Here’s the Publix Meal Planner for this week. At the rate the rain is falling down here, it may be a while before I can go out and pick up the new deals.

Thank you to Michelle at iheartpublix for posting all the coupon match-ups for this week’s Publix ad.

WHAT TO BUY

Grocery:

• 2 Special K Cereal or Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal – BOGO $4.07
• 2 Bulls Eye BBQ Sauce – BOGO $2
• 2 Barilla Pasta – BOGO $1.99 – Use $1/2 coupon from 3/7/10 SmartSource
• 2 Ken’s Dressings (one italian and one of your choice) – BOGO $3.37 – Use $1/2 coupon from 3/7/10 SmartSource
• 2 Lay’s Potato Chips – BOGO $3.99
• 2 Nabisco Graham Crackers – BOGO $3.99
• 2 Ragu Pasta Sauce – BOGO $3.57 – Use $1/2 PRINTABLE coupon (you’ll have to register)

Refrigerated:

• 2 Yoplait Yo-Plus Yogurt – BOGO $2.50 – Use two $1/1 coupons from 2/7/10 SmartSource
• 2 Butterball Turkey Bacon – BOGO $2.79
• 2 Hebrew National Franks – BOGO $4.99 – Use two $.75/1 coupons from 3/7/10 SmartSource
• Dozen Eggs – around $2.49
• Cabot Vermont Cheese Bars 8 oz. (cheddar and mozzarella) – 2/$4 – Use $1/2 PRINTABLE coupon
• Gallon of Publix Milk – $3.19

Frozen:

• 2 Edy’s Frozen Fruit Bars – BOGO $3.99

Produce:

• Red Creamer Potatoes (3 lb. bag) – $1.99
• Cabbage (around 2 lbs.) – $.29 a pound
• 2 Publix Salad Blend – 2/$4
• Bartlett Pears (2 lbs.) – $.99 a pound
• Carrots – $1.49
• Broccoli – $1.99
• Tomatoes (2 – 3) – around $3
• Apple (any variety) – around $1

Meat:

• Mosey’s or Crown Corned Beef (4 lbs.) – $2.99 a pound
• Perdue Fit & Easy Boneless Chicken Breast (6 lbs.) – $2.99 a pound
• Assorted Pork Chops (2 lbs.) – $1.99 a pound

Deli:

• Semolina Bread – $2.39
• Publix Deli Tavern Smoked Chicken Breast (1 lb.) – $5.99 a pound
• 2 Publix Deli Sweet Coleslaw 16 oz. – 2/$3

WHAT TO MAKE

Breakfast:

• Cereal w/ Milk
• Eggs and Bacon
• Yogurt and Fruit

Lunch:

• BLT Sandwiches w/ Chips
• Garden Salad w/ Sliced Chicken
• Corned Beef Sandwiches w/ Coleslaw
• Hot Dogs w/ Chips

Dinner:

• Apple Cheddar Bacon Stuffed Chicken – Sort of a wierd name, but a yummy recipe. Rinse chicken and pat dry. Cut a slit in the side of the chicken breast to make room for stuffing. Place slices of apple and either shreds or slices of cheddar cheese inside. Place in shallow baking dish, then top with cheddar cheese and a slices of bacon. Bake covered at 350 degrees for at least 45 minutes. Uncover and cook 5 minutes until bacon looks crispy and chicken is fully cooked. Serve with steamed broccoli.
• Marinated Chicken w/ Red Potatoes - Marinate chicken in one bottle of Ken’s Italian dressing. Discard marinade and bake, broil or grill chicken, as desired. For potatoes: Rinse and scrub potatoes, then cut into small cubes. Toss with 2 TBS olive oil, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, and 1/2 tsp oregano. Bake in oven (uncovered) at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until potatoes are cooked and lightly browned.
• Corned Beef and Cabbage – I have never made this particular recipe before, but I think I’m going to try it. (It got a lot of good reviews.)
• BBQ Pork Chops w/ Vegetables - Rinse pork chops and pat dry. Place in crock pot and add 1/2 c water and 1/2 BBQ sauce. Cover and cook 6 hours on high or until pork is thoroughly cooked. Served with fresh steamed broccoli or carrots.
• Baked Italian Chicken – Rinse chicken breasts and pat dry. Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce on bottom of shallow baking dish. Place chicken breasts in single layer in dish. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp basil, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper on top of chicken. Pour remaining tomato sauce on top of chicken. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top and cover with foil. Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes, then uncover and bake 10 – 15 minutes more until cheese is lightly browned and bubbly. Serve with a side of pasta, tossed with olive oil, salt, and parsley.
• Macaroni and Cheese - I usually make this recipe without the bread crumbs and parmesan cheese.
• This leaves you one night of leftovers or eating elsewhere with family and friends.

Snacks:

• Graham Crackers
• Edy’s Frozen Fruit Bars
• Potato Chips

Total Spent: $100.71 (before taxes) – If you skip the Edy’s Bars or graham crackers, you’re under $100, but why, oh, why, would you want to do that??

$3.60 per person/per day (based on a family of four)

For more information about the Publix Meal Planner, check out my previous posts:

• How To Use The Publix Meal Planner
• Do I Really Eat What’s On The Publix Meal Planner?

