New Super-Couponing Tips column: Enticing return-to-store offers
…from what I’ve seen lately at the grocery stores and pharmacies ads in my area, the special offers have started to return over the past couple of weeks. One major supermarket…
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Shopping and Savingnext >< prev
Coupon Matchups: Meijer Deals of the Week 8/2/20 – 8/8/20
.99 Totino's Pizza Rolls, $1 Chex Mix or Bugles, $1 Kleenex, $1.49 Quaker cereal, $1.49 Quaker Chewy granola bars, $1.50 Ball Park Franks, $1.67 Mott's applesauce, $2 Capri-Sun
Current National Catalina Offers: August 2020
Here is a list of Catalina offers for the current month, including Breyers, Duracell, Fiber One, Huggies, Kellogg's, Nature Valley, Keurig, and more...
Expired coupon inserts to remove from your files: August 2020
Here's a list of all of the coupon inserts that have expired within the last two months. If you have any of the following inserts in your files, you can pull them out and recycle them...
Coupon Matchups: CVS Deals of the Week 8/2/20 – 8/8/20
.50 Hershey's Singles, .74 Colgate toothpaste, .74 Palmolive, $1.25 Irish Spring body wash, $1.49 General Mills and Kellogg's cereals, $1.50 L'Oreal haircare, $2.50 Dove haircare, $4 Nature's Truth
Coupon Matchups: Walgreens Deals of the Week 8/2/20 – 8/8/20
FREE Purex and Snuggle, .74 Dawn dish detergent, $1.49 Ajax, Suavitel, Fabuloso, $1.49 General Mills cereals, $1.99 Arm & Hammer laundry detergent, $2.50 Silk milk
Coupon Matchups: Mariano’s Deals of the Week 7/29/20 – 8/4/20
.40 Yoplait yogurt cups, .60 Chobani Greek yogurt, .69 Prince pasta, 4 Chex Mix, Gardetto's, .75 Kraft mac and cheese, .99 General Mills cereals, $1.29 Quaker Chewy bars
Coupon Matchups: Jewel-Osco Deals of the Week 7/29/20 – 8/4/20
.19 Yoplait yogurt, .29 Powerade, .49 Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, .74 Chex Mix, Bugles, Gardettos, .75 General Mills cereals and Nature Valley bars, .99 Hostess multipacks, $1.62 Nabisco snacks
Current National Catalina Offers: July 2020
Here is a list of Catalina offers for the current month, including Atkins, Aveeno, Breyers, Buitoni, and more...
Expired coupon inserts to remove from your files: July 2020
Here's a list of all of the coupon inserts that have expired within the last two months. If you have any of the following inserts in your files, you can pull them out and recycle them...
Expired coupon inserts to remove from your files: June 2020
Here's a list of all of the coupon inserts that have expired within the last two months. If you have any of the following inserts in your files, you can pull them out and recycle them...
Expired coupon inserts to remove from your files: May 2020
If you have any of the following inserts in your files, you can pull them out and recycle them, as all of the coupons inside each insert have expired. Inserts marked with an asterisk are new...
Current National Catalina Offers: May 2020
New Catalina offers for May include Keurig, Nature Valley...
Is anyone still couponing and shopping deals?
I have a question for all of you... would you like me to continue blogging grocery ads during the Illinois Stay-At-Home order? I have continued on, partially because I've tried to maintain...
Current National Catalina Offers: April 2020
Here is a list of Catalina offers for the current month, including brands like Band-Aid and Neosporin, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, Pledge, Scrubbing Bubbles, Windex, Tropicana...
Expired coupon inserts to remove from your files: April 2020
Here's a list of all of the coupon inserts that have expired within the last two months. If you have any of the following inserts in your files, you can pull them out and recycle them...
Adventures in grocery delivery & curbside pickup
I genuinely want to help my readers who may also be exploring purchasing groceries online for the first time. (Hint: It was nowhere nearly as easy as I thought it might be!)
