Bradford County $5 Food Bank Challenge Week of July 17th

If you have an extra $5 this week please consider buying the following items to donate to our local food bank.

No Coupons Required Deals:

Winn-Dixie:
1 Box of Muellers Whole Wheat Pasta $1
2 Planters Peanut Butters BOGO @ $3.19
1 Kraft Mac and Cheese $1

Total:  $5.19

Coupons Deals:

Winn-Dixie:
1 Box Muellers Whole Wheat Pasta $1
2 Boxes Kellogg's Mini-Wheats  BOGO $4.59
2 Hunt's Canned Tomatoes BOGO $1.49

Use $1 off Muellers from 7/10/11
Use $1 off 2 Mini-Wheats from 6/5/11

Total:  $5.08

If the Bush tax cuts expire, how much more will you be paying in taxes?

This is a not a political posting at all but simply a warning to all of us that the Bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of 2010.  The newly elected Congress will be charged with either doing nothing and letting them expire, voting to extend the tax cuts, or creating an entirely new game plan toward taxes. 

It's good to be prepared now in case we all have to pay more to Uncle Sam come 2011.  Here is a link to a calculator that will tell you how much more you will pay in January if the tax cuts expire.  Be prepared for sticker shock!

My tax burden.com

Frugal Kitchen: When dinner isn't substantial make dessert!

Publix chocolate ganache cake

Dinners with 8 people are interesting to stay the least!  With kids coming and going to practices and games, a husband with trumpet playing gigs, and myself who tutors, sometimes dinner can be the last thing on my mind, even with a menu plan!

Tonight was one of those nights, especially since it is two days until payday.  In the refrigerator was leftover london broil from Monday's crockpot meal and some small sweet peas.  Not enough for a second meal for everyone, but perfect for making beef potpie.  Not everyone around here likes potpie so to ward off the naysayers I decided to make a chocolate cake for dessert.  Sneaky of me to start the cake first so that when they came home from where ever they were (practice, outside playing, over at a friend's) and they peeked into the oven the first thing they saw was the cake on the bottom rack while potpie cooked nicely on the top rack.

I have tried this strategy before and it works out nicely every once in awhile!  Not saying it's the healthiest of mom tricks but everyone needs some chocolate cake sometime.  And all the leftovers are gone!

Beef Pot Pie
leftover beef
leftover veggies or can of mixed veggies
cream of anything soup
splash of milk
salt and pepper
pie crusts

Combine ingredients and pour into pie crust, top with another crust and bake at 375 until golden brown

Frugal Tip: Get a raincheck for Purex this week at CVS

CVS has the Purex liquid laundry detergent and the 3-in-1 laundry sheets on sale Buy One, Get One (BOGO) this week.  My local store and most stores are sold out of the laundry sheets because this past weekend there was a $3 off coupon in the Sunday Inserts.  By using 2 coupons, each pack of 3-in-1 sheets are only $.99 instead of $7.99!

But don't despair if you didn't get the paper or haven't been to CVS yet this week.  Get a raincheck for the Purex.  CVS rainchecks never expire!  There is sure to be more high value coupons on this in the future, or you could try Ebay for last week's coupon.  I anticipate a BOGO coupon in the future too, that would make both packs totally free!

Life is . . .

Life is a little crazy around here but I'm sure it's the same way in most every family's house, especially those with kids.  I've thought about blogging many times over the past few months but just couldn't do it.  Then today I just decided to blog, tell my story again, and write if only for myself. This post is going to random and spatially disconnected, just like my life has been lately.

Our home is full, running over, filled to the brim with kids.  Each kid comes with their own set of attitudes, goals, standards, strengths and weaknesses and gives me a distinct set of joys and worries.   In our home we have two 13 year old daughters, a soon to be 11 year old son, one 10 year old daughter, one 9 year old daughter, and a two year old daughter.  Two of these are recent additions to  our house and hopefully they will be completely ours by the end of the year.

Space is short, monies are tight, homework a nightmare but hugs are freely given, smiles abound, and fun happens.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  I'm no saint, I'm not supermom, and I am sometimes the mean mom, but I'm thankful for the charge of raising six kids.

Speaking of space, almost all of the rooms in the house are getting a new purpose.  Right now, the three youngest girls are in a room, the two oldest in a room, and the son is sharing our master bedroom.  Stepping on Legos and Bakugan are now part of the nightly journey to the bathroom! 

Next weekend, all of this will change as we move the 5 girls into the master bedroom, give the son back his original room, and we move into the second bedroom.  To say that I'm not looking forward to it would be an understatement.  I've got a list of stuff that has to be done a mile long!  Not to mention the bedroom we are moving into is too small for our furniture and is a fun shade of shocking turquoise!

The dining room is currently changing into a study room and toy room.  That's been fun too!  I took all my pretty whiteware dishes out of the hutch and moved them to the top of my kitchen cabinets.  Then I filled baskets, vases, and mason jars full of all our school supplies and recreated a "beautiful" vignette in the hutch.  It may not be eye-catching but not to have to hear, "Where's the scissors?" will be nice. 

