do it again.... I'd probably hire someone..... LOL)

We are STILL in the middle of painting and I hope to have more pictures soon of the completed rooms.

I'll mention a few other noteworthy moments so far in our paint adventure:

- The first primer we used on the walls?
Never dried and became an oily substance that when we used the second primer to cover it up....wasn't quite sure what color it wanted to be. We currently have a trippy white/green color thing going on....
- Get two ladders....
If you have multiple people painting, you DEFINITELY need more than 1 ladder.Otherwise, you're holding up both rooms and won't complete either one in a timely manner.


~A