Favorite Things Friday - RedBox DVD Rentals

I know it's technically Saturday, but I've yet to go to bed and end Friday, so I'm considering myself still on Friday time. And, that means it's not too late to post my favorite thing this Friday!

If you haven't already guessed, my favorite thing this week is RedBox! 

Some of you may not have these in your area yet, but I predict that you will very soon. If you like to rent movies and save money, RedBox is awesome. We've spent our fair share of years with Blockbuster cards, Hollywood Video cards, a NetFlix account and a Blockbuster mail account, but this far exceeds those movie rental methods.

Not only are all rentals just a buck, but the kiosks are all over our area. And, if I happen to think of renting a flick when I'm near the kiosk to the west of our house, it doesn't matter if I return it to the kiosk that's to the east of our house on the way to Cooper's school. The available movies are updated every Tuesday with new releases, the family movies are plentiful, I can reserve them online to make sure the movie I want is available when I want it, and the free codes I've recently come across online have made this entertainment at my favorite price: FREE! Since it's been raining here for three days, the kids have needed some indoor entertainment, and four free rentals have been awesome! 

Week in Review

I don't know about y'all, but it's been a long, hard week for me. It could be the time change on Sunday that's thrown me for a loop, but I'm guessing that the serious overtime at work is what has taken the wind out of my sails. There's also the fact that my final yearbook deadline is tomorrow and I still have 17 pages to put together that I haven't even begun. I'm just hoping that parents and teachers have submitted enough photos for me to be able to fill the pages, when I finally get around to it tomorrow night. Oy! 

The great news of the week is that it rained! Yes, RAIN!!!! We are in a serious drought and desperately need rain. It started raining around midnight Wednesday and didn't stop until sometime today. It's cold and nasty and muddy and dreary outside, but we are thanking God for blessing us with some rain. It's only rained (rather, sprinkled) a few times since we moved here, and poor Cooper didn't know what to think about all the rain on the drive to school this morning. He was fascinated! Poor child. It's too bad he didn't have the experience of living on the west coast, islands and east coast (won't ever remember it) with us where rain was such a common occurrence. 

Tonight we treated ourselves with a movie to give mommy a chance to veg out and relax with my babies. I've mentioned my love for the Red Box vending kiosks before, but I'm even more in love with them now. I've created an account at their website and can reserve my movies online so I don't have to be disappointed when I can't find what I want to rent at the kiosk. AND... I'll get a text message with a free rental code every Monday. AND... I googled "red box codes" and found several codes for free rentals we used tonight. Awesome! Red Box already rocked my world, but if it's free, I can't think of anything better for entertainment. I doubt we'll ever grace the doors of Blockbuster or Hollywood Video or will pay a dime to Netflix again. 

On a less sunnier note, the reality of our country's economic status was shown to me last night at the weekly prayer and praise service we attend.  Three men, in the group of about 20 adults, had been laid off at Dell yesterday. There were hundreds of layoffs in the area yesterday, but it's more evident when someone you know is touched by the events rather than when you just read about it in the paper. What was amazing to me was that these men were clearly praising God last night. One gentleman was so fortunate that he was able to share scripture via email with a colleague in Japan before he got the news and was escorted from the premises. I can certainly respect that faith. 

Many of recent times I have discuss the current economy, the subject is focused on the government and markets and news, but this time it is the man who kindly greets my family each week and just last week was so excited that his first grandchild is on the way. These times are not about government bills or a President, but rather people. Please be in prayer for the many families who have lost an income. I think we should focus our energy, thoughts and prayers on the people rather than the government. 

Tuesday Treats - Al Gore Popcorn

This is actually a St. Patty's Day popcorn ball recipe, but I'm not much on St. Patty's Day, so I'm dubbing it Al Gore Popcorn. Get it? It's green. I know. I'm being corny. Ha! I'm just killing myself here. I've read two different recipes for this. I'll give you the first one...

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup unsalted butter, plus extra for coating bowl and hands
1 tablespoon water
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon green food coloring, optional
9 cups prepared popcorn
2 cups green M&M’S® Brand Milk Chocolate or Peanut Chocolate Candies
1 cup mini marshmallows
Candy thermometer
2 quarts heavy bottom pot
Wooden spoon or spatula
Large pot
Waxed or parchment paper
Cookie sheet
Cellophane (optional)

Directions
1. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar, corn syrup, butter, water and salt. Stir constantly until mixture comes to a boil. Continue cooking without stirring for another 10 minutes, or until the syrup reaches the hard-crack stage—300ºF on a candy thermometer. Immediately remove from heat, add vanilla extract and food coloring and mix well.
2. In a large greased pot, combine popped popcorn with syrup, stirring constantly with a spatula or wooden spoon until completely coated. Stir in M&M’S® Brand Chocolate Candies and marshmallows. Once mixture is cool enough to handle, coat hands with butter and form 3-inch balls. Place on tray lined with either wax or parchment paper until ready to serve, or, wrap in cellophane.

But, that sounds like a lot of work. So, I'm giving you this second option.

Pop some popcorn (either 1 bag of microwave popcorn or 1/2 cup of popcorn in the air popper), then melt two squares of vanilla almond bark in the microwave. Pour it over the popcorn (after you take any stray kernels out!) and stir! Toss in the green M&Ms and lay it out on wax paper too cool! Break it up and enjoy!

Now, I'm beseeching you to please make this and tell me how scrumptious is tastes. I'll live vicariously through someone else who's not subsisting on protein shakes, yogurt, grapefruit, cans of tuna and carrot sticks. 

