Coupon Organization

Ok, so now that you know WHERE to get your coupons, what do you do with them?

There are the popular, available everywhere sectioned, wallet style coupon organizers. I think everyone starts here...this particular one hooks onto your cart. That's a nice little bonus feature. These are good if you're just starting out and really don't have that many coupons. 

PROS:

1. It fits in your purse or you can toss it in a reusable shopping bag before you go into the store
2. It has dividers to help you sort
3. It attaches to the cart so you don't have to keep picking it up to find what you want

CONS:

1. It's small - as in it won't hold much
2. It's small - as in not very wide - you know those Bed Bath & Beyond coupons won't fit in there
3. It's small - as in only a few (12 maybe) dividers for organizing

Now we're gettin' somewhere! This is more along the lines of two recipe card boxes side by side...better concept, but still shares some of the cons. Even SMALLER as far as the size of the coupons you can stick in there (sure you can fold them, but then you have to unfold them to see what they are - that just isn't efficient).

 

This is what I carry. Well, a version of what I carry. It's a Case-It 3-ring zippered binder. It has nothing to do with coupons...it's a school supply...if you have an old Trapper Keeper laying around that will work too! Mine was purple with a unicorn and a rainbow on it...by the time it got tossed it was probably also covered with scratch n' sniff stickers.  I love the 80s!

How did I end up with a zippered binder? Well...partly because I had one laying around, partly out of wanting to stop the insanity! I had 4 of these poly check files and I just couldn't take it anymore.

I had a red one for CVS (aka coupons for things I would normally buy at the drug store). I had 2 green ones for Publix (aka 24 categories for things I buy at the grocery) and I had 1 blue one for Misc. (aka gift cards, coupons for dining out, and non-food stores a la Bed Bath & Beyond, Bath & Body Works, etc) 

So along with my 3 ring binder, I purchased two boxes of currency pages from a guy on ebay. I tried baseball card pages, but again - the pockets were just too small and frankly, it was annoying. I know lots of people use them. Didn't fit for me...

So I got one box of the 3 bill size and one box of the 4 bill size...the only difference is the number of pockets / how deep they are. Thought i'd see which one I liked better. Turns out I didn't really care...mostly. 

 

Turns out, I liked the separation aspect of my 4 (well 3) stores in the poly check file system. So I bought one of these bad boys (ok, mine is blue...because it's my favorite color...after orange. Go Gators!) for $13 at BJ's Warehouse Club. It's a zippered binder with two sets of rings - effectively 2 binders in one. 

Now the binder is always in my car. Always. That way I can take advantage of surprise finds. If I go into the grocery store it goes with me. Drug store - yep, it goes with me. BJ's on Sunday morning? Of course...it even goes with me when I travel. Coupons are good everywhere you know.

So I haul my binder (which has that carrying handle, but also has a shoulder strap) and my reusable bags to the store and put the bags and my purse in the seat of the shopping cart. Then I unzip my binder and voila! It lays open flat on top in the seat of the cart. Easy peasy to flip thru.

So how do I have it organized? Well...the 4 pocket pages are in the left hand set of rings. The 3 pocket pages are on the right. I have 1-5 pages separated by alpha tabs on each side - plus a full page protector in the B section of the right side (that's for all the Bed Bath & Beyond coupons). Everything that I get at the drug store or fall under misc. goes on the right. Grocery stuff goes on the left.

Here's my binder...and my unmade bed / photo studio backdrop when i'm lazy.

I love that it has 2 sets of rings and that it will lay flat in the cart AND there are all kinds of extra pockets on the two black panels that have velcro hook and loop tabs to keep both sides in place when it's zipped.

I used rainbow ABC dividers on the grocery side and black ones on the drug store / misc side. The only reason is because I already had them on hand. 

Here you can see that i'm in the I section on the grocery side. I is for Ice Cream. Mmmm I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! Not much starts with the letter I that I have coupons for, so I spread the coupons out by type. Tubs, bars, whatever...

See?

Here's the full page protector in the drug store / misc. side that holds the dumb huge, all expired but I keep them because BB&B doesn't care if they're expired, coupons. They're at the back of the B section. I used 3 of them today. From last year...like I said, they don't care. They will also take up to 5 of them in one transaction (one per item of course...but up to 5 - you knew that right?)

