Menu Planning Monday

Monday:

• Breakfast – Bagels or English Muffins
• Lunch – leftovers from my mommy
• Supper – Lasagna, Salad & Garlic Bread

Tuesday

• Breakfast – Egg Burritos
• Lunch – Leftovers & fruit
• Supper – Crockpot Beef over Mashed Potatoes, Corn & Rolls

Wednesday

• Breakfast -Yogurt & Toast
• Lunch – Chicken Fingers & veggies
• Supper – Harvest Pork Chops, Buttered noodles & Green Beans

Thursday

• Breakfast – Pancakes
• Lunch – Pizza Rolls
• Supper – Baked Ham, Mashed Potatoes w/ gravy, corn & rolls

Friday

• Breakfast – Baked Oatmeal with apples
• Lunch – leftovers
• Supper – Kids Pizza night…Date night for Mom and Dad

Satuturday – NO DETAILS….I’m doing something special for DH and since he reads my posts, I can’t give any hints!

Sunday

• Breakfast – Bagels
• Lunch – Crockpot – Ham, Bean & Potato soup , Homemade Bread
• Supper – Leftovers

Visit Orgjunkie.com for more awesome meal ideas!

$.08 Campbell’s Soup & Meat Coupon

This is a great coupon to help you get stocked up for OAM Cooking Day. Walmart has Campbell’s Creamed Soup for .58 this week…hurry and print this before it’s gone. You should be able to print 2 per computer.

This is another great coupon to help you with Cooking Day. It doesn’t expire until 11/21, so you have time to pair it with a great sale or store coupon. You could also pair it with a Manufacture coupon for an even better deal.

Once a Month Cooking

I absolutely LOVE the idea of Once a Month cooking. Spending one day cooking meals for entire month might seem like a lot…but think of the time saved after you’re done! Less cleanup means more family time, no more “what’s for dinner” rush or “what’s for dinner, mom’s sick” confusion…plus, you can often save money if you buy in bulk and plan well in advance.

As appealing as the concept is,  I admit I don’t have the time to figure out all the details. When I discovered Once a Month Mom, I was so excited! Finally, all the work was done for me.  The menu, the shopping list, the Instructions…everything I need! The menus are put up a month in advance along with a podcast explaining it all. The great thing is, the menus are designed to use things that will be on sale during your “shopping” month.

I got right to work. I have the recipes, instructions and shopping list all printed and in a binder. I just take the binder with me to the store, so I can check the list to see if I can find some good deals on what I need. And my mom is planning on coming down for the day to help me. I may even find somewhere for my 5 year old to play for the day so there are no distractions.

Mark your calendars and plan on cooking with me! December 2nd…I’ll be starting around 8:30am. I plan on posting my progress throughout the day so tune in. If you want to join me, here are some links that might be helpful:

• Once a Month Mom this is where you find what I’m doing
• Money Saving Mom a great post on freezing meals

Welcome Back!

It has been a CRAZY couple of months for our family, but things have finally slowed down and I am able to devote time again to blogging! Instead of boring you all with the details…I’m just going to jump right back in

I’ll be starting with posting links and comments for a Once-a-Month cooking project I’ll be doing after Thanksgiving…then moving on to Christmas planning projects!

This year, I’m going to start the Christmas Cookie Countdown a little early. I’ll be putting up that page shortly and then adding a Master Plan for a Cookie Baking Day. Every year, my friend and I pick a day and bake piles and piles of cookies. This Master Plan will help us in the weeks before the big day…we’ll be able to shop more wisely in the next few weeks and hopefully pick up things when they are on sale.

So here we gooooooo…..

Free Lip Balm

Go HERE to request a free lip balm from EOS.

This lip gloss is 95% organic and very cute!!

Thanks Money Saving Mom.

Menu Planning Monday

I’m hoping to keep my grocery spending down this week. There is an annual Community Yard Sale coming in a few weeks, and I’m saving every extra penny. This is my favorite sale because there are usually 200 or more sales Friday and Saturday…and my sweet husband has offered to run a sale here!! Can you tell I’m excited?

Here’s what I have planned this week:

Breakfasts

• Bagels
• Eggs & Toast
• Cereal
• Yogurt
• Pancakes

Lunches

• PB&J Sandwiches
• Leftovers
• Pizza
• Salad
• Spaghetti

Suppers

• BBQ Chicken, Mac&Cheese and Broccoli
• Pot Roast with Veggies
• BLTs, Corn on the Cob and biscuits
• Lasagna, Garlic Bread & Salad
• Black Beans & Rice
• Taco Night
• Stromboli, Salad & breadsticks

What’s on your menu? Don’t forget to check out OrgJunkie.com for more menu ideas this week!

