The Walgreens Game Continued

OK, so I went over all the sales they had in Sunday’s flier and then went onto other websites and used their match ups for sales.  I put them on a spreadsheet so I could figure which ones to buy together so the total OOP (out of pocket) expense wouldn’t exceed the amount of $$ I had in register rewards.  I ended up learning a lot yesterday!

Here are the rules that I have learned so far and there are probably a lot more

1. A RR is the same as a manufacturer coupon, you cannot use both on one item.  In other words the number of RR’s you have and manufacturer coupons cannot exceed the number of items you have purchased.
2. You can use a RR and a store coupon on the same item.
3. If you buy something for $2 and only have a $6 RR, you do not get refunded the difference by cash or RR… you forfeit this “money”
4. You cannot buy many things with your RRs… tobacco, alcohol, lottery tickets, money orders, dairy products, etc. (all of this is stated on the RR itself).

So, I went in prepared to get all this stuff for free by rolling over my RR’s and this did not happen!  I was upset but I guess that was my fault for not doing the research so it was a learning experience to say the least.  I spent $21 on my first trip this weekend and got back $13.50 in RR.  Then, I spent another $28 (collectively between two transactions) and ended up with $31.50 in RR.  All in all I spent $49 OOP and ended up with $31.50 in RR, so “spent” $17.50 as I can use the RR’s to get free stuff now. 

I am going to go this weekend and use all of my RR’s towards stuff we need.  Next, I am going to try the CVS game.  From what I’ve read by trying to learn their “game” online by shopping at CVS and using their reward system with ECB’s (Easy Care Bucks) it is much more lucrative.  So, now begins the learning process for CVS!  Let’s see how it goes!

Menu for the Week

Monday
Grilled steak and chicken legs
cous cous (cooked in chicken broth)
green bean casserole

Tuesday
Burrito Casserole and all the toppings
Yellow rice

Wednesday
Crock pot chicken legs and ribs
Macaroni and cheese
Peas and carrots

Thursday
Turkey Breast
Mashed potatoes
Butter beans

Friday
London Broil
Broiled potatoes
Peas

Saturday
Out of Town

Sunday
Dinner at In-laws' house

Playing the Games

So, yesterday was my first attempt at shopping drug stores based SOLELY on advertised sales, clearance prices, coupons, register reward or ECB type of "cash" back deals, etc. I perused various websites/blogs to find the information that I needed and I excelled at this. Granted, I did this with two more children than I normally have. I watched my cousin's two girls at last moment notice but already had my plan in place of where I was going to go shopping so no choice but to load them all up and hit the stores!

So, that's what I did with four girls in tow... an eight year old, four year old, three year old and sixteen month old!! I went to CVS, Walgreen's, Target and Harris Teeter and then picked up pizza on the way home. More on the pizza and our budget later, but after four kids and four stores I was drained so no cooking and paper plates were what the evening called for.

Regardless... here's what I racked up on.

1st stop... CVS

I have the $100 coupon book and I wanted to get the two packs of angel soft toilet paper and use the $1/2 from the book and then I had two manufacturer coupons for .50/1 so that WOULD have been $2 off two packs, but for some reason they don't carry it. Why in the world they would advertise a coupon for something they don't even keep in stock I don't know.

Still I got two small boxes of wheat thins and a pack of Kotex pads (small) for $1.52 after taxes and coupons. The wheat thins were on sale for .99/box and I had a $1 coupon of each, so they were "free". Then I had the pads which were $3 and change (can't remember and can't find my receipt) and the $1.50 cpn from the coupon book and a manufacturer cpn for $1. I forgot I had $1 ECB so my total WOULD have been .52, but I forgot.

2nd stop... Walgreen's

Now, this too some time because the kids were running around, baby was cranky and it was just a "time".

This is what I bought and matched it up with...
rr = register rewards which is $$ towards future purchase
oop = out of pocket expense, actual money paid

2 x Zantac 150 8 ct, $4.99 ea
$5 printable cpn
free

2 x Children's Benadryl liquid 4 oz, $4.99 (sale)
2 x $1/1 cpn = $7.98 oop
earned $5 rr

Aussie 3 min miracle conditioner, $2.99 (sale)
earned $2 rr

2 x Campbell's cream of mushroom soup, $1.59 ea or $3.18 total
$1.40 store cpn
$1 man cpn
total .78 (.39 ea) oop

Airwick i-motion starter kit, $6.99 (sale)
$6 man coupon
.99 oop

Carefree Ultra Pantiliners (16 ct), $1.99 (sale)
$1 man cpn
.99 oop
earned $2.00 rr

Thermacare Heat Wrap (neck/wrist) 1 ct, $2.49
$1 man cpn
$1.49 oop
earned $2.49 rr

2 x Oral B Indicator tooth brush
$2.79 each
man buy one get one free cpn
$2.79 oop
earned $2 rr

*Note... the $1.49 rr that was advertised, I'm not sure "where" it is. After looking at all the rr that I was to earn I do not see the $1.49 one but I am left with a $2.50 one that I cannot match to what I bought. So, I ended up with more rr's than what I was supposed to. NO argument here!!

Total oop with tax and all = $21.13
Total savings = $35.59
rr earned = $13.50

Now, I have $13.50 in rr's to use towards other purchases. I will look at this week's and match with coupons and sales and use my rr's to roll over to other things that earn rr's. I guess this is how people end up with "free" stuff. I spent $21.13 to start with and now I will end up with more free stuff from this initial expense. Now, that's not a bad idea!

3rd stop... Target

Now, Target is not somewhere that I normally shop for stuff, but after seeing some of the match ups I figured I might as well try. Here is what I ended up with!

