Summer...so far...

Well, so far my summer has been uneventful.

Yesterday was my first official day of summer. 

Of course, I slept in.

Lee was gone all day for work, so I was home alone.

So, I turned on Pandora and....

....a cleaning dance party for one began.

This was no ordinary surface level cleaning, though.

Nope, I cleaned things out and reorganized some things along with the normal dusting, vacuuming, etc.

So, this pretty much took me all day. I was still cleaning at about 10:00 when Lee got home. I only stopped for meals. 

I just love cleaning things out and reorganizing them. Throwing old things away brings me joy.

I love the fresh look of a clean house and the fresh smell (because I always light a candle in the room after it's clean).

Today I slept in again.

After breakfast, I went to Kohl's because I had a coupon for $10 off a purchase. 

I went in with the goal of spending as close to $10 as possible so I didn't really have to spend any money.

I love a good deal. 

I tried on a couple of cute dresses, but sadly they were too short. 

I settled on these items.

Comfy Pants and a Scarf

Modeling the scarf

A $25.00 scarf that was on sale for $5.00

Modeling the pants-taking a picture of your pants is complicated

A $30.00 pair of pants on sale for $9.00

Without the sale, these 2 items would have cost me $55.00! (and I wouldn't have bought them) With the sale, they cost $14.00. I had the $10.00 off coupon, so I only paid $4.27 for these 2 items!!!

Then, after lunch, Lee and I did some more cleaning by cleaning out our spare room. I wish I could call it an office or even a guest bedroom, but it is literally a holding room for all of our stuff we don't have any where else to put. 

Later this week, I plan to finish out my cleaning spree by cleaning out our microwave and dishwasher with vinegar as I have seen on Pinterest. I will let you know how it goes. 

I hope all of you are having a wonderful week!

Extreme BOGO

So, it's been too long since I've been grocery shopping. 

With Harris Teeter's triple coupons going on, it felt like as good a time as any.

Little did I know that I would rack up on buy and get deals.

Here's what I got:

 

 So, how much did I pay for all of this?

Let me break it down for you.

Goldfish were BOGO. I normally don't buy Goldfish, but they're a fun little snack and they were on sale. 2 bags of Goldfish-$2.39

I bought 3 boxes of Hamburger Helper for $1.29 a piece, but I had a coupon for $0.75 off which was tripled to be $2.25 off. 3 boxes of Hamburger Helper-$1.62

I saw Kraft Pasta Salad and decided to try it for the summer. There was a coupon on the box for $1.00 off when you bought 2 boxes. 2 boxes of Kraft Pasta Salad-$2.98

Doritos were buy 2 get 3 free! I love Doritos, but we definitely don't need 5 bags of them. However, my family is going to the beach at the end of June, so I figured I could save most of the bags to take on that trip to share. 5 bags of Doritos-$8.58

They say when you're couponing never to pay for toothpaste. I have yet to figure out how to get free toothpaste. Toothpaste was on sale for $2.99. I had a $0.50 off coupon which tripled to be $1.50 off. Colgate toothpaste-$1.49

I use Eucerin lotion because I have very dry, itchy skin. Unfortunately, this lotion can be expensive. It was on sale this week for $6.76. Then, I had 2 coupons for $1.50 off. So, I bought 2 bottles. 2 bottles of Eucerin lotion-$5.26 each

Listerine mouthwash is another thing I use that is rather expensive. It was on sale for $3.99 plus I had a $0.50 off coupon which tripled to be $1.50 off. Listerine mouthwash-$2.49

Batteries are yet another expensive thing to buy. AA batteries were on sale for $5.99 plus I had a $0.75 off coupon which tripled to $2.25. I bought 2 packages of batteries. 2 packages of AA batteries-$3.74 each

Pepperidge Farm bread was BOGO. I also had a coupon for $1.00 off 2 packages of Pepperidge Farm bread. 2 loaves of Pepperidge Farm bread-$3.29

Frozen garlic bread was also BOGO. 2 boxes of Cole Garlic Toast-$2.99

Kraft Shredded Cheese was also BOGO. We use A LOT of shredded cheese at our house. So, I had to buy 6 bags of it. 6 bags of shredded cheese-$11.55

My grand total without coupons or any BOGO deals was...$129.74! This is always the worst part-when they ring it all up without any discounts and you're praying that your coupons and deals bring that price down A LOT.

