Google Calendar on my iPhone for Free

Note: I didn't realize that there was a Back to School Theme for this week's Works For Me Wednesday when I typed up this post. However, back to school typically means more activities to keep track of, so this could still be a good tip for the back to school season.

I have been using Google Calendar for months now. So when I finally got my iPhone I was very excited to see that I can sync the iPhone Calendar with my Google calendar. This way I can update my calendar either from my iPhone or from Google Calendar online. I've also setup my Google Calendar so that my hubby can access it. That allows him to update my calendar and it automatically updates on my iPhone. I love it.

Plus you can setup alerts so that it emails you and/or pops up an alert on your phone. I love the pop up alert. I set it to remind me a few minutes before an event when I think I could easily get busy and forget it. For example, I have setup pop up alerts for 5 minutes before a tv show I want to watch. You can turn the alerts on on off for each event, so don't feel like you're going to constantly have alerts popping up on you.

I also like to use the pop up alert to remind me in the mornings about what we're doing for dinner that night. That way I remember to pull what I need out of the freezer before I head off to work. Before I started doing this I was always forgetting to take dinner out of the freezer. Now I have my reminders. I've gotten to a point that when my husband wants to make sure I remember something he tells me to put it in my iPhone. Yeah, he has no faith in my memory.

The best part is that you can do all this absolutely free. Setting up Google Calendar is free and so is using the sync when you do it the way Google instructs. There are several apps out there that you could pay for that accomplish this, but Google has the instructions right on their website. They walk you step by step through how to sync your Google Calendar and/or Contacts with your iPhone. I have both of mine synced and love it. I highly recommend it. And remember, do it the free way. Don't pay a third party app to do something you can do yourself for free. And this will work on the iPod Touch too.

For more Works for Me Wednesday, head over to We Are THAT Family.

Avoiding Library Fines

This week I was very upset with myself when I saw that I had an overdue library book. The fine is $1.60 which I can certainly afford, but I hate having to pay fines. My library offers online access to your library card so you can easily see what books you have checked out, when they are due and what your fines are. You can also renew your books online. Since our trips to the library don’t have an assigned day my due dates are all over the place and can be hard to keep up with.

My solution to preventing future library fines is to review my card online every Monday. I setup a reminder in Google Calendar which will email me a reminder. Now, every Monday I will go online and see which books are due that week. I will automatically renew all books due in the coming week. This will prevent fines even if I don’t make it to the library. I will also keep a tote bag by the door where I will deposit all library materials that need to be returned. Now I can just grab that bag when I’m heading to the library instead of running all over the house gathering up books.

Since this is only the second time in my life that I’ve had a library fine I can’t be too upset, but I will still do everything I can to keep it from happening again. Especially now that Pumpkin loves the library and we are spending more time there.

To see more Frugal Friday tips, head over to Life As Mom.

Frugal Tip - Online Bill Paying and Statements

I've mentioned before how much I hate filing. So I've started enrolling in online bill paying and statements. I love this method because I don't have papers to file. I save an electronic version of my statement on my computer.

To keep those files organized I have them in folders by year and then the file names are the name of the company and the date of the bill. For example, my AT&T Bill for April would be saved as "ATT Bill 2009 04.pdf". This makes it easy for me to find the bills if I need them. I also save a pdf file of my confirmation of payment using the same file format, example "ATT Rcpt 2009 04.pdf". It's oh so easy and I don't have to file anything.

Another benefit of this method is that you aren't using a stamp to mail your payment. You may think oh, it's just a stamp, but keep in mind that one year of postage as $0.43 a month adds up to $5.16 a year. So this can add up really fast. Plus, if you pay for your checks you're saving money by not using a check.

For those of you that don't like going to each site and setting up your payments, some banks offer free online bill paying where they will mail the check for you. You still save the postage and a check. It's certainly worth checking in to.

Note: I used $0.43 as the postage rate above because that is what the new postage rate will be on Monday, May 11, 2009. So, if you do need stamps I suggest heading out and picking up a pack of Forever stamps before Monday.

Edit: Postage is actually up to $0.44 today (May 11th) I had the wrong rate. Aargh!

For more Frugal Friday tips, head over to Life As Mom.

