Another big coupon class coming up!

For those of you that couldn't attend the last class at Weber State's West Center, I'm doing another one! I will teach you how to save between 40% and 60% on every grocery trip.

Join me on 8/4/09 at 7:00 pm.
It's located at: 5627 S 3500, Roy, UT 84067 (next to the Chevron and across from Artic Circle and Kent's Market).

Remember this class is FREE and open to the public. Click on this link to sign up. The class is called "Feeding Your Family on a Shoestring Budget."

Robyn, attended my last class in June and is already saving more than 50% on her grocery trips.

I hope to see you there!

Arby's Wednesday Freebies!!

Now that there is an Arby's almost in my backyard, I've really enjoyed heading over every (or almost every) Wednesday for a tasty FREE treat. Here's what's coming up for July! Hope you enjoy.

Happy 7-Eleven Day!!!!

Stop by any particpating 7-Eleven store for a free 7.11 oz SLURPEE.

While supplies last - limit one per customer. Nobody likes a free-Slurpee hog. 7 am to 11 pm.

Lagoon - Wild About Monkeys show (discount)

(This was an email I got from Lagoon this morning - just passing on the details)

Is your family ready for thrill rides, splashing in Lagoon a Beach, visiting historic Pioneer Village, and seeing the "Wild About Monkeys" show?
Lagoon has teamed up with FOX 13to help Utah Food Bank Services and give you a great deal on summer fun.

Simply bring a non-perishable food donation to Lagoon July 9 through July 18, and receive $7 off a Regular Ride Passport(Regular Ride Passport $41.95 + Tax).
Plus, July 9 through July 18 you can enjoy the
"Wild About Monkeys" Show.


"Wild About Monkeys" is a captivating, live animal encounter. This show is entertaining and educational and features a variety of animals. You’ll be astounded and fall in love with these special animals.
Join us at Lagoon and help the Utah Food Bank.

How does my garden grow?

It's summer and blogging sometimes seems like the last thing I get around to doing. My kids are busier than ever and time seems to escape me. I wanted to blog about this a while ago and you know how it goes....it just didn't happen.

I guess I'm trying out the new "craze" in gardening this year - Square Foot Gardening. I asked my husband for these for Mother's Day and am very happy with the very managable gardens.

You have to know that my husband is a perfectionist when it comes to design (he's a graphic designer). I very much appreciate his time and careful planning as he laid this out. Because our yard is slightly sloped in this area, he wanted to remove the grass and build up the area in which the garden boxes sat so it would be level.

He placed the bricks just slighly larger than the boxes so that when he did edged it wouldn't ding up the wood around the boxes too much.

So not only did he lay the bricks he also got a piece of ply-wood to lay out over the bricks for support.
This had to be the most expensive part of the garden. The "dirt" is really 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 compost and 1/3 vermiculite (which can be a little expensive).

In total, I have 5 boxes. 3 of them are 4x4 and 6" tall and the other 2 are 2x4 and 12" tall.

I decided to do a mixture of flowers and produce. The deeper boxes are for my carrots and potatoes. I did some starts earlier in the season and some survived and some didn't (it's definatley trial and error this first go around).

I was pretty disappointed when we had nearly 3-4 weeks of non-stop rain in June. My plants did not die, but they weren't doing a lot of growing either.

This is my garden today.

Yes, I still have a few open holes that I need to fill. Some squares did not get planted and some were plants that did not survive. I also like the idea that you can plant every couple of weeks - notice my carrots. Half the box is growing and several weeks ago I planted 2 more squares and the little tops are just poking through (this way, I don't have a million carrots all at once - each square has 16 carrot plants). I was quite surprised at how well my potatoes have done. I think they are on steroids (they are the plants that have nearly overgrown the box).

Potatoes on steroids - BTW - does anyone know when you pick potatoes? My gardens were planted on Memorial day (end of May and these are Lasoda Red potatoes).

This is the trellis that my husband added for me. The trellis needs to be placed on the north side of the box with the climbing plants in those squares (north side because it won't shadow the other plants). I've already started weaving my tomato plant through the squares. I found some great trellis netting with 7" squares that will easily allow me to stick my hand through and pick any produce that may be growing. It is also very strong and will hold up through the Utah winters and summers.

I will continue to take pictures of my garden and post how my garden has grown. I'm no expert gardener by any means, this is certainly trial and error for me. I figure that I will learn a few things along the way and will be better at this next year.

A special thanks goes to my husband who worked hard to make my gardens sturdy, level and beautiful! So far, besides the flowers I've planted broccoli, tomatoes (1 cherry and some big ones - can't remember the names), 1 Jalapeno pepper, 2 green peppers, 2 celery, 1 mint plant, 1 cilantro, 1 lettuce, 3 cucumbers, 1 eggplant, 1 yellow squash, a bunch of carrots and potatoes.

Anyone interested in Square Foot Gardening - can check out the book I posted in the beginning or check out Mel Bartholomew's site.

The sweetest treat

Okay - who doesn't love to win something, sometime? I was the lucky winner of this cutest cupcake bouquet from Sugar Mama's Cakery.

There were 6 cupcakes (I say 6 because 3 of them got eaten before I could quickly snap a picture). They are almost too pretty to eat, although my kids did inhale them. They even had a special jello filling to make it taste that much better! They were delicious and they even came in the cute green pot. I feel bad that I didn't get a picture when they were in the pot - they were so pretty.

Can you imagine how cute something like this would be at a baby/bridal shower or to get a bouquet for a birthday or just because.....? I would be thrilled.

I check in with Sugar Mama's Cakery frequently to see all the fun things they've done. You should definatley check them out - especially if you have a special occassion coming up where a sweet treat would come in handy.

Even better.....this is the giveway they are doing for the month of June. Make sure to visit their site and leave a comment - who knows, you could be the lucky winner of this cute purse cake. How fun for a birthday, GNO, bunko party, even a little girl's party.

I want to send a huge thanks to Jody, her mom and sister for picking me as May's lucky winner!

Another quick reminder - free coupon class on 6/24

I just wanted to remind you that I'm doing a free coupon class on 6/24/09 at the WSU West Center (5627 S 3500, Roy, UT) at 2:30 pm.

WSU has asked that you register through this site (Feed your family on a shoe string budget 6/24). Walk in's are also welcome.

I hope to see you there!