My New Monitor Ornament

This is Beast (OK, I know, I didn't name him). He's a big cat and every time he gets up there I'm afraid he's going to knock it over. I usually call him Big Boy but since he was 10 years old when I inherited him last year and had gone by Beast that whole time I can't exactly change his name now. My other two cats have finally accepted him sharing their home but still haven't made friends which results in an occasional hissy fight in the middle of the night that wakes me up.

I have made a decision about my food contest blog. I am going to be shutting it down. It is too time consuming and has taken over way too much of my spare time. I've hardly had any time to work on my other blogs, do my charity crafting or even clip coupons. I wasn't even entering the contests, I was too obsessed with listing all of them. There's a lot of sites out there that list contests and mine wasn't getting any traffic. I am going to leave my craft related one up, I originally started it to keep track of the contests I entered trying to get more supplies for my charity crafting and I think I'll leave it at that.

Saturday is the last day to enter my Yoplait Yoplus Yogurt Gift Pack Giveaway. Please take a few minutes to enter.

I just entered a contest for the cookbook The $5 Mom Cookbook that looks awesome. The contest is sponsered by the Pssst... Network and General Mills who occasionally give me free samples and coupons. I think you need to be a member to enter so click the link and join if you wish. You can also order it through Amazon. It looks like a great book. It has 200 recipes for family dinners that cost under $5!

Today is Yo Yo Day

I didn't know that until this morning. In one of my online charity crafting groups that I just rejoined every 11th of the month is set aside for making Yo Yos, small crocheted circles. These are then joined together to make blankets to be sent to New York charities in honor of Sept. 11. So I made 11 of them this morning. If you want to learn more about charity crafting (and free crochet patterns) check out Deb's Crafts: Handicrafts for Charity for more information and to see some of the projects I've worked on.

I've been entering and blogging about lots of contests for groceries and craft items. Check out my contest blogs for all the listings.

The Sunday paper didn't have very many coupons I could use this morning so I only bought the one. When it has a lot I sometimes buy up to 6 papers. Our Krogers only accepts 3 like coupons so I try to keep it in multiples of three. I did go shopping yesterday and saved 48% off my order. Wasn't much on sale that I needed but it's still good to save what you can.

I'm a great believer in stocking up when things are on sale so I often stock up when a sale and a coupon makes something really cheap. I now have 5 loaves of Healthy Life 100% Whole Grain Bread in my daughters freezer ($1.39 on sale - 35¢ coupon doubled for an end price of 69¢ a loaf. This is of course not the only thing but it's just an example. How often do you find 100% whole grain bread for 69¢? I usually use a loaf of bread a week so this is 6 (counting the one I'm using now) weeks worth of bread. If you do this often enough you will eventually find that except for perishables you won't "need" anything.

Yard sales are starting around here so my Saturdays will be busier again. I've already seen a couple signs but wasn't able to stop. Next week I'll set aside some time for it.

Yoplait YoPlus Yogurt Gift Pack Review and Giveaway

We Have A Winner!!

The Random Number Generator chose #17 and the winner is Susan!!

MyBlogSpark and Yoplait gave me the opportunity to try new Yoplait Yoplus yogurt. This is from their information:

YoPlus now provides three important health benefits in each four-oz. cup:
Antioxidant vitamins A and E (now with 20% of your recommended daily value)
A blend of probiotic cultures & fiber (three grams of fiber per 4-ounce serving) for digestive health
Calcium and vitamin D for bone health
YoPlus is available in six delicious flavors including Strawberry, Vanilla, Cherry, Peach, Blackberry Pomegranate and Blueberry Acai.
If you are looking for all the great health benefits of YoPlus with even fewer calories, YoPlus Light is the perfect solution, with one third fewer calories than the original. YoPlus Light is available in three delicious flavors - Honey Vanilla, Strawberry Banana, and Key Lime - all with just 70 calories per cup.

I try to eat yogurt everyday so this was right up my alley. When I went to my local Kroger's they only had three of the six flavors. They didn't carry the light at all. They had my all time favorite, good old vanilla (I'm partial to vanilla ice cream too, ok so I'm boring) strawberry and blueberry pomagranate. Since they were on sale and I had a couple more coupons I bought all three.

Home for the taste test, now I couldn't eat three cups of yogurt all at once so I started with vanilla, yummy, creamy and good. The bluberry pomagranate was next and it's about to become my all time second favorite, I loved the tase, it was very, very good. The strawberry was also creamy and good just like yogurt should be. I will be definately be watching for sales and coupons for Yoplait Yoplus yogurt from now on. Why eat regular yogurt when you can get the extra fiber and other goodies in this yummy yogurt?

As well as the yogurt coupon I also received a gift pack that included an on-the-go lunch container with utensils, an insulated lunch bag, and a pedometer. Like I mentioned before I had a lot of fun with the pedometer, I actually walked four miles one day last week just doing my regular stuff.

Now for the good news! You can win the same prize pack I got! There are four easy ways to enter. Please leave a separate comment for each entry.



1. (mandatory before you do the others) Leave a comment about why you would like to try Yoplait Yoplus Yogurt.
2. Blog about this Giveaway!

3. Become a follower of this blog.

4. Become a follower of my Food Contest blog.


Contest will run until noon (Central Time) next Saturday April 17th.
Contest open to US residents only.
Disclaimer: Yoplait and MyBlogSpark.com provided me with the coupon and photo holder so that I could give my honest opinion of the product which I have done.

