Book Review: "Pick Another Checkout Lane, Honey"

Do you think you know everything about couponing? Do you find couponing too confusing, too much work, boring? Do you fall anywhere in between those extremes? Then, “Pick Another Checkout Lane, Honey” is the book for you! Joanie Demer & Heather Wheeler have debunked the myths about couponing and taken it to superstar heights, while talking to you like your best friend. They teach you to make the grocery aisles your catwalk!

There’s a lot I know (or think I know) about couponing. I’ve been doing it off and on for nearly 5 years, but “Pick Another Checkout Lane,Honey” has taught me a few more things. It’s a very in-depth look at couponing with some great ideas for what to do with all the money you save as well!

If you’re a newbie, they cover all the basics. From building your coupon binder, to building your stockpile, to building your savings account, these ladies have it covered. Both Joanie & Heather give their personal stories about how and why they started couponing and how it has changed their lives. The entire book is conversational in tone and makes you wish you knew these girls in person.

If you’re seasoned you might learn something you didn’t already know, and you’re likely to find the humorous drawings spot on! For me, it was nice to have the monthly sales cycles and the price list laid out. I’ve made a copy of the price list to use as a guide and then adjust to the best prices I can get. I plan on making a copy of the sales cycles to keep in my binder as well.

The biggest thing I learned is that I need to obtain official coupon policies on company letterhead for every store I shop at, as well as talk to the general manager of each store. This sounds downright terrifying to me, but makes complete sense. My husband said he would go with me, so that makes me feel more confident! It’s true that as the couponer, I probably know more about the store’s coupon policy than my cashier and maybe even the manager. Being able to prove that I’m playing by the rules may come in handy one day!

These fabulous ladies also run this fantastic website called TheKrazyCouponLady.com. It’s where I go to find all my coupon match-ups. I probably check everyday because I’m a little obsessed, but I definitely look before I head out to the stores to make sure there aren’t any great new deals that have popped up. They list the weekly sales with the corresponding coupons for all the major super centers and drugstores, plus many large grocery stores around the country. They recently started doing the match-ups for Winn-Dixie, so they are my go-to site for all my major stores (Publix, Winn-Dixie, CVS, Walgreens, Target & Wal-Mart) now. I occasionally shop at BJ’s and Save-A-Lot, and infrequently at Whole Foods & Aldi because they are so far away. Oh, how I miss Aldi…

I highly recommend “Pick Another Checkout Lane, Honey” to ANYONE! Young, old, spender, saver, you can learn something from this book and be entertained at the same time. I’m sure you can find something to relate to. Everybody likes saving money, right?

P.S. I made this coupon sorting mat a couple years ago that makes organizing all those little pieces of paper so much easier! Sadly, over the last 3 moves in a 12-month period I’ve lost track of it. If I don’t find it soon, I will need to make another one so the kids can help more too!

*All opinions expressed are my own! I was not compensated in any way for this review.

Vacation on the Cheap: Orlando 2013 - Meal & Snack Ideas

Welcome back to my Vacation on the Cheap Series! I hope that you have been following along and gathering some ideas that you can use on your next vacation.

Today’s topic is food! Yummy! Food can be one of the biggest, if not the biggest cost when vacationing. A family can spend anywhere from $30 for some mediocre chicken strips that have been sitting under warming lights for 5 hours, all the way up to several HUNDRED dollars for a sit-down meal with a certain princess in her castle. That’s just per meal! Over the course of several days one could easily go bankrupt.

This is not to say that you should skip on food and dining experiences that you believe to be worth the money. Like I’ve mentioned before, we do NOT skip on the Dole Whips. (If you’ve had one, you know why I keep mentioning this!) We have several character meals that we really want to do, but have yet to save the money for. When it becomes a priority, I’m sure we’ll figure out a way to save that money.

Figure out what your food priorities are and save for those. Get creative in areas where you know you could save money. We’ve already discussed finding a hotel with a kitchen, free breakfast, a mini-fridge and/or a microwave. Now we’re going to talk about specific ideas for each of those situations, and a few ideas for when you can’t find a hotel with any of those things.

