A Shutterfly Christmas

Many of you may have already seen people talking about the 50 free photo cards that Shutterfly is offering to bloggers who write about them on their blog.  So here is my little plug!

I'm a big fan of Shutterfly and all the really cute photo products you can get there!  I have given their photo books and photo mugs as gifts before, and honestly, when you have a kid as cute as mine, who WOULDN'T want a gift with his sweet face plastered across it?!?! 

They have a whole lot of cute options when it comes to their Christmas photo cards, though, and I'm really looking forward to designing one to send out to our family and friends.  They have a really neat feature on the left side of the page where you can narrow down exactly what you're looking for instead of having to browse through all 800+ of their options!  My choices of 5x7 folded cards that use 3 or more pictures narrowed it down to 85 cards to choose from - that's manageable!

A couple of my faves:

So watch your mailboxes in a couple weeks, and you'll see one of these sweet cards with our good-looking mugs on them!

And if you're a blogger, there are only 2 more days to take advantage of this awesome deal, so head over here and sign up RIGHT AWAY!

New House

I finished taking pictures of everything in our new house, and I've posted them for your viewing pleasure. I made it pretty detailed for my family who might not be able to make it for a visit soon. Now you'll see everything! Just click here to go to the album where the pictures are. Click on the first picture, which will bring up a large picture of the front of the house, and you'll be able to read my caption beneath it. Then just click the "Next" button above the picture, and you'll move to the next picture in the album. I have them in order like a tour through the house. (All of the pictures have titles and captions, but sometimes they don't load, so you may need to refresh the page to see the caption...) Feel free to make comments here or in photobucket where the pictures are. :)

Free YoBaby 3-in-1 meals

This deal was just so great, I had to pass it on in case any of you frugal mamas out there hadn't seen it yet. I first saw it here at Freebies 4 Mom. Click over to read her instructions on how to do it.

I had never heard of YoBaby's 3-in-1 meals, but they're awesome! It's a cup of organic, baby-friendly yogurt that also has a fruit and a complementing veggie mixed in. So it's like a whole meal in a cup! With the above deal, I got 5 of them for free, and Elias loved the one he has tried so far.

Walgreens Madness

I don't want this blog to be entirely about saving money, and so I don't post on here all the time about what I do and great shopping trips I have. But I am still doing the Walgreens Game, and I regularly get GREAT deals there. I just can't resist posting today's shopping trip. I got all this:
...and made money doing it!

First of all, our Walgreens is AWESOME because they give a 15% discount to students and faculty of the local university. Off your entire purchase! So since my husband works there, we rack up on savings that way.

Secondly, I use coupons, and I check the money-saving blogs. The main two that I check for Walgreens deals are Money Saving Mom and Mommy Snacks. Then I also page through the ad to see if there's anything else I want, and I use Hot Coupon World's coupon database to see if I can find any coupons to use on top of what's already on sale.

Third, I take advantage of their Register Reward deals. Most weeks they have at least one item that will be free after Register Rewards. (Register Rewards are coupons for so many dollars off your next purchase at Walgreens.) When I combine this with my faculty discount and coupons, I often make money on these. For example, last week they had the new Dove Men's Body Wash on sale for $5.99, and when you buy one, you get a $6 RR. However, I only paid $5.09 for it with my 15% discount, and then I used a $1.25 coupon. So I only paid $3.84 for it, but I still got the $6 RR. So I'll often buy the free-after-RR stuff even if it's not something we need... (Justin wasn't really excited about me buying him Dove Body Wash!) But I can donate it to a local shelter or ministry. That way someone else benefits and so do we!

So anyhoo, with sales, discount, coupons, and then using $21 worth of RR's from last week, I only paid $4.14 out of pocket for everything you see in the picture above.

THEN I got a $4 RR back for the razor.

THEN I'll submit the 3 Olay products for this $15 rebate.

So I'll end up MAKING $14.86 for purchasing all these things at Walgreens today. Oh yeah.

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

I'm generally not one to make New Year's resolutions. If something about me needs to change, I should work on changing it now instead of once a year. However, I do think that the New Year gives a feeling of new beginnings, which is a great time for looking back, evaluating, and setting goals. I'm all for evaluating and setting goals! So here are my thoughts about what I'd like to work on in 2010.

