Target Trip

Well I won a coupon for a free Dial Foaming Hand Soap product from Frances awhile back.  I tired to redeem that coupon last week at 2 different grocery stores AND then at Rite-Aid and none of the three carries this particular product.
bleh.
So I googled and found that the only place around here that has this item is Target.
Since the freebie coupon expires today, guess who went out to Target today?

This lady! ;-)
So to make this more efficient I decided to stop by the Bakery Outlet along the route I take to Target.

First the Target trip............

4 x Mountain Dew 12-packs on sale 4/$10. *not pictured*
2 x Hawaiian buns/rolls on sale 2/$5.
1 x Dial Hand Soap reg. $1.84
2 x Seventh Generation Cleaner refills on clearance $1.04 each-$2.08
1 x pack of Baby Back Ribs on sale $2.49 lb.=$8.54
1 x pair of men's shorts on clearance $7.48
2 x  metal hangtags 70% off Red Spot $1 items=.60¢
1 x box of  Lemon Heads candy 70% off Red Spot $1 items=.30¢
Total.....$36.48(w/tax)

I had a $1/2 Hawaiian IPQ which made those $2 a pack.
The Dial Freebie coupon took off $4.00 instead of the $1.84 the product actually cost so $2.16 in overage applied to the rest of my order.
Sweet!

$31.48 after coupons which I put on my free $100 Target gift card so nothing OOP.

I don't know if the shorts will "please" College Boy so those might go back.  Though we still have soda(enough for the cook-out)I picked up this $2.50 pack soda deal anyway since they had CB's fav. Baja Blast Mountain Dew.  I don't know how the kids drinks this nasty stuff. lol  I am hiding it so he can't drink it.....it's for him to take back to college.  Sssshhh, don't tell him..... ;-)

Then I stopped at the Bakery Outlet for 3 packs of hamburger rolls($1 each), 3 Danish/Donut packs ($1 each)and 2 packs of hot dog buns(.75¢).  $7.50 out of the $8 and change left in my wallet for June.

All this shopping goes on July's tally since I closed out June's spending already.

It's been raining cats and dogs off and on all day here.  It finally cleared long enough for me to take everything I left in the car most of the day.....not the meat, I brought that in right away obviously. lol

I don't need to go down off the mountain now until next week.

Sluggy

2015 Food & Toiletries Spending.....June Update

I am posting June's spending totals a day early as I am done shopping for the month.
I have to be as I only have $8 left in my wallet. lolz

Onward to June's food spending report.......

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for JUNE 2015.

I have posted June's totals on the Total Grocery Savings for 2015 Page located HERE and have updated the Yearly Totals there.  I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in June.  If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom for the Totals Sum.  My spending includes Food, Toiletries/HBA, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable. We are a family of 3(3 at home this month). No kids under 19.

******************
BAKERY OUTLET
OOP  $16.00
Value  $63.36
Savings  74.75%

DOLLAR TREE
OOP  $12.63
Value  $29.22
Savings  56.78%

KMART
OOP  $13.85
Qs/Ads  $3.60
Value  $17.35
Savings  20.63%

MAINE SOURCE
OOP  $93.77
Qs/Ads $62.76
Value $156.53
Savings  40.09%

OLLIE'S
OOP  $7.44
Value $12.57
Savings   40.81%

RITE-AID *(see below)
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads  $39.72
Value  $39.72
Savings  100%

SAM'S CLUB
OOP  $89.51
Value  $151.03
Savings  40.73%

 

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $29.68

Qs/Ads  $47.39

Value  $77.07

Savings  61.49%

SURPLUS OUTLET
OOP  $73.48
Value  $144.33
Savings  49.09%

WALMART
OOP  $28.69
Qs/Ads $8.75
Value $37.44
Savings  23.37%
 

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $236.98

Qs/Ads  $390.08

Value  $627.06

Savings  62.20%
 

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, the Bakery Outlet at 74.75% and Weis at 62.20%.  My WORST savings rate was Kmart at 20.63%.

