Dollar Tree Haul!

I'm just a bit obsessed with the Dollar Tree. I love it. I go nuts. If you know what to buy, you can get some really awesome deals.

I needed toothpaste and a lightbulb for my "theatre lights" over my bathroom mirror. That's all I went in there for. Buuut of course I left with more than that!

I ended up with 2 Hershey's Cookies and Creme candy bars (my FAVORITE). These were the most important things I bought today. :)

I also grabbed a new "magic eraser," as well as some sponges. I don't wash my dishes with sponges but I clean other things in my house with a sponge, and the simple ones work perfectly!

I got a package of sticky notes. 'Cause you can never have too many of those!

I got a tape dispenser. Just a plain black one, I may slap some spray paint on it. I do spray paint anything that will sit still long enough. But for now the black is fine!

I had to get some medical tape. I am a bit of a klutz. It's common knowledge. Aaron and I are known as Mr. and Mrs. Accident because we are constantly hurting ourselves. I was in a rush getting ready to go to rehearsal last night and I just wasn't looking when I reached down to pick up my flat iron. Instead of grabbing the base I wrapped my entire hand around the 500 degree, scalding hot plate. Naturally it burned my hand pretty bad. My thumb got it the worst, and the palm of my hand as well. It will definitely scar, but I didn't think it was bad enough for me to have to go to the ER. I loaded it up with some Aloe Vera and wrapped it in a bandage and now I'm operating with just one hand. Inconvenient at the least.

I also bought some super glue. This stuff is incredible! I use it for all kinds of things, but mainly for when I do my own acrylic nails, its the glue I use to glue my tips to my natural nails. It holds better and longer than nail glue.

I got a 180 count package of straws. I'm a straw girl.

The last things I grabbed were 4 rolls (about 12 feet) of the black and white floral contact paper. When I redid my office a while ago I added contact paper to all my work surfaces, just to pretty it up. But when I went to the Dollar General to get my paper, they didn't have what I wanted and so I settled for what they did have. Today I saw that the Dollar Tree had what I wanted, and so I snatched it up!


Oh yes, and I bought a Cherry Coke and some Luigi's Frozen Ice in the Cherry Flavor. Those are SOOO yummy!

I also bought a couple of items that I didn't picture because I'm testing them out and will blog about them later on, if my experiment works out! Stay tuned for that!!

Love love love the Dollar Tree!!

I am not affliated in ANY WAY with Dollar Tree. I LOVE the Dollar Tree and would shop there no matter what! Everything is a DOLLAR! How could you say no to that?!

$80 Kitchen Remodel Reveal!

When I tell people I redid my kitchen, including now countertops, for around $80, they always look at me like I'm nuts. But it happened, and I've got to say I'm so proud of my thriftiness and creativity!

To get caught up to speed, you should probably read my post on my original PLAN for this room. I followed that up with a step by step of what I had decided to do in Let's Talk Kitchen Renovation! A lot of prices and products I used are listed in those posts.


This project was a LONG time overdue in happening, but now that's it's over I am kicking myself that I didn't do it like this when we originally did the room 5 years ago.  Remember how it looked before?? (The various was it looked before? haha!) To see how it looked in the VERY BEGINNING of our lives here, you can check out the KITCHEN EVOLUTION post.

Yeah, all that's gone now! I can't believe I lived like that for almost 5 whole years!

BUT HERE IT IS NOW!!

Let me show you around! - I would like to note that I got this project finished while I still had all my summer decor out, but now it's all fall-ish at my house, so things decor-wise may look a bit different now.

Yeah! It's so much brighter!! I love it!

I love how the table looks (it's showing up very red in this photo. It's not that red) with the new wall color, so much prettier!

I kept a lot of what I already had over my cabinets, including my big "BLESSED" that I got on sale at Hobby Lobby a few years ago.

It says "Missy's Kitchen, est. 2009" The bottle is a "Cheerwine" bottle. It's a lot like Cherry Coke but more cherry than coke. My Mom used to love it when she was in her early 20's and first married. I think she actually lived in the town where they made it, but I'm not sure. We found this at Cracker Barrel and bought a few bottles! And then the Mason Jar is filled with rocks that I picked up from out of the ocean in the Bahamas when we went in 2013.

