New e-Coupons Available at Cellfire

New e-coupons are available this morning at Cellfire.com.  These will vary depending on the stores in your area.  For me there were a handful for Kroger, but alot for Tom Thumb.

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Free Sample of Aveeno Hair Care

Click here to request one of three samples available from Aveeno's new Active Naturals line of hair care products.  The sample will be a shampoo and conditioner of your choice, and the website said that it would come with a coupon.

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My Help

As I was sorting and organizing my coupons today, I had a bit of extra help going through my sale ads.

I guess its a good thing I had pretty much already decided to skip the drug stores this week.

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New Site with Many Printable Coupons

I had previously registered to recieve emails from this company,and today I got one of their newsletters in my inbox.  It was addressed from French's, but there are different tabs at the top for coupons of all different categories, and there are alot to choose from.

Click here to see all the coupons available.

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In the Mail

It's been a slow mail week, but I've gotten a couple free magazines, a coupon for $3 off Mylanta, and a sample of Bounce dryer sheets in my mail box in the past few days.

What did you get?

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New Coupon Booklet Available at Tom Thumb

I found this coupon booklet sitting by the front sale display when I was in Tom Thumb the other day.  It seems to be in conjunction with Earth Day and advertises a few recycling measures that these companies are doing.  It contains only three coupons, but they are manufacturers coupons, which means that can be used anywhere, and the coupons are pretty good ones, so if you are there be on the lookout.  It includes:

• 
  
  $1 off any Kraft Mayonaise or Miracle Whip 22oz or larger
• 
  
  $2 off any Yuban or Maxwell House Coffee 30oz or larger !!!!!
• 
  
  $2 off any 2 Crystal Light On the Go drink mixes.

Note:  They expire on May 15, 2010.

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Garden Update

There has not been much change in the garden.  The peas plants (closest in the picture) have grown the most.  They are going to be vines, so I need to put up a trellis for them to climb.  I had some bean plants sprouting, but noticed this morning that it looked like the leaves had been eaten by a bug.  I hope it didnt not kill the whole plant. =(  Also, we've had a little bit of cooler weather and rain.  I know the rain is good for them, but I hope the lower temperatures don't hurt them.

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Kids Eat Free At IHOP

You guys may already know about this, but I just saw a commercial last night saying that for the whole month of April (I know its almost over), kids eat free at IHOP from 4pm-10pm.  That's a pretty great deal.  =)

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A Little Bit of Freezer Cooking: Provencal Pork

I was pleasantly surprised at all the freezer meals I had a while back when I took inventory of my freezer.  But, I had the big box full of uncooked pork in there, and no prepared pork meals in my freezer.  On Thursday I picked up a bag of red potatoes at Aldi, and since then I have been contemplating what to do with them.  Then, I remembered one of my favorite pork meals needed red potatoes.  It also needed onions, which I had on hand, and stewed tomatoes, which I had stocked up on last month when I got them for $0.25 a can at Kroger.  Here is the recipe for Provencal Pork:

Ingredients: (for one family dinner---I tripled the recipe)

1/4 cup butter, divided

2 lbs boneless pork chops, cut into 1/2 inch thick strips

2 medium onions, sliced

1 15oz can stewed tomatoes

1 1/2 lbs potatoes (I used red, but I've made it with russet before)

season to taste

parsley to garnish (my husband also decided to sprinkle it with some grated parmesan)

My husband enjoys knives--especially when he just sharpened them, and I dislike touching raw meat, so he was more than happy to do the slicing for me.  First he cut up all the meat.  Then the onions and potatoes.

First, you cook the meat down in half of the butter.  I add some seasoning at this step also, and some of it cooks into the meat and some stays behind in the juice.  Then remove the meat from the pot, leaving the juice behind.  Cook down the onions in the juice until they begin getting tender.  Then add the stewed tomatoes, and any more seasonings you like.  I added salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and Italian seasoning.  Heat to boiling, and then let it cook for 5 minutes.

Next, its time to assemble. Place the pork on bottom. Add the onion and sauce mixture on top of that. Then place a layer of potatoes on top of that. Sprinkle the parsley on top. Wrap in in foil. If you want to eat it then, bake for one hour at 350*.

That is the finished product of what we ate for dinner.  I made two more pans, using foil square cake pans.  These sell in three packs for around $1 each, and are the perfect size for our family, but that may change when my baby starts eating the same food we eat.  Find a size that works for you.  Here are the extras:

These I wrapped in foil and then placed them inside a gallon freezer bag.  In the bag I placed an index card that said what it was, the date, and instructions for preparing it.  Once it is thawed, the bake time is the same.

