family

Mixing up hydration with Soda Stream!

Abby H.

Recently, a friend asked me for some non-soda uses for her Soda Stream machine. Since I use ours at least 2 times a week to whip up liter bottles of fizzy water, I figured I’d share some of my concoctions!

Screen Shot 2015-05-31 at 6.58.19 AMThis is the Soda Stream Machine we have.

Here are a few ways to use your Soda Stream besides adding the Soda Stream syrups.

  1. Fill a fancy pitcher with 2-3 cups of chilled, sliced fruit. I like Apples, oranges, lemons, Kiwi, and berries (not necessarily all together). Pour 1 liter of chilled carbonated water from the Soda Stream. It makes the best fruity fizzy water!
  2. Try Torani Syrups in place of Soda Stream syrup.  It comes in tons of flavors, in both regular and sugar free, including fun fruit flavors!
  3. Instead of adding syrup, why not try ice cubes made of fruit juice?  Fill an ice cube tray with orange juice, pomegranate juice, or whatever you have on hand.  Add ice cubes to your carbonated Soda Stream water and enjoy!
  4. If you are looking for a different taste, try the powdered beverage mixes in your carbonated Soda Stream water.  Mix slowly, and carefully, since some of the powders may cause the water to get a little extra fizzy.  I like Crystal Light sticks, Snapple Sticks, and a few store brands that come in cranberry and cran-pear.
  5. Mio or other concentrated liquid beverage mixes are also great in your your carbonated Soda Stream water, and since you control how little or how much you add, your drink can be different each time!
  6. If you are looking to jazz up your beverages, try an Italian Cream Soda.  It’s a pretty easy recipe:

Italian Cream Soda

Ingredients:

  • Ice,
  • 1 ounce syrup,
  • carbonated Soda Stream water (8-12 oz, depending on your glass size),
  • 1 ounce cream,
  • whipped cream (optional, but everyone loves whipped cream).

Directions:

  1.  Scoop ice into glass
  2. Pour your carbonated Soda Stream water over the ice cubes
  3. Pour 1 ounce syrup over the ice and water.  Stir with a stir stick.
  4. Pour 1 ounce of cream over the top- Do not stir.
  5. Top with whipped cream, if desired.

How do you use your Soda Stream Machine?

Shopping for real food on a budget!

Abby H.

IMG_3236As you can see from the photo, we buy a lot of fruit.

I bought this fruit late last week, and within 3 days, the raspberries and cantaloupe were GONE.

So why am I sharing this photo of my fruit purchases? To illustrate that you can eat healthy on a budget.

I visited Our local Ralphs, armed with 8 $1/1 Driscoll Coupons (Internet printable coupons from their surveys), a $5/$15 Produce E-coupon on my Ralphs card (like them on Facebook here and you’ll be notified when new produce coupons are added- usually once a month), and a free Muller Yogurt E-coupon (Free Friday Download).

For $4.19 Out of Pocket, I brought home:

8 containers of driscoll’s raspberries
2 bananas
1 mango
1 personal sized watermelon
1 cantaloupe
1 muller yogurt
1 carton coolwhip

The raspberries are $1.28/carton, so after $1/1 Q they are a paltry .28/carton. SCORE. I saved over $50 with my coupons and ralphs club card. UGH. I can’t imagine paying full price for anything.

The only not so “real food” purchase was the whipped topping. I made the Cool whip into Bachelor Mousse (1 small box instant chocolate pudding, 1 1/2 cups milk, whole carton of cool whip, beat together and serve with fruit) and we had it for dessert a few times. It’s quick, easy, and the boys LOVE IT.

So you can do it- keep your eyes open for sales on produce, meat, whole grains, and other stuff your family likes to eat. Don’t forget to take advantage of printable coupons and rebate/money saving apps!

Frugal Cooking: Italian Sausage Casserole!

Abby H.
Tomato Sauce MGD©
Homemade Sauce- Yum!

This is a family favorite, even little man loves it!

You can make as much of it from scratch as you’d like, or if you’re in a hurry, you can use pre-made sausage and sauce.

This recipe is also great because you can make it vegetarian with soy crumbles, or even vegan if you use alt. cheese. Use Gluten Free Pasta and this dish Gluten Free!

This is a great dish to take to potlucks!

Italian Sausage Casserole

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

  • 1 box of pasta, your choice, cooked al dente and drained
  • 1 jar of your fav pasta sauce, or 4 cups home made sauce
  • 1 lb bulk Italian sausage, crumbled, cooked and drained (or 1 package soy crumbles) You can use ground beef if you prefer.
  • 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded (or 1 cup vegan cheese)

Directions

  1. In a large baking dish, mix the pasta, sauce, and sausage.
  2. Top with cheese.
  3. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until cheese is bubbly and melty.
  4. Serve hot with crusty bread and a green salad.

