What's in your Lunch Box?

Thanks TLC, for introducing me to the crazy world of couponing.

When I first watched the show I was disgusted. These people would buy $100's worth of food, and only pay $2.50, all because of coupons. The bulk of their food would be dozens of boxes of pasta, cereal and candy bars, which astounds me... who needs 152 boxes of pasta!?Then they would take their load of food and store it in a massive bedroom-sized pantry and start planning their next shopping trip.
But then I got to thinking, why don't I coupon?
I would not be crazy and buy 12432 boxes of pasta, but if I could save 50 cents something I would already buy then whats the harm?

 

 

 

Thus begins my crazy adventure in the couponing world.

 

I am addicted.

 

I started with just chicken breasts.

We eat a lot of chicken breasts.

and Price Chopper was selling them at $1.18 per pound which is like FREE!

They are normally $3 something a pound.. so I bought 8 packages.

And after seeing how much I saved, I began searching for coupons on everything else I buy.

This led me to HyVee this Sunday

Before Coupons my total was $54.62

After coupons

$38.62

that's 16 dollars I would have spent otherwise! Which is the equivalent to almost half a tank of gas.

Plus HyVee gave me $5 off my next purchase! chye-aahhh!

So Danny and I now have a new Sunday morning ritual. Hop on our bikes and ride down to the local gas station to buy the Sunday Paper. We will make coffee and I will clip coupons =)

 

Which Brings me to my next segment

 What's In Your Lunch Box?

Today I made

Chicken and Spinach Salad with nuts and raisins

Yum-O

I had a $1.50off coupon for 3 bags of DOLE lettuce

and HYVEE had a special for buy 3 bags for $4

So I got each bag of lettuce for only 83 cents each!

yay for double deals!

The oranges were a 5lb bag for only $2.44 plus I had a 50 cents off fruits coupon.

and the yogurt was 10 for $5 PLUS I had a 1 dollar off coupon =)

 

I also found this AWESOME Blog

Budget Savvy Diva 

She is the QUEEN of good deals. Follow her, get great coupons and deals. You won't regret it.

My weekend was AWESOME

We managed to pull off a surprise birthday party for Lynda!!!

 

Toga! Toga! Toga!

I have never helped throw a surprise party... and it was hard. I kept wanting to clue Lynda in... and it was so hard to lie to her... but it was totally worth it! Her husband Wayne did a great job! And everyone had a blast!

And the following day we had to recover from the Toga party.. so we made Alternate Hamburger and Fries

 

Turkey Burgers

w/steamed potatoes and carrots

Turkey Burgers are a great healthy alternative to ground beef. They have half the fat and calories. However, seasoning these bad boys can be tricky. Since turkey is naturally bland, we season ours with minced garlic, chunks of onion, steak seasoning and pepper. Then we threw them on Mr. George Foreman.

The veggies were seasoned with garlic and basil

I topped my burger with lettuce and Sun Dried Tomatoes.

It was super yummy, and great for lunch leftovers the next day =)

I am currently writing my review for Lover Unleashed  I should have it posted tomorrow =)

Until then, Happy Reading, and yummy eating! ( wow.. I should name my blog that. hehe)