Shopping Trip December 18

Hey, we had good sales, but of course we added a few things at the last minute and I found coconut sugar at Sam's. :D So I went over. 

HyVee
Sour Cream 1.48
Sweet Cream Butter 4 at 2.68 each 10.72
Egg Nog 2 at 2.59 each 5.18
Cinnamon Rolls 2 at 2.00 each plus .02 gas reward 4.00
Crescet Rolls 2 at 2.00 ech plus .02 gas rewards 4.00 
Macademia Nut Cookie dough (it's cheaper than making from scratch) 2.50
Cool Whip 2 at .68 each 1.36
Frozen Broccoli 2 at 1.28 each 2.56
Frozen Corn 2 at 1.09 each 2.18
Frozen Mixed Vegetables 1.09
Hashbrowns 2.99
Diapers 5.99
Pullups 7.99
Fruit Snacks 2.00
Charmin 2 at3.99 each 7.98
Dr. Pepper 2 at .99 each 1.98
Folgers 9.69
Baking Powder 1.29
Baking Soda 5 at .69 each 3.45
Snack size baggies 2 at 1.59 each 3.18
Italian Dressing 3 at 1.99 each 5.97
Powdered Sugar 1.69
Root Beer 2 at .99 each 1.98
Evaporated Milk 1.69
Vanilla 1.88
Shrimp 15.99 
Lil Smokies 2 at 3.00 each 6.00
Cream Cheese 3 at 1.50 each 4.50
Sunflower Seeds 2 at 2.50 each 5.00
Yellow Onions 1.88 with .02 gas rewards 

Total 135.23

Sam's Club
Digirnio 3 Meat 3 pack 13.98
Digiornio Pepperoni 3 pack 13.98
Vinegar 2 pack 3.88
Eggs 36 ct 2 at 4.72 each 9.44
American Cheese Sliced 13.52
Bacon bits 10.35
Flour 3.76
Chicken Breast 9.02
Shredded Cheddar Chese 14.98
Organic Coconut Sugar 12.98
Bacon 2 at 8.68 each 17.36
Strawberry Jam 2 pack 5.78
Croutons 5.38
Creamer 5.87
Tomato Sauce 7.68
Diced Tomatoes 6.28

Total 163.49

Walmart
Engine Cleaner for van 1.88
Twix .74
Ham 15.65
Tapatio Sauce 2.98
Bandaids 1.97 and 2 at 2.47 6.91
Cookies N Cream Candy Bar .74
Pringles 8 at 1.50 each 12.00

Total 43.35

Dollar General 
Paper Towels 8 pack 5.00
Tortillas 3 at 2.00 each 6.00
Dish Soap 1.00

Total 12.72

Trip Total 354.79

As I look more closely at my receipts, I realize I was not careful and picked up the wrong containers with the shrimp and pringles as I had not planned on paying that much for things that were on sale-be careful when you pick things up!

Have a Merry Christmas!

Ads are Out! Shopping Trip December 17

It's been a month already, Ads are out for my shopping trip again. 

If you like shellfish, within the next month, now is your time to fill your craving.  While it's still expensive, it's a little cheaper than the rest of the year.  

HyVee has special sales for crab, lobster and shrimp. Personally, we are taking advantage of the shrimp.  

Here's the ad links. Have fun! 

Wal-mart
Sunshine
Fareway, Fareway Online, Fareway Special Sale
Hy-Vee


Personally, I've been a little disappointed with Fareway. For quite awhile after they opened, they had the cheapest meat prices around. But now they don't, I haven't shopped there in quite awhile. It's just not conducive to our budget.  

We have two special meals happening this coming month. Christmas and Eva's birthday.  For Christmas I am planning ham, shrimp, potatoes, vegetables, pumpkin pie and cake (my Eva can't have cherries or pumpkins, so that's the alternative of choice this time).  For Eva's birthday we're doing her favorite food, pizza, and the requested Thomas the train cake.  I plan on finding a different train from Thomas to put on top since I made a Thomas cake for Andrew last year.   

It's staying Cold Now

I saw a higher temperature today and actually believed it would happen.  

But it didn't. So now we are staying cold and despite us keeping out tomato sauce, we miss chili.. So we are going to try chili.  

