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I am an animal loving, coupon cutting, deal seeking, clearance shopping, internet surfing mom of 3 teenagers. It seems the older they get, the more they want! If I can grow it or make it instead of buying it then I will. I do whatever I can to save a few bucks! I grew up shopping at garage sales, and playing with farm animals. I am not afraid to get my hands dirty and I still love my garage sales! I just recently started blogging so please bare with me as my blog is a work in progress!
I LOVE…
My kids (Of Course!)
The color blue
Olive Garden
Finding ways to stay looking young
My dog Bailey
Red Lobster
Getting a great buy
Planting flowers
Our hedgehog Sonic
Sweet Tea
Shopping for free items
Making Jewelry
Scrapbooking (Though I’m slacking lately!)
Chinese food
Trying out new products
Our chinchillas Lily & Violet
Okay ALL animals big and small!
I HATE…
Overpriced JUNK
Paying for cleaning supplies
When people steal my coupons out of the paper! Grrr!
Missing a great deal
Paying high $ for gas
 Mystique Unique’s Facebook page is growing so much, I must have another Giveaway. We are at 771 fans and growing. Thank you so much. I love Giving Great Products away. As my page continues to grow, so will the amount of Giveaways. You all are GREAT ! Thank you so much.
Come join me in winning 2 “Hungry Girl” recipe books written by Lisa Lillien.
Welcome to the Great Chili’s Gift Card Giveaway!
In In the Kitchen With KP and Stuck at Home Mom have joined with a great group of bloggers to share this super tasty opportunity just for you!
Is there anyone that wouln’t jump at the chance to go out and enjoy a free meal in this economy? I’m sure you’d be hard pressed to find one.
So to make your day a little brighter, and your wallet a little heavier, Stuck at Home Mom and In the Kitchen With KP sponsored not one, but TWO $25.00 gift cards from Chili’s to giveaway.
That means your chances to win just doubled instantly!
Just fill out the Rafflecopter form below!
This gift card giveaway starts May 12 at 12:01 AM EST and ends May 27 at 11:59 PM EST.
Open to the US only.
Must be at least 18 years old to be eligible.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Much thanks to the following for hosting.
Jenny at Dapperhouse Been There Done That with Kat Ms Angela’s Finds DonnasDealsAndMore Two Girls and Some Coupons SmartySaver annies home All About the Mommies Dr. Pepper Diva Gustosa Giveaways Crazy About Deals Deals, Teens and MMA SaraLee Earegood Love2EncourageYou I Luv 2 Save Mami’s 3 Little Monkeys The Lucky Ladybug The Lucky Ladybug Jennifer’s Deals Literary Winner Faerotic Prose a delicious obsession B^3 Just Married Mom of 3 Beautifully BellaFaith Pittsburgh Frugal Mom Plum Crazy About Coupons J4C Home The Ordinary aunt Health, Beauty, Children and Family Earth’s Delights MyCouportiera Giveaway Gator Coupons are Genius Scattered Musings of A Creative Mind Christys Reviews And More Just Jennifer Talking VickieB’s Ramblings Frugal-Shopping Family Savings Center Figuring Out the Small Stuff KATHY DONAHUE Momma On A Dime How To Survive in College Yummy Boy Mummy The Dollar Monger Super Mommy Of One Nana Roberta Cha Ching Queen Blog Booty Frugal Experiments The Review Wire Couponing With Integrity Scattered Musings of A Creative Mind
No purchase necessary.
You must be 18 or older and a resident of the U.S. to enter. No PO Boxes.
Mandatory Entries must be completed or all optional entries will be rendered invalid.
The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning.
By entering, you are giving StuckatHomeMom.com and InTheKitchenWithKP.com permission to use your email to contact you in regards to prizes.
Your information will be protected and never shared.
Winner will be selected in a random drawing.
Winner will be notified by email, and have 48 hours to respond with shipping information.
If no response after 48 hours, a new winner will be selected.
Giveaway ends 5/27/12 midnight EST
The winner of this contest will be announced within 7 days after the contest end date.
This giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or in associated with Twitter, Facebook or any other entity unless otherwise specified. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.
Please feel free to contact http://stuckathomemom.com/contact-lil-ol-me or Karen@InTheKitchenWithKP.com for further information.
Everyone likes to be liked….and we LIKE you!
To prove it we are going to give away a Kindle Fire to one lucky person…it could be you!
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| Credit given to Amazon for photo |
It only takes one entry to enter to win but completing the extra entries will increase your odds! You literally have hundreds of chances to get your name in the drawing! The winning entry will be confirmed, so please make sure you do the task before hitting enter!
We recently read comments on what the least favorite task to do in order to enter a giveaway was….the number 1 answer was “Liking 50 Facebook pages that I am not interested in for only 25 bonus entries!” You spoke and we listened! So for this giveaway each participating blogger is listed individually. Choose to like the ones that might interest you and submit those entries. Or better yet, like them all, get every possible entry in for the great prize; then if in a weeks time you feel your news feed is too clogged, just adjust the notifications. You can hide the posts from your news feed by clicking on the little gadget (star like button) and then adjust accordingly. It is easy to do and better than un-liking a page. Remember you can fill out as many or as few extra entries as you want on the Rafflecopter form!
This giveaway will run from 12:01 am on May 10th to 11:59 pm (eastern time) on May 24th. You can tweet and share this giveaway daily for extra entries…so come back daily to increase your chances! The winner will be notified by email and will have 24 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn! This giveaway is open to World Wide! Free shipping to the continental US! However, winner will pay shipping if outside cont. US.
Disclaimer: I received no monetary compensation for sharing this giveaway. I just like to share!
If you don’t see the rafflecopter form below please click the “Read more” link
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Grandma Juice and a group of other fine bloggers are hosting a giving away for a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer!! I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t LOVE to win that! It would make a GREAT Mother’s Day gift! I can smell the homemade bread cooking already.  If you would the opportunity to get in on this awesome giveaway then head on over to Grandma Juice and get your entries in by 5/8 when this giveaway ends. Good luck everyone!
Outnumbered 3 to 1 is giving away a Guria Beachwear Swim Suit! The best part is the winner chooses any one they like!! I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t LOVE to win that! So if you would the opportunity to get in on this awesome giveaway then head on over to Outnumbered 3 to 1 and get your entries in by 4/26 when this giveaway ends. After you are done there, be sure to check out her other great giveaways! Good luck everyone!
The United States Of Motherhood is giving away a $50 Visa gift card!! I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t LOVE to spend that! So if you would the opportunity to get in on this awesome giveaway then head on over to The United States Of Motherhood and get your entries in by 4/17 when this giveaway ends. Good luck everyone!
As some of you are aware, the number of people you follow on Twitter is very valuable. Once you follow 2,000 people, you can no longer follow any more until you have enough followers of your own. This is one reason people are so eager to get more followers. Recently I hit a brick wall when I reached my 2,000 limit, so I had to unfollow some users in order to follow more. This can be a time consuming task searching through a long list of 2,000 people! Then you are stuck with the question of who do I unfollow? How do I know if I am following them because I entered one of their giveaways? I surely don’t want to be disqualified from a giveaway if I unfollow the wrong person! So in my search for the answer, I stumbled across UnTweeps. It is a great little tool for unfollowing people that are no longer using their Twitter accounts. It’s pretty safe to say that if they haven’t posted on Twitter in 3 months and they only have 33 other followers, then you can unfollow them. UnTweeps allows you to enter the number of days in the past you want to check. So if you enter 30 days, then anyone who hasn’t updated their Twitter status (tweeted) in the past 30 days will be shown on a list. From there, you can check off the people you want to unfollow from the list. If you are unsure, you can click their name to see how many other followers they have, and sometimes they have their website listed in their profile so you can see if they are a company promoting products or just another blogger. Using UnTweeps I searched people who have not posted on Twitter in the past 90 days, they found 81 people, and I unfollowed 55 people with the click of a button who have not been active since 2011. You can also see who you are blocking, and add people to a “whitelist” if they don’t post very often but you still want to continue following them. That way the next time you run a search to see who hasn’t been posting, they won’t show up on it. When using this service you get 3 free listings a month, but you have to allow them to access your twitter account in order to create your list of stale accounts. Since I do not like to agree to let others post to my Twitter account, once I am finished using UnTweeps I go into my Twitter account and revoke their access to my account so they cannot post on my behalf. You can see who has access to your Twitter account by clicking on your name to go to your profile. From there you click on the picture of the little faceless man right about “Edit My Profile”. Once you click him, a little pop up box appears and you can go to your settings from there. On the left hand side, click “Apps”, and you can see the list of apps that you have authorized access to. You can revoke access to any of them that you do not want posting status updates for you. This is a great way to clean up your Twitter account so you can keep on following people that are actually using Twitter!
