Budget Savvy Lifestyle

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Aldi Review: Mama Cozzi’s Cheesy Bread Sticks

Aldi Mama Cozzi's Cheesy Bread Sticks Review

This week we tried the Aldi Mama Cozzi’s Cheesy Bread Sticks for the first time so I thought it would be a good opportunity to review them here!

The bread sticks are located in the cooler where Aldi keeps their fresh Take and Bake pizzas (which are pretty amazing BTW!).

They currently sell for $4.39 and there are 9 breadsticks in the package.

Here’s what they looked like after I took them out of the oven.  They were slightly greasy from all the cheese so I took a paper towel and dabbed some off (personal preference!).

It’s all one square but as you can see, there are indentions that made them super easy to cut apart.

Aldi's Mama Cozzi's Cheesy Bread Sticks Nutritional Information

Here’s a look at the nutritional information.  Hubby and I have been counting calories and we were still able to easily squeeze a serving into our meal plan for the day and not go over our calories.  Score!

Aldi Mama Cozzi's Cheesy Bread Sticks Review

So how were they?  Well, I went back for seconds which I don’t normally do for anything so they definitely get two thumbs up from me.

My husband also commented on how good they were and said he considered having seconds.  He’s stronger than me though and decided to save his remaining calories for the day for dessert, lol.

The breadsticks were soft and chewy and just the right amount of cheesy.  Because our kids have been out of town visiting their grandparents for the summer, the box latest the two of us for two meals.

The first night we had it with Aldi’s cheese ravioli and garden salads.  The second night we had them with chicken Caesar salads.  

They complimented both dishes very well.  I was worried about how they would re-heat the second night but they were just as good as the first night.  I just warmed them in the oven for a few minutes!

I’d definitely recommend giving the Aldi Mama Cozzi’s Cheesy Bread Sticks a try if you tried them before.  They were really delicious and work well to compliment meals or as just a snack (I can see us munching on these in the future during one of our family game nights!). They have landed a place on my list of favorite Aldi products to buy 🙂

 

What are your favorite Aldi products?

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Meatball Sub Casserole Recipe

This easy and delicious Meatball Sub Casserole recipe is guaranteed to be a hit with the whole family!  It combines all the goodness of a meatball sub in the form of an easy to eat casserole.

With just 5 ingredients, this recipe is not only extremely easy to make, but also very affordable.  As written, it can feed a family of 4-5 for $6.42 (priced with ingredients from Aldi).  

Have a big family or expecting company?  It’s easy to double it and feed a crowd!

Easy 5 Ingredient Recipe

Here’s the price breakdown for the recipe if you buy the ingredients at Aldi:

1/2 bag frozen Italian style meatballs $2.15

1- 24 ounce jar of pasta sauce $0.85

1-10 ounce loaf of fresh garlic bread (found in the bakery area of Aldi) $2.09

1 cup of shredded Italian style cheese $1.00

1/4 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese $0.33

Print Recipe

Meatball Sub Casserole

This easy and inexpensive recipe uses frozen meatballs, garlic bread, pasta sauce, and shredded cheese to create a delicious meal the whole family will love!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time45 minutes
Servings: 4 servings
Cost: $6.42

Ingredients

  • 1 loaf fresh garlic bread
  • 1 24 oz jar pasta sauce
  • 1/2 32 oz bag frozen Italian meatballs (32 meatballs0
  • 1 cup shredded Italian blend cheese
  • 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees
  • Place the garlic bread on a baking sheet with the spread facing up and bake for 5-7 minutes (or whatever time is recommended for the garlic bread you use)
  • While the garlic bread is baking, heat the pasta sauce and meatballs until the meatballs have thawed.
  • Set the oven to 350 degrees after the garlic bread comes out. Allow garlic bread to cool some and then cut it into squares.
  • Lay garlic bread pieces into a 2 quart casserole dish.
  • Spread meatball and pasta sauce mix over the top of the garlic bread.
  • Sprinkle the shredded cheeses over the top of the casserole.
  • Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Notes

*Recipe adapted from Allrecipes
* We like to serve this with a tossed salad or sautéed green beans!

Hoagie Bake Recipe

This Hoagie Bake Recipe is always a hit around our house.  It’s super simple to make and with 8 servings, it feeds our family of four for two meals.  

