frugal living

HouseParty by Ripple Street: Host a Cinderella Movie Night Party

Abby H.

 

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Host a Cinderella Movie Night Party

One of the most beloved Disney classics of all time, Cinderella is available on Digital & Movies Anywhere June 18, on Blu-ray June 25. To celebrate, treat your kids and their friends to a Royal Ball featuring a viewing of the movie. Have the kids dress up as princesses to watch the magical story of a strong princess who never stopped dreaming or believing in herself. A great message to share with the little princesses in your life and a story which will live in their hearts forever.

This event is only open to residents of the contiguous US.

Party Date: June 28, 2019 – June 30, 2019

If you’re selected and confirmed as a host, your exclusive Party Pack will contain:

  • Microwave popcorn
  • Princess Cups and Plates
  • And more

Screen Shot 2019-05-22 at 3.49.57 PM.pngTo Apply for this party, click here.  Ripple Street/Houseparty always has a bunch of great parties you can apply for, so if Cinderella ain’t your thing, you can find something that is!

 

Friday Freebies and Deals!

Abby H.

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Free Samples, Food, and Events:

Free Magazine Subscriptions:

Summer Reading Program at San Diego Area Libraries!

Abby H.

Summer is upon us! And that means summer reading program at both San Diego County and City of San Diego Libraries!

Screen Shot 2019-05-16 at 5.49.13 PM.pngThe County of San Diego Library System has not yet put up their 2019 reading program. But their main website is here and las years summer reading program can be found here. I’m going to go talk to the kid’s librarian over at our local branch this weekend and see if I can get some info to post.

srp_2019_web_bannerThe City of San Diego Library System has its 2019 reading program up here.

Each program is different, and the prizes for each program are pretty cool. From tote bags and free lunches, to raffle tickets to win awesome grand prizes like drones and Lego sets, these programs are a great way to motivate kids to keep reading all summer long.

In addition to reading programs, there are also fun events at county and city libraries throughout the summer. My recommendation is to check out your local branches Facebook page. The Mission Valley branch has tons of great summer events planned!

 

 

Weekly Meal Plan!

Abby H.

stemarie_1650skitchen

Bitty and I hit up grocery Outlet and Food4Less yesterday and picked up everything we might need for this week. Has anyone noticed how expensive celery is lately?

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

You may notice a lot of plant-based meals- We are not vegetarian, but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:

Breakfast: Coffee with heavy cream for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids.  I also keep sandwich Ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.

Lunches are leftovers, salads, or soups for me and the Little Bit, and The Big Kid has a specially packed lunch of whatever he’s into at the time (which changes frequently).

For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked.

  • Monday: Cheese enchiladas, beans, steamed broccoli
  • Tuesday: Kids had pizza- Their last two Book-it certificates expire tomorrow. I’ve got a pot of chicken soup on the stove. I’ll either toss in fusilli pasta or Rana cheese and uncured bacon ravioli.
  • Wednesday: Rollup sandwiches and kale salad (Kale, apples, chopped almonds, and apple cider vinaigrette)
  • Thursday: Leftovers
  • Friday:  Dinner out
  • Saturday:  Grilled Cheese and soup (It’s definitely soup weather!)
  • Sunday:  Meatless night! The kids will have Morningstar Farms nuggets, and the grownups will have black bean burgers. Sides will include fruit salad, carrot sticks and some sort of dip.

 

Talk Back: What will you be cooking this week?

Family Recipe: Abasitas

Abby H.

I haven’t done a family recipe in a while. My mom made a batch of these recently and sent me home with a few.

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na na na na na na na na na- Bat Plate!

Turnovers, hand pies, pasties, kolaches, whatever you call them, I love them. Eating with your hands is done in almost every other culture on earth, but us westerners tend to frown on it.

 

My mom invented these rich, savory turnovers based on the flavors that I loved as a kid (and still love). It’s a pastry or yeast dough exterior, filled with cheese, chicken, breakfast sausage, and green chilis.