1. Prayer Life - I am so blessed to have a husband who takes care of Elias in the mornings to allow me to have a quiet time. This year I was also blessed to be able to join a Bible study for stay-at-home moms, and we went through Breaking Free, which completely rocked my world. But having these small victories in my walk with the Lord has caused me to want more. I KNOW there is more to be had with Him, and I believe that prayer is the way to access His power in my life and in the lives of those I pray for. I want a greater hunger for Him and a closer walk with Him, and I think prayer is the way to get both of those things. Plus, with my realm being so limited because of staying home with Elias, I don't have much opportunity to get out and serve and minister and be Christ's hands to people. So I believe that prayer is how I can influence the whole world - I can be Christ's heart for people. I think it was Oswald Chambers who said, "Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work." May that be so in me. If anybody has any good suggestions for Bible studies on prayer, please feel free to let me know.

2. Giving - Having said that about prayer being the greater work, Justin and I are both feeling like we want to be better stewards of our financial resources, using them better for Christ. Our theme verse for this is James 1:27, which says "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." I want to be more aware of the helpless and hurting both here and around the world, and I want to be doing something about it in the name of Christ. Since I am the one who handles the budget in our house, I want to rearrange it so that we are able to give more to those in need both here and around the world. Justin also wrote a bit about it on his blog here.

3. Personal Appearance - I want to take more pride in my appearance and work harder at looking better. I'm not necessarily talking about losing weight here. I mean, I do need to lose weight and I will be working on that in the new year. But this is something I'm already in the process of doing, and nothing about that really needs to change - I just need to keep up the hard work! What I'm talking about here is that my child is 19-months-old, so I really don't have an excuse anymore to go around looking like the mommy of a newborn! I'm not saying I'm going to start wearing makeup or anything - let's not get crazy here. But I'm thinking maybe I could, you know, like, fix my hair or occasionally wear something besides a t-shirt. This goal also includes things like taking care of my skin and you know, actually looking in the mirror and brushing my hair before I go to the grocery store.

4. Using My Time Well - As I stated in #3, I am no longer the mommy of a newborn. I do actually have quite a bit of free time and motherhood is no longer stressful and exhausting. So I don't really have an excuse anymore (like the mommies of newborns do!) to spend all my free time on leisure - things like reading and playing games. I don't really have a specific goal for how to do this, so suggestions would be welcome, but I think my time would be better spent reading the occasional nonfiction book in addition to the fiction I so greedily consume. Or I could knit blankets and hats for the local pregnancy crisis center. Or I could write letters to missionaries. Or I could pray for them. These would all be time well spent. So this one is going to require a bit more thought and planning on my part, but getting it out here might help me keep my eye on the prize.

This list is by no means comprehensive, it's just what's on my mind tonight. My biggest goal for 2010 is just that God will have His way in and through me. I think that will involve these four things, but it may not. Either way, may He receive all glory in and through me! Amen.

I Won, I Won!

As most of you know, I read several Mommy blogs where they post with ideas for saving money, running a household, and mothering. These blogs often run giveaways, which I always enter, but I've never won before... Until now! Last week I won a Crayola Creativity Pack giveaway on MommySnacks.net, and it arrived today! Look at all this loot!It includes:

• Crayola Crayons 24 ct
• Crayola Markers 10 ct
• Crayola Colored Pencils 12 ct
• Crayola Pip-Squeaks Colored Pencils and Glitter Glue
• Crayola Window Crayons
• Tadoodles Washable Crayon Buddies
• Crayola Color Explosion Black Extreme Surprises
• Crayola Color Switchers

I'm so excited! I'm most excited about the Tadoodles Buddies right now because I think they're going to be perfect for Elias... I've actually looked at these at WalMart, but never been willing to fork over the cash for them. But now I don't have to! And we are SET for him to be able to express his creativity as he grows!

I highly recommend that all you mommies, householders, and money-savers out there check out Mommy Snacks. I've always considered it rewarding to read her blog because it's so helpful - I ALWAYS check out her weekly Walgreens posts to let me know what the best deals are there. So this is just icing on the cake!

By the way, I know it's been a while since I've posted... But Elias' ear infection is much better now, and I once again have a huge backlog of photos and videos to post! I'll post them as I get them edited. So stay tuned! :)

Our Anniversary Present

Well, we actually bought this for ourselves last week without any thought about our anniversary, but it was finally delivered today, so happy anniversary to us! We decided to get a new bed in the hopes that it would help my back, but since we were buying a bed anyways, we decided to get a king size! We're very excited about this, and we anticipate both of us sleeping better with more room to spread out.

Since we got a different size bed, we also had to get new bedding, and I am SO EXCITED about what we got! (Click to enlarge.) It's so beautiful, like the kind of bedroom I'd always dreamed of having, but never thought I would! But it's real and I love it!!!!!!! (Perfectly matches the curtains we already had... Bonus!)

So here's to many years of sweet dreams for us!!!!

Swagbucks Now Offering CASH Prizes!