No matter where you stay, do as much as you can before leaving home. If you are striving for a “real food” diet, make snacks such as homemade goldfish crackers rather than buying them. Homemade baked goods will add a special touch to your brown bag lunch. Strive to include treats that will set your lunch apart from run-of-the-mill kids meals so that no one feels deprived. Don’t forget lots of fruits & vegetables to keep it healthy!

*Please note that these are suggestions, and I have not personally tried every recipe*

The No-Frills Hotel

*Many items will need to be kept cold. Use discretion when choosing items to bring based on how much space your cooler has, number of days items will remain in cooler, and if they must be kept very cold or only cool*

 

Breakfast

Oatmeal (packets)– use hot water from the coffee maker or the tap

Muffins - these are really yummy & what we took with us; I also added blueberries to some of them

Cereal – keep milk in the cooler

Breakfast cookies

Granola Bars

*Don’t forget the fruit!

Lunch & Dinner

Homemade lunchables -meat, cheese, crackers

Pasta salad (recipe coming soon!)

Sandwiches or Wraps: meat, pb&j, cream cheese & jelly, cream cheese & ham, Nutella & banana, egg salad, tuna salad (could be made with avocado, it's yummy!) - could also be served on bagel or with crackers

*I would highly recommend wraps because of their portability. No squished bread!*

Cucumber and tomato salad    

Layered salads - in plastic jars because glass may not be permitted

California Taco Salad (recipe coming soon!)

Cucumber, dill, & Greek yogurt salad

Tortellini salad (recipe coming soon!)

Snacks & Desserts

Cookies

Yogurt

Fruit

Granola bars

Muffins

Hard-boiled eggs

Hummus & veggies

Peanut butter in bottom of jar with celery - could add raisins

Rice crispy bars/brown rice bars (recipe coming soon!)

Banana, pumpkin or zucchini bread (one or more recipes coming soon!)

Fruit cups (could make your own!)

Trail mix

Homemade soft pretzels

Homemade graham crackers

Avocado hummus

Homemade goldfish

Homemade fruit leathers

Cake

Fruit with Nutella or other dip

Lemon bars

Cheese wedges or sticks

Mixed nuts

Hotel with a Mini-Fridge and Microwave

(Including all of the above suggestions)

Breakfast

Sausage Pancake Bites – made at home, kept in fridge & reheated

Waffles - made at home with maple syrup in mix & reheated

Mini sausages in biscuits – made at home & reheated

*If you can find these really cool slow cooker liners, you can use your crock-pot to make delicious food for you while you are sleeping or out enjoying the sites!

Crock pot Oatmeal

Crock pot French toast

Crock pot Egg casserole

                                                    

Lunch & Dinner

Buffalo or BBQ chicken wraps – keep sauce on side until eating time

Ham & cheese pockets or calzones

Pasties – a tasty hand-held meat pie, referred to as a hand pie or empanada in other parts of the country (recipe coming soon!)

Picnic pizza rolls

Chicken, pork, or steak skewers with microwavable rice

Biscuit meatballs with marinara dipping sauce

Black & Blue Salad - mixed greens with thinly sliced steak, blue cheese & blue cheese dressing

Again, you can use your slow cooker for these meals:

Crock pot meatloaf

Crock pot Meatballs – party (recipe coming soon!), buffalo chicken, meatball subs (recipe coming soon!)

Crock pot buffalo chicken sliders

 

Snacks & Desserts

Popcorn – take advantage of the microwave; try the paper bag method of popping to avoid nasty chemicals!

Layered fruit parfaits

Fruit salad

 

Hotel with Kitchen

(Including all of the above suggestions)

Breakfast

Whatever you like to eat at home! (Okay, so I've never made those yummy looking caramel pecan cinnamon rolls, but they're on my short list! Anybody else try these yet?)

