Sunday, June 29, 2008

Powerful, Awesome Message!!

Today at church, my Pastor closed with a video snippet of Louie Giglio!! What an awesome message!! To think that our Creator God fashioned us in such a way is just breath taking!
To think that we have a protein, laminin, in our bodies that literally holds us together that is shaped very similiar to a cross is just phenomonal! We have an awesome God! IF you have an extra 9 minutes...take the time to click the link to watch the video(too long to upload here!)

Singing Sunday

Everyday
by Hillsong Australia

What to say Lord
It's You who gave me life and I
Can't explain just how
Much You mean to me now that
You have saved me Lord
I give all that I am to You
That everyday I can
Be a light that shines Your name

Everyday Lord I'll
Learn to stand upon Your word
And I pray that I
That I might come to know You more
That You would guide me
In every single step I take
That everyday I can
Be Your light unto the world

Everyday, It's You I'll live for
Everyday, I'll follow after You
Everyday, I'll walk with You my Lord

It's You I live for everyday
It's You I live for everyday
It's You I live for everyday

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Restauraut Coupons

ATTN. MICHIGAN Readers...

There is a relatively new website called Wendy's Saves Michigan Money where you can enter the county you live in and get several coupons to use at their local Wendy's Restauraut. Right now thru 6/30/08 you can get 2/$5 Chicken Sandwiches or 2/$5 Double Cheese Burger or Buy One Single Burger get one Free or $1 off a Garden Sensations Salad or Combo Meal. The coupons will probably change to something different on 7/1/08.

ATTN. Chicagoland/Rockford IL and Grand Rapids, Flint and Traverse City, MI Readers

Taco Bell that serves Chicagoland and Rockford, IL and Grand Rapids, Flint, and Traverse City, MI has a website "My Local Taco Bell". You register with email addy and password and there is access to download coupons to use at the local Taco Bell. The 5 coupons currently on the site are good thru 7/13/08.

Weekly Shopping Trip--Markdown Meat & Eggs

Last week, I said that I was going to be stretching my groceries thru this week!! I did it!! We didn't go hungry! The menu was a simple one and I had everything in my pantry or freezer to cover each meal or snack. We ended up getting take out pizza last night so I now have another meal to stretch into this next week.

I had to go to the store, actually the pharmacy to pick up medicines. While I was there I always take the time to scan the meat counter for "Manager Specials" discount meats! I scored some pork and some ground beef from round!

I got 3.22 lbs of Country Style Boneless Pork Ribs for $7.38 instead of $14.76!! They were marked down 50%!

I got 8.83lbs of Ground Beef from Round(86% lean) for $20.33 instead of $26.43! They were marked down 30%!

They also had 1 dozen eggs on sale for 99 cents!!! I haven't seen eggs that cheap in a long while! I got 4 dozen for $3.96!

My total for the week, which will get used in the weeks to come was $31.67! I used a pop bottle deposit refund of $5.20 which means my total OOP was $26.47!!
My savings was $15.48!!

To read about other's savings this week, head over to MoneySavingMom's Super Saturday Savings and BeCentsAble's Centsible Shopper Show N' Tell!

Friday, June 27, 2008

Frugal Friday--No Bake Desserts


Everyone has a sweet tooth that needs to be "filled" on a consistent basis. During the cooler outside temps it is easy to just turn on the oven and heat the house up and bake our favorite chocolate concoctions. :) However, during the summer months turning on the oven makes the house turn into a sauna....so here are some no bake summer treats!


Lemonade Ice Cream Sandwiches

1-1/2 cups reduced-fat vanilla ice cream, softened

1-3/4 teaspoons sugar-free lemonade soft drink mix

2 tablespoons water

1/2 cup reduced-fat whipped topping

8 whole graham crackers, halved

Place the ice cream in a bowl. Dissolve lemonade mix in water; stir into ice cream. Fold in whipped topping. Freeze for 20 minutes or until mixture reaches desired consistency. Spread about 3 tablespoonfuls onto eight graham cracker halves; top with remaining crackers. Wrap individually in foil or plastic wrap. Freeze for at least 1 hour. Yield: 8 servings.

Nutritional Analysis: 1 ice cream sandwich equals 106 calories, 3 g fat (1 g saturated fat), 3 mg cholesterol, 106 mg sodium, 17 g carbohydrate, trace fiber, 2 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 1 starch, 1/2 fat.


Banana Pops (I found this one at Living On A Dime a while ago, and I don't remember exactly but I think it was in one of their e-books or newsletters that I received.)

Slice bananas into disks

Roll banana discs into PLAIN yogurt (you can use vanilla yogurt, but I used plain because that's what the recipe said, and that was back in my super healthy days)

Add any kind of topping you wish. We rolled our disks in chopped pecans. I know that's expensive, but we love pecans so much. After freezing these we ate them AND YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE THE TASTE! It was like eating a frozen candy bar. Okay, maybe not that good, but they were sweet and refreshing, and I didn't have to put a limit on how many the kids could eat.

Other toppings that work well: chopped raisins, granola, any kind of nut (cashew, peanuts, almonds), peanut butter (this would be without the yogurt), and of course, melted chocolate or chocolate chips.

My son is not a fan of bananas, but he really liked this treat. You can even eat them plain. Oh, yeah, another topping we did was a cinnamon/sugar mixture. Believe it or not, it was good too! I will warn you that it's messy because of the yogurt. And super messy if the kids help! But you don't have the guilt of giving them something unhealthy, and it's a cheap "popsicle."


Peanut Butter "Toffee"
This is a recipe that I concocted using up some things I had in my pantry for a quick treat for my kids!

I melted some Hershey's chocolate bars. While the bars were melting in the microwave, I take saltines and lined a plate with them and then spread them with peanut butter and then took my melted chocolate and poured it over them and then set them in the freezer til the chocolate was firm. Then I broke them apart and ate! Yummy!

What are your favorite, easy, summer time desserts??

If you are feeling like being a little more adventurous, you can try my No-Bake Cheesecake or my Lunch Box Dessert--Layered Pudding Cups!

For other frugal ideas, tips, or resources head over to Biblical Womanhood. This week for Frugal Friday, Crystal is talking about making smoothies.