Happy Monday!
I had SUCH a fun, great, and productive weekend. I love the nice weather!!!!!
The weekend was fun, cheap, and free, but the icing on the cake was all the STUFF we were able to get done. Here's what we did this weekend on-the-cheap:
FRIDAY
Months ago we bought a big Utah "
Pass of All Passes". It was on sale for $29 ea for me and my hubby, free for my kids. The price has since gone up to $79 ea, I'm glad we bought them when we did!
The passes are really cool because they give us unlimited season passes to two major water parks here, as well as tickets to games and events, and access to fun centers throughout Utah. Anyway, not that anyone really cares, but I'll be mentioning out "Pass of all Passes" throughout the Summer so I thought I'd get the explanation out of the way now :)
On Friday we attended a free Motocross event. It was our first time ever going, and it was a blast! We traded babysitting with a friend so we could leave our baby behind, and we just took Hutch. It was a fun "son" date, and he absolutely loved the dirt bikes!
Unfortunately it was FREEZING. Of course. Luckily my toddler's hat fit me.
After the event we were FROZEN and starving, so we decided to get some food. I always keep a coupon notebook in my car. Whenever I get deals or coupons in the mail, I stick it in the notebook and always leave it in my car...for occasions just like this!
I told my husband I wanted to go to Denny's or Ihop; somewhere that's open late and has hot chocolate. I grabbed this Hometown Values thing that I always get in the mail and usually throw away (but decided to keep this time...) and...
Bingo!
Instant savings without having to do ANYTHING.
My son thought it was pretty cool that he was at dinner with mommy and daddy at 10pm. Yes, we are bad parents :) Hey, it was a date, ok?!
...and, of course after about 5 seconds he dumped his entire cup of ice water down his pants so he had to strip down.
He loved the whipped cream from our hot chocolates!
It was a fun, cheap, AND free night!
FREE babysitting
FREE motocross event (well, free after buying our passes, anyway...)
CHEAP dinner (used the $.99 entree coupon)
Lots of fun...
Can't beat that.
SATURDAYI decided to go yardsaling (is that even a word??)
I started writing up a tutorial on how I do my yard-saling, but it was taking forever...so check back on Wednesday for step-by-step guides and photos! Woo hoo!
8am on a Saturday is early, but hey...I have kids. That's every day for me!
This weekend was a bit of a bummer; I didn't get any of the big stuff that I was looking for, but here are some random things I came home with:
A huge box of balls for my kids, $1
Some new home decor items, $3 and $4. The funny thing? I have two more sets of these RE white shelves that I got on clearance at Target last year! So now we have 3 identical shelves, and now we have enough to add them to a big collage photo wall we're working on.
I got a bunch of new ribbon, $8 for a huge bag full. These are perfect for making hair bows for Priya.
I also got a new Buz Lighyear 2T costume (my son hasn't taken it off since...) some sheets for our guest room, two shirts for me, and a pink exersaucer (like the Amazon one below) in GREAT condition for $5!
So while I got a few good things, I didn't get any of the big AMAZING finds I was hoping for. Oh well, next time. And yes, check back Wednesday for a great "yardsaling 101" guide!
SATURDAY cont'd...
We worked on our yard. We bought a short sale so the yard is an absolute DISASTER. We have gotten 6 bids on our yard, all would cost anywhere from $600 for the absolute basics (weeding and cleaning out our dead flower beds) to $7,000 (sod, leveling our slanted and crumbling back yard, etc.).
We have absolutely no spare cash right now because my husband took a pay cut at work so he can pay the bills. Hey, that's the life of an entrepreneur and business owner! So we decided to get to work ourselves. Yikes.
I will do a big post on this very soon, but let's just say that my husband's back is S-O-R-E after all the raking and hauling he did this weekend. What a hard worker!
While he worked on the yard, I worked on this project in our piano room:
Oh my gosh it's so cool, so easy, and so cheap. Be excited, tutorial coming by the end of the week (once I finish the second frame). YAYY!!!
SATURDAY EVENING:
We had a BYOM(meat) BBQ with 3 other couples. It was great! Unfortunately it was still a bit chilly so the kids couldn't play in our kiddie pool like originally planned, but it was still a blast.
Everyone brought their own meat + 1 side. We provided drinks, plates/utensils/napkins, buns, condiments, some sides, etc.
I got this drink container from Costco this weekend for $17. Woo hoo! I bought one on clearance from Bed Bath and Beyond a year or two ago for $20, but it was broken when I brought it home so I had to return it. It's so nice to have a WORKING, large capacity drink dispenser now!
The bucket was a yard sale find from last summer.
The food was awesome...
...but the company was even better!
Saturday also happened to be mine and my husband's 5 year anniversary! (We are doing our official celebration next weekend, more on that soon.)
Woooah nelly, 5 years?! It seems like we've been married longer than that, I can't believe it's only been 5 years! My life has never been happier and more full than marrying him, he is amazing.
Anyway...
For our anniversary I "bought" him a grill (basically I told him he could pick one out and buy it himself, but that he could have one nonetheless!). Luckily I married a frugal guy. He did lots of shopping, and found a brand new, still in the box, really nice grill from the Sears Outlet for over 50% off the original price! I was so proud of him :)
It has cool infrared technology that supposedly helps cook things faster and more evenly. Yadda yadda yadda, he's excited about it, so I'm excited about it!
The bummer is that he had to assemble it himself (which took a few hours) but it worked great, and he's excited to have it...so I'M excited to have it. Great shopping, babe!
SUNDAY We went to church, did a few things around the house, then went to a friend's house for dinner. They made us steak, it was to. die. for. I wish I had taken a picture, but they had a HUGE bouncy house set up that they had bought (still new in the box) from the classifieds. The kids went nuts, it was a riot. I need me one of those!
And that was our weekend. Lots of friends, lots of food, and some good ol' fashioned fun.
How was YOUR weekend?
