Menu Planning and Shopping.

Today is payday and that means in my house it is the day that I plan my menu for the next 2 weeks. I get my coupons together, and we go shopping. We only have 3 grocery stores in my town. We have a smaller scale super Wal-Mart, a Quality, and a Save-A-Lot. We call Save- a-Lot Save-a-Little in our house.
We save more money at Wal-Mart then we do a Save-a-Lot. Only because I cut coupons and Hubby gets a 10% employee discount. The only thing that we buy at Save-a-Lot is bread. It is only 89cents there and at Wal-Mart it is $1.27.
So here our menu for the next 2 weeks. For breakfast we always do cereal,Pop Tarts, or Oatmeal.You can have your choice of any of those. I don't usually make breakfast unless it is for something special. Lunches we either have leftovers from supper or we make sandwiches. Nothing fancy.
Then I sit down and I fold a piece of paper and make 14 blocks. I number each block 1-14. I try to make up 14 different dinner meals. If I get stumped which often time I do. I pass my sheet to hubby and he adds his two cents.

Here are our 14 choices of this week:
1.Stir Fry
2. Chicken nuggets, tater tots, and broccoli
3.breakfast for dinner. mom's choice (this was dad's idea)
4.beef roast, carrots, potatoes
5.sloppy joes, oven potato wedges, green beans
6.Taco night
7 pork chops,pork fried rice,and a veggie
8.chicken alfrado, vermicelli,broccoli
9.homemade chicken fingers baked, fries, and a veggie
10.spaghetti ,salad
11.Baked whole chicken, baked potato,veggie
12 bubble up pizza
13.Tuna noodle casserole
14 hamburgers,baked beans, macaroni salad

You do not have to make them in this order. But you have to make them all. No going out to dinner. This alone will save you money.
So off we go to the store where I go to the register and check out.
My total comes to are you ready $153.01 this is before coupons and discount.
After coupons and discount it comes to $131.19
That is a savings of $21.82
I have to admit that I cheated this time because I bought Andrea a Little Einstiens Movie. I just couldn't resist. So $14.95 was the movie. So if I subtract that from the $131.19. That comes to $116.24.
I take that total and divide it by 2 and that comes to $58.12.
So I am feeding a family of 4 for $ 58.12 a week. That is not bad my friend.
Remember next time you go shopping to think ahead make a list and don't forget your coupons. In the long run you can save tons of money.

No Coupons Today

Just a reminder.... There will be no coupons in todays paper. It is a holiday weekend. So Save your $1.50. You could spend it somewhere else.

Andrea's Field Trip to Pizza Hut

We have a Pizza Hut in our town. Andrea's class comes here every spring for a field trip. They get to take a tour of the back of the restaurant. Then they get to make their own personal pan pizzas.This field trip for Andrea ranks right up there with the zoo. We go to Pizza Hut every payday. She always yells pizza! Whenever we drive past Pizza Hut.

After Pizza Hut they walked over to the playground. This playground is new and was built just for the K4-K5 students. Everything is on a much smaller scale. Andrea loved it! She could climb on everything. Most playgrounds are really tall. Even though she is a dare devil and goes for things like that. I have to say that my heart always skips a little when I see her high up. I swear this child has no fear!



Here she is on the way to the Pizza hut. With her Dora sunglasses. So movie star like.



Here she is making her pizza.
Light on the sauce please.










Don't forget the pepperoni !







Waiting ever so patiently for my pizza to cook. Is it done yet?







Oh boy its done! Don't forget about saying grace.







The best part is eating it! YUMMY!










Then it was off to the the park to run and play.













Just another day with my friends. Now we are back home just relaxing and watching Wonder Pets. You just have to love Ling Ling, Tuck, and Lenny.

Free Samples and Coupons

Thanks to Denise at The "Cents"ible Sawyer for these free samples. You can get to her blog just by clicking on the shiny penny.


Free sample of Crystal Light on the Go HERE


Free sample of L.A.M.B. - Gwen Stephani's New fragrance HERE


Several COUPONS at Airwick HERE
Click on "money saving coupons" tab at the bottom
There are 5 pages of coupons on different types of items
Thanks to Jen for this tip!


