Husbands will only eat so much Chex Mix…..

Sometimes when getting free stuff, or getting paid by the store to take the stuff, I get carried away. Like Chex Mix. We like Chex Mix and eat it, even more enjoyable when it’s free. But at a certain point, enough is enough.

DONATE!

Food banks are really hurting right now. With the economy the way it is, demand is high and donations are low. Maybe you got too much free something. Maybe you used a freebie offer to try something new and you don’t like it. Whatever the reason, please take a few minutes out of your day and drop it off at the food bank. I go to the one in Kennett, directions and hours are here. It’s down by the high school and sits back from the road in a very non-descript building.

Have extra toothpaste? If you’ve been doing this even for a few weeks, chances are you have too much toothpaste. A few places I donate my health/beauty items:
Churches and VFWs/American Legions often send packages to troops.
Planned Parenthood or local WIC office
Ask your hairdresser if their salon participates in helping domestic violence shelters–many do. Most domestic violence shelters do not publish their addresses for security reasons.
Ask your school nurse or school counselor if they have a family in need–you’d be surprised how many needy people are right in your neighborhood.

Whatever you do–don’t throw it away. Getting free stuff is fun, but giving to those who need it is even more satisfying.

Spoke too soon…..and $5 Walgreen’s Q

Ok, there’s a Huggies deal at CVS starting Sunday. So I probably will wait to retire that second card. Other good deals too, I’ll post either tonight or tomorrow, stay tuned.

And here’s a $5 wags coupon good today and tomorrow only. And here is the hcw discussion on how to use it.

New savings goal, retiring a CVS card, getting a Wags card

My savings goal for 2006-2007 was to try to keep the same ECBs rolling. Done. I’m actually still rolling those 2006 ECBs. Then last August my goal was to not pay for diapers for a year. Done. My new goal–not to pay for diapers at all for baby #2. So far I have about a 6 month supply for him, if I’ve guessed at his growth rate correctly. But I’m going to continue to take advantage of diaper deals and stock up in hopes of never paying for diapers for him.

In an earlier post, I told you about how CVS was going crazy last year with giving away ECBs with glucometers. It was during that time that I got another extra care card in my husband’s name, so that I could get more monitors and therefore, more ECBs. It was confusing at times, maintaining two cards and two sets of ECBs, but it was really worth it for the diaper deals. Most of the diaper deals are limit one, so I would do one on each card.

Somehow through carelessness and just being too busy, I’ve let that card get down to $4 ecb. So I think I’m going to retire it for now. The deals just haven’t been that great lately to warrant trying to juggle two cards. If some “can’t miss this” deals come along, I can always use it. My other card has about $40 to go with it, which is appx the amount I like to maintain.

Instead, I think for the first time, I’m going to submit some Walgreen’s rebates and get a Walgreen’s gift card. GCs do not expire, so it will be easier to maintain than ECBs. Also, Wags has been offering some decent deals, freebies and moneymakers lately, so I’d like to start taking advantage of them. I did the Dimetapp deal over the weekend and used that $10 RR to buy Halloween candy, so that’s one rebate I can submit. I still have $10 RR left–I think I’m going to go get more Ragu, then use those rolled RR to get a L’oreal something for a rebate.

So I’ll still post CVS deals, but you’ll probably be seeing more Walgreen’s deals here too.

Cheap & Easy Chicken Chili

Ok, if you’ve been paying attention and getting the good deals I’ve been posting, here’s a good recipe that you should be able to make with what you have on hand. Looking at the list of ingredients, I know I paid $1.39 for the chicken, everything else was just about free or free. So this is a good, fast, low fat, high protein meal for under $2.

1.5 lb of chicken breast, chopped into bite size pieces (I paid 1.39/lb)
1 can of cream of chicken soup (maybe 0.50)
1 packet of taco seasoning mix (free at Walmart or 0.09 at Acme)
2 large cans of black beans, drained (free during Wild Harvest sale at Acme)
1 small can of chicken broth or 1 c water (maybe 0.50 or free)

Mix all that together and put in crockpot on low for appx 4-6 hours. Serve with either cheese, chopped jalapenos or tortilla chips.