Just A Little Rant

I just need to vent a little about a couponing incident that occurred yesterday at HEB. After years of couponing I've discovered that some people who work at stores think they are the coupon experts when clearly they have no idea what they are talking about. I've had them try to tell me outrageous things and act like I'm the one who doesn't know what I'm doing when they've probably never used a coupon in their life. So back to yesterday, I've been under the impression and have found that some coupons have a store logo on it's face but is marked manufacturer's coupon at the top. I've used these coupons at any store without trouble many times. Yesterday my cashier looked young and a little inexperienced, I had two coupons with a Kroger logo on it but they were also manufacturer's coupons. She went to verify it with I guess a manager. She came back and told me I couldn't use them because they were Kroger coupons. I very nicely explained to her that she was wrong, she asked the manager to come over, I explained what I believed to be the coupon rules to her. She then told me that I was incorrect but she would let me use the coupons this one time but in the future I needed to understand that the manufacturer would only reimburse the store who's logo was pictured on the front. This may be true but I just had this funny feeling that she pulled this out of the air because she really wanted to have the last word and she was annoyed that I was using coupons (store employees do not like couponers). Don't think I'm going to let this rest, I'll find out if she is right or not.

Menu Plans, A Must Have This Week

When I sat down to plan this week's menu I realized it was going to be hard because I'm not going to have a lot of time to cook. Then next several days are full of birthday parties and The Kitchen Fairy jobs. Here is what Aaron and I came up with when we sat down to plan (I made him help because I wanted him on board, this makes things flow easier):

Friday- Eat Out
Saturday- Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches and French Fries
Sunday- Eat at Church
Monday- Dominoes Pizza
Tuesday- BBQ Sandwiches and Salad
Wednesday-Ham Casserole (this is depending on whether I have leftover ham from my catering job Monday night, if I don't have leftovers I'll pull some Honey Baked Ham out of the freezer and have chef salad)
Thursday- Chicken and Rice with Mixed Veggies

Wrapping Up The Week

I was pretty worried how I would do on my grocery budget after spending it entirely at Kroger on the second day of my two week period. Today finished the pay period with me only going over budget $23 for things like water and milk. I don't even want to talk about what I spent on coffee though, I might have to include a whole other line item in my budget for that. I'm going to try and stretch what I have over this new pay period and figure out how I'm going to wrangle in my out of control coffee cost.

I also completed my second week of doing http://www.flylady.net/ and I'm so lovin' it! The only thing that fell behind this week is my laundry, which I got caught up on today. I had such a busy weekend I only got one load of laundry done and Monday I only washed a load of sheets. The highlight of my week was getting some detailed cleaning done in my kitchen. I can't wait to start on my assignments next week, I love having the inspiration without the pressure.

A Great Find I Have To Share

Last year my mom started to do http://www.theflylady.net/ and she would at times pass on some tips that I found very helpful. After meaning to join myself for awhile now I finally did and completed my first week with it on Friday. Everyday you are sent a small list of things to do to maintain a clean house. Added in our some things to do to work on decluttering. I don't know how this works but it does! I hate how I have to either choose to clean all of the time to have a clean house or not clean at all to have fun, until now I've been unable to find a balance with this. This past week I spent very little time cleaning and my house stayed clean and my laundry was kept up with. Today, after a VERY busy weekend, instead of starting off the week with a mountain of laundry and a disastrous house I've just got my list of daily things to check off. I highly recommend that everyone give this a couple of weeks and see if it works for you, it's free and the worst that could happen is that you wouldn't find it helpful.

Menu Planning Day Is Here!

My family and I have become so spoiled to our little menu hanging on the side of the fridge, it totally takes the brain work out of meal time. Here's this week's menu:

Friday- King Ranch Chicken and salad
Saturday- Tacos
Sunday- Eat Out
Monday- Sausage and Fried Potatoes
Tuesday- Chicken and Rice Soup
Wednesday- Spaghetti
Thursday- Drumsticks and potato salad

The only thing I needed to make these meals are the ingredients for the King Ranch Casserole, this will come out of my The Kitchen Fairy money because I will be making extra for that. Other than that I was able to come up with enough meals from my stockpiles since I've already spent my grocery budget. So far I've only gone over about $20 so I'm pretty pleased with myself.

