Muffin Tin fun....

 Ok so I didn't use a muffin tin but cupcake liners, all the same. I do want to get some silicone cupcake thingys to use. I found this blog here a month or so ago and she does a bloggy party every Monday where they have Muffin Tin Monday which is where you link up a post showing what you did for Muffin Tin Monday. I didn't actually link up this week as I am just now getting it posted but will definitely do so next week. They also do different themes on and off where you come up with creative ways to use their foods. I thought this would be fun for Gabe, he may be a little young for it yet but it's a great way to offer him a variety of foods at lunch while making it fun.

First isn't he precious? Love this little man. So much cuteness.

 

Gabers had gold fish pretzels and cheesy ones, cut up bologna, cheese crumbles, pineapple pieces, and come sweet and sour chicken. The sweet sour chicken was what I picked out of mine ( I pick out the chicken from mine cause I'm cool like that, I don't like cut up pieces of chicken or meat of any kind in stuff, I know cool weird ) as I just knew he would like it. Nope. He had a little of everything, he's never had bologna and really liked it, the chicken was immediately spit out as I don't think he liked the sauce, cheese he always loves :)

  

Here he is putting the chicken back, haha.

 

Checkin out all his good eats. The food totally didn't last long in the cupcake liners, they were on the floor pretty quick, longer than I expected though.

If you want to read more about Muffin Tin Mondays check out Michelle's blog here, there is a lot of fun things for you and your kiddos on her blog.

Super Easy and Delicious Shepards Pie Recipe....

This is one of my new favorite things to make. I first made it a few weeks back and Everyone loves it, especially my husband. This is so easy to make and inexpensive. I love recipes that require few ingredients and even better things you already probably have in your cabinets.

A few things about this recipe..This was a recipe I found offline and changed alot to work for us. Normally with shepards pie you would just make mashed potatoes or used boxed but I like it this way much better, it's easier and tastes just as good if not better. I add more veggies as we I like it with more, 3 cans might be a little much for some. Also This makes a bit larger than a normal batch which is why I use a bigger pan. You may do a little tweaking to get it more to your liking, I only use 1 pound of ground beef as 2 seems to much and I like less beef, however with 1 pound it still has plenty of beef ( has to for the Mr. ). This feeds our family of 4 plus we have plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day and it's just as good.

Shepards Pie

1 Pound of Ground Beef
1 Can of Mixed Veggies ( frozen veggies work as well )
1 Can of Corn
1 Can of green beans 
2 jars of beef gravy
7 to 10 potatoes depending on size
1 package of cream cheese ( cut into cubes )
1 bag of Shredded Cheddar Cheese
3/4 stick of butter ( cut up into pieces )
Chopped onion or Bell Pepper Optional


1. Brown your ground beef in a skillet, I usually chop up and onion and cook it with the beef. I brown mine on med. low and start preparing the other ingredients.


2. Poke holes in your potatoes and cook them in the microwave. When they are done mash them up in a big bowl, add the butter, the cream cheese, a handful of your shredded, and  I usually add a splash of milk but you don't have to, it just helps to make it a little more mash potatoey. Also if you prefer you can peel your potatoes, I do sometimes but either way is just as good. Mash everything together and set aside.


Take a good sized cake pan, drain your ground beef and add to your pan, mix in the veggies and gravy and spread evenly. Now with your nice clean hands mash the potato mix into patties and spread over the top of your beef mixture. Then top with the rest of your shredded cheese and bake at 350 until the cheese gets light brown and bubbly. 


Yummm!!! Seriously good stuff! Enjoy!! I will add a picture this week, I made it again tonight but sadly forgot to take a before picture, we were hungry.

Awesome programs for Saving Money and Getting High Value Coupons....

Today I want to share a few things that I started doing in 2009 and have really helped us a lot. This will be lengthy but if your interested in saving money, or getting full sized products or high value coupons this is a must read.

1. Have you heard of swagbucks? Swagbucks is a search and earn program. You search the web through them and earn swagbucks. The swagbucks can then be used to either purchase merchandise, enter sweepstakes, or buy gift cards. I highly recommend the gift cards. This helped us A LOT this last Christmas. I have turned my swagbucks in everytime for gift cards to amazon ( I will talk more about amazon in a moment ). You can get a $5 amazon card for only 45 swagbucks, you can also get higher amounts and gift cards to lots of other places. They are so easy to earn. I have been a member of swagbucks for about 4 months and have earned around $40 in amazon gift cards. To learn more about it or sign up go here.

