Samples, samples everywhere!

I signed up for a TON of free samples on different websites about 2 weeks ago. They all said "Please allow 4-6 weeks for shipment of your free sample." Well, they are starting to show up already!

Today, I received my second package from Proctor & Gamble. The first sample packet I received had 3 diapers. Today's had 3 diapers AND a sample of the Tide w/Febreze. In another sample mailer (not P&G's) I received one set of Crest Whitestrips (1 upper and 1 lower strip). My teeth are too sensitive to use whitening agents, even whitening toothpaste, but I figured my husband or someone else can try it.

I also received 6 packets (all different flavors) of the Nescafe instant coffee. I do not usually drink instant coffee, but I do take the instant coffee packets when we go camping. I will sample them now and if they are good I will probably buy them to take camping.

I made myself a mental note to review on here the items I receive and try. I figured if these companies are willing to give ANYONE their samples, the least I could do (even if I never buy the full-sized item) is let others know how good or bad they are.

More reviews to follow. :)

DiGiorno 200 Calorie Portions

I received a coupon from DiGiorno last week for a FREE box of their new 200 Calorie Portion pizzas. They are individual portions, 2 portions in the box. I don't usually buy individual pizzas (or even frozen pizzas, really....we make our own), but I figured I would since it was free! I chose the Cheese and Tomato flavor. It was delicious! I usually complain that "diet" foods or calorie-controlled portions taste pretty flavorless, but I was incredibly surprised at how good it was. I could taste the garlic, the onion chunks, and I really liked the thin crust.

I will probably buy them again when I have a coupon. The full price on it was a bit ridiculous - $3 for 2 slices! BUT, it was definitely worth a try and worth it for a discounted amount in the future.

For anyone interested in the nutritional facts, click HERE for the page and info on the exact item I tried.

Thoughts

This morning I read a great blog about our true identity and how we can feel lost as to who we are because of the many different people we have to be - mother, wife, friend, employee, etc. The last thing it said was "I am the daughter of The King". What a great thing to always be thinking. Not just the daughter of A king, but The King. The One who controls it all, knows it all, loves us all. And I'm not just a friend of His or a fan, but I'm His Child. Amazing! He doesn't just think of me occasionally, He is always thinking of me and guiding me and helping me. I cannot comprehend WHY, but I am forever grateful. Anything I need, I can ask of Him. Anything I want, I can ask of Him - I may not necessarily get it, but He wants me to ask. He WANTS to hear me talk to Him, to sing to Him, to think about Him, to talk to others about Him. And even if I don't, He'll still love me. But how could I NOT do those simple things for Him when He does EVERYTHING for me?!

It is a nice reminder for me today.....to stop thinking of myself and to think of Him. Of what He's given me, of what He's made me. I am nothing without Him; I have no idea where I'd be without His saving grace, but I know it would not be pleasant. I cannot imagine going through life without Him.

I hear a belief in God is a crutch. YOU BET IT IS! If I didn't have the crutch of God, I'd be lying on the ground! :) I would not make it through life. So, call it what you will, but My God provides, protects, and persists in loving me. And I couldn't ask for more....He is all I need!

Saving Sense

I've been on a mission to save and coupon as much as possible. I found some exciting deals the past few weeks.

This week, I found out there's a printable Gold Medal flour coupon here.

Our Dominick's store has it on sale two-5 lb bags of Gold Medal for $3. I bought 2 and used the coupon, and I ended up with two-5 lb bags for $2.25! That was pretty good for name brand flour. I go through flour very quickly with baking and making gravies a couple times a week for dinner, so that was a great deal for me.

Also, I went to CVS today to buy milk and Colgate toothpaste. They both had ECB opportunities attached to their purchases, so I wanted to figure out the ECB thing finally. I bought 2 gallons of milk for $2.49 each ($.50 more per gallon that I normally would!), but I got $1 ECB back on each of them. Plus, I bought 2 Colgate Advance for $5; I had a $.75 off coupon I had and then got $2 ECB's back on that purchase. I also found a liter sized Scope with a bonus travel size bottle (the last one left at the regular liter's price!), and I used my $1 off coupon. Also, Edy's 1 1/2 pints were on sale for $2.99, and I used a $1 off coupon and got it for $1.99! When I got to the register, though, the woman took my coupons but forgot to scan them. I didn't even notice because I was so excited to get my $4 ECB's. As I was leaving, she called me back and told me she forgot to use my $2.75 in coupons and would just give me the cash for them. I ok'd it, but then she got to thinking and said I could have my coupons back (yay!) and she'd give me $3 ECB's in addition! So, I ended up with $7 ECB's to use on my next visit PLUS I get to use my coupons again! What a wonderful lady; I wanted to hug her for a minute. :) I will probably go back this week and get more of the ice creams (with more coupons, of course!) or the toothpaste and mouthwash or maybe some cleaning items that are on sale 2/$5 and I have coupons for $.55-1.00 off. Then if I use my ECB's, I should get most of it for free! I am really beginning to like CVS. Now, I need to follow the Register Rewards for Walgreens, so I can save there, too. I don't normally shop at Walgreens other than for prescriptions, BUT they have a huge sale paper. That's always nice! :)

Dominick's is also having (as well as Jewel) great frozen food sales! March is Frozen Food Month, so I made sure to get out and take advantage! The big bags of store brand frozen corn and other veggies are on sale 2/$5. Red Baron pizzas were on sale; I had a coupon for $.75 off the single serve Red Baron. I haven't ever bought Red Baron, but I thought I'd try it. The french bread pizzas (2 in the box) were normally over $3. They are on sale 2/$6 this week; with my $.75 off coupon, I got it for $2.25. Not bad.