Money.  Not a lot of that around here!  I just love that the government has "been hiding the truth" about the economy by twisting numbers and data!  Duh, everyone knows it is pretty bad!  We haven't suffered any of the toils of job loss but nonetheless, our own personal economy is in a state of depression.  Prices of everything continue to rise but the paycheck doesn't.  Insurance at our school is going up, taxes may go up in January, and there is speculation of 20-30% increase in food prices due to corn and wheat shortages.  Oh yeah!  I am so thankful that God provides even in the midst of uncertain economic times.  Supper may be beans and rice but oh how good it tastes!



So as life changes around here, fall comes in with a breath of fresh air, and hope springs eternal!  Oh, and report cards are just around the corner.

A great week to start CVSing

I have to admit that I haven't stepped foot in a CVS in months, except once to pick up a needed prescription.  Well, this week I realized that we are on our last tube of toothpaste and I have no stock of anything that CVS sells.  So it is back to playing the CVS game, the game where you and I pay pennies on the dollar for everything health and beauty related.   Let's get started with this week's deals shall we.

First, make sure you have your Extra Care Card. You must scan it each and every time you make a purchase at CVS in order to get and redeem your Extra Bucks.

Next, gather your coupons and make a list of the items you are buying. 

Here's my game plan:

1st transaction:  1 Kotex U $4.99
Minus $1 printable CVS coupon
minus $1 printable manufacturers coupon
Total out of pocket: $2.99
Get back $4.99

2nd transaction: 2 Crest Pro-Health Toothpaste $7.00
Minus 2 $.75 coupons from P&G 5/02
Pay with $4.99 ECB plus $.50
Get back $7.00

3rd transaction: Pantene Shampoo and Conditioner $6.97
1 pack of Carefree liners
Minus $1 off 2 Pantene coupon from P&G 5/02
Pay with $7.00 ECB above
Get back $3.00 ECB

4th transaction: Schick Hydro 3 Razor $8.99
Minus $5 off coupon from today's paper 5/09
Pay with $3 ECB from above
Get back $4 ECB

I then use then remaining ECB to buy my milk and bread for the week.

The Thrifty Weekend Plan

First, I want to wish all of the moms a very "Happy Mother's Day".  I hope you truly enjoy it and if you saw the Mother's Day episode of "The Middle" then I hope you don't have one of those kinds of days!  Wasn't it perfectly spot-on!!!

Here's what the Thrifty Florida Mama will be doing this weekend.  Saturday morning myself and three kids will be hitting some local yard sales.  There are a lot of good ones listed in the paper.  Praying that God blesses me again with great things at unheard of  prices.  

I will be hanging some plates on the wall.  I bought a set of white Ironstone plates at Goodwill this week for $.59 each and plan to do a little decorating above our living room windows.

I will be picking the first of our tomatoes from our little container garden.

On Sunday I will enjoy a Mother's Day concert presented by the Gainesville Community Band, in which my husband plays trumpet.

I will be menu planning since the next three to five weeks are stuffed to the brim with activity after activity after activity!  I don't want this next month to turn into "drive-thru" month!

What's on your thrifty list this weekend?

Happy Anniversary Baby!

Well, not quite.  But in less than 30 days, my dear husband and I will celebrate 15 years of wedded bliss.   I can hear the oooo's and ahhhhh's now.  Yep, we figured we needed a pat on the back for surviving making it work so we booked us a trip.  A real trip with no kids too!  Now get ready for it, we're heading to



a NASCAR race weekend!

Jealous aren't ya?

In all seriousness, I am so excited!  One of the things that has kept our marriage together is to not have high expectations.  That sounds soooo bad.  But it's not.  I've learned to never expect him to do the dishes or cook dinner or buy me expensive jewelry.  He's learned to never expect me to do laundry, stick to a Christmas budget, or clean out the crock pot.  So when we actually do one of those things, it's like a little gift of love.

Another reason for our survival happiness, is that we listen to each other.  When I told him I wanted to take a little trip for our anniversary, he listened.  He found out which NASCAR race would be that weekend, bought the tickets and then asked me to find a cheap hotel.  Added bonus:  he told me that whatever money I didn't spend on a fancy hotel I could spend at the hugelyexcitingtwostory outlet mall at Concorde, North Carolina.  Woohooo, that man knows my heart!

Last, we are a team.  We root for our kids, Dale Jr., underdogs, the conservative right, and public education.  (There's just the tiny matter that he still bleeds garnet and gold although I did get him to go to the Orange and Blue game!)  I can always count on my guy because he is my biggest cheerleader and I am his.  No matter what!  He came home today and asked who I made mad at the school board meeting Monday night.  I said, "why?" and he replied that one of his co-workers who sat next to me at the meeting said he was married to a little "firecracker".  He didn't even roll his eyes! 

Two of my friends recently wrote about enduring love on their blogs and even though one was about newlywed love and the other was about their marriage of 31 years, I thought Yes!  when I read them.  They both nailed how I felt, still feel, and hope to always feel about my husband and my marriage.