Happy September everyone!!!!!

The air is cool and crisp and signs of Fall are slowly creeping into Memphis! Ahhhhhhhhhh

What a glorious time of year, in fact my favorite time of year. I know so many people say that it is the start of plants dying and trees loosing their leaves for winter. I see it as that special time of year when we thank God for the beauty of summer flowers and fresh fruits and vegetables out of our garden. The sun-glowed kiss of color on my children's faces and the beautiful highlights in their hair from all the fun days swimming.

Fall is just the beginning of planning recipes for stews and soups, making warm grilled cheese sandwiches after racking leaves, Gammie Anne's hot homemade coco with melting marshmallows making the perfect cloudy fluff on top of my cup.

I can't begin to tell you how much I love to cook during Fall and Winter. The kitchen is all toasty warm and I open my kitchen window for a cool breeze to blow through and cool things off. I starve Dave when he is outside working because the aromas of spice cakes, homemade lasagnas or chicken noodle soup fill the air outside.

Reminds me so much of my parent's old house down in Eudora, Mississppi when mom would start baking up all her yummy fall dishes. She never had to call my brother and I for dinner because the smells of homemade goodness would glide down the back gullies through the cut sue and pine trees... we knew it was time to wash up and head inside for supper.

Pulling out the soft, comforting sweaters and scarves. I love scarves, they can be such a wonderful accessory for an outfit. I found some great scarves on 90% off clearance at Target this Summer.

David's and my 11th wedding anniversary is coming up the middle of October. Ever since I was a little girl, I knew that whenever I got married it would be in October because of all the beautiful colors of nature during that wonderful time of year.

Shopping for this week (total $61.81) Picture coming soon!!!!

Boy this week went very fast. (I went over my budget this week by $11.81)

Kroger is still having their Mega Deal and it is just too good to pass up. My cabinets and pantry are full (completely full). I hadn't shopped Walgreens in a long time but there was a few good deals that I wanted to check out. But after a 15 minute check out on Wednesday I don't think I will be going back anytime soon. What is up with them & coupons?

Walgreens deal: (one missing from photo because Sara had it for dinner!)

Velveeta Shells & Cheese Single Cups were 3 for $3 and I had B1G1 coupons to match plus a coupon for a free Krafts BBQ sauce with any Velveeta Shells and Cheese purchase (the coupon did not specify an size) :)

Coupons wouldn't scan correctly so this is how the manager rang my order up and I just smiled and didn't say anything, after all he was the manager....

8 Velveeta Shells & Cheese Cups x .37 each= 2.96-$2 Walgreens Q= .96
1 Krafts BBQ sauce $2.39 (Free coupon was good for up to 1.79)= .60
OOP with tax: $2.01

Ok, so I have no idea where he got his numbers but I came out really good. Plus I got a $1 RR for buying the Velveeta Cups~



Kroger Trip: (+ included on Mega Deal)

8 Sobe Water .99 +
2 Fiber Chocolate Granola bars 2.49 +
2 True Delights dark Chocolate Granola Bars 2.49 +
6 Betty Crocker Cookie Mixes 1.99 +
4 Ole El Paso Products .99 +
4 Pillsbury Cresent Rolls 1.49 +
4 Fiber One Yoplait Yogurt 4pk 2.49 +
Bananas $1.50
1 Doritos .99 ( Josh treat )
1 Cookies 1.00 (Sara treat )
2 vanilla waffers 10/10 (Sara and I made Banana Pudding last night)

Mega Deal savings $15.00
E-coupons loaded on my Kroger card:
Cellfire BC Cookie Mix .40
Cellfire BC Cookie Mix .40
Cellfire Old El Paso .60
Cellfire Fiber 1 bar .40
Cellfire YoPlait Yogurt 1.00
Shortcuts Yoplait Yogurt 1.00
Shortcuts Fiber 1 Bars .40
Shortcuts BC cookie Mix .40
Shortcuts Old El Paso .60
Shortcuts Pillsbury Cresents .50

Paper coupons used:
4 Sobe Water B1G1 (manager took the full price off of 1.79 each)
4 Granola Bar q's 1.00 each
2 Old ElPaso .60 (DB) 1.20 each
2 Pillsbury cresents .40 (DB) .80 each
6 BC cookie mix .40 (DB) .80 each
2 Yoplait 1.25 each
2 Yoplait 1.35 each
.15 Credit of recycle bags

Mfg coupons: 26.06
Bonus coupons: 4.00
Kroger savings: 35.17
Total savings: 65.23

OOP (with tax): $17.27
Total number of items: 35 (like paying .49 an items!)