Sunday Coupon Preview

There are several great resources to check out the Sunday inserts before you get the paper.  I find it helpful to go through the previews Saturday night so I know how many papers to pick up Sunday morning. Here are the sites I use…

Taylortown Preview

Sunday Coupon Preview

A Full Cup

I’m especially excited about these coupons:

SmartSource:

• Accu-Chek Aviva System (gluco meter) Up to $10.00 off any (12/31/09)
• Glade Sense & Spray Starter Kit $4 (10/03/09)
• Ritz Crackerfuls Filled Crackers FREE up to $3.49 wyb Ritz Crackers (11-30-09)
• Schick Quattro for Women or Intuition Plus Razor or Refill $4 (10/04/09)
• Schick Quattro Titanium Razor, Trimmer, or Refill $4 (10/04/09)

RedPlum:

• Olay Definity Facial Moisturizer or Facial Cleanser $3 (9/30/09)
• Sally Hansen Nail Color or Treatment $1 (10-31-09)

There are a lot more great coupons, so check out the sites above to find what you need!

CVS Deals 8/23

Thanks to The Thrifty Mama for putting together some great deals and scenarios! Head over there to get more deal ideas. Here are a few of my favorites:

Free or Better than Free

Sunday – Tuesday Only

Caliber or CVS Brand Composition Books (limit 2) – $.99 earn $.99 ECBs

**************

Carefree Ultra Protection (limit 4) – $3.79 Earn $3.79 ECBs
-$1/1 Printable HERE =FREE + $1 overage after coupons and ECBs!

Glade Products Spend $10 Earn $3 ECBs (limit 3)
-$4/1 from the 8/23 SS insert or July All You Magazine

***scenario***
Buy 2 Glade Sense and Sprays @ $5 each = $10
Use 2 $4/1 coupons
Pay $2 Earn $3 ECBS
=FREE + $1 overage after coupons and ECBs!

Non ECB Deal

Accu Check Meter $10
-$10/1 from the 8/23 SS insert
=FREE after coupon!
**use this as a filler to be able to use the $$ off purchase coupons in the Ready Fill booklet**

Weekly Savings

I forgot to take pictures before I put everything away, but I scored some really great deals this week.

CVS

Transacion #1

• 1 Pack of Filler Paper – .99
• 1 Headphones – 6.99
• Total = 7.98
• ECBs used = 7.98 (from last week)
• ECBs earned = 7.98
• FREE after ecbs

Transaction #2

• 2 Papermate Pens = 1.98
• 2 Pencil Sharpeners = .58
• 2 Index Cards = .78
• 1 Filler Paper = .99
• 1 Pen Eraser = .29
• 1 CVS brand tampons = 1.89
• 1 Listerine Pre-Rinse = 1.47
• 1 VO5 Conditioner = .99
• 3 Crest Weekly Clean Paste = 3.36
• Total before coupons = 12.33
• Total after coupons = 8.33
• ECBs used = 7.98
• oop = .46
• ECBs earned = 4.86

I think I’m pretty well stocked up on school supplies now! Between CVS and Staples, I’ve been able to get almost everything free or next to free.

I had a great trip to Kmart last night. If you didn’t get a chance to take advantage of the Double Coupon days, no worries…check your sales flyer in another 2 weeks for another chance!

Kmart

• 3 Satin Care Shave Gels = 8.07
• 3 Purell Hand Sanitizers = 4.47
• 2 Hartz Crunch & Clean Dog Biscuits = 7.18
• 1 Dove Deoderant = 3.99
• 1 Calmes Forte for kids = 5.99
• Total before coupons = 29.70 (plus tax)
• Total after coupons = 8.90
• Catalinas received = $3 off groceries & free box of dog biscuits.

And of course my AWESOME Walmart trip which I posted about HERE.

It was a great shopping week after not hitting many deals lately.

Check out The Thrifty Mama to see how other did this week,

Awesome Wal-Mart Deal!!

It’s  not too often I have a good shopping trip to Wal-Mart. Actually, by all accounts, it’s one of my least favorite stores. BUT~ since there are some things that are better priced there, I try to make the best out of evey trip.

Yesterday I hit pay-dirt!

Yes~that’s a lot of bacon! But at $.50 a pack, who could pass it up?? I had the sweetest cashier when I checked out. Usually, I have all kinds of problems with coupons and I won’t even try the so-called questionable deals. So you can imagine my surprise when this sweet girl actually asked me if she could try to scan a coupon! There were $2/1 peelies for Hormal Ready-Serve on the front of the package. I was just going to put them away to use later, but the cashier told me she would try it “just in case”. WOOT!

The coupons did scan, so I paid $1 for my two packs of bacon! Of course I had to go back and get more…6 more to be exact! I was so excited I was actually giddy!!

Anyway, here’s the breakdown:

• 8 packs Hormel Bacon = $20
• 7 packs Reach floss = $7
• 4 boxes Bandaids = $4.96
• Carmex Lip Balm = $1.08
• total before coupons = $33.04
• total after coupons = $5.04
• savings of = $28 or about 85%

Anyone else find good deals this week?