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Archive for October, 2010
Thursday, October 14th, 2010
Here’s a sampling of what we’ve been eating lately:
I’ve been making a lot of stir-frys recently. This one utilized my free tofu, which I fried in olive oil and seasonings and served over grilled veggies.
This stir fry consisted of green bell pepper, cabbage, carrot, and zucchini, cooked in a homemade peanut sauce using peanut butter, soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar.
I’ve also been making a lot of pasta dishes! I whipped up another spinach lasagna in my George Foreman grill, because we enjoyed the last one so much. The tomatoes are one of the few things to come out of this summer’s garden!
Posted in Coupon Menu Corner | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
While I’m away, I thought it would be fun to compile a list of interesting frugal articles on other blogs. I’m also including a “Mr. Linky” below so that you can share your own money-saving tips. Enjoy!
Posted in Tips | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
Today’s guest post comes to us courtesy Jennifer Burg of TheSuburbanMom!
Fall means a lot of things to a lot of people, but to kids October means only one thing: Costumes and CANDY! Little ones across the U.S. are dreaming of the day when they can run door to door dressed as their favorite character begging for candy and eating more candy in one night than mom allows all year long. But someone has to provide all of that “free candy” kids get, and if you are like the rest of us you want to participate in the merry-making without breaking the bank. Here are some tips to keep your candy shopping dollars to a minimum while still providing a spooktacular evening of fun for neighborhood kids.
- Get over brand names – Who cares what kind of candy you give out, kids don’t. Sugar is Sugar! Of course, chocolate is always a popular treat, but it tends to be the more costly candy so go for the cheap stuff. If you grab a handful and toss it in the bag, the kids won’t care. Sure there’s always that candy no kid will eat, but we always send that candy with my hubby to his office and sure enough someone eats it by day’s end. So someone eats it!
- What’s the real cost? – Of course we all want to buy our candy on sale, but don’t fall victim to a “fake” sale. Just because it is on sale doesn’t mean it is the best price. Grab your cell, pull up the calculator app and do the math. The bottom line is price per piece of candy – not per bag or pound. You aren’t serving candy by the bag or pound, you serve it per piece and if you want to make the little kids giddy and keep the big kids from any “tricks” you want to be able to give each kids more than one piece. So calculate accordingly.
- Get the Freebies! – As October progresses, businesses will start offering bags of free candy with purchase. (For example from 10/3 – 10/9 Kmart offered a free bag of candy with a $40 costume purchase.) Like “fake” sales, don’t buy stuff just for the free candy or you are wasting money, but, for example, if you were going to get a costume form Kmart for $40+… get the candy!
- Shop online – My daughter’s favorite lollipops are Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops, so this is what we will be passing out this year. We buy them on Amazon in a 5 pound bag, which is about 300 lollipops! Right now they are $26.92 (although this price fluxuates regularly, I have gotten them for as low as $13!). You can also save 20% on Yummy Earth with the coupon code SEPYUMMY, and it ships free with Amazon Prime or Amazon Mom.
- Coupon Matchups – With Halloween in the air coupons for candy are everywhere you turn. While one coupon might not be enough off to make you buy, matching a manufacturer coupon with a store coupon and a store sale can get you candy for pennies on the dollar. So hold on to those coupons and look to pair them up for better deals. Just remember the per piece rule to make sure you are really getting a deal.
Happy candy shopping and Happy Halloween to all!
I’m a SAHM, I’m a WAHM, I’m a WOHM. I’m thrifty, I’m green, I’m toy-picking-up machine. I’m a woman, I’m a wife, I’m a Modern Momma. I am The Suburban Mom. Jennifer Burg is TheSuburbanMom, and she invites you to visit TheSuburbanMom for product reviews, giveaways, deals, DIY projects and much more. Join the conversation at www.TheSuburbanMom.com.
Posted in Guest Posts | 1 Comment »
Monday, October 11th, 2010
We’re going out of town this week, because I won concert tickets to see Maroon 5 at the Tacoma Dome through the SIRIUS FM sweepstakes! We decided to make a trip of it while we’re there and stay a few days to visit our friends and family who live in Washington. I won’t be around to answer comments or emails until next week, but don’t worry – I’ve got some great guest posts, giveaways, and other fun stuff scheduled to run while I’m away! See you next week!
