Wordless Wednesday: Park Fun!

Find more Wordless Wednesday posts at 5 Minutes for Mom!

Qdoba: Kid's Eat Free This Weekend!

It's a good weekend to take the kiddos out to eat! Qdoba is offering a FREE kid's meal with the purchase of any entree as long as adult and child are present on April 3rd & 4th. Valid at participating locations only, I am assuming that all of the Seattle area locations are participating.

Go HERE to find a Qdoba near you!

While you are out, make sure you pick up a Qdoba Card. You will receive a free order of chips and salsa when you register your card online, emails with coupons several times throughout the year as well as a BOGO burrito on your birthday! You will receive 100 points per entree purchased and once you reach 1000 points you will get a free entree! I have had my card almost 5 years now and have gotten a LOT of free stuff! One of the best rewards programs out there!

*Image Above From: Qdoba Mexican Grill

New Feature: Monday Moments + Giveaway!

I am a self proclaimed Starbucks Junkie! I LOVE splurging and going out for coffee on the weekends! Luckily, I usually have free gift cards that I have earned through Swagbucks so it's not really even splurging!

I also really love their bottled Frappucino drinks. They are handy to have on hand if I don't feel like making a pot of coffee in the morning and are great for afternoon treats! Recently Starbucks came out with a new flavor for their bottled fraps, Vanilla Light. They contain 1/2 the calories and less than 1/2 the sugar than the classic vanilla flavor.

To promote this new flavor, Starbucks is running a campaign for the next 4 weeks called, Monday Moments. It is similar to Wordless Wednesday except it will have a bonus, a giveaway! More details on that later in the post. Monday Moments is all about taking time for relaxation and cherishing personal moments.

Starbucks is also offering a Fabule$$ printable coupon for $1.00 off HERE.

My Monday Moment this week is all about personal relaxation. Relaxing to me is just as the photo looks, curled up in my big comfy chair with a blanket, a hot cup of tea or coffee (and usually some chocolate!) and my laptop!

***GIVEAWAY!***

Every Monday for the next 3 weeks I will be posting my "Monday Moments" here on the blog and hope you will get your entries in for the great giveaway Starbucks is offering! One lucky Fabulessly Frugal Mom reader will win a 4 Pack of Vanilla Light Frappucino and a $10 Starbucks gift card!

You can earn 1 entry per week for 3 weeks and all you have to do to enter is leave a comment on each Monday Moments post with your answer to my question that week! One winner will be chosen at random on Friday, April 16th. The winner will be notified by email and announced here on 4/19. I am hoping that the winner will email me their Monday Moment photo to feature on Monday, April 19th for the final installment!

For this week's entry leave a comment with your answer to the following: What is your favorite way to relax when you are on your own - no kids, no spouse or friends, just YOU??!!

Disclosure - Starbucks is sponsoring this giveaway for one of my readers and is also sending me the same items to review and use. No compensation other than the $10 gift card will be received and all opinions and "Monday Moment's" are 100% my own.

Target Deals: Week of 3/28 to 4/3

Target has quite a few good deals this week! Make sure you go HERE to print off all of Target.com's available store & manuf. coupons before heading out!

Starbucks Coffee $7

- use $1.00 off 1 coupon from 3/21 SS insert

stack with

- $1.50 off 1 Target Printable

Final Price: $4.50 each

Seattle's Best Iced Lattes - On Price Cut for $1.00

-use $1.00/1 from 3/28 SS insert

Final Price: FREE!

Snuggle Liquid Fabric Softener $3.99

-use $3.00/1 coupon from 3/28 RP insert

Final Price: $.99

Clearance Items: I have heard through the grapevine that there are a bunch of great items on clearance right now, if you find/found anything Fabule$$ leave a comment!!

Check out the rest of this week's deals over at Stretching A Buck!

All You Printable Coupons

As most of you know, All You is my FAVORITE magazine! Not only are the articles great they come with about $50 worth of coupons in every issue!

Amazon has 6 month All You subscriptions on sale for $10 right now, check it out HERE. I have seen better deals for this subscription before but this is only $1.67/issue and I save way more than that with their coupons each month.

Allyou.com also has printable coupons that are exclusive to their website. Right now there are several great coupons available like:

$1.00 off any Kashi TLC Bars (P.S. I received my TLC Dark Chocolate Coconut bar in the mail today, YUM!)