I've been contemplating writing a post about Swagbucks for a long time, and now I have an awesome reason to do it! Let me start by saying that Swagbucks is many things, but the basic service is a search engine. It's powered by Google, so you get basically the same results you would with a Google search. The exciting part, though, is that when you search, Swagbucks will occasionally give you points called "Swagbucks" (Bet ya didn't see that one coming!) that you can accumulate to earn prizes. They have all sorts of prizes that you can save up for, but my favorite is the $5 Amazon gift card that costs 45 Swagbucks. I've been using Swagbucks for about 6 months, and in that time, I've gotten $25 in Amazon gift cards ABSOLUTELY FREE! Just for searching the internet - something I do all the time anyway! Can't beat that!

But today Swagbucks announced something new that makes it even sweeter! You are now able to redeem your Swagbucks for CASH! Cold. Hard. Cash. You can buy $5 via PayPal for only 80 Swagbucks!

So, with this news, Swagbucks is also offering a code to new members (ONLY). If you are interested in signing up with Swagbucks and want to start with 5 Swagbucks for yourself, follow these steps:

1. Go here to sign up for Swagbucks. You receive 3 Swagbucks immediately for signing up.

2. Now, to get another 2 Swagbucks, enter the code CASHISKING. This code is case sensitive. You can enter this Swagcode immediately upon registration in the box that says “Enter Your Swagcode” and them press “GIMME.”

That’s it! You have 5 Swagbucks to start off! This code is valid until 12 PM (PST) on July 6. You could even register here and then send your unique referral link to all of your friends and get them to sign up under your referral link. (Yes, all the links in this blog are to my personal referral link - if you sign up through me, I get rewarded for referring you, which means that I get matching Swagbucks for every Swagbuck you earn up to 100! We both win!)




Please feel free to comment here or send me an email if you have any questions. Happy Swagging! :)

Fresh-Baked Bread

If any of you are friends with me on Facebook, you may have seen that I got a bread machine recently, and I have been experimenting trying to make the perfect loaf. I wanted to do this because we eat 100% whole wheat bread, and it is very difficult (if not impossible!) to find any 100% WW bread at the grocery that doesn't have high-fructose corn syrup in it. If you do happen to find one, they're really expensive! So I had been pondering trying to make our own bread for a while, and when I stumbled upon this bread machine for $5 at a yard sale, I snapped it up! So I've made several loaves, and I think I've finally achieved an excellent loaf for making sandwiches! I found this recipe on allrecipes.com, and I adapted it to end up with this:

Best Bread Machine Bread

1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

2 tbsp. white sugar

2 1/4 tsp. (1 packet) yeast

1/4 cup canola oil

3 cups whole wheat flour

4 tsp. vital wheat gluten

1 tsp. salt

Place the water, sugar and yeast in the pan of the bread machine. Let the yeast dissolve and foam for 10 minutes. Add the oil, flour and salt to the yeast. Select Basic or White Bread setting (1.5 lb loaf), and press Start.

When bread machine is done, remove bread from the pan and wrap in foil. Set on a cooling rack until cool.

It's SO GOOD! Soft and chewy, nice sliceable crust... Mmmmmmm. Let me know if any of you try it! :)

My New Garden

As of this morning, I'm a proud new caretaker of a container garden!At the farmer's market, I got tomato, bell pepper, and zucchini plants! (They had already sold out of strawberries, or else I would've gotten some of those too.) I'm so excited about them, and I can't wait to see if I can coax anything edible out of them! This is my first attempt at ever trying to grow something edible. I had good success with miniature roses in Texas, so I'm hopeful that this will work.

You'll also notice a pathetic little plant in a milk jug next to the other beauties. The man I bought my veggie plants from was giving away free flower plants to any kids that came by. I had Elias with me, so we chose this one for him! I have no idea what it is, but he said it would bloom with large red flowers, so I thought that would be fun. (Anybody recognize it? Click on the picture to enlarge.) It's in a pitiful milk jug, though, because I thought I had a pot here at home that would fit it, but I can't seem to find it... So it's going to have to live in temporary housing until next month because I have DEFINITELY spent all our gardening budget getting the veggies in their new home!

WFMW: Shopping the Sales

To continue my Saving Money series on Works For Me Wednesday, today I'm focusing on Shopping the Sales. This is where the rubber really hits the road for me when it comes to seriously saving money on our grocery and household expenses. The main goal is to take advantage of special sales that stores have and then combine them with coupons in order to get items really cheap or free. Then stock up on the items that you can get at such a great discount so that you have them ready in your pantry when you need them.

