5 Things I Like This Week

Feature article by Lynchburg College on my brother and his new role as an athlete. http://www.lynchburg.edu/x29813.xml

It's almost Fall!!! It used to be my first sip of a Caramel Apple Spice drink from Starbucks that signified the start of Fall for me, but then they started offering that drink all the time. Now it's the smell of cinnamon brooms that captivate my thoughts letting me know cooler weather is coming and the leaves are about to change! One of the grocery stores I shop at has them at the front of the store - Sniff! Sniff! 

I found a great deal on cereal this week at Publix, as well as many other healthy grocery options. See below for the entire post.

I just made this wreath this afternoon. It's made with deco mesh ribbon. It's pretty easy to make, but you could fluff the ribbon all day long and still feel like you could fluff some more.

Billboard on University, based on the great song "Jack and Diane" by John Mellencamp. It's great advertising and marketing. And most everytime we pass by, J and I bust into the song.

A Steal of a Deal #2

I had a great week at Publix this week! I'd like to say I have a great week every week, but usually I just have a good week. Great is much better than good in my book!

I would like to point out how relatively healthy everything is! A lot of people say that couponing leads to buying junk but that doesn't have to be the case if you don't let it.

• English Muffins, on sale BOGO and I had a $1 off each package. Paid $1 for each.
• Salad Mix,on sale BOGO and I had a $1 off each package. Paid $1 for each.
• Yellow Onions, on sale for 2/$5. No coupon, but already made french onion soup last night in the crock pot. I'll slide a few more up and freeze for the future. 
• SnackWell's snack packages, on sale BOGO and I had a $1 off each package. Paid $0.60 for each.
• Eight O'Clock coffee, on sale BOGO and I had a $0.75 off coupon. Paid $1.90 for each. I don't even drink coffee at home, but I'm always looking for deals for my in-laws. My father-in-law can't remember if he likes Eight O'Clock coffee, but he likes $1.75 for an entire package, so I have a feeling he will like this.
• Chef Boyardee, on sale BOGO and I had 2 $0.50/2 coupons that doubled. Bought 4 for $1. 
• Pace salsa, on sale BOGO and I had $0.50/2 coupon that doubled. Bought 2 for $1.80. We don't love jarred salsa, but for this price, we do! 
• Fiber One cereal, on sale 2/$5 and I had 6 $2 store coupons plus 3 $1/2 manufacturer's coupon. Used all 9 coupons and got all 9 boxes FREE! It's all being mailed to my mother, I even called her at the store to see what flavors she wanted. 

So for all that, I paid $18.04. Between store sales and coupons, I saved $52.29 OR 75%. Like I said, I think I did pretty good and most of the food is relatively healthy.

All My Children...or rather All My Grandchildren

Today, a significant event is taking place in daytime television...All My Children airs for the last time on network television. All My Children has been on the air for over 40 years - first airing on January 5, 1970. For today's television, that's an extremely long time! Perhaps you're a fan, perhaps you're not. I promise this post really has nothing to do with the soap opera itself, I promise. Please keep reading...

When I was younger, my mom worked out of the home, so when my brother and I got sick, rather than my mom staying home or taking a vacation day, my mom would take us to my grandmother's house. My grandmother was a nurse, so clearly she knew exactly how to take care of us, whatever our various ailments. Even when we were out for various school breaks or whatnot, we still went to my grandmother's house.

My grandmother and I meeting my baby brother for the first time.

My grandparents have both passed, but I would love to know what they would think of today's television. Yes, the shows that are on, but I'd be more interested in the actual piece of electronic equipment. My grandparents always had one of those televisions that was an actual piece of furniture. Even when the one I remember as a child broke, they got a "new" one when I was a teenager, it looked almost the exact same. It looked something like this:

 

When I would stay home from school and go to my grandmother's house, I had full reign. I was able to talk whenever I wanted, eat whatever I wanted, watch whatever I wanted on television. HOWEVER, when the one o'clock hour approached (eastern time), everything stopped and we had to watch All My Children. This was my grandmother's guilty pleasure. I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure she saw the first episode and didn't quit watching until the day she died.

I remember in college, I would call my grandmother to check in and we would always talk about what was going on with various characters. If I was home sick today, there's no way I would have a clue about what was going on with the various story lines and characters. On this day, however, I might just play "sick" and watch just for the sake of old times. Old times that I cherish with my grandmother...she taught me well and I miss her!

