Penny Pinching Peach

For the semi crunchy, homeschool friendly and totally frugal!

Author Archives: pennypinchingpeach


by 5 Comments

Picnic For Pennies

Playing Outside With Our Chickies

Playing Outside With Our Chickies

It’s a beautiful spring day here in Georgia, and wonderful weather for a picnic! With this in mind, I’ve gotten together a perfect picnic for pennies on the dollar. Not only is this a cheap menu, but it is both a simple and unique twist on classic picnic foods. We’ve got a main dish, side and dessert, all very easy to throw together and equally easy on your pockets!

A healthier version of corn dogs…

Quick & Crunchy Hot Dogs

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup prepared yellow mustard

1 cup cornflake crumbs (Total cereal may work, and it has a coupon)

1 (16 ounce) package all-beef Ball Park hot dogs

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with a sheet of aluminum foil.

2.Stir together ketchup and mustard on a plate until mixed. Place cornflake crumbs in a shallow bowl. Roll each hot dog in the ketchup mixture, then roll in cornflake crumbs to coat. Place on prepared baking sheet.

3.Bake in preheated oven until the hot dogs are hot on the inside, and crispy on the outside, about 15 to 20 minutes.

An unusual side dish…

Awesome Brown Rice Salad

2 cups water

1 cup Hinode brown rice

1/4 cup diced red onion

1/2 cup diced celery

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing

1 tablespoon sugar

1.In a saucepan, bring water to a boil. Stir in rice, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 45 to 60 minutes, or until done (or use instant brown rice for quicker results).

2.Transfer rice to a serving bowl, and stir in onion, celery, cranberries, salad dressing and sugar. Cover, refrigerate, and serve cold.

And for dessert…

S’mores!

There is a rare coupon covering the three basic s’more ingredients- marshmallow, chocolate and graham crackers.

You can make them over a fire in the usual way. If it a backyard picnic, though, you can also put them together (without the top graham cracker) on a baking sheet and broil them until they are lightly browned and all puffed up, then just slap the top graham cracker on when you pull them out of the oven. Either way is a delectably gooey sweet treat to top off a nice spring picnic! 🙂

For your savings, go to this site: http://www.coupons.com/coupons/Food-Coupons-107/?pid=14505&nid=10&zid=py13
Print the following coupons: Big G Cereals, Ball Park Hot Dogs, S’mores, Hinode Rice

Love these savings!! 🙂

Our family loves spending time outdoors, especially this time of year when the weather is absolutely perfect for it! Eating outdoors is just one of many fun & frugal things to do in the springtime. There are so many things to enjoy outside for free or nearly free when it’s gorgeous out! What are your favorite picnic foods? Do you prefer to picnic at the park, in the woods, in a field, in your own yard, at a playground…what’s your preference?


by 4 Comments

CVS Coupon Spree

CVS Coupon Spree

CVS Coupon Spree

Yesterday was one of my occasional “coupon sprees” at CVS.

My tallies came up pretty dandy! As I’ve stated before, I don’t have the time or patience to “extreme coupon” with two small children, but my savings percentages were in that league. All I did was spend a few minutes scanning the deals online, printing out my matching coupons online, grabbing the coupons I already had clipped that went with the deal, loading my deals from my CVS club emails and folding it all into the CVS flier from the Sunday paper. If you aren’t signed up for the emails, do it! I get special deals almost weekly for 20% or 30% percent off or $5 off of a $30 or other similar discounts on top of coupons, sales and Extra Care Bucks. Annnnyway… on to the details of my awesome score! 🙂

My total (between two transactions) would have been $123.33.

My out of pocket expense was $13.81.

That’s a savings of $109.52, or 88.8%!!! 🙂

I’m not even counting into this equation the fact that I have $5 in Extra Care Bucks to use on my next transaction, so I’m more than pleased. I’m especially pleased because most of the items are things we use alot of, and not just “extras”. See the diapers? Yeah, buddy!!! 😉

Anyone else have a good couponing trip this week?


by 7 Comments

Acts of Random Kindness

Mama and Me

You Can Change the World One Act of Random Kindness At a Time!

