The sporadic posts around here are a result of a three week long road trip (from WA to San Diego and back again with three kids…) as well as some very busy happenings in our households. Posts may be a bit more sporadic and spontaneious this summer which hopefully fits in with your lifestyles, I am excited to share over the next few weeks some cool recipes for keeping cool in the heat such as fresh frozen yogurt, our favorite ice cream, and yogurt popsicles so stay tuned!

Come on over to Missionary Moms today for part six of my series on grieving and be sure and comment to let me know you stopped by!

Be sure to check back every Monday for money saving tips for your family!

We wish we had the funds to buy all organic vegetables, we really do but the reality of our financial situation right now is that we cannot. That does not take away my desire to feed my children as few pesticides and bacteria as possible though! If your budget is constricting in this area you may want to spend some extra time washing your vegetables thoroughly before feeding them to your family to reduce some of the toxic consumption. Even if you do buy organic the fruits and vegetables you have still contain bacteria!!! This is a very inexpensive way to reduce bacteria ingestion that works for me!

1. Before putting produce away wash and dry it all

Please be advised this is what works for me, otherwise my husband forgets to wash it before eating (ewww!) but washing fruits and vegetables before consumption does reduce thier shelf life. If you have trouble with fruit and vegetables going bad you will want to just wash it hte day of

1. Use a mixture of vinegar and water as a spray on the vegetables

I have a confession to make I am really really in love with vinegar. About a year ago I started using it as a vegetable wash. I put a little in a spray bottle with water and went to town. It just seemed to get my veggies and fruit cleaner and didn’t leave any lingering flavor or smell. I simply spritzed the surface and then rubbed and rinsed under water (or in a bowl). Then I came across this fabulous article from NPR (love that station!) that explains just how effective it is.

According to the article the vinegar scrub removed 95% of the bacteria, a 15% increase from water alone. ( some people argue it does nothing more then water…but it makes my fruit feel “cleaner” and less waxy) Less bacteria and no expensive vegetable scrub, yes please!

1. Dry the vegetables thoroughly before putting them away
   

This may seem like common sense but it is always a good reminder…your veggies will stay fresher longer when they are put away dry not wet. I just allow them to air dry on the counter (usually overnight) and then place them back in their bags…

What ways do you frugally reduce bacteria and contaminants in your food?

Frugal Friday Recipe: Pigs in a pizza dough blanket

My husband told me the other day that this was his favorite meal that I have ever made. I’m not sure if that is a compliment, insult or testimony to the fact that he really is a kid at heart!

1. Your first step is to make a batch of this super fast no rise time needed pizza dough that I shared with you last week. You will also need a few slices of cheese and some hot dogs.

2. Roll the dough out into a circle and cut into very large pizza slice shapes (they could be a bit thinner then pictured…just make sure they are wide enough on the outer edge to cover your hot dog.

3. Place the cheese down on the outer edge of the dough and then place your hot dog or sausage down and began to roll.

4. Bake at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until dough is no longer soft in the  middle. We spread some egg yolks on the top to make them turn a bit browner. You can freeze these and then reheat for an easy corn dog type snack or meal on the go!

Be sure to check back every Monday for money saving tips for your family!

This is part three of a mini series on increasing your productivity, after all time is money right?  You can read my other tips by clicking here for part 1 and here for part 2.

It is helpful when looking at your day to identify the task (or tasks) that you least want to accomplish and then do them first!. This helps your productivity on your other items. I find when I tackle the chore I least want to do first (cleaning the bathroom!) then I am much more productive throughout the day because I am not spending my day thinking about how to avoid doing that one chore, or how much I do not want to do it. Often subconsciously I avoid doing other things I ought to do just because I am trying to avoid that “I don’t want to” item. When that item is gone and checked off I am much more diligent ot perform my other items and (most importantly) spend time with my kids building into their hearts. Do you know that you as a parent are the most important and influential person in  your child’s life until age 10? That is not much time to pour into and learn from their hearts and I certainly don’t want to allow my “I don’ want to’s” to keep me from nurturing and learning from my child’s heart.

Your turn to share! How do you motivate yourself to do the things you least want to accomplish each day? Do you do these items first or last and why?

Frugal Friday Recipe: Fresh Pizza in 30  minutes!

I cannot for the life of me remember why I have not posted this, our favorite pizza recipe, and meal we serve to company the most (and eat the most) on this site yet. This is my most requested recipe and my credit goes to, Camp Berachah Fund Raising 30  minutes or less Italian cookbook (this is compliments of “mandy”).

Gather ingredients (and a helper if you want!)

1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

2 1/2 cups flour (we do 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white)

(optional add Italian seasoning, Parmesan cheese and garlic powder or fresh garlic to the dough!!!

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add the rest of the ingredients in and mix.

Dump onto a floured surface .

Knead into a smooth dough (five minutes or so).

Roll out and press down onto a greased pizza pan.

Add toppings. (Have fun and be creative with this! Our favorite variety is salsa or barbecue sauce, diced cooked chicken, and cheese.)

Bake at 450 degrees F. for around 12-15 minutes until the crust looks crispy and lightly browned.

