The Man take as a turn as Mr. Frugal

Sometime The Man is annoyingly extravagant.  Case in point, he was talking about joining a Country Club. Seriously. Can you say sooooooo not in the budget! I know he means well, he is just dreaming with his words.  Livin' Large.

Thing is, Livin Large talk makes me nervous.  I believe this is because one of my household duties is making sure the bills are paid.  Can you relate?

Frugality, on the other hand, is the way to my heart.  That and a clean kitchen. So recently, The Man did real good and I have to give him his just due.

When we moved into our new place on the shores of Lake Chatuge, the previous owner had left behind a propane tankless, Char-Broil Grill.  Tom cleaned up the grill and then..instead of buying a shiny new propane tank...

He was at the landfill and spied someone throwing away a propane tank.  Right, that isn't protocol for acceptable household waste for sure.  So the fellow working at the dump was OK with The Man taking the dirty, empty propane tank.

The Man brought the tank home and cleaned it up.  Yes, I said cleaned it up.  Personally, I think it's superfluous to clean up an empty propane tank, but he did.  Then we took it to the Bi-Lo where you got a $4.00 off if you exchanged an empty tank for a full one with your Bi-Lo card.

1 new propane tank would have cost $55.00.  1 propane tank exchanged for a full one at Bi-Lo was $16.98.

So we are now grilling at a total OOP (out of pocket) cost of $16.98!

Way to go The Man!

I received a coupon link from My Insite which is a blogging reach-out marketing arm of General Mills/Betty Crocker. This time around they are saying "hey don't forget about our Suddenly Salad when you are looking for a quick BBQ side". 

 I have a secret fondness for the Bacon & Ranch Suddenly Salad, so I'm sharing the coupon link! Enjoy!

 PS often these are part of 10 for $10 deals so a good coupon esp. if you are able to double-coupon !The coupon can really help you get a box of Suddenly Salad for peanuts. Plus they have the Boxtops for Education.

Squeee!!! I figured out how to make pictures linkable, click the picture to grab the Zesty Pasta Salad Recipe!

The quicker picker upper.

Bounty One Sheet

Three kids and pets, plus my love of cooking from scratch equals a constant need for paper towels. Constant!

So I was really excited to get a couple of coupons to try the latest and greatest paper towel from Bounty.

Why me?  How did Bounty know that I am always buying paper towels?  Well they don't follow me around or monitor our trash, I received the coupons because I belong to Vocalpoint and am part of their "Be the First Program".

So how does the Bounty work?  Is it as described? One Sheet?  Well, I used it for a spill of orange juice.  Anna (AKA Trail Mix) Trail Mix spilled about 1/2 a cup of the stuff onto our counter.  It looked like too much for One Sheet, but I was pleasantly surprised that one sheet did the trick.

You know what this means?  A roll of the Bounty should last longer than the generic store brand I usually purchase because it is the cheapest. And if it lasts longer, I can get the Bounty, use less, use a coupon and probably have a few extra pennies to add to the Family Rainy Day Coffee Can.

Mardi Gras

Here we are another Fat Tuesday, another year in which I don't take part in the eating of a King Cake or a paczki.  I don't really like stuff in my pastries. After you have the Fat Tuesday celebrations, along comes Lent and 6 weeks of deprivation. Deprivation for those so inclined to give it a go on the long trek toward Easter Sunday.  I love some Lenten fasting, so I've been thinking, what to give up? what to give up?

Here are a few ideas, just off the top of my head:

1. Give up doing dishes.
2. Give up making lunches
3. Give up putting other people's things away.

Right, I know, that's not what they mean when they say you should give something up for lent!  Well all right, I've mulled it over and I am going with giving up all-things-fried. I was thinking of giving up junk food, but upon reflection, it seems to be too broad a category.  For example, is a jelly bean junk food? What about a hamburger?

So there I go. No fried stuff.  How about you?  Do you 'do' Lent?  What are you giving up?

