Savings Jackpots week of January 21

How did my family save money this week?

Ryan borrowed his mom's Bissell carpet cleaners and cleaned our rugs and spot cleaned the kids' rooms.  

Made homemade baby biscuits, Amilia tested and approved! Click here for: Teething biscuit recipe  I did have to add more water than the recipe called for and I also baked them 12 minutes on each side so they would be nice and hard for the her to gnaw on.  

We ate out for only one meal this week.  Had Golden Spoon on Two Stamp Tuesday, had two stamp cards full for 2 free yogurts, so while my sister was visiting on Saturday night, we left her with the kids and got our free treats and an hour together!

Helped my son make homemade Valentine cards for his classmates.

Ryan cut Austin's hair.

Austin earned another free iPad app for good behavior.

Handmade Valentine Crafts!

Make your own Coloring Kits!!

These are the coloring kits I made for my students.  They turned out so cute! Instructions to make:

cut 8 1/2"X4 1/2" for the folder, score at 4" and 4 1/2" and fold

cut 4"X5 1/2" for the crayon holder, score at 1 1/2", 2", 3 1/2", 4" fold to make a box and glue it

cut 1 1/2"X4" for the strap score at 1 3/4", 2 1/4", 3 1/2"

draw a small pencil notch on both sides of the inside of the folder 1 1/2" from bottom so when you glue the crayon box to the inside left and the strap to the outside they will line up

I recommend sticky strip for the box since it will bear the weight of the crayons.

Line up the folds of the tab to the folder then fold the last flap in and glue it so it creates a studier pull tab for the velcro closure.

Finish the project by cutting 1 1/2"X4 1/2" patterned paper to decorate the front and back cover and add any other embellishments you'd like.  Slide your little package of crayons in the box and attach several 3X4" sheets of white copy paper by a paper clip or binder clip.  

Make your own heart finger puppet!

This idea came from Disney Family Fun magazine!  My son made these adorable heart finger puppets for all his classmates.  I traced the heart shapes for him and he was able to cut them out, punch the circles, decorate the faces, and signed the back with his name and a Valentine stamp.  

Great deals this week!!

Did shopping tonight so I could go alone.  It was so peaceful to shop by myself!  Winco has some great buys this week for stock ups!  Del Monte pasta sauce 48 cents for 26 oz can!!  Also the Del Monte 24 oz ketchup is 48 cents.  Fuji apples 68 cents a pound, oranges 20 cents a pound, and a nice stalk of celery for 48 cents!  I got what I needed for the week plus stocked up on the Del Monte items and spent just $29!!  The high was short lived after I went to Target had to spend $50 on baby formula, soda, and swim diapers for our upcoming trip.
Over at Smith's they have their buy 10 items get $5 off sale.  Kraft BBQ sauce is 49 cents when you do the buy 10 sale.  I got 10 and also got some boxes of Ritz crackers for 1.79 each and Capri Sun Roaring Waters pouches 10 pack for $2.  The Capri Suns aren't rock bottom priced, but I was low anyway and many times the sales on Capri Suns don't include that variety.  Smith's also has American Beauty pasta for 79 cents.  A friend reported that Food 4 Less has Creamette pasta for 48 cents when you buy 10.

Double Duty Dinners

We had roast for dinner tonight.  I put the roast in my slow cooker with a can of broth, dried onion, and garlic powder and it cooked all day.  When we came home the house smelled SO GOOD!  This roast was huge and was about $9 at Winco, which isn't a steal but still lower than I've seen in awhile.  We ate half of it with some sliced potatoes cooked in a frying pan and I made my strawberry spinach salad with raspberry vinaigrette.  I cut up some of my Prudent Homemaker french bread and it was a fabulous dinner!

There was still half a roast left after we stuffed ourselves, so Ryan and I started brainstorming what to do with it.  We finally decided a beef stew sounded great so while he did all the dishes, I shredded the meat, filtered the drippings from the crockpot and added another 2 cans of broth, a can of water and cut big chunks of carrot, potato, and celery.  I added some various seasonings and put it in the fridge.  It will cook on low all day tomorrow.  I pulled out a loaf of french bread from the freezer to thaw which will go nicely with the stew.

So then I got to thinking, I need to do these double duty dinners a little more often, especially as I am getting into my busier time of year at work.