How To Start Saving On Groceries

I've had so many people come to me lately and ask how to start saving at the grocery store. After going through the steps with them I thought I should sit down and type it out.

Step 1: Before your next trip to the grocery store take inventory of your freezer, fridge and pantry. See how many meals or partial meals you can come up with from what you already have in the house.

Step 2: Plan at least a seven day menu including the meals you've just come up with. A great way to come up with menu ideas is to check the sale paper and plan from what's on sale. Then make sure you have every ingredient to prepare each meal, including sides and veggies. Make your grocery list based on what you need from the store to cook these meals. Don't forget to plan for breakfast, lunch, snacks and desserts.


Step 3: Now that you have your list made get out your coupons (if you don't clip them now is the time to start, my local library has a box where you can pick them up for free) match coupons with what is on your list. If the store has a great deal (especially if you have coupons to go along with it) on things you use regularly go ahead and buy two or three of them. If it's a great sale on meat you like then buy extra and freeze for another week. Doing this will slowly build you a stockpile so when there are weeks when you need to cut back on your grocery budget you can use what you have.

Following these steps will enable you to see a gradual savings and in a matter of months you should see a more significant one.

Budget Bummer

I'm totally bummed out because I spent my entire grocery budget yesterday at Kroger. I have plenty of food so it's not like we'll have to go with out it's just that I'll still need milk, water and I'm sure a few other things and that will push me over budget. I have to understand that with a budget that low ($200 a month, $100 every two weeks) I'm going to go over sometimes. I decided I rather aim to keep it low and just take the chance of going over than raise it and be spending more because I have it, because that's what I'd do. Last night I watched Suze Orman and Until Debt Do Us Part, I love watching those shows on Saturday night, it keeps me inspired throughout the week. I know several of you have been working on menu planning and budgeting for groceries, how's it going?

My Dirty Little Secret

The past five years since we've lived in this house I've been struggling with mildew in the shower of my master bathroom. Even though both bathrooms in my house have the same tile only the master has proven hard to keep clean. It had become so bad that I would just let it go completely until it made me sick to look at, it was my dirty little secret. I was so frustrated because I had tried every cleaner I could find to keep it clean, even those Scrubbing Bubbles automatic shower cleaners. When I was reading America's Cheapest Family they suggested keeping a spray bottle with a little bleach and some water in the shower and spraying it a couple of times a week to keep the mildew away. I figured it was worth a try so I started doing that last week and I noticed today that my shower is cleaner than I have ever seen it! This may be something that everybody else already knows but I am so happy to not have my dirty little secret anymore!

I Did It!!!!

I completed this past pay period without going over my grocery budget. Although I was VERY tempted by some good deals at Kroger I really wanted to stay within budget so I passed. Now hopefully that won't reflect negatively on my stockpile in weeks to come. I've got my menu planned for this week and I'll need the following.

• lettuce


• tomato


• Bread


• Alfredo sauce


• Beef Ribs

• Shredded Cheese

My menu for the week:

Friday- Turkey and Dressing (yes, this is leftover from Thanksgiving, I had it in the freezer)

Saturday- Rollatini (ended up with roast leftovers so we didn't have this last week)

Sunday- Eat @ Church

Monday-Tuna Salad Sandwiches or Chef Salad

Tuesday- Beef Ribs (in the crock pot)

Wednesday- Smothered Steak

Thursday- Taco Soup

Menu Plan and Grocery Budget

This week's Menu:


Supper
Fri- Ribeyes
Sat- Hot dogs
Sun- Make Italian Sandwiches for Church
Mon- Roast
Tues- Hot Wings
Wed- Meatballs
Thurs- Chicken Rollatini


Breakfast will be cereal, poptarts, pancakes ( still have some in the freezer) and waffles.
For lunch will have sandwiches, Mac and cheese, frozen pizza and nachos (I'm planning on using some beans from the freezer.