Up wipes (Up is Target brand)
$1.89 normal price
$1.00 Up Target coupon (I got this coupon book from my stepmother and not sure how she got it but will be researching this one)
.89 oop

2 x Kelogg's Pop Tarts (brown sugar and cinnamon)
$1.46 ea sale
2 x $1.00 Target coupon
2 x .55 man cpn
Free plus .14 overage

2 x Lipton to go Green Tea and honey (3 pk in check out aisle)
.99 ea
$2/2 man cpn
Free plus .02 overage

2 x Eggo Pancakes (frozen)
2/$4 sale
2 x $1 Target cpn
2 x $1/1 cpn
$1 ea after all cpns and sales

10 x MP string cheese
.40 ea ($4.00)
5 x $1/2 Target cpn
Free plus $1 overage after cpn

2 x Quattro women disposable razors
$6.49 ea
2 x $1 Target cpn
2 x $3 man cpn
$2.49 each

4 x Johnson Bath Buddies soaps
.97 each
4 x $1 man cpn
Free plus .12 overage

Original total before all sales, cpns, etc. = $34.40
Total oop = $7.80
Saved = $26.60

I definitely liked that!!! I love saving money and evidently yesterday I saved quite a bit. I am going to peruse through Walgreen's this week and see what I can't get for free. One change though, I am going to do it one day on lunch instead of trying to take the kids. That was just a chore. I would have like to peruse the clearance stuff to see what else I could have gotten, but I didn't.

4th store... Harris Teeter

The only reason I went to Harris Teeter was to buy some sausage for breakfast this morning and to get some spaghetti sauce because my eldest child does not like pizza and wanted noodles instead. I should have just cooked pasta for everyone, but I did not have it in me.

I spent all morning cleaning the house. While the baby napped I sat down and mapped out my plan of attack on the stores, what I was going to get, went ahead and pulled out all the coupons that matched so I wouldn't have to fumble through my coupon book (which is huge by the way). While I was doing that my cousin called and asked me to keep her girls for the night, no problem... bring them over! I ran up and took a shower and got dressed and such for the day. They got here, the baby woke up, I loaded everyone up and away we went. I didn't start the shopping until 4:00 p.m. and was home with pizza and all by 6:30. Not bad time wise, but I will NEVER get take out pizza again.

Don't get me wrong... we love pizza, but we have started making our own instead of buying it. My stomach has been killing me all morning from eating this take out splurge. Hubs and I discussed and our allowance and such is going to start on Monday.

I have yet to go grocery shopping for our "real" stuff this weekend and still need to do that. Not sure I want to do that with four children in tow, so will wait until my cousin gets here for her children. My mother in law volunteered to watch my girls so I can get this done by myself and much quicker. I have a $40 budget I still have to keep to and would like to keep it lower than that. I have made my menu for the week and we don't have to buy anything for that but we still need a few staples.

I also looked through the freezer while doing my menu for the week and we are getting low on meat. I need to look through and see who has sales on different meats. We are in desperate need of some chicken because we don't eat that much red meat except for the occasional steak and such.

CVS $100 coupon book

I have looked and looked at multiple CVS stores this week trying to find this $100 coupon book at CVS. I knew it existed because all these blogs online said things about them and the deals they held but when I went to stores they had no clue what i was talking about and pretty much just looked at me like I was crazy. Come to find out the stores told me I had to get the flu shot in order to get the book. I told them that's not what it said online and I wanted a book. A nice manager found a whole box of books and gave me two. One of which I gave to a friend. I had also emailed CVS and they are mailing me one too! How awesome is that.

If you have this book go today and use the Kleenex one and get some free tissues! You can even get the ones with lotion. You can also check out the travel size stuff and get the travel colgate toothbrush. They are .99 and you get $1 ECB back, so pretty much free!

I am going to be attempting the CVS game this afternoon so wish me luck! I might be stopping by Food Lion for some more .10 macaroni and cheese. Hubs thinks I'm crazy because we have 19 boxes already. We did have 20 but we already used one box. Might as well buy another ten because they are normally .89 box, so if you buy 30 at normal price it would be $26.70 and at this price it is $3, so a savings of $23.70. Definitely worth it!!!

Boooo Kmart!

Per the manager at Kmart yesterday they normally get a few week's notice when they are going to do super double coupons and so far... nothing! No super doubles in our area this week, so I will be doing my "normal" shopping this week and not waiting for Sunday to do super shopping at Kmart. So sad!

Gung Ho for Budget!!

So hubs has realized that we are nickel and diming ourselves to death!  We are killing our money slowly but surely.  We don’t spend more than we make and we don’t live paycheck to paycheck, but we’re not saving either and that is the ultimate goal.  We need to have a few months worth of money in the bank to cover us in case something happens!

 

Now, I am going to go to the bank each Friday and pull out our money for the week as follows…

$20 – Hubs allowance

$20 – Wife allowance

$40 – groceries

$10 – toiletries

$65 – Christmas fund

$10 – entertainment

Total $165.00/weekly

 

OK, so the Christmas one will eventually go down in December because the last one will be taken out Dec. 11.  This fund will start over again in January, but will be much smaller because we will be starting much earlier next year.  My girlfriend that does this all year is already done with all of her Christmas shopping!  Could you imagine being done with your shopping in September!  That is my goal.  They rack up on presents after Father’s/Mother’s day and stuff like that throughout the year when things go on clearance and end up spending much less than they budgeted.  With the money that’s left over they go out!

 

Entertainment “fund” is a small weekly amount because we will just have to keep accruing each week until we get the funds to do something, but if we save up some of our allowance than we could possibly do something each week or do something really nice at one time.  We have some gift certificates for the movies and coupons from the entertainment book.  Not to mention the specials you can find online. 

