In The View

Not 'That' View... Those of you who get the weekly neighborhood paper will find a very nice article about a few local couponers/bloggers... including yours truly.  It is actually a really nice arcticle considering I felt like I blabbed like a fool for almost an hour to this poor gal who didn't really know much about couponing.  I ended up giving her a quick 'mini class' over the phone.  That was super fun, but I was so nervous about what would be put in print! 

Check out the article HERE and head on over and visit Jackie Landy over at My Vegas Mommy, and Daisy Sams at The Deal Fanatic.  You can never have too many couponing sources as far as I'm concerned and these gals each have such a unique voice and source for saving money. 

Also, don't forget to set your DVR to TLCs Extreme Couponing that starts on April 6th!   I see big things happening in the world of coupons....If you have been thinking about booking a class, now's the time to do it!  Call or email me for more details!

702-882-0172

thegrocerygeeks@gmail.com

YEAH!!

I was so excited about Smith's promo that started today! We needed lots of the stuff included. and although my list goes outside of the promo, I did pretty good! I got 40 items in the promo ($20 off!) and I put a star next to those items. So...Here's what I got:

• 1 jar Kraft mayo*


• 1 bottle of syrup


• 2 Arm and Hammer detergents*


• Brown sugar


• 2 Crystal light drink mixes*


• 2 jars Pace Picante*


• 3 cans refried beans


• 2-24 pack Nestle bottle water*


• 2 boxes of Corn Chex


• 8 boxes of Ronzoni pasta*


• 1 box Caprisun*


• 2 jars Classico sauce*


• 2 Mens Dove deoderants*


• 1 container Cottage cheese


• 3-4 packs of Danon yogurt*


• Veggie wash


• 1 squeeze lemon


• 2 Bare Naked granolas*


• 3 Annie Mac and Cheese*


• 1 box Kashi cookies


• 2 boxes Kashi granola bars


• 8 protein bars


• Apples


• Bananas


• Red peppers


• Cucumber


• Sweet Potato


• Dole Salad Mix


• Avocados


• Fresh Blackberries


• Strawberries


• 2 loaves of bread


• 4 bags of Steamfresh Veggies*


• Garlic


• Onions


• 4 boxes of Triscuits*


• Deli meat

WHEW!! Loved my trip!! Guess how much? Well I always shoot for 50% and I was just short!! Spent $96.01 and saved $95.16!!

Saving on Gas!!

 I just got this email and thought I needed to share with you all!  Hope this helps!

{please share}

TIPS ON SAVING GAS, EVERY LITTLE HELPS AND THESE PRICES.

---

TIPS ON PUMPING GAS

I don't know what you guys are paying for gasoline.... but here in California we are paying up to $3.75 to $4.10 per gallon. My line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money's worth for every gallon:

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose , CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline.. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.

 

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.

A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

 

When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. You should be pumping on low mode, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL. The reason for this is the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

 

Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up; most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom. 

 
 I would like to add a big P.S. to this.... Don't forget that Smiths still offers Gas Rewards when you sign up for their store card.  Check out all the details for Vegas here. 

Free Class

Have you been wanting to come to a class and just a little to nervous about hosting one for yourself?  I will be teaching a class at the Silver Springs Rec Center tomorrow (3/15) at 7pm.  Get a few friends together for a girls night out and come away with invaluable life skills.  

The class is totally free! I will be able to offer you a tremendous deal on the newspaper so you can even get your coupons at a discounted rate! 

To register for this class, simply go to City of Henderson online and register for activity number 371012-13.  The more the merrier!!  Hope to see you there!

Holiday Sales

One of the best couponing secrets it to watch grocery store sales during holiday and special event weekends.  Usually items for that holiday hit a deep discounted price.  One example, is Superbowl weekend, you will find hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, and sodas on sale.  This next week it's time to start looking at St. Patrick's day meals, so you are likely to find corned beef and cabbage on sale {I saw cabbage for .39/lb in the Smiths ad this coming week}.

Well, the Mahoney in me has come out in full swing this year - hence all the green on this site ;-).  And I have done some digging for a few recipes on what to do with corned beef and cabbage.  Here one that we might have to test out this year.

Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

• 3 lb Corned Beef
• 1 onion
• a few lbs of potatoes
• carrots
• head of cabbage
• peppercorn
• bay leaves
• 1 bottle Guiness 

Check out this video for a great tutorial on how to put this dish together.  The best part is that it uses the crock pot which is my new favorite kitchen tool! 

You might also want to try Boxty with those potatoes that are likely to be on sale too.  It is an Irish pancake of sorts made with some cooked and some shredded raw potato.  It really is pretty yummy.  I made some for a church activity where my daughter had to share a dish from her heritage.  This is what I brought and it was a big hit - even when I served it plain.

