Blog on Hold

We are going through some very tough and trying times right now, so I will not be updating or posting. Our son is in the hospital and very sick so my time will devoted to caring for him. Thanks to everyone who has been kind enough to follow my efforts. Hopefully things will improve soon and I will get a chance to blog again.

Friday Favorites 12/26

For this week's favorites, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite blogs!

The Bargainist lists deals and sales from all over the internet. I have managed to find some great sales and free samples by having this blog in my reader.

The Consumerist has many articles about issues customers have had with various companies and services. It is a great place to get ideas on which stores/companies have good customer service and others that do not. I know it made me feel better last year to know that I wasn't the only person having issues with our cable tv provider and gave me the courage to switch to Dish Network.

parent hacks has parenting tips from real parents! It lets you search by age, so you can read only those tips that pertain to you if you are short on time.

If you love recipe blogs that include step-by-step pictures, check out Creating Post it Notes! Just looking at all the pictures makes me hungry!

Amazon Deals 12.26

Have some gift money that you need to spend now that Christmas is over? Check out these deals on Amazon!

Rubik's Cube $4.99, regularly 12.99. I would love to have one of these! It was a favorite toy of mine during my childhood and I have fond memories of peeling off the stickers when I became very frustrated with it. :)

Monopoly Here and Now World a new twist on a classic game that uses a digital banking device and credit cards! Normally $39.99, it is on sale for $14.99. Trivial Pursuit Digital Choice is also an updated version of a classic game. The questions are all digital and you can download extra questions onto the device; normally $49.99, it is currently $14.99.

Buy 2 Wii games, get 1 free! (select titles) If your kids got a Wii for Christmas, you might want to take advantage of this deal to add to their game collection!

Cuisinart DCC-1200 12-Cup Brew Central Coffeemaker is on sale for $62.79! It is normally $150, so what a steal! I love that it has a timer on it so you can set it and have hot coffee waiting on you when you get up in the morning!

Band of Brothers [Blu-ray] is on a great sale right now for $37.49 for the 6 disk set.

Wednesday's Recipe

My favorite thing lately is a Starbucks peppermint mocha. I LOVE 'em, but at almost $4, it is getting rough on my budget. I was looking over one of my favorite blogs, A Year of Crockpotting, and found a crock pot recipe to make these at home! I am excited to try them and I sure wish I had the ingredients on hand to do it tonight. I will try it out this weekend and let you know how it goes! If you have a favorite drink/meal but get tired of spending so much money on it, search the internet for copycat recipes and try to make your own version at home and save your money for something else!

Merry Christmas!

Tuesday Freebies 12/23

Here are a few random freebies for you to enjoy.
Free sample of Astroglide. (I know, I know, but hey, it's free!) On that same note, you can also request a free condom from Trojan. I found one more along these lines... Vaginal Contraceptive Film, which is advertised as an alternative to birth control pills.

After the holidays, this sample of Metamucil Berry Burst just might come in handy!

If you are a fan of Dove products, you can get some coupons here, or request a free sample of their hair care products here. I love their bodywash and am going to try my shampoo sample today!

Get a FREE Guide to Controlling Diabetes Click Here If you have a family member affected by this disease, consider requesting this for them, or if you are suffering, get it for yourself. It is so important to get diabetes under control as soon as possible to minimize its effect on your health!

Downy is offering a coupon for their new Total Care line. You can also get $120 in coupons from P&G if you buy $50 worth of their products, so save those receipts!

Walgreens has been kind enough to offer a free sample pack of Kotex products. I just got mine in the mail this week and it some with samples and a coupon!

