Menu Planning Monday

I certainly didn't mean to go a whole week without posting but life gets so incredibly crazy this time of year. I will be sure and update soon about shopping adventures but for now here's my weekly menu plan!

Monday: Chicken Taco Bake

Tuesday: Turkey-Biscuit Pot Pie - will have to use chicken but I still think it will be good

Wednesday: Chicken Noodle Soup - it's certainly cold enough for good soup!

Thursday: Spaghetti and Meatballs - have a kids Christmas performance that night - dinner must be simple!!

Friday: Easy Pleasing Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes and Broccoli

Saturday: Ground Beef and Twice-Baked Potato Pie - calls for different mashed potatoes but I think I will just use the leftovers from Tuesday

Sunday: Barbecue Chili with Corn

Menu Planning Monday

The past two weeks I haven't made up much of a menu plan. I did use the recipes that I had planned for the month but nothing stayed where it was and everything changed :) Plus we ate out a time or two more than I had expected. But now it's the first of the month and I'm back on track once again. At least till next week...

Monday: Christmas Chicken Burrito Bundles with Rice

Tuesday: Angel Chicken

Wednesday: Creamy Baked Ziti

Thursday: Easy Slow-Cooker Beef Stew

Friday: Slow Cooker Cheesy Potato Soup

Saturday: Burger 'N Fries Pot Pie - This just sounds too interesting to pass up :) I think I will add some veggies to the mix to give it just a little something more! We'll see if the kids eat it...

Sunday: Church Women's Christmas Tea (yummy dinner out for me!!)

Christmas, Only Cheaper

I haven't had a ton of time to read and catch-up on blogs but I did get a chance to check out one of my favorites: Moneywise Moms and she had a post on Making Holiday Money so while I wasn't looking to make money per se it did get me thinking about how I could get christmas gifts cheaper or even free.

Before the Christmas season begins we already set a budget for ourselves - how much we will spend on each child and ourselves and I'm pretty strict about it. But I love Christmas and I love having lots of wrapped gifts under the tree :) Even if it's a small stocking stuffer I'll wrap it. Hey, Christmas comes just once a year and it's a day for fun!! So I do like to get what I can for the kids without going over budget.

How do I save?

Get items FREE! Yep, FREE!

2 Ways I do this:

1. Swagbucks. I know I mentioned this recently but this has really helped my holiday shopping. Most recently I was able to get free books for my kids from Amazon for a multiples holiday party that we had this evening. Every year at the party Santa gives each kid a wrapped book (purchased by mom and dad of course). By combining a sale at Amazon (buy 3 get 1 free) and my Swagbucks I got the kids books FREE!!



2. Paper Back Swap. I love Paper Back Swap! You set up an account and then list books in your home that you wish to get rid of. When people ask for your books you ship them - simple as that. You pay for postage going out but when the person receives the book they indicate that they have and you receive a credit. Every credit is a free book for you. I was just able to order 3 books FREE for my daughter for Christmas. All three were on her list and I didn't have to pay a penny for them!! And I have 8 credits left from books I mailed months ago - gives me 8 more free books to come!



Other ways to save:

3. Shop places that give gift cards back for what you spend. We all know this works with CVS and Rite Aid but other places are giving gift cards when you spend. On Black Friday I spent money at Target earning me a $10 gift card allowing me to pick up a gift for my daughter for free. When you're price checking look for places that give you rewards :)

4. If you're already shopping Rite Aid consider picking up a few toy items for the kids in your life (or other items) at great prices - some even earn +Up Rewards but better yet Rite Aid is giving you money back when you spend money in their store! Go HERE for details.

5. Use coupons! I'm sure you all know this already :) Whenever I possibly can I use a money off coupon even if it's just a coupon for free shipping. Every dollar counts.

I may be a tightwad but I love to give. I love to celebrate. Hey, I love getting gifts too! I just don't want to spend a fortune to do it.

What ways are you saving this Christmas season?

Restaurant.com

When I first started this blog almost 2 years ago I shared about my love for Restaurant.com - a great place to get gift certificates quite cheap to eat at a local restaurant. Today I have new reason to share it again! Besides the 80% offer (which they do have quite often) there's a new local restaurant that we actually want to eat at. Love it!

How it works: you purchase a $25 gift certificate (or gift certificate of another amount) for a reduced price. Today you can purcahse a $25 gift certificate for just $2 by going to Restaurant.com and entering the code DEAL in the promo code box at checkout.



You do get to choose the restaurant you want to eat at before you check out and each restaurant has it's own set of rules. When I did this last year the only restaurant I liked was quite a ways away from me but now I'm so excited to say that there's a great restaurant (Eggspectation) that recently opened near me that participates with Restaurant.com!!

This would be a restaurant we'd like to go to anyway so I was thrilled to see that I could get a $25 gift certificate today for just $2!!

We actually went last night with a Gift Certificate from Restaurant.com and had a great time. We fed 7 people dining out for just $22 including tip!! Our total bill before tip was $15 :) And since Eggspectation serves breakfast all day the kids ate every last bite of their food.

There are a few restrictions:
- at Eggspectation you have to spend $35 minimum to redeem your $25 gift certificate and 18% gratuity is automatically added to your bill - not a big deal - our server was great and we actually tipped a bit more because she did well and we liked her :)

- you can only redeem one gift certificate per month per restaurant so we can't go back to Eggspectation till next month - I am assuming this is calendar month and not 30 days from yesterday but the website doesn't make that clear

- valid for dine-in only

- can't be combined with any other coupon or offer

Other than that it's super easy to buy and use! Such a great way to save on eating out! And with the holiday season upon us we often get too busy to cook at home and eating out becomes more enticing. At least this way I can do it on a budget :)

Black Friday Shopping

Have you done it?