Now this is how I "use" it when i'm shopping. That little pocket with coupons sticking out - I stick ones in there that are for free stuff or ones that I want to use and are expiring soon. That way they look at me as soon as I open the binder to shop. Heeeey i'm here, use me!

See the ones in the middle... that's where I stash the ones I've pulled and will be using when I check out. They stay right there, out of the way of my flipping between sections and I don't have to hold them or keep track of them once I pull them. 

Note that I keep a Sharpie and a pen on that page too. Mr. Paisley and I are usually on Weight Watchers. As I shop, I calculate points and use the Sharpie to write the point value right on the package - why do it again when I get home? I told you I was brilliant. The pen is there to scratch things off my shopping list...there's a big pocket on the other black flap - you can see the grocery list pad in it. There's also a gazinta in case I need to do some figurin'. You know...a gazinta. 2 gazinta 4 twice...some people call it a calculator - welcome to the South - y'all come back now...

Now you can use a regular plain old 3 ring binder you have laying around the house - but don't say I didn't warn you the first time you drop it and a million little scraps of paper coupons go flying and you have to organize them again. It happens...ask me how I know. It's bad enough when you drop one that's zipped up and the rings pop open and you have to put 247 pages back in place....again, feel free to ask me how I know. 

Oh yeah, organizing...aside from the obvious ABCs...I file stuff the way I think about it. Granola bars / breakfast cereal bars, Nutri-grain type bars...they all go under B in my book...because I just think of them as "bars". You are welcome to sort them by brand, by name, hell do it by flavor if you want. That's your story... another example S - S is for sauce. BBQ, soy, salad dressing, mustard...it's a sauce in my book. Anything bread goes under B...that's bagels, sandwich bread, buns, flat outs, wraps, English muffins, canned biscuits...whatever...EXCEPT garlic bread. It goes under G. I'm weird that way. Aside from that, I don't sort them in the sections. All the bagged bread goes in one pocket, the canned (biscuits, crescent rolls, sweet rolls) go in another, butter goes in another, etc...some people will break them down into brands or put them in alpha order in each alpha section. I don't have time for that. It's not that hard to glance at each pocket and know what kind of thing is in it. If X bread is on sale, I pull out the bagged bread stash and flip thru it quick. I also glance at expiration dates while I do that...my grocery store and BJs both have trash cans at every other aisle so I cull the expired ones as I go along. I also check each pocket of coupons when I add the new ones each Sunday. It keeps them pretty current. Some people will check them all each week. Too much work in my book. Do what works for you.

In the drug store / misc. section I also keep my ECB and RR coupons from CVS and Walgreens.  The ECB go in C section (for CVS - the random other coupons from them go in the same pocket). The RR from Walgreen's go in that pocket on the black flap - because I can use them anywhere that has the Catalina machines (like Publix or Winn Dixie)...even if it says Walgreen's on it. (Remember how I said you need to Know The Policy...)

When the Wednesday paper comes out, we get our weekly grocery ads. I go thru them, mark what i'm interested in and I will go pull the coupons for those items so they're ready for my shopping trip. I paper clip them to the store ad and tuck it into the binder. 

So there you go - welcome to my coupon binder. 

Coupons 101

So we know I was in debt (ummm twice, cause i'm slow and didn't learn the first time).  So I started using coupons to save money - to put toward the debt.

Here is our first topic on coupons...The Basics.

Couponing is an art...it takes practice, it takes some skill, and there's a learning curve. First you want to collect coupons - obviously you want them for things you already buy. If you're not brand loyal, you'll have a lot more coupons to take advantage of...somethings I really don't care about the brand (frozen veggies for example), some thing I won't switch (Heinz ketchup). First and foremost, if you are new to couponing, it's going to take some time in the beginning. You'll figure out a system that works for you and after awhile it won't take long and it will certainly be worth the money you save. Why pay full price if you don't have to?

I live in Central Florida - grocery stores here do not double or triple coupons. I am envious of couponers who live in states where that is the norm.

Where do coupons come from? Lots of places!

