Mexican-style Hamburger Helper... the homemade version

When money is tight, we go straight to the pantry to see what we can pull together for dinner.  This particular night, I found the fixings for a homemade Mexican-style Hamburger Helper.

Ingredients:

1 box (16 oz) large sea shell pasta
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
2 TBS Taco Seasoning
1 large can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 large can (28 oz.) whole, peeled tomatoes in juice blended with an immersion blender or a regular   blender
Shredded cheddar or Mexican cheese, optional


Directions:

1.  Cook pasta according to directions on box.

2.  Brown ground beef, pepper, and onion in fry pan.

3.  After beef is cooked, drain fat from the pan.

4.  Add the taco seasonings, diced tomatoes, and blended whole, peeled tomatoes.

5.  Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes to combine flavors.

6.  Combine with the cooked, drained pasta.

7.  Serve with shredded cheddar or Mexican cheese.

8.  Enjoy!


Blessings,

    Ellen

P.S. - Please excuse my.... ummm.... errrr.... simplistic photo.  My family agreed this recipe was a keeper after we had begun clean-up!  I will update with a more pleasant photo next time we make this tasty dish!

Discounted gas...

I just love me some savings.... especially on gas!  One of our local grocery stores, Bi-Lo, has a fuelperks program.  The more you spend at their store, the more you save at the pump.  Outside of weekly fuelperks deals, Bi-Lo gives you $0.05 for every $50 you spend.  Then you have 3 months to use them.

Check out my Exxon gas receipt from today...

How cool is this.... saving $32.29 on my purchase!

I believe Winn-Dixie has a similar program.  Check it out!  You could be saving, too!

Blessings,

     Ellen

Black Friday Shopping

Many of you don't realize how much I DISLIKE shopping for anything... except books.  I took 1 1/2 hours out of my day today to look through the 4-inch stack of sale papers for Black Friday.  The only sale that caught my eye was Kohl's.  They have Kitchen Aid Stand mixers on sale! 

After considering a midnight run to Kohl's for the said mixer, I went online and found I could buy it without having to leave my home!  Praise the Lord!  The best part is that I still received the Kohl's cash to use in-store through December 5 for Christmas gifts.  Check out my frugal find....

KitchenAid Artisan 5-Qt. Stand Mixer with
tilt head, accessories shown, and 325 watts of power!
Mine is white.

Original Price: $399.99

      Sale Price: $269.99

                         + 16.06  Tax

                         -  40.50  15% off

                         -  60.00   Kohl's cash earned

                         -  30.00  Mail-in rebate

          

     Final cost:  $155.55

I am so excited and can't wait for the delivery of my new mixer.  I have been using a Sunbeam stand-up mixer with no luck with bread dough or a double batch of cookie dough. 

The 15% off is good through November 27th.  The Promo Code is: GOBBLE15FB for online buying.  To use it in the store, click HERE to print the Shopping Pass.

HAPPY SHOPPING!

Blessings,

     Ellen

Frugal living with coupons and sales

I know I am not the only one trying to save as much money as possible.  I stopped putting my weekly savings on the blog, but I thought this might encourage myself and others to continue couponing and searching out the sales.

If you do the math, I saved 42% at Publix and 65% at CVS.  Now who can resist DiGiorno Pizzas for $2.50 each!  I love it when my cost is way below what I saved! 

My Publix total was higher due to the fact I bought 2 mellon-ballers to use for cookie dough and meatballs.  Each was $6.49.  *sad face*.... *sigh*...

Happy Couponing! 

Blessings,

Ellen

Saving money sure feels good!

This was a good week!  Here's the breakdown...

CVS
     Spent $ 1.73     Saved $15.00 

Rite Aid
     Spent $ 7.49     Saved $ 26.54

Walgreens
     Spent $ 14.18   Saved $18.10

Publix
     Spent $ 62.65   Saved $ 83.02

Walmart
     Spent $ 3.98      Saved $ 0.50
     (All You magazines for coupons!)

