It was 45 degrees here this morning, so that’s hot cocoa and butternut squash weather in my book. While you guys submitted lots of fun fall recipes last week, I actually chose to feature this Homemade Ranch Dressing because I can’t wait to try it! Seriously, where was this recipe when I was pregnant and craving ranch, but trying to avoid the packet stuff?
I love swapping out greek yogurt in place of sour cream for a protein (and budget) boost!
*These prices are based off of averages and are subject to change weekly
Homemade Ranch Dressing – Recipe
Dried Parsley, Sea Salt, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Dry Dill, Black Pepper (all common pantry ingredients)
Stonyfield Oikos Greek Yogurt Nonfat, 5.3 oz, FREE-50¢ (Harris Teeter)
(2 Points Plus)
Baked Chicken & Acorn Squash – Recipe
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, $2.49 lb (Bi-Lo)
Fall Squash (Acorn) 79¢ lb (Bi-Lo)
(8 Points Plus if you use Chicken Breast)
Southwestern Turkey Burgers – Recipe
Mrs. Renfro’s Salsa, 16 oz, $1.67 (Harris Teeter)
Turkey Burgers, 16 oz, $3 (Harris Teeter)
Green Onions, 69¢ ea. (Harris Teeter)
(7 Points Plus)
Pork Chops w/ Pear & Ginger Sauce – Recipe
Assorted Pork Chops, Bone-In, $2.99 lb (Kroger SE)
Bartlett Pears, $1 lb (Kroger SE)
(5 Points Plus)
Holiday Pear Pecan Salad – Recipe
Fresh Express Salad, 5-12 oz, at $1.99 (Publix)
Athenos Crumbled Feta Cheese, 3.5-5 oz, $1.29 (Publix)
Bartlett Pears, 99¢ lb (Publix)
Light Raspberry Vinaigrette (Stockpile)
Pecans (or substitute for the nut of your choice)
(7 Points Plus)
It’s always fun when you can use coupons to dine out! You can enjoy the food even more knowing you aren’t paying full price. Here are some new dining coupons to give you lots of tasty options:
Quiznos – Add a cup of soup for 99¢ wyb Regular or Large Sub (exp 10/17)
Taco Time – Free Chili Burrito wyb Green Chili Menu Item, zip 84121 (exp 10/17)
Pink Berry – Free Small Yogurt when you register your PinkCard
Boston Market – Free Family Size Dessert wyb Family Meal
Einstein Bros Bagels – 25% off any purchase (exp 10/22)
Einstein Bros Bagels – Free Bagel Poppers with Beverage Purchase (exp 10/22)
Bob Evans – B1G1 Breakfast Entree (exp 10/24)
Subway – Free Lunch 6″ Sub wyb 6″ Sub and Beverage before 9 am (exp 10/31)
T.G.I Fridays – 20% off Entire Tab when you pay with Visa (exp 10/31)
Macaroni Grill – $10 off $20 Online To-Go Order, use code RMGTOGO (exp 11/6)
Olive Garden – Dine-In Entree and To-Go Entree $12.95 (exp 11/18)
Applebee’s – Free Signature Menu Entree for Active Duty and Veterans (11/11 only)
See more dining deals.
The following is part of an Organic Journey guest post series, written by Amy a long time helper behind the scenes of Southern Savers.
I feel like I just discovered another secret in this whole eating better for less journey. Want to know what it is? Well, I was reading another blogger’s tale of how she saves money eating well and noticed that she bought a huge box of tomatoes. A box of tomatoes that no family could ever consume before they went bad. Then later, while I was at my beloved farmer’s market, I noticed a man who had boxes of produce (and he didn’t appear to be buying for a restaurant!) Another seed was planted into the sieve-like brain of mine. I also have been gradually noticing that the prices for a box of produce at my farmer’s market are significantly cheaper than the price per pound. The puzzle piece that put it all together for me happened this weekend though.
