Kroger Haul!

I spent $47 and saved $103 on all of this - I was floored. This is what couponing is all about, and I still got a five packs of meat and three gallons of milk! WOOHOO! I'm either getting better at this or I just happened to need everything on sale with corresponding coupons!!!

Daylilies

I have had daylilies blooming for well over a month now out front, and I just had to post a picture! These were all free from our local freecycle list, and wow are they wonderful!

Free Jo-sef Cookies

I posted awhile ago that I won a contest and got a box full of Jo-sef Cookies free. Not only was I ecstatic that I won something, but now that I have eaten half of the boxes of cookies I have to say they are excellent! I particularly like the chocolate square cookies - they taste just like those "famous wafers" in the yellow box! My dad used to eat those as a special treat with me, and it brought back so many memories!!

The cinnamon oreo like cookies and the squares were amazing dipped in milk, and the chocolate oreo types I ate half of and am saving the other half for a decadent homemade vanilla bean ice cream, so I can make cookies and cream ice cream! YUMM!!! I haven't tasted the vanilla oreo like cookies or square cookies yet. I'm saving them for one of those low budget weeks where I don't spend extra money on anything gluten free ;)

I have mixed reviews of the animal cookies. The vanilla ones tasted nothing like animal cookies, but were good as a cookie on their own. They just aren't an animal cookie like you think of, those good smelling kiddo cookies in the circus box. Nothing similar, except for shape. The chocolate animal cookies were or course good, because they are chocolate!

So in the end I was really surprised at how tasty and good these cookies really are! Too bad they aren't sold anywhere around here, I'll have to order more and pay shipping if I want some... which is why I don't buy much gluten free goodies. I can get a package of cookies for $.34 for my family, yet I have to pay $8+ in shipping for a box half the size of what the store carries and twice the price BEFORE COUPONS for the actual box of cookies! Ugh. I guess my attitude is if I am going to spend $13 on fifteen cookies I can make them at home for a much cheaper price.

Father's Day

Hubby is having a good day so far, our oldest bought him a new game, Blur, and they have been busily killing each other racing all morning. The twins each got him a cookbook, one Alton Brown and one full of iron skillet recipes. I love everything hubby cooks in his skillets, most is even better than what I cook! I don't use his skillets... man stuff.

I have decided to stop buying diapers until I run out! I have a TON of diapers stocked up, from getting them either for free or almost for free. I am focusing on getting the last bit of painting done in the house, the kitchen cabinets are next. I love how dressed up a little paint can make a room!

I also traded plants with my freecycle friend yesterday. Today the new plants are wilted and so sorry looking, hopefully in a few weeks they will have settled in and look better. Transplanting when it's 90 out is not the best idea, but she was getting rid of canna and bee balm and I wanted some! They were free, so if they don't work out I didn't lose any money!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful father's day weekend!!!

Kohl's

Wow - just wow! Last week I ran into Kohl's with my mom so she could get a new super nice electric toothbrush on sale, and saw some towels I have been admiring on clearance for $2.99. So I bought towels for our kid's/guest bathroom. At the register we each got $10 in Kohl's cash to use the next week, only good for children's and young adult's clothing. I went back the next day to get washcloths, and got another $10 cash! I went back and got hand towels, and in two more transactions I got two more $10 cash! So I had $50 in kohl's cash!

You can only use one per transaction, so I worked it out so I had five transactions, all for around $10 each. I spent $6.41 and bought six shirts for my 11 yr old, 2 for my toddlers, 1 pr shorts and a pr of swim trunks for the 11 yr old. I was floored at how little we spent, and we had bought ten pieces of clothing!!! Can't beat that, I'll so pay attention for the next time they have a sale like that!

Finally, a good trip to Publix!

We went to Publix this weekend, and saved a bunch! Usually we don't save near as much as we do at places like Rite Aid when we go to Publix, because we are there to buy all of our food for the next two weeks, and there aren't many coupons for things like milk and packages of fresh meat! However, this week I was very proud - while I felt like I was dying from a sinus infection, I still somehow managed to spend $103 and save $56! That is way better than I usually do at Publix or Kroger! I really dislike Kroger compared to Publix, the customer service is miles ahead at Publix, but sometimes Kroger sales are just too good to pass up. Not lately thank goodness!

I had hoped to score some good items for next to nothing at Rite Aid today, but after reading a few posts on various money saving blogs I figured out most of what I wanted was already sold out at the store near us. Sometimes the women who buy the store out of the sale items just get there first! I don't get out of the house early enough to join that race I promise.

