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Sunday, March 30, 2014

20 Random Facts

Hello! Today's blog posting will be a chance for you to get to know a little bit more about me! Here's 20 random facts-
1.) Though my all time favorite color is purple. Week by week I usually have a different favorite color (other than purple. This week it's coral.
2.) I'm a picky eater. I've been trying new things the past few years now, and in inclusion I still don't like tomatoes.
3.) I'm not picky on cereal. Of the ones i've tried, I like. Even the non name brands, though some you need to get the brand- cheerios is one of them.
4.) I'm also not picky on candy. I love candy. My favorite is cotton candy and for chocolate are snickers and the chocolate with almonds and toffee in it.
5.) If I find money, I pick it up. Even pennies. The greatest amount I found so far is $10. So far I have over $40 of found money. I find money mostly everywhere I go, other than paper money I love finding quarters. It's a childhood habit I will never grow out of.
6.) I love playing games. However I tend to get bored easily with games you play on your phone with other people. For example, I can play candy crush daily (multiple times a day), but Song pop, words with friends, etc I play a few rounds then I don't play for like 13 days. Some friends understand, some friends want to block me... speaking of, I better take my turn on Phrase Friends (it's pretty fun, kinda like wheel of fortune), it's been 10 days since I last played.
7.)I do like fast food (who doesn't?), I just don't eat it often, about once every 2 weeks or so. But my current addiction is Taco Bell. I love the ranch doritos taco and their happy hour- freezes for $1, absolutely!
8.) Pandas are my favorite animal. Followed by Flamingos, and Sloths. I don't know what it is about sloths, I just find them unique. Owls are an honorable mention :)
9.) I have a collection addiction of white ceramic owls. I have 3 so far, may add a non white one soon that will be spray painted white.
10.) I like white ceramic animals in general. Along with the 3 owls I have a fish, a bull dog, 2 rabbits (felt I needed something Eastery/ Springing in my decor), birds, and a deer. I will be painting a rhino white soon to add to the collection. I also bought little plastic animals and painted them white, so I think they should count too. They are actually for a potential diy project, but for now a white mini dinosaur and mini rhino are hanging out on my thermostat.
11.) I love HGTV magazine (and the tv network too). It's my favorite thing to come in the mail that I look forward every month!
12.) I have a crush on the Property Brothers. I can't really decide who I would pick (as if life was like the dating game haha), I like Jonathan for his contracting skills... um... yeah, and I like Drew for his knowledge of home stuff.... lol... yeah I don't know them personally, but they are nice to watch, both for tips on house stuff and they are rather dashing in appearance, but more for the house stuff.
13.) I'm addicted to office supplies. I feel like this has come up before. But I can't pass by a cute patterned notebook even though I have 10 notebooks (I buy them on clearance after the back to school sales, I got a ton of composition books for under 10 cents each!). Oh and the pens, and storage, and furniture, and.... yeah i'm learning self control. The last office supply I bought was pens because they were pretty and I wanted a new pen. They were $1 for 2 and are gel pens. I haven't used gel pens in ages, I kinda miss them.
14.) I'm quiet. I tend to listen more than talk, until I get to know people, then i'll talk more. Except for when I blog, can't stop talking (or typing rather).
15.) I usually like things other than cake for my birthday. For many years I had cheese cake with strawberries. Pie is the other contender. Last year I had a mix of eclairs and cream puffs. I do love cherry pie with the crumbles (like dutch apple pie), and my favorite cake is cherry chip cake.
16.) I like this song- M83- Midnight City (youtube video). When I first heard it, rather when I first saw the album cover- it creeped me out, so I always used to skip the song when it came up on my Pandora station. I finally gave a chance, still couldn't look at the picture of the creepy monster alien. It's a pretty good song, it grew on me (just not the creepy picture). Oh p.s. I chose a video with the creepy monster thing to show you, so just as a warning, it's there.
17.) I used to have bad dreams about the zoo when I was little. The zoo I went to twice in my life in Ft Wayne, Indiana. It's a really nice zoo, I totally recommend it. At the zoo there is a little island in the middle of a little lake and on it was a mother goose statue. I don't entirely remember the dream now (thank goodness), but I remember it had to do with that lake and island and being trapped out there. I don't know, it was kinda scary as a kid. Though when I went back the actually place it's scary, like I said, it's a very nice zoo.
18.) I'm currently addicted to Bath and Body Works Hawaiian scents. I got a free travel size lotion of the Hawaiian one, and it smells so good. I think it's passion fruit and something else. It smells like bubble gum to me. I also love the coconut one too, I have it in a body spray and I might go a little overboard with it.
19.) I mentioned before I like video games, especially most Mario games. Well I also like The Sims. I've been playing the game since Sims 1 came out and loved it ever since. I have most of the games and extension packs of the Sims 1 and 2. The Sims 3 I only have a few. I've kinda grown out of the game a little, but do enjoy building houses more than playing the game. I find it so fun to build and decorate. I've actually built my parents home and my house. I used the game to see about furniture placement and decorating ideas. It's actually come in handy for that kind of stuff. Plus is it fun to play too.
20.) I love cupcakes. Maybe more as decor verses to eat (don't get me wrong, I like eating cupcakes). I want to have my dining room and kitchen be kind of decorated more with desserts. I have cupcakes fabric framed in my dining room, and I have a few cupcake jars around the house too. They are cute and delicious!

