Freezer Cooking - Roast Chicken and Slow-Cooked Pork with Veggies

Just because I'm eating primally doesn't mean that I can't still do a freezer cooking day every so often. One of the easiest ways for me to relieve my kitchen duties is to have cooked, frozen pieces of animal protein (poultry, meat, etc.) ready to rewarm and incorporate into soups, salads, etc.

I recently came up with 10 lbs. of slow-cooked pork carnitas. I sauteed some heartier veggies (squash, onions, mushrooms), and combined them with pieces of the pork in a ziploc bag for the freezer. I'll use them to make pork soup on short notice with chicken broth for lunches.

This past week, I made a lot of shredded leftover chicken from roasting two chickens - about as much as I can handle at one go. I also like the economies of scale offered by roasting two whole chickens. This is for many factors:

1) Whole chickens are the cheapest per lb.,
2) Cooking a whole chicken takes about 90 minutes (two chickens about two hours) at 350 F, so I can throw them in the oven and forget about them - not a precise operation!
3) Cooking two at once saves me on oven time, about $0.50/hour to run.
4) It is only one extra moment to save the chicken fat from your roasting chickens to freeze so that you can have a stable cooking fat on hand.
5) A couple of chickens yields an entire gallon freezer bag's worth of shredded chicken meat, which is great reheated for a quick protein topping on salads - or, you can divide it into smaller servings in smaller bags.
6) Once the chickens have been stripped, you can make homemade chicken stock with the bones. Yum!

Have you been freezer cooking this week? What have you made lately?

Check out the rest of the August Freezer Cooking Day linkups at Money Saving Mom!

Frugal Fridays: Flexible Spending Accounts

It's time for the blog carnival Frugal Fridays - when we blog about the small habits and other tidbits we include in our comings and goings to save money on a regular basis.

We have a Flexible Spending Account through my husband's employer. It allows our healthcare-related expenses to be pre-tax, which ultimately saves us about 20% on what we spend on those expenses!

There are a couple of big ways that you can do FSA shopping once you secure an FSA through your employer. One is to buy FSA-elligible items, and submit receipts for those items at the end of the spending year. The other (which I use the most) is to buy FSA-elligible items with an FSA-specific credit card issued to you, and use that credit card only on FSA items to ensure that you are spending only on what qualifies.

The tricky part of an FSA is trying to determine a) what you already buy that qualifies, and b) how much you think you'll spend on that over the course of the spending year. If you don't use your FSA-set-aside dollars, you lose them! I know of a coworker who once discovered that her FSA spending year deadline was fast approaching, and so she set about finding a pricey pair of prescription glasses just to ensure that her FSA dollars wouldn't float out into the ether, utterly foregone.

As you can see, it can quickly turn into a "The Price Is Right"-style game. Ultimately, you're generally better off erring on the side of setting aside less than you'd spend than more, since FSA-set-aside money that you don't spend is forfeit.

Here are just a few examples of things that may qualify under your FSA plan (check your plan specifics to be sure!):

Over-the-counter cold and pain medications
Allergy medications
Sunscreen
Diaper rash creams
Bandages
Doctor's office visit and prescription copayments
Flu shots
Eyeglasses and contact lenses

...and much, much more! Even if you're a guru of CVS shopping, you could still stand to save 20% on whatever you do spend on FSA-elligible items, so that's more money in your pocket.

So check out the details of the FSA plans offered by your employers; once you determine your theoretical FSA-elligible pending over the course of the year, the rest (shopping for them, and sometimes saving receipts to submit at year's end) is pretty painless for all the savings you might reap.

Redemption Unlimited is for entertainment purposes only. Mel and A. are not a financial advisers and no information found on this site should be construed as financial advice.

Snow Ice Cream

C'mon... you know you want it!!

Snow Ice Cream

(I added decaf instant coffee and brandy extract to my recipe....*drool*)

Did you try a snow ice cream recipe this weekend? How did it turn out? :)
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Eat from the Pantry: Looking Back at January 2010

Redemption Unlimited's A. Reports on her "Eat from the Pantry" Experience

When I first read about the Eat from the Pantry Challenge on Crystal Paine's blog, I thought, "Oh, yea, I can do that!" - a little too confidently. Now, at the end of this month, it's turned out to be a much bigger challenge than I initially assessed. We definitely had our hiccups, including the following:

• On January 2, my husband ordered some K-cup coffee on Amazon for a bargain price (in relative terms) of $15.
• He also did a trip to Sam's Club for us in the middle of the month, which bought us a few convenience foods (aka frozen lasagnas) and frozen chicken breasts ($13 for a huge bag).
• I was along on the two trips to Giant, during which I picked up about $30 worth of beef and poultry to freeze since it was on sale.
  