2. Another favorite of mine is Alice.com, love love love it! On alice.com you can buy household items such as cleaning supplies, snacks for the pantry, diapers, beauty products, etc. I don't buy a ton from alice as I shop the local sales and use my paper coupons, but on alice they have coupons as well on certain items that will automatically come off the item. Plus when you order from alice shipping is always free and you get your order in 1 to 2 days. I shop the deals on alice ( that's actually a category on the website ), I have gotten luvs diapers cheap, bounty paper towels, toilet paper, cleaning supplies ( my fave scrubbing bubbles ), and a few other deals from there. It's nice when you have already made your trips to the store and forgot a few things, order from alice and have it in a couple of days tops. Your first order you can order as little as 1 item, but any order after that they require at least 6 items which is no big deal and easy to achieve. Also if you sign up through this link once you have spent $50 which can be over a long period of time you get a $10 credit which you can use for anything on the site. Hello free diapers! I just got my $10 credit and will definitely be using it for diapers. I have ordered 3 or 4 times over the last 4 months and love it. My last order I got a bag of samples in with my order which they do randomly. To learn more about alice or sign up you can go here.

3. I don't sign up for a ton of samples, I used to but they can be time consuming. I sign usually only sign up when it's a product I use, or know I would use and most likely it will come with a coupon. Or if it's something new, it's always fun trying out new products. Last year I discovered a great program Bzz Agent. I love this program. I signed up around August? I believe and have received so many great products to try out. Not only do they send you products but usually a stack of coupons to pass along to friends and spread the Bzzz. I have gotten to try products such as Childrens Zyrtec, Softsoaps bodywash, and Aveeno Baby products. The Zyrtec and the Aveeno I received full sized products to try and with the aveeno I got several samples and high value coupons to pass out ( I still have some if anyone wants them ), and with the Zyrtec I received a book of very high value coupons with it. With the softsoaps I received about 7 trial sized bottles of the bodywash along with high value coupons to give out. I was excited about them all but the Aveeno was definitely my favorite as the littlest guy has very sensitive skin and can only use aveeno and it was great to try a new product of theirs. The sign up process is a bit lengthy as you do need to fill out a survey so they can send you Bzz Ops that suit you. You can go here to learn more or sign up.

4. Another Awesome program is Vocalpoint. This is definitely a favorite of mine. This one is soo super easy to join, and there is not a lot of participation required. I have been a member since last April and have received so many coupons for either free products or full size products free to try. Recently I have gotten a coupon for free tuna, a full sized Tide Swash to try, a full sized jar of Olay Pro x plus tons of $10 off coupons to give out, I have gotten lots of coupons for a variety of different cereals, they sent coupons for free ones as well as high value ones to give away. All you do in return besides telling your friends or family is take a seriously quick and simple survey after trying the product. It is one of the easiest programs in my opinion and the coupons are awesome. You can go here to read more or join.

5. Another is Kraft First Taste. Sign up is super easy and again you get offers to try a product and take a quick survey after doing so. Recently I received a coupon for a new DiGiorni pizza to try free as well as a high value one, I have received others for free velveeta shells and cheese cups, wheat thins, and deli creations sandwiches. You can go here to learn more or sign up.

Another great way to score some high value coupons is emailing the company, search for their website ( through swagbucks of course ) and almost all companies have a contact form on their site to write them. I have done this with several companies who make products that I love and gotten tons of coupons for free products in the mail. I even scored $45 in free diaper coupons from one. I did have a small complaint with the diapers but was mostly telling them I loved them. Don't make up complaints be honest :) most companies love positive feedback and will mail you coupons in return for taking the time to share your feedback on their products.

