Menu Plans - Grilling!

Even though it's still technically spring, I feel that the summer season is officially underway!We're definitely getting into grilling; we had a wonderful meal of grilled tilapia last night, and we even ate out on the deck.

We're continuing to grill a number of meals on the weekend and use them throughout the week. It's so tasty, and it makes weeknight dinners a snap! Last night we also grilled hamburgers, potatoes, and onions to use during the week.

Here's my two-week menu plan:

Mon - Sweet and Sour Pork Stir-fry, rice, fruit

Tues - Shredded beef au jus, potatoes, salad

Wed - Chilled melon soup, shredded beef au jus

Thurs - Grilled hamburgers, potatoes, corn

Fri - Creamy tomato soup, grilled cheese, salad
Sat - Pepperoni pasta, salad, bread
Sun - hamburgers, hot dogs, brats (hosting a BBQ for my moms' group)

Mon - Chinese Orange beef (I'm really going to make it this week!)

Tues - leftovers from Sunday (softball game)

Wed - Homemade pizza
Thurs - Leftover Chinese orange beef

Fri - Grilled tilapia

Sat - Chicken kabobs

Sun - church picnic (bring dessert)

Check out more menus at Menu Planning Monday.

Printable Coupons

It's the end of the month, so the coupons.com coupons from the coupon widget on my sidebar will be changed in the next couple of days. Be sure to print any of the current coupons that you want today!

Some of the best coupons that are still available are the following:

$1/1 Kraft BBQ sauce (Use this to get it free at Wegmans and other stores.)
$1/1 Ritz crackers
$.75/1 Kraft deli deluxe cheese
$1/1 A-1 steak sauce
$.50/10 packets of Kool-Aid
$.75/1 Solo plates, cups, or bowls (This would be a great deal for a summer get BBQ, especially if doubled or tripled.)
$1.00/1 Kraft Bagelfuls (can get these free with this coupon and the "coupon doublers" at Giant this week)

To print any of these coupons, just click "see all coupons" on the coupon widget on my right sidebar.

My Mega Shopping Trip!

Last night, as soon as my husband walked in the door, I left for a mega bargain shopping trip, hitting three stores: Harris Teeter, Shoppers, and Giant. Michael is going to help a friend move today, and since we have one car, I wouldn't be able to do these errands this morning. So, I had a peaceful but late Friday night date with myself and my coupons!

I spent a lot of time yesterday afternoon organizing my coupons for each store and figuring out what deals I wanted. For Harris Teeter, I used this extensive list here. For Shoppers, I checked out Redemption Unlimited's database, as well Gina's Shoppers trip here. And for Giant, of course, I got the deals from Frugal in Virginia.

So, like a general who had planned his strategy and marshaled his troops, I left for battle. Here are my "spoils of war":

Harris Teeter: $27.90 (original total: $75)

Shoppers: $13.73 (original total: $43)

Giant: $21.77 (original total: $53)

Total spent: $63.40 (includes 10 pounds of meat!)

Other shopping this week

Giant - $52.73 (for May)

Monthly Totals

May total: $342.25 (Last night's trip started my June shopping

June: $63.40

Total left in June budget: $286.90

I couldn't resist taking a picture of all my freebies! Hurray for free groceries!

Of course, I got all these wonderful bargains on my shopping trip, and what did I forget? Milk!!!

Taking Today Off

I just wanted to let you all know that I won't be posting today. I had company this morning, and I also need to do a few things around the house.

However, one of the things I'll be doing is planning my Harris Teeter triple coupons and Shoppers double coupons run for this evening. Look for my Super Savings Saturday post tomorrow to see what deals I scored!

Frugal Meal: Chicken Pasta Salad

The other night for dinner, I whipped up one of my favorite summer meals: pasta salad. I love this dish because it's quick and easy to put together, and you can keep in the fridge and pull it out for a healthy lunch or dinner any time.

I realized as I was making it that almost all of the ingredients I used were coupon deals, making the cost of this dish extremely low. Here's what I used.

1 12-oz. bag Wacky Mac = free (triple coupons)

1 bag Bird's Eye Steamfresh mixed vegetables = about $.50 in a Harris Teeter deal

part of a bottle Kraft Italian dressing = $.05 (bottle was $.09 on a Target deal)

1 chicken breast that we grilled on the weekend @ $1.99/lb. = $1.00

a few slices of pepperoni leftover from making pizza = $.50

Total spent: $2.05

The big bowl of pasta salad served me and my husband for dinner, plus 4 lunches.

So that works out to: $.33/serving!

When my fresh herbs come in, I hope to experiment with making some fresh salad dressings, but for now the bottled dressing made this a snap to put together.

Eating Healthy on a Budget

Recently I was listening to a discussion by some other moms about how they spend a good deal of money to buy organic and natural products for their families. At first I started to feel bad, because quite honestly we can't afford a lot of organic products at this time in our lives.

However, I as I thought more about the conversation, I realized that there are lots of strategies that I am able to use make sure that my family is eating a healthy and wholesome diet, even on a tight budget, and that there are even additional strategies that I could work on incorporating into our lives.

Here are some of my ideas:

- Cooking and baking from scratch - This is one of the main ways that I create a healthy diet for our family. I normally bake all of our bread, as well as other baked goods such as muffins, bagels, and cookies. This ensures that I can control what goes into them and eliminates all the extra sugar, preservatives, and additives found in commercial baked goods. I also always cook dinner from scratch, and I rarely use bottled or packaged sauces or seasonings, eliminating a ton of sodium.

- Focusing on less expensive healthy foods - To read some magazines, you would think that you have to rely on edamame and avocados to be healthy! However, inexpensive apples and bananas are also packed with nutrients. Frozen or even canned fruits and vegetables can also be a good option. I have read that frozen vegetables can have even more nutrients than fresh, since they were frozen at their peak, instead of sitting on a produce truck for a week.

- Buying produce in season - We always eat with the seasons: asparagus in the spring, melons in the summer, oranges in the winter. Except for simple staples like apples or potatoes, I rarely buy fruits and vegetables that are not in season. This is a no-brainer for me, since seasonal produce is usually fresher, tastier, more local, and much less expensive!

