Just a Little More Time….
I’ve been a little off the radar here at SuperJenn for the last few months. I suffered at the hands of some wicked virus that ended up destroying my graphics….and on and on…and I lost some steam.
I found a great blog designer in Nicole at The Pixel Boutique and I’ve been patiently awaiting my scheduled work session with her. Well, it has begun!! We are working on the new layout for SuperJenn and I’m so thrilled with what she is working up for me…and I KNOW you will be too!
I’m going back to a three column format…I’ve tried magazine style and it just isn’t for me…I’m a simple girl and a straight feed has always drawn my attention when I’m blog hopping…so I’m headed back to the simple life.
What can you expect from me besides a pretty new face? Well to start with, you can expect LOADS of free stuff!! When I have a launch day set, we will begin a week long giveaway extravaganza! I’ve got gift cards and breast feeding supplies…Weight Watchers goodies, coupon binders, EnviroSax…the list goes on. You will just stay tuned to see.
And after the party has ended? What then? I’ve got deals for you. Lots, and lots of deals. You may have been following my posts at Shop Talk with Jenn and Julie over at the Lawrence Journal World OnLine… that is only a fraction of what I’ve got in store. Even though we are still sweating through our shirts here in Kansas, I can say without a doubt that gift giving season is right around the corner…just a couple of months more. What better way than to shop some stellar deals now…either to stock up on gifts…or to save money to shop later? From groceries to gifts to supplies for your house and clothes for those kids who won’t stop growing…I’ll do my best to find you some great buys.
Contrary to popular belief…I don’t spend ALL of my time shopping and looking for deals. I knit, I bake, I even read. But most of all…I’m a mommy. I like to talk about my kids. A lot. You will find posts that talk about my kids, my mommy musings and I’ll make you look at pictures of my kids and both my culinary and confectionery feats in the kitchen.
Once in a while…and ONLY once in a while…I will do a review. Most often if it is a product that I’m using in my home and I think its very cool. I made a decision a while back not to schlep for free stuff. I’ve got enough “stuff” in my life it’s time to pare down. Rest assured that I will always be honest with what I write here, and if I’m paid to write something you will most assuredly be told.
And finally, you are going to hear about Lawrence. I’ve grown to love this little place I call home over the past 12 years. I’m passionate about the community I’m raising my children in and I want to do my part to help out. My part is, apparently, opening my big mouth and sharing with you what it needs. I have combined my love of the coupon and my need to be philanthropic… and I have raised ungodly amounts of supplies for local charitable organizations. I’m going to pester ask you to do the same. I also hope to be a free space for local non-profs to share their news with the community.
All right here on these little pages. All I need is just a little more time.
Stay tuned and I will keep you updated…and so very soon we will kick off this ride once again.
Lemon Pie
July 14, 2010 by Jenn
Filed under From My Kitchen
Today is going to be the hottest day of the summer this far. YUCK. I’m all for heat, sand and sun… but schlepping around 3 kids in the heat…not so much. Looks like we could all use a cool, tasty treat.
My grandma told me about this quick and easy recipe for lemon pie this past winter and it has turned into one of my FAVORITES. It makes 6 generous servings and each serving is only 2 WW pts. Feel free to indulge!
Lemon Pie:
1 Tub Crystal Light Lemonade Mix
1 Can FF Condensed Milk
1 Tub FF Cool Whip
2Tbsp. Lemon Juice
1 Low Fat Graham Cracker Crust
Mix all of the ingredients together and pour them into the pie crust. Chill and eat! I’ve found that if you keep the evaporated milk in the fridge, your pie will set much more quickly.
Enjoy!
The Things People Say
June 19, 2010 by Jenn
Filed under Blog, Saving Money
If you follow my blog at all, or if you take a little look around you will notice that things are a little bit of a mess. I need one of those giant “Excuse our Mess” signs. I’m having my site redesigned and doing a little organizing to make it a much more fun experience for all of us… as well as taking a little time to balance out my family life and my blogging life. You can still find me blogging deals and bargains on the Lawrence Journal World at Shop Talk with Jenn and Julie.
Which leads me to today’s post. Even though I’ve not been using this as a viable blogging option, I’m happy to have the format in this instance.
I’ve found that the difference between blogging here and blogging in a public forum like the Lawrence Journal World is that here people seem to understand each other. We understand how this works: sharing deals and ideas, writing about the things that are important to us and all with a modicum of respect and understanding of each other’s differences. There, I find that anonymity leads to not only bad manners, but blatantly vile behavior.