SO, if we had been following Crystal's general parameters of produce-dairy-eggs-only, and foregone at least the frozen protein and K-cups, we would have spent $211 on groceries in January, or $47.64/week. As it is, our total made it $60.74/week - which is still quite a bit lower for us, considering that we spend about $12/week on organic milk alone around here (one of my routine grocery splurges). If you divide our spending over two adults and a toddler, that's $2.89/person per day.

The net effect? Our kitchen pantry has been pretty well hollowed-out. I still have a lot of cream cheese, brown rice, and Heart-Healthy Bisquick, but I guess that those can be used up in February, too! There's a lot less "convenience" or processed foods left. In general, over the past year or so, I've tried to increasingly buy "whole food" items and staples to build meals from scratch, so this is actually a good thing. (But I'll always have a few frozen pizzas and lasagnas around...)

I'm convinced that - for the sake of the money saved and health, I should sally forth by concentrating my personal couponing/sale-shopping energies more and more on deals involving simple less-processed nonperishables (rice, pasta, etc.) and fridge staples (produce, dairy, etc.) that allow me to assemble healthier meals. I'm also going to focus more on eating what we already have around, now that I've seen how far it can take us!

Though, February 1 will definitely find me buying some decaf coffee... 0:-p

Redemption Unlimited's Mel Reports on Her "Eat from the Pantry" Experience

Like A., I thought I could breeze through the month of January and save 50% on our food budget. I was wrong! Though my pantry is nearly empty, I still had to buy a lot of staple foods - like chicken, for example. After all our Christmas guests departed, I had very little in the freezer because I'd used it up to feed the horde.

Additionally, I was blessed to provide 5 meals for other families in need. I maximized these opportunities by cooking from the pantry as much as possible, but I ended up using a lot of the chicken I bought the first week of January. Which meant I had to buy a second round of chicken halfway through the month.

I did end up saving about $50 on our food budget for the month. Though I'd like to see a much higher number, I feel very convicted with what I learned, as outlined below.
(1) I do not do a good job of checking what we have in the FRIDGE before grocery shopping. I truly am a fridge stockpiler! We don't have a second fridge or freezer, so our fridge is generally pretty full, especially full of condiments and things in the fridge door. Case in point: we had 2 bottles of opened barbecue sauce and 3 bottles of salad dressing in our fridge. We rarely use barbecue sauce, so I purposed to use both of those in January. I finished 1 of the 3 salad dressings. I also realized that I let produce go bad by not planning to use it all up in 2 recipes. I'm good at using it in 1 recipe, but not about finishing it all up. Moving forward, I will purpose to plan 2 ways to use fresh produce.

(2) I need to visually LOOK at what I have in the pantry, fridge and freezer before writing up my meal plan for the week. I assume I know what we have, but I realized that if I don't see it I really don't know what we have "in stock." Easy fix: look in all 3 places on Sunday afternoons before writing up the meal plan.

(3) I need to pack my lunch more. I really like to eat lunch out 1-2 times a week. I usually do this when I have coverage for my toddler and maximize the splurge by using coupons, but this was an easy habit to break. I will purpose to pack my lunch at least 1 of those 2 times per week. To make it exciting, I can pack a soda, sweet treat and/or chips. This will save me $ and calories.

I really look forward to continuing this new trend throughout 2010. I'm hoping and praying for additional savings in other months as I get better at using what we have.

Eating from the Pantry - Feeding Company on the Fly

My inlaws came by - and stayed for dinner last night. My older daughter just basks in their adoration and special attention.

My husband and I threw together a "from the pantry" dinner for company on the fly for the occasion. Here's how it broke down:

Dinner:

Chicken drumsticks (from the freezer), baked with honey, sesame oil, garlic powder, and ginger powder
Steamed frozen asparagus, dressed with spray Caesar vinaigrette
Steamed frozen edamame pods
Fresh baby carrots (pretty much a staple at our house)

And for dessert:

Thawed/warmed slices of sour cream loafs (sour cream muffin mix in mini loaf form), from last November's Baking Day - much like fluffier pound cake
with
Mixed Berry sauce (frozen berries, splash of juice, white sugar brought to boil in saucepan)
and
Whipped cream (a carton of heavy cream soon-to-be-past-its prime from the fridge) with drops of vanilla extract, brandy extract, and a dash of ginger powder

My inlaws raved on the dished-out dessert (which I really should have photo'ed for the blog). It was without question the most creative element of my "Eating-from-the-Pantry-With-Company" meal. It shows how you can transform a humble Baking Day frozen item into a warm gourmet-looking dessert with steaming hot berry sauce and melting-on-top whipped cream.