- Growing your own organic produce - This is something that we're working on as a family. Organic produce may be expensive to buy, but growing your own should ultimately cost less even than buying conventionally grown produce. Plus, it's so much fresher and tastes way better!

- Using coupons for healthy and/or organic products - There are plenty of coupons out there for healthy products, and even a good number of coupons for organic products. Some of the healthy products that I have gotten on great coupon deals or even free include yogurt, steam-in-the-bag frozen vegetables, Eggland's Best eggs, organic cereal, and Muir Glen and Kashi products. For coupons for organic products, try http://www.mambosprouts.com/ and http://www.organicvalley.com/. If you watch for sales and match them with coupons, you could probably at least reduce the cost of some organics to the same as the regular price of conventional products.

- Using savings in other areas to pay for more expensive items - Lately I have been trying to ensure that my family eats more fresh fruits and vegetables. It does cost more to buy more fresh produce, but because of all the money I have saved in other ways, I have been able to easily work the cost into our budget. And that idea goes with my last strategy:

- Decide what your priorities are - Many of us might ideally like to eat an entirely organic diet, but if that is not practical, decide on an alternative. Maybe you buy all organic produce or meat but stick with conventional products for other items. Or maybe, like me, you don't buy a lot of organic products, but you try to focus on eating homemade items and whole foods. As with many aspects of the frugal lifestyle, it's important to know what your goal is and then figure out ways to make it happen.

Check out Works for Me Wednesday at We Are That Family.

Restaurant.com Deal

Restaurant.com is running one of their 80% off promotions again! You can get $25 gift certificates to participating restaurants in your area for just $2! Click on the icon above and use code SPECIAL through May 30.

As always, read the fine print for each restaurant before purchasing, but it's usually something reasonable like spending $35 or buying two entrees. Sometimes you can't use them on Friday and Saturday as well.

We just used our first restaurant.com gift certificate at a local pizzeria not long ago. I had paid $2 for the $25 gift card, and it required us to spend $35. With that, we had dinner in the restaurant, plus brought home almost two whole large pizzas! With tax and tip, we spent under $20 for over three restaurant meals! Wow!

Tuesday Tip

A quick, painless money saving tip every Tuesday

Save bread crumbs in a bag in the freezer and use them later in recipes. I keep a quart size freezer bag on my freezer door and put in it the crumbs from the cutting board when I slice homemade bread, cracker crumbs from the bottom of the box, and any ends of bread that have gotten stale. Then when I go to make meatloaf or something similar, I dump the contents of the bag in the food processor, pulse once or twice to even out the crumbs, and add them to the recipe.

This might sound silly or gross, but if you think about it, the crumbs are part of the same bread or crackers that you've been eating, only broken up. As long as you're saving the crumbs from a bag, box, or clean cutting board, they should be perfectly fine!

I started doing this a few months ago, and it's amazing how quickly the bag fills up! It's one of the those little things that can actually make a difference, both physically and psychologically. It makes me feel good to know that not only am I not wasting any part of our bread, but I am also saving a few slices of bread and thus a few pennies every time I cook with breadcrumbs.

Garden Update

Well, as I briefly mentioned last week, our garden is finally planted!



After anticipating this year's garden since last spring, we (quite literally) got off to a rocky start with it. It was a lot more work than we expected to dig the plot in our yard. My husband spent 3 or 4 weekends mainly digging out the grass and rocks, including one huge rock that we had to easy out of the ground using logs as levers.

Also, I don't think I've mentioned what happened to most of the seeds that I excitedly reported on starting a few weeks back. After I realized that they needed more light in order to germinate, I started putting them out on the porch each day. Well, it just took one windy day while we were out doing errands . . . I came back to find a sad little upturned egg carton in our yard and that was the end of most of our seeds. The jalapenos were the only ones still inside, so we still have those.

We ended up just planting most our seeds right in the ground. So far, the herbs are enthusiastically coming up; I'm sure we'll have plenty of parsley, cilantro, and basil (not to mention our ever-present mint). Also, I just noticed yesterday that the cucumbers are coming up in the garden bed. Hurray! Sprouted seeds are such a sign of hope!

I was feeling really discouraged for a while, but my husband encouraged me to stick it out. This is a learning experience for our family, and as we hope to do it every year, we'll just learn as we go along. One thing I wish I had done is to educate myself more on basic gardening procedure and tips before starting; I will definitely be trying to read more about it this year and over the next fall and winter.

Does anyone have any good gardening books/websites/blogs to recommend for beginners?

Wegmans Deals

Check out this week's Wegmans deals at Frugal in Virginia.

And if you're in the Fredericksburg, VA area, I have good news! You have a Wegmans coming your way in June!

Weekly Deal Roundup

The best deals for the week . . . from the blogosphere and beyond . . .

Memorial Deal Weekend deals - good through today only:

You can get free shipping with no minimum at Landsend.com, using promotion code MEMORIALDAY and pin 00002958. Select summer favorites, including swim suits and shorts are also 30% off, which also applies to the Landsend shop at Sears stores.

Gymboree has an extra 20% off sale items going on through today, as well the ability to earn $25 in "Gymbucks" with a $50 purchase. If you got any Gymboree coupons in the mail, this would be the perfect time to use them. I went to my local Gymoree outlet on Saturday morning and found some really cheap sale items, such as shirts for $3.99 and dresses for $9.99. You can earn Gymbucks at Gymboree outlets too, but you cannot use Gymboree coupons.

Other deals:

A lot of the good Kraft coupons are still up on coupons.com. There are also a few new coupons of note, including $1.50 off Tazo tea (my sister loves that stuff), $1.50 off Starbucks coffee, and $.45 off six Yoplait yogurts (if you double that and combine with a sale, it's almost like getting 2 free yogurts!). (You can print all these coupons from the coupons.com widget on my sidebar. Just click "see all coupons.)