Last week was a particularly difficult week at Shop Talk. I was called names, I was told that as a woman, I was making the “real working women” look bad and making their lives harder. I discovered that one of the nasty “anonymous” posters is a friend.
What got under my skin the most was, however, being accused of plagiarism. It was a ludicrous accusation: first I was told that I cut and paste, then I was accused of copying an entire post from Crystal at Money Saving Mom. The post was cited and I was told to “beware” as the poster would continue to call me out on “these behaviors”.
Blogging is a huge universe. It is also a close knit society. Many of the women who blog about coupons and deals I refer to as “friend”. Some of them I’ve had a play date with. Even more than that are the women I’ve met at conferences and shared meals and drinks with. I respect them all. I would never splog from them.
Many blogs are on mailing lists with large companies. We get notifications on coupons and upcoming deals. We are members of affiliate programs that send out emails to notify us of deals. We all get basically the same information. You will notice that the majority of the information you find is not unique to one blog or another. You will find the odd blogger, like Jaycie at Coupon Geek, or Keri Lyn at She Saved, who look high and low for a unique deal. But basically, they are all the same. The difference is that we all write to different audiences. I will try, but I’m not sure there are THAT many unique and creative ways to announce that Body Wash is on sale.
There I’ve said it. I don’t plagiarise. I couldn’t if I tried, my mom’s an English teacher.
And that post of Crystal’s that was cited last week by an “anonymous” poster on Shop Talk? The one I supposedly copied word for word? It wasn’t even for a store that we have in Lawrence.
HyVee’s New Coupon Policy
Today I had to run to HyVee to pick up some stock for the soup I am making for dinner tonight. As we rounded the aisle I noticed a TON of apple Juicy Juice on the end cap… $0.99 on their 3- Day sale (Thurs – Sat). I immediately whipped out my iPhone and checked CouponTom to see if there were some coupons out there I could match with this sale. Lo and behold… 2 different $1/2. That is some FANTASTICALLY CHEAP Juicy Juice my friends.
Like the unprepared individual that I am, I hadn’t yet perused the fliers for the week so I asked the cashier exactly what three days the sale would encompass. She let me in on it and I said “That is so great! There are some great $1 Juicy Juice coupons out there!” in the chatty way that my mom used to converse with clerks, waitresses and the general public that would make me DIE of embarrassment.
She very quickly frowned at me and snapped “We can’t take coupons that are more than the price of the item” I took a step back and said “Oh, you can just take them down can’t you?” She said “Absolutely not!” (In a not nice, what are you up to kind of way). She launched into the fact that it was corporate policy and I could write them if I had a problem with it. I tried to say “Oh. that must be a new policy” but thought better of it.
When I got to the car I looked up the HyVee coupon policy and noticed that it had been changed effective March 30, 2010. In addition to no longer reducing coupons to the actual price of the item, HyVee will no longer be accepting coupons that have “FREE” items in them. This includes B1G1 coupons or “FREE” coupons that manufacturers give out when they sponsor events and conferences.
Another fantastic new policy is that individual store managers can disallow any coupon they want to. Any coupon that comes out that the manager feels is too high dollar, they can decide their store will not be accepting it.
In a economic situation where more and more individuals are using coupons to help stretch the money that their family spends on groceries, why would one of the more expensive grocery chains chose to install a more restrictive coupon policy?
I understand that with increased use of coupons, coupon fraud becomes an issue. I hardly believe that restricting the use of coupons in what appears to me to be an attempt to discourage “couponers” from shopping at their store is the way to go. Why not train staff to take an extra minute to actually read the coupon being used. Why not train the staff on how to reduce coupons? In this couponers humble experience I would bet that the amount of times a manager has to be called over to deal with a coupon that is $0.01 over the amount of the item is “annoying” and easier to deal with by eliminating the situation. Why not train your employees how to handle these situations?
I did very little shopping at HyVee to start with. Their prices are higher, their really good sales are few and far between and often when you get the product on sale it is less than you had hoped for. This new shun of coupon use pretty much seals the deal for me. You can bet I won’t be shopping there anytime soon.
Lucky for me three stores in town price match!
Turns out I was wrong and all of the $1 coupons are for $1/2… which makes them completely usable at HyVee…so all of her snottiness conversation was for nothing. I did learn something, however, and I’m glad I did. I support the stores that support the consumer.
The Juicy Juice I mentioned that is on 3 day sale for $0.99 is actually the 46oz size, not the 64oz size listed in the paper. The coupons for $1/2 can be found HERE and HERE. You will find a number of related coupons at these sites as well for similar Juicy Juice products for $1/1. This makes the juice $0.50/ea which is a great price on Juicy Juice. Completely stockpile – worthy.
