Thrifty on Thursday!

Family fun at little or no cost!

Our local theatre offers a Free Spring movie Saturday starting this Saturday actually! You can also print coupons from their website for low cost popcorn and pop specials! (Yes the kiddie trays are cute but NOT a good value. Bring something from all that Valentine's candy you have piled up, or Christmas if you're like us! (I'm not a nice mom when it comes to passing out candy! ha)http://www.gqti.com/freematinee.aspx Here's the link for the free movies! A fun way to get out and have some fun! You can go to http://www.pluggedinonline.com/ and get a review of the movies showing but it looks like there are some decent ones!

The library is also a great place to get free videos/DVD's for your family as well. In our children's dep't they are free and in the adult section I believe they are $1.50. Books are always a great activity as well, I try to pick a theme of sorts when I go usually every two weeks or so. We read alot about Winter animals this winter and even did some crafts. My girls got to see a Sled Dog demo and pet the dogs this winter at our winter fest so we got some books about that. Be creative, your kids would much rather have your time than a toy! (I think! ha) March is reading month at our schools and they are reading for their March Of Dimes readings sheets so they are motivated to read especially now.

I also get Books with CD for long car rides, or when my youngest daughter and I wait for my older daughter to finish her safety patrol duties in the morning and afternoon! There are MANY creative ways to use your library! Ours offers computer games and the girls love to play on them there for something different so I bring along my own book so I'm not just waiting! They also offer free events at the library too, my daughter just went to a presentation on Harriot Tubman's life, with her friend and she loved it!

A living room picnic is a fun idea we like to do! Sometimes we start a fire and spread out a blanket or get out t.v. trays and eat in front of t.v. (Yes I said t.v....hey it's only once in a while that's what makes it special!)

Make your own fast food....this costs a little money but a fraction of what you'd pay for REAL fast food! Make your own pizza with a premade crust and set up a topping station! Make burgers and baked fries, coney dogs and even milkshakes! (You know you throw away that little toy you got with the meal after a few days anyhow! ha)

Just a few ideas on some free or inexpensive fun for your family during times when there might not be alot of extras! Plus it's great training for our kids that making your own fun is a good idea!!

Minnie's party part 2!

We had a fun party day, starting with Grace getting Emily, an American Girl doll. Macy got Molly at age 8 and now they are friends! We had party games, make a door hanger, musical chairs, hot potato, decorate Minnie ears, and pin the bow on the girl's hair! ha was fun! Here's a few pictures!

Minnie Mouse turns 8!

Today Minnie Mouse, AKA Miss Grace turns eight!! Minnie Mouse is the theme around here this yr. for turning 8! You can only have so many horse parties! ha A great day to turn eight I would say, she was a week over her due date just to prove she likes to do things a bit "her way"! here she is at age 5 on her first day of Preschool.....raring to go, not intimidated, not hanging on my leg, ready to go in and for ME to leave her there! My brave child, ready to try new things, and always with a reason to try it! Stay tuned for photos after the Minnie Mouse party this coming Saturday!

We are getting more snow over the next few days! I know some people don't like that but if it's going to be winter then be pretty! haha Here's the words to a song I love by Ronnie Freeman, if you haven't heard of him go on youtube and check out some of his songs. This one rings so true for us, it isn't US that should be satisfied with HIM it's us that needs to be satisfying the Lord! Hopefully I'll be cooking something good soon haha and have something yummy to post!

You satisfy my soul .and i stand amazed at the blessings ive known.and still to this day the mercies you show the way you fill me lord , how could i ask for more your every breath i breath you color the skies with beautiful leaves youve proven that you will provide for my needs the way you fill me lord how could i ask for more

Chorus im satisfied , im satisfied ive been cared for so faithfully lord here my plea and may it be that your satisfied with me you give me grace without end and you have forever removed all my sin .Now the makers of heaven and earth call me friend and from the joy that brings oh how my spirit sings

Valentine SWEETS!

Our new found favorite treat!! We bought Marzetti Chocolate Fruit dip and served it with great big luscious juicy sweet strawberries and big chunks of bananas! yum! it tastes like a mixture of dark and milk chocolate and all I can say is my girls were licking their fingers and I had a spoon to finish what was on my plate.......PLUS it's only 2 gms. of fat! We thought it would be the best ice cream topping too........HAPPY VALENTINES WEEK........GET DIPPIN!!!