If you like to buy organic products, go here to print coupons from Organic Valley. These expire 30 days from the day you print them, so don't print them until you think you'll use them soon.

And for my local readers:

At my local Giant store yesterday, I found a cart full of "Cottontails" diapers for 50% off! I got a box of 84 size 3 diapers for $8.99, which works out to $.10/diaper, beating my usual Walmart price. I've never tried this particular brand of diapers, but for that price I thought they were worth a try! I don't know if this is available at any other stores; please let me know if you find them at your store.

Weekly CVS Deals

Here are my top picks of the CVS deals this week. There are some good freebies, especially if you go today (some deals are only good Sunday and Monday this week). You can check out the full list of deals at Frugal Coupon Living.

Good only through Monday:

Clearasil Stayclear Face Wash $3.99 (get $3.99 ECBs) Limit 1
$1 SS 4/19
= $1 MONEYMAKER after ECBs

Playtex Gentle Glide or Sport Tampons $3.99 (get $3 ECBs) Limit 1
$1 SS 3/22$1 printable
= FREE after ECBs

Bandaids $2.99 (get $2 ECBs) Limit 2
$.50 RP 5/17$1 SS 2/8$1 SS 3/15
$1 RP 4/26
= $.49 - FREE after ECBs
(This is such a useful item to get free, especially when you have an active toddler!)

(There are a coupon of other good Monday only deals here.)

Good the whole week:

B1G1 Sobe, Propel, or Gatorade Limit 8
B1G1 printable
= FREE

B1G1 Post Trail Mix Cereal
$2 printable
= varies - at least 50% (before coupons – use two you are getting two items)
(I like this cereal. It's kind of like grapenuts, but tastier and with raisins.)

Remember:
SS - stands for Smart Source (one of the coupon inserts in the Sunday paper).
RP - stands for Red Plum (another newspaper coupon insert).
P&G - stands for Proctor & Gamble coupon insert
The dates refer to the date of the paper that carried that insert.
ECB - stands for Extra Care Bucks.

Stocking up at Target

Here's what I've been stocking up with at Target the past two weeks:

Nabisco 100 Calorie Packs - FREE
Apples - about $.19/lb.
Crackers - $.50/box

This picture is the result of about 4 trips to Target over the past two weeks. The Target coupons say one per transaction, and although I don't think the cashier ever notices, I try to abide by that. Luckily for me, Target is basically across the street from my house, so it's easy for me to run there in the evening.

I got the coupon matchups for these Target deal from Money Saving Mom and Stretching a Buck.

And here's how I'm doing on the grocery budget this month:

This week:

CVS - $2.14

Target - $18.93 & $4.93

Wegmans - $91.60

Total this week: $117.6

Total this month: $290.52

Total left in budget: $59.48

Check out other bloggers' great deals at Super Savings Saturday.

Frugal and Meaningful Mother's or Father's Day Gift

A week or so before Mother's Day, I stopped into Michael's and browsed around their Mother's Day craft ideas. I was planning to see my mom and grandmothers on Mother's Day, and I was hoping to have a small and preferably meaningful gift for them.

Thanks to Snapfish, they already see a lot of the photos I take of the girls, but they don't see them in person very often. So what struck me in the store were the handprint plaque kits. I thought it would be really cute to give an impression of my daughter's chubby little hands.

Many of the kits in the store were $15 or $20 and only made one plaque. However, the one I purchased was a "party pack." It cost $24.99 and made 10 handprints. After using Michael's 40% off weekly coupon, I spent only $15 for presents for 2 grandmothers and 2 great grandmothers, plus a set to keep for myself.

Also, since the set I purchased was designed for a children's party, it used air-dry clay, instead of plaster. Let me tell you, when you're trying to make impressions of a the hands of a two year old and an eight-month-old, this was crucial!

The instructions said to knead the clay first until it was no longer sticky. This easier with some of the packages than others. The first one took about 10 minutes to get smooth, but I'm glad I didn't give up, because there was a definite difference after kneading it.

Pressing my daughters' hands in turned out to be more of a challenge than I expected, especially with the baby, who of course wouldn't keep her hand still even for a second, but instead kept trying to claw at the dough (and presumably eat it).

After a bit of trial and error (the first plaque doesn't look so hot), I discovered that with the baby, I just had to grab her and press it really fast, before she realized what was going on. For the two year old, I bribed her to do it, because she doesn't like to get her hands dirty!

The kit came with letter stamps, and what you can't see in these pictures is that I used them to spell each girl's name and to make a border around the edge. I also used a pen cap and a toothpick to make little holes at the two top corners, in case the recipient wanted to hang them with a ribbon.

I was generally pleased with the final result. Mom and Grandma loved them, and I was happy to preserve the impressions of my daughters' tiny hands. This could definitely make a great Father's Day gift as well.

Check out more Frugal Fridays here.

Quick CVS Run

I had $.50 in ECB's expiring today, so at 7:15 this morning I left Hubby in bed cuddling with the two girls while I ran quickly to CVS. Here's what I got:

(2) Dry Idea deodorants - $5.00 ($2.50 each)
(1) half-price bag Easter jelly beans - $1.39

- (2) $2.00/1 printable coupons for deodorant
- $.50 ECB (Extra Care Bucks)

Total: $2.14 (including tax)
Received: $2.00 ECB

It would have cost less than a dollar for the two deodorants, but I "splurged" on the discount Easter candy. I love jelly beans. :-)

My picks of the best CVS deals this week are here, and if you missed my introduction to CVS shopping, you can read it here.

Small Successes

1) We finally planted our garden! After weekend after weekend of Hubby slaving out there, uprooting the grass, digging out the rocks, etc., the bed was ready to go. Big Girl and I planted it yesterday morning while the baby slept. Now we've planted and watered, and the harvest is up to the Lord!

2) We have been eating extra fruits and vegetables, which has been a goal of mine for our family. I had spent over $20 before I even got out of the produce section on my Wegmans trip on Tuesday! (I'm hoping the garden will help with that.) My current goal is to make sure we all always have at least a serving of fruit or veggies at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and I'm pretty sure I can manage that within my $350 monthly budget. That is one reason I'm not working on lowering the budget right now; I want to refine our diet a little first.