Let's talk a little about online shopping. I almost never buy from a website if they aren't offering free shipping, otherwise I can drive my big hiney to the store and pick out what I want there, I do not like to pay for shipping. One of my most favorite places to shop online is Amazon. I did probably 70% of my Christmas shopping for the kiddos and distant relatives off of Amazon. They are almost always offering free prime memberships and I highly recommend it, I have even contemplated paying the yearly fee to keep it as it is so completely worth it in my opinion. With a prime membership you get free 2 day shipping on almost anything that ships from amazon ( not outside sellers ) and you can even get One day shipping for $3.99 which is so great for a last minute birthday or Christmas present that you either couldn't find at the store or to send straight to someone who lives far away. Also double up the free shipping with those amazon gift cards you earn with your swagbucks and you will be amazed at the savings. I got SO MANY deals on the kiddos toys this last Christmas, I couldn't believe it, hubby couldn't believe it. Way cheaper than walmart. To name a few I got my littlest a $60 fisher price toy for $19 and some change plus free 2 day shipping. At walmart I believe they were $45. I saved more then 50% shopping amazon at Christmas. They always have daily deals, and especially have the toy deals during the shopping season. There also great for printer ink. Earn those swagbucks, turn them in for amazon cards and get free or cheap printer ink to make up for printing all those coupons off :) Oh and one more thing, with amazon even if you don't sign up for prime you can still get free shipping on tons of stuff by spending $25. The prime is just better though as there is no minimum purchase. The other day they had a great deal on sippy cups so I spent like $5 and got free 2 day shipping with my prime membership. It's nice for when you see a good deal.

One last thing, my most favorite blog to read is My Frugal Adventures, she is Awesome and the first person to turn me into a couponer. She posts several times a day the store lists, the deals, and matchups with coupons, she is constantly posting a gazillion online deals, if there is a free coupon, sample, whatever she knows. Check her blog out here. She gets worried if she doesn't hear from me everyday, haha! She has helped me get many many deals. My favorite is my flip video camera, I wanted one for my Birthday but wasn't going to spend the small fortune ( i'm cheap ) and she found me a deal on one!! I had to stay up the day after Christmas til about 4 in the morning until the deal went live to get it but it was totaly worth it, I got mine for about $50 when they retail everywhere for $120 to $200. I definitely recommend subscribing to her blog and remember you absolutely do not have to have a blog to comment or subscribe.

Okie Dokie that's all I got today!! Any questions or help you can always email me!!

Couponing at Krogers....

Tonight we went to Kroger as they are having the Mega Event which is my most favorite time to shop there. I so love Kroger. The Mega event if you don't know is where you buy 10 participating items and get $5 off your total and at our store you can do that as many times as you want in one transaction. At the end of mine I got $30 off as I had 60 participating items and then came the coupons....I handed the sweet young and patient guy about 35 coupons and apologized, lol. He was so nice though and him and the young guy bagging were entertaining Cameron and telling him that the sweeper thing transforms at night into a transformer and hello you had him at Transformer.

 

Anyways, I spent a little more than I planned but I got A LOT of stuff and stocked up on snack foods and things for the kids that are normally so high. I got 4 boxes of wheat thins and triscuits for a little over $1.00 a box as I had $1.00 off coupons, The nature valley nut clusters were each about .30 cents a bag after my paper coupons, and e coupons from shortcuts.com ( I so love being able to use both on one item, this I just learned not to long ago ) The ritz were 1.00 a box after coupons, the fruit cups we got 2 free. You can't see it but the deli creations hot sandwiches were $1.00 each. All the goldfish I had no coupons for but with the mega event they were only .88 cents a bag and I love these the kiddos love these. The boxes of 100 calorie count snacks were a little over $1.00 a box after coupons.

We got 4 boxes of capri suns for less than $1.00 a box after coupons. Some other deals I got with coupons were French's Mustard, Franks Hot Sauce, French's Honey Mustard, French's Dipping Sauce and each were only .19 cents. Awesome! I got guacamole for $1.00, oh and my favorite deal was the Kraft Cheeses, each was only .99 and I got 6! That's awesome for Kraft cheese in my opinion. I got 2 Tombstone pizzas for around $1.50 each. I got 4 boxes of Velveeta Shells and Cheese for .61 a box. A huge thing of velveeta for 2.79. They also had good whole grain bread for $3.89 a loaf but it was buy one get one free plus there was a .55 off coupon on each load that I used making them 1.39 a loaf for my favorite bread.

I also got several boxes of fiber one granola bars for  about .60 a box as I had paper coupons that were doubled plus ecoupons. Not even close to everything is pictured, I stocked up on hamburger for the week, plus they had big bags of salmon, tilapia, and catfish for 9.99 and I got tilapia. We also got cereal, milk, eggs, juice, water, those kinds of things. Oh I also got 2 sets of ziploc storage containers, nice big casserole sized ones for 1.25 each set.

