Final Success at Publix

Well, I went by the Knox McRae Publix store because their stocker-man (don't really know what that job title actually should be) told me that they would be getting a shipment of the GM cereals on Friday night, but it would take them til about mid-day Saturday to have everything out on the shelves. I'm so glad I asked him! I just went by there on my way home from work and the rest is history :) Here is what I got:

• 10 boxes (1 lb size) of Reese's Puffs Cereal, $4.99 - Used rain check for B1G1 sale, two $1 off 2 GM Cereals coupons from newspaper, two $1 off 3 coupons from newspaper, and 10 $2 off Any GM Cereal Publix Coupons from the GDGM display = 10 for 95¢
• 8 McCormick Grill Mates Seasoning Blends, 2 for $1.99 - Used eight $1 off coupons from the Sweet Savings Publix Booklet = 8 for Free + 4¢ overage
• Ground Cardamom, $10.19

That cardamom almost killed me to buy (the cashier actually stopped and said, "You know this one is $10, right?"), but I've been wanting to make a specific recipe for a long time and cardamom is the only ingredient I need for it. So, since I had a $5 off $30 Winn Dixie coupon to use along with all my others, I decided I could get it :) So for everything you see, my total without rain checks or coupons would have been $76.01. I only paid $6.10! Yahoo! My little sister has already asked me if I wanted to share those Reese's Puffs - it's my family's favorite cereal. Now I have a reason for them to be really nice to me :)

***So, if you got a rain check on the cereal deal last week, head out to the Publix in Port St. John or in the Royal Oak Plaza in Titusville as they both have restocked! They said they gave out a lot of rain checks, so go today to make sure you get yours!***

My Idea of a Great Friday Night :)

Well, I acquired some more Spray and Wash coupons today so I knew I had to go to Publix to snag em as it's the last day. That sparked a whole 3 store shopping event :) The PSJ Publix had restocked on the large boxes of General Mills Cereals today and I had a rain check!

• 10 boxes (1 lb size) of Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal, $4.99 - Used Rain check on the B1G1 deal, ten $2 off Publix coupons from the GDGM board, three $1 off 2 GM Cereals coupon from the newspaper (expires tomorrow), and $1 off 3 GM Cereals coupon from the newspaper = 10 for 95¢
• 2 boxes of Toaster Strudel, $2.99 - Used two Free Toaster Strudel wyb 1 lb Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal peelie coupons from previous boxes = 2 for Free
• 2 lb bag Frozen Tyson Chicken Tenderloins, $5.49

I also got to use a $5 off $30 Winn Dixie coupon, so my pre-coupon total would have been $37.92, but I only paid $1.44! Woo hoo - that's 96% savings!

I was so excited that the cereal was back in stock, I decided to check the Knox McRae store too so I could make sure I get mine before they are all gone again. They hadn't restocked yet, but they did have the resolve unlike the other store. They were all out of the trigger sprays I got yesterday with the 65¢ off coupons, but I wanted to get the deal so I got the other kind :)

• 8 Resolve Max Pretreat Spray, $2.99 B1G1 - Used four $2 off 2 Publix coupons from the yellow flyer (expires today) and six 50¢ off coupons from the newspaper = 12¢ each

So, my grand total for this trip was $1.68 with the tax :)

And since I had to pass CVS on the way home, I decided to go in and see about the Pepsi Max deal :)

Transaction 1: 

• 4 bottles of Pepsi Max, 88¢ each - Used four 55¢ off coupons from the Publix Blinkie Box = 33¢ each
• Peach Smoothie Scented Nail Polish, $3.99 - Used $1 off Revlon Cosmetics Item coupon from the newspaper = $2.99

I also used $4 worth of ECBs, so I paid 71¢ and got $3 ECBs back!

Transaction 2:

• Mad About Mango Scented Nail Polish, $3.99 - Used $1 off Revlon Cosmetics Item coupon from the newspaper = $2.99

I used the $3 ECB from transaction 1 and paid 24¢ and got $3 ECBs back!

I checked the sale tag on the Revlon nail polish and I'm glad I did, because it said limit 6 per household. So essentially, this deal is self perpetuating for 6 bottles if you have enough coupons and keep buying the ones that are $3.99. You will have to scan them to see their price, some of the scented ones are $4.99.

At Publix, I snagged a Free Blockbuster Express Rental :) And at CVS, I cashed in my Free Redbox Rental from Tropicana I posted about last week :) So tonight we are watching Source Code and Take Me Home Tonight.

Now that's what I call a good Friday night :)

Fun in the Mail

Thursday:

• 2 pack sample of Huggies Snug and Dry (Target Offer) with $1.50 coupon

• Blender Bottle :) I used a promo code a few days ago and got it for $2.99 shipped :) I'm excited to try it!