My giant "R" was also from Hobby Lobby. I painted the bottle and the star blue with leftover front door paint! And, ya gotta have the glass "RC Cola" bottle. It's Aaron's favorite drink, ever! 

I thought it would be cute to have some photos of Aaron and I in the kitchen when we were little on display. This one is of him, ear to ear in chocolate pudding. How adorable?!

And this one is me, in my Dorothy costume, making biscuits with my Mama. I was probably 3 or 4. 

I change out this picture seasonally, but it's always a shot of me and my Dad. This one is a fun memory. He'd been fishing and pulled up in the driveway yelling for my Mom to bring me outside. He said "I caught a fish that's as big as my baby! Bring her out here and let's measure them up!" And, as you can see, the fish is as big as his baby. :)  Currently there's a shot of him and me, as Little Red Riding Hood, on Halloween in the frame by the window!

The pantry stands out so much more than it did before! It's easier for me to see what I have now!

Here's my iPad/TV set up in the kitchen! It's such a small space I wouldn't have room for a TV, unless it was teeny, so I just hook the iPad up to this iPod dock, put the iPad on an easel, and there ya have it, instant television! :) I use the heck out of this system! (I do need a less obnoxious easel though!)

 My microwave area! It's amazing to me how much easier this room is to keep clean now!! This section of the room was the first to get "finished" and for a moment I thought it was all too light, but after living with it for a few days, I had no regrets!

The stove (it's even prettier now!), and my little helper! She hung in there like a trooper with me while I was doing all of this! I did purchase the hand towel, and pot holder and oven mitt set specifically for the new kitchen and it was a $5 set from Dollar General!

I decided I was too tired to cook the day after it was all finished (I finished it around 2 or 3am, actually) so I stuck a meal in the crock pot! 

I leave this butcher block cutting board out all the time. It's arranged a bit differently now, for fall, but it's still out all the time. A very good idea, and super easy to clean up!

DIY EVERYTHING! Haha! DIY lotion, and DIY lamp! I painted both the lamp base and the shade! If I eventually find something I like better, ok, and if I don't I like this just fine! 

 MORE DIY! I did the "EAT" out of cardboard. I free-handed the letters, cut them out with an exact-o knife (it's not perfect but I didn't expect it to be), painted them blue with leftover front door paint and attached them to the wall with 3M tape! I LOVE it!  The curtains over the windows I found on sale at Dollar General for $5 a panel. I bought 3! (The one over the sink I cut in half and split up the middle!)

 My flowers and DIY table runner! My cooking utensils are actually living in the owl pitcher now, and I'm using my glass cake stand full of homemade cookies as a centerpiece! I loved that I could still use this runner! My Mom made it for me and monogrammed our last name initial onto each end. There's enough teal blue in it that it works!

 Chandelier is even more beautiful now!

The room is a small room. and we have a large table, but it all feels so much BIGGER now that it's so light!
 

I find myself WANTING to be in the kitchen now. I just LOVE how it all turned out.

Be sure to visit the posts linked above for prices on items (including my "new" countertops) and names of paint colors and such! I'm tickled pink and blue (wink wink) with this room and can't tell you how satisfying it was to completely change it for such a small price!

Thanks for catching up with me today! See y'all soon!

Dollar Store Sunglasses Case!

I don't buy expensive sunglasses. For me, it's just like that old Jeff Foxworthy joke. I could buy a pair of expensive sunglasses and 5 minutes after I walked out of the store I would lose them or destroy them. But a pair from the Dollar Tree I couldn't lose if I was trying. I believe he says that you could be on an ocean cruise and lean over the railing and your cheapo's fall off your face and a random scuba diver would pop up with them in his hand asking "hey did somebody lose a pair of sunglasses??" Yes. (I think he mentions this joke in his "Totally Commited" video but I cannot be sure, and I had no luck finding this specific joke on YouTube, but trust me, it's the truth and it's so funny!)