Note: I am not a dietician – consult your doctor to determine what you and your family’s nutritional needs may be.

Use this printable coupon to save $1 off new L’Oreal Go 360 Clean Cleansers.

It never hurts to print these types of coupons out, since it seems almost all skin care products are bound to go on sale at some point. When they do, you’ll be ready with a coupon!

Like bold coffee? And Starbucks? If so, this deal’s for you.

Each week, for the next eight weeks, Starbucks will be brewing one new, bold coffee for customers to try. If you follow for all eight weeks, and collect a sticker for each new bold cup you try, you’ll be able to get a a pound of your favorite coffee for free.

You have until March 14 to stop by your local store and pick up a Customer Coffee Journey Passport.

Note: Coffees cost $1.50 (I just looked on their website.)

With the spring season just around the corner, our family is beginning a yearly ritual that I have grown (no pun intended) to love – gardening!!!!

Gardening can be very rewarding – physically, emotionally and financially. The hard work that’s needed to grow your own food is all worth it when you see the end results. Gardening can also save your family money (and time!) as you are able to just walk outside and pick whatever it is you want to eat.

We began growing vegetables a number of years ago – and did not enjoy any success AT ALL our first season. Seeds were started in little kits, and when they started to sprout, we we danced for joy. After that though, our hopes for an “indoor garden” faded fast. No plant grew more than a few inches high, and no fruit ever developed. Odd…at the time I wondered where we went wrong.

After a conversation with my 90-year-old grandmother, though, I think I found my answer. She grew up on a farm and had her own garden all the years she lived up north. When I told her of my gardening woes, her first question to me was, “Do you have bees?”

Huh? Bees? “No, Grandma, we wanted an indoor garden. We kept everything inside where there are no bees.” Although it’s possible to have an indoor garden, bees help with pollination – which is where she guessed our plants stalled. I realized if the supermarkets ever went away, my grandmother would be fine and we would starve.

The next year – armed with a little more head knowledge – we started our seeds indoors, then moved them outside. We kept it simple and just planted tomatoes – and were rewarded with a great season.

Subsequent years were up and down. One year we had record heat (110 degrees!) for a few weeks and our plants took a hit. Another year we grew lots of sunflowers, ornamental corn and cherry tomatoes – so much we didn’t know what to do with them.

This year, we decided to change a few things:

• We branched out of our comfort zone and picked up seeds and starters for some fruits and vegetables we had never tried before – strawberries, carrots and parsnips to name a few.
• We bought a new gizmo – a Topsy Turvy – (see picture above) and planted our strawberry plants in it. (For strawberries, we bought plants instead of seeds, since the plants looked really healthy and we weren’t sure how seeds would do.) The plants must really love their new home, because not even three days later we started seeing flowers pop up and new “tiny” fruits. We hang it outside during the day, and bring it in at night. We’re hoping “Barry” yields quite a bit of fruit this year, as my daughter has suddenly taken a strong liking to strawberries.
• We started an herb garden. I used fresh oregano the other night in our dinner and wow, was it good.
• We expanded our garden footprint. We need more room this year to grow more fruits and vegetables, so we’ve added two new beds. They’re squared off with landscape timbers; now all we need to do is put down weed blocker and pile on the soil.

Our hope is to grow as much as we can, eat what we harvest, and freeze extra amounts for use during the year. As the season develops, I’ll keep you posted.

Is anyone else planting a garden this year? Any ideas, tips, suggestions or comments are gladly welcome!

Get the latest links to deals, money-saving tips and printable coupons at Once Upon a Coupon on Facebook!

Below are the best deals I found for this week at CVS.

The front cover of the ad shows Zhu Zhu pets on sale. I honestly am not sure if $7.99 is a good price to pay for a Zhu Zhu pet (since we are Zhu Zhu pet deficient in this house) BUT my five-year-old seems to think it’s a good price. She saw me putting the sales together at lunch today and she just couldn’t contain herself she was so excited.

Don’t forget to bring a copy of the PRINTABLE SHOPPING LIST with you when you shop!

Visit Staples starting tomorrow and get some great deals for $1 and $2.

On sale for $1:

• Notebooks – 200 sheets
• 3-hole Punch
• No. 10 Envelopes – 25 pack
• Dry Erase Markers (assorted)
• Dry Erase Board Eraser
• Scotch Magic Tape
• Avery Glue Sticks – 3 pack
• HP Everyday Photo Paper 8 1/2 x 11 – 50 sheets
• HammerMill Copy Paper – 500 sheets

On sale for $2:

• Stickies 1 1/2 x 2 – 12 pack
• Small Binder Clips – 40 count
• BIC Brite Liner Highlighters – 5 pack
• Westcott 7″ Soft Handle Scissors
• Dry Erase Board 8 1/2 x 11
• Envelopes 6 x 9 – 12 pack
• Gel Pens Medium – 12 pack

Here’s a way to outfit a family of four with new Crocs for just over $50 - and pay no shipping fees.

