After a long blogging break, I'm back! This year has been chalk full of stress and self discovery and I've got to admit it has been really difficult to balance everything on my plate. Let me first catch you up.
1. I became the head girls soccer coach in charge of rebuilding an entire program.
2. Education in Indiana has become the focal point of non stop attacks from legislators and media alike so my job has become more stressful than I ever though possible.
3. I have fallen in love with an amazing wonderful man named Steve who makes the above 2 points substantially less stressful and makes me smile more than he'll ever know.
In between all these points, I've still been couponing and trying to keep up the house to the best of my abilities, but alas there is always room for improvement. Here are the ways I plan to improve between now and August 2012! I'll be sharing specific ways in which I do each during the week.
1. Get my grocery budget to $35 or under per week for 2 adults and 2 doggies
2. Improve my personal fitness and lose 30 lbs.
3. Spark my creativity by doing at least 4 DIY projects from my pintrest boards per month
4. Organize my house and purge myself of things I no longer need
5. Take care of myself and my soul in ways that help me keep stress at bay
I'll be posting 5 entries per week, one on each different subject from above. Doesn't that sound good?
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Save Big Money at Menards
Credit 
I have to admit that I've learned something new about saving money this week that I didn't quite know existed! I wasn't sure that was possible, but alas a new rock has been turned. It's a fun little thing called mail in rebates from Menards. I know not everyone in the country has Menards so let me fill you in on these smart folks. Menards is kind of like Lowe's, but they also have the typical Walmart like sections with food, drinks, toiletries, and cleaning supplies. Every week, Menards has several items that will be free or just pennies after their mail in rebates. It gives you a store credit postcard to use just like $ at Menards. They also limit the amount that you can buy and receive a rebate for on each item (usually ranges from 3-20). You then take your postcard rebates and buy OTHER items that are free or almost free after rebate in order to roll your rebates just like ECBs or RRs at CVS or Walgreens. They also take coupons so it is definitely possible to get overages on your products. Yes it takes a little longer than a week to get your rebate, but you should ideally be able to do this once a month to get free items. You can even get free tools or building supplies as a part of this program!
My plan for this week will cost me about $20 to start, but will give me $27 in rebates back so I can buy other things later on this month or early August. I plan to use some of my rolling rebates to buy some school supplies for my classroom that I hope they will have on sale in the coming weeks :)
Have you discovered any new money saving tips lately? Even if you haven't, what are your tried and true tips to stretch your buck?
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Summer Lasagne
I've been experimenting with some cheap, yummy, healthy foods for summer. I've been trying to incorporate as many fresh ingredients as possible from my garden so I can save additional money on produce. Here is my ultimate favorite so far! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
1 cup ricotta
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
3 tablespoons olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
8 lasagna noodles, broken into thirds, cooked and drained
1 minced garlic clove
2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved (about 30 tomatoes)
2 small zucchini, thinly sliced
1/2 cup torn basil leaves
1. Combine ricotta, Parmesan and olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in skillet over medium high and add garlic and tomatoes. Cook until slightly broken down, about 3 minutes. Transfer to bowl.3. Add zucchini to skillet. Season with salt and pepper and cook about 5 minutes until tender. Transfer to another bowl.
4. Scatter a few tomatoes over four plates. Top with one noodle, a spoonful of ricotta mixture, zucchini and more tomatoes. Repeat layering twice, ending with noodle and tomatoes. Drizzle a little more olive oil on top. Garnish with basil and serve.
This recipe cost me approximately $3 to make and it made 4 generous servings. I used tomatoes, zucchini, and basil from my garden and I bought almost everything else with a coupon for a reduced price or at Aldi. Yes my Aldi has ricotta cheese :)
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Summer lovin'
Well as you can tell it has been another long absence. I always tend to underestimate what all will be on my plate. It seems that somehow summer has snuck halfway by on me. In about a month, we'll be back for another school year.....one that will hopefully be substantially less stressful and emotionally draining as last years was. Let me fill you in on how I have been spending my moderately relaxing summer.
