Where's the (cheap) Beef? + Day 8 and 9 of the Spending Freeze.

Do you have the Joy of Football coupon book from Safeway?  If you do, you'll find a coupon in it good for $2.00 off any Rancher's Reserve meat.  The only fine print on this coupon is that you must purchase 1 item per coupon.  This means you can do like I did and take that little coupon and buy some meat priced for $2.04 and pay only 4 cents!  Now, I did attempt to purchase a package that was priced at $1.97, thinking they would just price adjust the coupon, but that was a no go.  Also, for some reason only 1 coupon went thru at checkout so I had to go tot customer service to get it corrected.  (normally the clerk would have fixed it, but my gal was in a hurry and not willing to fix it).  I ended up using 3 coupons and got 3 packages of beef cube steak. 

 Also on my shopping list was cat food.  Not that exciting I know, but I took a chance and bought a different, non- pet store only- mega expensive food.  You see, my 3.5 year old cat is silly, and thinks she can only have kitten food, when we tried to switch when she was 1 and 2, she yaked, and yaked.  So we have continued to pay upwards of $17 for a small bag of food you can only get at a pet store.  I was dreading buying it this month, because it was going to take a huge chunk out of our tiny budget, and if we aren't eating expensive food, the cat shouldn't be either- I love you kitty, but it's only fair.  So I took the leap and bought a bag of kitten food at Safeway- on sale for $4.49.  So far so good, Miss Gabby has not yaked! PTL.

Tonight I will be making meatballs to have with dinner.  We have had a few more meatless nights that normal lately, so we are all craving some good ol' red meat.  I like making meatballs, because you can stretch the meat by adding filler like bread crumbs or crackers.   Speaking of dinner- I better go get crackn'.

And in other news- Hubs had an interview today!  And they called to come back tomorrow to meet with more of the team.  We are crossing our fingers.

Recap of Spending Freeze
Day 1 = $0
Day 2 = $10.45 (gas)
Day 3 = $0
Day 4 = $10.02 (groceries)
Day 5 = $0
Day 6 = $12.29 (gas and milk)
Day 7 = $0
Day 8 = $5.40 (meat and cat food)
Day 9 = $10.50 (gas for hubs to get to interview!)

So we have  $51.34 left for the month 


Question of the day-
What is your favorite way to make a little meat go further?


Kimberly

For the Love of... Kim!

I found this blog awhile back, not sure which blog hole I fell into that lead me there, but it was love at 1st sight.  You see, she is funny, clever and crafty, and her name is Kim, in fact, she goes by Kimbo, a nickname I have had since 6th grade when our youth pastor dubed me Kimbo, Rambo's assistant.  To this day my little sister calls me Bo.  And I LOVE it :).  So thanks Kim, for this cool little award- and I raise my Glue gun to you!

Kimberly
aka Kimmie, Kimbo and Bo

Great Chewy Granola Bar Recipe + Day 6 and 7 of the Spending Freeze

How is everyone today?  Recovering well from Superbowl parties I hope.  We had a nice time at my sister's house.  She has 3, almost 4 kiddos- so when our families get together it is a bit like a preschool with the addition of 1 junior helper (my 10 yr old).  Hubs and I are not big sports fans, but we do like to watch the Superbowl, and have fun with family and eat snacks.  Ah snacks, junk food, greasy bits of yuminess...   our taste buds love you, but alas, our bodies reject you.  This was not always the case, a day of chips and whatnots didn't use to torture us so, but as I have scaled back the cooking from a box, and buying less pre-fab food, we are no longer used to processing all the yuck.  So while Hubs felt terrible all day today, I felt bad for him, but I am also happy, because it means I have been feeding my family better.

One of my inspirations in feeding my family better is Blogger Laura over at Heavenly Homemakers. 
Like me, she used to be a coupon maven, but if you are not careful, that can mean feeding your family lots of processed foods (as they go on sale alot).  in recent years she has really focused on feeding her family whole, quality foods and she makes nearly everything from scratch.  While that amazes me, I have a more middle of the road approach for my family.  So I will learn from her, and so many others, and tweak things to fit my family.  Which brings me to today's recipe.  We were out of granola bars, and they are a staple snack in our house, so instead of running to the store, I tried one of Laura's recipes.
 Homemade Chewy Granola Bars (without corn syrup!)
1/2 cup peanut butter or sunbutter
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut oil (or another oil of your choice) I used vegetable oil
1 cup oats
1 cup total of any combination of:  sesame seeds, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, mini chocolate chips  - I used 1/2 chocolate chips, 1/2 rice krispies in the 1st batch and 1/2 Special K granola cereal and 1/2 Rice Krispies in the other


melt the 1st 3 ingredients together, remove from heat and stir in the rest, spread out in a baking dish and chill until firm.


