How I Save Money in My Everyday Life

I am always about saving little bits of money here and there, you think it won’t add up to much but it actually will. The best part about this is it takes almost no work. The four ways I save money in my every day life is Ebates, Ibotta, Safeway and Walmart App. If your like me and live in a small town where there is no costco you have to save money everywhere you go.

Ebates

This is an App you download that is so easy to use and I have noticed that they give a little more money back than ibotta but this all depends on what stores you are using. You can use this on your phone or computer and gives you a percentage back on shopping online. Click on my link below and you can get $10 right off the bat. After that refer your friends and receive $25 for each friend. How awesome is that!!

https://go.ebat.es/Bbf608xWER

Once you have downloaded the app look for the store you would like to shop at. My go to is always amazon. It will then take you to their site and just shop and check out like normal and then BOOM cash back!!!

Ibotta

Okay now this app you use the exact same way as ebates. The reason I tend to go towards Ibotta more is because you can upload your receipts afterwards from your regular everyday shopping like Safeway, walmart, circle k, walgreens, cvs…… The list goes on and on. Here is my link for this one and you also get $10 is you use my code. I just made you $20 in a couple minutes!!!

https://ibotta.com/r/g2bogg

Or if you download the app use code g2bogg

.

Safeway App

On the Safeway app in the lower left hand corner is the Just 4 U button. This is discounted prices on lots of items as well as free items and they will do occasionally $5-$10 off your purchase. All you do is click the add button and it will load these coupons to your Safeway card and automatically take it off at check out. No more walking around with paper coupons. Also you earn rewards for everything you buy, this is seen under the rewards tab at the bottom.

Click use your reward and this will also be taken off when you swipe your Safeway card at checkout. Saving money doesn’t have to be hard. I sit in my car outside of the store and add my coupons right before I shop.

Walmart App

Last but certainly not least is the walmart app. I have always used the savings catcher in their app but this recently changed so here is how to do it now. Go to the services tab at the bottom:

Click on walmart pay. It will ask you to set up your credit card. Once you have set that up it is just a QR code scanner. All I do when I checkout is pull up the walmart pay type in my pin and put the camera over the QR code. It reads it in about two seconds. Now keep your receipt because right after you have to apply your receipt too get your money back. Then that money goes straight to your walmart pay and will take that money off of your bill the next time you shop. So easy!

Always remember to redeem these receipts on ibotta afterwards to get even more cash back.

So how much money have I made? Well I have only been doing this for about six months but here it is:

Ibotta: $53.13

Ebates: $5.85 (that’s just three purchases)

Walmart: $21.98

Safeway: $187.00

Grand Total: $267.96

Now what could you do with all that money in 6 months? Hope this helps.

Making Fresh Homemade Pasta

My amazing husband got me a pasta roller and cutter for Christmas. I have been asking for this for three years and I was so excited. If any of you have tried homemade pasta compared to the dried pasta there is nothing better. I started off with Fettucini Alfredo. This is my first time making pasta so I think I might change a few things for next time. So if any of you that are pros at Italian food have advice I would love to hear it. This is the recipe that came with my book.

Homemade Pasta

4 large eggs

3 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour

1 tbs water

1 tsp salt

I used my kitchen aid with the hook attachment and mixed all the ingredients together except the water. Then just add the water at the end if it needs to come together more. Then I dumped it all out on my counter and kneaded it for a while. Now wrap it in seran wrap and put in the fridge for a couple hours.

After it comes out of the fridge cut a fourth off, dust with flour and roll out just a little bit with a rolling pin.

Now I have the kitchen aid pasta roller, spaghetti cutter and fettuccine cutter. You can buy these attachments by clicking the link below they are amazing!!

Kitchen Aid Pasta Attachment

So now we start with the pasta roller at 1, run your pasta through a couple times and repeat these steps going all the way up to 5 you can go thinner if you prefer. Now attach your fettuccine or spaghetti cutter. This is the fun part:

I don’t know what it is about this but it is such a stress reliever. So satisfying. Only cook fresh pasta for about 2 minutes.

Alredo

1/2 stick of butter

3 cloves of garlic super finely minced I use the minced garlic in a tube so I have a really smooth Alfredo

1 cup heavy cream

8 ounces Parmesan cheese

1 tsp pepper

Start with heating your butter and garlic so the garlic releases it’s flavor. Then add heavy cream. Stir for about 1 minute and add the Parmesan. This can take up to ten minutes to melt but continue to stir until you have a smooth consistency. That’s it!! Making your own Alfredo doesn’t have to be hard.

Now for spaghetti it’s even more satisfying. Do the same steps just add the spaghetti cutter.

