If your pantry is looking a little bare, cruise on over to Faith Chapel this morning! They hve non-perishable items bagged and ready to distribute to you, TODAY beginning at 9am.
9400 Campo Rd.
Spring Valley, CA 91977
This is a drive-thru style event, so you don’t have to leave your vehicles.
If you are looking for other free food resources:
Food Resources for Eastern and Central San Diego
Food Resources for Northern San Diego County
I’ve started doing weekly meal planning on Sundays. It’s easier to do it while I’m writing up the weekly calendar/schedule and prepping the snack box for the week.
I’ve been buying snacks in bulk and only putting weeks worth out in the snack box. It keeps us out of the stores, and its healthier. I’ve been doing this for about 2 months, and I’ve gotten really good at hiding the extra snacks.
I took the kids with me to the grocery store today, and while we picked up a few extra things, overall we were good and stayed within our budget. I did forget to buy cat litter, though, so I’ll be off to Target tomorrow morning.
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.
I’ve gotten a pretty good inventory of the pantry, freezer, and fridge done (I update it after every shopping trip), so I’m able to plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste. If you are looking for kitchen inventory printable, I like the kitchen inventories here. They are great printables.
I only post our dinner plans for the week, because our other meals are usually the same each day.
Breakfast: Coffee with 1/2 and 1/2 for me, and pancakes or something along those lines for the kids (they love the Kodiak Cakes Mix). 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. recently the Big Kid has been on a protein shake kick in the AM.
Lunches will be whatever the kids want for the time being (Peanut butter sandwiches and baguettes toasted with garlic butter are high on the list as of late). I may make up a cheese pizza and serve that for a few lunches during the week with apple slices (or apple sauce), cheez-its, and milk (as well as some sort of dessert- I made these cookies over the weekend, and they make a good lunch dessert)
Usually, I do a crockpot meal on Mondays, but now that we are home all the time, we’ve been having an odd combination of fully home-cooked, scratch meals, and frozen entrees and veggies. I have been posting our meal plans on Instagram too- As well as pics of stuff we are doing to keep busy.
School starts for us on Wednesday. We are distance learning for the foreseeable future, and while I never imagined I’d be teaching Kindergarten and Special Ed 4th grade at the same time, here we are. The kids are still excited about going back to school, seeing friends via their class Zoom meetings. I am going to try and organize a socially distanced Pokemon hunt with Pokemon Go for some of our classmates and friends who play.
Please stay safe you guys! The sooner we flatten the curve, the sooner life can go back to normal- whatever that means.
Talk Back: What are you cooking for dinner this week?
ElderLove is a NPO that helps seniors with in home care. They are located here in Southern CA. Right now they are asking for Ralphs shoppers to designate ElderLove as the recipient of their Ralphs Community Contribution Program. As a thank you, ElderLove will give you a $10 Ralphs Gift Card!
It’s pretty easy- and you will be helping an NPO that helps the elderly- it’s a win/win!
Step 1: Go to the Ralphs Community Rewards website here.
Step 2: If you already have a digital account at Ralphs, then you can immediately search for us at the link. Otherwise, you will need to create a digital account.
Step 3: ““Elder Love USA” or our Nonprofit Organization (NPO) number AQ317 (Note: Elder Love USA is three separate words)
Step 4: You will then see a confirmation that you have successfully enrolled. Very Important: Take a screenshot, photo or print out the confirmation showing you have chosen Elder Love as your charity of choice.
Step 5: Email your confirmation image to us at Shannon@elderloveusa.org along with the mailing address for your gift card. You will receive a confirmation email within 24 hours. If you do not, please call ElderLove at 888-336-8322.
The last step is to like their Facebook Page.
This Friday’s freebies and deals: There are some back to school deals, samples, and cool freebies!
If you find a cool deal or freebie, please leave a comment!
Freebies:
FREE Amazon Baby Box Samples Back in Stock
Free Sample of FLIP Lube
Arm & Hammer Kitty Krew – Free Cat Products
Free IT Cosmetics Eyebrow Gel or Eyebrow Pencil
Free Body Lotion Repairing Cream
Free eos Stickers (Email)
Free Kernel Season’s Samples
Possible Free Collective Laboratories Hair Serum
Free Pest Proof Your Home with EarthKind Party
Free Natural Sheer Nail Polish
Free Half Day CBD Oil
Free Coffee at Dunkin
Free Pancakes at IHOP
Free Price*s Pimiento Cheese Spread
Free Nourish Organic Lightweight Moisturizing Face Lotion
Free Biden-Harris Sticker
Free MERV-13 Face Mask Inserts
Free $5 Off $5 at Ace Hardware = Free Item
Free Citizen Science Soil Collection Kit
Deals:
Buy 1 Get 1 FREE Boneless Wings at Buffalo Wild Wings
3 Grilled Chicken Tacos for ONLY $2.49 at Del Taco
Cold Brew Medium Iced Coffee ONLY $1 at Sonic Drive-In
Elmer’s Liquid School Glue 12-Pack ONLY $6.00 (Reg. $27)
Save $20 When You Spend $100 on Baby Products on Amazon
Pilot Frixion ColorSticks Erasable Gel Ink Pens $8.06 (Reg. $18)
Ozark Trail 10-Pack Aluminum Flashlight + 30 Batteries for $5.97
Learning Resources Answer Buzzers Set ONLY $10.66 (Reg. $20)
Crocs Classic Tie Dye Shoes ONLY $27.97 (Reg. $45)
Giant Enfamil Gentlease Milk Powder Formula 3 for $75 on Amazon
Touchless Digital Infrared Thermometer for ONLY $9.99 RUN DEAL
FREE 2 Months of Kindle Unlimited Reading (Save $19.98)
Aveeno Baby Eczema Therapy Nighttime Balm ONLY $2.63 Shipped
Hudson Baby Hooded Animal Blanket ONLY $7.79 (Reg. $13)
Melissa & Doug Seaside Sidekicks Nesting Pails ONLY $4.99
Hollow Butterfly Rhinestone Bracelet ONLY $1 Shipped
This article contains location specific giveaways- for nationwide info, scroll to the bottom of the article.