But the stinky part about buying inexpensive sunglasses is the fact that you don't get a case with them. And I throw mine in my purse and Heaven only knows what might happen inside that Mary Poppins bag! I carry a large Vera Bradley tote bag (I couldn't tell you the style.... but I do know that it is part of the "tote" bag genre) and it has 4 huge pockets on the outside, I've gotten into the habit of stuffing my shades into one of those pockets to try and protect them from getting scratched up. But still... they're not really protected. I could very easily squish them since they're in  a pocket on the outside of my bag.


These are my shades. I freaking love them!

I got them about a couple of years ago at Kohl's for like $12 and I have worn the heck out of them. I love aviator sunglasses so much! I feel so cool when I wear them. Like I look like I just stepped out of Top Gun and I'm doing the slow motion walk with my hair in the breeze and the fighter planes behind me...... there, that's my confession for the day. So embarrassing/

As you can tell, they are gold with rose colored lenses (...these roooose coooolored glasses... teeheehee) and they have a cute little circular design on the arms, or earpieces. I have several more pairs of shades, but these are my favorite and the ones I'm always reaching for.

A few weeks ago I was in the Dollar General store and I was wandering, killing time, checking the merchandise, checking if they had anything new, and I slipped into the clothing/accessories isle. Have y'all noticed that recently the dollar stores (Dollar General and Family Dollar, specifically) are starting to get some super amazing clothes?? Back in July I bought a boat load of clothes at the Family Dollar for just $30. Anyway, I was in "DG" as my Mom and I call it, and looking at the clothes and turned around to where they have like wallets and purses and things like that, and tucked way back into the far side was an entire box brightly labeled SUNGLASSES CASES!

For $4! Yes.... $4!

I was so excited. They had a ton of fun colors, and I picked up a pink leopard print one and was about to walk away with it when I saw my color peeking out at me from way in the back.

This is a super good quality case! I was afraid it wouldn't fit my aviators, my main pair, so I dug them out of my purse and checked it, right there in the middle of the store, and they fit, with room to spare!

It is such a pretty color blue. One side is blue and white stripes and the other is blue with white polka dots and it has a really adorable little set of baby pink "purse style" straps.

I am really loving this case. It slides into my outside purse pocket super easy, and if I want to stick it inside my zipper pocket in my purse, I can! And for $4 you cannot go wrong with this! It's giving me the protection I need for my favorite sunglasses.

I thought I'd share that with you all, and hopefully you, like me, will be able to save yourself a lot of broken/lost sunglasses grief!


Dollar General, you've done it again! Thanks for being on top of things!

I do not receive any compensation from DOLLAR GENERAL for discussing their products. 

The Plan

Good Afternoon my few and faithful! 

Today I want to share with you my planning/thought process when I'm planning out a home "redesign" project.

The room I'm working hard on at present is the Kitchen. I recently finished - pretty much - my home office and am just waiting for a final touch or two to finally share it with you. I need a handful more of little items to be able to call it a wrap on that room. But now I'm turning my near full attention to the kitchen.

If you read my Kitchen Evolution post you will know it's been through it's ups and downs. When we first "took possession" of the house and started renovating we painted the cabinets a dark chocolate brown with a very expensive oil based paint. The cabinets are old, from the 1960's, and are a flat panel door. I don't particularly care for flat panel doors, period, but this house is full of them, so I'm living with them. We also chose to paint the walls a sage green color. A very pretty color, but as my home evolves, it's becoming the odd man out. We even went ahead and had the counter tops replaced.

I ended up going with our dark counter tops because granite was unavailable at the time, because of money, and there was nothing else in the store that I liked, even remotely. Plus is went with dark cabinets and green walls. It was the most evasive thing we did when working on this house, and I'm still glad we went ahead and did it. 

As these 5 years have worn on, my house has undergone some big changes and for the most part, the kitchen has always felt ok to me. The decor started leaning more toward the country style, with floral curtains and floral china pieces being displayed over the cabinets, and then we introduced the big new table into the room and that pushed it even further country. But as the house turned blue around it (comment below if you would like to see a tour of everything aqua in my home) the green kitchen started feeling like the loner kid on the playground. 

So, what do I do? I start by thinking about it. For the longest time, I felt the fault was with the cabinets, so I started thinking of ways to lighten up the cabinets, and had even settled on buying white contact paper and covering them, in their entirety. But one afternoon I was cruising Pinterest, like I do, and saw a photo of dark cabinets against a light beige wall. And the light bulb in my head not only came on, but it started flashing.

