SUPPER 12-7-09 & DEAL OF THE DAY

My Deal of the Day!
Found a Meijer Catalina coupon I had for $2.00 off your next order
in my purse. It expires tomorrow so figured better use it while I can.
Had to go to post office with mom which is next door to Meijer so stopped in along the way.

4 two liters of Sprite Zero
$1.00 x's 4 is $4.00
minus the $2.00 catalina coupon
is now $2.00
minus a hang tag coupon for $1.00 off 4 bottles of Sprite
TOTAL: $1.00 for 4 bottles or .25 cents each.
Even the cashier made a comment
"I wish I could buy 2 liters of pop for a quarter each"

Here is an example of not following a recipe exactly and using
what you have on hand.
Tonight's supper was originally called Chicken Parmesana
BUT...
Don't have chicken thawed out only pork chops
Don't have spaghetti only penne pasta.

So I will call it Pork Chop Parmesana!

3 large pork chops (free)
1 large can spaghetti sauce (.99 cents Big Lots)
1/2 package (4 ounces) sliced mushroom (.50 cents manager special)
1/2 large can Hunt's whole tomatoes, cut up (.25 cents Big Lots)
1/4 cup Parmesan grated cheese (.24 cents Kroger)
16 ounces Barilla mini penne pasta (.50 cents)
12 Dinner Rolls 1/2 pack (.50 cents manager special)
(1.5 rolls for each person)

Pour spaghetti sauce in crock pot. Stir in mushrooms
and cut up tomatoes.
Put in pork chops and coat with sauce.
Cook on high for about 4 hours.

Boil pasta in pot according to package directions, drain and add butter.

Place pasta and pork chops on plate.
Spoon sauce over top and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
Serve with buttered dinner rolls.

TOTAL COST FOR MEAL: $2.73
makes roughly 4 servings @ .68 cents a serving
(kids each had 1/2 of a pork chop)
With plenty of leftovers on top of the 4 servings to make another supper!

Mixed remaining sauce and pasta and reserved it for tomorrow's supper of
Chili Mac!

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING & MISC. 12-7-09

My head is spinning thinking about spending money for Christmas.
I am trying to choose gifts wisely and be very practical with them.
But shopping can be very stressful and make you tired with many aches and pains.
Kids have so many toys and I told them this year that along with their so called toy wish list they also need to make a practical gift list.
They asked what practical meant and I told them something that gets used almost everyday.

Jonathan would crawl into bed with me in the evenings and watch tv. I don't have an electric blanket but I do use a heating pad at night.
He loves that warm feeling and said it would be great if they could make heated beds.
I came sooo close to finding a heated mattress pad at the thrift store for $5 for him.
But me and mom plugged it in and couldn't get it to heat up.
I was so bummed!
That would have been a perfect gift for him!
I will keep on looking though!

Christopher thinks Santa is bringing him a "new" bed.
So I checked to see if the thrift store still had the twin bed from last week.
It was gone! But in my mind I knew it would be.

Today I felt like I had stuck out twice with two great gifts for Christmas.
Then Kendra calls up to say she has an extra twin mattress that I could have!!
She's a lifesaver because I didn't know where else to look especially before Christmas!
So Christopher will be getting his "new" mattress for Christmas thanks to one of Santa's elves.

I have been thinking about redoing Christopher's room.
I just redid Jonathan's room with a new paint job and border in a baseball and sport's theme.
Cost me all of around $10 to do and it looks more warm and inviting in there with some color on the walls.
I'm including before and after photos of his room.
Jonathan wasn't really using his room before and it became a storage room
during the Summer months as he liked to camp out in the living room or his brother's room.
Now he LOVES his room and uses it all the time!
2 gallons of paint was $8 and 6 wallpaper borders $2 from Habitat for Humanity.
I also picked up some NASCAR border when there for $1.00.
If you bought one roll you got 2 free!

When organizing my storage room I found some NASCAR curtains. And I know we have NASCAR pillows, pillow cases and a comforter somewhere to turn his room into a racing theme. I also have NASCAR wallpaper border.

So maybe another Christmas present for Christopher would be to gather up all this NASCAR stuff and put it in a box as a gift and add a letter to say his room will me next to get a makeover.
Maybe I could find more NASCAR posters and such for decorations and to give him as gifts.

I'm just trying to be creative with the gift giving this year.
Mattress- practical
Bedroom makeover for cheap with bedding and curtains-Practical

I'm not looking forward to painting and wallpaper border again.
But to make things cheap you have to do it yourself!