I promise this is worth the money this is the best pasta. A friend of mine told me to add some olive oil next time to add some more flavor. I would love to here your suggestions.

Of course I had to have bruschetta as well since I’m having an italian day!

Happy Cooking!

First Attempt at a Yule Log

How beautiful are yule logs? But who else is SUPER intimidated by making one?? I thought to myself if I can barely keep a round cake together how in the world can I roll a cake up and expect it to stay together? Here is the trick. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Put the ugly side on the inside of the roll and no one will ever know. So I used a box red velvet cake mix because I’m lazy.

Take a cookie sheet pan and spray it with pam, then line it with parchment paper and spray it again. Then poor your cake mix in. I cooked it a little shorter than it called for because it was so thin. Let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan and flip it over. Once it was out I took the parchment off and flipped it again onto seran wrap. You want the pretty side against the seran wrap. Cut off the top of the cake so it is perfectly flat. Now fill with about 1/2 inch thick buttercream icing. I will put the recipe for this at the bottom of this post. It is pretty much the best buttercream ever!! Life changing! Now lift up your seran wrap and start to roll. Pull back the seran wrap slowly as you roll it up. When you are all rolled up wrap it tight in seran wrap so it stays together and leave it for 15-30 minutes. Unwrap and if its not perfect like mine cover it in powdered sugar.

Look how beautiful. Not to toot my own horn but I’m super proud of myself for this. Something I thought I would never be able to do.

Plus if you bring it to a party like I did everyone comments on how great it is.

Best Butter cream

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups butter

1 1/2 cups milk

4 1/2 Tablespoons flour

First heat together the milk and flour to make a gravy like consistency. Do not walk away from the stove stir the whole time until it’s thick. Take this off the heat and let it cool completely. That step is very important because if you don’t you’ll have lumpy butter cream. While that cools mix together the butter and sugar. Then with the mixer on add a little bit of the flour and milk mixture at a time. Mix on medium for 5 minutes. Literally 5 minutes! Set a timer!

This recipe has been in my family forever. For every single birthday in my family we make red velvet with buttercream icing. We look forward to it all year.

Try something new you might be pleasantly surprised with the awesome things your capable of.

If you live in a small town like I do I would recommend getting amazon prime. Not only do you get free shipping but you get access to amazon music, amazon photo, amazon TV and amazon kindle. I mean the options are endless.

Click on this link to get your 30 day trial for just $3

Amazon Prime

If you are a student click this link and you can get 50% off a 6 month subscription to Amazon Prime.

Student Discount For Amazon Prime

How To Throw An Amazing Little Girl Birthday Party

My amazing oldest daughter just turned three. Her birthday is unfortunately on Christmas Eve so we try to really separate it from Christmas to make it special. This is the first year I have had a party with her friends for her, so I knew I had to make it special.

The first thing to do when planning a birthday party is to pick a theme. This is important because then you can pick the invitations, decorations and food based around this. My daughter and I decided on a princess party. This was a girls only party and everyone came dressed up as a princess. For decor I bought this box off of Amazon that had everything I needed in it.

Princess Party In A Box

I also bought these crowns so each girl could decorate her own.

Princess Crown Craft

All the girls absolutely loved making their own and putting their names on it. Click the link above and it comes with 12 crowns with stickers.

As far as the food goes I stayed with the princess theme.

Fruit wands

Use this star cookie cutter to cut the watermelon for the top.

Star cookie cutter

Crown shaped PB and J sandwiches

Using a crown cookie cutter.

Crown Cookie Cutter

The rest was just vegetables and pigs in a blanket.

As far as activities go you only need two or three because by the time you have had lunch/cake and opened presents it has already been an hour or so.

What to do with three year olds:

Have them decorate their own cupcakes. Might as well have them make it their own and then its not your job to make super fancy cupcakes or a cake. I bought these squeeze bottles to put icing in and bought about three different kinds of sprinkles. The squeeze bottles worked great because it kept everything clean and almost every girl could have their own. 3 year olds and sharing does not go together.

Squeeze Bottles

Click the link it comes with a set of 6 for $8. Such a good deal! I would use the for condiments or for decorating cookies at Christmas time.

3. After Lexi opened her gifts I just had the girls play with all of her gifts together. This kept them entertained for another hour. I bought Lexi a dress up box and this was the best gift! She has four different princesses that she can dress up as and it came with jewelry.

Only $29.99

Princess Dress Up Box

So much fun!!

Click on this link to get your 30 day trial for just $3

Amazon Prime

If you are a student click this link and you can get 50% off a 6 month subscription to Amazon Prime.

Student Discount For Amazon Prime

Turkey Burgers and Roasted Asparagus

Turkey burgers always use to scare me for some reason. I always thought why would you eat a turkey burger when you could eat a regular burger. Well for one it is healthier and for two they are so delicious. I went off of a couple different recipes and combined them all to make my own.

