Don't Pay Full Price!!

Wes and I rarely go out to eat unless we have a coupon. Shocking, huh? But we have gotten so good at using coupons that we can eat fast food for around $6-8 for our family of 4!! That is a great way for us to save money. Now, we do like to go to places besides fast food so we have begun trying to reduce the money we spend at nice restaurants.

There are lots of ways you can generate coupons for eating out. Here are some of our favorite ways:

1. Restaurant.com: This is a great website to use to eat cheaply. I will warn you that there can be a lot of restrictions to the coupons, but as long as you read the fine print and follow it, you should be fine! We also tell our server before we order that we have this so they can guide us if they need to. Our best restaurant.com experience was a coupon for Stone Creek Dining Company which is a really nice restaurant near our house where we ended up getting dinner for free and only paying for tip!!! Not all of them are this good though. It takes some trial and error, but it is definitely worth it! You will also want to wait until the coupons are at least 50% and they can go all the way up to 80% by the end of the month. If you get on their email list, you will be alerted when they are on sale.

2. Groupon.com: This is a new site that has a "deal of the day" coupon that may or may not be for a restaurant. It is local to each person's area. We have scored some great deals on here as well. Just recently we bought 3 $25 for $10 coupons for Houlihan's and had 3 incredible date nights for about $15 for both of us!

3. Email lists: If you have a favorite place you like to eat, look on their website and see if they have a email list. More times than not, these places will periodically send out coupons that are usually high value. We like Fazolis and we get a lot of free things from them. Sometimes these require another purchase which is okay since more than one of us has to eat! We have also signed up for Qdoba, Noodles & Co., Arby's, Wendy's, TGI Fridays and Penn Station. Another place to sign up is Fishbowl.

4. Entertainment book: These can be good depending on your area. I suggest you look through the offers first before you buy them. Also, if you wait until later in the year, these are on deep discount. We just got one for $12 (normally $30) and the coupons are still good until Nov. By using just a few, we can pay for the book pretty quick!

5. Birthdays: If you sign up for email lists, you will get quite a few coupons for your birthday. When my mom came for her birthday, she had a free meal from Red Robin, a free ice cream from Coldstone Creamery, a free Noodles and Co. entree and many other great things! It can be a little time consuming, but it is worth it because they don't have to all be used on your birthday.

6. Newspaper or mailed circulars: These can also be a great way to get coupons for restaurants, but you have to be more diligent at looking. I have seen coupons for Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Ruby Tuesdays, Mancinos and many more.

Another technique we use is picking a restaurant to eat at based on what coupons we have so that we don't ever eat out without a coupon! It works for us and I hope it will work for your family too!

Taste Test Tuesday: What's for Lunch?

My least favorite meal of the day is breakfast. Don't know why, but it has always been! I guess it's because I'm still tired when I'm supposed to be making wonderful goodness for my boys to eat. Yeah, it doesn't usually turn out wonderful. Thankfully Wes has taken over on Saturday mornings so we get to wake up to yummy waffles or pancakes!

My other least favorite meal is lunch. Chalk it up to my mother making such yummy things for dinner that everything else paled in comparison. Lunch just seems like a dumbed down version of dinner. I am not a huge fan of sandwiches and easy things like that. I like hot food. I know....it's a sickness. So, after a few years of being a stay at home mom, I decided it was time to give lunch a makeover!! Goodbye sandwiches, hello more yummy foods.

One of my favorite lunches is soup and a hot panini. I picked up a panini grill at Goodwill about 6 months ago and I love it! It takes a sandwich and turns it into yummyness. (In case you're wondering, I'm trying to go for the record of how many times I can say yummy in a blog post).

I love soup because I can make it ahead and freeze it into lunch sized portions. For my sandwich I like to buy Vienna bread from Meijer because it's very.......you guessed it....yummy.