The recipe can be made entirely with Aldi ingredients.  If you shop Aldi, I did the cost analysis for it and it works out to $1.05 per serving.  This makes this recipe super budget friendly!

With salami, pepperoni, ham, provolone, and Swiss cheese sandwiched between crescent rolls, this is a delicious and filling  meal!

Here’s what you will need to add to your Aldi shopping:

  • 2  cans of crescent rolls
  • 1 pkg deli ham (I used smoked but honey would be fine too)
  • 1 pkg pepperoni slices (I used turkey because that’s all they had)
  • 1 pkg salami slices
  • shredded parmesan
  • 1 pkg provolone slices
  • 1 pkg swiss slices
  • 1 egg

 

Print Recipe

Hoagie Bake

This delicious hoagie bake sandwiches salami, pepperoni, ham, provolone and swiss cheeses between crescent rolls.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time35 minutes
Servings: 8 servings
Cost: $8.43

Ingredients

  • 2 cans crescent rolls
  • 1/4 lb. sliced salami
  • 1/4 lb. pepperoni slices
  • 1/4 lb. sliced deli ham
  • 8 slices provolone cheese
  • 8 slices swiss cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tbsp shredded parmesan cheese

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  • Prepare a 9X13 casserole dish by spraying it with cooking spray
  • Spread one can of crescent rolls into the bottom of the dish, pressing seams together
  • Spread the salami on top the crescent rolls, followed by the ham, pepperoni, provolone, and swiss.
  • Spread the other can of crescent rolls over the top of the meat and cheese layers, pressing the seams together.
  • Beat the egg and then brush on top of the crescent rolls
  • Add the parmesan cheese
  • Bake in the oven for 25 minutes
  • Add foil and bake an additional 10 minutes

Notes

Tip: To reduce the greasiness of the recipe, you can spread the salami and pepperoni in thin layers on a paper towel covered plate and microwave them first for 30 seconds before adding them to the dish.
*Recipe adapted from here

8 Tips to Help You Do Disney World on a Budget

Going to Disney World is something we love to do as a family.  Because this is something that is important to all four of us, regular trips to Disney are something that is prioritized in our budget.  Doing Disney World on a budget is completely possible if you set realistic expectations.

Since we like to try and go at least once every two years, we make sure to be sensible about setting a strict budget for each trip and keeping costs down where we can.

This post may contain affiliate links. You can read my disclosure policy here.

#1 - Eat Breakfast Before You Head to the Parks

Eat breakfast before we head to the parks.  We eat breakfast in our hotel room or AirBnb before we head to the parks.  This saves us a lot of money and also allows us more time to do other things in the parks, instead of spending that time sitting in a restaurant eating.  

What we normally do is hit Aldi once we get to town and get the groceries we will need to have breakfast for the week.  

We often keep it simple…buying yogurt, fruit, and frozen breakfast bowls or sandwiches.  Sometimes I grab pastries and donuts for the kids as a treat.  After all, we are on vacation :-). 

In the past, when we stayed on Disney World property, we have brought our griddle from home and used it to heat sausage and freezer pancakes on.  I also boiled eggs at home and brought cheese sticks and instant oatmeal (to make in the microwave). 

The downside about a Disney property is that the more budget-friendly rooms only come with a small mini fridge so you are somewhat limited in what you can buy/bring when it comes to perishable foods.


#2 - Stay Off Property

We used to always stay on property. In all fairness, there is something to be said about being in the “Disney Bubble” the whole time you are there. 

However, over the years the prices of even the “budget” resorts on Disney World property have increased greatly. 

As an example, when we went in March of 2016,  we paid $136/night.  By the time we went in January 2019, it was about $150/night plus they had implemented a new rule charging resort guests at budget resorts $15/night to park at the hotel.  

So on our next trip we looked into the possibility of renting an AirBnb.  It was less than a 10 minute trip to Disney World and cost us less per night that a budget room on Disney property would have.  In fact, we saved over $300 for the week, even when taking into account that we now had to pay $25/day to park at the parks each day that we went (it’s free for Disney resort guests).  

On top of saving money, we had an entire house to ourselves.  Our boys each had their own bedroom and a bathroom to share and my husband and I were at the other end of the house in the master bedroom with our own bathroom. 

