Harris Teeter Super Doubles 6/26-7/2

Harris Teeter is at it again. Super doubles! I did pretty well this week. Only bummer was that the BIC razor coupons were not doubling. So no free razors for me this week :(
Overall, the total before VIC and coupons was $55 and I only spent $8! I was kind of surprised myself during checkout.

I used Southern Savers as my coupon resource. Just visit southernsavers.com. Jenny will tell you what to buy and where to find the coupons.

FREE items:

- Kikkoman Soy Sauce

- Jimmy Deans Quesadillas

- Muellers Pasta

- Ken's Buffalo Chicken Marinade

- Jose Ole Chimichanga

- Air Wick Stick Ups

And I spent $8 for the rest. Can't beat that! How did you do this week?

Great 10 minute workout

If you are a busy mom like me, finding time to work out is nearly impossible.  I thought about taking up running but it is just too hot right now for David and I to be outside for too long (unless by a pool of course!).

I came across this workout that is only 10 minutes long. It kicked my booty! Maybe because I haven't workout out in a few months. But either way, I loved that it incorporated ballet moves. I grew up taking ballet and miss it a lot. Ballet is a great way to work on your muscles, flexibility and posture.

I strongly recommend trying this workout. I just did it in my kitchen while David is sleeping. It doesn't involve any equipment either. Just click on the picture above and it should link you to the short 10 minute video. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Harris Teeter 6/20

No, it is not a super doubles week here in the Charlotte area. Rumor is that it is going on in Raleigh this week and maybe we will have them next week.

I went a day later than I usually do but I was still able to get everything on my list! What are the chances?

The total before VIC and coupons today was $48.12 and I paid $16.57. Not too bad. I didn't even have a coupon for everything I bought. Pretty proud of myself :)

Here is my shopping list with prices and the coupon sources: 

As you can probably see, there are something on my list that I did not purchase and I purchased a few things that were not on my list. I add the Tilapia ($3.99/lb.), Vegetable Medley bag (for only 99¢!) and Land O'Lakes Cage Free Eggs. We usually get our eggs from Trader Joe's for the same price, so I figured I would just buy them from HT and save a trip.

And my coupon tip of the week? Buy only 6 weeks worth of items. Please don't be one of "those people" who buy out everything on the shelf. Leave some for everyone! You will find that most sales run every 6 weeks or so. So, if you are running low on pickles (for example) and aren't completely out, if you see that they are on sale then go ahead a buy a jar or two to last you the next 6 weeks. I hope this little tip helps!

How did you do this week?

Lowes Foods Super Doubles 6/5

I never thought I would say this but... I am about coupon'd out! With super doubles last week at Harris Teeter and now super doubles this week at Lowes Foods... it's a lot of work. Especially when you have to tote a 1 yr old with you.

Anyways... back to my good deal today. I spent $17.13 and saved $55.54. That is $72.67 worth of groceries for $17.13!!

If you are unfamiliar with what super doubles means, they double any coupon with a face value of $2 or LESS. Meaning, if you have a $2 coupon then they will double it to $4.

Here's how I did:

FREE items

• Maruchan Yakisoba $.79 - $.79
• Birds Eye Peas $1 - $1
• Land O'Frost mini hams $2 - $2

Everything else

• Milk $3.99 - $3
• Rhodes Rolls $2 - $1
• DiGiorno Pizza- $5 - $4
• Archway Cookies $2.50 - $2
• Hershey's Syrup $2.29 - $1
• Oreo $2.88 - $1.50
• Dove Ice Cream $4.19 - $2

In case you didn't know, if you go to Bi-Lo's Facebook page they have a coupon for $1.50 off milk if you buy 2 packages of Oreo's AND $1.50 off of two packages of Oreo's. So I got the Oreo's on sale and I got the milk for only $1. Not too bad!

How did you do this week?

Deal of the Day! - FREE Grocery Tote

You can get a free grocery tote from York.com today. Just pay $3.99 in shipping. It holds up to 30 lbs of groceries! I'm sure you could also use it for a library bag or whatever else.

You can use one of their existing templates, but I decided to design my own. I found this super cute chevron print and just added my initials in PowerPoint. (sorry the picture is so small, I couldn't figure out how to enlarge it without making it blurry.)

Click here to get the free grocery bag! Search for "grocery bag" in the top right corner, design it and use code MYTOTE at checkout to make it free. You also get 40 FREE prints if you are a new customer.
You can get the template download from here.