So, I'm standing there while the cashier presses a button and it takes off all the BOGO deals. The price is going down and I'm breathing easier. Next, I hand her my coupons. She scans them and I watch as the price descends even more.  

Finally, my grand total comes to....$64.28 

I saved $65.46!!! Woo-hoo!

As I say every time I blog about couponing, I am in no way an expert at this. I don't spend a lot of time planning and making sure I'm paying as little as possible. I do enjoy it however and I do a little happy dance in my head when I do something great like CUT MY BILL IN HALF!

Happy Weekend!  

Couponing for a Cause

I have been couponing for about 6 months now. I used to laugh at those people on Extreme Couponing and how they'd act when shopping, but that was before I shopped with coupons. It really is a rush and I can see where it can get addicting. It's like a game to see how much you can save. I am definitely not an expert, but I do usually cut the grocery bill in half. One of my favorite couponing experiences is when I bought about $20 worth of stuff at CVS and only paid $0.24 for it! You can read more about why I started couponing here and you can read more about my first couponing experience here.

A few months ago, the thought occurred to me that I could use couponing as a way to help others. God has really been working in me recently the desire to use my blessings to bless others. You can read more about that here.

When you coupon, you often have to get more than you need. A deal might consist of buy one get one free or a coupon may say that you have to buy a certain amount to get the money off. I do have a little stock pile, but we don't need or have the room for too much. Because of this, I've collected a little pile of stuff that I wanted to donate but didn't know where to donate it. Then a few weeks ago, they announced at church that The Baptist Children's Home was having their annual food/supply round up. I took my little donate pile to church. Over the weekend, I decided to buy a few more things to donate to The Baptist Children's Home.

The Del Monte canned vegetables were Buy 2 Get 3 Free. I paid $2.58 for 5 cans of vegetables.

 

The Dole pineapple slices were $1.00 each. I had a coupon for $0.50 off. Harris Teeter doubles all coupons up to $0.99. I paid $1.00 for 2 cans of pineapple slices.

 

The cookie icing was Buy 1 Get 1 Free. One icing was $3.49. I had a coupon for $3.00 of 2 cookie icings. I paid $0.49 for 2 icings.

 

Hamburger Helper costs $1.75. I had a coupon for $2.00 off one box of Hamburger Helper. I paid NOTHING for this box of Hamburger Helper.

 

Martha White blueberry muffin mix was on sale for $0.69.

 

French's mustard was on sale for $1.29. I had a coupon for $0.30 off. Harris Teeter doubles all coupons up to $0.99. I paid $0.69 for a bottle of mustard.

 

Keebler club crackers were 2 for $5.00. I had a coupon for $1.00 off 2 boxes of club crackers. I paid $4.00 for 2 boxes of club crackers.

 

Ritz crackers were Buy One Get One Free. They were $3.69 a box. I had a coupon for $1.00 off 2 boxes of Ritz crackers. I paid $2.69 for 2 boxes of Ritz. I'm donating one box, so you can say I paid $1.34 for one box.

 

Colgate toothpaste was Buy One Get One Free. One box costs $4.89. I had a coupon for $1.00 off 2 boxes of Colgate toothpaste. I paid $3.89 for 2 boxes of toothpaste. I'm donating one box, so you can say I paid $1.94 for one box.

 

To donate all of this to The Baptist Children's Home-I only paid $12.73

 

Again, I don't say all of this to brag on myself. God has blessed Lee and me so much and we have a responsibility to use our resources to help others. I also want to encourage you. If you coupon or are considering couponing, don't just think of it as a way to save money for yourself. See it as a way that you can help others, too.