You're doing it wrong! Don't paint the cabinets! DON'T contact paper the cabinets! Paint the walls!

It was pretty clear the direction I needed to go after that realization, so I had to start to hatch my plan, by listing what is important to me in the project.

• It cannot cost a whole lot of money - and I must unload some of my "sellables" in order to fund such a project. Perhaps the "Bank of Husband" would work finance a loan haha!
• I'd like the walls to be a light beige color, to flow with the rest of the house and to work well with my aqua accent color. I would definitely be going with a paint color from Lowe's Allen+Roth line because it is only $30 per gallon.
• (as with the office) Paint, or DIY as many accessories as possible to save money.
• Contact paper the nearly black counter tops.

After making out the list (it's usually a mental list) of the things I want to accomplish in the room, I go to Pinterest and create an inspiration board to help me visualize how it will turn out. Check out my "Kitchen Spruce Up" board HERE. I determine, from there, the style I'm going for and what will work in my space and what won't. It always helps that I have a creative mind.

Then I add the things that "speak to me" from Pinterest onto my list. 

• New curtains (or re-purpose some I already have) for both windows. (One set will go to the floor)
• new artwork - DIY I love this giant "EAT" from sweetpickinsfurniture.com.
  
  This could be accomplished by either buying the letters from Michaels (around $2 a letter I think) or I could have my father in law, wood craftsman that he is, cut them out for me, but then I decided that cardboard would be the easiest route to go. A little cardboard, some paper mache and a little aqua paint and we are in business. Completely free because of my left over aqua paint from my Front Door Makeover!
  I also like the idea of simple kitchen art, like this Mason Jar print from printabledecor.net
  
  

  

I find I am much more satisfied, and proud, of my end results when I do things myself. 

hookedonhouses.net

 I know that I want whatever the end result to be to work well with Aqua accessories. So I find photos like the one above to help me visualize how much aqua is too much or not enough. BTW, if my kitchen was this size, I'd never leave it. Are you kidding me? I love it!  Plus, if you go into Kohl's now they are offering so many fun, bright colored kitchen products. They will probably be going on sale soon to make way for Christmas things! I can't wait for that! (I want the aqua blue little cow shaped figurine so bad!)

After I've got my Pinterest board set up, I head over to Amazon, to check out their selection to see if I want to buy, or to DIY and re-purpose. In this case, I already know I want a counter-top looking contact paper to cover my counters. Originally I thought I would go with something just for the back splash, but after I started looking, I found this.

And yes, I screen-shot this for ya'll to see. (My pink polka dot theme came from Firefox's add-ons page, in case you were wondering.) Here's a link to the Amazon Listing. As soon as I saw it, my brain shot to an image of my brown cabinets, beige-y walls and aqua goodness sitting on top. I knew it was the one. I ultimately decided it'd be safest to go with the 75ft roll for $30 to be on the safe side.

The only other thing I knew I might want to spend a little cash on was some curtains, and I've been lucky on finding inexpensive sheer curtains (my favorite style) on Amazon for about $8 for 2 panels. But what color did I want? I was afraid if I went with an aqua color I'd end up getting this insane bright neon blue color, and I didn't want that, at all. Best to stick with a neutral if you ask me. I could do with a set of "ivory" sheers for $8 per 2 panels, as I'd expected. But after thinking about it for a while, I decided against buying new curtains. I got creative again. The sheer curtains on our big living room window were just hanging there, and we already had a set of drapes hanging there, so the sheers were just adding bulk to the window coverings. And that window is huge, I mean huge. So I thought about it, and decided to re-purpose those sheers. It will save that $8, and I can put it toward the paint and/or contact paper. The windows in this house (except for the big window in the living room) aren't exactly "pretty" but my "cover it up" attitude from 5 years ago really sucks now because of the lack of any natural lighting. I'll clean the fire out of the windows and the ledges and deal with the cracks if it means I can have a light and bright room to hang out in,