Let me know if you design your own bag, I would love to see it :)


Update!: I got my bag in the mail today and love it :) I was surprised to see that it is double sided too. Here is how it looks in person:

Homemade Sandwich Bread

My family doesn't eat a lot of sandwich bread. So, we always end up throwing out or feeding the birds in our yard half a loaf of bread. I decided we needed a change! My mom gave me two loaf pans for Christmas and they have been gathering dust in the cabinet. Thankfully, I found a great recipe online and the reviews were all positive so I thought it was worth a shot.

This is a recipe for white bread made with all purpose flour. I'm sure it would turn out even better with bread flour or wheat flour. But, I just used what I had on hand. You can also make this bread with or without a stand mixer. The crust comes out soft just like a loaf you buy at the store. No need to cut it off!

The recipe below is for 2 loaves of bread. I cut it in half and made just one loaf since we don't eat a lot of bread.

Prep. Time: 2 hrs 20 mins | Bake Time: 35 mins | Yields 2 loaves of bread

Ingredients:

• 2 cups warm water
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tbsp. active dry yeast (or 2 packets)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 5 1/2 cups flour
• 2 1/2 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

Directions:

1. Prep your yeast by pouring the warm water and sugar into a bowl and letting the sugar dissolve. Once the sugar has dissolved, sprinkle the yeast into the bowl and stir until combined. Let this sit for 10 minutes to allow the yeast to proof. You will know your yeast is ready when it starts to form a foam on the surface of the water.
2. Once your yeast has been prepped, add the remaining ingredients. Knead by hand for 10 minutes or let your Kitchen Aid Mixer to the work for you for about 5 minutes. If you are using the Kitchen Aid, I suggest setting it to level 2 or 4. Also, WALK AWAY! Do not look at the dough when it is being kneaded. It will look very dry at first and you will think that you need to add more liquid, DON'T! After the kneading is done, you will be left with a slightly sticky and stretchy dough. 
3. Grease a bowl and form the dough into a ball. Put the ball of dough into the greased bowl and cover with 2 kitchen towels. Let it rise for 1 hour in a warm area.
4. If you are making 2 loaves, this is when you will take the ball of dough out and divide it into 2 pieces. Then knead the dough for a few minutes by folding it over itself to form a slight oval shape. Place the dough into 2 greased loaf pans. Let it rise again for another hour, uncovered this time!
5. Place the loaf pans into the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.
6. Let your bread sit in the loaf pan for about 5 minutes before removing it. 
7. Let it cool for at least an hour before slicing into it. This will prevent it from crumbling. It is best to let it cool completely. 

Hopefully you enjoy this bread recipe as much as we do! We store the bread in an old bread bag from the grocery store. It keeps it fresh for about 4 days. 

Harris Teeter Super Doubles 5/29

In case you haven't heard yet, Harris Teeter is running their super doubles right now! Meaning any coupon with a face value of $2 or less is doubled. Yes, you read correctly. A $2 coupon is doubled to $4.

I did pretty well today. I got $119.49 worth of groceries for only $45.79. Not too bad I guess. I didn't have a coupon for everything I bought like boneless skinless chicken breasts and Mahi Mahi for dinner tonight. And obviously not everything I purchased is pictured above. I had to rush to put things away so that I could put David down for a nap and then blog about this.

As you probably know by now, I use Southernsavers.com for all of my couponing needs. Jenny does a great job with explaining how to coupon, where to find coupons, and the best deals of the week.

Here's a run down on my items purchased:

FREE items

• Febreeze Air Effects- $3 - $3
• L'oreal Kids Shampoo- $3.79 - $3.79
• Covergirl Eye Shadow- $3.79 - $3.79
• Jose Ole Chimmichanga- $1.34 - $1.34

Coupon Items

• Pampers Jumbo Pack - $9.99 - $3
• Snack Pack Teddy Grahams - $2 - $.67
• Soft Scrub Gel - $2.69 - $2
• Nestle Dough Tub- $3.97 - $2.50
• Boca Veggie Burger - $1.89 - $1
• Naturally Fresh Ranch Dressing - $3.89 - $3 
• Sargento Shredded Cheese - $1.89 - $.80
• DiGiorno Small Pizza- $3.79 - $2
• DiGiorno Regular Pizza- $5.50 - $4

Non Coupon Items

• Goldfish Crackers - $1.25
• Boneless Skinless Chicken- $1.99/lb
• Mahi Mahi- $6.97/lb. 

Frozen S'mores "Cupcakes"

I actually made these last year but never wrote a blog entry about them. They are easy to make, turn out beautiful and are super good too! I made them for a co-workers birthday and they were eaten up.]