• you can print them online
• you can get them in the Sunday newspaper (most papers have a Sunday only delivery option if you don't want to pay for a subscription all week)
• you can get them on product packages (inside cereal boxes or fruit snacks, sometime crackers and fruit or jello/pudding cups)
• you can find them in magazines (most magazines will have a few, some - like All You - have tons)
• you can find them in the store ("blinkies" - the little coupon machines stuck on the shelves or freezer case door, at the front of the store with the weekly ad copies, "hangers" - tags found on products like wine bottles, or "peelies" - on other products like sauces or cans that you can peel off)
• you can find them in your mailbox (get on mailing lists, get store reward cards, etc)
• you can buy them from coupon cutting services or on ebay

Know the policy where you shop - you might be able to find it on the store's website, you might be able to find out at the service desk, you might end up having to email / call customer service and request a copy:

• I run into store employees who don't know the coupon policy for the store
• I take the time to hunt down the policy, if I know it, the employees should know it - and I have no issue holding up the line and having the manager come over to explain the policy. Now the employee knows.
• Most stores will let you stack coupons
• Stacking means you can use a STORE coupon as well as a MANUFACTURER'S coupon on the same item. You cannot use two manufacturer's coupons on the same item...except at BJ's Warehouse Club.
• The rule at BJs is that you can use multiple manufacturer's coupons on a multi-pack item

Example 1 - a shrink wrapped case of 10 cans of soup if you have 10 $.25 off 1 can coupons, you could use all 10 because each can has a bar code - WOO HOO! If there happens to be a BJ's coupon that says you save $1.50 off a case soup, you can use that AND all 10 of the others. Super!

Example 2 - a box of cereal has 2 bags of cereal in it, you have a coupon for $1 off 2 boxes of cereal. You can't use that coupon unless you buy 2 boxes of cereal (or 4 bags) because the bags are not bar coded for individual sale. If there are 2 regular size boxes shrink wrapped together, you could use that coupon. For the record, you can get cereal cheaper on sale with coupons elsewhere - more on that later.

• Target, CVS, Publix, Walgreens, BJ's Warehouse Club - these are stores I shop at regularly and I know that the locations I go to allow stacking. Sometimes you get a random manager that wants to over rule the Corporate policy. Did I mention you need to know your store's policy?
• Some stores have a limit on the number of coupons you can use. Sometime they don't until you show up with 100 of them...after that they come up with a policy :-)
• Some stores (CVS) require you to have at least the same number of items as coupons...even though they stack. Extra care bucks count as a coupon - just so you know.

Example: I have 1 extra care buck (ECB) for $3, 1 CVS coupon for $5 off a $15 purchase, 1 CVS coupon for $2 off Aussie Shampoo, 1 manufacturer's coupon for $2 off Aussie Shampoo, a manufacturer's coupon for $1 off Crest Toothpaste. In my cart I have 1 bottle of Aussie Shampoo, 1 tube of Crest Toothpaste and 3 12 packs of Diet Coke. A total of 5 items. If you count there, I have 6 coupons. I need a "filler" to use them all. In Couponing a "filler" is something you buy that you don't really need, but you need another item to make the coupon count or the dollar amount for a $/$ purchase type coupon. Fillers are cheap. A pack of gum, a candy bar...something less than $1 if you just need it for coupon count. So I spend $.50 extra to buy the filler candy bar, but it let's me use all of my coupons.

• You can use coupons on free items.
• If it's Buy One Get One Free (BOGO) you can use a coupon on each one
• If it's a Buy This Get That (BTGT) you can use a coupon for each item.

Example: CVS ad says "Buy any Gillette razor refill, get 1 Gillette shave cream free" you can use a coupon on both the razor blades and the shave cream.

Do you know how coupons really work? A lot of times store employees (including managers) don't. Here's the deal - you have a $1.00 off coupon, you buy the product on sale for $.88. Depending on the store, they will either give you $1.00 off or they will adjust it to $.88 off (or whatever the item cost was). I'm not fond of stores that price modify coupons - they're stealing your money. Yes, you still get the product for free...that's not the point. The store will send the $1.00 coupon to the manufacturer for reimbursement. The money you save doesn't come out of their profit...they get it back from the manufacturer...plus extra for them having to process the coupon. So you saved $.88 cents, the store is going to get $1.00 back. So they just made $.12 because you used that coupon. In my opinion that same $.12 should have come off your total...and at some stores it does - it depends on the store's policy on overages. You know how you read stories or see coupon queens on TV that tell you they left the supermarket with a full cart AND got paid to do it? That's how...the store they shop at #1 doubles / triples coupons (there's usually a limit "up to $1.00" - so if you have a $1 off coupon, you'll get $2.00 off - if it's a coupon for $1.50 off, i'm not sure if they just don't double or if you get $2.50 off - like I said, we don't have stores that do that). #2 gives the customer the overage.

