Try Products is another free sampling program that I’ve used over the last year or so.
Sign up to try hundreds of wonderful products from brands who want to provide consumers with cleaner, greener, more natural, better-for-you choices, that you can feel good about putting in your body & home!
It’s 100% Free. No credit card is required EVER!
Here are a few of the products available to sample now:
I’m so tired of it being so humid. Last week we were inside a lot between the heat/humidity and the rain from Tropical Storm Kay. We ate a lot of fruit last week, and the CSA box came yesterday, so we’re going to do it again!
I hit up the grocery store on Sunday. Again this week but we’re eating out of the pantry and our Yasukochi Family Farms CSA box, which was delivered yesterday afternoon. With the increased cost of groceries, I’m really leaning on cooking meals from our pantry stables and using fresh produce.
I did a bunch of meal prep yesterday afternoon to cut down on cooking time:
I’ll make a fruit salad later in the week when the stone fruit (peaches, plums, nectarines) ripen.
We’ve been trying a lot of new foods lately, thanks to the really great freebies from Social Nature lately too. It’s fun to try new foods. I picked up 5 new products to try this week at Sprouts last night using my Social Nature coupons!
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 try to update it after every shopping trip), so I’m able to plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste.
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 are also into fruit and bagels for breakfast. Lately, the big kid has been digging protein shakes in the morning. This is his favorite kind.
Lunch: I have a plastic tote in the cupboard full of self-serve snacks. I buy treats and snacks in bulk and fill up snack-sized zip-top bags. These snacks make up most of the kid’s lunches during the school week. School lunches are still free, but on most days, they prefer to bring their lunches from home.
Dinner: Now that school is in session and our weekday schedule is cemented, I’m using one weekend morning to do some baking/side dish meal prep, and Monday afternoons after school/work to prep the CSA box goodies. As the price of groceries goes up, I find myself buying less meat, relying more on sale/clearance prices, and repurposing leftovers.
Monday: Home-Made Pizza, Fruit
Tuesday: Mac n’ Cheese, Roasted Veggies
Wednesday: Loaded Smashed Potatoes (Recipe coming this week), Salad
Thursday: Grilled Cheese or Quesadillas, Soup, & Salad
I haven’t talked about this in a while, but this is a good way to help the earth and your pocketbook.
If you have an Office Depot/Office Max nearby, you can recycle your ink or toner cartridges in-store and earn credit to spend in the store. It’s as easy as 1,2,3.
And if you need to buy more Ink/Toner, you can earn 30% back in bonus rewards when you buy your ink/toner at Office Depot/Office Max.
And if you are like me and don’t have time to pop out to buy ink during the week, Office Depot/Office Max offers Free next-business-day shipping on qualifying $45 orders. With back to school, I’m printing tons of permission slips and homework!
Easy Canvas Prints is a company that takes digital photos and prints them on canvases. I love them because I can print really great summer pics of the kids and give them to relatives that live far away. I think that photo gifts are great for grandparents and great-grandparents.
This brand new Easy Canvas Prints deal offers UNLIMITED 11×14 canvases for $9.99 each! That’s 90% off of the original price. All other canvas print sizes are still 85% off. What a great deal!
You can have them directly shipped to the gift recipient too! To check out this deal, and the other deals on their site, visit Easy Canvas Prints.
This past weekend was hot. And humid. We spent most of the weekend indoors, playing games, watching videos, and eating strawberries.
I hit up the grocery store Friday to pick up a few things, but we’re mostly living off the pantry and our Yasukochi Family Farms CSA box, which was delivered this afternoon.
I did a bunch of meal prep this evening:
We’ve been trying a lot of new foods lately, thanks to the really great freebies from Social Nature lately too. It’s fun to try new foods. I received a few more coupons over the weekend, so I’ll visit Sprouts sometime this week to pick up the new foods. I’m focusing on snacks and treats from Social Nature.
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 try to update it after every shopping trip), so I’m able to plan meals and use up what we’ve got with little waste.
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 are also into fruit and bagels for breakfast. Lately, the big kid has been digging protein shakes in the morning. This is his favorite kind.
Lunch: I have a plastic tote in the cupboard full of self-serve snacks. I buy treats and snacks in bulk and fill up snack-sized zip-top bags. This is really helpful for the summer when for some reason, kids are starving all the time.
Dinner: I’ve got a couple casseroles/freezer meals this week, and other than that we’re eating easy and quick stuff so I can spend time playing, coloring, building legos, and swimming, which is the plan for the week.
Monday: Fruit Salad, Protein Shakes
Tuesday: Chef Salad (Using the green salad I made, plus bacon crumbles, hardboiled eggs, and cheese)
Wednesday: Crockpot Chili, cheese toast, fruit
Thursday: Spaghetti with red sauce and hot Italian sausage, roasted veggies
I take so many pictures each month, and I feel like most other parents do as well. Most of the time, they stay on my phone or cloud forever.
