Cats and Coupons

On the way home from the track meet today we stopped at McDonalds because TJ was thirsty and a little hungry and it was almost 6pm. Today McDonalds was giving away a free Southern Chicken sandwich with the purchase of any medium or large drink. They’ve been promoting this special for a week. So, we pulled up and ordered. TJ wanted a chocolate shake and a double cheeseburger. I went to the window to pay. I asked her why the total was so high and she told me it was because you had to buy a drink to get the chicken sandwich for free. I told her I had bought a drink, the chocolate shake. She told me the chocolate shake wasn’t a drink. I pointed out thatn is was listed with the other drinks on the menu, came in different sizes and required a straw. She actually had to call another cashier to the window to get permission to give us the chicken sandwich for free. Am I crazy or something? Isn’t a chocolate shake a drink?

Cats and Coupons is joining in the Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Giveaway Carnival for the first time! I’m giving away TEN coupons for a free six pack of Yoplait Kids yogurt in a cup or yogurt drinks. Sorry, there is a little fine print, the coupons cannot be redeemed in California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota and Tennessee. (If you’re in one of those states and traveling out of state soon enter and pick up your yogurt there.) It’s easy to enter. To enter just leave a comment containing your name (at least first name), how old your child is and their favorite flavor of yogurt. Feel free to share if you’re participating in the carnival as well if you like. Please take a look around while you’re here and if you like what you see please feel free to bookmark my blog or subscribe to my rss feed. Hurry and enter now - comments close Friday 04/25/08 at 11:59 pm est. The winner will be selected using random.org and will be announced on Saturday 04/26/08.

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED.

My sons and I tried something new this week, Yoplait Kids Yogurt. This yogurt was designed especially for young children as a healthy snack. Kids enjoy the taste of Yoplait Kids while adults enjoy that it has 25% less sugar than the leading brand of kids yogurt and contains vitamins, protein and Omega 3 DHA which helps promote brain development. It is available as a yogurt drink or in a cup. If you live anywhere in the United States except for CA, ID, LA, NV, NJ, ND and TN you can request a free sample of Yoplait Kids yogurt just by filling out and submitting the request at www.yoplaitkids.com. I will be posting a review of Yoplait Kids yogurt on Val’s Views shortly.

Here’s some interesting little tidbits about the eating habits of cats that came across. Some I knew about and others I didn’t.
* Cats naturally eat between twelve and twenty meals a day. Wow! No wonder my cats are always neat the bowl asking for more.
* An average adult cat weighing ten pounds should eat about 275 calories per day. That’s as much as some humans eat in one meal.
* Cats are proven to be finicky so it’s suggested that new food be introduced gradually, mixing the new food with the old. Well I did know that but I’ve always believed in mixing foods together for another reason. It’s easier on the digestive system to not suddenly switch foods, because some animals will have upset stomachs or diarrhea when food is drastically changed.
* Giving your cat milk is not a good idea. After growing out of kittenhood most cats become lactose intolerant, which means they could have painful, dehydrating diarrhea. I had heard not to give them milk, but did not know it was because most cats become lactose intolerant.

Find the food outlets. On one end of the town I live in we have an Entenmann’s outlet that carries much of the Entenmann line as Freihofer, Arnold, Boboli and Thomas’ products. In the town directly next to us there is a Pepperidge Farms outlet. I can buy the exact same products in these stores that I can in grocery stores but for much less. The Entenmanns, for example (because they’re so yummy). I bought a box of cookies, a chocolate cake, a box of cinnamon danishes and a pound cake all for $5. Each of those items goes for anywhere from $2.50 to over $4.00 each in the grocery store. So, if you want to save some money, find out if there are any food retail outlets near you.

My son went to an end of season pizza party for his basketball team yesterday. One of the Moms brought a half sheet cake, decorated with a basketball. It looked really nice, and didn’t taste bad either. When I asked her where she’d gotten it, I was surprised to hear she’d gotten it from the county vocational school for $10. I did not know the culinary program had products for sale. Not only can you order certain things for the students to make in class, they have a store open to the public. Everything is made daily by the students in the classroom.
I also recently learned that the Cosmetology program at the vocational school has one or two nights a week where the public can come in and purchase services at a reduced price. The students do the work, and the instructor checks important steps along the way to ensure quality work and make sure the practical application of knowledge is being applied correctly. One of the women I work got a hair cut from one of the students and it looks great.
I know there’s an automotive program as well, and I heard they do some work for area residents as well but haven’t been able to confirm it yet.
I think it’s a great way to let students practice their future craft and for people to save some money while supporting education. Next time you need a specialized service, see if there’s a vocational school in your area that offers services to the public.

I read today on CNN about the largest ever beef recall in the United States. 143 million pounds of frozen beef have been ordered to be recalled by the US Department of Agriculture. The frozen beef all came from the Westland Hallmark Meat Company slaughterhouse in Southern California that mistreated the cattle. Video was taken undercover showing the abuse of downed (sick and crippled) cattle. By law, downed cattle are not to be allowed into the food supply because they have a higher risk of being contaminated by E. coli, salmonella and mad cow disease because they have weak immune systems and are unable to get out of their own waste. When cattle can no longer move around on their own the vet is supposed to be called to inspect them. As these cows were not properly inspected, they were declared not fit for human consumption. Fedeeral authorities have suspended operations at the slaughterhouse while the investigation goes on. The article includes some of the undercover video footage, which I watched part of and found so very disturbing and cruel that I had to stop it. This is the list of products in the recall of beef products from the Westland Hallmark Meat Company.

