All You Magazine Subscription for $18 - WOW!!!

If you read my earlier blog posts with my coupon tips then you know that the All You magazine - a Wal-Mart only magazine - is a GREAT source for coupons!! I have had a subscription for several months and LOVE IT!!

Here's your chance to grab up an AMAZING DEAL!!! Go here to get your 2 year subscription to All You Magazine for just $18!! This is a great deal!!! The magazine sells for $2.17 at Wal-Mart, that is a savings of $34.08. Each month of All You contains coupons (usually well over $20 worth in each issue) as well as great articles!! You will NOT be disappointed!!!

To Wii or Not to Wii - that is the question...

Sigh... hubby and I had decided that we were going to buy a Wii for our family for Christmas. We figured that it would be a great way to keep the kids physically active while having fun when it was just too cold, wet, snowy, and/or muddy, etc. this winter and beyond. Now I will start by saying that we did know what the cost of a Wii was as we made this decision, but what I hadn't given a huge amount of thought to was what the "rest of the story" was in terms of needing more controllers for multiple players and the cost of additional games. The other thing that I wasn't prepared for was how painfully difficult these boogers are to find to actually buy; we were afraid that we wouldn't find one to buy before Christmas (from a source that we were familiar with, such as Wal-Mart, Sam's, Toys-R-Us, Circuit City, Best Buy, etc.).

Then, finally, just this morning we found a Wii system on the Toys-R-Us site - can you say WOOHOO!!! I placed our order and we were all set, or so I thought! A short time later, I got what I call "that itchy feeling" - the feeling I get when something just isn't right. I couldn't dismiss it so I stopped to pray that God would guide Eric and I on whether purchasing the Wii was a good decision or not. When I shared my "itchy feeling" with my hubby, he agreed that if it didn't feel right then we needed to cancel the order; so cancel the order I did and now the "itchy feeling" is gone! WHEW!!!

BUT.... now my question is... what decision process have others had on the road of "To Wii or Not to Wii"? Why did you chose to or not to purchase it???

We had a hard time justifying the cost of the console, additional accessories, and on-going cost of games. My cost estimate was near $478.00 for the items that we felt we would need to get started, not to mention the cost of additional games or other accessories that we don't yet know that we "need". Plus, the questions we asked ourselves were these... do we want to encourage our children to play video games rather than seek out other sources of play that would be equally physical and even more imaginative??? Do we want them to think that all entertainment must come from either the computer or the television??

As a slight bunny trail, but still on the same thought... We are considering cancelling our cable TV in January for a couple of reasons (we would cancel it now, but, even though this was my idea, I am having a hard time committing to giving up some of the shows that I watch on cable). First, we pay approx. $80 per month for digital cable and some additional digital tiers. We think we can be better stewards of that $80 by using it to either build our savings or to pay down student loan debt rather than use it for pure entertainment. Second, because there is just too much on TV that we do not agree with; such things as the attitudes of some characters on some of the pre-teen/teen shows our oldest daughter suddenly wants to watch, violence (even the evening news is hard to watch with kids), not to mention the encouragement to "get more stuff" from watching all the toy and fast food commercials (especially this time of year) that we are always bombarded with. We have considered just blocking the channels that have what we consider to be questionable content, but that won't eliminate all of what bothers us.

All that being said, I still would like a Wii because I think it would be a lot of fun... but we just cannot justify the cost for our family. Please know that I am not judging other families that do have Wiis and/or cable TV, it is a personal choice that each family must make for themselves. All I am doing is sharing what thought process we have worked through (and we are obviously still working through them ourselves) and now I would LOVE to hear from each of you on your family's decision "To Wii or Not to Wii"; I look forward to hearing from you.

Menu Plan Monday - wk of 12/8

Okay... here I go... I am committed to having my weekly menu planned each weekend so that I can post it here to participate in Menu Plan Monday at http://orgjunkie.com/ (there are LOTS of other weekly menus posted there to inspire you) and as accountability.