Very tasty!  and I estimate, these cost me about 1/2 of what it would cost to buy a box at the store.


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As for the spending freeze, yesterday we put $10 of gas in the van to get to my sister's house, and picked up a gallon of milk on the way home for $2.29.  We stayed home and spent nothing today.


Recap of Spending Freeze
Day 1 = $0
Day 2 = $10.45 (gas)
Day 3 = $0
Day 4 = $10.02 (groceries)
Day 5 = $0
Day 6 = $12.29 (gas and milk)
Day 7 = $0


So we have  $67.24 left for the month 

Have any great snack recipes you feed your kids?  I would love to read them, we always are in need of good snacks around here.

Kimberly

Day 4 and 5 of the spending Freeze, and some cheap groceries

Friday I spent a lot of the day out of the house so I didn't make it to posting, but I did score some deals and have some free fun.  I started the morning by going out to coffee with my MIL, her treat, and she drove- thanks Mom!  In the afternoon, I went to the post office to mail some international orders for my little business, and stopped by the store on my way home.  (more on that in a sec).  I took Hubby's little car since it had gas.  Then in the evening my friend picked me up for a fun ladies craft night.  It was a fun day, and I got to miss my Hubs for the 1st time in awhile.  I love having him around, but absence does make the heart grow fonder.

As for the trip to the store. I went to Albertsons to use some more 'twice the value' coupons, since they are good all week.   I had planned out 2 deals, but they didn't have want I wanted for 1, so thankfully, I brought my trusty coupon binder and was able to come up with a back-up deal on the fly.

I did this in 2 transactions.
Transaction #1
Buy 1 Orville popcorn, get 1 free + 2 7-up, A&w or Sunkist 2 liters - $2.50
used $1/2 Orville popcorn coupon from Safeway's Joy of Football coupon book and 1 doubler
Final Price:  $1.50 for all

Ronzoni Garden pasta $2.19
use $1.00/1 Ronzoni Garden Delight, any one from 1/23 SS insert and 1 doubler
Final Price: $0.19

Tyson Chicken Nuggets $4.99
use $1/1 coupon from 1/23 SS insert and 1 doubler
Final Price: $3.99


Total Out of pocked = $4.52
Saved = $13.97

Transaction #2

Buy 1 Orville popcorn, get 1 free + 2 7-up, A&w or Sunkist 2 liters - $2.50
used $1/2 Orville popcorn coupon from Safeway's Joy of Football coupon book and 1 doubler
Final Price:  $1.50 for all

Ronzoni Garden pasta $2.19
use $1.00/1 Ronzoni Garden Delight, any one from 1/23 SS insert and 1 doubler
Final Price: $0.19

special K cereal $2.99
use $1/2 coupon (not sure from where) and 1 doubler
+ there was a sign in front of the Special K that said "buy 3 boxes and get free produce up to $3.00
so I bought 3

1.99 lbs of golden delicious Apples @.99 per lbs = free (would have been $1.97)

Total Out of pocked = $5.50
Saved = $24.04


total spent for Day 4 = $10.02
(and saved $38.01)

__________
 
Today we have stayed home, worked on potty training (no accidents so far!) and spent $0


Recap of Spending Freeze
Day 1 = $0
Day 2 = $10.45 (gas)
Day 3 = $0
Day 4 = $10.02 (groceries)
Day 5 = $0


So we have  $79.53 left for the month 


Kimberly

Day 3 of the Spending Freeze - noticing the little things

A few weeks ago when I first declared that Hubs and I were going to attempt a spending freeze for the month of February, my dear friend Erika teased me that she couldn't wait for my riveting post on day 3 "still nothing".  Well my dear, this is for you...  it's day 3, and today we spent nothing.  We stayed home, listed items to sell on ebay, job searched and sewed.

