Dress Like a Cow!!

Looking for free chicken? Head to your local Chic-fil-A on July 9th. What's the catch?


You have to dress like a cow!!

If you are up to the task, pull your little black and white cow dress out of the closet and head to your local Chic-fil-A. Click here for more details.

Thanks to Penny Pinchin' Mom for the heads up!

I'm a Peanut Butter Snob

It's true. I'm pretty frugal (read cheap) when it comes to the food we eat. But when it comes to peanut butter, well, I'm a snob.

One day, a long time ago (the 80's is now a long time ago), my Mom came home with 2 different brands of peanut butter. Our family had been die hard Skippy fans for years. However, I guess Mom decided that it was time to venture out and try some new flavors. After all, she didn't want us to grow up to be Those Kind of People, the kind who get squemish at the thought of trying a (gasp) new type of french fry!

So she pulled all 4 kids into the brown and yellow striped wallpapered kitchen, individually, so that the taste test could be authentic and void of any older brother bullying. I remember when it was my turn I felt really excited that I got to be a part of such an important decision in the family. Peanut butter! I was helping decide the fate of which peanut butter brand would be slabbed onto my lunch sandwich everyday! For a 7 year old, it's a big deal.

My Mom told me to stand still and close my eyes. She carefully turned around and faced the yellow Formica countertop. There were 2 opened jars of peanut butter. One read Skippy; the other Jif. She dipped a spoon in one jar then proceeded to tell me to "Open your mouth." I stood with my hands behind my back, and relished the joyous peanut butter taste in mouth. It wasn't every day my Mom let me eat peanut butter straight from the jar!

Next, she took out another spoon and had me taste the 2nd peanut butter. After scrapping every last glop from my mouth, I told her which one tasted better and she sent me on her way. After each sibling had a turn in the Peanut Butter Taste Test Laboratory, Mom revealed the results. Jif won in a landslide victory of 4-0! Ever since that day, I've been a devout Jif fan. There is just something perfect about this peanut butter.

And lucky for me, Hy-Vee is having a sale this week: 2 Jif peanut butter jars for $4! Sure, it's more than the Aldi brand peanut butter, but if you are a snob like me, it's worth it!

Hy-Vee Weekly Match Ups 7/7-7/13

Click here to see the Hy-Vee Weekly Match Ups.


And here are my recipe recommendations:

Salsa Verde Chicken Wraps
Use this link or this link to view the recipe.
4 of the 7 ingredients are ON SALE this week!

• Hy-Vee sour cream- .$.50 with coupon from last week's ad.
• Tyson Grilled Chicken Strips, 2/4$
• Green bell peppers-$.50 each (recipe calls for red peppers, replace with green for a cheaper meal!)
• Avocados are on sale for $1.50 (and honestly, I think I saw them cheaper recently so this price might not be right)

Total Spent: $6
You'll need to make sure you have lettuce and tortillas on hand as well, or head to Aldi to get them even cheaper!


BLT's-A Summer Classic
All but the tomatoes are on sale this week!

• Earthbound Farm Organic Iceberg Lettuce Heads-$1.48 (or you can use the .99$ non organic head of lettuce)
• Farmland Sliced Bacon 12 - 16 oz. or 2.1 oz. fully cooked $2.98
• Hy-Vee Split Top Wheat bread-$.99

Total Spent: $5.46
Make sure you have tomatoes on hand. Serve with $.97 California Green Seedless Grapes or Kandy Honeydew Melons on sale for $1.99 each. I always love chips with my BLT's too!


Loaded Potatoes
This meal should cost close to nothing because you are combining ingredients from other meals!