My goal this week is to use up some chicken in the freezer and to use what we have here at home instead of buying things from the grocery store; I did a lot of stockpiling of several sale items before Thanksgiving so I need to cut my grocery spending back this month. Here's what I have planned for this week (if you want me to post recipes, leave me a comment and I will start adding recipes):

Breakfast:
Mon: waffles
Tues: oatmeal
Wed: cinnamon rolls
Thurs: muffins or quick bread
Fri: cereal
Sat: eggs and sausage
Sun: french toast casserole

Lunch:
Mon: chicken and rice (cubed chicken breast cooked with a lipton rice pouch)
Tues: pigs in a blanket (hot dogs rolled in crescent rolls) with macaroni and cheese
Wed: grilled cheese and chicken noodle soup
Thurs: leftover ziti (from Wednesday dinner)
Fri: fish tenders and noodles (a lipton noodle pouch)
Sat: manwich and tatertots
Sun: pork chops and gravy in the crockpot

Dinner:
Mon: shredded pork loin tacos with mexican rice and hamburger helper for kiddos
Tues: chicken and gravy in the crockpot with stuffing
Wed: baked ziti with garlic bread
Thurs: meatloaf, garlic mashed potatoes and green bean casserole
Fri: our church is having a Parents' Night Out, so we will do something easy for the kids and Eric and I (and Elijah) will go out for dinner - yippee!!!
Sat: chicken alfredo (I am not fully committed to this yet, so this could change)
Sun: chicken sandwiches

I hope that you, too, are inspired to plan your meals for the week.

Many blessings and happy "eats"!!

Frugal haircuts - saved $80!!

My latest frugal conquest... reasonably priced haircuts. Several months ago I posted on a local homeschool Yahoo! group to ask for places to take my kids for reasonably priced haircuts (the last place I took them cost me nearly $80 with tip). Several group members suggested that I get a good, sharp pair of scissors and do it myself.

Well, it has taken a couple of months to work up the courage but I finally did it! My 4 oldest were in desperate need of cuts (the baby doesn’t have any hair, so he was safe… this time), so I got out my scissors that are dedicated haircutting scissors (previously for bangs only). I cut Sarah’s (age 3 ½) and Matthew’s (age 2) hair on Saturday night and both turned out pretty well; actually, Sarah ended up with a chin-length bob that is adorable and Matthew had his mullet-wanna-be hair trimmed back a nice non-redneck length – LOL!! Then on Monday, Hannah (age 7) and Rachel (age 5 ½) decided that they wanted haircuts too! While I felt less confident with their cuts, they actually turned out looking quite nice!! My aunt liked the cuts and then was quite impressed when I told her that I cut it myself!! I am so thankful to all who encouraged me to “just do it” myself - thanks HANCK members! I plan to hit Sally Beauty Supply soon for a cape, real haircut scissors and maybe a razor/trimmer for the boys’ hair!

Here are some of our before and after pics:

Sarah before Sarah after

my boys...

Elijah - safe from the scissors... this time

Matthew - now free from his mullet-in-the-making (sorry no before pics)

(aren't these boys just too cute together!!!)

Rachel - before Rachel - after

Hannah - before Hannah - after (what an improvement!)

Thanksgiving Leftovers all used up!!

This post is a couple days late, but I still wanted to report in that I have successfully used up ALL of my Thanksgiving leftovers!! I am really striving to be a good steward of what we have and that especially means leftovers (which often tend to get lost in the fridge and turn into an unplanned science experiment - LOL!). We ate some of the leftovers just warmed up - but that usually happens the first day or so... it's the rest that I needed to be creative with. Well, on 12/1 I posted how we made turkey and noodles with some of what we had remaining from dinner.

What we had remaining was some turkey, stuffing, corn, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes. Here is how we used the rest....

** on 12/2 we had "Gobble Up Good Turkey Casserole" (from www.menus4moms.com) which used up nearly all remaining turkey as well as all of the stuffing. Here's the recipe (I noted my changes in parenthesis after the item):

Gobble Good Turkey Casserole
1 can cream of mushroom soup (used 2 cans as I did not have cream of celery at home)
1 can cream of celery soup (did not use, see above)
1 package onion soup mix (did not have any, but added some onion powder and black pepper)
1 cup rice (long grain, not minute rice)
1 1/2 cups milk
2-3 cups leftover turkey
(I topped mine with the leftover stuffing and hubby LOVED it - I highly recommend this!)

Combine all ingredients in a large casserole dish. Bake covered 30-45 minutes at 350°F or until bubbly. (Mine took a solid hour, add more time if you use brown rice.) I then served it with the remaining green bean casserole and corn.


** on 12/3 I made Mashed Potato soup which I morphed from several recipes I found online. Here's how I made mine:

Amy's Mashed Potato Soup
2 cups of chicken stock (I used 2 chicken bouillon cubes and 2 cups of water)
2 cups leftover mashed potatoes
onion powder to taste
celery salt to taste (next time I will probably finely chop some celery and carrots)
crumbled bacon
shredded cheese

Heat broth then add mashed potatoes. It will be thin at first, so turn down the heat to medium and let it thicken. If it gets too thick or if you want it creamier or richer, you could add some milk or sour cream. Top with some crumbled bacon and shredded cheese.


All that remained was some turkey and some stock; both of these are now in the freezer until I want turkey and noodles again.