Susan’s Disney Family has teamed up with Urbanwalls to offer one lucky winner a $50 gift card!! If you haven’t tried vinyl wall art yet, you are truly missing out. If you would the opportunity to get in on this awesome giveaway then head on over to Susan’s Disney Family and get your entries in by 4/20 when this giveaway ends. A HUGE thank you to Susan’s Disney Family & Urbanwalls for offering this great giveaway! Good luck everyone!
This Mama Loves Her Bargains and several other bloggers are hosting an amazing giveaway for a $500 Old Navy gift card!! I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t LOVE to spend that! So if you would the opportunity to get in on this awesome giveaway then head on over to This Mama Loves Her Bargains and get your entries in by 4/29 when this giveaway ends. Good luck everyone!
Mommy Katie has teamed up with Step 2 to offer one of her readers an All Around Wagon!! I don’t know any kid that wouldn’t love to own that! So if you would the opportunity to get in on this awesome giveaway then head on over to Mommy Katie and get your entries in by 4/16 when this giveaway ends. A HUGE thanks to Mommy Katie & Step 2 for this awesome giveaway! Good luck everyone!
Shopper Strategy and a group of other fabulous sponsors are having a fabulous giveaway for $850 Cash!! $800 for the first place winner and a $50 constellation prize. I know many of you could really use some extra cash right now! So if you would the opportunity to get in on this awesome giveaway then head on over to Shopper Strategy and get your entries in by 4/21 when this giveaway ends. While you are there, be sure to check out the other great giveaways that are going on! A huge thanks Shopper Strategy & all the terrific sponsors that are hosting this event! Good luck everyone!
There are TONS of ways to score free items online. You just have to know where to start looking!
My mom recently introduced me to a website where everything is absolutely FREE! Now who doesn’t love free stuff? The items are donated from people in your community and are free for the hauling. You can find everything from stone for your yard to entertainment centers. I browsed the freebies in my state and was amazed at all the goodies I found that people have donated! If you would like to check it out the site is Freenapkin
Craigslist is another great place to get free stuff. Once you select your state and city, you can find the free items under the “Items for Sale” section. I found everything from baby cribs to hot tubs. You can also create an account and post items that you would like to give away.
Trying to go green? Thousands of items that we throw away each day end up in landfills across the country. That is where FreeCycle comes in. Many people donate their useful castoffs as an attempt to recycle it to a good home. The concept is to keep things out of landfills needlessly. Once you are a member, you can post items you’d like to give away. Nothing is to be sold and everything you find is completely free.
Ebay is a popular auction site but I bet you didn’t realize there are free goodies on there also. All you have to do is click on “Classifieds” and then the “Free” category. You can find kittens, couches, doll beds and much more!
Have something to trade? Head to BarterQuest and post it there. You can state what exactly you are willing to trade for. You can also search for items that are up for trade and make an offer on them. They offer goods, services and even real estate! You can trade for electronics, furniture, or antiques. There is even a section for working vehicles! You can also trade for services. For instance, if you are a graphic designer or massage therapist, you might be able to swap for legal services. Other people arrange to swap houses for a low cost vacation!
