How I Pinch A Penny

Count them…..15 reams of paper and 1p-touch.  Here is how I did it.  Let’s start with the paper.

This is the paper.  It is the 50% recycled Staples brand paper.  Take note of the item #554638…. this is very important.  At my Staples it was 6.99 a ream. I did have to ask a friendly clerk where to find them (BACK of the store but hey, they were there) I bought 15 of them.

• 15 reams of paper $104.85
• I had a coupon that came in the mail for $20/$100 purchase.
• 6% Pa tax $5.10
• total of $89.95… and a rebate printed out for $5.99 PER ream!!! (rebate #09-77261)  good until MAY!!!! with NO LIMIT!!!!!

THEN I came home and hit the web and submitted my rebate.  I will be getting back….drum roll…$89.85.  15 reams of paper for .10!!!  How many will YOU be picking up?

Now for the P-Touch.  I have been wanting one FOREVER… But I did not want to shell out $50+ bucks for one.  My husband asks me yesterday how much I wanted a P-touch.  I tell him $15 worth…thinking he has found one used on Craigs List. But Oh no!  He has found one at Staples for $20!  YIPPIE!!!

It is a $50 product with a $30 instant rebate. HERE is the link at Staples.  I am not sure how long this deal will last.  I did pinch a few gas pennies and talked with a staples rep online before I went to my local Staples to see that they had one in stock.  Yeah on line help!

In case you were wondering.  After rebate, I paid $20.10 plus tax for this stack.  Normally It would be well over $160.  Yeah Pinching Pennies!

I took advantage of the Grandparents visiting today and went to Giant on my own with out the girls.  Those of you who have young children know what a treat it is to go by yourself. Here is how I did this trip:

• Wheat Thins
• on sale 2/$4
• 2 coupons for $1 off 2
• $1.50 per box

• Philadelphia Cream Cheese
• On sale 10/$10
• there was specification you must 10 so I bought 6 (I have put 5 in the freezer)
• $1 each

• Nature Valley Bars
• $2.95 per box
• Buy 4 nature valley and or General Mills products get $4 credit on your bill
• used (3) .50 off coupons
• $1.57 per box

• Swansons broth
• I can’t remember what they were… I just know I had a $1 off 2 catalina coupon that was about to expire.

• Dole Salads 
• on sale 2/$5
• (2) $1 off pelies found on the product
• $1.50 each

• Ken’s salad dressings
• on sale 10/$10
• I had 8 coupons for $1 off Ken’s salad dressing.
• FREE**

**note that the clerk had to over ride the coupon.  The computer beeped indicating something was wrong.  The problem was the picture on the coupon did not match the item I wanted to purchase.  BUT the first 5 digits of the coupon and the item matched and the store will be reimbursed by the company. I was told this was something they do not do all the time and it was a one time thing.

As you can see my total before coupons was $64.26
Savings was $40.60
Total Out of pocket $23.66

Be sure to click the buttons on the right to download coupons for yourself.

At Jos. A. Bank, buy one suit at its regular price and get two more for free via coupon code “PFD93″. With free shipping, that’s the best suit deal we’ve seen from Jos. A. Bank this year. Note that all three suits must cost the same, and the discount only applies to their regular prices (which are at least double the listed sale prices). Deal ends March 31.

For more info visit this link.

The outside is becoming the new place to decorate.  If it is flowers, or water features or landscaping people are beautifying their outdoor living spaces. One trend I have seen is the outdoor rug.  It can go under a table or as an area rug in a sitting area.  I have looked longily at them but can’t bring my penny pinching fingers to spend $200-$1000 for one!  I was waiting for prices to go down, one to go on 90% clearance ( yeah right!) or for me to hit the lottery (yeah right again!).  Until a few days ago I had the TODAY show on and Kathie Lee and Hoda had some one on who was showing how you can have an outdoor rug for less.  I hear “less” and my ears perk right up.  