From the Kitchen of Mrs. Hall

I love Pinterest. I know I say this a lot and I’ve written a couple of blogs about it. It is a great place to get and share ideas. I have made many of the recipes I have found on Pinterest and today I decided to make this one.

YUM! How good do these look? You can find the original blog with this recipe here.

I had everything I needed for this yummy treat except M&M’s. So, I had to make a run to CVS. While I was there I took advantage of some deals and used some coupons I had. I basically got my bag of M&M’s for $2.00. You could buy 2 bags of Easter M&M’s for $6.00. However, you got $1.00 extra care buck back to spend another time. Then, I had a coupon for $1.00 off 2 packages of Easter M&M’s. In total, I saved $17.99 and I received $2.00 extra card bucks. I’m still not a master couponer, but I enjoy saving when I can. 

 Thanks to my CVS trip, our candy bowl is full again!

  One of my favorite types of candy/chocolate. Miniature Reese's!

 My other favorite type of candy/chocolate. M&M's!

Anyway...back to the recipe I found on Pinterest...

 To start the base of my Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownies...Triple Chunk Brownies with Hershey's chocolate

After baking the brownies, I had them setting out to cool when Lee came home. He was excited because I made brownies. I told him that they were not going to be normal brownies because I was going to give them the peanut butter cookie dough topping. He whined and insisted that I only do that to half of the brownies. I gave in since I did buy these brownies for him as part of his "30 Days Until You Turn 30" birthday gift.

 Here's the finished product...with Easter M&M's of course!

The last thing I want to do is share a simple recipe that I think tastes good and is easy to freeze half of for later. One of the hardest things for me about cooking is that I feel like we waste food or I’m stuck eating leftovers for days because Lee doesn’t really eat leftovers. This recipe is very simple to divide into 2 dishes- cook one and freeze the other one for later.

How to make Chicken Casserole:

1.     Cook and shred 3-5 chicken breasts. 

 

2.     Mix chicken with 1 can of cream of chicken soup and 8 oz. of sour cream

*Funny story-One time I was making this and reached in the refrigerator and grabbed what I thought was sour cream, but it was actually ricotta cheese (they come in the same kind of container). I mixed the ingredients with ricotta cheese instead of sour cream. Needless to say, that batch of chicken casserole was ruined.*

3.     Line a greased casserole dish with the chicken mixture. (Here’s where I use 2 8x8 casserole dishes instead of the 1 9X13 dish.)

 

4.     At this point, I put the lid on one casserole dish and put it away in the freezer for later. Then, when I take it out of the freezer to cook, I do the next steps for its topping and baking.

5.     Next, melt 1 stick of butter and mix with 1 sleeve or roll of crushed Ritz crackers. Top your chicken mixture with this new mixture.  (The original recipe actually calls for 1 stick of butter and 1 and a half rolls of Ritz crackers, but I use 1 stick of butter and 1 roll of Ritz on each half. I’ve never made it all together in one big casserole dish. I guess you may have to play around with the amount until you get it to your liking.)

 

6.     Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. 

Simple and Tasty...

Break My Heart For What Breaks Yours

7 billion people on this earth

1 billion of those people are malnourished

1 out of ever 3 children in developing countries are hungry

6 million children will die from hunger related causes this year

16 million children are hungry in the United States

1.4 billion people live on less than $1.25 a day

About 33% of the people on this planet claim to be Christians

Median household income for Americans is around $52,000 a year

Sources: http://www.chfus.org/en/problem-hunger.html, http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm,

Why all these numbers? Why all these statistics? Sometimes numbers and statistics can be hard to wrap our heads around. It’s easy to ignore numbers and statistics. It’s not so easy to ignore faces. It’s not so easy to ignore stories.

God has been breaking my heart recently with these faces and stories as well as with His Word. It’s hard for me to even put all of my thoughts into words. So, I’ll just start with my story.