Here's some other ones I've done in the past:
Night 1: Slow cooker pork roast with potatoes and carrots in broth
Night 2: shredded leftover pork for enchiladas or tacos

Night 1: slow cooker chicken breasts (doubling what you would normally cook) in a can of broth, drain, shred and use for chicken pasta
Night 2: Mix leftover chicken with 1 cup BBQ sauce for BBQ chicken sandwiches or add vegetables, broth and spices for slow cooker chicken noodle soup (just add noodles an hour before serving)

What are some double duty dinners you like to do?

Apple spinach salad YUM!

Apple Spinach Salad

I needed some ideas for all the Granny Smith apples I got at Winco for 68 cents a pound.  All the recipes online and on Pinterest had too many crazy ingredients for the dressing.  So I created my own dressing and it turned out pretty good.  It was just a little too much lemon juice so the recipe below has a reduced amount.  

Viva Mom's Tart Apple Dressing: 

This will serve 4, double recipe if needed for a larger salad

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp apple juice

1/2 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp sugar

measure all ingredients in a little plastic container with lid, cover and shake

Pour dressing over 3-4 cups spinach leaves and toss

Top with thinly sliced Granny Smith apples, 1/4 cup feta cheese crumbles, 2 Tbsp crushed walnuts or pecans

For a variation:

Add strawberries to the salad instead of the apples 

Toss spinach with Homemade Raspberry Vinaigrette

2 Tbsp seedless raspberry jam

2 Tbsp white vinegar

1 Tbsp honey

2 tsp olive oil

When it's this easy to make your own salad dressings with ingredients used for other purposes, it's one less thing to spend money on in the store and healthier for you too!

Savings jackpots of the week!

I feel like a winner every time I save money!  I love getting new tips on how to save money from other blogs I follow.  So you can look forward to reading mine every week too.  I work full time and still manage my home, kids, and after-school activities, so if I can do it, you can do it!

1.  I waxed my own eyebrows (and other hairy parts of my face I shouldn't even admit to).  Sally Hansen wax strips are around $5 at Walmart and will last me 6 months as opposed to $30 for wax and tip at a salon plus gas and more time to drive there and back home.
2.  I made a double batch of whole wheat pancakes with chocolate chips and froze them for my son's breakfast on the go.  He loves the Mickey Mouse pancake mold!

3.  I made homemade granola bars from a recipe found on Pinterest.  I was able to cut this tray into 28 bars.  Delicious!!  Less than 125 calories per bar and easily less than 10 cents per bar.

link to the granola bars recipe:  No Bake Food Storage Granola Bars

4.  I made a simpler version of a craft found on Pinterest using items I had on hand.  My son watched me and then also made his own heart creations from my scraps.  I think it turned out pretty cute.

5.  My son's weekly incentive for being good in school was to choose a free app to download on daddy's iPad.  He found a Ninja fruit cutting game that entertained him most of the time I was doing the above activities.
6.  I doubled the dinner recipe I made Saturday night so we could eat it for our lunch after church on Sunday.
7.  We stayed home on Saturday and then went for frozen yogurt at USwirl after dinner using my $5 off coupon.

How did you hit the jackpot in savings this week?

Shopping trip success!

One of my goals this year is to combine shopping trips to save gas and time and limit it to once per week.  I prefer shopping on weeknights to avoid the long lines and traffic.  I originally planned to just go to Winco this week.  However, I got an email from Staples this morning with a 1 cent sale on school supplies for teachers!  I knew I needed to go today to get all of the deals.  Also, several items were on special and I needed some thin Expo markers for school that were 30%.  Here's what I got for $5.08: 8 pack of Expos for $3.84, 5 24 packs of crayons, 5 8 packs of pencils, 5 100 packs of index cards, 5 12 pack eraser toppers, plus an orange Scentos marker that my son Austin begged for that was $1.  Austin goes to Kinder next year, so these supplies will come in handy for him.

