Weekly Shopping Trip--Approx. Savings $121.69

My savings this week is a little off because I am using old regular prices for some of the things I purchased at Family Fare. They don't have the savings amount on the bottom or top of their receipts like what Meijer does so I have to either get it out of their ad or write it down as I go in the store. Well I forgot to do the later so I went for my ad only to find that several of the things in their 10 for $10 sale they did do the savings amount for the item! UGH!


Also my totals would have been better if I had remembered to use all of my coupons at Family Fare. However, a coupon that I didn't use at Family Fare I was able use at Meijer; when I found some Pillsbury Garlic Breadsticks markdown 70% so they were 81 cents/can instead of $2.69/can because the best by date was the following day!! I got 5 cans for $4.05 and used a 75 cents/3 coupon to sweeten the deal more! So I got those 5 cans for 66 cents a piece!!

First stop for the week was at Family Fare...

• 2 quarts choc. milk $2.00


• 2 pkgs tortillas $2.00


• 6 cans biscuits $6.00


• 2-12 ct. poptarts $5.00 used $1/2 cpn =$4.00


• 2-12 ct Double Roll Northern TP $12.00 used 2-$1/1 cpns =$10.00


• 2-24ct Single Roll Northern TP $11.00 used 2-50/1 cpns =$11.00


• 1 bottle Apple Juice $2.00


• 4 dz. eggs $5.00


• 2 lbs spaghetti $2.98 (read the ad wrong! I thought this was on sale!)

TOTAL: $46.42
SAVINGS TOTAL: $14.23

Next stop is a local grocery store--Duthler's...

• 6 pkgs(11.68lbs) boneless skinless chicken breasts $18.57 ($1.59/lb)


• 2 pkgs smoky links $4.00

TOTAL: $22.57
SAVINGS TOTAL: $41.69
**Side Story about the chicken breasts...Their ad stated it would be their store brand rather than name brand. Well when I went there to get it, there was only the 6 pkgs left and it was Tyson brand that was hormone & antibotic free!!! So I got some really good chicken that is usually $4.99/lb for $1.59/lb!!! Hummmm...I am thinking I might need to tell dh about it and see if he will let me go get some more!**


Final Stop...Meijer...(I went specifically to get the weekly deals!)

• 2 boxes Go-gurt $4.98*


• 5lbs whole wheat flour $3.39


• 4 tubes cinnamon rolls $4.30(used my raincheck from last week)


• 5-6pks 7-up bottles $10.56 w/deposit ($2.11/6pk)


• 2 boxes micro fries $2.18*


• 2-89oz bottles Tropicana OJ $6.98 ($3.49 each)*


• 2 pkgs Yoplait Kids Yogurt $3.00


• 2 pkgs Yoplait Kids Yogurt Drinks $1.00


• 1 bottle Lawrys Marinade $1.17


• 6 Warm Delights $4.90(82 cents/each)


• 6 bags Cookie Mix $5.20(87cents/each)


• 1 bottle Miracle Whip $2.00


• 1 box Bagelfulls $1.12


• 1 can Pam cooking spray $2.00


• 4 loaves Aunt Millies Bread $5.00


• 1 box Oreo 100 cal. granola bars $1.64


• 5 cans Pillsbury garlic breadsticks $3.30(66 cents each)

TOTAL: $69.12
SAVINGS TOTAL: $65.77 (Meijer promotions $12.34, Non-coupon savings $37.83, Coupon Savings $15.60)

**Now for the story behind this trip!! I checked out only to realize when I got to my van that I had forgotten to give the cashier some of my coupons($6.40 worth) so I go back in to the customer service and wait 20 minutes in line for my $6.40!! The cashier didn't question me at all but oh what a wait with 80° weather and cold/freezer items waiting in the car! Now I am looking at my receipt to do this post, I found even more errors in the prices of products that I purchased! The go-gurt I purchased was on sale 2/$4 and that scanned at reg. price. The Tropicana OJ that I got scanned right but the cashier only used one of my TWO coupons! I guess it doesn't help that I went to a different store than what I normally do!

Weekly Grand Total: $259.80
Weekly Grand Total OOP: $138.11
Weekly Grand Savings: $121.69

For more savings stories head over to MoneySavingMom's Super Saturday Savings and Becentsable's Centsable Saving Stories

Parenting Series---ABCs Christian Parenting--Part 1

In an effort to give you a glimpse into the parenting side of my life, I thought I would start a series based on the ABCs of Christian Parenting by Robert & Debra Bruce. It has been a long time since I have read the book but I have my notes. So for the next several weeks I am going to share each of the letters with their statement along with some thoughts.