So, I successfully managed to use up ALL my leftovers and with minimal additional cost. Here's what I figure:
* the turkey and noodles cost approx. $1.50 ($1.00 for the half bag of noodles and $.50 for carrots and seasonings);
* the turkey casserole cost approx. $2.00 ($.50 for rice, $1 for cream soup, and $.50 for milk and seasonings); and
* the soup cost approx. $1.60 (pennies for the bullion cubes and seasonings, $.50 for cheese, and $1 for bacon).

For neither of these am I adding the cost of the leftovers as they were free in my mind as they would have probably been thrown away in previous years. $5.10 for 3 meals is pretty good in my opinion!!!

Thanks for continuing to join me on my adventure to be a good steward.

10 lbs of ground beef - how I used it...

Yesterday I mentioned that I had a 10-lb log of ground beef from Sam's that I would be using to make ahead some meals, Here's what we made:

18 - 4 oz. burger patties
2 meatloafs
3 meals worth of salisbury steaks

It was a great cooking day!!

Turkey and noodles - it was like manna from heaven!

Just had to share... I am working very hard to be a good steward of what we have so I am examining everything to be sure that it is being used to the greatest potential. Well, I will admit that I normally throw away my turkey carcass; I despise cutting/pulling the meat off the bones! I had already cut off the meat I would want for sandwiches but knew a lot of meat was left. I debated cooking the carcass down but really wasn't in the mood for turkey soup. After praying about it, I was blessed with the idea of turkey and noodles. So I cooked the carcass down and was blessed with nearly 3 quarts of wonderful broth and 4 cups of meat. I then used these for a wonderful batch of turkey and noodles - YUMMY!! What a wonderful blessing - just like manna from heaven!! I cannot begin to tell you how much I enjoyed that meal!


For those who might be curious to know how I cooked down my turkey or made the turkey and noodles, here you go:

I cooked down turkey carcass by putting it in my big stockpot and covering it with water. I then added a couple stalks of celery just cut in half, two handfuls of mini carrots, a third of an onion, and then some poultry seasoning and black pepper. After it was at a slow boil, I put the lid on the pan, reduced the heat to medium and let it cook for approx. 2 hours. Once cooled down, I strained the stock from the solids (bones, meat, and veggies). I then put the stock in pitchers in the fridge. Finally, I then pulled the meat from the remaining solids and stored it in the fridge as well; the remaining solids were put in the trash.

For the turkey and noodles (a small batch), I put 5 cups of the yummy turkey broth and approx. 1/2 cup of sliced carrots into a pan and heated it to boiling. I then added half of 12 oz. package of Reames egg noodles (from the freezer section in the grocery store) and 1 cup of chopped turkey and covered it and let it cook until the noodles were done (25-30 minutes). Lastly, I mixed a tablespoon of cornstarch with a 1/4 cup of water, then slowly added that to the pan of broth and noodles just to thicken it up a bit. Then we dished it up and enjoyed our blessing!! YUM!!!

YUMMY Meatballs

One of the things I like to do as part of my meal planning is to buy ground beef in bulk and make several meals to be stored in the freezer until needed. One of my favorites is meatballs:

Freezer Stash Meatballs
Makes 48 meatballs; 8 servings

3 pounds lean ground beef
1 1/2 cups soft bread crumbs
3 eggs
6 tablespoons minced onion
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. In a large bowl, mix beef, crumbs, eggs, onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Shape into 11/2-inch meatballs. (A miniature ice cream scoop makes fast work of shaping.)
3. Arrange in two 10-by-15-inch jelly roll pans. Bake in preheated oven until meat is browned, with no trace of pink and juices run clear, 10 to 13 minutes.
4. Drain, let cool to room temperature, divide into thirds and freeze each portion in vapor-moisture proof containers.

For ideas on what to use these in, see the whole "plan" at: http://www.menus4moms.com/bulk/beef_plan.php

My 2 favorite ways to use the meatballs is:
* in meatball subs - combine meatballs with some spaghetti sauce and then serve them in buns with mozzerella cheese
* as Swedish meatballs - combine meatballs with a can of cream of mushroom soup and a can (or jar) of brown gravy and heat through; serve over egg noodles


I have a 10-lb. log of ground beef in the fridge, I will try to post tomorrow about how I will use that.

See more great recipes at: http://grocerycartchallenge.blogspot.com

Blessings!!

2 additional sites for printable coupons

Here are a couple of additional sites with lots of printable coupons that were just too good not to pass on:

http://www.couponcat.net/ccgrocery.html

http://www.couponsinc.com/corp/source/cp_clientlist.asp

Happy savings!