1. At the gym: Yes I am trying to lose weight. So far...7 lbs gone. I wish it was substantially more considering that I spend almost 2 hours at the gym everyday. Unfortunately, I like beer so I guess that has come back to bite me in the butt...no probably the tummy.
2. Gardening: I had a major flop last year with my first year of gardening. Maybe it was the fact that it didn't rain for 28 days and the temperatures were so hot they made my tomatoes cry, but this year things (knock on wood) are going substantially better. I have 8 tomato plants of various kinds, 2 peppers, 1 eggplant, 1 onion, 6 cucumbers, a big patch of various types of lettuce, peas, and green beans. Lets hope things continue on the right track so I can enjoy the fruits of my labor.
3. Enjoying time with friends: Not everyday, but at least 4 days a week I make an effort to spend time with friends and at least 1 day a week is all about family. I love the summer because every night is like a weekend so I don't feel bad if I'm tired on a Friday and don't want to go out because I could go out on Monday night and not even worry about it.
4. Watching the Women's World Cup: Not quite as many games as last summer's men's world cup, but I'm enjoying every minute of getting to watch the sport I love. I need to soak up as much sports time as possible because it looks like football and basketball will be out this next year...
5. Coaching: The one thing I feel like succeed at when all else fails. World Cup is making me set unrealistic standards for my girls, but what can you do? I love being a head coach and we've got some great plans for this season.
It is my hope that in the coming year I can balance my "cups" much more effectively. Last year, I did a great job filling my "work cup," but I severely lacked in my "personal cup" and "wellness cup." I've found that I am happiest when all of my cups are filled and balanced. This does not mean that I have to balance time between all things evenly, but I need to do so in a way that makes me happiest. For me, the "work cup" was such a huge focus due to (pardon my french) all the shit that hit the fan last year, that I need to set some serious limits this year. I've always felt that I was a fairly effective time manager so hopefully my 4th year will be much better than my 3rd. As much as I hate to say it....I'm not sure it could get worse so the only way to go is up :)
1. At the gym: Yes I am trying to lose weight. So far...7 lbs gone. I wish it was substantially more considering that I spend almost 2 hours at the gym everyday. Unfortunately, I like beer so I guess that has come back to bite me in the butt...no probably the tummy.
2. Gardening: I had a major flop last year with my first year of gardening. Maybe it was the fact that it didn't rain for 28 days and the temperatures were so hot they made my tomatoes cry, but this year things (knock on wood) are going substantially better. I have 8 tomato plants of various kinds, 2 peppers, 1 eggplant, 1 onion, 6 cucumbers, a big patch of various types of lettuce, peas, and green beans. Lets hope things continue on the right track so I can enjoy the fruits of my labor.
3. Enjoying time with friends: Not everyday, but at least 4 days a week I make an effort to spend time with friends and at least 1 day a week is all about family. I love the summer because every night is like a weekend so I don't feel bad if I'm tired on a Friday and don't want to go out because I could go out on Monday night and not even worry about it.
4. Watching the Women's World Cup: Not quite as many games as last summer's men's world cup, but I'm enjoying every minute of getting to watch the sport I love. I need to soak up as much sports time as possible because it looks like football and basketball will be out this next year...
5. Coaching: The one thing I feel like succeed at when all else fails. World Cup is making me set unrealistic standards for my girls, but what can you do? I love being a head coach and we've got some great plans for this season.
It is my hope that in the coming year I can balance my "cups" much more effectively. Last year, I did a great job filling my "work cup," but I severely lacked in my "personal cup" and "wellness cup." I've found that I am happiest when all of my cups are filled and balanced. This does not mean that I have to balance time between all things evenly, but I need to do so in a way that makes me happiest. For me, the "work cup" was such a huge focus due to (pardon my french) all the shit that hit the fan last year, that I need to set some serious limits this year. I've always felt that I was a fairly effective time manager so hopefully my 4th year will be much better than my 3rd. As much as I hate to say it....I'm not sure it could get worse so the only way to go is up :)
Friday, May 27, 2011
O...M...G!
