Where I Get My Stuff :)

I often have people ask where I buy various food products, my blender, dehydrator etc. So I've set up an Amazon store where you can see most of the products I mention here. I do get a very small commission from Amazon if you click on the link and purchase one of the products - very small :) But it helps me to support my Amazon habit and to try new things that I then blog about! You can visit the store by clicking on this link or the Amazon box in the right navigation. I'll be adding stuff as I think of it :)

I also buy some things from iHerb. If you click on this link, you can get $5 off your first order. I have bought chia seeds from them and from Amazon Subscribe & Save.

I thought of posting this today because I am out of hemp protein powder (pictured above)! I bought a big 3 lb brick of it a while ago, and thought I'd never run out :) I just bought some from Amazon's Subscribe & Save grocery program, saved 15% AND got free shipping!

Using Your Freezer and Cooking from Scratch to Save Money

This goes right along with our meal-planning month :)

Using Your Freezer and Cooking from Scratch to Save Money

I have a new blog!

I have a new blog: BK on a Budget. Special thanks to my friend, Jess, who came up with the name :) Here's a quote from my first post:

In this blog, I'll share some basics of couponing that can be done simply by reading some blogs, getting the Sunday paper and printing coupons off the internet. I'll also share freebies, giveaways, and random ideas about making money, scoring deals, and getting gift cards.

I'll continue posting some stuff here about frugality, while mainly using this blog to focus on healthy living, ministry, writing, reading and daily life.

So make sure to go over and add the other blog to your blog reader, if it interests you :)

CVS Small Score

I had a small score today at CVS.

I got:
$5 for 5 Soyjoy bars
$5.99 for 4-pack of Bic Comfort3 Advance Shavers
$2.50 for the Sunday paper
minus
$3 off 5 soy bars coupon, plus they also took the "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" Soybar coupon
$2 off the razors coupon
$2.50 extra bucks earned the regular way (they give you a certain amount based on how much you spend, rather than what products you buy)

My total was $5.06, but I got $8 in register rewards, plus a coupon for $4 off a $20 order. Not bad :)

Freebies Friday

I got my Free Raw Chocolate Powder in the mail yesterday! Here's the evidence:



Oh, wait, that one was taken with our digital camera that is clearly dying. The one taken with my phone came out better:



I also got my Omaha Steak order in the mail yesterday! And yes, I do see the irony of those 2 things.

I also won a free copy of The Frugal Duchess of South Beach over at Tight Fisted Miser yesterday!

I win! Again!

I added pictures to my recent post about the Walgreens extravaganza :)

Get Your Behind to Walgreen's!

You guys seriously need to get to Walgreens. I did 2 awesome transactions today. DO NOT scroll down to find out how much I paid for all this stuff before reading the whole entry; that's cheating :)

So, here's Transaction #1:
$25.47 ($8.49 X 3): 3 boxes of Benefiber Kiwi Strawberry drink mixes
$4.99: 1 Alka Seltzer Plus Cold, Plain
$4.00: Quilted Northern, Ultra Plush, 6 pack
$6.99: Almay One Coat Mascara
$5.98: 2 Rolls Scotch Packing Tape, 2 X 800 size

Total before Coupons
$47.43

-$15 (3 X $5) Benefiber store coupon from October Easysaver book
-$4 2 Benefiber manufacturer coupons from recent newspaper insert (if you have 3, even better)
-$2.99 coupon from weekly ad for scotch tape
-$1 Quilted Northern store coupon from October Easysaver book
-$1 Quilted Northern printable coupon (or I used the ones I got from the Race for the Cure!)
-$1 Alka Seltzer Plus Cold printable coupon
- $1 Almay coupon from recent newspaper insert

Total after initial Coupons
$21.44

-$5 off $20 Walgreens coupon here or here
+$.82 tax

Final Total
$17.26 + $13 in Register Rewards ($8 for the Benefiber & $5 for the Alka Seltzer to be used with your next purchase)