MAKES 12 CUPCAKES | PREP TIME: 20 MINUTES | TOTAL TIME: 2.5 HOURS

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 2 cups mini marshmallows
• 1 1/2 cups cold milk
• 1 box instant chocolate pudding (3.9 oz)
• 1 container of Cool Whip (8 oz) - thawed in fridge
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips for topping

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt butter in a sauce pan. Once melted, add the graham cracker crumbs and mix well until combined to make the crust.
2. Spoon the graham cracker crust into the bottom of each cupcake tin. Firmly pack it.
3. Place the milk chocolate chips and whipping cream into a small bowl and microwave for 30 second increments (make sure you stir in between!), until melted and smooth.
4. Spoon the melted chocolate mixture into a zip lock bag and cut off the tip at the corner so that you can pipe the mixture on top of the graham cracker crust.
5. Place about 5 or 6 marshmallows on top of the chocolate.
6. Mix your cold milk and instant pudding for about 2 minutes. Fold in 1/2 of the Cool Whip container. Place into another zip lock bag and pipe it on top and in between the marshmallows.
7. Freeze for about 2 hours.
8. Take them out of the freezer and let them sit for a bit before you attempt to pry them out.
9. Top each "cupcake" with the left over Cool Whip, graham cracker crumbs and mini chocolate chips.
10. Serve right away or put them into a container and place back into the freezer.

Taco Casserole

I decided to try a few new recipes this week for dinner. I'm known for finding a good recipe and repeating it every other week. What can I say? I know what I like and I eat what I like! I came across a recipe via Pinterest for a taco casserole. I edited it a bit to make it my own.

Since the serving size is so large for my small family of 3 (well really family of 2 since baby David won't be eating this), I decided to freeze half and bake half. You can always just half the recipe of you would like.

Start with browning your meat with the onions. Then add your cans of corn, Rotel, tomato sauce and beans.

Alternate layers of meat with the crushed tortilla chips and shredded cheese.

Top with shredded cheese, sour cream and/or tomatoes.

Servings: 8-10 | Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 can of kidney beans (or chili beans, black beans, etc); drained
• 1 can of corn; drained
• 8 oz can of tomato sauce
• 1 pkg Taco Seasoning (1.25 ounce)
• 10 oz can of Rotel
• 3 cups of shredded cheese (Mexican blend, Colby, etc.), divided
• 3 cups tortilla chips, crushed and divided

Garnish: (optional)

• Chopped Tomato
• Shredded Lettuce
• A side of sour cream!

DIRECTIONS

1. Brown your ground beef with the onions, drain.
2. Add can of beans, corn, tomato sauce, Rotel and taco seasoning.
3. Stir until well blended and simmer for 10 minutes. (If the mixture seems a little dry then you can add just a couple teaspoons of water). 
4. Pour 1/2 of meat mixture into baking pan and top with 1/2 of your crushed tortilla chips and shredded cheese. Repeat with a second layer.
5. Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes. 
6. Top with lettuce and tomatoes. 

Thanks to my mom for my awesome Easter gift! I was able to use my Le Creuset square casserole dish for this meal. You can get one at Chefs Catalog for around $85.

Deal of the week! Nail polish for only 50¢!

If you head to Harris Teeter before next Tuesday (May 28th) make sure you hit up the make-up aisle! You can get Wet 'n Wild Megalast nail polish for only 50¢ after coupon. (On sale for $1.50-$1 coupon).

The coupon is in the RedPlum coupon insert from 5/19. Thankfully, my mom gives me her coupons every week so I was able to get two adorable summer colors. I have on the mint color right now and I am loving it :)

Oh, and there is a sneak peak of my DIY blackout curtains in the background. A post is to come about those!

Crafting deal of the day!

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If you check Southern Savers regularly like I do, then you already know this and can disregard this post.

But, Craftsy.com is offering a slew of free classes today (5/18). If you don't have much time to enjoy the class today... don't fret! You have unlimited access to the class!

I went with the class titled "Design and Sew an A Line Skirt" by Deborah Moebes.

I can't wait to watch the class and make my first skirt ever. Let me know what class you sign up for and how you liked it.

Chocolate Chocolate Cake - Hershey's

My husband just celebrated his 29th birthday a few days ago. His mom has always made his birthday cake and birthday dinner. This year I told him that I wanted to do both. That was until he said that he wanted gizzards for dinner (ew). So, I changed my request to making just the cake. His mom always makes him a chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

This gave me the opportunity to make a cake from scratch for the first time ever! It was a huge success. This cake comes out very moist and not too sweet. I opted to sub the vegetable oil with coconut oil for the first time as well. I was a little nervous to do this but no issue, couldn't even taste the coconut.  The ingredients also call for dark chocolate cocoa. I didn't have this on hand so I just used regular cocoa.

