Swagbucks

Good Morning! Today I want to tell you about a fun, free, easy way to earn stuff you love the easiest way I've found yet. I'm sure you have all at some time or another used a search engine to find information you need. I found a way to earn stuff I want when I search. At the bottom of my blog you will see my Swagbucks. I currently have 230 when I get to 450 I will get a free 5.00 amazon gift card. How do you earn swagbucks you ask? Well I installed the toolbar on my computer so there is my Google bar and then under that is my swagbucks bar, there is a box where when I need to search and find something I type it in there and I may earn points. Sometimes you earn points sometimes you don't. On Fridays you can earn Mega Swag Bucks! Just from using their toolbar! There are hundreds of items I have enough swagbucks (SB) to trade in for right now but I want to wait and save for an amazon card so that way I really can get whatever I want. You can sign up from the box at the bottom of my page it really is easy and free! I just started using this toolbar a few months ago and I already have 230! Sometimes if I am on the computer I may just type in stuff to see if I earn lol!

Coupon friends--This could be huge

Ok to all of you who are going to start couponing or have already started. There have been rumors of up to SIX inserts this weekend. For those of you who are new to this I need to tell you if you only get coupons once a month and do not commit to getting them every weekend. Then the first weekend of the month is always the weekend to get them because the PG (Proctor and Gamble) insert is there only the first Sunday (unless there it is a holiday weekend, in that case it will be in the weekend before or after) In the PG insert there are a LOT of good HBA (Health and Beauty Aid) coupons such as deodorant and shaving cream etc. you will also find some great cleaning products in there as well. The rumor I have seen (on some of the other blogs I follow) is there may be a SS-SmartSource, a RP-Redplum, a P&G, a Pepsi/Frito Lay, GM-General Mills, and even a Playskool. Now these vary by region so your paper may only have one or two but your neighboring city may have them all IDK! I am pretty excited though because I have only gotten up to three inserts so far in one paper I think so this may be a HUGE coupon weekend I may just buy extras lol The PG is usually the biggest insert of them all. Don't forget to check your papers before leaving your store for your coupons. If you have one or two inserts in there that may be all your area is getting so go ahead and buy your paper because that one or two will still be worth your money. I always look at it like this, the paper costs 2.00 right well if you only use 2.00 worth of coupons out of it then you have made your money back, the rest after 2.00 is FREE MONEY!!! I love free money in fact any of you who get a paper and don't use your coupons let me know I will come get them from you and I will be happy to spend your FREE MONEY for you :) !!!

Eating out in the future?!?!

Check out this deal for today only! You can get a gift certificate worth 25.00 for only 1.00 today only. If you eat out look at this site I have used it and was introduced by one of my best friends Courtney... I don't get paid from these people so I'm not selling this I just love to save money and share with my friends on how to do it. Read the stipulations and save money that is all you have to do.

http://www.restaurant.com/consumer-promotion/cj_dlp.asp?prti=1647&aid=10821641&pid=3105666

What to do now

So I made the caramel apples for the last week of the "apple" unit in Rylan's class. Now they are starting "farm" lol what treat do you make for that. I already have a list of fun treats for the "spider/halloween" unit. I will make halloweenies (pigs in a blanket that look like mummies) wizard hats are just oreos with chocolate covered chips (I can't think of the name of the certain ones at the moment I remember putting them on my fingers as a kid they look like little cones) I will use the oreos that have the orange icing and just take one side off then stick the cone on top the pic was soooo cute. I plan on bringing grilled cheese sammies too but shaped like ghosts. I saw how to make spider cupcakes but I'm not too sure how that will come out lol its just licorice on top I may skip those lol. They also have some other cute recipes for cute snacks in a little book I picked up at a register. I am making more for that unit because they have a snack bag that is passed to each child and they take turns bringing the snacks for each day and our week will fall during that unit. I will probably send the usual snacks too of goldfish or something simple for the kids who are a little picky. Anyway I want to think of something fun for the end of the "farm unit" if you have any cute suggestions please lemme know! :)

Give back America take 2...

So after my posting titled "Give back America" one of my best friends (insert name here, you know who you are lol) text me and said "the post office won't shut down bwcause its considered a goverment service." ( I realize there is a typo in there I felt like I couldn't quote it if I corrected the errors.)  But first she said "What happened to going green?" and a little light went on in my head I thought I need to first do more research on the post offices closures I've been hearing about then I need to find more ways to go green. I did just that and found multiple sites that explain what is going on. Here is one of those http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01/24/postal-service-eyes-closing-thousands-post-offices/

this just hurts my heart not because I know someone who works at a post office but when Rhett was overseas I felt like I knew those people as I was in there every week and we talked like we were old friends, when it was Easter and Rhett's mom asked if I made sure to put "peeps" in his box (even though I'm 99% sure she sent a box too I don't remember lol) I did and when I got to the counter, I would wait for one of two people who were my favorites, I asked this older, tall, African American gentlemen (he was my favorite) what I needed to declare in the box. I told him what was in there and I said but I didn't put the peeps on the declaration page because I'm not sure what to write do I put food or just Easter crap he said well why don't you just put 50 peeps and we all laughed mostly because I could have done that all on my own but also because they thought it was funny that i was sending that many peeps. What I'm saying here is that these people are scared that they are going to lose their job, the job that they have been working at (for some of them) for most of their lives. What is in my mind is this great "Save American Jobs" campaign. Where we save all the jobs in the postal service by sending letters to each other. I imagine getting letters in the mail from this said best friend for no reason and I send one back in response. Then while sending her letter I send one to two other friends just to say HI. So today I pledge to write two letters tomorrow to someone in my address book and mail them before the weekend. Can you take a minute to do the same? If you are looking for some really cute and hand made stationary my mom-in-law makes it and sells it for a great price (she can send it to you IN THE MAIL) I'll have her send me pics and I'll post them and if you are interested I can get you hooked up with her. I hope she is looking to get rid of some of those cute notes and envelops she has put together :)! (These are 4X6 and each pack is 8 blank inside note cards and 8 matching envelops tied up with a ribbon, also great for gifts for $7.00! That is under a dollar a note!)

