Friday Finals 8/6

It was a great week at Bi-Lo. I bought several stockpile items for the pantry and freezer. I spent about double my budget, but it was worth it!

My total before savings was $174.40

I paid $87.05

The order included: 11 lbs of bananas, 23 oz of cheese, 3 gallons of milk, 4 lbs of rice, 3 lbs of beans, 7 lbs of beef, 5 lbs of chicken, mushrooms, almonds, grapes, eggs, applesauce, a ham shank, juice, soda, tea, butter, peanut butter, olive oil, and whipping cream.

Join me tomorrow for a Clipping for College update.

Thanks to Southern Savers for the coupon match-ups! For more Friday Finals click here!

-Robin

Freezing Tomato Paste

About a month ago, I made another batch of freezer pasta sauce. We have made that recipe about five times now and each time we make it a little different. We have thought that the sauce was sometimes a little too runny, so this time I made it with 3/4 of a #10 can of tomato paste. We have tasted it and the additional tomato paste has made the pasta sauce a little thinker and it still tastes wonderful.

I really didn't know what to do with the extra tomato paste, since we did not have enough leftover for another pasta sauce recipe. So, I froze the tomato paste in ice cube trays (like homemade baby food). It has worked out well! It is perfect for when you only need a few ounces of tomato paste... you don't have to buy an expense tube or waste most of a can for just a few ounces.

This method would also work well when you have to open a can but only need a few ounces. Don't throw out the remainder of the can, just feeze it!

Freezing tomato paste using the food cube method Works for Me!

-Robin

Vintage Baby Doll Bed for $5

It has been a long time since we have had time to do some thrifty shopping. So, over the weekend, we stopped in on an estate sale on it's last day.

My husband and I used to frequent auctions and estate sales, before we had kids. We used to have a friendly competition between him and me. We would see who could get the best bargain and make the most money off of it's resale..... just for the record, I was ahead when we quit!

My dad has always been interested in antiques, so I have been around antiques all of my life. Since I have had a house of my own, I've wanted to decorate with aniques and unusual finds. I have a few pieces, but not too much so far. I really like to go look, even though I don't buy alot. At the estate sale over the weekend, this baby doll bed caught my attention. I have no idea how old it is, but it is cute and in pretty good condition. It was marked for $15, but they gave it to me for the $5 that I offered them. I haven't decided what I am going to do with it, but it was fun to buy!

For more interresting finds, go to Coastal Charm for Nifty Thrifty Tuesday!

-Robin

Peach Cobbler

My family and I recently went peach picking and picked 1 1/2 bushels of peaches for $.32/ lb. At this great price, you can make a peach cobbler for less than a dollar! Here is the recipe I used:

Peach Cobbler

1 cup sugar

1 cup self-rising flour

1 cup of milk

3 cups of sliced peaches, lightly tossed in sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8×8 casserole dish. Combine sugar, flour, and milk in a bowl and pour into the bottom of the casserole dish. Then, pour the peaches in the middle of the dish on top of the batter. Bake the cobbler for approximately 55 minutes.

You can subsititute many fruits in this recipe. Check out the Blackberry Cobbler guest post that we did last year on $5 dinners.

For more great recipes, go to Menu Plan Monday or $5 dinners!

-Robin

Happy Sunday

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

Psalms 95:1

Clipping for College Week One

Week One of Clipping for College went well! It is my goal to keep track of all the money I save using coupons and apply it to my children's college fund. This week I used $83.02 in coupons.

At the grocery store I saved $26.03

At the drugstore I saved $56.99.

I know the drugstore number will always be inflated. The drugstore has great deals for me to stock up on items we use. Most of these items turn out to be completely free. I would not normally shop at the drugstore and pay full price for anything because the prices are so high. We do save alot of money with sales and coupons at the drugstore and sometimes I can snag a "moneymaker."

Pictured above is our wonderful dog Roscoe. We usually feed him Pedigree. A few weeks ago, I saw on one of my favorite coupon blogs Hip2Save that I could get a free bag of dog food, so I signed up. I received a coupon in the mail for a free bag of dog food. When I got to the super fancy dog store to redeem the coupon, I found that it was for a bag of dog food valued at $17.25! Wow.... and our dog had been eating Pedigree that I bought on sale with a coupon. Score!

I did not count the dog food in my Clipping for College total because I would not have paid that much for dog food, but I am super happy to have the great freebie! Who knows, if he likes it, I might find a way to get the "high dollar" dog food a little cheaper!

Leave a comment if you are interested in Clipping for College.

-Robin

Friday Finals 7/30

I scored some good deals this week at Publix. Four of the items were FREE! And I got a 6 pack of water for a penny (not pictured.)

Total before savings: $88.80

Paid = $33.57

Coupons used= $26.03

Sales savings= $29.20

Another store had some great sales on produce. If you bought $10 worth then you could buy milk for $2.50, so of course I got my limit of 2 milks. My grocery total for this week was $50 for the 4 of us... not too bad considering all the produce and milk.

Check back tomorrow for a "Clipping for College" update.

This post is linked to Friday Finals . Thanks to Southern Savers for the coupon match-ups!

-Robin