Meal Plan Monday 3/2

Monday: Pita Pizza (I love them on the nights when its just me)
Tuesday: Dijon Mustard Chicken Fricassee (from last week's menu), roasted potatoes, corn
Wednesday: Chili, cornbread
Thursday: Tostadas, Mexican rice
Friday: biscuits, sausage, eggs, hashbrowns
Saturday: homemade pizza, cheese sticks

Be sure to check out orgjunkie for more meal plan ideas!

Pedi Visits and Lysol

If you are in need of cleaning products and your little one has a doctor visit scheduled this month, consider buying Lysol products (with coupons of course) and submitting them for this $5 rebate!

I have been doing a lot more rebates lately and I love them! I have managed to find several products to try free as well as rebates on our cat food! I love this website, which as tons of rebates listed! Look over them and see if any of them apply to products you use on a regular basis!

I was printing out my coupons this morning and decided that I really should share how wonderful my printer is. This was my birthday present last year and I have to say, I LOVE it. It is wireless, so I can print from both the laptop and desktop. It does a great job printing out our photos. The ink is relatively cheap. I have yet to find any reason to not like it. I haven't used the scanner yet, but that's next on my list. If you are in the market for a new printer, definitely consider it! Epson Artisan 700 Photo All-in-One Printer (Black) (C11CA30201)

Helpful sites and coupons

If you have clicked on the coupons.com bar over on my sidebar, but sure to do it soon. There are some awesome coupons on there, including $5 and $3 off Huggies! Most coupons that good don't stay up very long so print them while you can.

Be sure to visit www.shortcuts.com, www.cellfire.com, and www.pgesaver.com to load coupons to your Kroger card! You can also load "coupons" via the UPromise website; when you purchase those products at registerd retailer (usually CVS, Randalls, or Kroger), they will deposit the coupon amount into your UPromise account!

For those of you who like to read... I found a cool website, www.dailylit.com, that will email you daily installments of books! I know it is sometimes hard to find time to read, but this breaks down the books into smaller, more manageable sections, and it will be in your email when you find some extra time. Some of the books are free, while others do require payment. I signed Jason and I up to read the Big Read of the month, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button! Check it out and let me know if you like it!

I'm working on my meal plan, so I'll post that later.

Swag Bucks!

I am so excited about Swag Bucks! I joined back in December and use it as my search engine when I need to look up something online. This week I exchanged the Swag Bucks I had earned for four $5 gift cards to Amazon! I would totally recommend the site. All I did was add the toolbar to my browser and type my search string into it instead of Google or Yahoo. It has definitely paid off too! $20 might not seem like a lot, but as a coupon/savings person, I know a little can go a a long way!

Tuesday Freebies 2/24...more added!

Here are a few freebies for this week:

14 day supply of Nature's Made Calcium Supplements

Quaker Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond True Delights.... there are AWESOME, so go request this one before they run out!

Wal-Mart still has some good samples you can request on their website. These always come, so be sure to check the website often to see if they have any new ones!

Free small sub from Quiznos... Jason and I used ours today for lunch!

Try Touch Of Gray(tm) FREE! The first men's hair treatment that lets you comb away a little gray, but not all. Let everybody see your energy AND your experience. Great for job-hunters, too. Try it FREE! Click Here to sign up!

Monday Menu Plan

Monday: salmon, rice, steamed broccoli
Tuesday: Chicken Fricassee, mashed potatoes, mixed veggies
Wednesday: Quizno's subs (free), chips, and homemade cookies
Thursday: Potato Soup or Chili
Friday: Pita Pizza (YUM)
Saturday: Burgers, oven fries or sweet potato fries
Sunday: cooking together day (menu to be determined)

Be sure to visit OrgJunkie to get more menu plan ideas!

Coupons and Recipes

A great way to save money and get some recipe ideas is to sign up for one of the Betty Crocker or Pillsbury newsletters. They will send you recipes and coupons to give you some ideas on meals for your family. I know it makes it easier for me to plan my shopping trips to have meal ideas along with coupons for the ingredients. I'm going to put a few links here, so be sure to go sign up to get the newsletters coming! Most of them will mail you a coupon book for joining too!

Save Money on Groceries, Over 100,000 members. Join AFullCup.com. Click Here to go to the website.

A Few Special Offers!

Request a Coupon to save on Pampers!

Shop Markdowns and Clearance

One great way to find good deals is to pair up coupons with items that have been marked down or on clearance. I have found some quality products at very low prices and snagged them for almost free after using the coupons I had on hand. I bought razors for .09, face wash for free, and cleaning supplies for a third of the original cost. It does take a little time to shop for these items, but I just stop and get a coffee and then walk around the stores looking for clearance or mark down tags. I always have my coupon book with me now so if I find a tag, I can flip through my book and quickly see if I have a coupon match. It works great and I am building up my donation pile by doing this!

Another way to save is looking for specials on meat. Our Kroger has two levels of markdowns on their meat: a few days before the sale-by-date they do Manager's Specials and lower the price by a few dollars, but on the sale-by-date, they mark down even more. I usually stick with the manager's specials; the products are usually looking a little scary by the sale date and I don't like to take chances with meat. I think I get some pretty good deals; I now have a good stockpile of chicken, pork, and ground beef, so I can wait on sales to buy more!