Now on to my friends' first question about "Going Green" my response to that is when is the last time you recycled the paper that you get in your mail box? All that junk mail that goes straight into your trash can just like mine does? Yeah that is what I thought. lol I walked into the grocery store tonight to pick up the items I needed for my "sick meals" and I passed a flyer/magazine type thing, that I would like to add looks like it is made out of recycled paper lol, remember the paper in school that wasn't as bright white because it was recycled? That is what this paper looks like. The booklet is called "Natural Awakenings" it is a freebie so I grabbed one. It is all about going green and how you can help in your area. There is a listing of the areas where these magazine thingys can be found and you should be able to find one in your area. It talks about using a bicycle to go places and not driving. It talks about farming and growing your own veggies, I would like to add here that I got my lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrot seeds in the ground this week :) It talks about water conservation, one factoid for today, did you know that All U.S. golf courses use on average 3.1 billion gallons of water per day. Did you know that it takes on average 1,581 gallons of water per pound of beef to produce it (to you on shelves)? It says to catch your rain water to water your plants. It also gives hundred of business names and ads for their earthy/t

ree hugging crap. Come eat our soup it has veggies... lol LOTS of yoga ads? I guess that is green too lol It has listings for local farmers markets and how you should buy local to cut down on all the oil being used to transport these goods. Anyway I am not mad at this friend by any chance I am just putting this out there in case someone else has the same initial thought as she did. So find a "Natural Awakenings" in your grocery store freebie magazine section and pick one up and see how you can change something to become more "GREEN". I think I will also research composting piles and what is the easiest ways to make one. Please feel free to post any questions, comments, or opinions here and lets talk about it.

My plan for geting sick

Ok so by the title of this post I'm sure you thought I was going to talk about trying to get sick but that is not the case at all lol. I actually am planning for if I get sick. After talking with my friend Natalie last night I decided that I need to get on top of this plan I have had in my head for a while now. I am going to cook meals that freeze well and try to put up about a weeks worth of meals so in the event I get sick or the munchkin or the hubby get sick. The last thing I want to think about is making food at times like these so I will just defrost a meal and reheat. I already have spaghetti frozen from about a week ago and tonight I think I will make chili. I want to make a chicken noodle soup too I think that will be perfect to have a few lighter meals like that on a sick week I can have a few days of lighter meals and a few meals that are more "make you feel good inside" meals. We are having left overs tonight to clear out the fridge so I thought it would be a perfect night to make an extra meal. I will make it then cool it and put it in a gallon Ziploc and lay it flat on anempty shelf in the freezer.

                   

                     (<---- here is one of the shelves in my freezer)

 I try to keep one shelf empty (I have full glass shelves not the ones with the wires) so that way once things are frozen I can stand them up and they are like flat little books that organize neatly. I have chicken and a few other things that don't freeze flat like I like on a separate shelf that is my messy shelf lol. I have lots of frozen veggies from my dads garden that are all also frozen into small bags flat like books as I call them. I actually read a great tip from another site once to use old boxes like cereal box for gallon size bag or a box from granola bars for quart size bags. You turn the zip part of the bag over the box then when you are done filling you suck the air out and zip it then you freeze your item in the box that you used a day or two later take it out of the box and boom you have items that are nice and square and will stack neatly for an organized freezer. Most of the meals I plan on making will last for at least 6 months frozen so if by February we haven't eaten them then I guess we will just have an easy week and start this all over again! I also could have really used this idea a few months ago when the hubby had eye surgery and back surgery nearly back to back. There were many days I wished I had a cook lol So now in the future I will plan these types of things ahead of time and make meals frozen a lot more! I think I will make some in the crock pot while I make other meals next week so I can get two things done at once. We will see.

I need to go to Wal-mart anyway since I broke a transformer while vacuuming under the coffee table (I picked it up and when I moved it I set it down on top of one..... I guess I will tell the truth and not make Rylan think he lost it lol) So the only thing I'm missing for the chili is a few cans of beans I have the rest already.

Give back America

I just finished watching a big group of postal workers who are out trying to get people to buy stamps so they can continue to work. This is sad people. We think we are saving ourselves a few minutes each time we pay a bill online or send someone an email instead of a letter. Do you like when you get a card for no reason from a friend? Well so does your grandma and most other people you probably know too. Today my suggestion to you is go back to the old days and go buy a stamp and send a note to someone you have been meaning to catch up with. Tell them what you and your family have been up to and ask them how things are for themselves. It only takes 5 minutes and it could make someones day. You don't have to spend a lot of money on a card, if you don't want to just use plain ol' paper then go to the dollar tree where they have hundreds of cards to choose from for .50 you will spend under a dollar to send someone a note to tell them you are thinking of them and you will be helping others stay employed. Pay your next bills with checks instead of online. We don't realize it but we are cutting others out of jobs every day just because we want to save ourselves a few minutes.  One stamp only costs .44...... Our economy is so bad right now and just wish we could come together as America "The Beautiful" "Home of the Brave" and help each other out. Ever think that you want to do something in your community to give back or to donate your time? There are so many small things you can do to just help others. Did you know that our military families over seas can use expired coupons for up to 6 months after they expire? Here is an easy way to give back and it will only cost you a stamp. Take your old coupons and send them to this address to help a military family over seas save money.
Coups For Troops
PO Box 147
Winnabow NC 28479

How about join in on a 5K for a good cause? The cost to join one is usually around 20.00 but you usually get a free shirt (and free food after!) Look in your area you don't have to be some super runner or anything to do this you can totally walk the whole thing. The energy at one of these is amazing. I tried to get a team together last time which was my first time. But next time I will have a team together! I am thinking of doing one soon in fact. If someone finds one between Covington and Baton Rouge that looks like it is for a good cause and you want someone to go with you.... I'm IN!