Yard Sale Tips

What a week. Thanks goodness Friday is finally here. And, since its Friday that means its Frugal Friday and time for a Frugal Tip. Last weekend we had a great time hitting yard sales and we plan to do the same this weekend. So, in honor of the opening of yard sale season around here, I’m going to give some yard sale tips. Remember, while you can get some great deals out there at yard sales, not everything is a deal. Check out the item and make sure it something you will really use before you spend money on it.

• Plan out your route ahead of time. To do this you need to know where the yard sales are that weekend. Look for signs while you’re out driving around, check the local papers, and check online. The Yard Sale Queen has a great list of online yard sale resources to help you find those yard sale.
• Make sure your car is cleaned out. You’re going to need room to haul your new found treasures home. Think of how upset you’ll be when you find a great deal on something you could really use and it won’t fit in your car. If it’s a large item like a piece of furniture, the yard sale host may be willing to help you get it home. It doesn’t hurt to ask, but its best if you have a plan in place already.
• Have small bills and change. Don’t count on the yard sale host having change. Sometimes they don’t plan ahead and have change or maybe the person before you bought something small with a large bill. It’s just much better all around if you have small bills ready.
• Have bags with you. I typically have my collection of reusable shopping bags in the car. This way I don’t have to count on the host having bags. Plus, even if they do, do you want more plastic bags cluttering up your house?
• Use a fanny pack or wallet that will fit in your pocket. It’s much easier to check things out at the yard sale if you’re not dragging a purse along. Stick with the fanny pack or small wallet and your hands are free to hold your purchases and check out the items.
• Have snacks and a drink with you. This will help keep you from spending too much money at a convenience store or fast food joint while you’re out yard sale-ing.
• Encourage kids when you see them participating in a yard sale. Kids are usually so excited when they sell their stuff and make a little money. For me, its worth spending a little bit of money, even if its on something I didn’t necessarily need, just to see the excitement on their faces when they sell something. Little things like that are priceless.
• Don’t be afraid to haggle over the price. They may come down a little bit and they may not. The worst they can say is no. Then you can decide if you really are willing to pay that much for the item or not.

Do you have more yard sale tips you’d like to share? Feel free to leave them in the comments. I’m always looking for more tips and tricks for yard sales.

For more Frugal Friday tips, head over to Life As Mom.

Virtual Great American Bake Sale

Stolen Moments Cooking is hosting a Virtual Great American Bake Sale to benefit Share Our Strength and their work to end childhood hunger. If you would like to submit a recipe, you have until April 5th. The ebook will go on sale April 13th. All proceeds from the sale of the ebook will go to Share Our Strength.

I've submitted a recipe already and I'll admit that I'm looking forward to checking out the ebook to see what other yummy recipes will be in there. For more information, head over to Stolen Moments Cooking.

Sharing Interesting Posts with Google Reader

I use Google Reader to subscribe to the various blogs that I like to read. One features of Google Reader that I love is the share feature. With this feature I can click Share on any post that I want to share with others and it posts them on a web page for me. I have set this page as publicly accessible so anyone can read it here. You can also see my most recently shared items here on my blog. The next to the last item in the right column is entitled Buffie's Links. These links will take you to posts on other blogs that I think my readers might find interesting.

Feel free to leave me a comment of send me an email if you see something there you like or something you would like to see more information on. I'm always open to suggestions and I love feedback.

Do you have a shared page in Google Reader? If so, leave a comment with the link. I'd love to check it out. And if you aren't already using Google Reader I highly recommend it.

Free Ice At Ritas Friday

It's no secret that I LOVE Ritas. In fact, we headed over there last night and I picked up my first ice of the season. Of course I had to share it with Pumpkin since she shares my addiction. Oh well, what can you do.

Every year Ritas has offered a FREE ice on the First Day of Spring. This year that is Friday, March 20. So if you have a Ritas nearby head over and pick up your FREE ice. This is at participating locations and it is the small children's size ice, but hey, it is FREE and we can't complain about that.


And judging by the line at our local Rita's last night, I'm not the only one around here who LOVES Ritas. Umm, Italian Ice! Thankfully there was no line when I arrived. I think a lot of people don't realize that some of the Ritas are open already.

You can see the countdown for free ice here.

