COUPONS!!!!

OMG!!!! COUPONS!!!

Yeah, I am really starting to like coupons. Like really starting to like them. My house is in trouble if I manage to figure out the extreme couponing stuff.

Anyway. In my local paper this week, there was a P&G coupon insert. Apparently, these come out maybe once or twice a month. We use P&G products in my house on a regular basis, so these coupons were a must for me to get.

There were so many other coupons from Red Plum and Unilever (again, another company that gets used in my house on a regular basis).

Oh, I was so exited when I saw all of the inserts when I got home and opened up the paper. I actually didn't play any World of Warcraft tonight like I usually do because I couldn't wait to get into my coupon inserts. (Baby Bug was already in bed when I got home.)

Now, from what I understand about couponing is: use them when the items you need are on sale. That's why many extreme couponers spend hours upon hours looking at deals, price matching and doing match ups to get the most for their money. I do a lot of my shopping at Walmart. It's the only super shopping center in town, and I'm pretty much there all the time because I work there. (Still don't have my associate discount card yet, but it's coming!)

Fortunately, Walmart does price matching, as they call it Ad Matching. What helps me with doing this is the fact that the county that I live in sends out a community shopper newspaper in the mail EVERY Wednesday. In that newspaper, the community gets ads for Piggly Wiggly, Warehouse Discount Grocery (WDG), S&S Foods, and Food World. (There's another grocery store in town, but I never see an ad for them in the shopper.)

I remember one week, I had coupons for Hot Pockets. The coupon was for $.95 off any two. One of the grocery stores in town (I don't remember which one) had them on sale for 2 for $4. Walmart sells a box of two Hot Pockets for $2.18 each. Well, Ad Matching saved me $.36 on two boxes plus the coupon brought the total for 2 boxes to $3.05. That's a total savings of $1.31 on 2 boxes of Hot Pockets. That's $1.31 that I was able to use towards the rest of my shopping list! (EPIC!!)

The weeks that I do my grocery shopping I live for my community shopper. I need to remember to look at my favorite websites:

• couponing101.com
• stretchingabuckblog.com

to help me find the best deals and match ups and check grocery store ads that I don't get in my community shopper. I don't get ads for stores like Publix and Kroger because we don't have either one in the county. (Sucks because I LOVE Publix. Growing up in South Florida instilled that in me.)

Walmart also does price matching with some of the drug stores, like Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid. (Other ads I need to look at because sometimes they have good deals on things!)

I need to find myself a shopping list that will help me get what I need. I want to be able to edit it so I can add the prices that I already have from previous purchases and match it up with price matching deals and coupons.

Homemade Cookbook

I need to make myself a cookbook. Currently, on my Food Pinterest board, I have over 700 pins, and that number keeps climbing. Some of that number may be duplicates, but the duplicates are there because I don't always remember if I pin something or not. It would also be much, much easier for me if I had a book to look while cooking rather than running back and forth from my computer. You know, computers, water, and all of that sort of thing don't mix.

I think I might use the set up that I found via Pinterest from maiathebee.com.

http://www.maiathebee.com/2011/12/weekly-challenge-recipe-binder-and-free.html

I can not take credit for the image and the information she provided because it's hers. (It's only fair that I link back to her and give her all the credit in the world.)

I'm still trying to find a set up that I like that won't cost me an arm and a leg to set up. The next step would be to get a baker's rack or something other than my sparse cabinet and counter space to keep it. 

Hobo meal

Hobo meal was a success.

The finished meal

Daddy Bug couldn't finish his. (He had also eaten before he left work because he had been there for 12 hours.) The carrots were a little crunchy, but that's the way I like my cooked carrots. I'm not sure how everyone else felt about them, but I consider the meal a HUGE success

Pinterest recipe modification

Since I have to work from 2-11 tonight, I decided that I was going to make a meal for the guys. All they have to do now is put it in the oven and cook it.

I took my inspiration for a hobo meal from Impress Your Kids and modified it with a ranch dressing packet and added some green beans to the mix.

Green Beans and Baby Carrots

The recipe says to use potatoes, carrots, and onions. Well, I don't have any onions, so I left them out. I'm a big fan of balancing out my meals with a green vegetable, so I figured green beans would be a good option. I could have used broccoli, but for some reason, I went with green beans today.

Potatoes tossed in a Hidden Valley Ranch mix packet

I cut my potatoes up similar to how I would cut them up for home fries, which are a favorite way to make potatoes in my house. I put them in a plastic container and sprinkled a Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix packed on top of them, put the lid on and shook it all up till the potatoes were coated.

Handmade Hamburger Patty on top

I made the hamburger patty with nothing extra mixed in. Just hamburger meat. Once all of this was done, I wrapped it up and set it on my cookie sheet. I was able to make four hobo meal packets like this out of about 1 pound of hamburger meat.

