Cheap Drugs at Walmart

Update on the WalMart story:

Wal-Mart rolls out drug program four months early

Grocery Tip #16: Weighing in on Produce

If you buy prebagged produce, weigh several bags and pick the one that weighs the most. The kids and I did a little experiment at our grocer's. We took several of the "10-pound" bags of potatoes to the scales and weighed them. The actual weight varied as much as one full pound.

I don't know about you, but I find that a significant difference!

Protect Yourself From Phishing Expeditions

In the news:

Phishing Scams on the Rise.

Diaper Deal

A disposable diaper deal at Amazon. Buy $99 worth of Pampers, Luvs or Kandoo products and receive a $30 Amazon gift certificate.

Hat tip: Danielle Bean

This Week's Homeschool Carnival

The 39th Homeschool Carnival is up and running over at The Palmtree Pundit. The theme this week is Autumn.

Free Ivy League Video Courses

In the news:

Yale to post free courses on the web.

Generic Prescription Costs Going Down

In the news: Wal-Mart To Sell Many Generic Prescriptions For $4

Target To Match $4 Generic Drug Test

Starbucks Coffee Going Up In Price

In the news: Now you can save even more money by NOT buying coffee at Starbucks.

And Not buying Starbucks will help break the morning gridlock.

As well as make you a millionaire.

Can you all say Latte Factor.

Free Printable Menu Planning Form

To help you with your Grocery Tip #4, here is a link to a free menu planning form (you'll need Acrobat Reader as it's a pdf file) from Menus 4 Moms.

Bloglines

You can keep track of all your favorite blogs using Bloglines. It's a neat tool that makes your online experience a little simpler and streamlined. You could also use it to track your kids' blogs.

Recipe: French Toast Pudding

When I find that I have a loaf of French bread too stale to serve, I make bread pudding. You can do this with just about any type of bread. If it's fresh then just cut it up and let it sit out a few hours uncovered to get stale.

I never quite make bread pudding the same. It all depends on what leftovers I have on hand. I might throw in sliced banana or chocolate chips.

If you've never made bread pudding, I encourage you to give it a try. Here is a simple, easy recipe for you to start. I serve it with dinner in place of bread, even though it could be served as dessert. If any is leftover, reheat in the microwave for breakfast.

French Toast Pudding
16 oz. loaf of bread, cut into cubes and stale
5 eggs
2 cups milk
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
brown sugar
butter

Preheat oven to 350. Put the cubed bread into a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, milk, sugar, and vanilla. Pour mixture over the bread. Stir very well making sure to coat all the bread cubes. If you have time, let the mixture sit long enough to soak up all the liquid. (You could even mix this up ahead of time and put in the fridge to bake that evening.) Spray a 2-quart casserole dish with Pam. Pour the bread and egg mixture into the dish. Sprinkle brown sugar all over the top. Place thin dabs of butter all over the top of that. Bake for 45 minutes.

Quote of the Day

I don't know who Frank Clark is, but this is a great quote:

Faith on a full stomach may be simply contentment but if you have it when you're hungry, it's genuine.
-- Frank A. Clark

Save Commuting Costs

In the news:

Save Commuting Costs -- Go Car-Free

Limited Time Offer

If you've been wanting to purchase The Catholic Homeschool Companion, now is the time. It's available for 20% off the list price at my website. This offer is good through the end of September.

The website takes Paypal, including credit cards. If you prefer to pay by check or money order, please email me.

All books are autographed. If you'd like a book personalized, just leave a comment when you order.

Paperback Book Swap.

Speaking of The Thinking Mother, she has a great blog post, complete with how-to tips, on a cool paperback book swap.

The 38th Homeschool Carnival

The new homeschooling carnival is up! Go check it out at The Thinking Mother. She's done a great job pulling together posts from all over the blogosphere.

50% Off Readers for Limited Time

50% OFF DIRECT FROM THE PUBLISHER

The American Schoolhouse Reader is a three-volume anthology of reading textbooks used in American schoolhouses from 1890 – 1925 with beautifully colorized illustrations and reformatted text. This quality set includes excerpts from a clever 1913 alphabet book (Book I), short stories from turn-of-the-century first readers (Book II) plus skits and stories about nature and historic figures (Book III).

Children will enjoy stepping back into American history, rediscovering what life was like in turn-of-the-20th-century America. Farm animals, apple carts, steam mills and schooldays are beautifully illustrated in full color, bringing the charm and beauty of the post-Victorian era to life. Timelessly educational, these reproduction hardcover books preserve the wholesome principles and values of yesteryear.

Ages 3 to 9.

50% OFF THE RETAIL PRICE OF $33.95 = $16.95 if you respond by October 31st. PLUS FREE SHIPPING ON ALL ORDERS.

Grocery Tip #15: Homemade vs. Premade

The running theme of the grocery tips has been: preplanning saves money. Just planning a menu each week (tip #4) and making list (tip #3) will provide a huge savings in your overall grocery bill.

Another big saver is to make homemade and stay away from prepackaged, prefab, prepared, premade foods. Anything that has already been cooked or put together for you is going to cost up to double, sometimes more, than the homemade version. And it doesn't really save you that much time.

For example, a four pack of Hunts pudding, already made for you, runs about $1.69. A box of Royal powdered pudding costs $0.69. Add to that 2 cups of milk, about $0.33, and you end up with a savings of $0.67. If it takes just 2 minutes to whisk together the pudding mix and the milk, then you are earning $20 an hour! (And I didn't even figure in the fact that you get more pudding making it yourself!) You can go even one step further and make it completely homemade with cornstarch!

Now, how in the world did I come up with $20 an hour. Well, if you believe that your job as SAHM is to save money, then the money that you save by your time and effort is money earned by you. If you save $0.67 in two minutes, that is $0.335 per minute. There are 60 minutes in an hour, so take 0.335 times 60. The answer is $20.10! Wouldn't you love to tell your husband that you are earning twenty dollars an hour by being a stay-at-home-mom!!!!!

Try this exercise yourself. Next time you are at the grocery store, price those premade mashed potatoes and compare to a bag of raw potatoes, a stick of butter, and a cup of milk. Take the difference, divide in the time that it takes to prepare the meal yourself (cooking time doesn't count as the oven is doing the work!), and see how much money you're earning for your household.

And don't forget eating homemade is much healthier, so you're saving on medical bills too!

Homeschool Review: Free Internet Resources

This is a cool email list to belong to: Homeschool Review.

Reviews of FREE homeschooling resources on the Internet. No chatter, no comments, no arguments. Just brief site reviews and tips!

Time to Take Flight for the Homeschool Carnival

This week's Homeschool Carnival is up and running. Go check it out at Principled Homeschooling. You'll discover lots of neat homeschool blogs and great blog posts. For example, I discovered The Frugal Homeschool Blog and I enjoyed reading about canning at Lazy Homeschool this morning.

Sit back and enjoy, you've got a whole week to get through the links until the next carnival.