Invest $5, Get $50

I am SUPER excited about the new deal on Sharebuilder! They often run promotions that will get you a free $25, but they are currently running one that will get you $50 and you only have to invest $5! I created 2 accounts for QQflyboy and myself tonight and we will each get $50 deposited into our accounts in 4-6 weeks.
I have fallen off investing for the past 2 years since our move and this was great motivation to get going again. I bought a stock I strongly believe will be around for awhile and it is on sale in our current economy. I miss being the savvy investor I have been in the past. I just gave myself a kick in the pants!
If you are interested, follow the directions below. I highly recommend doing this! Very easy and lucrative.:) I found this info on http://www.moneysavingmethod.com/.

Go to http://www.sharebuilder.com/
Click on the Open an Account tab in the upper right hand corner
Choose Individual Account ( or custodial account if for a child. NOT valid on ESA accounts )
Change the Promotional Code to INVEST50 ( expires 12/31 ), otherwise you will only get $25.
Click No, stating you do NOT have another account
Fill out your personal information on the next few pages & then Create Account. You will then get a message stating your $50 will hit in 4 weeks. Do a screen print of this page!!!
On the next page, click Basic Plan
Make sure Build My Account Over Time is checked then click next
Create your Own Automatic Investment Plan on the next page
Click here to find a stock under $1
Enter the Stock Symbol and $5
Set your schedule to One Time
Enter information to authorize and Fund then Create Account

Happy shopping!

Free Christmas song downloads

Oprah's Web site is offering eight Christmas songs for download free from top artists, including Josh Groban, Il Divo and Faith Hill. Complete instructions are available on Oprah's site. But download soon, it's only available through Friday! To check it out, click here.
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A Day Off = A Baking Day!

This weekend I really wanted to try this scone recipe, but I had no butter and no motivation to go out and get some. So I finally got to make them today, and WOW they are delicious. I love anything pumpkin though so I may be biased, but I see them in my future coffee shop as a crowd favorite!

Recipe: (Thanks to mommystayshome http://mommystayshome.blogspot.com/2008/11/cranberry-pumpkin-scones-and-banana.html)

Cranberry Pumpkin Scones

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour (Just to help make them softer)
1/4 cup sugar or honey
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 cup butter (no substitutes) cut up
1/2 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup applesauce
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup dried cranberries

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

1.) Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and spices.
2.) Cut in the butter until it resembles fine crumbs.
3.) Add pumpkin, applesauce, nuts, and cranberries, stir just until moistened.
4.) Transfer dough to a greased cookie sheet and pat down into an 8 inch circle.
5.) Use a knife to cut dough into 8 wedges, do NOT separate wedges.
6.) Sprinkle with brown sugar
7.) Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes

**I had to add more flour because my dough was SO sticky. So you may need to also!**

Next Post I'll post about the pumpkin dinner rolls I am making (and that will hopefully turn out!).

Super Baking Sunday!

Well it was a super baking Sunday! Not sure what got into me today, but I spent the day making frugal recipes using what I had on hand, and everything turned out delicious!

First up was pumpkin muffins. I used a weight watchers recipe so these may not be the taste for everyone since they use less sugar they aren't very sweet. But they are 1 point for the mini's and 3 for the large ones. I froze them in baggies I can throw in lunches and a batch to take out for next week.

Yesterday I got ground turkey burger from Costco. I learned about a trick to stretch your ground burger by adding veggies (carrots, onion, and celery) when cooking it up. So I sauteed the veggies in the pan before adding the burger. Then I put into individual baggies so this will make for a easy and frugal protein to toss into pasta or tacos or on tortilla chips and its already pre-cooked! I highly suggest this, a time saver in the future!

Next up was making crock pot chili. I pretty much made my own version of this based on several recipes that I have tried.

