Hyvee Trip!

Woohoo for some good deals @ Hyvee this week! I've been looking for some salty snack deals and Campbell's Cream of Mushroom deals and they're starting to come!

Campbell's Tomato Soup - Retail $1.49 (x4)
On sale with Store Coupon for 39cents (limit 4)
40cents/4 MC

Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup - Retail $1.49 (x8)
On sale for 69cents
40cents/4 MC (x2)

Nabisco Wheat Thins - Retail $2.99 (x5)
On sale for $1.77
$1/1 MC (x5)

Old Orchard Cranberry Juice - Retail $2.99 (x2)
On sale for $1.88
$1/1 MC (x2)

Total Retail: $38.81
Total Paid: $11.40
Total Saved: $27.41 or 70%!

Don't ask me how - Because I really don't understand it.. But I'm looking at my receipt and my tax was a NEG 9cents. IDK how I made money with tax, but I did! Odd right? None of the items were taxable, seeing how they were food right? I don't know.. I don't get it.. But I'm not asking questions.. I'm taking the 9 cents and I'm RUNNING!

SO.. I'm not sure what else to put here about couponing.. Please! Ask me questions! Everyone is always asking me to TEACH THEM TEACH THEM! Well here's your chance to ask me anything and I will try my best to awnser!!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Oh winter weather is here!! Yuck!! lol But one thing I love about cold weather is cuddling up to a warm bowl of homemade soup! I've posted both my French Onion and Potato soups here.. SO it's time for my homemade chicken noodle!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

1 whole fryer chicken
4-5 ribs celery, finely diced
4-5 carrots, finely diced
1 large onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tb lemon juice

Noodles:
1 whole egg
3 egg yolks
3 c flour
1 Tb salt
1-4 Tb water

Sautee the celery, onions, carrots, and garlic in large stock pot with olive oil on medium heat until translucent. Remove and set aside. Turn up the heat to medium-high and add the chicken. Allow to brown on all sides. Remove the chicken and deglase the stock pot with the lemon juice. Then add the veggies and chicken back to the pot. Fill with enough water to cover the chicken at least 3/4 of the way. Cover with lid and allow to simmer on med-high for at least 1 hour. You may need to flip it over a few times to make sure it is cooking evenly. It's also helpful to skim the fat and foam off the top occasionally that is relased from the chicken while cooking.

Mean while - For the noodles - Beat eggs and 1TB of the water together. Sift flour and salt together. Form a mound of flour on the clean counter and press a well in the center of it. Add egg mixture and slowly incorperate flour into it. May need to add more water to get to a smooth consistancy. Dough should not be too dry, but should not be sticky either. Knead until smooth. Divide into two and wrap in pastic wrap and allow to chill.

Once chicken is fully cooked removed from broth. Pick all the chicken meat from the bone and cut into bite sized chunks. Bring broth back up to a boil. Roll out noodle until 1/8in thick. Use a pizza cutter to cut into strips. Place into boiling stock. Return chicken to pot. Noodles are done once they float!

Pork Barbacoa.. Sort of..

So while living in Utah I was surrounded by the phenomonon of 'Cafe Rio'. Now.. I never actually ate there... but heard many many good things. At a church function someone made their version of 'Pork Barbacoa'.. Which I later found out was a slow cooked pork with ... COCA-COLA. Now.. If you know anything about me, you know my addiction to Coke.. So I have been wanting to try this recipe for ages. I found a recipe online, but when I found out it had enchilata sauce I was kind of turned off. I'm am NOT a fan of mexican... My ex-husband was Puerto Rican so I learned to LOVE that style of hispanic food - which is more carribean than spanish really. So.. looking at this recipe I tried to figure out how I could adapt it to better suite my taste.. and here's what I came up with:

Pork Barbacoa - Asian Style

Pork Roast
1 can Coke (NOT diet)
1/4 c Brown Sugar
2 Tbs Soy Sauce
2 tsp garlic powser
2 tsp garlic salt
s&p

Rub the roast in salt and pepper. In a bowl mix the coke, sugar, and
seasonings. Place pork in large zip lock back and pour marinade in. Allow to sit
over night.

Next day put it all into a slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours, or low
for 8 hours. Once pork is cooked pull apart using 2 fork. Then combine:

1 cup Sweet Chili Sauce
1 cup Coke
1/4 c Brown sugar

Pour into shredded pork and cook for additional 1-2 hours on low.

Now with this I also made a Cilantro Ranch Sauce. The Cafe Rio one has this whole Tomatillo cilantro sauce thing that I just didn't have the time for.. lol

Cilantro Ranch Sauce

1 cup Sour Cream
1 pkg Ranch dip mix
2 Tb minched cilantro
2Tb - 1/4c Milk

Mix all ingredients and gradually add milk until thinned down to your liking

Target Stockup on Hair Care

So! Pretty proud of today's transactions! Target was haveing a promo - buy 4 dove hair care items and get a $5 gift card, plus they were on sale from $6.99 to $4.99. Also the Pantine products were on sale for $3.50, usually $4.69. It took 5 transactions because most of my coupons had a 'Only 4 like coupons per transaction' limit.. But here we go!