Buy:

• Men’s PrePair Clog (sea blue/silver only) - $19.99 Regularly $39.99 – Save 50%
• Women’s Olivia (red only) - $12.99 Regularly $29.99 – Save 57%
• Disney Mickey Mouse Kid’s Classic - $9.99 Regularly $29.99 – Save 67%
• Disney Girl’s Minnie Mouse Mary Jane – $9.99 Regularly $17.99 – Save 44%

Since you spent at least $49, you’ll qualify for Croc’s free shipping promotion.

Note: There are quite a few other styles of shoes on sale, (for example, Men’s Commuter Crocs are on sale for $9.99). My concern though was making sure to spend at least $49 to qualify for the free shipping promotion.

This post contains answers to a few questions I’m often asked about Once Upon a Coupon.

If you have any others for me, feel free to comment or e-mail me.

How long has Once Upon a Coupon been around?

Since March 2009.

Who made your website?

My husband – he’s a computer programmer.

Who created your logo?

Again, my husband. He’s the artsy fartsy one in our house, if you can’t tell. And thankfully, my daughter inherited that gene from him.

When do you blog?

Generally, at night after my children go to bed.

When I first started Once Upon a Coupon I wrote throughout the day – now that my kids don’t take naps anymore, that has become more difficult. Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that my children are much more well-behaved if I’m mentally “present” with them – i.e. not on the computer or checking e-mail. And, it seems, my house is also more organized and clean, too.

Although I would like to write more, keeping things sane is a priority.

What made you decide to start Once Upon a Coupon?

Once Upon a Coupon became a way for me to share with others what I learned as my family became more financially responsible. My goal was also for Once Upon a Coupon to become a resource for people to learn how to coupon if they had never done it before.

Ok, really what happened to make you decide to start Once Upon a Coupon? This is usually the question asked by people who know me, who won’t accept the puff piece answer I listed above.

In January 2009, the company I was working for went through a corporate downsizing – and I, along with 4,000 other people, found myself unemployed. I had worked there for almost a decade and thought I would retire with them. The Lord had other plans.

While I was home, I became intrigued with the websites my husband was building. I had some extra time on my hands, and I suddenly found myself wanting one as an “outlet” for sharing all the frugal tips I was learning. I figured that even if just one person learned from my mistakes and changed their habits, I would consider the site a success.

Are the “winds of change” you mention on your home page story a reference to the corporate downsizing?

Uh, no. I wish. In the year prior to the corporate layoff, my husband started losing some of his clients due to industry changes. He owns his own business in computer programming and had grown a residual client base in two major fields – real estate and motorcycles. We all know what happened to real estate, but in case you weren’t aware, the motorcycle industry took a big hit, too. (A major distributer went out of business and the allure created from American Chopper started to wane.)

One by one, businesses were closing their doors. We watched the income dwindle to an amount insufficient to make a car payment. (Nevermind, we still had fixed business expenses to pay.) This was when I started couponing – I wanted to make up for lost income. I cut our grocery bills in half and was overjoyed. The more I saved, the more excited I became.

* * * * * * *

I can honestly say I am truly grateful for the lessons that I have learned in the past year. Sometimes whenever things are going well (whether it’s concerning our finances, our health, or our relationships with others) we get comfortable and complacent. We don’t change ourselves for the better because we don’t have to. If anything I have learned that there’s always room for improvement – and improving always seems to lead to a positive change. If you’re looking for ways to save money YOU CAN DO IT. (If I can, you can, too.)

Here’s another free sample for Fido:

Sign up to try Purina’s new Beneful IncrediBites Dog Food.

If you buy it in the store, the servings are individually wrapped – which is a great feature if you’re going on a road trip with your pooch this summer. Hot car + open bag of dog food = not a good combo for smells.

The coconut milks I picked up yesterday were a great deal. But with their expiration date upon me and I had to do something with them. Fast.

After much consideration….

I made frozen desserts!!!

Freezing seemed like the natural choice – and, honestly, the only option. There was no way I could drink one gallon of milk in one day (nor would I want to). And I was not in the mood for baking at 9 pm.

Basically, I grabbed a bunch of items out of my pantry (see below) and set up my blender.

Here are the combinations I ended up making:

Creamy Banana:

• 2 c milk
• 2 bananas
• 2 TBS agave syrup

Chocolate Almond:

• 2 c milk
• 2 heaping TBS of crushed almonds (almonds that I have placed in a baggie and whacked with my meat tenderizer)
• 2 heaping TBS of cocoa powder
• 1 TBS honey
• 1 TBS agave syrup

Sweet and Warm “Vanilla”

• 2 c  milk
• 1 banana
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 TBS agave syrup

Each batch was poured into small, individual serving-size containers. Then, when I get a hankering for something sweet, I have something to enjoy!

Note: If you have never done this before and decide to give it a try, keep in mind a few things:

• The texture is not like ice cream – it’s more crunchy, like ice.
• It’s easier to eat if you take it out of the freezer 15 minutes before you want to enjoy it. Softening it makes it taste better, too (in my opinion).
• You’ll want to freeze it in individual portions since you won’t be able to “scoop” it well.
• The flavor combinations are endless, as long as one element of “sweetness” is present (i.e. fruit, honey, etc.)