Turkey Burger

1 lb Ground Turkey

2 Tbsp sour cream

1/4 cup feta

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp chili powder

Cook them tell both sides get brown in a saute pan. I serve these on hamburger buns with a sour cream sauce and grilled onions.

Sour Cream Sauce

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 tsp paprika

1tsp garlic salt

Sprinkle of chili powder

sprinkle of pepper

Now for asparagus I like it cooked well like when you pick it up from the middle both sides hang down. Sprinkle olive oil and some seasoned salt over your asparagus on a baking sheet. Cook at 375 for 15 minutes or longer if you lime crunchy ends.

On a side note I never thought asparagus pee was a thing but it for sure is. Eat a side of asparagus and your pee will smell for 24 hours afterwards. Why is this? I have no idea. Haha! I think I was in denial before when I didn’t smell it.

The key to good cooking is alot about your pans. You can buy them here I go back and fourth between my saute pan and cast iron skillet

Saute Pan

Cast Iron

Want to lose weight? These are my results from Arbonne 30 days to healthy living!

I stared with Arbonne’s products November 5th to help me lose some of my post pregnancy weight. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I have always said that I have no self control. This was a big test to that and I wanted to see what I could do. Turns out if you can’t show any self control in your life you don’t have enough respect for yourself. If you promise yourself that you can do this you will. Just think of it this way you wouldn’t break a promise to a family member or friend so why would you break a promise to yourself. So I promised myself that I would work as hard as I possibly could to follow this for thirty days.

You have a protein shake for breakfast and lunch and then a healthy dinner. You can not have caffeine, sugar, gluten, dairy, pork, peanuts, vinegar, corn, soy, honey, artificial sweeteners, alcohol or white potatoes. Sounds crazy I know but not to hard because they give you recipes and snack ideas so you don’t have to figure it out. Which was awesome because this brain wasn’t functioning at first without coffee.

I lost 8.4 pounds and 3 inches around my waist.

Even better than this though is how I feel. I am a headache and migraine sufferer plus I have some autoimmune issues. The last two weeks I pretty much had no headaches and I started working out again. I couldn’t work out for the longest time because of my back issues which stem from auto immune problems. It feels so good to get my strength back. You all can do this too and feel great. Just get in contact with my friend Shayla or Sarah and they will hook you up.

Facebook- Health & Wellness with Shayla

Instagram- Shayla Moreno

You Tube- MRSSHAYLA MORENO

Or Sarah

Facebook- Sarah Francis

Life is short spend it feeling good.

To fart or not to fart in front of your husband!

A friend of mine that reads my blog was talking about how funny talking about my farts was so I decided to write about kinda the pros and cons of farting in front of your husbands. If you have farts that smell like flowers please disregard but if your farts smell like rotten eggs listen up!

My husband and I were really nice to each other for probably the first three years of our marriage. We really didn’t fart in front of each other. I probably have the sweetest husband ever because if he had to fart he would go to the bathroom and do it. What a sweetheart right? Then I made the mistake of farting in his car about three years ago and it smelled like death. He is slightly obsessed with all his cars so this was a big offense. Doing this caused a farting door to be opened and now it became like a straight up war!! He now thinks it’s hilarious to fart in front of me but trust me I give it right back.

Now you must understand that it is important to keep a little mystery between you and your husband. Try not to fart in front of him 24/7 so he still thinks your classy. Also poop on the other side of the house so everyone doesn’t have to suffer from the smell. But occasionally when a great opportunity arises let out a good one. Why? Because laughing is good for the soul and it keeps your relationship fun and fresh!!

My little tid bit of the day.

Hahaha!!

1 Week Left of Arbonne 30 Days. Grilled Chicken with Black Bean Mango Salsa

Sorry I have been missing in action lately. Between the holidays and traveling I am exhausted! We had to go to Tucson last week to celebrate the adoption of my niece.

My sister took care of this little girl in the NICU and they asked her if she wanted to be an emergency foster parent for her. My sister has never been a foster parent so this was a new big step for her. She fell in love with her as we all did and started the adoption process. Unfortunately it took up tell she was a year and 3 months to get this finalized. We all went through alot of heartache but now she is finally apart of our family and has the best mom ever.

As you can see I’m just a little bit happy to have my first niece. 😍😀

As for my Arbonne life if you have missed my earlier posts I am doing Arbonne’s 30 days to healthy living. I have lost 7.5 pounds and I have 1 week left. I think most importantly though I feel really good. I suffer from headaches and migraines I pretty much have one or the other every single day. About a week into this I pretty much stopped having them. This is such a big deal for me and I couldn’t be happier.