Reduce Consumption to Save Money

One very simple way to save money is by reducing the amount of various products that you use. For example, use less shampoo, toothpaste, laundry soap, body wash and so forth. These are all products that people tend to over use. Try using a little less and see if the job still doesn’t get done just as well. By using just the amount of product that you need, you can help your wallet and then environment.

You can also reconsider the disposable products that you use. I’m always amazed at the people that use paper plates regularly even though they have perfectly good real plates in the cabinet. It’s not that hard to wash a plate people. I haven’t bought paper plates in years and I refuse to. Even when we have family over for things like Easter dinner we still use real plates. I have a large collection of them that I have picked up cheap. When they aren’t needed they get stored in the basement in a storage tote. After the family dinner I run them through the dishwasher and pack them away again. We even have a collection of cheap silverware to go with it so we don’t even use plastic silverware. The real stuff is so much better.

There are some people out there who have even replaced their paper tissues with handkerchiefs. While I think this would be a great idea for a regular daily basis, this might be a bit of hassle when you have a cold. So you may still want to keep a box or two of tissues around.

One product that I am currently working on eliminating from our house is paper towels. The way I see it, you spend money on paper towels just to throw them away. So, for the rest of the year I will not buy any more paper towels. By concentrating on reducing our usage I should be able to wean us off of paper towels before then.

Here are some items that you can use instead of paper towels:

• Microfiber Cleaning Cloths - These are great for all around cleaning. They are lint free, non-abrasive, and attract dust. The link takes you to Amazon where you can buy a 36 pack for $16.99. That's only $0.47 a cloth. And the cloths are 12" x 16", a great size for cleaning.


• Dish Towels - I keep one of these hanging on my oven handle. It's very convenient for drying your hands. They're also great for hand drying dishes (obviously). You can pick these up at the dollar store of maybe even find some cute ones on clearance at your favorite store. I just picked up some nice thick ones on clearance at Target for about $1 each.


• Wash Cloths - Great for wiping up small spills or wiping messy kids. I keep a stack of these in a drawer in the kitchen for wiping off my daughter's face and hands after she eats.


• Baby Washcloths - If you've had children you know how these just don't get worn out and you probably got a bunch of them as baby gifts. Once your child is no longer using them for baths, why not move them to the kitchen. Then they will be handy for quick cleanups. And since they're small they won't take up a lot of space.


• Cloth Diapers - Great for general cleaning. They are very soft and typically lint free. Look around and you may be able to find some of these at yard sales.


• Cloth Napkins - A great alternative to paper napkins at the dinner table. I have a collection of these that I never use because they're too pretty. I know, I need to get over it and use them already. But my suggestion is to not buy ones that you will be upset if they get stained. Stick to plain ones and maybe a set of nice ones for when guests come over.


• Old T-Shirts - These are super soft and great as rags to clean up spills and messes. You may already have some of these in your closet. If not, check out yard sales and thrift stores for some cheap t-shirts.

What ways are you reducing your consumption to save money?

To check out more tips like this, head over to Tightwad Tuesday.

The Difference By Jean Chatzky - FREE Download

Now through 11:59 AM EDT March 14, 2009 you can download a free e-copy of The Difference By Jean Chatzky courtesy of Oprah. Note that you do have to be a member of Oprah.com to get the download. Membership is free.


Some of the topics covered in this e-book are:

• Top 5 things you can do to thrive during tough times.
• Myths and facts about the wealthy
• Why money doesn't breed happiness
• Strategies for finding a job
• And more.

Uses For Old Crayons

I'm sure that every family out there with children has old broken and unwanted crayons sitting around their house. While you could just throw away your old unwanted crayons, that just adds more stuff to our landfills. Crayons take a long time to decompose. It is so much greener if you can find another use for those old crayons. To help you out, here are some ideas for inspiration:

Thrifty Fun has a post with all kinds of uses for old crayons. Here are some of the uses listed:

• Make new crayons
• Wax paper shapes
• Crayon painting
• Adding color to candles
• Fire starters
• Decorating Easter Eggs
• Sell them at a yard sale

If you're not feeling crafty or don't have the time for any of the above ideas, you can still recycle your old crayons. You can box up your old broken and unwanted crayons and Crazy Crayon will recycle them. This prevents your old crayons from cluttering up the landfill. Get together with your friends and neighbors and start a collection. You do have to pay postage for this, but it is better then just throwing them away. Save up and send in one large shipment instead of several small ones to save money.

