Monthly Archives: March 2008

Mar 6

Spring Cleaning at Nico’s

I have been home a little too long, and staring at all of the messy messes. It is time to get serious about Spring Cleaning.

Yesterday I cleaned and organized all of the kitchen drawers, and today I started working on the cabinets. I also tackled cleaning the buffet in the dining room, it is where I store my Nicostuff Jewelry supplies and sewing machine. After the little cleaning tasks, I had 2 full trash bags of stuff ready to get out of the house. It is a pretty good start to the big Spring Cleaning tasks ahead.

Have you started your Spring Cleaning?

Mar 6

Baking my Least Favorite Cookie to Bake

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I love them, but I don’t like to bake them, I have a bit of trouble with the dough. Yesterday I tried to make peace with the tough dough and I attempted Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies. I used the Betty Crocker Recipe, and made the batch from scratch. I must say that I was very pleased with the tasty results. James and Thade didn’t mind either, they are great cookie testers .

 

The recipe made about 4 dozen moist and delicious cookies, and I just might make these again soon. I have battled the too tough Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and won 😉

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Even Spider-Man Loves Chocolate Chip Cookies 😉

 

 

 

Mar 5

Nico In the Pursuit of Savings part 2

Today I’ll be reviewing one of my favorite local stores Walgreens. I’ll also have the prices of my fifteen items too.

Cold weather has had me shopping exclusively at Walgreens a time or two. The sale items are great and I usually save around $10.00 per shopping trip. I don’t think that I would shop at Walgreens for every item on my list, as a few items were a bit pricey. Walgreens usually has a great diaper deal going on, and occasionally a sale on milk. Last week I picked up a Gallon of 2% Milk for $2.99, best price in town.

I only had two items that fell into the not so good category. I wish that our local store was open 24 hours, our store closes at 9:00 p.m., having a sick kid in the middle of the night, it would be nice to make the little trip to Walgreens to pick up the much needed medication. They also have teeny tiny carts, that Thade loves, but it is almost impossible to fit two kids into one cart.

Now for the positives. Walgreens is very coupon friendly, and the cashiers always make sure to take the time to run every coupon, which I greatly appreciate. Walgreens also has the fantastic Easy Saver catalog, where you can mail in your receipts for Rebates, or even Walgreens Gift Cards. I take advantage of the Easy Saver catalog when I can, and those Gift Cards come in pretty handy for future Diaper purchases. I really love our local store, everyone that works there is very friendly, and very helpful too.

Here was my shopping list:

  • Cat Food-Walgreens Brand 3 lbs: $4.49
  • Kitty Litter-Hartz 8 lbs:$2.29
  • Kleenexes-Walgreens Brand: $1.00
  • Toilet Paper 4 ct-Walgreens Brand: $1.00
  • Diapers- Huggies Jumbo Pack sale item: $9.00
  • Baby Food 2pk-Gerber 2nd Foods: $1.39
  • Baby Food Jar-Gerber 3rd Foods: $.89
  • Gerber Puffs: $2.49
  • Saltines-Nabisco Premium sale item: $2.00
  • Coca-cola 12 pack sale item: $3.00
  • Bread-Wonder Bread: $2.19
  • Eggs-Sale Item: $1.50
  • Milk one Gallon-Hiland 2%: $3.49
  • White Flour 5 lbs- Gold Medal: $2.99
  • Sugar 5 lbs-Domino: $2.79
  • GRAND TOTAL OF ALL ITEMS: $40.51

The week that I priced my items Huggies Diapers, Eggs, and Coca-Cola Products were all on sale, and were by far the lowest prices in town. I’m also very impressed with their prices on Paper Goods, you can always find a great buy on Kleenexes,Paper Towels, and the Walgreens brand Diapers work very well too. I really like their $1.00 deals, on Toilet Paper, and Walgreens brand Facial tissue, I’ve even picked up the 1000 count Walgreens Cotton Swabs for a only $1.00 🙂

Overall I’m very pleased with our local store, and making an extra trip to Walgreens is definitely worth the savings.

Mar 5

Our Little Soccer Star

This evening was  pretty interesting. Thade had his first soccer practice, and it was freezing. Thade was crazy and all over the place, he ran up and down the field, and had a little bit of trouble waiting his turn. I think he might be a little better suited for Football, he likes to tackle and pick up the ball. He did have a lot of fun, and it looks like it is going to be a great season. I hope that next practice goes a little bit better, and that the weather is just a bit warmer too.

I’ve also signed up to bring drinks and snacks to a game, so I’ll have to come up with some tasty goodies to feed 11 kids.

Mar 4

First Soccer Practice

Tonight is the first Soccer Practice for Thade, and he is so excited. He woke up at 7:30 a.m., dressed, and ready to go. Practice isn’t until 5:45 p.m., so this is going to be a long day, I think we’ll visit Dad at work to help break up the day. We are hoping that the weather holds out too, it doesn’t look like snow for this evening, but you never know.  I’ll have to bundle up Dylan though, it is going to be chilly.

Thade will be playing for The Tigers! I hope that he has a lot of fun, and makes some great friends too.  Next we have to shop for Shin Guards and Cleats too, very important 😉