Here's a recipe for Chicken Noodle soup:

3 cups Cooked Chicken Shredded
8 cups Chicken Stock
2 stalks Celery, Chopped
2 whole Carrots, Chopped
1 whole Onion, Chopped
1 teaspoon Dried Parsely
1 teaspoon Dried Thyme
1 whole Bay Leaf
Salt And Pepper
Garlic Powder
2 cups Dry Egg Noodles, Or More If You Like Lots Of Noodles

Preparation Instructions
Add all ingredients except egg noodles to a medium size stock pot. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
After veggies are to your preferred texture, add egg noodles and cook for 10-15 minutes.
Remove and discard bay leaf.
Serve with bread and a side salad.

Note: you can boil a whole chicken (or chicken pieces) and debone. Skim fat from the stock by placing it in the freezer. Fat will rise to the top and you can skim it off. If you’re in a hurry, put an ice cube in the stock and swirl it around. The fat will adhere to the ice cube. Repeat this process until most of the fat is out of the stock. Homemade stock and fresh chicken are much better than canned stock and chicken.

And for my panini I just put ham and provolone cheese on my Vienna bread and paninitize it until it's nice n' hot! So, if you don't usually treat yourself to something nice for lunch.....go ahead...indulge. You deserve it!

This is what happens when I decide to go green.....

Some things are best left up to the experts...or at least to machines. I decided when I started my square foot garden that I would follow Mel Bartholomew's (he's the creator) way exactly so it would be a success since I have a history of killing plants. Wes and I donned our student caps and read (ok skimmed) his book and watched a DVD of how to plant this stinkin' garden. We felt prepared.

The soil according to the book would contain 3 parts:

1. Peat Moss
2. Compost
3. Vermeculite

Well, doing it "Mel's way" ended quickly. First of all, I couldn't find vermiculite and when I did, it was EXPENSIVE!! And you know me....I just couldn't pay for it!! So, I ditched the vermiculite and just stuck to some peat moss.

Next was the compost. On the DVD, Mel and his wife, who I swear looked like she just walked out of the general store on Little House on the Prairie, said it is soooo easy to make your own compost!! And so easy on the Earth! Just turn your trash into beautiful soil in just a short time! I was in! This would be great. I would become one with the Earth as I saved the landfills from all of our dirty trash.

Everything was going along swimmingly as we saved our fruit and vegetable scraps and put them in our compost bucket. Then, Wes said "Boy, that compost stinks." Hmmm....Mel's wife never mentioned this. What was I doing wrong??

The smell got worse and worse......it got to the point that we had to move it from right by the house to the back of the yard. At this point, I started getting nervous that it might waft over to the neighbors and they would think that we had stopped bathing.

Well, thanks to Google, I found out very quickly that our compost was too wet and that was a big no-no. As I talked to people about this, I found we weren't composting, we were creating sewage!!! GROOSSSSSS!!!!!

My sister Sara has bought a mechanical composter. But that's like $75. Somehow a frugal garden could end up costing us millions!! For now we are okay because I ended up buying some mushroom compost at Home Depot. But we are unsure where to go from here.........

So I have put up a poll asking for your input on whether Wes and I should continue composting or just hang up our green caps and just start filling up those landfills again. Let me know what you think!!!

And here's a peek at our garden....growing great! (yes there are a few empty whole because parsley and corn never made an appearance.

The Low Down on the Budget and Envelopes

So, I promised that I would update you guys on how it has been since we went on a stricter budget using envelopes. I know that was like 3 years ago.........so here goes!

And I will be honest.

I have a love/hate relationship with those little envelopes. I love what they stand for such as commitment, perserverence, money in our pockets, etc. But putting them into practice is way less romantic than all of these ideas. It can be downright annoying.

We are on month 5, I believe and we have had our ups and downs. Downs include getting to the 15th of the month and realizing that we are out of money in food! Try that on for size!! By the end of the month, I was serving bread and water for dinner like we were prisoners. (ahh....I can be so dramatic!) Wes and I have been able to put Houdini to shame by being able to make those envelopes and the food in our house stretch to the bare bone.