Raising children is hard enough these days without lack of support from your school district and law enforcement. As many people are aware, I have numerous problems with my 15 year old son skipping school. He struggles in school and would love nothing more than to drop out all together. So far the only thing that keeps him from dropping out is the law that states you have to be 16 before you can quit school. It use to be 18, but some brilliant law makers decided to change it a few years ago. My son has a bad habit of going to school for a few hours every day and then leaving, so he has accumulated many absences. The school contacts me wanting a reason for his absence when I should be the one questioning them. I put him on the bus and get him off the bus at the end of each school day. The only other option was for me is to go to school and hold his hand all day but because of my neck and back injuries, I am not able to sit in a chair 6 hours a day. My son is has also disabled due to mental health issues, and even though he is almost 16, he has the mentality of a 10 year old. It worried me that he was wandering around town all day without any supervision. This is a child that I have to watch for cars for in parking lots so I feared he was going to get hurt one day. I kept waiting for a truancy officer to come knocking on my door, and welcomed his arrival with open arms. I figured if my son had to go to court and was ordered by the judge to go to school, then he would have no choice. If he skipped school and broke a court order, he would be put in a juvenile detention center. Since I have already tried every other measure to keep him in school, I figured maybe this is what it was going to take. After receiving a notice that he had over 100 absences, I took it upon myself to contact the truancy officer in our school district. I told him my son had over 100 absences and asked him if he was going to do anything about it. He agreed to go to the school and talk to my son and try to put some fear in him. The very next day my son skipped school once again. As he is rapidly approaching 16, I contacted the truancy officer again and demanded that something be done about this. He finally agreed to do something formal about it. He agreed to arrange a meeting with me and my son at the school to discuss his next move and said he would send me a letter with the time and date. When I received the letter, it explained my son had been repeatedly absent, and that he was required by law to meet with us. It also stated that he had to inform the prosecuting attorney who then has the option of filing criminal charges against me and seeking a warrant for my arrest, filing delinquency charges against my son or filing neglect charges against me. SUPER! I am glad I urged them to do their job finally. Even with all those threats, I still pushed for them to take this case to court as quickly as possibly because my son has every intention of dropping out of high school at age 16. A week passed and I had not heard anything so I contacted the truancy officer again to find out the status of this case. I was very disappointed to find that my son will not get to see a judge because of his age. He is too close to being 16 so they will not do anything legal about this. The best part is, the law was passed a few months ago that you now have to be 18 years old before you can drop out of school. Unfortunately, the truancy officer explained that it can take up to two years before the schools actually implement the new law again. It may go back into effect at his school next year so if he does drop out at 16, they can come knocking on my door when he is 17 wanting to know why he is absent. For now, my hands are tied as I sit here and watch my child fall through the cracks of our system once again.
 Well it looks like Red Lobster stopped serving their famous Ultimate Fondue!  Perhaps it wasn’t as famous as I had thought. None the less I loved it and was very distraught when I got the bad news. After trying a few copy cat recipes I found on the internet, I found this little appetizer to be a little on the pricey side. The best recipe I found so far is at food.com, but being the frugal ok cheapskate that I am, I revised it a bit to cut costs and still came out with the same great taste.
What you’ll need:
1 Cup Velveeta Cheese Cubed
1 Cup Swiss Cheese Grated
1 (10 1/2 ounce) Can of Campbell’s Cream of Shrimp Soup
1 Cup Milk
1/2 Teaspoon Paprika
Cooked Shrimp (Mini salad shrimp work best for this recipe, but if you get the large ones, just cut them into small pieces)
1 Diced Red Pepper
Round Loaf of Bread (I used a sour dough)
1/2 Teaspoon Cayenne (optional)
First I dice my red pepper, and saute it in a small pan in a bit of olive oil. Just enough to keep it from sticking to the pan. While that is cooking, I combine the cheeses, milk, cream of shrimp soup, paprika, and cayenne in a small sauce pan and cook it on a very low heat. You’ll want to stir this often to keep the milk from burning, and the cheeses from sticking. Continue to cook until the cheeses are completely melted then add your cooked shrimp. Cook until the shrimp is thoroughly heated. While this cooks, cut the center out of your bread to resemble a bowl. The sauce is going to have to fit in the bread bowl, so look at the sauce to kind of gauge how much you need to cut out of the bread. Next stick your bread bowl on a cookie sheet and cut up the remaining bread into little pieces for dipping. Arrange them on the cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees until the little pieces of bread are a bit crisp. I use a fork and lightly tap them until they reach the desired texture. It usually takes about 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven once the bread is a little crunchy and pour your sauce into the bread bowl to serve.