The batch she made last week used crescent dough that was rolled out. You may be able to see the remaining perforation in one of the photos.

In the past, I’ve used my pizza crust recipe (found here). It’s really up to you what kind of dough you use for exterior. Crescent dough is rich and buttery, and I think it works well for this recipe, so it’s what I’m going with. You can get the crescent dough in one large sheet if you want and cut it up, or, we used the regular rolls, and just did 2 crescents per hand pie.

Abasitas 

(Makes 16-20 depending on type of dough used)

Ingredients:

  • 2 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped up (You can also use 1.5 cups of chopped up rotisserie chicken meat)
  • 1/2 lb of Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sausage, cooked, crumbled, and drained of fat
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 4 oz. can Ortega Chilis, chopped 
  • 1 batch pizza dough (recipe linked above), or 4 tubes crescent roll dough

Directions:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Mix first five ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl.
  3. Roll out/unroll dough; Separate into 4 rectangles. Pinch together perforations to seal up.  If you are using another type of dough, roll out on a floured surface and use a sharp knife to cut the dough into approx. 8×5 rectangles.
  4. Place approx. 1/4c of filling in the middle of each piece of dough. Fold over, and seal edges of the dough by pinching edges together, you can also crimp the edges with a fork.
  5. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet (I always use parchment paper– it makes clean up easier) for approx 12-15 minutes until the dough is golden brown.
  6. Remove cookie sheets from the oven and allow hand pies to rest for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Allow to rest a few more minutes before devouring.
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Yummy cheesy filling!

I serve these with a green salad. They are good cold the next day too. They make a great picnic addition.

After they have cooled completely, store them in the fridge or the freezer. You can reheat them in the toaster oven!

They are a great food to batch cook.

Mid-Week Freebies!

Abby H.

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The other day the littlest little was very sad because she didn’t get any mail. “But Mama!! You gets da mail, Dada gets da mail, brotha gets da mail… Why I gets no mail?!?!”

This morning I sat down to find some sort of free sample, or magazine that she could get in “da mail”.  I thought I’d share them with you too.

There are also a few in-store freebies too.

In-Store Freebies

 

Freebies “in Da Mail”

 

Free Magazines:

Need Some New Specs? Warby Parker has New Styles Starting at $95!

Abby H.

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

Warby Parker has some pretty awesome new frames available, just in time for summer!  We’ve purchased glasses from Warby Parker for a few years, and in addition to great glasses starting at $95/pair, they also have an awesome charitable program: “buy a pair, give a pair”. When you purchase from Warby Parker you help contribute to a larger cause. To date, Warby Parker has distributed over two million pairs of glasses to people in need! How awesome is that!

If you aren’t sure which glasses you really want… Check out the Warby Parker Home Try-On program and walk through the process from start to finish: from selecting and ordering five frames, to finding the right pair for your face, all in the comfort of your own home!

Oh, and if you’ve got a Flexible Spending Accounts, Warby Parker can help you out too! That’s what we did. Speaking of which, it might be time for a new pair of glasses…

Weekly Meal Plan!

Abby H.

stemarie_1650skitchen

This week, again, we’re focusing on what we’ve got on hand. Last week I went over budget on groceries by about $20- I needed to stock up on some essentials that we had run out of, so I’m hoping we can keep the grocery budget really down this week.

For those of you that are new to meal planning, I’ve got an easy 101 style post here with super easy tips and steps. After you get that down, here is info about batch or freezer cooking.

You may notice a lot of plant-based meals- We are not vegetarian, but I am trying to get more veggies into our diet. I do a lot of cooking from scratch- I find it easier to get veggies and fruit into recipes that I can have 100% control over.

I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day:

Breakfast: Coffee with heavy cream for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids.  I also keep sandwich ziploc bags of other frozen fruit on hand to make the kids smoothies when they request them (a few times per week). Berries, peaches, and mangos are pretty popular.