Also, I signed up for something online and DiGiorno sent me a coupon for a FREE box of their new 200 calorie portion pizza. I couldn't find them at Dominick's, so I am not sure if they're out in stores yet. (I also checked by the pizzas at CVS and didn't see them.) As soon as I try it, I plan to review it on here. I'm not sure how they have my name, but who cares!? It's a coupon for a FREE item! :)

Here's the Edy's $1 off 1-1/2 pint coupon.

Happy shopping! Good Easter candy sales going on as well! Stock up and save!

Mastering the Merchants

I have finally figured out groceries. I say finally because I have consistently spent $100 (give or take a few dollars) for 3 weeks in a row. That's down $50 a week for me! And that includes food, paper products, toiletries and all baby needs! Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I'm awesome! LOL.

This mastery didn't come easy, though; I had to read several different books, join a few websites (which means sifting through a million junk emails), and read many, many blogs. But it was well worth it. I feel like I know something amazing that not many people know...and no, it's that you buy less! That's the amazing part; you still buy a lot, you just pay less. Coupons are my new bestest friend, and so are store deals that match my coupons.

I spent $103.53 today at 2 different stores and brought home more than enough groceries for the week and plenty of diapers! My purchases included brand names; in fact, everything was a major brand except for 2 items. Not that I need specific brands, but it's nice to know there are ways around brand pricing. I got most of my big name brands for less than the store brand price. I did forget about a little over $3 of coupons in my purse at checkout, so that would've put me UNDER $100. I got flustered and wasn't prepared when we got to the register; I was so angry when I got in the car. But, that just means I can save those coupons for when prices are even lower, and maybe walk away with some items for free!

In a little while, I'm rewarding myself by driving over to CVS and using my $1.00 Trident Layers coupon....that item is on sale at CVS for $.99. That means it's free for me! Wonder if they'll give me the $.01 I made on the purchase to use for next week's purchases...

GROCERY GRUDGES

Every week, I set aside almost an hour to organize coupons, make a list, and map out my grocery shopping with the weekly ads. Up until today, I assumed almost everyone did this. Nope. Apparently I am the biggest nerd. :)

I will say, though, that my nerdiness and time-consuming grocery organization has saved me bundles. Last Friday, I was able to purchase 7 days worth of groceries and diapers for $102! For around here and a family of 5, that's awesome! I haven't scored like that in a while. $150 is my weekly budget, but some weeks I go shopping while I'm hungry or go down aisles I can't control myself in (lol), and I end up spending all $150 or more for what seems like a few groceries. I always wonder where the money went on weeks like that.

When I take the time (even if I feel like I am going to DIE if I have to rewrite the list one more time!) to plan it all out and do some digging to find online or paper coupons, it is sooooo worth it. I don't know how folks do it without planning...I would go nuts! So, of all my habits, I guess coupon clipping and Ad comparison aren't so bad. Maybe the money I've saved each week can go toward some therapy for my other crazy habits!

Ailments

We have been ailment-free for a few weeks...until now. Sadly, I have come down with a sore throat and now a full-blown cold. Boo!

I did some googling to get ideas for at-home remedies of my sore throat. I found a couple I thought were worth sharing. Some suggestions seemed to be a bit out there, with questionable ingredients. I felt like I was reading the ingredients for a witch's brew and not a simple remedy for a sore throat!

I haven't had luck with permanent relief from the sore throat, but this one gave me a couple hours of relief:
1 TBSP lemon
1 TBSP honey
1 cup warm water
Mix and sip before it gets cold. Sounds easy enough, so I tried it. It's the same ingredients for when I make tea (except for the tea part, of course); it tasted good. The honey did a good job of coating my throat for a while.

This one was nice, too:
Raspberry tea
Hot water
Honey
Add water to tea bag/leaves. Steep for 10 minutes. Remove bag/leaves and add honey til very sweet. I don't know why the raspberry tea is supposed to be used. It didn't seem any more effective than regular tea, but it was Caffeine Free which was helpful since I drank it in the evening. And I'm nursing my youngest, so I'm pretty sure she was glad it was caffeine free as well!

I have not yet tried this one, but it received very good reviews online:
1 cup milk
1 TBSP butter
1 TBSP honey
Heat together and drink while warm/hot.

Hot milk does not exactly appeal to me, but everyone that commented online said it was surprisingly delicious and worked better than anything they'd tried. Looks like tonight I'll be trying it out for myself!

