Y’all, my menu plan this week is kind of wacky! Andy is out of town, and whenever that’s the case I do a weird combination of treating myself to eating out and winging it on random bits and pieces at home. I like to use up things I have on hand and it’s easier to do that when you’re only feeding one!

Sunday store-bought sushi (Kroger’s is actually pretty good!) steamed edamame sliced mango

Monday veggie quesadilla (literally one quesadilla, because I have two tortillas…) chips and guacamole frozen corn

Tuesday frozen pizza salad

Wednesday out at local food trucks (anyone want to come?!)

Thursday slow-cooker navy bean soup bread and cheese

Friday family in town - out to eat

Saturday family in town - out to eat

Sunday (went ahead and planned for this meal since my weekend will be busy) Pennsylvania Dutch meat pies (partial recipe using long-frozen puff pastry) salad

***The quesadilla and meat pie recipes are from this month’s All You magazine, so I can’t find them online to link to yet! If they’re good I’ll report back and share the deets.

What’s on your plate this week?

For whatever reason anyone gets any catalog, I seem to get one from UNICEF every so often. I can never remember from catalog to catalog exactly what UNICEF does, so in case you’re unsure too, here’s a snippet from Wikipedia:

“The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is a United Nations Programme headquartered in New York City, that provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries. It is one of the members of the United Nations Development Group and its Executive Committee.”

I tend to try and support local organizations, so while UNICEF definitely does important work, it’s not a place I would normally consider for sending my charitable dollars. HOWEVER, I’m a sucker for a catalog, and they feature a lot of lovely fair trade items that would make great gifts (you know, for yourself…or for other people….maybe…). So even though I rarely buy anything from my beloved catalogs, the combination of good causes in this case sure have me tempted. The prices are reasonable too! So let’s do a little window shopping, shall we?

Here are some of my favorite items from the 2013 Fall Collection: (all images courtesy of unicefusa.org/shop; pictures are linked to product detail page)

Pearl Wraparound Bracelet, $45.00

Gemstone Bracelets, $35.00

Tree of Life Bookends, $55.00

Guatemalan Star Ornaments, $24.00

Around the World Mug, $12.00

Set of Four Beaded Ornaments, $24.00

Painted Flowers Notecards, $10.00

I’m thinking I might take the plunge on either the pearl bracelet or the bangles and on one set of the ornaments! I also think any of their beautiful notecard sets would make a great gift.

Do you read catalogs when they come in the mail? Which one is your favorite?

When people hear that I am a couponer, they often express amazement that I find the time for it. The time investment is a hurdle for a lot of people, so much so that they never try to overcome it. It’s valid to think about–time is money, after all, and your time is definitely valuable. I casually keep an eye on how much time I spend clipping coupons, making my shopping list, and meal planning versus how much I am saving to make sure it’s worth my while. I’ve never precisely calculated it, but with all the resources available to help me, it’s honestly not as much of a time suck as you might fear. Plus, once you realize that stores will practically throw money at you if you know where to look, you’ll never be able to go back to paying full price!

My most helpful secret trick (which isn’t really a secret at all) is the website SouthernSavers.com. Trying to “shop the sales” is sort of overwhelming when presented with a store weekly ad and the entire internet’s worth of printable coupons. Enter Jenny at Southern Savers (among others, but hers is the best, in my opinion) , who does the hard work of matching up coupons to what is at sale! You can simply go to her website and find the weekly ad for the store of your choice and she has all the sales typed out with a list of relevant coupons under each item. You can even click directly from the list to print a coupon if you don’t already have it.

My other secret trick is to do my deal shopping in small doses. I typically do my “big” grocery shopping at Kroger on Sunday. I usually have coupons planned out, but I normally only save about 20-30% on this trip. Definitely a boon to the old grocery budget, but not spectacular in the scheme of couponing. BUT THEN, I keep an eye on Southern Savers for what is on sale at other stores. I’ve chosen that Target, CVS, and Publix are feasible for me to include. I don’t shop all three every week. In fact, many weeks I only do my big Kroger shopping, and that’s fine! But if I spot deals at one of those other stores that I can’t pass up, I get my list and coupons all organized so I can get in and out extremely fast. I’ll walk in, walk straight to the item I need, and not even look at anything else. If I leave my coupon organizer at home I won’t even be tempted! (I will admit it’s also convenient to live in a city where I can plan a route to or from work that includes a location of each of those stores, or I can plan to go for a walk in my neighborhood and hit two of them. I know not everyone has that luxury.)

For example, I’m planning to stop at Publix on Thursday for an irresistible deal on Sargento snack cheese (I’ll report back on exact details if it works!), and on Tuesday I swung into CVS on my way to work (it’s literally on my way–on the street I drive on anyway–so could not be more convenient). I picked up a box of Playtex Gentle Glide, normally priced at $7.99. I used a $1.00 off printable coupon and $3.00 Extra Care Bucks that I had received from a previous transaction at CVS, so paid a little over $4.00 after tax, AND I received $3.00 additional Extra Bucks. I needed olive oil, so I immediately used those ECBs on a bottle of Filippo Berrio that was on sale for $4.99 (down from $8.99) and another $1.00 off coupon, to pay just over $1.00 out of pocket. For $5 and change, I purchased two items I need for less than either of them would normally have cost on their own!