Grace has been trying out finger foods, she much prefers this to baby puree-can't say as I blame her much. I scramble her an egg a day and she gets some handfuls of boiled, finely chopped mixed veggies, some fruit-mostly bananas for now, and cheerios. This child could survive off cheerios. 

I found some sausage in our freezer, so the kids and I had pizza today.  

Pizza dough
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon dry active yeast
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons salt

Beat about 25 times until mixed then let rise for 5 minutes. 
Bake at 425 for 8 minutes, add your toppings, bake for 10 more minutes.  

Pizza Sauce
15 ounce can of tomato sauce
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon oregano 
Bring to a boil then simmer for at least 1/2 hour. The longer it simmers, the more flavor transfers to the tomato sauce.  

Chili
4 pounds hamburger
4 cans tomato sauce
4 cans diced tomatoes
4 cans chili beans or one bag pinto peans- make sure you prepare these according to instructions on the bag
4 tablespoons chili powder

Bring to boil then simmer until you are ready to eat. 

Our favorite topping include, shredded cheddar cheese, tabasco or louisiana hot sauce, saltines and rice. My husband likes rice under his chili, then mixes that, cheese and tabasco all together and dips with the crackers. The kids and i just do cheese and crackers, although the tabasco does add a nice flavor.  

Stay warm! 

This and That and the Other

Well, I told you I was going to set a reminder on my phone to do a blog post, and it worked! Imagine that. :)  

There are a lot of things going on here lately, Andrew is recognizing letters and numbers everywhere and can tell us what they are and some of them he can tell us what sounds they make. I guess you could say I'm on the unschooling bandwagon, which works just fine until I have to register with the state in a few years as homeschooler. My understanding of unschooling is that you teach through life experiences, cooking is math, bible study is reading, reading comp, math, histoy (heck, you could homeschool with JUST the Bible and get A LOT out of it).   

A must for me to stay awake is coffee. I love my coffee-just ask anybody, coffee and me are buds (think of Lorelai from Gilmore Girls-yep, that's me!). But sometimes, just plain black coffee gets a little boring.. So I go to my cupboard and flavor it up a bit. My favorite concoction this week has been Chocolate Caramel Coffee. 
Squirt of Chocolate Syrup, Squirt of Caramel Syrup, Tablespoon of powder creamer. Fill the coffee cup and stir, top with whipped topping and more caramel if you have it around. 

When I was at my mom's my sister joined forces and craft supplies and made our babes barettes and hair ribbons. That was fun. :)  Now I have something to keep Grace's hair out of her face and I can make more when I get more ribbon if I want. I'm hoping she'll tolerate it when she's two instead of a wrestling match just to get it brushed like I have now with Eva. Thanks to Pinterest, we got some good ideas and instructions on how to do it. 

My finished barettes. 

Here's my Pinterest board that has most of the instructions I used. My sister's girl doesn't have any hair, so she mostly crafted flowers from the ribbon to attach to elastic bands. 

Have a good week! 

Thanksgiving

I realized this morning that I completely forgot to post last week from my shopping trip. I'm sorry. It's been a crazy week.  We took a road trip and the kids and I got sick.. So we are finally back here.  I hope you were able to find some awesome deals on Thanksgiving food last week.  


So I figured I'd give you my meal plan for Thanksgiving. It's no big spread as I'm hearing many of my friends are doing, but it's something.  

Bone in Ham 
Rolls 
Mashed Potatoes
Corn
Pumpkin Pie
Banana Cream Pie


A lot of our favorites have been eliminated thanks to the food allergies. I have a really hard time eating foods in front of my kids that they can't have.. So I just eliminated the sweet potatoes.  

The rolls will be if I remember them... I never do, so we'll see. The ham gets thrown in the crock pot with brown sugar in the morning and by the time the Macy's parade is over, lunch is done. :)   Mashed potatoes and corn are pretty simple. 

I'm making the pies today. My husband really wants pumpkin with whipped topping of course (which was on sale for .67 a container). I've never made banana cream pie before.. but I needed something for Eva since she can't have the pumpkin and there's a can of that in the cupboard and I plan on eating it with Eva so she's not the only one eating something different.  

Also today I'm making cinnamon rolls for breakfast/brunch. We usually eat lunch pretty early... but we get up really early too..so it throws everything else out of whack.  So I'm hoping the cinnamon rolls will keep the kids happy until lunch is done.  