Losing weight has been so awesome as well. I sure that my momma friends on here can agree with me that having babies changes you. Unfortunately it changed me for the worst. If I’m being totally honest I have some saggy skin and stretch that look like a tiger attacked my stomach. And I know everyone says to embrace it and love it because you got you children from that. I wouldn’t change anything for the world!! I love my girls so much but I don’t have to love what happened I just have to accept it. At least losing has giving me a great confidence back that I haven’t had in a while. This can affect every area of your life and your relationships. Now the big step will be maintaining a relatively healthy lifestyle after this.

Grilled Chicken with Black Bean Mango Salsa

Chicken Marinade

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Sea salt and pepper to taste

3 cloves of garlic (minced)

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp dried oregano

Juice of 1 lime

Black Bean Mango Salsa

1/4 cup chopped red onion

2 Tbsp lime juice

1 Tbsp EVOO

1 Cup Black Beans (rinsed and drained)

1 Ripe mango (peeled add diced)

1/4 Cup minced fresh cilantro

1 Jalapeno (chopped)

I put the chicken in a saute pan because it is way to cold outside for the grill. Place the chicken over brown rice that I cooked with lime juice and cilantro with a little mango salsa on top. This was delicious and super healthy what could be better. I had to add ketchup of course to my daughter but she ate it. Haha

S’mores for Daddy and Lexi to end the night.

Day 3 of Living Healthy- Homemade salsa, hummus and protein balls

Ok guys I took the plunge into eating a whole month without dairy, gluten, corn, soy, sugar, peanuts, oranges, white potatoes, white rice, caffeine and alcohol. You know all the good things in life. 😭 If any of you missed my last post I am doing Arbonne’s 30 days to healthy living. So here is what a normal day looks like for me.

6:30- Detox Tea

7:00- I mix together my digestion plus, 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar and 1/4 of a fizz stick in about 1/2 cup of water. Plug your nose and just take it like a shot

7:15- Protein shake

8:30- Fizz stick

10:00- Snack like veggies and hummus, berries, green apple or brown rice cake

12:30-1ish- Protein shake

2:00- Fizz stick

3:00- Bean chips and salsa, avocado or protein ball

5:30- Brown rice burrito bowl (brown rice, black beans, ground beef or chicken, red onion, roasted red bell pepper, avocado, salsa)

6:00- Dessert (fruit or protein ball)

8:00- Detox Tea

The first few days are hard. You are going to have headaches and be lethargic. The fizz sticks definitely help with your energy level. If I can get a little personal too you will have a ton of gas and it will STINK!!! Seriously like rotten eggs. Stay away from your husband if you still want him to be attracted to you because this is a total turn off haha. Just realize though that all that crap was inside you and your finally getting it out.

I’m not going to lie I have been hungry and sad when people bring delicious food around me. I need to feel better though and I want to lose weight so bad. Just know that you can do anything for 30 days.

For more information on this program you can contact my friend Shayla.

Facebook- Health & Wellness with Shayla

Instagram- Shayla Moreno

You Tube- MRSSHAYLA MORENO

Or Sarah

Facebook- Sarah Francis

Here is some recipes from the week.

Hummus:

– 1 15 ounce can garbanzo beans

– 1/4 cup lemon juice

– 1/4 cup Tahini

– 1 Garlic Clove

– 2 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil

– 1 tsp salt

– 1/2 tsp cumin

– 2-3 Tbsp water

– Paprika sprinkled on top

Put everything in a food processor but the olive oil. Mix up. Then slowly add in the olive oil while it is mixing.

Salsa:

– 1 28 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes

– 1 jalapeno with seeds

– 1/2 white onion

– handful of cilantro

– Juice from one lime

– 1 tsp cumin

– 1 tsp salt

– 1 tsp pepper

Put everything in a food processor and blend to the consistency you want. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

Protein Balls:

– 2 cups oats

– 3/4 cups agave

– 2 scoops vanilla protein powder

– 1 scoop chocolate protein powder

– 1 cup almond butter

A splash almond milk to help them stay together.

Mix it all together in a food processor and make balls. I like to keep mine in the freezer but they are fine in the fridge too.

Staying strong only 27 more days to go.

The Best Zucchini Bread

Extra little recipe for you guys I love zucchini bread and when I get some zucchini from gardens that my friends have I go a little crazy and make a ton. This is the best zucchini bread recipe I have ever had

Zucchini Bread
3 eggs beaten
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 tsp vanilla
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
-Beat eggs tell light and fluffy, add sugar and beat
-Stir in oil, vanilla, zucchini
-Add dry ingredients
-Bake in greased pan at 325 for 50-60 minutes