Lunch & Dinner

Taco salad to go – layered seasoned beef, beans, olives, chopped  veggies, cheese, lettuce in a lidded bowl (or plastic jars) pack sour cream, salsa & chips on the side

Chicken taco salad – mixed greens diced chicken, shredded cheese, beans, and tomatoes with yogurt/salsa mix on side

Sesame noodles- I double the sauce for these noodles!

Quesadilla strips with yogurt/sour cream, guacamole & salsa on side

Nachos

Tacos

Spaghetti

Hamburgers & Hot Dogs

 

Snacks & Desserts

Smoothies (freeze in freezer jam jars, or those cool reusable smoothie pop thingies)

Jell-o cubes or jell-o w/ fruit (can pour right into lunch containers to set up overnight)

Deviled eggs

Fruit salad

Raspberry cheesecake jars

Strawberry shortcake in a jar

This is just a sampling of ideas that I’ve culled from my own recipes, recipes from family and friends, and that wealth of information known as Pinterest! I’m sure that you probably have recipes in your repertoire that could be used to save you money on vacation as well. If you’re serious about saving money on vacation food, take the time to make lists of meals that you think your family would enjoy, which will be easy to transport & prepare. Make sure you share your ideas here with the rest of us!

Miss a "Vacation on the Cheap" Post? Find them here:
Part 1 - Itinerary & Menu
Part 2 - Tips & FREE Things to Do at Disney
Part 3 - Tips for Saving on Food



*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase anything through one of the links, you will be supporting our home school! Thank you!

Vacation on the Cheap: Orlando 2013 - Tips for Saving on Food

Welcome back to my series Vacation on the Cheap! Links to the preceding installments can be found at the bottom of this post!

Saving money on food when you're at home can be difficult. Saving money when you're on vacation can seem downright impossible! For as long as I can remember, we've been packing sandwich fixings whenever we go roadtripping, whether for one day or one week. This is a great money saver & one I highly recommend! Unless of course you're like me and don't really enjoy sandwiches. I'm not really sure why it took me so dang long to realize that if I was not happy eating sandwiches at home, I would never be truly happy and satisfied eating them while away from home! This holds especially true when you are somewhere like a theme park where delicious food is in your face every hundred yards. This is the vacation where I decided to change that.

Enjoying our ham & cream cheese bagels!

If you studied my menu at all, you'll notice that sandwiches make an appearance a grand total of three times in eight days. Only one of those is a boring old pb&j or lunchmeat sandwich. In reality, I think we only ate two. The day we left home (pb&j or lunchmeat) and the day we went to Downtown Disney (ham & cream cheese on bagels).


I was determined to have delicious food whilst on vacation without spending a ton of money! I know some of you are thinking, "Yes, but you had a KITCHEN in your hotel room! What about those of us who stay at regular hotels?"

Good question. I've yet to try it, but the next weekend we vacation I will let you know how it goes. The hotel that we will be staying at from now on when we only go for weekends is a super cheap, no-frills hotel. It's run-down and old on the outside, but the rooms are clean and in good shape. The mattress is sagging, but it's comfortable. (Always bring your own pillow!) There is no fridge or microwave. There may be a single-serve coffee maker in the room, but I'm not sure. There is an unadvertised free breakfast consisting of instant oatmeal, bagels, danishes, fruit, cereals, and beverages. It's super-duper close to one of the Disney gates. Oh, and it's cheap!


Here are some tips that should help you save money on food no matter where you stay:

Tip #1: Find a hotel that offers a FREE breakfast! Plain instant oatmeal, a glass of milk & a piece of fruit is a great breakfast! (Avoid the flavored oatmeal! Sweeten with good old sugar, jelly, maple syrup or honey, if they have it.)

If you can't get a free breakfast, make sure your hotel room has a fridge and a microwave. Some hotels don't put them in all their rooms, so make sure you ask!

If you can't find a hotel that offers any of that (although you should be with some dedicated research), pretend like you are going camping! At least food wise. Plan foods that are non-perishable, portable, are easy to prepare without a kitchen, and/or made at home and brought with you.