I found another site that if you feel like you want to give back and don't know where to start try here. Volunteermatch.org
http://www.volunteermatch.org/search/?r=20.0&aff=&l=Covington%2C+LA%2C+USA&o=distance
 I searched for wounded soldier project volunteer activities in Covington and I got all of these opportunities back. There are a lot of places and things that you can volunteer with your kids so grab a friend and look in your area for where you can give back.
Did you know you can be a foster parent to a pet to help an animal shelter? Google "give volunteer hours to animals (insert your city here)" and you will find ways to help in your area. Here is what my shelter says
http://www.thehumanesociety.org/get_involved_volunteer.php
If you love kids and feel like you want to help those who maybe don't have the best influences? Did you know that you can mentor a child with a parent that is in prison so you can help break the cycle? Check out what volunteers of America say about it.
http://www.voagno.org/

I am going to start picking up more and more "pharmacy" or toiletry items that are cheap or free so I can make a big donation to a local battered woman's shelter closer to Christmas. Is my next plan to help out and give back.

A first mommy moment for me

This morning I bring the caramel apples to school and Rylan is excited that his mommy is walking him to class and I am excited to hand my special treat over. I try to drop and run because I don't want to disrupt the class schedule well his teacher grabs me as I am running out of the class and invites me to linger for a while. Rylan goes straight to doing what he is supposed to, he chooses a "center" and gets to work. There are some kids in the "housekeeping center" and one is in the library, one is playing blocks, there are about 6 kids at the same table as Rylan all doing different activities, one is gluing applejacks (eating most of them) on a letter "A", another is stringing apple cut outs and noodles on a piece of yarn, one is coloring farm animals and Rylan chose beans to spoon from a bowl into a cast iron pan. They are all working on different skills and I am chit chatting with the teacher about how great it is that they all come in and choose what they want to do as their first task that way they all feel great because they are making their own choice. In just that moment the kid sitting next to Rylan begins poking him with his plastic needle that he is stringing noodles with and Rylan starts yelling "Don't do that to me" and so the other kid grabs Rylan by the neck. Now pause right there as I have drawn a picture in your head about what is going on. I came completely out of my body. There were instantly three of me. The one that walked in the door was still standing still with my arms neatly hanging in front of me with my fingers locked together. The next one of me was on my knees in the middle of that round table clawing that other kids eyes out like a mountain lion. The third one of me was standing to my left with an arm across my chest to hold me back. I am not sure how I was able to, but, I actually stayed where I was at and allowed the teacher to fix the situation without even saying a word. She stepped in so quickly and asked the other child to "use his words" and had a conversation with him about what was right and wrong and asked Rylan if he was alright. I don't know if it had anything to do with the article I read last week about how to help in the classroom without paying too much attention to your own child or getting onto any other children in the class only being there to help when needed but I am pretty proud of myself lol I think the part of me that was on the table is the part of me that already knows that kid is bad Rylan tells me all the time about how this kid gives the teacher problems scratching her, trying to bite her and "not using his words" as Rylan says, things like that. Ok now that I have cleared that off of my chest I can begin my days laundry.

caramel covered apples

So I just spur of the moment decided I would blog while trying to complete this task. I have washed my apples and they are drying now I will move them to the fridge next because from what I have read this helps to make the caramel harden quicker and will prevent a big puddle at the bottom of each apple.

While the apples are drying I am attempting to use the food processor that was given to me from my mom-in-law as a gift two or three Christmas' ago. I have only used this thing twice and both times ruined what I was trying to do lol I once was trying to mince fresh garlic and ended up with garlic sauce very quickly the second time was with nuts, I thought I would save myself money and buy whole nuts and chop them myself as it is half the price that way I had powder when I was done. So I hope today is different I talked to my mom-in-law for some guidance and so far I've done alright.

 I forgot I have a block of white chocolate in the pantry and I think I will melt some when these are done so I can make these look a bit fancy :) The instructions say pull out the stem like it is easy lol maybe I'm a little more wimpy than I tell myself I am. One down 20ish to go. I hope shoving the Popsicle stick down the middle really is as easy as it sounds. OK the rest were pretty easy with the exception of one or two that broke off half way down the first one was just hard I guess lol thank goodness because all the women who reviewed the recipe I found sounded like it was so simple (it is) I was worried lol. They all have sticks and are in the fridge now. I will get started on finding out about this caramel business now. Well before the caramel I guess I better get my pan ready for after I finish dipping. The instructions say to butter the pan I guess this makes it easy to pick them up once they cool. I don't really know but I'm not going to find out why not to do it so here we go foil and butter. I'm using the butter stick like it is a glue stick and it is working super easily.

NOW on to the good part the caramel. I can't wait to finish these but I wish I would have picked up a cute fall ribbon I got the cutest bags with pumpkins and fall leaves on them to individually wrap them.