Movie Monday - Beverly Hills Chihuahua

I'm usually not into the kids' movies with them, but this was actually pretty cute. We all watched it together Saturday night, and I think everyone was at least slightly entertained. (The kids had more than earned their own movie night after spending all day traipsing through Sam's Club and Wal-Mart for price checks on all grocery items we buy.)

I was surprised it wasn't animated, but was live action. I mean, talking dogs? Wouldn't you be surprised? Of course, it was a silly plot and ridiculous acting was thrown in, but there were some cute lines by the dog voiceovers. I don't think we'll be adding it to our movie collection just yet, but maybe in a year or so when it's a cheapie. 

More About Groceries...

As you can see, I just can't get this off my mind. I'm devoting much of my weekend to figuring out how to shrink our grocery budget. 

I don't know that I could get our dinner budget smaller. I'm still cooking a month of meals at a time, and am spending around $300 per month on those. That's about $10/meal. Does anyone feed their family (remember I'm feeding 4) on less. I looked at the site Amanda recommend, www.5dollardinners.com, and am thinking I will begin working on my April menu and see if I can meet her challenge. Could I actually put together April's dinners for $150?! Does anyone use this site or want to share how much they spend per meal and how they do it cheaper than $10/meal?

My biggest budget problem is the food for the rest of the day. Since we began eating healthier at Christmas, we've been eating a lot (read: mass amounts) of fruit, yogurt and carrot sticks. That's what is killing my budget. Of course, we prefer the Yoplait Light yogurt, and haven't ventured into the store brands. Does anyone else frequent the yogurt aisle and know of a better deal? (I'm talking about lots of yogurt. We usually go through 6 or 7 cups of yogurt a day.) 

What about fruit? Hannah mentioned that she gets fruit at Sam's and finds it cheaper. I'm headed there today to price it out and see for myself. We have been Farmer's Market frequenters in the past, but the fruits we consume (again, in mass amounts), oranges, apples, grapefruits, are not in season right now and I don't think we'll have much luck at the market. There is a new grocery store in south Austin that just opened and their prices look unbelievable on fruits. But, I'm thinking that the gas I have to use to get down there would defeat the cost saving purpose. Does anyone in the Dallas area ever venture to the Newflower Farmer's Market in Plano? If so, are the deals worth the trip? We're getting a Sprout's Farmer's Market nearby but in the meantime, I'm on the lookout for the cheapest place to buy fruit. Where do you buy fruit? I do get some frozen fruit that we use for protein shakes in the morning, but the rest needs to be fresh.

Did anyone else check out the other site Amanda recommended? I've been perusing www.dealseekingmom.com and it looks like a great find so far. I'm going to splurge and get some ink for my printer cartridge and start using it for coupons, but only on things I normally buy. And, the Walgreen's deals she points out look like good finds. Does anyone use any other sites like this?

My last question pertains to kids. What have you found is the best deal for your kids' breakfast and lunch? Abigail and Cooper have been chowing down a bagel and fruit for breakfast for quite some time? Does anyone have other ideas that are inexpensive but still healthy? What about lunch? I usually just pack a sandwich with a fruit and something else like rice cakes or crackers. Have you found other ideas that are easy on the budget?

I'm on board with freezing the bread and appreciate all the recommendations for that. I'm excited about the savings at the bread store and not having to figure something out at night when I realize we are out of bread and I've still got to pack lunches because I'll have a back-up supply in the freezer. And, I'm excited to see what Sam's has to offer me today. It sounds like a lot of you buy things in bulk, which I obviously need to start doing. I think we veered off into a family of four full-time eaters with none sustained by breastmilk and homemade baby food without me learning how to feed them on a budget, and now I've found that we are just spending way too much money on food. I know we can continue to eat healthier and still save money.

Again, bring on the ideas... PLEASE!!!

Looking for Tips

I've had this discussion with girlfriends on many occasions, but the subject came up again tonight at dinner and I thought I'd come here to open the discussion with y'all. I'm looking for tips and advice on saving money at the grocery store. It seems lately that our grocery bill has increased greatly and I'm aiming to bring it back down to earth. 

It's frustrating because we've been dieting for several months now and are eating much less food, but I'm still spending quite a bit on groceries. We do eat a lot of fruit, and I know that's not helping, but I'm not willing to give that up. Are there any fruit eaters out there with tips? The Farmer's Market should be opening soon so hopefully that will help...

I did stop at the bread store tonight and picked up some good deals on bread. Does anyone freeze loaves of bread so you can buy in bulk? I thought about it tonight because it was 6 loaves for $5! And, I'm not talking about the Wal-Mart white bread. This was Mrs. Baird's 100% whole wheat. I thought that was a steal, but I've never frozen it. The kids eat a lot of sandwiches so we can go through 1-2 loaves/week. 

I've used coupons at times, but I'm not sure what I think about them. Usually I like to buy store brands, and I think those are cheaper than buying the name brands with a coupon. What do you think? And, I don't want to fall prey to the purpose of the coupon. I work in marketing, and I know they are trying to get me to buy things that I wouldn't normally buy. So, I usually avoid the coupons and just stick to my usual cheap stuff. Are any of you believers in coupons? How do you do it? Does anyone use the Coupon Mom?

Bring on the comments...

I haven't really been in a blogging mood the past week, so I apologize if anyone has been looking for updates or pics of my cute kids or something crafty. Things are just busy with work and my volunteer position at Abigail's school so blogging is the first thing to take a back seat. 

But, I do want to share one brief thought with you. Isn't life great?! It's nothing in particular, but the sum of it all. I've been blessed beyond my wildest imagination, and I can't tell you how many times the thought has occurred to me in the past week that my life is awesome. I hope the same overwhelming feeling is shared by you sometime this week. Just sit and look at what and who you have and how great your life is. God is so good to all of us!