Tip #2: Don't be embarrassed by bringing your own food! No, really. People will probably stare at you as you enjoy your delicious & nutritious homemade meal packed with love, but I like to imagine that they're just jealous. I'm pretty sure those people were watching with envy the day we ate Black & Blue Salad (steak with blue cheese) and fresh strawberries with Nutella dip!

There is no rule that says you can't bring your own food into a theme park. Disney has restrictions on type & size of cooler, plus no glass containers. Whatever your destination, check the rules for what you are and are not allowed to bring.

Tip #3: Plan Ahead! Remember the itinerary we discussed? If you want to take your own food with you on vacation, you'll need to have a basic idea of what you'll be doing around each meal time. Some days I planned for us to still be at the hotel for lunch, and other days where we'd need to pack our food. I needed to know this before we left home.

Also, do not pack your food and leave it in the big cooler in the car with the idea that you will retrieve it come meal time. Your family will be starving, you'll be at the back of the park, and NO ONE will want to walk all the way back out to the car. Ask me how I know. LOL See our set up for packing it all with us here.

Tip #4: Be Creative! No boring sandwiches unless your entire family REALLY loves them! I spent large amounts of time scouring Pinterest for portable foods. I found some really great ones under lunch ideas or camping boards!

I didn't want anyone to feel like they were deprived of some fantastic meal just because we made it ourselves. This led to meal ideas like steaks, Dinosaur (hard-boiled) eggs, orange cake, and bananas with minion faces! Don't forget to include your family's favorite foods and snacks.

If you really want to get creative, you could try making those cool bento lunches that look like someone spent hours making them. In this house, "ain't nobody got time for that!"

Tip #5: Pack more snacks than you think you'll need! When your kid passes 7 other kids with Mickey bars dripping down their brand-new $80 Cinderella costumes, they're going to want one too. Probably the Mickey bar AND the costume! If you want your kid to have a Cinderella costume, or any other Disney memorabilia for that matter, make a stop at the nearest Wal-Mart where the same costume will only set you back $20. It's still official Disney merchandise.

As for the Mickey bars, have an alternative on hand at all times! We don't skip the Dole Whips in our family, and you shouldn't skip something that you really want & have planned ahead to spend the money on. For all the other times, I have snacks. They may not be super nutritious because I chose ease and portability, but they're probably healthier than the theme park snacks.

I plan for two snacks a day. It takes a lot of energy to walk around theme parks, stand on line in the boiling hot sun and humidity, and push your children through the themed store that you have to walk through at the end of every ride.

Us, successfully navigating the shops. (Meaning we didn't buy anything! LOL)

Banana!

Transformers in Training

Include some protein and (healthy)carbohydrates for a more satisfying snack. Make sure you pack enough to help everyone get through the day, plus a little extra. If you end up with leftovers at the end of the day it's okay. I'm sure they will get eaten eventually!

Tip #6: Invest in quality containers! The only two items I can confidently recommend are the Ziploc Divided Containers and the Ziploc Round Screw-top Containers. I have not encountered any problems with these two items that weren't user caused. All of the refillable bottles, coolers, lunch bags, and other plastic containers we have used have either not stood the test of time and abuse use, or are just adequate. I don't want to recommend anything that doesn't work!


Both of these containers are reasonably priced, so you should be able to stock up on however many your family needs. We bought 12 of the divided containers so we could pack 2 meals per day. Buy whatever you need & will fit into your coolers with room for extra ice. BTW, we ended up buying two of the clearanced (70%off, so $3.98 each)lunch bags from Target that I mentioned before. They will fit two of the Ziploc Divided containers, with plenty of room for ice packs. They also came with little water bottles that fit into an outside pocket! BONUS!

Here is the meal we enjoyed on the beach of Disney's Polynesian Resort.

(Look! No leaking between compartments!)

Teriyaki Pork & Pineapple Kebabs over brown rice (with soy sauce), grapes & banana pudding!