I originally wrote just to share with my friends only seven months after my mom passed away. She diagnosed with lung cancer (as a non-smoker) on October 19, 2006 and passed away December 20, 2006. She was only 44 years old when she died, and her 51st birthday would’ve been this month. In her honor, I’m sharing this, and intending to renew my vow to do little “acts of random kindness”. Feel free to share your own thoughts and feelings on the topic…

“Penny Pinching Peach is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com”

Acts of
Random
Kindness

Tonight I went with my dad & brother to see the movie Evan Almighty.

Going into the movie, I was expecting sheer stupidity & goofiness and maybe a few laughs. I wasn’t disappointed. I giggled & cackled my way through the film. (Any story involving a guy who is told to build an ark in a high class modern neighborhood has gotta be pretty funny!) However, the part that stuck in my mind wasn’t anything that brought snickering to my soul. It was a simple statement that went along with something I’ve been thinking about alot here recently. That statement was this…

“You can change the world one act of random kindness at a time.”

Mom, Nana and Me

Mom, Nana and Me

Do you know what is the most amazing thing about that simple little statement? It’s true! If each & every one of us took it in our hearts to do all those acts of random kindness that we know we should do, but are usually rushing too quickly through life to do- it would change the world in wonderful ways. People would smile more, blood pressure would lower, heart attacks & churning stomachs & bad nerves would be less of an issue and the world would be much less stressful & more happy than we can even imagine.
This past Monday night, our Bible study group leader challenged us to spend this week trying to look for small ways to serve others and show kindness every little chance we get, and observe what sort of difference it makes in our lives & our outlook. Since this was something I’d already been thinking on, and it was reiterated for me in a goofy comedy tonight, I’m taking this on as a seriously fun challenge. I’m going to be looking out for itty-bitty ways to share joy, help others, be kind, and randomly serve those around me.
How about trying this with me? Open a door, carry some groceries, give someone a hug, compliment someone on a job well done, let a car in front of you even if you have been stuck in traffic for an ungodly length of time…just go ahead and do any kindness you can see to be done. Don’t leave it for someone else to do. Don’t think that it isn’t important. Think about the times your life has been positively impacted by a kindness that was fairly insignificant…and pass along that impact!

Don’t forget…
“You can change the world one act of random kindness at a time.”

Is there some little act of random kindness that has impacted your life in a big way? Share it with me! I wanna hear about it. Please share this message with anyone who could use a little kindness in life!

~Keisha~
July 4, 2007

Has a small act of kindness impacted your life in a big way? What acts of random kindness have you done lately, or had done for you? I’ve had seemingly random or small acts of kindness that were pretty huge to me and sometimes life changing. I plan a follow-up post (or series of posts, even) in the nearby future telling a few of those stories. Share, people, share! I’m all eyes here. 🙂

This is a beautiful little book about random acts of kindness you can do Wisdom From Random Acts of Kindness

Interested in the rest of this series? Please read Continuing the Kindess and Share the Kindness!

Loving My Babies Like Mama Loved Me

Loving My Babies Like Mama Loved Me


by 9 Comments

Peeps Easter Candy Cake

Peeps Easter Cake Pin

My daughter and I made this Peeps Easter cake together.

I was going to just line the cake with the Peeps and scatter jelly beans on top, but then I realized that I had this adorable bunny shaped cake pan. My daughter thinks this cake is the coolest thing since iced tea, and is very proud of our handiwork. 🙂 I was surprised at how easy it was to do, and how yummy the Peeps tasted with the chocolate cake.

All you need are simple & inexpensive items.

