"Office" Organization

My biggest organization need for the past 6 months has been my “office” which, as you can see is basically just piles of paper, books, etc. In the corner of our living room…for all to see…pretty embarrassing!!

 

 When we moved to this place in Jan, we got rid of our big monster of a computer desk because we now don’t have a specific room designated as an office.

Also, since I now work from home, I wanted to set something up in the living room so I don’t have to run upstairs or downstairs every time I have a few minutes to do some work! Lets face it, all the papers would end up in a pile in the living room anyways!

I had been looking for a long time for a good used computer desk on kijiji and a local buy/sell site on Facebook, but hadn’t really found one I liked until this one…originally from Ikea! I don’t see it on their website anymore, but there is a similar one for for $149, and we paid $40!

I like it for several reasons, it’s black and white, which is what our living room furniture is …and all from Ikea too, so it matches perfectly! I wanted something that wasn’t too big, but had enough storage to accommodate our personal stuff and my work stuff. Oh, and the white backboard on the right hand side…it’s a magnet/white board so I can post anything I want on there and change it as often as I want!!

 

 Here’s the finished product! I still want to reorganize it a bit more and ‘style’ it a little differently too, but I’m happy with it for now!! I think this will really help me with my productivity too…my brain just functions better when things are not cluttered...ya know what I mean?

Up next? I think it’ll have to be our ‘catchall’ closet in our main bathroom/laundry room….oh boy. Not really looking forward to doing that one!

Herbs

So this year I finally decided to grow my own container herb garden! I had been wanting to do it for several years, but honestly it kinda intimidated me...why? I don't know, but I guess I thought I'd mess it up somehow. I planted them at the end of March...even though it was a beautiful sunny day, notice the snow on the deck? LOL...that's Alberta for you!
I bought my pots for super cheap...the little coloured ones were 4/$1 at Value Village, and the bigger one was maybe about $2 at Canadian Tire. The only extra things I had to buy was the potting soil and the seeds, of course.

Arnold drilled holes in the bottom of the pots for me and I added a few rocks so the soil would drain properly.

My selection of herbs...I think lettuce is missing from this picture though.

It only took about 20 minutes total! I labeled the containers with a fine tip permanent marker so I wouldn't forget what's planted in which container.

These are my herbs today!! I water them every other day, and that seems to be enough, although the cilantro is looking a little yellow, and tasting a bit odd...so not sure if it could use more water? I have them inside mostly, right on the edge of the table by our sliding glass door, this is where they get lots of sun!
I'm excited to plant even more next year...I want to do tomatoes and peppers and blueberries in a container! I had no idea you could grow blueberries in containers until my sister told me about it...check the link out here for more info: http://www.pottedvegetablegarden.com/1/post/2012/05/how-to-grow-blueberries-in-a-container.html

Save Money, Eat Healthy...no coupons!

About 2 years ago I started couponing, and I saved quite a bit of money on groceries and household needs. For anyone who coupons regularly, you know how much time it takes. It’s literally a part time job.  First you have to find the coupons, then you have to request them (if they’re online) or print them, then cut them, then organize them (because you won’t be using them right away), then every week or every shopping trip you look through your flyers and match up the sales with the coupons you have on hand, this is how you find the best savings.

Since having Brielle, returning to work part time, getting pregnant again and starting to work from home, I just don’t have the time to coupon anymore. I’ve been thinking about hiring a teen to train who can do this for me…that may be an option in the future...LOL! For now though, there are a few other ways that I’ve found I can save money on groceries (yes, healthy food!) and household items without cutting coupons.

1^st I use my PC Mastercard on pretty well everything I buy. I love this card!! No annual fee, and you earn PC points towards free groceries. You earn points on anything you spend, not just at Superstore. Plus, when you fill in gas at a Superstore gas station and pay with your card, you earn superbucks…at these gas prices we’re earning over $3 per fill! We spend the points we earn about twice a year, so that’s $200+ of healthy food…FREE!!!

2^nd I shop at Shoppers Drug Mart. I know, this may seem crazy because some of their prices are, well, crazy! If you pay attention though, they do have some really good sales and good promotions. Don’t shop here without the Shoppers Optimum card…you can earn points very fast, if you do it correctly! Basically I shop when they have they have promotions like this: Spend $50 on almost anything in the store, get and extra 20x the points (this is when I stock up on diapers if they’re on sale). This receipt was from today; I spent $66.04 and earned a total of 12,400 points. If they wouldn’t have had the promotion today, I only would have earned 620! I have a total of 52,152 points, and the last time I spend my points was in Mar of this year (the pic shows my $200 worth of free stuff!), so as you can see, they add back up pretty fast!

I only spend my points when they have promotions like this: Spend 95,000 points, get up to $200 in free stuff (normally 95,000 points only gets you $170 in free stuff)! Shoppers does have a lot of healthy options…frozen fruit, frozen veggies, milk, cheese, whole wheat bread and pasta, oatmeal, healthy snacks, vitamins, etc. I get a lot of my household items (or things that I don’t like to spend a lot of money on normally) when I’m redeeming my points. www.mrsjanuary.com has written a great e-book on how to spend & save at Shoppers Drug Mart, check it out here: http://www.mrsjanuary.com/shoppers-optimum-guide/

3^rd If you have an iPhone, download the free app called Checkout51, this is basically a coupon app without having to cut or organize coupons! Create an account with them and every Thur morning they will send you the deals of the week. This week for example, one of the deals is spend $60 on any grocery bill, get $1 off. Buy Europe’s Best frozen fruit, get $2.00 off, buy Europe’s Best frozen vegetables, get $2.00 off. Once you’ve purchased these items, go into your app, take a pic of the receipt, click on the items you’re claiming and send it in. They credit your account (for this trip, you would get $5 back), once you’ve saved up $20 or more in your account, they mail you a cheque! You can only have one account per phone/email address. Why not get a 2^nd one on your spouse’s and get double the money back?

4^th Stock up!! If you see items that are on clearance and they can be frozen or stored in any way, stock up on these items! The other day I was at Superstore and they had their organic bananas on sale for .44/lb! This was about .22 cheaper than their non-organic bananas. I bought a bunch, cut them up, put them in a freezer bag and froze them for my shakes and ‘healthy ice cream’ for the summer!!

5^th Price Match. If you don’t know what this is or how to do it, let me know and I’ll show you. This is a great way to take part in all the sales for the week that the different stores offer without having to drive around to all of them individually!