the re-cap: CVS 12/22

It was a good day... the shelves were mostly stocked, and the magic coupon machine was printing. :)
I picked up all these goodies (retail of $114) at my first run to CVS for a dollar out of my pocket. (I did roll over my $70 ECB from Thanksgiving too). Days like this make ordinary weeks at CVS very boring.

Menu Plan Monday: Dec. 28-Jan 3

Monday: Speedy Sweet and Sour Chicken
Tuesday: Crockpot Turkey & Wild Rice soup using our Christmas turkey breast carcass
Wednesday: out to par-tay
Thursday: Happy New Year! Chicken Makhani in the crockpot
Friday: homemade pizza, using this crust I froze last month
Saturday: Curried Salmon Cakes

Menu Plan Monday: Dec 21-27

It's really cold here this week, so I'm in the mood for warm wintry soups.
Sunday: Cordon Bleu (from the freezer- we made this a couple weeks ago)
Monday: Tortellini White Bean Spinach Soup (I was pleased to see that other cooks rated this 5 stars; its a favorite of my family's for sure)
Tuesday: Orange Chicken
Wednesday: Crockpot Chili (not sure if I'll do my own recipe that the S loves, or if we'll try Barack Obama's recipe for fun!)
Thursday: Turkey breast et. al- MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Friday: Turkey et. al ala sandwiches or whatever; or pizza if we can't stomach the turkey again
Saturday: Out to Medieval Times (thanks Mom Fails!)

Open House casserole recipe

Many of my friends came by our open house last weekend; we are so blessed to have such good friends! Thanks all. A few of you were keen on the breakfast casserole I made, so I thought I'd just post the recipe here. It was inspired by Jenni Key, refined by All Recipes.com, but I couldn't find a recipe online that matched what I wanted. So here's my version.
4 1/2 English muffins, cut in half
8 precooked sausage patties (mine were frozen)
1 cup diced green peppers (mine were frozen)
1 1/2 c milk (I used 1 c 2% and 1/2 c skim)
6 eggs
6 oz sharp cheddar cheese

Lay down first 3 ingredients in a 9x 13" pan. Mix eggs and milk together (add a little salt and pepper if you like) and pour over casserole. Refrigerate overnight. Bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees. Yum yum!

Get a plan QUICK and get to CVS!

CVS has 37 free items for sale (sounds like a misnomer, but that's how it goes) today and tomorrow ONLY (free meaning after extracare bucks). Wahoo! I'm getting out there early tomorrow, and hopefully I can snag at least 17 of the 37 items. Believe it or not, I will resists buying somethings I do not need- like the Icelandic joint relief, for example.
Use your manufacturer's coupons to make money off the sale, after your extra care bucks. How so? Say you want to buy the Listerine for $2.99, which gives you back $2.99 in ECB. Bring in your Listerine manu coupon for $.75 off (from rp 10/5/08), and you'll only pay $2.24 out of pocket (plus tax in some states), and you still get the 2.99 in ECB. This means you are 75 cents richer in ECB to spend next time you go to CVS. You turn the manu coupons into ECB that you can spend on anything.
I'll be rolling over my ECB from Thanksgiving... I couldn't post that trip because it has some presents in it that should not be spoiled!
P.S. After viewing the physical CVS ad I noticed that the # items didn't look like 37 at all. I think that number is based on buying the "limit" for each item (up to 5 on somethings).

Where do you get all those coupons?

I've been hearing this question more and more lately, so I thought I'd put the answer in writing. Alas, I was trumped by Gina (aka mommymakingmoney). For an idea of the variety of places to get your coupons, see her post here. For me, I only troll the internet for coupons when I am given a link to it by another blogger, to meet a specific item that's on sale. I don't have time to just look around for coupons for fun.
I am a fan of the old fashioned Sunday newspaper coupon inserts. We have a home delivery subscription to the Washington Post, but my strategy lies in buying extra papers from a drugstore or grocery store, like CVS or Giant. At CVS, I can use a $/$$ coupon to save a percentage of the cost of the paper. Sometimes at sleepy CVS locations you can still buy the Sunday paper the following Thursday. At Giant, I can use the 50 cents off a Sunday paper coupon that's been in the mail for the last month (and we've stockpiled dozens of from our neighbors), which doubles to make the paper just 50 cents.
Even if I do pay the $1.50 for the paper, I do it when I know there are several inserts so its worth it.
BTW, if keeping your Sabbath day leads you to avoid buying the Sunday paper, watch for early Sunday editions on Saturday, or late editions on Monday. They usually have the inserts too.
OH, I almost forgot to add that friends and neighbors can be a great resource for coupons. Just ask! If you are really ambitious you could set up a coupon exchange, too.
Where do you get your coupons??