Transaction #2
$19.99: L’Oreal Pro-calcium Radiance Perfector
$1 Halloween Mask
$10.36: Lindt 70% Dark Chocolate Bars (no dairy or soy!)
$4.00: Quilted Northern, Ultra Plush, 6 pack

Total before Coupons
$35.35

-$1 Quilted Northern store coupon from October Easysaver book
-$1 Quilted Northern printable coupon
-$4 (4 X $1) Lindt Chocolate coupon from October Easysaver book
-$1 L’Oreal manufacturer coupons from recent newspaper insert

Total after initial Coupons
$28.35

-$5 off $20 Walgreens coupon here or here
-$5 in Register Rewards that I cashed in
+$.60 tax

Final Total
$18.94

So for a total of $36.20, I got:
1 L’Oreal Pro-calcium Radiance Perfector lotion
1 Halloween Mask
4 Lindt Chocolate Bars (no dairy or soy!)
12 rolls Quilted Northern, Ultra Plush
3 boxes of Benefiber Kiwi Strawberry drink mixes (which I plan on donating)
1 20-ct box of Alka Seltzer Plus Cold, Plain (which I plan on donating)
1 Almay One Coat Mascara (for me! I’m out)
2 Rolls Scotch Packing Tape, 2 X 800 size

But! I didn’t really spend $36.20 because I still have $8 in Register Rewards to spend later; plus, the lotion ($19.99) and mascara ($6.99) are free after the November EasySaver rebate (yesterday and today are "overlap" days where October & November EasySaver books collide), and they reimburse you for the pre-coupon total. So how much did I spend, out of pocket, for all of the above?


$1.22!! I win!



BUT it gets even better. If you let Walgreens give your rebate back on a Walgreens gift card, they'll give you an extra 10%. I always do this and just use the card for future rebates. So if I get my rebates on a gift card, they actually paid me $1.47 for my purchases.


I seriously win!

Here's my loot:


It would have been even better if they weren't out of Pert Plus. They paid me a penny for the Pert Plus I got the other day. The deal ends today, though; check it out here.

If you want another good deal, print out the coupon (it will let you print 2) over at St. Ives and ask the Walgreen’s folks for next month’s EasySaver book. You can get 2 body washes for $1.03.

Roy showing off his prize:

Some Cool Freebies (And Near Freebies!)

I thought I'd share with you guys some sweet deals, as well as easy ways to earn money and gift cards.

Nancy over at Raging Bear Ranch recommended Swagbucks. Basically, you log in and use their search engine (which uses Google & Ask.com) and you win Swagbucks which are redeemable for gift cards. This is the coolest of my "free" recommendations because you are simply being rewarded for something you do anyway! If you want to be referred, simply click on this link and I think I get some credit or something :) I've been using it for a couple of days, and I already have 8 Swagbucks!

I also use Mypoints and InboxDollars. Both programs reward you for reading e-mails and then clicking on the links. The difference is that My Points pays in gift cards, whereas Inbox Dollars pays in cold, hard cash. Again, I can refer you to these programs if you'd like. You can simply click on this link for InboxDollars, but for My Points, I have to refer you via e-mail. Inbox Dollars will give you $5 just for signing up.

Also, you can sign-up to be a Consumer Tester for McCormick. Up to 4 times per year, you will receive an email inviting you to participate in a Consumer Test. If you participate in the test, you will receive monetary compensation! I'm not sure I can do it because most seasoning mixes contain soy or corn, but I could always test them out on others :)

You can also enter daily to win $5000 in William-Sonoma kitchen merchandise.

I'm looking into this free program, Cozi, which helps to organize your life with reminders and things. I heard about it from the Super Coupon Girl.

And last but not least, you can get 14 hamburgers, a cutlery set and a cutting board from Omaha Steaks for only $1.98, including shipping! Go over to the other Super Coupon Girl's site to see how it works! (This deal is no longer available as Geico and/or Omaha Steaks changed the terms.)