What do you do with your old crayons?

For more Frugal Friday tips, head over to Life As Mom.

JC Penney Rewards & A Discount Code

I have been participating in the JC Penney Rewards Program since November and so far I have earned $30.00 in free savings certificates. I love this program because they are running a promo this year where you earn double points if you make a purchase each month.

Right now you can get an instant $5.00 reward certificate just for signing up for the JC Penney Rewards program. This program is completely free. You will have to register a credit card with the program to earn rewards. This is so that they can track your spending.

To claim your free $5.00 reward, go to jcprewards.com and enter promo code 3006. This offer is valid through March 31, 2009 and is for new members only.

One thing that I love about being on JC Penney's mailing list is that they periodically send you coupons for $10.00 off a purchase of $10.00 or more. I got two of these in February and used them get new pajamas for my daughter for $1.25 each. These were brand new Carter's pajamas. You really can't beat that. I just got one of these coupons today and I can't wait to use it.

For those of you that order at jcp.com you should be able to get the same $10.00 off a $10.00 or more discount by entering code BUDDING when prompted at checkout. This discount is completely separate from the Rewards program, so even if you don't sign up for that, you should still be able to take advantage of this offer.

Works For Me Wednesday - Pump Perks

The Safeway stores in my area offer a Power Pump Rewards program. Basically, you earn a discount on your gas purchases based on the amount of groceries you have purchased from them. And the rewards are stackable so you could possibly get free gas. I personally have not done this, but it is possible. Here are some of the highlights of their program:

• For every $100 you spend on groceries you will earn a $0.10/gallon discount on gas.
• Discounts are stackable so if you've earned 4 discounts that you haven't used yet, you get $0.40/gallon discount on gas.
• Discounts expire quarterly (3/31, 6/30, 9/30, 12/31)
• To redeem your discount, simply swipe your Safeway Club Card at the gas pump. The pump will tell you how much you have in rewards and ask if you want to redeem them.
• You can purchase up to $100 or 35 gallons of gas per transaction.
• Purchases of certain products do not count towards your $100 spending. Those products include prescriptions, milk, stamps, lottery tickets, cigarettes, liquor, gas, money orders, some gift cards, club card savings and Safeway Store Coupons. (See store for complete list of excluded items, I have just listed some of the bigger ones here.)
• Amounts for current rewards available and spending towards your reward are listed at the bottom of your cash register receipt.

Please note that manufacturer coupons do count towards your spending totals. I love this because I try to keep my out of pocket spending to a minimum and this helps me earn rewards much faster.

Normally I don't let my gas tank get below half. I have a 27 gallon tank so you can get sticker shock if you let it get too low. However, when I know that I am going to be redeeming my Power Pump Rewards I'll let my tank go down to a quarter tank so I can get more gas at the discounted price.

You'll also want to pay attention to the reward expiration dates. Try not to wait until the last day to redeem you reward because everyone seems to do this and there are lines at the pumps. I've seen the lines at our local Safeway and there is no discount out there that would get me to wait in those lines. It's much easier to just redeem them a few days earlier and avoid the chaos.

Not all of the area Safeway stores have gas pumps. In fact, I can only think of one around here that does. For earning the rewards though, it doesn't matter which Safeway I shop at. All of my Safeway purchases (expect excluded items) count towards earning my rewards. This is great because it means I can stop at whichever Safeway is on my way.

There are other grocery stores that offer similar programs. One other local store with a pump perks program is Redners. Their program is very similar to Safeway's except that their discounts expire 30 days after you earn them. This is an important distinction.

No matter which pump perk program you participate in, be aware of the rules of the program. It makes life easier for everyone. I'm sure there are other grocery stores out there with similar programs. If your grocery store has gas pumps, you just might want to check and see if they have a similar program. I'm a big fan of taking advantage of any discount programs that fit my life and don't require me to go out of my way. So far this quarter I've only earned one $0.10 discount, but I'm very close to a second one. And considering that I only shop at Safeway when they have sale items I really love, I think that is a good savings.

For more Works For Me Wednesday, head over to We Are THAT Family.

Borrowing and Lending to Save Money

This week over at Tightwad Tuesday they're talking about borrowing to save money. The post talked specifically about borrowing clothes, but asked what you borrow or lend to save money?

