To Coupon or Not to Coupon...

Okay, you may be familiar with the Grocery Game already. I was not until our Mops group had a speaker come tell us how amazingly cheap we could buy things by using coupons combined with sales. I was both inspired and skeptical. Since I buy most of our vegetables, dairy, meat and eggs from our local farmers market, I wondered if this thing would work for us. The speaker shared exciting bargains on a lot of items we don't use.

It does irritate me to run out of toilet paper, paper towels and kleenex, so I thought - it's worth a shot. The grocery game gives you a list of all the things you can get free or cheap for a few bucks a month and it's $1 to try. So I bought a paper (for the coupons) the last few weeks and signed up for the trial online. I did really well - saving about $14 at Harris Teeter last week on some staples. We'll see if we can get these type of deals on organic and sugar-free foods. I'll keep you posted. Sidenote: the beef gelatin is on the way (I have a tracking number) so we will soon have a marshmallow report.

Moving toward the Marshmallows

WARNING: Please read this post on the use of agave nectar before pursuing this recipe. I'm planning to attempt honey-sweetened marshmallows in the near future - so in the mean time - try organic cane juice.

Okay, I did participate in Black Friday. What an awesome, hilarious, adventurous day. I was up around 3:30 a.m. and found some excellent sweaters at J.C. Penny shortly after 4:00 a.m. I hit K-mart, Walgreens, Walmart and of course - Denny's for breakfast. I really didn't buy that much and spent very little (compared to previous years). This year I was about 90% done with Christmas shopping before Friday and now I'm around 95%. So what does this have to do with marshmallows? I bought a stand mixer for $15! It was about a $50 to $70 mixer so it is not a "top of the line." But I've never had a stand mixer before and I didn't want to invest an amount close to $200 on a try-it-out kitchen appliance. The instructions for marshmallows call for mixing for 15 minutes straight and that is a long time. I get tired from making whipping cream. That just reminds me - how cool will it be next time my mother-in-law visits and I don't have to stand there and whip the cream. Cool. So I just ordered beef gelatin powder from Lucky Vitamin (good prices). Agave marshmallows here we come. Watch for news!