Don’t miss out!

February 9, 2009 by

I just thought I would recap a few deals that you don’t want to miss out on:

*Diapers.com – great deals on diapers including $10 off your purchase of $49 or more and free shipping along with a $14.97 mail in rebate. Details are here.

*Fazolis – Get free spaghetti through 2/16. The details are here.

*JC Penney’s – Extra 20% off your purchase (can be used online or in store) – ends today! Click here for the details.

*Jack in the Box – free curly fries tomorrow (2/10) – click here for the details.

*Kroger – the “Daytona sale” continues through this week. Check out this post for coupon match-ups.

*McDonalds – BOGO free drinks from 2-5 pm Monday-Friday. Click here for the details.

*Oriental Trading Company – the $10 off a purchase of $10 or more promotion ends today. Get the details here.

*Target – free Ocean Spray juice, cheap yogurt, cheap Pop Tarts, and plenty of other deals (the Ocean Spray and yogurt coupons expire on Saturday). Click here for the details.

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Menu Planning Monday: My Menu for the week of 2/8/09

February 9, 2009 by


I posted a lot of information about my family and how we plan meals in this initial post.

Sunday – Creamy chicken noodle soup

Since I’ve been sick this weekend, this was the only thing that really sounded good. I make all (but the noodles) in the crockpot.

Ingredients:
3-4 chicken breasts
3 carrots (sliced)
3 celery stalks (sliced)
3 cans chicken broth
2 cans cream of chicken soup
Seasonings (to taste): garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and parsley
noodles (I use “Country Style” ones that are just like homemade ones!)

Place chicken breasts, carrots, celery, broth, and cream of chicken soup in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 5+ hours. Shred chicken breasts, and whisk everything together. Add seasonings. Cook noodles, drain, and add to the mixture. Let everything cook for 30 more minutes on low.

Monday – Easy Cheesy crockpot chicken

Tuesday – Salisbury steak (in the slow cooker)

Wednesday – Kielbasa and sauerkraut in the slow cooker

Thursday – Teriyaki chicken (I joined a freezer cooking group, and this is one of the meals that I got. Unfortunately, I don’t have the recipe)

Here’s a teriyaki chicken once a month cooking recipe you can check out, though:
Teriyaki Chicken
1/2 C. soy sauce
1/2 C. sugar
1 1/2 T. red wine vinegar
2 t. veg. or sesame oil
1 sm. minced garlic clove
3/4 t. ground ginger.

Stir ingredients together and pour into a gallon sized ziploc bag with 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts. On serving day, thaw and pour into a baking dish. Bake in preheated at 350 for 35 min. Serve over rice. To stretch this out, I add a bag of frozen, stir fry style veggies in before baking.

Friday – Chicken Fried Steaks with Creamed Pan Gravy and Biscuits
(This recipe comes from the Rachael Ray Classic 30 minute meals The All Occasion Cookbook)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds round steak (1/2 inch thick)
1 c. (plus 2 T) all purpose flour
1/3 c. cornmeal
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly grund black pepper
2 eggs, beaten
2 T water
4 T vegetable oil
1 1/4 c beef broth or stock
1/4 c. half and half or cream
1 pkg bake-off biscuits (prepared to directions)

Preheat a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Set steaks ona waxed-paper-lined work surface and cover with another piece of waxed paper. Pound steaks to a 1/4 inch thickness. Set steaks aside.

Line work surface with more waxed paper. Make a pile of 1/2 cup flour on both ends of work space. Add cornmeal, paprika, salt, and pepper to one pile of flour. Beat eggs and water in a pie plate or shallow dish.

Cut steaks into 4 portions and coat first in plain flour, then in egg, and then in the seasoned flour and cornmeal mixture.

Add 2 T oil to hot skillet and brown 2 steaks at a time. As they brown, remove from the pan and add more oil, as needed. When the last 2 portions are browned, add the first two back into the pan witht he others. Cover pan, lower heat to medium-low, and cook, covered, 15 minutes. Remove steaks to serving platter and pour off all but 2-3 T drippings. Add 2 T flour to the drippings and cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in broth and seasons with salt and pepper. Add half and half or cream and whisk into gravy. When gravy bubbles, remove from heat. Serve steaks and warm biscuits with gravy on top.