We went apple picking and after we picked, we went back to the store to do a little shopping. There were these ½ bushel bags of apples for $15 ea. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t know how to comparison shop from bushels to pounds. I can, however, be creative in problem solving every now and then though. One of our friends that went with us works at a gym. I figured if he lifts weights every day, he could lift that bag of apples and give me a pretty good estimate of how much it weighed. He estimated that it was between 40-45 lbs of apples! My husband (who works in construction and thus does some heavy lifting of his own) checked it out as well (per my request, he’s not a doubting Thomas or anything) and concurred that the estimate was right. Even if it was 40 lbs, that works out to being 37¢/lb!!! The cheapest I can ever get apples for is 99¢/lb. That is some major savings! (full disclosure: It was a 2 hour trip one way with our clan. So, if you are looking for sheer cost effectiveness, the price of my gas killed that. But I figure the gas paid for a day of fun memories for our family.) Here is the problem, our family can’t consume 40 lbs of apples before they go bad. We could come close, but there would be waste. And then the lightbulb clicked on. Maybe one of the keys to major savings in this area is to buy produce in bulk when it is in season and at a great discount, and then preserve it. Sound simple? Yes. Had I totally figured out that this applied to things besides strawberries and peaches? No. So, I snagged three of those ginormous bags of apples (in addition to what my kiddos had picked) and started brainstorming ways to preserve these apples.
When I was talking to a dear friend today and excitedly told her about my aha moment, she said that made her think one thing, “WORK!” I’m not going to lie, it has taken some time and effort to preserve our apples this week, but if you have the right tools, it makes all the difference in the world. Which leads to the first step. Read More→
Free money is always fun. If you are a first time customer, Serve.com (by American Express) will load $25 to a prepaid card when you load $25 of your own money.
The card works like a digital prepaid debit card. You load money on it and then use the account in stores, online, or on your mobile phone. There is no sign up charge and there are no fees, so this is really just a free $25.
This is a great way to stretch your grocery budget, grab an extra gift or treat yourself to something nice!
This offer runs through 12/31.
See more deals!
Here are a few extra deals to grab at Bi-Lo this week. Make sure to also check the main weekly ad list for everything else on sale.
Buy One Get Ones
- Mezzetta Pasta Sauce, 25 oz, at $6.59 ($3.29)
-
X-14 Instant Mildew Stain Remover, 16 oz, at $2.99 ($1.49)
-.55/1 X-14 mildew and stain remover, SS 7/22
-$1/2 X-14 mildew and stain remover, SS 7/22
-$1 off X-14 mildew stain remover trigger printable
-$1 off X-14 mildew stain remover printable
(ise $1 off, makes it 49¢)
Grocery
- Mondo Drink, 6 pk., $1
- Pasta Roni, 4.6-6.2 oz, $1
- Tazo Tea, 13.8 oz, $1
- Marzetti Simply Dressed, 12 oz, $2.99
-$2 off Marzetti refrigerated salad dressing, SS 9/23
-.50/1 Marzetti refrigerated salad dressing, SS 9/23
-$1 off Marzetti refrigerated salad dressing, SS 9/23
-.75/1 Marzetti refrigerated salad dressing, SS 9/23
(use $2 off, makes it 99¢) - Naturally Fresh Salad Dressing, 12 oz, $2.99
- Gatorade 20 oz Multipacks, 8 pk., $5.99
- Gatorade 64 oz, $2.19
- Martha White Muffin Mix, $1
- Weber Seasoning, 2.5 oz, $2.29
- VitaminWater 20 oz, 88¢ Read More→
I don’t think you can have a good baby shower without a couple of toys! Thanks to the good folks over at V-Tech, we have two really popular toys to giveaway!
First up is a VTech Sit to Race Smart Wheels. It’s great for active babies, and it grows with them while they learn numbers, gross motor skills, pretend play and more. As your little one grows, they can sit on the bike which can be used as a rocker or you can even flip the red piece up to push them along yourself. While they’re on the bike, they’ll have fun playing with everything on the dashboard: a horn button, twisting knob, two handle bars and four number buttons.