 

Big Sale Weekend!

Abby H.

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Memorial Day is the 25th (this upcoming Monday), and that means there are going to be all kinds of really great deals and sales.

I try not to post a lot of sales and deals, but this week I’ll be posting 1-2 per day when I find some really great deals that I personally think are worth taking advantage of.

These companies are all ones that I shop at regularly, and really like.

So hold on to your hats, It’s about to get crazy and frugal.

 

Vacations on the Cheap, Part 1 (The budget)

Abby H.
Screen Shot 2015-05-13 at 9.15.38 AM
A shot of us at D-land in September of 2013!

I was cleaning out some files yesterday and I came across some notes from when we planned our family vacation to Disneyland 2 years ago. I know with Summer vacation coming up, a lot of you will be planning trips to The House of Mouse and other locales. Here are a few tips to help you save on your summer fun!

The first part of planning a trip is budget. Where you’ll go, how long you’ll stay, what you’ll do while you’re there, those things are all (sadly) dictated by budget.

When we plan a trip, in order to keep our costs down, I’ve formulate a budget that takes into consideration a few things:

  1. We’re getting a m/hotel room with a kitchenette. That way we can eat some meals in room and save money. The average price per person per meal in most tourist areas is $10.00 plus tax and tip, so just by eating in our room three times we’re saving $90.00 plus tax and tip. The difference in price between a m/hotel room without a kitchen is about $10/day. For us, it’s worth it.
  2. I’ll be using high value and free item coupons for some of the menu items we’ll be eating. I trade coupons online on site like HotCouponWorld, and of course, my local coupon club. (For more info on coupon clubs and online forums, check out this post)
  3. I use as many deals and savings programs to earn gift cards and cash to defray costs. I’m save Swagbucks for a Paypal payout, I save Mypoints points for a gift certificate or a Paypal payout,  And if we happen to eat out, we’ll try to eat at Mogl restaurants to earn a little green back!
  4. I save various gift cards as well to be used on the trip (like the $20 pre-paid Visa Gift Cards I earn from SBKC)

So with our budget in mind, I set to finding a m/hotel that fits our budget and has the amenities we are looking for: swimming pool, complimentary continental breakfast, and free parking.

 

 

Cutting down on food waste in 30 minutes!

Abby H.

One of the ways that we save money is to cut down on food waste. For me that means once we are home from the store and all of the perishables are put away, I pull out the cutting board, a sharp knife, the spiralizer, some zip top bags, and reusable storage containers.

IMG_3168

This was last weeks fresh fruit and veggies (plus 3 bags of baby carrots and a cantaloupe- not pictured).

I set to work, chopping, packaging, and spiralizing.  In less than 30 minutes I had all of the fresh fruits and veggies prepped and measured into small bags to be dropped into lunches, or packed into plastic containers.

This of course is only for the fruits and veggies that require prep. The oranges, apples, and bananas require no prep to eat, so they just go into the fruit bowl.

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Fruits and veggies all ready for a week of healthy lunches!
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Cantaloupe chopped up and ready for my belly!! The bottom container has 3 spiralized Italian zucchini squash, ready to be made into “pasta” salad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By spending a little time each week getting veggies and fruit ready to eat, you’ll cut down on food waste, because the food is all ready to eat. No scrambling to cut up cucumbers for lunch early in the morning, no putting off eating something because you are short on time in the evening.

You will also be saving money over purchasing pre-chopped and pre-packed vegetables and fruit. All of this produce was purchased at 99 Cents only for less than $12.00. So you can eat well (and healthy) on a budget!!

And if it turns out atthe end of the week that you aren’t able to eat all of your veggies and fruit and they can be frozen (pretty much anything except melons), toss the bags in the freezer and you now have veggies for a casserole, or fruit for a smoothie!

The average American family of four throws away $25.00 in food a WEEK!  Here are a few more tips to help your family curtail food waste!

Eat your leftovers:  this seems like a no brainer. When you divvy out your portions for dinner, make yourself your lunch for the next day.  If you won’t eat it right away, pop it into the freezer- label it, so you don’t forget what it is.

When it looks like your fruit is about to go south, freeze it. This includes bananas!  You can use defrosted bananas in banana bread or frozen bananas are great in smoothies.  Other frozen fruit can also be used in smoothies.
Citrus fruits can be juiced and frozen or the juice can be consumed for breakfast or put in smoothies.   Apples can be peeled cooked into applesauce or made into apple butter.

When I buy fresh tomatoes and they get just a little too ripe- I freeze them whole, then I bake them with chicken breasts and herbs and top with fresh parm- Yummy!

Buy less. I know it seems like a strange concept, especially with all of the really great deals you will be finding, but, the one proven way to waste less is to bring less home to waste.