I've never really been able to share clothes or shoes with friends. We just never had compatible sizes and/or styles. At this point in my life I'm not so sure about the whole sharing clothes thing. Maybe it's just me. If it works for you though, go for it.

For those of you that have been checking my blog for awhile know that I get a lot of free magazines. When I'm finished with these magazines I prefer to pass them on. This is a much greener option then tossing them or recycling them. Some of the magazines go directly to people who I know like to read them and others go to a magazine swap we have at work.

I love the magazine swap idea because everyone can benefit from it and so can the environment. We just bring in magazines we no longer want and leave them in a designated area (an empty desk). Everyone can browse the magazines at their leisure and take any that they are interested in. Magazines that are no longer making the rounds get recycled. Magazines swaps are a great idea that are easy to implement among your family and friends. You can get the benefit of several subscriptions without spending the money for them.

Another great item to borrow and lend is books. If you are anything like me and tend to buy books instead of borrowing them from the library, then you would do great to swap books with some of your friends with similar reading interests. I also take some books to a local used book store where I trade them in for store credit and get more books. That's sorta like borrowing and lending, right?

And don't forget about tools. This is another item that lends itself to borrowing and lending. Think about it, who can afford to buy every tool you would possibly need? Instead invest in a few and borrow the rest from friends and family if you don't need them regularly. I will say that everyone should have at least the basic tools in their house. You don't want to be running to your neighbors house every time you need a screwdriver.

These are just some of the items you could borrow or lend. The possibilities are endless. Just remember that you should not always be either the borrower or the lender. For it to be fair sometimes you will borrow and sometimes you have to be willing to be the lender.

For more Tightwad Tuesday tips and thoughts on other things you can borrow and lend, head over to Being Frugal.

Swagbucks for Gift Cards

Some time last year I signed up for a Swagbucks account. I used it once or twice and then forgot about it. Well, after reading several posts from other bloggers about all the Amazon gift cards they are getting for using Swagbucks, I decided to go back and try it again.

By using Swagbucks you earn swagbucks for doing seaches through their search engine. The results are based on Google search results, although they don't match Google exactly. You also don't get swagbucks for every search. It appears to be random when you get them and when you don't. Since I'm fairly new to Swagbucks, I'm still learning. One tip I came across that I have been trying is using Swagbucks search to get to internet sites instead of using my bookmarks or typing in the address.

Right now I'm trying to remember to use Swagbucks when I'm online. I figure if I can just earn a few Swagbucks a day I'll have some free Amazon gift cards in no time. I plan to start tracking how much I earn this way in my monthly summaries too. We'll see how it goes. I certainly won't get rich doing this, but the way I go through books and music it's worth getting as much free money as I can towards them. They also offer gift cards to Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, Target and more.

If you're interested, you can sign up for a Swagbucks account here. By signing up through this link I will get credit for referring you which means that I will get swagbucks every time you do. This doesn't cost you anything and doesn't effect your swagbucks earnings in any way. I just think it's only fair to let you know that I do get something for this.

Coupon Organization For Beginners

I have a coupon trainee, or "padawan" as my husband calls her. We have shopped together the last two Thursdays and it has been a blast. One thing I realized though is that she really needs to organize her coupons. From other posts I've seen I get the impression that there are a lot of people out there with this issue so I thought I would give a few tips on how I kept my coupons organized when I first started couponing.

When I first started couponing I didn't need a lot of space for my coupons so I kept them in a small organizer like you see in the picture. Sometimes you can find these in the stores labeled as a voided check file. I like it because it has tabs that you can label with your categories (see the picture at the right). I setup the tabs to correspond to sections in the grocery store (dairy, meat, canned goods, pasta, etc) and also had one category for non-food items. As my collection grew I eventually had two organizers, one for food coupons and one for non-food coupons.

When looking for an organizer I would stick with one that has some sort of closer. The one in the picture has a band that keeps it closed. I also had one with a magnetic closure. The closure is great because it keeps your coupons from spilling out if you drop the organizer.

Once you figure out the categories you want to use for coupons, it is a simple task to sort out your coupons. I always liked to keep the coupons I was most likely to use in the front of the pocket for that category. I also always kept the front pocket open so that I could slip the coupons I was using into it as I went through the grocery store. This kept them all in one place and made it easy for me to pull them out and hand them to the cashier when I checked out.

