Big Savings!

So, today I went to Walgreens and saved 39% off my bill. Wanna know how?? Every Tuesday, the Walgreens on Viera Blvd/Murrell offers military a 15-20% discount AND I used Walgreens and Manufacturer's coupons! I got aluminum foil for 0.09!!! I saved $1.60. If you look through the Walgreens circular and your coupons and match them up and then go (if you're military) on Tuesdays, you can save big! WAHOO!!

YUMMY CHIMICHANGAS!!!!!

Another $5 hit in the Mundie household. I doubled this recipe so I could freeze a second portion. We made five chimichangas and We will have enough for lunch leftovers. I spent a little less than $10 and it will make at least two hefty meals. Here is the recipe. REMEMBER: I doubled the recipe to freeze.

BEEF AND BEAN CHIMICHANGAS

**This recipe and picture come from www.5dollardinners.com

VERA VERA HERE I COME!!

Vera Bradley is having a great sale today on their Tic Tac Totes. They are normally $55 and they are down to $19. You can also use coupon code 10offsale and get another 10% off! Pretty darn good deal and great Christmas ideas. Here is the link: VERA DEAL!

Steak dinner

So, here is just a run down of how much money we can save eating at home versus going out for the same meal. Clearly steak is not quite as frugal as chicken or ground beef, but it is ok to splurge every once in a while. Tonight, we are eating a steak dinner which includes steak, of course, green beans for kids, mac and cheese, and salad for the adults. This will also include milk for the kids and a soda for each adult. I did not keep an exact count, but we are going to spend roughly $10.oo for the entire meal. How, you ask? Well, I buy in bulk. So, all the sides, except the salad are bulk items and the steak was on sale so for enough steak to feed our whole family, I did not even spend $6.oo.

Next, I will give you an example of how much it would cost us to to eat at a local steak joint. And, this place is one of the cheaper steak places, not Ruth Chris or anything outrageous. For us to eat, which would include TWO steak dinners and TWO kids meals usually, four drinks, tax and tip, would cost roughly $48!! So, we have just saved ourselves almost $40!! I will be giving more examples of this as we take this journey together or feel free to share your great eat in deals versus eating out.

However, I will say this. I LOVE to eat out because there are no dishes to clean afterward, so this is a challenge for me. BUT, how can you resist the "extra" $4o, which for us, helped send us to Disney one day this weekend!

Coupons

I have "trash" coupons to give away if anyone wants them. Remember, my "trash" coupons are just coupons that our family does not use that will go into the trash if no one wants them. Either leave a comment on here, email me, or facebook me if you want these coupons. I will set them aside for you. I will only keep them until Tuesday morning if I haven't heard from anyone.

Lesson 2-Meal Planning

So, after you get your coupons organized, you can shop. However, if you want to take it to another level, meal planning is your goal. There are PLENTY of cheap recipes out there, but I have been finding some awesome ones on 5dollardinners.com. You will DEFINITELY save money by planning your meals and buying all the ingredients at once. You will save even more if you can buy enough of a meal to make double and save some for later. Not only will you save money, but time as well, because you can just pop a frozen dinner in the oven and be ready to go! You will learn really quick that I do not like to spend too much time in the kitchen, so most of my meal suggestions on this blog will be simple with normal ingredients that can be cooked fairly quickly with little effort.

So, I have started deciding what we will have for about two weeks worth of dinners. I do not cook 14 dinners most of the time because you have to take into account leftovers, dinners out with friends, and the nights you get to just pop in the frozen second meals you have made earlier in the process. I pick the meals, write out a grocery list, and then look through my coupons. I pull out all coupons that I know I will use and put them in the front pocket of my folder, so I can pull them out easily.

I think that is all for meal planning...

Heavenly Italian Stuffed Shells for less than $5/meal!

If you follow this recipe exactly, you will get at least 2 hearty meals out of it. This made four meals for our family. You will want to make it in two 9x13 containers and freeze the second container for a later date. They reheat splendidly.

Here is the link: http://www.5dollardinners.com/2009/10/italian-stuffed-shells.html

Quick Post

Before I forget, when you are shopping, look in the meat section labeled "quick sale" or "reduced price." You can usually get really great deals on meat that is getting ready to reach its "sell by" date. For example, today I was able to get chicken for $0.14 cheaper than the regular price because I bought the reduced rate. Some grocery stores also sell reduced dairy and bakery items.

First Post

So, I am starting my second blog today. Instead of emailing out my money saving ideas to my friends, this will be an easy way for you to look at updates and recipes, etc. that I have found throughout the week.

So, first, a little history......

For the most part, we have always been able to buy whatever we want (within reason) when we want. However, since we have moved, and now own our home, the money doesn't seem to stretch quite as far. After the initial move in, I KEEP finding stuff I need or want to buy for the house that we have not budgeted for. Luckily, a sweet friend got me a job at her company working part time from home, so I am able to buy what we need out of that! However, I began to try and find ways to save money here and there so that we would have more cash to play with.

When we moved in, a young girl came to our house offering us a ridiculous price for the Orlando Sentinel. We signed up for the Sunday paper, figuring we could use some of the coupons out of it! This is what started my money saving journey. I started clipping coupons for items that we often use, but stayed away from keeping every coupon or from buying items just because I had coupons for them. After that, I started finding websites that helped find good deals, which lead to websites for cheap dinners, and websites to save money on online purchases. I believe it has now become a game to me! How much money can I save!!??

I am, by no means, great at this, but I figured we could all learn together. If you find a good way to save, share it on the post comments, so the group can benefit from what you have learned!

So....here we go!

FIRST STEP: find a local paper who has coupons. Subscribe to it. Like I said earlier, I subscribe to the Orlando Sentinel, but I am sure there are plenty out there to choose from. I get the Sunday paper for less than $1 a week!
a) Separate the coupons into "trash" and "useful". Do not worry about cutting them right away. For some of us locals, we could pick a day to swap our "trash" coupons. That way, if we all use different stuff, would could benefit from each others coupons! Just a thought!!
b) Next, find a good coupon website. I used www.couponmom.com. You can find even more coupons for free that you can print out from your computer!! There are not nearly as many as in the paper, but they do usually have a few different ones to choose from.
c) Discard the paper and the "trash" coupons, and set the "useful" coupons aside and clip them while you are watching tv or something. The clipping is pretty mindless.
d) You will need to find a coupon organizing system that works best for you. I just have a little coupon folder, that has slots in it for all the different kinds of coupons (dry food, cold food, cereal, baby, health and beauty, paper and plastic, meds, misc., and finally in the very back, I keep store coupons...like bed bath and beyond and restaurant coupons).
e) Remember, only keep coupons for things that you use. There is no reason buying things just because you have a coupon for it!
f) I like to flip through my coupons about once a month or so and just take out expired ones so that I do not get mounds and mound of paper in there.
g) Once you are organized, each week will get easier to just sort, clip, and shop!

***An optional step is to go to a website called Money Saving Mom. She is always announcing where you can find great deals, and which coupons (from Sunday papers) to use at what stores to get the best deals. I plan to post things that I find on her website, too, as we go along!