Transaction 1:
8 Dove Shampoo/Conditioners @ $4.99/each ($39.92)
4 Buy One Get One Free Dove Coupons worth $4.99/each ($19.96)
Total +tax = $22.05
Plus got 2 $5 gift cards

Transaction 2:
4 Dove Shampoo/Conditioners @ $4.99/each ($19.96)
2 Buy One Get One Free Dove Coupons woth $4.99/each ($9.98)
Total +tax = $9.98
Plus got 1 $5 gift card

Transaction 3:
8 Pantine Hair Care Products @ 3.50/each ($28)
4 $3/2 Pantine Products ($12)
Total + tax = $17.96 - $10 Gift Card
Paid $7.96

Transaction 4:
8 Pantine Hair Care Products @ 3.50/each ($28)
4 $3/2 Pantine Products ($12)
Total + tax = $17.96 - $5 Gift Card

Paid $12.96

Transaction 5:

4 Pantine Hair Care Products @ 3.50/each ($14)
2 $3/2 Pantine Products ($6)
Total + tax = $8.98

Total Retail: $190.12

Total Paid: $62.98

Saved: $127.14 or 67%!

Kmart Trip

So! Here I am again! Just had a pretty good Kmart trip - Could have been better, but there was some ill-planning on my part. Also shopping with a grouchy toddler tends to cause more errors on my part.

So there were some GREAT Covergirl coupons in last weeks paper : $8.00/2 Covergirl Face Cosmetics. Right off the bat I went to walmart

Covergirl Blush $3.39
-$8/2 MC
Overage of 61cents/each

W00t! Well today I decided to see if eyeshadow and eyeliner counted as a 'face' cosmetic. I bought:

5 Eye shadows @ 3.39/each
2 Eyeliners @ $5.99/each

1 Eyeliner @ $8.99

Total: $37.92

-$8/2 MC x4
Paid: $5.92! (Averaging 74cents/each)

Now, normally I wouldn't have bought the $8.99 eyeliner. Someone put the wrong one on the peg. I didn't catch it at checkout as I was trying to get a toddler calmed down because I wouldn't buy him a sucker.. lol. But Hey! I'll take it!

Also Kmart had a special on 12pk Coke: 3/10.. or 4/10 with your Shop Your Ways Rewards Card (but one of the coke products had to either be a Fanta or Coke Zero). Now no where did I see the fine print with the limit 1 offer. I bought 6 Coke Classics and 2 Coke Zeros. I ended up paying for the 2nd one. I also had 2 $1/3 MC coupons for Coke.

8 Coke Products Retail $4.25 ($34.00)
Sale Price $3.33 (26.64)

-$1/3 MC x2
-$3.33 Rebate for buying coke zero

Paid: $21.33

My grand totals of the shopping trip was

Retail: $93.88

Paid: $34.30*

Saved: $60.58 or 64.5%

*My total was actually $49.22. I used $4.92 that I had on my rewards card to bring it to $44.30. With the receipt I got a $10 credit for my next visit.

Doubling Coupons

SO.. I had an EXCELLENT Target trip the other day.. BUT had a snafu @ checkout and ended up not being able to pay for my purchase (credit card limit issues we later found out). BUT my before coupon total was around $250 and after she run in my coupons it was $170. I mean.. not super awesome.. But there were some awesome deals that snuck in there.

Target had their Bayer Advanced Aspirin on sale for $2.99.
I had a $2/1 Manufacturers Coupon (MC)
AND a $1/1 Target Coupon. (TC)

SO, yes! The Aspirin was FREE! Not only FREE but I made a penny off each one! Now I only had enough target coupons to get 3. I had one extra MC so bought one for 99cents. Still not a bad deal for an 80ct bottle of aspirin!

This is an EXCELLENT example of doubling your savings using both a Store Coupon and a Manufacturers Coupon. Out here I have Fareway, Hyvee, and Food Pride for grocery stores. Hyvee usually does a few store coupons, but usually limits 1 per transaction.. which can cause issues. Target is an AWESOME store for store coupons and even has Mobile Coupons. I don't know much about these because, well, I don't have an awesome phone... lol. There's also KMart and on a few occasions Walmart. Most stores allow you to use both, but make sure to get a copy of your stores Coupon policy to make sure they allow!

Another good thing to check is to see if they actually allow 'overage'. That's when your coupon total exceeds the actual cost of the item and you 'make money'. Some stores will allow it to go against your total, and if your total is negative they will give it to you in cash or store gift card. Some will allow it to go to your total, but will zero it out if your total is negative. Other stores will give you no overage and will adjust the price for the item to be free, but this is it.

Now, with my binder, I keep all my 'Specific Store' coupons in their own category. I usually will go thru the store coupons and find match-ups with my MC's and put a post-it note on the sleeve to remind me I have an MC for the same item. That way when I'm making my walks down the aisles I can see right away, without having to flip around and around.