Shoprite, my store of stores....

I don't keep my grocery savings a secret, I  love to share it around and let everyone know where to get the good deals.  And one of my favorite places to shop is SHOPRITE!!    There aren't very many here in CT, and we are lucky enough to have one right in Norwich.  Its mostly a New Jersey based store, so their facebook page pretty much only focuses on those stores. However, there are some blogs that are mostly based on Shoprite shopping, and to those blog owners, I say THANK YOU and Hurray!!  One of my favorite blogs to follow is called Living Rich With Coupons.  

Its owned by Cindy, who is also based in NJ, but does ALOT of work helping to keep all of our grocery bills down, by telling us the best coupons to use and which deals to take advantage of.  I really enjoy her posts, and her followers are great too, picking up on the deals she missed.   I've never gotten so many free things before, or been able to take advantage of catalinas, working them to my best advantage.  Thank you Cindy!

Be sure to check out LRWC, and let me know what you think!!

Make sure you LIKE Folgers on Facebook

An update to yesterday's post about Folgers sending me a $2 off coupon to my email, (that I was able to print twice, woohoo!) :

Make sure you LIKE thier page on Facebook. They are promising to give away coupons on there starting next week.  They are in a limited amount so hurry and get in there!

Are you a member of the Folger's Wake Up club??

You should be!!!! Especially if you are a coffee drinker like I am.  I got a nice surprise in my email this am when I got a coupon for $2 off anything 3ozs or more!    This coupon can ONLY be accessed through thier email newsletter so if you sign up, you may find other surprises in your email in-box!! Make sure you click HERE and get signed up!!

Quick and Easy Dinner recipes

I just found this new blog today when I was doing a search for some easy dinner recipes.  Baseball season is starting up this week, and with Girls Scouts, Cub Scouts,  and everything else my kids have going on, dinner has be ready before I even have a chance to think about it! LOL 

Check out this site and tell me what you think! I've already found several recipes I want to try! 

Quick and Easy Dinner Recipes Blog


Another blog I like when it comes to having to come up with something  quick, easy and CHEAP, is $5dollardinners. Each recipe is counted out for you so that you only spend under $5 for each one.  Try it out and tell me what you think of this one too!

Fun with Texts

Saturday night I was work.  Working a long day can get boring, but I like my job so its not a big deal.   All of a sudden, my phone starts ringing that I have a new text message.  It read: Hey Vinny!  Its Meg.  I got a new phone and this is my new number.  Call me!"

Now, any other person would have just texted her back, "sorry, wrong number", but I work with KIDS, teenagers who saw this as a potential for great fun for the evening. LOL  They insisted I text her back and pretend I was 'Vinny'.   Now what would Vinny say back to her?   The best I came up with was "Thanks Hunny".  Now, don't you think that would raise some flags with  Meg that her 'Vinny' answered her with such a girly way?? LOL  Unless Vinny goes  that way, who knows?? I don't even know him. LOL

She texts back, really just creating more fodder for my coworkers who are now hysterical that this is going down.  Her next text says "YW!  How r u?" To which I answer "GREAT!  Kids are great too!"  "Hahahaha what kids?"  UH DUH MEG.  At this point I'm thinking, time to give it up,  I'm not gonna do this, come on Meg, you  must have figured this out by now. Kids, really??? LOL!  But at my coworkers urgings, I text back "Oh I'm just kidding. Haha.  What are you doing?"  Now keep in mind, I'm using proper grammar, full spellings of works, the works.  Nothing! She is pretty dense.  I'd have red flags going up everywhere! LOL Conversation continues: she's relaxing, had to be to work for 6 this morning.  What am I doing?  I answer "Working".  then "Went to the casino last night"  "Drank all night.  Got sick. Won $100. Going back tonight"  LMAO!!

The conversation keeps going, she tells me how awesome it is that I went out last night,  and it got to the point where I pretty much convinced her to meet me at Margaritaville.  By now, my coworkers are practically on the floor, rolling around with tears in their eyes, they are laughing so hard.  But my conscience finally got the better of me and after about 12 texts back and forth I decided it was time to give it up.  So I texted her back "I gotta tell ya.  I have NO idea who you are.  I am not Vinny. I have been messing with you this whole time. You sound cute though, meet me anyway". LOL  She says "Your not Vinny, who are you?"  "Lets just say my name isn't Vinny, and I'm not a guy.  My coworkers and I just had a blast with this, thank you!!"  