 

Groceries is my normal one and I’m going to try and spend less than $40 each week.  I am only going to buy what we “have” to have and what I can get for free, next to free or meat that is marked down or on sale for future week’s menu.  I am going to include all paper products in that too.  That’s going to be hard, but we HAVE to do this.  I’m going to ATTEMPT to include dog food but we shall see how that goes. 

 

I had to add $10 for toiletries so I can learn to play the drug store games.  I am going to learn how to play the CVS game and get ECB’s so I can keep rolling those over to new deals and eventually get all of our toiletries for free.  Some people have been doing this and keep doing it and it’s been years since they’ve actually used any of their own money towards toiletries.  If they can do it, so can I!

 

I have coupons to get $25 gift certificates to K-mart for transferring or filling a new prescription.  I have two I can do now, that will cost me $10 each to fill, but I get $50 gift certificates.  That’s $30 for free!  I can use that for more groceries at our local Super Kmart, dog food or paper products.  Or I can go ahead and start looking for stuff for our oldest’s birthday party coming up at the end of the year. 

 

I will learn how to live within this new budget.  I have to.  I guess it’s all about planning ahead and learning how to get stuff for free and work the deals at various stores.  It is going to take me more time than I’ve been dedicating to staying within my grocery budget.  We should be saving so much more money than what we are.  And hopefully one day soon we will see the results of us living frugally on this budget. 

 

So… here’s to living on a budget and living frugally.  Hopefully by the end of the year we will see a difference!

Long time since last post

It has been a while since my last post.  Things in life have been crazy.  Hubs is now on day shift for a bit and it’s been wonderful having him home in the evenings, but it’s been an adjustment period.  I’m not used to having someone else there to help me with stuff every night.  Plus, he’s been home during the day and awake since he’s not working at night!  He’s been helping more around the house than he normally has the time to.  It’s been wonderful.

Harris Teeter had triple coupons this past week and I racked up.  Since I had my $40 weekly allowance for groceries and I had some surplus in the toiletry fund I moved that money over to my grocery money so we could really rack up.  AND OH YES I DID!  I spent all in all about $70-$80 and saved a bit more than I spent, so it was definitely $$ well Spent!

Last night hubs and I were talking and I was perusing the Food Lion weekly special and saw that they had the FL brand of macaroni and cheese on sale for .10 box, so guess where I went today during lunch… Food Lion (imagine that).  I got ten boxes of macaroni and cheese for less than $1.  I didn’t realize until I was at the gas station that she only rang up nine boxes, so I paid .92 for ten boxes.  Then, I headed to CVS where they have the small boxes of wheat thins on sale for $1 and there is $1 coupon floating around online.  I bought two boxes for .04!  I will post the link once I find it again. 

Great deals are to be had everywhere… you just have to find them.  Next week I am going to start learning the drug store games.  It seems to me once you spend a little money then you pretty much get everything for free.  I guess we will see how I do.  I will let you know!

Supposedly Kmart is bringing back super double coupons (double up to and including $2.00 coupons) and they are supposedly starting this Sunday so keep a look out in your flyer on Sunday!  If so, you will find me there with kids in tow!

Have a great day!

Setting up for Triples

Since the cashier at Harris Teeter was kind enough to inform me that triple coupons start this week (Wednesday) then there are a few things that I am going to do to prepare...

1. I am going to get three news papers this week. Why? Because Harris Teeter (HT) will permit up to three identical coupons. You have to buy three of whatever the item is, but if you can get it for free or next to nothing, it's worth the extra cost of the additional papers.

2. I am going to peruse all the internet coupons I can find that are under .99. HT will only multiply coupons with a face value of .99 or less.

3. I am going to make sure that all of my coupons are in order, expired ones removed, etc.

4. I am going to use two weeks worth of grocery budget in order to stock up on items during this week of triple coupons, BUT if I get awesome deals then I may just stick to my $40. They've also been running triples more frequently so we will see.

5. I am going to go to different HT stores this week and see what is on sale that they are out of stock on and ask for rain checks. See other post about rain checks here.

6. I am going to make sure I have a babysitter Wednesday night. Oh wait... I already have one... hubs is off! He can take care of the girls while I peruse the aisles of HT after work. Also, I will probably go on Saturday as well. If I use my two weeks worth of grocery money, so be it. We have plenty to live off of.

7. See if anyone has any diaper or wipes coupons! Huggies seems to always go on sale when they have triple coupons.

Baking Day

Since I bought nine extremely ripe bananas this week at HT it is time to bake!

I love banana bread and it's so easy (and cheap) to grab and take to work for breakfast or a snack.

Here is what I'm guesstimating the cost of all this... (and this is an extreme guesstimation!)

.50 - 9 bananas
1.50 - 7 cups flour
1.00 - 4 cups sugar
.70 - 7 eggs
.62 - 3 sticks butter
$4.32 Total

For barely more than four bucks I made one loaf, 3 dozen muffins, 12 dozen mini muffins!

I know that's probably more baking than what most like to do but I can spend that teensy bit of money it cost to make all that at a fast food restaurant for breakfast one time! I'm thinking the savings of that time and cost is huge. Not only the time it saves me in the morning because breakfast is grab n go, but I don't have to take the time and go by a fast food place (which is also better for my waist), what I don't eat I can freeze and eat later, what I made replaces a month's worth of weekday breakfasts easily so the cost saved is insurmountable.

I'm very proud of myself. Now, if I can just learn how to make other things out of seriously ripe bananas!

Rain Check Please

I am just now learning the power of rain checks at Harris Teeter (HT)

They are wonderful little promises on pieces of paper when they run out of stock on any item in the store. This normally happens when something is on sale and the other couponers out there have already snagged them all up. I have only ever requested these twice and extremely recently.

I am just now learning the great things about rain checks...

