Family Portraits

This weekend I had the opportunity to get our family's portraits taken by Nena Metcalf Photography.  Nena specializes in photography for newborns, children, seniors, families and even engagements and wedding photography. She does in studio and on location photography for the Houston area. I love the pictures she took of my daughters and me! These are just a few of the 100’s Nena took.

Nena has also decided to extended an offer exclusively for my blog readers. When you schedule a session for December 23rd or earlier, your family's session fee is only $50 and you receive a FREE 8x10 and 5x7! It is the perfect time to get those holiday pictures taken.

And on top of that, of the families that book this special one family will be randomly selected to win a FREE SESSION with a digital image package for a Spring outdoor family session! (valued at $475)

To book, contact Nena at nenametcalfphotography@gmail.com

You can also check out her blog and facebook fan page to see more portraits she has done.

What is your blood type?

Did you realize blood is one of the easiest gifts to give? Many people depend on blood donations each day.

There is a constant shortage at blood banks especially around holidays, after disasters (Fort Hood shooting) and in major medical cities.

With several Gulf Coast blood centers around Houston, it makes it easier to donate. For whole blood donations you can just walk in but for platelet donations you have to make an appointment.

This is Ava. She is a two year old that was diagnosed with medulloblastoma on September 23rd of this year and is being treated at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.

You can make direct donations of red cells to Ava if you are O+ or can donate platelets if you are any other blood type. To make a direct donation for Ava Klein you will need this number #3778478.

If you donate directly to Ava Klein, come back here and leave a comment after doing so, I am going to offer a giveaway for those donating for her. In addition to that you also get some yummy cookies and juice afterwards. Yes, it can be a bit scary to donate and if you are there when I am you will notice me probably passed out...but you survive and deal with it.

In addition to the free juice and cookies you earn points by donating that you can then save to get some great gifts with.

Super Easy Eggplant Parmesan

My Fall garden is doing pretty well and I have tons of Japanese eggplant. I decided to try and easy version of Eggplant Parmesan.

What you need:

4-5 Japanese eggplants or two regular
bread crumbs (I used flavored chopped up croutons)
Parmesan cheese
pasta sauce
salt and pepper
Italian spices



Cut your eggplant into 1/4 in thick slices and line an 8x8 baking dish with them. combine bread crumbs and spices. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top then add a layer of Parmesan cheese. Repeat second layer the same way.

Bake at 350º for 20 minutes. Then add pasta sauce to the top covering entire dish. Bake another 15 minutes.

No groceries but stocking up on gifts!

As you may or may not have noticed I have not been doing much grocery shopping at all. I am hoping to stretch the remaining balance of my $800 budget until the end of the year.

But being that the holidays are creeping up I have had my eyes out for great deals for the girls and family for Christmas and birthdays.

I knew Target has a great deal on Wii games this week, buy 2 get one FREE. But not until I read Kingdom First Mom’s post did I find out about the $10/2 Target coupons to go with the great sale!

Many games are $14.99-19.99 with the more popular games being $19.99-39.99. I was able to pick up 6 games for a total of $53.xx which included tax and used 3 $10/2 coupons!

TIP- if you are planning on buying more than one set of 3, group like prices together so your FREE one will be the lowest price in the group of 3 and not just the cheapest ones purchased.

To add to that Big Lots will have a sale on Wii games starting Sunday for only $10 each.

Wal-Mart is having a pre-black Friday sale starting Saturday morning at 8am, Nov 7th. X-box 360 will be $199 and you will also get a $100 gift card with that!

Sunday Morning Coupon Preivew

Want to know if you should buy the paper or not? Find out what coupons will be in the paper to to help you decide.

You can also print coupons from Redplum, Coupons.com, BoxTopsForEducation, Pillsbury, BettyCrocker, Kraft and EatBetterAmerica.

And you can also load coupons to your Kroger or Randalls cards with Cellfire, P&G, Shortcuts and Upromise.

Time to re-load Cellfire coupons

Cellfire coupons have reset! If you have previously loaded coupons to your Kroger or Randalls store cards you still have time to use them before they expire, but you can also load the new, reset coupons to your card.

I normally load all of the Cellfire coupons to my grocery store card just in case a great hidden deal comes up while I am out shopping, that way I am always prepared.

Hurry and load your cellfire coupons

Cellfire will reset their loadable coupons tomorrow, so if you have not loaded this batch on your grocery store cards hurry before it is too late.

New coupons will be available to load tomorrow, but any that are loaded before then will still have two weeks before they expire. I found it convenient to load them ALL just in case I might need them vs lose out on them or not have them loaded when I find a deal. You can have up to 50 Cellfire coupons on your grocery store card at once.

In addition redplum and coupons.com coupons have reset which means if you already printed some coupons they are available to print again!

Cheap Cereal Stock up Deal at Target

Target has select Kellogg's cereal on sale "buy 3 get 1 FREE" through Saturday, November 7th. Cheapest item will be FREE.

To make it an even better deal you can print out Target coupons for $1 off as well as manufacturer coupons here, here and here.

Burning Through Month End Coupons

A HUGE thank you to a reader who gifted me more of the $2 Discover card coupons. I wanted to maximize them so did 13 transactions with each transaction just a bit over $2 each time.

6 Randalls orange juice $2.19 each

5 Yoplait Whips 40¢ each

2 Gold Medal flour $2.69 each used 50¢ IP doubled on each

2 Folgers coffee $1.85 each

2 Kikoman soy milk $2.09 each

1 gallon milk $1.99

1 Orbitz gum $1.00

1 Aloutte baby brie $6.99 used FREE item coupon

used 13 $2 Discover Card coupons

OOP $1.64

balance of budget for the year $72.15

total saved for the year $3816.49

Free Item Coupons

I love when Kroger sends out the home mailers. We almost always get coupons for FREE items when we get the mailers. Usually it is for FREE Bic razors, something I will never need for the rest of my life. This month it was for lettuce and Ruffles chips (odd combination).