AFFIRM your child everyday as a gift from God, no matter what yesterday's problems were.

We have all been there...remembering all those problems the day before that are just too hard to forget...

• that hard to love child who seemingly always creates trouble
• that child who told you one thing and did another
• that doctor's appointment that got missed
• the dinner that never got started or did and got burned
• so many things went wrong that you don't remember them all

However, during those overwhelming times have we taken the time to remember our blessings or gifts that God has given us? Have we taken the time to be positive to ourselves or to our children?

Children Are A Gift From God
by Sandra Tolson

God sent me three packages
That needed special care
"Take care of these tiny gifts
For they are very rare."

"Watch over them with all your love
And let them feel your touch
Take care of their every need
For you are needed very much."

"These gifts will grow up very fast
As you soon will see
Love them with all your heart
And let them be what they will be."

"When these gifts have fully grown
Look at Heaven up above
Know they exist because of God
And all his precious love."

Take the time today to let your children know that you are blessed to have them and that you love them!

Frugal Friday--Sharing Meals

Last week, I had the privilege of taking a meal to a family in my church. The Mother of this family has been battling breast cancer over the last year.

Taking a meal to another family on top of feeding the seven of us could be very expensive. However, I elect to do meals that I know will stretch to feed more than just my crew. So I do up stews or soups that are going to be packed with veggies along with other homemade goodness to complete a filling meal not only for my crew but the other family.


What I made for this family was my Veggie Beef Stew. I used the leftover roast, carrots and potatoes from Wednesday night dinner along with a bag each of frozen corn, green beans, and peas.



Then I did up some of my honey oatmeal bread into rolls.

Then for dessert, I made up a simple, fill the sweet tooth Oreo Pudding pie. I got a graham cracker crust from Aldi's. Then I mixed up a small box of vanilla pudding and put it in the bottom of the crust. Then I mixed up a box of Oreo pudding and layered that on top of the vanilla pudding. Then once that I set I put about 1/2 of a 6oz. container of Cool Whip. Then I crushed 2 Oreo cookies and sprinkled them on top! Voila!

Now to take the meal to the family...









Instead of using my dishes or pots, I have gotten foil pans from either Dollar Tree or Sam's Club to use for the food. Then I take foil and use that as my "lid" on the pans. Using foil allows me to write what is in each pan along with the directions. This way if someone other than who I talk to when I drop the meal off is the one to get the meal heated for the family, they know exactly what to do!











For other frugal tips, recipes, and resources, head over to Biblical Womanhood.

Blog Changes

Well it didn't take as long as I thought it would to make the changes that I have been wanting to do. So here is the new look and the new direction...

After a year plus of the same colors and format, I thought it would be time for a change! I have decided to go to a three column template along with some new colors. I have decided to keep things simple so that it is easy for others to load in other words mostly words & colors than tons of pictures and animation. I was thinking about adding ads(I still might in the future) but for now I will be keeping my blog ad-free.

You will notice that I have separated the homeschooling resources from the other resources. There are other slight changes done as well, like I weeded out sites.

As for the content changes, I am not going to stop posting about my shopping deals or other frugal tips or even the recipes. However, I am going to add in more encouragement in regards to homeschooling and parenting. Stay tuned to see more homeschooling posts with links or activites that we have or are using and even some reviews on books & software. Stay tuned to see more in the way of encouragement in parenting thru links to articles and other little tidbits.

I want to be an encouragement to others and be writing to glorify God rather than seemingly bragging all the time about what I purchased at the store. My purpose for my blog is to give you a glimpse into my life and its many facets. So I am pulling away from concentrating on just one facet of life.

Now I need your thoughts and comments!!

All about "A"

Finally, I think I have my schedule down where I can get started with schooling my kindergartener. We worked at learning about "A" this week. We talked about apples, and ants.

I got books about ants from the library from the list on the ants lapbook. I read a book to her each day about the ants.

We ate apples and applesauce.

We traced "A" and "a". We colored pictures of ants, apples and "A". We did a dot-to-dot apple to work on counting and recognizing our numbers to 10.

When we were putting the picture to match the word in our letter "A" book, I had her tell me each of the letters in the word to see what letters she recognized in each word. This way she is realizing that words represent things not just pictures.

Instead of doing a lapbook on just ants, we made it represent our "A" week.

Aside from doing "A" this week, we also worked on 1 John 4:14 and Psalm 147:5 for Awana.