A wheelbarrow full of stuff, plus the wheelbarrow!

Here's is an example of our preparedness garage sale hunting today.  The most expensive thing was the wheelbarrow at $5.  The next was the box of fireworks (purely for fun!) at $4.  All together though, this cost around $20.  I got a bunch of clothes, including a snow suit for my son, & a church suit for him at a clothing exchange.  We got 20 canning jars for $1!  We got brand new lotions, & herb seed packets for $1 total.  And for fun we got a huge box of scrapbook paper (if you have a crafty child you'll know what a treasure that is!), 2 Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites books, a board game, a snow tube, & my son bought himself some...unusual indian head bookends.  We spent a bit over an hour.  At regular prices, just the wheel barrow, or just the canning jars would have cost $20!  The suit by itself would have cost more than $20!  A great return on our time!  I had added a wheel barrow to my mental list last week, & there one was!

Pinching Your Pennies

This is a great site for helping you find deals.  You can sign up on the link on the right side of the screen to get email alerts of deals.  These will include mostly online things you can buy.  But you can also go to the "forums", & "state forums" & then your state.  They do a great job matching up grocery stores in your state with coupons. You can look at a grocery list every week (preview list usually goes up the day before a sale starts).  It has stars along the side to alert you to how good a deal it is.  I look at just the red stars.  It has links for printable coupons, what date the newspaper coupons were, the price before coupons & the final price after coupons.  They have it for the entire US.  It makes getting deals at the grocery store super easy!  It's all free, & you'll save tons of money!
http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/newsletters/screaming-penny/?ref=a57808c1a1hlue 

Cheap way to stock up, case lot sales

If you have a Macey's near you, they have a caselot sale this week.  If you don't, keep watching your ads.  Most stores have a caselot sale in the fall, & Smith's reportedly has the best prices.  There's a few things so cheap, that even if you only have a few dollars to spend, you can go get something, & that sure feels good!  Here's a few things I noticed from the Macey's ad:
Top Ramen $.10!  Case of 24 for $2.40.  Ok not the tastiest stuff, but you could live on it!  At least go get one of these!
Western Family Mac & Cheese, $.35 each.  That's a cheap meal!
Broths or Cream soups (Western Family brand) for $.50 each. .
Spagettios, Canned green beans, corn, beans, diced tomatoes, $.50 each.
Betty Crocker cornbread $.25 package (makes 6 muffins, tasty & great for your solar oven)
Salt $.33 (you can't produce salt yourself, & you literally can't live without salt.  Get some!)
Italian dressing mix or Ranch $.33 each (great for flavoring meats & soups.  Name brand's cost over $1 each now)
The canning jars are on sale, but are still cheaper at Walmart.  Walmart will also price match anything they carry, so won't work on Western Family brand, but will on any name brand items.
Macey's also has a large food storage section.  A lot of the long term storage is on sale this week as well.  The big blue 55 gallon water storage barrels are $34.

Free at Walgreens this week

Free stuff

There is $42 worth of things you can get free this week at Walgreens.  One has a rebate, & the others get you get back "register rewards" after you pay for them.  That means that the $2 markers, I got a $2 certificate printed to use next time.  Here's the things I got free.  There were 2 other things in their ad (see www.walgreens.com) that I didn't pick up.

There's also some other good deals with coupons.
I got all of this, plus 2 Magnum ice cream bars.  I paid $40, & got back $23 in register rewards.  Regular retail value would have been around $90.  I got them for about the price of the razor & contact solution.  Walgreens sales run Sun to Sat, so you have all week to see if there's anything you want.
It took me about 15 min at the store including checking out.  Awesome!

I was a guest blogger on LDS parenting!

http://ldsparenting.blogspot.com/2011/08/pineapple-apricot-freezer-jam.html
Fun, fun site on almost everything imaginable for parenting!  I could spend a long time exploring here!  And they are growing really fast!

Cookie baking in 2 solar ovens

Global Sun oven

SOS oven

Cookies from both ovens

Today I tried chocolate chip cookies in both solar ovens to compare them.
The first thing I noticed is the Global heated up much faster.  It was almost to 100 by the time I'd adjusted the back leg.  The SOS hadn't even shown a temperature rise.  But by the time I had the dough made, the SOS was just over 300, & the Global was near 350.  This recipe I bake in my home oven at 375, so I was interested to see how they did at lower temps.
I baked the cookies in the Global for about 15 min (in my oven inside I cook these 9 min).  They weren't brown on the top, but they were cooked all the way through & tasted delicious.  I baked them in the SOS for about 20 min.  I think they could have used 3-5 more min.  But they were delicious too.  As far as taste, I could not tell a difference between the two.  I think the ones in the Global were a bit less flat.  Both ended up somewhat crispy on the outside after they cooled, just like my oven baked ones, even though they didn't show any brown.  And taste wise, they were just as good as the ones baked inside.  So most of the difference is the speed of baking.   So I would still say, if you're only getting 1 oven, get the SOS.  It's cheaper & fits much more inside.  See my post "solar ovens rock" for info on where to get one.
I also tried some in a glass jar.  The idea being you can put the lid on, & it will seal & keep for several months.  This gives you baked goods to eat on cloudy days.  I will open it in a few weeks & post on how that turned out.
Now I'm going to go eat some cookies!

Good deal on year membership to Aquarium

For Utah readers:

https://livingsocial.com/redeem_invite/16994738-yulebe?ref=lnk

$18 for a year pass to the Living Planet Aquarium for an adult & child.  That is only a few dollars more than it costs to go 1 time.  I love things like this; gets us out in the winter & saves us lots of $!  We can go as much as we want.  Plus, if you use this link, you should get $5 off (if you're new), making it only $13!

My son loves going here & petting the rays.  The penguins are really fun to watch too!