Since this appetizer can be a bit pricey for an appetizer, I also implemented this same recipe into a meal here served over pasta here, Ultimate Fondue Linguine
 After Red Lobster stopped serving their Ultimate Fondue in that warm crusty bread bowl I loved so much, I decided I had to figure out a way to get my Ultimate Fondue fix! I first tried a few copy cat recipes and while they tasted incredible, it was a bit pricey for just being an appetizer. I decided the only way I could justify buying all the ingredients for this is if I implemented if into a meal instead of just an appetizer. Now I serve the fondue over Linguine Pasta, along with the crusty bread and can get the same great taste.
What you’ll need:
1 Cup Velveeta Cheese Cubed
1 Cup Swiss Cheese Grated
1 (10 1/2 ounce) Can of Campbell’s Cream of Shrimp Soup
1 Cup Milk
1/2 Teaspoon Paprika
1/2 Teaspoon Cayenne
Cooked Shrimp
1 Diced Red Pepper
Crusty Bread (I usually buy a loaf of french bread)
First I dice my red pepper, and saute it in a small pan in a bit of olive oil. Just enough to keep it from sticking to the pan. While that is cooking, I combine the cheeses, milk, cream of shrimp soup, paprika, and cayenne in a small sauce pan and cook it on a very low heat. You’ll want to stir this often to keep the milk from burning, and the cheeses from sticking. Continue to cook until the cheeses are completely melted then add your cooked shrimp. Cook until the shrimp is thoroughly heated. To get the crusty texture of the bread, slice a loaf of french bread and bake it in the oven at 375 degrees until it is no longer soft in the center. It takes about 10 minutes. I just lightly tap the center with a fork until it reaches the desired crispness. There is no need to turn the bread over. Serve the over linguine noodles, and make sure you take extra sauce to dip your bread in. This goes great with a tossed salad on the side!
This is an excellent recipe passed onto me by my sister aka “The Crock Pot Queen”. I am not sure where it originated so please correct me if you have an original source that I can credit for this. Sorry Jenny Craig! This one is NOT for you!
What you’ll need:
2 lbs stew meat (or round steak cut into bite sized pieces)
1 can sliced mushrooms (optional)
1 can golden mushroom soup
1 can french onion soup
1 8 oz block of cream cheese cut into cubes
8 oz of sour cream (half of the 16 oz container)
Egg noodles
First rule of thumb, decide the size of your meal. This recipe feeds about 4 people. Since this never goes to waste around my house, and I love the leftovers, I always double the recipe. First things first, add your meat to your crock pot. Whichever you choose, round steak or stew meat. The meat ends up so tender it will melt in your mouth, but for this example I used round steak.
Next add your french onion soup, golden mushroom soup, and mushrooms (If you like mushrooms)
Stir together until all the meat is coated.
Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Once you are ready to serve add the sour cream and cream cheese and mix well. I usually soften the cream cheese in the microwave to avoid a bunch of clumps in the sauce. Serve over egg noodles.
So I at times I can be a relatively lazy chef. I don’t make things from “scratch” very often because lets face it, it’s time consuming! So when I get sick of making the same old thing all the time, I do occasionally experiment a bit. This is a really simple recipe that turned out amazing, and it all started with a boxed chocolate cake mix!