I think living in a small town makes this easier for me, since I don't have a million stores to try to figure out which ones to go to or how to go to them all in one week. We only have four stores here where I buy grocery and household items: Wal-Mart, Woods, Aldi, and Walgreens.

I go to Wal-Mart for most of my shopping. Their everyday prices are lowest, so I do the bulk of my shopping here. Where we live, Wal-Mart doesn't publish a newspaper ad, so I don't know what's going on sale until I get to the store. That just requires keeping a sharp eye for sale tags and knowing what a good price for something would be. I do make sure to check their grocery clearance aisle every time I'm in the store, because they're always putting something new there, and I've gotten great deals before!

It's the other three stores that really take some planning. The advertisements for Woods and Aldi come in the Wednesday paper, so I usually go through them and make my plan of attack while watching LOST on Wednesday nights. So I carefully go through each ad and make a note of what's on sale that I want to buy and for how much. Both of these stores often have awesome markdowns on produce, which can really add up if you're just buying it at the everyday price. So I go to the stores and stock up on whatever is on sale, making sure to use any coupons I may have for those items. If some of the items I'm getting are perishable, but not something I can freeze, I just make sure to use it in my menu plan for the next week.

One other neat resource I use is Hot Coupon World. They have a coupon database that lets me know where I can find any coupon for anything if it's available. So if there's something that I'm going to buy that I don't have a coupon for, I just enter it into the coupon database to see if one came out in a recent insert or if there's a printable coupon I can print to save me even more money!

Walgreens is where it gets really fun. Their ad for the following week comes out in our paper on Fridays, so I have plenty of time to plan and figure out what I want to get. What's awesome about Wags is that it's a nationwide chain, and so other people do the work for me - I don't have to figure out what the awesome deals are because there are people who match the coupons to the sales and then blog it. All I do is go to the blogs and decide which of the awesome deals I want! There are three blogs that I check for Wags deals: Money Saving Mom, The "Cent"sible Sawyer, and Mommy Snacks. There are many that do it, but I've found that these three have everything covered. Each of these blogs have a way that you can sort for just posts about Walgreens, so you'll see their weekly Wags post, but also any special deals they may have learned about later. I tell you what, Wags is AWESOME for FREE stuff! I always get almost everything they're offering free each week... Even if I can't use it, I can donate it.

So I hit Wal-Mart on Mondays, Wags on Tuesdays, Aldi on Thursdays, and Woods on Friday or Saturday. That way, I have a freezer and pantry full to the brim with stuff I got great deals on, PLUS bags of items that I can donate that I got really cheap or free! Works for Me!

Next week: Price Comparison Notebook

WFMW: Menu Planning

Alright, to continue my Saving on Grocery Bills series of Works For Me Wednesday posts, I'm going to talk this week about how I plan menus and make my shopping list. Last week I covered Clipping and Organizing Coupons, which I do on Sunday afternoons, and this week I'm going to continue my Sunday afternoon routine. After I've finished my coupon bonanza, I pull out my lists and cookbooks and plan 7 dinners for that week.

First, I look in my freezer and see what I already have in there that I want to use. I keep a large stock of meats, chopped peppers, cooked beans, and frozen veggies in my freezer, and so I generally try to use those before buying more. (Teaser: I'll talk next week about how and why I stockpile frozen foods!) Then, after getting a good idea of what I want to use, I sit down with a few cookbooks to get ideas on how to use them. Sometimes the answer is obvious... How do I want to use a pound of steak and bunch of sliced peppers? Fajitas, of course! Sometimes I want to try something new or different. So I flip through my cookbooks for ideas, or sometimes I'll just get online and google something like "shrimp and tomatoes recipe" and see what I get. I've found some really yummy recipes that way!

So as I'm flipping through and deciding on meals, I make a list of what meals I'll be making that week. I make sure to note what cookbook the recipe is in and what page it's on, or if I found the recipe online, I print it and put it in my recipe binder. I plan not only the main dish, but any vegetables or sides that will be going with it, and I write it all together.

Also, as I decide on meals, I go through the recipes and make a shopping list of anything I don't already have. Most of the time, this is only a few ingredients because I keep a stockpile of the things we use regularly. I also keep a running list throughout the week of things we need... If I see on Thursday that we're going to need yogurt soon, I go ahead and write it down even though I won't be going to the store until Monday... I don't want to risk forgetting to write it down when I'm making the list on Sunday! Since I stick to my list when shopping, if it's not on the list, I won't think to get it, and then my husband would be yogurtless all week! Tragedy! Or I'd have to make a special trip to get it later or pay more for it at a different store! Even bigger tragedy!!

