Bath & Body Works Freebie

Yesterday, I got a nice $10 gift card in the mail for Bath & Body Works, thanks to mypoints. Before I head out to spend it, I thought I'd take a few minutes to look for a coupon to maximize my "free stuff" trip and came across this coupon for a free Signature Collection body care item with any $10 purchase. Bingo!

3-in-1 Meals: Part One - Spaghetti & Meatballs

Around here, we love America's Test Kitchen. Most of our favorite, and almost all our foolproof, recipes have come from the pages of their cookbooks or the web content of their show. Our latest favorite is this Marinara & Meatballs recipe. Although factoring in good ingredients which are essential to the recipe made it seem a little pricey, we found that we can easily get 7 or 8 meals out of one batch, thus reducing the cost to a completely acceptable range. And the taste is divine!

First up was spaghetti and meatballs, of course. A few notes on the recipe:

1. Be sure to buy decent quality, block Parmesan cheese and grate it yourself. It is absolutely worth the splurge - trust me!
2. Use fresh basil and parsley, not dried.
3. Don't skimp on the onions. I used three large yellow onions, which had my kids moaning about too many onions (I am a certified onion lover so it's a common moan around here), but they loved the sauce!
4. Unless you like meatballs the size of hamburger patties, do what I did. Make normal size meatballs (a scant ice cream scooper full works great). I reduced the baking time by 5 minutes for the meatballs and cooked them in two big batches, the first of which I added to the sauce as directed, and the second of which I froze for later use.

Whatever you don't eat, freeze for later. Here's what I got from one batch in addition to that night's meal:

• 3 ziplocks with enough sauce and meatballs for spaghetti
• 3 ziplocks with enough sauce (no meatballs) for pizzas
• 2 snack-size ziplocks with just enough sauce for subs (1/8 - 1/4 c. is plenty)
• 4 ziplocks with enough meatballs for subs

Coming Soon:
Part Two - Homemade Pizzas
&
Part Three - Amazing Meatball Subs

Frugal Finds

Here are some of this week's highlights:

At Dillon's
4 bags Iams Puppy Food - $6.39 ea., used 4 $5 coupons
FINAL COST: $1.39 ea.
Peppermint Baking Chips - clearanced to $0.29
FINAL COST: $0.29

At Target
2 Mott's Applesauce (6 pk.) - $1.67 ea., used two $1 Target coupons and two $0.55 coupons
FINAL COST: $0.12 ea.
Dr. Pepper (2 liter) - $1.49 used free item coupon
FINAL COST: FREE
Cat Food - $0.84 used free item coupon
FINAL COST: FREE

At CVS
Crest ProHealth Toothpaste - $2.99, used $1 coupon and got $2 ECB
FINAL COST: FREE

To see even more great weekly deals, check out the posts at Money Saving Mom!

Garden Fever

Here's a fabulous gardening deal. Every spring, our city gives away the compost made from the curbside yard waste pickups. The giveaway usually lasts 2-3 days and is advertised well ahead of time. Residents can bring shovels and load their own containers/pickups for free or can choose to have a pickup loaded for the absolute bargain price of $10 a load. As you can see, when they say full pickup load, they mean it! So this weekend will see us building up the low spots in our yard and adding to our square foot garden plots and to our flowerbeds. And the best part? My husband unloaded almost the whole thing while I was picking up the kids from school, sparing me from most of the physical labor.

If you're in need of compost, be sure to check your city/area to see if they offer a similar program. Happy planting!

Mail Call

I was so excited to get my free copies of Martha Steward Living magazine TWO days in a row (March and April issues). When I signed up for a free subscription, I was skeptical that I'd ever actually see them so it was a wonderful surprise! I'll definitely have to keep better track of those free subscription offers now that I know they're legit and pass them on to you.

Of course, my husband raised his eyebrows at my magazine choice, noting that Martha Stewart may not be an aid on the path to frugality. But for the time being, I'm choosing to cover my ears and sing "nah-nah-nah-nah, I can't hear you" in response. Frugal or not, you gotta love pretty easter eggs and elaborate garden scenes, right?

You Might Be Turning Frugal If...

In true Jeff Foxworthy style, I thought it'd be fun to start a frugal list. Here's my first offering:

You Might Be Turning Frugal If...
You're more excited when your husband brings home extra coupons from the work paper than flowers. (Thanks honey!)

Preparing for Hard Times

With all the news about climbing unemployment rates and disappearing employer benefits, I've spent my share of time worrying about potential layoffs and hardships. Like most people, we've been tightening the budget and saving where we can. We're set to pay off the last of our nagging credit card debt within the next three months, and we're padding our meager savings as best we can. But today, I've been thinking of other ways that I could "prepare" for the hard times:

Build My Stockpile - Although I started stocking up on our most used food items and toiletries when I can get them at deep discounts, I could focus on building these stores even more. There's something infinitely comforting about knowing you could skip the grocery store for a few weeks if you needed to.

Start Those Seedlings - Last year, we started a couple square-foot garden plots, and we learned a lot about what to do and, more importantly, what NOT to do. We'll be building the beds deeper this year and planting more strategically. Also, there will be no, I repeat no, grape tomatoes this year as my dear husband who insisted on them ate only a handful of the bucket loads they produced(okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but not much)!

Take Advantage of Our Medical Insurance - While we still have it! Chances are, our medical coverage isn't going anywhere. However, if my husband were to lose his job (they've already had a few layoffs) or his employer contribution were to change, it would create a huge burden on us. So my plan is to do whatever we can now. For example, my husband has some pricey dental work he needs - a crown and bridge to be exact. Rather than spread the work out, he's going to get it all done now. Likewise, I'll be making dentist, annual physical check up, and eye appointments for the kids over the next few weeks. Because we utilize a flex account for medical, we have already committed the money. We may as well do what we can now, when we're positive that we have insurance.

Are you doing, or contemplating, anything out of the ordinary in anticipation of harder times?