How I plan on my morning going, is getting all the prep work done by the time the parade starts-including washing and chopping the potatoes.  That way all I have to do is turn on burners and throw the rolls in the oven and things will be done when the parade is done.   We are still working on what traditions we want on Holidays for our family, but I think cinnamon rolls during the parades is a great start.  

Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving. I'm putting a reminder on my phone to do a post every week...so barring sickness, I'll be better about doing posts. :D 

Frugal Holidays

Everybody looks to save money around the holidays.  Probably more so around this time of year than others.  So here are some tips we try to use. 

Save up for gifts throughout the year
     You could really do this tip a few different ways. Some people buy gifts throughout the year, then stash them around the house until Christmas. Which works great unless you have curious children (who doesn't?).  Some people save up money throughout the year, then buy closer to the holidays when there's more of a selection for toys, less time to hide the stash this way.  There are also some banks and credit unions that have a 'Christmas Savings Account' to help you save the money.  We've done both here and there, labeling boxes or toys as they come in as to WHO is getting it (that way we don't forget...it's been known to happen).  Either way you do it, shop the sales. You still get the same toys you want, but for cheaper. Amazon has daily deals, Shopko has quarterly deals. Ebay has great resources, too. You never know what you can find on Ebay for a good deal. 
     If you do stocking stuffers, raid the Dollar Tree or other dollar aisle in your favorite store.  They have some great things there for cheap.  

Save on food by shopping the sales
      Shop the sales. Shop close to the holiday and shop the sales. I really can't say this enough. I use holiday sales to stock up on spices, because they are usually really cheap this time of year. If you like canned pumpkin, many stores have it for REALLY cheap this time of year.  Same with turkey, ham, potatoes, yams-all the holiday staples.  Keep a closer eye on the ads and get what you need and like for cheap as they go on sale.  Whipped Cream freezes, buy a lot, stick it in the freezer, then thaw as you want it. 

Use discount stores for holiday decor and party supplies (warning, I plug our ebay store in this one.. I want the stuff out of my house and I know my mother in law feels the same)
      This isn't one we use to buy as I'm not really the decorating  type, but we do put product online with our ebay store as per the holiday (check us out).  Dollar Stores have quality decorations and they are budget friendly.  Paper plates (decorative or not), napkins, cups, centerpieces, place cards. You name it, you can more than likely find it.  It certainly can't hurt to look, right? 


That's really all the tips I can think of right now.  Don't throw your budget out the window just because it's the holiday season. 

It's Cold Out There!

Fall is officially here. I think we did pretty good, we walked around town, many times a week from about April to last week. I was hoping to take a walk today, and while the toddlers and I would be fine, I just don't feel comfortable with keeping the baby in the 20mph COLD wind that long. So it is with a sad face that I put the stroller away, sprayed with vinegar to keep it safe from the millions of spiders in my basement.. Or at least that's what I should do. It did get sprayed, and the basket did get emptied (we keep blankets in the bottom to protect eggs on walks home from the grocery store).. but it's still sitting in the bottom. 

My baking has been put on hold until I can make it to the store because we are missing key ingredients here and there. 

We have cocoa mix  and hot tea bags in the cupboard ready for cold days. Windows are covered in plastic to help keep the cold out, and then patched because of a stupid cat.. 

I have many crochet and sewing projects lined up to keep me busy, and of course school. 

We haven't done much school on paper the last few weeks, but the kids have been making shapes and letters with their hot wheels and matchbox cars.. So they have been 'doing school'. 

Dennis and I are brainstorming ways to to save money. We feel stuck with our monthly bills, and most of them we can't change, but we are looking into ones we can.  We have Google TV and Google Chromecast to switch to to eliminate the satellite TV bill, along with subscriptions to Hulu and Netflix. We are working on the cell bills, but not entirely sure what we are doing there as only one provider that has reception in our area.  

Dry Cocoa Mix
1 Cup Dry Milk
1 Cup Dry Creamer
1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa 
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Blend on high for 2 minutes to make the grains fine, then use 3 tablespoons per coffee mug cup of hot water.  
Add to leftover coffee for a homemade mocha, or add some vanilla for vanilla flavored hot chocolate.