At my last job (tech support for a statewide retailer) we had people on staff in the accounting department who did nothing but deal with coupons. The retail locations sent them in with their bank records, etc and these ladies sorted, counted, totaled, bundled and sent them off to the manufacturers in big batches for reimbursement. Then of course kept track of what was sent off and tracked down the stuff that didn't get paid so they could hunt down the manufacturer and follow up. Yep - that job does exist...coupon counter (ok, that wasn't their official title, but it was their job).

Some stores will give you the overage up to zeroing out your total, but won't actually let you go to a negative total and then pay that out.

YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) that's pretty much a given when it comes to couponing.

Oh and  Happy Birthday to me! Yes, today is my birthday.

Tomorrow - we will visit my coupon organization system...and touch on a few others that I know of...

Let's talk about debt -

Let me start off by saying I have not kept up with the new credit card regulations – this is all from my experience back in the late 90s – early 2000s. I don’t claim to be an expert. I am not a fan a Dave Ramsey in general, but I can appreciate some of his methods. If you want expert advice – run to your local public library and borrow one (or ten) of his books. Notice that I said library – there is no need to spend money and buy his book when you can borrow it for free. Put that $15-$20 toward your debt and not in Dave’s pocket.
 

Do you owe money on anything other than your home? Do you spend more than you make? Can't seem to "catch up" with the bills? Do you have a budget? Do you know how much you make and how much you spend each month? Do you know where your money is going? Are you saving for retirement? Do you save money at all? Mr. Paisley and I used to eat a lot of spaghetti because it's cheap - been there? Ramen Noodles? Yep, we did that too. In fact, Mr. Paisley and I sat in the back yard after work and stripped copper wire that his boss would send home with him from the job site...why were we stripping wire? Because it was going for about $.30 a pound and we didn't have any money left to pay his $150 car payment. 

That right there is the color of money...that was the last load of copper we ever turned in...roughly $5,000 worth.  Now you know why people steal it...alas, since Mr. Paisley changed jobs 2 years ago, we don't get copper scrap anymore. His company recycles it and the money goes back into the company. It was good while it lasted!

My mad money saving skillz came about started to develop shortly after realizing that I had well over $10,000 A LOT in credit card debt and I was hardly out of college. Remember my previous post saying I’m brilliant, just slow? Yep…this is another of those AH HA! moments. I wasn’t making any headway on the credit card debt because I waited until just before the due date to send my check (yes check…this was a long time ago – before online banking! LOL). One day it dawned on me that I should send them money every time I got paid. Duh…brilliant! That way I couldn’t spend it on other things before that bill was due. Genius. Amazing how fast I got it paid off after that. The savings on interest alone was insane. Once that clicked, I was on a mission.

I got my credit debt paid off. Part of that involved credit card hopping and consolidating balances on my own. I have never used one of those debt consolidation places – I don’t trust them. I’ve heard too many stories…and I wanted to keep my stellar credit score…well…stellar. I would never dream of filing for bankruptcy. I bought the stuff. I did so willingly. That makes me responsible for paying for it. Even if it takes five years and costs three times as much as it did initially. There are always 0% interest credit offers out there…assuming your credit is pretty good. There is always a fee associated with doing credit card balance transfers. Usually it is a percentage with either a minimum and/or maximum that will be charged. Chances are, the transfer fee will be a fraction of what you would pay in interest over the course a few months. You have to be diligent and committed to do this and make it work. Know when the 0% rate expires. Three months before that, start looking for a new 0% offer (assuming you haven’t paid off what you have transferred). I never switched to one that was less than 12 months.  Sometimes you can find one that is 1.5% interested until the balance is paid off – this is also a great deal…no hopping involved, just make sure you stay current with your payments. I’ve yet to see any offer that didn’t have a penalty for late payment. Generally your rate will jump to something ridiculous like 24% and then you're are in worse shape than when you started.

If your amount of debt is relatively small, divide it up into $x per month to pay it off before the promotional interest rate expires. 

