Bountiful Baskets

I'm pretty sure most of you have already heard about Bountiful Baskets, but if you've never heard about it, or you've never tried it, I wanted to give you a little more info!  We have done Bountiful Baskets twice and so far I have been really impressed.  I think it's a great way to eat healthy and save money.

Bountiful Baskets is a food co-op.  Basically when you buy a basket from them you are pooling your money with other people in order to buy the produce in bulk for a much cheaper price.  They also get their produce as local as possible.  Each basket you buy is 50% fruits and 50% vegetables.  It costs $15 (plus $1.50 handling fee) and is usually about half the price of what you would pay for all that produce in a regular grocery store.

This is what we got in our basket today (it's a lot... sometimes we split it with our friends):

strawberries, peaches, plums, mangoes, bananas, tomatoes, yams (or maybe sweet potatoes?), green beans, cantaloupe, english cucumber, lettuce, and celery.  Pretty good for just $15! 

It's always fun because you never know exactly what you are going to get in your basket.  I find they usually have a lot of common items and then they always throw in a few items I wouldn't normally buy (such as yams and i'm interested to try the peaches, they are called saucer peaches... shaped differently but supposedly taste just as good!)  So... if anyone has some good yam/sweet potato recipes, I'm gonna need it!  It's always a fun challenge trying to find ways to use all this produce.

It's pretty easy to order a basket.  Here's what you do...
1. On Monday or Tuesday (that's the only days you can purchase a basket) go to their website and make an account (bountifulbaskets.org).
2. Then choose a site where you would like to pick up your basket (most cities offer lots of locations and all pickups are for the following Saturday... oh and this is not just a Utah thing, lots of states have sites).
3. Choose exactly what you'd like to order (they also offer bread, tortillas, occasionally cookies, and specialty baskets like mexican packs or asian packs).
4. Then pay :) and save $$$$!
5. On Saturday morning head to the site you chose at the time specified and pick up your food!  Also remember you have to bring your own container to put your food in to bring home.  It's pretty simple and fun!  I highly recommend it!  If you have other questions you can check their website or ask me.

Also... notice the fruit bowl in my picture... we found that today for $3!  We were at this furniture store just browsing for fun and they had a table full of accessories they were clearing out for 3 bucks.  I was excited b/c I almost bought a fruit bowl at Ross once for $6 but ended up not getting it.  So happy I waited!  Who knew you could find cheaper than Ross????  Well it is possible!

I love free

Remember those Lime Ricki swimsuits I like? Well... they are giving away 3 free swimsuits next week! Just leave a comment on their blog about something that makes you happy. I already have one of their suits, but I'd be happy to get another one :). Especially now that I have a pool and warm weather to use it, oh and the fact that it's free is an added bonus too.

Lime Ricki Giveaway

Good luck, I hope you or I win :)

p.s. if i were to win i think i would choose the chloe top with the yellow boy shorts.

FYI

my friend is giving away another 4 pack of tickets to the circus. just wanted to pass the word on to everyone i know. she is going to be giving away 3 more family packs the next 3 weeks, so make sure to comment each time until you win! hopefully one of us wins! :)

Circus Giveaway

Circus, anyone???

My friend Jessica loves the circus. She loves it more than anyone I know. She loves it so much that she is giving away a family 4 pack of tickets to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus which is coming to town the end of September. If you are interested, comment on her blog post & you will be entered into the giveaway! In fact, she is giving away four family 4 packs; one each week for the next four weeks. So, if you don't win the first time, you can try again! Hooray!

I've never been to the circus, but I think it sounds fun. Go here to her blog to enter: Jessica's Blog.

Good luck!