So...since I was out at Staples I figured I would hit the Target and Kohls in the same complex.  Target had a special on Oxi-Clean, buy 2 5 lb packs get $5 gift card.  I am gathering supplies to eventually make my own laundry soap.  Two coupons printed with my receipt: $5 off 2 tubs of Enfamil and $2 Target gift card by getting some new app called Shopkick.  So I downloaded the app (which is kinda cool), got the gift card and did another transaction to get two large tubs of Enfamil AR for the baby using the $7 in gift cards and $5 coupon so it was $18 for each tub.  Any time I can save on formula, I am grateful because this baby's weekly formula expense is more than our total weekly groceries half the time!  At Kohl's I had a $10 coupon and found some 18-24 month winter clearance clothes for the baby next year.

Last stop was my beloved Winco.  

To top it all off, I recieved this little beauty in the mail.

Sweetness!!!  So I stocked up on a few things to get to over $50 so I could use it.  

If you live in NW Vegas, Winco is hands down the best deals for groceries.  Every grocery store does shop and compare with them.  However, they purposely pick certain brands that they know Winco carries that will be a little cheaper at their store's current sale price.  If you do not have brand loyalties, you can get the cheapest price on most everything at Winco without ever having to worry about shopping sales or cutting coupons with other stores.  Winco does not send out grocery ads or take credit cards (only debit) so they can pass the savings on to you!  Their Hy-Top brand is super cheap, it's not always the best quality, but there are lots of other national brands that have low prices.  For one, I will NOT get the Hy-Top milk.  They carry Viva, so I will happily spend the extra 50 cents for it.  However, the Hy-Top cream cheese, baking supplies, and tomato sauce are perfectly fine and very low price.  Then there is the Winco bulk foods section.  I love this because I can just get a tiny amount of what I need for a certain recipe.  I can also get a few small bags of candy for 25-50 cents that will give us a little weekend treat.  

Some of the great prices at Winco today were:

Cottonelle toilet paper jumbo 12 pack $3.48

 Scott paper towels 6 double rolls $3.48 plus 75 cent off coupon when you buy 2.  

This sale has been going on for 2 weeks so I now have a year's worth of paper products!  

Red delicious and Granny Smith Apples 68 cents a pound!  

5 lb bag of russet potatoes 78 cents!!

What deals did you find this week?  If you have a smart phone, check out the Shopkick free app, register, then got to shopkick.com/target9 for the $2 gift card promo.

Buffalo Chicken Smashburger style!

I LOVE the buffalo chicken sandwich at Smashburger! However, it's 500 calories!! We would have spent at least $30 going there.  This dinner was approximately $3-4 for the 3 of us (if that).  Here's what I did:

I made 8 small loaves of french bread over the weekend, recipe from The Prudent Homemaker http://theprudenthomemaker.com/index.php/french-bread

I froze half of them, gave one to my sister, and used three with meals this week.

Buffalo Chicken Sliders 
Serves 4 (2 sliders per person, about 230 cals per slider)

Slice small loaf of french bread or other narrow baguette into 16 1/2 inch slices
One pound thawed chicken breast (about 4 small)
Hot sauce of choice ( I like Frank's buffalo sauce, zero cals so load it on!)
Crumbled feta (use about 1 Tbsp per slider)
Light ranch (I Tbsp per slider)
Romaine leaves

1. Butterfly the breasts into 2 thinner pieces (hit them with a tenderizer if you really want the "smash")
grill on medium heat til cooked through and lightly browned
2. Spray pan with cooking spray and set slices of bread on them, heat on low to give them a light toasting on each side
3.  Wash and cut 4 inch pieces of the romaine leaves

Set your sauces and cheese on the table with a platter of toasted bread and chicken pieces and everyone builds their slider to their own liking!  This was especially great for our 5 year old who could make his own little sandwich creation.

I was so eager to dig into these that I completely forgot to take a photo!
What signature sandwiches do you crave?

Welcome

Baby 2 brought more weight gain and more expenses!  So several months ago, I started cooking more so we could save money and calories on eating out.  Since then, I have lost 55 lbs and returned to my size 14 jeans!  I'd like to lose at least 20 more.  My hubby is doing awesome as well by dropping two pant sizes.  I found that the more I cooked, the more I loved it!  If I was craving a particular restaurant dish, I made my own version of it.  I also returned to shopping at Winco.  I will continue to do my bulk purchases at Costco and then other stores sparingly depending on sales.  I've been inspired by other blogs about cooking from scratch, being frugal, and storing food.  So here I am, I hope this will inspire you to accomplish what you seek for your own family.