Headed to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo this summer?  Here’s a couple of discounts and coupons to save off the admission price:

• Play the Zoo Keeper Training Game on their website to get a coupon for $2.00 off
• Bring in old cell phones for recycling and save $2.00 off admission – more info here

If you are looking for a deal on membership, Candy mentioned that they are doing one through May 25th, 2013 – go here for more info on that.  It’s valid for new and gift memberships only.

Woodland Park is bringing back their Woodland Music Series for the ninth year!  Concerts are held on the second Saturday of June-September, and are held on the green at the Midland Pavilion next to the Ute Pass Cultural Center (210 E. Midland).  Here’s the concert lineup for 2013:

Saturday, June 8th at 7 PM: Festival Orchestra Concert
Saturday, July 13th at 11 AM: Big Band Bash
Saturday, August 10th at 11 AM: Shades of Blue
Saturday, September 14th at 11 AM: Purely Bluegrass

Find out more about the Woodland Music Series here, and find more free summer concerts and more on our Colorado Springs Summer Fun page!

Stretching A Buck is reporting that starting this Sunday, May 19th, you can get free women’s flip flops at Target!  They will be on sale for $2.00 and there’s a $2.00 off coupon here that will make them free after coupon, assuming that the styles on sale on included on the coupon.

Here is a great deal that Shayna found at King Soopers – you’ll have to hurry, because the coupon expires today (Saturday):

Quaker Pop Rice Chips or Snacks (select) – $1.25
$0.55/1 Quaker Popped Rice Snacks or Chips, exp. 5/18/13 (RP 04/14/13)
Net cost at checkout: $0.25
Rating: 5

Find more of this week’s King Soopers deals here.

Note: last time I published this deal I got the dates mixed up and you weren’t able to order it.  But, it’s back and I’ve triple-checked the dates this time! :)

Here is a great deal that we don’t see too often: Saturday only, you can subscribe to Better Homes & Gardens Magazine for $4.99 per year through Discount Mags!  Just go here and add it to your cart, then enter code COLORADOBARGAINS to get the price to drop to $4.99 per year.  You can purchase up to four years at this price, but it’s available Saturday only.

Go here to read more and order – be sure to add it to your cart and enter the COLORADOBARGAINS code to see the price of $4.99 per year.

We are now partnering with Mercedes of Common Sense with Money to bring you Walgreens deals of the week. Here are the top deals that start the week of March 3rd, and you can visit Common Sense with Money for more Walgreens deals.

IChill Liquid Sleep Aid – $4.99
Get $4.99 Register Reward when you buy one
FREE after RR

Irish Spring Bodywash or Bar Soap – 2/$7
Get $3 Register Reward when you buy two
$1/1 Irish Spring, body wash, excludes 2.5 oz (05/19/2013 SS)
$0.50/1 Irish Spring, multi-bar 6 pk+ (05/19/2013 SS)
$1.00 each after coupon and RR

Neosporin, Band Aid or Benadryl – $3.99
Buy 1, get 2,000 Bonus Rewards
$1/1 Neosporin First Aid (04/07/2013 RP)
$0.75/1 Band-aid Adheisve Bandages, excluding trial size
$1/1 Benadryl Product, excludes trial sizes
$1/1 Benadryl, topical product (05/05/2013 SS)
$2/1 Benadryl, topical (04/07/2013 RP)
As low as FREE after coupon and Bonus Rewards

Colgate Total Advanced Toothpaste & 360 Toothbrushes, or Mouthwash – 2/$6
Get $2 Register Reward when you buy two
$1/1 Colgate Mouthwash, 8 oz+ 05/19/2013 SS Insert (exp 06/16/2013)
$1/1 Colgate Toothpaste
Pay as low as $1 each after coupon and RR

Visit Common Sense with Money for more upcoming Walgreens deals.