Also, I'm beginning to be convinced that having a small carton of heavy cream on hand at all times (like eggs and milk) could be worthwhile for the convenience and taste factor (much more luxurious than even Reddi-Wip). Regular heavy cream is generally cheaper than aerosol whipped creams, and it has a pretty long shelf life, so unless there are aerosol whipped cream coupons/sales available, doing the 30 seconds of work with an electric mixer to whip the heavy cream into soft peaks is worth it, and company will testify as much!

Reader Email - "Refrigerator Soup" - Eat from the Pantry Challenge

Yesterday I received a delightful email from reader Adrienne. It made me click my heels (at least mentally) to read - here is the abridged version, published with her permission:

"I did this out of necessity yesterday as we hadn't made it to the grocery store after 10 days away. I made what I decided to call "refrigerator soup," based loosely on a stone soup recipe I found in a Rachael Ray cookbook I got from Christmas. Basically I took whatever I could find in the freezer/fridge/pantry and put it in a pot. It turned out so well I think I might make it again.

I had one chicken breast and two hot Italian sausages so I cut them up small and cooked them with onion, garlic and olive oil. Then I added some chopped up carrots and green pepper (would have used celery if I had some) and let it cook for a few minutes. Then I added a can of diced tomatoes, a can of black beans (could definitely use any other kind of bean), a cup or two of chicken broth, some cumin, salt, pepper, bay leaf, paprika and tabasco sauce (you could really take this any way you want with spices) and let it cook down a bit. It really was more like goulash than soup (more broth could be added for actual soup) and I served it over pasta. You could throw in potatoes or rice just as easily (also with the meat it could be anything from ground beef to sausage to totally veggie). It turned out really yummy (even my one-year-old was a fan) and I will definitely use this again if I need a use for leftovers. Anyway, just thought I'd pass it along :)"

Adrienne's example here is such a practical application of the January Eat from the Pantry Challenge, as hosted by Money Saving Mom and FishMama. She grabbed the bull by the horns (or the pot by the handle?), didn't let her unique pantry/fridge contents intimidate her, and in turn discovered a tasty dish for future use.

Thanks, Adrienne, for sharing this cool story!

As for our household, I found that a topping-based dinner - like the one we had last night with baked potatoes - works out as a great vector for getting rid of small amounts of condiments buffet style. I was able to use up some of the last vestiges of butter, shredded cheese, sour cream, and salsa.

Other "topping meal" ideas:

Pizzas (leftover meats and veggies, cheeses)
Pancakes/waffles (fruit, whipped cream, syrups)
Chili (Cheeses, sour cream, crackers, breadcrumbs)
Quesadillas (leftover meats and veggies, cheeses)

What strategies are you employing in the Eat from the Pantry Challenge?
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Eating from the Pantry Challenge - Planned for January 2009

My husband and I (A.) recently reviewed the month of December for our bills - which, incidentally, were way lower than usual. It would appear that nothing puts a damper on casual runs to Target, Giant, and other locales like having a newborn at home!

Soon after our monthly bill review, frugality blogger Crystal Paine of Money Saving Mom posted her Eating from the Pantry challenge for the month of January. The timing for the concept was impeccable. Crystal notes: "We're attempting to avoid grocery shopping as much as possible and will be blogging what we're feeding our families, creative recipes we're concocting, and how we're pulling this whole thing off."

While I'm not planning on precisely following Crystal's parameters set for herself and the Paine family, I'm already in a scenario where my husband is doing nearly all of the grocery shopping from my written lists and a few assigned coupons - and I'm home, dreaming up ways to use my stockpile. Like Crystal, we're going to focus what minimized grocery shopping we do on procuring lots of fresh produce and dairy, with little-to-no processed foods bought. (Bonus - that also de facto reduces coupon-finding and -clipping for the month.) So, doing the challenge is not a huge leap of faith - it's more like rendering what we're already doing in this life season in official blog format. I have a feeling that this is going to involve a LOT of casseroles, pasta dishes, and fruit smoothies.

