The CVS $5 Challenge: October 12-18

This is my first time posting in the CVS $5 Challenge even though I have been following along for awhile now. This isn't the best week for CVSing but here is what I've got:

Transaction 1:

Buy two Crest Total Advanced toothpaste @ $3.49 each
Use $1.50 coupon from All You Oct. issue, and $1 coupon (10/12)

Total after coupons $4.48
ECB earned $4


Transaction 2

Buy 5 Gatorade or propel @ 5/$5
(If you are luckier than me you may have the $1 off 2 coupon from the cvs rejuvenating beauty book making this an even better deal but we will proceed as if you don't have these coupons).
Total $5.00
Use $4 ECB from transaction 1
Total OOP $1

ECB earned $3

Total for this weeks transactions $5.48 (I know .48 over) for $11.98 in products with $3 ECB to roll over next week.

Menu Plan Monday

Long time no post. Lets see if I can be more consistent with my posting from now on.

Monday, Oct. 13
Oatmeal
Salad, leftovers
Chili

Tuesday, Oct.14
Waffles, fruit
Packed lunches (sandwich, fruit, juice, string cheese)
chicken enchiladas, salad, beans

Wednesday, Oct. 15
yogurt, fruit
packed lunches
Veggie mac&cheese

Thursday, Oct. 16
Oatmeal
packed lunches
Egg salad sandwiches (I found eggs for .77 a dozen so we need to eat some eggs)

Friday, Oct. 17
Breakfast Tacos (bacon, egg, & potato)
packed lunches
leftovers

Saturday, Oct. 18
banana muffins
chicken veggie quesadillas
Dinner out for my birthday

Sunday, Oct.19
Cereal (or if we are running really behind we will probably eat donuts at church)
Loaded baked Potatoes
Spinach Quiche

For more great meun plans go to http://www.orgjunkie.com/

Making Your Home a Haven

Crystal's challange today is to take a few moments to beautify your home.
I must admit that I didn't acomplish this act very frugally but I did accomplish it. While we were out of town my potted plants died, so to beautify my home I purchased some new plants. The beautiful colors on my porch made such a difference that I decided to also purchased some house plants. There is a corner behind my rocking chair that just needed a little something and the beautiful Majestic palm that I bought was just the thing to spruce up my living room. My last purchase was a potted plant to go by the patio door. My husband loved the new plants and said that they really bring some life to our home.
I will try to take some pictures of my new plants and get them posted this evening.
Go visit BiblicalWomanhood for more ideas on how to make your home a haven.

Menu Plan Monday

This week's dinner menu

Monday
Blue Cheese Burgers and Coleslaw

Tuesday
Spaghetti and Salad

Wednesday
Chicken and Veggie Quesadillas, Salad

Thursday
Grilled Chicken Sausage and baked potatoes

Friday
I will be providing the drinks for our bible study pot luck (maybe I will also throw something in the crock pot)

Saturday
Shepherds pie, homemade bread

Monday's freebie finds

Today you can get a free movie rental from Redbox with code EA5636. If you are intrested you can sign up to recieve the Redbox newsletter and they will send you a code for another free rental. While on their site you can also sing up to have Monday's free movie rental code sent to you in a text message. During the month of May you will also recieve a free movie rental code on Wednesday.

That's all I've got right now but I will come back and update with more freebies as I find them.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday May 19
Zucchini Bread
Chili Beans and whole wheat rolls
Chicken Pot Pie

Tuesday May 20
Oatmeal and Fruit
Splip Pea Soup
Pork Chops, Rice, Steamed veggies

Wednesday May 21
Cereal
leftovers
Chicken enchiladas and refried beans

Thursday May 22
Whole Wheat Cake Dounuts
Tuna Sandwhiches
Pizza

Friday May 23
Oatmeal or cereal
leftovers or PB&J Sandwhiches
Group dinner (I'm in charge of drinks this week)

Saturday May 24
Buttermilk Pancakes
Hot Dogs
Chicken Stirfry and Brown rice

Sunday May 25
Breakfast at church
grilled chicken, corn on the cob
leftovers

for more great menu planning ideas visit OrgJunkie.com

This weeks Menu

Monday
Oatmeal and fruit
Bean and Cheese Tostadas
Steak, baked potatoes, and grilled Zucchini

Tuesday
cereal and fruit
Peanut Butter and jelly Sandwiches
Coconut Chicken, pineapple slices, and salad

Wednesday
Eggs and toast
leftovers
pork loin chops, green beans, and salad

Thursday
oatmeal or cereal and fruit
tuna casserole
Chicken Stir-fry and brown rice

Friday
Breakfast tacos
leftovers
(Family Life conference through Sunday)

Free Movie Rental from Redbox

Today you can get a free one night movie rental from redbox by entering the code R7234H . So stop by and pick up a free movie for this evening.
My family takes advantage of the free movies on Mondays by having a family night, we pick a movie and all sit down to watch it together and then we follow that up by playing some board games. This is a fun frugal evening that the whole family will enjoy.