A lot of this project will be the de-clutter of my over the counter shelf, using the bare bones of decor - my large dark brown "R" will stay, for sure, my "Blessed" from Hobby Lobby will stay and a few other little knick knacks will stay. I will add in a few items - I have a gold basket weave star shaped box my Dad got me years and years ago (I love stars) that I am planning on slapping a little aqua paint on. I also have a star shaped box that has the world "believe" written on it that I will probably add as well as some other things I have laying around the house. My floral china pieces I think I will tuck away in a box for now, because until I have a proper china cabinet, I just don't feel like they will 'go' with the new look. I also really like the idea of a few photos up there. I've got some cute ones of me when I was a baby "cooking" with my Mama, and then a couple of cute ones of Aaron when he was a lil' tyke... especially the one of him with his face covered, ear to ear, with chocolate pudding. Adorbs. So that's an idea too.




OK. After I decide for sure what I want to do, I go to Lowe's and look at my paint options - we are going tonight. If I am dead set, I'll go ahead and purchase it, but if not, I'll take a sample home and check it out with the surroundings to see if i like it, I would specifically check to see if it "went" with our counters. But since I am changing the counters too, I will probably just go for it and buy tonight.

The middle of September will start to be super busy for me (I'm doing another play!) and so I won't have that much time to devote to home redesign. So I want to get this project done soon, very very soon. Like, next week soon. I'd like to start it tomorrow but I don't have my contact paper (unless I miraculously find it at Lowe's tonight!), and I'm the type of person that likes 1 day transformations.  Pretty much all my redesigns are done in a single day.

So now that I've got my plan pretty much in place, I clean the room, thoroughly, and get it ready for it's makeover!


In short (too late), here's The Plan!

• paint the walls
• contact paper the counter tops
• paint accessories
• diy some art
• diy "new" curtains 
• redesign over the cabinet decor 

I'll update you all when the project is finished. I will also post photos of the office as soon as those final touches are in place!


Here I go, again!

Thanks for stopping by again today! I love you all! 

 

App Love! -- Retail Me Not --

Being frugal is a way of life. It isn't a hobby. Getting the occasional deal on something, or using a coupon every once in a while doesn't make you frugal. The constant search for "the most for the least" is what makes you frugal. Not going into a store unless there is a sale or you have a coupon makes you frugal, and even then, using your calculator to keep on budget. Shopping at the Save-A-Lot is being frugal. Shopping what you've already got when you want to redecorate a space and using a can of spray paint to breathe new life into it is what makes you frugal. I'm proud to say that Aaron and I work hard to be sure we get the best price on everything.

I don't set foot into a store unless I know there is either a sale or I have a coupon for it. I'm not a 'crazy coupon lady' however, I see the potential in such a lifestyle and I wouldn't put it past myself to one day cross that line. However, if I am looking to go to a specific store for something, a lot of the time I will wait until there is a sale, or a coupon becomes available.

Michael's is one store that I don't go to unless I have a coupon. That is a store that I very easily get in trouble in. But the good thing is, Michael's often, very often, has coupons available online. You can pull it up on your phone, show it to the girl (or guy, but at our store it's always a girl) at the register, and she scans it right from your phone screen. I check for Michael's coupons every weekend, cause that's usually when this country girl heads to the big city. ;)

I take my Kohls coupons pretty seriously too. Date nights are also much nicer when I have a coupon at a restaurant! Pizza night? Coupon!


But, Missy has no printer. Well... I have one, but it hates me and decided it didn't want to work anymore. So I have to have coupons on my phone, or not at all.

My Mom actually turned me onto this app a while ago. I had it on my iPhone 4s but I had never opened it, not even once. When I upgraded to my 5s, one of the first apps I downloaded from the Apple App Store was "Retail Me Not." (Free)

Just prepare yourself. You will LOVE this app.

When you set up your account it asks you what stores you like to shop at the most, and it lists a ton for you to choose from. But you can also search for stores/restaurants and add them to your favorite stores. Once you have a list of stores, you can fix it in your settings to where Retail Me Not will alert you when there are any good deals in stores nearby. It will give you a happy little alert noise letting you know that you have coupons for (ex.) 12 stores nearby! It did it to me tonight! I got all excited when I heard the happy little alert!