We Have a Winner!!

I'm a little late announcing the winner of the Pillsbury Sweet Rolls contest, I got a little caught up in the preparation of our Easter dinner. We had it at my son's house and even though he was hosting it, mom still had to cook so I spent the whole weekend there getting ready (and doing his laundry).
Anyway, Timmy "won" the vote to choose the winner and he chose # 2 so the winner is Nancy!! I will contact Nancy by email shortly.
More to come about our great Easter dinner in the next post.

Musing About Contests and Other Fun Things

I am a little disappointed in the response to my Pillsbury Sweet Rolls Giveaway, I have to keep reminding myself that this is a new blog and it takes awhile to build up followers. I'm thinking of having contest just for people to follow this blog. How about a Subway gift certificate? How does that sound? If your already a follower you'll still be eligible so you can go ahead and follow me now. You'll still need to come back and leave a comment if I do decide to do this.

Speaking of contests I have a new review and giveaway starting sometime next week after the current one ends. It's for Yoplait Yo Plus yogurt so check back next week. One of the gifties that came with my package from MyBlogSpark and Yoplait was a pedometer and I've been having fun with it. I managed to walk three quarters of a mile yesterday from the time I got home at 6:30 and opened the package until I went to bed. I've had it on all day and I'll see what I get up to.

I'm having car problems again so got to pull out even more of the "frugal tools". It's a good thing I stock up when things are on sale. There's a lot of things I won't have to buy for awhile and that really cuts the grocery bills. I've also gotten good at using what I have on hand and whats on sale. If you remain flexible it can really cut down on your food costs.

I called the phone company and I think I've cut out some of the unessential services and reduced my bill. I'm not sure though, have you ever tried to talk to those people? There's so much double talk and this package that package stuff that it's hard to keep it all straight. We'll see if it's lower. I supposedly lowered my internet speed but I don't notice any differences. I also find the "That rate is only for new customers" total garbage. I've had their internet services for years and never got a discount. Now is that fair?

I stopped at the little farmer's market here in town for the items I needed for the veggie tray and potato salad. They had some tomato plants out already and I bought a cherry tomato plant and planted it. It's a little early but since it's in a pot if it's going to get too cold I'll bring it in. There's a picture here of the garden I had last year.

Pillsbury Orange Sweet Rolls Review and Giveaway

Recently, Pillsbury and MyBlogSpark.com sent me the above gift pack consisting of a photo holder and a free coupon for their new Orange Sweet Rolls. So I invited the grandkids over for a taste test!

The theme was Sunday morning breakfast but I had to do it on Saturday because Granma goes to St. Louis on Sundays. The kids, Timmy is the big one, and Tyler could smell the yummy smells as the rolls baked and were getting impatient!

Finally done! Both of them chowed down. Timmy took one bite and exclaimed "These are gooood!!" Tyler didn't say much he just reached for another one. Diet or no diet I had to try them too. I agreed with Timmy they were gooood!! I especially liked the orange frosting, sweet but a little tart with the taste of the orange.

Almost all gone. The kids had to have the "How many did you have?" discussion to decide who should get the last one. Tyler won and finished it in three bites! What a sweet way to spend a morning with my two favorite boys! I liked the icing so much that I scraped the excess off the plate when they were done!

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Now for the good news! You can win the same prize pack I got! There are four easy ways to enter. Please leave a separate comment for each entry. In each entry please vote for Timmy or Tyler to choose the winner.

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1. (mandatory before you do the others) Leave a comment about your favorite family breakfast.

2. Blog about this Giveaway!

3. Become a follower of this blog.

4. Become a follower of my Food Contest blog.

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Contest will run until noon (Central Time) next Saturday April 3rd, at which point I will use the very unscientific method of asking the grandkid with the most "votes" to pick a number between one and however many entries there are!

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Contest open to US residents only.

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Disclaimer: Pillsbury and MyBlogSpark.com provided me with the coupon and photo holder so that I could give my honest opinion of the product which I have done.

Signs of Spring at Last

Aren't they pretty? I've been watching this little patch of daffodils since it first poked it's little green leaves out. It's right behind my office. I got off a bit early today so I stopped at the fruit and veggie stand to get some green grapes. They were more expensive than the ones I saw at Wally World so I passed on them but they had some red leaf lettuce plants so I bought them and planted them in one of my patio planters. I tried to start lettuce from seed last year and it didn't work too well so we'll see how it goes.

Wow, it's been a busy week or so, I've been in St Louis a lot. Which means I haven't had a lot of computer time. My son is on his PC most of the time I'm there and I hate using his laptop.

Finally went shopping last night and Kroger's has Kraft cheese on sale. Woohoo, I use a lot of cheese and I stocked up. Final price between sale and coupon was $1.17 for the 8 oz bag of shredded cheese. I think I'm going back tomorrow, they limit the amount of coupons you can use so sometimes when the sales really a good one I'll make a couple trips. Our Kroger is not that far from where I live so it's really not a big deal. They had some other good bargains but I didn't really have the time or money (today's payday) to do much shopping last night.

I've finished a couple of blankets for Project Linus. They give handmade blankets to children in our local hospitals. I love making these and you can see them and find out more by going to my Deb's Crafts blog.

I've also been posting a bunch of contests on my two contest blogs, one lists crafty contests and the other one lists food giveaways. Check them out if you like to enter contests!