Sales & Rebates

There are some awesome free-after-rebate deals at Walgreens & Rite Aid this week, starting tomorrow. Thanks, Money Saving Mom, for the info!

Turning On The Heat

It has been getting down into the low 40's outside at night and has stayed around 60 outside during the day. So we broke down & turned on the heat yesterday. I wanted to get some of that plastic insulation on the windows first (we had some from last year), but we couldn't find it. I didn't want to buy more because it's expensive, and I figured as soon as we bought more, we'd find the old stuff. I'm still not sure what to do with the door to the porch. I don't really want to seal it off completely because I like going out there, even in the cold.

I'm one of those cold people. I can put on 3 sweaters, and I'm still cold. My fingers freeze easily and then I can't use them. We also have a 1 year old who refuses to sleep with a blanket on (we try putting it on after he's sleeping, and he kicks it off, sometimes waking himself up in frustration). So in our budget, we make sure to budget well for heat.

I decided to pull out the heavy sweaters & turtlenecks this morning, and guess what I found in the basement? The window insulation! So we'll have to install that tonight during our 2 weekly TV shows, Prison Break and the Sarah Connor Chronicles, that is - if I can locate the hair dryer (which is required for installation).

Sidenote: I enjoyed this post over at Unclutterer about whether or not you should keep your yearbooks. I have 3 small yearbooks, which Roy once told me I should get rid of. I balked at the very suggestion! When I was a kid, I loved looking through my parent's yearbooks. Of course, they were cool, and I was a loser, so maybe my kids won't enjoy it as much. But still, I'm keeping those things!

Coupon Fun!

I went to the grocery store tonight to use some coupons :) I'm sort of embarrassed to say I don't know if I have ever used coupons at the closest grocery store, and I had no idea what their coupon policy is. I do think I asked once if they allow internet coupons, so I was fairly confident they'd let me use the coupons I had just printed off the internet.

So, here are the "bargains" I got at Roche Brothers (which is a local chain - sorry to my non-Massachusetts readers):

Tribe Hummus, 8 oz container, on sale for $1
Used 3 55 cent coupons, got 3 tubs of hummus for 45 cents each (cheaper than I could make at home!)

Tropicana Orange Juice, 89 oz containers on sale for $3.99
Used a $2 off 2 coupon I had picked up at Shaw's earlier in the week (one of those automatic coupon dispensers that they attach to the displays), got 2 very large jugs of OJ for $2.99 each

Trix cereal, 10.7 oz box on sale for $1.77
Used 55 cent off coupon, got the box for $1.22

I feel pretty good about those deals! There was an elderly woman behind me in line, and she stated with disbelief, "Are those coupons? I didn't think they made those anymore!" It was quite amusing :)

Streamlining Spending

I'm searching out more ways to streamline our spending. We only really have one budget category where our spending gets out of hand, and that's food. In every other spending category, we are truly down to the bare essentials and have been for months.

So I've added several money-saving & couponing blogs to my Google Reader:
Free Grabber
Thrifty Mommy
Money Saving Mom

And my newest addition, Super Coupon Girl

She claims to be able to spend under $20 a month for enough groceries to feed two people. She says she buys plenty of organic items, too. She lives on the opposite coast and I don't have access to the same stores as she does, but I'm still keeping an eye on how she does it.

There are several challenges for me to keep our grocery budget down. First, a good number of our grocery staples are not available in traditional grocery stores & they rarely go on sale. Second, some of the staples we use aren't available in stores at all, so I have to get them on-line or from the natural foods buying club I use. Third, we eat a lot of produce. A lot a lot a lot, and I'm not willing to change that. In fact, most of what Bear eats is produce. Bear is consuming more & more solid food, but our grocery budget has stayed the same.

So I'm trying to find more ways to save, and thought I'd pass some of them along to you!

