Oriental Stir Fry - our newest favorite Aldi product

I like to watch YouTube videos while I am doing home things.  One homemaker I like cooked this Aldi Oriental Stir fry.  Hers looked very good so I bought some on my next trip to Aldi.

It comes in a 32 ounce bag in the freezer section and sells for $2.89 here.  There is also a teriyaki with noodles version but we have not tried that kind. 

The bag contains lots of nice vegetables and a packet of a thickened soy and slightly ginger sauce. 

The ingredient label is not scary either. 

It is very quick to prepare. Just heat 1 tablespoon of oil and then stir in the frozen vegetables, cooked covered for 5 minutes, stirring a few times.

Then add the sauce packet and heat through. 

We had it last night with rice and some chicken my husband smoked.  

That is his plate below.  

The sauce tastes like a good sauce from a good Asian restaurant and we enjoy it very much. 

This is a product I will be keeping in our freezer, especially for busy meal times.

I've cooked it twice and both times have cooked it plain just as the bag describes. 

The YouTube homemaker added frozen scallops and shrimp to hers and I think she also got her seafood at Aldi.  

I may sauté an onion next time to add to ours next time I cook it.  

More about CVS - part 2

Here are a few more ways to get the good deals at CVS.

My favorite time to shop at CVS is early Sunday morning. Their sales start on Sunday and I have always found the deals I want in stock if I go early in the sale.  I've read that the sales prices for the next week are activated in the computers on Saturday evening but the ECBs don't always print at the early sales.  

Even if the sale tags are not posted in front of the sale items, they should still scan at the ad price. 

The CVS red box scanner not only gives coupons, it also will scan items for price checks.  

If the sale items are not available, ask for rain checks.  CVS rain checks never expire. 

My CVS gets their new shipments to restock on Thursday so that is a good time to shop if I miss going at the first part of the sale cycle too.   Just ask a store worker and I think most will tell you when they usually restock.

CVS often has offers like buy $30 of something and get back $10 in ECB. 

If the offer was for $9.99 priced items and you bought 3 at $29.97, the ECB would print as CVS gives a 1% grace of the purchase price and still honors the ECB. 

If you have coupons on the deal, they count toward payment and don't subtract from what you bought as far as the ECBs part of the deal.   So if you bought $30 of the items and had $10 in coupons toward them, you would still get the ECB. 

If you just bought $20 toward the $30 deal, it will be listed at the bottom of your receipt and if you go back during the sale cycle and buy more, then you could still get the ECB.  This is called tracking.  

This is a mid week purchase I made. My husband needed this 8 hour pain reliever and I wanted to check out some sales I read about on line.  

These Nexxus products were all 75% off and I double checked them at the red box scanner to make sure. Clearance products are not supposed to earn ECBs but sometimes they do.  Some of these did track and some didn't.  The current deal now is buy $20 Nexxus and get $10 ECB.  So if I go back to CVS, I may try to buy more to get the $20 and earn an ECB. 

The Almond Joys were still on 75% off clearance for 39 cents a 6 pack and are use by dated near the end of this year. 

These are some of the CVS coupons I got this week for scanning my card.  

I will keep up with them as they could be very helpful when combined with a sale and coupons. 

For the Mitchum pictured above, they were on sale for $2.99 so I bought 4 of them and used the $2/$10 CVS coupon along with some newspaper manufacturer coupons and got the deodorants almost free. 

Whew!  I think I have covered about all the helpful CVS tips I know. Please share if you know any more. 

And I'm sorry if CVS is not your thing.  I'll be posting soon about a quilt I've started, 2 sacks full of thrift store goodies and an Aldi product we really like. 

How I stretch our budget by playing the CVS shopping game - Part 1

Since the fall, I have been making an effort to shop at CVS almost weekly - buying sale items with coupon match ups that also offer Extra Care Bucks with purchase. ECBs print at the bottom of the register receipt and can be spent on the next shopping trip on most anything. 

If ECBs get spent on another item that offers ECBs as well, then very little, if any, cash is spent on the next purchase. That is called "rolling". It is legal and can really be a savings. 