$1.00 off Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt! My fav!!

$1.00 off any GE Energy Smart Bulb

$1.00 off Bear Naked Granola

+ More

Go print yours before they are gone!!

Free Potty Training DVD

Got a toddler in diapers that you are getting ready to train? Or maybe you are in the same boat as me, trying to get your kid excited about using the potty to no avail?

Go HERE to request your free Potty Training Sucess DVD from Pull Ups! It has ideas, songs and games to get your toddler ready to be a "Big Kid Now!" And believe me I am SOOO ready for my daughter to be out of diapers!

Digiorno House Party + GIVEAWAY!

Have you ever heard of House Party before? It is a company that works with other companies to promote new products by having people host parties and using the products. What a great concept!

I had applied for a few of these parties before but never was selected, then I got a notice that I was accepted and chosen to hold a Digiorno Champions House Party last weekend! I received a kit in the mail with coupons for Digiorno's new product: Pizza and Breadsticks plus coupons for my guests, some games, an apron, party beads, a pizza cutter and a magnet! I was able to get 6 free pizzas with my coupons and all my guests got coupons for $4 off. The only problem was finding the pizzas at the store, I went to a few and couldn't find it but finally did at Fred Meyer.

I also paired the party up with a home show I was doing for Usborne books so we made it Mom's Night Out and had pizza while we looked at kid's books! I think everyone had a great time and who doesn't love free pizza right?! Just check out the spread in the photo below!

If you are a fan of hosting parties and you haven't signed up yet, I definitely recommend it! I get periodic emails telling me when new applications are available. I think I am going to sign up for the Breyers party as soon as it's accepting applications.

Go HERE to check out all of the upcoming events. And go HERE to sign up for free!

Now on to the giveaway part!

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS NOW CLOSED - THANKS FOR ENTERING!! Were you a winner? Check HERE!

I have four $4.00 off coupons left over from the party so I want to give them away to 2 of my readers!

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post and tell me what your favorite kind of pizza is!

I will choose 2 winners through Random.org on Thursday April 1st at 4:00 pm PST. The winners will have 24 hours to respond to my email or I will choose another winner.

Good Luck!

Barnes & Noble: Melissa & Doug Sale!

I LOVE Melissa & Doug products but they are usually pretty spendy so I was excited to see that Barnes & Noble has them marked down 45% today! Check it out HERE.

For example: The Safari Chunky Puzzle is usually $9.99 but is on sale for $5.49!

Naomi got a $25 B&N gift card for her birthday so it may be a good time to use it... I wonder if the sale is in-store too, probably not...

Thanks Surviving the Stores!

Still Under Construction!

**Update** Ok my friends, after two days of tweeking and moving things around, I think I have finally found a layout/design that I love! I took the photo in the banner today and found this sleek black design. I hope you all like it, I will be back to posting tomorrow as I am BURNT out!

Wow! I had no idea updating to a template that was more user friendly was so hard to do! Sorry to any of you who are clicking on my page and finding it all wonky! I have to be offline for a while but when I get home this evening I will be working on finding a template that I love and one that isn't so gray and boring! Lol!

Hope you all enjoy your evening! P.S. It is a BEAUTIFUL day here in Western Washington, if you live around here I hope you all get out and enjoy the weather this afternoon!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Bed Time Snack

Find more Wordless Wednesday posts over at 5 Minutes for Mom!

The New Doo!

**I think I finally got the comments working again! Try it out!**

I have a new look! It's not quite all done yet, I am still working on adding more resources and I want to ad a photo into my banner so check back over the next few days to see some very exciting changes!

New tabs! I can't even tell you how excited I am to now have different pages! So simple I know but I wanted to be able to open up some space in my columns, de-clutter and have some useful reference pages for all of you. I have added About, Contact, Just Getting Started and a Couponer's Lingo pages so go check them out!

I am open to suggestions so let me know if there is something you want to see more of on here! Hopefully all the kinks will be worked out very soon because I have a few awesome giveaways coming up that I know you are all going to want to enter!

Fred Meyer: Cheap Pasta and Butter!

Fred Meyer has a couple of great sales going on this week. Prices are good thru Saturday, 3/27.

Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta $1.00 each
- use $.75 off 1 Printable
Final Price: $.25/box!
Do you get Parents magazine? The April issue has a $1.00 off 1 Ronzoni coupon, that means FREE pasta for you!

Challenge Butter, 16 oz. 2 for $4 with Fred Meyer coupon found in the Extra Savings booklets located at the front of the store.
- use $.75 off 1 blinkie coupon found near the butter
Final Price: $1.25 per lb!
Look in your store's coupon exchange bin for $1.50 off 1 Catalina coupons! I got one and ended up getting a pound of butter for only $.50!

Toys - Use the extra 10% off toys coupon found in the store ad this week for extra savings on those great coupons we got in our Smart Source inserts last weekend!

Fabule$$ Printable Coupon: $1/2 Campbell's Cooking Soups!

There is a HOT new printable available HERE! $1.00 off any 2 Campbell's Great for Cooking soups; you should be able to print 2 per computer. I am pretty well stocked on these right now but I printed off 2 and will save them for a good sale. Sometimes these go on special for as low as $.50 per can which means you could get them free with this coupon! Even if you only sometimes use these soups, wouldn't it be bettter to get them free than pay $1.35/can when you sometimes need it?

Ben & Jerry's: Free Cone Day!

In case you haven't already heard, today (3/23) is Ben & Jerry's FREE Cone Day 2010! From 12 to 8pm today you can stop in at any scoop shop and get a free cone!

Find a scoop shop near you HERE.

What flavor are you going to get? I LOVE the Cinnamon Buns flavor!

Holy Free Cereal Batman!

WOW! I can't believe I just walked out of Albertsons with 12 boxes of cereal for FREE!!!! My husband is a Rasin Bran FREAK so he was super excited to be stocked for a while. The rest of it will most likely be donated to our local food bank. I feel that while my family greatly benefits from my couponing addiction, other families in need should benefit as well.

Here are my 3 transactions:

Trip #1:
4 Boxes of Rasin Bran @ $1.59 each
2 Boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats @ $1.59 each
Sub Total: $9.54
- used 3 $1.00 off 2 Post Cereals Coupons
- used 3 Albertsons Doublers
Paid: $3.54, Received a Catalina for $4.00! ($.46 Profit!)

Trip #2:
6 More Boxes Post Cereal @ $1.59 each
1 Orange Tic Tac @ 1.00 (Hubs REALLY wanted them!)
Sub Total: $10.54
- used 3 $1.00 off 2 coupons
- used 3 Doublers
- used $4 Catalina from 1st transaction
Final Price: $.54, Received another $4 Catalina!

Trip #3:
2 Mega Packs Diapers - On clearance for $9.99/pack! (Marked down from $17.49!)
Sub Total: $19.98
-used 2 $2.00 off Cruisers Diapers from P&G inserts
-used $4 catalina from previous transaction
Final Price: $11.98 + Tax!
That works out to be about $.13/diaper, way below my $.20 buy it price!

The doubler coupons expire tomorrow so get in your coupon transactions by tomorrow night. My store was well stocked on the cereal so hopefully yours is as well! Even without coupons this cereal deal is pretty great since you still get the catalina at the end.

Scenario without using any coupons:
Buy 5 Boxes Post Cereal @ $1.59 each
Final Price OOP: $7.95 and receive a $4 Catalina coupon good on your next purchase.

Factoring in the Catalina that works out to be about $.80/box. Plus you can roll this to another transaction and use the $4 Catalina to pay for the next round, then you will receive another Catalina at the end of that transaction!

VS Pink Nation Members: Get your FREE Tank!!

Remember THIS post from back in February? Well they made their goal of 1 million members! If you took advantage and signed up to be a member of Victoria's Secret's Pink Nation then you can log in HERE to print your coupon for a totally FREE limited edition tank top! Hurry and do it soon though, it's only while supplies last!

Not a member yet? Sign up HERE to get in on future freebies and coupons!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Rainy Day Relaxing

Find more Wordless Wednesday posts at 5 Minutes for Mom & Go Graham Go!

Albertsons: LOTS of Soup and Free Noodles!

Whew! It was a pretty boring week for Albertsons until those doublers showed up on Sunday! I just wanted to do a quick post with what I got this week! I found a whole stack of doublers at my Albertsons cust. service desk so I grabbed 3!