I really had absolutely NO idea how to explain my shopping trips today other than with a big, loud, "O...M....G!" I got to work this morning and my mom gave me maybe the coolest shopping news since I started this couponing experiment a little more than 18 months ago. Marsh, a local grocery store, was going to be tripling all coupons up to $1 this Friday-Monday. There were a few rules....1. Only 2 of the same coupon would triple. 2. No overages.
With that, I set my plan in action. I've been watching this Extreme Couponing show on TLC since it started and I've found it interesting that most of the people only have 10-20 actual items they buy, but the quantity is so out of control it's ridiculous. I am a single girl and I have no need for more than 5-10 of most items (yes I bought a couple hundred boxes of pasta for free, but I donated them so I don't count that!) so I don't consider any of my shopping trips to be extreme or over the top in the least.
I headed to Bargain Briana (my favorite for Marsh match ups) and looked up the best deals for the week. I printed and clipped what I needed to then headed to Marsh after work! This is my first transaction with about 20 minutes of planning and "winging it" at the store with the coupons I already had clipped in my coupon organizer.
This transaction includes 8 packages of hot dogs, 2 packages of breakfast burritos, 2 bottles of BBQ sauce, 2 bottles of salad dressing, 3 pasta sauces, 2 jamba smoothies, 2 pasta sides, 4 packages of gum, 2 tubs of lunch meat, 2 candybars, 2 dog treats, 2 packages of cheese, a lunchable, bacon, deoderant, sour cream, Helluva good dip, Mrs. Dash, 6 pack of popcorn, snack crackers, Franks red hot sauce, tortillas, chips, and Seventh Generation cleaner.
Total retail cost: $129.92
MFR Coupons Savings: $32.40
Bonus coupon savings: $62.85
Fresh idea savings: $24.49
Total savings of $119.74 (93%)
Total paid out of pocket: $10.18
I came home and went through all my coupons then decided to go back tonight because my mom had heard a cashier talking at another location about how they might end the promotion early because they were going broke! Duhhhh you gave me $62.85 in my first transaction...of course you're going broke! So I clipped from my newspaper coupons and back I went. Here is a picture of my 2nd trip.
This transaction includes 8 cans of Alpo, 4 Diet cokes, 4 packages of hot dogs, 2 buffalo wing sauces, 2 Worcestershire sauces, 2 packages of paper plates, 2 smoothies, 2 cottage cheese doubles, 2 tubs of lunch meat, 1 breakfast burrito package, 2 Asian sauces, ketchup, granola bards, 2 bags of chips, Tabasco, 2 salad dressings, fig newton cookies, instant cafe latte, laundry detergent, frebreeze, seventh generation cleaner, instant lunch, individual size pizza, dog treats, a Rubbermaid container, a thin crust pizza (not pictured...in my tummy :), and 2 packages of Aunt Millie's hot dog buns (not pictured).
With that, I set my plan in action. I've been watching this Extreme Couponing show on TLC since it started and I've found it interesting that most of the people only have 10-20 actual items they buy, but the quantity is so out of control it's ridiculous. I am a single girl and I have no need for more than 5-10 of most items (yes I bought a couple hundred boxes of pasta for free, but I donated them so I don't count that!) so I don't consider any of my shopping trips to be extreme or over the top in the least.
I headed to Bargain Briana (my favorite for Marsh match ups) and looked up the best deals for the week. I printed and clipped what I needed to then headed to Marsh after work! This is my first transaction with about 20 minutes of planning and "winging it" at the store with the coupons I already had clipped in my coupon organizer.
