Megan's Bargains and More

Tip Junkie

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:25:00 +0000

My favorite blog has gone dot com! She's having a huge birthday bash with tons of give aways. This is one spot I'm sure to visit every day. There's SO many great ideas and tons of fun links. I've learned so much and done so much from visiting this blog - oops, now website! www.tipjunkie.com

Summer Calendar

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:30:00 +0000

I'm sorry if this is hard to see. This is our summer calendar. I print a new one every two weeks, so today I'm creating one for the next two weeks. I type things on there that are scheduled already - like our summer movies on Mondays, and swimming lessons Tue-Wed-Thu. Then if there's doctor's appt or something else that we have to be at, I'll add that too.

The pictures are something we call "specials". We got the term from our Kindergartner. They are something different and fun each day. From cooking with mom, or arts and crafts, fieldtrips, or playing with friends. There's even a "free" day where we can choose what we want to do. They are all taped on so, they can be moved around or changed or taken off even. My kids are so excited for our "special" everyday and usually remind me what we are doing.

Today is field trip day. Last week we went to the Museum of Natural History, today we are going to the library (and then to get a treat, but don't tell them that!). We are bored with our books and I'm reading to them a lot right now, so we need some variety. They are actually excited about the library. And we'll probably find a few movies to rent too for boring afternoons.

This is for our free time when they are bored and don't know what to do. There's several choices on here, some involve me (like swimming and playing games) and some they can do on their own. They love popcorn and a movie or painting. Those are their top 2 choices.

We try to do chores in the morning so we have the rest of the day to play. And we are totally flexible, so if something doesn't fit that day or we want to be lazy, we just change our plans. But this is a great guide and gives the kids something to look forward to!

Chore Chart

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:02:00 +0000

Something I wanted to implement this summer is a chore chart. This is very simple and basic. My kids are 4 and 6, but it's time they start helping around the house. I gave them some daily chores: getting dressed, making their beds, doing the dishwasher (they take turns doing the top and bottom) and then helping with dinner. The pictures are the "big" chore of the day - laundry, cleaning the bathroom, cleaning the playroom, cleaning the upstairs and dusting. We all do this together - working on the same room at a time, so I can teach and supervise and I'm finding that they like to help and work together.

Dinosaur Fossils

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:34:00 +0000

I found these kits at the Dollar Store - they are little fossil eggs and when you carve them out you find dinosaur bones. We did this after we went to the Museum of Natural History and saw lots of dinosaur bones and learned all about fossils.

It was very messy, and my kids got a little tired of looking for the last leg of their dinosaur, but this was a great activity. For a whole dollar? They LOVED it. We put the tiny dinosaurs together and they are sitting on my kitchen window sill. Worth every penny and then some!

Free Chocolate!

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:55:00 +0000

On Fridays, you can click here to register for a coupon for a free chocolate bar through Mars candy. We've already had 2 coupons sent to us in the mail. My kids are excited to redeem them!

Happy Donut Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:24:00 +0000

National Doughnut Day, everyone! If you are lucky to live close to Krispy Kreme, go get a FREE donut today, Friday, June 5, with no purchase required! Sounds like a fun outing with my kids!

Cutting Back

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:29:00 +0000

So recently, my husband and I took at look at some of our finances to see what things we could cut out every month. Here are a few:

Xbox on-line (not sure the right terminology here) for our 6 year old. Might go w/out saying, I know, that a 6 year doesn't need this. But we had it on there. It was $5.00 a month.
On-line coupon service I was using. $15.00 a month. It's a great site, but I don't use it all the time, not even once a week. So I nixed it.
Netflix. We were paying $8.99 a month and we never used it. We use Redbox more, and it's only $1.00 and we don't even rent 8 movies a month, so we said goodbye to Netflix.
Online job database for my husband's field. You are going to die - we have been paying $29.99 a month for this for probably 2 years. He JUST got a new job (that we found on this site - it truly is the best site out there for his line of work) but since he's not looking for a job anymore, we are done with that!