Example: I owe $1100. I have 12 months of 0% interest. I want that card paid off the month before my rate expires so I will send them $100 a month and in 11 months that debt is erased and I didn’t pay any interest on it.  

Not everyone can get a credit card with a 0% offer and $20,000 limit that will allow them to consolidate everything like I did – especially now. I’m sure the credit companies have done some serious tightening on their qualifications for credit applicants due to the recent economic downturn. If you can consolidate – do it – it’s just easier to have one, than five. If you can't consolidate, figure out how much you owe in minimum payments, and how much extra you can afford in addition to that amount. Add the additional to the card with the lowest balance, pay the minimum on the rest. As soon as the lowest balance is paid off DO THE HAPPY DANCE! Then add that payment to the minimum payment on the next lowest balance card - and continue paying the minimum on the rest. When the next one is paid off...DO THE HAPPY DANCE! again. Continue moving the increasing payments to the additional balances and you'll get them paid off much faster than you think!

Now stop using the credit cards unless you REALLY have control over yourself. It doesn't take long to run them back up again! (really, it doesn't, ask me how I know...you already know the answer though. Yep, I did it TWICE before I got my act together).

Do not add to your debt while you’re doing this. I found that giving Mr. Paisley and myself an allowance made bill paying much easier (as well as balancing the account). Every Sunday (or payday) go take out your allowance in cash. For us it was $100 each for the week. As long as you have cash in hand, you may not use the debit card. Gas, lunch, random ice cream purchase, birthday card – it all comes out of the allowance cash. In the Paisley Cottage – that was no questions asked money. Do what you want with it. Spend it, save it, give it away – whatever, just don’t use the debit card. Have you looked at your account online? Are there 100 debit transactions each month? Too hard to keep up with. Much easier to see that $200 was taken out plus the weekly credit card pay off amount. No surprises…you know there’s always that one place that only runs it’s debit transactions once a week so you may use your card on Monday  but the debit charge may not show in your account until a week from Tuesday. Surprise! By then you probably forgot you used it anyway. This will also keep you from over drafting your account…and getting all those associated fees. With fewer transactions you can also easily spot fraudulent activity. You KNOW you weren’t using the debit card…

I have continued with the methods I learned on my own to this day. We still use ONE credit card (Visa) for lots of things. Now with online banking it’s a breeze to keep up with. I get the benefit of the points and protection by using the card and I don’t run up debt because I pay it off each week. Yes, I said each week. I get off work an hour earlier than usual on Fridays. When I get home I check the balance on the credit card – then I log into the Paisley checking account and set up a payment for that amount. If it’s $50, I pay it. If it’s $350 I pay it. Most credit card companies (especially the MasterCard, Visa, AE, Discover) are a two day wire transfer. Some store credit cards are five days and the bank actually cuts and mails a check (and I don’t have to pay the postage or buy checks – more money saved – I do write a check every now and then, but I’ve had this current account for 10 years and I’m still using the original box of checks). I also have a store credit card that I use (it's one of the few places I shop for clothing for myself) - I set up the payment for it the same day I use it. The only reason I use it is because they always send coupons with the monthly statement...no balance change, no statement, no coupons.

With my points that I get for using the Visa credit card, I keep a stash of gift cards in the house. Both cards to use as gifts and cards for Home Depot and CVS – two places we spend a lot of money anyway. Now I’m MAKING money by using the credit card. I’m not paying interest because I continuously pay off the balance…I use it to buy stuff I would normally buy anyway (probably with coupons too) and I get points for doing so. I get at least 1 point per dollar. If I use it at specific stores (like Sears) or certain types of stores (like grocery stores or gas stations) I get 2-10 points per dollar spent. Some months there are promos and it’s even more than that or there’s a bonus of 50 or 100 points. Either way, I rarely pay for gift cards anymore. Imagine that! USING my credit card has DECREASED my gift budget! 

Of course you also need to know WHERE your money is going. HOW MUCH comes in, HOW MUCH goes out...it'd tedious - but try to keep track of ALL money earned and spent for one month. Make a spreadsheet, jot it down in a notebook, it doesn't really matter how you keep track, but every time you spend money, make a note. (Target - $112 - cereal, shoes, book, DVD, Wii Game...whatever, if it's the grocery store, you don't need to break down what you bought - it's food or cleaning supplies or diapers or whatever else you buy at the grocery) at the end of the month, juggle it all around and figure out how much you spend on food, home much on entertainment, how much on transportation (gas, oil change, insurance - whatever comes up that's related to the vehicles that month).  This can be a real eye opener and you will most likely find plenty to cut from your budget that can be contributed to the debt pay off fund. If you find that you're spending $500 a month on food for 2 people...you either need to stop going out to eat or you need to learn how to shop.

