Check out this fun blog:

http://mylittlesmartcar.blogspot.com/

It looks like I’ll be stocking up on canned veggies at Super Saver this week.  Their store brand is priced at 44¢ each.  When I’m in a hurry (and when am I not in a hurry?) I am always thankful to have canned vegetables to add to my dinner.  I personally like to serve frozen veggies, but in a pinch, I’ll grab the canned variety. 

The produce department has a 5 pound bag of red grapefruit for just under $3 and fresh asparagus for $1.48 a pound. 

Hot Pockets are on sale for $1.64—would you believe I was at Super Saver yesterday and picked up a couple of packages (they were $1.98 yesterday, which was still good in itself!).  I’ll still stock up at that price.  They won’t go bad in the freezer.  Other items I’ve circled in their ad are Hunt’s spaghetti sauce for 85¢, store brand yogurt for 3/$1, Peter Pan peanut butter is $1/38 for a 16 ounce jar, and 3 types of General Mills cereals are only $1.67. 

Don’t forget Super Saver’s online coupons—I just printed out the one for free Wimmer’s snack sticks.  You can get it here. 

Skagway has a two-day sale (Saturday & Sunday) with some good deals:  Duncan Hines brownie mixes for 99¢, Jack’s frozen pizza is $1.67, and store brand cake mix is only 49¢.  (this would be a good time to check my website for my cake mix recipes!)

Skagway’s produce department has a 2# bag of baby carrots for $1.99, navel oranges for 58¢ a pound, and Granny Smith apples are 99¢ a pound. 

Bone-In Pork sirloin roast is marked down to $1.29 a pound.  I also circled store brand yogurt (33¢), Skagway brand bread for 99¢ (put an extra loaf in the freezer), and Colgate toothpaste for 99¢.

Swiss Miss hot chocolate packets are 99¢ this week—that’s my personal favorite brand if I’m buying packets.  But most often I will make a batch of my own hot chocolate mix (find it here).  Another good deal at Skagway is an in-ad coupon for free bread when you buy two jars of Skippy Peanut butter (sale-priced at 2/$4). 

HyVee has a 5 pound bag of locally grown potatoes priced at 99¢ and Jonagold (or Braeburn) apples are just 88¢ a pound.  Store-brand powdered or brown sugar is just $1.18.  Campbell’s chunky soup is a good deal at  $1.25 this week, too.

There are a few good in-ad coupons to clip:  Grimmway Farms baby carrots for just 69¢, Hershey’s baking chips  for $1.68, $10 off when you buy any 6 General Mills cereals, $1 off 10 Dannon yogurts, and canned Butter Kernel Vegetables are 3/$1.

I also see Edy’s Ice cream (they show pumpkin-flavored in the ad) for 2.99.  I’m not sure if pumpkin flavored ice cream is a good idea….my daughter on the east coast tried a pumpkin flavored DQ blizzard, and she didn’t like it.  I’m the same way: the only way to use pumpkin is in baked goods like cookies, bread, and of course pie. 

Don’t forget that HyVee gives you cents-off at their gas station when you buy groceries.  The discount amount varies by day and I’ve even been known to call them to ask what that day’s discount is before driving across town to shop there.  One day last week they had a 15¢ discount on their gas—a good thing these days now that gas keeps going up!

 

Don’t forget:  Granny is slowly moving her blog to another home — you can also find me here.

Granny is Moving!

I’m moving my blog over to Blogspot (don’t ask, just click on over!)

Find me at:

http://granny-green.blogspot.com

 

see you there!

Chocolate and Cherries

Chocolate & Cherries always go together!  Here is a very easy recipe for Chocolate Cherry cake. 

Just 3 ingredients:

• 1 milk chocolate cake mix
• 1 (20-oz) can cherry pie filling
• 3 eggs

Start by combining all ingredients in a bowl—mix by hand.

Pour into a greased and floured 9 x 13 baking dish.

Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes. (Test with a toothpick for doneness)

Free College Classes Online

Open Courseware is the term for study material, courses and lecturers created by top universities and shared for free on the Internet. Some of the most popular courses are offered by Academic Earth. Here is an example of just a few of their free courses:

Introduction to Psychology – Yale, Political Science – Princeton, Entrepreneurship – Stanford University, and General Chemistry- Berkeley.

Here are the links to additional open courseware web classes offered at these top universities: MIT, Stanford, Utah State, University of California at Berkeley, Notre Dame, Yale, Tufts,  and the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

If you are a already a college student, download the free courses that correspond with the classes you are taking to use as a study guide and preview future classes. Deciding on a major? Take a look at the classes you will need to take.

Granny Finds Some Good Deals Today!

It’s a good week for grocery shopping, and for stocking up on a few things for the upcoming cold days!

HyVee has some “hot deals” on the front of their grocery ad—store brand Chicken Noodle (or tomato) soup for 38¢ a can.  It’s always good to have a can of Chicken Noodle soup in the cupboard!  There is a coupon inside for Chicken of the Sea tuna for 58¢ (limit of one with coupon). 

The inside pages of are promoting their private label (HyVee) products:  cereal for $1.88, tortilla chips for $1, 6-ounce container of sour cream for 66¢.  They also have HyVee little smokies for $2.49  (quick & easy fixed in barbeque sauce), and pork shoulder roast for 99¢ a pound.  Slice & Bake cookies are $2 for a tube.  Their olives (both black & green) are $1.18—I’ll stock up for Thanksgiving (one less thing on that list!).