So there is my lengthy 20 random facts. Hope you enjoyed and hope it helps get to know me a little more!
Thanks for reading!
-Jen

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Financial Fridays- Coupon Haul and Tips

Hey guys! As you may know ( or maybe you don't know), I love gettings deals and saving money. I try to get as many free birthday deals coupons (updated birthday list coming soon!), I like to use coupons, buy things on sale, check all the clearance end caps, and more. I'm addicted to savings. So today for Financial Fridays (possible Saturday, depending on when I actually post this) i'm going to share my most recent couponing haul and some tips about couponing. So here it goes:
Not pictured-1 more box of cereal, 1 Schar wafer, and 2 chocolate Easter egg candies

Here's my deals breakdown:
-Bath and Body Work-
  Travel size lotion -$5, used coupon for free travel sized item = Free!
-Walmart-(2) Shar wafers- $1.67 ea. (1) Bag of dog food - $10.22, used (2) $3/1 Schar coupon and $2/1 dog food = $2.63
-Kroger- 1st Transaction: (3) Kellogg's Brand cereals- sale 3/$6 + free gal. of milk. Used $1/3 coupon = $5, recieved $2 Catalina coupon for buying Kellogg's products to use on my next purchase.
2nd Transaction: (3) Boxes of General Mills cereals- sale 3/$6 + free gal. of milk. Used $1/3 coupon (coupon listed cereals, I could only find one that matched up with the coupon and the sale, may be different =in other areas) and used $2 off next purchase = $3
-Walgreens-1st Transaction: (2) Almay make-up removers - $5.99 ea, (2) Almay eye shadows- $4.99 ea- sale Buy one get one 50%off. Used (2) $5/2 coupon + (2) $2/1 Walgreens coupon= Free, just had to pay the tax $0.99
2nd Transaction: (1) Colgate Optic White Toothpaste- sale $3. Used (1) $1.50/1 coupon= $1.68 , recieved $2 register rewards coupon for my next purchase.
3rd Transaction: (1) Colgate Optic White Toothpaste - $3, (2) Chocolate Easter Candies- sale $0.50 ea. Used (1) $1.50 coupon and $2 register rewards coupon= $0.68, received another $2 off coupon.
4th Transaction: (1) Colgate Optic White Toothpaste- $3, (1) 2L Dr Pepper- sale $1.00. Used $1.50/1 coupon and $2 coupon= $0.68+ deposit (which I'm not counting in this), received another $2 off coupon.
5th Transaction: (2) Snickers Bite size Bags- sale $3/7. Used $3/2 coupon, $1/2 walgreens coupon, and $2 coupon = $1.
    Total paid- $14.67
   Total Retail- $84.15
   Total Saved- $69.48, 82.6% savings!


     There's my detailed haul. I think I did pretty good for my first time semi extreme couponing! A side note, with the $2 off coupon from the Kroger deal and the Walgreens deal, you can use these on anything you want, I just chose to do it this way. On the Walgreens deal, I find it funny, I paid $4.04 for all of it, that's less than the cost of one toothpaste at regular price of $4.49!
Here's my tips for starting about couponing that I learned on this trip-

1.) Plan ahead- I spent a lot of time looking up coupons, printing and cutting them, and looking up deals. I found most of my deals at TheKrazyLady . I gathered my coupons for the deals together and organized them. I also made a list of all the deals I wanted to get and an estimate of what I was going to pay. When time came to shop, I was set and it made shopping a lot easier (except at Walgreens finding fillers for the $2 coupons).

2.) You don't have to get every deal- If you don't have to budget for it, don't do it. Just because it makes for a good deal, it may not be a product you need. One example for me was at Target, I was going to do a deal for (3) Mio or Crystal lite drink mixes, using (3) $1/1 coupons, and getting a $5 gift card. I could find room in my budget to pay $7.47 for drink mixes I didn't really need. I still might refigure things out to see if I can, because it's a good deal. Then I would use the $5 gift card towards DiGiorno's pizzas- (2) $4.99 each, using (2) $2/2 manufacturer coupon, (2) $2/2 Target coupon, and 5% off Cartwheel and $5 gift card and pay only $0.60....... hmmm that deal is really good. $8.07 for 3 drink mixes and 2 pizzas.. I may have to get that. Or there is also a deal with Old Spice- buy 4 at $3.99, get a $5.00 gift card. Use (2) buy one old spice deodorant, get body spray free coupon from the sunday paper, and pay $8. Thinking, do the drink mix deal, use the $5 on the old spice deal, and then the $5 on the pizzas and pay- $11.05 for $36.41 worth of products. Not to bad either. I may or may not do those. The pizza deal is good enough on it's own though, for $5.60 for 2 pizzas. Ok, i'll stop deal calculating (I told you it was addicting). To prove this point- i'm not a guy, I don't necessarily need guys deodorant, unless for relatives or donating it, so instead of getting that deal, save the money for a better deal you may actually need.