Now I'm just feeling guilty. Well kinda.  I still can't believe she never figured it out.  To my 'thank you', she says "Wow, I'm glad I could do that for you...."   I said "I thought you would have figured this out long before now! You just kept going.  But it made for a good laugh.  Anyway, don't know Vinny, you have a wrong number, and have a good night"

I thought for sure I would get a text blasting me, telling me what a horrible person I was, how could I impersonate someone I don't even know, blah blah blah, but to my surprise, she said back to me "
U to hun, it was funny"

It was as good for her as it was for us.  

How Frugal are you?

Are you as frugal as ME?? LOL  I find myself to be pretty frugal and I think I do somethings that others might find silly or a waste of time.  Tell me what you think??

*When I wash my dishes, I always microwave the sponge when I'm done.  It helps kills the germs, pluse keeps the odors away, thus making my sponges last longer.

*I save my plastic bags that holds the cereal.  There is always a good use for them somewhere.  Most of the time I use them to make my own 'shake and bake' type meals,  saves my Ziplocks.

*When I buy chicken, I ALWAYS cut them thin before I portion and freeze them.  A full portion of meat is only about 3 to 4 oz,  a full breast is usually about 6 to 7 oz.  SO I cut them and make my 5 breasts into 10,  then portion and freeze them.

* I save coffee.  When its leftover in the pot and I'm not going to drink it, I put it in a pitcher in the fridge  and either use it to water my plants or drink it for ice coffee. LOL (another tip, pour some in a ice cube tray and make coffee ice cubes  for your ice coffee! This way it doesn't get watered down)

*After supper, I take the leftover veggies, no matter how little is left, and put them in little containers then freeze them.  Once I have enough, I'll defrost them and serve a 'mixed' vegetable for supper.

*When I do my laundry, I only use 1 ounce of detergent.  You really don't need much more than this,  it still gets my clothes clean, and it still gets sudsy.  Then I toss my clothes in the dryer and only use half the dryer sheet.  A box of 40 dryer sheets is now 80.  And to be honest, you don't even NEED the dryer sheets, but I prefer them to keep the static off my clothes.  

*Everyone who knows me know I'm a coupon clipper!  But I don't buy the paper, I  get my coupons from family and friends who save thier inserts.  They are just gonna throw them out anyway, so I'll take them!  

*On the rare occassions I take my kids out for fast food like McDonald's, I don't let them get happy meals anymore.  For the most part they are okay with it, they don't even ask anymore.   We will usually order 1 Value meal, and share the drink and fries.  Then they get what they want, usually a doubler cheeseburger.  And here is another tip: Did you know that the 6pk nuggets are 2.63, BUT the 4pk is only $1?? If you order 2 4pks, its only $2 and you are still getting 2 extra nuggets!   

*I don't buy cleaning products.  I clean my house with bleach, vinegar, and Dawn dishsoap.  I will 'splurge' on Magic erasers, and Scrubbin' bubbles.  I've found  those are the BEST products for cleaning my tub and keeping it white.  And I don't buy the name brand erasers, Target and Walmart's brands work just as great and half the price.   I use them all over,  those are truly magic! LOL  Otherwise,  I use vinegar on pretty much anything to clean it,  bleach to disinfect what needs to be, and Dawn is a great grease cutter, stain remover.   Thats all you need! 

*When I pack my kids lunches, I try to use reusable stuff as much as possible.  I don't buy prepackaged or portion control items, its cheaper to buy the box of crackers or cans of fruit and portion them out myself.    I put thier sandwiches in reusable sandwich box, not a ziplock bag.  I do purchase plastic utentsils, but I wash them everyday and put them back in until they break or get lost.  I do buy juice boxes, for some reason my kids just won't drink out of those little plastic containers with the straw. And I have trouble keeping them clean and deodorized so to me its actually worth it.   My oldest prefers a 'hot' lunch to a sandwich, so if there is pasta or mac and cheese leftover from a previous nights meal, I'll heat it up and put it in a insulated container for her.

*SO how frugal are you??  Do you use some of my ideas or have any of your own you want to share with me??

Wal*mart's NEW Coupon policy

Did you know that Walmart actually has a written coupon policy?   Click HERE to see it.

Its a good idea to print it out and take it with you when you shop at Walmart.  This way when the cashier starts in with you and says "Uh we don't accept printed coupons!"  you whip it out and show her the part where it says:




Walmart accepts the following types of coupons (see guidelines below):

• Print-at-home internet coupons
  • Must be legible, have "Manufacturer Coupon" printed on them, have a valid remit address for the manufacturer, valid expiration date, and have a scannable bar code.
  
  
  
   There are some new things to be aware of now with the NEW coupon policy.  They updated and clarified.    They will now accept Catalinas from other stores, that means those awesome coupons I get from Shoprite or Target printed out at thier registers will now be useful at Walmart!  They are now allowing overages,   AND they do take SOME competitor coupons.  The rule is though, it must be for a specific amount and and specific item.     That leaves out alot of other coupons, but it's still a great change.
  
