Friday, May 29, 2009

Quick Frugal Recipe!



We eat this frugal meal every week. We eat it without meat most of the time, but we have added chicken before or even a little bacon that we buy in bulk for $1.49lb to mimic a recipe we once had at a Chinese buffet. The key to making great fried rice is to use cold rice. If you use hot rice your fried rice will stick together and be gummy. When I make rice for a meal, I just double it and save back half for making fried rice, so it will be cold. Go here to see how to make the perfect rice. This is open to interpretation based on your family preferences, but if you use the seasoning and technique it calls for, you can pretty much use whatever ingredients you want. This serves about four people and I double it for our family of six. It also takes less than ten minutes to cook this if you do your prep work ahead of time. Here is how we do it.

1/2 cup diced carrots

2 eggs

1-2 cloves of crushed garlic

1 cup of precooked, diced, meat of your choice (cooked pork is recommended, if you want meatless, just add more veggies)

2 1/2 cups of rice

1/2 cup of chopped celery

1/4 cup of green onion

2 T soy sauce

1 tsp salt

2 T sugar



Take a skillet or wok and heat a tablespoon of oil over medium high heat. Put your carrot and garlic in and stir fry for about 30 seconds, being sure not to burn your garlic. Then add your eggs and scramble them into your carrots. Stir fry them for about 30-40 seconds making sure to break up big pieces of eggs as you go. Add your meat. Stir fry that for about a minute. Add your rice, because it is cold it is best to separate it with a fork as you scrape it out of the bowl, that way you can eliminate clumps. Lower your heat to medium so your rice will not burn. Add about 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, more or less, depending on how salty you like it. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and two tablespoons of sugar. Turn your heat of to medium high and continue stir frying about two minutes. Put in your celery and green onion and stir fry for one more minute. Then enjoy!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Heading out for some family fun!


Well, I am sad to tell you this, but I am off to The Grand Country Inn in Branson, MO with my family. If you are ever in Branson, this is a great deal, because they have both a indoor and outdoor water park and it is included in the price of the room. My room is only $99.95. That is actually a steal for water park entertainment for all six of us. If you break it down the water park costs $15.00 a day for each person, if we do not stay there, so our room is just $9.95 for the night! My friend Jessica loves taking her family there. So, for now I will not be posting, but I will let you know all about it when I get back.

$9.00 Flights from Jet Blue's New Airline


Jet Blue is opening up a new airline, Jet America, which will soon be offering flights for only $9.00! Yes, you read that right! The first 19 seats on each flight will be available for $9.00. They will have 34 nonstop passenger flights a week will start July 13 at Toledo, Ohio; South Bend, Ind.; Melbourne, Fla.; Newark, N.J.; Minneapolis and Lansing, Mich. Twenty-eight flights start or end at Newark Liberty International Airport. The carrier will add six more flights -- from Toledo to Minneapolis -- starting Aug. 14. For more info go here!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Cordless Mouse $8.97

Dillyeo Deal of the Day (click on the mouse for more info)

$8.95 + $5 shipping

Refurbished mouse comes with a one year manufacturer's guarantee. Compare to...
ThriftyComputer.com: $20.95 after shipping Compare
Ecost.com: $19.98 after shipping Compare
Gearxs.com: $23.70 Compare

All You Magazine $0.83 Each!

Hurry here to get a year of All You Magazine for only $10.00! If are not familiar with All You it is available at Wal-Mart and I believe the shelf price is $2.24. It is chocked full of coupons and helpful articles. I already have a subscription but I bought another. The coupons in the magazine will more than pay for the subscription. My favorite coupon was in the April magazine, it was a free mascara! The instant discount will be applied at checkout and there is no charge for shipping. Woohoo! Go here now!

Seventh Generation Coupons

Go here for...
$2.00 off Seventh Generation Diapers
$1.00 off any dish washing product
$1.00 off any product

~Local Spot~ Children's Orchard (Save 50% on play clothes)


Wednesday is Play Day at Children's Orchard

Every Wednesday at your local Springfield, Missouri Children's Orchard we have Play Wear Day! For every $10.00 you spend on pink-tagged Play Wear, we will give you $5.00 back in store credit.

That's right! We are paying you to buy play wear. You must pay using cash, check or credit card. They can not accept store credit with this special.

It's the perfect time of the year for play clothes - just in time to send them out to the sandbox!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Free Sample!

Go here for your free sample of Kellogg's Special K

Monday, May 25, 2009

More on BOGO deals...

For every rule there is an exception, especially in the coupon world. For the beginning couponers out there, I apologize ahead of time, because this is going to get advanced. When I went to the store tonight I checked out the BOGO Wheat Thins deal that I had talked to Christine about. I had one BOGO coupon for Artisan wheat thins and a $1/1 triscuit coupon. The ad says Buy One Get One Free. That seems straight forward enough and it stands to reason, that you should be able to get two boxes free with the use of a manufacturers coupon. If I have already lost you, here is my last post. Anyway, when I got there I noticed an immediate problem. The boxes were marked 2/$3.49, not buy one get one free. They are regularly $3.49 a piece, so yes, you are getting one for free. However, all was not as it appeared when applying coupons. When they code the boxes that way, instead of paying $3.49 for one and nothing for the other, you actually pay $1.74 for each box, so if you apply a BOGO coupon to this deal, you pay $1.74 for two boxes. It's not free, but $0.87 per box is nothing to sneeze at. This kind of coding, actually makes it easier to use two coupons on two products. It would be much easier to use 2 $1.00 off coupons on each box in this case. Because theTriscuits were marked 2/$3.49 and I had a $1.00 off coupon, I bought one box at the $1.74 and used the coupon and it was $0.74. So, when looking at ads, they do notnecessarily tell the whole story. It is how the product is labeled that will tell you exactly how much you will be paying in the end. Have questions about this tricky concept? Leave me a comment or email me and I will do my best to answer it.