One Pot Crock Pot Chili

2 cans of diced tomatoes

1 6oz can of tomato paste

1 can of kidney beans drained

1 can of black beans drained

1 onion chopped

3/4 cup carrots chopped

basil, oregano, salt and pepper, chili powder to taste

Stir together in crock pot and let simmer on high or 4 hours or low for 6-8 hour

Lastly I made carrot cake! This was my first time ever making this, but all those carrots I had inspired me to use them in a new way. I again used a weightwatchers recipe that used less sugar and also wheat flour, and it came out really tasty. Even supportiveheels approves! I am going to experiment with the batter for muffins for our upcoming muffin swap!

Bake Away!

Today I planned to cook and bake several things, but I got a little lazy. I didn't want to go to the store for a list of ingredients. I stumbled onto this recipe for rolls and realized I had everything I needed! Yippee. I found the recipe at http://www.mywoodenspoon.com/, an interesting website with many cheap recipes. I'll be going back there.
When Harris Teeter did triple coupon week last month, I bought 4 packages of Fleischmann's RapidRise Yeast because they were free plus overage. This recipe was SUPER cheap to make as I used the free packages of yeast. I think I'll make more and freeze them for later.

Lori's Quick Rolls
1 pkg. RapidRise Yeast
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. oil
Salt
3 c. flour

DIRECTIONS:
Dissolve 1 package yeast in 1 cup of warm water. Add to sugar, oil, salt, and flour. Mix and knead well. Let rise in warm place for 1 1/2 hours. Roll out 12 rolls and place in a greased pan for 12 to 15 minutes at 400′.

Walgreens Steal- Go get yours!

I heard about a good deal at Walgreens this week on boxes of turtles with coupons I had. I also had a $2 RR (register reward) from last week's trip that was seriously burning a hole in my pocket, so I decided to go grab the deal and throw these in the Christmas present stash. I mean who doesn't love a box of yummy turtles? The cashier was a younger girl, who completely thought I was crazy with my 6 coupons and 6 items to match...but oh well.

Deal:

2 boxes of DelMet's with Nestle Chocolate Turtles 7oz @ 2/$5
1 blistex tube @2.19
3 holiday pencils @ .39 each

Used:
-.70 blistex wags coupon and -.25 blistex mfc
2 -1.50/delmet's turtles
-.78 wags holiday pencils coupon
-2.00 Wags register reward

OOP: $1.56
Savings: $9.71

It Keeps Getting Better!

So this week was one of my better weeks of CVS history. I was glad to be doing my weekly addiction at a new location due to being in smalltownNC for the weekend with thriftynester and qqflyboy and honestly, a bit glad I didn't have to face my normal cashiers. My first transaction went off as planned but the cashier was not too polite, maybe too many frugal friends that day had gotton to her!

Transaction #1

4 glade candles $2.50 each = $10

2 Kashi Go Lean bars $1 each = $2

2 Soft and Dri deodorants $2.99 each = $5.98

1 Vaseline cocoa butter lotion (a bonus size one too! score!) $5.99

Used:

2 -.55 soft n dry peelies off the sticks
-1.25 Vaseline coupon

2 -1.50 off 2 glade candles

-2.00 kashi coupon

- 4/20 CVS coupon

ECB's -6, -6

OOP: $1.06 on a Giftcard

ECB's earned: $5 for glade, $4 for soft and dri, and $2 for Vaseline lotion = $11 ECB

Transaction #2 (back at pharmacy, the front line got very long)

1 windex bottle $2.50

1 L'Oreal Age Perfect tinted moisturizer @ $15.99

Used:

-1.00 off L'Oreal

-1.50 off Windex product

ECB's -2, -4, -10 + -16 in ECB's

Subtotal : negative one cent plus tax = OOP of $0.16!!!! On a gift card!

ECB's earned: $15.99 for L'Oreal

I am definitely getting really good at this CVSing thing! I now have $22.99 in ECB's to work with for next week, saving them for Black Friday shopping!!