Tip #7: Bring your own water! Each person should have their own refillable water container. On this vacation they received lanyards from which they carried their own bottles. There are plenty of water fountains from which to refill, or you can ask for free ice water from a food vendor. Keep frozen water bottles in your cooler to keep your food cold and to drink later in the day. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!


I really hope that the tips I've shared with you will be helpful in saving you money on your next vacation or even a day away from the house!


Next Up: Meal & Snack Ideas

My adorable family in the shops. We have a thing for hats!
Vacation on the Cheap Posts:
Part One - Itinerary & Menu
Part Two - Tips & FREE Things to Do at Disney

Blog Redesign & March Financial Contribution

I was so busy working on my blog's redesign, that I forgot about posting! Oops! :) First of all, what do you think of the new look? I'm not totally in love with it and would love some opinions about it. Please be honest! Thanks!

I also wanted to tell you about how I contributed to the family financially last month. Saidah at A Proverbs Wife is SOO inspirational, and I got the idea of tracking my contributions from her. You can check out her financial contributions here. Way more than mine! :)

Savings

Groceries = $285.42

Online deals (Groupon, Mamapedia, etc.) = $286.05

Earnings

Surveys, Ebay, Swagbucks, Affiliates, etc. = $107.33

Total Impact to My Family

$678.80

This does not include some really awesome deals we got on brand new clothes at K-Mart's clearance sale. We picked up a bunch of winter clothes (because we didn't really have many) for $2.99-$3.99 each! I just forgot to write down the original prices before the tags got thrown away. Oh, well. I know it was a good deal, even if I have no written proof! LOL It makes me feel good to know that I'm helping a little to drag us out of debt.

Kellog's Coupons

Do you go through cereal like we do? 3-4 boxes a week? Please tell me you do! Okay, well even if you don't here are some Kellog's coupons for that occasional cereal fix. LOL

Thankful Thursday: The Little Things

It's been a trying week and hard to find things to be thankful for. Everything I come up with is small and seems so inconsequential, but it's better than nothing. Here's the best: I spent about $60 at the grocery store last night & earned $1.40 per gallon off our next fill-up! Yay!

The Mini Social Referral Program

I just found out about another deal site The Mini Social (like Groupon) & right now if you refer 5 friends you get a $20 credit! We don't even need to buy anything! Yay! You also get a $10 credit when they make their first purchase! Here's my link so I can get my 5 referrals then you can get your 5! Thanks! :)

Making Money: Synovate and other methods

You may already know this, but our cross country move has really dealt a blow to our finances. My husband took a better job with equal pay to his last one, with one giant exception. He's now salaried and sometimes works 12 hour days for 8 hour pay. No overtime $ here. :( This in itself would not be a problem, but we are in a major hole with our housing situation. We don't get enough rent money to cover our mortgage (and related expenses), plus we pay a ridiculous amount of money for our rental here because the housing market is all kinds of crazy. Long story short, we're losing about $1000 every month just in real estate! YIKES! Now our renters have decided not to send their payments because we didn't meet their ridiculous demands. Such a dilemma!

In addition, we left our 2nd van behind because we had a buyer going to make payments on it, then decided they couldn't afford it. What? So it's just sitting in Texas collecting dust. Let's hope those people aren't driving it! All the offers we've had on it are about 1/3 of our asking price (which is KBB value). I'd negotiate if anybody brought a reasonable offer. Pff.

I didn't tell you our sad money tale for sympathy, but to tell you how we're trying to fix it. We've lowered our expenses as much as we can for now. For example, we used to have a budget of $475 for groceries and household items. Not that we stuck to it very often, but that was the number on paper. That number has been reduced to $400. Feeding 6 people and keeping the toilet paper and pull-ups stocked for $100 a week is a challenge. I've found that using only cash to pay for these items helps. I don't have that visual, tactile reminder with a debit card.

I've also been trying to make extra money. You know my obsession with Swagbucks, so I won't go into details again, but know that there will be more Swag love to come! This is a referral, so when you earn so do I!

 I have listed & am going to list some items on ebay. My seller name is thebeazhive.