3) I took my daughter to the park yesterday, even though it was my one day with the car and I had many errands to do. I was rewarded by a beautiful day and one happy little girl!


Check out Small Successes here.

Popping Your Own Popcorn

Yesterday evening the girls and I took a simple picnic of hot dogs and popcorn to Michael's softball game. He plays softball with our church, and it has been a fun family activity to go to the games with him this spring.

As I popped the popcorn in a pot, buttered it, and set it out to cool before scooping it into a Ziploc bag, I wondered how much money I was saving by not buying microwave popcorn. After all, although microwave popcorn is expensive, fresh butter is expensive too!


Here's what I used to make approximately 4 or 5 cups of popped corn; it seemed about the same amount as a bag of microwave popcorn:

2 T. canola oil = $.10
2/3 cup popcorn kernels (about 1/8 of a bag I bought on the discount rack for $.75) = $.09
2 T. butter = (at $.50/stick) = $.13
1 t. salt = $.01
Total: $.33

Compare that with $6.79 for a bag of 10 Orville Redenbacher's microwave popcorn bags or $.68/bag.

So the homemade popcorn is roughly half the price, and so much tastier!

If you've never popped your own corn before, it's simple. You don't need any special tools. Just heat the oil in a large pot on medium high and after a couple of minutes add the popcorn. Cover the pan.

When you hear the first pops, start vigorously shaking the pan every minute or so, to prevent sticking and burning. Take it immediately off the heat when the popping slows to a second or two between pops, just like with microwave popcorn. Be careful when taking off the lid. Season to taste!Fresh-popped popcorn has a more distinct, nuttier taste than microwave popcorn. And even if you use butter and salt it is sure to have less fat than the packaged kind, not to mention no harmful chemicals!

Popping my own popcorn Works for Me!

Photos by o0o0o0 and neyl.

Tuesday Tip

A quick, painless money saving tip every Tuesday

To save both energy and money, go around your house and unplug everything at night. You've probably read that many appliances and electronics use energy even when they're not in use. Some use energy even when they're not on.

It may be difficult to remember to unplug everything after you use it, but you can make it part of your bedtime routine to go around the house and unplug everything. I try to always keep the toaster, coffee grinder, and bread machine unplugged, and at least shut down and unplug the computers, TV, and DVD player at night. This also protects your equipment from power surges.

Every little bit helps!

Wegmans Deals

I love Wegmans' new shopping carts. There is room for two children in the seat, and they have these nifty retractable seat belts. With both my little ones restrained it sure is easier to bargain shop!

Plus, they look really cute up there together.


You can check out my Wegmans deals for the week here.

CVS Deals this Week

I am excited to now be partnering with Ashley at Frugal Coupon Living to bring my readers the best deals at CVS each week. I'll be picking out what I think are the five best deals, and you can also check out the full list of deals at Frugal Coupon Living.

I'll also be sharing pictures later on of what I buy at CVS each week.

5 Deals at CVS this Week:

Right Guard or Dry Idea Deodorant $2.50 (get $2 ECBs) Limit 3
$1/2 SS 3/8$1/2 SS 5/17$1 SS 4/19
$2 printable
= FREE - $1.50 MONEYMAKER

Dial, Tone or Coast Bar Soap 2-3 pack $1.99 (get $1 ECBs) Limit 1
$.35 SS 3/8
= $.64 after ECBs

Covergirl Outlast Lip Color or Stain $7 (get $3 ECBs) Limit 1
$1 P&G 5/3
= $3 after ECBs

Aveeno Shampoo, Conditioner or Nourishing Spray at $6.49 (get $2 ECBs) Limit 2
$1 Aveeno SS 4/5
$1.50 June All You Magazine
= $2.99 - $3.49
Not close to free, maybe, but a great price for quite expensive hair products.

Kashi Cereal $2.50
$1.50/2 printable
= $1.75 each

Remember:
SS - stands for Smart Source (one of the coupon inserts in the Sunday paper).
RP - stands for Red Plum (another newspaper coupon insert).
P&G - stands for Proctor & Gamble coupon insert
The dates refer to the date of the paper that carried that insert.
ECB stands for Extra Care Bucks.

Drugstore Shopping

Or . . . why "CVS-ing" is a verb!

As I have mentioned, our current monthly budget for groceries, including all toiletries, paper products, and diapers, is $350. What I have not mentioned is my little secret - how I get most of our toiletries, as well as some household products and other items, for free! I do this by shopping at drugstores, primarily CVS, and taking advantage of their loyalty programs. In the case of CVS, it is through their "Extra Care" program.

Since I started making weekly CVS trips last July, I have been able to keep my family supplied with more than enough toiletries and plenty to share. I have not paid more than literal pennies for lotion, toothpaste, toothbrushes, razors, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, makeup, and feminine products for months. Upon occasion, I have also gotten such varied items as laundry detergent, air fresheners, diapers, wipes, cereal, snacks, candy, seasonal decorations, and batteries for free or for a fraction of their value.

The basic idea is this: each week, CVS puts certain items on a sale where if you buy the item, you receive a certain number of "Extra Care Bucks" (ECB's). You can think of ECB's basically as money that you can only spend at CVS or as a CVS coupon for a certain number of dollars. Most weeks, there will be one or two items that are "free after ECB's," meaning that for buying the item you receive Extra Care Bucks equal in value to the purchase price. So if you buy an item for $4.99, you receive $4.99 in ECB's.

How you end up getting items literally for free is by "rolling over" your ECB's. Most simply, if you spend your ECB's on another item of the same price, you have just received an item without paying anything out of pocket! If you use them to buy an item that also generates ECB's, not only have you gotten a free item, but you have the ability to do the same deal over again! That is, if you spend your $4.99 ECB from buying your first product on another item that costs $4.99 and generates $4.99 ECB, you have now

spent $4.99 on product #1

received $4.99 ECB
used ECB's to purchase product #2 at $4.99
received $4.99 ECB

You now have purchased one product, gotten one product for free, and have $4.99 to spend on a future product! Obviously, it can get more complex than that, since not all items are the same price. Also, not all the ECB items are "free after ECB's"; some only give ECB's equal to part of the purchase price. However, that is the basic idea. By constantly rolling over your Extra Care Bucks, you continually get items for free!