1st Transaction:
8 cans of Campbells Soup - Cream of Mushroom and Chicken - $.75 each
2 cans of Cheddar Cheese Soup - $1.00 each
Sub-Total: $8.00
- used 2 $1.00 off 4 Printables
- used $.40 off 2 Campbells soups (now expired)
- used 3 doublers (-$2.40)
Final Price: $3.20! Plus I got a catalina for 200 bonus soup labels to donate to a school!!

2nd Transaction:
2 Darigold Sour Creams - used my raincheck from last week to get them for $.99 each
Organic Bananas - $1.80
Bag of No Yolk Noodles - $1.29 (realized later that the register charged me $1.49 :( )
Sub Total: $5.27
- used 2 $.40 off 1 Darigold blinkie coupons found by the sour cream!
- used $.75 off 1 No Yolks coupon from 3/7 SS insert
- used 3 doublers (-$1.55)
Final Price: $2.17
Free noodles and $.20 each for the sour creams! Woot!

3rd Transaction:
2 bags No Yolks - rang up correctly at $1.29!
4 more cans of soup
Sub Total: $5.58
- used $1.00 off 4 soup printable
- used 2 $.75 off No Yolks coupons
- used 3 Doublers (-$3.50)
Final Price: $.58!! There was $.40 overage on the noodles so the soup was even cheaper!

Basically all together I spent $5.95 on all of that. Usually the cream soups are over $1.00 per can since they were only $.25 per can with this sale I stockpiled them. Now I should not have to buy cream soups for a long, LONG time! Same with the noodles, when they are free I get as many as I can because they don't go bad for 2 years. The most expensive item I bought was the bananas!

These prices are good through tonight at midnight. There are 3 doublers in next weeks ad though so I have a feeling there will be a lot more free or almost free products!!

Personal Note: I do buy my family wholesome foods other than condensed soups, noodles and crackers, etc! I know a lot of these super saver posts I do are a lot of processed foods, but these are not everyday items consumed in my household. We have a milk delivery service and I go to the store every week for fresh organic produce and meats. If an item I sometimes use goes on sale at a rock bottom price I would rather buy a lot of it and have it when I need it vs. running to the store and ending up spending $1.35 for one can of soup because I need it for a casserole. Plus, having a large stockpile enables me to be able to donate more to canned food drives!

HOT! 2010 Entertainment Book $17 Shipped!

This is a FABULE$$ deal from Entertainment Book! They are having a 17 hour sale where all books are only $17 with free shipping! These books are usually $35 + shipping so this is a hot deal!

We are BIG fans of the Entertainment book in our house. Our 2010 book has paid for itself at least 3 times over since we got it a few months back. All the coupons are good until November 2010 and there are a ton of great restaurant and cafe coupons, $5 off Safeway coupons, great movie theatre discounts and even freebie items at some places! I HIGHLY recommend getting one for your family!

But wait! It gets better! Sign up for Ebates HERE. If you are a new account you will receive a $5 bonus in your account just for signing up and then you will get 25% cash back if you order your book through Ebates! That is like getting this book for under $10!!

Mailbox Monday: Fabule$$ Freebies!

It's time again for Mailbox Monday! This past week was great for free stuff in the mail! I got my free Pampers Cruisers sample, Emergen-C samples and a couple of free magazines! Make sure you check back here on Monday, April 5th to see my big post about all the totally free stuff that came to my mailbox during the month of March!

In the meantime, here are a few great free samples available that you can sign up for!

The above Pampers Cruisers with Dry Max sample is still available HERE! 3 free diapers and a coupon, pretty awesome!

Free Lever 2000 sample HERE. This is a Costco sample but you don't need to be a member to request it. Thanks James!

Become a fan of Ritz Crackers on Facebook HERE and sign up for your free sample of their new Munchables Pretzel Crisps! Thanks Cha Ching on a Shoestring!

Get started on your garden this year with some free seeds from The Dinner Garden! Sign up HERE or see where you can pick them up in a city near you. (Note: The seeds are in high demand so this sample may take a while to receive.) Thanks Money Saving Mom!

Stoneyfield Rewards: Free Leapfrog Tag Junior Book!