Then to finish up my shopping list, I check my list to see if I have any coupons for anything I want to buy. I go ahead and pull the coupons out and put them with my list so I make sure to use them, and I note on the list that I have a coupon for that item so I can make sure to pick up the right thing for the coupon.

It REALLY helps me throughout the week to have menus planned and to know that I have all the ingredients to make everything. For us, eating out is really a treat, never a necessity because we didn't have anything to make for dinner. That not only saves us money, but it makes eating out more fun and special too! And it makes my days easier because I already know what I'll be cooking for dinner, and I was able to put the meat in the fridge to thaw the night before because I already had a plan. Saves time and energy on my part.

So this meal-planning system really works for me!

Next week: Shopping the Sales!

WFMW: Clipping Coupons

I thought I'd do a series of Works For Me Wednesday posts about my routine when it comes to couponing, shopping, and saving money on groceries and household items! I thought some of you might be interested in how I do things, and maybe you can find something in the mix that will work for you too! Also feel free to make suggestions if you see a way I can make my routine better!

I'll start the series with how I gather coupons. Although I print online coupons whenever I find them throughout the week, Sunday is generally my coupon day. On Sundays, I gather all the coupons I've printed that week along with the coupon inserts from the newspapers, and I have a clipping bonanza. I cut out the printed ones, and I go through the inserts and cut out the ones I know I'll probably want to use.

Then I pull out my handy-dandy coupon organizer (a gift from my mom - THANKS!). Before filing away my new coupons, I go through each section and pull out the ones that have expired. I also pay attention to see if there are any good ones that are going to expire that week that I want to make sure to use before they do. (Note: You will NOT save money if you feel like you have to use every coupon before it expires! Only do this for ones that are really good deals or for things that you know you will eventually buy anyway!) Then I file all my new coupons into the organizer by category.

After doing that, I label the inserts with that Sunday's date, and I file them into my insert keeper - a seven-pocket binder in which I file them in order by date. (Older inserts just get lumped together in the back, and I just toss them in the recycle bin as their coupons expire.) I do this because sometimes things go on sale that I wouldn't have bought otherwise, but the sale plus the coupon makes them really cheap or free. So I never throw away a coupon before it has expired, even if it's something I don't think I'd ever want!

Note: Sometimes things are really great deals, but they're not anything I would ever use or they're things we already have a large stockpile of. If this is the case, I consider if it might be something that could be donated. If it is, I'll go ahead and get it anyway, and put it in a box that I keep in the pantry just for that purpose. I have a large collection of various toothpastes, shampoos, soaps, medicines, etc. that I was able to get at great deals, and the next time I hear of somebody collecting toiletries for the needy, I'll be able to give SO much more than if I wanted to just go out and buy a bunch right then. We also have several shelters in town that would always accept donations of items like these. This is a great thing to do with food items too!

I carry the small coupon organizer in my purse at all times just in case I spot a deal I hadn't planned on, but at home I have ALL the coupons filed away so I can clip the coupon for a sale I'm planning ahead for!

Next week: Menu Planning!

WFMW: Cloth Diapers & Wipes

For this week's edition of Works For Me Wednesday, I just wanted to share about how using cloth diapers and wipes is working for us. They're working awesome! Many of my long-time readers will know that we decided to go cloth before Elias was born, and we have been using the same diapers since he was a month old! (Although the diapers said they fit a 7 lb baby, and Elias was 9.5 lbs at birth, they were just too big for him at first, especially before he lost his umbilical cord.) So we've been using the same diapers for the past 9 months, and they're still going strong!

One note, though: Elias is a very heavy wetter, and so we have had a few problems with leaks. We learned to make sure that he's pointed down, which helps from leaking out the top of the diaper. But we've ended up just using Huggies Overnites disposables at night because we hated our baby boy waking up in a puddle!

We use the bumGenius 3.0 one size diapers which are adjustable to grow with your baby. So theoretically, they are the only diapers you should need to buy ever. However, Elias is already in the largest setting, and I'm doubting he'll be able to wear them for another two years... We'll cross that bridge when we get there. We have about 30 diapers, which is enough for us to go 4-5 days between washings, which is great. My friend Ashlee did a post a few weeks ago about washing cloth diapers, and it's almost exactly how I do it. So I thought I'd just link her post for you to read if you're interested in how washing diapers works!

So instead of posting the same thing Ashlee did, I just thought I'd add to it by saying that once you've gone cloth with diapers, it is a BREEZE to go cloth for your wipes too. I bought all our cloth wipes used on diaperswappers.com (LOVE this site! I also bought diaper bags, pail liners, and mama cloth on this site too.), and I got about 40 for only about $5. To go even cheaper and easier than that, just buy some flannel, fleece, or other soft sturdy cloth, and cut it into 6x6 or 8x8 squares. You can hem them or make them two-sided if you want, but I don't think it's necessary. Then I just fold them in half and put them in a normal wipes tub. We got this tub of wipes as a baby shower gift, and we used them up when Elias was tiny before he graduated to cloth diapers. So I just saved the tub to be used in this way.

