Five under $5.00: In the Kitchen

I'm spending lots of time in the kitchen lately, so here are some kitchen inspired trinkets for this week. 

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Menu Plan Monday: 9.26.2011

I can't believe this is the last week in September, can you? Time is flying by! It's already time for this week's menu plan. We hardly did any grilling this summer because it was so hot, but now that it's finally nice outside, we're going to fire it up this week. Hope it's a great week for you!

Fruit and Cheese Plate
Parmesan Crusted Chicken
Grilled Steaks and Campfire Potatoes
Sloppy Joes

Have a great week and check out more delicious menu plans right here!

The Drugstore Game: Breakfast of Champions

Here are my drugstore game scores from earlier this week. Sorry the picture is blurry, I was in a hurry! I know I don't do as well as some people who are able to buy 84 items for a dollar, but I really try to only buy things we actually use!

Kellogg's Special K Red Berries Cereal on sale 2/$5
Gain Dish Detergent on sale for .99 each
Used one MQ for $1.00 off 2 cereals, used $.50 MQ off each Gain, and used $1 Register Reward. I also had to get a caramel as a filler item (not in the pic because I ate it!)

Out of pocket: $4.34

Not super cheap, but I eat this and one other cereal, and it's usually $2.99 for one box, so I think I did ok!

Five Under $5.00: Feeling Fall

Here are some things I'm eyeing this week.

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Menu Plan Monday: 9.19.2011

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This week will be a little less busy than the previous weeks, so we'll be mostly eating at home. I'm trying a few new recipes this week that I'm excited about. I'll let you know how they turn out! Here's what we have planned.

Taco Soup
Chicken and Cheese sliders
Herbed Balsamic Chicken with Bleu Cheese
Steaks with Balsamic Mustard Sauce

Have a great week and check out more delicious menu plans right here!

Finance Fridays: Opening a Roth

Well, I did it! I talked about my reasons for opening a Roth IRA in this post. Well, I went ahead and did it, and now I'm wondering what I waited so long for! After researching our different options, we decided to go with USAA, who we have our homeowner's and car insurance with, and we also have a credit card with (that we don't use! I promise!). The fees seemed to be lower than opening with an independent brokerage firm or with T. Rowe Price, who my husband's retirement plan is with, and we also wanted to to try to streamline the number of accounts we have at different places. Plus, we've always been happy with the customer service at USAA. And it was super easy – it took less than 5 minutes online. Now, I'm just tweaking our budget to actually fund it.

Have a great weekend!

Missoni for Target Scores

Instead of Five under $5 today, I'm showing you what I've been saving my Blow Money up for for a couple of months! I was super excited when I heard about the latest designer collaboration with Target, Missoni for Target. They are a legendary Italian brand, and I've always thought their bright patterns and color combinations were beautiful. But obviously, an $800 sweater is not in my price range right now (nor would I ever pay that much even if I had the money!) So when the lookbooks came out a while back, I figured out what I wanted to get my hands on. Little did I know there would be a line outside my store yesterday morning before it opened, and it was a stampede to get in! The debut even brought down the Target website. I'm glad I got there early, and was able to get almost everything I had been hoping for!