More Simplifying in Regards to Blogging & Blog-reading

I've added a "Subscribe to" in the top of the right column of my blog (there has always been one at the bottom of the page). Then I went to every blog that I read & added it to my Google Reader. This will further streamline my internet time. Last night, I cleaned out my other 2 e-mails accounts (one had over 800 e-mails in the inbox!), and I'm down to 14 e-mails in one inbox & only 8 in the other.

I feel lighter already!

Thoughts on Life, Work & Music

I started reading this book, The 4-Hour Work Week. I read a review over at The Simple Dollar and got a copy from the library. The young man who wrote it (younger than me, at least!) is obviously quite entrepreneurial, and his methods definitely wouldn't work for everyone, but there is a lot of meat to be taken from it. I've started taking some notes & jotting down some ideas.

One of the ways I'm simplifying my life is by clearing out the inboxes of my various e-mail accounts, as well as trying to reply right away when I can. My main e-mail account now has 36 e-mails waiting to be replied to rather than the 150+ it usually has. Now I have 2 more accounts to clean out.

I'm not sure if some of my new blog friends know that I'm a singer/songwriter. I don't have a professional CD, but in the past had a CD made of a concert. I also, in the past couple of years, did rough recordings of 2 newer songs, "You" & "You Know Me". I already have about 10 songs written for another project. The drummer from church said we should get some studio time and record some of the songs, which I'd love to do. So one of my goals for the next 6 months is to record at least a few of the songs for my next CD project, which will be called "You". That's one of the things the book has reminded me that I'd like to do.

Clafoutis & Produce Deals

We went back to Haymarket today, and I scored some more deals! We do have an organic fruit delivery on Tuesday, and since we get 2/3 veggies, 1/3 fruit, I mainly stocked up on fruit.

This is what I got for $8.50:
4 or 5 white peaches
4 gala apples
4 purple plums & 5 red plums
1 coconut
2 pounds of sweet potatoes
3 pounds of bananas
4 pears
1 coconut

The clafoutis from the other day was awesome! I've got another baking right now. I couldn't find any more of those Italian plums today, so I made it with 1 white peach, 1 red plum & 1 purple plum. I also used a little less sugar this time because I thought it was a tiny bit too sweet.

Simplify Your Life

I'm reading this great little book.

I originally thought I read about it over at The Simple Dollar, but after trying to find it, I rrealized I'm pretty sure I heard about it over at Zen Habits, a blog I occasionally read after The Simple Dollar reviewed the eBook, Zen to Done.



It's called "Simplify Your Life: 100 Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy the Things that Really Matter" by Elaine St. James, and I finally figured out where I found it: at this Zen Habits blog post.

Some of my favorites points so far:
Stop Buying Clothes that Need to be Dry-cleaned (#9)
Reduce the Clutter in your Life (#1)
Keep the Plants Outdoors (#13) (we can't seem to keep houseplants alive anyway)
Drive a Simple Car (#20) Done!
Don't Answer the Phone Just Because It's Ringing (#30)

Isn't that last one hard? Especially in the age of cell phones. It seems as if people expect you to answer at all times just because it's a cell phone.

It's a good book. See if your library has it.

The 5 Blogs I Read the Most

I wanted to take a moment to share with you all the blogs I read the most.

These are in no particular order :)


Kristen's Raw - raw, vegan, and healthy living talk
Green Smoothie Girl - green smoothie talk

Confessions of a CF Husband - the blog of a man whose wife has cystic fibrosis

The Simple Dollar - a financial blog by an everyday guy

Everyday Thoughts Collected - the blog of my friend and ministry colleague Randy Thomas

One of the reasons I generally check these blogs daily is because they all basically blog daily, if not at least on a regular basis. So to all the bloggers out there - if you want people to frequent your blog, make sure to write regularly.

In fact, here's a good article on blogging: 12 Traits of Successful Bloggers

New Recipes & Awesome Food

Tonight, I made 2 new things.