By the way, you can make up a double or triple batch of the pizza crust dough and freeze the extras if you don’t need it. This speeds up the preparation even more as all you have to do is pull out a bag of dough and a bag of chopped cooked chicken in the morning and then put the pizza together right before you’re ready to eat. A double batch can be easily made in your kitchenaid!

Here are some of my favorite printable coupons and printable deals for this week. I recommend printing them now as sometimes they run out. Then you have them on hand when a good sale comes around.

You can scroll through the coupons to the left of this post to see more these are just my favorites for the week!

*If you are having trouble printing coupons try printing in a different browser (Internet Explorer or Firefox)

From the sidebar to the left of this post (select the offers you want then click “print”) or click here to see all the coupons from coupons.com and print your favorites or here to view all of the online Red Plum coupons to print your favorites…

Some of my favorite internet printable coupons!:

Be sure and go to your local safeway milk cases and pick up a celebrating summer dairy coupon book (located inside the milk case) these have coupons for dairy products and cheese!!!!!

$1/2 Nabisco snack packs click here

$.50/1 Neumann’s Own pasta sauce click here

$.55/1 Sargento Cheese click here

$1/1 Filippo Berio Olive Oil click here

$1/1 Sara Lee Deli click here

$.50/1 C&H Sugar click here

$3/1 Huggies Diapers click here

$2/2 Huggies wipes click here

$1.50/1 Huggies little swimmers click here

Deals from previous weeks which you may still be able to print can be found here

Here are a few of my favorite deals at some of the stores near me. I highlighted deals you can get just with your printer and things that personally interest me, but also linked up to complete coupon match-ups. Where are you going shopping this week and why?

Winco doesn’t publish an ad but I stumbled across this when I was buying some bulk spices this week. SO EXCITING!

Precious String Cheese $2.98

Look on select packages (Fred Meyer had a ton of these too!) for rebate forms save $5 on 2. This deal gets better…up to 5 rebates per household.
Total after rebate = $.48 cents / 12 pack (and you can get 10 12 packages at this price) AMAZING!!!!

Fred Meyer (runs through Saturday 6/12)

Nothing to tempt me here this week. Let me know what I missed!

Red and Green Grapes $1.28/lb

Lots of other deals this week click here to head over to Coupon Connections NW for their complete list

Albertsons (Deals good through 6/15)

I’m not interested in Albertsons this week…tell me if you are shopping this week there and why!

head on over here to The Krazy Coupon Lady to see a list of all the coupon match-ups

Safeway (Deals good through 6/15)

Is it just me that feels uninspired by the “deals this week. There is a cheese deal with a coupon but it is just fair for Tillamook you can find details below.

The Krazy Coupon Lady has done a complete list of match-ups here

Top Food (prices good through Tuesday (6/15)

Again not seeing anything work stocking up on

You can find the complete list of match-ups form Coupon Connection NW here

Where are you shopping this week? Any great deals I missed?

TODAY ONLY PURCHASE REGAL UNLIMITED MOVIE TICKETS FOR ONLY $4!!!!!

This deal is good for Seattle Only and only while supplies last!

This is limit 1 ticket per person (you can open up 1 account per person and email address though). Your tickets will be  mailed in 1-2 weeks. This ticket will work in the greater Seattle area (what a great graduation gift!). My husband and I each ordered one for a date night for us later on instead of gifting though!

Here’s how to get this (while supplies last) create a free account at Mobba. Log into your account. on the lefthand side it has “deals by location” link to the “seattle location” and purchase your ticket. SImple Simple ! Let me know if you can get one before supplies run out!

If you are tired of filling out forms download a free copy of roboform and let it do the work for you!

Here are some new freebies I see:

Free sample of Dove conditioning sample click here

Free sample cottenelle toilet paper click here

Starbucks VIA ready brew sample click here

Pantene customized hair sample click here

For other free things I have told you about in the past click here

Be sure to check back every Monday for money saving tips for your family!

May is now completed so it is time to reflect on your budget? How did you do for your financial goals this month? I was a bit nervous about way over exceeding my budget for the month because we started the month with lots of hosting and a few birthday parties for my four year old and such events while fabulously fun often push a bit outside of our normal spending and htis was no exception! With a very scant amount to work with for the remaining weeks we did a bit of living out of our pantry challenges and ended the month $10 ahead! I did not do as much couponing this past month due to some specific party supplies which diminished my budget and am not foreseeing doing as much for June due to an extended road trip but saved none the less!  I wanted to encourage you if this month did not meet your expectations to put last month aside (after learning from your mistakes or just evaluating life events) and jump into June refreshed with new goals and high expectations, if you achieved or exceeded your goals for this past month be encouraged and use that momentum to continue your success on into the February (and the whole year!).

I had mentioned earlier that I was keeping track of our grocery spending AND savings this month and here is the breakdown on how much (percentage wise) we saved implementing several money saving strategies (a side note I did not buy ANY products with high fructose corn syrup this month (or really ever) so these are savings on items that are relatively healthy!

May Total Savings: 32%

This savings on grocery and household items was reached by

Shopping store sales and specials: 20%

Using coupons, in store and in newspapers: 12%

Mail in rebates: 0%

How did you do for May? Any changes or ideas that you can think of to improve your budget for June?