Doubling and tripling simple recipes is a great way to get started placing some meals in your freezer to have for more hectic days.  I spent no extra time in the kitchen, and dirtied no more dishes, but now there are two nights when I can just throw one of these in the oven (You can bake them from frozen if you forget to thaw them. I've done this and I put in on for about two hours at 300*).  These types of meals (made in the disposable trays) also come in super handy if you would like to share a meal with some one who is sick or has had a baby, which is a frequent occurence at our church =)  Having meals ready has let me share more, when I might not have found time to make an extra meal with two small children of my own.

Oh, and by the way, this may not seem like a very kid friendly dish but my three year old LOVED it.

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Tom Thumb Trip #2

2 Betty Crocker Warm Delights

2 Quaker True Delights Instant Oatmeal

8 Nature Valley Granola Bars

Shelf Price: $35.88

Sale Price: $19.98

Total After Coupons:  $7.78

Note:  The Warm Delights were not part of the buy 5 save $5 sale, but I had expiring coupons and e-coupons that made one free and one 20cents. =)  Love those.

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New Keebler Coupon

Click here to print a coupons for $1 off any one package of Keebler Sandies cookies.  Its a bricks coupon so hit your back button and print it twice.

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Printable Scott Coupons

Go here to print two coupons from Scott Naturals.  These include:

• $1 off any one Scott Naturals Paper Product
• $0.50 off any one Scott Naturals Flushable Moist Wipes

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New E-Coupons Available

I noticed some new e-coupons available to load onto your shoppers card at Shortcuts.com.  Head over there and check what is available for you. 

*Note:  The limit is 75 of their coupons that you can have loaded up at once.  I have too many, so I was not able to load any more up.  It said I must go redeem some (or wait until some expire).  So, make sure you click the ones you really want first.

On a side note, my husband wanted to make a cake for a co-worker's birthday, so he stopped at Tom Thumb on his way home from work the other night and bought some cake mix and frosting.  When he got home I happened to look at his receipt, and I noticed that 3 e-coupons deducted from his total.  I was so excited.  My coupons were used and I didnt even set foot in the store. =)

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New Nature Valley Printable Coupon

I was doing a search to see if there were any more Nature Valley Granola Bar coupons to be had, and look what I found right on the Nature Valley website: $1 off any two boxes.  This comes out to $0.50 cents off per box which is a better deal than the $0.40 off coupons that come in the coupon inserts.

This is a bricks coupon so hit the back button and print it twice.  =)

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Check Your Coupons

I was just noticing that I had quite a few of my coupons that were expiring this weekend, so check yours out and use what you need while you can. =)

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Mega SwagBucks Friday

Fridays are Mega Swag Bucks days!  You have a chance to win higher than normal amounts of SwagBucks when you perform searches on Fridays.  If you do not already have a Swagbucks account, you can sign up here.  New members get 30 free swagbucks to get you started.

Dont' know what it is?  It is a site that gives you chances to win points (called swagbucks) win you search through their site.  If you download their toolbaf it is much easier to remember to use it to do your searches.  450 swagbucks will get you a $5 Amazon gift certificate.  I just got one today!  You can request a prize anytime, but gift certificate codes are sent out on the 15-17 of each month and on the last day of the month.  Lately I have been averaging one $5 Amazon code each cycle, or $10 per month just by doing what I would normally be doing anyway--performing web searches.

The more you search the more chances you have to win!

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My Tom Thumb Trip (Finally)

These five items were advertised as part of the Buy 5 save $5 sale at the very bottom of the first page of this weeks Tom Thumb ad.  The regular shelf price of these items should have been a ridiculous $18.45.   The sale price before coupons was only $8.  After coupons, I paid only $1.83!! 

I went to the store not knowing if the Quaker True Delights were part of the sale, but I was delighted to find that they were because I had been dying to try them (I love oatmeal as a late night snack, and these new flavors,  Hazlenut Latte and Wild Blueberry Muffin, sound really good), and I had 2 $1off 1 box of True Delights coupons that I had printed here, and then when I was looking for where I printed it from, I found another one here and was able to print 2 more.  That makes the oatmeal $0.50/box, so I'm going to grab some more when I go back for my Nature Valley Granola Bars.  I also had $1 off 2 Cheerios that I found on coupons.com (I apparently had an e-coupon for cheerios loaded on my card also for another $1 off-had totally forgotten about that, so that was a nice surprise), and then I had a coupon for $2 off the Raisin Bran that you can get here when you sign up for their newsletter.  I think they email it to you.  That was on sale for $2, so the coupon made it free. =)

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Tom Thumb Deal, but not My Trip Yet =(

Well either the photo-uploader is having major issues tonight, or my computer is (quite likely...I fear it is slowly departing).  So I have not been able to get my picture of my Tom Thumb trip uploaded, but I wanted to tell you about something I noticed in the store while I was shopping, but did not have the coupons with me.

