Menu Monday

Monday: Eggplant Parmesan, zucchini, corn, garlic bread. I'll use jar sauce instead of the sugar and tomato sauce called for in the recipe.

Tuesday:BBQ Pork Loin, potato wedges, grilled squash. I'll cook the veggies separately.

Wednesday: Simple supper. Leftovers, sandwiches, soup and salad.

Thursday: Stuffed Peppers, corn, veggies and dip, salad and fruit. I'll substitute jar sauce for the tomato sauce in this recipe.

Friday: Potato cheese soup, veggies and dip, fruit and bread.

Saturday: Fish, rice and broccoli.

Sunday: TBA

For more menu ideas check out I'm An Organizing Junkie.

Sunday Coupon Inserts

You should have three coupon inserts in your Sunday paper:
Red Plum
Smart Source
P&G

Publix: Quick Trip Spent $5.84 and Saved $54.81!

I had a few more coupons to use and a few great deals were expiring soon, so I made one more quick trip to my favorite Publix store.

Harris Teeter, Kroger Super Doubles (In Some Areas)

Not only is Harris Teeter doing super doubles (doubling coupons less than $1.98) starting today... For those of you in the middle Tennessee area, check with your local Kroger store. It has been reported that the Kroger in Brentwood on Franklin Road as well as the Kroger on Highway 100 in Bellevue are doing super doubles. For the best list of super doubles be sure to check out Southern Savers. Jenny has compiled a list for Harris Teeter and many of the items will be even cheaper at Kroger.

Publix: Spent $30.77 and Saved $206.62!

It's not unusual to read several blogs before shopping.The reason the totals are so high is that I combined a MF Sundown coupon with a Publix store coupon to gain overage. Thanks to I Love Publix for the tip! Thanks to Tara's Faves for the heads up regrading the $1 Back To Nature Coupon in the Whole Foods newsletter. I had one! Also, Thanks to Frugal Dr. Mom for the idea of stacking the Glad FLIP with a MF coupon for the pork deal. We are well stocked with storage bags now.

The Sundown and Rite Aid $5/$25 coupons gave me about $28 in overage. It is absolutely incredible how quickly that overage disappears when you have items to buy without coupons. Makes me appreciate couponing even more. Sometimes you just have to buy what you need. I attended a Southern Savers workshop in Murfreesboro, Tennessee several weeks ago. I liked what Jenny said about buying our groceries at the lowest cost possible, but not putting Publix out of business. I kept them in business this week.

No big surprise with the coupons I did use. Used $151.40 in coupons. Total savings $206.62. Total spent $30.77 including $15.15 in tax. Charcoal not pictured.

Also made two more small trips to Kroger this week for mega deals and a few essentials. Spent $20.02. Saved $73.88. Received one $3.50 CAT. Sorry no Kroger pics. Funny, on my first trip to Kroger for the Mega sale, Shortcuts and Cellfire coupons were combined on one item for maximum savings. However on subsequent trips, it was only one or the other.

Total for the week $50.70 and saved $280.50.

Menu Monday

Here's the menu this week. Usually I leave Sunday open as I prepare one of the meals I didn't have time to cook during the week, or maybe we'll have leftovers. I've also added some notes as to how we try to cut our costs for dinner.

Monday: Crock Pot Roast, veggies and rolls.
(One of our favorite meals. We usually eat once a month. Purchased Manager's Special roast at Kroger for $3.50 and we'll use leftovers for tomorrow's meal.)

Tuesday: Beef (leftover roast) and bean burritos. Veggies and dip, salad.

Wednesday: Veggie Plate: squash casserole, corn, scalloped potatoes.
(We try to eat a veggie meal once a week. Helps the budget to cut down on meat and it's good for you!)

Thursday: Salmon and salad (for adults). Hot dogs and veggies and dip for the kids.
(Stockpiled wild caught salmon when it was on sale at Kroger last month at $3.99 a pound. Trying to eat fish once a week. So good for you!)

Friday: Eggs, bacon, hash browns, fruit salad and biscuits.
(Purchased eggs at Harris Teeter for .88 a dozen, free bacon purchased with $3 Smithfield coupon, and free biscuits from Kroger mega deal.)

Saturday: Pizza and salad.
(Stockpiled free Kashi pizza last month.)

Sunday: TBA

For more menu ideas check out Menu Monday at Organizing Junkie.

