The Weekly Recap!

I've been doing so much cooking and refashioning that I pretty much forgot about my "Weekly Recaps." So, this one will be more like a "Monthly Recap."

Hello 2015, Good To Meet You:

Joe and I spent New Years eve pretty low key. We stayed home, watched "The Giver" (which we really liked), and got to bed with just enough time to say "Happy New Year" to one another before passing out.

It's New Years day that's the special day for our family. My extended family gets together in the afternoon on New Years day, giving those of us that actually have awesome plans the night before some time to recover. We all get together to hang out and eat yummy Chinese food.

This year, we ate our Chinese food, then went back to my parents house for more hanging out. We also had the chance to take some awesome pictures...

Me, with my niece, Jazmyn, and my mom,with Mitchell photobombing in the background.

Joe and I in our first picture of 2015!

Our Favorite Thrift Store:

It's no secret that my mom and I hit up a few Goodwills/thrift stores in our area once a week. But a couple of months ago the prices went up at Goodwill. And last week the prices went up at our favorite thrift store. The prices didn't go up all that much. The $0.50 rack is now a $0.75 rack and regular priced merchandise went up $0.50-$0.75. It's not going to break the bank, but it sucks that prices have gone up.

Luckily, a new thrift store opened up in our area and even though my mom and I have only gone to it a couple of times, I think it might become the only place we'll go from now on as it now has the best prices.


I Downsized My Diaper Bag:

New year, New bags!

I've been carrying around that big, bulky green/black Eddie Bauer Diaper bag for the last 2 years. Before that, I had a humungous pink diaper bag. I realized recently that I only really need a bag to carry some diapers, wipes, and a snack or two for the kids. I've been carrying around the tiny Elmo backpack (that I scored for $.90!) for the last couple of weeks and let me tell you, it's life changing!!


Speaking Of Bags:

I know I'm going to LOVE these!!

I go to the store, I buy 10 things and the clerk puts each item into it's own plastic bag. So, buying these reusable shopping bags was a culmination of a few things:

• I am sick of the clutter of the plastic shopping bags that I have no use for.
• It sucks having to carry 10 plastic shopping bags into the house along with all the other stuff I have to bring in, plus kids, up a flight of stairs, in the dark, in the winter, during a blizzard, 5 miles and up hill (blah blah blah, you understand my plight!).
• I am trying to be more eco-friendly and not leave a huge carbon footprint.
• These bags have more use than just shopping, we can use them when camping or taking day trips as they are big, different colors, and very sturdy.

I purchased 10 of these bags and it cost me $17. They don't fold into tiny little squares or anything, but I don't care. I wanted the strongest yet cheapest ones. These definitely fit the bill! We recently bought groceries and instead of leaving the store with 20 plus (I'm not even kidding) plastic shopping bags, we filled 5 of our reusable bags and got 2 plastic bags for our meats. That's it, 7 bags. I'm quite impressed. I'm even thinking of bringing these bags with me when going to the mall and other non-food stores. I have no use for a Victoria's Secret or Old Navy shopping bag.

It's not like this whole idea is new to me. I have actually been using a couple flimsy reusable shopping bags that I already have. I just haven't really committed myself to it and now that I have my heavy duty bags, I am going to be hardcore about bringing them everywhere with me!