Recently I discovered The Freeprints App. It’s a really cool service where you get 85 FREE individual 4×6 photo prints per calendar month through their app, just pay shipping.
You can even earn up to 16 bonus prints per month by inviting friends or family, and by sharing on Twitter.
If you’ve got pictures that you want to give as gifts, there is an option to upgrade to a bigger size print and pay an extra fee at checkout.
The Freeprints app is available for iOS and Android.
If you are into Organic/Natural/Healthy products, then Social Nature is right up your alley. Sign up and apply to sample products that you are interested in. I get probably 1-2 products to sample each month. And most of the time it’s full-size products, not just a tiny sample.
Social Nature has rounded up products that are available to try at a local grocery store or mass merchandiser near you. Apply to Try the products that interest you to see if you’re a match here.
Here are some of the new sampling opportunities:
And More!
And one of the things I love about Social Nature is that they don’t leave our friends with food allergies out.
There are sampling offers for Gluten-free, nut-free, meat-free foods frequently.
Canadian Friends- You are in luck, there are sampling opportunities for you too! So if you love trying new products, check out Social Nature!
This week has been really hot here in San Diego, and across the southwest. If you need a cool place to go in San Diego County, check out the list of Offical Cool Zones here.
It’s going to be hot all weekend. We’ll be having a lot of time indoors watching movies, and late-night swim sessions.
Mask Mandates are changing constantly in California and can vary by city and county, so please do your part if you are going to any in-person freebies.
2022 Birthday Freebies are here!
Freebies
Free Food & Drinks at Circle K
Free Hot Dog at Rural King
Free Starbucks BAYA Energy Drink
Sephora – Free Laura Mercier, amika, Tatcha or Ilia Mini Set
Free The Body Shop Mango Body Butter
Free DIY Horse Craft Kit at Joann
Free Yachak Organic Plant-Based Energy Drink
Free Headspace Access for Educators
Free Tasty Bite Entree at Target
Free Sweet Chaos Fall Snacking Party Pack
Ulta – Free DryBar Prep Rally Detangler for Your Birthday
Verizon Up Rewards – Free Screen Protector
Free L’Oreal Le Color Gloss Sample
Panera Members – Free Bagel Everyday in September
Free Signature Select Pizza at Safeway
Free Museum Admission – Bank of America/Merril Lynch Cardholders
Free RID Super Max Children’s Lice Treatment Kits
Free Redbox DVD Rental
Free Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition PC Game
Deals
Womens Adidas Slides ONLY $24 (Reg. $80)
Stella McCartney Adidas Shoe ONLY $82.80 (Reg. $230)
Coach Makeup Case ONLY $51 (Reg. $150)
Coach Zip Card Case ONLY $34.64 (Reg. $128)
Coach Zak Flip Flops ONLY $16.15 (Reg. $58)
Bliss Facial Masks ONLY $0.94 (Reg $4.19)
Farmhouse Drawer Dresser ONLY $224 (Reg. $360)
Ninja Nutri-Blender ONLY $19.99 at Walmart (Reg $40) 50% Off
Tired of Missing HOT Free Samples? Get Text Alerts
Pajama Set ONLY $10.79 (Reg. $27)
Women’s Cardigan ONLY $7.74 (Reg. $31)
Kid’s Bento Lunch Box ONLY $16 (Reg. $30)
BP Short Pajama Set ONLY $17.15 (Reg. $50)
Steve Madden Booties ONLY $60 (Reg. $140)
Here is your monthly reminder! A new month means new printable and electronic coupons!
The printable coupon market is slowly coming to an end. Smartsource no longer offers printable coupons, and you may notice that there are fewer coupon inserts in your Sunday newspaper. This is in favor of more offers available on apps. But if you love printable coupons….
One of my favorite websites is the Sunday Coupon Review. It helps me plot out scenarios in advance and I can email friends to ask for coupons in advance. Remember if clipping coupons isn’t your thing, but saving money is, check out my list of Smartphone apps that can save you the big bucks! New offers are added on the Smartphone Savings Apps all the time!
Here are a few of my favorite printable coupons:
Save $1.00 on ONE (1) Splash Blast™ 16.9 oz. 6-pack, Any Flavor
Save $0.75 ONE (1) Sargento Balanced Breaks CHEESE & CRACKERS
Save $2.00 on ONE (1) Blue Diamond Almond Flour or Baking Mix
Save $3.00 on ONE (1) Sambucol product. Excludes 10ct Gummies and 10ct Immune Drink Powder.
September means Labor Day and Back to school! The traditional Back to School Sales will start. For most schools, classes begin the Tuesday after Labor Day. This is a great time to stock up on snacks that are healthy and shelf-stable.
For a complete list of types of foods and items that will be on sale, check out this post on the cycle of sales.
Introducing the NEW Rubio’s Rewards program, where you can earn points with every purchase and redeem them for free food.