Kroger items not pictured:

1 bag Ruffles $3.79 used FREE item coupon

1 head lettuce 99¢ used FREE item coupon

1 Always pads $3.69 used FREE item coupon from Being Girl that was given out at Justice

1 Minute Maid OJ $2.79

Paid $2.79 on gift card

 

Randalls

2 Pepperidge Farm cookies $3.00 each

2 Nature Valley granola bars $2.99 each used FREE item coupon I won from twitter contest

1 Quaker granola bars $3.49 used FREE item coupon they had on facebook

1 Werthers candies $1.89

1 gallon milk $1.99

found $3 catalina at check out and used $2 Discover card coupon

OOP $4.22

Had a delicious lunch at Ruthies with my daughter, yummy fajitas $14 with left-overs.

balance of budget for the year $73.79

total saved for the year $3779.43

Going to Florida Next Month

 

 

Last week on our local ABC news they announced a “contest” that NASA would be holding on Twitter on Friday.

NASA for the first time was having a tweet up at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to watch the launch in person. The first 100 people to apply got in and they took another 50 people as back ups. I was one of the lucky 100 to make it in!

The two-day event will provide NASA Twitter followers with the opportunity to take a tour of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, view the space shuttle launch and speak with shuttle technicians, engineers, astronauts and managers. The Tweetup will include a "meet and greet" session to allow participants to mingle with fellow Tweeps and the staff behind the tweets on @NASA.

It will take place on November 15-16th. If you would like to follow along on twitter look for the hashtag #nasatweetup up and @jane4girls.

If you have any questions you would like us to ask please leave a comment and I will pass along the questions while there.

Why buy the chicken when you can get the eggs free?

I recently found a new bartering buddy. My friend introduced me to a lady who has chickens…and eggs! (thanks Veronica…hello Mary Ann)

“Egg Lady” gave me eggs for charcoal, rice and pasta sauce. All things I have an abundance of.

5 dozen cage free eggs (normal cost from her $2 each, normal store cost $3.75 each)

balance of budget for the year $92.01

total saved for the year $3738.73

If you are in the general Katy/Houston/Sealy/Bellville area and would like to talk to Mary Ann about her chickens/eggs you can call her at 281-627-8009

HOT Candy Coupon

Just in time for Halloween you can print $2 Nestle coupons and $2 Willy Wonka coupons!

You can print each coupons twice for up to $8 in savings.

Time to re-load Cellfire coupons

Cellfire coupons have reset! If you have previously loaded coupons to your Kroger or Randalls store cards you still have time to use them before they expire, but you can also load the new, reset coupons to your card.

I normally load all of the Cellfire coupons to my grocery store card just in case a great hidden deal comes up while I am out shopping, that way I am always prepared.

Getting some basics

Randalls still has the Pillsbury catalina deal going on (buy 3 participating products get a $2 register reward)

3 Pillsbury Grands Jr 99¢ used $1/3 coupon

2 Kashi GoLean Crunch $3.00 each used $3 coupon from Vocal Point

1 Gallon Milk $1.99

2 Old El Paso Taco Dinner kits used FREE item coupons (thanks General Mills & MyBlogSpark)

1 head lettuce 89¢

OOP Zero (paid with $10 gift card from General Mills & MyBlogSpark)

and got $2 cash back in place of the catalina since the machine was broken

 

Also got a $20 Kelloggs rebate in the mail!  Wohoo!

balance of budget for the year $92.01

total saved for the year $3728.73

Hurry and load your cellfire coupons

Cellfire will reset their loadable coupons tomorrow, so if you have not loaded this batch on your grocery store cards hurry before it is too late.

New coupons will be available to load tomorrow, but any that are loaded before then will still have two weeks before they expire. I found it convenient to load them ALL just in case I might need them vs lose out on them or not have them loaded when I find a deal. You can have up to 50 Cellfire coupons on your grocery store card at once.

Play Games. Heal Kids.

The day is finally here. Starting at 8am on October 17th people will be playing games all over the world to raise money to fund pediatric cancer research at Texas Childrens Hospital in Houston.

Gamers are sponsored by awesome people like you. My oldest daughter is one of those gamers.

I told her that I would donate 25¢ for each dollar that was sponsored/donated through her link. The donations can be made until Sunday morning at 8am CST.

So get donating so I can smash my piggy bank too and we can help kick some cancer ass!

Finally a Flour Coupon!

The coupon most of us have been waiting for is HERE! 50¢ off Gold Medal 5lb flour. Expires 11/15/09

Hold onto it for a bit and watch for great baking sales coming up at your local grocery store.

Sunday Morning Coupon Preview

Want to know if you should buy the paper or not? Find out what coupons will be in the paper to to help you decide.

You can also print coupons from Redplum, Coupons.com, BoxTopsForEducation, Pillsbury, BettyCrocker, Kraft and EatBetterAmerica.

And you can also load coupons to your Kroger or Randalls cards with Cellfire, P&G, Unilever, Shortcuts and Upromise.

Wow, just wow!

I can’t believe how expensive medicine is when you really have to “pay” for it! With one in braces, two in contacts and three with allergies we needed a quick trip to Walgreens.

Luckily the pain reliever and wal-phed were both BOGO. The total for the above items was still $42.00!!!

My car (yes the one that is just over a year old) was in the shop (AGAIN) with a bad battery. By the time I got there to pick it up it was well into dinner time so we ate out.

Sushi, fried rice, edamame, hot tea for four $40. Well worth it though.

 

OOP $82 (ouch)

 

balance of budget for the year $70.01

total saved for the year $3738.73