Making New Recipes

If you are like me, you always have a few items in your 'fridge that were needed for recipes, but maybe only half the container was used. I found some of those last week and decided on a new plan... I will come up with at least one recipe a week that will use up some of those things before they go bad. Here's what I had last week: ricotta cheese and cottage cheese left over from a lasagna recipe. Now I have a new recipe that I kinda made up last week to use them up...

Pasta Bake

Ingredients:
cottage cheese
ricotta cheese
1 lb ground beef
1 jar spaghetti sauce
pasta
shredded mozzarella

Preparation:
Brown the ground beef; drain off any fat. Combine beef, sauce, and cottage cheese and let warm on the stove. While this is simmering, go ahead and cook your pasta. I used penne that I had gotten on sale that week. When pasta is almost done, drain. In a casserole dish, layer as follows : sauce, noodles, ricotta, shredded cheese, and repeat until you run out, ending with shredded cheese. I did two layers, but only had enough ricotta for one layer. It was still pretty yummy and it used up items I had on hand as well as those that were on sale last week! Can't beat that!

I challenge you go try this in the next week or so! Go through your 'fridge and see what you find. If you end up with a yummy recipe, be sure to come back and post it!!

Kroger 2/17

I got a few good deals at Kroger today. Instead of typing it out as usual, I'll do the item, cost, and my coupon amount in ( ).

1 gallon Border Milk 3.99 (.75)
Country Bobs All Purpose Sauce 3.39 (3.39)
3 Chef Boyardee Pastas .88 each (.35/3 tripled)* donate
Lean Pockets 1.59 (.40 doubled)
4 Pillsbury Grands Biscuits 1.27 each (.40/2 doubled x 2)*
---a cellfire coupon for .50 also come off for these
Country Crock 2.44 (.25 tripled)*
3 Maruch Noodles 1.00 (.35, adjusted to 1.00 x 3) FREE donate
1.25lbs 90/10 ground beef for chili 3.51
2 Multigrain CHeerios 1.67 (.75 x 2)
Cinnamon Toast Crunch 2.49 (1.00)*
Blue Bell Ice Cream gallon 3.99 (1.00)
Sure Clinical Deodorant 5.99 (2.00) has rebate to send in and get free
5lbs Russet Potatoes 1.99
Nivea Lip Balm 1.99 (1.00)
Cheerios Banana Nut 2.49 (.75)*
Blistex 1.09 (.35 tripled)
Mrs Bairds Bread 2.00 (1.00)
2 Hershey's candy bars .50 each (B1G1 .89)
10 Starkist Tuna pouches 1.00 each (B2G1 1.49 x 3)
-----------------------------------------------------
*Dayton Event Product, buy 10, get $3 off, so I got an additonal .30 off each of those items.
Total OOP: 32.21 Saved 51.18 (61%)
I only bought 9 of the tunas, so I will see if they will fix that when I go back.
I also got (2) 1.00 off my next order coupons, as well as several catalinas to use later! I will also get 5.99 back when I send in the rebate for the Sure.

I love Kroger!

One thing I have noticed is that buy 1 get one coupons give you the non-sale amount at Kroger, so even if it is on sale, you get a break. The Hershey's candy is a good example of that... they were 2/1.00, I used a B1G1 coupon, which took .89 off. The same thing happened with the tuna; they were on sale for 1.00 each, but the B2G1 coupon gave me 1.49 off.

CVS...again.

I was bored today so I got out and went looking for some deals. It makes me use my brain for something besides grieving. Here is the breakdown on this transaction:

Colgate Total Advance 2.99 (earn 2.99 ECB)
Herbal Essences Shampoo, Mousse 2.99 each (earn 2 ECB)
Sudafed PE Sinus Headache (clearance) 2.75 eacg
Clean & Clear Morning Burst Face Wash (clearance) 1.75
Rolaids 3 pks 2.19 each
----------------------------------------------------
$3 off $15 CVS coupon
1.00 Colgate MC
(2) 1.50 Sudafed PE MC
1.75 Clean & Clear MC
4.00 off 2 Rolaids MC
3.00/2 Herbal Essences MC
----------------------------------------------------
Total OOP: 1.86 Earned 2, 2.99 ECBs

Tuesday Freebies

Here are a few freebies for you guys to enjoy! I love getting mail, so free samples are great if you feel the same way...plus there are usually coupons in there too!

All You Magazine is offering a free trial issue. It is a magazine found only at Wal-Mart that has some great articles as well as coupons scattered throughout the issue. I just received my free issues and I think I am going to subscribe now!

A few other Wal-Mart samples (these ALWAYS come, so got request them!)

Viva Paper Towels: I had never used this brand before, but got a great deal on them around the holidays at CVS. I am now a loyal fan...they are BY FAR the best paper towel I have used.

Huggies Baby Wipes: Again, the best of the brands. I would recommend Huggies over every other brand out there. They are thicker and softer than the other name brand baby wipes.

Here are a few others:
Dove Hair Care

Gevalia - 3 Boxes for $3 + Free Mug + Free Shipping.Click Here for more information.

Get your FREE sample of Crystal Light, Purell, Blistex, plus many more samples from REMEDY Magazine just for joining REMEDYLife. In addition to FREE healthy samples you'll get coupons and special offers absolutely FREE. Click Here to join today!

Cheap is good…but FREE is better! Join FreeFly’s and get FREE samples of name-brand products! Click Here to join today!