"Christmas in July"

by Brave Combo

The president was passing laws,
Gave a call to Santa Claus,
He said, "Get that toy machine on high,
Economy is in a slump, 
I know what could pick it up,
This year let's have Christmas in July."

Well here in the Morgan household we had a sort of Christmas in July (except it was actually April).   If you happen to know Mike, you know he is a major stickler on money.  Frugal, stingy, thrifty, tightwad, penny-wise, cheapskate, call him what you may, but my husband knows how to save!  I'll admit, at times it drives me insane, but sometimes I think it's great.  It really is a good quality although sometimes I hate it.  Not only does Mike SAVE, he likes to clip coupons and he LOVES rebates.  It was funny, the other day I was at Mandy's house (Mike's ex wife) and we were discussing Mike's love for rebates.  I don't remember exactly how we got on the subject but she was talking about how Mike always had random boxes hidden here and there full of toothpaste or markers or crayons.  It's true, and he still does.  Mandy said she always hated it because she felt like she was going to be stuck using Colgate for the rest of her life because he had such a large stash of it and she hates Colgate!  :)  Also she thought it was weird that he had all these "school supplies" when they didn't even have kids.  Well I actually LOVE those quirks of Mike's.  There are always things you need around when you need them and he buys them with rebates so half the time they're FREE!  :)  And those are things you need.  It's always convenient to have markers, colored pencils, etc. around when you need them, especially when you DO have kids!  :)  

At any rate, I am sortof getting off the subject here.  So not only does Mike save money and clip coupons and love rebates, but he SAVES gift cards...  Yeah, you heard me, he doesn't SPEND them, he SAVES THEM.  One night I was looking for something in the house and stumbled upon some of Mike's gift card stash.  I kid you not, I found over $500 worth of Home Depot gift cards!  When I asked him about it he said he was saving them for something big.  He had been to Home Depot in the last few months, bought little things, paint, tools, etc. but he didn't want to spend his gift cards because those were being saved for something special.  :)  


Anyway, not only does he save gift cards, his company gives him points for good work that he can spend on things on a special website.  They're called Aragato Points.  They're usually worth about a dollar a point but sometimes you can find great deals on the site and get a lot more than a dollar's worth from each point.  Mike's company recently decided that they are going to switch companies with which they manage their points so everyone has to "use them or lose them" before July.  Well, over the past few years Mike had saved up a little over 1000 points.  So...we went hog wild!  :)  We got lots of great stuff and it was a lot of fun to hear the door bell ring each day with more packages!  Here's just a glimpse of some of the stuff we got.  (These aren't the big things, just the little stuff.)  We got a baby bathtub, a microwave plate cover, a leg pillow, a food scale, a massager, a kids microscope, a "star theater" planetarium guided tour, 2 family games, a cute Puma hat, a super nice designer briefcase for mike, a really really cute designer diaper bag, etc.  (Dog not included--he just wanted to be in the picture.)  Not pictured:  Stand up freezer, highchair, children's Huffy bicycle, pack 'n' play, 6 man tent, sleeping bag, Wii remote, Wii game, Photoshop Elements...that's all I can remember.  MOSTLY it was stuff we needed, but we did spend a little on fun stuff and birthdays too.  :)

Here are some other Miscellaneous pictures from April.
I just HAD to include this picture of these ADORABLE cupcakes my friend Tiffany made for us for Easter.  They were yummy and sooo cute!  Thanks Tiff!

Have any of you ever heard of Bountiful Baskets?  Well it's this awesome food co-op where you can get amazing fruits and vegetables for an awesome price!  It's like $15 - $20 for a whole laundry basket full of fresh produce.  They give you different stuff each week and you don't have to participate every week.  You have to sign up in advance and pay in advance then on that Saturday that you signed up for you just go in the morning (at the assigned time) and pick up your produce.  They have these co-ops all over the place so look for one near you.  It was really fun to get all our produce and make great meals throughout the week.  Look how yummy all this food looks!

We got 5+ oranges, 5+ apples, a pineapple, a box of strawberries, a box of black berries, a yellow onion, 5+ bananas, 5+ ears of corn, 2 big things of romaine lettuce, 2 giant bunches of broccoli, 5+ ripe tomatoes, 5+ sweet potatoes, etc.  I don't remember the exact price and exactly how much we got of everything but it was a SWEET DEAL and one of our neighbors did it a while ago and said when he looked it up it would've cost about $50 to get it all at the grocery store!  So, check it out!  We've only done that once but I've wanted to do it again ever since but we've been super busy every Saturday so haven't been able to yet.