While supplies last you can get a FREE Leapfrog Tag Junior book, ABC Animal Orchestra when you buy any 4 cups of YoBaby yogurt!

Remember those super cheap (AKA Free) 3 in 1 meals from Wal Mart a couple of weeks ago? Well if you bought at least 4 you should be able to redeem them HERE to get your free book! I entered my 4 codes and my mailing address, clicked submit and it said my book would be here in 10-12 weeks!

Stoneyfield Organic fan? Sign up for My Stoneyfield Rewards for free HERE and you can enter codes from the products you purchase to earn points toward free products! I am saving up for an Annie's Organic free product!

And The Winner Is...

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway! I wish I could give all of you a gift card for being such Fabule$$ people! Alas, I could only giveaway one and congratulations goes to.....



Emily - For being a subscriber!
She likes to stock up on cereal, canned tomatoes and pasta when they are rock-bottom!

Congratulations Emily, an email has been sent to you with further instructions for receving your $25 Kroger Family of Stores gift card provided by Kroger & General Mills through My Blog Spark!

Thanks to everyone again for entering and keep checking back for more Fabule$$ finds and giveaways!

Oh! And head to Kroger (or your affiliate store) before Sunday to check out the Cart Buster Savings Event!!

March 15th: Free Spaghetti at Buca Di Beppo!

On Monday, March 15th, Buca di Beppo is breaking the world record for largest bowl of spaghetti and to celebrate, they are giving everyone free spaghetti that day! You will have a choice of meat sauce or marinara sauce and you must purchase a pasta dish or entree to be able to receive the freebie. Dine in only, but you can take it home if you are too full to finish as I usually am when I go there!

To find a Buca near you go HERE, and while you are there sign up HERE to get on their email list and you'll get a coupon for a free appetizer too! They often email you coupons for $10 off a $20 purchase! If you have one of these coupons already you could even use it on March 15th to get a better deal on dinner!

Kroger Cart Buster Savings Event & 24 Hour Giveaway!

Ok my fellow Frugalistas, time to get your shop on! Going on now through Sunday, March 14th the Kroger family of stores is holding a Cart Buster Savings Event!

What is the Cart Buster Savings Event you ask? Basically it means that you will save a lot on a ton of great brands from P&G and General Mills with big price mark downs. Use some coupons with this sales event and you have yourself a stock up opportunity!

Here are some of the brands included in the event: Honey Nut Cheerios, Hamburger Helper, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Progresso, Cascadian Farm, Yoplait, Pampers, Bounty, Charmin, Pantene, Crest, Iams, etc, etc, etc! Just look for the special yellow tags around your store.

In this past week's Sunday paper there was a HUGE P&G coupon insert with lots of coupons that I am sure will work great for a lot of the items on sale. I plan to go to Fred Meyer tomorrow afternoon to check out the prices and stock up on some cereal! My daughter LOVES Honey Nut Cheerios!

Speaking of stores, this event is taking place exclusively at Kroger and the Kroger family of stores including: Fred Meyer, QFC, Ralph´s, King Soopers, City Market, Dillons, Smith´s, Fry´s, Baker´s, Owen´s, Jay C Food Stores, Hilander, Gerbes, Food4Less, Pay Less Super Markets and Scott´s Food & Pharmacy.

So let's get to the really exciting part!

**UPDATE** This giveaway has ended. Check HERE to see if you won!

Kroger & General Mills through My Blog Spark have been generous enough to provide me with a $25 Kroger Family of Stores gift card to go shop this event with AND one for one of my Fabule$$ readers!! The $25 gift card up for grabs is good at any of the stores listed above.

Since this event is ending Sunday and I want the winner to be able to go shopping this weekend, I am doing this as a 24 hour giveaway.

Here is how to enter: 1st entry is mandatory before any extra entries will count.

1st: Leave a comment on this post letting us know what kinds of things you stock up on when prices are rock bottom! Make sure you also add your email address in the post so I can contact you if you win. This format works best: fabulesslyfrugalmom (at) hotmail (dot) com

Extra Entries: Please leave your email address for each entry.

2nd: Follow me on Twitter! Leave a comment here letting me know you do!

3rd: Tweet about this giveaway with a link back to this post then come back here to let me know you did!