I'll be posting ways that we are trying to stretch our pantry and fridge/freezer contents over the coming weeks, and at the end of January do a bit of summing up of what I've learned, money saved, recipes invented, my husband's perspective, etc. Follow my Eating from the Pantry Challenge blog posts by clicking our "Eating from the Pantry" label...and follow other bloggers who are doing the challenge by seeing Crystal's Mr. Linky list at her introductory post here.

Are you going to be trying the Eating from the Pantry Challenge? What strategies are you planning?
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Hail from Newbornland

Greetings! 'Tis I, A., who welcomed our second daughter into the world last week. I write this post from the ether of those first hazy days of life with a newborn - and a two-year-old, to boot. Am thinking today during the snowstorm how glad I am to be huddled in the warmth of our home with the baby already here, instead of anxiously hoping that a snowplow will visit our part of the neighborhood pronto so that I can get to a hospital. :)

Needless to say, deal-hunting has been moved to the back burner for these first heady days while we figure out nursing, sleep deprivation, and diapering a dimpled, wiggly little booty anew. The support of friends and family has gone a long way - we've had many meals brought to us that have made a big difference in terms of saving us cooking/cleaning/grocery shopping hassle.

Additionally, my couponing and freezer stockpile from the last few months has really helped! Tonight we popped one of my frozen pot pies in the oven - made back in November with couponed frozen veggies and crockpot-cooked chicken, of course! - and enjoyed a homemade dinner with no effort. I also have some sour cream muffins and a bit of spinach dip frozen from a couple of weeks ago - my little Christmas present to myself when I don't feel like cooking. And lastly: a stockpile of nonperishables like tea, brown rice, peanut butter, cereal, honey, powdered milk, etc. will ensure that even in weeks to come when that much-needed trip to the grocery store just doesn't happen, we won't exactly waste away.

Since our little one has joined us, Mel has been keeping y'all going with posts in the last two weeks, and my abundant thanks go to her for her efforts. I plan to rejoin her in posting in the coming days, though my posts (including the 5 Reasons to Visit Giant posts) are likely to develop a more concise style, headlining only the very best deals spotted, since my hands are more-than-occupied with about 8 lbs. of hungry baby these days.

I hope that now that we are past most shipping deadlines and fast approaching Christmas, you are also able to relax, enjoy the fruits of your own coupon savings from the past few weeks, and focus on time with loved ones. Don't worry - there will be plenty of opportunities to coupon shop again in 2010. :)
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Holiday Series: Toys (and Other Gifts) With Staying Power

Some toys last approximately 3 nanoseconds - or less - after Christmas. You know the ones I'm talking about: they have teeny tiny, breakable, and/or irreplaceable pieces that are lost before that second cup of coffee on Christmas morning. Or they don't match your child for age-appropriateness or size. Buying Christmas toys for today's marketing-savvy kids only adds to the challenge. We are a million light years away from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Christmases featuring a single penny, and orange, and a tin cup.

With this post, we're kicking off a holiday series on toys (and other gifts) with staying power. Generally speaking, the items will:

1. Be a good value
2. Be long-lasting/resilient
3. Inspire creativity
4. Span age groups

Without further adieu, here are some toys with staying power:

Makit's Make a Plate Kit
$12.24

My brother and I made a few of these back in the day, and they are still in their original format today on Amazon.com: "Each Make A Plate® Kit contains 5 drawing sheets and markers, plus one pre-paid certificate for processing artwork into one (1) 10 inch melamine plate at the Magic Factory™."

The recipient can send one sheet they have colored with the kit's markers in to the Magic Factory™, and after about 10 days, their design comes back in the mail emblazoned on a melamine plate that they can use again and again! These plates are oh-so dishwasher safe, and I am proud to say, still hold their colorfast properties decades (eek!) later - remaining bright and enduring (not to mention useful) tributes to the child's artwork. (My mom still treasures the ones she has at home that we colored for Christmas way back when.)

At just over $12 for one Make a Plate kit, this could be a stocking stuffer or part of the gifts under the tree - OR you could collude with the kids to color and process their own plates as a Christmas gift to their parents.

IKEA Lillabo train sets
$14.99 for the biggest basic set (found in the Woodbridge IKEA)
$9.99 for 12-piece train/track set
$6.99 for 10-piece supplemental track set
$3.99 for the basic 3-piece train with engine and cars

Let's face it: shopping for train sets for your kids can be like shopping for cars - there is a basic A to B function, and if the set delivers on that, most kids will be deliriously happy to build, rebuild, and choo-choo away for at least long enough for you to grab a shower or rustle up some dinner. Train sets that go beyond this A to B function with extra options and characters are cool, sure, but the costs can run away quickly, as any parent whose child owns an entire complement of Brio or Thomas the Tank engine sets will attest.

