Menu Plan- Thanksgiving Week

Well I didn't post this yesterday because to be honest I don't really have a plan this week. We are just winging it since we know come Thursday and Friday we will be eating the same thing both days and possibly into Saturday. Here is how this week will likely look:)

Saturday: Frozen chicken nuggets and fries with veggies and ranch dip
Sunday: Leftover Italian at my parent's house. My dad is quite the cook!
Monday: Sausage and broccoli pasta bake with crescent rolls (I just happened to have everything on hand for this!)
Tuesday: I was going to make potato soup but I have a cold that won't go away so I pulled out a frozen meal I stashed away a few weeks ago!
Wednesday: Most likely eating with my parents since I will be helping my mom get the food ready for Thursday
Thursday: Lunch: Thanksgiving dinner. We then just graze the rest of the day and usually settle for some popcorn while watching a movie with the fam.
Friday: Leftovers!

Later today I will post a recipe we use in our Thanksgiving dinner. Lets just say I got sick of the traditional frozen corn my mom always through in at the last minute:)

FREE Dole Fruit!

Dole just put a .50/1 coupon on coupons.com!!! You can print the coupon here and this will make for FREE cans of Dole pineapple and mandarin oranges this week at Dillons!

.29 Yeast Packets are actually NOW FREE!

**Updated** Thanks to Laura and Heather helping me out on this!

You can actually make .31-.41 just buying Fleishman yeast packets at Dillons! Here is how:

• Buy 1 packet=1.59
• Use .40/1 or .50/1 coupon doubled=-.80 or -$1
  

Total OOP= .59-.69 and then you will get a .50 off your next purchase catalina which will double to a $1 when you use it meaning you make an overage of .31-.41 cents!!!

Note: you CAN buy multiple packets in 1 transaction and you will still get a .50 off catalina per each packet you buy.

Send a card for FREE!

Right now you can go here to pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print and send it for FREE to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq . You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services.

I just did this and it was so easy and I hope it really makes a soldier's day!

Black Friday starts TODAY!

Well it does on Amazon.com anyway:) I am super excited because due to all my Swagbucks I am earning I have FREE gift cards to redeem there. Click the image above to see what great "black Friday" deals Amazon has!

The BIG TRIP!

Well as you know my mom and I went shopping this weekend for all the food we will need for our portion of Thanksgiving dinner this year. I told her I was doing an experiment and I wanted to see how much money she would save by shopping my way! My way, as you all know, includes using what you have in your pantry, looking at the store ads and using coupons to pay the BEST price and not a penny more! We took on Dillons, Hy-Vee and Apple Market... with my toddler even! It took us a total of 2 hours from start (leaving my house) to finish (getting back to my house).

If I left it up to my sweet mom she would only shop 1 store, Dillons. She would take a few coupons with her for the brand name items she knows she is going to buy no matter what and then she would get what she needed no matter the price. I followed her around Dillons and priced the items (that we were not buying there) that she said she would buy if I was not with her. According to my calculations she would have spent around $45 for everything on our list. By shopping with me, using coupons and comparing prices she only spent $28! That is a savings of $17 or 33%!

I confess that by the time we were done I really started to wonder "Is this worth it?" I knew we had saved money but I was SO exhausted. I came home and calculated our savings and instantly threw the negative notion that all of this was not worth it out the window because folks saving 33% is totally WORTH IT!

If my mom shopped this way every week, saving at least 33%, she could cut her $400 a month grocery budget down to $270/month. She would save $130 a month or $1,560 a year!!! Now lets say she took that $130 she saved every month and let it sit in her 1% interest bearing savings account for 1 year. She would end up with $1698.48 in her savings account, a net gain of $138.48!

If she decides to get "risky" and put that $130 a month into a 6% investment she would end up with $1741.64 at the end of the year or a net gain of $181.64!

The point I am trying to make is that taking the time to shop the ads and clip a few coupons WILL BE WORTH IT! It may not feel worth it at the time, but if you are wise with what you save it can turn into gain.

swagbucks.com.. I am REALLY CONVINCED!

A while back I told you about how my friend got a FREE Starbucks gift card she earned through using swagbucks to search the web. So I decided to try it out for myself and to my surprise in 1 month I was able to earn my FREE $10 Starbucks gift card too!!! Now I am gunning for the Amazon.com gift card!

Have you tried swagbucks yet? It is so easy. Just go here to sign up or click image above and make swagbucks your home page or download one of their tool bars. Make sure you use swagbucks for all of your searching... IT WILL PAY OFF!