No Green Thumbs on This Hand

Today was gardening day.  We'd torn out a bunch of bushes from the front of the house and it looked very bare without them.  We left the larger bush on the far corner (there's one on the left side too) because they were actually healthy looking.  Unfortunately, a lot of the plants at the house were withered and dead when we moved in.  I don't think the previous owners were able to keep up with the upkeep.

It was a million and a half degrees today so Shadow (and I) couldn't wait to get back inside.  She doesn't like the heat any more than I do.

I'm working on making this flower bed beautiful.  I ripped up all the weeds and till'd the dirt.  I asked my dad, aka Mr. Green Thumb and some friends what would be good to plant here that wouldn't be devoured by deer.  I got some snapdragon, zinnia and marigold seeds and had wonderful visions of a blooming garden.  As I was looking at the seed packets, I realized that I was supposed to grow a lot of them indoors in starter pots and then transfer them outside.  The heck with that, it was way too hot out and I wanted to be done.  So I sprinkled the seeds around, pushed them gently in the dirt and watered the whole area.  We'll see how this turns out, but I don't have high hopes.  I may be making another trip back to the store to pick up some ready-to-plant flowers.

We decided on a deer resistant variety of azaleas for the front of the house.  While I was messing around in my little flower garden, da boyfriend planted the azaleas under Shadow's watchful eye.  She loves to supervise by watching us from the top of the couch.

We also bought a hanging plant for right outside the window in our kitchen.  Now that its there, I can't imagine not having a plant there.  It just added that special something to the kitchen.

Isn't it beautiful?  We've got a couple other hooks outside the sliding glass door so I think we'll get another couple of plants for those.

We also got some shopping done today too -

Stop & Shop

• 4 Magnum Ice Cream Bars $3 each, used two $1.50 off 2 coupons, got $4 instant savings (WYB 4 qualifying items) and got back $2 catalina (WYB 2 Magnum) = $3 or $0.75 each
• 5 Oscar Mayer Cold Cuts $1 each, got back $4 catalina (WYB 5, last day for this) = $1 or $0.20 each
• 3 $25 Shell Gift Cards and $25 S&S gift card, got back $10 catalina for buying $50 of qualifying gift cards (Shell not the S&S) = $10 profit
• Used $7 catalina, total was $103

I have a $25 Amstel rebate off $100 of groceries (AMLNA004, valid until 9/30).  I figured I'd buy the extra $50 in gift cards to push my total over $100, submit for the rebate and see what happens. I'm going to make a copy of the receipt, black out the gift cards with a sharpie and send it in.  I would have bought four Shell cards but couldn't find a fourth one so I picked up the S&S card instead.

We also swung by Price Chopper and got a second set of the items I got yesterday (minus the cake mix).  Found a savings pack of the beef for $8.19, so after the $3 coupon and $5 rebate, it only cost $0.19.  Love that!