Posted in Life | No Comments »
Friday, October 8th, 2010
I haven’t done a garden update for a while – mainly because there hasn’t been much to talk about!
Yep, that sad little wasteland is my garden! Between the raccoons digging holes, birds flying off with my fava beans, and weird weather, the plants had a rough summer. My broccoli was looking good until it “Bolted” after a freak heatwave early in the season – which means that the edible broccoli crown turned into flowers:
The plants that have grown have been rather stunted – I got a couple of tiny onions and now have carrots growing that are the size of my pinkie finger. I assumed that they would just keep growing and getting bigger, but that hasn’t been the case. Yesterday, we got all excited about a “Big carrot” that had grown:
So we pulled it out of the ground…
Yes, that’s our “Big” carrot! 😉
Even the garlic failed:
Those sad little black lumps are the garlic cloves I planted last year, which never grew. At least, I think these are the cloves – they’re so shriveled that it’s hard to tell! It’s funny that this crop failed, when the first crop I ever planted suffered much worse conditions and turned out great!
However, we have gotten some lovely tomatoes:
Earlier in the year, we bought a second tomato plant and a Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter. It hasn’t been a huge crop, but enough so far to compliment a few batches of lasagna!
As I’ve said before, gardening is a new endeavor for me, so I’m not horribly disappointed that this year’s crop was a dud – I didn’t go into this with any expectations other than gaining experience so that I can learn how to grow great crops in the future.
Readers: How is your garden doing this year? Did you get a bumper crop – or a bumper flop, like me?
Posted in Growing Produce | 12 Comments »
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
Last week, I purchased a $20 gift certificate to Soap.com for $10. I used this gift certificate to buy 20 double rolls (Equal to 40 single) of Cottonelle and 6 SOS scrubber sponges for .97 cents with free shipping. I shopped through Ebates, so I also received .06 cents cash back. I’m very pleased with my order – sponges and toilet paper are two items which are hard to find deals on locally, so this was a great use for my Groupon. The package arrived just in time, because I was on my very last kitchen sponge!
Soap.com also sent me a special coupon code to share with you. If you use coupon code SUPE8183 on your first order at Soap.com, you will receive 15% off your order. Unfortunately, this cannot be combined with the Groupon gift certificate; however, I thought it was worth sharing because some of you may have missed the Groupon deal. I’m actually impressed with Soap.com and will likely purchase from them again – Ebates also has a list of coupon codes for Soap.com, so I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for future deals on items like these which are usually expensive in my local stores.
Posted in Online deals | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
We used to have a Costco membership, but decided not to renew it because I can get much better deals at other stores by using coupons. However, Costco does have competitive pricing on baking supplies, and since I bake all my own bread, I’ve come to the conclusion that it would probably be cheaper to buy in bulk rather than frequently purchase small bags. Our Grandma has a Costco membership, and per Costco rules, you are allowed to bring a non-member guest with you; so I asked if I could tag along with her the next time she went shopping. We made a trip on Saturday – here’s what I got:
Total spent: $25.73
Grandma has the receipt, otherwise I would have scanned it. 🙂
Got:
2 lbs of yeast – this was priced at $3.89, which is a fantastic price for yeast!
25 lbs of flour – price: $6.99
25 lbs of sugar – price: $14.85
Because I do so much baking, I’m eager to see how cost effective this purchase of flour and sugar will be. I’m going to keep track of how long it lasts and work out the price per month to see how it stacks up – so I will keep you posted!
Then on Sunday night, I made a quick trip to Fred Meyer:
Total spent: $19.47
View receipt
2 knee braces – $7.99 each, cost for both: $15.98
Half gallon of half & half – price: $3.49
I’m still having knee problems, and my old braces were wearing out; these are a different type that were recommended to me because they specifically target the area that I’m having trouble with. I went to the store just to buy these knee braces, and picked up the half and half as an afterthought. I should have bought a Sunday paper also, but I completely forgot!
Posted in Costco, Fred Meyer | No Comments »
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