I have always had advertisements on my blog, but they were just random and not always relevent. Now I am trying to bring more relevant ads to you. Things I think are interesting & I hope you do too. When you click on them and/or complete their requirements (like joining a group or signing up for a newsletter) I get paid a few cents to a few dollars depending on the ad. Sometimes there are referrals. If you sign up for a program I earn a percentage of what you make. Please don't feel like you have to click on or sign up for anything. In the future, I may be writing articles for certain companies or products. I will be compensated for my opinions & I will state that at the bottom of the post. I'm only going to write about stuff that I feel is appropriate for this blog. Sometimes these things lead to giveaways for readers! Yay for giveaways!

There is a super secret big project that I've been working on fo-evah, that I hope will be a money maker as well. I just need to get past a few more hurdles (mainly myself), and then the secret can be revealed!

I've joined several survey panels that pay in cash or rewards. I only started about 2 weeks ago, so I haven't cashed out on anything yet. I plan to cash out at the end of each month & I will give you totals then. There are a few I have done very well with already. I will be telling you about them in different posts along the way. If you want to get started right away here is one that I have signed up for & is currently open to new members:

http://lm.logicalmedia.com/z/22299/CD9000/

I don't think there is a referral for this company, but if you do sign up through the above link, I will get compensated.

I know that this is a change for what once was only a family blog but our family has changed, I've changed, and this is reflective of our family now. More reflective of me personally. There's no obligation for you to spend your money to help out our family. I just want to help out my own family, while still bringing you content that is important to you. I'm sure most people are interested in saving money and/or making extra money, so I bet you understand where I'm coming from. As always, feel free to just ignore whatever doesn't pertain to you & enjoy what does. :)

If you have comments or questions, please feel free to leave them! I love my readers!

Out Growing In

Have you heard of OutGrowingIn? It's a kids and maternity clothing swap. Apparently they will even send you boxes to ship your used clothing in. I haven't used it yet, but it seems like a good deal and I can't seem to find a Goodwill around here. Have you used it yet? If you have, please let us know. I'm at least going to go sign up, and if I end up using it I will let you know!

Mega Swagbuck Friday!

Mega Swagbuck Friday!

Have you started earning FREE stuff yet?? If not, click on the link above to get signed up!

P.S. By clicking on my link, you help me earn free stuff too! Thank You! :)

Recipe Request!

Remember the New Recipe Challenge I'm participating in? Yes, well, I haven't even been grocery shopping for the week. It's been a crazy week and I'm very behind. I haven't even cut coupons in 2 weeks! :0

So, I'm asking for your help! I am specifically asking for recipes that utilize my slow cooker or my Vita-Mix, or frugal recipes. If you have some great recipes that fall into any of these categories, please share them!

Until then, I will be seeking out something for this week on my own. Perhaps I should look in one of my 50 or so cookbooks? Wish me luck!

Thank you for sharing your recipes! :)

New Recipe Challenge

An adorably charming blog I follow Feminine Farmgirl is hosting a meal challenge to try one new main dish recipe every week for 8 weeks. This challenge came at a very convenient time as I had just purchased 4 1/2 lbs. of pork spare ribs because the were on sale. I've never cooked pork spare ribs before, so I obviously need to find one. I've been visiting a Year of Slow Cooking occasionally ever since I saw her on Rachael Ray a few years ago, but never used one of her recipes. Recently, I've been looking even more because I would really like to use the slow cooker more often. Anyway, this is the recipe I found for my spare ribs:

Greek Spiced Spareribs

The Ingredients.

serves 4-6 or 2 hungry moms

4 pounds pork spareribs (you can use beef, too)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon anise
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns (leave intact)
4 whole cloves (leave intact)
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup orange juice

The Directions.

Use a 6-quart slow cooker. Place ribs into cooker. In a mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar with all of the ground spices. Rub this mixture the best you can on all sides of the ribs. Throw in the whole peppercorns and cloves. Drizzle on the honey, and add orange juice.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or until meat is super tender and separates from the bone.

*Please go read her post for all the extras!