Which leads me to my final trick: when a store offers you money, take advantage of it! I am not one of those couponers who will stockpile things just because they are free. (I just really don’t have the space for that.) But if I get Extra Bucks from CVS, I spend them. Recently I received $3 in an email for no apparent reason, and I went to the store and bought exactly $3.00 worth of kleenex. It was free! Kroger has a program lately of offering a “Free Friday Download.” You can download an e-coupon to your store loyalty card and literally just get something for free, on Kroger’s dime. Whatever that item is, I get it. It’s free! And it seems like the more you take advantage of these deals, the more likely stores are to offer them. So take advantage!

But for all the tips and tricks in the world, the real truth of it is that finding a bargain gives me a rush. Sometimes I feel a sense of amazement when I pick a stack of coupons up off the printer that I’m practically holding money in my hands. And now that I know what’s possible with those little slips of paper and a little strategizing, I have a really hard time paying full price for things.

What’s your approach to bargain shopping? Do you like using coupons?

On Saturday I had breakfast with a savvy friend to talk about an idea I have flitting around in my head. We enjoyed a good meal and had fun catching up. This particular friend lives quite intentionally and has made some big leaps of faith to craft a life that is in alignment with her faith, her talents, and her goals. I could choose to be intimidated by her but instead I chose to pick her brain!

When I got home from breakfast I felt abuzz with everything I was thinking about doing, and I decided I needed to write it all down. I’ve written before about how I’m not good at goal setting, but lately I’ve sort of felt like I was stagnating in a rut of getting up, (maybe) exercising, going to work, plodding through the day, coming home, cooking dinner, watching TV, wash, rinse, repeat. And I know that, explicit goals or no, I am capable of so much more than that.

So on Saturday I took a piece of notebook paper and sketched out what I’m dubbing a “life map.” I wrote down all the different categories of things I want to do or am trying to do and attempted to list out some concrete steps or activities underneath them. I also included things I do that I just have to do–I’m obviously not walking out the door of my job, and I’m not going to stop feeding us. And then I threw some fun things on there, because a girl’s gotta have balance!

My list looks a little something like this, in no particular order (though a few elements are personal and not listed here, and a few I’m not ready to detail just yet):

• work
• responsibilities at home: lunches and dinners, grocery shopping, cleaning kitchen and bathroom, de-cluttering
• exercise: 3 times per week, yoga once a week
• this blog: 3 posts per week, comment on other blogs, write guest posts, place an ad?
• learning: Code School-1 video per week, monthly Rails Girls meetups and associated homework (to-do app project), Exercism.io with Andy, create "it's 5 o'clock somewhere" web app
• The Advocator (neighborhood newsletter I've been editing): continue editing, write 1 article per month
• freelance editing (something I want to explore!): build O-desk profile, apply for small O-desk jobs, read The Artful Edit, tweet about my interest
• social: book club, trivia, coffee dates with girlfriends, dinners with friends (out, entertaining at home)
• Andy: hiking and backpacking, playing games, continuing to discover shared interests
• me time: reading, pool time, long walks, ????
• faith: make time to pray and read, church
• begin laying groundwork for the Big Scary Idea I have (I'll post about it eventually): online research, meeting people, visiting places, using social media to assess needs and interest

And at the top of the page I wrote, “Get 7+ hours or sleep per night!”

Whew! When I write it all out like that, it looks like a lot. And it is a lot. When there’s this much rattling around in my brain, it’s easier to succumb to inertia than to push through and make it happen, ESPECIALLY because I really haven’t been getting enough sleep. I know I need to make that priority numero uno, because it will make it so much easier to do the rest. Also, “me time” and “faith” feel the least fleshed out, and I know I need to figure out how to satisfy those areas in order to feel content and fulfilled. So I’ll be thinking about how I can pamper myself and cultivate my spirituality along with the way.

I’m obviously not tackling all of this all at once, but my plan is to include one element from each category on my weekly to-do list. If I do more than that one thing, great, but if not, at least I am beginning to make strides. For this week my list included write 2 blog posts, finish Rails for Zombies, pass O-desk readiness test, and read Ch. 1 of The Artful Edit. I want to get up at 6:00 every morning and either exercise or work on one of these things (I tend to blog well in the mornings), so I need to try and be in bed at 10:00! If I’m “working” in the morning then hopefully I can enjoy my evening time with Andy or doing something like reading or watching a TV show.

This is where the rubber meets the road, y’all. Because it’s easy to say I’m interested in a lot of things, but how I spend my time is more telling than the words I say. I’m not going to beat myself up over this, but it’s time to place a little bit of structure on the trajectory of my life.  

What’s overwhelming for you right now? Are you working toward a goal?

This week will be a little lighter on the cooking due to several evenings with special things going on. I cooked a lot this weekend; I love doing it but I also don't mind a break every now and then!

Sunday - celebrating Andy's birthday!
beef brisket
buttermilk mashed potatoes
crudite including purple bell peppers!

peach cupcakes with brown sugar cream cheese frosting

Monday
lunch - meatball sliders w/ leftovers from Friday

dinner - crockpot spicy peanut butter chicken thighs
rice
steamed edamame (I love the frozen steam-in-bag kind!)

Tuesday
lunch - leftover brisket and mashed potatoes

dinner - leftovers (I think we'll have plenty, from several meals!)

Wednesday
lunch - probably sandwiches

dinner - frozen pizza
cut up fruit
salad

Thursday - book club night!
lunch - leftover pizza

potluck dinner -
spaghetti squash and spinach "mac" and cheese
salad
veggies and hummus
roasted sweet potatoes

Friday
creamy jambalaya pasta
frozen veggies

Saturday - friends' housewarming party potluck
I'm bringing corn dog muffins.