Included were terrific coupons for Cool Whip, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Ritz and Triscuit Crackers and more!  Those were the things I love and wanted to get anyway!

While I was on the Kraft website, I came across this terrific Flag Cake recipe!  It was so impressive looking, yet sounded super easy, so I decided to make it for our Memorial Day picnic!

Many of the ingredients in this patriotic cake were items I got with the coupons.

Most of these Kraft coupons gave me $1 off the price of the item and combined with the low prices at Wal-Mart, I was able to get them for practically nothing! That’s just the way I like it!

Last night we decided to take advantage of the FREE Birthday Entree that my husband had received in his e-mail from Moe’s!

If you sign up at Moe’s, they will send you a coupon around the time of your birthday and you get an entree absolutely FREE!  Love that!

I have found the Moe’s Kid’s Size entrees are  plenty for me & really not much smaller than the regular sized entrees.  Plus–they are only $ 3.29 and you get a combo with a small drink and cookie! That brought the entire cost of our meal to $3.55 plus $1 we put in the tip jar! That’s only $4.55 for 2 people to eat dinner!  What a deal!

This week we will be going to redeem our FREE coupon at  Qdoba Mexican Grill for my husband’s Birthday Entree!  They will send you a coupon for a Free meal if you sign up on their website!

Anyone have any other suggestions for great deals, freebies of any kind or FREE meals?  Please share them with us!

]]> http://frugaltorich.com/2009/05/24/the-cost-of-meals-is-getting-cheaper-all-the-time/feed/ 0 http://frugaltorich.com/2009/05/15/i-love-hotwire-for-great-deals-on-hotel-rooms/ http://frugaltorich.com/2009/05/15/i-love-hotwire-for-great-deals-on-hotel-rooms/#comments Fri, 15 May 2009 17:46:12 +0000 M.S. http://frugaltorich.com/?p=648 I am traveling in Chicago for several days and found another CHEAP deal for a fabulous hotel room on one of my favorite discount sites for hotel rooms and rental cars: Hotwire.com

Look at this fantastic completely updated room for only $ 39 a night!  It is in a great location near everything I wanted, including Woodfield Mall and Ikea!

This room is in a Holiday Inn Express Hotel and it is super!  I initially was concerned about booking at Holiday Inn, not knowing what the quality might be, but these hotels are geared for the business traveler and are terrific!

Inside the chest beside the desk is a refrigerator and a microwave so I can even have a snack or light meal in my room!

I also have noticed that the lower price hotels include FREE Internet access and a free breakfast!

What a deal for $ 39 a night!

The technique I have used to capitalize on this offer makes the process super easy!  I signed up for the e-mail version of the weekly specials to be sent to me on the first day of the new week.  I then check what they are offering as super deals that week, paying particular attention to the Buy One Get One Free offers.  I went to eBay and in the Search Field, I type in the names of the products that are on special to see if there are coupons available.

Recently, I was able to find 10 peanut butter coupons for 40 cents off each, for total cost of $ 1.49 plus 42 cents postage. That’s a grand total of $1.91 for 10 coupons!  That’s a $ 1.20 reduction for each jar of peanut butter! I order the coupons from the eBay seller on the first day of the store sale, so they can be mailed to me right away so I get them in plenty of time while the sale is still in progress.

I took these to the store, where my final cost, after all the deductions, came to 30 cents per jar of peanut butter!  Combined with all the other coupons I had for other products, I was able to save 50% on my grocery bill! 

That’s like someone handing me $25.00 cash that I didn’t have to work for! I will take it!

I accomplished this task in 10 minutes drinking coffee at the kitchen table and you can too!  It couldn’t be easier!

Check Out Deals on eBay Now!

According to the Charlotte Observer Dr. Oz said ” The reason we cost 50 percent more to care for than Europeans is because we’re 50 percent sicker.  We need to walk more, eat high-fiber, high-protein breakfasts, get more vitamin D and omega-3 and trim our waists, he said, rattling off dozens more health tips.”

2/3 of Americans are either overweight or obese and it is getting worse!  “Forty percent of our kids will be diabetics if we don’t do something about this!” Dr. Oz said. Forty percent!

The line that struck me was this one:  “Are you willing to admit that your life is so out of control that you can’t carve out 20 minutes a day for a workout?”

People that take care of their bodies have much lower health care costs and take less medicine– so they have more money!

A woman recently told me her doctor scolded her at her latest checkup and said “If you don’t want to have to pay for expensive blood pressure medicine, cholesterol pills and diabetes treatments, and possibly end up in an expensive nursing home,  then stop treating your body like a garbage can!”

There are many parallels between taking care of our physical health and taking care of our financial health. It is actually very simple.  Eat less and exercise more.  Spend less and save more.

When you love yourself enough to treat your body well, you also will treat yourself well financially and believe that you are worthy of being financially secure.

Start today and do a little something in both these areas to make some progress.  Go for a little walk, choose not to buy one small item and save that money.

Look what eliminating one gourmet muffin or latte can save you and what it will add towards a fabulous future.

Muffin and Latte Calculator

You deserve it!

In my typical frugal fashion I said “Get them out of that bin and ask if they’ll give you 2 packages for $ 2.49” !  She said Ok–I will try. She was amazed! They gave her 12 bagels for $ 2.49– Just for asking!

I discovered this bargain several months ago, when I was in the bagel shop and spotted this bin.   I decided to give it a try and buy a package of 6 bagels for $2.49.  I had become reluctant to pay the outrageous higher price of $ 1.29  for ONE  “fresh” bagel, so I thought– Hey, how BAD can they be?

When I got to the cash register that first time,  the lady took one look at me, dressed in my garage sale appropriate clothes after a long morning of scouring yard sales and she said–You know what?  Right now they are 2 Packages for $ 2.49!  I got the message!  She thought I was POOR– so she was going to help me out and give me extra bagels for FREE!

I said Well alrighty then and grabbed another sleeve of 6 yummy bagels!  I got 12 bagels for a grand total cost of $ 2.49!  That’s 21 cents per bagel!

That saved me over $ 12 for 12 bagels!  That’s $ 12 free money–that I didn’t have to earn by working!

We lightly toasted the bagels and they made fabulous sandwiches!  They were great!  There was NOTHING wrong with them!  Now every time I go to the bagel shop–I ask them –Could I have 2 packages of day old bagels for $ 2.49?  They ALWAYS say YES!

Try it next time you have a taste for bagels!

Be generous and get a whole bunch of the bagels and donate them to the food pantry so other people can enjoy them too!