Then I make a wipe solution:

2 cups hot water
2 tbsp food grade oil (I use canola just because that's what we have.)
2 tbsp baby shampoo

Put the above in a jar and swirl it together until well-mixed. (Don't shake it or else it will get all foamy! Not that I know from personal experience...) Then just pour over your wipes and press them down so they soak up the solution. Done! I just keep the tub on the changing table with the diapers, and throw the dirty wipes in the pail with the dirty diapers. I wash them all together, and it's easy schmeezy!

I did some figuring, and we broke even on our diapers at about 9 months, meaning that what we paid for our diapers is about what we would've paid for disposables for that length of time. (This is assuming we had paid for all our diapers. My amazing in-laws actually gave us half our stash, so the investment that we ourselves put into it was reached at about 5 months!) We bought one of the most expensive diapers on the market, but we thought of it more as an investment, considering not only price, but also ease of use, practicality, and consumer reviews. And from here on out, any more length of time that we get to use these diapers, that's just more money we're SAVING by not buying disposables! Plus, should we ever have another child, we'll keep these diapers to use on him/her, and that will mean MAJOR savings in the diaper department.

Works For Me!

WFMW: Freezing Fresh Peppers

For this week's edition of Works For Me Wednesday, I'm passing on an idea I first came across at Leaving Excess. (Her post was about onions, though, and mine is about peppers, so maybe that makes it sufficiently original to claim it as my own post?!)

The major issue this solved was that fresh peppers are REALLY expensive these days. For those of you who don't eat peppers, the regular price for ONE red pepper at my Wal-Mart is $1.98. SHEESH! Green peppers are about $0.98 each regular. This made it tough to save money. However, peppers will often go on sale - greens for $0.50 each and reds for about $0.79 each.

So of course you want to stock up while they're on sale, but who can use 15 fresh peppers before they go bad?! Not me. So here's the solution! You buy a bunch of fresh peppers while they're on sale, then go ahead and cut them all up however you like. I generally chop about 3/4 of my peppers in normal dices, and then I slice the rest for use in stir-frys and fajitas. Once cut, you spread them out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment/wax paper. (Depending on how many peppers you're freezing, you may need to use more than one sheet. I can fit about 4 peppers on one cookie sheet. I usually just use the same cookie sheet and freeze them in batches - it only takes them about an hour to freeze. So I bag the frozen ones and then put more fresh ones on the same sheet.)
This is an important step because if you just put them directly in baggies before freezing them, they'll freeze into a solid lump and you won't be able to use just some of what's in the bag. So you spread them out in a single layer and freeze them that way first, and then once frozen you transfer them to your freezer bags.So by buying 6 red peppers on sale and freezing them, I save more than $7 than if I had bought them at full price. Geez!

Note: This will only save you money if you actually cut up and freeze the peppers before they rot! You'll notice that in my pictures above, the green peppers had sat on my counter so long they were starting to change color... But hey, I got 'em cut and frozen! Dodged a bullet there...

Not only do you save money by doing this with your peppers, but it also speeds up the cooking process because your peppers are already cut! Makes me a lot more likely to actually make the omelet for breakfast, since the peppers are already cut to put in it. You don't have to thaw them, just put however many you want directly in the pan. They cook up soft, but taste great. (Note: Once peppers are frozen, they're not very good to just eat raw - they need to be cooked.)

This also works with onions, and I'm sure other things, but peppers is really all I do it with at the moment. It Works For Me!

WFMW: Time Management Sheet

For this week's edition of Works For Me Wednesday, I have something very simple that has completely saved my sanity. As many of my readers know, I am a highly organized person who likes predictability and having everything in its place. However, after Elias was born, I had a hard time keeping up with everything. I expected that after the first few difficult months, things would start to resettle, I'd get back into a routine, and it would all be fine. But month after month went by, and I just felt like I couldn't keep up. I could go all day feeling like I was running myself ragged, but then realizing that I didn't actually do any of the things I needed to do that day. It was terrible and I was seriously on the verge of an emotional breakdown. Then, about a month or two ago, when Elias was about 8 months old, a friend gave me something that changed my life.