I shopped at 11 different stores this past month.  (Yikes!)  Lots of single transactions at lots of stores except at my usual 3 stores.

TOTAL Out of Pocket........ $602.03

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$753.75

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1,355.78

TOTAL Savings of...................................55.60%
TOTAL Savings WITHOUT Rite-Aid.............54.25%

This closes out the June food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I went into June wanting to do a $400 food budget for the month.  That plan was blown to bits due to some deals, some junk food buying for College Boy, and most notably the .74¢ a block cheese deal at Weis.  ;-)  I exceeded my budget by a third this month when all is said and done.  A full third of my spending was done at Weis.  Most months I pretty much spend my budget equally between Weis and the Shursave grocer(with a few shops at other stores thrown into the mix).  Not so in June.

Way over but ultimately this month will save us more money in the long run by catching these deals.
At least that is what I hope.  ;-)

The monthly savings percentage went up by 10.90% in June to 55.60% compared to May's 44.70% average.  Good deals, coupons and having $36 in store scrip that I used helped to pull the percentage saved up.

The savings rate for the whole year so far now stands at 59.52%.  That's a 1.20% decrease in savings over May's YTD total(60.72%).  It's still hanging in well over a 40% savings rate for the year so I won't beat myself up over this small decrease.  It would be very difficult to maintain a 74 or even a 60% savings rate like I achieved in January and February of 2015.  Sure, if we only bought and ate items I got at a great discount for the rest of the year, but part of those high savings rates was due to heavy Rite-Aid shopping at the beginning of the year and if you look back to that time, most of what I bought at R-A then was NOT food but toiletries/HBA and paper products.

I have spent a total of $2,351.66 on food/toiletries in 2015 so far at the halfway point of the year. That averages out to $391.94 per month so just under $400 average per month.  Not a bad thing but I can do better.

June's Grocery Spend Fest  raised the average monthly spending by $42.10 more per month for the year-to-date.
And May's spending raised the average monthly spending by $41.47.   This is NOT a good trend.....
bleh.
We need to wrangle this back down closer to an average of $300 per month.

If you take my halfway through 2015 total and extrapolate it out for the full year, we are on track to achieve a $4,703.32 Food/Toiletries Spending Year for 2015.

In 2014 we did $4,989.49 so 2015 is tracking better.
In 2013 we did $4,560.82 so 2015 is tracking $142.50 worse.
In 2012 we did $4,196.36 so 2015 is tracking $606.96 worse.
In 2011 we did $3,080.59 so 2015 is tracking $1,622.73 worse.  Yikes!

LOOKING AHEAD To JULY.........

We'll try for a $300 food budget for July.
We are stocked on many of our staples here now so I should be able to accomplish this goal.
We do have a grown child coming home for a week or so and a cookout for July 4th to throw but we'll try to keep it reasonable and not overdo the occasions with food.  Plus I will dig around in the stockpile and see if I can utilize what's on hand more rather than running out to the store.
With the eldest son home I do plan on going through the freezer and dishing up some smoked meats and barbecue as he so enjoys those things.  Having another mouth to feed helps me justify all the work(and the amount of food)this preparation takes.
 

If you have other ideas or guidelines you follow please leave a comment and share yours with us all.

 

*  How much did you spend on food/toiletries in June?
*  How much are your on track to spending for 2015 on food at this halfway mark?
*  Do you track your yearly food spending?
*  What was your savings percentage buying on sale and/or with coupons vs. buying at regular retail price last month, if you track that sort of thing?
 

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

It's the "My son is going to kill Me for posting this Photo" Edition-- 

Since I have no photos from this past weekend to share, here is one of my eldest son right after his wisdom teeth removal surgery last Friday.  His girlfriend sent this to me with the caption, "He has a mouth full of gauze and woke up after surgery talking up a storm but I can't understand anything he is saying!" lol
I guess he enjoyed the "happy drugs".....

 

Onward to the meal planning!

 

Here's what was planned last week.......
 