You can bet your coupon stash I’ll be price matching mine at Target.
Sunday Coupon Preview: April 18
April 16, 2010 by Jenn
Filed under How To Coupon, Saving Money
Time to check out the coupons for this weekend’s papers! There will be two inserts…Smart Source and Red Plum. There are lots of good coupons including one for Adult Zyrtec … $6 off/1. Why is this so great? Its part of a $10 RR deal at Walgreen’s!
Home Depot Coupons and Freebies
April 15, 2010 by Jenn
Filed under Deals, Saving Money
Home Depot has a newsletter you can sign up for that delivers coupons to your home (yes, you heard me…real and actual coupons in your snail mail!) AND to your inbox. If you haven’t signed up you this would be the time to do it because while they have several types of newsletter you can sign up for, their Garden Club is full of incredible coupons right now! The coupons you see on the left were delivered in today’s inbox and the ones you see below came in the mail…one of them is for FREE Kingsford Lighter Fluid.
So make sure you get yourself SIGNED UP for the Home Depot Garden Club (or any of the other cool newsletters they have) … but do it today!!
Thank YOU Keri-Lyn 
Product Review: New Tide Sport
I will start with my standard disclaimer: I don’t writ a lot of reviews, I have even fewer ( read: none) sponsored posts. I review when it is a product that looks interesting to me; when it is a product I happened upon and thought other folks should know about; or when it is a product, or newer version of a product I already use. In this case, it’s the last one.
At BlogHer’09 we received samples of Tide Stain Release 
I decided during said sale that I would give Tide laundry detergent a try. I’ve always used scent-free detergent and my husband had been on my case to use something that smelled good… Tide smelled good and I was already impressed with the Drop-Ins AND it was on sale so I thought I’d give it a go.
Not to sound like one of those commercials but after I washed the first load of laundry I actually thought it looked BRIGHTER. I showed it to my husband… he shrugged and said “Isn’t that what the commercial says?” Nice.
So when Tide asked me to do a review of their New Tide Sport with Febreeze
The idea behind this new detergent is that it is designed to clean not only your everyday laundry…but that laundry that gets a little more *ahem* smelly than the rest. The laundry that is generated by playing sports, working out…working in the yard…you get the idea.
My husband used to ride mountain and road bikes and is training to go on a biking trip this summer. He also likes to be outside working in the garden, on the house …so you could see where a detergent designed to target sweaty clothes would be useful.
I used New Tide Sport with Febreeze
If you would like to read more about New Tide Sport with Febreeze
Tide offered me some free samples and coupons for a year’s worth of the New Tide Sport with Febreeze for doing this review. Because I absolutely love my readers…I’m going to turn this into a giveaway! Not because I don’t love the stuff…but because I want to share it with you and I have a large stockpile of Tide laundry detergent already! Stay tuned for details and a giveaway date in the near future!
Sunday Coupon Preview: April 11
April 9, 2010 by Jenn
Filed under How To Coupon, Saving Money
This Sunday’s paper will hold two new inserts just chalk full of coupons for you! Check it out now so you can plan how many inserts you’ll need. Me? As a standard rule I get 4 but I may go up to 6 this weekend. High dollar Silk Soy and Almond Milk coupons, BOGO Ziplock, High Dollar Nivea and Listerine coupons all look interesting to me…and so many more! If you shop CVS or Walgreen’s those Nivea and Listerine coupons are good to have around as they are often money makers or FREE items
Weekly Menus: April 11 – 17
April 8, 2010 by Jenn
Filed under From My Kitchen, Saving Money
It has been two weeks since I posted a solid menu. This also means it’s been two weeks since we had a plan to follow at home and two weeks where we overspent our budget, ate unhealthy “filler” meals and ate out waaaay too much. Time to re-evaluate and buckle down. I’ve been spending quite a lot of time going through The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook
Now, I’m planning like crazy this week:
Saturday: Chicken Enchiladas, green salad
*I have a whole chicken in the freezer I’m going to cook in the slow cooker and debone. A full recipe makes a 9 x 13 pan which is too much for my family. I’m going to make 2 batches…one will feed my family and my friend Aprile’s family (CONGRATS, APRILE!!) and the second batch will go into the freezer. While the whole enchilada does freeze nicely…I may just freeze the filling in two batches. The enchilada sauce is make your own…all with ingredients I keep on hand and I purchased some tortillas at Dillon’s last week on sale, with a coupon with the idea that I would be making these soon.
