Coupon Freak!

Yes, I am a coupon freak. This all started a few years ago and I have progressively became a total cheapskate, tightwad, penny pincher or whatever you want to call me. I get so excited when I save, and so mad when I forget a coupon at home. (If you forget your coupon, save your receipt and next time you are at the store, take your coupon and receipt to customer service and you will get the coupon value.)  I get some stellar deals and about to share with you my latest. Friday night I went grocery shopping, my Target receipt showed I saved $39.42. Well most of you know that isn't all composed of coupons, it is composed of items on sale at the store as well. So the impressive part... my actual clipped coupon savings was $28.74.  Not too bad. 

Tip #1: shop at Target. Go to Target's website, at the bottom you will find a link for store coupons. There are some manufacturer coupons amongst these but a lot of them are Target web coupons. Many of these coupons match up with the manufacturer's coupons from your weekly Sunday paper. Where the savings is really at is when you use a manufacturer's coupon with a Target coupon. Yes they allow this. My latest example:

I bought a box of Nature's Valley Granola Bars, on sale for $2.39. I had a $1.00 Target web coupon and a .50 cents manufacturer coupon. Total for my granola bars: .89 cents. That makes me want to do the happy dance. There are a lot of items you can get for free too, I'm not so good at catching these but my friend Katie is, if you want me to forward her emails, let me know, she is very detailed in her emails on how to get the deal. Extra tip... HyVee and a lot of other places will honor Target coupons as a competitor coupon, so keep that in mind too.

Tip #2: Never ever buy anything at the mall for full price. HELLO we are in a recession! That item most likely will go on sale next week. Best advice, watch the items online at the store's website and watch for it go on sale. Sign up for the store's mail listing, you will get some good coupons in the mail or emailed to you. I was bummed out because I was at the mall looking for pants for a special event, I found the perfect pair but they were not on sale and they were $70. Oh was I mad. I bought them anyways. 2 weeks later I got a coupon in the mail. Well the tags were still on these pants because I hadn't worn them for my event yet so this leads into Tip #3.. go in and get a price adjustment on those pants! Yes take in your receipt, your pants and your coupon, be very upfront and tell them you want to return them and re-buy them with your coupon. I saved $20.  Heck ya I did!

Tip #3: use restaurant.com and travelzoo.com and find local deals. We eat out a lot but usually not without a coupon. Restaurant.com -- these are local restaurants in the area. My latest find was at a restaurant we like, purchase a $50 gift card for $20.00. The only catch, you have to spend a minimum of $35 and leave an 18% gratuity. Do the math... if you do this right you will buy $50 worth of food and drinks and only spend $29.00.  Still not a bad deal.

Travel Zoo. This one isn't as easy. Mainly because Des Moines doesn't get many specials come across here often. One just came up in the last few weeks that I cashed in on. A $40 gift card plus 2 free drinks or desserts to one of the really nice local Mexican restaurants (Dos Rios) for the price of $20. Can I get a 'whoop whoop' for a cheap date night! I tell you I get really excited when I save.
The other night I was out with my sister, impressed her by whipping out a coupon at the bar to get us free drinks.  She cracked up.  The days have been long over for me when I relied on cute guys back in college for free drinks, I'm married now, let the coupons do the work.   Yes I used a coupon to buy my sister and I a buy one get one free beer.  You can go ahead and chuckle now.   

When I tell people I'm a coupon Nazi, they tell me they don't like coupons because a lot of them say buy 6 save .25 cents. I agree, those crappy coupons are out there and are not a deal worth wasting your time on but I'm telling you, it doesn't take much extra time and a little organization to be a big saver.

Much love to all you fellow coupon freaks!

Love Letters from the City

Nobody enjoys love letters from the city.  We happen to have received 2 this past month.  The first one was about our tree, it needs trimmed some more.  Okay fine, annoying but no big deal.  The second love letter from the city was that we had a leak in our water pipes that run underground to our house and we were given a deadline of fixing it in 2 weeks or else they were shutting our water off.  That is always great mail to receive!  NOT!

After taking in all facts and consideration, we decided we aren't going to find and fix the leak, we were going to put in a whole new water line.  We didn't like the 'what ifs' of patching a leak(s).  It would be one thing if we weren't going to be in this house for awhile but we really like it here and at this time we have a 5+ year plan to stay in this house.  So might as well just put in a new line and then we never have to deal with the situation again.

It was a little crazy the day it all happened.  We had probably 10 guys in and out of our house all day,  heavy machinery in the front yard, a huge hole in our yard and a smaller hole in our basement,  lots of rain to contend with that day (which then made for mud getting tracked inside), forgetting to close the air vents upstairs so lots of dust made it's way over everything on the main floor, lots of deep cleaning, and oh ya our old water line got struck before the water got shut off so we had a water burst in our basement.  :)  Overall though, I think it went really well despite all those small things.  (With the water being shut off for most of the day it also meant no flushing #1's and you just hope a #2 doesn't hit you unexpectedly -- a little added humor for your reading pleasure).

