Review: Dr. Oetker's Ristorante Pizza

A few weeks back, I posted that I had received my bzzkit from Bzzagent that included two coupons to try out Dr. Oetker's Ristorante Pizza for free.

I finally got to try it out last Sunday. I got the quattro formagio variety because I'm a cheese lover.

I followed the instructions on the package....preheat oven to 450 degrees, then place pizza directly on the oven rack to cook for 10-12 minutes. Easy peasy.

Mine was done after 10 minutes and it looked almost exactly like the photo on the box. I didn't even think to snap a photo since I was so hungry and it smelled so good.

I was surprised at how good it tasted! You definitely wouldn't mistake this for delivery pizza, but it still rocked. The cheese didn't get weird like it normally does on frozen pizza which I was grateful for. I was a little nervous about two of the types of cheese since I had never heard of them, but the cheese was great.

The crust was nice and thin and cooked perfectly.

I don't think I would have ever tried this pizza on my own, so I'm glad I got the opportunity to try it out through Bzzagent. I can definitely see myself buying this in the future. It made great and easy meal last week when I declared a "lazy day".

What I did to save money last week....

1.  I went to dinner on Sunday night with a few friends at On the Border. I had an email coupon for a free bowl of queso. I also had a $10 gift certificate, so I used that. My total out of pocket cost for the meal was $4.00 and I had enough left over to take to dinner to work the next night

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2. On Monday morning I made a huge batch of home fries to help me save time during the week on breakfast. I made enough to last all week, so I just had to reheat them each morning and make a quick scrambled egg sandwich.

3. Received two rebate checks for $1.75 & $1.00.

4. Sold an old text book on half.com for $119!

5. Received a Bzzkit in the mail with two coupons for free frozen pizzas.

6. Money maker transaction at CVS.

7. Deposited $131 into my emergency fund.

8. Received and accepted an invitation into a Bzzcampaign for a Phillips epilator. I’m actually very excited to try this out and I’ll definitely post my review as soon as I receive it.

9. Carpooled 4 out of the 5 days I worked this week.

10. My dad’s birthday was yesterday, and he asked if I would help my mom out and take care of buying a cake for him. I decided to make one instead using this recipe I found on (where else?) pinterest. I picked up a few of the missing ingredients (buttermilk, margarine, unsweetened chocolate & coffee) plus a dozen eggs on Saturday night for a grand total of $10.41. It came out great. My mom, who normally doesn’t like chocolate cake, liked it and said she’d have it again.

11. I did horrible this week on bringing dinner to work. I didn’t do my grocery shopping until Thursday (I normally go on Sundays) so I didn’t have much to bring. I tried to choose inexpensive places to eat and drank only water from the cooler at work so I didn’t have to buy soda.

12. My dad and I picked up my buffet on Friday morning. As I mentioned in a previous post, having it shipped to the store and picking it up saved me a $75 delivery fee. It is all set up and looks awesome!

13. I stayed in on Saturday night instead of going out to a bar to see a cover band with my friends. I was pretty tired and was looking forward to relaxing at home so that’s exactly what I did.

14. I listed about 8 items on ebay this week. I have a few more things to list in the next few days.

15. Submitted the reading on my water meter so I get an actual bill instead of an estimated one.

Sunday:   $4.00 On The Border

Monday: $57.87 Gas

Tuesday:  $7.00 Center Pizza

Wednesday:  No spend day

 Thursday:  $5.00 Moe’s

                     $24.33  S&S

                     $4.99   Shaws

Friday:  $1.71 Chipotle

Saturday:  $3.49 Michaels

                   $10.41 S&S

Railings: Before & After Shots

A few weeks back I mentioned that I had gone to Lowes to pick up some paint and supplies to paint my kitchen cabinets and counter tops. I ended up using some of the paint to do my railings over. I was inspired by this photo on pinterest....(Have I mentioned how much I love this site??)

I followed this tutorial. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, although it was a bit time consuming.

Here are the before & after shots:

BzzAgent: Dr. Oetker Ristorante Pizza

I’ve been a member of BzzAgent for about 3 years now, and over the years I’ve gotten to try out some really cool stuff. A few weeks ago, I was offered a spot in the Dr. Oetker Ristorante Pizza campaign and I gladly accepted. I received my Bzzkit a couple days ago. It contained 2 coupons to try these pizzas out for free and some coupons and magnet pads to hand out to friends.

There are six different varieties:

~Mozzarella

~Spinaci

~Funghi

~Quattro Formaggi

~Vegetale

~Speciale

I haven’t made it to a grocery store since I got my kit, so I haven’t tried them out yet. Has anyone else ever tried one? They look and sound delicious!

CVS 1/31/12

Reese’s Egg (Sun-Tues Only)  $.87   (earned .87 EB)

3 Hallmark cards@ .99 ea…..$2.98 (earned 3 EB)

1 Physicians Formula Foundation $15.49 - $3 peelie coupon…..$12.49  (earned 7 EB)

I used 13 EBs to pay and the remaining $4.47 was put on a gift card.

