Kelly's Thrifty Tips

I will be back to post on what I talked about this morning, but in the meantime, here are a few goodies!

REBATES AND COUPONS

Jennie-O is giving away rebates that can hook you up with a FREE (yep free) Jennie-O product up to a $5.00 value. All you have to do is join their new Wellness Group. The rebate is for the first 5000 so you definitely want to get going. Once you sign up, simply sign in and click on coupons. There you will get the form to fill out for your printable rebate. Another plus is right now Safeway has Jennie-O Store Extra Lean Ground Turkey Breast (20 oz) for $4.99!

LINK: Jennie-O

COST PLUS World Market has a printable coupon for $10 off a $30 purchase. The coupon expires 3/15. They always have something interesting to check out and some pretty cool prices. There is one right over at the mall here in Prescott, so I am definitely picking this up!

LINK: Cost Plus World Market Coupon

The Children's Place has a 15% printable coupon available now too! This is definitely the time to take advantage of some great deals. The coupon is good until March 16th!

LINK: The Children's Place

Aeropostale has an printable coupon to be used in stores only for $10 off a $50 purchase. They also have a buy one get one deal on polo shirts. I don't have a store near me, but if I did, this would be printed up and out the door. Coupon expires on February 28th.

LINK: Aeropostale $10 off $50


FREE SAMPLES


Sam's Club is offering a free sample of Member's Mark baby formula. You do not have to be a member to get in on this deal, but I definitely would not wait on it too long. Follow the link below.

LINK: Member's Mark Formula

Got a facebook account? Do you like Zone Perfect? Zone perfect has been offering their first 30,000 fans a free ZonePerfect Indulgence nutrition square sent right to their address. They are also donating a dollar for each fan up to 30,000 to the Save the Music Foundation. I like both music and ZonePerfect so this is a win win! They have about 3000 slots left so you will want to do this fairly soon.

LINK: ZonePerfect


I do not know how long this will last but there is a deal right now for a free South Beach Living S'more bar. Who can pass up a deal like that? Really, who can pass up smores of any kind? Again, I am not sure how long this will last so give it a shot.

LINK: South Beach Living S'more Bar Sample

Walmart's website is giving us some more great free samples. Head on over to get a sample of Olay Total Effects Body Wash. I was just thinking, do they even call it Oil of Olay? Did I just totally date myself? Link up below (click on request a free sample when the page loads up)!

LINK: Olay Total Effects Body Wash


Walmart's website also had a link to get a free sample of Tide Plus Febreze. There are also a lot of coupons to check out too.

LINK: Tide Plus Febreze

iTickets.com has a free download this week for Starfield's Rediscover You from their new CD The Saving One. It is a beauty.

LINK: iTickets Download of the Week

FreeCCM has downloads for Chasen, Chris Rice, Phillips, Craig and Dean and Stellar Kart! I love this place! Don't forget, you do have to be a member, but it is totally free. :)

LINK: FreeCCM music!


LOSING WEIGHT FRUGALLY

I have recently started the Special K diet plan. Basically it is a two week thing, and it is a nice way to kick start some weight loss. One of the things that stood out to me was the 90 calorie snacks which you can get in by eating one of their bars or a 90 calorie serving of their crackers. I picked up some of the bars as they were on sale and I had amassed quite a few coupons, but the crackers were out of the question as they were pretty pricey (over $3.00 a box). I decided to come up with some 90 calorie snacks that fit my tastes but also fit my budget. When the diet is through, I will up the snacks to 100 calories.

The most important thing to do is take the time to figure things out. Do not pay for convenience. Just because you can buy a box of bagged 100 calorie snacks doesn't mean you should. You pay nearly double for what you would a regular box that isn't bagged and get much less. Take the time to plan, and you will not regret it. The bad eating choices and spending choices are usually due to not planning.