Cheese to put on top

Since I don't want the cheese to burn during the cooking process, the cheese is going to be placed on top to make it extra yummy.

Recipe:

1 lb Hamburger meat

1 bag of baby carrots

1 bag of green beans

4 Idaho potatoes

1 packet of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

Shredded Cheese

Cooking instructions:

Preheat oven to 350, place cookie sheet in oven and cook for about 45-60 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

I HIGHLY recommend putting the hobo packet on a cookie sheet or something to help catch any grease that will cook off of the burger patty. You don't want to start an oven fire!

I will post an update after I get done with work and get to eat my hobo meal myself!

New happenings

Well, hmmmm.....

Let's see. Miss Bug has decided that she wants to start becoming more mobile. She's attempting crawling, and she's rather successful (yet awkward).

And to think it all started with her pulling herself across the floor on pretty much her elbows that morning.

She had her four month shots a few days ago (not sure if I mentioned this). She did fantastic. Miss Bug is such a little trooper. She definitely makes it easy for a first time mommy to handle the whole immunization process.

Work is work. Someone in my department was terminated last week, so it seems like more hours are available. (I'm scheduled for 38.5 this week alone, which is always nice.) I still have to deal with Old Bitch, but I spend most of the day ignoring her because her negative attitude is highly offensive. (I don't need any language that can be considered offensive to get me in trouble.)

My mother in law was saying something about boiled cookies the other day on Facebook, and I was like, "Huh?" They also go by the name of no bake cookies. Tonight, I decided to look at Pinterest and see if I could find a recipe. Of course, I did. Guess what items are going on my shopping list next time? You got it. Boiled cookie supplies, and they will be made on my day off.

Speaking of days off from work, THURSDAY!!!! Woot! Agenda for the day:

1. Take Hubster to work
2. Clean
3. Bake cookies (been meaning to do this for a couple days now)
4. Dr.'s appointment (story for another blog post)
5. Cook dinner (I have no clue what yet. Pinterest maybe?)

Ugh, I suppose I should get out of here and get to bed. I have stuff to do!!!!

My Obsession with Pinterest

Pinterest is my new drug, I swear. I can spend hours and hours there and find all sorts of things that I want to do, try, or go. Last night, we tried pepperoni string cheese roll ups.

After 10 minutes of baking.

They were a HUGE hit in my house!!! It's a recipe that has officially been added to our menu options and ingredients added to our shopping list. If you didn't see the link for the recipe for it, it's simply crescent rolls (I used the Walmart brand), pepperoni, and string cheese sticks cut in half.

Finished product.

Cleaning my bathtub was super super easy thanks to another gem I found on Pinterest. My tub was dirty and dingy and everything but clean when we moved in. (I don't have a before picture, like a dummy.)  Using white distilled vinegar and Dawn dish soap, my bathtub is a million times cleaner!!!

I've also decided to make my own baby food because we have to live on a rather tight budget in this house and making baby food is so much cheaper. I add a couple fresh fruit and veggie items to my shopping list, prepare them the way that I need to so I can make sure she gets all of the nutrients in them, and she's got plenty of solid food to last her a while. (Yes, I'm starting my 4 month old on solid foods very slowly.)  I don't think I would have the guts to attempt making baby food on my own if I didn't have some guidance from other parents and Pinterest.

I've got plenty of educational activities for Miss Bug for when she gets older. I'm going to get Miss Bug started out on the right educational track because I don't know what the education systems are going to be like when she starts school.

Pinterest = drug that I am obsessed with. I will be posting more discoveries that I attempt from Pinterest, so watch out!!!

What's new?

I've had so many ideas for posts that I had to open up my little notepad app on my phone and put them in there. A lot's been going on lately.

I'm sure judging by the title of my blog you can figure that I am a mom. I'm a first timer to the mommy world, so right now, it's a lot of asking questions to other moms, getting miscellaneous advise from other moms, trial and error, etc. etc. I honestly wouldn't change it for anything.

Little Bug is 4 months old now and it seems like she's getting ready to crawl and sit up on her own. After that, it's off to the races to keep up with her. I think her dad and I are going to have our hands full with her.

At the laundromat

She was just a few days old in that video there. (For some reason, Blogger won't let me put a caption underneath it like the picture.)

So I've come to figure that she's got a big silly personality and she loves to play. She's also gotten to the point where she doesn't want Mommy to snuggle her to sleep anymore. It's kind of sad, but it's okay. It's her starting to be independent, and I'm okay with it. (At least I think I am.)

New blog, new stuff....

Yup new blog. I was going to do something with my old one, but I decided to create a whole new one. It's a work in progress so bare with me till I get it up and running.