So, just right there, we are saving almost $60.00 a month in cancelling things we weren't even using!

A few other things we analyzed/changed:

Cell phone plans - make sure you have the right plan for the minutes/features you use.
Cable plan - DVR, HD, Digital Cable - what does it all mean anyway? And all the extras add up, so make sure you are using your features, or just cancel them!
Land line plans and long distance services
Magazine subscriptions, newspaper subscriptions, any yearly subscription renewal.

I checked my credit card statement for anything that is billed to that on a regular basis, to make sure I wasn't paying for something I forgot about.

See what you can cancel/change/adjust and see how money you can save by doing that! It might surprise you. $60 x 12 months = $720.00 a year!

Dollar Store

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:43:00 +0000

Today we went to the Dollar Store to help stock up on activities for bored kids. The blue bucket is for our Tub o' Fun Summer bucket that I'm going to be putting together. I bought them each a new puzzle, aprons for doing messy crafts, and a dinosaur fossil kit where they dig up the bones and piece them together. Also a bead jewelry kit for my daughter. I found some cheap treats and a few other goodies and they got to pick out a toy of their choice while we were there. Who doesn't love the Dollar Store?

Balloon Bean Bags

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:29:00 +0000

I got this idea here - from Flipflops and Applesauce through another link from another blog. Anyway, we made these today! We followed the super simple instructions and my kids LOVED it. They even made one for the little brother since he wanted to be part of the action.

Our funnel was made of cardstock and we taped it together.

Here's two of our finished bean bags:

For my other Summer Fun ideas - click here!

Links

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:07:00 +0000

I have found some fun blogs with great ideas of things you can do with your kids this summer. I will for sure be using some of these ideas with my kiddos....

Make and Takes - I've been following this blog for a while. Yesterday they posted this idea on a Summer Tub o' Fun. We'll be doing this in the very near future!

Blissful Kids - they are part of Blissfully Domestic and have regular kid-friendly posts and ideas. Not all are "activities for kids" but there are some fun ones. Including this post called Make Balloon Beanbags.

Little Nummies - ADORABLE fun food ideas to do with kids.

Just For Fun - another blog with tons of ideas. Today's post is homemade Sidewalk Paint. Fun!!

Crafty Crow - they are following the alphabet with fun things to do that match the letter of the day. I haven't had time to look, but I have no doubt there are some great ideas in the archives here!

And don't forget to check for links on these sites. They've probably discovered other bloggers like themselves for their inspiration too. I get lost in links to links, etc. because there are so many great ideas out there!

For my other Summer Fun ideas - click here!

On the first day of summer....

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:11:00 +0000

Okay, I promise I won't count the days of summer with my post titles, but I will be sharing what we are doing to keep busy and save money this summer. I've got tons of fun ideas, found tons of cute blogs, made a super cute calendar, and am excited to have fun with my kids!

This was our first "Baking With Mom" day. I didn't have a lot of time to prepare, since I hadn't gone grocery shopping for the week, but there was a recipe I wanted to try, so we made this recipe for Double Chocolate Banana Bread, except we made muffins.

I wrote out the recipe so my 6 year old could read it to us and my 4 year old helped me measure. They both stirred and help me scoop into muffin pans. We made mini and regular sized muffins.

Here's the final product. Yum! Everyone loved these. We'll freeze some for later and enjoy the rest over the next few days!

For my other Summer Fun ideas - click here!

Saving You Money at the Movies with Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:50:00 +0000

Our local theater does a summer movies series for kids. For 12 weeks, you can go and watch a movie in the morning - they are usually movies that are already out in video, or close to it. The cost for the entire 12 weeks is $7 per person, 2 and up. Check around and see if any theaters or libraries, city recreation depts, etc. are doing this in your area.

Our theater sells a fun kids pack which includes an icee, popcorn, and a treat. This year, they increased the price to $4.50. Since I have 3 kids that like to eat during the movies (and we go with cousins, so they never sit together) this could cost $9-13.50 per week. That doesn't sound like a lot of money....but if you add it up over the summer, I would rather spend that money doing something else with my kids.