Good low cal snacking

Air popped pop corn

You can have 3 cups of air popped pop corn for only 93 calories. You can also add seasoning like Kernel Season's pop corn seasoning to flavor it up. If you like your popcorn cheesy you can add a 1/4 teaspoon of their nacho cheese seasoning is just 2 calories. You can easily add two of those and still be below 100 calories. There are 100 servings per bottle. If you like it sweet, they have a caramel seasoning for 5 calories per 1/4 teaspoon.

Cheez Its (Reduced Fat)

Save on spending money for the 100 calorie packs and figure out the calories and add your own snacks to the bag. I am not a math whiz but I figured about 22 crackers would be about 100 calories, because they are roughly 4.5 calories per cracker.

Gingersnaps

If you want something sweet. Eat three Nabisco Gingersnaps for 90 calories.

Hershey's Dark Chocolate Kisses (because sometimes you just want chocolate)

If you have to have something sweet, you might want to go for the dark chocolate Hershey's kisses. Dark chocolate is better for you and four kisses will get you a tad over 100 calories.

Plums

You can have three average sized plums at 30 calories each. That is filling and sweet. This is definitely a good way to go for a snack.


Want to know the calories in your foods? A great resource is CalorieKing. At Calorie King you can look up the calories in different foods and also see what kinds of activities you would be able to do to burn it off.

Have you ever been totally excited by an exercise video and then find yourself doing the exercises for a week or two and then dropping it because it just doesn't suit you? I recently found ExerciseTV. This is an amazing resource for FREE online exercise videos. Definitely worth checking out, because it is not only free but there are so many options, you will have a hard time getting bored.

Kelly's Thrifty Tips

Some Freebies

A quick note about signing up for free samples. Don't forget when signing up for freebies, be careful on the information you divulge. I have never had an issue with the free items that I post. For example, I would not get involved with the free items that require you to complete several things in order to get the free sample (there are a few out there that require you to sign up for other things in order to get your samples). Most of the time I only go directly to the company's website. The exception is when I get samples through Start Sampling, Walmart, Costco or Sam's Club. An email address specifically used for freebies is a good idea too. Most companies do not require a phone number. If you are asked to give yours, I would only give in special circumstances. I have yet to get one phone call due to freebies and fishing. I use a special email address at gmail rather than my home email, and that address is great with regards to spam email. I have been trying free samples for about 13 years, and I have never had a problem.

Magazine

Focus on the Family is offering a free 6 month trial subscription to Thriving Family. LINK: Thriving Family

Music

iTickets has two free downloads. You Set the Rhythm by Newworldson and Bounce J-Rus from the soundtrack To Save a Life

LINK: iTickets free music download of the week

Free Hot Beverage

Nestle's ABUELITA is one of my favorite steamy treats. Try it out now by following the link.

LINK: Abuelita Granulado


Free Recipe Book

SeaPak Shrimp Company has a free recipe book featuring 15 meals that cost less than $10. This definitely is right up my alley. Special thanks to Hey It's Free!

LINK: SeaPak Recipes


Crest White Strips

Walmart has free Crest White Strips samples right now. Just follow the link below. Be sure to click on the white strips to request your sample.

LINK: Crest White Strips Sample

Hair Care

Walmart also has free samples for Fekkai Hair Care. Right now you can choose from Glossing Shampoo and Conditioner, Technician Color Care Shampoo and 3-Minute Mask or Glossing Cream.

LINK: Fekkai Hair Care

Free Candy Sample

Remember Lemonheads? I use to love these when I was a child. My son loves them now, and I am sure he will like to try out the new Tropical Fruit flavor. Get a free sample by following the link below.

LINK: Tropical Chewy Lemonheads

Free Underjams

This is the nightwear for kids by Pampers, and now Walmart has a free sample. Thanks to TopSavings.com

LINK: Underjams

Free Sample Lever 2000 for Costco Members

You do need to be a Costco Member, but if you are, this is a great chance to try out Lever 2000.