You can also save coupons. If there is a sale coming up in a few days and you want to be sure you get your coupon, you can tap the little star to the side and save your coupon. Don't worry if you forget about it, Retail Me Not will alert you before it expires!

So what stores are available on Retail Me Not? Ha! You name it! Wal-Mart? Yup. Macy's? Uh-huh. Old Navy? You bet! Kohl's? Why yes! Bath & Body Works, Bed Bath & Beyond, Anthropologie (I've never shopped there, but it's in my favorite stores list because one day I will buy something!), Ebay, AutoZone (for muh Aaron), Etsy...  Even Amazon.com (which makes me soooo happy)! There is an "In-Store" or "Online Sale" option for every store too, which is awesome because sometimes stores offer sales online and not in the store and vice versa! Double the chance to save some cash!!

The last time Aaron and I went to Kohls, I used 3 coupons from Retail Me Not and it brought our total from around $140something to $100even. That's a big deal! It was major success on our part and we both practically skipped out of the store, because our total savings (we did take advantage of everything being on sale, but even with that the total was still at $140) were $158!! YES!!! We celebrated with milkshakes and slushes from Sonic! :)

I check retailmenot.com all the time, because if you log into your account on your computer, on your main page it will list all the deals of the day/week/etc. It helps me determine when to buy the things I want/need. 


So, go download this app and give it a whirl. Your wallet will thank you! 

Let me know in the comments, below, if you get this app and if you love it as much as I do! It's so funny, whenever we go to town, Aaron always asks me if I have any coupons on "that app thingy." And the answer is usually, always "yes!"

I am not being perked in any way by Retail Me Not. I just love this app and am sooo happy I found it! It has helped us so much with our shopping and spending!



P.S. HI JESSICA!!! :) (old college buddy who recently revealed she's a Simple Lifer!)

Our Non-Pantry

My pantry is different from other people's. I envy those of you with a nice built in, matching your cabinets, floor to ceiling style pantries. Or those of you with whole rooms built to the sides of your kitchens that house all your food. Or even with giant closets in your kitchens that act as pantries. I go to other peoples homes and I just stand and stare into their pantries, taking a mental photograph. It's sad. I sometimes refer to it as our "non-pantry."

When Aaron and I first moved into this house it became very evident to me, very quickly, that we needed a pantry. We have a fair amount of cabinet space in our kitchen, but I was having to load all of our non-refrigerator food into one cabinet, and the weight of all the cans etc was starting to weigh the cabinet down and make it sag. I could just see the cabinet falling out of the wall in the middle of the night one night. It was terrifying. I needed a solution and quickly.

So I started searching Pinterest for ideas. Pinterest was a fairly new thing at the time - it's strange calling Pinterest a "new thing" - and it didn't have a whole lot to offer me -- (Of course now it has pages and pages of "no pantry" solutions. Of course.) until I saw this picture from marthastewart.com. I don't know what it was about this precise image, but the idea light bulb lit up over my head.

There was something in that image that made it all come together in my head. So, knowing my budget, I left work that night and headed to the Family Dollar store that was just down the road.



And this is what I came up with. We had this empty space here to the side of our fridge. It had housed our trash can (which I removed for the sake of the photographs. It's usually pushed up against the side of the fridge) and a broom. And when the idea finally came to me, I knew it was the perfect spot for something like this. It's nothing super fancy. It's not very visually appealing, but it's super functional and it works for us! That's the important thing. Now I'm not going to lie and tell you that this is the permanent solution to our problems, I'm looking into maybe upgrading my shelving unit soon. This has worked for us since 2011 with little to no trouble.


What I did was I went into the Family Dollar and purchased the units. I've got a million of these things all over my house tucked into various places. They're inexpensive, easy to assemble and fairly strong for how cheap they are. I ended up deciding to buy one 4 shelf unit ($30) and one 3 shelf unit ($20), and I combined them, omitting one shelf, but using all the hardware included.

All you do it take it out of the box, lay the shelf, insert the spindle and screw (no tools required). Do you call that a spindle?? I don't know what you call it, the stick thang. Screw the stick thangs together then add another shelf. Easy. I had it assembled in probably 10 minutes. I chose not to take the unit any higher than the fridge, 1) because it would look tacky and 2) because it might be too top heavy. Like I said this isn't the most sturdy piece of furniture you could ever purchase.

