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It’s Mega Swag Bucks Friday again!! You could get 30 to 1,000 Swag Bucks in one search!! Swag Bucks is the easiest money you’ll ever earn doing an activity you do everyday – searching. If you haven’t signed up for Swag Bucks, learn more about it here. Hey, I’m back to looking for freebies!! See if you can snag a few of these, too. Samples: 3M Super Sticky Notes – you’ll also be able to print out a $1 coupon for super sticky notes Emergen-C Blue – cold and flu season is coming up!! Emergen-C Vitamin D and Calcium Cheetos Mighty Zingers – offered by Be Snack Ready. You will have to sign in or register than wait for the rolling picture on top to get the sample offer. Facebook:
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a shopping story so I thought I’d let you know about my Cub and Target shopping trips. First, let’s start with Cub.
Transaction #1: $23.24 4 Charmin toilet paper, $27.96, used 3 $1 and one .25 coupon I also used a $3.50 Walgreens Register Reward and received a $6 OYNO catalina coupon Transaction #2: $8.66 4 Pepsi Max 2 liter, $5.34, used 2 B1G1 free coupon I also used the $6 catalina from the previous transaction My Cub total was $31.90 for $79.77 worth of groceries. Obviously, most of that went toward the toilet paper which turned out to be .36 per roll. That’s not the best price, but the $6 catalina made it worth it. When that is taken into account, the price was .27 per roll.
(Not pictured: bubble mailer envelope) I needed a bubble mailer envelope so I decided to stop at Target and pick up a few things along with the envelope. The Garnier Fructis isn’t the best price, but I really love that Curl Shaping Spray Gel and I’m completely out!! I’m also out of hairspray so I figured with the coupons and the two 3.4 oz shampoo bonus it wasn’t the worst deal in the world. I spent $7.19 for $17.24 worth of groceries. 2 Nivea for Men, $5.98, used $4/2 and $1 Target coupon It’s possible that I may go to Rainbow tonight or Wednesday to pick up a few things and double some coupons, but I really don’t need much. So, I may just make do with what I have in the pantry and avoid Rainbow altogether.
If you’ve always wanted to try out a warehouse club but didn’t want to pay the yearly fee, this is is your chance!! Sam’s Club is offering 3 free days on August 6 – 8 where you can shop like a regular member. If you don’t like to coupon, this may be a great way to save some money. However, you do have to do some comparison shopping as some items are more expensive than grocery store prices. I’m a Sam’s Club member and have been for years. I’ve always found the milk to be cheaper than regular priced grocery store milk by 7 – 10 cents. I used to buy produce at Sam’s, too, because the quality is quite good. However, you can find produce cheaper. The other perk I like is the discount gas prices. Unless I have a coupon for another gas station, Sam’s is always the cheapest. I renewed my membership in May and my goal over this next year is to determine if I’m really saving enough to continue being a member. My belief right now is yes, but I’d like some more real numbers to back that up. As with anything, moderation is good. Everything you buy at Sam’s comes in bulk and it’s easy to blow your budget. And since everything comes in larger packaging, you need to make sure you can store it all. Unfortunately, I know both of these things from experience! So, I never go into Sam’s without a list and I avoid temptation by having a price book. This allows me to see if something is really a good deal or if I can get it cheaper at another store. Having said all that, I would recommend giving Sam’s Club a try while it’s free. You can satisfy your curiosity about warehouse club shopping and you may find that it really fits your needs.