4th: Subscribe to my Fabule$$ blog through your favorite reader, or if you are already a subscriber just let me know.

5th: Blog about this giveaway on your blog and/or add me to your blogroll and post a comment with a link back to your site. If I am already on your blogroll (you rock!), leave a link as well for an extra entry!

I will pick the winner through Random.org after 10 pm PST tomorrow 3/11. All comments received after that time will not count. The winner will have until 3 PM PST on 3/12 to respond with their mailing address or another winner will be chosen at random.

Thanks again to the Kroger Family of Stores & General Mills through My Blog Spark for providing me and one of my readers with these $25 gift cards!

Rite Aid: Free + Overage GE CFL Lightbulbs!

When I went to Rite Aid to pick up my Pampers diapers last night (which were totally out of stock, boo!) my husband noticed that there was an end-cap with GE Energy Smart CFL bulbs on sale for $.99.

Here is a Fabule$$ money-makin scenario for you!

Buy 2 GE Energy Smart CFL bulbs @ $.99 each
- use 2 $1.00 off 1 GE Energy Smart product from 3/7 Smart Source
Total OOP: ZERO + sales tax
Since the light bulbs are only $.99 each, the cash register will probably beep. The cashier just needs to adjust the value of the coupon down to $.99.

Then bring your receipt to your computer and submit for a $2.00 SCR from Rite Aid HERE. You'll receive a $2 check in the mail which means you will have MADE $2 to buy these light bulbs!

Even if you don't have the coupons you can still get these for free when you submit for the rebate, pay $2 out of pocket and receive the $2 check!

Top Foods: Cheap Tillamook Products!

While browsing through my store ads this morning I noticed that Top Foods is doing a Tillamook promo this week.

Buy $10 worth of products and save $3 instantly.

Here are a couple of scenarios for you, no coupons needed!!

Hot Cheese Scenario:

Buy 2 2lbs blocks of Tillamook Cheese at 2/$10 - $10

Save $3 Instantly

Final Price: $3.50 each!

This is below my stock up price of $3.99 for 2 lbs so it's a great deal!

Cheese/Butter Scenario:

Buy 1 2lb block of cheese @ $5

Buy 2lbs butter @ 2/$5

Save $3 Instantly

Final Price: $7 - $3.50 for the cheese and $1.75/lb for the butter!

Their ice cream and shredded cheeses are also part of the promo, make it work for your needs! Did you know that you can freeze cheese for up to 3 months?

Kraft First Taste: Possible Free Philadelphia Minis

Have you signed up to be a member of Kraft's First Taste program yet? If not, you really should! It is a free program that periodically offers free products to try out. Then afterwards you just have to fill out a little survey about the product you tried. If you are a member already, you should log in to your account now and check your offers section and check to see if you got an offer for a free Phili Cream Cheese Mini's coupon!

Go HERE to log-in or go HERE to sign up!

This is my 3rd freebie in 3 months from them so it is definitely worth it!

Thanks for posting about this Thrifty NW Mom!

Fabule$$ Deal on Pampers Diapers at Rite Aid!!

Rite Aid has a hot P&G promo going on this week through Saturday (3/13)! Spend $30 on participating products and submit for a $10 Rite Aid gift card via mail.


The Thrifty Couple has a great idea HERE on how to get 3 packs of Pampers Cruisers and a box of wipes for as low as $10.96!

Here is what I am planning to buy: (if they are in stock!)

2 Jumbo Packs Cruisers

1 Package Easy Ups

1 box Pampers wipes

Sub-Total: $32.46

- use $5 off $20 Rite Aid coupon HERE

- use 2 $2 off Cruisers coupons from the 2/21 P&G insert

- use 1 $1.50 off Easy Ups coupon from the 2/7 P&G insert

- use 1 $.50 off wipes coupon from 2/7 P&G insert

Total OOP: $21.46 + Tax

Submit for $10 gift card HERE making the final price $11.46 or $3.15 per pack!

There are several different ways to make this deal work for you. The cheapest way is buying 3 packs of Cruisers but you only pay an extra dollar or two for buying the Baby Dry diapers or the Easy Ups too if you don't have enough of the Cruisers coupons.

Check Back!

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for the lack of posting over the past few days, we were away for the weekend and I was not near my computer at all! Felt good but now back to work!

