Shop and Save - Coupon Thursday

Shop and Save is having Coupon Thursday this week.

There are several good deals just from looking at the add in the Sunday paper.

The following are a few of the good $5 offerings

Tenderbird boneless skinless chicken breasts in a 3# bag
Farmland Whole Ham
Farmland slab bacon

Other good deals include:

Buy one Sara Lee Homestyle Pie ($3.48) Get one Breyers free. Don't forget you can STILL use a coupon for the free Breyers to get money off your total bill!

Shop 'n Save 64 oz apple juice $1.18
Breyers Ice cream $2.98
Pillsbury Cake Mixes $.98

Busy Day

Steve was given a set of 65 questions from New Mexico which they asked for the bulk to be completed by this weekend. He's been working full time, preaching on Saturdays, and being a wonderful husband, and a good father. Let's just say that there hasn't been much time for him to work on the questions. He's caught snatches of time now and again, but an hour here and an hour there just doesn't do it for 65 sometimes hard, oftentimes controversial and in depth questions. I offered to keep the kids today all day for him so that he could work on those questions and finish off his sermon.

Needless to say, today has been a very busy day. We played in the leaves this morning, then bagged up many of them. We did some running this afternoon. I bathed the two little kids, and put them down for a nap. After taking a short break, Ian and I worked out in the yard again. We have all our overgrown mums cut down, the majority of our front yard raked and cleaned up.

Tonight, I have to prep for tomorrow. I make our Sunday lunch on Saturday evening and put it in the crockpot. I pack a snack for on our way home. I pack our diaper bag, make tonight's dinner, and keep the kids happy.

All in all it makes for a really busy day.

Dierberg's Progresso Soup Deal

At Dierberg's this week, they are running a Progresso Soup Deal. Progresso soup is on sale for 4/$5. If you can find the High Fiber Progresso soup, you can use the $.25 coupon from the 10/4 insert. Dierberg's doubles this to $.50 off. If you buy four cans of soup, you get a free broth.

So the deal looks like. Buy 4 soups (or multiples thereof) and one Progresso Broth. Use 4 $.25 coupons doubled and $.50 off Progresso Broth (10/4 insert). Spend $2.50 for all the soups and the broth. That's $.50 a can. Not a bad deal.

Awesome Value Week at Shop and Save!

This week, Shop and Save is having an incredible deal! Buy $30 worth of specified products found here or here in the orange sections at the bottom and get $15 toward your next purchase.

Here's how to work it. Head to Shop and Save on Thursday. Go through the line making sure that you buy $30 worth of these products while spending as close to $50 as you can (I literally add up my purchase prices as I go). Even without coupons, you'll only pay $40 for the groceries even with no coupons, which of course I use. If you have the new Entertainment book (on sale at Walgreen's with their coupon for $10 off this week), you pay $45 to get your $50 gift card and use that to pay. This first trip, you really only pay $35 for $50 of groceries.

Take your groceries to the car, come back in (or go to another Shop and Save), and do it again, buying $30 worth of the specified products and a total of $50 worth of groceries including the aforementioned products. You'll get your $10 off for spending $50. You use another $5 off a $50 gift card (some Shop and Saves - like St. Peters - will just take $5 off your $50 purchase, no messing with the gift cards). Use your $15 that you got from your last transaction. Even WITHOUT COUPONS (though I suggest you use them), you'll only pay $20 for $50 worth of groceries.

Combine the above scenario with coupons - for example, there are Chex Mix coupons at Coupons.com. The $30 is BEFORE any coupons are taken off. So you could end up paying $20 for those and getting $15 back toward your next purchase.

Because the Catalina deals (where you get $15 gift certificate toward your next purchase) can be done any number of times in succession, you can continue to get $50 worth of groceries for $20 as long as you want to keep doing it!

Triumphant

Here are the two pies I made earlier today.




They both have a 'mutant side', but I will tell you, they were the best tasting pumpkin pies I've EVER eaten! If you've never made pumpkin pie from scratch. You have to try it!

Pumpkin Adventures

I have had a pumpkin sitting in my kitchen for about two weeks. I had no intention of carving it. I wanted to use it for pumpkin puree. After I had purchased it, I read that you need small pumpkins for pies. Well, perusing one of the blogs I read regularly Texas Homesteader, she had a post on pumpkin. She uses large pumpkins when she does her pumpkin.

Bingo! I had all the prodding I needed to make my own puree. Per her instructions, I opened it up

and cut it in wedges.




I did try to use an ice cream scoop like she suggested which worked okay, but a knife worked much better for me, as the inside is nice and soft. I then cut the pumpkin away from the skin using my large seraded knife.



This past year I purchased a turkey fryer at a garage sale for $5. I have never fried a turkey and never intend to, but it sure has been a God send when it comes to canning or cooking large amounts of fruits or veggies. I boiled up the pieces that I chopped up after removing the skin of the pumpkin.

I don't have a food processor, so after the pieces of pumpkin were tender, I put them in my KitchenAid mixer with the beater bar. It broke the pieces apart enough for me to them put them in the blender and finish them there. After blending them, I packaged them up 2 cups to 1 qt. bag. I got seven bags and four cups for pumpkin pies which Ian is begging for tonight.

I also took the seeds out, rinsed them and I'm letting them soak overnight in the fridge in water with red pepper and salt in the water. I'll roast them in the oven tomorrow.



If I am able to make up pies tonight, I'll take pictures and post them soon.

Emergency Preparation

Before November's election last year, I had been encouraged to begin stocking up on food. Well, I did that for awhile, but we used up our stores pretty quickly and I didn't replenish them well.

About two months ago, I started taking our food storage very seriously. This Friday, I will be purchasing 200# of grain to use with my recently purchased grinder from Lehmens! I already have 50# of corn which can be ground for corn bread or grits. Friday, I will also be picking up 50# of oatmeal, 50# of black beans, 50# of navy beans, and 50# on nonfat dried milk.

There are so many other things that I want to have on hand. It's hard to know exactly what you need though. Another blog that I read, Utah Deal Diva, posted about a free service through Emergency Essentials. It takes what you have on hand and shows you how long that will feed everyone on their optimal diets. It gives you suggestions (of course from what they sell) for what you could add, and let's you input what you already have.

The one thing about the service that was confusing was how many 'cans' of something that I had when I don't have cans and I don't know what size cans they are talking about. It wasn't quite apples to apples of what I have, but it gave me a great deal of confidence knowing that I could feed my family for almost 3 months on what I already have.