Sunday Coupon Inserts

You should have two coupon inserts in today's paper: Red Plum and Smart Source. Also, according to Jenny at Southern Savers, the Publix Mystery Item is the Publix large roll of papers towels.

Super Sunday Shopping!

I had an usual situation this past Sunday with the morning free, so I thought I would hit the stores. My normal pattern is to hit one or two grocery stores on Sunday or Monday. Then maybe a small store like Target or Walgreens when I drop the kids at MDO. However, the kids have been out of school for a month, so I was excited about being able to do a quick stop to several stores on Sunday. The picture contains items from four stores.

Walgreen's: Two free soaps. Rolled by RR's into photo order and diaper wipes with the help of the $2 coupon from the Walgreens back to school booklet.

CVS: Had ECBs expiring so stopped to get milk. They had ZERO available, so I bought a couple of their "free" school supply items to extend my ECBs.

Kroger: I had loaded my Cellfire and Shortcuts coupons the day before. I quickly printed and clipped a few coupons for our favorites products for the Mega event and and nine coupons specifically for the triple coupon event that was going on simultaneously. I was able to get two of the nine items for triple coupons and about sixteen from the Mega event. I should have purchased twenty items for the best value, but I took extra coupons expecting the store to be out because of triple coupon event. OOP was .77 cents as I had a gift card for $10. Received one $3.50 CAT. I was glad to see the Celfire coupons working. I was able to save an addition $6.40 with the Shortcuts and Cellfire coupons. Saved $51.39 total!

Publix: Had about $18 in overage, which helped with the overall bill. Spent $22.69 and saved $135.11!

Seventh Delvin Farms CSA

This week's box included:
Three types of tomatoes
Three types of peppers
Corn
Squash
Potatoes
And the most delicious watermelon

SUPER EASY Slow Cooker Chili

I've heard of people using spaghetti sauce to make chili, but didn't have a recipe. Spaghetti sauce in a jar is something that is usually easy to pick up cheaply with a sale and a coupon. Right now we have six jars of sauce, so I thought I would give it a try. It was a success! This large pot of chili cost less than $5 to make. Here's what I threw together.

1 lb of very lean ground hamburger (ground turkey would also work)
1lb bag of pinto beans
1 jar of spaghetti sauce (about a 26 ounce jar)
1-2 tablespoons of chili powder
1-2 teaspoons of onion powder
1 teaspoon of garlic
1 green pepper
5 cups of water

Place ground beef on the bottom of crock pot. Add one jar of sauce. For this try, I used a jar of Ragu. Add pre-soaked and washed pinto beans. Add four cups of water. My crock tends to lose moisture as it cooks. You'll need to add water accordingly.

Add 1 tablespoon of chili powder and about 1/2 teaspoon each of garlic and onion. Fresh garlic and onion would work great too! Place on high for about 6 hours.

This was almost ready to eat after six hours. I added more seasoning, another cu€p of water and a green pepper. I then placed it on low until dinner a few hours later. If needed, you could also place it on low while out for the day and then add a few more spices before serving.

This recipe was posted at The Grocery Cart Challenge.

Publix Sneak Peek

Check out I Heart Publix for a sneak peek at this Wednesday's new ad with coupon match up. Looks like a better sales week than the last one.

Menu Monday

It's a busy week. My son has minor surgery on Monday and my daughter starts kindergarten, so some of these menu days may be switched.

Monday: Omelet and broiled tomatoes with Romano cheese. I'll add a couple of extra eggs to the omelet recipe for our family of four.

Tuesday: Quick dinner. Salad and tuna for the adults. Sandwiches, veggies and dip for the kids.

Wednesday: Chili. Trying to use our peppers and tomatoes from our CSA

Thursday: Leftovers, tostadas

Friday: Oven fried chicken, mashed potatoes squash.

Saturday: Pepperoni rolls, salad and veggies and dip.

Sunday: TBA

For more menu ideas, check out I'm an Organizing Junkie.com

Sunday Coupon Inserts

You should have two inserts in your Sunday newspaper: Smart Source and Red Plum.

If you live in the middle Tennessee area you can get The Sunday Tennessean for .99 at Walgreens.

My Publix Plan This Week

In our area both Kroger and Harries Teeter are having triple coupons. I may make a quick trip Kroger, but generally I don't find it worth the time hunting items and coupons. I feel I'm getting such great deals at Publix and their customer service is next to none. Here's how I'm tackling my shopping list for Publix this week.