Moms Meet: Sharing Natural and Organic Goodies with Friends!

Abby H.6 Comments

Screen Shot 2015-04-28 at 8.17.15 AMI love free stuff. I also love sharing free stuff with friends and family. When I discovered Moms Meet a few years ago I was psyched! It combines everything I love: Free stuff, natural products, and sharing with friends!

Moms Meet offers exciting opportunities for Mom Ambassadors and their groups (moms groups, play groups, church groups) to sample the latest healthy, green products. Past sampling opportunities have included EO all-natural hand sanitizer, Wallaby Organic yogurt, and To Go Brands Trim Energy.

I receive 1-2 sampling opportunities per month. It’s nice to provide free snacks at play dates that accommodate so many allergies, and moms get coupons and samples to take home.

Screen Shot 2015-04-28 at 8.47.44 AMComing up next week, our play group will be sampling Applegate Half-Time meal kits! In addition to sampling the yummy lunch kits, we are going to decorate re-usable thermal lunch bags. Each friend will go home with a coupon for a free Half Time kit and a few other coupons.

If Moms Meet is something that you’d like to try, all you have to do to get started is fill out the form here, and Moms Meet will contact you when they have a campaign.

 

Inexpensive Summer Fun in San Diego County!

Abby H.2 Comments

Summer is on it’s way! The kids will be out of school soon and the choruses of, “I’M BORED!” will being heard across the county.

Here are some cheap and free things that you can do this summer around San Diego County to alleviate the boredom.

Screen Shot 2015-04-24 at 5.12.31 PMThe splash ground at Santee Lakes is GREAT! It’s only $2.00 per kid to play and if you park outside the Santee Lakes, you don’t have to pay to park! Take a picnic and it’s a great frugal outing! We go at least once a week in the summer and it’s always
a GREAT time!

The Santee Lakes hosts free summer movies throughout the summer.  If you park your car outside the gates (there is lots of street parking!), there is no cost of the movies.  If you drive your car into the park, it’s $8.00 per car, regardless of how many ppl are in your car.   Bring a picnic and some blankets and kick back for a fun family movie!
Balboa Park still offers Free Tuesdays at various museums in the park.

The San Diego Reader has a list of events on their website.

San Diego County Libraries have story time and various kid events each week.  I love taking Henry to the Santee library story time, and then we play at Mast Park right next door afterwards!

El Cajon, La Mesa, and Escondido all have classic car shows/rallies each week that are free.  Most have free music too!  Check out some sweet rides, cool tunes, and have a fun frugal night with the fam!
DiscoverSD has a list of free events and classes offered in San Diego (not all are kid friendly)
Speaking of Parks- San Diego County has great parks, as do most of the cities in San Diego County! Our favorite parks include Big Rock Park in Santee, Kennedy Park in El Cajon, La Mesita/Junior Seau Park in La Mesa, Harry Griffin Park in La Mesa (great for little kids).

If you are looking for a fun drive and an adventure, The Pacific Southwest Railway Museum in Campo is really fun for kids (and adults!).

What kind of stuff do you do to keep your family entertained for free?

Follow us on Instagram!

Abby H.

instagram-logo Did you know you can keep up with us on Instagram too? Sometimes I don’t have time to sit down in front of my desktop and write up a full post, but I’ve always got time to snap awkward photos and post them with with short recipes, frugal tips, and sales I discover while I’m out and about!

So check us out on Instagram today!

2015 Earth Day Freebies

Abby H.

file301243123568So this year there are not too many Earth Day Freebies. Earth Day is 4/22/15, but most events are taking place this weekend.

There are a lot of fun earth Day Events around San Diego, including the Earth Fair in Balboa Park (which is FREE)!

Now if you can’t make it out today, the fun continues throughout the month.  San Diego Family Magazine has a list of events here.

If you are on the hunt for freebies the only one that’s confirmed for San Diego, CA area stores is the free reusable grocery bag from the Disney Store! On Wednesday the 22nd, visit your local Disney Store to receive ONE FREE Reusable Bag when you come in and recycle 5 plastic shopping bags. In the past the bag has featured Cars (Lil’ Man’s favorite) or Apes (from a Disney Nature movie). I’m unsure what this years design features.

Origins Confirmed that they are not having a free Earth Day item, however, per their tweet to me: “We are offering a FREE reusable tote with any purchase!” 

Starbucks has not responded to my tweet asking if they are offering a free cup of coffee when you bring in a reusable cup. At this point, I would not count on it.

Not Strictly Earth Day Related, but I know ya’ll love a free RedBox Code! Text SHOPS to 727272 to get a unique coupon code for a free Redbox 1-day DVD rental (or $1.50 off your Blu-ray rental).