Turns out you can flip linoleum over and paint it!  So I went to Re-Stor-York, here in York, Pa and went searching for a pice of linoleum. I picked up a 9×6 piece of linoleum  for $7!!!  I LOVE RE-STOR-YORK!!!  It is a great place to find building supplies at an awesome price.  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! (Bob the Builder…PBS)

RE-STOR-YORK

• A joint effort between York Habitat for Humanity and Bell Socialization Services  
• A building/home improvement store open to the public
• A friend to the environment by recycling usable materials keeping them out of landfills and incinerators
• A job readiness training center for Bell’s client
• A member of York County Volunteers Association
• A member of York County Builders Association – Remodelors Council
  A member of DowntownYork Inc.

 

If you are in the York, Pa area come check them out for your project.  It is a win/win situation all around!!

Mask off the edge with painters tape.

There was some sticky from some duct tape on the back of the linoleum.  I got off as much as I could. I was going to paint over it any way!!

I used a non standard measurement* of a kitchen towel to add a second boarder on the inside.

*non-standard measurement is something Sid The Science Kid on PBS talks about during one of the episodes.  This was a great application and teaching tool for my 4 year old.

Looking like a rug!!  I will paint the whole thing and then when I pull the tape off it will reveal the creamy speckled linoleum underneath.  I will have crisp lines and nice patterned boarders thanks to the pattern of the linoleum.

My 4 year old helping out with the blue paint. This is coat 1.  We did 3 coats because this blue is such a dark color.

Photo credit goes to my 2 year old. Yes, this is me painting another coat of blue.

A close up of the painters tape.

The blue is finished.  While coat 2 was wet we spread a light dusting of playground sand on the wet paint.  We sealed it in with coat 3 of the paint.  This way there will be some traction on the ‘rug’ when it rains.  Hopefully it won’t be as slippery.

My daughter helping out with painting the inside color.  All colors were paints we have from painting out house.  The orange she is using is an ‘oops’ color from the basement.  Nothing goes to waste in a penny pinching house!  The tray she is using is a plastic storage lid.  No need to go by a paint tray when you have plastic lids in the house.

Once we had 2 coats of paint we repeated with the sand and the third coat of paint.  This will be under our outdoor table but incase we ever decide to move it I wanted it to be non-slip all over.  Then we took a barn red color and a yellow color (more paints from other house projects) and used drinking straws to flick and blow paint on the orange section.  *Note the over spray of the paint on the bottom blue section.  I painted over it for the next picture.  

This is what it looks like when you pull the masking tape off.  Pretty cool!!

Finished!!  Now I will need to put 3 coats of a clear finish on it to prevent scratching and chipping of the paint.  I haven’t decided what to use yet but I will update the post when I decide.  I want something clear and flexible.   Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!  I want to store this rolled up in the winter.

If you recall I got a fabulous deal on cilantro earlier this week at Weis.  Check out the post HERE.

So I brought it home and set to preserving my treasures.  First thing I did was wash the cilantro. Cilantro is grown in sandy soil.  Often there is all sorts of grit hidden in it.  Nothing is worse than crunching down on a few granolas of sand.  ICK!

Then I plucked al the leaves off the stems.  You could just twist off the excess stems.

I put the leaves in the food processor and pulse till your desired consistency. 

This is the consistency I did mine too.

Then I filled ice cube trays with the pulsed cilantro and topped them with water.  There is a generous tablespoon in each cube tray.  Now I have chopped, portioned cilantro ready to go at a moments notice!  And it was bought at a penny pinching price.  :)

Here is the cilantro cubes out of the ice cube trays.

And here I vacuum sealed 6-8 in each packet.  See my raves about vacuum sealing HERE.

I needed to take a dessert to a funeral luncheon yesterday.  In my penny pinching I didn’t want to go out an buy a whole bunch of extra ingredients.  The TODAY show had mini cupcakes on the other day and I thought I would google mini cup cakes and see what popped up.  Some how I found Bakerella.  She makes lots and lots of yummy goodies that look too good to eat.  The cupcake pop looked like fun so I gave it a try.  When I went searching for this link for this post I was perusing through her site.  It is awesome!!!  So much inspiration and instructions.  Turns out she was on the Martha Stewart show at some point.  Good for her and her blog.

Here is my  interpretation of her instructions.  I had my daughters birthday cake left over from the day before.  It was cake and icing…so I just pureed it up and away we went!  No need to bake another cake and ad a can of icing… it was already done!  Penny pinching and it kept me from eating the rest of the birthday cake myself!  Wooot!