Sunday:
Breakfast: pancakes, Morningstar Farms “Sausage” patties, frozen fruit
*Pancakes are from scratch, I will need to pick up Morningstar Farms patties and I have the frozen fruit mix I bought a month or so ago at Aldi.
Lunch: Egg Salad Sandwiches, carrots and ranch, chips
*I’ll give you one guess where this is coming from! That’s right, we are using up the remainder of the Easter Eggs for salad this weekend. I’m adding Light Mayo to my shopping list…for the first time since this summer I’m running out! I will also need to pick up ranch dressing.
Dinner: Skillet Spaghetti, french bread, green beans
*I’ve got all of the spaghetti necessities and this is a recipe I got from my grandma! I’m going to use the recipe that I got from The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook
Monday: We will be out of town.
Tuesday: We will be back late. I will have sandwich fixin’s on hand so we can eat a quick dinner at home.
*I will need to purchase deli meat and tomatoes. We will use lettuce from Saturday night’s salads.
Wednesday: Salisbury steak, broccoli, homemade clover rolls
*This recipe is new for us. In fact, I’ve never, ever made salisbury steak in my LIFE. My friend Sarah shared this on her MomTV show Wednesday night and I thought it sounded quick and simple so I’d give it a try. Of course, I will use venison burger which we have in the freezer already. I will need to pick up a brown gravy packet (unless I can find a quick and easy recipe for homemade) and some fresh mushrooms to throw in (on sale at Aldi this week!). I have rice on hand to serve this with, but depending on my grocery expenses I may purchase a package of egg noodles. Broccoli is on sale at HyVee $0.99/head so I will pick that up and I will make the clover rolls from the recipe I found in The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook
Thursday: Honey-Mustard Salmon, Asparagus, Brown Rice
*This is straight from The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook
Friday: Italian Chicken Breasts, Rice and Veggie Mix, homemade biscuits
*I’ve got chicken breasts in the freezer stockpile, I will need to pick up Italian dressing. Marinated chicken breasts is one of my favorites…quick and easy and now that its grill season we can do it out there! I’ve got Green Giant Steamers rice and vegetable medley from a recent sale at Dillon’s. I’ve got the basics for the homemade biscuits..and of course honey and jam to top it off!
Saturday:
Breakfast: Quiche in a Bag, Fresh Fruit, Blueberry Muffins
*The quiche is in my freezer…this one has green and red peppers, mushrooms and feta cheese. Strawberries are on sale at Dillon’s and lood GOOD this week we will mix those with $0.39 bananas from Aldi and I will make blueberry muffins with frozen blueberries I got on sale at Target 3 weeks ago.
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Homemade Pizzas
* A favorite of the kids’ I have a great recipe that I use for homemade pizza crust. We load up with veggies ( I will pick up peppers, mushrooms and olives) cheese (I have a TON in the freezer!) and my kids’ favorite…Pepperoni. I have some Hormel Low Fat Pepperoni in the fridge that we will use.
So here is my shopping list:
*Edit: We took a family shopping trip with my husband running the calculator while I sped through the aisles. He was shocked to see the prices on some things! I’ve edited my list by crossing out the things I didn’t get (too expensive…not enough coupons) and adding, in bold, the extras that we picked up along the way.
Italian Dressing
Ranch Dressing
Asparagus
Mushrooms
Black Olives
Gallon Milk
Rice Milk 1/2 Gallon
Light Mayo
Broccoli
Brown Gravy Mix
Egg Noodles
Morningstar Farms Sausage Patties
Deli Meat
Tomatoes
Frozen Salmon
Frozen Tilapia
Bananas
Baby Carrots
Smart Ones
Pampers Pull – Ups
Chicken Breast Tenderloins (2 pkgs)
Spaghetti Sauce
Pizza Sauce
Chopped Green Chilies
Oreos
This week’s Total: $57.00
$7 over budget.
So that’s it…my MUSTS for this week…I will use whatever is left of my $50 budget to find a few items to stock up on for future use!
Because I’m nosey I want you to succeed in taking away a little bit of stress in your life… I want to see what you have on your menus this week! Leave a link to your menu for the week below!
Jamba Juice $1 off Printable Coupon
April 6, 2010 by Jenn
Filed under Deals, Saving Money
There’s a new Jamba Juice Printable Coupon available. This one is for $1 Off any Jamba Juice All Fruit Smoothie Printable Coupon. I know there isn’t a Jamba Juice in Lawrence…but fortunately for me…I have readers all over the place! Most importantly, there IS a Jamba Juice in Provo, UT…where my beautiful sister and my new beautiful niece live!
Thanks, Coupon Geek!