First, at the produce store last Saturday, I bought some chicory. I've never had it before, but the man working there said I could make a salad out of it. I also had some green-less beets from the farmer's market (I had already used the greens in green smoothies), and some cucumbers. Tonight, I found a recipe on-line and modified it slightly.

Brenna's Chicory Salad
Ingredients
1 garlic clove
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon coarse-grain mustard (I used regular)
1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup cold-pressed, extra-virgin olive oil
As much chicory as you'd like to eat - I imagine I used about 5-6 cups
1 beet, peeled and chopped into chunks
1 cucumber, sliced

Preparation
Mince garlic with a large heavy knife, then mash to a paste with salt using flat side of knife.

Whisk together garlic paste, mustard, vinegar, and pepper, then add oil in a slow stream, whisking until emulsified.

Just before serving, toss greens with vinaigrette. Portion salad into bowls, top bowls with cukes & beets, & then drizzle the leftover dressing (from the bottom of the bowl where you tossed the greens) on top of the salads.

It was surprisingly good! The chicory alone is rather bitter (I had tasted it earlier in the week to see if it would fit in a green smoothie), but the dressing really mellows it out. Even Roy liked it!

Second, we discovered on Roy's birthday that a local ice cream shop has sorbet that is made from water, sugar & fruit/flavoring, therefore making it Brenna-safe. Initially, I was thrilled! But soon the excitement wore off as we grew tired of paying $4 for a small cup of the stuff. So we set out, looking for an ice cream maker. In fact, every Saturday, Roy would suggest we go yard-saling, to look for an ice cream maker, of course :) Well, about a month ago, we scored an electric ice cream maker at a church yard sale for $2.50. And yes, it's taken us a month to find room for it in our freezer :) Here's what we made tonight.

Awesome "Ice Cream"
1 1/2 cups coconut milk, chilled (I used canned light because that's what I had)
2 teaspoons brown rice syrup (agave, maple syrup, or sugar will do)
1 heaping scoop stevia (I get the concentrated kind - you can simply up the sweetener or skip the stevia altogether))
2-3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (to taste)
3 cups bananas, chopped & frozen

Put all ingredients in a blender, except only use half the bananas. Use the "puree" speed, slowly blending. Slowly add remainder of bananas & blend until smooth. Dump into the ice cream maker and follow machine direction (or in our case, turn the machine on for 10 minutes).

If you don't have an ice cream maker, you can use this method. My friend Raspberries swears by it :)

Enjoy!

Sleeping In & Yard Sales

My poor husband had to work until the wee hours of the morning to avoid having to work during the weekend, so when Bear woke up at 6 AM, we let Roy sleep in. We went out & ran a couple errands, including a stop at Roy's favorite donut place for some fresh, hand-cut donuts. Once Roy got up, we went out driving, looking for yard sales. We generally just drive by & see if there's anything interesting. The first one or two looked like duds, but we stopped at one soon after that and scored! The woman having the yard sale had 25 cent tapes (yes, we still have a tape player & only a tape player in our car), 25 cent 3-ring binders, as well as a cute, little "Yak Pak" for $1, in the hopes that my Asus would fit in it.

It does! Here it is, entering in to its new home.


Here it is, all tucked away!



Rock on! I told her about the Asus, and she said it sounds perfect for her partner. Cool :)

Then we headed over to a multi-family yard sale that we saw a sign for. It must have been around 1:30 at this point, and there was a big box marked "Free" in front of one of the houses. We got 3 wooden children's puzzles, 2 kid's videos, the whole Anne of Green Gables series, a little lamb porcelain thing that Roy liked, and a 2-tape set for learning conversational Arabic, which is one of 2 languages I'd like to learn (the other being Spanish).

This is not helping the cause of decluttering much. Well, the binders will help because my recipes get strewn across the kitchen by a certain Bear :) But for the most part, we only picked up things we needed or could use. We can only listen to Ian White in the car so many times! It's Bear's favorite, but now he seems to be taking a liking to Chuck Mangione. When I told him that his great grandpa played with Chuck, I think that won him over :)