 Alright at this point I have 12 apples done, I just slid the pan into the fridge to help them cool and set and since I am learning as I go the trick is to wipe all the caramel off of the bottom then only cover the sides and not the bottom with your topping because the caramel all slides down and you end up with a giant puddle of caramel topping lol they are really looking good and now I need a little more nuts and caramel and another pan with butter so I'm moving right along to the next batch.

 OK now that they are all done I took the first batch out of the fridge and made a bowl of white chocolate it was a definite FAIL to say the least lol. Looks like we will be taste testing two apples tonight to make sure they are safe! I forgot how thick this stuff was. I first stirred it and realized it was not going to be able to be drizzled like I originally planned so I decided to use a Ziploc bag as a pastry bag and I shoveled a few huge spoon fulls into the bag and it was so hot I could hardly hold the bag so I had to then grab a towel to hold the bag, I cut a hole in one tip and it was too big so I decided to cut another hole in the other side that was smaller this was also a bad idea because now i had white stuff oozing out of both sides too fast I squirted it back into the bowl and even though the package said don't add anything to make it thinner I thought I would try it anyway because it was already not working for me. I added a little water and it instantly turned a caramel color and looked more like oily water than white chocolate. I probably would have had better luck with real chocolate because I was trying to use stuff called almond bark which tastes like chocolate but it is actually not (I think but I don't know to be honest lol)

Anyway the twenty that did not get chocolate squirted on them actually look very nice and I am pleased. The only thing I am disappointed about is that I have a half a bowl of caramel and nothing to put it on lol I will give some to the boys but then I am not real sure what I am going to do with the rest. The total cost for this treat was around 32.00 for 22 apples or under 1.50 per apple. That includes the sticks and the bags I will use to seal them up. I'm sure you could do these for even cheaper if you had coupons or price shopped but I didn't do that. However since I didn't want to eat the whole cost of this treat during one weeks groceries I did buy all the parts separately. I got the caramels, then the pecans then the apples and in between I searched for the bags I liked the best.   Most of my cost came from the pecans so if you pick cheaper nuts or don't use nuts at all then you could cut the cost in half I needed two bags of pecans at a cost of 6.00+ per bag.

Grocery trip total

After grabbing some items for groceries this week I wanted to share my totals. Before coupons and reward card discounts at Winn-Dixie my total was 141.67. After all my coupons and discounts I paid 77.11 so 64.56 in savings and I also received .20 per gallon on my fuel perks and $5.00 off my next $55.00 coupon for next week. Here is what I was able to buy for 77.11, 2 1/2 dozen eggs, two loaves of bread, a gallon of milk, three packages of lunch meat, two packages of toaster pastries, one package of carrots, two packs of tea drink mix for the hubby, one pack of shredded cheese, 8 pack of paper towels, two packs of instant coffee, two bottles of gain detergent, two boxes of cereal, one Gatorade, one bottle of red wine vinegar, one pack of dole apple crisp snacks, 5 lbs sugar, package of butter, 6 cans of soup, two packs of twice baked potatoes, country pork ribs, 2 pounds boneless pork chops, 4 pounds preseasoned chicken quarters, preseasoned boneless pork shoulder, and one Lloyd's BBQ pulled chicken. That will make meals for probably two weeks with a few sides and frozen veggies that I already have around the house. I also will have to go back for milk between but I basically can feed my family for lets say a week only for 77.11, that's 7 days 3 meals for 3 people. 1.22 per person per meal. That is not bad if I do say so myself! (Like I said I think I would be able to make all this meat last AT LEAST two weeks!) I bought 39 items so that is an average of 1.98 per item..... What kind of deals can you find? The best deals for me this week were, 1. I had two coupons for 1.00/coffee it was only 1.39 so I got two packs of instant coffee for .39 each, 2. I had a coupon for 2.00 off a Hormel always tender meat and they had the pork shoulder marked for quick sale from 9.99 to 5.99 so I got a huge dinner meat for 3.99, 3. I found bottles of Gain detergent on clearance for 3.75 down from 7.49 I had a coupon for 1.00 off any gain so I got two bottles of detergent for 2.75 each. Look around for the best sales where you are shopping, I didn't need detergent I already have 4 or 5 bottles right now but for that price I went ahead and grabbed two I actually left another coupon I had for the next lucky shopper :) I can't believe I used to pay 7-10 dollars a bottle for detergent I never pay more than 3.00 now!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I am planning on making caramel covered apples. It is the last week that Rylan's class will be learning about apples so I thought it would be fun to do it! Also we take a field trip to the parish fair later so I feel like it is the perfect thing with fall here and all. I hope it all goes well I have all my supplies and pecans waiting so I am getting apples tomorrow I wanted them to be as fresh as possible. I will keep you updated! I hope his teachers don't think I'm some crazy lady lol I brought cupcakes a week or two ago. Oh well if they do! I think it makes Rylan feel good to know he is doing fun stuff for his class.

Quotes I love...

"I've learned that people will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel." ~Maya Angelou

Thank you Chris I haven't heard this one in a while.

What's in your oven?