So this is what I did today. Mike & Ikes were on sale for $0.97 each today at the store. I got popcorn free with coupons. Walmart also sells an 8 pack of popcorn for $2.00. I divided up the Mike & Ikes in snack size bags and made up 13 bags, which will cover 6 movies (my youngest doesn't eat the candy). With the free popcorn, this will cost us $2.91 or $0.48 per movie! Even if I paid for the popcorn, it would still be less than $1 per movie. We will take drinks in water bottles (probably juice or a drink mix) and they will never know the difference!

Local Readers - Active Moms

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:11:00 +0000

My daughter picked this up yesterday at Chick-Fi-La. It's called Active Moms Events Calendar for June 2009. There are 900 fun things to do with your kids in June! Most things are free or cheap and it lists them by date. I went through it yesterday and highlighted the things that were near us and sounded like something my kids would enjoy. For example - a Puppet Show and a Magic Show at a local library, as well as hours and times of local splash parks, etc. They also have a website: http://www.activemoms.com/ and it looks like the same information might be available online, although I did not spend a lot of time on the website.

Just some more ideas for your summer activities. I had done some research online for story time at the libraries we live near, and found that they weren't doing it during the summer. However, there are other programs out there and this book found them for me! Yay!

Junk mail is not always junk....

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:41:00 +0000

We get this small magazine in the mail one every couple weeks. I have found some great deals by thumbing through this before throwing it away. Here's a few that I've used:

Jiffy Lube coupons. I know, I would save money by changing our own oil, but my husband doesn't do that part of our car maintenance. So instead of the $5 off coupons they send you in the mail, I wait for a $10 off coupon here. This time it's even higher - $12.00. I'm guessing that Wal-Mart and the economy are hurting our local Jiffy Lubes. As long as they send these coupons out, I'll keep giving them business!
Free ice cream! Golden Spoon puts coupons in here for free ice cream, even without a purchase. What a fun treat for my kids during the summer!
Local pizza coupons and Chick-Fi-La coupons are usually in here too. So I always hang on to those too, just in case.
A local home decor store that I like occasionally puts in a 20% off coupon, so if there's something I've had my eye on, I wait until another coupon comes around.

So before you through out that junk mail, make sure it's not junk first! It could save you some money! :)

Disclaimer: You aren't saving money if you use a coupon to spend money on something you normally wouldn't spend money on. (i.e. if you normally change your oil and decide to go to Jiffy Lube since you have a coupon, you are actually not saving yourself money.)

Coming up: Fun stuff to do with your kids! What we are doing this summer, fun sites for ideas, freebies, etc. We are being creative to beat boredom, so we will share what we are doing with you too!

Target Deals!

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Sat, 16 May 2009 03:53:00 +0000

Wow, there are some great Target deals this week. A couple of these coupons expire on 5/16, so I wanted to hurry and post this tonight. I went yesterday and got a ton of stuff for less than $15. It's almost summer break at our house, which means I will have kids home and looking for food. I loaded up on crackers and snack foods that should keep us stocked for a long time (hopefully!). I listed the prices I paid - some of the sites where I read about these deals listed much lower prices on some items....so I listed what I paid.

You can go to http://www.coupons.com/ and http://www.kraftfoods.com/ to print these high value $1/1 coupons. They are awesome coupons, and you can only print 1 per computer. Even if you don't think you'll use them at Target, print them anyway and wait for them to go on sale somewhere else. These don't come around very often, and they might go away soon.

Nabisco 100 Calorie Snacks Boxes $2.04
Use a $1/1 printable here and here
Stack w/ a $1/1 Target coupon
=$0.04 after coupons!