Lunches are leftovers, salads, or soups for me and the Little Bit, and The Big Kid has a specially packed lunch of whatever he’s into at the time (which changes frequently).

For dinner, when we’ve got busy days (like Mondays), I’ll try and put something in the crockpot in the morning, or pull something I’ve already prepped out that can be quickly cooked.

  • Monday: Chicken soup- Made from scratch. I made bone broth in the crockpot over the weekend.
  • Tuesday: Pizza from scratch. The children have been begging for “big pizza”. I make it on a cookie sheet.
  • Wednesday: Pulled pork in the crockpot.
  • Thursday: Leftovers
  • Friday:  Dinner out- We’re going to see Endgame!!
  • Saturday: Cheese enchiladas. We have tons of cheese sticks that the kids don’t seem interested in eating.
  • Sunday: Chicken Chicken Schwarma, Rice, and steamed veggies.

 

Talk Back: What will you be cooking this week?

New Gig Opportunity: Become a Shipt Shopper!

Abby H.

I am a huge proponent of gigs, little side hustles that help you earn extra money.

I just found out last night that Shipt is looking for shoppers! You shop for and deliver groceries and essentials for others. Oh, and the best part? You can earn up to $22/hour!

Shipt is a membership-based grocery marketplace, enabling delivery of fresh foods and household essentials. Shipt is all over the US, to find out if Shipt is hiring in your area, check out their coverage map here, then sign up here. Once you sign up, answer a few questions, and they’ll email you if you meet their qualifications.

I’m all about earning some extra cash! I’d love to hear about your favorite side gigs and hustles! My list of favorites can be found here.

California Climate Credit- Savings on Your April Utility Bill.

Abby H.

Screen Shot 2019-04-13 at 9.24.20 AM.pngImagine my joy when I opened my email this morning and I found out I have $44.85 SDG&E bill!

And if you have any of the following utilities: PG&E, SDG&E, SCE Pacific Power and Liberty Utilities, your April bill will have a credit.

The California Climate Credit. From the CPUC website:

“Twice a year, millions of California residents receive a credit on their utility bill identified as the “California Climate Credit.”  The California Climate Credit is part of California’s efforts to fight climate change.  This credit is from a state program that requires power plants, natural gas distributors and other large industries that emit greenhouse gases to buy carbon pollution permits.  The credit represents residential utility ratepayers’ share of the payments from the State’s program.  The credit program was created by the CPUC, which also oversees the program’s implementation.

Currently, all residential and eligible small business electricity customers of PG&E, SDG&E, SCE Pacific Power and Liberty Utilities receive the credit, as do all Community Choice Aggregator (CCA) customers.  In addition, natural gas residential customers of PG&E, SoCalGas, Southwest Gas, and SDG&E also receive the credit.  Customers don’t need to do anything to receive the credit – it is automatically applied to their bills.  The credit amounts vary among utilities, CCAs and from year to year.

If you’re not sure whether you’re receiving the Climate Credit, the first thing to do is contact your utility or CCA, the same as you would do with any billing questions.  That’s because although the CPUC oversees the credit and can help with any remaining questions you have, your utility or CCA is best positioned to access your individual records and answer questions about individual accounts.”

The 2nd credit will be on the October bill.

In addition to this credit, we also use the TIME OF USE billing to our advantage. Here is an article I wrote about last summer with some tips about how to save on your utility bill. Time of Use billing isn’t for everyone, but we use it as I am able to do the bulk of our energy using chores during off-peak hours, such as dishes and laundry.

And one thing that I find super helpful- We signed up for Ohm Connect a few years ago and it texts and/or emails you when you should conserve more power due to the demand on the power grid. It’s a win-win situation: You save money on your power bill, and you earn points from Ohm Connect that you can cash out for Paypal, Amazon or Target Gift Cards, OhmConnect store credit (to buy energy efficient thermostats, smart plugs, etc.) You can learn more about OhmConnect here.