To those who regularly read couponing blogs, CVS-ing is no secret, but to the uninitiated, it may be unfamiliar and seem complicated and vaguely illegal! For the last one, I assure you, it is totally honest and above board. :-) As for unfamiliar and complicated, I hope to demystify the process for you. I considered writing my own detailed post with step by step instructions for CVS-ing, but instead I decided to just direct you to the excellent tutorials already written by Frugal in Virginia here and Money Saving Mom here and here. These cover all the specifics to get you started on CVS-ing.

However, email me or leave a comment if you have any further questions about shopping CVS or about how I personally do it, and I'll do my best to answer them. I plan to start sharing my CVS trips each week as well.

Happy CVS-ing!

Menu Planning Monday

Memorial Day is this weekend, and it's time to start grilling! I got a huge bag of charcoal for half price on the discount rack at Giant, just because the bag was a little torn, so we're all ready to go.

Last summer, since we have a big charcoal grill, my husband and I would grill a bunch of meat on the weekend and use it throughout the week. It made my cooking easier during the week, and it made the best use of the energy and fuel of the grill. Plus, I love grilled food in the summer!

Here's what I'm planning the next few weeks:

Breakfasts
cereal, oatmeal, bagels, eggs, bacon

Lunches
cheese and crackers, pbj, cold cuts, chicken pasta salad (see below), leftovers

Dinners

Mon - Leftover Chicken Chili, homemade queso, corn chips, fruit

Tues - Hotdogs and popcorn picnic (at Michael's softball game)

Wed - Homemade pepperoni pizza, salad

Thurs - Kashi frozen meal (for me), frozen homemade chicken nuggets (for daughter) (Michael out)

Fri - Tilapia (recipe tba - I've been meaning to get some fish)

Sat - Grilled chicken fajitas, corn, fruit

Sun - Grilled hamburgers, homemade fries, corn on the cob

Mon - Attending a Memorial Day party, bringing potato salad

Tues - Chicken pasta salad (with leftover grilled chicken), muffins

Wed - Chinese Orange Beef, rice, fruit (never made this last week)

Thurs - Swedish meatballs, rice, salad

Fri - Pasta with marinara sauce, salad, bread

Sat - Leftover Chinese beef

Sun - TBA

You can get more menu ideas at Menu Planning Mondays!

Weekly Deal Roundup

The best deals for the week . . . from the blogosphere and beyond . . .

Have you been printing all the Kraft coupons? These high-value coupons are still available from the coupon widget on my sidebar, as well as from the other sources mentioned by Money Saving Mom. The $1.00/1 Kraft barbecue sauce coupon should net you free barbecue sauce at more than one store, including Wegmans (as you'll see tomorrow in my Wegmans deals). There's also a $1.00/1 Bertollli Frozen Meals from the coupons.com widget that corresponds to a Target deal this week.

I'll probably be making at least one trip to Target again this week. Stretching a Buck has a complete list of the deals for this week. I want to get some more free Kraft salad dressing and Nabisco 100 Calorie packs and really cheap crackers. There's also a really good deal on Oscar Mayer lunch meat that's new for this week.

I'm excited about this freebie: a free salon treatment and blowdry at participating Kerastase salons. There's a participating salon in my town, so you can bet I'll be booking an appointment! (Thanks, Money Saving Mom)

I got an email from the Gap with an extra 20% off your purchase, in-store or online (25% if you use your Gap, BR, or Old Navy card), good through May 31. I'm sure you could take advantage of this by signing up for emails from Gap.com.

If you need a present for a young (or old!) child in your life, there is a good coupon for lego.com. My daughter is only 2, but her toddler legos keep her occupied better than any other toy. My 19 year old brother still likes legos too! (Thanks, Baby Cheapskate)

Giveaway Winner!

The winner of my recent coupon giveaway (chosen by random.org) is

#5 - Mrs. Rachel

Mrs. Rachel, I have sent you an email; please contact me if you do not receive it.

Thanks so much to all who entered! I definitely hope to do another giveaway again soon!

Shopping Totals

I got some good bargains this week, Harris Teeter and Target especially.

I don't usually shop at Harris Teeter, except for triple coupons, but I couldn't pass up this cheese deal this week. I'm happy to look at this picture to see that for $22.10 I got a lot of really healthy food!

I got 10 packages or 5 lbs. of cheese for about $11.00! I make a lot of homemade pizza, so I know we will use the shredded cheese quickly. The Luigi's Italian Ice and the SuperPretzels were both BOGO (Buy 1 Get 1 free), and at Harris Teeter that just means they ring up half price. With the doubled $.75 off coupons from last week's Red Plum insert, they were free! (We got some of the Super Pretzels at triple coupons not long ago and thought they were quite yummy.) You can see more specifics of this week's Harris Teeter deals here. They run through Tuesday.

At Target I spent $10.36 out of pocket and saved over $17 in coupons! Free salad dresssing and A-1 for $.19? You can't beat it! (Check out your Target matchups here, good through today.)

This week (and last week's) shopping:

CVS: $4.42 & $2.25

Harris Teeter: $22.10

Target: $10.36

Walmart: $20.87

Giant: $23.23

Total this week (and last week): $83.23

Total this month: $172.92

You can check out other people's great deals at Super Savings Saturday.

Also, my coupon giveaway ends at 1:00PM today. Be sure to enter!

Frugal Disasters and Couponing Mistakes

This picture is of what I found when I opened my oven yesterday morning, the day after my big baking day. Yes, although I had turned the oven off, I had left the sweet potatoes in the oven all night! I was thinking that they would be okay to use, but after further investigation (calling my mom and Google), I discovered that they were liable to have grown bacteria and should be thrown out.