Friday:

• 3 Day Sample of Nestle Nido Formula
• Coupon for a Free Bottle of Pantene Shampoo or Conditioner
• 2 pack sample of Kirkland Supreme Diapers (Costco offer)
• Free Full Sized Milani Lipstick (I won a Facebook Sweepstakes!)

I also got a pleasant surprise! A few weeks ago, I wrote a nice note to one of my favorite companies - The Immaculate Baking Company. I just let them know how much I love their Triple Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough - it is absolutely delicious :) And in response, they sent me a nice hand-written card...

with a coupon good for $1 off Any 2 Immaculate Baking Co Refrigerated Cookie Doughs :) See what a few kind words will get you!

Free Sample of Burberry Body Perfume

Head over to Burberry's Facebook page and 'like' them to request your free sample of Burberry Body, their new fragrance for women :) It looks like this is going to be an actual mini bottle instead of the sample vial perfume samples usually come in :)

I love most of Burberry's fragrances :) I'm excited!

Free Sample of John Frieda Full Repair Flyaway Tamer

Go here to request your free sample of John Frieda Full Repair Flyaway Tamer courtesy of Shape Magazine :) This stuff is great! Definitely grab the sample!

Publix Trip :)

Well, since all the free stuff was out of stock yesterday for last week's sale, I decided I should get there on the first day this time. Man am I glad I did. I got the last 6 Spray and Wash on the shelf and they all had 65¢ off peelie coupons! So I made money off of them :) Here is my trip:

• 6 bottle of Resolve Spray and Wash, $2.99 B1G1 - Used three $2 off 2 Publix coupons from the yellow flyer at the front of the store and six 65¢ off peelie coupons on the bottles = 6 for Free + 93¢ overage
• 2 sticks of Spray and Wash, $2.99 B1G1 - Used $2 off 2 Publix coupon from the yellow flyer at the front of the store and two 50¢ off coupons from the newspaper = 2 for Free + 1¢ overage
• 2 boxes of Barilla Piccolini, $1.43 B1G1 - Used two 55¢ off coupons from the newspaper = 16¢ each
• 4 Degree Deodorants (two men, two women), $2.93 B1G1 - Used two Publix $1.50 off 2 printable coupons (no longer available) and four 75¢ off coupons from the newspaper = 4 for Free + 14¢ overage
• Two Sundown Naturals Vitamins (Biotin $4.59 and B12 $4.39) - Used $6 off 2 Publix coupon from the green flyer at the front of the store and two $1 off peelie coupons from previous bottles = 49¢ each
• 2 Dannon Activia 4 packs, 3 for $6 - Used two $1 off Target printable coupons = $1 each
• 2 lb bag of Frozen Tyson Chicken Tenderloins, $5.49

I also used a $5 off $30 Winn Dixie coupon. My pre-coupon and pre-sale total would have been $60.48, but I only paid $4.83! That's a 92% savings! I haven't done that well in quite a while and it really feels good :)

So head out tomorrow if you want to take advantage of the Spray and Wash deal as the yellow flyer coupon expires tomorrow :)

Fantabulous Food! Clafoutis (Cherry Flan)

I had a few packages of cherries from a sale at Publix a while back and I wanted to use them before they went bad. I had just been eating them, but it was a lot of cherries, so I started looking through my cookbooks to find cherry recipes. There are not many, let me tell you. Finally I came across this one in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 and it sounded intriguing so I decided to give it a try. I'm very glad I did :)

Clafoutis by Julia Child:

Ingredients:
3 cups pitted cherries
1 1/4 cups milk
1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour, scooped and leveled
1/3 cup sugar (additional)
powdered sugar for dusting

1. First, you will need to pit your cherries. I found a great tutorial on how to do this quickly on Our Best Bites, but it calls for a drinking straw or a chopstick and I didn't have either. So, I developed my own system and it worked pretty well. First you need to take the stem off the cherry,

then using a sharp knife, I pressed in the center until I felt the pit and then rotated the knife around the pit, making a slit around the whole cherry.

Then I peeled the flesh off one side with my hands

and slide my finger nail around the pit to pull it out. This really went very fast, but I forgot that cherries stain things. I didn't notice at all until I was finished, but it is really obvious in the pictures just how stained my hands were. And these were ranier cherries... with light flesh and skins. Who knew?
After (and while) I pit the cherries, I noticed they were browning like apples (again... who knew?), so I would periodically sprinkle lemon juice on them and mix it around. Then I covered my bowl with plastic wrap and kept them in the fridge until I was ready to put them in.
2. Preheat oven to 350º F. Now, the recipe in the book calls for an electric blender, but I was afraid it would make more liquid than my blender could handle, so I made mine in my stand mixer. It still came out fine, but after I mixed the batter I realized it would have worked just fine in the blender too. It's your call. The recipe specifies that each ingredient should be put in in the order they are listed and allow each to blend well before adding the next. So, first we have the milk

then eggs

vanilla extract

salt

and a very level half cup of flour.