Word on the street (and on the IKEA website's Lillabo page) is that the IKEA train track sets, including the main Lillabo set, are compatible with higher end toy train engines, like Thomas the Train engines. So if the little one on your Christmas list is nuts about Thomas, consider buying some Thomas engines, and one or more of the extra track sets from IKEA.

And: Shhhh...it's OK...we won't tell if you're buying the train sets for the kiddos so that you can choo-choo on Christmas morning. Find your local IKEA here.

Note: We have not been paid or asked to endorse the gifts in these series; we just plain like the gifts!
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Works for Me Wednesday: Scouring Budget Nooks and Crannies for Christmas Gifting

It's Wednesday - time for another "Works for Me!" tip, inspired by the blog carnival/series at We are THAT Family. Check out this week's carnival here.

November and December take a bite out of almost everybody's budget. The great thing that I am discovering this year, though, is how to scour the nooks and crannies of my budget for little ways that the discounts can add up. It's the product of continuously honed awareness of sales, bulk discounts, rewards systems, couponing, and elbow grease that add up to free or heavily discounted Christmas gifting.

Here's one example: My parents use a Keurig K-Cup machine. They also happen to really like Gloria Jean's Hazelnut coffee.

***

Watch the nooks and crannies add up through four stacked discounts:

1. For select products, Amazon has a new frustration-free packaging that is more earth-friendly, and cheaper, too! The Gloria Jean's Hazelnut K-Cups in the frustration-free packaging are much cheaper per unit ($0.42/cup) than the regular retail-style-packaged Gloria Jean's Hazelnut K-Cups that Amazon sells ($0.47/cup).

2. Subscribe and Save on the frustration-free package makes the deal sweeter, bringing the per-cup price down from $0.42/cup to $0.36/cup. The great part about Subscribe and Save is that it can be cancelled at any time.

3. I recently redeemed some Swagbucks for a couple of $5 Amazon.com gift cards that will go to this. I just went from paying $17.85 for the Subscribe and Save package to $7.85 out of pocket. Find out how to get started searching via Swagbucks as your search engine - and earning rewards like Amazon gift cards!*

4. I took a jar full of pennies that we've long collected to my Giant's Coinstar machine, where I redeemed them for a Amazon.com gift certificate number printed on the receipt. If you trade change for cash back, you are charged a fee, but if you trade change for a gift certificate from any number of popular retailers, you will receive all of your money back on the certificate. Gina also highlighted a Coinstar deal, through December 6, where you can get $10 extra sent to you by gift card when you trade in $40 or more in coins for a gift certificate.

In my case, a spaghetti sauce jar full of pennies (and just one each of a rogue nickel, quarter, and dime) came to $10.03 Amazon.com credit total! That just more than paid for the rest of the 50 K-Cups. Locate your local Coinstar machines here.

***

I'm sure that you can see where I'm going here. K-Cups normally retail around $10 for a 16-18 ct. in many stores ($0.55/cup or more), so assuming that I had bought three packs retail, I would have spent $30 to get my parents around 50 Gloria Jean's Hazelnut K-Cups. Using my above "budget scouring" shopping tactics, I covered 50 K-cups - one of their main presents - for free!

I'm going to add some other special treats to these K-Cups - like a couple of tins of the Petite Pirouette Pepperidge Farm cookies that I bought for $1.35/tin at Shopper's triple coupons - to create an overflowing "party hosting" package. For the parents who have everything, a package of yummy consumables makes a pretty practical Christmas gift - for just a few dollars out of pocket.

How are you scouring the nooks and crannies of your budget to pay for Christmas gifts this year? How many discounts can you stack on just one deal?
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*Disclosure: if you start a Swagbucks account through our referral link, we will receive Swagbucks rewards matching yours, up to 100 Swagbucks (Thanks!) - and so will you for any swagging friends whom you've referred.

Anatomy of a Giant trip - $16.46 for $66.67 worth of groceries!

It was a good trip to Giant this morning. I printed out all necessary coupons last night - yes, it was an all Internet-printable trip - and done with only one computer! You too can get a similar haul of General Mills cereal for dirt cheap - dollar doublers not even required. Going with this "list" in mind and my doublers at the ready made the trip extra-efficient.

