Giving a Little Thanks and Also, Bookshelves

We had a blessed Thanksgiving here in chilly St. Louis.  My brothers came up for the day and we had a really good visit and lots of food.  I think it was my best Thanksgiving in a long time.  I was sad when they left us.

I've been shopping for Christmas since October and I'm about done.  I just have to buy one or two more things for my brothers.  They are so hard to shop for that I'm always shopping for them last.  Any ideas on what to buy two bachelors who have everything they want already?

Hubby and I finally bought bookshelves for our new home so I can unbox my cookbooks and literature.  Right now he is assembling the shelving we bought at Target and it is making my day.  My best deal was a little wire baker's rack that just fits in our kitchen.  We tried a new thrift store in our new town during their Black Friday half off sale so I got it for $10.00.  My beloved cookbooks now have a home and I have a few less boxes on our floor!!!  Also, he bought a new camera for us for $60 to replace our old broken one.  Perhaps that will mean this blog may have pictures again soon.

I've got pizza dough in the bread machine for our pizza dinner.  It's a lazy day at home with the family.  I'll be ready for the kids to go back to school tomorrow but for now, I'm so blessed with this crazy goodness.

I'm Thankful for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving doesn't get the recognition it deserves. It's a quiet holiday. There are no sparkly tinsel trappings. The fanciest thing you might get is pretty whipped cream swirls on top of your pumpkin pie or seeing the Rockettes on tv during the Macy's parade. It's a humble holiday that lets me spend a quiet day with my family, eating good food, and remembering to count my abundant blessings.

But, we tend to gloss right over it as though after Halloween the only holiday is Christmas. And it's a material filled marketers Christmas- not the holy, simple, yule logged Christmas of yore. Even Black Friday seems sexier than Thanksgiving.

Lately, I've been preferring Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to a whole day spent with my family when our days are filled up and our weekends are crazy busy with soccer and birthday parties. Christmas, as much as I love it, has become a season of stress and chores. I'm tired already for trying to decide what gifts to give people who have everything (and might turn up their nose at the wrong gift). I have some issues to work out with Christmas. But, Thanksgiving- it's all good with Thanksgiving.

I've been lax about keeping on top of our pantry items. I'll be shopping from the list on this old post about our holiday meal planning.

Filling Easter Baskets

Easter is a little over a month away. I'm a little late doing a free filler search online but here's what I've found:

Free train coloring book from Norfolk Southern. This is great for my train loving boy.

Free sample of kid's cream of wheat. There are flavors like Spongebob Chocolate lagoon.

Mariani Dried Plums sample. Use the code SUPERFRUIT

Free Kid card from Hallmark.com.

Free family dvd. You need to supply your phone number so they can help you select a dvd.

Free Kashi cereal bar sample

Burt's Bees tooth paste sample.

Free Board Book from LeapFrog when you register and link up a toy you have from them. This was easy to do.

Not really a free sample but here's a code for 50 points for disneymovierewards.com 9FTMRYWEK

So far I've collected:

Two after Christmas baskets marked way down.

A pipe cleaner easter bunny kit NIP for .50 at the thrift store

After Valentine's day candy for 50-75% off

A Barbie Dvd that I received with my swapadvd credits.

A four pack of Hubba Bubba gum for 1.19 that I plan on dividing

A really gross bugs video from the 1$ store.

I still have paperbackswap credits to use to get more kids books too.
Also, our library has sale books for ten cents.

What freebies or ideas do you have for your frugal Easter basket?

Free Valentines

If you have children who need to take Valentine's cards to school you might want to stop by Krispy Kreme and pick up some free cards.

I picked up a free pack of twelve cute cards today and all have an attached coupon for a free donut.

I have read that these are free after the purchase of a dozen donuts but I only purchased three.

Buche De Noel FAIL

Proving once again that I'm no Meredith (or Andrew in this case). Our attempt at this convenience food activity devolved into a wresting match with silly name calling before we'd even opened the last package. At least we tried.

Happy Valentine's Day

Hubby dropped me off at Aldi after our lunch out so I could pick up a few things. I couldn't resist a 3.99 bouquet of flowers and chocolate hazelnut wafers.

When I got in the car I said, "You got me roses and chocolate for Valentines. Thanks."