El Paso County Parks has released the schedule of their free summer concerts for 2012! Concerts take place on select Wednesday evenings from 6 to 8 PM. Here’s a lineup of this summer’s concerts:

Wednesday, June 12th: Pikes Peak Jazz & Swing Society at Bear Creek Regional Park
Wednesday, July 17th: Pikes Peak Jazz & Swing Society at Fountain Creek Regional Park
Wednesday, July 24th: Pikes Peak Jazz & Swing Society at Bear Creek Regional Park
Saturday, July 27th: Pikes Peak Philharmonic Orchestra at Bear Creek Regional Park (7:30 PM)
Note: the orchestra will also be giving other free concerts this summer
Wednesday, July 31st: Grant Sabin at Fox Run Regional Park
Wednesday, August 14th: Pikes Peak Jazz & Swing Society at Bear Creek Regional Park
Wednesday, August 28th: Pikes Peak Jazz & Swing Society at Bear Creek Regional Park

Find out more about the concert series here.

Here’s more free summer concerts and events!

This morning I ate this for breakfast:

Real buttermilk pancakes. The 1yo seems to be done nursing so I am eating dairy again! Thanks to her daddy’s brilliant strategy, she’s been taking a drink of water at night when she wakes up instead of nursing. (She doesn’t really want the water at first, but once she feels a few drops she takes a long drink and then lays back down.) Hopefully the waking up will soon subside, too, but for now I am grateful to be able to eat dairy again. :) I have really enjoyed nursing my five babies but after eight years of being pregnant and/or nursing, I’m grateful to be entering a new phase in life!

We are planning to get a dog at some point after we move.  We have never owned a dog before, and aren’t really sure what we are going to get.  We want something that’s good with kids (duh) but one that has some good watchdog abilities, too.  I’ve heard that lots of people have lots of opinions on dogs, so I’d love to hear your thoughts (click here) as long as you realize that whatever we get can’t possibly please everyone, haha. :)  I’d especially like to hear about shelter dogs – while I like the idea of getting a dog from a shelter, I’m a little leary of not knowing the background of a dog when it’s going to be around five kids.  Oh, and whatever dog we get will have to be relatively short-haired – that is a non-negotiable at this point!

A couple of my kids have been wearing shoes without socks and the smell is starting to make that obvious.  Yesterday, I told the 5yo to take her shoes off and she protested, saying, “but my feet smell like elephants!”  (We had just been to the zoo so the scent was fresh in her memory.)  Well, she did have a point!

It’s Friday — time for What To Make With What’s On Sale!  Eggs are a dollar per dozen this week at both Albertsons and King Soopers.

Here are seven recipes that use eggs!  (For more ideas on how to use eggs, check out last year’s What To Make With What’s On Sale post on the same topic.)

Egg casseroles are a great breakfast that you can quickly put together the night before, then bake in the morning!  This basic recipe for breakfast casserole can be made as simple or as creative as you’d like.

Here’s another flavorful breakfast idea: Southwestern Egg in a Basket Stack.  Try adding a slice of avocado for an even more satiating meal.

This dish, Huevos Rancheros, is good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  The recipe includes instructions for making your own salsa, but of course you could use jarred salsa or green chile.  Add a side of rice and beans for a complete meal!

Crunchy Deviled Eggs: Image from Food Network

Summer is around the corner, which means picnics and barbecues!  Paula Deen’s Traditional Southern Deviled Eggs are sure to be a hit.  If you want something more unique, try these these Crunchy Deviled Eggs topped with fried onions.

Chinese pancakes (typically served on the side with Peking duck or mu shu pork) are another yummy way to use up eggs.  These savory pancakes are usually made by kneading and rolling out a hot-water dough, but here’s a less time-consuming version — Chinese Green Onion and Egg Pancakes.  Serve them as wraps for a veggie and meat stir-fry!

Creme Brulee: Image from The Chou Life

This delicious Creme Brulee, based on Nigella Lawson’s recipe, uses eight egg yolks.  Most stovetop creme brulee recipes call for cooking and stirring the egg mixture for 10-15 minutes, but high altitude requires a little extra cooking time, as I discovered when making creme brulee for the first time!