The recipe comes from the Hershey's website.  I know, I know... not so creative of me. Hey, maybe one day I will make up my own recipe :)

Cake Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 3/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa (dark or not)
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (or melted coconut oil)
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two round cake pans or one 13x9 pan.

2. Stir together all the dry ingredients. 

3. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat for two minutes on medium speed.

4. Stir in the boiling water. Don't freak out at this point, the batter will be thin!

5. Bake for 30-35 minutes for the round cake pans and 35-40 minutes for the rectangle pan. 

6. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan and setting on wire rack. 

7. Make sure you let the cake cool completely, and then ice.

Icing Ingredients

• 6 tbsp. butter; softened
• 2 2/3 cups of powered sugar
• 1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Beat the butter in a medium bowl.

2. Add the powered sugar and coca alternately with the milk. Beat until a smooth consistency (you may have to add a little extra milk).

3. Stir in the vanilla. 

And I want to apologize for the awful picture of the cake. It is more than 1/2 eaten in this shot. Oh well, it was just too good to wait for a picture :)

Fabric for Master Bedroom

My husband and I bought our first home in 2005 and we have yet to decorate our master bedroom. Sad, I know. But, we recently just down sized our bed from a king to a queen. Bad side: I don't have as much room to sleep. Good side: I have an excuse now to buy new bed sheets/comforter and curtains to coordinate!
After shopping online and in every store known to man kind, I just haven't found what I really wanted for our room. I have resorted to making my own curtains and pillows. I looked up tutorial videos on YouTube and it seems pretty easy. I am even going to try sewing black-out fabric onto the curtain panels. We will see how that turns out.
My husband and I FINALLY agreed on a fabric to use. At first I was wanting to go with a shade of green, but there just wasn't anything out there that we both liked that was under $10 a yard (I know, I'm cheap). Luckily Fabric.com is having a sale of 20% off their Premier Prints brand. I like a lot of the different fabric choices from that company. So, this is what we agreed on... drum roll please...

Yaaaaaaay! It's called Suzani Chocolate/Natural by Premier Prints. I can't wait to make my pillows and curtains. And it was on sale for only $5.98/yd!! You know that I will post them as soon as they are done.

**And a quick money saving tip: You can actually buy fabric from fabric.com through Amazon.com. The prices are the same but shipping is only $1 compared to $7 if you order directly off of fabric.com 's website. You're welcome :)**

David's 1st Birthday Party!

Today we celebrated my little boys 1st birthday! I know everyone says it, but the first year really did fly by so fast. I have cherished every moment with him so far.

I decided to go with a whale theme for his party. Unfortunately, there is nothing out there to purchase with whales on it. Apparently it isn't a real popular theme. So, thanks to my friend Bethany's (over at dwellingsbydevore.com) silhouette, I was able to make a banner, cupcake toppers and stickers for the plates and cups.

And I'm sure you have seen this cake all over Pinterest. I thought it was a great idea to do in place of a regular cake and icing for baby. It is just a seedless watermelon cut into the shape of a cake and then topped with other kinds of fruits. I used strawberries, kiwi and mandarins. David's favorite fruit is watermelon so it was a hit!

He obviously loved it...

Lowes Foods Super Doubles 4/24

Oh how I love super double coupon time! This week you can go to Lowes Foods and they will double any coupon that has a face value of $2 or less. Meaning, if you have a $2 coupon they will double it to $4!

I made my grocery list by using Southern Savers website. I encourage you to go to that website to learn how to coupon so that you can do just as well with your shopping trip. :)

Today I was able to get $88.13 worth of groceries for only $35.01. That is over 50% savings! My goal is to save at least 50% with each coupon visit.

Break down of my purchases:

- Bounty 2 pack paper towels: $3.50 - $1 = $1.50
- Charmin 4 pack Ultra Soft: $3 - $1  = $1
- YoCrunch Yogurt: $2.99 - $1 = $.99 x2
- Trident Gum: $1 - $1 = FREE x2
- Hershey's Bars: $1.19 - $1 = $.19 x4
- DiGiorno Pizza with Breadsticks or Wyngz: $6.99 - $1.50 = $3.99 x3
- Stouffers Large Family sized Ravioli or Lasagna: $9.99 - $1.50 = $6.99 x2
- Cooked Perfect Meatballs: $2.99 - $1 = $.99 x3
- Edys Fruit Bars: $3 - $1 = $1

All of the above deals (minus Bounty, Charmin, DiGiorno and Stouffers) were via Southersavers.com . All coupons used were from the newspaper and none of them were printed. Again, I encourage you to check out the coupon site for daily deals. Please feel free to comment if you have any questions.

Coming soon...