Meal Plan, Christmas Week

Monday: Spaghetti with homemade sauce, garlic bread

Tuesday: Hot dogs, tater tots

Wednesday: assorted appetizers: ham rollups, crockpot lil smokies, pigs in a blanket, cheeseball, small sandwiches, cheese dip/chips

Thursday: ham, turkey breast, mashed potatoes, assorted rolls, hashbrown casserole, broccoli cheese casserole, green bean bundles, homemade baked beans, deviled eggs, pumpkin bread, hello dollies

Friday: maybe out for Mexican food, if not, leftovers

Saturday: homemade pizza

Go check out many other meal plans at orgjunkie.com

CVS 12/21

I'll be back later to list out all the details, but here's what I got today for less than $4. I messed up my first transaction because they were out of one of the items in my plan and I didn't do a very good job replanning at the store. I hate when that happens, but oh well. There was another lady in there shopping and she grabbed the last 3 of the Thermacare wraps, which totally messed up my whole plan for the day! I still did okay though and have plenty of ECBs to spend for the next few weeks.

Saturday Savings Tip 12/20

Today's tip is LISTS! Before I really got serious about saving money, I would go to the store and randomly pick up things up and down all the aisles in the grocery store, never really having a plan of what to do with them. Some of that stuff has probably been thrown out because it expired or went bad, which is a big waste of time and money. Now I always plan out my menus (VERY IMPORTANT), and make a plan of what I want to get at the store. I only deviate from my plan if I find a deal that I did not know about or find some clearance items that I know we can use. I don't always have all my coupons with me, so sometimes I make a note of the unadvertised sale and come back later with my coupons in hand. I do not spend nearly as much money now and am actually using most of the items I buy. Some go into my stockpile and will be used later.

So, start making your Monday Meal Plan using items you have on hand, as well as what is on sale for the week. Make a shopping list, and stick to the list!

I even make out my Walgreens and CVS lists before I go there, just do I remember what I need and have coupons for! Tomorrow is an awesome day at CVS so I will spend time tonight planning and clipping coupons. If you haven't looked over the sale yet and made up your plan, go check out the deals at Deal Seeking Mom!

Friday Favorites 12/19

I really can't say enough about coupons.com. I have printed out so many coupons and saved so much. If you don't want to go through the trouble of buying a Sunday paper but still want to get started saving money, go check them out. The coupons change frequently, so be sure to check back often.
If you are looking for some free magazines that are related to your job, go and see what trade pub has to offer. There are magazines related to almost every type of job and they are FREE! I have ordered a few science related ones in the past and never received a bill!
Swagbucks has become my new favorite thing on the 'Net. In less than 3 weeks I have earned enough to get a $5 GC from Amazon.com. I just use it as my search engine now and earn bucks as I search! I love it! (I love free stuff!)

Amazon Deals!

Amazon has more great deals today if you are trying to finish up your holiday shopping!

The Fisher-Price Puppy Grows and Knows Your Name White is on sale for $17.99, normally $59.99!

If you have a Hannah Montana fan on your list, check out this Hannah Montana G2 Deluxe TV Game that is on sale for $9.99, normally $49.99!

If you have a budding artist on your hands, they would really love this Melissa and Doug Deluxe Standing Easel that is currently $24.99, normally $59.99. I love all the Melissa and Doug products and this seems to be a well-loved item at the store where I work. It is definitely a steal at this price, so be sure to get it before the price goes up!

There are currently 2 games on sale that would make great gifts for any Seuss fan on your list: one features Horton Hears a Who! - You to the Rescue! , the other Cat in the Hat - I Can Do That! .

For those smaller ones on your list, check out this Munchkin Mozart Magic Cube. It is on my son's wish list and has awesome reviews! It is currently $19.99, normally $29.99.

