Top 10 Tuesday

With Dominic's crazy work schedule I have more time on my hands than normal.

This has resulted in a number the things ... The first few months of this schedule were marked by depression and lots of movies (thank you Netflix). I am now morphing into the second phase which shall consist of "what are our other options?" and "I'm going to blog to pass the time".

Welcome to the latter, "I'm going to blog to pass the time" has birthed "TOP 10 TUESDAY"! So, for the kick-off we have ...

Gretchen's Top 10 Freebies and Dealios

As many of you know, Dominic and I are following Dave Ramsey's financial philosophy ... this has resulted in the shopper of the family (me) scaling back to the bare necessities and occasional (rather than often) splurges. Hence, freebies ... whether activities or deals ... have become quite important!

1. The Krazy Coupon Lady - Many amazing deals to be had, keep you eye out! You can even sort by store. Although dangerous, I frequent the Target deals section :)

2. Creative cooking- With the 2010 Recipe Challenge I am constantly hunting for the perfect recipe for the coming week

3. Crafting - Let's face it I have quite the stockpile and feel compelled to get my bum in gear and make something. If the craft corner is lucky, I might visit in the next week ...

4. Photo archiving - I've pre-planned some vacation time for a daring adventure this summer. My parents have a storage unit overflowing with memories from an almost 27 year marriage and 3 children ... in total that is 87 years of memories not including anything pre-1983. The first week of July will be the end of storage moving ... my mom and I are going to clean out the whole thing (God-willing) and have a huge garage sale over the 4th of July. Where does photo archiving come in? Well, as of now I have organized all of the pictures I have, but after the Great Storage Cleanse of 2010 I plan to either download or scan all of my mom's pictures too. This will most likely take me until 2020 minimum, but it never hurts to start the process :)

5. Browsing - I've done a really good job of store browsing lately. Just this weekend I came home to tell Dominic, "You would never believe all the things at the mall that I thought I needed, but decided not to get ... trust, you would be proud!" Yes, this was followed by an eye roll from Dominic.

6. Apple One to One - With the purchase of Maude (the name so proudly bestowed upon my Mac) I got the Apple One to One lessons to morph my PC mind. I haven't taken one of the classes yet, but plan to register soon!

7. Netflix - This is our favorite thing to do together. Shortly after we got married we decided to stop buying DVDs since realistically we rarely watch the same movies twice. Instead, we opted to subscribe to Netflix. I think we have saved alot over the years and we've enjoyed many TV season/movie date nights!

8. $2 Tuesday @ Dutch Bros. - Dutch Bros. is an amazing coffee shop in the Northwest (most North is Olympia, most South is Salem). Since eggnog lattes have retired for the season I have cut back coffee intake to Tuesdays with this screamin' deal ... any size, any drink , just $2!

9. Small group - Dominic and I have recently made the official church transfer. We tried out the small group (we found a church that has one specifically for folks who are married, no kids ... yeah!) last week and are very excited to get more involved! On a weekly basis there are friendly faces, great conversation and potluck dinner ... ultimate freebie!

10. Treadmill-o-rama - this is such a lie, I haven't been on the treadmill since October when I faked another commitment to become a runner. But still, since the treadmill was free (borrowed from my mom) and I can use it anytime it definitely counts as a freebie activity. Now, just to drum up the motivation ...