Ok I think that's enough....Wanna know my savings??? I saved $85.32 with my krogers card, 2.25 bonus coupons?, and with mfg coupons...........$33.67!!! A total of 121.24!!! Woohoo!! Seriously though once I see the total saved just from the coupons it makes it all worth it! Every little but helps, and even though $33 is not a ton of money it sure will add up to the end of the year.

So that's my weekly couponing. Do you bother? How's yours going if you do?

Family Christmas Video....

A little late but I have been playing around with videos I took Christmas. Enjoy!

Coupon Highs....

Something I want to try and do this year is post more on my family blog. I want to of course share what's going on at home with the kiddos as well as share some of my couponing. I just started couponing about 7 months ago and  am not great at it yet but getting better. I slacked off for the last 2 months or so and am getting back into it. It's something that REALLY helps us save money and we definitely need that. It's a lot of work but completely worth it.

Tonight we headed to CVS as I had $11.50 in extra care bucks to spend from the pepsi deal they had. Yesterday we bought Six 12 packs of pepsi and paid $16 and some change and got $10 back. Plus I had $1.50 from my quarterly earnings.

So ( counting the soda ) we got....

Six 12 packs of pepsi
Bag of Stacys Pita chips ( free bag coupon I got from facebook )
Conditioner
8 Rolls of Bounty Paper Towels
1 Airwick Freshmatic starter kit ( join here if you want these coupons )
1 Box of Hersheys Granola Bars
12 pack of thread ( for sewing practice )
Shoelaces ( cam needed new ones )
2 Tubs of Clorox Wipes
A new Sippy Cup for little man ( $5 geesh )

I paid about $28 ( again that is counting yesterdays soda purchase )

I had $16.50 in ExtraCare bucks, ( $5 of which came from a survey I did as I am on the CVS advisory panel and $10 from the soda, and $1.50 I had from my fall earnings )and $8 in coupons plus I got $1 back for my next visit.

Now I could have done it so that I would have earned more extracare bucks back to spend next time but I stuck with getting things we needed.

We also went to Krogers tonight and I used 16 coupons, my total before coupons was a little over $100 and after coupons we spent around $60. That's good for me. Again I am still learning.....A few deals I got...

 5 Healthy Choice Dinners *FREE
12 double rolls of Cottonelle for $3.88
Cheerios ( big box ) for $1
2 full size AirWick Freshmatic automatic starter kit .49 each
1 Airwick freshmatic Compact Starter kit .49
2 cans of pilsbury grands biscuits free
2 rolls of pilsbury chocolate chip cookie dough .89 each
3 cans of Starkist Tuna *Free
1 DelMonte fruit cup *Free
2 big boxes of ritz crackers $1.00 each
2 Boxes of Hostess 100 count Calorie cupcakes packs ( YUM ) $1.50

Those are some of the deals I got with coupons. I could do better and I know the ritz deal and hostess are incredible but still a good deal. I remember when walmart was the only place we shopped and now Krogers is pretty much it. You can do very good there if you shop the sales. Plus you can load coupons on your card and use paper coupons ( check your store )with them as well.

For my coupons I load my card here, you can also go here for printable coupons, and anytime you want a coupon for a specific product definitely visit the companies website, they almost always have coupons available on their site for their products. I have also written companies ( whom have products I love ) on several occasions telling them I loved their products and they mailed me high value coupons.

Also a few blogs that are AWESOME with couponing and sharing deals are My Frugal Adventures, go here to visit her blog. Also Engineer a Debt Free Life here. There are tons I will list more later as well.

My mom...Chain of Confidence...

I got an email this morning that Chain of Confidence was having an essay contest, so I joined in. The site allows you to nominate a person in your life that is a mentor or role model. I nominated my mom. Chain of confidence is through tupperware who is offering this. It's a great way to share who is special in your life and inspires you. Plus you can win 5,000 to go towards a charity or 1,000 gift card to spend on tupperware, that's alot a tupperware and who couldn't use that? Plus 5,000 to charity rocks! My entry is here, go check it out if you have time.

Thanks, Nicole