The envelopes can drive you crazy but then a magical thing happens. The end of the month comes. It's a beautiful time!! I feel like the richest person in the world when I get those bills out of the bank. So, look for me someday at the first of the month leaving my bank and I will be fanning myself with bills. These are the moments that keep me going strong; the knowledge that every month offers a new chance to succeed.

So is it worth it? Will we keep doing it?

We had to ask ourselves this question just last week when Wes said that I was getting angry about our money. Hmmm....talk about having to take a step back and look at yourself. He said that it wasn't worth it to reach our money goals if I was going to be stressed all the time. Alas, he is right! Life is too short to be a nazi about money.

But here's the catch. I can't just go crazy and not have any sort of structure. I know myself and I know that I don't like to tread water just staying in the same place. I have goals for our family that are going to require some sacrafice on our parts. And I think that it's something that we can do. I know I have talked about this before, but watching that series on the History Channel about how America was settled has had an impact on me. These people gave everything they had to make a new life for their families. Some paid for it with their lives. Why can't I just stick to a simple budget??

So, in the end, the envelopes are staying. And my attitude has had to be the thing that changes. It's only been a week since we had that fight...uh...I mean discussion....but I'm trying to not be so uptight. We'll see how it goes!!

Bored this summer?

Crystal at MoneySaving Mom has some great ideas on free or almost free things you can do this summer! Check it out!

http://moneysavingmom.com/2010/05/your-guide-to-free-summer-fun.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+moneysavingmom%2FmNWf+%28Money+Saving+Mom%29

Couples Getaway

On Wes' birthday weekend, we had a great opportunity to go to Saugatuck MI for a weekend small group retreat. The place we stayed at was REALLY nice! It had 4 or 5 bedrooms and was so nice! It had a nice fireplace and a beautiful backyard. And Lake Michigan was less than a 5 minute walk away. If you are ever looking to buy a summer home on the lake, now is the time because it seemed like there were a ton for sale!!

Here's our small group from L-R (Rod, Mary, John, Laura, Brian, Michelle, Wes, Stacy)

At Lake Michigan

Taste Test Tuesday- Morning Glory Muffins

Okay, I admit it. I'm obsessed with muffins. I think this is like the 4th or 5th muffin recipe I've posted. I just love the little cakes of goodness. They are perfect for someone like me who feels so lazy in the morning, all I want to do is grab something to shove in my mouth. But the great thing about this one is it's healthy! I know....I'm posting something healthy!! Shocker!! These muffins have grated carrots and apple in them along with some wheat germ and the flour is all whole wheat!!

(This recipe is from King Arthur Flour www.kingarthurflour.com)

1/2 cup (2 1/2 ounces) raisins ( I didn't use these)

2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) King Arthur whole wheat flour, traditional or white whole wheat

1 cup (7 1/2 ounces) brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger ( I used a sprinkle of nutmeg instead)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups (7 ounces) carrots, peeled and grated

1 large tart apple, peeled, cored, and grated

1/2 cup (1 1/2 ounces) sweetened shredded coconut (didn't have this)

1/2 cup (2 ounces) chopped walnuts (didn't have this)

1/3 cup (1 1/2 ounces) sunflower seeds or wheat germ, optional

3 large eggs

2/3 cup (4 5/8 ounces) vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup (2 ounces) orange juice

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin, or line it with papers and spray the insides of the papers. To make the muffins: In a small bowl, cover the raisins with hot water, and set them aside to soak while you assemble the rest of the recipe. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, spices, and salt. Stir in the carrots, apple, coconut, nuts, and sunflower seeds or wheat germ, if using.

In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and orange juice. Add to the flour mixture, and stir until evenly moistened. Drain the raisins and stir them in. Divide the batter among the wells of the prepared pan (they'll be full almost to the top; that's OK). To bake the muffins: Bake for 25 to 28 minutes, until nicely domed and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven, let cool for 5 minutes in their pan on a rack, then turn out of pans to finish cooling.

As you can see, even if you don't have all of the ingredients, you can still make these and they turn out great!

Oh Preston, how I have fooled you!! This is one of the big perks of being a parent.