He gave me a big smile because after 12 years of marriage I know he loves me and gift romantic buying is really not his thing. The first few years of marriage he sent me expensive bouquets from delivery florists. Those were great and I was happy to get them. But, I'm no less thrilled by cheaper flowers and the savings are substantial.

The man works hard all week, helps care for the kids when he's home, comes home every night to his family, and provides for whatever we need. I don't need him to spend a lot of money to tell me he loves on one day of the year when he tells me he loves me everyday in so many other ways.
Happy Valentines Day, Sweetie! Thanks for knocking out that mortgage payment every month.

Menu Planning: Nine dollars and some change for grocery shopping this week.

Even shopping for Valentines Day card candy at the Dollar Store took a chunk out of my budget this week. (The cards are a combination of last years leftovers, after Valentines discount, and salvaged from my Grandma's house. The fun in this is that my kids got to choose from a lot of different cards for each school friend. If I can't find more cards after Valentines this year I'll definitely be making homemade ones with the kids from construction paper and paper doilies that I have stockpiled. )

I have just enough for milk and some produce at Aldi.

This week I need to: Soak pinto beans, thaw the tofurkey roast, and make yogurt for breakfast.
Dinners-
Monday: We had three Burger King veggie burgers. Still not feeling great and this was our dinner low cost option.

Tuesday- We're having pizza. I found some frozen dough in the freezer, half a bag of mozzarella , and half a jar of spaghetti sauce in the fridge. I've also got some spinach in the crisper that has seen better days so I'll salvage what I can for a topping.

Wednesday- Pinto Beans, Fried Taters and Onions, and Corn Bread. I've been craving this for awhile. Anyone else eat this growing up? I remember the potatoes sometimes had a crispy crust like corn meal on it.

Thursday- Tofurkey Roast and stuffing. I found one last clearance tofurkey in the basement freezer. I'll make a small heart shaped cake for Valentines Day and top it with any leftover V-day card candy.

Friday- Leftover Buffet.

Let's Talk Tofurky

Our feast was excellent this year and went off with nary a hitch. We added a new recipe with these buttery rolls.

The Tofurkys we bought last winter (after Thanksgiving on half price clearance) came with a container of gravy. Ok, this gravy is very weird. It's more spongy than liquid. It doesn't have that umami flavor of a good brown gravy either and it needs salt. Having said that, it isn't horrible and I hate to waste food. So, I mixed up some brown gravy from a packet and mixed in the tub of spongy weird tofurky gravy. And I highly recommend that. After all, who doesn't love having extra gravy?

The tofurky ball does come with a wild rice stuffing in the middle but it's fairly bland and not copious so I would definitely make another side of stuffing.

I also double this basting recipe that I love. It was on the first box of Tofurky that I ever bought and I haven't seen it on the box since.

This is the undoubled recipe:

1/8 cup of orange juice
2 tbs. of brown sugar
1/8 cup of soy sauce.

I think what makes it so tasty is this soy sauce. This is absolutely the best soy sauce I have ever tasted.
I have only found it in ethnic grocery stores though.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Wishing you all a restful and happy holiday!


To celebrate, I will not be doing any Black Friday or any other type of holiday shopping.

I will instead enjoy my family and count all my blessings.

Pink Eye, Sinus Infections and Pie.

We've traded colds and conjunctivitis for two or three weeks. I've considered putting off our Thanksgiving feast until this weekend since I'm doing good to get a load of laundry done and a can of soup heated for lunch.

I -almost- bought a ready made pumpkin pie at the grocery store. Sigh. If I do a little bit each day then I might be able to manage.

But, the bills are caught up, the larder is full, and we'll get to spend a four day weekend together. Even if we are sick.

Traditions and Turkeys.

I've already started shopping for my small family's vegetarian Thanksgiving Feast. It's the same menu as last year. There's a Tofurky tucked in the freezer from last years after Thanksgiving clearance. Tomorrow I'll be going to Aldi to get some .99 cent bagged cranberries for making fresh sauce. There are a few whole pumpkins on the porch from Halloween to cook. And I have a few cans of slightly dented and unlabeled pumpkin cans from the salvage grocery in the pantry.
I've yet to find a Thanksgiving printable for this year's Thankful tree. I may end up making my own for Big Girl.