When shopping at CVS, you must get a Extra Care card. The cashier will be happy to give it to you. 

You also need to register your card online and give them your email. CVS will then email you about sales and more coupons like $5 off your next $20 purchase or $5 off any Revlon.  The coupons CVS sends you might be based on your previous purchases.  I often buy diapers and get CVS coupons like $5 off $30 baby purchase. 

Whenever you visit CVS, scan your Extra Care card at the red kiosk scanner.  These scanners have been near the front of every CVS I've visited. It will print off store coupons for you. Scan your card multiple times until the screen says you've printed them all.

Each week, there is usually one coupon for a weekly deal to get one item at a very good price. Last week, the Colgate was free with the scanner coupon and a newspaper coupon. 

The coupons from CVS are called " store coupons" and can be combined with newspaper and Internet coupons that are called "manufacturer coupons"  That makes for double savings.  

Big Savings happen when store coupons are matched with sale items that offer ECBs and you also use a manufacturer coupon on the purchases. 

CVS also rewards shoppers with a quarterly  bonus of 1% of the purchase price in a ECB. 

Their Beauty Club offers $5 ECB for every $50 spent on beauty items -this includes hair care, fragrance and cosmetics and maybe some other things I am not aware of. Register for the Beauty Club when you register your CVS card online. 

CVS also gives ECBs for prescriptions and refills- I think it $5 for every 10 but I am not sure. 

If you have a smart device, you might also want to get the CVS app. 

I know it sounds complicated but once you learn the lingo, what is allowed and what is not, it is actually easy. 

There is so much information online to show how to match everything up. 

I have joined a couple of Facebook groups where shoppers share their deals and tips. 

IHeartCvs.com publishes the current and future CVS ads and that helps me with planning ahead. 

I also watch a YouTube channel who posts her weekly CVS shopping trip every Sunday morning. She is amazing! She seems to buy about $200 every week and pays for it all with coupons and ECBs she earned the previous week.  www.youtube.com/user/LASavings8

  Besides weekly sales, I read about some clearance sales

I also got 2 gallons of our favorite Borden milk this trip but I put one in the fridge and one in the freezer after pouring one cup into a creamer to allow for expansion when frozen before I had time to take a photo. 

The above photos are everything else I bought 

4 12 packs of soda

Oodles of candy for Valentines and Easter

1 bag potato chips 

Laundry detergent and fabric softener

2 mascara and 2 eye liners

3 body washes

1 razor and 1 shave cream

6 boxes tissue

4 hair colors

1 deodorant

1 toothpaste

My out of pocket (OOP) cash for the 3 purchases was $33.42 and I have $11 ECBs for my next shopping at CVS.  

Everything I bought was on sale or clearance. I used manufacturer and store coupons, ECBs, an email coupon, some coupons CVS mailed me  and $4.22 left on a gift card earned from MyPoints.com

Also, I don't pay sales tax because our state gives tax exemption to disabled veterans and their spouses.  

I don't live in a big town and don't have dozens of stores to chose from so I concentrate my couponing to CVS.  

I've glanced at other deals on line and have seen amazing shopping hauls at Target, Rite Aid, Publix, Walgreens and others.  If you want to find out more, do a search on Facebook or YouTube for the store you are interested in.  

Some couponers don't seem to follow the rules and I avoid their advice. 

I don't shop just to be shopping but I try to get good deals on things my family uses and needs. 

It's fun to get good deals. The cashiers at my CVS are all very coupon friendly and I feel like I am really making our income stretch farther.  

Part 2 coming soon!

Valentine's decorations

After Christmas, I left this small artificial tree up and decorated it with winter theme things. 

Now that it's February, I switched it out to hearts for Valentines Day. 

Linking up with A Tray of Bliss - Five Star Frugal Link up

Nothing is new. I made the felt and sequin hearts years ago and my mom crocheted the hearts several years ago. 

The postcards belonged to my grandparents in law.m

Braeden likes the decorations, he called the little cherubs "babies"

He liked stacking the foam and plastic hearts in the candy dish. 

He will really be excited when he figures out that real candy comes with the actual holiday. 