All I need from the store this week to make these meals is; syrup, Alfredo Sauce, french fries, carrots and shredded cheese. This brings me to my grocery budget, I still have $20 for this week. That should cover what I need to buy to make the meals on my menu. The only problem I'm finding is my stockpile of meat is running low, after this week I have about a week or week and a half worth of meat left in the freezer. I'll have to use next pay periods grocery budget to stock back up so hopefully it will be on sale. There are some good sale items at Kroger and HEB that I'd like to take advantage of but I really don't want to go over budget so I'm trying to decide whether I should or not.

My Menu Plan For The Week

Yesterday Aaron earned some serious husband points. While I was out with Raegan all day running errands he was at home cleaning and BBQing. He cooked pork ribs, pork chops, drumsticks, sausage and smoked a ham. All but the ribs went in the freezer for later meals.

Supper
Fri- Ribs
Sat- Eat Out
Sun- Eat @ Church
Mon- Frozen Pizza
Tues- Chicken Drumsticks
Wed- Lasagna
Thurs- Tacos

All I needed from the store to serve these meals were lettuce and shredded cheese. I bought milk, bread, eggs and grapes for the week along with other sale items I stocked up on (see previous post).

Breakfast will alternate between cereal, the pancakes I (successfully) made last week and waffles.

Lunch is the usual, sandwiches, mac and cheese and Ramen noodles with some leftovers mixed in.

So Far So Good!

There's lots on my mind today so bear with me while I ramble on. Last night Aaron and I had a MUCH over do family budget meeting. I feel very firmly that we both need to be on the same page if we're ever going to be successful in our finances. It's hard to make a family budget work if we have different ideas about where the money should go and how much should be spent. If both of us spend the same $10 on different things then all of the sudden our checking account is thrown off. It went well and I'm hoping this year is off to an even better start than the last 6 months have been. As far as my grocery budget for this pay period of two weeks I've spent $75 dollars of the $100. If I average my budget out that's $50 a week so I've already dipped into next weeks by $25. That should be fine, I don't see why I'll need to go over. My grocery money was spent this way:

Walgreen's $14.50 ( Starbucks Frappuccino 4-pack, 3 cans of Ripe Olives, 4 packages of Poptarts and 4 snickers bars)

CVS $7.50 ( 2 Skintimate Shave gels, 2 canisters of Planter's trail mix)

Kroger $53.00 (too much to list)

Beanie Business

My kids love greenbeans but I personally haven't been happy with how mine have been turning out. I've experimented with steamed, which I love but the kids hated. Then I tried the Duggar's recipe:

SPECTACULAR SAUTEED GREEN BEANS
Sauté on high till bubbly:1/2 c. Bragg’s™ Liquid Amino 1 whole bulb garlic, pressed Add:1 5lb. bag frozen whole Green Beans Stir well, Cover & Cook on high, stirring occasionally until desired tenderness.(Bragg’s™ is much better than soy sauce, & makes a big difference in flavor.) Everyone’s favorite including company!More of the Voeller’s healthy recipes can be found at http://www.thetwosisters.com/

I love it but the kids.....yep, they hated it. So tonight I tried something different. I cooked the greenbeans in chicken broth with a little butter and The Lady's House Seasoning. I was so good and everyone loved it!!! Success at last!


The Lady's House Seasoning:

Ingredients
1 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder

Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Success With Pancakes!

I have a history of not being very good with pancakes but my kids love them and I knew it would be great to make a double batch so I could freeze some. Yesterday I was feeling pretty confident that I could make it happen, so confident in fact that I went a head and whipped up a double batch. This is scary to me because I really hate waste of any kind so if I hadn't been successfull I would have wasted not just one batch but two. Now mind you it's just Bisquick and I do have an awesome from scratch recipe from my mom but I'm not going to push it. Well much to my surprise they turned out beautifully. Raegan even helped cook most of them (maybe that's why) she experimented with sprinkles and chocolate chips. I now have three freezer bags with pancakes in the freezer for another morning!