Target:

1 Johnson & Johnson Vapor Bath 2.50 (big bottle)
5 J&J Head to Toe wash 2.19 each
3 J&J cotton swabs 1.29 each
3 J&J lotion 1.19 each
3 pk baby socks 1.49 each
2 Starburst 2.04
M&M .52 (Josh treat, don't ask) LOL

Coupons used:
2 Starburst Target $1Q (only one came off, going back)
12 target $1 J&J Q (only eleven came off, going back)
$5 Target Q when you buy $25.00 in baby items
11 Mfg J&J coupons $1.00 (Yes she missed one of these too) :(

So they owe me $3 in coupons back, total will be 4.53 after I get that back!
OOP with tax: $ 7.53

Aldi's: $35.00

Great dinner for 4 under $10

Since I have started cutting back on my spending I am really trying to utilize what I have in my stocked pantry and our small garden. Tonight I fixed homemade pizza.

Ingredients:

2 Pillsbury Crescent Dinner Rolls 2/$4 at Kroger

Pepperoni / Aldi's $2.99 used half bag

Mozzarella Cheese 8 oz .49 (sale price) Kroger

Classico Basil/ tomato sauce (1/2 jar) .50 Kroger

Drizzle of EVOO .15

Fresh herbs FREE from our herb garden

Thinly slices plum and cherry tomatoes Free from our garden.

Banana Peppers thinly sliced Free from garden

Chiffonade of fresh Basil leaves FREE from garden (Link that explains this technique) :http://www.cookthink.com/reference/50/What_is_a_chiffonade

NOTE: Don't precut your basil it will brown very quickly. I put it on the pizza the last few minutes in the oven. It will fill your house with the best fresh smell~

It was so good. I got the idea to use the crescent rolls as the crust from a friends recipe for BBQ chicken pizza and I loved the crisp, flaky crust you get with the crescent dough.

Got "Organic" Milk

I am really sticking with the no more than $50 a week food budget this week. I can up just shy of the $50. Boy did it come very fast this week. Kroger started their Mega Sale this week and I have alot of items I want to get over the next two weeks while the sale runs BUT I am having to space out what I buy so I stay within budget.

Part of my weekly budget went to Horizon milk for my daughter, to be exact $12.81 (including tax).

Some weeks are more unusual than others. For the last four weeks Kroger had the Horizon Organic Milk 8oz. Singles on sale for $1.00, normally $1.19. I was able to get 80 coupons off Ebay for a few dollars last week and again this week that were for .25 off one.

Luckily my Kroger doubles every coupon 60 cents and below so I would be saving 50 cents a milk. That is a 50% savings plus I got a recycle bag credit for every bag of my own I used. The only down side is they will only double 8 of the same coupon in one transaction so that meant multipule transactions but my Kroger is just around the corner from my house.

Mom was sweet enough to take half the coupons and purchase the milk also. So we got 80 milks for $40 normal price would have cost us $95.20.

The things I do for my kids, they really do love this milk and this is my daughter's favorite drink for her school lunches. Another plus is that is shelf safe, meaning I do not have to refrigerate any of the milk until I am ready to use them. This should keep her stocked in organic milk this complete semester of school and if I squeeze in a Capri Sun every now and then I can make them last a good ways into January maybe February.

Check out these Rockstar Shoes~

Check out Sara Hailey's new Cupcake Couture High Tops~


We didn't need to get very much on no tax weekend a few weekends ago BUT we did want to get Sara and Joshua new pairs of shoes.



We went to Rack Room Shoes first to look and pretty much knew we would be getting Sara Hailey her shoes there but wanted to look around for Josh a pair of tennis shoes. The little boy shoes were $45 a pop. Dave and I about croaked. I mean really $45 for a pair of kid's tennis shoes. While Sara and I were trying her shoes on her, one of the sales ladies came over to us and gave Sara a scratch off card for the brand of shoes she was trying on and she also thought Sara was so cute in her new shoes she had her walk around for everyone to see (very cute) Sara scratched off her card & got a $5 off coupon. I was so excited and then I read the "small print" which said on all shoes $20.00 or more and you may have guessed her shoes were $19.99.