• 2 for $1 Butter Kernal Corn ( 14.5 or 15 oz can)

As long as you have potatoes, shredded cheese, salt and butter on hand you are set to go! Just make as many baked potatoes as your family needs, then place the following ingredients in small bowls to load those potatoes:

• Crumbled, cooked bacon (left over from BLT)
• Chopped peppers (left over from Salsa Verde Chicken Wraps)
• Corn (see above)
• Sour cream (left over from Salsa Verde Chicken Wraps)
• Chopped white onion (I'm assuming this is something most will have on hand)
• Shredded cheese

Total Spent: $1
Keep eating healthy by using all of that fruit you are buying on sale this week!

Seriously!

You need to go to Hy-Vee. I just bought 2 dozen eggs for $1!! $.50 each?? You'll never find that at Aldi!

Other deals:
-$1 Hy-Vee box cereal (stock up on knock off rice krispies, cheerios and cornflakes to use in rice krispie treats, baby snacks, and casserole toppers)
-10% off a bag full of dairy items
-2/$5 Tennessee Pride sausage (and if you have the coupon from this past Sunday for $1 off, it's even cheaper!) Use 1 lb of sausage in lasagna, and the other you can save for a breafast for dinner meal, pizza, or an actual breakfast!

I'll be looking at recipes with eggs in them over the next few weeks because I now have 3 dozen eggs in my fridge! I'm thinking quiches, breakfast casseroles will be on the menu. Anyone have some great recipes using eggs that are not specific to breakfast? I'd love to hear them!

P.S. I pretty much live right across from a Hy-Vee so it's pretty convenient for me to stop in there when I'm checking on a coupon deal. In case you were wondering . . . .

For all you Hippies . . .

This blog is for you! If you enjoy organic and environmentally friendly stuff, check out this site for deals on 7th Generation diapers, organic baby blankets, chemical free hair detangler etc. Go read it now!

Coupon Ethics

As I'm a pretty recent couponer (yes, it's a word), I'm trying to learn what the appropriate coupon ethics are. Here's an example from yesterday:

I had a coupon for $1 off 2 packs of Rayovac alkaline batteries. On various sites, I'd read that there were some Rayovac batteries on sale for $1 at Target. People using 2 coupons were getting them for free! Well I went to check it out (and buy 2 loafs of bread for .50 each at the grocery store next door!) and by the time I was in line, I realized the packs I had in my hand were not alkaline as the coupon insisted. Also, how were people getting them for free since the coupon said it could not be combined with any other coupons, and the limie was 1 per customer. I only had one coupon so I felt OK about that, and I also figured that if the batteries I had didn't align with the coupon's requirments, it wouldn't work.When I gave the coupon to the very friendly cashier, she had no problem scanning the coupon. It took the dollar off just like that!

So here is my question that I'm researching (and we all know that "research" done online is totally legit . . .): do coupons have bar codes on them that let the computer know how to apply the price reduction, in accordance with the coupons requirements? Or is it solely dependent on the cashier reading the coupon correctly?

I want to make sure I'm doing this all legally so I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on the subject as well as any legitimate sites that provide coupon guidlines. Here is a great article I found and I'm now headed over to one of my favorite sites, The Coupon Mom.

Hy-Vee Deals Today and Tomorrow!

For any of you living near a Hy-Vee, now would be a good time to head on over! They are having some big sales. I made my first stock pile purchase today. Hy-Vee brand 8 oz. shredded cheese usually costs about $2.06, but today they are on sale for $1 each! (Limit of 5) Shredded cheese is something I use often, whether it's my homemade pizza I make almost every other week, or in my favorite enchilada recipe. And recently, I've been buying block cheese and shredding it myself because I use less cheese, and it's cheaper. However, when I see $1 shredded cheese, I BUY IT.

Also, tomorrow the dairy section is having a good deal as well: fill one paper grocery bag with dairy items and save 10%. This is a prime opportunity to combine coupons with a great store deal. As for me, I already used some of my best dairy coupons earlier this week so I'm not going to go spend more money just to save 10%. But if you happen to have a lot of dairy coupons, you need to take advantage of this deal!

Click here to learn more.