I am off to the gym to work at the daycare for the morning right now but I just wanted to let you know to check back later today, I have a bunch of posts to do this afternoon! Including a HOT deal on Pampers diapers!!

See you later today!

Facebook Freebie! Free Bag of Sun Chips!

Hurry! Become a fan of Sun Chips on Facebook HERE and sign up for a coupon for a free bag!
Coupon should come by mail in 4-6 weeks!

It's only to the first 100,000 to sign up so do it now before they are gone!

Weekly Dinner Challenge: Chicken Alfredo

Where 'O Where have the Weekly Dinner Challenges been?!

Sorry I haven't posted one of these in a while! Don't get me wrong, I haven't been slacking in the kitchen. I have been busy making a lot of different and yummy meals, I just haven't been good about taking photos and posting about them!

For example, I slow cooked my first pot roast with 100% Grass Fed Organic beef that I got from PCC. I have made pot roast in the oven before but never in the slow cooker and this was my first experience with grass fed meat. It has a different taste but overall it was a big success! I also improvised a lot with different recipes like tuna casserole by using ingredients I had from my pantry vs. going out and buying specific ingredients.

What was on the menu tonight?

I have been wanting to try my hand at alfredo sauce for a while. For the last few years I have been making alfredo sauce from a packet, not terrible, just not omg amazing either. I had bought some heavy cream a couple of weeks ago to make wafer cookies for V-Day with but I never got around to making them so I found this Alfredo Sauce recipe.

Here is how I made dinner tonight:

Chicken: 2 tbsp. EVOO in a hot pan and cooked 3 pre-marinated chicken breasts with some red pepper flakes and montreal steak seasoning. (I got 3 large roasted garlic marinated Foster Farms chicken breasts at Safeway on clearance for $1.72!! Just froze them until I wanted to use them.)

For the Alfredo Sauce: Melt 3 tbsp. butter in a saucepan add 2 large cloves of minced garlic to the butter and simmer 3-4 min on low-med. heat. Slowly stir in 1 cup of heavy cream. If you do not want to use cream you could whisk 2-3 tbsp. flour into the butter and then use milk instead of cream. Stir Constantly!
Add large pinch of nutmeg, large pinch of dried parsley and salt & pepper to taste. Separate an egg yolk and discard the whites. Add 2 tbsp of the warm sauce to the egg yolk and mix together. Slowly pour the yolk/sauce combo into the rest of the sauce. The reason for doing this is so the egg yolk doesn't cook and become clumpy in the sauce.
Simmer for about 4-5 min stirring almost constantly to prevent separating. Remove from heat and slowly mix in about 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Toss with cooked pasta of your choice, I used penne. Finely slice the chicken after it's been cooked and add it to the top of your pasta with a dusting of fresh parm. If you want to be somewhat healthier (The sauce is SO not healthy, I know!) you can serve this with steamed veggies or thaw some frozen peas and mix them into the pasta/sauce combo.

The Finished Product! (Sorry the picture quality isn't great.)

Words from my husband, "SO. GOOD." "Fantastic" "Just like Olive Garden".

Oh yeah, I rocked the alfredo sauce!

I love this pic of Nay eating her noodles! RAWR!

Frugal? As I said above, the chicken was exceptionally cheap at $1.72, especially for being pre-marinated. The Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta was free at Albertsons a couple of weeks ago and most of the ingredients for the sauce I had on hand except for $2 for the parm and $.99 for the cream. All in all about $5 for the whole meal and James is taking a big bowl of leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

How were your kitchen adventures the last few weeks? What did you make?

STRIDE RITE: Buy One, Get One 50% Off

Stride Rite is having a buy one, get one half off sale starting tomorrow through 3/28/10. This is on all footwear and is in store only, as you can see from the photo above!

Find a Stride Rite near you HERE!

I love Stride Rite shoes for my daughter. I usually buy them used on eBay because they are pretty pricey, but hey, maybe I need to go take a look at the store!

Wordless Wednesday: Finding Nemo

Naomi is "Finding Nemo"!

Find more Wordless Wednesday posts at 5 Minutes for Mom!

ALL YOU Magazine only $.70/issue!

All You is seriously one of my favorite magazines! Not only does it have great articles, it also is FULL of manufacturer coupons every month! It is only available through subscription or you can buy it at Walmart.