Using a BOGO coupon with a BOGO special




Julia,
Hello. Could you please explain store advertised BOGO's and using a BOGO coupon along with that? I have a BOGO coupon for Wheat Thins and would like to use it with Price Cutter's advertised BOGO deal. I didn't know if I had to buy one to get the two free or how this worked.
Thank you for all your help. Your blog is great and I loved the piece about the garage sales - definitely inspiring!
Christine

The answer is yes, you should be able to get both boxes for free. When the store has an advertised buy one get one free (BOGO) special, they are taking a loss to give you one box of crackers for free in order to get you to come in the store. It is called a loss leader. When the manufacturer puts out a manufacturer's coupon, they are taking a loss by agreeing to pay the store back for that free box. If your checker tells you that you can't get two boxes free, you can educate them, that the store is reimbursed full price for the box of crackers, plus $.08 shipping. So it is actually just the same as you doing the BOGO deal without the manufacturer's coupon, because they will make the same money in the end. They are two separate entity's. If you have an issue with the checker, just get the manager over and ask them. Sometimes it is up to us to educate.

Be aware...the only stores in town who absolutely do not understand this concept are Walgreens, they will most likely paint you out to be dishonest, because they are completely ignorant about it. They are not a very coupon friendly store and if there is ever a choice, CVS is much more coupon friendly. Walgreens lack of coupon understanding is a systemic problem handed down from their corporate office, to their managers, to the checkers, at least in our area. Never fear though, you are just a smart coupon shopper and you have every right to use coupons and specials to your advantage. Good thinking! Thanks, for asking this one Christine!
Also, if you have not already printed out your $1 off coupons Kraft.com and Coupons.com, there are $1 off coupons for wheat thins there. If you use two with the BOGO special, you should get both boxes for close to free.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Walgreens 5/24-5/30


Here are the best Walgreens deals I see this week. There is not a lot going on. There were some fairly good deals on Kraft Mayo and Miracle Whip and Shells and Cheese, but if you live in Springfield, MO or surrounding areas, you can get better deals at other stores this week. Check it out here.

REGISTER REWARD DEALS


Posture-D Calcium: $8.99 (Get $8.99 RR)

Final Price- FREE

Tropicana Pure Orange Juice $2.99 (Get $1 RR)$
$1/1 printable coupon

Final Price- .99


Colgate Total Toothpaste: $2.49 (Get $1.50 RR)
$1/1 printable coupon
$1.50/1 March issue of All You Magazine
$1.50/1 Money Saving Market Place (regional coupon mailer)
Final Price- FREE


Reach Ultraclean Toothbrush or Floss: 2/$5.00 (Get $3 RR when you buy 2)
BOGO 4/26 RP
$1.50/2 3/15 SS
$.50/1 3/15 SS

Final Price- OVERAGE of $.50 to $1.00 (**We do not get Reach coupons in the southwest MO region, so if you are local, you may want to get these from eBay.)



Serenity or Tena $11.99 ($2.00 RR)

-full mail in rebate from 4/26 SS
Final Price- $2 OVERAGE


OTHER GOOD DEALS


Dial Pomegranate Body Wash (travel size) $.99
$1/1
HERE
Final Price- FREE

Vitamin Water 3/$3
Use 3 $1 off 4/5 SS
$1/1
HERE

Final Price- 3 FREE (must use three coupons)


Trident: $.67 (with in-ad coupon)
Use $.75/1 5/10 SS

Final Price- OVERAGE of $.08

**Always give in store coupons after Manufacturer coupons and buy a filler to get you to .75 so they will take your coupon.


Quilted Northern Toilet Paper 9 big rolls $4.29
$1/1 4/26 RP
Final Price- $3.29


If you do not get a newspaper, check out the complete ad here courtesy of Iheartwags.com

~LOCAL SPOT~ Price Cutter Specials


The Springfield, MO Price Cutter on Division and Glenstone has daily unadvertised specials. They are the only Price Cutter who does this and sometimes they are dirt cheap. My source has told me that today's special is...
BUY A DOZEN DONUTS GET A DOZEN FREE= works out to $2.00 each

Monday's special is...

WHITE BREAD (sorry, don't remember the brand) 2/$1.00 (Dirt cheap!)

Be watching for their other daily specials as I get updates.

No Coupons Today!




Just a reminder... it is a holiday weekend, so there will be no coupons in the paper today. So, if you open yours and there are none in there, I promise, it isn't because they don't like you anymore!

Here is the coupon schedule for the summer. Happy couponing!

May
31 — Smart Source & Red Plum

June
7 — Smart Source, Red Plum, & Procter and Gamble
14 — Smart Source
21 — Smart Source & Red Plum
28 — Smart Source & Red Plum

July
5 — Procter and Gamble
12 — Smart Source & Red Plum
19 — Smart Source
26 — Smart Source & Red Plum

August
2 — Smart Source, Red Plum, & Procter and Gamble
9 — Smart Source & Red Plum
16 — Smart Source & Red Plum
23 — Smart Source & Red Plum
30 — Smart Source & Red Plum