At the bottom of the ad this week on the front page, there is a buy 5 items and save $5 deal, which is what I went to take advantage of.  Well, it was not advertised that the Nature Valley Granola Bars were part of this deal, but in the store I saw signs that they were.  They are $1.50 each when you buy 5 of them.  I have not pulled my coupons out yet, but I KNOW that there are always .40/1 coupons.  Tom Thumb will double the first like coupon, so that will make for $0.80 off the first box, or $0.70 cents for that one.  The rest are redeemed at face value, so $1.10 each for the rest if you have 5 of those (hope I do!).  But even better is that there are e-coupons for these too at cellfire.com and shortcuts.com.  Those will work along with the paper coupons at Tom Thumb (sadly I hear this is no longer the case at Kroger *sniff*)  But that will give you even extra savings if you have those loaded on your card.  Those will vary by region and by person (if you've loaded them or used any yet). 

We love these things, so I am definately gathering up my coupons and going back for this.  We just finished up the last box from the last time they were on sale like this at Tom Thumb (I think I got 7 boxes), and I was hoping they would be on again soon.  I was sad to not see them featured in the ad, but I am so excited to find that they are on sale.  The ad lasts until Tuesday. 

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My Really Big Shopping Trip Today

Since I started this blog, I haven't posted very many shopping trips that I've done.  Maybe that's because the sales haven't been very good recently.  Or maybe it's because my husband (he's a teacher by day) has been subbing every single night at evening school, and I haven't felt like dragging the kids out with me.  Whatever the reason, I realized that I simply must go shopping today.  I had looked at all of the sale ads trying to decide what to get here and what to get there, but finally I decided that I would just grab whatever I could find at Aldi and call it a day. 

There were ALOT of things that I needed, so I knew I was going to spend alot of money today, but sometimes these things just cannot be helped.  My cats need to eat after all, and trash bags and laundry detergent and toilet paper are pretty important items.  In the past, I have always had to do one of these large stock up trips on pay day (which is around the 27th of each month) so to begin with I'm proud that we've been able to put it off so long this month.  Also, I usually have over a page on my shopping list, and end up spending well over $100 even buying mostly store brand items at Wal-Mart.  This time I only had about 3/4 of a page, but some were pretty costly items.  I knew if I went in Walmart it would take a really long time, and I didnt feeling trekking through there with two kids in tow, so I ran in Aldi assuming I would still be missing a few things on my list, but they would have to wait until later.

I was really surprised though.  I was able to find everything I needed and then some.  I really hope my cats like their cat food, because I certainly wasn't making a special trip just to go get Purina. =)  Here is everything I came home with.  In all I paid $81.66 for all of this.  Not incredible, but not too bad I think.

*Note:  While I was writing this, I looked at my receipt and noticed that I had been charged for two boxes of trash bags when I only bought one.  I cannot find a phone number for the store either on the receipt or online (strange) to call and ask about this, so I guess I will have to go down to the store one day.  I'll let you know what happens with that. 

Also, I did make one more quick trip today when my husband came home briefly.  It was pretty impressive, and I will post that a little bit later.

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Do It Yourself Frozen Mini Pancakes

I will admit that I am not a big cooker of breakfast.  I am very much a pour it in a bowl or pop it in the toaster/microwave type person.  My daughter is absolutely fine with this.  Except for the past two days she kept going on and on about pancakes.  She loves mini pancakes.  I used to buy the frozen ones in a box because it was simple, but those things cost A LOT of money for just a few pancakes.  For the price you pay for one box of those that has maybe a couple dozen in it, you could buy a whole box of pancake mix.  But, then you have the whole hassle of actually cooking them and dirtying up the mixing bowls and griddle, etc.

Well, I'm not quite sure when the idea came to me.  I believe it was long before I started freezer cooking my dinners.  I noticed the package of pancake mix had directions for larger batches of pancakes printed near the bottom.

I thought, if they can sell pancakes frozen, why can't I freeze my own pancakes?  So I decided to give it a shot, and it worked really well.  So, I thought I would share this with you guys.  I will make up the largest batch.  I could even go larger if I wanted to double the ingredients listed, but the one using 3 cups of mix lasts us quite a while.  I mix up the batter in a large mixing bowl.

Then I pour them out in small circles onto the pre-heated griddle.  You can do this on the stove too, it will just take a little bit longer.

There is the messy picture, because of course the neat looking one wouldn't upload =P.  It takes a few batches like this on the griddle.  As I take them off, I pile them up on a plate or something and let them cool off while we eat some fresh ones.

Once they are cool (but don't let them sit out too long), I place them in a large freezer bag, date it and pop it in the freezer.  Now when my daughter asks for pancakes, I can pop a few into the microwave. =)  Saves me time and money, so I definately love that!

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