Hump Day Headlines: Thanksgiving Day Prep

November 25, 2015

I’ve noticed that many of our frugal blogger friends have taken the second half of this week off to spend time with their family and friends.  Here at Mad Money Monster, we are still working our day jobs today (ugh) AND we still have something to say.  Although, you can maybe expect this post to be a bit shorter than most.  Maybe.  Let’s see how it goes!

Weekly Recap

I’m sure most of our readers are dying to know how we spent our last week on this glorious planet.  So, without further ado…

Last week was a rather normal week in the Mad Money house.  Although I did fall a bit ill on Thursday, causing me to stay home from work.  Not to worry, I was able to catch up on rest and some much needed Netflix viewing (Think:  Mad Men).  Friday evening involved our typical kid-focused play date.  No. Money. Spent.  WooHoo!

The weekend was a different story.  It’s no secret that I LOVE real estate.  I mean I really love real estate.  And since we didn’t commit financial suicide by purchasing a gigantic house we didn’t need, we are focusing on our energy and money on making our home a perfect place that fits our family is one of my biggest pleasures on earth!  That being said, I had an expected bug up my butt this weekend and needed to get our house ready for Thanksgiving!  This meant repainting the kitchen (duh. doesn’t everyone do that?) and getting a new TV stand (in the budget section of a furniture store, of course).

The Kitchen

Repainting the kitchen cost us 0 dollars that day!  *Applause*  We had some leftover paint from painting the hallway a few years ago, and we had all the necessary supplies stored in our not-so-neatly-organized garage.  I started painting around 9am and finished putting the face plates back on around 4 that evening.  Granted, we have a tiny kitchen because we have a tiny house (in our opinion anyway).  It’s just under 1300SF.  We would love to be as hardcore as Claudia and Garrett over at Two Cup House, but we would probably kill each other in the process.

For reasons unbeknownst to me, at one point in time I thought it would be a fantastic idea to paint my kitchen a hideous, Halloween orange.  Since I didn’t have the energy to fix my gargantuan mistake, I tried to convince myself I actually liked it…for years.  This weekend I said NO MORE!  We went from a nauseating orange to a cool, sophisticated silver.  Another frugal score for the Mad Money Monsters.  Take a peek at the difference two coats of paint, a little motivation, and a dash of frustration made this weekend.

The Stand (Eerily, also a Stephen King horror novel)

Turkey Day 3
Sophisticated TV Stand for Thanksgiving.  Duh.

It has arrived!  A few weeks ago I mentioned that we do spend money wisely on things that we value.  We advocate this for everyone.  One of the things we value is our home.  Admittedly, it wasn’t in our budget, mainly because we don’t use one.  However, we decided the purchase was a great deal and would enhance our living experience for years to come.  We were able to find a gorgeous TV stand to replace our stupid one.  Being frugal people, we found one that was on super sale in the discount section of a really nice furniture store.  We opted to NOT have the electric fireplace insert, which also saved us a bunch.  Today the TV will be mounted on the wall, but for now, you can enjoy a picture of the stand itself.  Your day is now complete.  Carry on.

Other Tidbits

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My sexy foot holding the carpet still during the big clean

Sunday was spent spending approximately $3 on dish detergent to hand scrub our kitchen area carpets.  This obviously needed to be done before the Turkey is dressed for the big day.  Mini Monster was a life saver with her innovative thought process on how to clean our carpets without dropping hundreds of dollars.  She would much prefer we save a ton on carpets and invest the difference into her 529 plan.  Genius.  Sheer genius.

We also picked up the fixings for the big day.  We waited until the busiest time of the grocery-shopping week.  Sunday morning.  Enough said.  It was a mad house, but we scored our free turkey with a friend’s rewards coupon.  🙂

Turkey Time

Finally, today is my last day of work until Monday.  I am declaring official Turkey Time to start today at 4:30pm.  Because the whole world should revolve around my work schedule.  Okay, seriously, let’s get a little mushy for a moment.  From our frugal house to yours…HAVE A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING!

P.S.  Mini Monster brought home a first grade art project that she colored.  It was a turkey with a tagline.  She wrote, “Save A Turkey, Eat Pizza!”  It made us laugh.  Here’s an equally hilarious, but slightly more adult, cartoon for your holiday weekend.  Enjoy!

save a turkey
…or Pizza 🙂

 

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Mad Money Cat NOT loving his photo opp

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12 Comments

  • Happy Thanksgiving to you, too! Thanks for the shoutout. I love Mini’s feedback about investing in her 529 plan over carpets–she is so wise. Your kitchen looks so bright and open now; I’m always amazed at the difference that a little paint makes. Enjoy your Turkey Day!

    Reply
    • Thanks! A little paint does go a long way. Enjoy the holiday weekend!

      Reply
    • Thank you! We are very happy with it 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, as well!

      Reply
    • Thank you! We had a great holiday weekend. Somehow, pizza does taste better in our newly painted kitchen 😛

      Reply
  • Happy Thanksgiving! Hooray for a free turkey! I really love the color that you picked for the kitchen. Our kitchen is circa 1969 right now with orange counters. Ugh, orange.

    Reply
    • I know. Orange. Seriously. I guess we all go a little mad sometimes. 🙂 Enjoy your holiday weekend!

      Reply
  • Happy Thanksgiving & congratulations on taming the orange paint. We loved Mad Men! We just finished the series – started watching several months ago. How far into the series are you? Don’t worry … no spoilers from me.

    Reply
    • Thank you! We’re much happier after ditching the orange. I’m only into the second season. It’s a wonderful series to watch. They capture the time period so well. It truly is beautiful. Last winter we watched Breaking Bad. I absolutely loved it. But, it took a lot of energy to get through it. There were many nights my stomach was in absolute knots. I’m opting for something a little less crazy this time. 🙂

      Reply

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