Bi-Lo
     Spent $35.31     Saved $48.89

Overall-
     Spent $125.34   Saved $192.05

Percent Savings........ 60%

I love that we are saving this much money.  Yet, I feel like I am always shopping ; )

64 % Savings (including RR/ecb's/MIR

This week I didn't do any major shopping, but I did buy more than just milk and vegies.  Here is the weekly breakdown:

Farmer's Market
     Spent  $10       Saved -0-
      But I did make homemade strawberry jam with it!  YUM!
Walgreen's
     Spent  $35       Saved $35
       (earned $16 RR and $10 mail-in rebate)
Bi-Lo
     Spent  $49       Saved  $27
Food Lion
     Spent  $6         Saved  $2
CVS
     Spent  $17       Saved  $37
      (rec'd $12 ebc to use next time!)

Overall:
  Spent $117  Saved  $101 
  Total Bill before savings  $216

Percent Saved.... 47 %

Percent Saved including RR/ecb/MIR.... 64 %

53.5 % savings! I did it!

I feel like I've been shopping all week. YUK!  Here are my savings...

Staples      Spent  $ 43.68      Saved: $ 10
   I will be receiving $24 in rebates also!

Publix         Spent  $ 38.94      Saved:  $ 40.39

Shoe Dept   Spent  $ 30.00      Saved:  $ 15.00

Bi-lo           Spent  $ 143.16    Saved:  $ 109.70

Food Lion   Spent  $ 25.25      Saved:  $ 12.54

Walgreens   Spent  $ 11.78      Saved:  $ 14.20

CVS            Spent  $ 23.32      Saved:  $ 16.59

My total bill would have been $ 497.77.  I saved $ 266.42 ($242.42 + $24.00 rebates) and only spent $ 231.35. 

** I also received $10 register rebates from Walgreens and $9 ecb's from CVS to use on my next shopping trip!

The only shopping I'm doing this coming week will be for milk and, maybe, fresh vegetables!

How are your saving money for your family?

Couponing to a better life

Now that I'm feeling a bit better (back and neck problems), I'm off to the stores again.  I spent over 3 hours last night sorting and filing the coupons which had accumulated.  Then, I sat down with the sale ads and set up my shopping day.  Here we go...

CVS
     Spent  $ 11.97    SAVED  $ 14.88
Food Lion
     Spent  $ 55.78    SAVED    $ 25.88
Bi-Lo
     Spent  $ 106.05  SAVED  $ 86.43
Walgreens
     Spent  $ 7.49      SAVED  $ 13.99

Total Spent $ 181.29  SAVED $ 141.18

Percent Saved:  44 %

Not at or above 50 % which is what I'm shooting for, but savings none-the-less.

This week's savings... so far!

Since throwing my back out 2 weeks ago, I'm still trying to get back into a routine.  So far this week I have been to Publix and Bi-Lo.  Here are my savings....

Publix
     Spent  $ 23.90  SAVED  $ 26.21

Bi-Lo
     Spent  $ 97.10  SAVED  $ 83.28

Overall Percent Saved: 48 %

My goal is to save 50 % or more each week. 

If I returned the head of cauliflower-which was not on sale- maybe, just maybe, I would have had my 50 %.  But then I wouldn't be enjoying my home-made Chicken Pot Pie!

How many stores can one shop in a 2 hour time slot...

FIVE... SIX.... Ok, one store twice!  Not fun for someone who really doesn't like to shop.... but I do like saving a ton of money!

Today's Savings...

CVS           Spent $ 29.44   SAVED  $ 20.88
Target        Spent $ 15.89   SAVED  $ 4.75
Publix        Spent $  4.44    SAVED  $ 2.00
Publix        Spent $ 38.19   SAVED  $ 33.62
Bi-Lo         Spent $ 8.81     SAVED  $ 13.51
Food Lion  Spent $ 23.35  SAVED  $ 16.23

Bill Totals (before coupons, etc) $ 211.11

Total Saved $ 90.99

Total Spent $ 120.12   

Percent Saved 42%

Can  you say AWESOME!