Note on this: If you're going to use the printable coupons listed in our Giant matchups for this week, print them now, because the July coupons will be gone soon in most venues, replaced by the August coupons, tomorrow in all likelihood.

FYI: For some reason, the Chef Boyardee/SmartSource batch linked will only print once; when I did the "standard operating procedure" for Internet printables and hit the back/"Retry" sending info combo that Internet coupon printers use to get their second batch for pretty much any Internet coupon source, a SmartSource banner displayed saying, "Fraudulent Coupon Printing detected" (or something similar). Yikes! That was unexpected. Just an FYI for those planning to go for some free Boyardee.

I netted $16.46 for:

10 boxes of cereal
2 four-packs of Yo-Plus
5 lbs. of peaches
2 bags of grapes
3 mangoes
2 cans Muir Glen organic tomato soup
1 can Chef Boyardee ravioli

(Click the below picture summary for images/details on today's trip.)

General Mills/general info: You'll see by clicking the image above that the 4/$6 General Mills cereals which are listed on the front page of the Giant ad do a two-deduction method; $6 deducted automatically after your fourth cereal (in my case, the MultiGrain Cheerios) is rung-up, and $3.16 at the end of the transaction, as a General Mills "Personal Thanks" item. This brought the price of the 4 boxes of MultiGrain Cheerios down to $6 for the 4. The tasty Banana Nut Cheerios weren't as cheap, but I had a bunch of $0.55 coupons, and the checkout still did another $6 deducted after 4 (as noted inside the Giant ad), so the Banana Nut variety came to about $0.90/box. Finally, after my transaction, I received a printed coupon for $2/5 General Mills cereals. Not sure if I can use this well, but just wanted to let you know that it is tied to the purchase of these GM cereals somehow.

In-Packaging Bonuses: Muir Glen soups are as low as $2.19. If you have some of the $1/any Muir Glen coupons (printable on the Betty Crocker and/or Pillsbury sites linked in our weekly deals post), these are usable with your dollar doublers, making the soups as low as $0.19/each - and bonus! The cans have a $1/soup coupon right on the front, for future use. If you have access to a big stack of doublers (and if you do, can I be your new best friend?) you might be able to roll these pretty easily across several trips to get multiple cans of the soup at $0.19/each. The Kashi Go Lean Crunch Honey Almond Flax flavor had two manufacturer coupons in-box: $1/off Kashi TLC Snack Crackers and $1/off Kashi TLC Chewy Cookies (not sure about regular Go Lean Crunch 15 oz. boxes as my store had none in stock this a.m.). My Kashi boxes also had sample bags of TLC crackers inside - great for that "on the go" snack stockpile.

Refunds via customer service: For some weird reason the checkout wouldn't accept my $1 Chef Boyardee coupon, so the lady checking me out sent me to customer service for a refund. While I was there, I double-checked on some mangoes whose display had read 3/$2, but instead rung up at 3/$4.50! My Giant is about 50/50 about refunding the total amount of the item in question where the customer spots a mistake (the official policy), but this time the refund was given to me, so I netted back ~$5.50 total in cash - not bad for less than 3 minutes of my time and simple questions. I couldn't have asked for a friendlier customer service rep, either! She was so helpful in outlining the General Mills savings for me, too.
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Two FREE Starbucks Recipes - Banana Walnut Bread and Outrageous Oatmeal Cookies

Did you hear the exciting news? Starbucks has just released recipes for two of its hottest treats. It's part of a campaign to increase awareness that Starbucks recipes now contain:

• No artificial flavors
• No artificial trans fats
• No artificial dyes
• No high-fructose corn syrup

Add these to your recipe bookmarks of DIY frugal treats for future reference. I'll bet they both freeze pretty well, too.

Banana Walnut Bread

Outrageous Oatmeal Cookies

Enjoy some of these with a home-brewed cup of coffee, making your java and treat together well under a buck. (Compare with $4-$6 in the restaurant!)
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Notes on Giant Run - "Cheap Date Night In!"

Made a stop at Giant today - as predicted based on the coupon offer text, the $3/$15 meat coupon definitely works without/before the BonusCard is scanned.

Porterhouse and T-Bone steaks measured in packages from ~$20-$30 retail ($10-$15 after BonusCard discount) - which makes it hard to use the "buy $15 of steak" strategy I mentioned before. Basically about the best you can do on the steak is to buy the smallest package available, around $20 retail, use the $3/$15 coupon, and then scan your BonusCard to get a $20 package for $7. Still a great (and oh so freezable) discount at 65%.