Best-ever Boxty Recipe

• 2 medium potatoes, boiled in salted water and mashed
• 2 medium potatoes, grated
• 1 cup flour, self-rising or all-purpose
• 1 cup buttermilk, approximate (can substitute regular milk)
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• Black pepper, to taste
• Butter OR canola oil OR a mixture of the two, for frying
• Chopped parsley, for garnish (optional)

Finely grate the raw potatoes using a box grater or food processor grating disk. Do not just chop them up in the food processor: the resulting mush will not make good boxty.
Drain grated potatoes in a mesh sieve or colander over a bowl to catch the liquid; they may turn a little brown, but you will not be able to tell in the finished dish. After 15 minutes or so, you will see a white sediment– potato starch– in the bottom of the bowl and a clear liquid on the top. Drain off the liquid (you don't need to be fussy about it) and add the potato starch to the potatoes, flour and enough buttermilk to make a batter that is just spoon-able and a little bit looser than standard mashed potatoes. Mix well and add salt and pepper to taste. If you use self raising flour, the boxty will be fluffier, but all purpose flour works perfectly well.
Heat a couple of tablespoons butter and/or oil over medium to medium-high heat. Drop boxty batter by spoonfuls into the hot oil and cook until golden brown, flipping once– about 2 minutes per side for small potato cakes, although you can make your boxty whatever size you please.
Serve hot.

There is an old Irish poem 

Boxty on the griddle, boxty in the pan, if you can't make boxty, you'll never get a man.

Have fun & don't forget to 'K-i-S-s' your fellow Irishmen. 

Wreath-a-rific!!

Isn't it amazing how sometimes when we are really strapped financially, we get uber creative??  Well, my front doors have been bare for over a month now because I didn't have a Valentines wreath.  Since I now have at least 1 cute St. Patty's Day craft done and ready, I thought it was high time I got the doors taken care of.  I scavenged a few items from my craft closet and got to work.  Pretty pleased how the final project turned out... here's how it all came together {you are not allowed to judge the photos, the plastic kept making an awful glare so I was goofing around with the flash}:

I had 2 straw wreath forms I bought at Hobby Lobby at Christmas time for 50% off.  Got them both for around $3.50.  I dug through my scrap fabric box and found several different green fabrics and some tulle cause you can never have enough tulle!  

 The rest of the items I found at my 99c Store... The signs I scooped up last year because they were green and already painted {sometimes I'm just lazy, not creative}.  The shamrocks were a great size and had some extra ribbons and stuff attached so I'm thinking I could do something fun with those.  The pins are a must because I am so cheap I want to be able to break these puppies down and reuse the wreath forms.   

Yes, I am that cheap!

First, all you do is rip some strips of fabric.  Start by snipping a small bit the width you want and then think of that one wretched mess your toddler made that afternoon and pull HARD. Pfew!  Repeat as long and as many times as you need until your frustration is good and used up.  This is a fun technique because it is both quick and I like the look of the frayed edges.  Note: I started with these 2"-ish strips, but after working them around the wreath, I decided to undo and go with a 1"-ish strip.  Up to you.

 

 Ahhhhh, a nice pile of strips... Guess my 2 year old will live to see another day ;-)

 See how I ripped the strips again to make them smaller... Now, figure out how you want to layer them and start pinning.  After this pic I decided to add another color so I ended up with 5 different colors.  Here's a tip for you, wrap them in this same order as if they are one big piece of fabric.  That will make the final product uniform.  I tried wrapping each color, and then trying to overlap and I lost a few of the fabrics.  So handy that I only pinned them so it was really easy to redo until I got the end result I wanted. Not gonna lie, it took me more than twice to get it just right.

Here's what I mean by wrapping them all as one piece. Does that make sense?

 

Voila! I used the tulle to add little "szhusz" behind the clovers and used it to make hanger at the top.  Remember those dangling strings from before?  I added them to the hanger for a little extra pop.  At this point, I did not like seeing the pin in the middle of the clover.  It took me a little while to decide to try my hand at fabric flowers!  I'm HOOKED!  And since I had just a "few" extra strips of fabric laying around, I whipped up a few to add to the wreath. 

 I just love how it turned out!  Seriously proud of myself because I usually am not good at creating things on my own... I am REALLY good at copying other people's ideas so this is a big deal for me.  

 Close up of the flowers.  They are a little tight, so I may work on my technique, but not bad for a first shot right?  {really wish those holes were not in the clovers, but what are you gonna do for $1}

Here they are!!  I love having double doors in the front, but it gets pretty expensive when trying to decorate 2 doors.  So happy that this project came in under $10 for both!! 

NOTE: Now accepting advice for removing that tacky No Soliciting sign without totally peeling off the paint like I did when I removed the original magnet wreath hanger. Can you say 'eye sore'! Yikes!

Hope you like it and are inspired to make something GREAT and GREEN!  

Happy March everyone!!

p.s. Remember those ucky signs.  Like I said, I only liked the fact that they were $1 and already green and finished.  I just had to take the sticker off the back and whip out my Sharpie!  I didn't end up using the signs for the wreath, but I might find somewhere else to put them cause I just like how it turned out too!  