They do NOT expire! How awesome is that. I could save them for 20 years and get awesome prices on everything then. ha ha ha ha

I think the best part is that you can stock up on these rainchecks and redeem them whenever you see fit... like during triple coupon week! I am going to cash one I got for trash bags during triple coupon week because I have .75 coupons for them. They were buy one get one free normally $8.47 (I think), so that would be about $4.20 on one and then $2.25 off, so total for one pack would be $1.95. A $6.52 savings from the normal price! Now THAT I love.

Per HT's coupon policy, they only accept one coupon for BOGO items, so remember to only buy one of the item because it will ring at half price and redeem a coupon. That will ensure you save the most money. So you may have to go back and do another transaction, but oh well. It's worth it in the end for the money you save (especially if you are like me and write done which items are BOGO so you have an exact list to go back and get).

On a raincheck they will give you a maximum of six in quantity for whatever the item may be. If you get a helpful customer service desk representative ask them to break them into three rain checks of two each instead of one for six. Reason being because they will only take a maximum of two like INTERNET coupons per item. They will take three for the regular manufacturer ones, but only two for internet coupons. So, just to keep yourself covered ask if they will split them up. Couldn't hurt. I've had some that would and others that wouldn't.

I am literally going back to multiple HT stores this week to get more rainchecks for items. They have the small packages of Pampers on sale for $6.99 and there are $2 coupons out there for these, so I got a pack of diapers for $5.00. That is a great price. They only had one package of the size that I needed so I got a raincheck. I am goin to go back and get some more for that because you couldn't use $5 diapers?

I plan on using these rainchecks during triple coupons so I can really rack up! I still have a rain check for buy two get three free on the pizza rolls. They are $2.19/box so total of $4.38 and I have a .40 cpn off these, so if I use two coupons that would be $2.20 off the five boxes, total of $2.18 for five boxes, savings of $8.77! I am just going to have to get smarter about doing my shopping. Normally if I see something is out I never asked for a rain check, but after seeing how much I can save I say...

RAIN CHECK PLEASE!

Christmas Done!

Christmas is done... or at least most of it.

Restaurants.com has an AWESOME deal available today. It was only supposed to be available yesterday, BUT it is still working today. Here’s the gist of it…

Normally on this site $25 gift certificates to various restaurants are $10.

If you enter the promo code “ZOO” at checkout it takes off 90%

So, a $25 gift certificate is $1!!

I just bought 24 gift certificates worth $25 each ($600 worth) for $24!!!!

Isn’t that the BEST deal you have ever seen??

I bought four GC’s for each restaurant, so six restaurants. We will give four couples for Christmas six different $25 GC’s for various restaurants. That means they think we have spent $150 on them when in reality we only spent $6. We had budgeted for (example) his sister and her husband $50 each, $100 and we are going to give them $150 worth of GC’s that we spent $6 on. We just saved $94 on four couples, so total saved = $376 off our Christmas budget!

I love deals like this. Check it out!

HT $5.00 off Coupon

For a few months I have been getting these GREAT coupons from HT in the mail. There are four coupons each month and each coupon is only good for a specific week, but they are for $5.00 off a $40.00 purchase. And considering that I am going for a $40/week grocery budget this is GREAT. I don't have to worry about adding tax in because after I give them my $5.00 coupon and then all my other ones it's normally under $40.

I'm not sure why I started getting these coupons, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with my signing up for their eVIC program online.

$40 Grocery Goal

I went grocery shopping today versus this weekend since I had the day off and hubs could watch the kids so I could take my time and do things right.

I ended up paying $44 and saved $61 so all in all a great day!

I will post later all that I got but I do remember having

3 boxes of cereal
4 boxes of instant oatmeal
9 bananas
5 boxes of pizza rolls (cashed in a rain check)
6 cans of vegetables
2 packages of angus beef ribs
2 frozen healthy choice meals (for .50 each! more on this later)
package of diapers
deodorant
excederin back and body
and MORE!

I really did keep to my $40 goal even though I spent more. I decided to do $40 in groceries per week and $10 for toiletries each week. Since I am new to working with such a low budget for groceries I will eventually get my toiletries in there, but that may take a bit of time so I'm giving myself a bit of leeway in the meantime.

If I didn't buy the deodorant and excedrin I would have been well within my $40 goal for the week, but I chose to include them so I could use the $5 off $40 purchase at Harris Teeter.

FYI... while I was checking out the cashier was kind enough to inform me that triple coupons start next week so get three newspapers this week so you can rack up! They will take three of the same manufacturers coupons at a time. Of course you have to buy three of the item but if it's a great deal the more the better (especially if free).

Monday? Er.... Tuesday!

So Labor Day has messed up my days! It's always lovely to have a paid day off work, but when we go back on Tuesday it just messes me up. I keep thinking it's Monday and I look at the calendar and put the wrong date on everything! Oh well, par for the course I guess.

Who doesn't like a long weekend and short week? If only every week/end was like that? I would love to have four day work weeks and three day weekends. Only seems fair to me! Evidently the US is the WORST for overworking. I don't see how as it seems like there are a lot of lazy people in this world, but that's for another time.

Today was a great day. I only had to work until 12:00, but that was because I had a doctor's appointment to get something done. Now, I don't go back until Thursday. That's nice, but not the reason I want to have more paid time off work. Oh well, some things just have to be done, right?

I will attempt to work from home tomorrow afternoon once I'm feeling up to it. The boss doesn't seem to keen on this idea, but the less sick time I have to use the better. Plus, we have a bunch of stuff he wants done by Thursday so I will do my best to get it done.

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe long weekend. We had a great time. A cookout Saturday and then to my parent's house on Sunday. We had a great visit with them. We got home OK and then went to dinner at the in law's house. A GREAT long weekend, especially since hubs was home to enjoy it with us.

