Penny Pinching Peach

For the semi crunchy, homeschool friendly and totally frugal!

Category Archives: Frugal Family


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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?


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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!


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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!! 😉


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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?


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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”?


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Doggy Loot…WOOF WOOF!!!

Woof!! Woof!!!

My Loot From Doggy Loot

My Loot From Doggy Loot

This is a great deal for my pet lover friends!! You’ve got to try this little place called Doggy Loot!

They have a rotating stock of discount pet items, which are mostly for dogs. A few items would be suitable for cats, as well. I ordered a pink flamingo Kong toy for my doggies for just $9 (when it is normally a $16 toy). Keep reading, and I am sure you can guess my out-of-pocket cost on this item. 🙂 However, this is still a great deal if you buy your dogs toys to play with, even if you are paying for it.

Squeak, squeak!

Squeak, squeak!

When it came in, my little girl was very excited to give it to her doggies. I was pleased with the quality and cuteness of their new squeaky chew toy. Our dogs, Ducky & Gypsy, were tickled pink with their new toy. They “argued” over it briefly & playfully before my older, stuffed animal obsessed Gypsy took her new “baby” into her doghouse with her puppy dog stuffed animal. She just sat there grinning for the longest time.

Happy about their loot!

Happy about their loot!

To sum it all up, Doggy Loot gets good reviews from me for speedy shipping, a good quality product, and arriving exactly as represented on the site. Now, how do you get a great deal for yourself?

First step, obviously, is to go to the site and sign up. You get a $5 credit just for joining! Once you do that, click “My Credit”, and then go to “Dogs”. Just for filling out your dog’s info, you get another $5 credit. Since most items are about $10 to $20 and shipping is free, this is a real steal! Please click my referral link here to join the fun: http://www.doggyloot.com/?rid=1332881

Happy doggy!

Happy doggy!

Please come back and let me know what you ordered and how you like it. I’m excited about this site! 🙂


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Spicy to Sweet: Dinner & Dessert Discounted with Coupons!

Penny Pinching Peach

Penny Pinching Peach

I love the kind of meal you can throw together all in one dish. It means less clean-up and it’s easier to keep an eye on one dish while watching my munchkins destroy the housecleaning I just finished than it is to babysit multiple fancy dishes. I can do it, but the headache is sometimes not worth it or I just plain don’t have time to do that and everything else I’ve got going on. With a nice coupon available right now for sausage, and taters always being cheap, this Sausage Potato Dinner in a Dish fits right in with my laidback frugal mommy vibe. My family also has a super duper sweet tooth, so if I find a simple dessert that uses ingredients I usually have on hand, I’m tickled pink. With strawberries being in season right now, they are always in my fridge, so the Strawberry Yogurt Pastries were perfect for this time of year!

I’m putting the savings information after the recipes. There are double savings this time, which makes this a really sweet deal! 😉

Sausage Potato Dinner in a Dish

4 small red potatoes, cubed
2 small zucchinis, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 small onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 pound Hillshire Farms smoked sausage, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1/4 teaspoon pepper

*Place potatoes in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and cook for 15-20 minutes or until tender.
*Meanwhile, sprinkle zucchini & onion with garlic salt. In a small skillet, stir-fry zucchini in butter until crisp-tender. Add sausage; cook until browned.
*Drain potatoes; add to skillet. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese and pepper; heat through. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
*Yield: 4 servings.

Strawberry Yogurt Pastries

1 tube (8 ounces) refrigerated Pillsbury crescent rolls
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) Yoplait strawberry yogurt
1 1/3 cups strawberries, halved

*On a baking sheet coated with cooking spray, separate crescent dough into 4 rectangles; seal perforations.

*Bake at 375° for 6-8 minutes or until golden brown.

*Cool on a wire rack. Spread yogurt on each pastry; top with strawberries. Serve immediately.

*Yield: 4 servings.

Now for the savings part of the menu! 🙂

Got to http://www.coupons.com

Select and print Hillshire Farms Smoked Sausage, Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and Yoplait Yogurt coupons.

