A new year... a new name

For my blog that is. It has been on my heart for some time now to start a different blog. I felt that this blog wasn't titled properly for the topics that I blogged about. After an unexpected month long blog hiatus, now seemed to be the right time for Shining Light to be born.

The end of 2008 was extremely busy and after a couple days without posting anything new, it was suprisingly easy to slack from blogging and find other things to do to fill my free time. I feel guilty, because I had a good, steady readership and I abandoned you all.

Over the last month, it seemed, I thought of an abundunce of topics to write about, what I wanted to do differently, and how to keep blogging a regular part of my already busy schedule. It seemed everyday I was cooking something that I wanted to share a recipe for or making a handmade gift I wanted to teach others how to do as well, and just didn't get around to sharing it.

I have a new motivation to stay active with the new blog and I hope all of my readers will be accepting of this new creation. This blog will still be available, but will no longer be updated.

Please come join me at my new corner of the web at Shining Light. Please let me know what you think of it, what you would like to see more of, or what you think can be improved.

Amanda

Freebies for today

Here are a few freebies for today:

Good bites Dog Treats – this comes in 3 “flavors”: Oral Care, Hip and Joint, and Multi Vitamin

Free sample of Glad Food Bags

Free Breath – a – licious dog bone here

Free sample of Aveda Shampoo for men

Get a free sample from Huggies

Free sample of Always Infinity

Free Sample of Kotex

Free Sample of Playtex Sport

Free Sample of Stayfree

Free 8 x 10 Picture from Walgreens, use code FREEPIC at checkout, good thru Nov. 8

Petco has Hill’s Science Diet 5lb dog food on sale for $5 to Petco Pals members thru Nov. 9. Combine the sale with this $5 coupon, and get your dog some free food. If you don’t have a dog, consider donating it to a shelter or giving it to a friend or neighbor.

New Pillsbury Coupon

While looking for recipes that work well for giving as jar gifts, I happened to find a new $1 off coupon for Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. Click here to get yours!

HEB Deals 11/5 - 11/11

Please note that my circular is valid for the following stores:
14498 Bellaire Blvd., 3111 Woodbridge and 10251 Kempwood at Gessner

Meal Deal:
Buy 2 Fresh HEB Ground Chuck 16oz., and get Baguette Bread 9 oz., from the bakery, HEB Soft Drink 2 L btl., HEB Pasta Sauce 26 oz., HEB Pasta 16 oz


Combo Locos:
• Buy Nestle Coffee Mate powdered Creamer, get 10.3 -11.3 oz Folgers Coffee free
Use this $1 off coupon for a better deal
• Buy Kraft Velveeta Cheese, get HEB Tortilla Chips free
•Buy Kraft Mayo or Miracle Whip, get Hill Country Fare Foam Plates free
•Buy Nabisco Ritz Crackers for Kraft Salad dressing free
•Buy Planters Mixed Nuts, get Nabisco Wheat Thins free
•Buy Fast Fixin' Chicken or Beef, get Big Red or Diet Big Red free
Use this $1 off coupon (sign up for the Fanatic Club and get 5 $1 off coupons)
•Buy 10lb bag Russett potatoes, get 5lb bag of Carrots free
•Buy HEB or Classic Selections Pie, and get Hill Country Fare Whipped Cream free


•Birds Eye Voilla! is on sale for $1.75
There have been a couple coupons for $1 off floating around in magazines
Even without a coupon, this is the lowest I have ever seen this for!

•Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix - .22¢ ea (Limit 4 w/ additional $10 purchase)

•Hill Country Fare Canned Veggies (14.5 - 15.25oz) .25¢ (Limit 4 w/ additional $10 purchase)


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•You can view the weekly HEB Drugstore Ad here, they have some good generic gifts and stocking stuffers listed, but nothing that screams "best price ever"

•You can view the HEB Values (these are deals that are good for the entire month) here

•There are also 8 interesting recipes in the Thanksgiving Edition of Showtime Guide here

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Let me know what other great deals you found this week!

Kroger Deals 11/5 - 11/11

Instead of posting every sale item this week with coupon match-ups, I am going to do something a little different this time...