Things I need:
Milk (No coupon), fruit (Target coupons, FLIP)

Things I'll need soon:
Diapers (IP, Publix ad), wipes (FLIP), spices, canned cat food ( BOGO, Coupon from Sunday Inserts)

Stockpile items:
Ritz Bits (BOGO, Kraft IP and Nabisco coupon booklet), baby wipes (FLIP), canned cat food (Inserts) Cookies (IP)

Things I would like to get:
Chicken salad, apricot nectar, pita bread or flat bread ($3 off $10 Deli Purchase FLIP), Hormel canned chicken (BOGO), more fruit.

My budget is around $25 as I already did a quick shop early this week for cat litter and diapers with only time to grab $7 in coupons. I plan on using some coupons and getting a little overage. I'll start at the top of the list and see what my budget will allow. I have coupons for most items except for milk and the extra things I would like to get.

Publix: Spent $32.69 and saved $139.08!

My challenge this week was to get my grocery bill at $100 or over, so I could use my Free milk coupons WYP $100 in groceries coupon. It worked, but not as well as planned. I did two of the pork/charcoal deals in order to raise the total. In addition I had $3 coupon on produce WYB Hormel Pork Loin. The other pork item I purchased was bacon, which counted toward Kraft/Publix rebate. I was able to get the charcoal, pork, BBQ sauce, produce, milk, ice cream (Kroger coupon) and cereal (IP) free.

I spent about $14 more than hoped. The Lance 100 calorie packs were not included, so I just bought what was on sale without a coupon. I didn't have as much overage with the Sun Down vitamins. The cashier would not take both free milk coupons, so no overage there. She did give me the overage on the chocolate milk though. (This cashier has rang up my groceries three times in a row, and has been so nice, friendly and patient with my coupons. I was not going to argue over the $4. I think we are fortunate to get overage at Publix most of time as so many store don't do this.)

I used about $100 in coupons,. About 10% were from the newspaper inserts while the rest came from Target, Food Lion, internet printables, and coupon books I picked up at the grocery store. So even if you have just started using coupons you can find coupons to use this week! All in all still a great trip saving $139! I purchased a couple extra items to qualify for the $10 rebate, so including that would be $22.69 OOP.

For many months I have been saving about 35% compared to where I was pre-couponing. And I was fairly frugal before. This past couple months with a few changes I've seen my savings around 50%. This includes our 1/2 bushel every other week of organic produce from Farmer's Market, pet products, toiletries, diaper supplies and regular groceries. Several things have helped.

1. I've put myself on a weekly budget. Duh. Even with coupons you can over spend.

2. I've tried to come up with ways to gain overage. Not easy, but every little bit helps.

3. I've become a bit more aggressive in using coupons. In the past, I thought buying 4 items with coupons was a lot. Now I don't hesitate to buy many items if they are at their lowest price. We don't always get great coupons here, so I don't hesitate to buy extras from a coupon clipping service or ebay. Last month I was able to get 10 Kashi pizzas and 10 free Sunkist frozen fish entrees free by purchasing more coupons.

Not pictured: the two bags of charcoal.

Publix Sneak Peek

Check out I Heart Publix for this Wednesday's ad specials and some great coupon match ups. If you see any deal you are especially in love with now would be a good time to order additional coupons if needed. This would give you over a week to receive your coupons. Also, remember that Publix will give you a rain check if they are out of an item.

Harris Teeter Triples Starting This Wednesday!

Harris Teeter will be tripling coupons up to .99 starting Wednesday. Jenny at Southern Savers has the early list with some great coupon match ups. Check their coupon rules before you go. They tend to have a few more rules that most stores.

Menu Monday

The late edition. Here goes...

Monday: Salad and Fish.

Tuesday: Beef Tips with gravy and rice. Zucchini, tomatoes, pepper stir fry.

Wednesday: Grilled squash, grilled potatoes, cole slaw and rolls.

Thursday: Breakfast as dinner. Omelets and pancakes.

Friday: Tostadas. Veggies and dip. Fruit.

Saturday: Grilled chicken or pork, and vegtables. We'll see what's in our CSA box.

Sunday Coupon Inserts

Many readers will receive three coupons inserts tomorrow in their local paper:

(1) SmartSource
(1) Red Plum
(1) SmartSource/General Mills

For local readers, we did not receive last week's special Red Plum/Keebler coupon insert in our Tennessean, so I will be interested to see what we receive before I buy extra copies.