We also had our own private pool (pictured above) and an entire kitchen at our disposal which made it so much easier to make breakfast every day.  It was also nice to have our very own laundry room instead of having to use the resort’s laundromat.  We were able to do laundry every day which meant we could pack lighter. 

But the absolute biggest benefit was how much better we slept.  Being in a budget resort at Disney always means a lot of noise.  Whether it’s people in the rooms next to us or those walking by outside our door, we never had a night where we weren’t awakened by some noise. 

This was not the case at the AirBnb.  It was so peaceful and quiet and we woke up refreshed and well-rested every morning.  I don’t see a scenario right now were we will go back to staying on Disney property.


#3 - Pack Snacks and Water for the Park

When we go grocery shopping for our breakfast items, we also get bottled water and snacks to take with us to the parks. This limits the amount of snacks we buy at the park. 

Snacks we often buy include meat sticks, beef jerky, cheese sticks, snack-sized bags of chips, trail mix, apples, bananas, and clementines.  Yogurt tubes and boxes of raisins are also cheap and easy snacks we enjoy at the parks.

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#4 - Eat Only One Meal a Day at the Parks

Some people don’t eat at the parks at all, but for us meals in the park are something that we really look forward to so we always budget for one park meal per day.  We plan out in advance were we want to eat each day and budget what it will cost.  

The food in the park can be pricey, but the portions are always very generous.  Oftentimes, we can get 2-3 meals for the 4 of us to share (when we are all on the same page about what we want to eat!).


#5 - Set a Souvenir Budget

Another very important tip for doing Disney World on a budget is to set a souvenir budget and stick to it!  The kids always know that they only get so much to spend on souvenirs.  If they want something more, then it will have to come out of their own money. 

We have a tradition of each getting a pin each trip. We keep them on lanyards and it represents what that trip meant to us. 

For example, my youngest son got a Big Thunder Mountain Railroad pin on the trip that he was finally brave enough to ride roller coasters when he was 11.  He ended up liking it so much that we ended up riding that ride seven times for him that trip. 

On another occasion, I got a Food and Wine themed pin to represent the first time we attended Epcot’s Food and Wine festival. It’s a fun tradition we have and we budget $60 for the 4 pins each trip. 

In addition to that, we each get $50 each to spend on other souvenirs.  This ensures that we are careful about what we chose for our souvenirs and we don’t come home with a bunch of stuff we really don’t need.


#6 - Buy Park Tickets from Undercover Tourist

This is a tip that may not be common knowledge to a lot of people.  It is very hard to find deals on Disney Park tickets.  One place that always has Disney World park ticket deals though is the website, Undercover Tourist. 

This is where we always buy our park tickets.  On our most recent trip, we were able to save $90 for the 4 of us to get 5 day park tickets versus what it would have cost us if we had bought the tickets through Disney or other sellers. 

Undercover Tourist is a reputable and authorized seller of park tickets to Disney Parks as well as Universal Studios.  The only thing to be aware of when you buy tickets through Undercover Tourist is that they may not be refundable so be sure you are fully committed to your trip plans before making your purchase. 

We have used this site many times and have always been very happy with the service.

#7 - Drive, Don't Fly

Drive, don’t fly.  This may vary based on your own situation, but for us it is at least $1000 cheaper for us to drive than to fly to Florida.  We come from the metro Detroit area and there are four of us so airfare is usually $1300+ for four roundtrip tickets. 

If we drive, we spend about $300 in gas roundtrip.  The trip takes 18-19 hours so my husband and I alternate driving every four hours and we don’t even need a hotel room for the night. 

This also means that we have our own vehicle when we get there and don’t have to rent a car or rely on Disney World’s transportation system to get around.  It really saves us time and stress. 

I realize road tripping may not be for everyone but it really can save you a lot of money if you are willing to take the plunge and try it.  

We have been road tripping as a family since our kids were babies and we have so many fond memories of those trips together. After all, getting there is half the adventure!


#8 - Eat Dinner after You Leave the Park

We eat dinner after we return from the park.  Because we only eat one meal in the park, it is usually a late lunch, so sometimes we don’t even need dinner.  

When we do, we grab some inexpensive fast food or a deli meal from the local supermarket.  Sometimes we order a pizza.  All these options end up being cheaper than eating a second meal in the park that day.

 

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These are our favorite tips for doing Walt Disney World on a budget.  What do you like to do to cut costs when you visit the house of the mouse? 

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