{This was NOT my idea - surprise, surprise}

 p.s.s. Just linked to my first EVER blog party!! WHOO HOO!! Of course I did it wrong, but what can I say... that's what I get for staying up way too late doing fun projects! Check it out

Valentines Day Hair

 

 This post is WAY late, but still, it was fun and I had pictures, so here ya go.  We got the idea from Princess Hairstyles.  Ended up doing some little hearts in my baby princess's hair too, but she wouldn't sit still for a photo this time {she's 2 what are ya gonna do}.   

I LOVE the chore cards! I was so inspired when I saw these, I made mailboxes for my family! There is one for each of my girls and my hubby and I share one. I will eventually (very soon!) start 'mailing' them chore cards, but for now we've been using them to mail notes. My hubby is out of town right now so he mailed me postcards to put in the girls' mailboxes. SO cute! I bought the mailboxes at Michael's (with a coupon of course!) and then painted them and gave them all their details. They love getting mail! Let's hope they still love mail when their chores start coming!! LOL

Wire Words

I am going to attempt my first tutorial here so hold on tight and don't laugh ....  This is one of those things that I saw somewhere many moons ago and just never got around to putting it together.  After attempting one for Valentines day, I realized I needed to make a few adjustments, and then I quickly realized the potential here!  First, let me say that I saw something similar on a blog somewhere long ago {is that vague enough for ya}, the gal used vinyl wrapped clothesline which I tried, but it didn't work out so hot for me.  I happened upon this wire at Wally-world and my mind went bonkers! 

   

First, here's your supply list:  galvanized wire $3.76 at Walmart for 100 feet {pretty cheap and I could do LOTS of projects}, wire cutters, glue gun, left over yarn, and a movie cause this is a bit tedious.  

{For all you Twilighters out there, I did cover Jacob's face on purpose ;-)}. 

 Next, make a "rough draft" of the word or object you want to create.  Cut the wire a bit longer just in case.  I will give you brownie points if you can guess what this one is going to say... It's pretty jumbled right here, but I'll give you a hint... I am in desperate need of St. Patty's Day decor.  Hmmmm? 

Start by gluing the yarn up and over the end of the wire, then start wrapping around, and around, and around..... You will want to do something similar at the end of the wire too just to cover the sharp edges of the wire.

Every so often, add a little glue just to make sure it doesn't slip as you go... Then keep wrapping around, and around, and around... {do you see why a movie is necessary at this point?}

Oh, this is a pretty big piece, so I started forming the letters as I went to make it easier to work with.

After a good few minutes {fine, hours} and a large knot in my old scrap of yarn, VOILA!  Did you guess what it was?  I really like the look of this one.  Now, I just need to figure out where to put it.  This is my kind of decoration, it has impact, but is super cheap, very easy, and extremely versatile - Think of the Possibilities!!

Here is one I whipped up for a friend's new baby.  His room is going to be cowboy themed so I thought it would look neat with the jute instead.  You know, make it look like a lasso or something.

Happy Creating!!

It's Craft-tastic!

I Love doing little craft projects, and if I can do them on the cheap! Well, that just makes it all the more sweeter!  Here's one that has been in my "I-would-love-to-do-this-someday" pile for a good minute.  Found it over at Blue Cricket Design {one of my favs}.  All you need is some ribbon, and washers from Home Depot and you are set!!

I made a few for my sister's sweet 16 & they were a hit, so I decided to make one for myself too!  I went a little more dainty on the ribbon, just because it was what I had on hand.  I tried this double ribbon technique and it was WAY easy! Here is the original washer necklace tutorial, which will be my next attempt. 

Chore Time Made Easy

I finally finished up the job cards for my kiddies! Phew!!  Here is the jist of this program.  Every morning and/or afternoon I put a few jobs in each of my kids' drawers.  They do the job and upon inspection, they put the job card in Mommy's drawer.  At the end of the week, I tally up all the little amounts in the bottom of the card {that's how much they get paid} and then a $$ amount is distributed.  Please don't turn me into CPS cause I am super cheap.  We have always told the kids that doing jobs around the house is just part of being a member of this family. However, some of the kids are getting old enough where they need to learn a little about the value of a dollar, tithing, and frankly, I'm just tired of picking up after everyone. 

 

 
Step #1 - Go to My Computer is My Canvas and order the job cards from her Etsy shop.  You can choose to have them personalized, or you could just print them and write out what you want.
Step #2 - Laminate the cards, cause you know they will be getting some love.
Step #3 - Figure out a 'mailing' system that works for your family. I found this DARLING box thing {not really sure what you call it} at Hobby Lobby.  I'm not going to lie, it was kind of pricey, so make sure you use their 40% off coupon on their website.  But, I had done this system a few years ago and used little $1 Valentines mailboxes from Target, but my kids liked to do tote them all over the house and they got ruined pretty quickly.

See all those jobs in the bottom box?  That's a whole lotta work I don't have to do!  Another fun thing to do is put treats in their boxes too.

Step #4 - Grab a Diet Coke and watch some good ol' fashioned child labor take on a life of it's own ;-)

I have to say that this has worked better than I could have ever imagined!  My kids now ASK me for more jobs in their drawers!  Seriously!  

 

I printed some blank cards too so I can add jobs or little notes to my babies. So fun!

 Have fun and Happy Chores!!