How to make your berries last longer...

I heard a tip a few weeks ago from my mom about saving berries!  It always seems that as soon as I take those berries home, there is a time bomb clicking away on those fruits, because the day after I get the berries home, they've gone bad.  Soft.  Moldy.  Ewww....


So... since the berry season is rapidly approaching ... here is a tip on prolonging your berries, so they don't go bad so quickly!


Use one part vinegar (white or apple cider is best) to 10 parts water.  I used 2 1/2 cups of water to 1/4 cup of white vinegar.  I had three pounds of strawberries, so I had to do this in three batches (I used the same mixture..).

Dump your berries (any berries:  blackberry, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, etc) into this mixture and swirl around.

Drain your berries and run water through it all.

Put it back in the fridge and enjoy your berries for a long longer than normal!

Why does the vinegar work? 

The vinegar kills any mold spores and other bacteria that might be on the surface of the fruit!!  Raspberries can last an additional week, and strawberries an additional 2 weeks!

Happy berry eating!!

{what a deal!}

My sister in law Tiffany emailed me a week ago with a website that tells you the latest deals at stores. When I finally had some time to navigate around the site, which took me to more sites to explore, I decided to print some coupons off and head to Target to see if it would work!


Does it work? It did for me today!

Here is one website called Couponing 101 (just click on the word). The main page has weekly specials at different stores, and if there are some pretty awesome coupons that can be paired up with store coupons, she will have links! She has links to Target coupons, so you can print those out. This is what I bought today:

Bliss Candy bars {.99 by register}:

1 Target coupon for $1 off = FREE

Granola Bites {.99 by register}

1 Target coupon for $1 off = FREE

1 lb of apples {1.19 a lb)

1 Target coupon for $1 off a pound = $.19 total

Crystal Light (2 canisters @ $3.99 each)

1 - Target coupon for $1 off

1 - coupon for buy 1 canister get a free CL Skin Essentials

1 - coupon for $1 off = Total price for 2 boxes: $1.99

Ritz Crackers {2.54 each}

1 - Target coupon for $1 off

1 - coupon for $1 off = .54 total

Kraft BBQ {.99}

1 coupon for $1 off = FREE

Nabisco 100 calorie snack packs {2.04 each}

1 - Target coupon for $1 off

1 - coupon for $1 off = Total cost was .04 cents

Pringles {.69 by register}

1 - Target coupon for $.50 off = Total cost was .19

Kraft Natural cheese {2.09 each}

1 - Target coupon for $1 off if you buy 2

1 coupon for $1 0ff = $2. 18 (pretty cheap still for good cheese!)

Anyways... you get the idea. For all this stuff above, I spent $7.77!!

Amazing! Here are some other websites that correspond with each other:

Stretching a Buck

A Full Cup

Currently, the coupons that I used were from the Kraft Foods . You'll need to hurry up and get their coupons as they're only available for a limited time!

One thing to note about couponing... I would suggest printing out Target's coupon policy (you can do a google search for it as they're all over the net on various blogs), as some people in Target will try to limit what you can use. Target's policy states that you can use ONE manufactor's coupon and ONE Target coupon per item, so it might help to either print off Target's customer service number, or their policy and show it to them if they should ask. I didn't have problems today, but the young guy that rang up my order had to keep looking at the coupons and I knew he was thinking "what in the world is this lady doing?"

I also did two separate transactions, and I was secretly wishing I had more coupons... but I didn't print them all out twice. Darn! At least now, every time I go up to Target, I'll be sure to have those Bliss coupons, the Pringle coupons & Granola Bites coupons. Those will all be FREE!