Sunday, March 14, 2010

The 1-2-3 Roast Post

So remember that roast from the other day? Thought I would share how we got 3 very different and delicious meals out of it!

1- Traditional Roast:


2- BBQ Baked Potatoes

In Birmingham there is a great place called Broadway BBQ. They have these HUGE baked potatoes that they load up with butter, sour cream, cheese and then BBQ to top it all off. IT.IS.YUMMY!


We made our own version. I shredded up the leftover roast and added some BBQ sauce, then we loaded up our spuds. Talk about a filling meat and potatoes meal!


3- BBQ Pizza


Fear not tiresome leftovers...get creative!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

What we have been up too...

Yesterday marked the beginning of my Spring break and I am excited!

After school I did some couponing at Rite Aid. $1.40 spent for all this!


Several weeks ago when my parents visited they brought an early birthday/house warming present...this fabulous Le Creuset that my mom found a deal on at Tuesday Morning:

I was eager to use it so I put in a roast (a la Pioneer Woman style) and then got to play with this cutie:


After a little nap and then saying goodbye, this was smelling wonderful


We enjoyed our roast and then some Thursday night TV.


Today the weather was beautiful yet again. I am loving the blue skies and sun shine!


Ronnie unexpectedly had a break in the middle of the day so we packed our lunches and headed here:

I love a good picnic even if it just is PB and honey.


Happy Spring is almost here to you!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Free!


A good source for free full size products is KraftFirstTaste.com. I signed up several months ago and have received several offers to try new products...including a Digiorno pizza, Oreo Cakesters, and today I just received an offer for Philidelphia Minis (cream cheese). They send the coupons in the mail for free products and its fun to try them out! The Oreo Cakesters were interesting... umm give me the original oreos any day over these though! (If you like moon pies you might like them.) Afterward you can go back to the site and fill out a survey about the product. I always try to do this in hopes that they will keep the offers coming!



Also, if you live near a Kroger don't forget to play Hit the Hoops Sweepstake at Kroger.com. Remember last week I won a free king size Reese Cup? This week I won $5 credit loaded to my Kroger card! You can play daily so keep at it...I went a lot of days without winning anything. Let me know if you win something fun!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Buggy Buster Sale

Hopefully this post will encourage some of you that are just starting out with couponing. I was looking back today and saw that on my first real venture into couponing I saved 25.76 in coupons and Kroger card savings combined. That number grew a little bit more each week. I have been at this now for over 6 months and still have lots to learn, but I am settling into a groove. It takes time though! So even if you feel like your savings are small, I encourage you to keep at it. It really will pay off. This week I saved $122.67 (75%). You can too!

Kroger is having a "Cart Buster" sale right now. My witty sister in law stated that in the south this could be termed a "Buggy Buster" event. Today I went and busted my buggy and I was pleased with the results. There are a lot of things that could be gotten free this week and a lot of cheap baking mixes to stock up on...I think its great to have brownie and cake mixes on hand for quick dessert/entertaining options. (Confession- I NEVER make brownies or cake from scratch).

Now the nitty gritty and some deals to look out for if you are headed to Kroger this week:

Items free because of combining coupons, ecoupons and sales:
4 multipacks of yoplait Fiber 1 yogurt
2 multiplacks of Yoplait Delights
2 bags of Chex Mix
2 tubs frosting
2 Betty Crocker Warm Delights desserts
3 pouches BC potatoes

Items free because of free product coupons I have received: (keep reading those coupon blogs to see opportunities to get stuff like this)
2 boxes Kashi cereal
1 box Oreos cakesters- these are like oreo moon pies, kinda strange.
1 box Tampex tampons (a catalina that has mysteriously printed for me twice now)
2 boxes Cheerios (these came in my Valentine mailer from Kroger)
1 king size Reese cups (play the game on the Kroger website, that is where I won this...other people are winning all kinds of fun products and even store credit)


Buggy Buster Good Deals:
6 Green Giant Steamer veggies .28 each
5 lb Gold Medal flour 1.24
Manager's special roast 6.34
4 Pillsbury sweet rolls .10 each
12 roll's Marcal TP for 3.99
2 BC Brownie Mixes .63 each
2 BC cake mixes .25 each
2 BC muffin mixes .50 each
3 BC cookie mixes .30
2 Old Spice Deodorants 1.38 each
2 Cascadian Farms organic granola 1.74 each
1 Softsoap .30
1 Sun laundry detergent 1.25


Needless to say we should be set on sweets for a while :) I jokingly told my sister and brother in law on the phone last night that I wasn't going to post a pic this week because I knew I was stocking up on dessert mixes. But upon request, there it is all out there for you, desserts and all :)


Monday, March 1, 2010

A Letter to Ms. Stewart


Dear Martha,

Recently, I was quite excited to find one of your craft project sets on a clearance shelf for just 1.99. I snatched it up thinking that the crepe paper roses would look pretty in a vase, I wouldn't have to worry about them wilting, AND I thought that I would enjoy putting them together. Having worked on them for several hours now and having only 2 and a half roses to show for it, I have a few questions for you:

1. Have you ever tried to make these?
2. Do you have more than 10 fingers?
3. Who writes your instructions? Are you currently hiring? I would love to apply to help simplify!
4. Do your craft products end up on clearance shelves a lot? (I can't imagine why!)

Now I know you are the crafting genius and I am far from it, but really I'm not sure how this craft is supposed to be enjoyable. I gathered my supplies, sat down in front of the Olympics and settled in for an evening of leisurely crafting. There was no leisure involved I'm afraid! I quickly found myself exclaiming in frustration and having sticky fingers covered in residue from floral tape.

Well at least I have 2 pretty roses to show for it. Maybe sometime I can muster up the patience to work on the other 4.

Sincerely,

Gracie