Ok, I'm not dead... I promise! I have several blog entries to come. Here is what you will see in the next few days or so:

1. DIY Growth Chart
2. Baby David's 1st Birthday decorations
3. Baby blanket
4. 4th of July Pillowcase dresses

So keep your eyes peeled! Crafts galore to come! :)

Homemade Yogurt Bites for Baby

I have seen homemade yogurt bites all over Pinterest lately and thought I should try it out. The only snack that we give David right now is Puffs. He eats so many of them that I'm surprised he hasn't already turned into a Puff himself! :)

After doing some research, I found that it is recommended that you give babies organic yogurt made with whole milk. I found tubs of Stonyfield yogurt on sale this week at Lowes Foods. They are organic and made with whole milk, french vanilla flavored.

These are so easy to do! Just spoon your yogurt into a sandwich bag, cut a small piece off of the corner and pipe little circles onto a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet! I popped them into the freezer for just 25-30 minutes. After that, just take them off of the parchment paper with your hands and store them however you'd like. I just put them into a freezer bag and placed them back into the freezer.
I hope that David likes them! If not, I can always just eat them myself :)

Deal of the Day!

source

Gilt.com has a great sale on kitchen items today. And they are also offering free shipping! I just got a meat thermometer and a Cuisinart Handheld mixer for only $11! The hand mixer is $55 full price and $30 on Amazon. Only $10 on Gilt!

Click here to visit the sale. You also get a $25 credit for each successful referral.

Start shopping :)

$5 Swimsuit separates!

If you are one of the millions of ladies that watched The Bachelor Finale this past Monday then I'm sure that you caught the JCP commercial. They have $5 swim separates! Can't beat that! I went to my local JCP today and checked them out. They are made by the Arizona Company. I must say that you can tell that they are made of cheaper fabric. There isn't a lot of padding in the tops either. There weren't a lot of sizes available in the store so I just ordered mine online via jcp.com.

I ended up purchasing the teal top and black bottoms. Wanted to switch it up a little bit this year :) They have a coupon code right now for $10 off of a purchase of $50 or more if you place your order by 3/17. Plus free shipping if you do site to store. The code is SPENDIT . I added another bathing suit top to go with my black bottoms and a few onesies for my baby David to get over the $50 limit. So, the $10 discount covered the cost of my teal top and black bottoms = Free bathing suit :)

Check out the suits before they are all sold out!

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Cinnamon Streusel Baked French Toast- The Pioneer Woman

This past weekend was our weekend to bring breakfast for our Sunday School class. I have made my canned cinnamon roll french toast bake before, but I wanted to try a different french toast bake. Leave it to me to try something new for a group of people. I don't know why I do that. It makes everything so much more stressful. I always worry about how it turns out and I don't even try it before feeding it to the masses. I haven't had a bad recipe yet, but I won't hold my breath!

Since half of the ladies in my SS Class pinned this recipe, I figured that I should make it for them. (I know, how kind of me!) Some of the ladies (and even the guys) in the class complimented it! So, I guess it wasn't half bad :) It is a recipe by The Pioneer Woman... so of course it was good!

The easiest part of this recipe is that you can use a premade loaf of bread. I'm sure you could make your own, but I just bought a loaf of day old bread at the grocery store for $1.99.

The egg mixture is best made in the Pampered Chef batter bowl. The pour spout at the top makes it easy to distribute the mixture over the bread.

After leaving the soaked bread in the fridge for a few hours (or over night) top it with the cinnamon topping. I also made the cinnamon topping the night before and stored it in a ziploc bag. This made it super easy in the morning, I just had to pop it in the oven!

Here is the finished product in all its glory. Yummmm. I thought it turned out great! You can bake it anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on how soggy you want it to be. I baked mine for 55 minutes and it was just a little bit soggy but mostly firm.

Cinnamon Streusel Baked French Toast

Ingredients

French toast

• 1 loaf of day old bread. (I used challah.)
• 8 whole eggs
• 2 cups of milk
• 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of vanilla

Topping

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• A pinch of nutmeg (optional)
• 1 stick of cold butter, cut it into pieces

Instructions

• Coat the bottom of your 9x13 pan with butter. Tear up your loaf of bread into chunks and add to the baking pan.
• Mix together the eggs, milk, heavy whipping cream, sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl.
• Pour the egg mixture over the bread. Make sure that you distribute the egg mixture evenly. Cover the dish and store in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight. (I did overnight).
• For the topping, mash all the ingredients together until the butter is broken up into small pebbles.
• Top the bread with the cinnamon topping and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour. If you like mushy french toast, do 45 minutes. 
• Enjoy with our without maple syrup!