After about 30 minutes of moving my food stash around I was done and so proud of myself.

This is where we keep our stockpile of food. Our "extra" food, if you want to call it that. We keep our cereals and snacks and chips and things that are open or that we use all the time (like ramen noodles, peanut butter, bread, cereal, chips, pop tarts, cookies etc) in the cabinet, but everything else lives here.  I keep all my flour, sugar, corn meal etc in a cabinet by my stove, as I reach for those all the time.

I also keep a "bag bag" hanging on the wall here and my favorite apron hangs on the door that leads into my disastrous utility room. It's an insane mess right now, let's not even go there.

I keep our weekly meal plan posted on this side of the fridge as well. This is so easy for me because I can stand at the pantry and plan my meals out. ("yoyo means 'you're on your own' for those wondering) I just found this page online - did a Google search - and printed it off. I slid it into a sheet protector and use a dry erase marker on it to write my list. I also keep my grocery list pad of paper hanging here, with a pencil. I got the pad at the dollar store, you can find these things anywhere. As soon as I run out of something, I write it down. Makes it so much easier on grocery day!


So now, let me take you on a quick tour of how I have everything set up. 

On the top shelf I keep my large package of paper towels. I buy whatever is on sale, and this time, it happened to be Bounty Basics! And in the little clear plastic box I keep baking things. Cause I don't bake cakes or cookies much, so the powdered sugar and hot chocolate and cupcake liners etc live there.

On the next shelf down this is where I keep all of our condiments and honestly whatever else will fit. Because this is such a small space to work with I kind of just have to go with whatever fits wherever.  We keep lots of salad dressings on hand as well as BBQ sauce, bacon bits, gordita shells, taco sauce and tea bags!

On the next shelf I keep all our boxes of things, like hamburger helper, stuffing and boxes of like Zatarans Rice (it's hiding in the back). I can arrange things two deep on these shelves, which I really like. We love the Save-A-Lot instant potatoes... I know, I know. It's so lazy but I could live on mashed potatoes so when I want them, I want them now and don't want to chop up potatoes and boil them and mash them and... no. I want my potatoes now. So to avoid this whole shelf being boxes of potato flakes, I keep them in this airtight container. We also have a large bag (SAM's Club) of coffee that we keep here. (We have a keurig, but buying the K-Cups was breaking the bank. We bought the refillable cups and fill them ourselves every morning. Easy, and saves all kinds of cash.)

Here I keep all our spaghetti noodles (Aaron would live on Spaghetti if I'd make it every night) and macaroni. We keep our pasta sauce here, some pasta on the side packets, and I've got all our spice packets and yeast packets organized here, where they would fit. And one lone package of Ramen Noodles. I crunch mine up in the bag before I boil them, and after I crunched this bag up I decided I wanted something else, so I just laid it in the pantry to grab next time. 

 Canned veggies go here, I also have a few empty glass jars back in the back. I like frozen veggies and canned veggies both and I keep them both in the house at all times. Save-A-Lot has a huge selection of canned vegetables!

And finally on this bottom shelf is where the heavy soup cans live. I also keep our Chef Boyardee type things here. (Please excuse the mouse trap in the corner. Old house, recently bush hogged field across the road... mice. Ick.) We aren't big soup eaters, only when we are sick or in the winter, so I don't keep a whole lot of that kind of soup, but I do use cooking soups all the time, so I run through those quickly.



Not a bad job for $50 and 40 minutes of my night, I don't think. Do you? This works for us. I am always on the hunt for a more sturdy shelving unit that is the right width, because we are working with such a cramped space. But I haven't found one for the right price as of yet. I don't have to be in a huge hurry, because, I'll say it again, this works for us. I saw the need, I made it happen!

Do you have a non-pantry pantry like us? Share it with me! I'd love to see it!

Thanks for stopping by again today! I hope you, at least, got a chuckle out of this post, I know it wasn't much, but I thought sharing this - a way to create something where there is nothing on the cheap - would be a nice post to share!

I'm working hard on the kitchen evolution post so hopefully I will be able to get it posted tomorrow, but I won't make any promises.