I love Thanksgiving because I get to spend the day with my family. I love the food. There's no pressure for us to give gifts or run to and fro. For us, it's just a nice relaxing holiday.
And we get a four day weekend so we do have time to visit relatives -if we want to-.

One thing we've started doing is putting the Christmas tree up on Thanksgiving night. This year I may start a tradition of making these cinnamon cookies and maybe serving them with egg nog or cocoa.

Happy Easter!

Well, it's snowing here (and flooding) this morning. And our Big Girl is still sick and fevery. As I was getting ready to put her in her fancy Easter dress I realized that she was hot and shivering. Poor thing. No church. No Easter pictures in their fancy clothes today either.

But, the Easter Bunny did make a delivery.



I bought Little Guy a Radio Flyer wagon toy (at Goodwill) before Christmas. I filled it with a like new board book, a new lift the flap Bible, some candy, and a Bob the Builder toy that I found at Goodwill.

Big Girl got a pretty basket (from Goodwill) filled with a new umbrella (that she needed), some socks, some hair bows, a Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit book (from Goodwill), a new Veggie Tales Story Bible, and some candy.

Both kids got Kinder Surprise Eggs that we bought back from Italy. I think you can get them in the States but Kinder is everywhere in Italy.
I also hid eggs around the house. I added a few kisses and things that I bought on clearance after Christmas. To reduce the amount of candy I've saved my pocket change for the past month to fill their eggs. As we opened up our plastic eggs we sorted the candy into a mug and the change into their piggy banks. It worked well.

Now I have to go work on Tofurky and maybe watch some of Lady and the Tramp movie we borrowed from the library.

Easter Feaster

Well, this is another year that I won't quite pull a delicious 'scratch' rabbit out of the hat for Easter. Oh well.
With one sick little girl and an active two year old I'll take what I can get.

Our feast:

One after Thanksgiving clearance Tofurky Roast with potatoes, onion, celery, and carrot and a orange juice, brown sugar and soy sauce glaze.

Deviled eggs made from our decorated Easter eggs


A can of reduced fat crescent rolls bought with double coupons.

A key lime pie made from a double couponed Keebler graham cracker crust, a 1.00 (Dollar Tree) Musselman's can of key lime pie filling , a sale purchased tub of Cool Whip and topped with shavings from a hershey's bar leftover from our power outtage that I found in the pantry.



Big Girl has had a fever since 2 am last night. I know she's sick when she actually sleeps during the day. She got in a good nap next to her Daddy though.

Easter Cookies With Mommy

I'm short on time today but I wanted to do something special with my daughter. I also wanted to make a treat for Easter.
I called Duncan Hines and asked for a recipe to make cake mix cookies.

Here's the recipe from the company:

1 box dry cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup of oil

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Let the cookies sit for two minutes before removing from the baking pan.

We added 1/2 tsp. orange extract, colored sprinkles, and some yellow and red food coloring to our mix.


Now it's time to tackle the toy pick up and the laundry.

If you still haven't finished your Easter baskets here's a Dollar Stretcher article by Debra Taylor-Hough.

Eggs in a basket.

Do you need to fill an Easter basket or two? My local Goodwill had a ton of baskets for sale. Most of them were a dollar or two. They had shredded paper grass in baggies for .19 cents and a dozen plastic eggs for about the same. There was other packaged goodies that I didn't price and Paas egg coloring kits for .49 cents.
I bought a bag of cellophane Easter goodie bags for .30 cents to fill and send to my nieces.




I bought a mini Radio Flyer wagon for my son at Goodwill a few months ago. I've saved it to use as his Easter basket.

I bought a fancy Easter basket for Big Girl today that I will use in her closet for storage after Easter.


When Target had their dollar area stuff on a 75% off sale we picked out four items apiece for my twin nieces. I'm going to fill four plastic eggs for each with some leftover birthday party candy and put them in the cellophane baggies and send them on their way.

Scholastic books frequently has a .95 cent book in their mini catalog. I buy one or two every time to save for cheap gifts and fillers.

This year I bought new Bible story books for each kid at Wal-Mart because they had exactly what I wanted. But, in the past I have found great books at the Goodwill for .35 cents.