Those of you who are more "housebound" because you're parents to little ones can appreciate the value of a post-kids'-bedtime "date night in".

Here is a sample of a date night in based on price ranges of items that I picked up today (see our discussion of weekly deals and matchups at Giant):

2 Porterhouse Steaks - $7 after $3/$15 coupon
2 ears of corn, grilled, ~$0.34 on sale
1 watermelon @$3.99, - we'd eat ~$1 worth for dinner
1 Ben and Jerry's pint - $2 after $0.50 manufacturer coupon
1 can ice cold Barq's root beer for hubs - $0.18 after Coke 12-packs deal
(water for me)
=======================
Total consumed: $7 + $0.34 + $1 + $2 + $0.18

=~$10.52 for a quickly-prepared dinner of "splurges", and no tips to pay! (Though I could prorate the pennies of propane, the Heinz 57, the free-after-Cats-and-coupons butter, and salt and pepper if you really wanted me to...) Did I mention that I ended up with half of my steak leftover for today's lunch? Maybe that would bring the price for the sample dinner date down another $1.75. ;-p

This date would have normally cost around $26.91 at retail grocery prices or upwards of $50 for a sit-down dinner out (babysitter not included!), for a date discount of up to 80% or more. That's what I call a cheap date. :)
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Make-Your-Own Experiment - Bagels, Cream Cheese, Granola, and More!

A couple of weeks ago, Slate's Jennifer Reese did a neat article detailing her efforts at making staples at home as cheaply as possible - to see which are worth making at home for the budget-conscious. Surprise, surprise: many items - yoghurt, bagels, granola among them - turn out to be classified as worth trying to make at home, not just because they're cheaper, but because they taste considerably better.

Check out the article for a the author's take on making the following at home:

Bagels
Cream Cheese
Yoghurt
Jam
Crackers
Granola

We weren't surprised to see the bagels on the "definitely make your own at home" list - after all, Frugally Blonde makes her own drool-worthy bagels all the time.
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Making Meals at Home = Avoiding Obesity?

This is a little off the beaten path of our usual post content, but we think it's fascinating. The New York Times' Catherine Rampell plotted the average time each day that an average citizen of a country spends eating against the national obesity rates. The result is fascinating. Check out where the U.S. is hanging out!

Meanwhile, personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary noted in this past Wednesday's Washington Post article that making and eating your meals at home and eating out less is a great way to reclaim a chunk of your budget.

Singletary says,

"Because I write The Post's Color of Money personal finance column, I've seen the high cost of eating out. Dozens of readers regularly tell me that their budgets get busted by frequent restaurant visits.

If you shop well, you can cook at home for less money. But there's another important benefit and blessing that is priceless: Having family meals at the same time, at the same table is a way to keep the family healthy and close. I just wish I had understood that earlier in my marriage and motherhood.

Some of the best times I've had in my home with my kids and husband have occurred around the preparation or consumption of a meal. We have to teach our children how to cook, so they can cook for their families and minister to their needs. "

Amen to that.

If economic pressure makes us reinvestigate thrifty grocery shopping and old fashioned family dinners at home, maybe we'll take a little more time at the dinner table to to savor the fruits of our efforts in the supermarket and kitchen...and bonus: we just might buck an American obesity trend along the way.
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Organizing Dates

A while back, my husband and I spent a couple of hours on a Saturday sorting through moving and storage boxes that had been accumulating in our office. I found at least $30 worth of office supplies, including:

Specialized printer papers:
Photo paper
Business card paper
Window cling paper

Other office supplies:
3-ring binder transparent sheet sleeves
Staples
Binder clips
Pens and pencils (we handed these to our young daughter to 'test' while we sorted other stuff)
Scotch tape
Highlighters
Mechanical pencil leads
Mailing envelopes

I was shocked at the amount of usable office supplies that resulted from just 2 hours of organizing. If I had needed any of these, I might have bought them before realizing that they were hidden in the boxes upstairs. And now: I have an organized cabinet full of office supplies.

Do you have some storage or moving boxes that haven't been opened in a while? You might be surprised to discover what useful things are hiding out in them. A little time can pay big dividends!
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Old Navy Weekly Steals, refreshed 04/04 - The New Old Navy Coupon Website

Click here to see discussion of the 04/04 Old Navy Weekly coupon deals on AFullCup and where to find certain coupons.