Freecycle.org rocks!

Freecycle has struck again - this time we received a beautiful set of vertical blinds to cover our new sliding glass doors! YAY! The curtains we had on the dilapidated patio doors wouldn't work on a slider, so this fit our need perfectly. They are cream colored, which matches anything, and the kids helped me clean them (who knows why it's so fun to clean when you're two, wish that continued!) and hang them up! We have received and given so much on freecycle.org, it's just a great idea. Their mission is to keep items out of landfills, and it is much like a free craig's list. Some areas don't have a very active group, areas like mine the group is bumpin! I love it - clean out the garage, post what you don't want and it's gone the next day. We have received tons of baby and toddler items, and numerous items for our house! You'll hear me mention freecycle often, as we are very active members :)

Mmmmmm gluten free banana bread

I love banana bread, and this was made using my great grandmother's recipe with The Gluten Free Pantry's All Purpose Flour. Have I mentioned I'm writing a cookbook using just their flour? I am so sick of trying to find/use/put up with almond flour, white rice flour, zanthan gum, ew!! I wanted to find one flour to use just like good old gluteny flour, and this is it. The book is two thirds done, and I don't expect to become famous, but at this point I want it for my own purposes (to have all my recipes in one place so I can find them) and to give to a few really good friends who need it. If only there were 48 hours in a day instead of 24...

This is a really simple recipe, from my great grandmother.

*as always, if you are making this as a gluten free recipe check your ingredients to ensure gluten free status! I have brands I am very loyal to, but I still check every time I buy a new container to ensure nothing has changed on the ingredient list.

1 C sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 C flour
1/4 C butter, melted
4 ripe bananas
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs. Mash bananas (I just use my hands) and add to mixture, stirring well. Stir in flour and baking soda. Stir until fairly smooth. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake for one hour, or until top browns and springs back when pressed.

I Won Something!!!

http://glutenfreegreenie.blogspot.com/

I recently happened across a few gluten free blogs, and this was one I got stuck on for a bit. She is one of the many many gluten free goers that suffer from other autoimmune disorders on top of celiac. My heart goes out to her, I know so many people with "complications" like that! She is also addicted to Diet Coke, and I laughed out loud reading that because I have had to lower my intake of Coke and it makes my entire family laugh out loud when I walk out of a store without a coke, because I will inevitably ask hubby to get me one on his way home! Love Coke, can't stay away from the stuff! And it's even worse now that I have discovered coke rewards, because I get certificates for free coke all the time now! LOL!

She also has some great links to other gluten free sites that I want to check out, as well as some great food ideas. She seems to eat a much healthier diet than I do, I so love my coke and bread... and meat! I love sauce and meat, we had ribs last night and omg hubby had me drooling. I don't even think there were leftovers! I will continue to link to her blog as I have time to read it - just keep in mind I am busy, working from home, learning how to homeschool, speech therapy with the twins, keeping up the house, oh yes but if you are still reading you know just how busy moms are!

SAVINGS!!!

Stopped at Rite Aid yesterday for diapers, and wow what a deal! I bought two packs of jeans Huggies, a coke, a mounds bar, and a bottle of herbal essences shampoo for $6.71 after coupons! Now that's a deal, and to top it off I will make $2 in single check rebates for the diapers! YAY! Great start to June's SCR program. In April I made $40, and in May I made $30 - all in rebates from Rite Aid! Pretty cool!

New Camera

Yep, you'll be seeing many more photos on my blog now that we have a new camera! We were given a fujifilm finepix A920 when the twins were born (two years ago) and it just never really focused properly. It loved focusing on the grass behind my children, or the water they were standing in front of - out of fifteen pictures we might get their faces in focus on three. Not good odds when you are trying to take pictures of your babies!!

We now own a beautiful canon powershot SX120. Hubby has played with this already and loves it, I have yet to touch it. Ah the life of a busy mommy! We found it on sale at target last night, woohoo! I will try to make time to read the manual today while I work from home and try to get some more research in on what science program we want to use for homeschooling the oldest. Moms never get a moment, do we?!

Wow - flowers!

A bunch of my daylilies have started blooming at once, yay! I am so so happy to see them finally doing well and getting established. If you can't tell yet I love gardening but am used to northern climates, all this southern heat gets me confused on what can be planted where! I have covered the front with chinese fringeflower bushes, which I just love, and daylilies. So far the bushes bloomed magenta little fringy flowers in March, and are now a plum purple! LOVE IT!