Menu Plan Monday: Dec 14-20

Sunday: Tostadas
Monday: Slow-Cooked Corn Chowder (Last week's menu went to pot when I got the norovirus, so here we go again with this)
Tuesday: Chicken Ritz casserole
Wednesday: Baked Potatoes with the works
Thursday: Bean Burgers
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: we'll be eating all day long at parties, including our open house (so forget dinner)! Please come by for brunchy food from 9:30am-noon.

Mr. Yanagi, you made my day!

We got our first Christmas card in the mail yesterday. Jerry tried to get me to guess who it was from- but I wouldn't have guessed it in 30 years.
It was from our car repair man (who we only hired once and I'm already claiming him)!
I've got cards from insurance agents, Jimmy Carter, and the Sierra Club. But this just really made me smile! Never mind that his wife hand addressed the card! Never mind that there is no signature or note whatsoever inside! I love it.
Mr. Yanagi, by the way, comes to your house to work on your car. This makes life SO much easier when you have a kid. He doesn't have the overhead of a retail space, so his rates are really reasonable too. It took 5 years to find him, but now, obviously, we're just like family.

Meal Plan Monday: Dec. 7-13

Sunday: Mini meatloaves
Monday: French toast or French bread pizza... can' t decide!
Tuesday: Slow-Cooked Corn Chowder
Wednesday: Crunchy Chicken Poppy seed Salad
Thursday: Pierogies
Friday: Out to ward Christmas party
Saturday: out to a potluck- taking cheese platter

My first giveaway has a winner!

Congratulations to Tarythe! Her guess was the closest one, so she is the new owner of the jeans! I spent $70.49 for a FULL cart of groceries; I paid just 35% of the shelf price. I know its not like the drugstore where you can get things for practically free, but this is FOOD and its pretty hard to get that for free at a store.
Thanks for all your comments- I know many of you have your interest peaked regarding how to coupon shop better. Watch for a post on that soon!

Kmart, falls apart

I don't have insider information about kmart's future, but I know they certainly didn't get any profits from me this week!
This trip wouldn't made for a better contest I think. You've all been too kind in your confidence about my abilities to get a deal on the jeans giveaway guessing... (hint hint- go HIGHER!!). I got away with paying less than 10% of retail on this trip, thanks to K-Mart's double coupons this week. Rang up to $56.xx, I paid $5.xx! Before you head out to Kmart, check your local ad to see if your store is participating because aparently only certain areas are doing it. This was the first time our store has done it. We'll see if they do it again after the damage done by me and other slickdealers.

Reminder: Best guess gets free aeropostale jeans

OK, so I know my brother won't win the jeans. Nor my slim SIL. So someone out there needs these jeans- so spread the word. I'd love to hear your comments, and its fun to guess about coupons (well I think so). If you don't think its fun you can tell me, that's OK too.
Deadline is Friday at midnight.
While you're at it, if you want to win more free stuff, check out Jacquie's Scentsy giveaway too.

Menu Plan Monday: Dec 1-7

Monday: we did a mock-up turkey dinner, thanks to leftovers from Emma!
Tuesday: Split Pea Soup (not exactly that recipe, but close- we add potatoes and Tabasco!)
Wednesday: Fish n Chips (baked salmon, baked potato wedges)
Thursday: Pork Roast ($1.99 at Aldi, cooked and all!), asparagus
Friday: Garlic Bread Pepperoni Pizza (thank you, $1.50 Aldi clearance)
Saturday: Nachos (for Jerry- I doubt I'll be hungry after two parties during the day)

I am really looking forward to cooking less and eating more this month. Tis the season of parties and brunches and hot cocoa. I'll do my share of baking and cooking, for sure, but more for the masses and less for everyday.
I'm reading the Omnivore's Dilemma now, and Michael Pollan quotes a study that explains how rats will gorge themselves to death when they're faced with unlimited amounts of lard and sugar (foods they don't normally eat alone in their diets). Likewise, when we are faced with an unlimited amount of food, we will eat more than we need to. So I've painted myself a little mental picture of a gorged rat next to a vat of lard to keep in mind when I approach the buffet line at the next holiday gathering. Hope it works.