Works For Me Wednesday - Coupon Organizing

You might have noticed that I'm a Coupon Whore! When making multiple stops throughout the week I use a colored paper clip to keep coupons together for each store. Target coupons are bundled with a red paper clip. Tom Thumb with a Blue, etc. If you want to go wild, you can even paper clip a small shopping list with your coupons so you don't forget the other stuff you need from that store. I keep all of this in my SMALL plastic coupon organizer. In my obscenely expensive purse. Sorry had to point out the irony.

I like doing it this way because I always used to hand the cashier at least one coupon from the wrong store and then they think your an idiot (or worse - like your stealing). It also allows me to sit down with the ads on Wednesday and Sunday and plan my trips for the week. That way when I find myself near the stores I need to go to I can just pop in and have everything ready to go.

It's Been a Good Week

For saving money, that is. Which is a good thing since Big Chocolate's Car decided to die on us. Hopefully it will be revived later this week and it will be a reasonable (read cheap) fix.

Anywho, I signed up for Paperback Swap this week. It's pretty cool. You list books you have that you are done with and promise to mail them to whomever requests them. You pay for the postage (think media mail) when you ship. When you receive you pay nothing. When you list your first 10 books, you get 2 credits which lets you request 2 books. When you send a book and it is received you get to request another book.

It's been a great week for Swagbucks. I have earned 75 this week. That is about &$7.50 in Amazon Gift Cards. Woo Hoo!

Here is a rundown of my grocery deals this week:

Kroger: There's a goldfish coupon out there that got me bags of goldfish for 13 cents each with the buy 10 deal they have going on. I went in with a friend and we got 5 bags of gold fish, 5 bags of rice cakes, toothpaste and cake frosting for $3.

Market Street: I got a free gallon of milk, free bag of parmesan cheese, 1 pound of turkey, 1 pound of cheese, bananas, bread and 1 1/2 pounds of flank steak for under $10. I got some other stuff in there for my $10, but let's face it that was Tuesday and I already forgot!

I used the free parm with some heavy cream that was about to expire and made my own alfredo sauce for the first time ever. It actually worked!

Target: Had a good run Sunday. Came out with 4 jars of pasta sauce, bananas, deodorant, Johnsonville Italian Sausage and a couple of other things which escape my feeble mind for about $6.

For the most part we cooked out of the freezer and pantry again this week. I carpe diemed (ha that sounds really bad) when I found the flank steak in the "old meat bin"though.

Rubber Chicken

Man I have stretched the package of Chicken Leg Quarters farther than I ever would have imagined possible. Brokeness can be such an inspiration I tell you.

I got a couple of packages of Chicken Quarters for free. They were on sale at target a while ago and I used a target coupon and manufacturer's coupon to get them for free.

I stumbled across an un-recipe to make shredded chicken in the crock pot. I call it an un-recipe because you skin the legs and throw 'em in the crockpot on low for 8 hours. No water, no salt, no nothing.

When I woke up in the morning I fished out the chicken and shredded it. I got what I guestimate to be about 4 cups of shredded chicken. I threw the bones back in the pot with the juices.

I added about 6 cups of water, some onion, celery and bell pepper I had in the freezer and left it in the crockpot for another 8 hours or so to do its thing. FYI, I never throw away veggies. I always freeze them for stuff like this when they get too limp to use for anything else.

When I got home, I fished out the bones and the limp veggies and tossed them. Then I added a couple of hand fulls of noodles and chopped up 2 "good" carrots and celery stalks threw them in with a handful of the shredded chicken. Viola - Cheap and easy gallon of chicken noodle soup.

Tomorrow we are are having chicken taco's with the rest of the shredded chicken.

Free Trials

I just love free trials. One of the best one's that I have signed up for recently is a free year of McAfee Anti-Virus for 3 computers through Bank of America.

The million dollar question is how do I remember to cancel free trials before they actually charge your credit card. While maxing out your credit cards before they have a chance to charge you is always one option.

I have learned however from working at Big Chocolates law firm. The secret is to put a reminder to cancel on your email's calendar or cell phone calendar if you don't have Outlook.

Look out Monday for my Swagbucks update for January. I am going to tell you how much I have earned in Amazon Gift Cards this month and how. Let's just say it is pretty dang impressive.

Cool contest I found to win free groceries for a year

"I love cozi.com! They have an awesome family calendar and grocery list feature!"

Hey, I just entered this contest on Cozi.com to win free groceries for a year. All you have to do is put in your email address.

Even if you don’t enter, please click the link to help me win. (I get an extra entry for telling you.) Thanks!

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