Current National Catalina Offers: March 2020
Here is a list of Catalina offers for the current month, including promotions from Ben & Jerry's, CauliPower, Gerber, Johnsonville, Kidfresh, Nature Valley, Pledge, Yoplait
Expired coupon inserts to remove from your files: March 2020
Here's a list of all of the coupon inserts that have expired within the last two months. If you have any of the following inserts in your files, you can pull them out and recycle them...
N95 masks and Corona virus preparation
The CDC's announcement did make me start thinking in more detail about what I might want to have on hand if the virus begins spreading the way it has in Italy over the past week...
Current National Catalina Offers: February 2020
Here is a list of Catalina offers for the current month, including brands like American Greetings, Bob Evans, Hellmann's, Knorr, Larabar, Lean Cuisine, Nature Valley, Seventh Generation, and more...
Expired coupon inserts to remove from your files: February 2020
Here's a list of all of the coupon inserts that have expired within the last two months. If you have any of the following inserts in your files, you can pull them out and recycle them...
Goodbye to the Spring Hill Sears… and a couple of final deals
The Spring Hill Mall Sears location opened 40 years ago, and in 2019, Sears announced that they would be closing the Spring Hill store in February 2020.
Woodstock, Illinois has a new .10 shopping bag tax
While the city of Chicago has had a 7-cent bag tax for a few years now, bag taxes are creeping into the suburbs as well. Last week I spotted signs all over Woodstock, Illinois...
Home and Stylenext >< prev
An “expensive” jewelry lesson and a bargain-priced professional dress
I bought a new dress recently to wear to a work-related speaking engagement, and while I like the dress very much, I thought that it needed a piece of jewelry to accessorize it a bit...
This weed torch is my favorite garden tool
Every year, our family plants a vegetable garden, and every year, despite my best intentions, there comes a point in time when the garden becomes more than a little overrun with weeds...
Why don’t they make bed sheets like this any more?
I found this delightful vintage package of two cotton fitted twin-size bed sheets for $1.99 that were made sometime in the 1950s! These sheets have no elastic -- they're truly a "fitted sheet" with a mitered corner...
An Easy Bake blast from the past
A commercial for the children's Easy Bake oven came on television. My youngest son watched as the girl on the screen baked up a mini cake, and he said "Why don't they make something like this for boys?"
My black leather trenchcoat
I've owned this black leather trenchcoat for more than 17 years, but the coat is older than I am. This coat has a story, and this seems as good a time as any to tell it...
Free Wi-Fi in the woods
We have a three-trunked weeping willow tree on our property, and over the years, one of the trunks has split from its siblings and progressively leaned over to rest on the ground. It was time to cut this tree trunk away...
I hate my front-loading washer. Here’s how I “hack” it.
I've written at length about my misadventures in laundry with my front-loading machine before, but if the laundry's really dirty, it often comes out of the washer nearly as dirty as it went in...
A super-cheap outdoor television setup
I've been spending a lot of my work days this summer outside on our deck, which led me to think about setting up a television outside. If you've ever researched outdoor TVs, you'll find articles claiming...
My laundry room cocktail bar
The top of my washer is truly a laundry cocktail bar. I rotate brands and varieties of detergent based on what I'm washing. Whenever I suggest this to people, it's like a proverbial light goes off -- "What a great idea! I never thought of that!"
10 items to pack in your bag for summertime
Summer weather is right around the corner! If you're headed out for a warm-weather adventure with your little one, it's important to bring everything you'll need for a fun day in the sun...
Kitchen and bathroom cleaning with Mean Green
One of my readers asked me to tackle a "dirty microwave" and see what Mean Green could do. In preparation, I stopped wiping down the inside of our microwave for (yuck!) two months. All in the name of research, I assure you...
My quest to find a great deck stain
As anyone with a deck knows, they are not maintenance-free. This time around, I wanted a deck stain that would last for many years without the disappointing results of the last stain I used...