Being a teacher, you see so many innocent little faces every day. You also hear the stories of how these children live. These things make my job so hard. I’m expected to be a miracle worker who can teach these children the things they need to know to be successful while they are dealing with so much at home. They are dealing with things I never dreamed of as a child and some things I never dreamed of as an adult. My eyes have been opened by my job and my heart breaks for these innocent little lives. My eyes have also been opened to the number of children who don’t have enough to eat once they get home. The school I work at has a wonderful “Backpack Buddies” program that sends food home on Fridays with students who are in need. I started to have a strong desire to do more to help the very children I work with every day.

I have about a 20-minute drive one way to work. Therefore, I have about 40 minutes that I decided could be used more wisely.  I recently started listening to podcasts of sermons some days on my way to and from work. One day I was listening to a sermon on materialism. This was a 2-part sermon and on this particular day I was listening to part 2. This pastor had been speaking on materialism and after a few minutes he started talking to this young woman about her mission work in Uganda. Her story captivated me. As soon as I got home, I googled her and found out she was Katie Davis. Katie is only a few months younger than me, but she has followed God’s calling on her life and is impacting people’s lives. For more on Katie, you can visit: https://www.facebook.com/amazima?sk=wall, http://www.amazima.org/index.html, or http://www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/. Katie also wrote a book called Kisses from Katie. I HIGHLY recommend that you read this book. I cried for the majority of the first few chapters and several times after that. God used this book to open my eyes again and to begin to break my heart for those who are hurting.

Through my own observations, reading of blogs and books, listening to sermons, and reading the Bible, I have discovered we have some major problems. There are 1 BILLION hungry people in our world! There are 1.4 BILLION people who live on less than $1.25 a day. What do we do with $1.25? We would spend that much on 1 CANDY BAR!!! How many of you have spent $100 or close to $100 on one new pair of jeans or maybe one new pair of shoes? With that same $100, you could have fed a starving family for months.

Many American Christians, myself included, have a huge gap between what we say we believe and how we are actually living. Most of us are like the rich, young ruler whose story is told in Mark 10. He approached Jesus and asked what one must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him that he knew the commandments, but he lacked one thing. He told him “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Mark 10:21) This story isn’t saying that every Christian should sell all their possessions and give everything to the poor. It’s about not letting anything keep us from following Jesus. If God asked us to give up something to serve him or help someone else, would we be willing to?

How often did Jesus say that you would recognize Christians by their fruit? James 2:14-17 tells us “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deed? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical need, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” Similarly, 1 John 3:17-18 says “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

God did not call us to sit idly by while people STARVE TO DEATH! Maybe the reason God has so richly blessed us is so that we can bless others. Even if you don’t consider yourself “blessed” by American standards, you are more blessed than the majority of the world.

1 billion people around the world are malnourished while the majority of us in America have the opposite problem. We’re fat or obese. How sad is that? We have the OPPOSITE problem!

So, why am I saying all this? Because I want to do something about it. Jesus said that the two greatest commandments were love God and love your neighbor as yourself. AS YOURSELF-do you want yourself to be starving? I didn’t think so.

I am committing myself to work on improving my couponing skills as well as drastically cutting how much we spend on food. Our pantry and refrigerator are full of food. We often throw away food because we cook too much or have so much that it goes bad. I want that to stop. I want to begin to buy only what we need. I want to cut back on the amount of snacks and other excess we have. However, I don’t want to cut our “grocery budget.” I want to give away the extra money that we have budgeted for groceries that we don’t use. I also want to use my couponing skills to get extra food that can be donated to my school’s Backpack Buddy program or a local food pantry. We personally have chose to donate our extra money to the Children’s Hunger Fund.

I’m not telling you this to brag on myself. This is not my doing. I want to brag on God. I would not be doing this if He was not at work in my life. (I like food too much). I also want to tell you this to keep myself accountable. Now that I’ve told you, I can’t back down. I’m not saying that I won’t fail. I’m not saying that I’ll never treat myself or spend more than I should, but I want to make an honest effort to improve. I’m also tell you this because I hope to inspire you. But please, don’t take my word for it. Research it for yourself.

I can’t end world hunger and poverty by myself, but I can be faithful to what God has called me to do and I can make a difference. Will you make a difference, too?