“Penny Pinching Peach is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com”

Peeps Easter Candy Bunny Cake

  • First step: Make your cake flavor of choice. We made a devil’s food cake in our 9″ bunny shaped pan. I can’t find the same one online, but this Easter bunny one is nicer and cuter, honestly.
  • Second Step: Let it cool, then pop it out on a cake platter, Cake Stand like this, or large tray.
  • Third Step: Ice it with your choice of icing, making sure it’s pretty thick around the sides.
  • Fourth Step: Decorate the top. You can do a bunny face like we did, use sprinkles, jelly beans, M&Ms or other candy of choice, make designs with decorative icing,…just use your imagination and get creative.
  • Fifth Step: Press the Peeps firmly and carefully around the side of the cake.
  • Sixth Step: Admire your handiwork, take a picture, and show it off here!

What kind of cake and decorations would you like best? For another fun Easter treat, try our Key Lime Rice Cereal Eggs!


by 2 Comments

Paid to Purchase Haircolor!

I recently made a quick run to CVS to pick up a prescription. While in the store, I saw that alot of the L’Oreal haircolor products were marked down to 75% off. This turned out to be a “paid to purchase” deal for me, which is my favorite kind of shopping! I got four boxes of L’Oreal haircolor, used two “$5 off of 2” coupons and was given $2 by SavingStar (see my post on SavingStar here: https://pennypinchingpeach.com/2013/02/07/savingstar/) just for buying one of their current products! This made me do a happy dance, since it turned out to be a $2 profit for me to get four boxes of haircolor. 🙂 The point of sharing this? Keep reading…

Paid to Purchase!

Paid to Purchase!

It pays to keep your coupons with you whenever you are going shopping, especially on items you either use regularly or know there are frequent sales or markdowns on. I know that anything health and beauty related is going to be on sale or put on clearance on a regular basis, so that is a category of coupons I make sure to keep a supply of in my purse. You should try it, too!

Anyone else had any surprise savings lately?

Now back to my happy dance… Woohoo!! 😉


by 5 Comments

Money Saving Mexican Food

Pinch Those Pennies!

Pinch Those Pennies!

¡Hola! Let me tell you, not only are these some mouthwatering Mexican dishes, but they are loaded chock full of savings. I’ve got six- yes, count ’em, people- six coupons to go with this delicious budget dinner! I can see a fun Mexican dinner night in my family’s future this week, with this kind of savings to tick off on such a yummalicious menu. Read this twosome of toothsome recipes with a napkin handy to wipe up the drool, and keep it on hand for the salivating over the savings at the end! 🙂

Drool over these dishes, y’all!

♦Chicken Chilaquiles♦

1/4 pound chorizo
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 (10 ounce) bag tortilla chips
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 (19 ounce) can green enchilada sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Cook the chorizo in a skillet over medium heat, stirring to break it into tiny pieces. Place the raw chicken into the skillet with the chorizo; cook and stir the meats together until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, about 10 minutes.
Spread half of the tortilla chips over the bottom of a casserole dish; top the chips with the cooked chorizo and chicken mixture. Sprinkle the corn evenly over the meats and layer the remaining chips over the top. Whisk together the green enchilada sauce and sour cream in a mixing bowl; pour over the top of the casserole. Top the casserole with the shredded Monterey Jack cheese.
Bake the chilaquiles in the preheated oven until the casserole is bubbly and the chips begin to brown, 15 to 20 minutes.

♦Mexican Red Rice♦

2 Roma (plum tomatoes), cored
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup uncooked long-grain white rice
1 3/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup canned tomato sauce
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
2 sprigs fresh cilantro
Salt to taste

Grate tomatoes into a bowl using a box grater; discard skins.
Heat vegetable oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat and cook onion until translucent, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Stir garlic into onion and cook until fragrant, about a minute.
Stir rice into onion mixture and cook, stirring often, until rice is lightly toasted, about 3 minutes.
Stir grated tomato, chicken broth, and tomato sauce into the rice, bringing the mixture to a boil.
Mix in jalapeno pepper, cilantro, and salt; reduce heat to low. Cover skillet and simmer until rice has absorbed the liquid, about 15 minutes. Do not lift the cover while the rice is cooking.
Turn off heat and let rice stand covered for 8 minutes. Fluff with fork before moving rice to a serving dish.

