Coupon Overage and Rebate Deals

Its been a few weeks since I went to Walmart to take advantage of their new coupon policy, so I had a few coupons I wanted to use. Similac ready to feed bottles were on sale for $3.84. Paired with the $5 off coupon from the 4/3 Smart Source insert to get them for free plus $1.16 of overage to put towards the rest of your total.

I also noticed these new Gerber Graduates breakfast bowls with a 'Try Me Free' rebate offer on the package. I'm guessing that you can find these at other places than Walmart, so keep your eyes open!

Spring Cleaning

I'm not exactly sure what it is about the change of seasons that makes me want to deep clean everything! Since spring (and even summer...it was over 80 yesterday!) seems to be here for good now, I've been taking care of a bunch of things around the house. One of the biggest tasks is cleaning our carpets!

Last year I borrowed my grandmother's carpet cleaner to deep clean the entire house. I mentioned then that I wanted to put this task on my calendar twice a year. Well, that didn't happen in the fall (probably because of the arrival of our baby boy), but I borrowed her cleaner again this year. Its been getting quite the workout the past few weeks since we are in the process of potty training my daughter.

I am always amazed and grossed out by how much dirt the carpet cleaner gets up!

This year I have noticed that things are not quite as dirty...I think its because my Dyson is getting the job done way better than our old vacuum! I am really happy to see the difference. It was a big investment to buy an expensive vacuum, but I believe that it has been worth the extra money to keep things clean and maintained.

Have you been giving in to the spring cleaning itch lately?

Food Waste Friday

Every Friday, I join with The Frugal Girl and other bloggers to clean out my fridge and freezer and take a picture of anything that has gone bad over the last week. This holds me accountable to faithfully check every week, and motivates me to use up our leftovers. This has made a huge difference in the amount of food we waste every week. I encourage you to participate with me in food waste Friday, too!

This first picture was not my fault...these bean sprouts got all slimy before their sell by date. I could have taken them back to the store, but the time and gas to get my money back for $2 of sprouts just would not have made sense.

Now, on to our real food waste! We have a few dried out and beginning to grow fuzz pancakes, some carrot soup, and homemade (even the stock) chicken noodle soup. The chicken noodle soup sat out at work with my husband back when he was fighting the flu and now has nice little mold spots. I tried to eat the carrot soup this week (it is one of my new favorite recipes), but it had separated and the texture was really off.

 

Whew! We'll hope to turn things around this coming week! Happy Easter - have a wonderful weekend!

Passing on Freebies

In light of the many free opportunities over the next few days, I wanted to share a few thoughts. I don't take advantage of every freebie I find (or even all of the ones I post here!). Depending on what is being offered for free, I consider what it is going to cost me to get that freebie before I dive right in.

Have you been enjoying free iced coffee at Dunkin Donuts every Monday? I've only been once! Why? Monday is usually my home day where I try to get things in order from the weekend. Since I don't usually plan to be out on Mondays, it would be a special trip for me to go get coffee. With the price of gas skyrocketing, it would cost me about as much to drive to Dunkin Donuts for my "free" coffee as it would to buy a coffee the next time I drove past a store.

The Rite Aid I use is across town, and I often find myself tempted to make a special trip for a small free item. If I know I am going to be near the store, it may be worth it for me to stop in Rite Aid. But I have to consider the time it takes to get my two small children out of the car for a special stop. Maybe the same item costs me a dollar or two more at another store, but it saves me the time of that extra stop, as well as the gas to get there.

Sometimes a sale (or freebie) is good enough to make a special trip. I've gotten a lot better about calling ahead to make sure its in stock in those situations, which saves me time, money on gas, and a lot of frustration!

I'll be getting my free Starbucks tomorrow on my way to our Easter party, but I'll probably not be able to get a free tree from Lowes.

What freebies do you choose not to grab? How do you capitalize on freebies - combining errands? having a friend pick something up for you? walking?

Earth Day Freebies

There are tons of opportunities to get freebies this week because of businesses promoting Earth Day, but my favorite is always Starbucks! I love coffee, and you sure can't beat free! Bring in your own mug on Friday and get a free cup of coffee.

Another great freebie is from Lowes - on Saturday (April 23) get a free evergreen! They will be little, but what a cool idea! (Thanks, Moms Need To Know!)

Free Allegra

My copy of the Delaware News Journal this week had this $5 coupon for Allegra:

Use the coupon to get a 5 pack of Allegra for free at Acme this week! I am so thankful that no one in my family suffers from allergies, but I am planning to pick up a free box anyway and give it away to someone who can use it. I know that allergy medication is expensive!