This transaction includes 8 packages of hot dogs, 2 packages of breakfast burritos, 2 bottles of BBQ sauce, 2 bottles of salad dressing, 3 pasta sauces, 2 jamba smoothies, 2 pasta sides, 4 packages of gum, 2 tubs of lunch meat, 2 candybars, 2 dog treats, 2 packages of cheese, a lunchable, bacon, deoderant, sour cream, Helluva good dip, Mrs. Dash, 6 pack of popcorn, snack crackers, Franks red hot sauce, tortillas, chips, and Seventh Generation cleaner.Total retail cost: $129.92
MFR Coupons Savings: $32.40
Bonus coupon savings: $62.85
Fresh idea savings: $24.49
Total savings of $119.74 (93%)
Total paid out of pocket: $10.18
I came home and went through all my coupons then decided to go back tonight because my mom had heard a cashier talking at another location about how they might end the promotion early because they were going broke! Duhhhh you gave me $62.85 in my first transaction...of course you're going broke! So I clipped from my newspaper coupons and back I went. Here is a picture of my 2nd trip.
This transaction includes 8 cans of Alpo, 4 Diet cokes, 4 packages of hot dogs, 2 buffalo wing sauces, 2 Worcestershire sauces, 2 packages of paper plates, 2 smoothies, 2 cottage cheese doubles, 2 tubs of lunch meat, 1 breakfast burrito package, 2 Asian sauces, ketchup, granola bards, 2 bags of chips, Tabasco, 2 salad dressings, fig newton cookies, instant cafe latte, laundry detergent, frebreeze, seventh generation cleaner, instant lunch, individual size pizza, dog treats, a Rubbermaid container, a thin crust pizza (not pictured...in my tummy :), and 2 packages of Aunt Millie's hot dog buns (not pictured).Total retail value: $143.24
MFR coupon savings: $33.25
MFR coupon savings: $33.25
Bonus coupon savings: $64.69
Fresh idea savings: $27.67
Total savings of: $125.61 (88%)
Total out of pocket cost: $17.63
Total from both transactions: $27.81
HOLY COW!!!! This is by far and away the best and most extreme shopping trip I have ever had. I did get a lot of hot dogs, but about 3/4 of them are already in the freezer so I can enjoy them throughout the summer and fall. I got all 12 packages of them for free so you can't beat that for summer grilling and cookouts! I am going to go over my grocery budget for the month by about $5, but that is more than ok with me to get this many items for dirt cheap prices!
Saturday, May 7, 2011
How Much Can I Save in a Year-April Update
Well my April update is a little late, but here goes nothing! I actually took the month off from a lot of shopping because I did an eat from the pantry challenge. I spent $10 a week and just got fresh foods or dairy products. I went over by $2.18 one week, but overall I did save money quite a bit by using up some of the pantry. I pretty much only bought extra things if I could get them for free or under $0.25 each. With as much working as I was doing after my actual job (reffing and coaching), I did find myself picking up dinner out a little more often which sucked so I am going to try to work at that a little better this month. So far, I have only been out to dinner twice in May and have cooked at home the other nights. It's my hope that I will be able to keep this up despite my busy schedule this month.
Here is what I got in April for free or less than $0.25!
6 pouches of Starkist Tuna-$1.00 each- (6) $.50 coupons (double)=6 free
Seventh Generation paper towels- $.89 on clearance-$1 coupon= FREE + .11 overage
Suave deodorant $1.06-.50 coupon (doubles)=$.06
2 tubes of Crest toothpaste-$1.00 each-(2) .50 coupons=2 FREE
2 Reach toothbrushes $1.00 each- $2/2 coupon=2 FREE
3 Reach floss-$1.00 each- (3) $1/1 coupons=3 FREE
Vasaline Sheer Infusion lotion-$1 on clearance-$1/1 coupon=FREE
Head and shoulders trial size shampoo $.97-$1/1 coupon=FREE
Degree deodorant $.97-$1/1 coupon=FREE
Heinz ketchup $1.99-$2/1 coupon=FREE
Grey Poupon $1.12 on clearance-$.50/1 coupon (doubles)=$.12
Well that's it for now. I promise I will get back to posting a lot more once school gets out in 10 days!