Recipes for Split Chicken Breasts

From a previous post I said that casseroles are definitely the best way to make meat stretch. I have found this particularly useful when dealing with split chicken breats. It always goes on sale for .99/lb but recently I found it on sale at Harris Teeter for .88/lb so here are some great recipes that you can make with split chicken breasts.

For all of these recipes I boil the chicken first and then debone and "shred" it or just tear apart.

BURRITO CASSEROLE

Ingredients... 3 split chicken breasts cooked and shredded, soft flour tortillas (I make my own versus buying them because much cheaper), taco seasoning, enchilada sauce, two cups shredded cheese, and optional - can of rotel.

Preheat oven to 350. Take the chicken and cook in a skillet with the taco seasoning and as much water as the directions on the packet tell you and cook as directed. Add Rotel if you are using this. Take a casserole dish and spray with non-stick spray. Put a thin layer of enchilada sauce on the bottom to keep tortillas from sticking. Put a single layer of tortillas, add half the chicken, top with 1/3 of the cheese, another layer of tortillas, top with enchilada sauce, the other half the chicken, another 1/3 of the cheese, another layer of tortillas and top with enchilada sauce. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take foil off and top with remaining cheese. Bake uncovered until all melted. Cut and serve. Each person can top with whatever lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, salsa, etc. as they'd like.

BUFFALO CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

Ingredients - 3 split chicken breasts cooked and shredded, soft flour tortillas, 1 cup hot sauce (frank's red hot sauce since I get this free with coupons and when on sale all the time), 1 packet of Italian dressing mix, 1 stick butter, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 2 cups shredded cheese.

Preheat oven to 350. In a small sauce pan combine the hot sauce, butter and italian dressing mix. Heat through until butter melted and then pour over chicken in a mixing bowl. Spray a casserole pan with non-stick spray. Take a flour tortilla and put a small layer of cream of chicken soup down the center, add some "hot chicken" mix, top with shredded cheese, roll and put in pan seam side down. Repeat this until all the chicken mixture is used. Then put cream of chicken across the top of each enchilada. Cover with foil and bake for 30-45 minutes until heated through and cheese melted. Then take foil off and top with remaining cheese (if you ran out of cheese, no big deal). Serve with whatever toppings you'd like and ranch dressing for dipping.

CHICKEN CASSEROLE

Ingredients - 3 split chicken breasts cooked and shredded, 1 cup of chicken broth or use 1 cup of the broth that was made when you boiled the chicken breasts, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, bag of stuffing (any will do), 1 stick butter and one bag of any frozen veggies.

Preheat oven to 350. Spray casserole pan with non-stick spray. Put the chicken on the bottom of the pan, making sure it's spread evenly. Then, spread the veggies evenly on top of the chicken. Mix the cream of mushroom with the chicken broth. Spoon this over the contents of the casserole dish. Next, melt the butter in a large bowl in the microwave. Mix this with about four cups of the stuffing mix. Top the casserole with the stuffing. Cover with foil and bake 30-45 minutes until heated through.

These are just a few of my favorites. I hope you enjoy!

Where's the Coupons??

Road trip to my parent's house today and we stop on the way and pick up the Sunday paper since I will have plenty of people to preoccupy the girls so I can do my couponing.

We get to my parent's house and the girls are enthralled with the toys they have there and showing them all the new things they can do and say. I get my coupon book out... go through them and take out all the expired ones. I'm inspired cause I get so much done and so quickly compared to normal Sundays. I then get the paper and section by section go through and take out the ads and am searching for the coupons... Smart Source, Red Plum, P&G... whatever they choose to put in their this particular week and I keep thumbing through... and through... and through. Uh... where are the glorious coupons that I have been so looking forward to. They're not there. None in sight. Nothing!

Now, I'm upset. I call my mother in law to see if there were any in her paper since she gets hers delivered and I picked mine up at the store. I figured maybe someone took them out of the paper I'd chosen. NOPE! She didn't have any coupons in her paper either. I'm seriously upset. Who would have ever thought I would be upset over coupons?? Not me, but I am.

So, now that I'm free of clipping and sorting coupons this week I am even more distraught because you KNOW that since there were no coupons that someone is going to have a super awesome coupon deal this week! It's inevitable. That's just how the punches roll, so now what to do?

There are many websites you can go to in order to search for coupons. Here are the deals that I've found for now.

Healthy Choice has a great coupon here where you can print two different coupons both are $2.00 off coupon of a frozen meal and the other is for the fresh mixers. Click on "Get your Coupon" and then choose the one(s) you want. You cannot hit the back button to print these twice. You actually have to go back to the home page and click to print your coupon again. You don't have to put in your email address or sign up for anything. You can, but that's up to you. These things are regularly price about $2.00 so you can get these for extremely cheap or even free. What could be better?

Coupons.com always has a slew of coupons that you will use. From cereal, toiletries, snacks, frozen stuff, and just everything! You should check it out here. For this site you can't hit the back button to reprint them twice. You have to go back through and check the coupons you want and it will print whichever you choose.

You can also check out Red Plum's website. They are one of the ones that has coupons in the paper as well. They have a lot to choose from. Make sure you choose your location and then pick and choose which coupons you want. You don't have to print all of them.

If you have a Target near you they have coupons on their website that you can pair with manufacturer coupons. This is always a great money saver because you can stack a Target coupon with a manufacturer coupon for each item. This has equaled out to a lot of free and/or cheap stuff for me!

Just looking at the coupons on the Target website and the deals that I saw on coupons.com...

Hamburger Helper
.50/2 cpns from Target
.75/3 cpn manufacturer
$1.25 off three boxes.

