A hearty welcome to our friends old and new.  If you are new to the Grocery Shrink from the Letterd Cottage or The Nesting Place, I hope you will stay and visit a little.  You will find lots of money saving ideas, tips, recipes and projects. 

I’m joining the other sponsors at The Nesting Place for a huge holiday give-away.  My give-away is open from November 15th through the 20th at 11:00am.  On the 20th I will  draw 2 names to receive a set of my 3 ebooks and a Mary Kay Peach Smoothie Satin Hands Pampering Set in the mail–a $55 value!  Both winners will get *all of the gifts shown in the photo above.

*I can only ship the Satin Hands inside the United States, but International readers can still enter to win the free ebook set.

Entering to win is easy.  Just leave a comment telling one thing you are thankful for or an unexpected kind gesture you received some time.

If you’d like to enter more than once, you can join the Grocery Shrink on Facebook, Twitter, and sign up for my free newsletter (in the upper right corner).  You’ll get an entry for each one.  Be sure to write in your comment what you’ve done  if you’ve entered more than once.

Plus, I’m having a big sale.

I’ve never done this before and may not do it again. Until November 28th, you can purchase all 3 ebooks for only $12!!!! Regular price on this set is $20 so you can see what a value this is. If you purchase now and win the giveaway, you’ll get a tidy little refund of your full purchase price! Plus you get an extra week of enjoying all the fabulous information and a head start on money saving habits.  Just click the button below to purchase now and the download links will come instantly to your inbox.

3 Ebook Set

$20 $12 

Be sure to visit the nesting place to enter all the other giveaways going on at this time.  There are some fantastic prizes and new friends to meet!

P.S.  If you aren’t familiar with the books shown above for the giveaway: the center book tells the shopping, planning and cooking method I use to feed my family for $50 per person per month.

The book on the left tells how to have a debt free Christmas Celebration and is full of printable planning guides, recipes and craft projects.

The book on the right contains 31 delicious all natural slow cooker recipes for main dishes.

I’ve been painting non-stop for 4 days.  My mother took my children to her house so they could continue in their studies.  Thanks Mom!  I wish I could tell you that I can do it all.  That when I attempt to accomplish something big that I can hold everything else together.  But when I write a book, design a sewing pattern, or do a huge home improvement project, everything else falls apart.  This is what I woke up to this morning:

7 AM

We have no clean clothes and it’s dangerous to try to find the bathroom in the middle of the night.  So I decided that even though the painting isn’t done, it can wait a day while I dig myself out.  Hope to have a better after picture for you tomorrow!  But right now, I’m just feeling overwhelmed.

While I paint, I’ve been dreaming of all the fun we will have Thanksgiving week.  I did a quick search for ideas on my break and found a bunch of fun sites!

Tip Junkie has a ton of fun ideas!  Laurie has searched the web far and wide to bring you the best ideas.  Here’s just a few.

At Second Street has an adorable printable Thanksgiving banner, that is fast and simple to make.  I’m going to put one up as soon as my painting is done!

You’ll also find Tips and Tutorials at:  One Pretty Thing, Room Remix, Craft Gossip, and Fiskars!  Check out Fiskars’ fun Kid’s table below.

One of our local grocery stores sent out an ad yesterday proudly announcing that their heat and serve twice baked potatoes were on sale 5 for $5.  At first glance it sounds like a decent deal.  But then think, it’s just HALF a potato with a little bit of stuff added.  Around here 10 lbs of potatoes goes on sale between $1-$3 for the whole bag frequently.  Twice baked potatoes are fast and easy to make and you can fill your freezer with them for pennies each.  Plus the recipe below uses plain yogurt in the place of sour cream, saving calories and adding nutrition.  No one will be able to tell you switched!

Here’s the recipe from my cookbook:  Slow and Savory Suppers.  You can make these in the slow cooker!  Or bake them traditionally for a faster meal.

•4 large baking potatoes, scrubbed and micro-waved for 10 minutes or until tender

•1 cup plain yogurt

•1 cup shredded colby jack cheese

•½ cup parmesean cheese

•4 slices turkey bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled

•1 teaspoon garlic salt

•1 teaspoon onion powder

•1 teaspoon dried parsley

•¼ teaspoon black pepper

•1 teaspoon dried chives

1.  Cut potatoes in half and scoop out theinsides, leaving the skins intact.

2. Mix potato fluff, and rest of ingredients in an electric mixer with the cookie paddle.

3. Fill the potato skins with the cheese mixture and place right side up in a greased slow cooker.

4. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.

5. For darker color on the tops you can place them under the broiler for a few minutes just before serving.

I felt the baby move for the first time today!  It doesn’t matter that it is my 6th baby.  It’s still amazing and moves me to tears. 

I totally overdid it today and even though I stopped work at 2pm and took frequent breaks for snacks and lots of water, I’m on the miserable side.  Nauseas and achy, it’s a good evening to lay on the couch and get inspiration from watching Design 2 Sell and Sweat Equity reruns on Hulu.com We don’t have a functioning telelvision so the laptop and internet TV is our main source of information.  It sure saves a bundle over paying for cable.

I got the entry, hallway and most of the stairwell painted today.  I love the new color (old was medium blue to a new tan that matches the kitchen).  My plan was to delegate the high parts of the stairs to DH since balancing on scaffolding is a little out of my comfort zone when I’m pregnant (or when I’m not.)  If I feel better tomorrow I will try to tape off the walls and prime the trim.  I’m so excited to have white trim throughout the house!

Hi Friends, It’s a super busy week for me.  I’m going to attempt to paint my entire main floor including walls, trim, ceilings, and stair cases.  I’ve been up since 5 am and I’m sure I’ll need a nap later on.  So my postings this week may be….well if you see one, you can be super shocked and so excited!

Also Thursday there is a Veteran’s Day sale on mulch and I’m hoping to go get a trailer full to enhance the curb appeal of my lovely home.  If all goes well we will be ready to list the house on the market by Thanksgiving.  But it always takes longer than I think it will.

Next week I will try to paint the second floor and basement of our home.  But I don’t want to think about that right now.  :).

I’m excited to list my home while we are in it.  It’ s a first for us.  I’m hoping it will help me get some good housekeeping habits and to train my children too.  Do you have any tips for me?

  •3/4 cups brown sugar

•1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ cup white sugar

•3/4 cup butter, softened

•1/2 cup eggnog

•1 teaspoon vanilla extract

•1 egg

•1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

•3 cups all-purpose flour

•2 teaspoons cream of tartar

•1 teaspoon baking soda

•Additional ¼ cup sugar and ½  teaspoon nutmeg for rolling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter, sugar, eggnog, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and cinnamon. Mix remaining sugar and nutmeg in a small bowl.  Roll rounded balls of dough in the sugar mixture and place on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

We tried the baked pumpkin donut recipe (in regular, not gluten free.)  It was easy, fun and delicious!  My dough seemed dry so I added 2 Tablespoons of milk and it was just right.  We rolled out in a mixture of flour and sugar to keep them tender.  Little fingers kept showing up to snitch a pinch. 

Yummy warm with a mug of milk. 

In case you wondered:  If the recipe makes 24 doughnuts, 1 glazed doughnut is 160 calories.