My aunt, grandmother, mom, and me at my bridal shower. This was a few weeks before she passed away.

The Great and the Least,

The Rich and the Poor,
The Weak and the Strong,
In Sickness and in Health,
In Joy and Sorrow,
In Tragedy and Triumph,
You are ALL MY CHILDREN.

Not a Healthy Recipe, but Delicious nonetheless!

Our schedules are hectic and we're usually only home together on Monday nights. On the other nights, we either try to eat leftovers together at sporadic times or I find something when I can eat and Jeremy finds something for dinner when he has time to eat.

The other night Jeremy had a meeting and I needed something quick and easy for dinner because cooking for two is hard enough so cooking for one is next to impossible for me. And if I cook then I also have to clean and I'm just not willing to do all that after working a long day. We have a deal in our marriage, whoever cooks, the other one cleans. When I'm the only one home, well I'm stuck having to cook and clean and there's lots of days I don't feel like doing that.

I decided to make dinner and just like the title of the post says, it was not at all healthy but delicious nonetheless! I call them BBQ Beef Cups. I don't make these often, but often enough to know they're dangerous to my waistline and they are quick and easy.

First, you take a can of biscuit dough and pull pieces apart, filling a muffin tin like this. The can I had was actually for 8 biscuits, but as you can see I was able to take the pieces and spread them out so I was able to make 10 of these.

Then, you brown some ground beef or turkey and once it's finished browning, add some BBQ sauce. One of the nights that I prepared these, I called J and told him what I was making and he requested some with Frank's, so that's what he had the next day for lunch. It was so simple to half the meat and add BBQ sauce to some of them for me and hot sauce to the others for him.

Then you fill the cups with the meat mixture. It looks something like this...

I also add a dollop of either the BBQ sauce of hot sauce on the very top just for a little added moisture. We would be eating these over the next few days and I didn't want them drying out. To make them even better, you can add some shredded cheese on top for a little something extra. However, then I realized that I wouldn't know which ones were made with what sauce, so I added a jalapeno slice to each of that I made for J.

Then, pop your muffin tin into the oven to melt the cheese and after a few minutes, you end up with something like this.

DELICIOUSNESS!!!

A Steal of a Deal

I've been couponing for about 16 months now. I dabbled in the art of couponing our last few months in New Orleans and when we moved to Huntsville, I really picked it up. When we moved to Huntsville, we hadn't worked in approximately six weeks and money was tight, so I didn't really have a choice as to whether to save money. While we both have good jobs in Huntsville, I continue to coupon because I enjoy it and if I didn't, I'm afraid Dave Ramsey would yell at me and tell me that this is one more way that I can help us get out of debt. When I tallied our receipts from last year, I saved $4000 last year in coupons, so I would say it's worth it for the Wilkerson household. 

I'm not extreme like those on the TLC show Extreme Couponing, but I do have a stockpile of goods but it consists of our hallway closet. And if you were to see me out shopping, I may or may not have my couponing notebook with me and if you were to look in my cart you would worry about our diet because none of the ingredients usually go together. The point of couponing is to buy items at the lowest price and buy enough of it to last until the next time it goes on sale (between 6 weeks and 2 months).

I usually shop on Fridays. I don't work on Fridays and the crowds are significantly less with everyone at work. However, in the summer, the crowds are a bit bigger and my summer schedule does not always allow me to do such on any given Friday. Tomorrow, we're headed to Atlanta, so I went shopping tonight...in the middle of a summer thunderstorm. Needless to say, I was drenched several times, but I saved lots of money and that makes everything worth it. 

I went to Publix and here's what I got:

I spent $6.80 and saved $16.36 or 71%.

Remember, I said you buy things at their lowest price and buy enough to last until the next time it goes on sale. Hershey's syrup goes on sale a little less often than other goods, so I bought four bottles just in case. Here's the breakdown:

• 4 Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, BOGO for $1.10 each and then had $1/2 manufacturer's coupon = $2.40 for 4
• 3 Chex Mix, BOGO for $1.30 each and had $0.50 manufacturer's coupon that doubled to $1 = $0.30 per bag, $0.90 for all 3 bags
• Eckrich Sausage for jambalaya (after all, we did live in New Orleans for many years), on sale for $2, had $0.55 manufacturer's coupon = $1.45
• Colgate toothbrush, on sale for $4/2 (not a great price, but it was time for new toothbrushes in the Wilkerson household - no we don't share, I already had another one in the stockpile) with a $0.40 manufacturer's coupon that doubled to $0.80 = $1.20

$5.92 + $0.88 tax = $6.80 TOTAL

I went to SuperTarget and used a lot of Target coupons printed from their website. Here's what I got:

I spent $8.77 and saved $25.85 or 75%.