I have noticed something though, I have become more aware of things we waste.  It's little things like the heels of a loaf of  bread.  I used to always throw them out, because I don't like them.  Today I used one on my son's sandwich, and he didn't even notice.  Yesterday it was laundry soap, normally, I pour it into my pretty glass pitcher and toss the bottle.  This time, after I poured it into the pitcher, I left it upside down (lid on of course), and when I came back to flip the laundry, there was enough soap in the lid for another load.  Sure it is just 2 more pieces of bread, and 1 more load of laundry, but it adds up.

I would really love to hear about other common wastes, that if penny pinching, would start to add up?

Kimberly

Free run at Albertsons today! and Day 2 of the Spending Freeze

I am really excited and a tiny bit jealous about today's run to the store.  Excited because the total out of pocket was $0.00!!!  Jealous because since Hubs was running errands today, I had him stop at the store, so he got to walk out without paying a single penny, something I have yet to do.  He did 2 transactions, both the same, I sent him to the store with the coupons and instructions.  Bonus points for Hubs, because he also brought home 2 copies of the new coupon book from Albertsons (and I didn't even ask him to).  So here is what he got:

Transaction #1

Chex Mix 2/$4 (thru 2/4)

use $1/1 coupon from Safeways Joy of Football Coupon Book

Double

Final Price: Free 

Athenos Hummus $1.99 
use $1/1 Athenos hummus-coupons.com
Double
Final Price: Free

Transaction #2  repeat transaction #1

Thanks to Coupon Connections NW for putting together these deals, be sure to check out her post for more great FREE and cheap deals for this week.

Total saved today= $19.94 

Update on Spending Freeze, Day 2

Hubs had to run some errands today, which required gas in his car, so he spent $10.45.  The trip to Albertsons was FREE.  So we have $89.55 left for the month.   (read here to learn more)

What will you be picking up at Albertsons this week?

Kimberly

Spending Freeze Day 1: State of our stockpile

I mentioned before that people have asked if we stocked up in preparation for this spending freeze, in short no, we didn't, but we do have a stock pile of sorts.  It was only 2 weeks ago that Hubs and I decided to challenge ourselves for the month of February to spend $100 or less on anything that is not a monthly bill.  We did not run out and buy everything we thought we might need for the month, or go on a shopping spree to hold us over, in our minds, that would defeat the purpose. 

I have began couponing 5 months ago, and in that time I have learned that when a price is really low on something your family uses regularly, you should buy enough to last you until the next sale. So with that in mind, we do have a modest stock in our pantry.  What to see? 

We have a bunch of hot cereal, pasta, peanut butter, tomato soup, and certainly enough brownie and cake mix to last us awhile.  We have about 10 boxes of cold cereal (1/2 which are the ones the kids pass over) so we will be seeing how to make those more appealing to the this month.  We are also pretty set on oatmeal, flour, sugar and bisquick, so I am sure i will be baking a bit as well. 


Now the fridge and freezer are looking a bit light these days, we have eggs, jelly, butter, mayo....  but we will need to pick up some more produce for sure.  As for meat, we are all but out, so I will hunting for good deals on chicken and  beef.  (This just might be the month that I finally try cooking a whole chicken).  What to see inside my fridge?  It's a bit of a mess, but here goes...

Hum, we do have some frozen veggies, a pizza and a couple of burritos in there too I see, besides the pizza, these are mostly items my kids groan at, so we will have to get creative and sneaky to get these past my picky eaters. 

Other than food, gas is the other large part of our day to day expenses.  We have 2 cars, the family mini van and Hub's little car, both of which have about 1/8 tank of gas.  We will really be needing to plan our trips out carefully.  I mentioned before that Hub's is currently looking for work, so we don't have his commute to worry about, but trips to the post office and the store can still add up quick and it costs a bit over $50 to fill our van.  I will be wanting to take advantage of sales this month to stretch our budget, but I will have to weigh the sale against the cost of gas, something I have not really done in the past.

So there you have it.  This is what we are starting with, a modest stockpile, very little gas and creativity.

Today we spent $0, we drove nowhere, but instead got out on our bikes and enjoyed the very cold sunshine.

Kimberly