LINK: Lever 2000

Free Splenda

You can try the Splenda sweetner with fiber or either of the Splenda Flavors for coffee in either mocha or hazelnut. :)

LINK: Free Splenda




GROCERY SALES:


Safeway

Remember all coupons are still worth up to $1.00

-- Fresh 93% Lean Ground Beef $1.99 a pound
-- Green or Red Seedless Grapes 99 cents a pound
-- Saturday and Sunday only - 5 pound bag of Idaho Russet Potatoes just 68 cents each (limit 2)

Also, look for the $10 Rewards tag on Participating Procter and Gamble products. Buy $25 worth of select P&G products and get back a $10.00 reward off your next shopping order. Be sure to look for the participating items and their tags.

Fry's

-- Fresh Boneless, skinless chicken breast $1.67 a pound
-- Buy 10 and save $3.00 on participating items.
EX: Ragu Pasta Sauce $1.28
Chef Boyardee Pasta 67 cents
Dial or Tone bars (6 to 8 ct) or body wash $2.99 each


Albertons

-- London Broil $1.77 a pound
-- Broccoli 68 cents a pound
-- Jif Peanut Butter or Smuckers Jam 2 for $5.00


KNOW YOUR PRICES

We were watching the news the other day and a report gave me a huge reminder of how important it is to know your prices and check your receipts when you go shopping. The Arizona Department of Weights and Measures goes out and makes random visits to businesses to make sure customers aren't paying more than they should. Unfortunately they do find businesses that do not have all their prices correct. If they aren't, the stores get fined. I have made a habit of really checking my receipts since I lived in Rhode Island. One of the stores I frequented would actually give you an item free if they scanned it incorrectly. This was definitely a great incentive to double check your prices on both ends, and it definitely inspired me to be more diligent with my receipt checking. Still though, there are times that I didn't check items until I got home. This is annoying when you get home and realize that there was an error. As I mentioned this morning, had I not checked out my receipt after a shopping trip on Tuesday, I could have been out twelve dollars.

Here is what helped me in discovering the error and recovering my cash.

1 - Know the prices of the items you are buying even non sale items.
2 - When you are purchasing an group of items to get a special discount, be sure you are buying the correct items and sizes.
3 - Know the sale details. Ex: If it is mix and match or if you need to buy the same item to get the discount.
4 - If you miss an error at the register, don't be afraid to go to the service desk to make the adjustment.

If you want to read the story, follow the link below.

LINK: State Cracks Down On UPC Pricing Errors

Talking Points -- A NEW COMMAND: LOVE ONE ANOTHER

A NEW COMMAND: LOVE ONE ANOTHER

John 13:34-35

34"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Even as God is revealed by what He does, so will His children. Our love for God has not made this possible, but His love for us has, as I John 4:19 says, "We love Him because He first loved us." Thus, our love for Him is a response to His love for us. Since God shows His love for us by drawing us to Him, it behooves us to do acts of love toward others to draw them.

God's act of love in giving His Son defines the ultimate requirement of true love, the giving of our most beloved possession in sacrifice for another's gain. We can understand, then, that godly love will almost always have sacrifice involved in its giving. Sacrifice is the essence, the essential or vital part, of love.

God's love originates in Himself, was manifested in His Son, and is perfected in His people. God's love is perfected in us when we reproduce it in or among ourselves, primarily in our fellowship. We either use love and perfect it or lose it. This partly explains the apostle John's intense concern about fellowship. What concerned him is not just an optional blessing to believers, but a fundamental outlet for the manifestation and perfection of God's love among and in the saints.

It should be obvious that we neither have God's love by nature, nor is it self-generated. Romans 5:5 verifies this understanding: "Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which was given to us." We receive godly love from its Source, God, by means of His Spirit.

Only by knowing God can we have this love, and only by loving can we know Him! This may sound like a vicious cycle, but the two go together. Only by learning to love God can we learn His nature, that is, what He is like. We cannot have that love until we first come to know Him. By fellowshipping with Him, we come to know Him and receive His love, and in using His love, we become like Him and really know Him. We can only really come to know God by experiencing the use of His love ourselves.