Walgreen's still has the Sunday Tennessean for only .99.

Publix: Kids Gone Wild!

My first trip to Publix happened after picking up a box of vegetables from the Farmer's Market. Really. It looks like the kids did the shopping at Publix. Thank goodness some veggies to balance all the junk food. As a couponer, I'm stockpiling. I know that but am still a bit appalled at all the snack food items.



The picture directly above is the second trip. The Pop Tarts have an amazing sell by date until next July. Hubs thinks they must be 100% synthetic, although he likes to eat the brown sugar variety. And if that wasn't enough I bought 4 pounds of sugar on the second Publix run to make sure we continue on the health food kick.

The Pop Tarts were about .40 with coupon (10 boxes). The Right Bites were about $1.20 a box (10 boxes). I had only 5 coupons for those. Not a great deal, but then I had a coupon for $2 off a gallon of milk WYB 2 boxes of Rights Bites, so just .25 each for 5 gallons of milk!

I more than qualify for the Fuel For School rebate, so I will receive $10 dollars back.

Not a bad week at Publix. Saved $96.98 and spent $32.21 . Plus I will get a $10 rebate so $22.21. Actually hoping not to go next week, but I might be temped by the Charcoal/Pork deal.

Sixth Delvin Farms CSA and Review

It was a 1/2 bushel filled to the brim with Summer produce. I heard one of the Delvin Farms helpers kindly warning a female customer as she might not be able to carry the box as she herself had trouble with these heavy produce boxes. Luckily, I'm used to lifting my toddlers. Here's what what we received.

Lots of tomatoes. Three different kinds. I plan on putting some up in the freezer. We also tried one of the tomato recipes in the Delvin newsletter.

Lots of squash. I've already made stuffed squash and froze several pounds. I'll make zucchini muffins again this week. It will still be challenging using it all.

Also, in box were green beans, potatoes, peppers, cucumber and basil.

We are halfway into our CSA program, receiving 1/2 bushel every other week. The produce we have received has been some of the best. It is remarkable seeing all the CSA boxes stacked on the shelves waiting for pick up. The produce is so spectacular with all of nature's colors. Some how Delvin Farms gets all the boxes uniformly beautiful. They are are all so similar in size, quantity and quality.

However, I don't believe we will register for next Summer. Why? Earlier in the season when the boxes are low on produce, which is to be expected, I've had to buy additional produce to meet our needs. More so than anticipated. I also found myself looking at other CSAs that had a bit more variety at that time of the year.

Later in the season when the boxes are plentiful, I've found it a challenging to use it all. We are a family of four with two toddlers. If we had older children that would make a difference.

Next year, I'll probably go with a program that delivers 1/4 bushel every week or I may go to the Farmer's Market every other week. I think that will work better for our family for now.

I'm glad I tried it though. I've been able to make our budget work with the additional expense. I've actually had the best broccoli and squash I've ever had, and some of the best tomatoes, cantaloupe and strawberries. It has forced me to try new vegetables, new recipes and even learn to freeze fruits and vegetables.

Menu Monday

Monday: Crock Pot Roast Beef, cooking with Lipton Beefy Onion Soup Mix. Mashed Potatoes, squash and cabbage.

Tuesday: Veggie Plate. Green Beans, Potatoes, Corn and muffins.

Wednesday: Beef (leftover from Monday) and Bean Burritos. Veggies and dip and fruit.

Thursday: Stir Fry Chicken with Rice

Friday: Pizza, salad and fruit.

Saturday: Fish and salad.

Sunday: TBA

For more great menu ideas check out I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Free Schwan's Food!

Schwan's is offering the first 500,000 new customers up to $10 in free food. I just ordered an apple pie that looks delicious. Click here for more info. Thanks to Money Saving Mom for another great freebie!

Sunday Coupon Inserts

This is a great week for coupons! You should receive 5 coupon inserts:
(2) SmartSource
(1) Red Plum
(1) Red/Plum Keebler/Kelloggs
(1) P&G

This would be a great week to buy a few extra papers. Also, Publix has Pop Tarts, Keebler Right Bites and Kellogg's cereal on sale BOGO until Tuesday. Use the coupons from the paper (stack the Target Pop Tart Coupon with the newspaper coupon to save the most) and buy 10 products, which will then qualify for the the Fuel For School $10 Rebate.

Thanks Jenny at Southern Savers for all the great info!

NOTE: Our local paper The Tennessean did not receive the Keebler insert.