If you have joined SavingStar, Pillsbury and Yoplait also have coupons available with that program right now, which will double stack your savings together on those two items. If you haven’t joined, please check out my blog on SavingStar under Sites for Savings to learn more. It’s a great program! 🙂


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Deciphering Diaper Deals

Blissful sleep in discount name brand diapers

Blissful sleep in discount name brand diapers

If you’re the parent of a diapered darling, you know that the the little stinker is going to to keeping doodying in those diapers and you’re going to have to keep wiping those bottoms. Unless you are one of those brave (and commendable) souls who ventures into the world of cloth diapers and reusable wipes, it’s an inevitable part of parenting a small, drooly being. They are going to poop & pee and you’re going to keep buying something for them to stinky up over & over & over &….well, you get the picture. 🙂 I have a few simple strategies which have kept me rarely buying full price diapers or wipes, and have saved us a truckload of money.

First of all, sign up with all of the diaper makers for their email lists or clubs or whatever they have available. They will often mail, email or post on their sites very high value coupons to get you to continue buying their products. Huggies and Pampers also have rewards programs you can use to earn different things. I’ll probably write more about those another day. 🙂

Secondly, check the online printable coupon sites at least once a week, and print any coupons for diapers and wipes they have available. They will usually let you print them at least twice, so try to do that. Keep these coupons in your purse all the time, in case you run across a real bargain you can stack the coupons on top of. One site that frequently has baby product coupons is http://coupons.com

Third, sign up for store loyalty cards, and don’t forget to use them. They track what you buy, and since you are obviously buying diapers & wipes, they will often wind up giving you coupons for those items to keep you buying them in their stores. Many stores, like CVS and Walgreens, will allow you to “stack” their store coupons on top of a manufacturer’s coupon, which makes for some great bargains.

Fourth & finally, never wait until you actually need bottom wipers or poopy catchers to buy them. If you do, you’re probably not going to get the best deals or even close! Always stay ahead. Buy them when they are on sale and you have coupons to help pay for them. It’s easy to check when you’re already shopping or glance online briefly before you head to the store and see if there’s a good sale going on.

See? All of that is super duper easy, and hardly takes a few minutes each week. The pay-off is huge when you compare it to the time you put into it, too! I rarely pay more than half price for diapers and the wipes are usually deeply discounted, as well. Just by spending a few minutes a week on this, and only counting these two items, I would estimate that I save at approximately $60 to $70 a month. If you count that like wages, I’m making pretty good money for my time! 😉

Diapered dude and discount diva proving frugal is cool!

Diapered dude and discount diva proving frugal is cool!

Try these little strategies out, and let me know how they work for you. They’ve been budget savers for us! Diapered dudes and divas aren’t discounted, so anything to make them less costly is great by this frugal mama! 🙂


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Can Crushing Cutie

Any drops left?

My three year old doing chores.

I give my three year old chores, and explain that she is helping our family keep our house clean (and preventing dear ol’ mom from breaking her neck when she slips on the banana peels Princess Peach so casually tossed on the floor).

Call me a promoter of child labor if you will. I call it raising a child to be a responsible adult, instead of raising children who don’t know how to be grown-ups. In other words, if you toss a banana peel on the floor, you darn tootin’ better pick it up before someone steps on it, or you won’t see another banana for a week and whatever you were playing with that made you too lazy to take the thing into the kitchen to compost is going to vanish until you do something to earn it back. 😉 I figure if I start teaching her now, maybe she won’t go into spasms of horrified shock when she is suddenly on her own and expected to cook, clean, pay her own bills, even follow laws. 🙂

For some ideas of what chores your three year old can do, here are some things mine does…

She has a few small duties, such as picking up her own toys at night, wiping up her snack table if she gets it messy, and helping feed her beloved kitty cats. One of her favorite new jobs, though, is crushing the aluminum cans for recycling.

All lined up

Recycling made fun!

Mommy’s little can crushing cutie is so enthusiastic about her job that she will scavenge the house for any empty cans she can rush to crush. We have to watch her, or she’ll take a Coke right out of your hand, scurry to pour it down the drain or drink it, then scamper to the can crusher we have on our kitchen wall to smash it and toss it in our nearby aluminum recycling bin. She thinks it’s the neatest thing!

There is a method to Princess Peach’s can crushing recycling ritual.

She carefully lines up her latest aquisition in the aforementioned crusher, plants her little feet firmly, then grasps the handle with both of her grubby paws. With a mighty heave and an enthusiastic exclamation of “Crrrrrrrush!!!!” she smooshes the can down to a fraction of it’s original size. With a flourish, she lifts the handle, snatches her squished can, waves it in the air while hopping up and down, and chants “I did it! I did it!” before finally tossing her work of art into the handy dandy recycling box. This is basically a daily ritual, and it never ceases to entertain her easily amused maternal figure. 🙂

Crrrrrrush!!!!