Thanks to Moms Need to Know what spotted this steal!

Baked Ziti (in the crockpot!) Recipe

I pulled this recipe out of my copy of All You last summer, and we've enjoyed it many times since! You do not have to cook the pasta ahead of time, which is a great time-saver and means less dishes to wash. I also love that this doesn't have to cook all day. You can throw everything together at 3pm and still have a hot dinner on the table!

The last time I made this, I changed things up and used cottage cheese instead of ricotta cheese. The taste was very similar, and I probably would not have even noticed if I had not know that it was cottage cheese. Since ricotta can be pricey, this is a great money saving alternative!

Slow-Cooker Baked Ziti (via All You)

1 15-oz container part-skim ricotta (or try cottage cheese!)

1 cup shredded mozzarella

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 tsp. salt

1 lb. ziti

2 25-oz jars marinara sauce (I used my homemade sauce, naturally)

2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh basil leaves (I used dry)

 

Combine all three cheeses and salt in a medium bowl. Rinse ziti under cold water in a colander, allowing some water to cling to the pasta.

 

Mist inside of slow cooker with cooking spray. Place half of the pasta in an even layer over bottom of cooker. Spoon half of the sauce over pasta. Dot with half the cheese mixture and half of basil. Repeat with remaining pasta, sauce, cheese and basil.

Pour in 2/3 cup water. Cover and cook on high until pasta is tender, 2 to 3 hours.

We love to round out this kind of meal with a nice salad and some fresh bread!

Food Waste Friday

Every Friday, I join with The Frugal Girl and other bloggers to clean out my fridge and freezer and take a picture of anything that has gone bad over the last week. This holds me accountable to faithfully check every week, and motivates me to use up our leftovers. This has made a huge difference in the amount of food we waste every week. I encourage you to participate with me in food waste Friday, too!

I have no picture this week!!

 

Last week was quite terrible in terms of our food waste, so its always nice to get things under control again. We do have one or two things that need to be used this weekend, or else I'll be saving them for a picture next Friday.

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Spring Gardening

It finally feels like spring is here to stay! I've been taking advantage of the warmer weather to work outside...digging out some weeds, pruning our bushes, and getting the garden ready!

Last year we built a small raised-bed garden for our backyard (check out the step by step instructions to build your own!). We live in a townhouse with a backyard that is mostly hill, so garden space is pretty limited. Last year's super hot and dry summer gave our garden quite a beating (it gets afternoon sun from about noon until 7:30 in the middle of summer!). I really should have thought about it when we placed the garden, but for now we'll just hope that it isn't quite as extreme this year.

I have had good success with Jiffy peat pods for starting my garden the last several years. Obviously, you don't have to use something like this, but I found it especially helpful for having my daughter help this year.

I went a little crazy last year and tried to do waaaaay too many plants (like 80!), so this year I kept it way more simple. This windowsill greenhouse was perfect for us. Add water to the peat pods...

and watch them grow!

We added seeds once the peat pods were fully wet. We are only doing tomatoes and zucchini right now.

And since we might add some more later this month, I only did half the pods this time.

We stuck it on the windowsill and waited...

(and watched)

Our tomato seedlings are starting to grow!

And our zucchini are already out in the bed and looking great!

 

We had a nice surprise too...lettuce from last year is coming up too! I am really happy about this because last year's lettuce was too bitter to eat, probably because it was so dry. This lettuce tastes great, so hopefully we'll be able to have some fresh salads with it.

Are you planting anything this year?

Curbside Recycling Information

Local Readers! If you live within the city limits of Middletown, you should have received a notice from the town about curbside recycling service...it starts Friday, May 13th!! Every home will be provided a 65-gallon recycling container sometime in April (the notice said mid-April, so it should be here soon) along with more information about the recycling program.

I am so excited to not have to drop off our recycling any longer! And it is really going to be extra work to NOT recycle now since trash pick-up is being cut to once a week to allow for once a week recycling pick-up. Remember the week I kept track of our recycling and trash production? Our family went through more recyclable materials than actual trash!

Be sure to visit the Delaware Recycling website if you want some more information!

Food Waste Friday

Every Friday, I join with The Frugal Girl and other bloggers to clean out my fridge and freezer and take a picture of anything that has gone bad over the last week. This holds me accountable to faithfully check every week, and motivates me to use up our leftovers. This has made a huge difference in the amount of food we waste every week. I encourage you to participate with me in food waste Friday, too!

Its been a long week for our family...as you can probably tell since its Saturday and I'm just now posting my food waste picture. We are still in the process of recovering from being sick. None of us have really had much of an appetite, so we've got a lot of leftovers that needed to be thrown out...a pasta dish, a few green beans, a little piece of sausage, and some spinach.