Cards!

I have a friend who sends me the most adorable hand made cards so I lugged out all my stamping stuff, I have so much of it going to waste and perused some ideas online and found this to make and send to her. I thought if I got this Valentine in the mail I would LOVE it! ha The white stripes and edges of the "icing" are white sugar glitter, the picture doesn't show it the best and then I used clear embossing for the dots! It was fun, I think I'll leave all my stuff out and finish some unfinished projects I have! I found cute Winter note cards I meant to make for a gift so it's not too late! ha

Thrifty on Thursday!

Everyone is thinking of ways to be thrifty these days so I came up with a few things we try to do to save a few dollars.

1. Our local grocery store (Meijer) puts all their deli lunch meats in 1 lb. packages up on top of the counter when they close down the deli at 8 p.m. So we go about once a month and grab several packages (Mike's been known to make an evening trip out just for this ha) They mark it down 50-75% off and we've had the best luck with it! We've picked up some packages for 2.50 for a lb. of good deli sliced turkey or even Roast Beef for an occasional splurge. Mike loves to nab Pastrami.

2. We love Aunt Millies breads and we happen to have an Aunt Millies 2nd's store. We love Cracked Wheat (usually 2.50 a loaf) and we get it there for .75 a loaf. Mike again, makes a stop there about once a month since it's on his way home from work. We love their Cinn/Raisin bread for toast and french toast(the best by the way making french toast out of Cinn. Raisin bread), wheat bagels and in summertime we got 20 pkg. buns for 1.29 for TWO, that's 40 buns for 1.29 (white sesame seed to be exact ha) that's .03 a BUN! In stores buns are .75 IF you find a good sale! Bread freezes so well so it's an easy save for us!

3. Chicken: If you study your grocery store ads you'll see that Boneless chicken cycles out on sale every 4-5 weeks and ours runs it for 1.77 a lb. often. Buy a few weeks worth when it goes on sale like this and freeze it, simmer and shred/freeze it. Package it into serving sizing for recipes or for your family size!

Ground beef: You've likely seen those rolls of ground chuck on super sale (usually 8.95 for a 5 lb. roll which is 1.79 a lb.) well I asked the butcher one day where that meat came from and he said it was what they packaged in single 1 lb. packages in the SAME case for twice the cost! So I buy the 5 lb. rolls and actually it's easier to just cut it off in single pound sections if you want to!)

Pork Tenderloin roast: Again this cycles through on sale for about 1.79 a lb. every 3-4 weeks at my grocery store, take the whole tenderloin to the butcher counter and have it cut into 1/4 -1/2" chops and you won't believe how many you will get and they are the BEST chops and cook fast!

4. We just discovered many drug stores refill ink cartridges for your computer ink. We would normally pay $28 for the ink cartridge for our computer but after seeing an ad in Walgreens we took our black and white and color cartridge in for a $5 sale on refills and got a $5 REBATE slip for one of them! If I remember right it's 9.99 reg. price to do the refill so we will definitely do this in the future!

SO.......there ya go my take on a few areas to save money!!

Onion strings!

I made these onion strings Friday night from the link below! they were divine and actually very easy to make! You just have to keep the heat in your oil between batches!http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/03/onion-strings-oh-yeah-baby/

I also made a grilled chicken sandwich to go with it, haha half healthy! I pounded one large chicken breast thin, spray a pan lightly with Pam, season chicken with Seasoning salt and place chicken in hot pan to seer. Turn chicken after 3-4 mins. and cook until temp. reaches 160+(about 7-8 mins), sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Let chicken sit a few mins. on cutting board. Mix 3 T. Mayo, 1 ts. mustard, 1 ts. brown mustard, 1 ts. honey. Place 1 ts. butter in chicken pan to melt on med. heat and grill sub buns in butter for just a few mins. Cut chicken to fit bun, spread sauce on bun, place chicken on bun, and add any toppings you like. Here I put shredded lettuce, and tomato. The onion strings were a great addition.