Meals for a Steal/Coupon Conference Recap

This is a recap of what we talked about at Wendy's house a few weeks ago. If you have yummy recipes that you've tried that you'd like to post, please email them to me and I will post them. I will be posting more menu ideas and recipes for meals and snacks later on today.

My Motto: “It doesn’t matter how much you make, but how much you spend.”

Tricks of the Trade
1. Be Prepared, Make a Plan, Organize!
2. Write down your expenses and decide on food budget
3. Save the weekly ads and coupons in a “coupon corner” (take the entire stack of paper and write the date on the front)
4. Look in your pantry and fridge and the ads (and your calendar)
5. Plan a menu
6. Write a list of items needed (best deals around perimeter of store)
7. Check on couponmom.com for the coupon dates for the items that you want for the store that you’re going to (for Winco, check the coupon database for items you are already planning on getting)
8. Take cash only to the grocery store
9. Buy items you regularly use when they are on sale (and buy extra to have for the future)
10. Sign up in the store for “club cards”, online for sales e-mails for stores that you regularly shop at (food, clothing, shoes) and join birthday clubs for family members (Toys R Us, yogurt and ice cream shops)

Websites
1. Mealsforasteal.blogspot.com (my new blog with tips to saving money and recipes for yummy meals and snacks)
**Feel free to email me at kristinakessler@hotmail.com with your taste-tested yummy, healthy, and inexpensive recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks
2. Couponmom.com (matches up sales for stores that double coupons and their weekly specials, also has a coupon database)
3. Moneysavingmom.com (inspiration for spending less money, menu ideas)
4. Babycheapskate.com (deals for diapers and formula for the week and other children’s things)
5. Hillbillyhousewife.com (low cost home cooking from scratch)
6. Caregiversmarketplace.com (rebates for huggies, cottonelle wipes, other items)

Deals on Clothes

Hope this helps someone...

I was at Children's Place (at Ontario Mills) on Friday and they are having a great sale! They had tons of clothes for $2.99 (and matched with a coupon in the mail for an additional 15% off, what great deals).

Justice (formerly Limited Too) (there's one at Victoria Gardens) is having a sale from March 12-17 for 30% off everything in the entire store. The same sale is online already.

Gymboree has a few things going...spring break deals ($10 and $15) and Gymbucks. Now until April 12 you can earn Gymbucks (for every $50 that you spend, you get $25 gymbucks, aka: $25 off your next $50 purchase from April 16-26).

Menu Ideas

I had some people asking what kinds of things we eat. This is our dinner menu for the next 2 weeks;

Potato Cream Soup, Lemon Blueberry Muffins, Sliced Oranges
Mini Sliders with Semi-Homemade Buns, Potato Wedges, Apple Slices
Scrambled Eggs, Whole Wheat Waffles with Berries, Powdered Sugar and Blueberry syrup, OJ
(New Trial Recipe)Pasta with Butternut Squash Parmesan Sauce with Grilled Shrimp, Salad
Sicilian Chicken, glazed carrots, rice
Homemade Pizza, salad
Fajita quesadillas, pintos, guacamole, sour cream, shredded lettuce
Egg McMuffins, OJ, sliced oranges
Russian Chicken, potato casserole
Roast, potatoes, carrots, homemade bread
BLT's, potato wedges, mandarin oranges
Meatballs with grape sauce, rice, fruit salad
Teriyaki Pineapple Shrimp, rice (leftover from yesterday,) mixed veggies
Tuna Melts, sliced fruit

Breakfasts include any item or combination of these: cereal, (not often)scrambled eggs, orange juice, apple slices, cinnamon toast, oatmeal, toast, milk

Lunches for kids: any 1: pbj sandwiches or pbj on ritz, chicken nuggets, tuna sandwiches or tuna with crackers, cheese and crackers, grilled ham/turkey with cheese panini's
and: sliced oranges, apples, any fruit in season, corn, applesauce

Lunches for adults: leftovers, panini sandwiches with fruit or veggie or both
or large salad

Diaper Deals

If you use diapers, the following deal is a great one:

copy and paste the link into your browser

http://abundantfoodsavings.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=520&Itemid=1

This deal would be great starting the week of march 8 when you get a $10 register reward with a $25 purchase of kimberly clark products. I printed coupons from the "here" link and from the little coupon box to the right of this post, so I got two of each coupon.

Thanks to Emily for a heads up on this deal:)