1. Sunday--Chinese take-out(what Hubs wanted for Father's Day)
2. Monday--Leftover Chinese take-out
3. Tuesday--Beef Stroganoff, Rice, Tossed Salad
4. Wednesday--Cauliflower soup, BBQ Chicken legs, Potato Salad
5. Thursday--Chicken Chiles Casserole
6. Friday--Beef Enchiladas, Corn
7. Saturday--Leftovers

 

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Chinese take-out(what Hubs wanted for Father's Day)
2. Monday--Leftover Chinese take-out
3. Tuesday--Subway sandwiches
4. Wednesday--Beef Stroganoff, Rice
5. Thursday--BBQ Chicken legs, Potato Salad, Cabbage Sauted
6. Friday--chicken and Green Chiles Casserole, California Medley Veggies
7. Saturday--Leftovers

Everything as planned except no Enchiladas and Subway sammiches instead.  The Cauliflower soup WAS made but not served at dinner as it's been a lunch "go-to" last week for me and CB.

As for my grocery spending last week.....I blew the budget out of the water!!
I spent 209.54$ on $529.11 of reg. retail food(counting the check I wrote for a trip to Surplus Outlet last weekend that gets included on this week's tally and 8 trips to Weis(PMITA)Markets to boot.

The food spending is up to $602.03 for June and we have 2 days to go but I am finished spending money on food/toiletries for the month. 
Heck, I had better be finished!! lolz

Leftovers going into this week--beef stroganoff and rice, enchilada sauce, potato salad, chicken chiles casserole, medley veggies and cauliflower soup.  The leftover chicken legs will be thrown into the freezer and saved for the July 4th festivities.
 

Here is this week's food plan--

1. Sunday--Beef Enchiladas(leftover sauce), Corn Casserole
2. Monday--Salmon, Potato Salad(leftover), Cauliflower(freezer)
3. Tuesday--Burgers and/or Dogs on Rolls, Zucchini, homemade Pickles
4. Wednesday--Leftovers
5. Thursday--FFY(Fend For Yourself) or BFD(Breakfast for Dinner)
6. Friday--Leftovers
7. Saturday--July 4th Cook-out(the usual suspects...lol)

What I need to buy for this menu?.....Rolls/Buns for the cook-out, maybe some chips, corn and fresh fruit too.  I've got the rest of the week's meals covered.

I used a mix of some of these frozen Steak-Umm hamburger patties and a lb. of seasoned ground pork for the Enchilada filling and made 2 large pans(12 pieces)on Sunday.  There are 9 pieces left so the Hubs and College Boy will most likely eat off this off and on this week for leftovers.  I don't care for them so I'll just figure something out for myself each night---a BLT, a big salad with nuts, tuna sammich, a big bowl of veggies, stuff like that.

The grocery ads aren't too interesting this week here, except for the usual July 4th picnic stuff like soda, hamburger, rolls, hot dogs, bakery cakes/etc., and corn on the cob.  Nothing really to stock-up on this week.  I'll run out later in the week(Wednesday)after the July food budget kicks in.
The only thing I am in dire need of is onions and I plan on getting a BIG bag(20ish lbs.)at the restaurant supply store this week to put into my ersatz root cellar.
With the $ spent on lots of onions and the picnic stuff I hope to keep this week under $50.
 

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?    

Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten that week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week? 

Sluggy

Ocean City Fall Vacation 2013.....Part 4

Wednesday, Day Four in Ocean City Maryland was our last full day on this vacation.

I went out onto the balcony in the morning and did a little seagull watching.......

Dark clouds started rolling in early that day so we started making plans for an indoor activity for Wednesday.

Hubs made breakfast for us in the room.......a sausage and egg on a whack biscuit.

Then we got ready to head out to "do" something.   By the time we passed a chicken processing plant along the way it was raining.

We decided to head up to Millsboro, Delaware to the Nanticoke Native American Museum.

 

This was a very nice little museum about the Nanticoke tribes that lived in the Delaware and Eastern shore of Maryland.  The first contact of the Nanticoke with European settlers was Capt. John Smith in 1608, shortly after the founding of Jamestown in 1607.