Cheerios
$1/2 Target cpn
.75/1 manufacturer cpn (use two of these)
$2.50 off two boxes

I'm sure there are more but these are the ones that caught my eye.

There are tons of options when it comes to missing coupons. Luckily if someone does end up with triple coupons this week then I will just have to go this weekend once I get the Sunday paper. I just hate going then because they are out of stock of everything by then.

Menu for the Week

My menu for this week is very simple. I have a halfway busy week but at the same time this upcoming week calls for simplicity.

Monday - Fajitas with homemade tortillas and all the toppings and yellow rice

Tuesday - Meatloaf, greenbean casserole and salad

Wednesday - Chicken fajita burgers, broiled potatoes and either a salad or beans (haven't made up my mind yet)

Thursday - BBQ chicken on the grill, cous cous and salad

Friday - country fried steak, mashed potatoes and peas

Saturday - kabobs on the grill, probably steak and chicken mix

Sunday - dinner at the in laws'

The fajitas on Monday I am making from chicken I have on hand from a few weeks ago when I bought a family pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts. The meatloaf on Tuesday I am making from the ground turkey I found today, BUT I am going to mix in the 96% ground beef I got on sale today (and a coupon!) and make two loaves and freeze one to have on hand for later. Wednesday the chicken fajita burgers are being made from the ground chicken I found on sale a few weeks ago for $2/pack and put in the freezer. The BBQ chicken is being made from the split chicken breast that was on sale last week for .88/lb. I bought three packs! Hubs also got a few packs the same week because we felt the need to grill out and bought three as well so we went over budget that week, but we're still learning the fact we have to control some of our spending. Friday the country fried steak is being made from some cube steak I found on sale a few weeks ago. The kabobs are being made from some steak we have in the freezer, but I might throw some chicken in them too. I don't know.

As you can tell I never pay full price for meat with the exception of the ground turkey at Aldi's which is always priced $2.49 pack. The meat section is one of the first places I check out in any grocery store. I try to plan my weekly menu from the meat I have on hand. Then every week when I go shopping I check out the meats and buy whatever's on sale or clearance. I promptly bring it all home, separate it if need be and then put in vacuum seal bags and stash in the freezer. This ensures I never spend the bulk of my money on our meats and we always have plenty on hand.

Next... how to save more by using less meat when you cook!

How to save on Dinner

We all eat dinner every night of every day, so this is a good place to look at where you can cut some corners! Make meals stretch, cook with less meat, replace some "normal" meals... there are so many ideas. Here are a few of mine.

Cook with less meat - Seriously... make your meat stretch out. The best way to do this is casseroles! I buy the split chicken breasts (with bones and skin) and you will be surprised how far you can make three chicken breasts go when put into a casserole! I made a burrito casserole today to feed my family of four and hubs' mom and dad along with the sides and toppings and this is the break down of how much it cost...

• package of split chicken breasts - $2.50
• homemade flour tortillas - @ .50
• taco seasoning - free (from coupon shopping)
• can of Rotel - .79
• package of shredded cheese - $.99
• Mahatma yellow rice - free (from coupon shopping)
• tomatoes - free (from our garden)
• onion - .25
• lettuce - .50
• Total cost for feeding six people - $5.53

That comes out to about .92 per person. Not to mention that I am going to have leftovers even after feeding everyone! That to me is a great cost for feeding someone an entire meal. You can't even do that from a "value menu" at any restaurant that I know of.

Casseroles are a GREAT way to make your meat go further, especially chicken because split chicken breast goes on sale all the time for .99/lb normally, but I have gotten it for less and always have my eye out. There are tons of recipes out there for chicken casseroles. I will try and put up some of my favorites.

You can also replace one meal each week with one that is meatless. You can always cook some beans in a huge pot with some onion and cornbread. This is always a great thing to do during the winter. You can make a mexican dish with refried beans instead of ground meat. That is a huge cost savings. You can even make your own refried beans out of black beans, especially if you find them on sale!

Make breakfast for dinner one night a week. This can also go along with a meatless night as well. Who doesn't like homemade waffles or pancakes with some butter and syrup? You can find sausage or bacon on sale for less than $2 a lot of times and that's your meat cost for the entire meal to feed the whole family. Put this with some eggs and some pillsbury biscuits (almost free if you coupon shop and get them on sale too) and you can have another meal for your family that costs under $5.00!

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS save your leftovers! If you are like me you can pack them for lunch which is a great way to cut costs because you don't have to buy lunch nor do you have to buy extra to make your lunch because it's always there. I always think ahead when I'm cooking. Or after a few nights when you have plenty of leftovers make your own buffet for dinner and you can either skip cooking that night or you can cook less. Either way, that saves money and time which is pricesless.

Utilize your freezer! If you have leftover meat, like BBQ chicken, london broil, etc and you don't get around to eating it freeze it! You can always use this meat for soup, stir fry, omelettes, fajitas, casseroles, pizza, etc. I have done this a lot because sometimes we just don't want to eat it, so might as well freeze and use later than throw away and waste. If you have onions, green peppers or some other veggie (not lettuce) about to go bad cut it up, put in a freezer bag and throw in the freezer. You can always take these out to make soups, sauces and things of that sort. Example... I had both onions and green peppers that were about to "expire" so I cut them all up and put in separate freezer bags and put in the freezer for future use. I took them out about two weeks ago and made spaghetti sauce with them. Sure when you cook with the frozen veggies like that they don't retain their firmness so not a great idea to use for stir fry when you want crisp veggies, but they are GREAT for soups and sauces where it's OK if they are mushy.