I had to make some substitutions though because we didn't have some ingredients on hand. I used regular old table salt, omitted fennel seeds, ground mustard and anise, substituted ground pepper for peppercorns and ground cloves for whole cloves. I also didn't have any honey, so that was sadly left out. I may have thrown in a shake or two of Montreal steak seasoning. Just for yummies I sliced up a white onion and layered that on the bottom of the slow cooker first, which made for a tasty little topping when all was said and done. The house smelled SO good all day! These were fabulous ribs and so tender that they were literally falling off the bone as I tried to take them out of the cooker. There was a delicious sweetness to them that Kingbeaz & I both found very good. The kids might have enjoyed them more if they hadn't been so worried about the bones and fat. (I DID take all the bones out, but missed some of the fat...sheesh!)

Also, there are plenty of leftovers so tomorrow I plan on shredding them up, adding BBQ sauce & throwing them on some biscuits. From Greek to Southern. LOL

 

This was also a frugal meal. I added (frozen)curly fries & canned corn. Extremely healthy, I know. :)

 

Ribs = $8.64

Spices & OJ = $1.00 (I had them all on hand, but I'll just guestimate based on how much I used)

Onion = $0.30 (again, just guessing. It was part of 5lb. bag & I don't remember how much I paid)

Curly Fries = $1.69

2 cans corn = $.94

Total = $12.57

 

Tomorrow's BBQ sands will cost:

1/2 bottle BBQ sauce = $0.50

1 can Pillsbury biscuits = $0.67

Total = $1.17

 

Total for 2 meals = $13.74

 

Yummy & Frugal!

 

What new recipes have you tried lately??

Swagbucks

Do you use Swagbucks?? If not, you should! And here's why:

You can earn FREE stuff just for searching the internet!

It's true! I've been using Swagbucks for quite awhile now, but have never redeemed any points...until today. I bought two $10 Amazon.com gift cards. I had been working towards the Target gift card, then realized it was probably only an on-line gift card, which it is (should have looked sooner...duh!). That's really not helpful. I was hoping to roll the gift card for more gift cards in store. That's okay though, because I found this great new site A Proverbs Wife who uses Amazon.com gift cards from Swagbucks to fund her entire Christmas!! How smart is that? She also gives you some advice for finding more swagcodes, such as reading the daily discussions on Facebook. You can also find more codes by clicking on the SC button of my Swagbucks widget at the bottom of this blog. Now that I know how to actually earn more I wanted to tell you about it. Today is MegaSwagBucks Friday which means you have the opportunity to earn bigger denominations! If you're ready to start earning FREE stuff (you'll get 30 swagbucks just for signing up!):

Sign up here!

P.S. If you sign up by clicking my link, I earn swagbucks when you do, so THANKS!

Super Savings

I am LOVIN' my new stores here in NY! (If I knew how to make those little heart icons, I would make one now.) I've shopped with coupons for quite some time now, but because of the limited number of grocery stores in south Texas (thanks alot, HEB!) I wasn't seeing very good savings from all my hard couponing. Walgreens was much better, but the cashiers were cranky upon seeing my coupons. From what I read, this is due to cashiers being uneducated on their own store's coupon policy.

Anyhooo, I now have multiple stores, some double coupons, some give gas rewards and they all have loyalty cards. I still didn't think I was going to do any better because most of the groceries are priced much higher here. However, just from the beginning of January until now, I have bought $237.31 worth of groceries & household items (including pull-ups) for only $104.94. That's a savings of 55.78%! This is better than I could ever get in Texas.

This is mostly thanks to Rite-Aid. I heart Rite-Aid. (Darn it! Must learn how to make adorable little hearts!)Remember those pull-ups? Amazingly enough, that was my best shopping trip so far!

I got $35.94 worth of products for $1.28, for a savings of 96.44%!!!

And, I have $13 in UP+ Rewards (Rite-Aid money) for my next shopping trip!

Did I mention I heart Rite-Aid? Um, yeah. We're like best friends now.