What’s your favorite way to use eggs?

Be sure to check out the What To Make With What’s On Sale archives for more meal-planning ideas!

Friday only, you can load a digital coupon to your King Soopers card for a free package of Fruittare Frozen Fruit & Milk Bars or Fruit & Juice Bars!  The coupon is valid through June 1st, but you have to load it to your card today.  If you need help finding it quickly, try sorting it by “most recent”.

Don’t forget that King Soopers is giving away free samples of Doritos, Cheetos, and Pepsi Next today. And, here’s this week’s King Soopers deals!

Just a reminder – this event is this Saturday!

The Focus on the Family Bookstore will be holding their annual Kids’ Day event this Saturday, May 18th!  From 9 AM to 4 PM, you can stop by the bookstore to enjoy activities like a petting zoo, story time, puppet shows, face painting, balloon animals, and more.  They’ll have free food samples from Chick-fil-A and Borellio Brothers; and they’ll have their entire stock of Adventures in Odyssey CDs, DVDs, and books on sale for 50% off, plus 25% off the rest of the children’s section.

You can find out more about the event here.  Don’t forget that you can get a big discount on tickets to Elitch Gardens Theme and Water Park at the Focus on the Family Bookstore, too!

Just a reminder that this sale is on Saturday!  Mardel stores will have their homeschool curriculum on sale for 20% off this Saturday, May 18th! It does exclude a few brands: Activities for Learning, All About Learning Press, Homeschool in the Woods, Math in Focus, Notgras, IEW, TruthQuest, Sinagpore, and Veritas Press.  It looks like some of it will be up to 30% off!  You can get all the details here.

Thanks, Andrea!

Mine did!  If you have a four-year-old and haven’t gotten your free copy of Duck on a Bike, click here for more info on how to do it.  Hurry, the promotion is over May 20th.

Did you know that you can get a credit on your Colorado Springs utility bill when you buy a new dishwasher, furnace, toilet, and more?  They have rebates for up to $250 on qualifying purchases and you just have to submit a form and your receipt!

Our washing machine went out last spring and we bought a decent Maytag floor model at Lowe’s.  (I told Jeremy I didn’t even care, so he just picked out one that was a decent deal and I didn’t even look at it until it was delivered!)  I didn’t know about the rebate until October, and by that time we’d lost the receipt, but we were able to go to Lowe’s and get a printout from them proving what and when we’d purchased, and submitted the rebate and had a credit for $75 on our January utility bill! (Which was great since it was our highest-ever bill!)

Only select items are valid for the rebate, but at least in the washing machine department, it seems like an awful lot of them qualify for the rebate.  Note: it appears that they are not offering rebates for washing machines in 2013. It’s definitely worth looking in to if you are going to purchase an appliance this year!

Go here to find out more about the Colorado Springs Utilities rebate program.  (Obviously, it’s for CSU customers only since it’s a credit on your bill!)

Just a reminder that you can visit the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center for free on the third Tuesday of every month!  That’s this coming Tuesday, May 21st.  They’re open from 10 AM to 8 PM and have several times throughout the day where you can take a guided tour.  Get more info here.

The Fine Arts Center is located at 30 West Dale Street, on the campus of Colorado College.  Click here for more free and cheap Colorado Springs museums here!

Time for more free samples at King Soopers!  This Friday, May 17th, from 4 to 8 PM, you can stop by and pick up free samples of Pepsi Next and new flavors of Doritos and Cheetos, while supplies last.  Most King Soopers stores participate in these free sample events, but you can double check here.

Find this week’s King Soopers’ deals here.

Just a reminder that this free event takes place on Sunday!  Springs City Ballet will be holding a free, family-friendly dance performance with a western flair on Sunday, May 19th at the Colorado Springs Charter Academy (2577 N. Chelton Rd.).  The performance will highlighting the student performing company of Springs City Ballet in ballet, modern, and jazz selections.  Admission is free, and they will be accepting donations to benefit the Pikes Peak Therapeutic Riding Center.  Performances will be held at 2:30 and 4:30 PM.

