Recipe Using Sale Items

This week I picked up some Tilapia at Smiths. My husband is not a huge fan of fish, but I am, so every once in a while I pick some up when I see it on Sale (and he deals with it- hahaha) . Here is the recipe I am going to try this week using the fish. I am really trying to improve on my cooking skills, and have come a long way in the time I have been married. I do however still enjoy when the directions for prep are as simple as this recipes! This will make a busy week night dinner easy! 

Lemon Garlic Tilapia

Ingredients

• 4 tilapia fillets
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
• pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray a baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Rinse tilapia fillets under cool water, and pat dry with paper towels.
3. Place fillets in baking dish. Pour lemon juice over fillets, then drizzle butter on top. Sprinkle with garlic, parsley, and pepper.
4. Bake in preheated oven until the fish is white and flakes when pulled apart with a fork, about 30 minutes.

Meal Planning

The same great sale that was at Smith's last week is going on again! If you haven't been yet it really is a great week to stock up on some staples. Here is a great meal plan that goes along with the sale at Smith's this week. I went last week, so I am going to take this week off! I am going to run in and grab just some produce and milk and use the items I already have at home! This is something I love about having a full pantry is that not every week has to have a meal plan based on sale items. I can base my meals on what I already have in my pantry!

All Things in Perspective

Yesterday I was so excited to get up and grab a few random coupon deals around town. My list consisted of buying:

• Toy Story DVD's for $13.98
• Monopoly the game is on sale for $7 at Target and Walmart and on Sunday we had the Playsaver insert that had a coupon for $5 off making the total cost for the game $2
• Powerade at Smith's for .25

I made my way to my local Target and ran into a She Shops Smart reader that told me to not even bother going in because they were out of Toy Story and Monopoly.

My next thought was of course taking my ad and price matching at Walmart. Walmart quickly denied my request and told me they wouldn't price match the deal to get $10 off when you buy both Toy Story 1 and 2 because it was a gimmick. Monopoly was also gone =(

Leaving some what disappointed and frustrated I decided to take my ad to Best Buy to see if they would price match. I was thrilled when they did. They were so awesome about it and were happy to have my business.

I decided to try one last shot at getting the Monopoly game and ran into one more Walmart. Luckily, I asked the toy department manager and he had 50 of them in the back. He let me buy 3 of them (these will make great gifts).

I finished off the day with a trip to Smith's where my bill started off at $298 and ended up at $80!!!

( I'll do a A Lot for Less post after this)

I was excited to come home and see my loot, but was also frustrated with how difficult it was to find these hot bargains.

I called Emily to gripe and she just reminded me that DVD's and toys are just cool , but the main purpose of using coupons is to save money on groceries-which I absolutely do.

How many of you have been frustrated about not being able to find some of these cool deals? How many of you are frustrated that the stores are getting fed up with coupon abuse and cracking down on those of us who continue to use coupons the right way?

I actually am wondering if only the Walmarts in my area wouldn't price match, because my sister in law about 40 miles away from me had no problems getting the $10 off deal at her Walmart?

What have your experiences been with trying to find Toy Story and Monopoly?