Here is what I got in April for free or less than $0.25!
6 pouches of Starkist Tuna-$1.00 each- (6) $.50 coupons (double)=6 free
Seventh Generation paper towels- $.89 on clearance-$1 coupon= FREE + .11 overage
Suave deodorant $1.06-.50 coupon (doubles)=$.06
2 tubes of Crest toothpaste-$1.00 each-(2) .50 coupons=2 FREE
2 Reach toothbrushes $1.00 each- $2/2 coupon=2 FREE
3 Reach floss-$1.00 each- (3) $1/1 coupons=3 FREE
Vasaline Sheer Infusion lotion-$1 on clearance-$1/1 coupon=FREE
Head and shoulders trial size shampoo $.97-$1/1 coupon=FREE
Degree deodorant $.97-$1/1 coupon=FREE
Heinz ketchup $1.99-$2/1 coupon=FREE
Grey Poupon $1.12 on clearance-$.50/1 coupon (doubles)=$.12
Well that's it for now. I promise I will get back to posting a lot more once school gets out in 10 days!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Murphy pays a visit
Well it has certainly been awhile since I last posted. As much as I hate to admit it, things have been a frenzy around here and I have had very little free time to find awesome deals and even more so to post. First an update: Job is going great! Thanks for the prayers and well wishes. In the one month since my last post, things have completely broken around my home! I blame that crazy guy named Murphy...him and his crazy laws. First my water heater needed to be replaced because my water pressure and hot water production was ummmm zero....cold showers are NOT fun! Murphy hit #1. Then we had some thunderstorms roll through one Sunday night in late February...weird I know, but they took out the motherboard on my refrigerator. Murphy hit #2. And now I patiently await Murphy hit #3....hoping so very much I can fool the sucker into only getting me twice. It has cost an arm and a leg, but what do you do? You thank Dave Ramsey for instilling the "emergency fund" idea into your head...or at least that is what I am doing! My emergency fund is pretty pathetic until I can ref some more soccer games to pad it back up so I'm hoping Murphy gives me a bit of time to recover! Has Murphy hit anyone else lately?
And now for some FANTASTIC DEALS I've gotten lately! I had some great luck this week at Kroger with a ton of free products after sale, $5 off instantly with the purchase of 10 items, and coupons. Don't believe me....see for yourself :)
There are 30 boxes of free pasta and 8 cans of Red Gold tomatoes. All were completely and utterly free. They are on sale yet again this coming week so I plan to return to Kroger to get about 30 more. You are probably thinking I am sounding like those INSANE people off the "Extreme Couponing" show on TLC because I plan to buy 60 boxes of pasta (but they're free right...)
I promise you that as absolutely extreme as it sounds, I have a plan for all that al dente goodness. Here it goes:
20 boxes of various pasta saved for me in my Ikea containers in the pantry-check out a pic of my pantry with the containers here
10 boxes of various pasta for my sister who is a poor college student at Butler (GO DAWGS!!!)
10 boxes of various pasta given to my best friend and her husband
20 boxes to the food shelter at another friend's church
One thing I have discovered about myself lately is how powerful this tool of couponing can be. I have taught co-workers about it and I feel blessed that I am sharing my knowledge with others. I told one of my co-workers today about the free pasta deal at Kroger. She is a struggling single mother of two teenagers who works 2 jobs to support them because she does not want to take federal assistance. She got insanely excited to find out about a deal like this and thanked me multiple times for telling her all about it. I told her where to find the coupons and explained the details of the deal. Now not only is this knowledge feeding me, my sister, my best friend's family, and some people who will receive the food at the food bank, it is benefiting a single mother and her family. She will more than likely share the deal with her friends as well. It is our own little version of pay it forward. I love the power of people, ideas, and frugality on our society. I am truly blessed to have found this way of life and how much it has taught me about being a wise steward of what we're given! In what ways do you feel blessed to have the knowledge and power of frugality?
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