  Get familiar and print this out, stick it in your coupon binder and  Happy Couponing!

Why I've been so MIA around here....

I'm not abandoning my blog, I've just been SOOO busy I havn't had time to keep up!

First my  laptop had to go in for some repairs, the fan died on it and the screws started coming out of the hinge connecting the screen to the  keyboard.   I brought it to the Geek Squad who basically told me he had NO idea what to do, and he could send it out.  I asked him if it would be covered under manufacturers warranty, he still had no idea.  Told me probably not.  I asked him if they replaced the fan, about how much would that cost me?  He had no idea, but offered to send it out for me and none of it would probably be covered under warranty.  Say What???   I had a friend with me who asked if they could fix a loose key on her keyboard instore and he said NO, they would have to send it out.  We looked at each other and basically asked, 'UH, what exactly does the 'Geek Squad' do here????  You can't fix anything, you can't tell me anything, you basically know NOTHING.  Why do you work here?' 

It was at that point that I made a decision to get a desktop computer for the kids.  First, it would be a good idea to have any extra computer in the house, since my laptop is basically the only one.  The kids use it nonstop and thats probably how the hinge broke on it in the first place.  And my sympathetic husband says "Oh well!  Thats your problem!   You let them use your computer! Blah blah blah...."  My second issue was at the moment my computer had to go out for repairs,  Samantha had a project due she needed to do some research for and print out pictures (and printing at the library costs MONEY people! plus they only print in black and white there) .  I thought we at least should have something available for the kids to do thier school work on, and not rely on MY laptop all the time. Finally, Meghan will be starting 6th grade in the fall.  As far as I've been told, a great portion of her homework will be computer work.  So doesn't it make sense to have a second computer available for the kids for when they 'need' it?  My husband didn't agree and told me NO.  I did it anyway, anyone who knows me knows a simple 'NO' won't stop me when I want something. HA. LOL  Uh yeah, he almost filed for divorce he was pretty upset with me.   Oh well, thats another story for another day.

As my story continues.... I went to do laundry on Sunday night, getting ready for another busy week.  I got through 2 loads, and was getting ready to start the 3rd when my dryer just died.  I told my husband, 'please go look at it, I'm gonna have a meltdown, you know I am!' LOL  He went to look at it, told me its not worth fixing again.  We  already fixed it 3 times,  we could smell something burning on it.  He told me to just go buy a new one.  Oh Yippee, not what I wanted to hear, but whatever. There are 5 people living in this house, I NEED a working washer and dryer.   SO I went to Home Depot and found a nice PAIR, (even though there is nothing wrong with my washer, it was still a good price so I figured why not) .  The problem is that because the set was on clearance,  they didn't do delievery or haul away.  If I wanted the clearance price I would have had to pay the delievery fee or get pick up myself.  I figured we could figure it out and I purchased the pair.  Again, I screwed up, my husband was upset with me because how are we going to pick up? We don't have a truck.  And how is he going to get it down in the basement?? Both pieces?? And then what is he going to do with them???   Oh for crying out loud!!!  You can't find someone with a truck who can help you??  He said "You can't just ASSUME that someone with a truck will have the time to help us IF they wanted to!" SO he went down to home depot and canceled my order. Grrrrrrr! 

The next day, we went looking and we finally found a dryer we liked at Keith's Appliances out in Norwich.   Good price, its a GE, its nothing real fancy, but hey; I'm not taking them out to show them off, they are gonna be in my basement. I just need to dry my clothes!   LOL  But, once again, there is no free delivery, we would have to pay a $59 fee to have it delivered.  What do my husband say?? "OH NO problem!  I'll just take the seats out of my van and come down and pick it up myself."   What???????  But when I wanted the SET from Home Depot, that was a problem????  Oh. Em. Gee.   He's all mine folks!!!    Keep your paws to yourself ladies.

Finally got my laptop back from  the 'Geek Squad'.  They ended up not charging me a thing.  The guy working there was like, 'Really?'  Same guy that checked me in and had no clue.  He just kept saying 'I can't believe they did it all for free.....'   BUDDY, you have NO clue, you need to GET a clue.  As I told you when I brought my laptop to your 'Geek Squad' (which apparently is a bunch of geeks that have NO clue!)   it should all be covered under manufacturer  warranty as it wasn't a year since I bought it yet.  HELLO??? Can you hear me now??? Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth??   **Shaking head**

I've been busy this week, that was pretty much it in a nutshell.  Don't be jealous of my glamorous life.