Okay, I realize it’s Wednesday but I thought I’d post our menu plan anyway since I do have one. While I was in town we followed the menu plan with the exception of Tuesday — we had leftovers that day since I made so much pulled pork and everyone loved it. I still had enough to freeze for another meal, too. That meant I didn’t get to try the Santa Fe Chicken Salad again. I’ve got it on the menu plan again this week and I’m really hoping to get it made!! The Shredded Beef Burritos were a keeper and did well the next day as leftovers. This is a fairly quick recipe that I made with ingredients from my pantry. It’s also one that can be changed to fit what you have on hand. That gets us to the days when I was out of town and those didn’t go as well. I planned two meals for the remainder of the family, but they weren’t in a cooking mood so they went out to eat. Ah well, it was just two days and they did fast food, so it wasn’t a budget blowing expense. Instead of the breakfast-for-dinner I had planned on Sunday, my husband took some brats out of the freezer and made dinner. It was so nice to be able to rest after a busy weekend feeding 19 hungry teenagers!! Now on to this week which is finally a normal week for me — meaning I will be in town the whole week. On the other hand, my oldest son is at a camp from Monday through Saturday so that will affect the amount of food I make. He’s in training right now for the upcoming cross country season, so he eats a lot!! On Monday, we had a “fend-for-yourself” day. Do you ever wonder what that means for our family? Well, my kids are 16, 18, and 19 years old so they’re very adept at coming up with dinner for themselves. Here are some of the things they typically make for themselves: hot dogs; brats; chicken nuggets; tuna; PB and J; meat sandwiches; soup; macaroni and cheese; eggs; pancakes; waffles; fish sticks, leftovers, pasta and, of course, cereal. I’m always surprised at what they will pull out of my pantry, refrigerator or freezer. It makes me happy to see that they can cook for themselves — a good life skill! Here’s the plan: MONDAY: Fend for yourself!! TUESDAY: Grilled marinated chicken breasts, pasta, green beans WEDNESDAY: Spaghetti and Meatballs, salad, bread THURSDAY: Santa Fe Chicken Salad FRIDAY: Whole wheat waffles, eggs, bacon , toast SATURDAY: Chicken tacos SUNDAY: Bay Area Burger, grilled potato planks, salad For more menu ideas check out OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.
I’m back and I survived twenty three hours on a bus with 26 high school kids!! It was actually great – the kids were great!! New Orleans was hot and humid — not my favorite part of our trip. I wish I’d had more time to explore the city but we were there to attend the National Youth Gathering and it was very busy with all the events. I would definitely go back to New Orleans for a vacation – in February! My husband and daughter had fun cooking dinners together and followed the menu plan quite nicely. I made the Grilled Chile-Lime Chicken on Sunday and it was a hit with the whole family. It has a really nice, refreshing lime flavor to it. Next time I will leave the seeds in the jalapeno for some kick and add more cilantro. This coming weekend I’ll be heading out of town again for a camping trip with some members of my son’s cross country team. My job is to plan, shop, prepare and feed around 20 teens and 5 adults. I love it!! However, I also need to make sure I plan dinner for my husband and remaining two kids while I’m gone. So, here’s the plan: MONDAY: Pulled pork, Homemade buns, grilled corn on the cob, green salad – I’ve been using this pulled pork recipe for years. It is our absolute favorite and very simple. TUESDAY: Santa Fe Chicken Salad – I didn’t get around to making this last week WEDNESDAY: Shredded Beef Burritos, chips and salsa – I’ve never made these but they look good, simple and cheap. They really seem like a cross between burritos and enchiladas, but I don’t care about the name as long as they taste good! I plan on using some beef that I canned along with all the optional ingredients. That should make it a very cheap meal. THURSDAY: Chicken Noodle Soup FRIDAY: Spaghetti and Meatballs, salad, bread SATURDAY: Grilled marinated chicken breasts, pasta, green beans SUNDAY: Whole wheat waffles, eggs, bacon , toast For more menu ideas check out OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.
