blog - Cha-Ching on a Shoestring™

eMeals: Meal Planning

May 8th, 2009 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

Family-Dinner-Chicken

I have a confession to make.

I am not a fan of meal planning.

I wish it were not so. You may get your thrills over planning your weekly meals down to the last calorie and cent. I envy your passion, but I do not share it.

It’s not that I haven’t tried to enjoy meal planning. I have a folder full of cute little meal planning calendars, creative ideas from magazines, and a whole lot of other fun stuff intended to motivate me to become a meal planning guru.

And yet, I still approach this task with dread.

That’s why when my Mom introduced me to eMeals, I felt my heart skip a beat. Imagine having a maid who plans your meals around weekly deals, creates your grocery list, and only charges you as low as $5 a month…and you are imagining eMeals.

I LOVE IT!!!!!!

We are using the ALDI plan for two people since our kids don’t eat enough yet to use the bigger meal plans. We spend approximately $50 a week for the ingredients for five meals. That’s $10 a meal! Not bad. And considering the fact that we typically have enough leftovers for another meal or two, it’s actually less than that! (Update: Since writing this post, our boys have become much bigger eaters, so we’ve graduated to the family plan!)

There are a variety of stores to choose from including Kroger, Wal-Mart, and Publix; and a nice selection of specialty meal plans, including Vegetarian, Low Fat, and Low Carb.

I have LOVED simply printing out my list each week, and heading to the store with little to no planning. It saves me so much time, which is very important to me as a busy mom.

We have also really enjoyed their meals. They are simple, yet delicious. The perfect combination in my eyes. Our favorite meal so far has been the Open Face Ranch and Chicken BLT’s. mmmmmmm….

If this sounds interesting to you, simply go here to check it out. If you choose to sign up, you will automatically receive the latest meal plan in your account and you can opt to receive it by email weekly. Download it, print it out, and head to the store. It’s that easy!

OR if you have a Smartphone, find out more about the eMeals app here. It’s awesome!

And if you are wondering if this is a wise choice for frugal families, I will add that Dave Ramsey endorses the site. Enough said.

Mars Chocolate Giveaway

May 7th, 2009 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

What’s this? Free and chocolate in the same sentence? Does it get any better than that??! I think not.

Starting Friday (5/8), Mars will be giving away 250,000 coupons every Friday through September to be redeemed for your favorite Mars product (Snickers, please!). Simply head here starting at 9 a.m. ET to enter the giveaway. You can also enter your e-mail address to be sent a reminder.

You’ll receive your coupon by mail within six weeks. Limit four coupons per household during the offer period.

I’ll race you there tomorrow!

The Art of Shopping with Children

May 7th, 2009 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

I spent the morning out and about with my two boys and had to break my cardinal rule: NO SHOPPING WITH CHILDREN! Sigh…

It reminded me of this post that I wrote several months ago on my other blog (before my cardinal rule was in place), and I thought I’d share it here. I’m guessing some of you can relate?

I told Wes last night that my children may need to go through therapy one day because of me. They suffer a certain trauma almost weekly that may leave a lasting impression on them.

It’s called shopping. With one child, the horrors were manageable. As long as his chubby little legs still fit through those leg holes, we were fine (which is until about age 12 in my book). But two children is a whole new world. I mean, what will his therapist think when my older son shares his haunting memories of being trapped in a steel cage for endless hours?

Grocery shopping is among the worst of the offenders. Two children + a pile of food = a lot of smooshed bread. But OH THE JOY the day that I discovered the car cart. Never mind that maneuvering it through the store requires brute strength and an aircraft navigational system…I’ll take that over being one of ‘those moms’ with the screaming children any day.

However, since CVS is my drug of choice…I mean drug store of choice…it means squeezing two of them into a cart the size of my kitchen sink. And then finding room for all of my loot. And keeping Griffin bribed…I mean occupied. Fruit snacks are a blessing.

And why is it that the need to go potty always presents itself at the most inopportune moments? I think Griffin is a fan of the drug store bathrooms that are somewhere in the deep recesses of the stock room and require the help of a sales associate to find.

And then there is the check-out line. I am always so relieved when I find an employee who doesn’t mind their credit card machine being attacked by sticky little fruit snack-covered fingers. And since my cvs shopping requires multiple transactions involving higher math and about 12 coupons each, heaven only knows how many packs of lifesavers have been swiped by my little one from those perfectly-eye-level candy shelves. But hey–I probably had a coupon for them anyway.

How about you? Do you have any horror stories? What’s your secret to the art of shopping with children? Tell all and help save on my therapy bill when my children finally escape their steel cage.

Winners!

May 7th, 2009 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

We have our winners for the Coast to Coast Florist Giveaway #3!!

Congratulations to our FOUR grand prize winners:

Jaclyn: chris14095@xxx
Danielle: ldsmom2201@xxx
Sarah: scpoms@xxx
Andria: andriakrick@xxx

and our second prize winner:

Renee: yeloechikee@xxx

I have e-mailed each of you. Congratulations and ENJOY your gift certificates!

AND if you were a first time entrant in this contest, you will be receiving an e-mail from Coast to Coast Florist with a $10 e-voucher to use on their site. Be looking for it in the next few days and ENJOY!

May I say THANK YOU to all who entered our Coast to Coast Florist Giveaways! If you didn’t win this time around, be assured that there will be plenty more giveaways to come. Keep hope alive!

New Code for Huggies Rewards Program

May 6th, 2009 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

Currently, these points can only be used on sweepstakes and contests on the site. I’m not sure if this will change eventually. Has anyone else heard anything?

Thanks, Holly!