Though the Nanticoke are not an officially recognized tribe by the Federal Government(and they do not have their own reservation and tribal government), they do have an unofficial "tribe" and land that serves the peoples cultural needs.  They are however a state recognized tribe in Delaware.  This is the only Native American museum in Delaware and it is housed in a former Nanticoke schoolhouse.

Handicrafts made by present day Nanticoke tribe members as well as ancestors.......

The caretakers had no problem with us snapping photos of most everything in the exhibits.  The only exception were the preserved/taxidermy eagles.  Eagles are so sacred to these people that they don't allow them to be photographed. 

They had an accessible ramp in that back of the building so I had no problem getting the wheelchair inside.

Of course wheeling around the exhibits without crashing into them was another story....I was NOT a good driver having so little experience. lol
But I succeeded in NOT damaging anything......

An old dugout canoe which had been handed down through the generations.....

There were books on native history in the second room with the canoe tableau and it was set up to accommodate groups of school children as a teaching classroom.

There was pottery and many artifacts both ancient and old,  as well as some nice written history on the First Peoples who inhabited the Delaware Valley region of the country.....

I loved this old crab trap......much harder to use than the type of crab pots I used in my youth to go crabbing.

This was a recreation of a Nanticoke tribal village the local youth had made....

They had a small gift shop with actual crafts made by tribe members.  Hubs bought this matted photograph of Nanticoke dancers at a Pow-Pow gathering.  The woman manning the museum that day, Assistant Director, was the dancer in the photo so Hubs asked for her to pose with the photo. for a memento.  She seemed quite thrilled and pleased to do so.  Thanks June Morning Star Robinson!

I found this article from Delaware Online after our visit that featured the Nanticoke tribal chief and June too.  There should be a short film at the top of that page as well with them in it.


I also bought a Christmas ornament for our tree of a replica of the Nanticoke tribal emblem.....

After we finished our museum visit it was still raining.  I spied this field of crops on our way back to Ocean City......

If you can't make it out, that "line" over the field is an irrigation pipe system and it is spraying water on the field.....while it's raining! lol

We were famished as we stayed at the museum quite awhile so we stopped at Arby's along the way back to OC.  This nasty sandwich was a special in the Fall of 2013 at Arby's....a smokehouse barbecued something or other.  It was so SALTY I could barely eat it!!!

So after that we had to make another stop at the Burley Oak Brewery taphouse....you know, just to wipe the taste of that salt lick out of my mouth.  ;-)

I think we just stayed in that last evening and ate whatever we still had hanging out in the fridge there.
I had bought this Ginger Beer on the way down.  I must say it was not my favorite thing to drink but drink it I must. lolz

Hubs was up before dawn again on the morning we left for home.  He snapped another awesome sunrise before heading out.

We made another stop at Total Wine & More on the way home.  Hubs wanted to pick up a few more things he didn't get on the way down to the shore.
It was barely 11am when we got to the store and I snapped this photo on the way into the parking lot....

It was an old wino holding up a sign asking for money so he could buy a drink.....

No better place than to panhandle for money for a drink than outside a massive liquor store, right?

And with that ends our 2013 Fall Trip to Ocean City Maryland.



Sluggy

I am Done!

The two last Cheese Deal transactions at Weis.....

8 more bags or blocks of cheese..  Though I am tempted to run this deal 2 more times today I won't.

28 packages of cheese.
$56.74 of sale priced cheese for $21.74 spent OOP.
Reg. retail value of $111.12

The cheese drawer overfloweth......lolz

On the right are the older cheeses, about 8 bags/blocks and 2 cream cheese logs(plus another bag of shreds that I can't fit in there)and then all 28 of the new bags/blocks bought this week.

If anyone sees me buy Cheddar or Swiss cheese again anytime soon just stop me, ok? ;-)

Sluggy
 

Ask the Sluggy.....Answers Part 2

Meg B. asked....."What started you on your frugal road, and when? Have you always been primarily a SAHM,- maven -of -frugality?If so, as a college-educated woman, did you ever get grief for that choice? "

Lots of good questions so I'll dive right in.

