Making Brown Sugar and BBQ Sauce

Did you know you can make your own brown sugar and BBQ sauce? I learned how years ago, when the price of brown sugar was high. My cousin was living in Germany and she couldn't buy brown sugar, as they didn't sell it! It is so simple and if your sugar and molasses are bought inexpensively it can cost less than buying it premade! All you need is

1 cup white sugar and 2 Tbsp molasses

Mix well!

I buy my molasses at the Real Canadian Wholesale Club 5Kg for $12.69. I keep it in the cold room and it stays good until it's gone. What do I use all that molasses for? Ginger snaps, brown sugar, bbq sauce, cooking...

BBQ Sauce

2 1/2cups ketchup(I buy Heinz ketchup in the 2.84L and pour it into my old ketchup bottles, this is cheaper than buying it bottled)

1/2 cup corn syrup

1/2 cup brown sugar(the stuff I have premade myself)

2 tsp mustard

2 Tbsp molasses

1 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce

Put all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a gentle boil. Turn down and let simmer until thick. Pour into container(old BBQ container works well).Makes 2 3/4 cups.

Please excuse the crazy picture angles...I don't know what happened!

This Week's Sales

This Week at

Superstore 27-April 2
Spend $250 on groceries and get a $25 gift card.(coupon on front of flyer)Don't need to spend that much? Shop with someone else and combine your receipts, then share the savings! Thanks Sara!
Yams .44/lb
NN Frozen Vegetables 1Kg $1.88
Bacon 500g $2.78
NN Ice cream 4L $3.98 limit 2
Pineapples $1.97
Roma Tomatoes .87
Asparagus $1.67/lb
Romaine .87

Safeway Mar 26-28 only
Lucerene Yogurt 750g 2/$3 limit 6
Grade A Turkey .97/lb with coupon and purchase of $25, turkey is under 7Kg and limit is 1

Shoppers Mar 27 only
Christie cookies or crackers $1.49 limit 4
Large White Eggs $1.59 limit 2

Old Town Market 24-29
Red/Green Lettuce .79
Baby Watermelon 2/$5
Grapefruit 3/.99

Quality Greens 24-29
Fuji apples(Okanagan grown).49/lb

MTF 26-Apr1
Heinz Alpha-getti or Shrek Vegetable condensed soup 3/.99

Nesters 26-28 only
Mushrooms .98/lb
Chicken Drumsticks .88/lb
Purex 24 rolls $5
SAT. only Lean ground beef $1.67/lb

Home made shake and bake and brining chicken

When one of our daughters was young we found out she had food allergies. One of the biggest no nos was dyes and preservatives in foods. We had to start reading labels, and realized most boxed things were not going to be good for her. This began my make your own mixes search. The Tightwad Gazette has an easy, tasty shake and bake substitute!

Homemade Shake and Bake - (from the Tightwad Gazette)

4 cups flour

4 cups ground crackers or cracker meal

4 tbsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp onion powder

3 tbsp paprika

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Mix well and store indefinitely in the refrigerator in a covered container. You can change the spices according to what you like, ie. Italian seasonings, Cajun, Mexican, Asian, etc.

To crush the crackers I put them in a ziploc and then used a rolling pin.

An hour before I was ready to bake the chicken I brined it! Now, if you've never brined your poultry you don't know what you are missing! The chicken becomes so much moister and more tender after brining. All you do is take 1/2 cup salt and 1/2 cup sugar and mix it in 8 cups of water, stir until salt and sugar are dissolved. Add chicken and let sit for one hour. Once you brine you won't be able to stop!

Once the hour is up you rinse the chicken and shake it in a bag with some of your shake and bake. Bake at 400 for 40-45minutes. Enjoy!

Garage Saling made easier

Taken from Layer Cake Mountain

This weekend our local paper was full of garage sales! I really enjoy garage saling and find it a very helpful tool to save money. One thing I don't enjoy is wasting time or gas driving aimlessly! I thought perhaps there might be a mapping tool online...there is!!! Go here. Plug in your addresses(all the sales that advertise with craigslist.org are listed already!) and even your times and dates!! It figures it all out for you, which order is best and you can print it off(with directions!)or send it to your GPS. No more wasting gas or time. Just good quality shopping!