Gavin is 6! We celebrated like sharks

Our oldest grandson just had a birthday and is 6 years old! He is such a sweetheart and I am very proud of him and also sad that he is just growing up so fast.

We like to celebrate around here so we had a family party for him this weekend. He likes sharks and we saw shark hat instructions in a free issue of Ranger Rick Jr that was sent to our house.

I got the foam sheets at Hobby Lobby and I made 12 shark hats for the birthday boy and guests. 

The food was simple. I made buns with dough made in my bread machine, My husband smoked and sliced a pork loin. We also had hard cooked eggs, fresh fruit and veggies and chips. 

My daughter made the cupcakes and my son got the decorations and balloons. 

The party was very little work but it was fun and I think the birthday boy was very happy.

It was cold rainy evening and my husband had a great idea to move our vehicles out of the garage so the children could ride bikes and toys there. 

1. Make a Shark Hat - National Wildlife Federation

   www.nwf.org/Kids/Ranger-Rick-Jr/Shark-Hat-Craft.aspx
   

   Make a shark hat craft from the September 2014 issue of Ranger Rick jr magazine

   
   

   I have to give a thumbs up on Ranger Rick Jr as a great magazine for young children.  All the grands have enjoyed looking at the amazing animal photos. My husband has enjoyed looking at with the grands. He told me we should get a subscription to Ranger Rick Jr, so I did. 

Monday's list for this week

It's a pretty long list but I got quite a bit of it done yesterday and a few more things done this morning. 

Today's thrifty shopping

Linking up with Mimi's Five star frugal link up


I stopped at CVS this morning. I used ECBs from my last purchase, an email coupon from CVS and manufacturer coupons on everything,

I got 3 mascaras and 3 dental floss and spent $4.34 cash and got back $13 in ECBs for my next purchase.

I also stopped at my favorite thrift store.  I spent $5 for this mini doughnut pan and a handful of teaspoons. 

The doughnut pan is small. I will try baking some mini ones but if it is too much trouble, then I am sure the grands would be very happy to use it to make play dough doughnuts. 

I don't mind if the spoons don't match, I have a big assortment of silverware. When all our family is here, we might have 15 or so people here for meals.  We usually use disposable plates but everyone prefers real silverware.

I got these old magazines from the thrift store free pile.

The Burda sewing magazine has a big section of uncut patterns in the center, I am wondering what they are.  The date is 1989 so they may be very out of style, who knows.  

Have you found any good deals? 

The past week in a few pictures

Here is the to do list I started Monday. I've tried other formats and fancier planners but a sheet of notebook paper for the week just works best for me.  

Yes, I finally got all of that ironing done last week, it was 10 shirts for my husband, 5 blouses for me and 2 pair of jeans with hems that curled up. 

I made one trip to CVS on Sunday on the way to church. I got an email from them this morning with a $5/15 coupon so I will be going back. 

My daughter personalized these tiny onesies for a teacher at her school that just had a baby. They had a shower planned but the teacher gave birth 3 weeks early. 

We had some delicious pecan pie- made with my mom's recipe. It was so good, I could eat it every day.   

I made the crusts with a recipe that makes 4 crusts, I rolled out the other 3 crusts into pie pans and put them in the freezer stacked with a sheet of wax paper between them. They all fit into a 2 gallon Ziploc bag. So when I do get ready to bake another pie, the crust part is ready and waiting. 

Is there sickness going around your family? I am fine but all 3 grandsons are on the mend after being sick with different illnesses and several people we know are very sick with the flu.

Have a good rest of the week everyone! 

Got it done! Well, mostly done........

I normally do my big housecleaning on Monday but this week has been off that schedule.

I worked hard on the to do list I posted yesterday and actually completed all of it - except the ironing. 

All the cleaning, cooking and errands are done!

My trusty tiny helper make me a big batch of taco seasoning.  I've been using this recipe from AllRecipes.com for years.  It is so much better than store bought.  The jar will get shook up and mixed well but for now, it looks like sand art.

recipeTaco seasoning recipe

I made this amount times 3 to fill up a quart job. 

One very heaping Tablespoon seasons a pound of ground beef for tacos.