The second is a toy to really help them develop their motor skills. The Alphabet Activity Cube is an educational electronic cube with 13 building blocks with all of the letters of the alphabet. They can be stacked for other games, and then snapped back onto the board so your little one can learn each letter. Along with the blocks, there are piano keys, a number keypad, and a telephone. If that isn’t enough, there are mechanical pieces to teach them cause and effect. They can play with a pin maze, a shape sorter that leads to a storage area, sliders, turning gears, a mirror and more!
Win VTech Toys:
One Southern Savers reader is going to win the Sit to Race Smart Wheels and the Alphabet Activity Cube from VTech.
To Enter: Read More→
Check out this week’s Best Price Deals. Use this list to get everything you have to have this week at the best price. Leave a comment below if you find any other great deals!
Beef
- Target – Ground Beef 93% Lean, $3.50 lb
- Harris Teeter – Ground Beef, 93% Lean, $3.77 lb
- Lowe’s Foods – 80% Lean Ground Beef, $2.67 lb
- Aldi – Beef Bottom Round Roast, $3.99 lb
- Harvey’s – Ground Beef, $1.99 lb
- H-E-B – Texas Style Beef Ribs, $1.97 lb
- H-E-B – Beef T-Bone Steaks, $3.97 lb
- Winn-Dixie – Boneless Ribeye Steaks, $7.99 lb
- Winn-Dixie – Bone-In Ribeye Steaks, $6.99 lb
- Winn-Dixie – Boneless Bottom Round Steaks, 2 lb, B1G1 at $5.79 ($2.89)
- Harris Teeter – Porterhouse Steaks, $5.99 lb Read More→
Here are all the unadvertised deals you can pick up at H-E-B this week, starting 10/10. Plenty of deals to choose from.
Check out the H-E-B weekly ad list for a complete list of deals.
Grocery
- Boca Meat Alternative, 8-12 oz, $2.68
-$1 off w/ in-store coupon (EXP 10/16)
(makes it $1.68) - Langers Chilled Tea or Lemonade, 14 oz, B2G1 at, $1 (67¢)
w/ in-store coupon (EXP 11/06) - PJ’s Organic Chicken or Beef Burrito, 6 oz, B1G1 at, $2.92 ($1.46)
w/ in-store coupon (EXP 10/30) - Weight Watchers Smart Ones Entrees, 5-11.7 oz, $1.78 and up
-$7/10 off w/ in-store “B” coupon (EXP 11/06)
-$1/2 Weight Watchers Smart Ones Satisfying Selections dinners, 11.7 oz bags printable
-$3/10 Weight Watchers Smart Ones printable
-$5/12 Weight Watchers Smart Ones (register) printable
-$4/10 Weight Watchers Smart Ones printable
-$3/10 Weight Watchers frozen items printable
-.75/$5 Weight Watchers products printable
-$2/$10 Weight Watchers products printable (limit reached)
(use store and -$4/10, makes it 68¢ ea. WYB (10)) Read More→
This is part of an ongoing guest post series on Disney World Savings, written by a life long Disney lover.
We’ve made a lot of decisions thus far and are almost done with the planning process. Packing the appropriate items can go a long way to helping your family have a fun experience together at WDW.
What to Pack
There are a couple musts for Disney World. Comfortable shoes might be the most important. Be ready to walk A LOT. Ponchos are another crucial item. It often rains in the late afternoons and a poncho will allow you to continue exploring the park. Sunscreen and water bottles are important as well, and not just during the summer. Like I said, you will be outside walking a lot and it’s important to stay hydrated and protected. Water is very expensive in the park, so packing your own will save you discomfort and money.
If you are worried about not being dressy enough for the nice restaurant reservations, don’t worry. None of the restaurants in the park have a dress code except for Bistro de Paris. There are several signature restaurants at the resorts or on the Disney World campus that do have a dress code. Read More→