Also yesterday I made several batches of Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas for The Kitchen Fairy, one was our supper. Instead of boiling all of the chicken I grilled three of the breast on the George Foreman (this takes 6 minutes, amazing!). I've been meaning to do this because I love that already cooked chicken at the grocery store, it's great for quick salads, which we love and other things. My one problem is I'm super cheap and it doesn't fit into my $50 a week budget. I did put them in the freezer but I'm afraid I should have flash frozen them. Isn't that what you call it when you lay them out in the freezer to freeze up quickly before you bag them up so they won't stick together? Well I think I should have done that and I didn't, I guess I'll find out.

My mom has managed to not only create an amazing Enchilada Sauce recipe (which is now a top secret The Kitchen Fairy recipe:) but also an equally amazing Spanish Rice one as well (not top secret:)
So yesterday I tried my hand at it and although it was not as good as hers it was good enough. It made so much, like I hoped it would, that I was able to freeze two more meals worth!!!

So at the end of the day and I know it sounds like I spent all day in the kitchen but I didn't, I put away the following in the freezer:

Pancakes (2 meals)
(3) Grilled Chicken Breast
Spanish Rice (2 meals)

I also made 4 pans of Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas, one we ate last night (we do have leftovers) and the others to be delivered today.

These are the things I am hoping will keep me within the budget I'm wanting and create more ease at meal time.

Stromboli Recipe

This recipe is a little gem I found several years ago in Taste of Home magazine. It gets rave reviews from family and friends and is frequently requested for birthday meals.


Three-Meat Stromboli Recipe http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Three-Meat-Stromboli-2

32 Servings
Prep: 20 min. + rising Bake: 25 min.
Ingredients
4 loaves (1 pound each) frozen bread dough, thawed
1/2 pound thinly sliced deli salami
1/2 pound thinly sliced deli ham
1/2 pound thinly sliced pepperoni
1/2 pound thinly sliced provolone cheese
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Romano or Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon pepper
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
Directions
Let dough rise until doubled, according to package directions.
Punch down. Roll each loaf into a 15-in. x 12-in. rectangle. Arrange a fourth of the salami, ham, pepperoni and provolone cheese over each rectangle. Sprinkle each with a fourth of the mozzarella cheese, Romano cheese, garlic powder, oregano, parsley and pepper.
Roll up each rectangle jelly-roll style, beginning with a long side. Seal seams and ends. Place seam side down on two greased baking sheets. Brush with egg yolk.
Bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand for 5 minutes before slicing. Serve warm. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 4 loaves (8 slices each).


Marinara Recipe (we like to dip ours in it)

14 oz can of petite diced tomatoes
140z can of tomato sauce
1 clove of garlic, minced
chopped onion
1 tsp Italian seasoning
3 Tbs of brown sugar

Simmer all ingredients together about 20 minutes.

My Last Shopping Trip For The Week....Hopefully

I ran to HEB this evening while the kids were at church which turned out to be a bad time to shop, it was c-razy in there! I was planning on this being my only shopping for this week and I knew I'd probably not be able to stay within the $20 I had remaining in my grocery budget to spend. I really only "needed" a few of the items I bought but there were some great deals I wanted to take advantage of. I'm hoping I'll be able to create a snowball effect and eventually be spending less but we shall see, it's all experimental. I came away spending approximately $60 putting me $40 over the $20 I wanted to spend. I came home with the following:

(2) Red Baron Pizzas (2/$5 used two 55 cent of coupons)

Red Baron French Bread Pizza (free w/purchase)

Ceaser Dressing (Free with purchase)

Pork Spare Ribs ( $1.77 lb. Aaron loves to put these on the pit so I buy them and other items he likes to smoke when they are on sale and when I get several he cooks them all in one day and I freeze it for individual meals later on)

Tyson Chicken Fries (used a $1 off coupon and got some freebies w/ it)

Zatarain's Rice (no coupon but it's the only kind I like and I was completely out)

Wing Sauce ($1 coupon made it $2.15)

HEB Orange Soda 2 ltr. (free w/purchase)

(4) 12 pack cans of Dr. Pepper (4 for $10)

Hot Wings ( Regular price but came with freebies)

Salsa Bowl (free w/purchase)

Canola Oil (regular price but I was out)

2 lbs of Sausage ($6 my family likes the "good" kind)

Bottled Water ( regular price but we're very picky)

Ranch Dressing (free w/purchase)

Potato Chips (free w/purchase)

I don't plan on going back to the store for the rest of the week, especially since I've already spent more than I wanted to.