Foodnext >< prev
Bargain-priced low-carb/keto flours at Farm & Fleet
If you're following a low-carb or keto diet (as half our household is,) here's a discovery I made recently that you'll be interested in. Farm and Fleet sells both coconut flour and almond flour, and the prices are much lower...
Ham, Apple, & Cheese Roll-Ups
Can you believe August is right around the corner? I hope you've been enjoying your summer as much as we have. We've spent many so many days outdoors -- we've been packing lots of coolers for lunches on the go...
Bacon-Wrapped Ranch Chicken Strips
Litehouse invited me to try their salad dressings at home and share with you what I made: Bacon-wrapped ranch chicken strips. They were definitely family-pleasers here in the Cataldo house...
Making a jar of cake-mix “upsizer”
It's getting difficult to find a cake mix that hasn't been reduced from 18.25 ounces to 15.25 ounces. This week, two things came up that made me want to work on a solution of sorts to this issue...
Recipe: O Organics Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies
It's that time when many people resolve to live healthier: Eating better, exercising more, and cooking healthier meals and snacks for our families. While we don't eat 100% organic all of the time in our household...
Be Snacksational: Pineapple-Coconut Glazed Sugar Cookies
Here's an easy-to-make after-school snack that will get you in a "Snacksational" mood! My children love frosted cookies, so I created a tasty, frosted fiber-filled treat that gets some of its sweetness from yogurt...
My must-have products for low-carb eating
There's definitely an initial learning curve in figuring out what you're going to eat. Anything with high amounts of sugar is out, and for this former high carb eater, that meant saying goodbye to cereal, fruit juices...
My low-carb life: 25 pounds down (and counting…)
We quickly set a start date, agreeing to start our weight loss journey on August 1st and compare results in three months on November 1st. Further sealing the deal, I got the smaller-sized jeans for myself as an incentive to do this...
Seasons’ Eatings! Table ideas and a Maple Walnut Apple Salad
The holiday season is almost here! I love the changing colors and the way the warm days turn to crisp evenings with vibrant sunsets. I love that Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year celebrations bring us closer...
Have you tried air chilled chicken? It’s delicious!
What exactly is air chilled chicken? Air chilling is a process that's been popular in Europe for over forty years. It is individually processed by suspending it in air and chilling it for several hours...
Recipe: Sweet & Savory Signature Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp
These shrimp are the perfect blend of sweet and savory flavors, and they get a little extra kick from Signature Kitchens' Stone Ground Horseradish Mustard...
Try Primo Taglio for a perfect deli platter
It's officially summertime, and Chicagoland has the humidity and temperatures to prove it! I love this time of year, as summer means spending lots of time in the sun, eating outdoors...
Travelnext >< prev
A Preview of Disney’s Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
A day before Mickey and Minnie Mouse led the annual Festival Of Lights parade in Chicago, Disney brought lots of love all the way from Orlando to the Windy City! So much is in store for the new Toy Story Land...
Driving across South Dakota
Our RV tour's scheduled stops for the day included a visit to the Mitchell Corn Palace, an on-your-own lunch, and an ice cream social at the legendary Wall Drug, which my boys were very excited about...
Ultimate day pack for theme park trips
Whether our family's headed to Disney, Universal, Six Flags or another destination, I always bring what my family affectionately calls my "black backpack" on all of our theme park trips. I don't like carrying a purse when we're in theme-park commando mode. A few years ago I discovered the perfect small, yet durable sling-style backpack...
My search for the perfect family camping tent
I love to camp. My parents were (and still are!) avid campers. My earliest childhood memory is camping in my mom and dad's big blue canvas cabin tent. Incredibly, that big canvas tent is still around...
Jill’s Bucket List: 24 hours in the Riot House
During a trip to Los Angeles, I stayed at the Riot House, the most famous rock and roll hotel in the world...
A Walt Disney World shopping perk you may not know about
Did you know that you can get a special shopping pass at the Disney parks solely for the purpose of going in and shopping? It's true! To get a shopping pass, you'll need to head to the Guest Relations office...
Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea – A Disney adventure like no other!
Earlier this year, our family spent ten days in Japan. That, alone, was a dream come true, but also spent a couple of days at Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea. As a Disney lover, this was the perfect...
Intergalactic fun at Walt Disney World’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
Our family recently headed to Walt Disney World to visit Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disney's Hollywood Studios! Rise of the Resistance topped our list of things-to-do, simply because...
These photographs saved me $8.45
We rented a car to get from the airport to our destination. Having done this drive on previous trips, we knew we would go through one toll plaza before we got to the hotel...
Disney Parks VIP Tour and our 24-hour Disney honeymoon
Recently, I confessed that my husband and I had never taken a vacation without our children -- ever. We travel pretty frequently, but we never planned a just-us trip...
My must-have when traveling with carry-on luggage
One of my favorite travel tips when I’m traveling with carry-on luggage? Always take a second, lightweight tote bag with you that’s slightly larger than the “personal item” you carry on. You just may need it to comply with the airlines’ “One carry-on, one personal item” rule. I typically travel with a rolling carry-on suitcase [...]
Must-have travel and packing tips for a family cruise
Our family enjoys cruising, and over the years I've collected some of my favorite tips, ideas, and must-have items to pack when taking a cruise. If you're planning a cruise with kids, here are some things to consider...
Make Thisnext >< prev
Fixing a suitcase wheel with… duct tape?
It irked me that everything else about the suitcase was fine and functional aside from the bad wheel. I looked at replacing the wheel, but I could not find a suitable wheel that was the right size...
Improving a great beach bag (with a not-so-great logo)
I attended a blog conference and brought home an oversized canvas beach bag featuring the logo of one of the conference sponsors. However, last year, that company became embroiled in a bit of a scandal...
Building a kitchen countertop extension
Our daughter's new apartment really only has one issue -- limited counter space and no place to put a microwave or other small appliances. I got the idea to build a countertop extension for her kitchen...
Our ultimate one-minute theme park tailgating setup
Our family has had a fun summer of enjoying days at the zoo, water parks, and theme parks. My kids actually look forward to our lunchtime tailgating, as we can completely set it up in under one minute...
Pooh to Pikachu
This year, when I asked my son what kind of cake he wanted, he said "Pikachu." The popular Pokemon character is certainly cute, but how to best capture him in cake form? Many of my cakes take shape...
Easy kids’ craft: Make a can candle
I believe I was around 7 or 8 years old when we made tin can candles, and so I did a quick web search to see if my juvenile memories of it were correct. Incredibly, I couldn't find anything online about how to make these...
Mending my family’s clothes: How to fix worn jeans “invisibly”
While I could put patches over these ripped knees, I also don't want my kids to be self-conscious of an obvious repair job. I want to share how I've been able to extend the life of my sons' jeans by patching them invisibly...
How to make a large utility tote for less than $20
If you've been wanting a large utility tote without spending too much, and you have minimal sewing skills (like me!) read on and learn how you can make your own large utility tote from one yard of fabric for less than $20...
The eighteen-year-old quilt
I came up with the idea to make a quilt for her eighteenth birthday. And for the past thirteen years, I've been saving our daughter's favorite shirts as she outgrew them. Everything from T-shirts and sports jerseys to pajamas...
Here’s an idea for leftover wax from your wax melter
The wax melt packaging recommends that you pour the melted wax back into the clamshell packaging to dispose of it. Being frugal, I couldn't simply throw the wax away. So, we're reusing it in a creative way...
Making a jar of cake-mix “upsizer”
It's getting difficult to find a cake mix that hasn't been reduced from 18.25 ounces to 15.25 ounces. This week, two things came up that made me want to work on a solution of sorts to this issue...
Make your own “Slushy Magic” at home!
To recreate the Slushy Magic effect, it's important to understand how it works. Each cup comes with three plastic ice cubes filled with salt water. Salt water freezes at a lower temperature than plain water does...