I also stopped at my favorite thrift store before I picked up JJ from preschool. The preschool and thrift store are not far apart. I haven't been thrift shopping since before Christmas.

I spent $10.88 and was very happy to get a lot of boys clothes.  Boys are hard on their clothes and the older boys get, it seems the selection for them at thrift stores is a lot less.

Stack on the left is 5 shirts all boys size 2-3.  

Right side is a nice pair Lee cargo jeans (slim and with the waist band adjusters perfect for my slim grands) and 3 size 5 shirts

2 girls shirt and 1 girl pants

4 newborn onesie outfits

2 boy sleepers

And

3 really nice GAP boy shirts.

 I was cutting off all the price tags and grandson Braeden got excited about the Orange shirt with vehicles on it. 

My daughter is still working on her home organization challenge. This week's assignment is the pantry. Her pantry is only 4 pull out drawers so she did it quickly and is already working on next week's Master Bedroom.

Late to-do list

Ok, I am up and dressed. Husband is off to work and I will pick up one grandson from baby preschool just before noon. 

I wrote out a shortened to do list and and I am going to try to do as much of it  as I can before I leave for errands. 

The toy room will only need a few minutes to straighten .....

But this ironing will take awhile. I don't plan on tackling it this morning, but maybe I can do it while my grandson naps or during evening TV watching.  

Here I go! I hope you are making progress on your to-do list too. 

CVS this week

There are some great deals to be had at CVS this week.  I've read about deals on men's deodorant, toothpaste and shampoos. My stockpiles on those are big enough so didn't buy any more but I did gets these deals. 

2 16 roll packs of Charming

2 bottles mouthwash

2 bottles dish soap

4 boxes cereal 

And not shown - 2 gallons milk

Everything I bought was on sale, I used a coupon on everything and $25 in ECBs from last week. 

I owed $9.03 and I paid that with a prepaid debit card I got from a survey.

I got back $13 ECBs to use later. 

I got a mailer from CVS with a coupon for 25% off any regular price purchase. I hardly ever buy anything there that is not on sale so I don't know how much good it will do me. 

But at the top of the page, all my CVS savings are listed for the last 12 months.

All the savings added up in one place are more than I would of guessed it would be. 

Again, the way to really save at CVS is to shop there consistently and let the savings from one week roll into the next.

The Monday holiday is still affecting what I am getting done this week. I never do much housework on Tuesdays as I usually have my youngest grandson all day. I did get the laundry done and the CVS shopping done today but that's about it.

I plan on making out a minimum to do list and working fast and furious on it tomorrow morning- I'll let you know! 

Monday's to do list is being postponed until tomorrow

In the USA, this is a holiday to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King. Schools are out and many workers are off work so that means for us, today was a family fun day. 

Even though it is winter, here it is a warm and sunny today. But we did a snow man craft anyway.

Marshmallows, glue and cousins always make for a fun time.

Dr. Martin Luther King 1929-1968 

Bakery style scones

We made a planned at the last minute trip to Texas midweek. My dad a medical procedure done and it seems to of been a success. While he recuperated Mom and Dad both said they could manage but I knew they needed me so my husband took off work and drove me there.

We visited lots and I did some cooking and a bit of shopping for them. 

They usually eat oatmeal for breakfast so I cooked some different things. One morning was bacon, over easy eggs and biscuits. One morning was oatmeal muffins and the other morning was cinnamon scones.

I've blogged about these delicious scones before and I've seen the recipe on several other blogs so I think it is a very popular recipe.
And it should be because they are just delicious. They are quick and made with normal pantry ingredients too.
This is the batch I baked yesterday at my parent's home. 

If you want to make something special but easy for a weekend breakfast, I recommend these scones. 

(The recipe calls for 1/3 cup of buttermilk but every time I've made them, I've needed at least 1/2 cup.)

Now we are back in Oklahoma. 

2 of our grandsons will be spending the rest of the weekend with us.  They are really fun little guys.  

We went out for supper tonight and they picked Jack In The Box. They also wanted to sit at a table with the high stools instead of at a lower booth.

Fast food is never my first choice but they boys had a great time and so did we. 

Good times!