The theme for this week's tip is saving $$$$$ in the food department.

Nothing earth-shattering, mind you. But here's some resources. I'm not sure if I have these directions exactly right....but it's close enough.

For the coupon-ers: couponmom is a great site if you wanna use coupons but don't like the clipping and the organizing and the sorting. The basic idea is you save the coupons from your Sunday paper. put a little post-it note on the front of it with the date on it and staple the whole thing together. Do this each week.

Here's where it gets interesting.....when planning your trip to the store you can a couple of different things with this website. You can go to the "virtual coupon organizer" and type in the name of the item you are looking for. If there is a coupon out that hasn't expired, then it will tell you the date it came out in the paper. Go to your file and look for the post-it with that date and Wha-la! Get your coupon.

Or......You can click on the "deals by state" and it will take you to a page that has hyvee's current deals. It will show hyvee's sale price PLUS if there is a current coupon out for that item it will tell you the date that coupon came out. It also shows the percentage that you save on the item.

It's kind of a cool thing if you have wanted to use coupons but are overwhelmed at the idea. It sort of takes your brain out of the equation. Gotta like that.


other $$ saving resources or food tips:
need help planning a menu? steal someone else's ideas. The Organizing Junkie posts a "menu-plan-monday" each week with links to hundreds of others who participate in the comments section.

kraft foods is another good one. They have everything from menu plans, recipes, lunch-box ideas......I like to go here when I need some sort of holiday-themed treat for the kid's classrooms.

"more with less" cookbook is one of the favorites on my shelf. There are a lot of recipes that our grandmas probably used.....and they are pretty good. Saves money too.


What are your favorite food tips?

Labels: tip tuesday

is it tuesday? okay.

this tip comes to you compliments of my genius husband, fred.

have you seen that commercial for priceline dot com? fred tried it out and it worked!

We are going to the girls state softball game tomorrow and then are going to go to des moines for a couple of days.....so fred gets on that website, puts in $50 as his first bid for a room in des moines.....they didn't accept. so he tries $60......bingo! We are staying in a room that normally runs $189 a night but are only paying $60.

I am just downright giddy about this deal.

Labels: tip tuesday

Today's tip comes to you thanks to last Saturday's scuffle between myself and a lobster.



Let me just preface this whole "tip tuesday" by saying that even though the lobster was dead, he did have the last word with me so I actually lost. But it was all in the name of a good cause.


Bettendorf Rotary Club hosted this lobsterfest as a way to raise funds for Christian Care Rescue Mission and Domestic Violence Shelter. Fred and I were able to attend with another couple from Fred's office. We had plenty of fun but you know what they say......

It's all fun and games until someone gets lobster liver squirted in her hair.

I was that someone. Apparently lobster liver or the "tomalley" is considered a delicacy to many lobster eaters. The liver also turns green when boiled. If you are unaware of this as you are twisting and cracking your way into the meaty part of the lobster then it is possible that you could think that the "delicacy" is dark green diarreah-looking mush that is runny and splatters if you aren't careful.

There I go writing about poop again.

Anyways....I've learned a few lessons from this lobster fest experience and I am more than pleased to pass this valuable information along to you, my bestest internet friends, should you ever find yourself in a similar situation.

1)When sitting at a round table with people, partners and clients from your husband's work....do not jump back from your plate and scream about the diarrhea that you suddenly discover on your plate of food. It's just not very tactful or professional.

2)Should a lobster-liver-spinach-colored-diarrhea-looking "delicacy" happen to splatter up into your hair, do not trust your husband to tell you if you got it all out or if it is noticeable.

3)After a dinner-episode like this happens, be sure to hang out near the cash bar so your glass never has to run dry.

4)While visiting with others after dinner and you notice that they are looking at your hair without trying to make it look like they are looking at your hair.....do your best to make them feel as uncomfortable as you might have felt about having green splashes of liver-lobster in your hair if you had not been hanging out near the cash bar.

And there you have it, friends. Another valuable tip for your Tuesday!

Labels: tip tuesday

What are you going to do this summer when your child starts saying "I'm bored. There's nothing to do"?

First off, if I hear that then I am more than happy to give them some things to do. But these things could include a toilet bowl brush or a vacuum cleaner. Needless to say, I maybe hear this phrase once or twice from each child.

Here's another idea. Let them create their own "I'm bored" jar. Have the kids each list every fun thing they like to do, but can do on their own. Throw in ideas for them like "write a letter to grandma" and things like that. Anything goes....as long as it can be done by themselves. Then cut all the ideas out and fold the slips of paper up and place in a jar decorated with stickers and whatever else you have to use. Let the kids keep their jar (or can) in their rooms and encourage them to pull out a random slip of paper whenever they aren't sure what to do.

Because whatever that slip says....it will be far more fun than anything mom suggests!

Labels: tip tuesday

I am seriously proud of myself.

I just "scrapbooked" an entire year of my daughter's life. In about an hour and a half. Oh yeah.

Here's what I did.....
go to snapfish.com
upload photos from computer...this went much faster than I had anticipated
select "create a memory book"
chose from the different styles of books....i chose a paperback
NOW....you can place the photos on the pages yourself or you can do what I did....had them automatically placed. Since they were uploaded by order of date....it worked for me.
There are 168 photos in the book. It is going to cost me less than $40 for the entire book.
all I have left to do is to go back and add some captions.

You have no idea how exciting this is for me. I have thousands of photos "laying around" in my computer. Now I actually am feeling somewhat organized with them.

Labels: tip tuesday

My new favorite way to watch whatever movie I want and read whatever book I want. All of them. And without spending a frillion dollars. Without spending any dollars.

Now before I go into this great tip I first want you to know that
1)I'm not always quick to figure things out. Especially when it comes to the obvious.
2)I'm so excited when I do finally figure out the obvious that it nearly warrants a party in our house. Or at least a dance of celebration.
3)This tip would fall into the above category.

I love my library. But it is small in comparison to those in....well, anywhere. It would be frustrating to go in and find a book by my favorite author that was in the middle of a series....but not the books preceeding or after that one.

And I have watched every new release movie they have. And every old release that was ever any good. All 4 movies.

So here's how I reserve all of the new releases and bestsellers....
I am on an email list from borders bookstores. Once a week they send me an email about what new releases and bestsellers they have on promotion. But I don't buy them.
And I know they won't be at my library.
I Go to the library website. In my case this is not the Durant Branch website...but the Scott County Library System website.
Type in the title or movie I'm interested in.
It will show how many copies are available and what library they are at in the Quad Cities and surrounding area.
I "place a hold" on that title. And request it be delivered to the Durant library.
I just have to enter my Library bar code that is located on my library card. The pin # is the last 4 digits.
I wait for the library to call me.

So far since I've started to do this I've gotten in things like brand new cookbooks (think rachel ray and quick fix meals), all books in a Karen Kingsbury series I wanted to read, a brand new bestseller within days of the book being released, and I have on reserve some new release DVD's like The Nativity Story, Stranger than Fiction, Flyboys, Charlotte's Web, and Flicka.
Because these are all new releases, they probably will start to trickle in gradually. But even if they do come a few at a time....I can check them out for 3 weeks at a time.

I am so happy about this potentially life altering tip!
I'm actually dancing.

This would make sense to you if you knew how much I love to read. And I still buy books and movies....but not before taking a good look at it to see if it is shelf-worthy!

So if you wanna see if your library has something you wanna read or watch (or listen to), check out the website first. If they don't have it...they'll get it.

Labels: tip tuesday

Labels: tip tuesday