If you like tomatoes take the time to plant two plants outside. We planted two small plants which cost less than $10 and we have yet to even get close to running out of tomatoes this summer. That alone has saved a ton of money and keeping up with two plants has not been time consuming. Just water and weed occasionally (if you feel like it). I'm sure they have paid us back more than 20 times what we paid for the small plants. I have eaten tons of tomato sandwiches, made spaghetti sauce (which I have extra in the freezer), made salsa which I canned and have just eaten tomatoes with everything this summer. It's been great!

There are other ways to save, but these are the ones that I try and utilize every day.

$40 Grocery Goal

Well, I ALMOST did it this week. I spent $40.06. It is completely my fault I went over budget. I did my last stop at Aldi's and forgot a grocery bag so spent .06 on a paper bag. If it wasn't for that bag (which I plan to reuse for something else) then I would have been on track.

I first stopped at Harris Teeter and this is what I got for $34.43

4 - Mathma Yellow rice (free after coupons)
8 lb bag Purina dog chow ($9.99 - $3.50 coupon)
Ken's Lemon Pepper marinade ($1.50 - $1.00 coupon)
12 pack diet coke ($2.50)
5 lb sugar $2.99 (thought I had a coupon for it but had to buy 2, oops!)
A1 steak sauce ($2.39 - $2.00 coupon)
Wacky Pasta ($1.39 - .50 cpn doubled to $1.00)
HT cream of mushroom soup ($1.19)
HT green beans ($1.57)
1 lb 96% ground beef (sale $4.84 - $1.00 cpn for buying A1)
2.36 lbs bananas ($1.39)
HT wheat bread ($1.57)
HT hamburger buns ($1.07)
Tropicana 50% less sugar OJ ($2.50 - $1.00 cpn)
Breakstone Sour Cream ($1.50)
2 1/2 dozen eggs ($2.97)
HT gallon milk ($2.99)
Butterball deef fried turkey lunch meat ($3.50 - $1.00 cpn)
Jimmy Dean sausage ($2.99)


Then, I headed over to Aldi's to pick up a few more things. For $5.63 this is what I got...

1 lb ground turkey ($2.49)
Cucumber (.49)
bag of baby carrots (.99)
3 green peppers ($1.49)
Paper bag (.06)


When I was perusing Aldi's I realized I could have saved even more had I bought some of my purchases there...

Milk was only $2.39 vs $2.99 (.60 savings)
can of cream of mushroom .59 vs $1.19 (.60 savings)
Bread $1.07 vs $1.57 (.50 savings)

Just those three things would have saved $1.70 and if you think just about a few purchases a week I could save minimum of $2.00 then I could save $104.00/year. I think I need to think about some of these purchases before I buy some things at HT. Just the cream of mushroom and can items like that (like the greenbeans I had to have) I could have saved more.

Also, if you will notice I bought a 12 pack of diet coke. I don't normally buy junk and soda would be one of those things BUT I do buy a soda at work every day. They are .60/can, so that is $3.00 per week. For those 12 sodas I would have paid $7.20 so I saved $4.70. That to me was worth buying the 12 pack for!

Oh well, live and learn right?

Stay tuned for the week's menu!!

Menu Schmenu

We have not kept to our menu this week

Monday - pizza - this we kept to!

Tuesday - London Broil - we all ended up going out to dinner with my ex-husband.

Wednesday - stir fry, but changed to london broil but this changed to apple bee's as my mother in law took me and the girls out to eat after dance class.

Thursday - Fajitas (I think) but we ended up eating London Broil

Friday - Burrito Casserole - ended up eating out because we had to go to toy store after I got off work to get the eldest's toy for eating so well.

Saturday will now be burrito casserole since the hubs and I LOVE this dish!

Sunday will still be at the in law's house.

Now, to work up my menu before going shopping today! I like being there when they open with hopes that things are stocked from that night. Plus, hubs is home this weekend so I can go without kids. That in itself is awesome!

Here they are... My Resultions

Here are my resolutions for the year

Stick to a budget - This we haven't really done because we haven't put it down on paper. But now I'm on a grocery budget and that will save a huge chunk of our money each month if I stick to it versus what we were doing before. Plus, I have Christmas budgeted out so we don't kill ourselves trying to scramble and get it all done and be low on funds.

Start event coordinating business - I created an email, ordered business cards, posted things on Craig's List and started to create a website, but need to work more on that. I did make a divorce cake for someone. I guess I should start doing more advertising with the holidays coming up.

Take two classes at community college - Right now I haven't even signed up for one because we're not spending extra money right now. Still no classes but have talked to my boss about a new Excel class the local community college is offering that would probably teach me stuff I don't know (I love Excel).

Lose more weight - I think I'm still where I was in March. I have 15 to go! So far I've lost about 40 since last year this time.

Declutter the house and everything - I have done the kids clothes they have outgrown, gave things back to my ex for him to keep for my daughter since he is now has somewhere to keep it, gone through my clothes to donate, posted things on Craig's List and sold them so I am doing quite well on this one but still have a long ways to go!

Decorate baby's big girl room and do office (her current room) - haven't started on this one yet but hubs wants John Deere, but the pink JD stuff. We found it at a specialty store where we were looking for something. Also, I found a table on Ikea's website that I think we might order for our "office" that we have decided to make into a kind of sitting room. Since we both have laptops we don't have to get a huge desk for a desk top unit, so we have revised our plans for that room. Who knows. Most of it is still up in the air. Especially for the baby's big girl room theme.

Decorate the downstairs of the house - We have started to finish the painting of the hall way, installed a new vanity in the downstairs half bath and put up a decorative metal piece in the bathroom as well, have redecorated the mantel, and who knows what's next, but I have moved forward on this one. Now that we repainted a lot of it green I have decided I don't like it and we are going to repaint it a different color. Mainly we painted it green because of the rug in the dining room and now we have a new rug without any green.

Start on Christmas 2009 - I have started on my cookbook for presents and that's about it and I have our budget in place.