Ritz Bitz Cheese or Peanut Butter Crackers $2.79
Use a $1/1 printable here and here
Stack w/a $1/1 Target coupon
=$0/79 per box after coupons

Apples (select varieties) $1.69/lb
Buy 1 lb. at a time and use
Use $1/1 Target coupon here
=.69 after coupon

Kraft Salad Dressing--$1.79 each
Buy 2 and use $1/2 Target coupon here
Use with (2) $1.50/1 from 3/29 SmartSource insert or (2) $1/1 coupons available here and here
=Free or .58 for 2, depending on what coupons you use

Kraft Barbecue Sauce $1.42
Use a $1/1 printable here and here or $0.75/1 from the 5/3 inserts
=$0.42 after coupons

Target sponges $0.99
Use $0.75/1 coupon=$0.24 after coupon

Kraft Mayo $1.99
Buy 2 and use (2) $1/1 from the 4/26 inserts or $1/1 printables here and here
Stack w/a $1/2 Target printable
=$0.50 each after coupons

Triscuit, Wheat Thins, (Family Size!) $2.66
Use a $1/1 printable here and here
Stack w/a $1/2 Target printable
=$1.16 each after coupon

Ritz Crackers $2.99
Use a $1/1 printable here and here
Stack w/ a $1/1 Target coupon=$0.99 each after coupons

Most coupons worked - surprisingly. I always have a hard with Target and coupons, but this trip wasn't so bad. Have fun!

This Weeks Menu

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:50:00 +0000

This is what is on the menu this week:

Monday - Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas from $5 Dinners, with spanish rice
Tuesday - Leftovers! :)
Wednesday - Stroganaff (my husband's favorite dinner!)
Thursday - Frozen Pizza
Friday - On the road....

Not too exciting. The great thing about leftovers is I don't have to come up with something new every night! Have a great week!

Strawberries!

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 05:00:00 +0000

For all you East Valley readers, strawberries at Superstition Ranch Market are .33/lb! That is a great price! Wow. I came home today with TONS of strawberries, and I mean tons. I'm on my second batch of jam right now and next I think it'll be strawberry syrup. I'll probably do some freezer jam too. My husband enjoyed strawberry shortcake tonight too! We have strawberries coming out of our ears! Not really, but they looked great today and they had tons left. (I go to the one in Apache Junction, it's way less crowded than the one in Mesa.)

Free Easy Mac at Target!

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:30:00 +0000

I saw this on Money Saving Mom a few days ago....my daughter loves this stuff and I have a hard time feeding her at lunch time, so I tried this last night and it worked!

Click here for a $1/2 manufacturers coupon and then go to A Full Cup for a $1/2 Target Coupon.

At my Target, the individuals cups were .77 each. Combine both coupons and you get them for free!

I know the Target coupon shows a picture of a 4-pack on it, but it doesn't specificy on the coupon the size, etc. of the item, it just says Easy Macy meals, so it works on the individual cups too!

Even without the $1/2 manufacturers coupon (since you can only print 2) I think .54 cents for 2 is also a good deal for a little girl who doesn't like to eat lunch in my house! We like the Italia cups - with the white noodles.

I hope the Kraft link works - let me know if you have a problem with it. I had to try a few different links before I got one to print. Hit the back button on your browser and it will print twice!

Cheap Chicken and Free Peanut Butter!

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:31:00 +0000

This week at Albertson's, boneless skinless breasts AND tenders are $1.57/lb. This is about as low as it gets....so stock up! There are many different things you can do with it once you have it:

Freeze it. You can line them up on a tray and freeze them individually and then put in a bag once all frozen, that way you can grab what you need and they aren't all frozen together. (thanks for that tip from a reader!)
Cook it. I like to throw several pounds in my crockpot with salsa and cook until it shreds. Then I shred and freeze in about 1 lb quantities. Then when I make my next Mexican chicken dish, the chicken is already cooked.
When I buy fresh meat like this, I always cook a chicken dish that day.....today it is Souper Crockpot Cream Cheese Chicken. Super easy and yummy....I'll make enough for leftovers and some to freeze.
Marinate it. Make a yummy marinade and then put it in a freezer bag and freeze with the marinade. Then when it unthaws, it's already getting lots of flavor and ready for the grill.