Click here to see the Old Navy Weekly Ad.

Click here to see all Redemption Unlimited posts related to Old Navy.

Unfortunately the Old Navy Weekly site refreshed this morning at a little after 2 a.m., so the two very best coupons ($45/$100, $25 off $50) were gone in the blink of an eye. Even I had the sense to go to bed long before then last night. Coupons that currently remain are 20% off two items, 20% off one item, 30% off one item, 40% off one item, and 50% off one item. If we get a scoop on how to get all of them, we'll post them here later.

Edit: Mel just posted a couple of big Old Navy coupons here. Looks like we were on the same wavelength. :)

By the way, did you know that if you open the site in Mozilla Firefox, you can keep tapping the 'Tab' key to show you - with a simple yellow box - all of the 'clickable' places on the screen? This makes finding undercover coupons a lot less of a headache. Happy Coupon Hunting!
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$10 off Easter Bunny photo package from Fair Oaks Mall

I just got this promo in from Shutterfly. $10 off Package A - two 5x7s, four 3x5s, eight wallets, your digital Easter Bunny Photo on a reusable flash drive, and a $20 Shutterfly credit! Sounds to me like this might even be a 'net' profit after the Shutterfly credit! ($10 off plus $20 credit...this little photo package couldn't cost more than $30 to begin with...right? Then again, maybe I underestimate Northern Virginia malls. :) ) If any of you check this out, let us know! We're curious to kow how it goes. Valid March 30, 2009 through April 12, 2009. Redeem this coupon for $10 off your photo when you purchase photo package A. It includes your digital Easter Bunny photos on a reusable flash drive and a $20 Shutterfly credit. Offer is valid March 30, 2009 through April 12, 2009.

Quaker True Delights Granola Bars - $0.60/box after Target gift card rolling!

Crystal Paine of the epic Mommy Saving Money recently mentioned in a post that Quaker products are buy 5, get a $5 Target Gift Card at Target this week.

Since I had nine of the January Red Plum / Valassis insert coupons for $1 off Quaker True Delights (flavors: cashew something, banana coconut macadamia nut, and raspberry dark chocolate), this is how I worked it:

Bought 5 x $2.50
Used 5 x $1 off coupons
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$7.50 + tax

I spent a $5 gift card that I already had, and the transaction generated a $5 gift card.

Bought 5 x $2.50
Used 4 x $1 off coupons
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$8.50 + tax

I used the $5 gift card from the first transaction, and the transaction generated another $5 gift card. Don't you love it when cashiers are so willing to work with you on stuff like this? :)

So: net out of pocket input was $6 + tax for 10 five-count boxes of these granola bars ($0.12/bar pretax). And I have a $5 Target gift card from the second transaction!

It's scenarios like this when your coupons bring expensive prepackaged stuff down to the prices of what you would pay to make the item yourselves.

Don't have the Red Plum coupons? Print the $1 off Quaker True Delights coupons here (limit 2 per Windows-run computer, I'm guessing). Or, check out the sweet homemade granola bar tutorial by the fabulous Liz of Frugally Blonde, bringing your (HUGE :-p) homemade bars down to just $0.13/bar!
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Coupons on Upromise - load yours now for clip-free college savings!

If you have upromise.com accounts, you can load eCoupons onto your upromise account by tying it to any number of other loyalty cards - CVS cards, grocery store cards, and so on. The coupons are repopulated/refreshed on a monthly basis, so remember to check out upromise toward the beginning of the month to ensure that your account is loaded all month long while you shop!

The kicker is that you don't save instantly at checkout; the savings are stored in the upromise account. But really, once you sign into the website, it takes just moments to tell the site to load all of the month's coupons onto your account - so if you happen to buy anything listed, it gets added to your upromise account, and something is better than nothing, right? Add to this the fact that most of the eCoupon products are hot on the promotional rotation - so they're items with coupons and sales, and thus as a couponer you are already likely to check them out.

If you take 2 minutes to log in at the start of every month and load all of those coupons, you could net you a few bucks (up to around $30/month, depending on what you buy) without you giving it much thought at all. Think about it: You would kick yourself if some of the free-after-ExtraCare-Bucks items that you picked up at CVS would also have given you a buck or two more (profit!) in your upromise account.

The bulk of the leg work is the one time effort of entering your drugstore and grocery store loyalty card numbers so that your purchases automatically track and link with upromise. If only all coupon clipping were this painless!
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