I have never gone shopping on Black Friday before. Well, maybe during the day but I've never gotten up early to shop but this year I took the plunge.

I would have photos if my camera had flash but unfortunately it's still broken so I can only share my experience in writing :)

I am NOT a morning person so it was easier to stay out all night then to get up really early. My good friend, Kristy, myself and her mom made up our plan and headed out at 10:30 PM. A little late since Toys R Us opened at 10 PM with their deals. By the time we got to Toys R Us there was a line to get in the door (because the store was too full) so we waited to get in and didn't find that many deals worth waiting in a 2-hour line for so we left pretty quickly.

Lesson learned: if you want to get in and not wait in the check-out line you MUST wait in the initial line to get in. You get a line no matter what.

Lesson 2: have someone wait in the crazy line while someone else in your party keeps shopping :) (Is this a Black Friday no-no? I have no idea if there are rules? We were discussing this in one line - how many places can one person hold? I mean can 1 person hold the places of their 10 friends? Is that too many? Seems like there should be rules!)

After leaving Toys R Us we headed to Old Navy. This time we made it in time to wait in the first line so we got in at midnight. Some quick shopping got us in line at 12:30 and out the door at 1. I can't say the deals were that great. A few doorbusters were fun but nothing necessary. I did get a pair of free socks for being in the original line - I think people further up got a better deal but I'm not sure. I think I spent more on items at the checkout area then I did in the store :) Not quite, but almost - hey, they were great stocking stuffers! Sadly, pretty much everyone was buying them (not sad for the store of course) - way too much time in line.

After getting a quick post-midnight snack we got in line at Kohl's. We only stood there for about 30 or 40 minutes - not bad for us - there were quite a few in front of us but not as bad as Best Buy (maybe that's the lesson - wait there instead?!). I think we did pretty good at Kohls. Got quite a few things - everything on my list and then some - Kristy and I combined our things to use a coupon I had - together we spent $355 and saved $570!!

Even better we earned $60 in Kohl's cash and I still have $65 to get back in rebates so really I spent $290 and saved $635!! Plus, my Kohl's cash for more free merchandise next week :) I'd say it wasn't bad. Still debating as to whether or not I love everything I got but shopping at Kohl's was fun at least and I can return anything I decide I don't want right?

We thought we'd head home after Kohl's but ended up stopping at Target for a few more things. Since we were "late" getting there we didn't have any lines to wait in. And even though I thought I had missed one doorbuster they had re-stocked them before I left.

I crawled into bed at 6:30 - not too bad I guess - I did get a little sleep :)

Lesson 3: stay in bed :) Okay, maybe not for the biggest, bestest deal but I've seen the deals I got on the internet so I probably could have just stayed home and ordered online. I certainly did for my Gymboree order. That I placed on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving at about 1 in the morning. That's how I get the kids jackets for just $14!!

While I enjoyed very much hanging out with my friend and her mom I'm pretty sure I could have gotten just as good deals at any other time. I must say, I've never felt I overspent too much in years past when I haven't gone Black Friday shopping. If I were to repeat it next year it would only be to enjoy the night with friends and not for the deals.

What about you? Do you shop on Black Friday? Think it's worth it?

Pre-Thanksgiving Menu Planning

For some reason it seems weird to menu plan before Thanksgiving :) I mean we still have to eat and we don't want to eat turkey for weeks on end but it seems odd to eat "normal" food right now :) Fortunately, I'd already planned for the week in advance so we are eating normal food along with Thanksgiving at school, a women's night at church, the triplets birthday party and bringing a meal to someone who needed it - it's been a busy food week!!

Here's what we had and plan to have till Thanksgiving which is more of an obvious meal :)

Last Wednesday: Quick Chicken and Dumplings

Last Thursday: Easy Chicken & Rice Divan

Last Friday: Taco Bake

Saturday: Chicken-Broccoli-Tortellini Soup - this was for the women's night at church so I doubled the recipe and it was a big hit - very yummy!

Sunday: Leftovers - this is actually the 2nd time we've had leftovers this month - I have had SOO much food from all I've made that we just have to clean out the fridge :) Plus, we ordered pizza for the party yesterday and we had a few pizzas leftover making a perfect Sunday lunch. Leftovers are a great budget stretcher :)

Monday: Slow Cooker Lasagna

Tuesday: Chicken and Sweet Pepper Stir-Fry

Wednesday: Mozzarella Pasta Bake

And then it's Thanksgiving followed by some strategic leftovers :) I know Turkey Tetrazzini is already on my list of post-Thanksgiving recipes!

Swagbucks Has Just Become Even More Awesome!

You're on Swagbucks aren't you?

If not, you absolutely must be!! Swagbucks is SOO easy! I have it set as my home page. Every day I take the Daily Poll, check out the Trusted Survey and search to win - I earn quite a few Swagbucks every day and even the little ones add up. This month I already have $15 in Amazon Gift Cards thanks to Swagbucks and I'm on my way to even more before Christmas!

Click the link (the photo) below to sign yourself up if you are not already on:



Want another reason to sign up for Swagbucks??

COUPONS!!

That's right! You can now print coupons from the Swagbucks home page - for every coupon you redeem you earn 10 Swagbucks!! Since I use coupons ALL the time this sounds like a WIN for me. How easy could that be? Now I'm earning Swagbucks while saving money and earning Swagbucks gets me MORE money.

It's a good day when a website can save me money and make me money all at the same time!!

What are you waiting for?? Sign up TODAY!!

Check out the Swagbucks BLOG for more details.