Month of February in review

I have been working on doing surveys and remembering to send in my rebates. Here is how February worked out. Hopefully, I will get better at this as time goes on.
Mypoints $10 Subway Gift Card
Viewpoint forum 10.50 Check
Rite Aid 11.00 Check
Rite Aid 2-$10 Gift Cards
Arquest Diaper Survey $10
Pinecone Research $3
Lilaguide $10 Target gift card. Go on there and do 10 reviews and they will send you a $10 Target gift card!
NeilMed Rebate $6.00 Check
Buzz Agent Buzz Kit for Pledge Fabric Cleaner (with lots of great coupons to share with friends and a sample of the fabric cleaner and the new Multi Surface Spray)


Free coupons from signing up online for promotions or emailing my comments
Free Suave
Free Sweet Baby Rays Barbeque Sauce
Free Peanuts, Cheese and Crackers from Kraft Promo
Free Kids Essentials Boost Drink 6 pack
Free Kashi Frozen Entree

Another What's for dinner??

Sunday
My own invention of lentil enchilada lasagna. Sounds pretty gross huh? I guess it's technically not considered an enchilada because it isn't rolled up, but it uses enchilada sauce. It was really good and everyone ate and enjoyed it!!! I had to tell Jerry the lentils were hamburger though. haha. I made the lentil mixture for the "meat filling" http://www.recipezaar.com/Easy-Inexpensive-Lentil-Tacos-304604
then I just layered tortilas, the lentil mixture, cheese and enchilada sauce like you would a lasagna and baked it in the oven at 375 for 15-20 minutes. Turned out really tasty and filling.
Monday
Spinach and Artichoke Mac n cheese... Yummy!
Here's the link if you are interested: http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=2542
Tuesday
Leftover Spinach and Artichoke
Wednesday
Spaghetti (Shane made a really good sauce from scratch for this. YUM YUM YUM!!)
Thursday
Leftover Spaghetti
Friday
Stir Fry for lunch and egg and cheese omelets for dinner
Saturday
Spaghetti again (but my quick version... definitely not as good as Wednesday. I try not to repeat a whole lot, but this is what Macey wanted)

The plan for this week

Well, I've made it a couple of weeks (maybe three?) without going to the grocery store except to stock up on their super great deals. I am going to try another week since my stash is still in good supply. I have been buying milk at Rite Aid with my gift card and coupons too, so that has helped.

Meijer
Whole Grain Bread 1.25

1.25 OOP

Walmart (Change of plans!!! The spinach & artichoke mac n cheese was too tempting and we are planning on doing a chicken pot pie with the rotisserie chicken.)
2.5 lbs of provolone
1 pkg italian blend of cheese
1 spicy mustard
1 pkg pepperoni
32 oz of frozen peas
1 rotisserie chicken
2 cans of artichokes

30.00 OOP

What's for dinner?

Sunday
Breakfast (pancakes, bacon & quiche)
Monday
Leftovers
Tuesday
Chicken Nuggets, broccoli and peaches
Wednesday
Hamburgers, green beans & scalloped potatoes
Thursday
Breakfast again (eggs, bacon & oatmeal)
Friday
Grilled Chicken, Spanish Rice & broccoli (which is currently the only vegetable Jerry will eat)
Shane made a blueberry coffee cake he got off of Paula Dean which looked really good...

Granite Steps Country Blueberry Coffee Cake

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 (12-ounce) can buttermilk biscuits
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cup sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Generously grease a 9-inch square baking dish. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon and mix well with a fork. Separate biscuit dough into 10 biscuits. Cut each biscuit into quarters, and dip each piece in melted butter and coat with brown sugar mixture. Arrange in a single layer in baking dish. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the oats.

Combine blueberries and sugar in a bowl and toss to coat. Spoon over oats and biscuits and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup oats. Drizzle remaining melted butter on top. Bake for 20 minutes or until cake is golden brown and center is done. Cool for 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Saturday

Ravioli (found some in the freezer that needed eaten)

Rite Aid... I love Rite Aid

Rite Aid
Love the $5 for $25 coupon...
Here's what I got for less than $3 on a gift card from a previous deal
5 One Touch Glucose Monitors 19.99 - 19.99 Coupons
(Used these to get me to $20, then I had $5 of FREE money to spend... here's what I got)
5 Pudding Snacks .99 each
2 6 packs of applesauce 2.59 each
1 Maxwell House Coffee 5.29
2 Doritos 2.50 each
5 Aarid Deodorant .99 each
2 Candybars to get my total up to $25 (I forgot food isn't taxed)

So, I stocked up on snacks for Jerry's lunch. We were down to almost nothing!
0.00 OOP (since it was on a gift card)

Community Markets
.69 Bread (with in store coupon)

.69 OOP

More Rite Aid... are you tired of Rite Aid yet? I'm not!
Used the monitors again with coupons to get all this for a few dollars on a gift card and some spare change... it was mostly tax.
5 more Aarid deodorants (we will be stocked for a while!!!)
1 dog food
2 dog treats
1 - 15 pack of paper towels
2 blistex
1 box of trash bags
2 newspapers
1 pkg pampers diapers

Less than $3 in change (the gift card doesn't count)

Total for the week about $3.69 Woo hoo!