For the past few years the great folks over at SMOAC have been doing an incredible service to the Eastern San Diego County school kids by offering free backpacks and school supplies.
And this year is no different! This year, they are hosting a drive-thru style event at two locations:
And for those of you not in the immediate area, there are all sorts of other free school supply and backpack giveaways going on.
Boost Mobile is giving away backpacks and school supplies. More info is here. In San Diego County, there is 1 Boost Mobile in Oceanside that is participating.
Operation Homefront is having giveaways for military families on bases all over the US. Here is a list for 2020.
Rentacalc does free giveaways for backpacks, graphing calculators and protractors! You can learn more and enter to win here.
This Friday’s freebies and deals are an early today because we’re busy today, and I wanted y’all to get a jump start on a frugal weekend!
But it’s never too early for freebies!
Freebies:
Deals
It’s Back!! Our friends over at Faith Chapel understand that with all that’s going on in the world that some of us still need help finding healthy food during this difficult time. And that’s it not always safe for us to go to the store or hit up a farmers market. This is going to be the last produce distribution at Faith Chapel for the next few weeks. Once it is back on, I will let you know ASAP!
Distribution is happening this Friday, August 7th, beginning at 10:00am.
This is a drive-thru style event, so you don’t have to leave your vehicles. This week they are getting 1 truckload of produce delivered, so they will be only be given 1 box of produce to each vehicle. BUT- Trust me- That’s plenty of quality produce for one family.
Here is an example of what was offered in previous weeks: 
Navel Oranges, Grapefruit, Plumcots, Lemons, and nectarines. All free.
Faith Chapel is located at 9400 Campo Road Spring Valley, CA 91977
This Friday’s freebies and deals are an early today because we’re busy today, and I wanted y’all to get a jump start on a frugal weekend!
But it’s never too early for freebies!
Freebies:
Deals:
It’s Back!! Our friends over at Faith Chapel understand that with all that’s going on in the world that some of us still need help finding healthy food during this difficult time. And that’s it not always safe for us to go to the store or hit up a farmers market.
Distribution is happening this Friday, July 31st, beginning at 10:00am.
This is a drive-thru style event, so you don’t have to leave your vehicles. This week they are getting 1 truckload of produce delivered, so they will be only be given 1 box of produce to each vehicle. BUT- Trust me- That’s plenty of quality produce for one family.
Here is an example of what was offered lin previous weeks: Navel Oranges, Grapefruit, Plumcots, Lemons, and nectarines. All free.
Faith Chapel is located at 9400 Campo Road Spring Valley, CA 91977
The Climate Credit that we’ve all grown accustomed to seeing on our April and October bills has been moved to August and September when most Californians have higher utility bills due to the weather.
In August and September, there will be a credit each month of $32.28 on the Electricity portion of each ratepayer utility bill.
Changing the distribution months will not change the total value of the climate credits you receive in a year. The shift will provide bill relief for customers and reduce bill volatility.
If you’re having trouble paying your utility bill and to learn more about the available resource to help you and your household, please visit sdge.com/coronavirus.
Visit Energy Upgrade California to learn about ways to lower your energy usage.
And if you want to save energy and earn money, check out my post about Ohm Connect.
What is the California Climate Credit?
This August* your utility bill will include an electric credit identified as the “California Climate Credit.” Your household and millions of others throughout the state will receive this credit on your utility bills.
In the past years, the electric credit was applied in April and October, and the gas credit was applied in April. For 2020 and 2021, the California Public Utilities Commission authorized SDG&E to temporarily shift the electric credit to be applied in August and September.
*Billing periods vary by utility and may not always coincide with a calendar month. If you don’t see a Climate Credit in the bill that arrives this month, it will appear in the bill you receive next month. If you are an electric customer, the electric credit will appear as a line item on the electric portion of your bill. If you are a gas customer, the gas credit will appear as a line item on the gas portion of your bill. If you receive both electric and gas service, you will see the electric and gas credits on the respective portions of your utility bill.
The CPUC regulates privately owned electric and natural gas companies and serves the public interest by protecting consumers and ensuring the provision of safe, reliable utility service and infrastructure at reasonable rates, with a commitment to environmental enhancement and a healthy California economy. For more information about our work visit www.cpuc.ca.gov. If you have a question or complaint concerning a privately owned utility, call 1-800-649-7570 or visit or visit http://consumers.cpuc.ca.gov/CABUtilityComplaint.aspx.
Hewes Family Fun 