This is what a 2 year olds birthday cake looks like once it meets up with a food processor. This was the consistency of extra soft play dough.

Bakerella had hand rolled her cake mixture into balls. I found the small Pampered Chef scoop worked out well for me. In the next step you are rolling them into a cylinder and stuffing them in a cuter anyway. (this step not pictured but go to the bakerella blog to see it.) One less rolling step this way!

Here are the mini cup cakes with their chocolate coating on. I have them flipped upside down.

Here they are all done. I did use a toothpick instead of a lollipop stick. I didn’t have any so I improvised. I have them stuck in a piece of floral foam covered in foil. I have the foam stuck to the tray with corn syrup. Just a smear keeps the block from sliding on the tray.

So there you go. How I recycled my daughters birthday cake, kept from eating the cake myself and pinched some pennies in a dessert donation. It was good all around.

I am so excited that spring is here!!  For my family it means putting our garden in.  This year I have decided to try the square foot garden technique.  When I first put the garden in, 8 years ago,  a farmer friend had suggested this technique and I never go around to researching it.  Boy I wish I had.  It is so organized and easy!  In the past I have just randomly planted things as I felt they would grow with little thought as to how big they were going to grow. I am sure I have cut down on my yield because of this but I just get so excited to get plants into the ground!!  I encourage you to check it out and find a few feet to plant a few veggies or herbs.  The rewards will be greater than your effort.  If you have kids it is a wonderful learning opportunity for them.  Another fun thing we are trying is growing potatoes in trash cans.  Check out the post HERE.

Here is my Dad tilling under the garden.  In the fall we had spread rye grass ( that is the green) and when you till it under in the spring it is a wonderful nutrient adder to the soil.

My garden is approximately 13×33 feet. This is the grid I mad so I know what plant is going where. The green is our walking paths.  I am finding I work better with a plan.

Here is the garden with its strings laid out. I ended up doing 5×5 squares with  foot walk ways.  This configuration was the best use of space for the size of my garden.  As you can tell I do not have wooden boxes as the square foot garden plan suggests.  The Penny pincher in me told me to use what I had… it was not worth my pennies to get the boxes this year.  We will see if I need them next year.

Another shot of the string.  I used left over/old slats and pieces of wood I found in our burn pile to drive into the ground to tie the strings too.  I did wrap the vertical strings around the horizontal strings when I was setting up the sections.  I am hoping this will keep them in place better.  Once again I don’t have the wooden slats that the web site suggests. I have trouble following instructions!

Weis has their sales flyer run Thursday through Friday.  I leafed through it just curious as to what I could find.  Low and behold there were a bunch of B1G1F offers.  I was able to match up a bunch of coupons and pinched some great pennies.  I hope you can do the same.

• Multi Grain Cheerios B1G1F  $3.79
• 4/7.58  or $1.89 each

• Skippy peanut butter 3/$5  coupon for $.50 (doubled to $1)
• 3/$4 or $1.33 each

• Pillsbury cake mix 10/$10
• 4/$4 + (2) $1 off 2 peelie coupons
• .50 per box

• Lysol B1G1F $2.17 each
• 4/$4.34 + (4) .50 coupons (doubled to $1 each) {use 4 because you are buying 4 products even though 2 are free!}
• .17 for 2!!!

• Cilantro 2/$1
• 4/$2 or .50 each.  This is an AWESOME deal for my area… I will show you in another post what I did with 4 bunches of cilantro

• Steam Fresh vegetables  $10/10
• 2/$2  + $2 coupon
• FREE

• Coffee Mate Creamer $2.19 each
• (2) $1.50 coupons + $1 off 2 store print out coupon
• {I had 2 print outs and 2 other $1.50 coupons so I did another transaction because you can’t use 2 of the same print outs in the same transaction}
• 4 /.76 or  .19 each

tax was .20
Out of pocket was $14.50
I saved $33.05  or 69%.

My girls are getting to the age where they enjoy playing board and card games.  It is so much fun!  What was your favorite game as a child?  Click this banner and get coupons for money off your next Hasbro game!  Be sure to print them twice!

I don’t know if you have had a chance to sign up for the Betty Crocker Spring recipes but now is a great time! I have got spring fever in the worst way and my recipe box can always use some sprucing up.