Now to salivate over the savings!

For the coupons, go to this link: http://www.coupons.com/coupons/Food-Coupons-107/?pid=13101&nid=10&zid=pt82
Print these coupons: Old El Paso, Swanson Broth, Hunt’s Tomatoes, Riojano Spanish Chorizo, Sargento’s Shredded Cheese and Uncle Ben’s Rice.

My family loves Mexican food, but we also love Italian, Chinese, Southern style and all sorts of other ethnicities of food. Variety keeps our palates pleased. What’s your and your family’s favorite kind of food?


by 10 Comments

Thrift Store Score

Today was one of those fun 50% off sales at two of our local consignment shops, which happen to be next door to each other. I signed up for their auto-calls for when they run sales, so I won’t miss out on them when I need things for my little ones. Since both of my munchkins are in need of warm weather clothing, I loaded them up and we scurried in to the first day of the sale, while the older kiddos were in school and many other shopping mommies were at work. I figured they’d be less crowded that way, but they were still buzzing with bargain hunters. For $38 I loaded up on some beautiful (mostly name brand, not that I care or ever have cared) clothing for my beautiful babies! 🙂

Baby's Booty

Baby’s Booty

My little pumpkin is on a rapid growth track, and basically needs everything except shorts, since someone was kind enough to give us several pairs for free.  I focused on getting him things first and foremost. He got two pairs of jammies, three one piece short outfits, two pairs of pants, one pair of overalls, two shirts and a little hat. He was tickled with his bountiful booty, as you can see from him checking out his new duds above. 🙂

My peachy princess has some clothing already for summer, since she grows more slowly and alot of her winter clothing can transition to summer (like pants and t-shirts). I wanted to get her some little sundresses and saw a few other things she could use, too. She wound up with a pair of dress shoes for the next size up, one skirt, two pairs of pants, a pair of shorts, and four of those adorable sundresses Mommy loves to put on her. She insisted on putting on the new-to-her shoes to show off for the photo op with her collection of pretty doodads, as you can see below. 🙂

Lookie Mommy!

Lookie Mommy!

I already have too many clothes that I can’t wear, so am planning to purge my own closet. I actually got their instructions on bringing clothing in for consignment, since I have tons of nice clothes of my own sorted out to get rid of, plus some of the munchkins’. However, I needed something cooler to sleep in that I can still nurse my little pumpkin while wearing, so I got myself a little pajama set. No photos of that, but I’m happy with it. 🙂

To sum it up, we got 21 clothing items (counting complete sets as one item) for $38 dollars. Since these are all very nice things in like-new condition, I consider that a great deal. 🙂 Probably just two or three of these items new would’ve cost us that much, honestly.

I know I’m not the only one who loves a good consignment shop or thrift store score at just the right time! What’s one of your favorite things you’ve found at a secondhand store?


by 26 Comments

Mommy Meltdown Moments

Driving mommy's cart
When Mommy is having a meltdown,  but we’re still cute….

My toddler loves to go shopping with Mommy. Does Mommy always enjoy that experience? Umm….nope!!

There are times when shopping with my beautiful children is pure bliss.

We wander the aisles of the grocery & department stores, racking up compliments on how gorgeous and well behaved my little angels are while my daughter points out all the neaterific things she sees everywhere with witty descriptiveness and my baby happily chortles at every grandmother who smiles at him. These are the moments of pride & joy in motherhood. I glow and think I could handle a few more of these wonderful beings.

Then, on the other end of the spectrum, there are the “Mommy Meltdown” moments on a routine grocery shopping trip.