Want more info?  Contact Springs City Ballet through their website.

There’s a new printable coupon for $5 off your purchase of $20 or more at Arc Thrift Stores, valid this Friday, May 17th only!  Go here to print it.

You can save $5 off any Living Social deal of $15 or more when you use coupon code SHARE5 through May 31st!  You have to use this on a deal that’s priced at $15 or more.  Here are some of their deals right now:

• Wild Wings and Things – Fort Carson: $8 for $16 to spend on food and drink
• USA Taekwando Center – four locations: $40-49 (68% off) for summer camp for one or three weeks of classes for a whole family
• Manitou Cliff Dwellings: 53% off tickets for two adults, two children, or one adult and one child

Not all of the above deals are eligible for the coupon code, but the SHARE5 code is valid through the end of the month so there may be other deals that pop up.

I was excited to see this deal today since we are going to be needing to buy a couple of new appliances for our house: through Groupon, you can get $100 to spend at Appliance Factory Outlet for $40!  This is valid at their twelve locations in Colorado (Denver area, Colorado Springs, and Grand Junction), and can be used towards parts or services.

I was in there a few weeks ago looking at appliances, and they had what seemed like great deals for some higher-end appliances that had been damaged.  Their prices on new appliances seemed pretty comparable to the home improvement stores, but this Groupon could probably make for a great deal on either new or scratch and dent.

Go here to read more and order this Groupon.

On April 4th, I cooked a month’s worth of meals and froze them.  I’ve “cooked for the freezer” for quite awhile, but this was the first time I’ve ever intentionally cooked an entire month’s worth of meals all at once.  I promised a report after the month was over, and here it is:

I didn’t really not cook for a month.

I had a month’s worth of main dishes in the freezer, but only a couple of side dishes (Cuban-Style Black Beans, mostly).  We don’t really eat casseroles or “all in one” dishes, so while a huge part of the preparation was mostly done, I still cooked side dishes and sandwich bread.

I had more time to make other food.

The nice thing about having the main dish done was that I actually had time to cook other food.  I started regularly making hamburger buns for the first time!  (Awhile back I admitted that was something I’d never been successful at regularly doing.)

One thing I’ve done to try to keep our grocery budget in check is making sure that we have plenty of side dishes so that everyone’s not trying to fill up on meat.  Easier said than done – I usually focus on the main dish first and the sides are an afterthought.  But, since the main dish was already mostly done, I was able to do a lot better on this over the past month.

I think we ate at least a little less meat this way, which always helps the budget.  I know for a fact that we ate about 1/3rd less Sloppy Joes than we normally do because that freezer meal was so easy-peasy that I had plenty of time to get a couple of ample side dishes to accompany it.

There was tragic waste.

I went downstairs to my freezer one day to pull out a meal and had to take a couple of others out in the process.  I forgot to put them back in and didn’t realize it until the next day, when they were thawed and not even cold anymore.  That was sad. :(  It could have happened anytime, so I just need to be more careful!

We ate the same ol’, same ol’.

One thing that Brandy mentioned on my original post was that she did monthly freezer cooking for a year and they got tired of eating the same things over and over.  I can definitely see that now – I didn’t freeze anything but our favorites that I know freeze well, and while I did have a few nights where I cooked something “fresh” (ie, not from the freezer), I didn’t try any new main dishes, really.

If I’m to continue doing this on a regular basis, I definitely need to keep trying new recipes so we don’t get tired of the food.  My plan is to try a recipe, cooking it fresh, and then if we like it, I’ll make it for the freezer – but I don’t want to be cooking meals for the freezer that we don’t know if we like.

I didn’t feel stress-free, but…

I can’t say that over the past month and a half, I’ve felt completely stress-free in the kitchen.  This is a super-busy time for us with getting the house ready to sell (thank the Lord we’re done with that and it’s under contract!), and it’s Jeremy’s crazy busy time of year.  (He makes up for it in November and December!)  That combination has done nothing to make me feel calm and relaxed, so I can’t say that I’ve been completely care-free because I have food in the freezer, but it’s also an abnormally-busy time of month.