I'm hoping next week will bring a healthier house and much less food waste!

Homemade Artisan Bread

Alternately titled Why didn't I do this years ago!?!

My new favorite book: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking. This book teaches you how to make delicious bread with that crunchy, crackely crust that costs $4 a loaf at the grocery and is served in tons of restaurants!

We are in the midst of recovering from another bout with illness, so forgive my scatterbrained-ness!

My second homemade loaf...the first got eaten before I could take a photo!

This book teaches you how to mix your dough ahead of time and keep it in the refridgerator for up to 2 weeks. When you want fresh bread, simply cut a piece off the dough, let it rest on the counter, make a few slashes and bake in a super hot oven. You get something like this...

Loaf #3 - this one turned out much prettier because I'm getting the hang of how deeply to slash the bread before it is baked.

Look at that crust...its amazing! This loaf I made while I had a fever - it is truly that easy.

Little hands can't resist!

My husband looks in the fridge and spies the dough and asks for artisan bread...and every time I turn on the oven my daughter says, making more bread!

Our most recent loaf:

These loaves are small enough that our family can finish one off at a meal. While that can be a good thing (because it tastes best when fresh), you may need to tweak it for larger families, by making 2 loaves, or simply larger loaves.

Delicious holes inside! And you get a bit of sourdough flavor to boot! The longer the dough sits in the fridge, the stronger the flavor becomes.

I'll be back with the recipes and more information next week when things have settled down a little. Have you read this book or baked this kind of bread?

I'm pretty sure I have a ton of food waste this week, so I'll be back tomorrow with a photo, unfortunately.

Salvaged Jeans

Somehow I manage wear holes in my jeans on a regular basis. I'm sure it has plenty to do with being on the carpet with my kids a good portion of the day! Sometimes the rest of the jeans are wearing out too, so the hole isn't that big of a deal, but a hole in a pair that still had plenty of wear remaining, and I am super bummed!

Patching a hole from the inside never looks right to me, and just patching the one little hole would have drawn attention to the fact that it was there even more so. When I was doing an internet search about patching jeans, I came across several different "patchwork" styles (for examples look at various designer brands, Hot Topic, ArtFire, and even eBay).

I decided the patchwork look would be easy enough for me to make, but I still wasn't sure that I could pull it off style-wise! After getting the advice of my fashion-loving sister (who happens to live in Miami), I decided that I really liked how my "new" jeans turned out!

After getting ideas from some different websites, I ended up using a pair of my daughter's jeans for inspiration also.

I really wish I had done a better job documenting the process along the way because it was so easy! I had a very small (less than 1 inch) hole in one knee, but the other knee was thin also, so I realized I needed to reinforce both sides of the pants. I have saved every worn out pair of jeans we've gone through, and was finally able to put them to good use!

I cut a bunch of square-ish pieces from different wash jeans, then pinned them onto my jeans to see how it would look. I even worn the jeans while I was pinning the pieces over the knees because the knees were fairly stretched out, so leaving them flat would have made the patches not end up sewn on evenly.

I used my sewing machine and stitched around each patch, and then helped tease out the material to create more of a frayed look. This ended up being kind of an extra step, since I sewed over top of these when I patched the jeans.

The most time-consuming part of this was sewing the patches to the jeans, but it was so worth it because I love the finished product!

My husband took a bunch of pictures for me one evening, and he had fun getting me to pose (something I feel extremely awkward doing!). I wanted to do a whole second-hand "salvaged" outfit for you...I think I got everything from Goodwill over the past 2 or 3 years. The jeans are Gap (paid $2.50), the sweater is j.Crew ($3.50), and the books are knock-off Uggs (less than $5).

What do you think? Do you like the patchwork look?

I'm linking up with these partys...check them out!


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Food Waste Friday

Every Friday, I join with The Frugal Girl and other bloggers to clean out my fridge and freezer and take a picture of anything that has gone bad over the last week. This holds me accountable to faithfully check every week, and motivates me to use up our leftovers. This has made a huge difference in the amount of food we waste every week. I encourage you to participate with me in food waste Friday, too!

This week I got rid of the littlest amount of homemade tomato soup. It really should have been finished when we ate the rest of the soup. That was a solid 2 weeks ago, and the top of the soup had some funny dots all over it this morning when I checked.

In other news, we are super excited for the start of the Orioles season today! We relocated to Delaware from the Baltimore area, and have remained faithful through (an un-named) number of losing seasons. We have high hopes for this year, can't you see!?