This Week's Menu

I had a request to post my menu and explain how I'm planning on doing it with a $50 a week food budget. I'm only going to post Monday through Thursday but I've been making my menu plan Friday through Thursday. Aaron is off on Friday's so that is kind of the start of my weekend.



Mon- Enchiladas and Beans ( I'll be making several pans of Enchiladas for The Kitchen Fairy http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Kitchen-Fairy/289155151121 so I'll make a pan for us. The beans I have in the freezer, I cook a big pot at a time and freeze them in bags. Beans freeze wonderfully and thaw quickly)

Tues- Spaghetti ( Saturday night I made Strombolli, we like to dip ours in Marinara sauce so I'm going to add the leftover marinara to some ground beef and cook some pasta. The canned tomatoes used in the marianara were bought for 25 cents to 50 cents a piece when on sale and were in my stockpile so they didn't come out of this week's budget. The same goes for the ground beef and pasta, it too was bought during a previous sale I had stocked up on. I'll probably make some garlic bread, I have that in the freezer too because Kroger keeps a clearance bread rack so I stock up everytime I'm there.)

Wed- Mini Meatloaves ( When I make these for The Kitchen Fairy I put some aside and freeze for us because they too freeze beautifully and thaw quickly. I'll probably make some mashed potatoes to go with it, potates have been on sale a lot lately and they keep in the fridge for a long time so I've got plenty. I'll pull a bag of frozen veggies out to steam also, they rarely go on sale but the Kroger brand is only 88 cents a bag.)

Thurs- Shredded Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches & French Fries ( This is a new recipe I have yet to try, I got it from a fellow menu planner of Facebook I'll repost it below. The buns are in my freezer I bought them clearanced out at HEB for 50 cents a bag. We'll have french fries to go with it, even when the name brand is on sale it's still not as cheap as the store brand and store brand french fries are one thing I don't mind.


Lunches will be leftovers for Aaron and for us it varies between sandwiches, canned or Ramen Noodle soup and sandwiches. I always keep fresh veggies and fruits that I cut up and serve with most of our meals.

Breakfast will be alternated between cereal (I stockpile that when it' on sale and I have coupons to combine with it), waffles (I have a freezer full because they were on sale last week) and I'm going to try my hand at making pancakes again. If the pancakes turn out well I'll make a bunch on my griddle and freeze them for quick breakfasts in the future.


Shredded Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches in the crockpot.

Recipe:
4 boneless & skinless chicken breasts, a bottle of buffalo wing sauce (about 17.5 oz), 1/2 of a 1oz dry ranch salad dressing packet. Mix the dry ranch & hot sauce together. Put the chicken breasts in a large freezer bag & pour the sauce on top, then freeze.

Thaw in the fridge or on the defrost setting in the microwave. Dump it into your crockpot & cook on low for 6-8 hours. Shred with 2 forks, & serve on a bun. This is also really good as a buffalo chicken pizza!

I'll post the following weeks menu when I get it planned.

Update On Things...

We started our second week of meal plans. I was surprised at how easy it was to do. I sat down with my calendar, a list of things I could make and in less than twenty minutes had a seven day meal plan. My family is really getting into, they love going and seeing what we're having to eat. Even Aaron is liking it, he gets excited when stuff he likes is on the schedule and thanks me (whoa!). Today the kids and I were gone during lunch and when I got home he had eaten what was on the schedule, awesome:) Last night I went to a Homemade Gourmet party, I hadn't been to one in years. It was very inspiring, they have all sorts of seasoning mixes and recipes that you can use to plan ahead and freeze which is right up my alley. I think I'm going to look into a little more and see if it fits in with my budget.