All this is possible because God, in His love, initiates a relationship with us, grants us repentance, gives us His Spirit, and then, because of His love, takes the lead in sustaining the relationship. This is why Paul says in Romans 5:10 that "we shall be saved by His life." He primarily shoulders the burden of our salvation. How comforting!


God is showing through the church that all the prejudices against God and man can be dissolved and overcome through Christ. "New" here implies freshness, rather than from the point of time. It is part of the different perspective one receives upon conversion. Doing what He says to do is new for a convert because it means operating from the perspective of cooperation rather than competition. It is a new thing for a convert to show love, which is the exercising or the application of God's Word.



Over the next three nights you’ll have an opportunity to share the love God has shown you by giving to help the precious children in Haiti, who have been devastated and traumatize by the largest earthquake in the last 200 years of the country’s history. Many are orphaned others have lost contact with their parents and love ones. All of them need food, clothes and shelter, plus to understand that Jesus loves them. The Kids helping Kids Concert Tour featuring Justin Unger and JJ Heller will inspire and remind you of the great compassion and love our God has shown us and will allow us all to be used to share that same compassion and love with these precious children. This is a free love offering event, with the proceeds going to Food for the Hungry to help the children of Haiti.

Tonight the tour is at the Flagstaff Community Christian School, tomorrow at the Trinity Christian School in Prescott and Friday at the Phoenix Christian High School in the Valley. Please come out and help share God’s love at the event closest to you. For more information go to radioshine.org and remember, as believers we show God’s love by what we do for others!

Kelly's Thrifty Tips

Last week I brought up that I made my entire week's dinners using food that I got through Angel Food Ministries. I have been wanting to bring up Angel Food Ministries, but I hadn't had the opportunity to try it. I was able to make a week's worth of meals and in fact, I have food left over for this week as well.



Kind of hard to see here but here is what I got:
8 pancakes
3 brats with cheese
1 bag of frozen corn
1 bag of frozen carrots
3 lb bag of russet potatoes
1.5 lb beef roast
1 lb ground beef
1 bag of chicken patties (9)
1 side of baby back ribs seasoned
1 bag of frozen chicken breasts
1 beef macaroni dinner
1 pumpkin pie
1 bag of wheat rolls
1 container of shelf stable milk
1 dozen eggs


Angel Food Ministries started in 1994 and they have worked tirelessly to provide food relief for many. It started in Monroe, Georgia and now is in 44 states! For 30 dollars plus a service fee of 2 dollars you get a week's worth of food for a family for four. Go online and check it out, and find the Host Site closest to you. I was thrilled to find a host site that was literally five minutes away from me. That was a blessing, but the nice thing is that you do not have to live in the area that you order from. You just need to pick up the food in the time frame they have posted. Each site also has their order deadline, so make sure you follow that when ordering. I believe you can order at the Host site, but I ordered online at my Host site's link. The link that I am going to post will take you to the site which also will show you what this month's offerings are. :)

LINK UP: Angel Food Ministries



FREEBIES!!!!

I am very careful with the Freebies I sign up for. One good thing to do is have an account that you set aside just for your freebies. Remember you can sign up for free email with gmail.

LINK UP: Gmail



Free Coupons - I don't know who has gotten in on this but you can get an awesome FREE $10 General Mills Coupon Booklet. I love finding as many coupons as I can get my hands on! **Big thanks to Hey It's Free!

LINK UP: General Mills Coupons

Free Kashi Products - I love Kashi GOLEAN Crunch cereal and their TLC bars are amazing. The first time I tried Kashi TLC bars was from a free sample. I don't know if you have seen their commercials on television, but right now you have the opportunity to try one of their products for free. You choose one of three.

Your choices:

GOLEAN Crisp Toasted Berry Crunch Cereal
TLC Dark Chocolate Coconut Fruit and Grain Bar
GOLEAN Crunch Honey Almond Flax Cereal (what I ordered!)

