Yes, I coupon!

I never used to coupon.  I can't be hassled driving to five different stores.  I have no interest in buying random things I'll never use to earn Extra Care Bucks at CVS.  Lots of people do well with this, but it's just not for me.  I don't want to get a newspaper subscription for a sheet or two of coupons I may or may not even end up using.  I explained this to my friend, Katie, aka The Coupon Queen.  I just wanted to print out some coupons of things we actually use and go to one store!  Katie says, "You can do that at Kroger."  Did you know that?  She explained it all to me...

Kroger doubles all paper coupons that are .50 and below.  They also have one of those swipey cards you put on your keychain.  You can go to the Kroger website and it will direct you to 3 sources to where you can load up Ecoupons to that swipey card.  You can combine a paper coupon with an Ecoupon.  That's how you really save!  I usually get my instant potatoes, frozen vegetables, and tuna for free.  I get my brand name diapers and wipes at the price of store brand ones.

Another bonus to the Kroger swipey card is that you can earn college money by loading Ecoupons from UPromise.com.  You can't actually reduce the price of your shopping trip with these Ecoupons though.  When you buy a specified item, that company will give you the amount to add to a college fund.  It's normal everyday stuff like toilet paper and shaving razors.



Here's an example of how I got men's deodorant free last week:
Right Guard Men's Deodorant was on sale for $1 at regular store price.
Coupons.com had a printable coupon - Save $2 on any 2 Right Guard products






I don't spend hours comparing prices to the ads to what coupons I need to print off etc. by using Southern Savers blog.  Jenny at Southern Savers does it all for you and has it all up and organized for you the day the new sales go in to effect.  She will also give you links to have coupon booklets and free samples mailed directly to you.

Meemaw's Special Cookies

Cliff's Meemaw was known for her chocolate-peanut butter-oatmeal- no bake cookies. Many have tried, but even when she was alive, no one was able to make them like her. Found in her purse when she died was the recipe written out on little slips of paper to hand out to people, because she was asked about the recipe so much.

Cliff's family is trying to find the person who can make them as good as Meemaw, or at least as close as possible. It's a way to remember her in a happy way and continue on the recipe's tradition. So far, Cliff is the one who has made the cookies the best. :)

So as Meemaw would, I'm sharing the recipe with yall. :)

Digi kit by Sir Scraps A Lot--Dunk, Curled Edges-- Jess Gordon, Font--KevinandAmanda.com

Now here are some important parts to the ingredients. You MUST use real butter. You MUST use Hershey's Cocoa. She only used Watkins brand Vanilla. And we didn't, but I can almost guarantee Meemaw would've used whole milk. Cliff is saying that Peter Pan brand Peanut Butter is a huge MUST, but I'm betting any non-store brand peanut butter would be fine.

Boiling to 2 minutes is a big deal as well. Otherwise, they will never harden and just be mush.

They should NOT be glossy. They should be a dull brown color, so this photo probably isn't the best to show you, as the color is completely off in this one. Do NOT try to quicken up the hardening time by putting these in the freezer or the fridge. It won't work.

The cookies should take about 1-2 hours to harden up and dry. Apparently, after talking to a lot of people, everyone prefers eating them at a different consistency in the drying process. Cindy (Cliff's Mom) likes them immediately off the wax paper when they have got to a pick-up-able stage. Cliff likes his best after being in an air-tight type container for 2 or 3 days. I like them cold after being in the fridge overnight--past the wax paper drying stage of course.

Oh, See this picture above? This is one of the happiest grandsons in the world. Cliff was jumping
around every few minutes telling me how they look right and smell right, just like Meemaw's. He was positively beaming.