Coupon Preview

I am not able to send you the link this morning for the Coupon Preview, but if you head on over to Mom's Need to Know you should find the coupon preview on the front page.












If you would like a detailed list of the coupons for this week's paper go here to the Taylortown Preview.

Thrifty Thursday - Free School Curriculum

I found this website that has downloadable curriculum. There are over 100 free items that you can download here.

So if you are a homeschool mom or maybe you just want something to supplement your child's education, or for them to do this summer during vacation you can check it out!

Here are a few examples of the free downloads from the Currclick website:


Go here for "Discoverers and Explorers"

"Looking for a wonderful book to supplement your student's study of Explorers? This FREE E-book is just the answer. A concise and beautifully illustrated book about early discoverers and explorers. A fascinating read! "

Go here for "All About My Family Notebook"






"Have your children create a notebook about the most important people in their lives, their family! Your child could interview individuals from your family to learn more about their heritage, add photos and write biographies of those who have passed on. There are pages for them to add personal information about themselves to pass down to their future children. They might choose to create a family tree on poster board or a wall with all the people they have learned about. Children love to hear stories about their family and this notebook could be a way to collect and keep these stories alive for future generations!"

There is a lot more for free. It looks like item for all ages from preschool and up! If you find a good item let us know!

Yard Sale Round-Up 4/16/09

It is time for the Spring Yard Sales to begin! I am looking forward to getting out there and searching for some good deals!

If you are having or know about a:

Yard Sale
Garage Sale
Community Sale
Rummage Sale
Kids Clothing Sale

Let everyone else know too!

These are the guidelines to follow:

• List your sale in the comments section of this post.
• Please post Yard/garage sales for the upcoming weekend only.
• Start your comment with the type of sale and general location of the sale. (ex. Yard Sale - South side or Church Bazaar - Far North side)
• Post the location, dates and times.
• You may leave a link to your website or blog (or an email address), if there is more information or directions to your sale listed there.
• This posting is for the greater Indianapolis and surrounding areas.

I welcome postings for Community Sales, School Sales, Church Sales and such!

I have 1 sale to tell you about this week: This sale is on the South-East side of Indy.

April 18- St. John Lutheran School Kid's Clothing & More Sale:
Selling infants and children's clothing, toys and furniture. St. John Lutheran School, 6630 Southeastern Ave., Indianapolis. Sale runs from 8am -noon. For directions go here.

Tax Day Freebies

No one likes paying taxes, but at least there are a few freebies to enjoy this Tax Day!

Update: 2:15 PM, According to a local reader there are no participating MaggieMoo's in Indiana. What a bummer! You can find the phone # of your local MaggieMoo's to call and check here.

I just tried the MaggieMoo's website and it is really slow - they are probably slammed with hits today!



MaggieMoo's Ice Cream & Treatery has announced that on April 15, 2009 participating Treateries nationwide will reward customers with one free single-scoop of ice cream in honor of Tax Day.

MaggieMoo's will create its own "e-cone-omic" ice cream stimulus package for customers that will include MaggieMoo's award-winning, super-premium ice cream.




For a list of MaggieMoo's stores go here.

You might call to make sure the store you want to go to is "participating".

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Also Free Cinnabon Bites - While supplies last 5-8 pm



To find a location near you go here.

Thanks to Northwest Indiana Deals for the previous Freebies!

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Here are some more for you:

P.F. Chang's is giving a 15% discount.

T.G.I. Friday's will give its guests who visit Friday's on April 15 a tax day bonus: $5 Bonus Bites cards for purchases (excluding alcohol and tax) beginning at $15 through $25; $10 Bonus Bites cards for purchases over $25 while supplies last at participating restaurants in the U.S.

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There is a good post here at "Hey, It's Free" with more Tax Day Freebies in it.


Although you may not enjoy Tax Day - enjoy the freebies!

Tuesday Tip - Menu Making with Your Stockpile

If you have attended a Savvy Saving Class, you will have learned the importance of having what I call a "Stockpile". By "Stockpile" I don't mean hoards of food that are piled up all over your house. I only have a small pantry and a chest freezer and that works fine for me.













(My pantry)

There are many good reasons for having extra food on hand, but I am not going to go into all the reasons for stockpiling in this article. Instead I want to talk about how to use your stockpile in menu preparation and how it can save you a lot of money.

When I grocery shop each week, my goal is to get the most bang for my buck. In- other-words, I want to get the most possible meals out of my weekly budget. This is how I do this:

The first thing I do, before I make my weekly grocery list, is make a menu. I generally make a menu for the whole month.




















(My monthly menu planner and schedule)

By planning ahead, I can see how many meals that I need to get yet for the month (and then I buy sale items for those meals.) Usually, I have enough stock in my freezer and pantry to plan out the meals for the month and only need to purchase a few fill in items.

About 1/3 to 1/2 of my grocery money is used each week to buy fresh items that I cannot stockpile. These item would include fruit, fresh vegetables, eggs, milk and yogurt.

Because my meals are planned out of my stockpile, I have extra money leftover in my grocery budget. I then use this remaining grocery money to restock my pantry and freezer with what happens to be a really good deal that week. This gives me that more bang for the buck, because I can choose how the money is spent, my menu is not dictating the spending.

When you have a stockpile, it puts you in the drivers seat. You have the freedom to wait until an item you use is at a very good price and then stock-up.

If you only have the groceries on hand to get through a week or two, you are much more likely to have to purchase items at full retail price, increasing your grocery bill drastically.

If you don't have a stockpile, you can start one by buying extra items that your family uses, when they are at a really good price. I look for items that are at least 50% off the regular price.

I stock-up on certain items when they hit or go below my target price. For example, here are my target prices for these items:
Cereal: $1.00/box
Meat: $1.00/lb for beef, chicken
Yogurt: $.25 per serving

I also use the Internet to look for free items, keep an eye on The Grocery Get-Together for good grocery deals. I also like to check out Money Saving Mom.

You can check out my blog list in the left side column near the bottom.

So, I would encourage you to:

#1 Have a "Stockpile" (1 month + of food on hand)
#2 Plan your menu from the stockpile
#3 Take a portion of your grocery $ to keep and build that stockpile with low cost and sometimes even free items!

Free Lego Magazine

I have a 5 year old who is CRAZY about Legos. If you live with a Legos fan, you can order a free Lego magazine by going here.




















If you little Lego builder is under 6, like mine, you might want the Lego Jr. Magazine here.

Menu Planning Monday 4/13/09

If you would like to see my month of meals planned out please go here.

Although I plan out a month of meals, I usually have to adjust the final weekly menu due to the amounts of leftovers or schedule changes.

My original menu for this week looks like this:

4/12 - 18/09---------------------------------

Sunday (Easter) - Baked Ham, Scalloped Potatoes

Monday - Leftovers

Tuesday - Ham and Bean Soup

Wednesday - Leftovers

Thursday - Pizza

Friday - Leftovers

Saturday - Turkey Noodle Soup


Well, we ate the Turkey Noodle Soup last week on one day when my husband was sick, so that will have to change and I've made a few other changes so the final menu looks like this:


Sunday: Baked Ham, twice baked potatoes, carrots, rolls
Monday: Ham and Cabbage, carrots
Tuesday: Ham and Scalloped potatoes
Wednesday: Spaghetti
Thursday: Leftover Spaghetti
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: BBQ Beef Sandwiches


It's nice to have a little stockpile of stuff because I have the ability to change around the menu when I need to without running out to the grocery store!

If you would like to learn more about why you should make your menu out of your stockpile go here.