Free ICED COFFEE at Dunkin' Donuts
Jennifer at Tavita's Purse said:
Every Thursday between May 15 and June 12, hop into Dunkin' Donuts for your free iced coffee! Don't forget to add a flavor. I'm not sure if this is working in all areas, so call first.

Steps 1 and 2 Coupon Clipping

Step 1: Of course will be faithfully getting the Sunday newspaper. If you miss it one week trust me you will miss out. Do remember that the Sunday that has holidays there are no coupons in the paper that week. Two weeks ago I didn't get the Sunday paper and now I regret it. It was the one with the P&G insert in it. That week there was huge sales at CVS for those items. To bad for me.

Step 2. You need to get yourself a something that you can organize your coupons in. I have tried many things. I tried one of those accordion folder things. I would stand in the isle forever flipping through it. Knowing that I had a coupon for something but couldn't find it. I would just give up and keep on walking.
A friend of mine bought a very fancy coupon organizer off of E-bay. I wanted one so bad. It was a 3 ring binder with pockets and it zipped up. Well I am not an E-bay person. So I invented one just like it. YOU CAN DO IT TOO!
Just go to the dollar store and buy a regular 3 ring binder. Then I bought the plastic baseball card protector sheets. You get 10 for a dollar at Wall-Mart. Then I bought some sticky labels. I put the pages in the binder. Then I made categories that I wanted to put my coupons in. Example:Breakfast,Frozen,Canned, Toiletries,Cleaning,Baby,and Candy/ Snacks. Then I just started putting the coupons in it.
I LOVE IT! I can see all of the coupons that I have. I am not wasting time flipping through that foldy thing. So now I am saving my time and money. Here is a picture of what mine looks like.















If you have notice the Cents-able Sawyer button at the top of the page. Just click on it and it will take you another blog. This Blog is awesome! She has great things to help you save money.Free samples and how to get the best deal at CVS.

Field Trip to Erie Zoo

Today we went on a field trip with Andrea's class to the Erie Zoo.
Here Andrea is waiting to leave the school parking lot. Anxiously waiting I should say . It is a hour long bus ride to the Zoo.







First we have to take a 1 mile train ride around the zoo with our class. Then we get to split up with our families and explore the Zoo.


















Here are a few pictures of our favorite animals.

Mr. Lion was very lazy today.
Every time we saw him
he was snoozing away. It took two tries to see the rhino. The first time they were inside their house. After lunch we went back to see if they came out. Sure enough they did.
It is to cold for some of the animals to be outside. Rosy the Gorilla was one of them. She looked so sad just sitting there picking her face.Because she was inside we saw her twice.Due to thecold outside Andrea's hands were red. So after we saw the rhinos one last time. We spent about 10 minutes inside with the Rosy and several other animals. It gave us a much needed reprieve from the cold.Those pictures didn't turn out.It was kinda dark inside.
The Kangaroo and Wallaby exhibit was so cool. You could walk through it and the Kangaroos and Wallabies were free to roam. Of course you couldn't pet them. But, it was neat to be up close to them. Only this rope was keeping them on one side and us on the other. There was a brick path that we walked on. They would jump across right out in front of you.

They also have a petting zoo. Unlike traditional petting zoos where you can feed the animals food. Erie has a bucket of brushes for the children. The goats really love this. This white one was adorable. I don't think he wanted us to leave him.
As the trip was ending we stopped in at the gift shop. Were Andrea picked out a baby giraffe. Back to the bus we went for the hour long drive home.

Mothers Lie By:Lori Borgman

Mothers Lie~

Every mother wants so much more. She wants a perfectly healthy baby with a round head, rosebud lips, button nose, beautiful eyes and satin skin. She wants a baby so gorgeous that people will pity the Gerber baby for being flat-out ugly.

She wants a baby that will roll over, sit up and take those first steps right on schedule (according to the baby development chart on page 57, column two). Every mother wants a baby that can see, hear, run, jump and fire neurons by the billions. She wants a kid that can smack the ball out of the park and do the toe points that are the envy of the entire ballet class. Call it greed if you want, but a mother wants what a mother wants.

Some mothers get babies with something more.

Maybe you’re one who got a baby with a condition you couldn’t pronounce, a spine that didn’t fuse, a missing chromosome or a palate that didn’t close. The doctor’s words took your breath away. It was just like the time at recess in the fourth grade when you didn’t see the kick ball coming, and it knocked the wind right out of you.