Today before Rhett and I took a date day to Acme for oysters and beer at lunch during school hours I took some chicken out of the freezer to defrost for dinner. I came home and realized I really had no plans lol I grabbed a southern living cookbook that my mother-in-law gave me as a gift and looked up chicken in the back and when I turned to the page I found a recipe for "white BBQ sauce" I had never even heard of such a thing so I thought well if it sucks then there is pizza in the freezer lol so I made a batch and I didn't LOVE the sauce as the recipe called to make it so I added some extra sugar and a few other spices like a couple shakes of onion powder and of course garlic powder because I don't cook anything without it.  It came out pretty good. I put my chicken in a glass dish for baking and I just poured the BBQ sauce over it. I put the timer on 40 minutes at 375 and started on some side dishes I went to the garden and picked a handful of okra (it wasn't enough for a pot alone so I had to grab some out of the freezer from dads garden that he gave me and I froze a few months ago) and I added a can of tomatoes to that. That is one of my favorite side dishes its easy and flavorful. I use the canned tomatoes that already have seasoning in them so there is nothing I have to add. I also made a pot of pasta for a pasta salad with a little olive oil and seasoning and Parmesan cheese. By the time this was all done the chicken timer was going off and I was hoping it would taste good. IT DID! Success! So we had a well rounded dinner. I love when my dinner plate is colorful We had red and green and the pasta was the kind that is also colorful lol so it was perfect for us.

Shopping to cook and eat better

As I make my grocery list for the week I began to think of how I used to cook and eat. When I say "cook" what I mean is "make hamburger helper" lol I did not know how to cook when I met Rhett and boxed or microwave food was the extent of my cooking skills. So after we both gained 70ish pounds during my pregnancy I began to teach myself to cook healthier. After a while of cooking and eating better we have both lost the weight. I never bought fresh or frozen veggies before I always bought canned everything. I finally tried frozen veggies and I found that they taste sooo much better! I buy fresh green beans and broccoli and many other fresh fruit and veggies too. My husband and my son both love fruit as much as me if not more than I do and if I keep three or four pieces (at least) in a fruit bowl where they can both see it and reach it (this is the case for Rylan not so much Rhett lol) then they choose that as a snack rather than cookies or chips or unhealthy choices. In fact Rylan will "sneak" and grab fruit when he thinks I'm not looking and I let him believe he is getting away with something lol. So shop for fruit and veggies when they are in season. Google it if you aren't sure there are plenty sites that will tell you what season to buy what fruit and veggies at the best time of year and get the best prices. For example at summer time is the best time to buy strawberries right now fall is here and I priced strawberries yesterday at 3.99 for a package. Buy extra when they are under a dollar (during summer months) and freeze them, all you have to do is wash them and cut off the stem then you have  fruit for smoothies in your freezer too! Next meat is always going to be a big ticket item at the grocery store so buy when they are on sale. At wal-mart you can price match other stores and get cheaper prices too whatever store you shop at the way to save money and eat better is to watch what is on sale. If you look on the bottom right of my page you will find my favorite blogs to follow and on those sites you can find some of the best sales and deals for your next shopping trip. Winn Dixie on a Dime is my favorite because she checks all the items that are priced at best to buy prices so there is no guess work to it. There are some staple items I always try to keep around the house to ensure I am able to make dinner with little to no planning and also I like to keep things that are not every day items that way I don't have to rush out to the store for one item. I always keep at least one bag of "seasoning veggies" in the freezer, this is a bag of already cut up onions, red and green bell peppers, and I think celery and some herbs. This is a great staple for starting a lot of meals because this means you don't have to cut up all these items if they are called for in a recipe and your time will be cut when cooking. (sometimes fresh is better but if you are looking for just a quick start then this is the way to go) I also ALWAYS have olive oil in my pantry. You can substitute olive oil lots of time to cut fat instead of using veg. oil. You will also always find at least one can of low sodium chicken stock in my pantry. I actually found last year that I love the taste of vegetable stock in the place of chicken stock most times. It is better for you and can make a great trade for those of you who have a non-veggie eater in your house. Janette knows what I mean lol. I have been saying I was going to try Jerry Seinfeld's wife's cookbook. She uses blended veggies to hide them in other meals and you can't even taste them. I watched her on a show where she brought a bunch of her cooked recipes to a kindergarten class and had them taste them before telling them what was in it and they loved it. She has a brownie recipe loaded with prunes and a pizza recipe made with half carrots in the sauce and she has a mashed potato recipe that is made with cauliflower. Sorry my brain goes all over the place lol Back to items I keep in the house. I laugh at my mother-in-law becasue she keeps enough canned tomatoes in her pantry to make spaghetti for the rest of her life and ours aslo lol but you will always find canned tomatoes in my pantry (don't tell her lol) I try to keep one box of whole wheat pasta also because that is a good staple for a lot of recipes.  I like whole wheat instead of white because it is more healthy and doesn't turn into sugar in your body as quickly and it is not as proccessed either. Low sodium soy sauce, and lots of different seasonings are great to have on hand because you can sprinkle some different seasonings. Don't be scared to try different meats, if you find something on a great super sale then grab it and try it out. I grabbed ribs on sale once at Albertsons for buy one get TWO free and guess what I went home and googled some recipes and cooked them slowly for 4-6 hours and they were AMAZING! (I also decided to make my own bbq sauce and rib rub I found online to cook them). The list goes on and on and on for items to keep in the house for easy cooking, but the best things to remember when shopping to eat better are a few easy tips. First always shop the outside of your grocery store meaning the cooler sections that is where fresh not processed foods are, so dairy, meat, produce, and bakery (there are plenty of good foods in the freezer sections too but try to stay away from boxed stuff it is easy but not always good for you) Second if the ingredients list on a package of food from the "middle" sections of the grocery store contain items that you can not pronounce you shouldnt want to eat that. Third if your great grandmother wouldn't know what it is you probably don't want to eat it. Last if bugs won't eat it and it doesn't go bad then you definitely don't want to eat it. A coworker of mine did an experiment once and ruined one of my favorite things at McDonalds for me, apple pie. We had an apple pie at work for at least 3 months and I swear to you it still looked just as delicious the 90th day as it did the first day! Take that in for a minute, if you left an apple on the counter for 90 days it would be pretty gross but somehow this "pie" looked and smelled great! Now I can't eat them lol same thing will happen if you leave a twinkie out even a roach will come over smell it and leave they won't eat it why would we? They will eat poop! This is the start of what to buy to eat and cook better for you and your family.