Now you have several meals worth of chicken (depending on how much you buy) at a great price and already ready to go! I always buy at least 10 lbs when it goes down this cheap. I also can chicken and it's just like the canned chicken you buy at the store. Great for sandwiches, soups, etc.

A month or so ago, Albertson's had Skippy PB for $1.00 each. They were out when I went to go buy mine so I got a rain check. This week they are Quadrupling coupons at my store. So, I got my .40/1 coupons and headed to the store with my rain check for $1.00 each. The coupons quadrupled to $1.00 so I got the PB for free!!

Tip: Albertson's rain checks never expire. So if they are out of something and you know it's a good price and even better with coupons, hold on to that rain check until they double/triple coupons, etc and save your coupons (or even buy some) to stock up on that item for free or almost free!

This Week's Menu

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:53:00 +0000

Sun - Easter Dinner: Sirloin steak, potatoes, rice, veggies, rolls (we don't eat a lot of ham around here, so we don't have a traditional Easter dinner)
Mon - Crockpot Cream Cheese Chicken, rolls, green beans
Tue - Leftovers!
Wed - Tamale Pie, chips with beans and salsa, salad
Thu - Leftovers!
Fri - Spring Fling Fundraiser at our elementary school, so we'll buy some food there
Sat - BBQ Quesadillas

Now, I don't always stick to the exact order of my menu, if some days are crazy then I'll make an easier dinner that night, or if I get fresh meat on sale, I'll cook it up and change our dinner that night to accomodate that. But I do buy ingredients for these meals so at least I know what meals I have ingredients to make each week.

Local Readers: Culture Pass at the Library

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:43:00 +0000

Click here to learn more. Use your library card to check out a Culture Pass valid for four free admissions to 12 participating Valley area arts and cultural institutions, like the Phoenix Zood, Heard Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, Museum of Natural History, etc. To learn more, visit TheCulturePass.com or stop by any of your City of Mesa Library branches’ Culture Pass display. I will be trying this out for sure!

Costco Deals

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:08:00 +0000

I've written about Costco before. While their food is great in bulk, it's not necessarily cheaper than buying food on sale at the grocery store. There are some items that I go to Costco specifically to get that I can't get cheaper even on sale. They will also send out coupons each month and sometimes these coupons make their items cheaper than what you can find on sale. Of course, you would need to be purchasing these items on a regular basis to know what a good price is, and to make it worth it to buy in bulk.

Here's a few coupons that I will be using:

Pam Spray - $2.50 off. I'm not sure what the price is here, but I'm watching my fat/calorie intake right now, so I use a lot of Pam instead of oil. It rarely goes on sale at the store and even store brands aren't that much cheaper than the name brand. I'm sure this is a pretty good deal on a 2-pack.

Ritz Crackers - $2.00 off. I have little one who loves Ritz crackers. Costco's regular price is cheaper than what I find at the grocery store, even on sale, so $2.00 off is another .50 off per box in bulk.

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese - $2.00 off/15 boxes. I can't remember the price on these because I don't buy them at Costco. I believe it's about .61-.65 a box for 15 boxes. I wait until they go on sale for .50/box and stock up, which doesn't happen a lot. This coupon brings the price down to about .50 a box, give or take a few cents.

Duracell Coppertop - $2.00 off. Another item I don't buy at Costco because I've gotten so many for free or cheap at CVS. However, since I don't do the CVS thing so much anymore, I know that batteries are super cheap at Costco, so a coupon on top of that makes it even a better deal!

There's lots of coupons in their books - so make sure you check for the items you buy often there and stock up with a coupon. There is a limit on the number of items you can get with coupons.

Cheese and butter have both gone down in price recently at my Costco. The butter is under $1.50 a pound and the cheese is just under $2.00 a pound.