I guess I have always been frugal, even as a teen.  Due to my home life as a teen money and food were a constant worry.
Then when I left home for school, after I moved out of the dorms my sophomore year again, money and food were a constant worry.  My father paid for my schooling yet gave me no money and I had to provide myself with a place to live and food to eat.

When Hubs and I married and struck out on our own money was tight.....very tight.  We had to watch every nickel and make choices between wants and needs. 
Then came kids and our money had to stretch even further to meet our needs. 
About 2002 we got comfortable with our income.  That was when Hubs finally got a promotion and his salary went high enough to let us relax a bit with tracking expenses.  We had also been carrying two mortgages from 2000 to 2001 which strained our financial limits a bit more but once the old house sold we were doing aok.
We experienced some lifestyle inflation at that point....nothing crazy--eating out more, buying more "stuff", etc.,  but we didn't worry about the money and spent a bit more freely.  I didn't watch my grocery spending and we started taking vacations that didn't involve staying with family and/or friends. 8-)

Then, as kids going to college(and paying for said kids)loomed on the horizon I got frugal again around late 2008.  I joined an online group called The Compact which was all about limiting consumer spending and going without shopping as an activity/hobby.  I went full-on compact and basically didn't buy anything that wasn't a consumable need for a whole year.  It turned my thinking around about the accumulation of 'stuff".

2008 was also when the economy imploded here in the US so it was good timing.  I started also couponing heavily in early 2009.  With the Recession companies were offering great deals on food and toiletries and HBA products, both rebates and high value coupons.  I got some amazing buys in 2009/2010 for little money, before companies started pulling back on the deals and the whole extreme couponing crowd took over.

As for letting my college education go to waste--I ended up getting a degree in a field that I decided for many reasons was not how I wanted to spend my life.  Yes, it's possible I could have become famous(lolz)and had great wealth if I had stuck with that career field but I would have lost much more and more important things in the end.  I probably wouldn't have had a great partner in life like the one I have and I most definitely wouldn't have had kids(unless I had become wealthy).

I have worked over the years at many jobs as the need arose for income.  My primary job however has been the care and feeding of my kids.  As Hubs income rose we were lucky to be able to have me pursuit those goals rather than being a 2 income family.  Yes, there were times when money was tight because of that choice but we both felt it was the best one for our family.  If I don't say so myself, my kids are turning out to be awesome people that I am glad to know.

If I could go back to those college years I may have taken a different major....maybe not.  Having a more marketable skill might have helped us out financially more but we did ok and I can't complain.
Even though I never really "used" my education, having it has broadened me, my world view and added to the person that I am today.



SAM from the blog, A New Frame of Reference, asked......."Here's one for you Sluggy. As an older mom myself, how do you navigate "mom" groups at school, sports, clubs, when they feel like they are sometimes a generation younger than me? I hear so many things that just make me feel dated and irrelevant so joining the conversations are sometimes awkward. I smile and nod a lot."

I had my first child at 32, my last one at 37.  Back then I didn't consider myself an "older mom" as my group of friends were having babies in their 30's when I had #1 son.  By the time my youngest was ready for school-real school, not Pre-K(and we have moved to a different area)I was 42.   I became a room parent for my Kindergartener and was by far the oldest mom of the group.  Other than having a kid the same age, I had nothing in common with these other women.  Not really because of the age different but more because of my lifestyle and outlook in life. 

Before we moved here I lived in a rural, fairly isolated community populated by people who had fled big cities in NJ and NY and/or retired older people who wanted to live in a quiet rustic setting far from popular culture.  Between 1986 and 1993 we had no tv reception(except for a few fuzzy channels over regular broadcast channels).  I limited my exposure to society(it is easy when you stay home and don't have cable and there was no internet yet there).  I turned my focus inward and enjoyed living a simpler life of gardening, cooking, making a home and tending to my kids and husband.  I had hobbies like canning, painting and sewing. 

