I Hope You'll Join Me

You may have noticed my posts have become less frequent recently. There's a reason for that. This blog has grown a lot since I started it thanks in large part to you, my wonderful readers. Living frugally and getting the most out of my money is something I'm passionate about. For a while now though, I have felt drawn to write more about frugal living and less about the latest deals. And one day while pondering all of this I realized that I could not see myself still writing about all the deals and freebies 10 years from now. However, I wasn't sure exactly where I wanted to go with it all. After a lot of prayer and consideration, I decided to create a new blog. The new blog is a combination of this blog and my personal blog. I will be writing about all the things I am passionate about: my faith, my family, my desire to live a financially responsible life and my photography. I will still be sharing my menu plans and recipes. I will still be sharing tips on frugal living. I will still be offering reviews and giveaways. However, I will no longer be posting daily deals and freebies. I know that most if not all of you read this blog specifically because of the deals and freebies I post. I did not take the decision to create a new blog lightly but feel it is the best move for me and my life. I have created a Frugal Resources tab on my new blog where I share links to my favorite frugal blogs, coupon resources and more. I have some of my favorites on there now but still have a lot of links to add when time permits. I cannot thank you enough for your kindness and support of this blog andI hope you will choose to join me at Frugal & Focused. I have a Welcome post here that explains what you will find. Hope to see you there!

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$3/1 Huggies Printable Coupons

You can print $3/1 Huggies diapers coupons here and here.

Combine this with the Huggies Deal at Walgreens this week for cheap diapers.

Buy 3 Huggies Jumbo Pack Diapers, Pull-ups or GoodNites $8.99 each Get $5 RRs
Deal Idea
Buy 3 Huggies diapers $26.97
Use (3) $3/1 printables
Receive $5 RRs
$4.32 each after Qs and RRs

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Starbucks: Free Pastry Day 3/23/10

Tuesday, March 23,2010 is Free Pastry Day at Starbucks. Go here to print a coupon good for a free pastry with any handcrafted beverage purchase. Get there early. Offer ends at 10:30 a.m.

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Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day 3/23/10

Tuesday, March 23, 2010 is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's. Stop by your local Ben & Jerry's for your free cone from 12-8 p.m. Go here to find a location near you.

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Rebate Roundup 3/21-3/27

My friend Greta at Friend Family Fun has the latest Rebate Roundup. Be sure to stop by to see how you can maximize your savings with rebates this week.

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Menu Plan Monday 3/22

If you were reading last week you'll remember I mentioned we'd be having "steak something" one night. My husband had moved the steak from the freezer to the fridge to thaw but we weren't sure what we wanted to do with it. We ended up making Beef Stroganoff. I had been craving it for awhile and when I mentioned it, my husband was all for it. The recipe I use is his Grandmother's. When we got married my sister gave me a recipe book with family recipes she'd gathered from my family and  my husband's family and this was included. I thought I'd share it. We loved having it again after not eating it in a while. Hope you'll enjoy it too.

Grandmother's Beef Stroganoff
1 lb. lean round or sirloin steak, cut into bite size pieces
1 large onion, choppped
1 can beef consomme
1/4 c. water
1 small can(or fresh) sliced mushrooms
dash of worcestershire sauce
1 8 oz. container sour cream
garlic salt
pepper
flour
butter(or oil)

Sprinkle beef with garlic sale and pepper. Roll in flour and brown in butter (or oil, I use canola oil). Add onion, beef consomme, water, mushrooms and worcestershire sauce to browned beef. Cover and simmer for 1 hour. Cool a bit and add cantainer or sour cream and stir thoroughly. Serve over rice or noodles.

Now onto what we'll be eating this week.

Black Bean Burritos
Shrimp & Grits
Baked Penne (carried over from last week)
Breakfast for dinner
Chinese Style Glazed Chicken Breasts, broccoli, rice

Stop by Orgjunkie.com for more menu inspiration.

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Winners

Congratulations to our two winners of the Horizon Organic Lowfat Chocolate Milk Giveaway! The random number generator at random.org picked #4 and #9 which means our winners are:

#4 Michelle

#9 Wendy

You have 48 hours to contact me to claim you prize!

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Weekly Deals

Okay, my shopping this week was weird and random. Publix and Winn Dixie didn't have any particularly compelling sales for me. My husband and I decided to check out a couple of new places. First we decided to give Sam's a try. We used to have a Costco membership and really loved it. So we went and scoured the aisles comparing prices. I was disappointed that they seem to have fewer organic items than Costco carried. But overall we found several things that we can get cheaper or as cheap at Sams than at regular stores with sales and coupons. A couple of things I can get a bit cheaper with sales/coupons but not dramatically. Of course, there were plenty of things I can get cheaper in regular stores. But like Costco, we feel that overall the membership is worth it for the items we will save on. Their gas prices are cheaper as well which sweetens the membership deal.

Sam's

We paid $50.28 for the above items. This did not come from our weekly grocery budget but from money we'd set aside from our income tax refund. However, it will be counted in our weekly/yearly total. I will start setting aside money from our weekly budget to make one or two trips a month to Sams. I may actually go back this next week because after looking around they appear to have the best price on walnuts and I am out. 

We also decided to give our local CO-OP a try. Think tiny Whole Foods store. You could probably fit the whole thing in the produce section of Whole Foods. They had a suprisingly good variety of things. A lot of their prices were good too. Many of the items I checked were in line with prices at Winn-Dixie and Publix. Some were even better. Some were more expensive. They had a nice bulk foods area that I plan to frequent.   

I got a 3 lb. bag of  organic apples for $4.29. $1.40 lb. is considerably cheaper than what I've seen at WD and Publix. The cheapest I have found them there was $1.99 lb.

I got @ 2 lbs. of organic black beans for $1.99 lb.

I got a pkg. of organic whole wheat tortillas for $2.29. This is the best price I've found on WW tortillas here and they are organic to boot. I was pleased.

Total OOP: $10.46

CVS

I bought:

1 Kashi Heart to Heart Honey Toasted Cereal $2.50

1 Kashi 7 Grain Crackers $2.50

Qs

1 Free Kashi Heart to Heart cereal

$1.50/1 Kashi Crackers

Total OOP: $1

Walgreens

1  Colgate Total Toothpaste $3.99

Q

$1/1 Colgate Total

Total OOP: $3.25

Received: $4 RRs

Bakery Thrift Store

1 Natures Own bread $1.49

2 Nature's Own Sandwich Rounds $1.58

Total OOP: $3.07

Winn-Dixie-I mostly just picked up things we needed for the week like produce, eggs, dairy, etc.

I spent: $24.54

I saved: $6.33

Weekly Total:$42.32+$50.28=$92.60

2010 Total: $594.50

11 week avg.: $54.04

This post is linked to:

I Heart Publix Weekly Totals

Southern Savers Friday Finals

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Coupon Preview 3/21

There will be 3 inserts in this Sunday's paper: (2) Smart Source and (1) Red Plum. Be sure to stop by Southern Savers for a full list of available coupons. Remember coupons will vary by region.

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Giveaway Thursday

It's Giveaway Thursday here at The Money Jar. I host a MckLinky here each Thursday so you can share your blog giveaways. If you are hosting a giveaway, please leave your link. If you know someone hosting a giveaway, tell them to stop by and leave their link. Thanks! Please keep giveaway links family friendly.



While you're here be sure to enter my giveaway for Horizon Organic Lowfat Chocolate Milk. Today is the last day to enter. There will be two winners!

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