Saturday – Creamy chicken burritos

3 chicken breast halves cooked and cubed (I used canned chicken when I’m in a hurry)
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
1 cup salsa
1 can red enchilada sauce
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 15 oz can pinto beans
1 1/2 Cup shredded cheddar cheese
8 flour tortillas

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9×13 baking dish.
Add cream cheese and salsa to large sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until cheese is melted and blended with salsa. Add garlic, beans and chicken. Mix well. Fill tortillas, roll up and place in baking dish. Mixture will be a runny so be careful not to burn yourself filling tortillas. Pour red sauce over the tortillas. Sprinkle burritos with cheese cover with foil and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes.

Serve with lettuce, tomatoes, olives etc.

Get ideas for planning your menu here:

Filed Under: Menu Planning Monday Tagged With:

My $40 weekly grocery budget shopping trip

February 9, 2009 by

I typically post this on Saturdays, but the stomach bug that got my kids all last week finally got to me, so I’m a little behind on everything.

If you’re just starting to read my blog, you may want to click here to read about my challenge for 2009, so you’ll get a better understanding of how this all works. My Kroger stores triple three like coupons up to .35 face value and double three like coupons up to .50 face value. My Randalls stores triple one like coupon up to .35 face value and double one like coupon up to .50 face value.

Here’s a summary of my shopping trips: (my total spent for groceries for the week was $34.09)

Target: Total OOP = $3.17. I used a $10 gift card I got from Lila Guide, so my total before the gift card was $13.17. The chicken breasts were on sale for $5.99, the Pop Tarts were .19/box using coupons, the Carnation Instant breakfast was $2.29 per canister using coupons, and the dog treats were $.92/each using coupons. Check out this post to see my coupon match-ups and find other Target coupon deals.

Kroger: Total OOP = $51.60. There are some items in this picture that don’t “count” toward my weekly $40 budget (like the diapers, the dog treats, and the toilet paper). I just included them so you could see the “big picture.” My total OOP without the diapers, dog treats, and toilet paper was $30.92. I will also get $2.25 back from Caregivers for the Huggies.

The match ups for the Daytona items are listed here, so I won’t be listing them in this post. I had originally purchased Pull-Ups because they were on sale also and other areas had them listed as being part of the deal, but they are not part of the deal in my area, so I had to return them and exchange them for some diapers.

Here’s what I got: 3 packages Cottonelle (used 2 $1 printables and 1 .50 printable which doubled plus a .25 Cellfire coupon), 6 cans Kroger broth, 2 gallons milk, 3 bell peppers (they are on sale 3/$1), bananas, sirloin steak, 2 cans Vienna sausage, 4 cans tomato sauce, 1 can chickpeas, yogurt (free coupon from Kroger mailer), eggs (I bought Egglands best so I could use the .35/1 coupon which tripled), and dog treats. Then, from the Daytona deals, I got: 3 packages Huggies, hot dog buns, Totinos pizza rolls, 3 boxes Ritz crackers, 8 jars Ragu sauce, 6 cans Chef Boyardee, 4 cans Pillsbury biscuits, 3 boxes Betty Crocker Fruit Stickerz, and one bottle of Kroger dressing.

Here are my updated savings totals: (if you’re new to my blog and not familiar with my savings goals, click here)

Baby Emergency fund – $764.92 (Goal = $1000)
Gift savings – $132.42 (Goal = $1500)
Rolling entertainment fund – $0 (Goal = $500)

Sadly, I didn’t add anything to any of my savings funds this week. I had a great mail week, though. Here are some of the highlights: (off the top of my head!)

*$20 in Target gift cards thanks to Swagbucks. (When you cash out for gift cards, they are actually “E-cards” but I used that to pay for regular gift cards!)

*My “freebies” from the Kraft instant win game –
*1 coupon for a free package of any Kraft regular, 2% milk natural cheese, cracker barrel, or Polly-O (any variety of shredded, chunks, cubes, cracker cuts or string, up to $3.99)
*1 coupon for a free planters snack product (up to $5.00)
*1 coupon for free Nabisco cracker product (up to 16 oz. up to $4.49)
shows Ritz, Triscuit and Wheat thins on the coupon

*My free Kid’s “Boost” coupon – click here to get yours

*A free coupon for tomatoes from DelMonte

*Free samples of Emergen-C Kidz from SheSpeaks

*Kroger coupons

*A 20% off Gymboree coupon

Here’s how much I have saved at individual stores:
Total Target savings – $165.40 to date (47% savings)

Total CVS savings – $272.75 (84% savings…this would probably be higher, but I do buy my stamps there to go toward my quarterly ECB earnings and you can’t use ECBs to pay for those!) – this # has not been updated because I have not entered my receipts for the week into my spreadsheet yet

Total Kroger savings – $228.25(55% savings)

Total Randalls savings – $76.33 (88% savings)

**If you’re looking for spreadsheets to help you track your savings, there are some good ones here on the Mommy Snacks blog

Filed Under: Savings Saturday Tagged With: , ,

Free Orange Julius!