The women that populated(and still do populate to an extent)our new hometown are like foreigners to me.  I remember when we moved in to this house a woman came to my door a few days after the move and invited me over to her home for lunch.  The lunch turned out to be a "buy Mary Kay products from me" demonstration.....so disappointing.  Let me say that I mostly never talked to that woman again as she really wasn't interesting in being friends, she just wanted me to be a client.  8-(

Part of my not fitting in too may be because I am not a "joiner".  I guess I am like Grouch Marx who once said that he would never want to be a member of a club that would have him. lolz

I have NEVER been one to be part of a crowd or enjoy that crowd mentality.  I do my own thing and enjoy most people for one reason or another.  I don't run with a pack of women like many of my sex prefer to do.  I have never gone to the bathroom because my group of gals was going, I've never gone out with the girls to party(ok, maybe once) and I've never had shopping/lunch dates with girlfriends and gossiped about whomever was not in attendance.  It's just not something I enjoy.

I don't like to belong to organizations of any kind.  These always come with strings attached and brings out the "mean girl herd mentality" in some women.  I found this especially in the PTA here at the elementary school my kids went to.
I did 2 years in our school's vicious club and my time in that was one of the most depressing episodes of my life(really!).  I began to question my own self-worth and just felt so awful having to participate in any activity through it.  The people who controlled it only wanted folks there to do their bidding and have no say in what/how things were done. 

But enough of my PTA PTSD.....when forced to be around people I don't enjoy or have much in common with, if I can find common ground I'll try to feature that in conversation but if no one is interested having meaningful conversations I just smile and nod a lot SAM. 8-)

Sorry to be so wordy and going off on tangents but you folks asked for it......lolz

Sluggy
 

What I Stockpile

Somebody inquired, since I stockpile when I find a great sale, what exactly do I stockpile.

So here are the specific items I'll buy in quantity when it goes to a rock bottom price.  Basically it includes the items which are staples for us.

Foods

*  Olive Oil
*  Canned tomato products(tomato paste, crushed/diced/pureed tomatoes)
*  Canned Green Chiles
*  Single serve fruits(for Hubs lunches)
*  Cheese
*  Meats(all kinds except sliced deli meats)
*  Fish
*  Butter
*  Pie Crust mix
*  Oatmeal
*  Coffee(whole bean)
*  Tea Bags
*  Chicken or Veg. Stock
*  Panko
*  Flour
*  Sugar
*  Pasta
*  Canned Chili
*  Reduced Fat Mayo/Mustard/Ketchup

Non-Foods

*  Toilet Paper
*  Baby Wipes
*  Facial Tissues
*  Garbage Bags
*  Dish Soap
*  Laundry Detergent
*  Dishwasher Detergent
*  Shampoo
*  Deodorant
*  Toothpaste
*  Toothbrushes
*  Q-Tips
*  Razors
*  Cough Drops
*  Pain Relievers

This all doesn't include any canning or freezing of fresh produce/fruit I do every late Summer/early Fall.  I like to can my pepper relish and tomatoes.  I don't can jellies or jams basically because we just don't eat much of that sort of thing(we prefer to just eat fruits in season).  I like to freeze/preserve green beans/yellow wax beans and sometimes corn on the cob, red and yellow bell pepper strips and puree pumpkin(if I can get those items very cheaply and locally). 

While I do buy things like spices, spaghetti sauce, rice, dressings, peanut butter and raisins in quantities, when it goes on sale I don't really stockpile these things.  Like the salad dressing this week.....it was an awesome price ($1 for a 16 oz. bottle)but I don't need 12 bottles, 3 was enough.  Same with jarred spaghetti sauce-I like to have some on hand for those nights I can't get it together to make my own sauce so I have 3-4 jars in stock.  And spices lose their potency if kept too long so those I don't overbuy when RBP.  I keep a supply of these other items but we just don't go through it fast enough to warrant using up my limited stockpile space on them.

So do you stockpile?
What are the specific items you tend to stockpile?