Savings abound!

After falling behind on my coupons, I was able to get caught up this afternoon.  I then set up my store runs and was off to the races.  Here are my savings...

CVS...
     spent $ 1.35   SAVED $ 7.00
Walgreens...
     spent $ 4.54  SAVED $ 8.07
Food Lion...
     spent $ 12.72  SAVED $ 5.30
Bi-Lo...
     spent $ 35.49   SAVED $ 36.82

Total Spent  $ 54.10 
Total Saved $ 57.19
Percentage Saved 51 %

Savings like this keep me motivated to keep this program up!

How are you saving at the food stores?

Coupon Savings...

As much as I despise to shop, I am saving a lot more money.  If I can do this, so can you; just ask me how!  Here's today's shopping whirlwind:

Target
           2 Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer w/ 2 refill
               bottles $ 23.96
              - 2 $5 off coupons, 2 buy sprayer get refill free
           1 Dove antiperspirant   $1.87
              - on clearance, missing inside cover (orig. 3.89)
              - $1 coupon used
           1 Vaseline lotion $5.99
              - $1 Target coupon, $1.50 manu coupon
  TOTAL bill: $34.01     SAVED $23.18     SPENT $13.53 + tax

CVS   
            2 Head and Shoulders    $14.98
                (used BOGO coupon; rec'd ecb's)
            1 Colgate Toothpaste  $2.99
                (rec'd ecb's, used $0.75 coupon)
            1 3-pack Ivory Soap      $0.99
                (on sale and used coupon)
            1 CVS Green bag tag  $.99   (rec'd free after ecb)
              - scan this tag and use a reusable bag, after every 4
                 scans, receive $1 ecb!
  TOTAL bill: $19.95        SAVED $8.49   
      USED $5.00 ECB           SPENT $6.46 + tax

Walgreens
             1 Kotex U     $3.49
                  (used $1 coupon and rec'd RR)
             2 Distilled Water  $2.38 
                  (on sale for $0.78 each w/store coupon)
             2 Ajax cleaners 2 for $1 with store coupon
             1 Dawn dish soap        $0.99  
                  (w/store coupon and used $.25 coupon)
             2 Walgreens reusable bags $0.66
                  (w/store coupon)
   TOTAL bill $10.62       SAVED $4.14     SPENT $6.48 + tax

How are you saving money in your family budget?

My Coupon Binder

I was given this zippered 3-ring binder from my mom.  Since it is zippered, even if I drop it, the contents will not "fly to the wind!"

I used the inside pockets for a pair of good scissors, pen, and pencil.  In the pockets, I am keeping odd coupons or reminders.

I followed the tutorial on Time 2 Save for the sections.  I did add more categories so it would be easier to locate just the bath soap or household cleaners.  All the coupons are placed in baseball trading card plastic sheets for easy viewing per category.

My first pages are separated in two sections-each one for a specific store.  After I pull the coupons (paper and web), I put each in the appropriate holder.  This way, when I go into a store, my main coupons are all ready for me.

How's is your binder coming along?

Coupon Binder

Well, I have finally succombed to putting all of my coupons into a 3-ring binder using trading card plastic holders.  I have always cut and used coupons, but not to the extent of "stacking" coupons and really working the sales each week.

It is a whole new world.  Learning the lingo and the best sales around seems daunting alone.  Now, I have learned that to get the best deals, especially at the drug stores, you must not wait to the end of the weekly sales... shelves will be empty.

I have attached a link to Time 2 Save.  This will connect you to a tutorial on how to put a coupon binder together.  After following their directions, I am slowly making it my own.  BTW, I did use more dividers for the coupon pages.  For those of you who know me, my detail-side would not let me combine items!

http://www.time2saveworkshops.com/search/label/Couponing%20101

Happy Couponing!