I won, I won!

Thank you Malt-o-Meal. Thank you so much! The Fed-Ex man dropped by my house the other day with a tiny envelope. Inside: A letter stating I was a grand prize winner - FREE Malt-o-Meal cereal for a year in the form of 52 Free bag coupons (up to $5.50) - so its the big bags! This will feed our little family breakfast and snacks with some to share for over a year!

Moral of the story: Entering contests really does pay off. I had been skeptical until now, but I will play on. A few short minutes of my time can really pay off.

For more frugal ideas, visit LifeAsMom!

Easy Oven Potatoes

This recipe is one that my family LOVES and is so simple. I usually make these when I am already baking pork chops or chicken.

Easy Oven Potatoes

6 - 8 large Baking potatoes- peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces
1/4 C olive oil
2 tsp garlic salt
dash of pepper

Mix the above in a large ziploc bag (or you could use a bowl) and pour onto cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick spray.

Bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes - stir and bake until desired crispy-ness. We really like ours crispy and they usually take another 15-20 minutes.

The spices could be mixed up to match whatever main dish is being served - it is mainly the method of cooking the potatoes that we really like.

Visit LifeAsMom for more great recipe ideas!

Jewel Week of 10/19/09

I did 4 transactions at Jewel this week.

Transaction #1:

2 - Multigrain Cheerios @ 2.00 ea
4 - Total @ 2.00 ea

Used $2.25 in coupons
Total: $9.75

Received: $10 Catalina

Transaction #2

5 - Boxes Nature Valley Granola Bars @ 2.50 ea

3 - 5 # bags of Gold Medal Flour @ 2.00 ea

1 - can of Green Giant creamed corn @ .75

Used 3 .40 coupons and $10 cat from above

Total: $8.05

Received $10 Catalina

Transaction # 3

3 - Pillsbury Pie crusts

1- Bag of Chex mix

5 - cans of green giant veggies

1 - box of Nature Valley granola bars

2- Fiber One 4 pks of yogurt

1 - dozen eggs

1 lb Broc. crowns

mushrooms

Used $10 cat from above and $3.5 in other coupons

Total: $12.46

Received $10 catalina

Transaction # 4 (not pictured)

1 Gallon Organic milk @ 5.99

1 - Box miltigrain Cheerios @ 2.00

3 - Boxes Nature Valley Granola Bars

1 - Fiber One yogurt 4 pk

4 - Pillsbury Grand Biscuits

1 - Pillsbury Orange Rolls - YUMMY

Used $1.60 in coupons and $10 cat from above

Total: 14.73

Received: $10 and $3 Catalinas

Total at Jewel this week: $44.99 and I have $13 in catalinas to use next week.

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CVS 10/18/09

My CVS trip on Sunday consisted of these items:

2 - 20 ct Advil PM 4.50 ea- 2.00c x 2

4- Chapsticks - I could have made this deal better by buying more Advil, but I use a ton of chapstick. 1.50 ea

1- Robitussin 5.50 - 2.00 c

4- Lindsay Black Olives - 1.25 ea - 1.00/2 c x 2

Used 6.50 in ECBs

Total : $12.41

Received: $10 ECBs for next time

For more Super Savings, visit MoneySavingMom!

Visit to the Orchard

My 3 year old had a BLAST at the apple orchard earlier this week. She is SO into apple picking, I think we will go to another orchard this weekend when my husband can go with us.

Target 10/7/09

I had two transactions at Target this week and this is what I got:

7 - 64 oz bottles of Mott's Apple Juice

3 - 6pks of Mott's Natural Apple Sauce

1 - 3L Ice Mountain

1 - Little Debbie Oatmeal cream pies (treat for my 3 yo who was being VERY GOOD :) )

2 - 2 Ls of Diet Sunkist

1 - Package of Garage sale labels

Total Spent: 19.18 and I have a $5 Target gift card for the future.

For more grocery store fun, visit MoneySavingMom!

Aldi 10/7/09

I made a trip to Aldi this week. I usually go every 3 - 4 weeks to stock up on items. I will go more frequently if I need some of their special buy produce. My canned items are hard to see in the photo, but I got 6 cans of tomato sauce, 4 cans of black beans, 3 - 28 oz cans of diced tomatoes and 4 - 14 oz cans of diced tomatoes.

The highlights this trip were:

3 pk of caramel apples for $.99
12 pk String Cheese for $2.69
2 small cans of pumpkin for $.79/ea
A bag of 5-6 jalapeños for $.99

Total Spent for what is shown above: $ 31.96

For more grocery store fun, visit MoneySavingMom!

Frugal Friday

I often buy pork chops at Costco, which run $12 - $13 a package for 9 -10 big, thick chops. When I get the pork chops home, I cut each chop in half – like I am butter flying it, only I go the whole way. The chops are then the same thickness as the ones I get in the grocery store. I freeze them in 4 chop portions and that is more than enough for our family- plus, it usually gives my husband lunch the next day. The package I just bought from Costco was 12.79 and I got 20 nice size chops. That will feed our family 5 times for a total protein cost per meal of $2.56 - which is much better than our local grocery store’s sale of $1 per chop.


I will take a picture next time, but I was in a hurry when I got home from the store and got them in the freezer ASAP.



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Yummy Pastry

Above is the Raspberry Danish my husband and daughter went out last Saturday morning to get for me. They also brought me home my favorite cup of coffee just the way I like it- half caf and cream. Mmmmm…..