First off, I want to let everyone know that my circular is for the Houston / Sugar Land area. My store will triple coupons up to .39¢ and double up to .50¢

*My regular store will only double or triple 1 like coupon per transaction.
Example: Kroger has Suddenly Salad on sale for $1 per box. I have three .50¢ off coupons. The registers will only double the first coupon, the other 2 will be accepted at face value.

While this is still a good deal, this is not the best deal. I usually break up my purchases into 2 seperate transactions. If your stores have not changed the programming of their registers, then you should be able to get even better deals than what I'm going to post.

If you would like to view this week's circular first, go here.

Here's how to get 10 items for $6

Buy 2 boxes of Toaster Strudels $1.50
Print 2 $1 off coupon from here or here

Buy a 3rd box of Toaster Strudels $1.50
Use the .35¢ off coupon from the 9/7 GM insert

Buy 4 pouches of Betty Crocker Cookie Mix $1.50
Use 2 - .75¢ off coupons from coupons.com and 2 - .75¢ from here

Buy Dial Soap $1.00
Use the .30¢ off coupon from 10/5 SS

Buy 1 box Super Pretzel $1.50
Use the .75¢ coupon from the 9/28 RP

Buy 1 box Orville Redenbacher popcorn $1.50
Use the .40¢ off coupon from the 10/12 SS

These 10 items should come out to $6 after the instant $5 off your total and coupons.

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Here is the second scenerio:

Buy 2 boxes of Toaster Strudels $1.50
Print 2 $1 off coupon from here or here

Buy a 3rd box of Toaster Strudels $1.50
Use the .35¢ off coupon from the 9/7 GM insert

Buy 4 boxes of Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate .50¢
Use 2 $1/2 coupons from here

Buy Dial Soap $1.00
Use the .30¢ off coupon from 10/5 SS

Buy 2 Carnation Evaporated Milk .50¢
Use this $1/2 coupon

The grand total for this transaction should be $1.55 for all 10 of the items listed above after the instant $5 off and coupons.

Did you find any amazing deals at Kroger this week? I want to hear about it, leave me a comment below!

Banana Muffins

Here is a good recipe to use up some bananas that are overripe:

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs, beaten

5 average sized bananas mashed

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon (or more to taste)

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ginger

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.

In a seperate bowl mix butter and brown sugar until creamy and there are no lumps. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture; stir by hand until flour is mixed in (do not overstir the batter by using a blender or the texture of the muffins will be lost).

Put the batter into a greased muffin pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool 2-3 minutes before removing from pan, and finish cooling on wire rack.

Optional:

For a crunchy topping, mix 3 tablespoons brown sugar with 1 tablespoon water and spread on tops of muffins about 10 minutes before they are done. You may need to make more topping mix depending on how much you want on top.

This recipe makes aprox. 15 muffins

Movie Night Monday

Today's Redbox code is 67JFP8.

You can only use this code once per credit card, and be sure to return it before 9pm tomorrow to avoid being charged.

Free Pringles!!!!

I won a Kmart / Hulk Contest and I ended up with 15 coupons for FREE cans of Pringles!

The only downside to this is that there is no Kmart within 400 miles of where I live and the coupon says that's where it has to be redeemed :(

So my loss is your gain! I am giving away 5 coupons to 3 readers.

How do you get these you may wonder? Either send me an email at myspotwebmaster@yahoo.com or leave me a comment with your email address in it. The first 3 people to reply will get these coupons, if they agree to send a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope).

These coupons are valid until 4/30/2009 and have a max retail value of $1.19

**UPDATE** This giveaway is now closed

comments have been closed for this giveaway as well, if you have any questions please send me a message at the email address above :)

More Coupons!

Check my coupon sidebar for a $1 off Pepsi One 12 pack

Get $2 off a Bertolli Oven Baked Meal here

$1 off True Lemon, Lime or Orange here

$2 off any Goody Ouchless product $2 and up here

$1 off Pillsbury Grands Biscuits here (these may be free in the near future if combined with a sale)

Orajel Free Product Coupon here (requires you completeing a survey & it looks like they mail it to you)

Coupons!

Kashi has a new $2 off coupon for their new Cereal bars, click here to print (don't forget to try pressing the back button for a second one)

These sure do look yummy! I haven't checked the price on these yet, but my best guess is to try Wal-mart first for these since they usually have the lowest everyday price on Kashi foods.