Once all the ingredients are in, cover and blend on highest speed for 1 minute.
3. Pour a 1/4 inch thick layer of the batter in a baking dish that is at least 1.5 inches deep.

The recipe says to put it on the stove, but I couldn't do that in this pan, so I just put it in the oven while it preheated and it seemed to work very well. Just leave it in there until there is a film of batter at the bottom of the pan.

This picture shows the film that stays behind when I tilt the pan. You don't want all of that batter to be firm, just a thin film like this.
4. Spread cherries over the batter

even them out and sprinkle with sugar extra 1/3 cup of sugar.

5. Pour the batter over the cherries

and make sure it is spread evenly over the pan.

6. Bake for about 1 hour.

I was really surprised with how much the batter rose while baking.

It is done when a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.Et Voilà!

Let it cool a little bit, but it should still be warm when it is served. Julia says to sprinkle it with a little powdered sugar just before serving it. Also, it will shrink down as it cools.

So there you have the French version of flan :) And it really was very good, I have to say. It's not quite as custardy as flan, but not as grainy as bread pudding. It was a nice in between type of texture and my husband loved it! The cherry version is the traditional French style and is just referred to as clafoutis, but you can use pretty much any other fruit you would like, then it is called clafoutis aux ______ (insert French name of other fruit here, ex. poivres - pears). Also, the traditional recipe calls for black cherries, but I had already purchased these raniers and they were really good. I bet the black cherries will have a stronger flavor, which would be really tasty :)

All in all, I was really pleased with this recipe. It was so easy it didn't feel like I was making French food and all of the ingredients are things I already have in my pantry at any given time - except for the cherries. I'm excited to try it with other fruits next time. So if you want a very classic French recipe - so much so that I had no idea what it was and I have studied French language and culture for 13 years and majored in it in college - this is a great one to try. It's incredibly easy and oh, so tasty :)

Free Sample of Huggies Snug and Dry (New Offer)

Head over here to get your free sample of Huggies Snug and Dry Diapers courtesy of Walmart! This is a new offer, so even if you requested this last time it was available, you will be able to request it again!

*Remember, even if you don't have a baby, you can always use these for baby shower gift baskets or something like this :)

$5 off Purchase at Bealls (Florida)

If you are doing some back to school shopping this weekend, you should go here to print a coupon for $5 off Any Purchase at Bealls :) This coupon is good until 8/20 and it is valid for regular priced, sale and clearance items!

Free Sample of Breathe Right Advanced

Go here to request your free sample of Breath Right Advanced :) It will include 2 strips and should arrive in 4-6 weeks.

Free 8x10" Collage Print from Walgreens

Go here to get started on your Free 8x10" collage print from Walgreens! Just make one using your pictures, then enter promo code PRINTONE to get it free :) This code is only good until 8/20, so hurry to get yours!

Interesting Publix Trip

Well, I tried to get some free cereal tonight, but unfortunately my entire area (3 different stores) is completely sold out. I started off in the PSJ store, and I had all of my other groceries already in my cart and I asked if there were any more cereals in the back only to be told that they were all gone. I went to get a rain check and the woman at customer service was one of the only Publix employees who has acted so mean to me ever. She seemed very put out that I wanted a rain check and I told her I needed it for the General Mills cereals. She very curtly said, "Which one?" And I responded with all the ones that were on sale, and she again just said, "Which one? You have to pick one." So I said never mind - the sale was for all of the cereals, not one particular type. I put my groceries back and left for the Knox McRae store in hopes that they would have them. I even called to check before I arrived and they were very apologetic and said they would give me a rain check. They were very nice and made sure the rain check was for all the cereals and apologized for the actions of the PSJ store - I've developed quite a repore with the employees at the Knox McRae store :)

Since they were out of the cereal, it really put a wrench in my plans for my trip since I needed to hit the $30 mark so I could use my Winn Dixie $5 off $30 coupon as well as get the gas card for $10 off. So, while my trip wasn't as inexpensive as I had hoped it would be, I retooled and still came out successful :)

