Feb 28, 2011

A few hot deals

Updated with some Ralphs and Vons/Pavilions finds

I just got home from shopping, and I got quite a few hot deals that I wanted to share before I run over to Ralphs (if I find any super hot deals there, I'll add them to this post). Unfortunately, many of the printable coupons are no longer available, but I noted most of them when they were available so chances are you might be holding onto them too, hoping for a good deal like the ones below. Note that some of these end today because of expiring coupons:

TARGET
Finish Quantum Tabs 10-ct $2.50
- $1.50/1 Finish Quantum Target printable (no longer available?)
- $1/1 Finish Quantum Detergent 1/23/2011 SS Insert (exp 2/28/2011)
FREE
Note: The shelf had two tags - one for the $2.50 price and one for $2.69. I was happy to see it ring up for $2.50 at the register.

Clorox Wipes $2.28
- $0.75/1 Clorox Target printable
- $1/1 Clorox Facebook printable (no longer available)
$0.53
Note: I just spotted a $1/2 selected Clorox products printable, so if your Target lets you use 2 Target coupons per transaction, you'll pay $2.06 for two.

Seventh Generation Wipes $2.99
- $1/1 selected Seventh Generation products Target printable
- $1/1 Seventh Generation Product 1/23 RP
$0.99

Earth's Best Sesame Street Organic Honey Sticks $1.72
- $1/2 Earth's Best Sesame Street products printable
$1.22 each WYB 2
Note: This isn't the greatest deal ever, but I think this is something the boys will like, it's organic and low sugar, and it'll make a nice "dessert" in their lunchboxes or for a snack. There's a peelie on the front of the boxes for a free DVD when you buy 3 Earth's Best products.


WHOLE FOODS
Pacific Foods Kosher Chicken Broth $1.25
- $1/1 Pacific Foods printable (no longer available)
$0.25


VONS/PAVILIONS (possibly all Safeway stores)
3 California Pizza Kitchen pizzas $5 (today is the last day for this price)
- $5 off $15 frozen food purchase from Sunday's newspaper insert
- 3 x $1.25 CPK product Facebook printable (no longer available)
Received 3 Catalinas for $1.25 off my next order
$0.83 each after coupons & Catalinas
(Via For the Mommas - worked beautifully for me today, but they were very low on stock!)


RALPHS
Eggo Waffles $0.89 WYB 10 participating Daytona items (includes $3 Catalina discount off your next order)
- $0.55/1 Eggo Waffles 2/27 SS
FREE + possible overage

Pam Cooking Spray (selected varieties) $1.89 WYB 10 participating Daytona items (includes $3 Catalina discount off your next order)
- $0.35/1 Pam Cooking Spray 1/23 SS (exp 3/13)
$1.19
Note: This is a great price for cooking spray, and I am really excited about it because I'd just opened my last can and was dreading paying full price for cooking spray in the near future.

Purex Laundry Detergent $2.39 WYB 10 participating Daytona items (includes $3 Catalina discount off your next order)
- $1/1 Purex detergent from Ralphs home mailer (exp 4/17)
$1.39

Hefty Zip Top Bags $0.99 WYB 10 participating Daytona items (includes $3 Catalina discount off your next order)
- $1/1 Hefty item from Ralphs home mailer (exp 4/17)
FREE

Vitaminwater Zero $1
- $0.50/1 Vitaminwater Zero from Diet Coke booklet (found at Vons/Pavilions; also reportedly at CVS and Rite Aid)
FREE

Menu Plan Monday: Keeping Costs Down


I've noticed my grocery spending creeping up a bit - mostly because I've resumed weekly runs to Trader Joe's and sometimes I get a little carried away in there (they have the cheapest quarts of milk, and I have to buy one quart a week, in addition to the one to two gallons that I buy at Pavilions, which has the lowest price on organic gallons). I'm trying to be more conscious of what I'm buying at Trader Joe's, but what might end up being most effective is to give myself a weekly budget for TJ and not let myself exceed it. I'll probably try that during the month of March to see how it goes. In the meantime, here's what we'll be eating this week:

