Easy Halloween Cookies: Two Ways

Do you want to make some festive Halloween cookies without cutting anything out or spending much time? These very different cookies start with one batch of dough. The total recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies depending on how small you make them.  One batch of dough, about 10-15 minutes of effort, and you'll have two kinds of cookies to show for it: spiced pumpkin chip cookies with sprinkles and chocolate Halloween M&M cookies.

Swagbucks

You have have noticed that along with a new template (I'm still tweaking it), there is now a Swagbucks widget in my side column. So what is Swagbucks? It's a company that pays you to use their search engine. I joined about two months ago, when they launched their toolbar. Lots of bloggers plug Swagbucks, especially on Fridays, "Mega Swagbucks Day." Bloggers with large audiences often have quite large Swagbucks balances showing in their widgets, because you earn points when people you've referred earn points.

Saturday Links: Tips and Tricks from Some of My Favorite Blogs

Money Saving Mom shared this guest post about maximizing your time and money by freezing meals ahead.
Maximize Your Freezer's Potential and Minimize Freezer Burn

Wise Bread's Linsey Knerl posted some great tips for reducing your grocery bill.
101 Ways to Take a Bite Out of Your Food Budget

Melissa at Saving Cents With Sense posted these super handy tips for coupon printing problems. These have basically eliminated my problems with Coupons.com.
Tips for Coupon Printing Problems

Carrie Kirby of Frugalista and Wise Bread posted some tips for saving enough on meat to buy a chest freezer. Our family uses a stand-up freezer, and I can't recommend having a separate freezer enough. It really gives us the freedom to buy larger quantities at Sam's Club and at the grocery store when sales are good. As a result, I never pay more than $2 a pound for meat.
Save Enough on Meat to Buy a Chest Freezer

Easy Chicken Soup

Chicken soup is one of those meals that seems like it might be complicated, but it definitely doesn't have to be. Apparently Ina Garten's recipe requires hours of work, tons of ingredients, and a 14-20 quart stockpot. If you have that, then great! I don't, but I can still make a good pot of soup with minimal effort.

October Groceries: Week 3

We've been coping with various colds and sickness here, so we've been eating a lot of homemade chicken noodle soup!

This week I managed to take advantage of some pretty good Catalina deals at Jewel. (Catalina deals are when the register prints a coupon for money off your next purchase. You earn Catalinas by buying a certain number of a type of product.) This week Jewel was offering $10 off your next purchase if you bought $25 of General Mills products on the back page of their ad. The key is that the $25 was not the preferred card price. So even though 3 cans of Progresso soup were on sale for $5, they counted for $8.90 toward the Catalina deal. This particular deal was made even sweeter because Pillsbury dough products were included.... and there was a separate Catalina deal on Pillsbury dough products. This deal was buy 6 get $4 off.

Tips for Using Coupons

Once you've found your coupons, you're home free, right? Not so fast.

First, you need to organize them in such a way that you remember to use them. There are all sorts of different systems. See the links in my left column for some great ideas from various bloggers. Personally, I use a small photo album, using each window for a particular category of coupons.I also keep booklets I've gotten from various companies, like the Nestle and Nabisco ones in the photo above. Before I go shopping, I try to pull out any coupons I think I might use and put them in an envelope with my shopping list. This is especially important for the coupons in booklets, as they're a pain to clip on the fly.

October Groceries: Week 2

Week 2 was a much bigger success. I did break my promise not to go to Target, but I only bought more apple juice.  So yes, I look like a crazy lady because now I have 10 bottles of apple juice. However, daycare always asks for apple juice, Owen likes it, and I'll use some of it for the wassail I make for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Each bottle saved me at least $.50 and I was able to buy the Mott's Natural apple juice without added sugar.

Update on Pediasure Rebate

Well, I'm still not happy. Over a week after I submitted my problem, I just got a response saying that according to their records the check cleared the bank, and that I need to have the bank check the routing numbers.

So I called my bank. They say that the bank that issued the check returned as a duplicate presentment. However they are reversing the fee. Yay. But now I have to go back to the rebate company and hound them. Not sure this was worth $11.99.

On the plus side, my Home Depot rebate check arrived. Let's hope this one clears with no problems.

Cheap, Filling Meals

So what did we eat last month? I actually didn't make many changes to our usual routine. The only difference was that, for the most part, I used the protein sources we already had at home.

October Groceries: Week 1

This week proves the point: the more you shop, the more you spend. Our family shopped a staggering 10 times this week. Part of that was chasing deals. I ran the Motts apple juice and applesauce deal at Target (buy 5 at $1.75, get a $5 gift card) twice, once for juice and once for applesauce. I was able to get natural, no-sugar-added products in both cases, and beat my best price in both cases.I also ran the Kellogg's Fiber/Antioxidant bar deal, for $.75 a box bars. I also made a special trip to Dominick's to pick up Hillshire Farm smoked sausages, which were buy one get one free and I had a coupon, making each sausage $1.75. I can get two entrees out of each sausage, so these are a great value for us.

Toddler Tip: Cereal with Yogurt

My son loves to eat cereal, especially his current favorite, Cocoa Krispies. (Nope, I'm not particularly proud of that, but it makes him happy.) But he makes a horrible mess eating it since his spoon skills are still more enthusiastic than accurate.

One morning, I thought, hey I wonder if he'll eat the cereal with yogurt instead of milk? So I popped in 3 toddler spoonfuls of plain yogurt and mixed them in with the cereal.

The result? He loves it! The cereal sticks together because of the yogurt, and sticks to the spoon better. (It also sticks to his face better, as you can see!) More cereal ends up in his mouth instead of on the floor. That's a win-win.

Pediasure Rebate Problems

I've sent in four mail-in rebates in the past two months:

• try Pediasure free
• Home Depot $5 off paint (I repainted our living room)
• $10 off Kellogg's Fuel for School rebate
• $20 off Kraft rebate

Home Depot hasn't come yet, but should in the next two weeks. The other three have all arrived. Things were going just swimmingly until I got a notice through Mint that I'd been charged $10 by my bank for a "returned deposit." When I checked, I saw that it was the Pediasure check. So not only did I not get the $11.99 back, but my bank charged me $10 (as if I would expect that check to bounce!).

This rebate was processed through CMS, a rebate processor. I contacted them via their website today, and supposedly will hear back in 3-5 business days. We'll see if they're willing to make this right.