I bought a package of cheap jelly beans for .50 cents and a package of Reese's Peanut butter eggs for the candy. I'm also going to fill their eggs with change from my wallet. They love feeding their piggy banks so much and I don't have to deal with the extra candy or a junky plastic toy.

I stockpiled small sized art supplies from clearance racks over the past year to add to their baskets instead of toys too.

Since I bought new books and I spent a few dollars on their 'baskets' (which will be very usable after Easter) I wasn't exactly frugal this year. I spent about $10-15 dollars on each child. But, I'm also trying to bypass the extra clutter and get functional items instead.

Waiting for the Egg Sales

With the rise in the price of eggs (and everything else) I've been anxiously awaiting the pre-Easter egg sales. Looking through my grocery fliers today I still didn't see those harbingers of spring on sale. But, if you like corned beef you're in luck.

Too bad I've got a serious craving for deviled eggs.

Not that I planned it this way but....

I love that Valentine's Day stuff goes on clearance right before my daughter's birthday. Any leftover sprinkles, candies, doilies, tights, toys, and cake mixes get scooped up for a song and used as party favors, Easter basket fillers and other stuff. If you find a generic box of chocolates (like Whitmans) they would make a great Father's day gift.

I bought this dress last year for $2 at Target after Valentine's day. She wore it yesterday to her Valentine's Day party at preschool. She was not in the mood to smile for the camera





Big Girl decorated our brownies with sprinkles I bought for .25 cents last year at Target. The mix was a low-fat Betty Crocker that was on sale for .89 cents at the grocery this morning. The low-fat is a good buy because because it only needs one egg and 1 tbsp. of oil.

**The brownies came out very moist and tasty. Not a hint of anything low fat to them.

Celebrating Valentines Day Aldi Style

Valentines day in our house is pretty low key. The first year we tried to go out to dinner on the big night it was impossible to find a restaurant that wasn't packed. We ended up getting pizzas at the worlds nastiest Pizza Hut just because we were so hungry.

At Aldis I bought a 2.99 bouquet of roses, a package of frozen eggplant parmesan, and a package of frozen stuffed shells. We stockpiled sparkling cider after Christmas. I'll add a salad, some garlic bread and maybe a dessert and we're all done.

No sitter. No fancy meal out. No stress.

Target had fancy candy bars in exotic flavors like cardamom and gingerbread for .50 cents after Christmas. That's my Valentines gift to my Sweetie.

Two more for the Easter Basket

One reason that I love Easter is that it's a relatively low cost holiday. I always manage to find small basket fillers throughout the year either through yard sale/thrifting or getting good deals on clearance. It's also easy to gather kid freebies throughout the year and hoard them for stockings and baskets. The only purchase I make right before the big day is for chocolate bunnies.

I guess this isn't necessarily completely free since it includes a purchase and a stamp but I thought it seemed like a good deal. I was buying my Quaker Instant Oatmeal at Big Lots but now will have to find another cheap source or even make my own.

Send in 1 valid Quaker Instant Oatmeal UPC and receive a free copy of The Chimpanzees of Happytown while supplies last. Mail the UPC with your name, address, email address and phone number to:

Quaker Book Offer
557 Broadway
P.O. Box 711
New York, NY 10012

OFFER TERMS: To receive your free copy of The Chimpanzees of Happytown or another Scholastic book of Sponsor's choice (estimated retail value $3.99) simply mail in one original UPC from any Quaker Instant Oatmeal product along with your name, daytime phone number, email address, and complete mailing address to (see above). Offer expires April 1, 2008 or wile the supply of 5,000 books lasts. No copies, facsimiles, or reproductions of the UPC codes will be accepted. Duplicate requests will constitute fraud. Limit one free book per person or household. No group, commercial, or business requests. Not responsible for lost, late, incomplete, illegible, damaged, postage-due or otherwise undeliverable mail. Offer goo din U.S. only. Offer void where taxed, restricted, or prohibited by law. Please allow 4-6 weeks for shipment.




Also, if you haven't already ordered the free Planet Heroes dvd I think it's still available through this link.

Too Early to discuss Easter baskets?

For those of you who have little girls (or boys) who are Angelina Ballerina fans, there is a Angelina Plush doll giveaway.