Monday - Sausage & Bean Soup with Cabbage, Dinner Rolls

Tuesday - Meatball Heroes on artisan bread

Wednesday - Chicken Pot Pie (using leftover frozen chicken from last week's whole chicken dinner)

Thursday - Pan Bagnat

Friday - Frozen pizza & salad (we'll probably get home late this day, so I figured I'd take it very easy and make the Freschetta pizza that's in the freezer)

Saturday - Breakfast for dinner (pumpkin pancakes, bacon, eggs)

Sunday - Dinner out

See more weekly menus at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Feb 22, 2011

Farfalle with Cauliflower and Raisins

I don't know if your kids will like this (mine didn't), but I thought it was a nice pasta salad and a pleasant change of pace from the usual pasta dish.

Farfalle with Cauliflower and Raisins
Serves 4-6

1/2 cup raisins
1 cup hot water
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large head of cauliflower, broken into small florets
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 2-oz can oil-packed anchovies
3/4 cup chicken broth (or white wine)
12-16 ounces dried farfalle, cooked according to package directions
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. Combine raisins and hot water and set aside.

2. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the cauliflower and garlic and saute until the cauliflower is lightly browned (about 10 minutes). Add the red pepper flakes and anchovies, and stir until the anchovies have mostly dissolved. Add the broth or wine and simmer until the cauliflower is "al dente" and the liquid has reduced by half (about 15 minutes). Stir in the pasta. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

Note: I cooked the pasta first until it was al dente, then drained it and covered the colander with the lid while I cooked the cauliflower in the same pot. (I set aside some pasta tossed with a little butter for the boys.) This dish is great cold the next day.

Feb 21, 2011

Menu Plan Monday: Easy meals this week


I am hoping to get a lot done around the house this week, so I'm planning a week of easy meals:

Monday - Shredded Barbeque Beef (just combine a roast and some BBQ sauce in the slow cooker), sauteed green beans, cream biscuits

Tuesday - Pizza (using artisan bread dough), Salad

Wednesday - Roast chicken with pita bread and white bean spread, steamed broccoli

Thursday - Tuna Pasta Salad (which I didn't get to last week)

Friday - Chicken Cobb Salad

Saturday - Leftovers

Sunday - Dinner out

Feb 14, 2011

Menu Plan Monday: Making Room in the Freezer


As I mentioned yesterday, organic whole chickens will be on sale at Whole Foods on Friday for $1.69, limit 10 chickens. I'd like to get as many as possible, because whole chickens can make for economic meals. And it'll give me the chance to get homemade chicken stock right (my last effort was a total disaster). But this means I need to do some clearing out of the freezer. My kitchen freezer is in pretty good shape, but the freezer in the garage is rather full. So here's what I'm planning:

Monday (Happy Valentine's Day!) - Lobster and steak (already defrosting), Creamed Spinach, Roasted Asparagus, Artisan Bread, Chocolate Mousse

Tuesday - Beef Chili, using frozen beef, with lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, sour cream, avocado and tortilla chips

Wednesday - Baked Chicken Tenders using frozen chicken, steamed broccoli, biscuits

Thursday - Fish Tacos using frozen fish and tortillas, the fixings

Friday - Tuna Pasta Salad, using frozen broccoli, Artisan Bread

Saturday - Not sure, plans are up in the air

Sunday - Dinner out

See more weekly menus at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Feb 8, 2011

Shower cleaning tip: Scrub during your shower

I have to admit, I was pretty hesitant when I first read Flylady's suggestion to scrub the shower during my shower. In fact, I resisted for years. But scrubbing the shower/bath area was something I kept putting off, so I finally bought a long-handled brush at Target (it's actually a kitchen scrubber) and started scrubbing the shower while I'm in there anyway.

I just use some shampoo - it was free thanks to The Drugstore Game - and scrub a wall one day, the tub the next day, another wall the day after that. And it really works!

I wish I hadn't waited so long to start doing this, but better late than never!