I try to keep my coupon filing to once a week. This is just much simpler for me. Some people may prefer to file their coupons as they get them. The key here is to figure out what will work for you and stick to it. When you get too far behind on your coupon clipping and filing the task becomes daunting and you don't want to deal with it. Not to mention it's easy to miss savings if you don't have all your coupons with you when you're shopping.

You will also need to keep an eye on the expiration dates. I try to sit down at least once a month and pull all the expired coupons from my organizer. While I'm doing that I will also pull any coupons that are close to expiring that I would like to use. That way, they are easily accessible the next time I'm at the store. If, for some reason, I decide not to use the soon to expire coupons while I'm at the store, I'll leave them with the item. That way someone else may be able to take advantage of them. I consider this good coupon karma. One day someone may leave behind a coupon you can use, so why not "pay it forward"?

However you decide to organize your coupons, remember to keep it as simple as you can. The more complicated the system, the more likely you are to stop using it. And padawan, this organizer is for you, please use it wisely.

For more tips on saving money while grocery shopping, see my previous post on Frugal Friday - Grocery Shopping.

For more Frugal Friday posts, head over to Biblical Womanhood.

Some Great Blogs to Check Out

I love reading other blogs and finding ideas and tips that I can incorporate into my own life. This week I wanted to highlight some of the blogs that I subscribe to. Whenever you come across a blog that you enjoy I definitely recommend subscribing to it. It is so much easier to keep up with a lot of blogs when the updates come to you. I'm currently using Google Reader to manage my blog subscriptions. I love it because I can mark posts that I want to go back to and I can sort my blogs by category. There is so much more that I love about, but that would be the topic for another post. So, without further ado, here are some of the blogs that I'm currently subscribed to:

• Cooking During Stolen Moments - I have found a lot of recipes that I want to try on this blog. One recipe that I got from this blog and we enjoyed was Morning Glory Muffins.
• $5 Dinners - A great source for frugal dinner ideas
• Mommy Making Money - Gina has great weekly posts on the deals at Safeway and Giant along with coupon match ups.
• Simple Mom - There are lots of great tips on here to help simplify your life. It's all about "life hacks for home managers."
• The Freebie Blogger - Wendi has lots and lots of posts on all kinds of freebies.
• Deal Seeking Mom - She's one of Walmart's 11 Moms. Her posts include Walmart deals, Target deals and lots of other money saving tips.
• We Are THAT Family - This is the new home of Works For Me Wednesday, which is a GREAT source for all kinds of tips and tricks.
• Homemaker Barbi - Lots of great tips for homemakers. She's currently running a series of articles on recession proofing your family.
• I'm An Organizing Junkie - Because, well, I have a bit of a thing about being organizer; even if my house is in chaos right now.

Do you have any blogs that you think are well worth subscribing to? If so, please share in the comments. I'm always looking for new blogs to explore.

Recipe Organization

I have been doing well with cleaning out my cookbooks and getting rid of the ones I haven't been using. However, the recipes I find online that I want to try seem to growing in the night. I was bookmarking them in my Google Bookmarks, but that list was getting a bit long and unwieldy. Thankfully tonight I came this post over at Simple Mom. She talks about using del.icio.us to organize your online recipe links. I like what she had to say and it really seems like it's going to work for me. So I went over and created an account at del.icio.us and I am moving my recipe bookmarks over there. Simple Mom has step by step instructions for this so, if you are interested, check out her article. As you know, I'm always looking for ways to keep things organized. Plus this is a great way to share the good recipes you come across.

If you want to check out the recipes I've bookmarked, you can see them here. For now I just plan to bookmark my recipes at del.icio.us. What ideas do you have for organizing your recipes? If you use del.icio.us, what other stuff do you bookmark?

Uses For Spaghetti Sauce

Last night I posted about the great deal that I got on spaghetti sauce this week. Since spaghetti sauce is something that you can pick up cheap or even make yourself on the cheap, I figured that a list of some uses for spaghetti sauce would be helpful. Spaghetti sauce is a pretty versatile product and can be a great addition to the frugal pantry.