Some of you left the hospital with a healthy bundle, then, months, even years later, took him in for a routine visit, or scheduled him for a checkup, and crashed head first into a brick wall as you bore the brunt of devastating news. It didn’t seem possible. That didn’t run in your family. Could this really be happening in your lifetime?

There’s no such thing as a perfect body. Everybody will hear something at some time or another. Maybe the affliction will be apparent to curious eyes, or maybe it will be unseen, quietly treated with trips to the doctor, therapy or surgery. Mothers of children with disabilities live the limitations with them.

Frankly, I don’t know how you do it. Sometimes you mothers scare me. How you lift that kid in and out of the wheelchair twenty times a day. How you monitor tests, track medications, and serve as the gatekeeper to a hundred specialists yammering in your ear.

I wonder how you endure the clichés and the platitudes, the well-intentioned souls explaining how God is at work when you’ve occasionally questioned if God is on strike.

I even wonder how you endure schmaltzy columns like this one-saluting you, painting you as hero and saint, when you know you’re ordinary. You snap, you bark, you bite. You didn’t volunteer for this, you didn’t jump up and down in the motherhood line yelling, “Choose me, God. Choose me! I’ve got what it takes.”

You’re a woman who doesn’t have time to step back and put things in perspective, so let me do it for you. From where I sit, you’re way ahead of the pack. You’ve developed the strength of the draft horse while holding onto the delicacy of a daffodil. You have a heart that melts like the chocolate in a glove box in July, counter-balanced against stubbornness of an Ozark mule.

You are the mother, advocate and protector of a child with a disability. You’re a neighbor, a friend, a woman I pass at church and my sister-in-law. You’re a wonder.

~~Lori Borgman

Look What I Made!

This morning Andrea and I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. They were so soft and Yummy! We thought that we would share the recipe with all of you. We can't wait for Bubby to come home from school and try them.

Nestle Oatmeal Scotchies:

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups unsifted flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups Old-Fashioned Quaker oats

1 (11 ounce) package Nestle Toll House butterscotch-flavored morsels (about 2 cups) I also had a half bag of chocolate chips left over from when I made chocolate dipped strawberries.

Directions

1. 
   

   Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. 
   

   Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl; set aside.

3. 
   

   Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract in a large bowl.

4. 
   

   Gradually beat in flour mixture.

5. 
   

   Stir in oats and morsels.

6. 
   

   Drop by rounded Tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet.

7. 
   

   Bake 7 to 8 minutes for chewy cookies, 9 to 10 minutes for crisp cookies.

8. 
   

   Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes, remove to wire racks to cool completely.

9. 
   

   Pan Cookie Variation: Grease 15x10-inch jelly-roll pan.

10. 
    

    Prepare dough as above.

11. 
    

    Spread in prepared pan.

12. 
    

    Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until lightly browned.

13. 
    

    Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

Introducing Us!

Well after much consideration and slight anxiety. I have decided to hop onto the Blog bandwagon.
First, I guess that I should introduce me and my family. Or should that be my family and I. As you can tell I am not the best in spelling or grammer. But I will do my best. My name is Mandy and I am a stay at home mom to 2 wonderful children.
Andrea is 4. She is such a girlie girl and is very busy. Andrea also has an unknown form of dwarfism. Which I am sure I will post about from time to time.She has the nickname of Peanut. Andrea was a 26 week micro preemie. weighing in at 1 pound 10 ounces. She has came a long way. She was given the nickname Peanut because, she was no bigger than one when she was born.
Mike is 10. If you haven't figured it out yet he is Bibbers. Or as Andrea calls him. Her Bubby.
Mike is a normal boy. He is very active. He loves wrestling (not the WWE kind) and going to church. He is not much for reading but loves to work with his hands.Anything that can be taken apart usually will be taken apart. He is also not a huge fan of school. But isn't that typical of most 10 year old boys?
I have a great Hubby named Bill. He is my Mr. Fix it. He is also what we call the tomorrow man. If it can be put off for tomorrow it will be. lol
I love trying to save my family money.I think that coupon clipping has become an addiction for me. If there is a coupon and it is on sale then chances are it is on the grocery list for next week.I will find some way to make it work. I am not a very good housekeeper. Although I do my best.I think that I am crafty and at times be very funny.
I am looking forward to sharing our life with you.