Saturday, April 25, 2009

It's moving day!

I've decided to move to Wordpress. It's been fun here and I will miss my pretty colors, but it's time for a change and what better way to begin than with a fresh new template with a new host. I finally took the plunge and bought my domain so here it is: http://www.startingtosave.com

Hope to see you there!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Earth Day Freebies!

Well if you haven't gotten on the band wagon in terms of getting reusable grocery bags yet, here's your chance! The following are all different places where you can get yourself a reusable grocery or shopping tote, as well as a reusable lunch bag (I didn't even know those existed!). Most of these come from Money Saving Mom, if it's from someone else I'll let you know.

Whole Foods has a coupon for a Free Reusable Lunch Bag as an extra perk for Oprah viewers (and isn't everybody?)

If you bring in 3 empty plastic bottles to the Disney Store on Wednesday, April 22, 2009, they will give you a free gift (a shopping tote). Go here for details.

Go here to find out where you can print out a coupon for Walgreens to get yet another free tote . Not to mention an additional 15% to 20% off eligible items in the store. Not a bad deal. I think I'll be taking advantage of this one myself.

This one is mine: Check out your Albertson's flyer this week and there might be a coupon for a free reusable tote in it. Plus this one is good from 4/13-5/31, so if you get tired of or don't feel like running all over town picking up free totes, you can get this one on another day!

Here's another one you don't have to run right out for. Go here to find out where you can print a coupon for a FAR (Free After Rebate) package of their new 100% recycled Reynolds Wrap foil. You can take advantage of this rebate if you purchase anytime from now until May 4th, but you need to print out the form today!!!

That's all I see so far. If I see any more I will be sure to pass them along. Who knows maybe you will be able to take advantage of it if you see it in time :)

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Random Blog Sightings

I've recently decided that even though my blog is far from well viewed, there are many among my few followers that don't take the time to scour the blogosphere like I do and may miss some more important postings. In this spirit I'm going to take part in a practice that many other bloggers have and share some things I've come across in my searching.

The first of what I'm sure will be many worthwhile shared posts comes to us today from Money Saving Mom

Here she asks her readers about still being frugal while attempting to address food allergies. I know some of my readers have this issue, so I thought I would pass it along.

Enjoy!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Toys R' Us Easter Party!

This Saturday from 12-2 pm Toys R' Us is hosting an Easter Party!

Head on over to Good Deal Gal to find out all about it! Or as much about it as anyone knows ;)

Making up for lost time

Well I'm well enough to start shopping again, but it's taking a lot out of me, so no pictures yet.

I went to King Soopers at the tail end of last week's sale (as I seem to do most often) to take advantage of the Quaker deal. Since Last week was spring break and I'm not crazy enough to try to take my 3 kids shopping (especially when sick), I had to wait for school to start up again.

I was sitting on a ton of Quaker coupons but you could only do 4 at a time so it took 4 transactions.

#1.
4 boxes Cap'n Crunch (2 berries, 1 without, 1 peanut butter) - used 4 $.50/1 coupons (doubled) 4/$10 less $4 if you buy 4
2 Kroger Cottage Cheese $1 each
3 Kraft Shredded Cheese (2 mozzarella, 1 cheddar) 3/$5
2 3 lb bags Red Delicious apples $2.99 each

Total Spent: $15.77
Total Saved: $16.65 or 52%!

#2.
3 Quaker True Delights bars - used 3 $1/1 coupons
1 Quaker Fiber + Omega 3 bar
total for these 4/$10 less $4 if you buy 4
1 Eggland eggs $2 each
1 3 Musketeer Minis $3.39 (had a .50/1 coupon but forgot it)
1 10 lb potatoes $3.99
1 tub Country Crock Calcium Margarine $2.49
2.46 lb bananas .69 lb

Total Spent: $17.45
Total Saved: $12.56 or 43%!

#3.
4 boxes Quaker Life (3 regular, 1 maple brown sugar) - used 2 $1/2 coupons
4/$10 less $4 if you buy 4

The checker also let me use the missing .50/1 coupon from before (doubled)

Total Spent: $3.36
Total Saved: $ 8.76 or 74%!

#4.

4 boxes Quaker Life (3 regular, 1 maple brown sugar) - used 2 $1/2 coupons
4/$10 less $4 if you buy 4

Total Spent: $4.38
Total Saved: $7.76 or 65%!


Grand Total Spent: $40.96
Grand Total Saved: $45.73


It's always nice to come out ahead :)

Check out the latest deals and matches AND Mr. Linky at Let's Go Krogering on The New Frugal Mom!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Culinary Catastrophes - Bubble Pizza

It's time for another attempt to create something new for me in the kitchen and to see what I end up with.

Today I'm making Bubble Pizza. Of course, this wouldn't be my blog if I had all the necessary ingredients, my kids were willing to eat the ingredients or some part of me didn't interfere with the step by step procedure. With that in mind, here we go...

I started out with refrigerated grands biscuits (as opposed to the frozen package in the recipe). They also happened to be butter flavored, so I'm not quite sure what that will do to the flavor. Has anyone ever ordered buttered pizza before?

I also opted not to cut up the biscuits into quarters because, honestly I couldn't figure out why I should use an entire jar of pizza sauce when I had no toppings whatsoever (at least available to me right now). I placed the biscuits in rows of 2 and there was enough room in the baking dish for all 8 of them. I pushed down the center of each one to create a little grove for the sauce and ladled a spoonful or so of sauce into each one, smoothing it out.


I was going to try to take pictures , but I forgot so this is a few minutes into the oven.



I put them in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes (the package says 13-17) and then removed them to add the mozzarella cheese (I had the right cheese this time) sprinkled on top and then put them back in the oven for another 10 minutes.




So basically I have made fairly elaborate mini pizzas. Just sauce and cheese and nothing else. Beats English muffins in a toaster oven I guess. My prediction is that these will be a big hit as with no toppings my kids haven't met a pizza they didn't like LOVE. If something goes wrong I'll be sure to let you all know, otherwise tune in next week for another round of...




edit:I was right, my kids LOVED these! And having the biscuits butter flavored added a nice contrast to the tang of the sauce. I will definitely be making these again soon!

Monday, March 30, 2009

Saving my sanity at the dinner table (fully made dinners)

Well I'm coming off at least I hope I am an entire month of a flu-like-plague, or is it a plague-like-flu. As a result, even though I am well stocked with boxed meals and frozen meats, after this last week, which included a relapse of this bug, not to mention spring break, I don't have really anything complete to cook for dinner.

I'm working on making some more organized menus, but in the meantime, this is what I "made" tonight for dinner.

Betty Crocker - Roasted Garlic Potatoes
Green giant Steamers - Cheesy Rice and Broccoli
Fast Fixins - Popcorn Chicken

Believe it or not, it was a more complete dinner than usual, and it was a big hit! Maybe I'll be able to put more real meals together more often, in time, but for now, it's nice to know that my stockpile allows for an entire meal that feeds all 5 of us.

My boys are back in school this week, so I hope to replenish the things that allow me to turn my meat into a meal. Stay tuned, I'm sure I'll have another Culinary Catastrophe soon enough!