To my coupon friends

Today is the day ladies! If you haven't already gone out to get your Sunday paper here are a few things I suggest to do. First always check your paper before you leave the store to make sure your coupons are in there. This week there should be two books. One will be a Smart Source and the other will be a Red Plum. Sometimes the paper is missing the books and you don't want to pay for a paper without coupons! The other thing I suggest is that you buy two papers. I buy in multiples of two because if stores you shop at (Winn Dixie for example) have buy one get one free sales on a lot of their products then you can use two coupons. So lets say there is bread on sale for buy one get one free and the price of the bread is 2.00 well if you have two coupons for .50 off of bread then you will get two loaves of bread for 1.00! What I do is come home and tear all the pages apart and stack them together by the page so all like items are together. Then when I cut out my coupons they are all together and I can cut them out two times faster. Once I get my coupons all cut out I separate them into a few piles to make them easier to put into my binder. I quickly go through and do a three section sort front of my binder in one pile for example all the pharmacy items then I make a pile of middle of the binder I put all the cleaners or dry goods in this pile the last is for food, this way I am not turning the pages like crazy trying to put them all away. I also suggest trying to get this all done on Sunday or  by Monday night because if you wait too long you may not do it because you will get all backed up!
Once you have been couponing for a while you may want to organize your binder even further as I have. For example I have two pages under "pets" one page for cats and one page for dogs. In the medicine section I have a page for pain relief and a page for eye care products etc.  You will see what you need as you go on and get more coupons.

Now turn on your favorite show or movie and start clipping! You could also cut some up while sipping on a bloody mary or mimosa as I hope to while watching a little Sunday Football!

No plans today?

What a beautiful day today! Did you know it is free admission to all national parks today? Get out of the house and have some free fun. Want to see a museum you haven't seen but have been wanting to? Go to this site and see what is offered. There are tons of museums offering free admission (with ticket from link) for national museum day! http://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/?device=iphone&c=y
Then go to http://m.restaurant.com/mt/www.restaurant.com/? (these links are from my iPhone so I hope they work for you) search for a place you want to eat out at then use checkout code FALL to get certificates worth 25.00 for only 2.00!! Be sure to read the rules associated with these because most of them require you to spend 35.00 on your ticket to use the 25.00 certificate so that means another 10.00 once you get there. You will also still have to pay tip (most places will include it with the ticket) and taxes. But 12.00 will cover a 35.00 ticket! Not too bad if you are planning on eating out!

Last thing for my Louisiana military families, don't forget 9/30 is the last day to get buy one get one free tickets to the Audubon aquarium, zoo, insectarium so this weekend would be a great time to get the family out for half price fun! I think one military ID can get in 8 people! (4 paid 4 free) check their website to be sure though before leaving the house.

Pay it forward people

Good evening and GOOOO Tigers to ya! Well we had a crazy fun day today. First we headed to the D-day museum and that didn't cost us a thing. I learned a few really cool things too from back in the early 1930's and 1940's about how food and fuel was rationed to families during the war. Can you imagine going to the grocery store with stamps in hand and that is all the groceries you were able to buy no matter how much money you had? Then each family was only allowed 3 gallons of gas a week! Of course back then families all lived close to each other and they walked most places but can you imagine only being able to get 3 gallons of gas a week!! After the museum we went to the aquarium I was so excited I think more than Rylan even lol! My sweet hubby snuck off and paid for Rylan and I to be able to feed the stingrays at the next show! Made our day for sure!! In the future I will post all these free fun outings so you can plan ahead and have fun for free or cheap too!! We had our certificate in hand for the House of Blues so we ate there before heading back! It was a great day all around.

Just an idea. Today when we pulled up to the D-day museum there was a lady standing in the parking lot looking at us. ( I looked at Rhett as I said I don't know what that lady's problem is but I wish she would stop looking at us...) We parked and all got out and she walked over to us and said "Hi I paid for this parking ticket (you have to pay a machine after parking) and I realized I am not in the right lot." We looked over the ticket and sure enough it was paid just minutes earlier and was a valid 10.00 parking ticket. Since we were going to pay with a card at the machine I looked in my purse and found 5.00 to give her for the ticket (she offered it to us for free because it was already paid for and you can't get your money back and she didn't want it to go to waste) We all walked away happy then Rhett and I laughed because I was being hateful and she was being nice (about her staring at us lol). We visited the museum then at the aquarium since tickets are BOGO for us and we had to buy a child's ticket I asked Rhett to buy two children's tickets. We got the free one and gave it to a family behind us to cover the cost of one of their children. They were thrilled. What the message here folks is to pay it back. If someone opens a door for you when your arms are full then do something nice for the next person. If you are lucky in the way of money as we were today, the next time you are at Starbucks ask how much the persons coffee is behind you in line, less than what you saved earlier? Pay for their coffee ask the person at the window to just ask them to pass it on. Just do something nice for someone around you! Also while we were in line at the D-day museum there was a family of 5 behind us and the guy in front of us turned around and asked if we had a free admission ticket because he had one (it paid for 2) I said we did and he said oh well I am here alone because my friend couldn't come so I was gonna see if I could save you a costly admission cost. Then the girl in front of him said yeah I'm alone too and I have a free ticket too. Well they both teamed together and gave their free admission to one of the people in the family behind us. How nice strangers saving each other money! I hope that family passes it on!