I earned 10.87 back in EBs and will submit a MIR for $14.95 for the makeup.

What I did to save money last week....

I don't know how much saving I actually did this week...it seemed like I did a lot of spending.

1.  Last Sunday I went to look at a buffet I had found online at West Elm. I loved it and decided to buy it. It was very expensive ($699 plus tax) but I’ve been searching for something for that odd space in my dining room ever since I bought the place in 2007. The dimensions are perfect and I’m looking forward to filling it up with stuff. They didn’t have any in stock, so I chose the “ship to store” option, which saved me $75 on shipping. I also opened up a West Elm credit card because for every $250 you spend, you earn $25 in design dollars. Once tax was added on, I was about $8 short of spending enough to get $75 worth of design dollars. I grabbed a white tray I had been eyeing for a grand total of $766.06.

2.  On Sunday I also stopped by Joann Fabrics to pick up some buttons so I could make a button monogram like this one I found on pinterest. I already have a frame, glue and scrapbooking paper for the back, so all I needed were the buttons.

3. I made a huge batch of macaroni and cheese using this recipe I found on pinterest. It didn’t really taste like Panera’s, but it was still really good. I brought some of this along with some salad to work each night for dinner.

4. Wednesday was one of my favorite coworkers last day at work. We ordered pizzas and went out for drinks at the end of the shift. I had a $3 coupon for the pizza which helped defray the cost a little bit.

5. I made some Oreo truffles using this recipe. I had been craving these for a while and used my coworker’s last day of work as an excuse to make them. I halved the recipe since there would only be about 6 of us. They’re so easy to make, and so so so yummy. I aready had the melting chocolate on hand and had picked up a bar of cream cheese and a package of mint oreos a few weeks ago while grocery shopping.

6.  I got all of my top cabinets sanded, primed, painted and hung back up this week. Now it’s on to the bottom cabinets and drawers. The rest of my house looks like a disaster during this process because all of the displaced kitchen items are everywhere.

7.  Saturday night one of my best friends had a little get together at her house and served pizzas and margaritas. I brought over two packages of mini cupcakes ($5.98) that I picked up at the grocery store on the way over. I spent the night catching up with a bunch of friends I hadn’t seen in a long time.

8.  My heat was kept at 62 degrees while I was sleeping and at work and at 64 degrees the rest of the time.

Sunday:   $37.33 S&S

                $766.06 West Elm

    $5.58 Joann Fabrics

Monday: No spend day

Tuesday: No spend day

Wednesday: $6.00 pizza

                     $12.00 beers

Thursday: $11.35 post office

Friday: No spend day

Saturday: $5.98 Shaw’s

What I did to save money this week....

1.       Picked up a 3-pack of Brita water filters and a free after rebate Physicians Formula cosmetic at CVS.  I had $6 worth of coupons, 15 EBs, and $9.50 on a gift card. Total out of pocket cost was $.50. I received 5 EBs back for the filters, and I’ll get $14.95 back for the make up.

2.       Went grocery shopping on Sunday. I picked up only the items I needed to make a few meals that I had planned for the week.

3.       I carpooled with my coworker 3 out of the 5 days I worked this week.

4.       I worked on the Monday holiday, so I’ll get paid time and a half.

5.       And I worked an 8-hour overtime shift.

6.       I made breakfast and lunch at home all week.

7.       Put $139 into my emergency fund.

8.       Purchased 2 Zippo lighters at Rite Aid for $9.99 each (plus tax). Received $10 back in +UPRewards and will also receive a $10 Single Check Rebate. $20.54 was paid for with a gift card and I paid $.30 out of pocket.

9.       Continued working on my two painting projects when I had free time this week. I also found something else I can paint at home using the paint I purchased for these other projects.

10.   Saturday was cold and snowy all day, so I decided to stay home and work on a bunch of things around the house. I worked on cleaning and organizing, found a bunch of things to sell on Ebay and Craigslist and some items to donate.

11.   My dinner plans with a friend were cancelled on Saturday night due to the weather, so I made dinner at home. After the snow finally stopped, I went out to CVS to get a rain check for an item they were out of stock on all week and to grab one deal I had missed when I was there earlier in the week. I bought 4 Hallmark cards (.99 each). I had a B3G1F CRT for them. I paid with $2.50 in EBs and the rest went on a gift card. I received 3 EBs for purchasing 3 cards.

Sunday: $23.98 groceries

            $.50 CVS – will receive $14.95 back in a mail in rebate

Monday: No spend day

Tuesday: No spend day

Wednesday:  $10.14 – Chipotle *worked a double

Thursday: No spend day

Friday: $.30 – Rite Aid - will receive a $10 rebate

                $58.01 – Gas

                $4.00 – Moe’s –Dinner at work

Saturday: No spend day