Why do so many stores do that. I find that so funny because most stores price their items $xx.99 or $xx.97 and then send out coupons that you have to spend $xx.00 to get the discount. Always one penny off.



Anyway I ask one of the sales ladies if I would be able to use the coupon being that is was just 1 penny short to qualify for the coupon and the manager was walking by and said I could! SCORE!!



So we got her shoes for $14.99, it sure does pay off to be a nice shopper~



Here is Joshua with his great shoes that Dave found at Walmart the same day. They were $15.00 and fit so good, so much better than the $45 pairs at Rack Room. His little toes were getting squished in his other tennis shoes. And of course they are Cars.

He is very proud of his new tennis shoes and has told everyone that his daddy picked them out for him!

Those Cute Cullen Kids

Just had to share some cute pictures of the kids from last week:

Joshua with his serious look.

This is more like it!

I don't know many 6 year olds that have made $240...

Sara Hailey finally got her check for her first modeling job back in May. She was so thrilled to go and pick up her check at the modeling agency last week. We are praying there will be more work soon, as it has been very slow this summer for child modeling.

Memphis is on the grow but still has a long way to come for this type of business. We do feel luck that very recently a lot of the big clients and advertisement companies from New York and Chicago have started to come down to Memphis to hire talent because the cost is so much less. I hope that trend continues and more and more business comes to the Mid South. Sara is such a joyful child and that comes out so much in her pictures.

We did let her buy a very, very special treat with some of her money. She worked very hard the day of the shoot and really did an outstanding job considering they also had a videographer there and wanted to film her doing different facial expressions and she has had no training in acting.

We are hoping to find some classes she can take to help boost her confidence and get her comfortable with being in front of a camera, whether it be for video or still shots.

I will post later with what we let her pick out, the rest went into her bank account where it will be saved for the future.

Encouraging Word:

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Proverbs 4:23

Homemade at its best~

I devoted today to trying my hand at canning peaches for the very first time. Joshua and I drove up to Jones Orchard on Tuesday and I bought what I think was a peck of peaches. Still trying to figure all that out. LOL

I had done my homework and read every article I could find on the internet and ask my mom for a few pointers here and there. More excited than nervous I started quick boiling the peaches to get the skins off and the rest worked out perfect.

I was able to get four pints of sliced peached and 2 pints of halved peaches with cinnamon & clove. I read on another website to save all the extra skins, bits and pieces to cook down and make jelly, I even threw in the peach pitts.

I am cooking that down with about 7 cups of sugar right now. I had Dave go pick up some 4oz jelly jars from Kroger and I sure hope this sets up for jelly.

Update: I am one tired puppy~

One woman's trash is another woman's treasure

Around this time of year for the last 4 years I would be turning my dining room into a make-shift retail shop to prepare for the Highland Street Kid's Consignment Sale. Sorting, ironing, arranging, tagging, pricing, listing everything on inventory sheets and packing it all up to deliver to a church way out past Wolfe Chase Mall and if I wanted to volunteer I could shop early when all the good stuff is still there and then come pack up whatever didn't sale back up.

Well this Fall is a little different, I didn't want to participate this year. I guess I was just so tired of being tired that I looked through my busy Fall schedule and "X" what I could out. I was feeling a little bad for not participating but for my sanity I declined.

I stumbled upon a sweet little secondhand store on Tuesday (My DAY OFF now) and decided to go check it out and see if I could find any canning supplies (We will leave that topic for another day). Anyway I decided I would look through the children's clothes and see if there was anything worth getting. To my surprise I found many items for Sara & Joshua and even a pair of shorts for me. I also found some great picture frames for the Grandmother's and Great Grandmother's Christmas gift.

I went to check out feeling so good about my treasures I had found and to my surprise all the clothes were on sale for 50% off. So my $2.00 shirts I found for Josh were $1.00 and the beautiful smocked dress I found Sara was $2.00 instead of $4.00. On top of that all the proceeds go to missions over seas.

There are so many people I know that wouldn't set foot in a little place like that, well that is just fine with me because that is less people I have to share my treasures with~