Okay, here’s where I admit that I didn’t plan a menu at all last week. Yet, somehow we managed. We have enough food in our house right now that I didn’t even do much shopping. I’ve been feeling uninspired lately when it comes to cooking and shopping and I finally figured out why!! My husband has been working late and missing dinner most nights. When he does that he tends to eat out for lunch than eat the lunch I made him for dinner. So, he doesn’t eat the dinner I’ve prepared. My daughter is working a second shift job and is only home for dinner on Friday. My older son is always out with friends and I very rarely see him for dinner. That leaves me and my 16 year old son and for some reason I just am not inspired to cook for two people!! However, this is great practice for that sad time when all my children have moved out and it’s just my husband and I. So, I’m going to embrace this and get back to being creative in the kitchen!! Having said all that, my two sons and I will be leaving for a trip to New Orleans with our church this Thursday and we will be gone for a week. So, I need to plan meals for my husband and daughter that are fairly simple and quick to prepare — they both informed that they really don’t want to do much cooking. Also, because I will be gone through most of next week as well, I’m going to plan for two weeks. So, here goes: 7/12 MONDAY: Sam’s Club Take and Bake Pizza 7/13 TUESDAY: Chinese takeout 7/14 WEDNESDAY: Teriyaki Tenderloin, steamed rice, steamed broccoli 7/15 THURSDAY: Brats, beans, carrot and celery sticks, chips 7/16 – 7/21 Dinner choices while my sons and I are gone: Sloppy joes, chips Grilled marinated chicken breasts hot dogs, beans, chips grilled ham steaks, mashed potatoes, vegetable pancakes, eggs, bacon frozen pizza 7/22 THURSDAY: Eat out or order pizzas – we’ll be returning on this day from New Orleans and a twenty hour bus ride so I’m not cooking! 7/23 FRIDAY: Grilled Chile-Lime Chicken, steamed rice, steamed broccoli 7/24 SATURDAY: Santa Fe Chicken Salad 7/25 SUNDAY: Spaghetti and Meatballs, salad, bread For more menu ideas check out OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.
Hmmm…very interesting week. My husband was working late Monday – Thursday and my kids were very busy this past week. This left just two of us home for dinner most nights. So, instead of cooking dinner Tuesday and Wednesday, we had leftovers and foraged through the pantry and refrigerator. I also didn’t make dinner on Sunday because I forgot that we had a graduation party — free food!! Nonetheless, I still consider it a good week since we didn’t resort to fast food or order pizza. I tried two new recipes this week and both were quite good. My boys and I had the Middle Eastern Rice with Black Beans and Chickpeas on Monday and we all approved of this new recipe. I toned down the spices as I was afraid they would be overpowering. But, next time I’ll use the amount called for in the recipe because it needed a smidge more bite to it. The Whole Wheat Waffles were amazing!! I made a ton of them and froze about two dozen. My only complaint is that the waffles didn’t come out very crispy. The only way to get them sort of crispy was to leave them in the waffle iron a very long time. But, then they seemed too dark on the outside. I did use half apple sauce and half canola oil as suggested in the recipe so that may have been the issue. Or maybe I need a new waffle iron. Next time I make them I’ll use all oil and no apple sauce and we’ll see. I noticed that we had various vegetables in our fridge that needed to be used, so Monday will be a garden salad day. It’s a great way to use up those veggies before they go bad and so healthy, too! I’m also looking forward to one new recipe on Thursday. It’s a bit different but got great reviews so we’ll see how that goes. We’re going camping for Fourth of July so our meals will be a bit simpler throughout the weekend. We’ll be having spaghetti and meatballs while we’re camping — this is a favorite and so easy! The spaghetti was free with coupons, the spaghetti sauce is home canned, and I’ve got the homemade pepperoni bread ready to go in the freezer along with the homemade meatballs. My friend and I spend a day together cooking and canning the spaghetti sauce. While the spaghetti sauce is processing in the canner, we make dozens and dozens of meatballs, divide them in ziplocs and freeze them. Here’s the plan: MONDAY: Garden salad TUESDAY: Pizza Casserole, leftover garden salad, fruit WEDNESDAY: Angel Hair Pasta Chicken THURSDAY: Romaine Rice Tuna Salad FRIDAY: Roasted hot dogs, homemade potato salad, chips SATURDAY: Pork chops, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, canned green beans – We love to cook over our campfire so that is how we’ll do the pork chops! SUNDAY: Spaghetti and meatballs, pepperoni bread – I love this meal! For more menu ideas check out OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.
Walmart will be hosting a Kraft Independence Day Sampling Event July 1st – 3rd. Check out the details and find a location near you here. My local Walmart is hosting this event and I plan on checking it out to score some free food and coupons. Hopefully, there will be good deals going on for the sample items too! |
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