Spring Treat

For dessert last night the girls and I decided to make these delicious Lemon Bars and I thought that I would share the recipe with you.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup butter or margarine softened
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 Tbs. all purpose flour
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup powdered sugar for decoration

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. Combine the flour, 2/3 cup powdered sugar, and butter. Pat dough into prepared pan.
3. Bake for 20 min. in the preheated oven, until slightly golden. While the crust is baking, whisk together eggs, sugar, 3 Tbs. flour, and lemon juice until frothy. Pour this mixture over the hot crust.
4. Return to the oven for and additional 20 to 25 minutes, or until light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Dust the top with powdered sugar. Cut into squares.

These aren't a healthy treat but they are perfect on a warm spring evening.

GRATITUESDAY

Today I am joining Laura at Heavenly Homemakers for Gratituesday. This may seem silly but I am gratefull for the beautiful spring blooms that have been gracing my flower beds.



Seeing these flowers often makes me slow down and take a moment to appreciate all the beauty around me. God has created so many beautiful things and I want to challenge you to take a moment today and enjoy some of what he has provided.

Spring Has Sprung

It is that wonderful time of year when the weather is warming up and we start spending a lot of time outside. We spent our weekend cleaning the garage and doing some yard work. Working in the yard got me to thinking that I should try my hand at gardening again. Since we moved into our house 6 years ago I have had a garden all but 1 year. Having said this I have to tell you that I have only had a successful garden 3 of those 5 years. This year I think that I will try a new method of gardening called Square Foot Gardening. In this method you build above ground beds separated in to 1 ft.x1 ft. sections, you then plant the specified number of plants to each square foot section. For example you would be able to plant 9 bush bean plants or 1 bell pepper plant to a square.
Now that I have decided to plant a garden I need to build the planters and decide what vegetables I want to grow. Since the idea behind planting a garden is to grow my own organic produce to save on groceries and give my family food that I personally know was grown without harmful herbicides and pesticides, I should think about what vegetables I know my family will eat and then go from there.

This Weeks Meals

I thought that I would give you a peek at what we have been/will be eating at our house this week on a $55 per week budget.

Monday
Whole Wheat Pancakes
Egg salad Sandwhiches
Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and greenbeans

Tuesday
Cereal, orange slices
(we ate at a friend's house for lunch)
Gumbo

Wednesday
Fresh fruit (bananas and oranges), toast
PB&J Sandwiches, carrot sticks
Tacos, refried beans

Thursday
Brown Rice Breakfast Porridge
Chicken Nuggets and home fries
Baked Coconut Chicken, rice pilaf, and salad

Friday
Oatmeal, fruit
leftovers
Red Beans and Rice

Saturday
Breakfast tacos
(we will be going out to celebrate my daughters 5th and my grandfathers 90th Birthdays)
Stuffed Manicotti, Salad

Sunday
Banana nut muffins
grilled chicken, corn on the cob, salad
Shepherds Pie

Monday
oatmeal, fruit
leftovers
Homemade Hot Pockets


This just goes to show you that you can feed your family a variety of foods on a budget with just a little planning.

What to do with the kids.

I just wanted to remind everyone that The Home Depot puts on a Kids workshop the first saturday of each month from 9am till noon. These workshops are great, this month's activity is building a planter box. Best of all this is a FREE activity you can do with your child. Make it even better by picking up a plant to put in their new planter box and let them be in charge of taking care of it. I know that my girls will love this activity.

No Sugar Plunge!

Ohh what have I done. I just took the No Sugar Plunge over at Heavenly Homemakers
I have pledged to go for one day without sugar. I have already made it to 2:00pm so I think I can make it. For an after dinner treat check out Laura's post with a recipe for Peanut Butter Honey Bars. A sweet treat without any processed sugar I'm in. Ok I'm off to pick my daughter up from school and then as our afternoon activity we will be making those peanut butter bars so I'll be back latter to let you know how those turn out.