Stay tuned - Coupons 101 is coming to a blog post near you!

It's all about restraint, balance, control. This mode of thinking is why Mr. Paisley and I were able to afford to buy a vacation home.  Reward sweet reward! 

 

 

Happy Birthday Ed

Today is my BFF's birthday. He's 37...we were born 3 days apart. That said...I will be 37 come Thursday. 

To celebrate, a group of us went to Bento Cafe for dinner. He's into sushi. Mr. Paisley and I ordered the cheese wontons (way good!) for starters. I ordered vanilla boba milk tea - Tuesdays it is BOGO. Rock on. For dinner I had the bento box chicken pad thai. Very good - but a TON of food.  Mr. Paisley stepped out of his "Chinese food" box (ie the sweet n sour chicken) and had Katsu chicken. It was also really yummy. Two hours later we all walked down the block to Menchie's for ice cream - or rather frozen yogurt. This place has a wall of soft serve yogurt, a candy bar, a topping bar, and all the assorted flavored sauces (hot fudge, chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter, etc). You can taste all you want without asking. Once you build your dessert, they weigh it. It's $.44 per ounce, plus $1 if you go for the waffle bowl instead of the regular paper bowl. Interesting. I tried the cookies and cream and the cake batter. Not so much a fan. I didn't actually get my own, just the taste was plenty for me. I would go back to try the red velvet cake yogurt. I hear it's the bomb diggity - but it was empty when we got there. 

Ed got himself the new HTC Incredible for his birthday. I don't have Verizon, but that was a pretty sweet phone. AT&T needs to get the Android phones out. I had talked myself into an iPhone (simply because we don't have internet access at the cabin) but I'm torn. I think i'd rather have an Android phone, but I won't be able to play Words with Friends since they won't write the stupid App for it for Android, plus they don't have a zillion apps (yet). Decisions decisions. What I do know is that I need a new phone like last year. In fact my contract was up last June. Hurry up with releasing the Android phones AT&T.

Sorry for the boring post today - it's late and I was away from a computer for too long.

I'll come up with something better tomorrow ;-)
 

Master Suite

It's show off your cottage Monday again - Here's a peek at the Master Suite (ha ha ha) at the Paisley Cottage.

The suite was an addition that I had done prior to moving into the Cottage back in '97. It's small, but it fits with the scale of the Cottage and it's larger than either of the other bedrooms that are original. 

Keeping in mind that it's small...I don't have a fancy lens for my camera to take good photos.

This is from the doorway - the floor length bamboo curtain in the corner is the closet door. Being that the Cottage is small and has no storage, after several years it dawned on me that I should remove the regular interior door and replace it with a curtain and then make use of the wall space that was behind the door. Brilliant, but slow - that's my M.O. The furniture is espresso...it tends to photograph more black. Oh and pardon my orbs. The brown edge on the left of the photo is the side of the armoire - where Mr. Paisley keeps the majority of his clothing.  It matches my dresser.

 There you go - technically, it is a walk-in closet...if you turn sideways. After removing the regular door, Mr. Paisley mounted some scrap wood to the studs for me and I hung a canvas and mesh double pocket over-the-door shoe holder to the wall. It holds shoes (duh) in the large pockets and accessories in the smaller "double" pocket (it's actually a pocket on a pocket if that makes any sense - great use of the space since there's so LITTLE space around the Cottage). Oh and that is a re-purposed wood CD rack that is now a shoe holder. Once I ditched all the jewel cases I had to find something to do with it!