Speaking of budgets I realized that I was never going to be able to stick to my $50 a week grocery budget if I included household and cleaning items with it. So I decided to make a separate budget of $40 every two weeks for that. I'm not sure if that will work but it's something to start with. After adjusting that if gave me $50 back for my grocery budget which is what I have to work with this coming week. I'll probably be cutting it close because I've already spent $30 of that but I think so far I've done well with this being my first pay period to try it.

Menu Planning and Grocery Budget Cut Day Five

This is the fifth day of on my all meal planning schedule. It's been going even better than I anticipated. It turns out the kids and even my husband like going to the refrigerator, looking up the day on the schedule and seeing what we're going to be eating. Not only has it cut back on waste and meal time mayhem but the best part is I don't have to constantly hear, " I'm hungry, what's there to eat?". This is something I will definitely keep doing, I wish I would have started it a long time ago.

Today also marks day 5 of my grocery budget cut, the bad part is I've already spent all of my grocery budget for the next 9 days. In doing this it has occurred to me that even though I don't want to, I might have to either include more or create a separate budget for household items such as cleaners, paper goods and misc.

Taking It A Step Further

I've done menu planning since I got married, in fact I'm not sure how people function without it. My planning has always been for our evening meals ( dinner, supper or whatever the correct term is) and in recent years an occasional weekend breakfast or lunch. Now that my kids are able to fix their own breakfast and lunch my kitchen has become total insanity during these meals. I realize there is no way to stop this unless I implement meal planning for these times too. Another problem I believe this will solve is those days when it's lunch time and I realize that even with a full fridge and pantry I don't have the ingredients to make something to eat. Like we have sandwich meat and no bread or the other way around. I'm going to start this week off with planning our daily lunches and sticking to it, just like supper time, you can take or leave it but this is what we're having.

Banana Nut Bread Recipe

This was passed to me from my mom and I think it's the best one I've ever tasted.

Banana Nut Bread

1/2 C Butter
1 1/2 C Sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 C Flour
1/2 C Buttermilk (Mix 1/2 milk with 1 1/2 tsp vinegar and let sit for a few minutes)
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
2 or 3 Bananas
1 C Pecans or Walnuts (optional)

Mash bananas, set aside. In seperate bowl mix dry ingredients. In another bowl cream butter and sugar, add eggs, milk and vanilla. Mix with dry ingredients, then bananas. You can mix in the nuts or sprinkle on top after you pour in a greased pan. Bake at 350* until golden brown.

Making The Most Of A Great Deal

Last weekend I found a large bag of bananas in the produce clearance basket at HEB for 99 cents. I grabbed them up planning on baking a bunch of banana bread. Today they were good and ripe so I made a triple batch of my recipe and got 2 loaves of bread and a dozen muffins out of it. I put the two loaves and 6 of the muffins in the freezer. Banana Bread like most freezes great and it's perfect to pull out when you're going on a trip, I usually don't have time to bake before we leave, for last minute get-togethers or unexpected company, which happens all of the time at my house. I feel like I got so much out of the 99 cents I spent just adding staples from my pantry.

I went out and did some sale shopping and I am super excited about some of the great deals I got today. I won't list them all because I bought so much but I had $5 off Swiffer Wet Jet coupon, it was on sale at Target for $18.29. I paired it with some Bounty paper towels, which I had a 75 cent off coupon for, to get the $5 Target gift card. Also at Target I printed off two coupons for $3/2 Market Pantry Boneless Skinless Chicken. The chicken was on sale for $6 a bag so I bought four bags. At Walgreens I spent $2.97 after using $2 in register rewards from last weeks purchases and walked out with a Bic lighter, a can and two jars of Olives. I spent a total of $109 today after going to Kroger, Target and Walgreens and came home with what I listed above as well as things like 2 half gallons of Blue Bell Ice Cream, three packages of batteries, three Febrezes, Kraft Shredded cheese (B1G1 at Kroger). With my pantry and freezer pretty well stocked I'm going to start buying only sale/coupon items and see if I can get my Grocery budget down to my goal of half ($65 a week).