First Couponing Experience

Yesterday afternoon I made a last minute decision to go pick up a few groceries. It was a last minute decision because I take a class at the seminary at 7:00 on Thursdays and I decided to take this trip at about 5:45. I needed to go to the grocery store because I had promised my students that I would bring them a special treat, so I was going to make them a cookie cake. Since I was already going to have to buy cookie dough, I thought I might as well pick up some other things that we needed as well. Plus when I checked my email and Southern Savers, I found many items at a good price.

So, Thursday afternoon I made my first coupon inspired grocery-shopping trip. For more on my coupon preparations click here.

Here is a picture of my purchases.

I bought the following items:
• 3 boxes of hamburger helper
• Charmin toilet paper
• 2 bottles of hair gel
• 2 bags of bagels
• 2 loaves of bread
• 2 cans of refrigerated biscuits
• 2 rolls of cookie dough
• 1 bag of taco blend shredded cheese
• 1 bag of mozzarella shredded cheese

At Harris Teeter, these items would have rang up to cost $50.34 (without tax). Do you want to take a guess of how much I paid for them? Go ahead guess………..

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

I only paid $26.44 (with tax) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am kind of proud of my first coupon inspired grocery-shopping trip.

Here’s how I did it:
I had special prices available to me with my Harris Teeter VIC card.
The Hamburger Helper was on sale for $1 a box.
I had a coupon for $0.75 off when you buy 3 Hamburger Helpers.
Harris Teeter doubles all coupons less than $0.99.
So, I paid $1.50 for 3 boxes of Hamburger Helper.
The Charmin toilet paper was on sale for $9.89.
I had an e-VIC coupon for $1.00 off Charmin toilet paper.
So, I paid $8.89 for Charmin toilet paper.
The hair gel was buy 1 get 1 free.
I had a coupon for $1.00 off the hair gel.
So, I paid $1.99 for two bottles of hair gel.
The bagels were buy 1 get 1 free.
So, I paid $3.69 for two bags of bagels.
The bread was buy 1 get 1 free.
I had a coupon for $0.75 off bread.
Harris Teeter doubles all coupons less than $0.99.
So, I paid $1.49 for two loaves of bread.
The biscuits were buy 1 get 1 free.
I had a coupon for $1.00 off biscuits.
So, I paid $0.79 for 2 cans of biscuits.
The cookie dough was on sale 2 for $5.00.
I had an e-VIC coupon for $1.00 off when you buy 2 rolls of cookie dough.
So, I paid $4.00 for 2 rolls of cookie dough.
The shredded cheese was on sale buy 1 get 1 free.
So, I paid $2.65 for 2 bags of shredded cheese.

I saved $25.13-according to my receipt.

Savvy Couponing

Several weeks ago, I attended a couponing class to try and learn how couponing works. Since then, I have become an avid coupon collector. I check the Internet sites for the newest and best coupons and we buy a Sunday paper every week that I can clip coupons from. However, I have yet to use any for my grocery shopping. I have used several restaurant coupons and Lee has used a coupon I found for a free drink from CVS, but that has been the extent of my coupon usage.

The main reason I have not used them is because we don’t need anything. My way of grocery shopping has always been to make one huge trip to last several weeks. I happened to have made a trip a few days before I took the couponing class. But the time has come. We are starting to run low on food.

Another reason I have not used them is because I’m a little intimidated. Couponing is an art form. I keep trying to tell myself that I’m smart and I will figure it out. I also try to tell myself that I’m not going to be great at it to begin with, but with practice I’ll get better.

So, why coupon? The main reason is if you do it right-you can save a lot of money. Now, I’m not talking about being one of those crazy people on the Extreme Couponing show. Who needs 50,000 boxes of pasta?!? I just want to be better stewards of the money God has blessed us with. Plus if we save more money on ourselves, we can give more away.


My coupon clipping station.


What kind of deals will I find this week?


My coupon notebook.


I love being organized!



I plan on going on my first coupon grocery-shopping trip this weekend. I will let you know how it goes.