Many people know that chocolate is not safe for pets. I was explaining this to my older son today and he asked what other foods weren’t safe for pets. I promised him I’d look it up and let him know. I decided it would be good info to share with my pet loving readers.

Foods that can make your pet sick or even cause death include chocolate, coffee, tea, grapes, raisins, avocadoes, mushrooms, the leaves and stems of potatoes and tomatoes, onions, onion powder, salt, garlic, yeast dough, walnuts, macadamia nuts,  alcoholic drinks, apple seeds, apricot pits, cherry pits, peach pits, chewing gum and any candy or breath mint that contains xylitol. Pet owners should also take care not to leave foods around because food that is rotting contains molds and bacterias that is poisonous to animals.

I hope you find this helpful. I didn’t know that more than half of the list wasn’t safe for animals. Did you learn anything?

Rennie, our female cat, is feeling a bit thin for the past two weeks. It reminded us of a time when a cat we used to have had anemia. Hubby suggested I handle it now as I had then and maybe we could head off a bigger problem at the pass. So off to Petsmart I went. Our Petsmart has all of the fish stuff in the front, then you pass the dog stuff, then the bird and reptile stuff and finally in the back is the cat stuff. I didn’t remember which aisle the item I was looking for was in so I had to tour the whole cat section. If I’d needed a cat bed I would’ve found what I needed right away. But instead I went through seven aisles until I found what I needed. Cat vitamins. It was not with cat food but instead was with the cat grooming products, which I thought to be an odd place for it. From there I went to the last three aisles which have cat food. I sought out and found the wet foods with the highest levels of taurine (science diet kitten, fyi) and bought a bunch of those. Now each morning, we’re giving Rennie a bowl of her own with just that can with the vitamins mixed in. After she’s had a chance to eat that alone, we let her out of the bathroom and she can go into the other bathroom and have more wet food, or dry food if she wants it. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it helps her put some weight back on.

Want to save yourself some money in 2008? Of course you do. You can, if you win the contest that Elizabeth over at Table for Five is running. The winner will save themselves some money because they’ll be the recipient of a year’s supply of Orville Redenbacher’s Natural Popcorn AND a one year subscription to Netflix. We boy a box or two of microwave popcorn every week, so this would save us a bunch of money. If you want to enter the contest just write about it and then comment on her blog. That the short versions of the instructions of course, check her site for the full set. The winner will be selected on 01/05/08. I’m in. See you there!

I was in the Stop & Shop, which I hate, as opposed to the Shop Rite that I regularly go to, recently and needed to buy some breakfast sausage. I found the area of the freezer section that I needed, which was emptying quickly because of the senior citizens panicing that it might snow. I saw there were only a couple of boxes left, so I stuck my hand in prepared to grab them all. I usually pay $1 a box at Shop Rite. These were on sale for $1.50. It wasn’t until I had actually put them in the cart that I realized they were not what I usually get. I usually get the Banquet sausages, shown on the right of the picture. Apparently Armour is now selling breakfast sausages, shown with the word NEW in the left of the picture. Do you suppose it’s by any accident that their box consists of similar coloring and layout as the Banquet? I think not. I think it’s a marketing strategy. I bet that Armour wants people to do exactly what I did. Grab it while on auto pilot and buy it. Any thoughts? For what it’s worth, I made them this morning and I thought they didn’t taste as good as the Banquet.

Want to save some money? Have you checked out my site Fun, Crafts and Recipes? It offers a free recipe every day. The recipes are mostly for food, but also occasionally include a craft or activity, or a review. Need more recipes? I have a contest going on on that site right now, and the prize is a new cookbook. And if you want to have a little fun, there’s a weekly food meme called Four Foods on Friday. Come on over! There’s something for everyone at the site because after all, everyone eats don’t they?

This suggestions comes from years of experience. Where I used to work we had numerous vending machines in the lunch room. The items in the machines were changed daily, and we had many hot and cold selections. Bagels, burgers, subs, chicken, muffins, ice cream, salad to name a few. You name it and it was probably in there. It was at that time I discovered how much items bought at Costco or Sams can be marked up. I buy trays of muffins at Costco. There are twelve huge muffins for less than $6. I have seen these same muffins selling for $1-$2 each in all sorts of places. Same thing for Cup of Noodles. I buy them for 3-4 for $1 at the grocery store. Typically these sell for $1 each. A lunchtruck comes to the building where I work now. Every once in a while I don’t have any lunch. I don’t mean that I’m taking diet pills or anything, I just mean I didn’t bring lunch with me for one reason or another that day. So the first time I bought off of the truck I was reminded again about the cheap food markup. Anyway, the point is this. If you want to save money, stop buying off the truck and bring it yourself.

My oven broke quite some time ago. It’s been many months since I was able to bake. Last week I went to the Sears part store to buy the $85 part they told me they always had in stock. They didn’t have it in stock. They told me to come back the next day, as one was expected in. I went in the next day only to be told it hadn’t come in. I called a parts store in the next town. They had the part in stock, and for $15 less. I asked my father to install it, so I didn’t spend a lot of money getting a repair man in here. He got it in and it’s working fine, which is a good thing because if he couldn’t fix it we’d need a Miracle burn to cook the dinner.