The bed is, as you can see, RIGHT in front of the door - or should I say right between two doors? The door you can see is the bathroom. The photo was taken from the other doorway. The current bedding is copper on one side and gold on the other - it photographs strange colors because it's iridescent. A better shot is coming...promise :-)

There we go...the darkest color is the true color. Again, the headboard is also espresso and not black...the bedding I ordered from ABC Distributing a long time ago. It's actually a duvet cover and shams. It was cheap maybe $40 for the set. The pillows cost more than the bedding. They came from Coldwater Creek several years ago. The copper words were on clearance for like $3.99 each from Current's website. The framed fall leaf prints were purchased unframed (but matted)  from Coldwater Creek during one of the 80% sales - back before they removed all the "good stuff" from the website prior to the kick off of the sale. They're in $5 Walmart frames.  Actually, all the framed artwork came from Coldwater Creek. Some framed, some framed after the fact. The accent wall is leftover paint from the bathroom. Toast is the name of it - Ralph Lauren paint.

I love these lamps. L.O.V.E. So shabby chic it's disgusting. Chippy cream base, peachy glass - they came with the ugliest shades on the planet - they were white drum shades with olive green and brown retro 60s flower print. Totally did NOT go with the lamps at all. Replaced with cream $12 shades from Target. Funny story about these lamps. I got them at Beall's - The Florida Store. They were 70% off. All clearance items were an additional 40% off (seriously, they practically GIVE stuff away).  were $60 each. Insane - especially with that ridiculous shade.  Anywho I love these lamps...even though they are dust magnets. I got them for $7 each - bargain (don't do the math, the whole story isn't on the blog - just take my word for it).

I picked up the baskets for the nightstand cubbies at Michael's - i'm sure they were at least 40% off (let's face it, I don't really pay full price for anything). Again since space is at a premium - I needed SMALL furniture and dual purpose at that. One drawer wasn't going to cut it. The baskets hold socks and undies mine on my side, his on his. Yes, you can see that I did not remove the basket to dust the cubbie last week. Such is life. There's my Florida dirty air dust's 15 minutes of BLOG FAME. Quick - take a screen shot. Oh and the fabulous small scale furniture...$400 for the whole set from Walmart.com. Yep - it's Southshore, assembly required. Cheap, but I like the simple lines and the small scale was a must. Goes well with my K-Mart dinette set in the kitchen (OMG - yeah the one everyone thinks came from Pottery Barn - like for real dudes and dudettes, I have good taste, I just don't like to pay for the label - gnarly I know).

Onward to the "en suite" - I think that's the current cool term for a master bathroom these days. The invisible black hole of a vanity is, once again, espresso. It was the most expensive purchase for the bathroom redo (everything was white before). It isn't anything fancy - special order Kraftmaid in a Craftsman style. Here's a lightened up photo so you can see what it looks like -

The drawer pulls are satin nickel and square. Home Depot Expo (sad that they're gone, they had super cool stuff). The sink and faucet I picked up on e-bay for $99. Pretty, but not at all functional and I hate them. Granite was from a local place about 2 miles from the house. I think it was $300 installed. The mirror came from Old Time Pottery - I think it was on sale for $19.99 or $29.99. Cheap either way...gotta love a cheap beveled glass mirror. Speaking of cheap...that light fixture. $20 at Costco - I decided I hated it after a week or so. It has a new home in my grandfather's bathroom. Here's my new, new fixture...$34 at Marshall's! Rare, but once in awhile I run across a light fixture there! This one I loved.

The metal laser cut leaf art (see a theme? yep that's me...) came from Joann ETC. 40% off of course...this photo is taken from the bathroom door. Trust me when I say this bathroom is small...and technically it's a 3/4 bath because it has a walk-in shower and no tub. 

That would be the door casing on the left (I was up against my night stand trying to take this photo a few minutes ago). The toilet is in a weird nook - backing up to my closet. Storage on the wall...gotta love it.

Here's the shower - some of the grout is wet - that's why it's darker in some places. Mr. Paisley does pretty good tile work. When I had the bathroom built in '97, it had a vinyl floor, a small white painted wood vanity with a molded single piece sink/vanity top, and plain white tile in the shower. I picked out this tile at the Braselton Tile Factory in beautiful Braselton, GA - right up the road from Mr. Paisley's parents' home. I also chose the pattern. Mr. Paisley would have just slapped it all up there square because it was less cutting. He really should know better by now...

This is over the shower door (which is clear glass). More of Mr. Paisley's famous crown molding and another bamboo curtain to cover the linen closet (it was white bi-fold doors before). Now you can open the closet without closing the bathroom door. Ahhh the good life...






Linking up to White Wednesday for my little dresser grouping of creamy chippy white goodness. It needs work, but it's white and that's what is sitting there right now.