What you’ll need:
Boxed Chocolate Cake Mix (I used Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge, but any will do!)
3 Large Eggs
1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
Vanilla Flavored Cool Whip
Chocolate Sprinkles
1 Cup of Coffee Syrup
For Coffee Syrup:
1 Cup Boiling Water
4 Tablespoons Instant Coffee (I used Maxwell House, any will work though)
So basically what we are going to do is make the chocolate cake mix according to the instructions on the box BUT instead of adding the water, replace the water with the coffee syrup. Bake according to the directions on the box. Once cooled top with Vanilla Flavored Cool Whip. If you haven’t tried it yet you are missing out! You could use regular cool whip, but I swear once you try the Vanilla, you will never be satisfied with the regular! After you top the cupcakes with cool whip, add the chocolate sprinkles to make it pretty and voila! Easy Chocolate Coffee Cupcakes! I told you they were easy!
As many of you out there, I am addicted to the Iced Cappuccinos at Tim Horton’s, but they are a bit pricey, especially for a tight wad like myself. Besides it isn’t always convenient when you are at home to drop everything and make a special trip to town for one. So I decided to research online how to make a Tim Horton’s Iced Cappuccino, and after MUCH trial and error, this the recipe I have came up with. This is still a work in progress but it’s pretty darn close to Tim Horton’s, and very good. I hope you enjoy!
You will need:
2 Cups Crushed Ice
Blender
2/3 Cup Whole Milk
4 Tsp Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Syrup
3 Tsp Sugar
1-2 Dashes of Allspice
For Coffee Syrup:
1/2 Cup Boiling Water
2 Tablespoons Instant Coffee (I used Maxwell House)
1. Make your syrup first. I usually keep this on hand in my refrigerator so I have it handy when I want to make an iced cappuccino.
2. Add 2 cups of crushed ice to your blender along with 2/3 cup whole milk, 4 teaspoons of the coffee syrup, and 4 teaspoons of Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Syrup. Swish the tablespoon in the blender to make sure you get all the chocolate syrup out of the spoon each time you fill it. Turn the blender on liquify until slushy.
3. Next add 3 teaspoons sugar, and 1 to 2 dashes of Allspice according to your own taste. Blend until all ingredients are mixed well. You can add more sugar and coffee according to your taste also. I like mine a little stronger so I usually add an extra teaspoon of the coffee syrup. Sometimes I add a little extra chocolate syrup if I want more chocolate flavor.
4. Enjoy & please share your thoughts if you make this! I am totally up for any suggestions you might have. The last time I made one of these, I was contemplating using a liquid coffee creamer instead of milk but I have not tried it yet.
I love my tart warmer, but I do not love paying $1 or more for one wax tart for it. So to avoid these costs and to keep from wasting candles that I have in jars, I decided to make my own tarts. I started out with a brand new Yankee candle that accidentally got stored in my hot attic on it’s side. The wax had melted and completely ran to one side then hardened again. First I placed the entire jar in a small pan with about 2 inches of water, and turn the burner on about medium heat. Do not stick the jar directly in boiling water, as a cold jar in hot water could shatter. You must put the jar in the pan with the cold water and let it gradually heat up. The wax inside will slowly start to melt. While you wait for the wax to melt, you can place a piece of wax paper on the counter with several cupcake liners on top of it.
Once the wax in the jar is completely melted, use gloves or hot pads to carefully remove the jar from the pan of water.
Slowly pour the hot, melted wax into the cup cake liners, about the thickness of a regular tart. I make mine about a half inch thick. If you spill a little wax, the wax paper will catch it so it doesn’t make a mess on your counter.
Allow the wax to harden again. It usually only takes an hour or two. Once hardened, remove the cupcake liners and store your tarts in a dry, cool place. Enjoy your new tarts!
Here is a great opportunity to gain some Google + followers and make new friends too! The more the merrier so come on and join in on the fun! All you have to do is head over to The Mommy Times and read her post on how this all works. As always I follow back anyone who takes the time to follow me! Now hop along!
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