Crrrrrrush!!!!

I am not deeply into the “green craze”, but I believe in being responsible with whatever you have.

Recycling makes sense for our family on many levels. We already haul off our own trash so that we don’t have to pay for pick-up. It’s not much more trouble to separate a few things out and save them up to take to the recycling center.

When can are crushed, they take up less space and we are able to put at least triple the cans in each bag. Instead of paying to have those cans disposed of, we are given a few cents for them and helping the environment to boot. All of this, while helping our can crushing cutie pie learn responsibility and providing myself with the free entertainment of watching her theatrics while performing her beloved task. If that doesn’t appeal to someone who wants to maximize her resources as much as possible, I don’t know what does!

What sort of thrifty tasks do your children love or hate?

I did it! I did it!

Three year olds can complete tasks, see?


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Wedding on a Budget

Under the Arbor

Under the Arbor

My husband and I are about to celebrate our fourth anniversary. This got me to thinking about planning our wedding. Are you surprised that I tried to keep the costs low, even though my daddy was paying? I didn’t think so! 😉 Weddings can be extraordinarily expensive. When planning my own nuptials, I couldn’t see blowing tons of dough on things that wouldn’t help us in our life together. I wanted to make the day special, include people I loved, and celebrate the beginning of our life together without feeling I was wasting anyone’s money.

My mom had passed away from cancer just before Christmas in 2006, before I even met my husband. She wasn’t there to help me plan my wedding, and she never even got to meet my groom. This was heartbreaking for me. I was never one of those girls who planned out and dreamed over every detail of my wedding. The only constant components in my vague dreams were that my dress would be white and my mom & I would relish every moment of planning that celebration together. Because she wasn’t there to do that with me, I went through a time of sorrow and grieving over the fact she was gone, and had alot of trouble getting excited about my wedding day. Planning it in a creative, family oriented, frugal way was the closest I could come to including her in my plans, so I finally threw myself into that. I knew she would want me to focus on my joy in the new family I was beginning, rather than in the emptiness I felt in her absence.

My beautiful bouquet

My beautiful bouquet

My nana (Mom’s mom) is hugely talented with floral arrangements, and offered to do my flowers as her wedding gift to me. She made this beautiful bouquet, did the lovely arbor we said our vows under, and created nice boutonnieres for the menfolks. They were all so nice, creative and special to me because every petal was placed with love and good wishes for our happiness in our marriage. You can’t put a pricetag on that! Also, one of my nana’s best friends is a retired hairdresser, and did my hair for me as a favor to my nana. That was so nice of her.

I love my sweet Uncle ‘Preacher’, who is my dad’s oldest brother and a pastor, and have alot of respect for him. He was my first thought of who I wanted to perform our ceremony, and he was kind enough to grant my request that he do that. His wife makes delicious punch, and offered to make some for our refreshments.

My Brother Playing

My Brother Playing

My brother is an amazing musician, so I had him play some pieces on the guitar while people were being seated and as I walked down the aisle. Folks were pleasantly surprised at how talented he is, and it is a special memory for me of his part on my big day.

One of my cousins is a terrific photographer who had done weddings before, and did our wedding photos for a fraction of the normal cost. I think she did an amazing job!

My stepmother, dad and some family friends helped with refreshments, and others helped my groom & me decorate.

I purchased my gown at a discount, without compromising getting the dress that made me feel like a bride. My sweet sister-in-law went with me. She was a huge support when I wanted to have a meltdown because I was wedding dress shopping without my mama, and made sure I didn’t settle for an “okay” gown because it was the cheapest one that fit. 🙂 Many of my “extras” for decorating and refreshments were bought at the dollar store or I found them at deep discounts, but they fit the simple theme I wanted.

All in all, my wedding cost very little and meant so much. There were moments when I wanted to cry, because I just wanted my mom there, but I knew she would be happy for me to be marrying the man I had chosen. It’s not about how much you spend. It’s about how much love you put into it. Our wedding day started our marriage off with oodles of love from our family and friends without putting anyone into tons of debt or financial stress. I know my thrifty mama would have been proud, and I could feel her spirit there with me, just as I can feel her love living on in me, my family, and especially my own motherly love for my babies every single day.

Stay frugal, remember what and who is important, and cherish every moment you have with those you love.

After the Kiss

After the Kiss