Ouch! I really, really hate wasting food, and this was a lot of sweet potatoes. I had bought these when they were on a great sale at Easter, and I was patting myself on the back that I could stock up on a ton of very frugal baby food.

It is discouraging when you try very hard to be careful and save money and it doesn't work out. This can happen in a variety of ways -- forgetfulness, an unexpected bill, a miscalculation. For instance, sometimes (like yesterday) when I am shopping, I forget a coupon or a coupon is not accepted, and I spend more money than I had planned. Back in January and February I was so excited that I had really gotten my grocery bill down, but what I saved was all eaten up by our huge electric bills from the cold weather.

I think that these kinds of failures happen to all of us, and in the end the most important things is to not let it get to you and to move on. There are setbacks in every kind of endeavor, and everyone makes mistakes. Just like when you're dieting and you have one day where you overeat, the most important thing is to not give up on healthy eating and to get back on track the next day.

One benefit to making these mistakes is that they are a great opportunity to learn. For instance, I always used to burn things when I was baking by putting them back in the oven for "one more minute, " but I don't do that so much anymore. I learned to always put on the timer, even for one minute, because I know that I will forget them otherwise. Through trial and error, I've learned how to organize my coupons so that I don't lose or forget them. And getting expensive takeout a few times has recommmitted me to meal planning and keeping extra meals on hand.

I know that having to waste these potatoes will certainly make me more careful about making sure all my baking is wrapped up before I break for the evening, as well as keeping me humble about how much I can accomplish at once!

I feel blessed that chances are, a batch of ruined sweet potatoes or a couple of extra restaurant meals won't break our budget. In the end, money is there to serve us, not the other way around. I do my best live very frugally and save as much as possible, but I can't control everything. That's probably a good thing, too - I'll leave that up to God. :-)

Check out Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom!

PS - I have a Coupon Giveaway going on right now, just through tomorrow. Go here to enter!

Coupon Giveaway!!!

Just for fun, I decided that I'd like to do another giveaway. And what's better to giveaway than coupons???

For the lucky winner, I have three complete copies of the 05/10 Smart Source insert. I'm even going to cut them out for you! This insert includes such great coupons as $2.00 off A-1 steak sauce and the $1.50 off one Kraft salad dressing that can get you free or very cheap dressing at a number of stores.

So that the winner can start using her coupons as soon as possible, this giveaway will last for just under 48 hours - until 1:00PM Eastern on Saturday (May 16).

How to enter this giveaway

1) Leave a comment below. That's it! I always love to hear something about you and how you found this blog. Please include your email if it is not in your profile.

For extra entries (only after you've done the first one), you may:

2) Check out the rest of my blog and leave a comment on another post. Then leave a comment here saying that you did so.

3) Blog about this giveaway and leave me the link.

4) Follow this blog on Google or in another reader. If you already follow it, you can get an extra entry for that.

5) Sign up for my email subscriptions (on my sidebar). If you're already a subscriber, that counts.

6) Follow me on Twitter AND tweet about this giveaway (@frugallyblonde).

Please leave a separate comment for each entry!

The winner will be chosen by random number generator on Saturday. I will email the winner, and he or she will have 72 hours to respond. If I don't hear back by that time, I will choose a new winner.

Good luck, and thanks for entering!

Buying Generic Diapers

Last week for Works for Me Wednesday, I wrote about using Target brand baby wipes. Today, Dana's post on saving money on baby products made me think about another huge way I save money, using generic diapers.

Unless I get a really fabulous deal on name-brand diapers (which occasionally happens), I generally buy Parent's Choice brand diapers at Walmart. The prices are slightly different for different sizes of diapers, but I just bought 104 size 3 diapers for $13.67. That works out to about $.13/diaper. Compare this to a box of 116 size 3 Huggies for $34.99 on Diapers.com (and this is a competive bulk price). That works out to $.30/diaper, which is more than double the Walmart brand price!

Now it is certainly possible if you are a serious "couponer" to get name brand diapers for significantly less than the regular price with sales and coupons, but in my area I have only occasionally found a deal that actually makes name brand diapers less than Walmart brand. If I do hear of such a deal, I take advantage of it, but I rarely even pay attention to the other diaper prices. I would venture to say that buying generic disposables may even be less expensive than using premium cloth diapers, if you have to purchase them all yourself. (Of course, some families may have other good reasons to use cloth diapers.)

It is suprising to me how few people actually do use generic diapers, considering the dramatic price difference. Yes, the name brand diapers have a few more premium features (e.g. extra elastic at the waistband, thinner, etc.), but as regards preventing leaks, I have never noticed a huge difference! In my experience, I would say that Pampers or Huggies might prevent 10% more leaks than Walmart or Target brand diapers. For me, that is not worth it for double the price!

I know that using generic diapers does not work for everyone. I have heard of babies with particularly sensitive skin being only able to use one particular brand of diapers. Also, I believe that different diapers work better for different babies. For instance, Huggies never fit my first daughter properly, but they fit my second daughter (who is a little chubbier) really well. You just have to figure out through trial and error what works for your babies.

For my family, using generic diapers has been a huge money saver and has really reduced the financial strain of that can sometimes come with a new little one!

Yum! Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

The morning turned out to be quite productive. We had applesauce cooked, cookies in the oven, and muffin batter almost made before the baby woke up from her nap.

Right now I just have to bake the second pan of muffins and mash and put away the applesauce, and those three items will be checked off the list.

The whole wheat chocolate chip cookies turned out fabulous! I'm serious, you can hardly even tell the difference, despite the face that they use only whole wheat flour.

I used this recipe from Eat Better America. Definitely a keeper!

You can sign up on Eat Better America's website to print and receive in the mail good coupons for healthy products.)

Now I think we'll take a short walk and then have some rest time. Later I should be able to easily get the brownies and sweet potatoes done, and maybe even something else before making dinner!

Baking Day Today

I've decided to do a baking day today. My freezer is a bit depleted after being gone for three days and leaving my husband to fend for himself! Also, I'm hosting a gathering for one of my moms' groups this evening, so I need some yummy desserts.