Nesters (BC only)has some good deals this weekend! A 4L of milk is $3.49 limit 1(20,21 only)
Lean ground beef(Today only)$1.68/lb Limit 1 Family Pack

Old Town Market 17-22

Bananas .59/lb
Grapefruits 5/$1.99
Green Onions 3/.99

Quality Greens 17-22

Jumbo Brown Mushrooms $1.99/lb
Spartan Apples .49/lb
Mangoes 3/$5.00

Marketplace IGA 21-27

Bananas .49/lb!!!!!!
Lemons 3/.99

This Week's Sales

Superstore 20-26

English cucumbers .86
NN Cheese 907g $7.98 limit 4
Country Harvest Bread 2/$5(anyone out there have a recipe that is similar to this heavy whole bread?)
NN Flour 10kg $5.48
NN Oil 3L $4.78
Apricots .59/100g
Oranges .46/lb
Peppers 4 count bag $1.98
Cabbage .48/lb
Lettuce .87
Frozen Young Turkey .96/lb
PC Batteries AAA2 AA4 only $1
NN Almonds 1Kg $8.98

Coopers

Frozen Boneless Skinless Chicken breasts $2.99/lb $26.36 box

Safeway

Coupon on front page for .97/lb for turkey...must have coupon and spend $25 in store. Turkey is less than 7Kg.

Walmart 19-25

Royale Toilet Paper 24 $4.48 it says for a limited time
Oranges .47/lb
Milk 4L $3.97
Eggs $1.99

Easy Granola Bars

It is the last weekend for $5 skiing at both Big White and Silver Star. As we get ready to go, I am looking for fun things to pack for our supper. I found lots of granola bar recipes and just decide I would make changes to make it my own. I have lots of peanut butter,so I cut out some margarine so I could add this peanut butter, I didn't have light corn syrup just regular. Chocolate chips were on sale so I definitely wanted to add them!! So, here it is!(They took about 20mins with baking time!)

Easy Granola Bars

4 cups old fashioned oats

1/2 cup nuts

1 cup brown sugar

1/3cup corn syrup

1/2 tsp salt

Mix well

Add 1/2cup melted margarine

1/4cup peanut butter

Mix well

Sprinkle chocolate chips until it looks good to you!!

Press into a 10X15 cookie sheet

Bake at 450 for 5mins turn the pan

bake for another 5mins check, at most 12 minutes.

Take out let cool....Cut into bars!!! Enjoy! This is such a great savings and so much better than store bought!! As you can see a huge chunk was gone before I could get a picture!(I had to hide them to cool them).

Grocery Shopping

In order to go shopping this week I copied and pasted the weekly sales into a word document and then printed them off. I folded them up and put them in my purse. My first stop was Superstore and I had along all the competitors flyers(with my reusable bags of course!). Most of the time Superstore looks at the competitors flyers and matches or lowers the price by a cent or two. Rather than travel to all the different stores I was able to get all the loss leaders(sales intended to get you into the store where you will buy way more than just the sales)with only one stop! If they don't have the same deal and you bring along your flyer and they carry that exact product, they will match the price. I guess the key is being organized....I'm going shopping so I need 1. Money for the cart
2.Reusable bags or bins
3.This week's flyers
4.Loss leader list
5.Calculator



Thought I would post the online grocery flyer links for you.



Superstore

Save On

IGA

Safeway

Coopers

Sobey's

Walmart

Old Town Farm Market

Quality Greens

Red Flag Deals

Save Canada

Nesters

Shoppers Drug Mart

This Week's Sales, Free Microsoft Office 2010

This Week's Sales

Right now at Costco they have the Healthy Harvest Spaghetti 4Kg $3.99

Walmart
Eggs $1.99
Milk 4L $3.97
Great Value Butter $2.97

Superstore 13-19

NN Tomato Soup 3/$1
Strawberries 2lb $3.88
Radishes 3/$1

Limes 3/$1

NN English Muffins 6 $1 Since eggs and English muffins are on sale why not make Eggs Benedict

Frozen Chicken Leg Quarters $1/1b 5Kg Box $11
NN Wieners $1
French Bread .97
Country Harvest Bread $2.48
Imperial Marg 1.36Kg $2.94 limit 4
PC Crackers 225g $1.25
fresh cantaloupe - large size $1.47
fresh grapefruit
product of Texas U.S.A.5 lb bag $2.87
$.97fresh broccoli bunches

Save On 14-20
Plantation rice 8kg $6.99!!!! Limit 1
WF Canned Vegetables 12 X 398ml(or341ml)$7.99 (works out to .67/can)
Imperial Margarine 1.36kg $3

Safeway 13-19
Boneless Skinless Frozen Chicken Breasts $2.99/lb($26.36 box)limit 2
Lucerene Ice Cream 4L $3.99

Zellers 12-18
Colgate toothbrushes .99
Maxwell house coffee 910-925g $4.99

Head over here to get Microsoft Office 2010 FREE!