Screamin Coupons

So a while ago I posted about a site called City Deals. Well... I have come across another great site that offers deals too. I always love a good deal :). And I like my friends to get good deals too. This site is called Screamin Coupons and every day they will email you some type of deal. You don't have to buy it, but you can. The cool thing with this company is if you buy a deal, they give a portion back to the school of your choice. Since I graduated in education, I'm always up for supporting local schools and I get a great deal too. So it's a win-win situation. Today I just got a deal for $10 at a local restaurant for only $5. Pretty sweet! Most of the deals have to do with entertainment, restaurants, stuff like that. I know they do deals in Utah and some in California. Not sure about anywhere else.

If you're interested, go here: Screamin Coupons

Enjoy!

free tacos!

Guess what?  I have another fabulous deal for you all today!  A coupon for a free taco @ Rubios!  Only good at the Utah locations and it's only good for TODAY- April 15th.

Click on this link here and get yourself a free taco!  I think I'm headed to the new Orem Rubios for lunch :)

Enjoy!

Smoothies

lately I have been into finding good deals (if you haven't noticed). And when I find a good deal, I like to share it. So here is my deal of the day... free Jamba Juice! I love smoothies!

Just click on this link and print off the coupon...
http://www.jambajuice.com/20thcoupon/index.html#

It's buy one get one free. I always like those b/c they work out perfectly for Dan and myself. Maybe we will go there for FHE tonight :). I like the sound of that!

And FYI... Speaking of smoothies, McDonald's new smoothies aren't all that good. The strawberry banana is better than the wild berry though. In case you ever get one...

Update.

So, I just ordered my citydeals certificates yesterday and it said it would take 4-6 days for delivery. Well, I went and got the mail today and surprise- they were already here! I love citydeals even more now. This means we can use them this weekend! Yay!

And another thing I got in the mail today, my Netflix movie! I highly enjoy Netflix too. I love getting a movie in the mail every few days. And it's super cheap too ($8.99/month or something). No wonder all the Hollywood Videos and Blockbusters in the area are going out of business.

Last thing, I finally got our Disneyland trip all planned. It took me forever to find a hotel! I wanted to save money, but didn't want to stay in a gross place. I know, I'm tough to please. But we got a sweet deal through Priceline @ the Holiday Inn- only 1 block from Disney :). Now just a month of waiting.

CityDeals

I have something to share with all of you. It's called citydeals.com. Maybe you've heard of it and maybe you haven't. It's a site where you can buy gift certificates to places at a discounted price. It has places all over the country. Lots of restaurants, entertainment places, etc.

So... today I was looking at the deals and usually I just look at them and think to myself "hmm... i should get that, what a great deal." But today, I actually did get something! And I'm quite excited b/c I feel like I got a great deal. As you probably know, Dan and I like to go out at least once a week. So I figured, if we're going to go out, we might as well save some money, right? So I bought 2 gift certificates. One was a $25 giftcard to Terra Mia (a pizza place in Orem we've been wanting to try) and the other was a $25 giftcard to Maria Bonita (some Mexican place in Orem- we're always looking for a good Mexican place). Anyway, I only paid $12.50 for each giftcard! Pretty good, right? So my total was $25.99... the .99 was for shipping. Pretty great for 2 nights out! I think so anyway, considering that is usually what we pay for one night out...

Just thought I'd share, because I love getting a good deal. If you already know you're going out, you might as well buy a giftcard for it and save some money! The only bad news is, I just saw they had a giftcard to Los Hermanos- which we went to last weekend! Wish I would have checked their site before we went! Oh and it takes 4-6 days for delivery, so you should plan ahead. Good luck finding sweet deals!

Swimsuit giveaway!

So... remember those swimsuits I just posted? Well, good news! Lime Ricki is doing a giveaway for a free swimsuit! Yay! You just have to go to their blog & leave a comment telling them which suit of theirs you like the best. I just entered and since I am such an awesome friend, I am telling you about it too :). I realize this creates more competition for me, but I don't care. I would love to win a free swimsuit, but I would also love one of my friends to win a free swimsuit. So... if you liked the swimsuits you saw, go and enter their giveaway here.

p.s. I start working today. First city I get to find cool things about is San Diego!