Here's what I'm going to try to make today:

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies (I've been wanting to try these for a while.)
Brownies
Applesauce (For baby and for muffins)
Super Power Muffins
Baked Sweet Potatoes (For baby)
Cajun Black Beans with Sausage and Corn (For dinner - this is from www.BettyCrocker.com, but I can't get the direct hyperlink to work.)

Later I'll let you know how we're doing and share some photos of the goodies!

Wegmans Deals

My weekly Wegmans deals are up at Frugal in Virginia. If you're a Wegmans shopper, don't forget to take advantage of Cottonelle toilet paper for $.33/roll and of free Kraft Barbecue sauce with the printable coupon.

By the way, the newest Wegmans store is opening in Fredericksburg, VA in June. If you're in that area, lucky you! :-)

Best Deals Roundup

The most worthwhile deals from around the blogosphere and elsewhere

There are some good new coupons up at coupons.com! (You can print these from my sidebar by clicking "see all coupons" on the pink coupon widget.) The best coupon is another $3 off a Huggies Pure and Natural product! I also am excited about several $1.00/1 coupons for Nabisco crackers and one for $1.00/1 Honey Maid Graham Crackers. There is also a coupon for $1.00/1 Kraft Barbecue Sauce that could get you free or very cheap sauce with all the Memorial Day cookout sales. (Remember that you should be able to print two of each coupon.)

Get a free coupon book from Mambo Sprouts for organic and other healthy products.

If you have any shopping to do at the mall anytime soon, Alyssa has a list here of coupons for various stores. My favorite is of course the 30% Gymboree coupon for this weekend! Whenever they have this 30% off event, called Family and Friends, I try to use my coupon on the lowest price clearance items. With the extra savings, I have been able to get beautiful brand new items for close to the cost of used!

Gina at Moneywise Moms has a great list of free and low-cost summer movies offered by different theaters around the country. A little independent theater in our town has a similar program of $1 movies once a week on summer mornings. I definitely plan to check that out this summer.

Weekend Trip

Tomorrow morning the baby and I are heading down to North Carolina for my brother's college graduation. I'm really excited to see my family and extended family and celebrate with my brother. I'll be taking a blogging break through Monday, but I'll be back on Tuesday.

Have a great weekend!

My Mom - The Coupon Queen

Mother's Day this weekend has gotten me thinking about my original frugal inspiration, my mom. Long before frugal blogs, internet coupons, and "recessionistas," my mom clipped coupons, comparison-shopped, and gave me an example of responsible financial behavior that has greatly affected my life.

I was raised in a family of nine (yes, nine) children, the feeding and clothing of whom would stretch any budget. Every Sunday afternoon, my mom would be found perusing the sale circulars and clipping the coupons from the paper. We kids were strictly trained to never throw away a cereal or cracker box without checking it for coupons, a habit I retain to this day! In the days before Sam's Club came to our town, she would regularly fill two carts at our grocery store and hand a huge stack of coupons to the cashier. The manager would always have to come out with his key, as the register could never handle it.

My mom knows the cashiers' names at every grocery store, as well as the sales clerks at all her favorite clothing stores. Store employees have been known to alert her ahead of time about sales and to give her extra coupons. Once the manager of our Dominoes Pizza randomly gave her a huge stack of Buy One Get One Free coupons, just because he knew of her large pizza-eating family. My mom always chats with the clerks and is genuinely interested in them, an attitude that I truly came to appreciate when I worked as a cashier and a waitress during high school and college.

It was from my mom that I picked up the concepts of saving and budgeting. It never occurred to me that you would or could buy anything that you hadn't saved the money for. I clearly remember when my mom apprehensively decided to get a store credit card for her favorite department store. This particular card had 30-60-90 plan, where if you paid the balance by the third payment, you were not charged interest. She explained to me how she would only charge the amount that she knew she would be able to fully pay without accruing interest. I assumed that was the normal way to use credit cards, and I didn't even know that so many people carried a credit card balance. I guess I had a lot to learn!

We used to tease my mom all the time for being "cheap", and she would even chuckle at herself. We still joke about the time she tried to buy both of us lunch with the refund from a pack of diapers! However, I think we all always knew the value of what she did. These days, I am even more aware of how her money saving was such an important way that she provided for and took care of her family. Because she had saved money in other areas, she often had a little wiggle room in the budget for a treat or something that one of us really needed or wanted.

Because of my mom's example, it has been relatively easy for me to live on a budget as an adult, even when things have been a bit tight. I am so grateful to have had such a strong example of frugality to follow.

Thanks, Mom. I love you. Happy Mother's Day!

Small Successes

1) I am making a creative, homemade project with the girls for Mother's Day gifts. It was pretty frugal too! Of course, it still remains to be seen how it will turn out, but it could be really nice. I'll share the results after Mother's Day!

2) I took a brisk, 20-25 min. walk with the girls this morning. I have to keep reminding myself how much energy this gives me, even if I initially feel too tired to get out there.

3) I've done lots of dishes and laundry this morning. I'm on track to be pretty much caught up on the laundry by the time I leave for my weekend trip Saturday morning. Nothing like a trip for motivation!

I realized that 2 out of these 3 were accomplished today! I guess I didn't get much done earlier in the week . . .

Small Successes are at Faith and Family Live.

Wegmans Shopping Trip

I was pleased with my Wegmans shopping trip this morning. I spent right around $45 on all this:

Although this was my regular two-week shopping trip, I didn't need all that much because of deals I'd picked up elsewhere. I did end up saving $10 in coupons on this trip, since I used some free item coupons I'd been saving, for the Kashi entree and the Frank's Red Hot Sauce.

To see the deals I found at Wegmans, check out my post on Frugal in Virginia!

Best Deal on Baby Wipes

I have tried many brands of baby wipes since my first daughter was born over 2-1/2 years ago, always searching for the best deal. Although I buy generic diapers, I found that for the most part, generic wipes were not worth it. Many of them are so thin that you have to use twice as many as you would with higher-quality wipes.