LINK UP: Kashi Free Sample

Free Sample of Head & Shoulders Shampoo - If you are a member, sign in. If you aren't, totally sign up, because you can always count on some amazing samples from P&G. Today you have the opportunity to hook yourself up with a sample of Head & Shoulders shampoo. I love samples like this, because they are great to have on hand when traveling or just when you find out you are facing an empty bottle of shampoo in the bath.

You can choose from Smooth & Silky, Classic Clean or Dry Scalp Care

While you are there you might also want to check out the coupon links and other free samples. They also have a sample of Pamper's Cruisers.

LINK UP: Head & Shoulders Sample

Free Gas-X Thin Strips - This is so easy to fill out. Gas-X Thin Strips are easy to use and you can try them out for free.

LINK UP: Free Gas-X Thin Strips



Free Breathe Right Sample - I don't know if it is this time of year or what, but this is definitely the time to check out Breathe Right Strips. If you know someone who has entertained the thought of purchasing these little guys, but they didn't want to commit to the price without knowing if they work get them over to this sample. It is just two strips, but I think that should be enough to get you in the know. :)

LINK UP: Breathe Right Strips

Free Redken Style Connection Sample - This is totally while supplies last so don't wait!

LINK UP: Redken Style Connection

Free sample of Arm & Hammer Advanced White Toothpaste - This is while supplies last, but the sample is for a week's supply. I have relatives who exclusively use this toothpaste. Might as well check it out.

LINK UP: Arm & Hammer Advanced White Toothpaste


Free Breakfast - Oh yes, they are doing it again! Denny's will be offering Free Grand Slam breakfasts on Tuesday, February 9th from 6 am to 2 pm!

LINK UP: Details for Denny's Free Original Grand Slam Breakfast!


Free Short Stack of Pancakes at IHOP- February 23 from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm. All they ask is for people consider giving a donation to support local children's hospitals.

LINK UP: IHOP Free Short Stack of Pancakes



Free KIND Bars at Starbucks - On February 5th, Starbucks will sample KIND bars at all of their 7000 locations!

LINK UP: KIND Bars


Free Pants - Okay this is a win kind of thing, but on February 7th during the Super Bowl, Dockers will air a commercial. The first 2010 people to register after that commercial airs will win a pair of pants. Actually this will be in the form of $30 gift code for Dockers Men's Soft Khakis. I figure I'll be watching the game anyway, I might as well try to win.

LINK UP: Dockers Soft Khakis Giveaway 2/7

Free sample Purex 3-in-1 Complete Laundry Sheets - This is still available and really a great freebie. I have heard a lot about these Purex 3-in-1 Complete Laundry Sheets. They have the detergent and fabric softener in one sheet. This is a great way to try it out or again keep it on hand for travel.

LINK UP: Purex 3-in-1 Complete Laundry Sheets

Free Music Download - Stephanie Smith song "Heart Attack" at iTickets

LINK UP: Stephanie Smith "Heart Attack"

Free Music Download at Free CCM:

Download Phillips, Craig & Dean "Counting On God"

Anthony Evans "Amazing God"

Free CCM is also still offering songs from Disciple, Building 429 and Laura Story.

LINK UP: Free CCM



I'll be back with the sales after today's spot. :)

The Courage To Face Life's Trials

You should always approach life's trials through four steps:

Be aware of God's presence.

He promised to be with us wherever we go, and it is out of Himself--out of sheer Truth--that He speaks. Former pastor Dr. Henry Blackaby states in Experiencing God that "God speaks to you through His Holy Spirit, the Bible, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways."

Draw from God's strength.

In 2 Corinthians 12:8-10, the apostle Paul explains how he had learned to be contentin whatever state he encountered because the Lord had told him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness."

Yield to His purpose.

If you believe God is sovereign--and as a Christian you must--then you know that nothing is happenstance. He has a reason for everything.

Meditate on His Word.

If you're seeking answers, open the Bible and let the Lord tell you that you've come to the right place.


No matter what comes against us, trust in the LORD, have courage and he will give us the strength you need to get through the trials and tribulations we all face and help you understand the purpose of the trial.

Deuteronomy 31:6