It's called a Time Management Sheet. It's just a sheet of paper with a column for each day of the week and row for each hour of the day, and you just use it to plan what you're going to do with your time. It's really simple, and I'm shocked I didn't think of something like this on my own, considering my deep love for organization and spreadsheets. (Can I still claim to have New-Mommy Brain?!) So I made my own version in Excel, and I'm going to be really vulnerable here by posting it for you (Click to enlarge.):This is what my weeks look like! I just made the chart and typed in all the things that are the same every week. I print out a new one every Saturday evening, and then I write in all the things that are specific to that week. Then each evening, I plan what I'm going to do with any blank spots that remain for the next day. So when I wake up in the morning, my day is already planned! I just leave my sheet out on the counter where I can always check it to make sure I'm on track for the day.

I use this in conjunction with a monthly wall calendar that helps me remember appointments - I check the calendar Saturday evening when I'm writing things in for that week to see if I have anything that needs to be added. And I also keep a running to-do list so that if I have a blank space that I don't know what to do with, I just check my list and cross something off. This not only helps me remember everything that needs to be done, but it also helps me prioritize to know what has to be done now and what can wait.

This has not only saved my sanity, but it really does help me get things done ON TIME. Since I've started using this sheet, my husband has not once woken up in the morning and not had anything to wear to work that day. My baby has not once run out of clean diapers or out of baby food. I have not missed any meetings or appointments. (And I have not once forgotten to watch LOST!) Seriously, I even sleep better at night because I have the peace of knowing that everything is either done or planned to be done soon.

So although it's simple, it REALLY works for me. If anybody would like me to email them the Excel file with the template for this Time Management Sheet, I'd be happy to. Just leave me a comment here with your email address (or send me an email if you already know my address).

Walgreens Trip

I hadn't planned on posting on my blog today, but I did so great at Walgreens today that I had to share about the deals! Here's what I got:
Axe Shampoo - $5.99 - $5.99 Easy Saver rebate = FREE after rebate (Side note: My husband is now going to have girl-approved hair. Not sure how I feel about this since I already like his hair, and I don't really WANT any other girls ogling his hair! But free is free.)

Walgreens Headache Relief Geltabs, 20 pack - $2.99 - $2.99 Easy Saver rebate = FREE after rebate

Wal-Zyr Allergy Tablets, 5 pack - On sale for $3.99 - $3.99 Easy Saver rebate = FREE after rebate

Vaseline Intensive Rescue Lotion - On sale for $2.46 - $1.50 coupon - $2 Register Rewards = $1.04 money maker!

Russell Stovers Sugar Free Candy - I used a raincheck from a sale they had a couple months ago to get these B1G1, so I got both for $2.19. (Walgreens will do this - if they're out of a sale item you want to get, ask them for a raincheck and you'll be able to take advantage of the sale whenever they get the item back in. I asked for a raincheck because they were out of the flavors we like. Note that they do rainchecks for sales, but not for rebate items.)

Two dozen eggs - 99 cents each. (Walgreens consistently has the best price on a dozen eggs in our town - not even Aldi is cheaper. Our Walgreens doesn't advertise this except on the electronic billboard outside their store, so keep an eye on what your store has cheap that isn't in the advertisements!)

Paid at the register: $19.33
Register Rewards: $2
Rebates: $12.97 (plus the 10% bonus for having it put on my Wags gift card, so I'll actually get $14.27)
Total Out-of-Pocket: $3.06

And really I didn't even pay that because I used my gift card with last month's rebates to pay for this transaction... So really I just MADE $16.27 for buying all these items, to be spent at Walgreens next month. :)

WFMW: Stick Blender

For this week's edition of Works For Me Wednesday, I'm going to talk about an appliance that changed my life. It may be a no-brainer for some of you, but it was quite a revelation for me. This life-changing appliance is the stick blender I use to make baby food.

A little bit of background: I have a Magic Bullet, which is an AWESOME blender and worked great to make Elias' baby food when he was just getting started. However, he's older now and wants thicker, chunkier food. I think that's great and I want him to move to table food as soon as possible, but I was having a terrible time trying to make it in the Magic Bullet. The problem was that in order to make thicker food, you add less water when pureeing, and that just didn't work with the Magic Bullet (or any blender, for that matter). The food just wouldn't move down to the blades to be mashed. I was seriously at the point of throwing in the towel and just moving to jarred food.

But then, a ray of light came down from heaven and landed upon a stick blender that was on markdown clearance at Aldi for a mere $8.99. I figured I might as well give it a try, and I tell you, it has changed my life. It does a great job in pureeing the foods, and I don't add any water at all.

Above you see some carrots I steamed, and below you see what the stick blender did to them. Awesome!The only drawback I have found to using this stick blender is that Elias is scared of the noise, so I can't run it when he's in the room. It doesn't wake him up, though, so I just do it while he's napping.