3.) Don't go too crazy- Don't let couponing consume you. Set aside a time to coupon and when the times up, stop and go at it another day. You don't want to neglect time spent with family (unless you do coupon with family), or time spent on other activities such as house work, hobbies, or whatnot. Also don't go crazy in stores, respect the couponing policies, don't make a mess of the stores, and try not to leave a shelf empty.

4.) Do some research- TheKrazyCouponLady has a youtube channel too, watch some their videos- they have great tips for starting out couponing. They also share deals, how to coupon, what not to do, and a lot more. I'll have a playlist of their video on my youtube channel for things I think are good for beginners. Watching TLC's Extreme Couponing may not be ideal in all circumstances, but it is good to watch and cool to see how they do it and what they save. I get excited to see people save money!

5.) Try not to be too disappointed- Sometimes you store prices or sales may not be the same as some couponing sites show, or there may be different coupons that you don't get. Also they stores may be out of products. Some examples I have is I check out the Sunday Coupon preview last Saturday. I was expecting my paper to have some coupons that I really wanted, but it didn't. I was kinda disappointed, but some coupons are regional meaning some places may not get the same coupons. Also at Target I was hoping to get some free shampoo and conditioner using coupons and they were sold out :( I was bummed, but happy they offered rainchecks. Hopefully they will be stocked back in soon! This happened at Walgreens too. I went to one location planning to do the toothpaste deal with the Almay deal to not pay as much and they were out of the toothpaste, so I had to get the Almay there. I went to the other Walgreens near buy and was able to score 3 toothpaste. So it worked out and luckily I live close to 2 Walgreens.

6.) Be adaptable- You may need to change your couponing deals a tad when in store when they are out of products, or only certain products for the coupons are part of a sale. Have a plan but adapt to changing it a bit if needed. That's why it's good to have paper on hand to write out deals, atleast I like writing out all the deals so I can see if they work and have an idea of what to do.

7.) And finally Have fun- Saving money and couponing takes time and some work, but it's worth it and having fun makes it so much better. Having a bad attitude if something doesn't work out the way you planned will make things worse. Being happy and in a good mood despite obstacles will make things so much better for you and your cashier. Always be polite, friendly, and kind to the cashiers. Couponing for them may not be as fun, but it will be a more pleasant experience if you are nice.
Saving money is a ton of fun and totally worth it. I hope this helps you out a little, I will definitely have more tips about couponing and saving money in future post.
Until then- have fun, save money, and go get started couponing! If you already coupon or love saving money, what's your best or favorite deal so far? Share in the comments I would like to hear and if you have a haul you would like to feature on here email me the detail and if you want to have a picture send it to sobrilliantlifeblog@gmail.com!
Thanks for reading and have a great day! -Jen

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Dining Room Inspiration

Hey guys! The blog renovation is still going on. It should all be finished soon though. But I was thinking, why wait till everything is done to post. I know it has been a little while since I last posted something. So today I wanted to share some Home Inspiration. I've created a few sets on Polyvore (love that site!). If you don't know what Polyvore is it's a website where you can create collages of anything like fashion to home ideas. I'm working on a collection of home inspiration boards for each room in my house and today I want to share my Dining room Inspiration!
Dining Room Inspiration

Dining Room Inspiration by sobrilliantlife



My dining room is connected to my living room, which I will have my living room one up here soon as well! In this room I want a buffet, which I will have from my mom, who got it from my grandma. I can't wait to get it to my house. The rug I love, I found one at Ikea for $200, not too bad, but it's something I have to save up for. I have some fabric framed that's dessert themed already, I find it fun. I just love the look of this all together. In reality some pieces won't be the same, but close. I'm on a budget, and if you've used polyvore, your know that the items they have to choose from range from inexpensive (Target prices) up to thousands of dollars. I'm not going to buy a $1,000 rug when I can get a similar one for $200. It's just not in my budget now. I do believe that sometimes the more is cost the better quality it is and sometimes you have to splurge, But as long as you stick in your budget, you can have an awesomely decorated room!
Well that's all for this post, to see the items I used, click on the link below the picture. And if you created you're own, let me know in the comments, I want to see!!! And follow you on polyvore too!
Thanks for reading!
Shine Bright -Jen