I'm on a roll!

I just saved myself another 10.00! A few years ago when Rylan was getting big enough to actually need a full hair cut not just a trim from mom with the scissors (when he was born up until just after one his hair only grew on top so I just trimmed it up) I started taking him to barber shops and after 3 or 4 times of walking out thinking well that was a waste of 8.00 (plus tip even though I left unhappy) I thought you know what I am going to buy a set of clippers. I went to Wal-mart that day and bought what I think was the least expensive full set of clippers (around 20.00) my thoughts that day were that if I cut his hair (and was happy with it lol) two times then I would have made my money on the set. So I went home and took out the clippers and made my first attempt at a "fade" type haircut for a boy. I didn't want it to look like I just shaved his head to save money I wanted it to look as professional as possible. I was immediately impressed with myself. Here we are two years later saving 10.00 every time I cut his hair myself. I have to admit his hair is very curly and coarse so any imperfections are hard to see, not to mention when it is cut short it is nearly impossible to see because it is blonde. After I felt like I knew what I was doing I started cutting it shorter because I discovered that the shorter I went the longer we could go between cuts.


Here we are on our way to see one of my BFFs Shelly



Now I grab the clippers and ask Rylan to go outside. We sit on the steps (he sits only one step lower than me) and I get to cutting! When we are done he strips down and knows to take his clothes to the washer and he goes straight to the tub for some serious play time. I sweep and clean up the clippers and its over no hair to clean out of the house or anything messy at all we don't even use a drape of any kind.


Here is one of my first haircut attempts :)



 Here is another small tip on how you can save yourself a little change each month. I think every time I cut his hair I will start to "pay" myself and put that ten dollars away for either something nice for myself or a trip or well I'm not sure yet but I am going to start doing something with that ten dollars anyway lol





Couponing 101 part 2

I will post more about couponing later on tonight. Suggestions, Do's and Dont's and my favorite things to look for. After we talk about couponing for a while I'll tell you all some great suggestions on what to cook with all the inexpensive food you are gonna be buying! I cooked a meal for 4 adults and 1 child last week for around 15.00! We could have all gone straight to sleep after filling up too :) I'll tell you all about it. But first we need to get you saving some serious cash on stuff you need, FOOD! Coupons are free money think about that....

Have you ever eaten at the House of Blues? Want to eat there for around 12.00 for 35.00 worth of food? I'll tell you how to eat there and some of your other favorite places too... stay tuned! I learned this from one of the best friends a girl can have named Courtney, she showed me and I'll show you.

Want to know how to save over 75% off retail?

Ok so this morning after dropping Rylan off at school I went to JCPenny but they don't open until 10:00 so I walked over to target to look around. Well there is a bedding set I have had my eyes on for Rylan well today was my lucky day it was on clearance for 17.48 instead of 69.00!! It went straight into my cart :) it is a 7 piece set, sheets and pillow cases, reversable comforter, and pillow sham. Then I strolled over to the ladies clearance rack and picked up a dressy casual pair of shorts for me under 5.00! I decided to go over to the toothpaste aisle because I knew there was a deal over there. So I was able to get two toothbrushes and two toothpastes for free using their deal and my coupons. Since I knew Rhett was out of his favorite tea I picked that up too (no coupon!! I held my breath and closed my eyes as it was put into the buggy and again when my cashier rang it up lol) So that was not too bad to get all of that and be under 25.00! Now that JCPenny was open I could make my way there since that is where I originally wanted to go. I was pumped because I knew this was gonna be a great stop. I had a coupon for 10.00 off of a 10.00 purchase! All I had to do was find something that was 10.00 before taxes and it would be free! I went straight to all my favorite clearance sections. Jewelry first, there was nothing good worth spending free money on today lol so on to the purses where I found a very cute beach/summer raffia type material St.Johns Bay purse for 6.97 originally 45.00! Then to shoes, all the summer flippy floppys and sandals are on clearance for 2.97 I am so excited at this point I can hardly control myself lol. I find the perfect pair originally (22.00 now 2.97) that are gonna be so cute with a white top next summer. I calculate my total before taxes and I still need .06 to be able to use my coupon so I go to the children's clearance and look for something for Rylan. I find a pair of shorts that are cute thick fabric plaid for next summer for 1.97 originally 17.99 and I head to the front. After the coupon and taxes I paid 2.08 for a purse, pair of sandals and a pair of shorts! So today my total retail value was 100.87 and I paid 23.84!!!

So the answer to how do you save over 75% off of a retail purchase is to always shop clearance and also use coupons!