So for any of you mamas who are or will be making baby food, consider investing in one of these when your little one is ready for stage 2 foods!

Please note the new host site for the WFMW theme: www.wearethatfamily.com.

Mailbox Monday

This is another blog theme that a lot of the frugal blogs post weekly, showing all the neat free things they got in the mail that week. I don't get enough stuff to do this weekly, but I did get a LOT of things this week, so I thought I'd show them off!Most exciting to me is a check for $13.72 from ebates.com. Ebates is a site that gives you cashback for shopping online at most of the stores you would anyway - you just get the bonus by clicking through ebates to do it. This check is the $5 bonus I got for signing up, plus the $8.72 cashback I got when we bought Elias' carseat at babycenter.com. If you sign up through my referral link, then not only will you get the $5 sign-up bonus, but I'll get a $5 bonus for referring you! Everybody wins! So if you're interested, please click here to join! I mean, free samples and coupons are great, but you can't beat cold hard cash!

A free 12-month onesie from the Pampers Gifts to Grow program! As many of you know, I don't use disposable diapers, but Money Saving Mom put enough free codes on her blog that I was able to get enough points to get this. Not only is it free clothes for my baby, which is always good, but Pampers also donates 7 cents to UNICEF for each one of these onesies that is ordered. Click here to learn how to do it yourself!

A coupon for a free sub sandwich at Quizno's! (This actually came to my email inbox, but it was exciting and I wanted to share about it.) They're giving away free sandwiches to the first million people who register, so hurry over to get yours! Sign up here. I registered both myself and Justin, so we both got coupons! Free dinner - SCORE!

Free sample of Total Cranberry Crunch that came with a $0.75 coupon. Sign up here to get yours.

Free Huggies booklet with $3.50 in coupons, which I got by joining the Huggies Baby Network. Sign up here.

Free sample of Always Infinity maxipad that came with a $1 coupon. Sign up here to get yours from Wal-Mart.

Free sample of Splenda with Fiber, plus a $1 coupon. Click here to order your own.

Coupon for $3 off 3 Johnson's products - this one was a printable offered online, but I had trouble printing it, so they mailed me one instead. From what I've read, you can get Johnson's products for under $1 at Wal-Mart, so this will get me three free products. Sorry, this one isn't still available. They do them quite often, though, so if you're interested, keep your eyes peeled!

A free issue of Family Fun Magazine. I actually was able to snag a free 2-year subscription to this, so I'm excited about that! Sorry, the offer isn't still available.

So how about all that neat fun stuff?!?! It's fun to be frugal. :)

WFMW: Vinegar in Smelly Laundry

I've decided to take part in a weekly blog theme called "Works For Me Wednesdays," abbreviated as WFMW. Basically, it’s just any blogger who wants to participate posts a blog on Wednesdays sharing some tip, idea, trick, product, or whatever else “works for them.” Hence the name. Then we post links to them all in one place. (This week that will be rocksinmydryer.net, but the host site will be changing next week… Stay tuned!) But I’ve been discovering a lot of neat tips and tricks that make my life easier, and so I thought it would be fun and maybe helpful to some else for me to share them.

So my first WFMW tip is putting vinegar in my laundry. Let me explain. When I was pregnant with Elias, I did research about laundry detergent and fabric softeners, and we made the decision to start using detergent that was fragrance- and dye-free and to stop using softener altogether. (We use All Free & Clear because it’s the cheapest of the free detergents.) That is better not only for us, but also for the environment and for our budget. However, this means that we don’t have anything perfumed to cover up unwanted odors in our laundry.

I have a son who is a heavy-wetter, which means he OFTEN has clothes that get leaked upon. They obviously don’t smell so great, and just the normal wash wasn’t enough to get the smell completely out. I also have a husband who has to wear a shirt and tie to teach every day, which means that sometimes he sweats and his shirts don’t always smell like daisies either. So I had to find a way to get the odors out of our laundry without just covering them up with perfumes. So I did some online searching and found that adding vinegar to your laundry in place of fabric softener will actually neutralize the odors, not just cover them up.

I figured it couldn’t hurt to try, and unbelievably, it works! Just add about a cup of vinegar (more for super-stinky loads, less for not-so-stinky) to your rinse cycle the way you would with softener. I actually use the machine’s dispenser so I don’t have to go back during the rinse cycle. (I mean, who has time for that?!) But it does leave my washing machine smelling like vinegar, so if you don’t want that, then you may consider a different method of dispensation. It neutralizes the bad smells, but it doesn’t leave your clothes smelling like vinegar – they just smell CLEAN!

So vinegar definitely Works For Me.