Super Savings Saturday

I've been home with a sick kid all week and wasn't able to go CVSing until Saturday morning but I wasn't having any luck. When I made my first transaction the register tape jammed and so my ECB were superimposed on each other making it impossible to use them. The cashier told me that I could call the number on my Extra Care Card and that they could reset them so they would print the next time I made a purchase. Well after sitting on hold for 30 min they inform me that yes they can set them to reprint but they won't show up in their system until 48 hours after the transaction and that they would be available on Wednesday. This put somewhat of a damper on my plans. I am now without my $20.00 in ECB and still have lots of purchases to make. So unfortunately I then asked my sister if she wanted to go shopping with me and used her CVS card, I didn't want to mess up the reprinting of my ECB in any way ( I was only able to do this because I can't convince her of the great benefits of CVSing).

My first purchase on my card was 12 soy joy bars and 2 24/7 deodorants. I used a $3 off 15 CVS coupon, a $3 off of purchase of 10 soy joy bars coupon, 1 free soy joy coupon, and $11 in ECB . Before coupons my total was 19.97, after coupons and ECB $1.98 and I would receive $19.98 in ECB. This is when disaster struck I have no ECBs so I start over using my sister's card.

My first transaction is to purchase the 2 free toothbrushes total oop $6.47 and I received $5.98 in ECBs.

Next I purchased 4 bags of M&M's total oop after ECBs $1.08. ok now I have $6 in ECBs. We then leave this CVS because they are out of the 24/7 deodorant.

At the next CVS I purchase 2 bags of M&Ms and 1 24/7 deodorant for $1.48 out of pocket.

My sister purchases 3 deodorants using a $2 off $10 I didn't have a $3 off $15 with me :( and my 6.99 in ECBs so I paid $2.98.

So this weekend doesn't look that great because of my little mishap but I now have over $30 in ECBs between two cards (not sure how well this will work for me) but at least I didn't miss the deals. Total before coupons and Extra Care Savings minus tax would have been $62.86 I spent $12.98.

Vision Forum Giveaway

Crystal over at Biblical Womanhood is hosting a $100 gift card giveaway to Vision Forum. The products at Vision Forum are wonderful resources for any family. If you are interested in this giveaway visit Crystal's blog and enter for your chance to win. http://www.biblicalwomanhoodonline.com/blog.htm

Frugal Friday

This is my first Frugal Friday post and I was not really sure where to begin so I decided to write about my attempts to become more frugal. I have been reading Crystal's blogs MoneySavingMom.com and Biblicalwomanhoodonline.com and am amazed and inspired. I have decided to try to feed my family of 4 on $35 a week following Crystal's example. I am happy to say that the first two weeks went buy and I was able to stay in budget, but this week I have to admit that I went $10 over when we ran out of lunch meat and sliced cheese (I picked up some organic butter that I found on clearance for $1.99, I know this isn't an awesome price but it made the organic butter cost the same as regular butter and some sausage that with my coupon was $1.50). Hey $45 a week still isn't all that bad. I have found that to accomplish staying on budget I have to make a menu and stick to it, give up alot of convenience foods, and make my own snack food. I have been trying to eat healthier so it didn't break my heart to steer away from these highly processed foods, and I have always made a menu for the week as I make my shopping list. While my stores don't do markdowns like the ones Crystal has posted about I am convinced that I can feed my family a healthy balanced diet on my new budget.

Frugal Finds

You must be patient with me as I learn the art of blogging, but I wanted to share a few frugal finds with you.

Home Depot Kid's Workshops
These workshops are held the first Saturday of each month so mark your calender for February 2 9am - 12 noon and take the kids to Home Depot for a great free activity.
www.homedepotclinics.com

IHOP free breakfast
On February 12, 2008 from 7-10am you can enjoy a free short stack of 3 pancakes.
http://www.ihoppancakeday.com/

I found this great Walgreen's deal on Money Saving Mom

There is an unadvertised Register Rewards deal going on with Glade PlugIns right now-When you buy 3 Glade PlugIns, you get $2 in RR.When you buy 4, you get $3 in RR.When you buy 5 or more, you get $4 in RR.Glade PlugIns are on sale B1G1 this week (2 for $3.29). Use two $1.oo/1 coupons from Coupons.com to get them for $1.29 for two. Buy four for $2.60 total plus tax and get a $3 RR back making them free plus giving you a little overage after the RR!

HEB deal (I also found this deal on MoneySavingMom.com )

Purchase 2 Chicken of the Sea Tuna cups and get $3 off with in store coupon. The tuna cups are priced at $1.39 each giving you an overage of $0.22 so be sure to have a little something in your cart to bring to total above $3 or you won't be able to use the coupon.
I was able to verify this deal last night at my local HEB where I was able to purchase 4 packs of tuna cups and a can of pumpkin for $0.02 (they did have to call the manager over to do an override but they were very nice about it).