For a while I just bought Huggies wipes, but even with a coupon they are pretty pricey. I think I was paying about $8.99 for a box of 450.

However, I think I have now discovered a better solution: Target brand wipes. (Thanks, Lacy, for the advice!) I purchased the huge box of Target brand wipes at the beginning of January, and I just now finished it at the end of April! That is with using the wipes for both girls for the first month or so (before my daughter was potty trained) and without being stingy on wipe usage at all. (I do use them for face and hand wiping and other tasks every so often. They get marker off hands really well!)

I think we paid about $13 for the huge box of Target wipes, and it lasted four months. That is just $56/year for baby wipes, which I think is really good.

The Target brand wipes are not as thick as the Huggies wipes, but they are thick enough that they don't tear and are foldable. I recently got some Huggies wipes at a really great deal, and now comparing the two I think I am perfectly happy with the Target ones. I don't think I use significantly fewer with the Huggies, even though they are the thickest.

Just another great Target deal!

PS - I realized that this post was perfect for the frugal edition of Works for Me Wednesday! Check out the other posts for more frugal solutions.


Photo by jynmeyer.

Best Deals Roundup

The most worthwhile deals from around the blogosphere and elsewhere

Laura at Frugal Friends was kind enough to let me know about a great freebie for new moms in my area. Let's Dish locations in VA and MD are giving a free meal to moms who have had or adopted a baby in the last year. Read Laura's post to get the details.

Kmart has a current deal running where if you buy $35 worth of Proctor and Gamble products, you get a $10 gift card, AND selected Kmart stores are doubling coupons up to $2.00 again this week! Angie at Baby Cheapskate has all the info. Since there are often coupons for $1.50 off Pampers, this could be an awesome deal if you buy Pampers diapers!

There's a $5 off $25 coupon for Rite Aid good through May 31. If you're at Rite Aid, you can get a free Johnson's baby take along pack too.

Get a free subscription to Kiwi magazine. I believe this is a parenting magazine with an organic/green focus.

And - it's free Redbox night! There's a code for a free movie every Monday night. Relax and celebrate having made it through Monday!

Two Week Menu Plan

We've got a busy two weeks ahead of us! Next weekend I'll be traveling to North Carolina for my brother's college graduation. I'll be taking the baby with me and leaving Daddy and the big girl home together.

Once upon a time my husband probably would have ordered takeout while I was gone, but as we've grown together in frugality we've learned to rely on things like that less and less. Instead, I plan to leave a list of simple lunches/dinners that he can heat up from the freezer or pantry.

Here's our menu plan for the next two weeks:

Breakfasts

cereal, oatmeal, yogurt, super power muffins (these were sooo good), ham and eggs

Lunches

cold cuts, pbj, cheese and crackers, leftovers, beans and rice, pasta salad

Dinners
Mon - tacos, salad
Tues - hot dogs, chips, fruit (picnic at Michael's softball game)

Wed - Leftover tacos, corn, fruit
Thurs - Cajun Black Beans with Sausage and Corn, corn muffins
Fri - Pasta Primavera, salad, bread

Options for Sat-Mon lunches/dinners:

- frozen homemade chicken nuggets, corn
- frozen pizza (homemade and takeout)
- hot dogs, chips, fruit
- frozen Swedish meatballs, sauce packet, rice
- pasta with marinara sauce, salad, bread

Tues - Chicken pasta salad, muffins (Michael's softball game)
Wed - Chinese Orange Beef, rice, green beans
Thurs - Leftovers
Fri - Spinach Rice Casserole, muffins, fruit
Sat - Grilled chicken fajitas
Sun - Leftovers or other

Check out more menus at Menu Planning Mondays!

Super Savings Saturday

Well, I did a good bit of grocery shopping this week, hitting a number of different stores for the great deals. It was the beginning of my May shopping, so there was plenty in the budget for stocking up.

Yesterday morning (after some yard sale-ing), I hit Harris Teeter triple coupons. Here's what I got:

Total spent: $24.88 (Total before sales and coupons: $81.25!!!)

Looking over the picture, I notice that I didn't get many freebies this time; it was mostly just terrific deals on items that I ordinarily need and use. My favorite deals were the following:

Dannon yogurt - $.40/each (sale) - $1.00/10 coupon = $.30/each (My husband takes a yogurt to work every day, and I normally have to pay $.45 each. So I was very excited about this price!)

Ortega taco shells and salsa - $1.50 each (sale) - $.72/2 coupon (tripled) = $.75 for 2

Skintimate shaving cream - $2.59 - $.75/1 coupon (tripled) = $.34

Gerber Graduates pasta pickups - $1.49 each - $.50/1 coupon (tripled) = FREE


And here's how the grocery budget's shaping up:

April
CVS - $6.58
Giant - $12.39
Final Total for April: $342.90

May
Wegmans - $8.60 (Cottonelle toilet paper stock up!)
Target - $36.77 & $3.94 (I shared some of my Target deals here.)
Harris Teeter - $24.88
Shoppers - $15.49
Total: $89.68

Super Savings Saturday is on Money Saving Mom.

By the way, I'm still trying to compile a list of the stores that offer discounts for bringing your own bags. If you know of such a store, I would greatly appreciate it if you would leave a comment or email me. Thanks!

More Coupons!

It's the first of the months, so coupons.com has more new coupons! (The Kellogg's coupons from yesterday also seem to still be available.) Here are the most exciting new ones:

-$3 off Huggies diapers (Print this fast; it won't last long!)
- $.55-$.75 off Big G cereals (especially good if your store doubles up to $.99)
- $.50 off three packages of Kleenex (If your store doubles, that's getting one close to free.)
- $.50 off Cottonelle toilet paper

Local readers -
Don't forget about the great seasonal deal on Cottonelle at Wegmans. A 12 pack of double rolls is just $4.99, and with this $.50 coupon doubled, that's $3.99 or just $.33/roll! That's about the best price I've ever seen on reasonably soft tp!

To get these coupons, just click on the coupon widget on my sidebar and choose "see all coupons."