Couponing 101

O.k. so tonight alone I had two friends from years ago say that they want to learn about couponing (I can't ever decide if I want to say "Q-pon" or "coo-pon", it changes by the hour) and weren't sure where to start. Well here is your answer my friends. The first thing you will need is a binder, I wanted one of the zipper variety so that all my coupons didn't fall out all over the place since I know I usually am not walking in or out of the house without my arms loaded (and typically dropping stuff along the way) but keep in mind any binder will work. If you have one laying around the house with stuff in it that you haven't looked at in a year, throw all that stuff away and voila you have a coupon binder. Next you will need baseball card dividers, I didn't already have these at the house so I went to Wal-Mart and bought them I think they are around $5.00 for a 50 pack ( I got two). The card dividers were located at the register section that is dedicated for the sales of baseball/trading cards. Next you need a pack of dividers (or two or three) cheap ones are what I use. If you want to wait on this part that's o.k. too. The last thing you need is a Sunday newspaper.
Now once you have the first three things and you are waiting on Sunday to get here so you can buy your first paper you should get your binder together. This is the one part that takes the longest I promise. After you have it all together it turns into an amazing game of how much money will I save this week! So, you need the dividers to separate your coupons to make for easy shopping. You will love this part when it is finished I promise I am so glad I did it! I don't think I will ever not be a couponer again, in fact I beat myself up for not doing it years ago lol. You want to set your coupons up as the store you shop at the most is set up. You can usually get a listing of the aisle number and what goes down it if you contact your store (I did not do that) I just did it from memory of how I shop at Wal-Mart. So that is the list I will give you. I may be missing some because I am doing this from memory right now. It seems like a lot but the concept is that you have a section for each aisle so that you go down an aisle and you turn to that section and you have all your coupons that match the products on that aisle at your fingertips. You can consolidate as you see fit for yourself. Tomorrow I will check this list against my binder and verify (I keep it in the car in case I need to grab something unplanned)
Start at the Pharmacy
-medicine
-vitamins
-oral care
-shaving/deodorant
-hair care
-feminine hygiene
-lotion/sun care
-soap
-beauty
Next I move past the toys (I always stop in and look through for clearance deals that will be great to put away in the "toy closet" then Santa, the Easter Bunny, and Mom are ready for holidays and birthday parties. I go upstairs and bring down two or three items and ask Rylan to pick out 1-2 for his friends birthday. They get a cool gift I get a cheap price plus there is no rushing out to the store to pick a last minute gift.
Then on to the dry goods
-baby
-pets (I don't have a pet but I still collect these because if I can score something for free then I will donate it to a local animal shelter or friend/family member with a pet)
-cleaners
-laundry
-dishes
-stationary
The big part is next Grocery
I always do the dry goods first so all my cold items don't get warm before getting them home
-condiments
-drinks
-pasta
-rice/sides
-breakfast
-granola/fruit bars
-salty snacks
-baking
-soup
-paper goods
-candy
-dairy
-refrigerated items
-meat
-freezer
-produce
-bread
-misc.

Now once you get that all ready grab your scissors and wait for Sunday. I'll be here too if you need any answers as to what coupon goes in what section, tomorrow I might give some examples of what to put where. I cut out ALL the coupons that come in the paper and let me tell you why. You know that little old lady you see that lives down the street? I bet she might use or know someone that uses dental glue stuff or those depends, if I get them free then I'll bring them down there and offer them to her and I bet that will make her day (I haven't been able to do that yet lol)
.....More to come

My first blog post!

How exciting my first blog post. Since I wanted to make my first post a good one I decided to wait until I knew exactly what to write. I went out to my front yard with some seed packs determined to plant my fall garden. I got seeds for lettuce in the ground and it started to rain on me :( so I came back inside and decided to move on to the next task on my list. "Find a pediatrician". Sounds easy enough right? Well I determined I have people profiling issues but we can talk about that later. Living in a new city one of the great tasks is finding new doctors. I learned in Houston, TX. it was not too hard because it is a huge city with hundreds of doctors to choose from, that is not exactly the case here. I was picky there aslo because growing up in Baton Rouge there are two basic races caucasion and african american. In Houston I had a hard time understanding what people were saying to me not because they weren't speaking english but because there are sooo many different accents. So I knew first I needed someone who was caucasion because I was having a hard enough time understanding basic conversation with anyone with hispanic or arabic or african accent already much less doctor talk. Then I came across the realazitaion that (sorry guys) just about every male MD I saw a pic of looked extremely creepy, like they may have a van with no windows at home in the garage (not to mention most serial killers/rapists are male) so a male doctor was also out of the question. So far I need a caucasion, female. Now I continue my search and notice a lot of overweight ladies in these pics. I think to myself if you are a doctor you obviously know the health risks to being overweight yet you don't take the steps to change? I surely don't want thier advice because if they are telling me about what to feed my child and how to keep them healthy I want someone who is healthy themselves. (I wish there was a button to select thin or not but there isnt so I have to judge by their face if they take care of themselves now, great, I hope my judgement isn't off today) Ok, so Im looking for thin caucasion female. I notice a good mix of ages here and I start to have flashbacks of talking to old ladies. I tell this older lady (not a doctor I must admit) about problems after she asked me a question. She tells me of how back in her day she walked to school with bare feet two miles both ways in the snow and rain (I don't remember the story exactly but you've all heard it), then all the other older people in the breakroom (we were coworkers) also join in with thier stories of how health care was back in their day. Wow that was a bad flashback so now I'm suddenly in the market for a young, thin, caucasion, female doctor. I see two, one looks kinda "earthy" put together and cute yet hugs trees when she walks out of the office, could have been a hippy but she isn't old enough, still kinda trendy and possibly uses bare minerals makeup with an occasional mud mask and salt scrub, Her hair isn't board straight but instead is a little wavy which tells me she doesn't blow dry it, she probably lets it air dry because that will conserve energy. Now I think "she's my girl"! In my mind I hear her saying "It's ok with me if you want to give your child honey and lemon juice instead of cough medicine however if that method doesn't work for you then here is a prescription you can try also." I want you to know it took nearly an hour to come to this decision. I do feel like it is important to have the right doctor for you and for your child to be comfortable. I tried a male OB once for example and when he was trying to get me to try birth control and I was not really on the same page as him I said nah, I hear about too many side effects, weight gain, emotional issues, etc, Im just having irregular periods which arent bothering me. He used the words during this conversation "I understand"...uh NO you don't! You do NOT have a vagina! Needless to say that was my last time to see him. Anyway I guess I am just saying that I don't think you should just settle on any doctor that is most convient for you or even that someone else suggests will be good. Find the one that is BEST FOR YOU!