Getting Ready for the Chill

Today is shopping day, so I hope you remembered to make your lists yesterday. I'm sorry I wasn't home to post. I had a hair appointment and ended up spending the rest of the afternoon hanging our Christmas lights outside. Believe it or not we've been having temperatures in the 60's...but after tomorrow, it's all 20's and 30's for highs! I really needed to get those outdoor lights hung so I wasn't stuck out there this weekend in my hat and gloves!

Due to the weather getting frosy, I wanted to remind you of a few things you may want to consider adding to your shopping lists.

1. Vaseline Intensive Care hand lotion. Seriously, this stuff is the best!! No joke! I'm talking NO cracks at all if you apply it every night and during the day when you're going in and out from warm to cold temperatures!

2. New furnace filters! This is something that if you don't know if you need them...ask someone who can tell you!! It will save you money on your heating, make your home healthier AND cleaner!!

3. And finally...I wanted to share with you my holiday spice recipe and encourage you to go out, buy the ingredients and make it for yourself. It's just not the Christmas season for me without this. My mom made it when I was a child and when my husband and I first were together I made sure to make it in our home. I made it last night with my 2 1/2 year old's help and as soon as my husband walked in the door, he knew Christmas had came to our Comfortable Home!

Holiday Spice ala Ms. Suzy

1 lemon rind
1 orange rind
1 box of cinnamon sticks
1 box of whole cloves
2 bay leaves

Put all ingredients in an open topped tea kettle (one that does NOT whistle) or an old saucepan.

Fill with water.

Bring to a boil then turn down to a slow simmer.

Enjoy the smell of the holidays!

If you're on a tight budget, these spices can be expensive. So, another idea is to put a 1/4 cup of sugar and a 1/4 cup of ground cinnamon on a pie plate and put on a back burner on low.

Please let me know if you have any other ideas on getting ready for the cold weather, or how you liked the holiday spice!

Clip, Clip, Clip!

Hey there all you fans of saving money! I learned a great tip recently from watching the Rachael Ray show and wanted to share it with you since it's Shopping Day!

If you cut coupons you can look at your weekly sales flier for the stores you shop (before actually going to the store) and purchase things that are on sale and that you have coupons for, even if you dont need them at this time.

Think about it. If you always use canned tomatoes and you have a coupon for 35 cents off Hunts canned tomatoes, it's double coupon week and the canned tomatoes are already on sale for 80 cents, you'd be payong only 10 cents for that can of tomatoes!!

The key to this is clipping coupons for things you use all the time! Not just the brands you buy. Maybe you're a store brand buyer and figure why clip coupons when you're always paying less anway...well the example above is a perfect reason why!

I really got the fire set under me after watching Rachael Ray's guest go to a supermarket and seeing her total of $180+ be reduced to $70-some dollars after handing over her coupons. No joke!

I shop Kroger for my groceries and I saw on their website that I can type in my area code and pull up the weekly flier right online! I'm SO doing this every week from now on, on top of buying the Sunday paper! I used to only clip coupons if it was a brand I use. From now on..I'll be clipping if its an item I use, not a specific brand! I'm ready to save money and I promise to share my great deals with you!

I want to hear about your great deals too!! Email them to me! Also, if you find your local grocery store's fliers online, email those to me too so I can post them for others!