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:)

Maple Glazed Chicken

4 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
4 teaspoons lemon juice (juice of half a lemon) + zest from the half
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Whisk together syrup, soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic, ginger and pepper. Add into a freezer bag with 2 lbs. chicken. Let marinade for atleast 2 hours. After 2 hours, remove chicken and put onto barbeque. While chicken is cooking on the first side, pour the reserved marinade into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook until reduced by about half, about 4 minutes. Flip the chicken onto the second aide and liberally baste the chicken with the reduced sauce.

**This would also work as a freezer meal. Make the marinade, add into a freezer bag with the chicken and freeze. Take out of the freezer atleast 24 hours (2 days preferred) before planning to use the chicken, let defrost and cook on the barbeque.

Recipe altered from eatingwell.com

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

Yummy and delicious muffin recipe that I have made several times.

* 2 C all purpose flour
* 3/4 C sugar
* 2 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/4 tsp cinnamon
* 1 C skim milk (from powder is fine)
* 1/4 C canola oil
* 2 T lemon juice
* 1 egg white
* 1 tsp grated lemon rind
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 1 1/3 C frozen blueberries, unthawed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Spray muffin tin cups well with a non stick cooking spray.
In a small mixing bowl stir together the milk, canola oil, lemon juice, egg white, lemon rind and vanilla extract.
In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just moist.
Fold in the blueberries.
Pour batter into the muffin cups filling each 3/4 full.
Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Using extra large eggs can cause your muffins to be a little runny. If using extra large eggs increase the flour by adding 1 T to the batter. This will ensure the muffins turn out just right.

**recipe borrowed from www.hillbillyhousewife.com***

**I am always on the lookout for blueberries on sale since we love these muffins. The large pack of bluebrries at Costco was $5.99, which I figured out that it was about the same as getting a small container of blueberries for $1.50 ( a good deal). I divided them up into bags and put into the freezer for the next time that I made these muffins!

Whenever I make this recipe, I leave a few muffins out for a snack for that day and then put the rest in sandwich bags. Then I put all the sandwich bags with muffins into a freezer bag and save for another day for snacks.

Living on Less: Challenge #1

Challenge #1-Write down your monthly expenses
I like to type up my expenses in two columns, one for the 1st-15th and the second column for 16th-30th (because we get paid on the 1st and the 15th). I list each expense with a little line to the left of it, the amount, or the average for power, gas and other expenses that aren't an exact amount each month. Next to each expense I list the exact day that it is due so bills can be paid on time.
Most of my bills are paid online, since it is quick and easy and saves the cost of mailing in bills (.42 x 10 bills each month=$4.20 x 12 months= $50.40 per year, just on stamps for those 10 bills each month). (I also would like to think that by leaving money in my own account longer, I am earning interest, which can add up. It may only add up up to $3 a year, but it is $3 that you really didn't have to do a lot to earn, right?)

I check off each expense as it is paid that way I know which bills are still due and I can figure out how much money I need in my account to pay the bills that are still due.

Challenge #1,part2-Spend less on groceries
Take a look at your expenses and decide to spend less on your food budget by a certain amount each week. I feed a family of 6 for $60 each week. I can't tell you how much your budget should be. It depends on your family. You'll have to decide how much you want to lower your weekly budget by (spending $20 less each week might not be alot if your budget is $200/week but makes a big difference if your budget is only $60).

The link below shows the USDA for Food at Home. Wow! On the Thrifty plan (and if I only had to feed a family of 4 I would be spending $600)!

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/FoodPlans/2008/CostofFoodDec08.pdf