Sluggy


 

Winter is Coming & the 88¢ Sale at Weis

Another trip to Weis(PMITA)Markets on Thursday for cheese.
I was going to do 2 transactions at the Self-Checkout registers(2 x the chees goodness!)but I stumbled upon more meat Instant Discount Sticker Deals....woohoo!.....so I had to use a cashier.

I also decided to do two rounds of the Customer AppreciEIGHTion Sale.  Stupid name, right?  -)
Bunches of items are on sale for .88¢ each this week if bought in groups of 8.  Otherwise, these items are "only" on sale for $1.00 each.

The 7 boxes of facial tissue(getting stocked for Winter colds!), 3 packages of tortillas(smaller size but that's ok), 4 large cans of tomato paste(savings of .31¢ per can) and 2 boxes of Uncle Ben's rice sides were all part of the .88¢ sale.  I also used a $1/2 Uncle Ben's IPQ so the rice was only .38¢ a box.

I did 1 cheese deal(.74¢ a block cheese). 

There are .50¢/1 IPQs for OEP refried beans(I had just used our last can 2 weeks ago).  Weis had the beans for $1.25 a can on sale this week and when the Q doubles to $1 it makes these .25¢ OOP each.

Keebler select cookies are on sale $1.87 a bag this week too.  I had a $1/2 Keebler IPQ making these $1.37 a bag for College Boy's stash.

I found 3 packages of gourmet hamburgers with discount stickers and sale price $10.51 for 5.03 lbs. or $2.09 lb.
I found 2 packages of sirloin steak with discount stickers and sale price $4.63 for 1.88 lbs. or $2.46 lb.
I won't have to buy any more hamburgers now until the end of grilling season. 8-)

I also bought a 500 ct. pack of napkins for $2.99.  I was going to get the 120 ct. packs that were part of the .88¢ Sale but this higher count pack was a better buy per piece.

The last item was a Larabar(sitting on one of the tissue boxes in the photo), on sale fo $1.00.  I had a .40¢/1 IPQ which doubled to .80¢ off, so I spent .20¢ on it.
I also added a .40¢ off Q to my Saving Star account so I'll get .40¢ cash back later, making my Larabar   -.20¢(or they paid me .20¢ to buy it).  8-)

$38.46 spent on $92.39 reg. retail with a savings rate of 58% and I got another 10 gas points.

I am off to clean out and organize the cheese drawer in the fridge to see if I can shove anymore cheese in there.   I've got 19 blocks(and 1 bag of shredded)so far and I've blown the food budget for June outta the water! 

Can you see how little I care about that? lolzYes it looks really bad but the money I won't spend on cheese for the rest of the year will more than make up for this indulgence.

Sluggy
 

Ocean City Fall Vacation 2013 Part 3

Some shots from Day Three in Ocean City.

 The view from our hotel room.....oceanfront baby!

 The dive bar/pub next door......we always stay at this hotel but we have yet to go to that bar.
What kind of self-respecting drunks are we anyway??

One of the two outdoor pools at our hotel.  This was the first year we've stayed here in October when the pool(s) wasn't/weren't drained yet of water.  They close down the outdoor pools after Labor Day and by the time we arrive each October they are drained.

Of course after our first night here which coincided with the last night that the outdoor pool bar was open happened, there were pool chairs IN that pool(people unknown had thrown them in from OUTSIDE the locked pool fence/gate.
Now I know why the pool is always drained when we go....lolz

Tuesday morning we went on a field trip.....

I must confess we had never been here before 2013(nor had my family ever been here even though I grew up not even 150 miles away from this location).

I wondered aloud if we would even get a glimpse of one of the wild ponies that live on this island as it was an overcast day.  The fact that is was past tourist season let me get my hopes up(I believe that the ponies having lived through tourist people season so long would be more likely to venture out when they had all left for the year.)

After we went over the bridge which brings you to Assateague Island we spotted this........

If you look at the left of the photo(right under the big splat of bird poop on the windshield)you'll notice a PONY!
I got my wish even before hitting the beach!

This particular pony proceeded to walk out onto the roadway and just stand there, blocking our car.

and he stood some more......