Make albums on shutterfly and order - I have uploaded most of our pics and have even made one of our wedding because they had a promo code for the books. I want to see what it's like before I order another. I have some more pics to upload, but not nearly as many as before. I think I have a promo code for a free one on Shutterfly that I got from redeeming Pamper's Points. I should get started on that right now, but I think it will have to wait until tomorrow!

That's about it on my resolutions for tonight. How are you doing?

New Years Resolutions

Did you make any New Years Resolutions for 2009?

I did.

How are you doing with yours?

I typed mine out and printed it. It's been sitting in my planner ever since. I haven't kept up with all of them and there are a few that I definitely haven't achieved. I haven't opened up that piece(s) of paper because I'm honestly a bit intimidated by all the aspirations I had for myself this year and how I've probably fell flat on most of them.

I will do it tomorrow...

maybe.

I will post them once I can find the nerve to check them out!

And she eats again...

The toddler is still eating and I couldn't be more proud. She ate dinner now nine nights in a row... off to the toy store tomorrow. I will let you know what she gets.

Common Sensical Idea

I read moneysavingmom.com all the time and I love her website. She had a link to someone else's post and how she coupon shops and all this stuff. I'm a huge coupon shopper and pinch all pennies that I can (if you haven't noticed by my $40/week grocery budget) and I ran across the most common sense idea. She said that she prints off moneysavingmom's deal & coupon match ups for stores and takes that with her so she doesn't miss anything. How common sense is that and why haven't I done that before? I always try to remember it all when it's so much easier to just hit the print button.

Wow...

Working from Home

Today I got the chance to work from home. Nobody was sick or anything, but my boss wanted me to work from home because we have a project we're working on and I can get more done when I'm not in the office for anyone to bother me. So, I worked from home. He did tell me that I needed to start as soon as I woke up, no shower allowed and to work until five or six if I had it in me.

I got home last night and set up my laptop and connected to the company server and all just to make sure I wouldn't have any issues. Luckily, it worked and no problems reared their ugly little heads!

I got up and was working full force about 6:40 this morning. It was nice. The house was clean, coffee was made, computer already set up with all my stuff I needed so I got to it. I worked steady until the girls woke up about 7:45. Then, I got them dressed and ready and took them to daycare and grandma's. That took all of 30 minutes and then I was right back to it.

It was great. I got a ton done and was pleased with what I'd done. I even managed to sneak in three loads of laundry and cooked and packed hubs dinner for him since he had to work tonight. It was GREAT! By the time I "got off work" all of the things that I would normally do when I got home was already done. It was WONDERFUL and I would love to work from home everyday.

I get myself together and go to pick up the girls and because I'd done all that I would have done after work already I decided to go to the store and see if I couldn't find a new comforter set for our bed. We are both dreadfully tired of the one we have currently, so I thought why not? The baby took a three hour nap today so she was in a great mood and the oldest should be OK for a bit.

WRONG! I got to the store and the craziness commences!! The baby does not want to be stuck in the cart thing they have (I'm at Kohl's) and the eldest is running around like a mad woman. Then, the fussing begins. Then the whining. Then the full blown fit. It was horrible. Needless to say I didn't buy anything. All I really wanted was a new purse and shoes (would have used a gift card I got for my birthday) but that didn't happen. I get the girls together and we start heading out.

Did I forget to mention that I sent hubs a text message telling him that he needs to go on day shift??? Yep, I did. I threw my own little hissy fit and told him I was ready for him to work days. He spoke with his boss about it and they are going to see if they can't work it out. Isn't that awesome? I have such a wonderful husband! Even though he likes working nights he's willing without a second thought to do whatever the family needs. That's the best feeling in the world and started to turn my night around.

Dinner goes without incident and then it's time for baths. Normally they both get in the bath tub and I wash them up and get them ready for bed, but tonight I decide that I'm going to get in the shower and then add one girl at a time and get them cleaned up. It went over very well. They both love playing in our shower. It just gets a bit crowded since we have one of the 3x3 foot shower stalls in our bathroom. I get out and let them play while I get some stuff done. It all went well. Baby eventually wanted out so I get her out and dressed in her jammies and lie her down. The three (going on thirty) year old does not want to get out, but after a little fussing she does.

I get her down and then unwind for a minute. Now, it is only 9:30 and I'm already in the bed and ready to close my eyes. I hope you had a great day like I did and that your evening was a bit more desirable than mine. Hopefully tomorrow evening goes well. Hubs is meeting me with both girls when I get off work. We are going to get the eldest her first hair cut and then shopping for a new toy. She has eaten enough dinners without whining and complaining that she has filled one row so she has earned a new toy. She is super excited and is waiting for daddy to put the final sticker on her chart. I will let you know how that goes!

How to get a Toddler to eat!

We have had the hardest time getting our three year old to eat. With us she normally ate alright. It was normal to have some fussing, a few tears and eventually a lot of whining. When we went out in public or someone else's house she was even worse and wouldn't eat at all.

We have tried all methods to get her to eat... threats of going to bed immediately, no TV, time out, sit there until you eat, and just everything we could imagine within reason. Nothing worked. So, we finally try the reward system. You eat dinner, what everyone else is eating, without whining or complaint and you get a sticker on your chart. Once you fill up an entire row with stickers then you get a toy.

We started this on Aug. 26 and she has eaten EVERY night without whining and complaint. Maybe a bit of a whine when she first sees her plate, but that's it. She's been eating it all. We've even gone out to eat with the whole family and she ate... no complaint, nothing. Just like a normal person.

So far, it's working! I hope she keeps it up and we could possibly be at the toy store by Friday! I have my fingers crossed that we will be spending some money on a new toy this week. Here's to hoping!