• 6 cans of Del Monte Green Beans, $1.39 B1G1 - 69¢ each
• Jif To Go, $2.19 - Used Free coupon from Target sample - Free
• 4 Papermate Pen 10 pacs, 2 for $1 - Used two $1 off Target printable coupons = 4 for Free
• Publix Vanilla Ice Cream, $3.50
• 2 packs of Ocean Spray Sparkling Cranberry Juice, $3.99 B1G1 - Used two $1 off printable coupons  (only one print per computer) = 99¢ each
• 2 Sundown Vitamins Folic Acid, $3.79 - Used two $1 off printable coupons and $6 off 2 Sundown or Osteo Bi-Flex Publix coupon from the green flyer at the front of the store = 2 for Free + 42¢ overage
• 2 Sundown Vitamins B-Complex, $3.99 - Used two $1 off printable coupons and $6 off 2 Sundown or Osteo Bi-Flex Publix coupon from the green flyer at the front of the store = 2 for Free + 2¢ overage
• $50 BP Gas Card - Used $10 off Any Gas Card with Any $25 purchase coupon from the weekly ad = $40

Without sales and coupons, my total would have been $96.86, but I only paid $44.46 and that's including $50 worth of gas. Still pretty dang good considering the disappointments at the beginning of my trip. And at least I got rain checks for the items so I can get them when they are back in stock :)

Organize Yourself: Nail Polish Inventory

This may seem like a silly thing, but it has become very useful to me. When I started couponing, I quickly learned that it can be very easy to get nail polish for free. In fact, I never used to paint my nails more than once or twice a year before coupons. Now I have all of these:

For all the nail polish you see, I paid maybe $1. I have acquired so many that when I find I can get a new one for free, I can't remember what colors I already have. I had this happen on Monday, so I got a white one simply because I knew that was a color I had nothing close to. So, I have devised a way to know exactly what colors I have when I go shopping. I made a card with all of them on it.

I started with a piece of thick white card (I actually used a box that one of my free samples was mailed in). I cut out a piece that seemed reasonably big yet small enough to fit in my coupon binder easily. I lined up all my polish and painted a small sample of each on the card.

After the first coat, some of the polish had soaked in and lost a bit of their depth of color, so I painted a second coat.

After the second coat, they were all true to their original colors. In fact, each one looks just like it would on my nails :) Here is my finished card:

Now I have each and every color of nail polish that I own and I can pull it out anytime I'm at a store with my coupons :) Now I will never accidentally get the same color again!

Fun in the Mail

Wednesday:

• Coupon for a Free 85 count Bottle of Lifesavers Mints (Facebook Offer)
• Febreze Set & Refresh (I honestly can't remember where I got this one from)

• 5 pack of Tampax Pearl Plastic (Costco Offer)

I also received my prize I won a few weeks ago from another blog, Crazy with the Crawfords. She had a giveaway from Fiber One and I just got my winnings :)

• Full size box of Fiber One 80 Calorie Cereal
• USB Pedometer
• MP3 Holder Arm Band

See, it is entirely possible to win contests and giveaways! You just have to enter them :)

$19 for Prescription Glasses

Today's Living Social deal is a great one! Remember the how I posted about my glasses I got for $30 a few days ago? Well, there is an even better deal now. You can get a $60 voucher for Coastal Contact and pay only $19! That's a fantastic price for a pair of prescription glasses. And I can personally vouch for this company now that I have my new specs from them - I love them! I actually like these glasses better than the ones I just paid $120 for at my local eye doctor a few weeks ago. They sell name brands and they are great quality glasses.

So, to get your voucher for a $60 at Coastal Contacts and pay only $19, head over to Living Social and look at the deal for Orlando!

*Seriously, this is a great deal - Don't miss out!*

Orlando Groupon: $20 For All Day Paintball

Groupon.com has a great deal if you have a man in your life who like Paintball :) Today's local Orlando deal is a full day of Paintball at Paintball World Sports Complex for only $20. This package includes 500 rounds of paint (which my husband says is definitely enough for the whole day), mask rental, gun rental, and unlimited CO2. Their complex has 5 different fields you can play on and you will have access all day! I asked my husband if this was something he would be interested in and he was actually pretty excited. He is an avid paintballer and he knew about this complex but said it is normally very expensive so he has never played there. This deal doesn't expire until February 18, 2012, so it would even make a great Christmas gift!

To snag this deal for yourself, go here to sign up and then look at the daily deal for Orlando :)

Free 3 Piece Core Bamboo Wooden Spoon Set from HomeSav

Hurry over to HomeSav quick and check out their sale on Core Bamboo Products! If you sign up for a new account, you will receive a Free $10 credit! They have Core Bamboo 3 Piece Wooden Spoon Sets on sale for $10 and free shipping, so they are free after your credit! These are always on a limited availablility, so you need to go over there quickly and snag yours!

Sign up HomeSav now!

*HomeSav is a limited time deal site, similar to Modnique, Beyond The Rack, Zulily, etc. I love sites like this, because they seem to love to give you things for free :)