If you’re a mother and claim to have never had one of these, you are either actually an angelic being posing as a human mommy or a big honkin’ liar! I’m betting on the latter! 😉

My personal meltdowns have been triggered by a myriad of crazily challenging experiences. Want a sample? Let me see…

How about the time my daughter was pitching tantrums and trying to grab things all through the store? The icing on the cake was when she grabbed my coupon organizer and scattered it’s contents all over the cleaning aisle. An older lady came upon me in tears on my hand & knees, baby strapped to me in a carrier and my other hand holding the seat of the pants of a squirming toddler. She was very sweet and helped me gather up my many pieces of paper gold, assuring me this happens to the best of us now & then.

Oh, oh! And the other day when my sweet little girl was sharing Cheerios with her baby brother, and dumped the whole container all over the drugstore floor? That took awhile to clean up, especially since I made her “help” and had to keep her from putting the nasty crumbs into her hungry little mouth while baby brother cried from his perch in the buggy.

That same trip, as I strapped both kids into the car, she pulls two lip balms out of her pocket and exclaims “Surprise, Mommy!!”. Yeah, that was a fun trip back into the store.

You should’ve heard the lecture she got through our whole grocery trip about what stealing is, why it is bad, and what the consequences will be if this ever happens again. She can now be heard loudly lecturing random strangers in stores about not taking things without paying for them.

My most recent meltdown happened this morning at home.

Both kids were content playing for a moment, and I walked away for a minute to get something. Suddenly, I heard suspicious scribbling noises. As I walked back to the kitchen, asking Princess Peach what she was doing, I heard a clattering crash and baby protesting loudly. Miss munchkin ran guiltily away, pencil in hand, refrigerator covered in her hastily scribbled “artwork”, with the echo of me hollering “TIMEOUT! NOW!!!” following her into the other livingroom. Baby was looking at up me in irritation, still grasping the trash can lid in hand, wondering why everything was scattered all around and why I looked so frustrated. The next little while saw me scrubbing the fridge, gathering the trash, scrubbing the floor, cleaning the baby and muttering under my breath “God made them cute to ensure their survival”. 🙂

So, yeah, I’ve had my share of “I-am-so-embarassed” and “If-one-more-thing-goes-wrong-I’ll-implode” during routine trips to the grocery store, ill-planned visits to restaurants or even simply trying to get a few things done around the house.

What triggers your “Mommy Meltdowns”?


by 2 Comments

Frugal Pies For Dinner and Dessert!


by 2 Comments

We Can Coupon For Hoppin’ John!

I may be a sweet Georgia peach, but I love myself some spicy food! 🙂 When I found this recipe, it looked to be just hot enough to give it some twang without setting the ol’ tastebuds on fire. Half of the ingredients have coupons available right now. Most cooks I know keep hot sauce and onions on hand, anyway, so it’s awesome for the budget cook, too! Please vote in my poll before you drool over the recipe. 🙂 Coupons at the end…

Hoppin’ John Skillet Supper

2 slices Oscar Mayer bacon
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup Uncle Ben’s quick cooking brown rice
1 3/4 cups Swanson’s reduced sodium chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1 3/4 cups frozen black-eyed peas, thawed
1 large tomato, seeded, chopped
1 1/4 cups Sargento Shredded Cheddar Cheese, divided

Directions

Cut bacon crosswise in thin strips. Cook bacon and onion in large deep skillet over medium heat for 5 minutes or until onion is tender.

Add rice; mix well. Add broth and hot pepper sauce; bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in black-eyed peas. Cover; reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Stir in tomato; heat through.

Remove from heat; stir in 1 cup cheese. Transfer to 4 serving plates; top with remaining cheese.

Sargento Shredded Cheese (or Kraft Shredded Cheese), Uncle Ben’s Rice, Swanson’s Broth, Oscar Mayer Bacon

Go here and print the coupons listed above: http://www.coupons.com/coupons/Food-Coupons-107/

Do you like spicy foods? Let me know what you think of this dish, and enjoy those savings! 🙂