I bought the Equate brand (Wal-Mart) sore throat spray just to save a couple bucks; it was $2.00 less that Chloraseptic! It works just as well, I've found. Save yourself the money and buy generic.

We were hoping to keep the illness-free era going, but it has ended at our house. My oldest has been sneezing and blowing her nose all morning. Looks like the sickness will be around for a while. Tonight I am making chicken noodle soup and hopefully some homemade rolls. I have zero energy but homemade things are so much better when you're sick.

Time to go spray my throat and put the water on for tea...

Reflections

It's that time of the year for reflections. I heard this statement in church today. Everyone thinks about how the year was - good, bad, so-so. Everyone plans ahead for 2010 - resolutions, commitments, new chapters.

I am determined to be more relaxed...starting now (I won't wait until January 1st!). I tend to get worked up about simple things, things that aren't going to make a difference tomorrow. I need to "take a chill pill" more often, so I'm sure not to miss out on the important things - my girls, my husband, my wonderful life. God has given me so much, and here I worry and whine about the little things.

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On a totally unrelated note, I have added a Pies section on the right. I recently baked an apple pie for a friend and worked out the pricing finally for it, so I thought I'd officially add it to my list. :) I also make english toffee and fudge. No pricing yet on those yet...was going to wait and see if anyone was that interested. If not, I won't bother adding them.

I am baking all week, if there are any orders for New Years Eve parties. I have one order so far for the week, and I will have other things for our own get-together. Let me know if there's anything you need!

Have a safe and Happy New Year! See you in 2010!

A Preview of My Pieces

So, the pictures above are just of different breads or pies or cakes that I've done for my family. I have finally taken some photos of my work and thought I'd share. Here's a description of each:

The first is pumpkin bread I made for our family's get-together this Thanksgiving. I can make it with or without walnuts. This one was without.

The second and third are the pies I made for our Thanksgiving - pumpkin and apple, respectively. The apple pie was my first lattice-topped pie. I thought it turned out pretty well. I will be trying to do a woven lattice the next time....it's a little more difficult, so I thought I'd try the easier version first. Both pies' crusts are homemade.

The next is a batch of pumpkin muffins with cinnamon/sugar topping. These I made while fooling around with the pumpkin bread recipe and incorporating a pumpkin muffin recipe I found online. It's actually a recipe for muffins tops, but I made it for the whole muffin and they turn out to be pretty decent size muffins! We took some for snack foods while we attended the Chicago Marathon this October.

The 3 cakes are ones I made for my daughters - a Mickey Mouse 1st Birthday cake, a purse cake for my daughter's 3rd birthday, and a butterfly cake for another daughter's 2nd birthday. All were fairly easy and I used boxed cake mixes. I figured I was spending enough time designing them, that I would take the simple route with the mix. :)

The last photo is of an apple pie with a crumb topping. That is my favorite top for an apple pie; I make it like that almost every time. The bottom crust on this is also homemade.

I'm always trying to take more pictures of my baking creations. Hopefully, I'll have more of my rolls - cinnamon and dinner - soon.

Thanksgiving To-Do's

This year, we are hosting Thanksgiving at our house! This is the first holiday we've had at our home. It'll be a very small gathering, but you have no idea how excited I am!!! I've been wanting to host ANYTHING for a long time; I usually just let others (with more space at their homes) host events/holidays.

My mother-in-law is baking the ham. My brother-in-law's girlfriend is working on the green bean casserole and a small turkey. I am preparing the carrots, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, and pies (Pumpkin and Apple, of course!).

While there's a lot that goes into Thanksgiving meal preparations, there is a good amount that can be done ahead of time. I am making and freezing the rolls this week. They are brown and serve (yep, they're the ones I sell), so I can pull out however many we'll need and bake them from frozen in under 20 minutes! The pie crusts can be made and frozen as well. You can freeze pie crust dough for up to a month.

The carrots I am slicing up the day before and storing in water in the fridge, so they don't dry out. I will just cook them before the meal on Thursday. Potatoes can be peeled and cut in advance as well. Just cover them with water in a bowl with a lid, so they don't turn brown. If you aren't using them within 3 days, replace the water with fresh water. I have heard of folks keeping peeled/sliced potatoes for a whole week's worth of dishes. They just keep the water fresh and the lid on when not in use. I haven't personally tried it, but I am considering slicing mine up on Tuesday to be used on Thursday.

The pies I will make on Wednesday; that's close enough to the meal that they'll still be fresh.

Thursday morning will be a busy one for us; my husband is running a 5 mile race and 2 of my daughters are running a kid's 100 yard dash. I want to make sure we have enough time to prepare everything before guests arrive in the afternoon, so I will do as much in advance next week as possible.

Tomorrow is grocery day, and I plan to get EVERYTHING needed for next week's big meal...I refuse to fight the last-minute Thanksgiving food shoppers next week! :)

If you're in need of last minute rolls or breads, please let me know. I still have some open time between now and Wednesday to fill orders.

Happy Thanksgiving!