Finally he moved onto the median so we got to the parking lot......

Here's a handpainted sign warning people not to feed the ponies and to keep your distance as they are wild animals.......

 

Poor Hubs wheeled me up the wooden walkway as far as it went then he dragged the wheelchair into the sand dune walkway to the beach.

The leg was feeling better by this day so I gingerly walked(in sand!)down to the shoreline and took some photos.....

The hard part was walking back up the sand dune to the wooden walkway so I could wheel back to the car in the chair.
That part about wore me out for the day.

Then we drove around the island loop road.....

 While I took multiple photos of horse crap....

 No ponies, just their crap everywhere on the pathways, the road and the parking lots.

Another sign telling you not to touch, approach or feed the wildlife.

 A marshy area on the bay side of the island....

 No ponies sighted there but we did see a fawn in the brush nearby.......

And on the way out a different wild pony next to the intersection of the roadways.

He moved over to a grassy area and I shot a short video of him grazing HERE.

A bad still photo of the pony I filmed....Hubs decided to move the car and I missed the pony's head. lolz

After leaving Assateague Island, we went for lunch to a restaurant we had been to a few years before called "Waterman's Seafood".  This place has been in West Ocean City for ages.  When we went years before it was an old dumpy dark wood building of a crab shack.  Inside was dark, dirty and depressing and the wait staff was surly on a good day.

Turns out that between the time we were in OC in 2012 and 2013 the place burned down.  The owners had just finished having the joint rebuilt and had just reopened for the year the week we were in OC in 2013.

Needless to say that place was transformed inside, at least physically!

Brightness and color everywhere.

The one problem was that it seemed like all the staff was new and inexperienced......plus there was NOT ENOUGH staff!  We waited forever to get seated and there were 2 waitresses for a whole dining room of diners and one of the waitresses was clueless and slow.

 Just getting menus in our hands was an ordeal!  Here is Hubs looking not so happy with his menu.

So I made him smile and pretend he was having a good time! lol

The food was good however(if a bit pricey but hey! we are on vacation, right?).  Broiled seafood-scallops, shrimp and deviled crab with a side of slaw and remoulade before.....

And after.  I was starved by the time I got my plate and wolfed it down...burp!

After I almost crashed the wheelchair trying to wheel down the ramp to the parking lot at Waterman's(I wish I had had gloves on because I got a nasty burn on my palms trying to stop the chair!)we got in the car and started driving back to OC(we were in West Ocean City at this point).
We passed near Burley Oak Brewing and decided to finally go in for a drink or two.  I had found this place online the October before in 2012 but we never made it over there.

Well, Hubs was so glad we went to this place.

 It's a very small craft brewery with a tap room with a nice variety of brews at very reasonable prices.

Forget those flashy brewpubs in OC, this is where locals hang out away from the tourists.

They even brew a root beer too.  THAT is in my wheelhouse!
I love a good brewed root beer and I ended up buying a growler fill of it.  Yum!!

If you like a good brew and ever get to Ocean City, Burley Oak is a MUST STOP!

We headed back to the hotel to relax a bit before heading out for dinner.  We had a bit of a ride to get to Bridgeville for dinner but it was so worth the drive.

Why?
Because I got to see Tanner again!
Tanner blogs over at Working For A Goal.  Everybody now go and bug Tanner for me because she hasn't blogged since Nov. 2014.  Tell her I said to get her butt back because I miss her!

 

Yes we had dinner on Wednesday with blogging buddy Tanner.  Here she is trying to keep me from taking her photo while she chews your meal.

And just look at this HUGE Fish Sandwich I got served.  (Humongous fish sandwiches are a family joke. ;-) )
I had to take half that thing back to the hotel!

The big dessert kiosk we left tongue prints on......ok, not really, we behaved!  But we should have as everything looked so good.....

And a posed shot together before we hugged goodbye and each went our separate ways.

We made our way back to the OC to get some rest before staring our last day of vacation.

One more part left on this trip to Ocean City coming up soon.

Sluggy