Also, in the East Valley, Lehi Roller Mills Hard White Wheat is $21.00 in a 45lb bucket. You can't get this cheaper anywhere else! It's a great deal! They also have 37lbs of Moo's Powdered Milk for $54. Another great deal. This will give you about 70 gallons of milk - for less than .80/gallon! Both items are great for long term food storage as well.

CVS This Week!

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:51:00 +0000

So, I haven't been to CVS in a long time. They've stopped publishing their $5/$20 coupons, and even $3/$15, which was a big drive for me to shop there. They do still offer their ECBs, but none have been worth the trip for me. Until this week!

There is a Huggies Deal this week, Spend $25, get $10 back. That's a good return on diapers for me. There are some other items included, like Similac formula, Johnson's Baby Wash and a CVS brand of baby wipes. Plus I still had (2) $5/1 Gentle Care Diaper Product coupons - so this is what I did:

(2) Huggies Gentle Care wipes refills - $10
(1) Pack Huggies Diapers - $10
(2) Johnson's Baby wash - $6 (we needed this!)

Total = $26 + tax
- (2) $5/1 coupons on the wipes
- (1) $1.50/1 Huggies coupon from a mailer
Total OOP = $16.00, plus a $10 ECB

Since I don't go to CVS that often and I actually had some ECBs expire recently, I decided to turn around and use that $10 on another pack of diapers, which was $10 as well, so I paid nothing.

So for $16, I got (2) wipes refills, (2) packs of diapers, and (2) bottles of baby wash. And I didn't have any ECBs to start with either!

If you use Similac and get the coupons, that is another great deal, since they send out high value coupons it will take your total OOP down to start with.

Happy Shopping!

Next Week's Meal Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:28:00 +0000

I shopped last night for next, since I won't have a chance to shop at the beginning of the week. So here's the plan for what we are eating:

Sun - Poppyseed Chicken, hamburger buns w/ Parmesan cheese
Mon - Leftovers (this is a busy night, so I like to have leftovers on these nights)
Tue - Weeknight Lasagna Toss w/ green beans
Wed - Leftovers (another busy night for us)
Thu - Birthday Party at our house: Corn dogs, Chips, Drinks, Cake, etc.
Fri - Frozen Pizza
Sat - Out

I also have the ingredients to make this Mexican Breakfast Casserole in the crock pot, which I hope to do Saturday night. We are home on Sundays with the exception of church, so I like to have a nice breakfast for the family. My husband will love it. I'm adding pork sausage to mine.

Oh, and I tried this Oatmeal Pancake recipe this morning. I was so excited to have a pancake recipe from scratch that I could sneak some oatmeal in to, but guess what - my kids gagged. Seriously. My 1 year old ate it, but my older 2 couldn't finish more than two bites! I think the oats make it a different consistency, because I don't think it was the wheat, they are used to wheat.

Fry Bread with Chili

noreply@blogger.com (Megan) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:17:00 +0000

This is one of my super cheap and easy dinners. Sorry, I have no pictures, we ate it up too fast! Fry's has had some great deals on Hormel Chili and I have probably over 60 cans of chili in my stockpile. I got them all free with coupons! They are great because they have a long shelf life and they are a great source of protein. My husband could eat almost an entire can himself, but I like to stretch it out even further.....so I make this fry bread to go with it:

Navajo Taco Fry Bread
2 cups flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup evaporated milk (I usually just use whatever is in my fridge!)
Abt 3/4 cup water

Mix dry ingredients and stir in water and milk. Knead and divide into 4-6 parts. Roll out in circles until desired thickness. Fry in oil on med-high heat until brown.

Top with chili & cheese!

Okay, with my free chili and ingredients on hand, this recipe costs me next to nothing to make. Probably less than $1. You can find cans of chili on sale for $1.00 each, so even if you buy the chili, this is pretty cheap!

This time I made it, I used 2 cans of chili, because my husband took the leftovers for lunch, and there is usually leftover bread. But, if I serve with a veggie or small salad, then 1 can would stretch for my family (husband and 6 & 3 year old kiddos) for our dinner.

You can also top the leftover bread with honey for a yummy treat!