Cha Ching on a Shoestring has just posted some info on her blog on how to get this magazine for only $.70 per issue! This is the best price I have seen so far and I highly recommend subscribing, I save more with the coupons each month than I pay for the mag itself!

Check out all the details HERE!!

FABULE$$ DEAL! Today Only at Safeway!!

** Update ** P&G e-Saver had a glich in their system this morning. When I checked out today my e-coupons weren't deducted. I called P&G e-saver customer service when I got home and they are sending me something in the mail. Not sure if it is my $7 or what though! Make sure your e-coupon status says, "waiting for redemption" vs. "waiting for retailer approval" or your e-coupons won't deduct.

This deal is too hot not to post about! I am getting dressed and running to Safeway in the next hour to make sure there is some still on the shelves!

This deal is good TODAY only (3/2) so load up your Safeway card and head out!

Before leaving your house, register your Safeway card at P&G e-saver HERE. After you have registered, load your card with as many coupons as you want but make sure you get the $3.00 off Bounty and $3.00 off Charmin on your card.

At Safeway (or affiliate store):

Buy 1 Bounty 15 Roll Pack, $12.99

Buy 1 Charmin 24 Double Roll Pack, $12.99

You'll save $6 instantly at the register for buying these making them $9.99 each.

Coupons:

Swipe your Safeway card and another $6.00 will come off from the e-coupons!

- Use $.25 off 1 Bounty from 2/7 P&G insert

- Use $.25 off 1 Charmin from 2/7 P&G insert

Final Price: $13.48, $10 off your next purchase Catalina coupon will print after you pay!

This is like paying $3.48 for 15 rolls of paper towels AND 24 Double TP rolls!

Note: Some stores have these prices at $11.99 each originally meaning you will need to add something else to your card to make your pre-coupon total $25 in order to get the Catalina to print. In this instance, I plan to buy a Bounce Dryer Bar as well at $4.99. There is an e-coupon for $1.00 off and a manufacturer coupon for $1.50 off from the same insert making this $2.50.

Thanks Thrifty NW Mom!

Mailbox Monday! February Freebies!

Check out all the FREE stuff that came in my mailbox in the month of February!

Every month loads of free samples, full size products, high value coupons and magazines come through my mailbox! I plan on giving you an update on the first Monday of every month with what came the previous month. I also will post about any great freebies or coupons by mail that I find out there so you can start getting all this great free stuff every month too!

Here's the Breakdown:

4 Free Magazine Subscriptions! Shape, Self, Rolling Stone and Parents

Free sample box of Kashi Cereal and a coupon for a free full size box + 3 $1.50 off coupons from Vocalpoint! - Sign up to receive future free samples and coupons from Vocalpoint HERE

Coupon for a FREE Digiorno 200 Calorie Pizza - Offer no longer available

Free sample of Barney Butter Almond Butter - Offer no longer available

Coupon for a Free pair of panties from Victoria's Secret - Sign up for VS Pink Nation HERE

Coupon for a Free package of Oreo Cakesters from Kraft First Taste - Sign up free HERE for future offers!

$10 Starbucks gift card from Mypoints! This program is similar to Swagbucks except you earn points mostly from reading emails they send you. It didn't take me long at all to earn this gift card! Please email me HERE to receive your invitation to join!

$10 Starbucks gift card from Swagbucks - Sign up for free HERE!

3 booklets FULL of high value coupons from Mambo Sprouts, Con-Agra and Betty Crocker!

Coupon for a free bottle of Excedrin - Offer no longer available, but print $1 off coupon HERE.

$9 in checks for surveys completed from online survey companies plus one free snack product that I received for testing! I often receive full size products for free and actually get paid to give a review on them from these survey companies! Sorry, I am not able to disclose what the product was.

Plus a Fabule$$ freebie from Facebook! A coupon for a free package of Golden Oreos! Not seen in photo because we ate them! Sorry offer is no longer available, however, I highly recommend becoming a fan of companies you like on Facebook, you never know when they will offer freebies!

Stay Tuned for the next installment of Mailbox Monday on Monday, April 5th! Come see what came for FREE in the month of March!

What Fabule$$ stuff came in your mailbox in February?! Leave a Comment!