Walmart.com Shopping

This past week at the Grocery Store

Didn't do bad at all. I cashed in on the Rite Aid deals and got this for about $5 on my $10 gift card:
1 pkg pampers
1 pkg luvs
2 Ragu
1 Nasal Saline Rinse for Macey (that should be fun)
4 Glucose monitors
(would have gotten more stuff, but the kids were being horrible!! I was "that mom"!

Community Markets
8 pkg shredded cheese 8.00
1 pkg flour
$10.xx

Walmart
bread .77
Dora Birthday Cake for Macey 11.69
Total 12.46 on a gift card (so no OOP)

Walmart
frozen blueberries 3.24
frozen blueberries 3.24
ground turkey 1.90/lb - 2.38
ground turkey 1.90/lb - 2.38
1 pilsbury grands 1.68
bananas 1.41/lb - .71
american cheese 2.50
$16.13 on gift card (so no OOP)

Since the gift card purchases don't count, I had a total of $10.xx for this week!! Woo-hoo!!

Awesome Mail Day

Awesome mail day...
$10 gift card from Rite Aid Huggies rebate
$10 gift card from Lilaguide.com. Go on there and do 10 reviews and they will send you a $10 Target gift card!
$2.xx Rite Aid Rebate Check
$6.00 NeilMed Rebate Check
Love good mail days!

Wk of Feb 8

Saturday
Taco pyramids with friends
Tried something a little different this time. I made regular taco meat and lentil taco filling. Both were good and we didn't miss the meat with the lentil mixture. Here is the recipe if you are interested.
http://www.recipezaar.com/Easy-Inexpensive-Lentil-Tacos-304604
Sunday
Breakfast
Monday
Chicken & Rice soup, cheese and crackers
Tuesday
Fried Rice
I have modified this recipe since I have started making it. It is super easy!
Make 1 cup of uncooked rice according to directions (turns into 3)
Place rice and a little oil in a skillet
Fry up the rice
Add some soy sauce
Push rice to side of skillet and add a few eggs on the empty side. Fry them... When done, mix into rice.
Add veggies and meat if you like. Tonight I added frozen broccoli and peas. I also added fresh carrots, but didn't put them in soon enough as they were a little crunchy. I did not add any meat this time, but it doesn't matter since it has eggs for protein. In the past, I have used diced up pork chops from leftovers that I had thrown in the freezer the week before.
Wednesday
Spaghetti with meatballs
Thursday
Leftovers
Friday
Got a $10 subway gift card in the mail from mypoints (see post below for more information). I was very excited because they are offering all of their subs for $5 each right now, so I got 2 footlongs for FREE!! I love free dinner!
Saturday
Sloppy Joes and tater tots... Not too healthy, but it got the job done.

collect dues

Wk of Dec 31 What's for dinner???

What's for dinner? Good question. Have a sinus infection this week, so whatever you can grab is what is for dinner.

Here are my ideas: Not too much inspiration due to the sinus infection.
spaghetti
breakfast
fried rice with pork YUM
hamburgers
quiche
pizza

Sunday
Bean soup using the ham bone from last week (not a hit for the youngsters)
Monday
Chicken nuggets and nachos
Tuesday
Spaghetti
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday

Week of Dec 31

Giant Eagle How I love you!

4 Frosted Flakes 2.50 ea. Used 4 $1 off coupons, got $2 off order for buying 4. FREE
1 Minute Rice 2.25. Used 1 $1 off coupon .25
4 Mini-Wheats 2.50 ea. Used 4 $1 off coupons, got $2 off order for buying 4. FREE
4 Jelly 2.29. Used 4 $1 off coupons .29 each
2 Quaker Rice Cakes 1.50. Used 2 $1 coupons FREE
2 Thomas Bagels 1.99 ea. Used 2 $1 off coupons FREE
6 Tuna packets 1.69 ea. Used 4 $1 off, 1 BOGO and 1 B2G1. FREE
2 Taco Seasonings 1.00 ea. Used 1 $.75/2. .25 each
2 Muir Glen Tomato Paste 1.29 ea. Used 2 $.75 FREE
Maxwell house coffee 5.99 on Sale No coupons :0
4 Cascadian Farm Veggies 2.00 ea. Used 4 $1 off coupons. FREE

Should have been 7.90. The cashier must have missed several of my coupons because my total was actually 15.64. I called and they said they might be able to fix it if I bring my receipt in. Regardless, still a great deal! Oh and I also got back $1 OYNO (on your next order) for buying the Tuna.

Rite Aid
I plan on buying milk, detergent and wipes at rite aid this week using monitor coupons and the $5 for $25.

Community Markets
Bread 1.69
6 Manwich (on sale 10 for $10, used 3 $.50/2 = $3.00 for 6)
Sugar 2.39
3 Chex Mix (on sale 10 for $10, used 3 $.50 = FREE)
Muffins (free with coupon from Community Markets)
1 Microwave popcorn (on sale for $1.25, used 1 $.40 = .45 )
Newspaper .75
Total OOP $8.28

Community Markets
Onions $1.50
Total OOp $1.50

Grand Total 25.42 (although I may get some back from Giant Eagle 7.74)
Used Rebate card to pay for 15.11, so if all goes well, 2.57 OOP in Cash