Some great freebies from around the net!

Free Sample of Ecover Laundry Soap! Via The FB page!

Nice earth-friendly products!

There was a giveaway for Betty Crocker Members, but those are all snatched up.  You can still go to Betty Crocker's Website and become a member.  As a member, which is free of course, you get access to member only coupons, recipes and a monthly free sample (limited to the first 10,000)  Next month's free sample is going to be Cheerios, the new peanut butter ones.

This is a pic of a Members Exclusive Recipe for Veggie Enchiladas. Yum.


You can also head on over to Facebook, as if you don't already have a tab opened to Facebook right now and like Quaker Oats Squares and get a free cereal sample!
Thanks to freebie shark for the scoop!

Good stuff I got in the mail this week.

So I say why talk about bills and more bills. Let's talk about the good freebies I found in my mailbox this week. When TMOTH (The Man of the House) has been downsized, a family find that their income is seriously downsized!  With that, I do a little happy dance for all the freebies and income I bring in to our household.

First off I'd like to say, if you haven't checked out Smiley 360, you should! Smiley 360 Be heard. Be Happy   Smiley 360, you sign up and they have promotions where they provide you with a nice free sample and some high value coupons. You try the products and then share with your friends if you like them.  Easy peasy!  This week I received a free package of Knorr Homestyle Stock  and $2.00 a package coupon.

I have been wanting to try the Knorr Homestyle Stock so to get to try it for free is awesome!  My free full size package equals 4 meals and saves me about $4.50.  With the package from Smiley 360, I also received a recipe guide.  I am looking forward to making the Slow Cooker Pulled Pork!

SERVES 10

PREP TIME: 10 Minute(s)

COOK TIME: 4 Hour(s)

INGREDIENTS

3- lb. boneless pork shoulder 1 tub Knorr® Homestyle Stock - Chicken 1/2 cup ketchup 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce 10 Kaiser rolls or hamburger buns

PREPARATION

1. Arrange pork in slow cooker. Combine remaining ingredients except rolls and pour over pork; turn to coat.
2. Cook covered on LOW 8 to 10 hours or HIGH 4 to 6 hours or until pork is tender.
3. Remove pork; reserve juices. Shred pork with fork, then stir into reserved juices. Serve on rolls.

See nutrition information for sodium content.

NUTRITION INFORMATION per serving
Calories 410, Calories From Fat 90, Saturated Fat 3g, Trans Fat 0g, Total Fat 11g, Cholesterol 80mg, Sodium 900mg, Total Carbohydrates 45g, Sugars 15g, Dietary Fiber 1g, Protein 31g, Vitamin A 2%, Vitamin C 6%, Calcium 10%, Iron 20%

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I also got another full size product and coupons from Smiley.360.  Children's Advil. This one is liquid medicine for kids ages 2-11.  Our box from Smiley 360 came at the perfect time as we were babysitting my niece and nephew (twins age 4) and my nephew had a fever  and an ear ache. When his dad came to pick him up, we gave him the Children's Advil, and he was able to administer it to his son, and the poor kiddo was able to fall asleep without pain.

But wait there is more!!! I had a great Tastefully Simple party last night so that paid for this weeks groceries AND I earned a nice drink bucket scooper!  More good free stuff!  I can't wait to scoop some Margaritas this Spring!

PLUS here is another great site that let's you try something free and then tell your friends about it, if you like it--and give them coupons!  For this one you could scroll down on the left hand side and find the link for bzzagent.com or you can click the link here and check out the campaign I am doing now. Today I picked up a loaf of the Brownberry healthfull, free from the Jewel! This is super handy because I had a super limited budget and The Man like a nice hearty bread that isn't loaded with calories.  So this totally fit the bill.  He has already had about 3 ham sandwiches. 

For the finally income for the week, I received a little secret shopping check today!  This means the kiddos can have the fried chicken from Jewel feast for Superbowl tomorrow.