February 9, 2009 by


This was posted by **honkthehorn** on NBBC:

Join the Orange Julius “Quench Club” and get a coupon for a BOGO free 20 oz fruit smoothie. You also get an e-mail coupon on your birthday.

Clik here to join (or to see if you have one in your area).

Filed Under: freebies

Target coupon deals revisited

February 8, 2009 by


I LOVE that you can combine manufacturer’s and store coupons at Target, especially when you can get things that are free or very close to free. Most of these deals have already been posted, but I thought I would do a recap since some of the store coupons expire this weekend (2/14).

Another thing I love about Target is their “gift card” deals where you get a gift card when you purchase certain items. I always keep a $5 gift card that I can use to “roll” into these deals when they come along.

This week, Target has a deal on the Gillette Fusion and Venus razors. They are priced at $7.99 and you get a $5 gift card when you buy two. There were $4 coupons for the Fusion in this week’s inserts and $2 coupons for the Venus in this week’s inserts. Here’s the breakdown:

Buy 2 Gillette Fusion razors – $7.99/each
Use 2 $4 Gillette manufacturer’s coupons
Use $5 Target gift card (if you have one)

Spend $2.98 OOP, get $5 gift card
(You can do this over and over again if you have multiple coupons)

Buy 2 Venus razors – $7.99/each
Use 2 $2 Venus coupons
Use $5 Target gift card (if you have one)

Spend $6.98 OOP, get $5 gift card

These coupons expire this weekend: (the Target coupons are in bold)

$1 off 46-oz. or larger Ocean Spray juice
$1/1 Ocean Spray Light, Diet, or Grapefruit Product, Any – 01-11-09 SS
$1/1 printable here

Most types were on price cut for $1.99 – FREE with coupons! (be sure you give your Target coupon FIRST)

$1 off Special K snack bars
$1/1 Kellogg’s Special K Protein Products Or All Bran Fiber Drink Mixes Or Bars, Any 4 Ct + – 12-14-08 RP
$3/3 Special K products at Target (this is a manufacturer’s coupon) printable here

These are $2.99, so .99 after coupons

$1 off with purchase of eight 4- or 6-oz. Yoplait individual yogurt cups
$1/4 printable here (print it twice)

These were .59/each at my store, so .21/each with both coupons

.50/1 Quaker Chewy granola bars, 10-ct
$1/2 Quaker chewy granola bars – 1/4 RP

These are about $2.25/box, which makes them $1.25/box with the coupons.

The Kashi TLC soft-baked cereal bars are on price cut for $2.75/box through 2/14. My kids (and surprisingly my husband, too) love them. There is a $2 printable coupon here, which makes them .75/box.

These coupons expire on 2/28:
*$1/1 Flat Earth chips
If you have the $1/1 Smartsource printable that was available last month, this makes them .50/bag

*$1/2 Milk Bone treats
If you have the BOGO free coupon from this week’s inserts, they will be $1.69 for two bags

*$1/2 Kelloggs Pop Tarts
If you have the $1/1 Kelloggs peelies and they are still on price cut, they will be .34 for two boxes

Other Target coupon deals (these are from recent inserts):
*$1/1 Carnation instant breakfast
There are $1/1 blinkie coupons by the Carnation instant breakfast in the grocery store. The canisters and boxes are on price cut at my store for $4.49, which makes them $2.49 with both coupons! The boxes are on price cut to $3.94, so it will be $1.94/box after both coupons! We love this stuff!

*$1/2 Juicy Juice
There are $1/1 Juicy Juice coupons from a recent insert. The juice boxes go on sale 3/$7 fairly often, which will make them .83 for a package of juice boxes when they are on sale!

*$2/5 Lean Cuisine meals
There are $1/2 printable coupons here. These go on sale 4/$10 fairly often. So, you would pay $8.50 for five meals using coupons (which is $1.70/meal)

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