Shopping Trip January 17, 2015

Things continue to be crazy around our house. My husband went through a period where he didn't want me to meal plan, just use what we had.... I'm going a little crazy, so back to meal planning. 

There seems to be a few good sales running around stores this week, so it looks like I'm going to be hitting a few more stores to get the sales.  Hopefully Andrew holds up and doesn't go crazy on me. At least the weatherman says it will be a little warmer, hopefully it will. Then the kids can just bundle in sweatshirts and hats and we won't have to take coats on and off half a dozen times. :) 

Well, As it is. Ads are out for this week. I don't have my meal plan made out.. but I do have a few meals in mind, so we'll see how they fit with the sales.  

Here's your ad links

Hy-Vee

Fareway Food Stores and this one too

Sunshine Food Stores and this one too

Happy Ad shopping. If you use HyVee, don't forget to check out the digital coupon section on the site. They download straight onto your fuel saver card, so when that gets scanned for fuel saver points, the coupons come off and you don't have to remember to give them to the cashier. 

Stay Warm!  Our 'high' is around 40 this weekend, hope it gets that warm lol. 

Budget Saving Ideas

I'm sure it's no secret by now we try to save money wherever we can.  One of the biggest things that always plague budgets is TV. Satellite or Cable? Well now there's new options.  

A year ago we found a little box called a Google TV. Amazon has their name brand and Roku also has one. It basically allows you to get online through your TV and watch things, play music.  I even got on Facebook a few times through it. It's come in handy. I think it cost us $100.

A few months ago, my husband found the Google Chromecast stick.. yet again Amazon and Roku also has their own, but Amazon videos don't work well unless you buy theirs, so if you watch a lot from Amazon Prime, keep that in mind. This handy little dude plugs into an HDMI port in your TV and you download an extension on your browser to cast or mirror (depending on the site) anything on your internet browser to your TV. It's pretty awesome. There's also an extra extension to put on your browser that casts things that would normally mirror (including Facebook videos), but make sure you put on the adblock plus extension before visiting the free movie sites or you'll go insane with the popups.  

Just to be clear, "mirroring" means it still plays on your computer, but you can watch it-with the sound-coming through your TV. "Casting" means it sends whatever your watching to your TV and you just have to keep the browser up. 

Hulu mirrors, while Netflix and YouTube cast. YouTube also lets you create a playlist to cast to your TV.  This little stick cost us $30.  Netflix and Hulu subscriptions are $8 each a month. 

Now, we are weird people and listen to music at night, so that's been our major stumbling block here.  We had found a surround sound speaker system we bought initially for the TV...but it didn't work like we thought it would and thought we had wasted $130.. But now that we have it figured out (we aren't exactly technically savvy around here), we have our night time music problem solved. It is a wireless system, we hook in the MP3 player or an old smart phone through our Wifi network on Pandora and let the music go. It will put music in both the kids' rooms, too, because we bought extra speakers.  

We're all set now to give Dish Network the boot... we barely watch TV anyway, it's almost all Netflix or YouTube. We are just waiting for the power cords to come in to keep the smart phone with power all night. 

There are cheaper speakers out there.. or you can just chromecast Pandora through your computer if you don't want it in your bedroom. Once we get rid of Dish, our monthly TV cost will be $16.  It still remains to be seen if Dennis will want to pay to watch Football next season, but it's not a very big fee through ESPN.com.  

The site we use that's free, has a HUGE database of movies and new shows is www.primewire.ag. You want to add the AdBlock Plus extension before you go there. Just do it. You can turn the extension off and on by clicking on it. In the Google Chrome browser, click on the three little bars in the upper right hand corner, go into 'settings', on the left hand side there is an option for 'extensions'. Click it then find Ad Block Plus. 

The only show I haven't found through any of these ways is 19 Kids and Counting. That's because TLC is stingy :( So I'm impatiently waiting to be able to see the new episodes.  

We're hoping we can get on the network web sites after we cancel Dish.. But as for now, it's blocking us out because we have to sign in through Dish... But I have friends telling me they can watch episodes on the sites. 

Hope this helps somebody else.

Tabitha

Happy New Year!!

I meant to get a post out last week with recipes I was cooking for Christmas, but things got a little crazy (ha! imagine that!)... So you're getting two in one. :) 

Our Christmas dinner was really simple.. Ham, shrimp, mashed potatoes, rolls, broccoli and pie and cookies for dessert. 

Ham- I put it in the crock pot with 1/4 cup vinegar and about a cup of brown sugar on Christmas Eve. Then all I had to do was pop it in the cooker portion as breakfast was baking and it was done by lunch time.. About five hours on high, but it could have easily been on low since it was falling off the bone by lunch.  

Shrimp- tablespoon of coconut oil in the pan, coat shrimp with italian seasoning (equal parts of garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, oregano, parsley), put shrimp in pan and sprinkle lemon juice on them. Cook until white, turn, cook until white (about five minutes on each side).  

Mashed potatoes-peel, cut, boil, mash. I add salted butter and sour cream to ours because that's how we like it. 

Broccoli-frozen broccoli, boiled in pan while potatoes cook. About ten minutes. 

Rolls-I had bought crescent rolls on sale, but then my mother in law gave us some, so we used those instead

Pumpkin pie-I just followed the directions on the can and made my own pie crust. 

Sugar Cookies-the kids and I made these Tuesday. I had planned on a cake, but Grace hasn't been feeling well so cookies were easier to do in parts.  Just a basic sugar cookie recipe, with cream cheese frosting on the top. The kids got to decorate their own and then eat them of course! 

For breakfast we had cinnamon rolls (remember those Pillsbury ones I got on sale?), eggs and bacon.. not like the kids ate many of those... I ended up eating them as the morning progressed...because who needs breakfast when you have presents? 

Friday my husband was off so we made pigs in a blanket for lunch, Eva was the only one that ate them in the roll.. Adrianna and Andrew looked at me like I lost my mind. But Grace enjoyed the crescent roll they took off.  

Today for New Year's Eve, I'm doing ham bone soup and a recipe for little smokies hubby found on Facebook...As long as I can find it, going to have to go searching on my Facebook page. We'll be in bed by 10, I guarantee it. 

That's all that's going on here this week. Have a safe night tonight! 

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!