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Blog Tutorials

Yesterday I created the new look for my blog. Yes, you heard me right, computer challenged me did it! It's all thanks to this blog that I stumbled upon because I was looking to figure out how to do the underline links! As you know from my last post that's how I found this. Ready to do some beautiful headers?
Fellow bloggers, enjoy!

Use it Up and Brain Work out!

This morning I was looking through the fridge and came upon lots of kiwis.

I went to my computer(what did we ever do before google??)I googled kiwi muffins and found this wonderful site! As you know, I am a learning as you go blogger/computer person, and I admire people who know how to set up their blog so that links are hidden. I googled it and came upon this tutorial! Viola! No wasted kiwis and my brain got a work out in the process!

Deals for Edmontonians and those visiting!

Deal for Edmontonians and those visiting there! This from RedFlag deals.

Find Your Fun - Get a 2-For-1 Coupon to an Edmonton Attraction When You Sign Up! Visit the City of Edmonton's new Find Your Fun! website, sign up for their newsletter, and you'll get a coupon for 2-for-1 admission to select city of Edmonton attractions. Once you sign up for the newsletter, you will be sent a confirmation email. When you have confirmed your subscription you will be sent a link to the newsletter, where you can also access your printable coupon. The coupon is valid for one free admission to Edmonton leisure centres, Kinsmen Sports Centre, Valley Zoo, Muttart Conservatory, or John Janzen Nature Centre when another admission of equal or greater value is purchased. Limit of one coupon per household, cannot be combined with any other offer and must be surrendered at time of use. Coupon is not valid during special promotional events and it expires on April 16, 2010. Have fun!

This Week's Sales and Free Dog Food

Spring Flowers!!!

Save On 7-13

Boneless Pork Loin $2/lb

Asparagus $1.78/lb

Oranges .48/lb

Eye of Round Roast $2.99/lb

Safeway 6-12

Inside round Roast $2.99/lb($2.28/lb lowest)

French Bread .99

Shoppers

Sun Mon 7-8 only Paper Towel 8 roll $1.99 limit 4

Canadian Tire Mar 9 Tues only

Spend $40 get $10 gift card

Superstore 6-12

Tomatoes .87/lb

Mccain Premiere or Toscano Pizza 330-540g $2.99 limit 6

Campbell's Soups 540ml .96 limit 6

Bok choy .78/lb

Pineapples $1.97

Mushrooms $1.98/lb

PC Prepaid Long Distance Card $20 for $10(coupon in flyer)

FREE DOG FOOD!!!

Those of you with dogs will want to zip over to www.redflagdeals.com and get your coupon for a free 3Kg bag of Natural Defense Premium Dog Food!

Happy Shopping!!!

Total Financial Health is Cumulative

I was doing an exercise video yesterday and the instructor said, "Remember total health is cumulative."
This got me thinking and I looked up the defintion.
The Miriam Webster's definition of cumulative is
1 a : made up of accumulated parts b : increasing by successive additions

So, if I continue to do these exercise all the little moves will add up to more flexibility and better movement.
Then I thought how does that apply to our finances?
Well, our little acts of making a spending plan each month, striving to do what we said we were going to and then doing it again the next month adds up to better financial health.(even if you don't do it perfectly!!you are still doing better)
For example, if you want to get an emergency fund of $1000 in the bank(Dave Ramsey's baby step 1). This will probably mean small shaves from your spending each month until cumulatively you have $1000.
When we saved for Hawaii it was 2 years cumulative saving. I guess it reminds me of the saying, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Be encouraged with your one bite, it may seem small, but it's adding up!

Deals Around Town

Costco has a screaming deal on frozen blueberries!! I have never tracked it this low before! 2Kg for $5.89!!!

IGA has Our Compliments Margarine Squares 1.36Kg for $2.98

Superstore has a sheet of Nanaimo Bars for $3.99

Eggs large for $1.99(limit)

Nesters Food Market March 3-6 only

10lb Russet Potatoes .98!!!!limit 2

Sun Rype Apple Juice is .88 for 1L

Old Town Market

Bananas .59/lb

Cabbage .49/lb

Radishes 3/.99

Zucchini .69/lb

So here's a freebie I learned about today through another home learner. Go to this website and you can order DVDs or articles, even get a free magazine subscription. All at no charge! http://www.hhmi.org/catalog/main?action=home