Serious Savings At CVS

Today's trip to CVS:

2 Crest toothpaste $2.99 each used (2) 75 cent off coupons, received $4 in extra care bucks so it was like I paid 48 cents for both

2 boxes of Special K, 1 box of Multigrain Cheerios 3/$10 had a $1 dollar and 75 cent off coupon, received $4 in extra care bucks so it was like I paid $1.41 each

2 boxes of Rice Krispies, 2 boxes of Fruit Loops, 2 boxes of Corn Pops, on sale for $1.79 each, two $1 off coupons making them $1.46 a box

I spent $20.39 after adding $1 in extra care bucks from my last trip to my coupons, I received a total of $8 in extra care bucks for my next trip so it was like I spent $12.39!!!

Microwave Living vs. Crockpot Living

Today this was posted on the Dave Ramsey FB status: Around here we do crockpots, not microwaves. Then it hit me, I had already realized that part of my problem with money is that I was always looking for a way to put our finances on the fast track to recovery . I'm not sure how I missed Dave refering to the crockpot method of doing things when we took the course but I did. I guess I've just always been a microwave kind of person. I started to slow it down a lot last year and I'm continuing to do that this year, or at least that's my goal. I'm planning on waiting for God to do things instead of making them him happen myself. Instead of microwaving my finances I started taking the approach of the crockpot, getting the most of what I have and chipping away at what I want gone. One way of doing this is working on cutting my grocery budget in half. I know I won't be able to do it right away but hopefully by the summer I'll be there. One way of doing this is by revamping my coupon system. I didn't realize I had out grown my old one until I watched the "Extreme Couponing" and realized there was a more efficient way of doing it. So last night after we went to Fuddruckers for 99 cent kids meals where we all ate for $18 I went over to Target and bought me a zip up binder and some baseball card pages. The last two days I've been on a total organizing kick which is great because it's been awhile. Since I'm on this kick it was the perfect time for me to get my new couponing system going. So on the organzing note, I managed to get my pantry organized, my Kitchen Fairy cabinet organized and my tupperware cabinet. So crockpot living it is!!!

My Brag For The Week

Had a great week saving money, I hit the Target 75% off toy aisle on Friday a day late but was still able to get some great deals.

2 Leapster games was 24.89 now 6.22
3 Puppy In My Pockets was 9.99 now 2.48
Mini Skateboard was 4.99 now 1.24
Playskool Action Heros was 14.99 now 3.74
Iron Man 2 Lego Set was 28.49 now 7.1
Polly Pocket Fashion Magic Stage was 34.99 now 8.74
Atlantis Lego Set was 10.99 now 5.48
2 Iron Man 2 Lego Sets was 5.99 now 1.49
Iron Man 2 Lego Set was 9.99 now 2.48
Littlest Pet Shop w/ trading cards was 19.99 now 4.98
Twilight Board Game was 15.09 now 3.77
Kung Zhu Mission Control was 12.99 now 3.24
Zhu Zhy Pet Fun House was 12.99 now 3.24
Littlest Pet Shop Puzzle was 4.99 Now 2.48
Kid Tough Video Camera was 44.99 now 11.24
Zhu Zhu Pet Elevator was 20.99 now 5.02

Regular Price Total with tax= $355
Sale Price total with Tax= $91
Total money saved= $264

Another great deal I came upon this week is 6 different Lysol brand cleaners for $5. I had six
couponsand they were on sale at Walgreens for BOGO! I'm new to the Walgreens/CVS shopping so I'm still learning. Like this week I lost $2 in register rewards on Pantene products. The sale was 2/$7 with $2 in register rewards, I had coupons for $3 off 2 so that would have made each of the 4 Pantene products $1 each. Unfortunately I can only get the register rewards for one of those purchases, I needed to do two seperate transactions. I was bummed about the $2 I lost but next time I'll know.

This year my goal is to cut my grocery bill in half. I want to bring it from $4oo dollars a month down to $200. This is including household items like cleaners, toothpaste, shampoo, ect. I've been looking at my last couple of shopping trips and realized that if I plan my meals according to what's on sale on not just what I feel like making,along with my coupons, I'll come out a lot cheaper. At least that's what I hope, we'll see. This will cause me to make more trips to the grocery store but if it will cut down my grocery bill it will be worth it. I've got some debt for that extra money to go to!