Here are some alternative uses for spaghetti sauce:

1. Zesty Chip Dip - Combine equal parts sour cream and pasta sauce in a bowl; stir in grated Parmesan cheese, ground pepper and oregano.
2. Minestrone Soup - Boil 1 jar pasta sauce and 5 cups water. Stir in cooked small pasta, chopped mixed vegetables, canned beans and grated Parmesan cheese; cook until vegetables are tender.
3. Stuffed Mushrooms - Mix breadcrumbs, chopped mushroom stems and grated Parmesan cheese with a bit of pasta sauce; stuff into mushroom caps, drizzle with olive oil and bake at 400 for 30 minutes.
4. Cocktail Sauce - Mix pasta sauce with horseradish and hot sauce to taste; serve with shrimp.
5. Pizza Potato - Make a deep slit in baked potatoes, then stuff with some pasta sauce, chopped pepperoni and shredded mozzarella; bake at 400 until the cheese melts.
6. Buffalo Wings - Lightly coat chicken wings with equal parts pasta sauce and hot sauce; roast at 425 for 40 minutes.
7. Stewed BLT - Cook chopped bacon in a deep skillet; add pasta sauce and escarole and cook until greens are tender.
8. Sweet and Sour Franks - Brings 4 cups thinly sliced onions, 1 cup pasta sauce, 1/2 cup water and 2 tablespoons brown sugar to a boil; cover and simmer 40 minutes. Serve on hot dogs.
9. Taleggio Panini - Spread pasta sauce between 2 slices of crusty bread and top with taleggio cheese; cook in a buttered skillet or panini press.
10. Italian Quesadilla - Spread some pasta sauce on a tortilla; top with grated mozzarella cheese, sliced mushrooms and shredded chicken; fold in half and pan fry until golden.
11. Poached Cod - Simmer pasta sauce in a skillet; add cod fillets, cover and cook until just firm; top with chopped herbs.
12. Eggplant Rolls - Grill or broil thinly sliced eggplant until tender. Spread with pasta sauce and ricotta cheese; roll up and secure with toothpicks.
13. Greek Beans - Simmer pasta sauce with a cinnamon stick, a bay leaf and a splash of red wine vinegar; serve over white kidney beans; top with feta cheese.
14. Polenta Bites - Slice a tube of premade polenta into rounds. Broil until heated through; lightly top with pasta sauce and grated fontina; broil until cheese melts.

These tips all came from a pullout in the February/March issue of Food Network Magazine. The pullout is titled "50 Things to Make With a Jar of Pasta Sauce." There are a lot of good ideas in there, these are just the ones that I would like to try first. This little booklet will be going in my recipes to try folder.

For more Works For Me Wednesday, head over to We Are THAT Family.

More Free Buddies Soap

When you see the Johnson's Buddies coupons out there, use them on the bar soap (pictured). These soaps are typically just under a dollar at Target and Walmart so you can use these coupons to get the soaps FREE. we have used lots of their coupons this way and my daughter is very stocked up on Buddies soap. Hubbie was joking the other day that she has enough Buddies soap to last her until college, but I still "buy" it whenever I find it free.

Even if you don't have kids, you may want to pick this soap up when it's free. Since the soap comes in a little mesh bag they are great for traveling. You can use it as a soap and scrubber all in one and since you got it free you don't have to worry about lugging it home after your trip. You could also get these and include them with gifts for any small children you know. Anyway, here is a link for a $2 on 2 coupon that you can use to get 2 free bars. And don't forget that you can print it twice and get 4 free bars. We love free Buddies soap around here.

And here is a link to a $1 on 1 coupon. And another $1 on 1 coupon. Same deal, you can print it twice if you haven't printed it already. Keep an eye out for these coupons in your paper too as I have gotten some there in the past.

Decluttering Tips

Homemaker Barbi has a great post on Decluttering Your Life for Simple Living. This is the intro post to a new series she is running on Decluttering Your Life. She has tips and checklists for decluttering your life.

Personally, I'm a much happier person when my life is organized and clutter free. Once that clutter starts accumulating I tend to feel overwhelmed and stressed out. If this describes you, head over and check out her article. The tips are great even for someone who is already working on cutting clutter. And, for me at least, cutting clutter is a never ending task. If your turn your back, it all starts accumulating again. The trick is to get it under control and stay on top of it.