Free Museum Day - Saturday, 9-27-08

Here is a great FREE activity for this weekend!

Smithsonian Magazine is advertising a "Free Museum Day". It is THIS SATURDAY - September 27, 2008! That's not much time to plan - but it's worth checking out!

"Enjoy free general admission for you and a guest to hundreds of museums and cultural venues nationwide."

You can print a pass here that will get you and a guest into one of hundreds of museums participating in this program.

To see if there is a participating museum near you go here to check out the map.

We participated in this 2 years ago and had a great time going to Conner Prairie a local living history museum that we could not normally afford to visit. This museum would normally cost us $29.00 for the day.

Yummy Breakfast on the Cheap!

So here is my Very Yummy breakfast I made with my almost free stuff!

The Eggos are from Meijer - on sale + coupon for less than .75 a box.

The Yoplus yogurt has had tons of coupons and printables out there - I can usually get it for around $1.00 a 4-pack. Here is a coupon link.

The peaches were given to me by a church family that has peach trees!

And on top is a sprinkling of Honey Bunches of O's "Just Bunches" - that is the best yogurt topping! Walmart sells it for $2.50 and there were $1.00 off coupons out recently. I don't usually pay $1.50 a box for cereal - but I love it and can make a box stretch by just sprinkling a little on my yogurt!

Samantha has a post and giveaway here asking what do you do with all your extras! We've used up the Kool-aid. I bought lemon-aid flavored and took it on vacation with my husband's family!

Where Have We Been? - Fun Day!

To those of you who come to The Savings Swap on a regular basis, you have noticed I have been very negligent at my blogging lately!

So what have I been up to? Well, as you can see here I went bowling! Okay, that was just one afternoon! But, I have had my parents in visiting from out of town for 10 days.

Last week we expanded our "Fun Day" and included Grandpa and Grandma. Little Z earned enough passes from the summer reading program to take us all Mini-golfing and bowling! We had a great day and even rode the go-carts and played some arcade games.

It was really special because Little Z decided that is how he wanted to spend his library points and earned them for this special day. I think it meant a lot to Grandpa and Grandma. Thankfully we had a wonderful day and beautiful weather!

We ended the week with a trip to the State Fair! What a great evening! Here are pictures from this year and last year. I always take Little Z's picture at the corn field to see how he has grown in a year!

2007

2008

My blogging will be spotty for another week or two because I will be on vacation and don't know if I will have any Internet access! I hope to be back soon!

More Sunday Paper Coupons!

WAIT - don't throw out your Sunday papers yet. In this week's USA Weekend insert there were some really good coupons. 2 of my 4 papers had $11.00 in coupons, including $1.00 off Listerine and J &J Baby - which are an ECB deal at CVS this week. I plan to go and get 5 Listerine.

Here is my deal:

Buy 5 Listerine @ $4.00 ea (= $20.00)

Use $3/15 (My store should still accept this although expired)

Use 2 -$1.00 off coupons

Use 2 -$.50 off coupons

Total = $20.00

Coupons- 6.00

----------------

Pay 14.00 in ECBs

Receive back 10.00 ECBs

Final Cost 4.00 or .80 cents a bottle!

That is a great price! My husband is a dedicated mouthwash user!

So if you are like me and just take out the coupons and sale flyers - go check your papers for the insert and see if you scored some coupons! There were several $3.00 off coupons also!

Here's what I got:

$3.00 off John Frieda

$3.00 off Prilosec

$1.00 off Curel

$1.00 off Carefree

$1.00 Stayfree

$1.00 off J&J Baby

$1.00 off Listerine

I Love Chick-fil-a

Anyone that knows me already is quite aware of this fact! I love LOVE - Chick-fil-a! We have been there twice this month. Once for the "Dress like a Cow" free chicken day and again the other day for Kid's night and it was also Customer Appreciation Week.


Here are a few fun pictures from our Chick-fil-a trips!


Now - to make it even more tempting to stop for some chicken, our local Chick-fil-a has started a free sandwich program. Bring in a gas receipt for over $35.00 and get a free sandwich. That is a great deal for us because we can just get a kids meal along with that and we're good to go!























The first photo is from "Cow Appreciation Day" and the second photo is from "Customer Appreciation Week".

What's For Dinner Wednesday? Baked Fish.

Here is a super easy and good way to use that Tilapia Fish from Meijer! The croutons are so much better than bread crumbs - you'll never use them again!

