Making meals for the week

I have had a lot of requests for recipes and tips for freezer meals. Once again, I cannot take credit. My mom got me started on them when she sold Homemade Gourmet and did her 4 meals in 4 minutes shows! Then of course Pinterest has done the rest. I used some homemade gourmet mixes that I had left and some others from a blog on Pinterest which I will post. All you do is get everythign ready, stick it in a freezer bag, label it then put it in the freezer. I always stick mine in the fridge the night before to kinda thaw then place it in the crock pot the following day! I am hooked on this now because I don't have to worry about dinner if I will be gone all day or if Cory has to go in at 4, but I am sleeping from a night shift. Here are some of the recipes I used from http://www.ringaroundtherosies.net/2012/02/freezer-cooking.html

I made this day of :4 thawed chicken breasts, 6oz. package of Stove Top stuffing mix, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1 can of cream of chicken soup. Chicken on bottom - Stove Top over chicken, Cream of Chicken/Sour Cream mix on top. Cover and cook for 4 hours on low.
 Here is the rest from her blog.. I highly recommend to repin my pin and follow her! Or go to the website

Savory Chicken 

Lazy Day Stew

Sweet and Tangy MeatballsSweet and Tangy Meatballs

Sausage and Peppers

Getting $25 at DG for free

Yes, I order coupons off ebay. I always get anywhere from 20-100 and I never pay more than $3.I will lookat sales ads the day they come out and if I see items on sale, or 10/$10 at Kroger, etc... I get on ebay to find coupons for the sale item. Keep in mind that there are a ton of tricks to couponing you just have to learn! For example, CVS and Publix... If you have a $2 off coupon for toothpaste you can use it AND you can use your $2 off manufacter coupon... that is called "stacking" coupons

Kroger will double anything up to .60 so you have have a coupon for .50 off then its actually a 1.00 off at kroger :)
 Here is my example. I saw Pizza rolls were ten for $10 at Kroger. I got on ebay and found 20 .50 off any pizza roll (remember, they double at Kroger so they would be $1 off) Yes, I got all 20 boxes for free!!!


Here is what I do at the DG EVERY Friday or sat.
All coupons are in the P&G and I order the $3 any bic disposable razor on ebay

I get 3 bounce dryer sheets $2 each
4 things of BIC dispoable razors $3 each
4 things of  Crest toothpaste $1 each
1 thing of peanut butter $2.75
1 piece of .25 candy
My total is $25

I use:
$5 off $25 or more first (They print this on your receipt or you can print online if you sign up for DG mailing list)
 my $3 off any 3 tide, bounce, etc.
4 $3 off any bic razors
4 $1 off crest toothpast
$1 off Planters peanut butter (got these off ebay)
= $25 in coupons...

I pay $1.07- SALES TAX!!! I do two transactions every weekend! 

MY $119 TRIP FOR $15

This trip was lucky haha.
I bought 20 $3 off poise coupons from ebay (I only paid 2.75 for all of them) I did this because I saw the kroger sale ad and saw they were on sale for $2.99... You're right.... they were FREE!!

The tought thing about couponing is that many times the stores are out of the item. They were out of poise so I got a raincheck for the price. My coupons were good for a month so I wasn't worried... well, tonight I had to go to both Krogers but I was able to get 20 for free!! They were originally $3.99 so that is $79.80 worth of product FREE! I highly doubt I will use a fourth of these, so these will def be an item I donate if I am able to go on the Haiti mission trip or to a local organization! Remember, do your best to make this a ministry and serve others :)

My next stop was CVS. I forgot to mention in the beginning.. Couponing is soooo much fun and addicting but it is VERY time consuming. I spend every moment of my free time doing it. And when I shop I go to a million different stores. That is why you have to plan every trip and have your coupons ready!

At CVS: My husband LOVES the febreeze car sticks, we usually get us both some and some for his cruiser at walmart and spend $12-15. I saw in the CVS ad that if you spent $20 on febreeze products you got $10 back in ECB! ahhhhh!!! The fun things about CVS is the $20 is BEFORE coupons. So I trotted my happy butt into CVS and got 5 car scents(3.79 each) and one room spray (3.59) and gave them 6 $1 off coupons (from todays paper) My total before tax was $14ish dollars. I paid and got $10 back in extra care bucks to use on anything I want! (I am saving it for next week's trip)

So far, I  have gotten $102.34 for $14.

My final stop was walgreens... Now, I have to admit I am not good in here and it is very difficult. They are more strict and confusing :S

I had a free peanut butter from a last purchase so I got that... that was a $4.99 value= FREE
I had $3 register rewards from my last purchase so I used it to get carpet spray for the puppies. We typically spend 5.99-6.99 on spray at walmart. Well, The Woolite was buy one get one free!! I had 2 .50 off coupons AND I used my register rewards of $3.. So I spent less than $2!!
That was $17 worth of items for $1.89!!

Saving money one penny at a time

I cannot take any credit for my new couponing hobby.. My mom taught me how to do it and introduced me to it and www.couponmom.com helps guide me if I want additional help! (Sign up for it! Its free and VERY helpful)

Anyways, this has been amazing. I am saving sooo much money for my family and its a GOOD shopping addiction! It has really helped me stay busy at home and keep my mind of things while still trying to cope with the loss of my grandma.Therefore, I amVERY thankful for this hobby and I hope I can share my tricks with ya!

I am stocking up but also plan to use this as a ministry and I hope you can too! Donate your items to local organizations that need them!

I will post after each trip to tell you what I did.. the first thing you need to do is to get an organizing coupon binder or whatever system works for you and get COUPONS!!! Youcan print them off couponmom.com and coupons.com and tons of other websites. My mom and I always get 4 sunday newspapers in order to get the P&g, red plum, and smartsource (these are the three main coupon inserts and they vary each sunday!) I have also found that my hometown newspaper The Crittenden Press sells papers for $1 and usually has the same coupons that the Paducah sun has so its half price to do it thatway... just get the inserts however you can! Heck, call some friends and get them from their paper!!

I also found that larger cities are better... which means I called my two best friends that live in Nashville and they are now getting me Sunday papers there every week!

Today: (this deal is good all week) If you need detergent, which we all do:
I went to the Dollar General and got 4 things of detergent (tide) on sale for $4.95.. I got a coupon out of todays paper and it is $3 off three!
Now, the thing to do is... if you spend $20 on P&G items then you get $10 back! So I also got two things of Charmin toilet paper (I got 2 .25 coupons from todays paper), four things of ivory soap (I had 4 .50 coupons from todays paper) and I think that is it. My total was almost $40.... I gave her my coupons and it brought it down to a little over $30. So I paid it (this is the most I have evre paid on a trip but I wanted to stock up on detergent)... She gave me $10 back so I bought 3 more things of detergent, used my $3 off coupon (this is why you want more than one coupon insert) and got the three free!!!

If you want to.. go to the DG and get 8 things of detergent, use 2 $3 off coupons and pay 33.60 then use your $10 back and get 3 more things of detergent and use 1 $3 off coupon and get it free! Therefore getting 11 things of Tide detergent for $33.. CAN YOU SAY AWESOME?!?