A Thrifty Christmas

Here are a few articles of how to be thrifty at Christmas time... If you aren't finished shopping and need a few ideas for those hard-to-buy for people, you may get some ideas from the articles that are inexpensive, yet nice. They also include some ideas for enjoying the season without spending money, as well as tips for after Christmas.
Thrifty Tips for Buying Christmas Gifts
A Thrifty Christmas
7 Thrifty Tips for After Christmas
Christmas on a Budget
Making the Most of After-Christmas Sales

Pumpkin Bread

I have found that baking and doing a lot of cooking is very difficult with a 4 month old, but I still wanted to do something nice for my husband's birthday today. I'm up at 3am doing it, but that's about the only time he and the baby are sleeping good and I can sneak and make something. I hope he will enjoy it for breakfast... It is a layered pumpkin loaf from the Kraft foods website. We first tried it a few years ago when it was featured in an edition of the Kraft Food & Family magazine and it quickly became a favorite. It's not birthday cake, but it is hard for a family of 2 to eat a whole cake anyway! Frugal, right? :)

If you haven't checked out Kraft's recipe website, I would really suggest you go visit and see all the recipes there. It is NOT gourmet cooking, but for a busy family, it is VERY helpful. Many of the recipes do use their products for shortcuts, so if you are looking to cook everything from scratch, it is not the website for you; if you are looking to save time, go there!

Wednesday Recipes

Today I would like to share a few appetizer options for you. My family recently started a new tradition on Christmas Eve where we make up a bunch of different appetizers and snack on them all evening before opening gifts. It works great if you have family popping in and out and is much easier than trying to get everyone together for dinner at the same time.

A favorite in my family that is now LOVED by my former coworkers and in-laws is my Aunt Mary's Hidden Valley Ranch Cheese Ball:
Ingredients:
1 pkg HVR Original Ranch Salad Dressing mix
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup milk
6 oz cream cheese, softened at room temp for 1 hour
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese, softened at room temp for 1 hour
bacon bits
Preparation:
Mix first 3 ingredients together; add cream cheese and beat well with mixer. Add in shredded cheese and blend; cover and freeze for at least 30 minutes. Shape into a ball and roll in bacon bits. Serve with Ritz or Club crackers.

I'm not a big fan of ranch, so I actually prefer this dried beef cheese ball.

A few other favorites:
Ham Roll-ups
Grape Jelly meatballs
RO*TEL cheese dip

Kroger 12/16

I had not been by Kroger this week, so I decided to run by there yesterday to see if they had any deals that I didn't want to miss out on. I still find it strange that the new sales start on Wednesdays down here, but I'm used to after 8 years! I'm glad I did go since I was able to get more cereal for $1 a box. :)

Here's what I bought:
4 boxes General Mills Cereals 3.00 each
1 box Hamburger Helper 1.50
1 pkg Lipton family size tea bags 2.39
3 boxes Betty Crocker boxed potatoes 1.67 each
2 Pillsbury Crescent Rolls 1.50 each
5 strips Fleischmann's Dry Yeast bonus packs 1.00 each
1 container baking powder 1.89
1 Cottonelle toliet paper
1 Coffeemate creamer 1.04 (closeout price)
1 Borden's Organic milk 96oz 4.99

coupons:
Buy 3 BC potatoes, get free Hamburger Helper peelie 1.50
Save $4 instantly with 4 boxes GM cereals
2 - .40 off and 3 - .45 off Fleischmann's Yeast MC
1.00 Borden Organic milk MC
3 - .35 BC boxed potatoes MC
2 - .25 Pillsbury Crescent roll MC
.50 Cottonelle 4 pk MC
.50 Coffeemate liquid creamer MC
.50 Lipton tea MC
.55 GM Trix printable coupon (see teal coupons.com sidebar)
3.00 off 3 GM cereals peelie
.55 Trix shortcuts.com coupon
.40 BC potatoes shortcuts.com coupon
.50 Pillsbury crescent roll shortcuts.com coupon

Total OOP 14.46, plus got back 5 - .50 off next order coupons for buying the yeast
Savings: 31.90, or 68%

Tuesday Freebies

I just got my sample of Christina Aguilera's perfume in the mail today; it is still available, so if you like to try out new scents, go get it!

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! Click Here

Get a free sample of Stayfree or Carefree; I love the samples available from Wal-Mart because they always show up!