Easy Breaded Fish

3/4 cup crushed croutons ( I put them through the food processor for a few seconds)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
2 tsp dried parsley flakes
1 egg
1 Tbs water
1 Tbs lemon juice (I've left this out when I don't have any and it's been fine)
1 lb fresh or frozen fish fillets - thawed, (pat dry with a paper towel.)

Preheat oven 350 degrees
Cover cookie sheet with foil - that non-stick foil works great. A stoneware sheet is fine too but might take a bit longer to cook.

In shallow dish, combine croutons, cheese and parsley flakes, blend well.

In another shallow dish combine egg, water and lemon juice, blend well.

Cut fish into 3 inch pieces ( I usually cut the fillets in half ) Try to make fish similar in size so they bake evenly.

Dip fish in egg mixture; coat with crouton mixture. Tuck thin ends of fish under to form pieces of uniform thickness.

Place on baking sheet. Bake in 350 over for 15 - 20 minutes, or until fish flakes easily and is not slimy looking. (Time varies due to fish size and thickness so I check by cutting one of the fillets open with a fork, when it looks done.)

Note: I just crush a whole bag of croutons in my food processor at a time and store what I don't use in a sealed container. It makes it easier and less work to make the fish the next time!

Let me know if you try this and how it comes out for you!

Meijer Fish Deal - last day!

Our sales change on Thursday, so today is the last day to pick up the Tilapia fish deal at Meijer. It is really a great deal. You buy 2 and get 2 free - also add 4 $2.00 off coupons from the Meijer Meal Box for a grand total of $4.00 for 4- 1 lb bags of individually frozen fish fillets. We love Tilapia it is a great fish to bake.

If your ads change on Sunday the deal might be past for you so check the Meijer website to make sure before you go.

I plan to go back today and get 4 more bags of fish. If you don't know what to do with the fish read my next post which will give you a great recipe for baking them. Even my fussy 5 year old loves them this way!

NOTE: To print the Meijer coupons go to the Meijer Mealbox and click on "Specials" you can the click on "Coupons".

ALSO: I have found out how to key in my own coupons using the Self check-out at Meijer. This is good because the coupons I print from the Mealbox never seem to scan! Push the button on the screen that says "Key in Item" and then just key in the bar code off the coupon - leaving off the last number - presto! I was able to use 4 coupons on the 4 bags I bought yesterday with no problem!

Monday Morning Messies

Here it is again another Monday morning! It seems like we always deal with the "Monday Morning Messies".
After the weekend it is time for a quick clean-up of the house. I like to clean up the Kitchen, make beds, straighten the rooms etc. before I do anything else.
















I really have a hard time thinking when there's too much mess in my house - it's like noise to me. I think that I must have ADDD (Attention Deficit Disorganization Disorder)















But, rather than just jump into the work this morning, I decided to take a few minutes to cut a few flowers from my garden to put on my kitchen window to enjoy while I clean up my kitchen!















Here are a few photo's of my flowers and my garden which is now blooming nicely!

TV Converter Box

Have you gotten your $40.00 TV Converter Box Coupon yet? If you do not have cable or satellite you will need this to receive TV signals next year. We do not have cable TV. We never got cable after we married and so we don't miss it too much. We figure that we are saving about $500.00 a year by not having cable and that's a grand total of $6000.00 over the 12 years of our marriage. Personally, I'd rather have the $6000.00 than HGTV - although I like to watch my fill when I go to my parents house!

Has anyone gotten their box yet? I'd like to go and get one soon. From my understanding we will get more channels and better reception than we have now. I would love to hear from anyone who has purchased one. Please let me know where you got one and if you were able to get a good deal when you throw in the $40.00 coupon. I'd like to find a good one that will enable us to get in more stations. We currently use an electric antenna that does pretty well.

If you have not gotten your coupon, you can apply to receive up to 2 coupons per home here. I would appreciate any suggestion for purchasing the converter box.

Two things to note: Your coupon will expire 90 days after it is mailed to you and you cannot re request another if it expires. You can request coupons until March 31, 2009.

Planters Deal Round-up

If you haven't gotten your share of free Planter's Peanuts, there are a lot of printable coupons out for $3.00 off Planter's Nuts with the purchase of 3 Kraft, Oscar Meyer, or Nabisco items. Freebies 4 Mom has a post here. Money Saving Mom has a post here. Sisterly Savings has a post here.

I was able to get 6 cans for very little by buying Kool-Aid packs for my Kraft purchase. I think we are set for peanuts for awhile! Thanks to Samantha for the Kool-Aid packs idea!