Feb 7, 2011

Menu Plan Monday: Basic Week Ahead


There's nothing much going on this week, but I hope to get a lot done around the house during the day. That means I'll want simple, low-prep meals for dinner:

Monday - Pasta with ragu sauce (never got to it last week); Salad; Biscuits (I refrigerated the dough last week pursuant to Christine's suggestion but still didn't get the kind of rise I was looking for; I'm still experimenting though, and I have some buttermilk that needs to be used up)

Tuesday - Beef tacos with the fixin's

Wednesday - Orange Chicken Cutlets, Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes, Artisan Bread

Thursday - Pizza, some kind of veggie

Friday - Fried fish, some kind of veggie

Saturday - Leftovers

Sunday - Dinner out

See more weekly menus at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Feb 4, 2011

Laundry/Safety Tip: Check Your Lint Trap and Vent

If you read Flylady's emails like I do, then you've been bashed over the head with how dangerous it is to have lint clogging your dryer. It's a fire hazard, of course, and it could be costing you extra money because your dryer can't run at peak efficiency and therefore has to run longer, using up more electricity and increasing the cost of your energy bill.

Flylady offers a dryer cleaner kit for $15.95 + shipping that can help you remove lint from your dryer. Amazon has a similar lint removal kit for $15.05 (affiliate link).

I've never personally used a kit because our dryer isn't set up like most people's - it vents directly in the garage, which makes for annoying pieces of fluff in the garage, but prevents big buildups in the venting tube. We thought about changing this when we first moved in but now I appreciate safety aspect of this set up and am content to let it be.

Another thing to watch out for is your lint trap filter - if you put some water on it and the water doesn't fall through the mesh, it's probably coated with a film buildup that can be easily removed with a little soap and warm water. Be sure to remove the lint trapped after every load.

For more tips on preventing dryer fires, read the Consumer Product Safety Commission's Safety Alert.

Feb 3, 2011

The Decluttering Continues

As I've mentioned previously, I've been decluttering the house, from top to bottom, and I've even shared ten decluttering tips that have worked for me. Much of my inspiration has come from Flylady, who has been instrumental in helping me to stop being such a perfectionist. Much of my decluttering has been done in small chunks of time - 15 minutes here, 10 minutes there, even 5 minutes just to clean out one file in my filing cabinet. But all of those small chunks of time have added up - here's just a sampling of the things I have removed from our house:

  • A banker's box full of papers, which have been shredded (and all of my file purging has nearly filled the box up again!)

  • Two bags of kids' clothing

  • Two bags of adult clothing

  • A juicer that I never used

  • The Aerogarden that never fulfilled my dreams

  • Some jewelry I'm never going to wear (I passed on a bracelet to a friend's daughter, which was so fun because she loved it!)

  • Unopened toys that my boys never played with

  • Plastic cookie cutters I never used (kept some for Playdoh, tossed the rest, and opened up space to store my waffle maker out of sight!)

  • A crock that held kitchen utensils (I had two crocks on the counter, but seldom used half of the utensils so they would get dusty; I put the less-used half in a drawer and donated the crock)

  • A TV (replaced by the one we bought from Amazon during the holidays)

  • Three suits (they didn't fit great, and I don't need to worry about having a variety of suits for court appearances anymore!)

  • A full shelf's worth of reusable plasticware that I didn't use anymore

  • Old plastic cups that we didn't use

  • Expired medication

  • Expired food

  • Food we're unlikely to eat

  • Extra sheets (I kept one set for each bed and got rid of the rest)

  • Extra towels that we are unlikely to use (in the process, I found infant towels that weren't used through two babies)

  • Old phone books (and man, they're heavy!)

  • Japanese calligraphy supplies (I haven't used them in years)

  • Cheap wrapping paper that I avoided using because it tears so easily

  • Stationery that I won't use (and I know that because I haven't used it in the ten years it's been sitting around)

  • What's really astonishing is that we're not pack rats, so there isn't an overwhelming amount of clutter. But when I delve below the surface, I find that there are lots of things I can happily live without. I love reorganizing as I purge, and making the house more functional. It's easier to find what's left, and it looks so much nicer!

    What have you gotten rid of lately?