Aaron's friend, Jason, is such an awesome friend.  He has helped out tremendously with cordinating everything, jumping right in to work and getting us the best deal as he has lots of resources since he owns his own construction company.  Aaron met him thru a class at church earlier this year and then they joined the same small group.  Such a great guy who goes out of his way to help a friend.  Blessed to have such great friends!  

One thing that was surprising was I really wasn't stressed out thru all of this.  Normally something that is costing us thousands of dollars would have me in a tizy. Of course I thought it was annoying and I was far from ecstatic about it all but I just didn't let it get to me.  And really not letting it get to me was not something I had to control really, it just happened naturally.  It is what it is and you realize that thru other experiences that this is not a big deal and getting worked up about something such as this is a waste of time.  Sometimes you have to find the positives in everything that seems to be negative.  The positives I defined were everyone completed the job safely, the guys seem to be working together really well, everyone who entered our house was kind and friendly, Aaron was with the guys all day watching and helping where needed so I think he got some good insight on the project.  But in the end, we made it thru it all and the city signed off on it yesterday.  YEAH!  Another unique life experience under our belt!

BBQ Chicken Packets

We made this recipe last night.  Overall it was good.  I didn't put corn in the packets because we ended up having corn on the cob as a side.  If I would use corn in the packets, I would have used frozen bag corn, canned corn just sounds gross and slimy.

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/barbecue-chicken-packets-54303.aspx

I Love You kraft.com!!!!!!! Did you know you can get a subscription to Food &Family on kraft.com? I just subscribed.  Annette at work told me about kraft.com and she brought me a few of her Food & Family magazines and thought it was great.  So far I have been very happy with the ease, taste, and variety of the recipes. 

I struggle with meal planning but it helps to have something come in the mail each month that helps to motivate me and get some new recipes in front of me that I may not have thought of trying before.  I also recently started planning all our meals for the week on Sunday, shop for the items needed and post them on the fridge, it takes the guess work out of what we are eating.  Although Aaron threw us off schedule the other night, he wanted Mexican so we went to El Rodeo.  I was easily persuaded.  We are addicted to Mexican food.

Quick Tacos!

This recipe caught my eye because I consider tacos somewhat quick anyways but always love a good shortcut and so I tried it and it is an awesome shortcut! Here is the recipe (you might have to copy and paste):

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/quick-chicken-tacos-50931.aspx

At first I didn't think this recipe would be that good because I thought I had tried this Oscar Meyer pre-cooked chicken before and thought it tasted rubbery and gross. They have either improved their product or else it must have been a different brand I had before because this chicken tasted really good and makes it so easy when all you have to do is warm it up in the pan for a few minutes. Even though it says southwestern seasoned, it is not spicy at all. One package of this chicken doesn't look like much but it feeds us for one meal, you might want 2 packs to start with and see what you think.

Anything that says quick in it and yet still has a great taste I'm all for! I'm not one for cooking an elaborate meal during the week. Heck, I don't cook much elaborate meals period, anything you see on my blog is going to be the fast and easy route. Hope you like this one too!

Military Reunion

Grilled Bruschetta Chicken

Found this recipe on kraft.com -- they have great recipes! It was very easy and so tasty. Would be great for hosting, guests would be impressed!

Grilled Bruschetta Chicken

4 small boneless skinless checking breast halves

1/4 cup Kraft sun-dried tomato dressing

1 tomato, finely chopped

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (I used dried finely chopped basil)

Heat grill to medium heat. Cover half the grill grate with sheet of heavy-duty foil. Place chicken in large resealable plastic bag. Add 2 Tbsp. dressing, seal bag and turn several times to coat chicken. (I didn't do this, the morning of, I placed chicken in shallow dish and let it marinade all day). Place chicken on uncovered side of grill; cover with lid. Grill 6 min. Meanwhile, combine remaining dressing, tomatoes, cheese and basil. (I didn't bother measuring, I just eye balled it all and it turned out fine).

Turn chicken over; place on foil. Top with tomato mixture. Grill, covered, 8 min or until chicken is done.

Nutritional Facts: (per serving): 200 calories, 7 g. fat, 3 g. carbs, 280 mg sodium

I served this dish with mixed veggies. Because I like easy, I like Bird's Eye Steam Fresh veggies from the frozen section. Place bag in microwave for 5 minutes and serve. So easy and these veggies have an excellent taste. Bon Appetit!