I think I’ll also be getting some more Hot Pockets (great to tuck into lunches!) for $2 and the 24 ounce cottage cheese that is priced at $1.38, broccoli is 99¢ each, and there’s a coupon for large eggs for 99¢. 

I noticed that HyVee didn’t have any limited day sales this week!  Good!  I don’t like having to make separate trips to get the really good sale items.  But, I’d bet that they will have another “special deal” flyer in the Saturday or Sunday paper….

 

Skagway does have a 3-day weekend special flyer with Campbell’s chunky soup for 99¢, ½ gallon Land o Lakes orange juice for 88¢, and bananas for 33¢ a pound—all great deals!

Other things I’ve circled in the Skagway ad are the sirloin steak ($2.99 a pound),  a 4-pound bag of sugar for $1.49, Taco Bell taco shells or refried beans for 99¢, and wood roses for 10¢.   This one made me laugh:  New York Texas Toast croutons for 99¢.

 

Super Saver has a week-end sale: bottled 6-pack Coke products for $2.87, StarKist tuna for 62¢ for a 5-ounce can, 5 pound bag of carrots for $1.46, Old Orchard juice (64 ounce bottle) for $1.36, and chicken drumsticks for 96¢ a pound. 

Other good deals this week at Super Saver I see:  Store brand bleach for 98¢, and boxed mac & cheese for 28¢.   The produce department is always one of my favorite areas:  Bananas are 38¢ a pound, head lettuce is 74¢ each, celery is 67¢ a package, and  a 5-pound bag of red delicious apples is only $2.84. 

I went checked their online-only coupons, too:  Free (with $10 purchase) Wimmers Little Meaty Snack Sticks, Iams 15-pound dog food has a $2 off coupon, $1 off cherry tomatoes, and a 16-count package of AA batteries for just $3.98.  Their ad says they have a twitter account now!  I love twitter, so I’m following their updates now!  They are also on Facebook—see this week’s flyer for details.

Clutter?

One of the most basic things you can do to achieve a more organized home is to find a place for every item you own. Just simply having a place to put everything helps considerably in keeping the clutter at bay in your home space. This of course is easier said than done and to achieve it may take some work but it is very possible and even desirable.

Just spending a few minutes a day focusing on finding a home for all of your belongings can help you see a tidier home very quickly.

To achieve this organized home with minimal stress work on finding a ‘home’ in small blocks of time you set aside each day. 15 minutes is a great block of time that doesn’t seem like much but yet in reality is plenty enough to see big results.

Start with one room in your home and one section. Start with the least disorganized room so that you won’t quickly become discouraged once you start. Once you have that fairly easy room organized then pick a bigger challenge now that you know how to do it.

Use baskets and boxes to help corral things that are hard to keep organized. This works great on shelves and in drawers. You can find these very cheaply at your local dollar store.

Measure your spaces and know what sizes you will need before going out to purchase.

Your main home junk drawer is a great spot for containers. Corral those spare batteries, pens, and odds and ends into little containers. Use small baskets in the fridge to organize condiments. Use baskets in the bathroom to gather up hair accessories, make up, even towels.

 

Alka-Seltzer®

There are many other uses for Alka-Seltzer than soothing an upset stomach…

Clean a toilet. Drop in two Alka-Seltzer tablets, wait twenty minutes, brush, and flush. The citric acid and effervescent action clean vitreous china.

Clean a vase. To remove a stain from the bottom of a glass vase or cruet, fill with water and drop in two Alka-Seltzer tablets.

Polish jewelry. Drop two Alka-Seltzer tablets into a glass of water and immerse the jewelry for two minutes.

Clean a thermos bottle. Fill the bottle with water, drop in four Alka-Seltzer tablets, and let soak for an hour (or longer, if necessary).

Remove burned-on grease from a pot or pan. Fill the pot or pan with water, drop in six Alka-Seltzer tablets, let soak for one hour, then scrub as usual.

Unclog a drain. Clear the sink drain by dropping three Alka-Seltzer tablets down the drain followed by a cup of Heinz White Vinegar. Wait a few minutes, then run the hot water.

Get short-term relief from nicotine withdrawal symptoms. As long as you’re not on a low-sodium diet or have peptic ulcers, drink two Alka-Seltzer tablets dissolved in a glass of water at every meal.

Soothe insect bites. Dissolve two Alka-Seltzer tablets in a glass of water, dip a cloth into the solution, and place the cloth on the bite for twenty minutes.

Granny is going to be moving to a different blog site soon.  For now you can get all my hints and tips on both places.  The new blog will be at http://granny-green.blogspot.com

Energy-producing chair

This unique chair produces its own light!  The Murakami chair’s attached lamp is powered by kinetic energy produced from the chair rocking back and forth—deliciously simple and elegant. Oh, and that lampshade? Not a lampshade. That’s the actual OLED light source, shaped like a lampshade.

 The OLED lamp even senses when it’s light or dark out, and if it is light, the energy produced by rocking is stored in a battery pack until nightfall. The chair, designed by Rochus Jacob, shared first prize at the DesignBoom Green Life Competition, which was held in September in Korea.

Free Notebook for Moms

Here’s a handy way to track your child’s immunization history and keep up with how fast they’re growing. You can request the free My Child’s Health Notebook to be mailed to you by simply filling out the information on this page.

https://www.prevakids.com/gerd-register/notebook.aspx

Request one for each child and have all their information in one easy-to-find location.