Please don't think I do all this by myself. No, no...there are many much more smarterer people out there in blog land that do all the heavy lifting. I simply have to visit their sites, decide which deals are best for me, locate all my coupons & go shopping! Here are some of my favorite sites:

Cents Saved

Deal Seeking Mom

A Full Cup
Be Centsable - The Grocery Gathering

There are about a bazillion more & I hope you find them helpful too! If you have a favorite money saving website, store, or idea, please share it. :) Thanks!

Happy Saving!!!

Coupon Sorter

If you're a coupon user, you've probably seen those advertisements for coupon sorting mats. They look really cool, but they want like $20 or more for them. I think this is silly. So being the frugal crafter I am, I decided to make my own and it was super simple!I used the Printable Journaling Cards from Jessica Sprague, adding the titles that I use to divide my coupons. Using packing tape, I put 4 open file folders together (you may need more or less depending on how many categories you have), then covered those with 8 sheets of coordinating chocolate brown scrapbook paper. Evenly space the titles & give everything a good cover of tape to hold it in place. Then try to figure out how to fold it all back up & VOILA! A coupon sorter on the cheap!
Happy couponing & crafting!

$75 Grocery Challenge Conclusion

It's over. We made it. Not on budget, but we made it. We've learned a lot, too: Living on a budget won't kill us, we need to make weekly menus & STICK to them, we eat out WAY too much, we need to learn the art of stockpiling (food...I've got everything else covered), and challenging ourselves is kind of fun. This pay period we are challenging ourselves to not eat out at all. I'm hoping this carries over through the next pay period as well, but we're taking it slow for now. My goal is to lower our spending substantially so that we can save more and pay off our sizeable debts. I'm thankful for finding Mary's website, challenge, and spendthrift wisdom.

Here's the results:
Monthly Budget: $475.00
Total Spent: $526.79
Amount Over: $50.79

Great Giveaway!

I forgot to mention that Mary over at Owlhaven (the one who started this whole $75 a week thing) is giving away 3 sets of THREE copies each of her book Family Feasts for $75 a Week. I seriously want this book. I'm sure you will too, so head on over to her website to enter the contest, or just hop on over to Amazon to order one for me...I mean you. Even if you don't win, I know you'll love reading her blog!

$75 Grocery Challenge Update

We are 3 weeks into our grocery challenge. It's been thought provoking, enlightening & challenging so far. I haven't made a menu plan for last week or this one, so that hasn't helped. I'm thinking I probably should though, because we have one week to go and are down to only $50.73. This will be especially difficult considering we will be spending the majority of Saturday and Sunday at Homecoming & Cheer Competition. I'm going to have to get creative. We have already decided that we will try this again next month. We are also going to work on not eating out so much (we've spent almost as much on eating out as on groceries & household goods :0 ). I've also got to work on my menu planning and STICKING TO IT!!

Monthly Budget: $475.00
Total Spent: $424.27
Total Remaining: $50.73

$75 Grocery Challenge (Sort of)

To make a long story short(er), we've been spending too much money on groceries (okay, on everything) & I found this challenge on Owlhaven via a magazine article a couple of weeks ago. Technically, the challenge was for the month of September, but we started on Friday. Since we get paid every two weeks, we will base our budget on that. I had been figuring groceries & household items seperately, which is silly because I usually buy them together, so now I will combine them. Most people participating in this challenge are doing $75/week. We will be doing $237.50 for 2 weeks, which is $118.25/week. Nearly twice as much, and here's why: we do not have a garden, a fully stocked or even partially stocked pantry, we have 7 people to feed (my mother is here for awhile), and just a few weeks ago our extra freezer died leaving us with the nearly useless freezer on our side-by-side. Not to mention that we're used to spending at least twice to three times that. Yes, I am hanging my head in shame. This will be a stretch for us, but we are going to give it the old college try. I will keep you posted on how this is going, and certainly feel free to join me in my money-saving endeavor.

Monthly Budget: $475.00
Total Spent: $137.76
Total Remaining: $337.24