Halloween on the Cheap

Halloween, yet another holiday you have to shell the cash out for. Growing up I always had a homemade costume that was part of the fun of Halloween. One year I was a raisin; it involved a black trash bag with newspaper shoved inside. Another year my friend and I were Siamese twins joined at the hip. We went to Goodwill and found the largest sweatpants we could find. She had one leg and I had the other. Not so fun hopping from one house to the other. We worked very hard for our trick-or-treating candy that year.

Some years the costume was better than others but regardless it was never store bought it was just designed from stuff we found around the house or at a discount store. When did Halloween become so commercialized, there isn’t an old sheet or garbage bag in sight?

This year I designed my children’s costumes. For handmade Halloween costume ideas visit my other blog Sewing and Crafting with Sarah.

Last year I found my children’s costumes on Ebay. Now is the perfect time to bid on Halloween costumes. Don’t wait too long though because the closer you get to Halloween the more expensive they get.

Search end of the summer yard sales for costumes. One year I found three Power Ranger costumes and a Buzz Lightyear costume on the cheap at a yard sale. We got two years out of those costumes!

Get together with some friends and have a Halloween costume swapping party. I went to a swapping party one year and it was perfect. I swapped out the old costumes for a new-to-us costumes.

However, if your child has a specific costume that you are going to have to buy, 4FunParties is a great inexpensive place to shop for costumes. They even gave me a link to pass a discount along to my readers. It is worth checking out.
5% off at 4FunParties.com. Use coupon code HALLOW4FUN during checkout.

Disclosure

Two FREE Kindle books for tween girls!

I love my Kindle reader for many reasons, but my most favorite reason for having the Amazon Kindle is that they always have tons of free books available for download!  And the selection is always changing, so I'm always finding new books.

Anyway, while browsing around this morning on Amazon, I got lucky and found a few new freebie Kindle books.  I found a few mystery/thrillers for me and then happened to find a few freebies for the tween girls out there.  They are:

Sophie's World by Nancy Rue

Sophie's Secret by Nancy Rue

Both of these books are part of Faithgirlz: The Sophie Series.  They are appropriate books for girls 8-12 years old.

Amazon offers this download for Kindle readers but if you don't have a Kindle, don't worry! Follow the link for the book, and on the right sidebar there should be links to download a free Kindle reader for your computer!

Post written by Mary @ Tips & Treasures.

Banquet Fruit Pie Winners are....

The winners chosen at random for the Banquet Fruit Pie Free Coupons are:

1. Luckyrabbit308- Linda
2. Wendy
3. Quitecontrary1977
4. Beth

 A big thank you for everyone that participated!  Winners please email at sarahforhan@sarahforhan.com with your shipping address and I will send the coupons out.

~Sarah

Split Pea Soup Using Lipton Onion Soup & Dip Mix

The night before grocery shopping can always be tough in my house.

There is a pizza place a mile down the road from our home and last night I really had to fight the urge to just not call and order a pizza delivery. Instead I rummaged through the freezer and found some ham and a ham bone. I defrosted the ham and we had fettuccine alfredo, ham, and corn for dinner. Not a bad dinner for being short on food. I decided after dinner that I would make split pea soup with the ham bone, for tomorrow’s lunch. However, I usually put red onion in my soup and I was out, I also didn’t have any chicken stock or spices.

I varied my split pea soup recipe with what I had on hand and made the best pea soup of my life! And it was so easy!

Here is the recipe:

Easy Split Pea Soup

• 1 cup of split peas
• 1 packet of Lipton Onion Soup & Dip Mix
• 3 cups of water
• Ham bone

Cooking Instructions:

1. Place split peas in a colander and wash and look them over.
2. Fill a large pot with washed split peas, Lipton Onion Soup & Dip Mix, water, and ham bone. Let boil.
3. Reduce to simmer for an hour. Remove ham bone, cool, and cut meat off of bone. Dice the meat into small pieces.
4. Discard ham bone and return ham pieces to the pot. Add another cup of water and simmer for another 1.5 hours.

The split pea soup has an awesome flavor that my whole family enjoys!

New Banquet Fruit Pies - Giveaway

Pie! Did someone say pie? I have quite a sweet tooth; I actually haven’t tasted a fruit pie I didn’t like. I was excited when ConAgra Food contacted me and asked me to review their new Banquet Fruit Pies. I assumed I was going to like them but I never thought I would love them! The apple pie was great but the peach pie was to-die-for.

Initially ConAgra Food sent me coupons for free Banquet Fruit Pies. However, when I visited my local Wal-mart grocery store I couldn’t find the pies. It is a new product that I guess hasn’t made it to my neck of the woods, yet. I contacted ConAgra about my problems finding the pies and they were nice enough to Fedex Overnight two pies for me. Because they shipped me the pies I am able to review the pies and still have four coupons for Free Banquet Fruit Pies leftover for a giveaway for my readers!

To participate in the giveaway leave a comment below (do not leave an anonymous comment please at least put your first name). Four lucky winners will each receive a coupon for a FREE Banquet Fruit Pie. The four winners will be announced on Tuesday, September 7, 2010.

* You have to check back on 9/7/2010 to see if you won and follow the instructions on how to claim your prize.
* You must be a US resident to participate in this giveaway.
* The coupons do not expire until 7/26/11, so even if the pies haven’t made it to your region they will within the next couple of months.

“Banquet Fruit Pies come in 7 oz. single servings featuring three All-American fruit varieties – apple, peach and cherry berry – so everyone can enjoy their favorite fruit taste. Each pie has a half serving of real fruit inside a golden, flaky pastry shell that bakes up fresh and hot from your oven or microwave in just minutes. “

Yesterday was the last day of summer for my kids before they returned to school today. We were invited by my neighbor to a pool party to celebrate the last day of summer for the kiddos before their big day. I didn’t want to show up to the party empty handed. I decide to bake the pies and bring them to the party as a little snack for everyone. Even though they are single serving they worked great cut up into little slices and topped with whipped cream. The apple pie was a huge hit for the kids and the adults loved the peach pie. The peach pie had large slices peach and after an afternoon of swimming it was just a perfect ending to a perfect day.

My son going down the pool slide backwards!    He was quite a dare-devil yesterday.   I think he was trying to get as much fun as he could before he had to head back-to-school today. 


Disclosure:
ConAgra Foods sent me two pies for free to try and review.
ConAgra Foods sent me coupons for free Banquet Fruit Pies to be used in this giveaway.