Here's the breakdown:

• Sugar (not on sale but we needed it, we live in the South and sweet tea is a requirement) $3.09
• Up & Up Face Wash $2.10 - $0.75 Target coupon = $1.35
• Up and Up Nail Polish Remover $0.97 - $0.50 Target coupon = $0.47
• Pillows (standard, no frills) $2.50 - $2 Target coupons = $0.50, bought 2, $1.00
• Up and Up Liners $0.87 - $0.75 Target coupon = $0.12
• Benadryl Itch Sticks $2.29 - $2 manufacturer's coupon = $0.29, bought 2, $0.58
• Sharpie markers, 2 pack for $1 - $1 Target coupon = FREE, used 4 coupons, 8 total markers for FREE
• Papermate pens 10 pack for $1.02 - $1 Target coupon = $0.02, used 4 coupons, $0.08 for 40 pens
• Aussie hairspray $4.54 - $1 off 2 Target coupon - $3 manufacturer's coupon = $0.54 for 2 bottles

$7.60 + $1.17 tax = $8.77


Each time I go shopping, my goal is to save 70% so I met my goal on both accounts. I used to clip coupons with my Papa when I was much younger. I think he wanted me to practice my scissor skills, but it also is a chore doing all that cutting...in the end it's definitely worth it and he would be so proud of my efforts!

Tie Dye with Sharpies

Apparently, the act of tie dying something with Sharpies is nothing new...however, it is new to me! I had read the idea on several blogs and was being crafty tonight so decided to try it out. I took a plain white shirt that was a bit worn out, just in case I messed up horribly. It started out like this:

I took a disposable cup and placed it under the shirt and wrapped a rubber band around it. I also took some old cardboard and placed between the layers of the shirt.

Then, I grabbed my Sharpies and started making dots to form a circle. I drew six small dots like this:

Then I took another colored Sharpie and drew six more dots in the spaces I had left of the circle. The various directions I read said to use an eye/medicine dropper to place approximately 15 drops of rubbing alcohol on the Sharpie. I did not have an eye/medicine dropper so I improvised with a drinking straw.

As I dropped the alcohol on the marker, the ink bled in various directions and the various colored markers bled together.

Here is the mostly finished product. It's drying on the table right now.

It's not the best thing I've ever created, but it was fun and allowed me to be crafty because I already had all the supplies within my reach.

The Pineapple Incident

I love pineapple! 

This includes but is not limited to the eating of pineapple and pineapple flavored things, the smell of pineapple, the purchasing of pineapple (especially if I have a coupon), and the list goes on. I was recently introduced to this fabulous yogurt by my friend Pam and it is amazing. It can be served as a fruit dip, added to a dessert recipe (layered cake, yogurt, and fruit), or eaten alone. 

I even have pineapple mango wallflowers plugged in throughout our apartment. 

Last week, I was able to buy fresh pineapple at Publix for $1.25 due to an incredible coupon I had. Yummy!

A few months ago, I was able to buy a lot of canned pineapple for cheap due to a sale and a coupon. 

 Up until this point, I have done nothing with the canned pineapple other than have it sit on a shelf in my pantry. Then, I remembered a great recipe I had when I was younger called baked pineapple. With a simple phone call to my mom, I had the recipe and the baked pineapple was in the oven (yes, the toaster oven because it creates less heat and let's face it, it's already so stinkin' hot outside!)

 

 And after 20 minutes in the oven, it comes out like this -

It might not look appetizing but it's delicious. It tastes like a bread pudding of sorts with added pineapple. And before you ask, here is the recipe:

 Baked Pineapple

In a bowl combine the following ingredients - 

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 tablespoon butter

12 oz. crushed pineapple, drained

(My can was 15 oz. and it was chunks instead of crushed, and it worked great!)

Pour the mixture in a casserole dish.

Cut 5 slices of bread into cubes and place on top of mixture. 

Melt a stick of butter and pour on top of the bread. 

Bake for 20 minutes at 350 or until bread is toasty on top.