Plus, we also haven’t had a dining room table for a month so that hasn’t made mealtimes delightful, either.  However, I think that if I was cooking everything fresh every night, I would have been even more stressed!

Cooking a month’s worth of meals was worth the work.

Spending the better part of 1-2 days in the kitchen was a lot of work, but I’d say it was worth it.  I don’t groan when I think about doing it again, and I really do think it helped us eat better than we would have if I’d been trying to cook everything in a construction zone, as our house was for a lot of the past month!  And, since we already had plentiful food in the freezer, it was super easy to resist temptation to pick up a pizza when we’d been working on the house all day.

Will I do it again?

I think that, yes, I will definitely be cooking a month’s worth of meals again!  I hope to do so sometime in early June so that we can have easy meals for when we are renovating our new house and moving in.  I’m trying to decide how I can get more breakfasts, desserts, and snacks done, and I think I’m going to just have to do several days of cooking.

So, there you have it – that’s my report!  You can read about my freezer cooking day here.

Summer reading programs for kids are about to start! There are several that you can do in Colorado Springs, in addition to the one at the library. Keep reading for full information on all of these programs.

Pikes Peak Library Summer Reading Program 2013 (Dig Into Reading)

Eligible ages: infant through teen (not listed on website yet but that’s what it’s been in the past)
Registration: should open online and in the library soon!
Prizes: to be determined

Barnes and Noble Summer Reading Program 2-13

Eligible ages: 1st through 6th grade
Registration: none required, go here for more information
Prizes: one free book from a selection

Chuck E. Cheese Rewards Calendars Program 2013

Eligible ages: all ages
Registration: Parents set goals for kids in a variety of areas including reading. Go here for choice of certificates.
Prizes: One certificate per child per day good for 10 free tokens with a food purchase.

Air Force Falcons Summer Reading Program 2013

Eligible ages: all ages
Registration: Go here to register and to get your book log and membership card. Go here for more information.
Prizes: free tickets to variety of AFA sporting events

Pottery Barn Summer Reading Program 2013

Eligible ages: birth to 10 years old
Registration: none required; must read books from their list and complete a form. Go here for more information.
Prizes: one free book from a selection

Junie B. Bones Reading Club

Eligible ages: all ages
Registration: none required; just sign up here!
Prizes: one free copy of Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus, while supplies last

Looking for more cheap and free things to do this summer? Check out our page of summer activities in Colorado Springs!

Here’s another great summer almost-freebie: Brunswick Bowl is offering one free game of bowling every day in June, July, and August to kids up to age eighteen.  You will need to register on their site and present your pass to get the freebie, and shoe rental is extra.  (Last year, shoe rental was around $3.50 at the Brunswick XL Interquest in Colorado Springs, though it might have changed since then.)

Go here to sign up for your free bowling coupons!  (OK, I feel compelled to keep pointing out that it’s not really free because our “free” bowling cost me over $20 last year! :)

Brunswick Bowl is also doing a $0.50 bowling night for anyone to benefit our veterans – there’s one night per month in May, June, July, and August.  Go here for more info on that.

Looking for more cheap things to do this summer?  Our Colorado Springs summer fun page is getting lots of stuff added to it daily!

The Rockies won on Sunday (scoring nine runs), so these deals are on for Wednesday, May 15th!

The day after the Rockies win, you can order online at PapaJohns.com and use coupon code ROXWIN to save 40% off your entire order, and they will donate 10% to a Colorado charity! The ROXWIN does not work if you have any discounted items in your cart. The code is valid at participating Colorado Papa John’s locations the day after the Rockies win, regardless of how many runs they score.

And at participating Taco Bell locations, stop by from 4 to 6 PM the day after the Rockies score seven or more runs to get a taco special. Click here for locations and what special they are offering.