The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of June's Food Budget

Even with the Catalina stock-ups(hello 12 cartons of ice cream!)at Weis and buying the ginormous jar of local honey AND the specialty salts at the local Health Food store this month I could have stayed on or just under budget for June.

And then the Graduation Party for 12 family members happened.

* And even with the buying some stuff a month ahead for it, the store bought cake(who was I to say no to this request and make a homemade cake?) and the bags of ice for the coolers/drinks just pushed the spending over $200 by the 10th of the month.  UGLY

Ugh. 
But your kid doesn't graduate from high school more than once so I am not beating myself up over spending money for this party.  I still think I did it fairly on the frugal side.

* And at least I didn't put the expenses on a credit card.  ;-)  GOOD

I am standing at food spending of $265.61 at this moment.
I have $48.96 in cash rebates received so far this month to add to my $250 food budget, for a total of $298.96 in the food kitty(so far).
* This means I have $33.35 left before I go over my allotted June budget for food.  UGLY


* All that Graduation party food meant massive leftovers to eat all of last week, so no food shopping happened....until the 18th.  GOOD

* I had a Weis Catalina Q expiring on the 18th, so I rolled it into a newer one.....

Assorted paper products(Kimberly-Clark brand I believe)were Buy $21/Get $7 Catalina.
I bought the 2 MEGA roll packs of toilet paper above, using 2 x $1/1 Scott ManuQs and my expiring $7 CatQ, for a grand total of $4.98 OOP for both.
And I received another $7 CatalinaQ.
$2.49 each for bigass packages of TP & $7 more in Cats?  Yes please!!  GOOD


* While I was in the store rolling that CatQ, I spent another $27.21 on blocks of cheese($1.67 each)and chicken(40% off Tyson convenience chicken for when #2 son returns from camp), plus big bags of tortilla chips(BOGO) for Hubs tv-time snacking pleasure.  My Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese stores were almost depleted and at my stock-up price so I had to get them now. UGLY

* Buying the chips and the chicken in that transaction?  BAD

I haven't had a chance to check the grocery ads for this week, but I already know that unless we need it immediately or it's an amazing price, I won't be buying it......and next week is looking that way as well.
* I have $33.35 to get us through the next 2 weeks.  UGLY

* Looking on the bright side, it's down to just Hubs and I to feed for the next 2 weeks so no teens pestering me to spend on junk. GOOD
 
* I'm going to dig into the freezer and come up with meals using up what we have to put a tourniquet onto the food budget hemorrhage happening this month at Chez Sluggy. GOOD

So how is your food spending/shopping going for June?
Are you projected to stay on/under budget?
Or are you a wanton spendthrift like me this month? ;-)

Sluggy

Randomly Yours Monday

**My sleep schedule has been off for a week now.
I am wide awake at the crack of dawn.....so unlike me.
Then I crash and nap by noon and wake up again around 2 or 3pm.
Then I am wore out by 9pm and crawl back into bed.....and it starts all over again the next day.

I know this schedule is like most people's out there but my usual schedule is to to go to bed between 2 and 7 am, sleep until 2pm, nap again around 7pm for 2 or 3 hours and then up by 10pm until 2am or later and start it all over again the next 24 hours.
I have always been a night person and find I am much more productive at night.

Anybody else have unusual sleeping/waking patterns?

**And no, I haven't been to Rite-Aid this week yet.....but the week is young yet!lol
Anybody else been yet?  What did ya get??

**I have a Meal Plan figured out for this week to as far as Tuesday.lol  Last week I hardly cooked at all.  Only one night getting take-out too.  Seems the teens have hardly eaten here all last week so when I cooked something it lasted for 3 meals or so for just Hubs and I.....meaning I didn't need to cook but 2 times.

**I just found 2 high value coupons over on AllYou dotcom.  1--It's a Scott products Q for $2.50/1 on the purchase of 8 or more roll package of Scott Extra Soft Bath Tissue or a 4 or more roll package of Scott Towels.   Print it now for any upcoming TP deals.  2--It's a $2.50/1 Kendall/AMD Wound Care Product(they make bandages, etc.) Q.  Rite-Aid has a sale/+Ups deal coming up on Kendall/AMD products in a week.

**After slacking off on the decluttering/donating the last couple of months, I sent 2 loads to Sallie's last week.  No pretty pictures though....

**And from the annals of "The Grocery Store Powers That Be Heard Me"......I saw a Catalina Deal in the Price Chopper(northeast) Sales Flyer from my Sunday paper yesterday involving.....BACON!
Woohoo!!!
It's a Hormel Catalina.....Spend $10-$14.99/Get $3 OYNO Cat Q, Spend $15-$19.99/Get $5 OYNO Cat Q, and Spend $20 or More/Get $7 OYNO Cat Q.
Price Chopper has historically gone off of the reg. retail shelf price to figure spending threshold levels(not the sale prices on the participating items),but I haven't been in awhile so I'll be taking a trip to the store tomorrow to test the waters.  When my coupons arrive in the next couple of days I'll be all ready to stock-up then on some Pork Love. ;-)

**I got something rigged up for my Eggplant plants, in hopes that I could keep them alive long enough for the tiny eggplants to grow enough to be edible.
First I took a clear plastic gallon milk jug and cut the bottom off of it so I could put it over the plant.
That would have been quick and easy but the plant was too tall.  I then considered taking more milk jugs, cutting the bottom and tops off and leaving the sides(making a big plastic square)that I could duct tape together to make the 1st milk jug taller.  But that idea fizzled out once I started the cutting.lol

Then Hubs and I came up with this.....

We put a tomato cage on each plant.
Then we took a drum liner.....it's a HUGE clear plastic bag(used to line metal drums, like oil drums).....and put it over 2 cages at a time. 
Then we used pieces of bricks to hold down the edges of the liner to keep out the cold and keep the liner from sailing off with the first stiff wind gust.
It turned out to be a quick and easy fix with no cutting or taping involved.  Plus we can reuse the bag. ;-)

Two days out and so far so good.
I don't know how much time I can by these eggplants though since we will probably get our first freezing night later this week. 8-(

**October is almost 2/3 over!  I was adding last week's grocery spending to my budget book and realized that.  Speaking of grocery spending, I spent $37.89 last week.....fresh fruit, produce, 1lb. of butter on sale and about 16lbs. of meat/chicken.  Ok...I also had an impulse buy and picked up a bag of cheese curls for $2 on the spur of the moment.  Yes, my one wild and crazy purchase for that week!lol  Sometimes junk food calls my name.....well, it seems to SCREAM my name loudly and often.....and I just give in.  Ah well......
Anyway, I haven't even broken $100 for food spending in October yet.  Yay for the freezer and the stockpile!! ;-)

So what has everyone else been up to lately??

Sluggy

My Shopping Trips and Meal Plan Monday Menu....Rambling Post

Not that this will help anyone directly,l but I just have to post about it since it's the closest to a honest-to-goodness Grocery Deal I've done in ages!  We bought other stuff but I wanted to mention this deal in case stores near you were going to run something like this one in the near future.

Our local independent chain stores--each one is independently owned, but they share an affiliation(shurfine brand markets), so they share the same weekly deals/sales--had a double dip opportunity I just found out about on Sat. morning.  The bad news was their deal was ending that evening. 8-P

This past week they were running a General Mills sale/deal.....buy 12 participating items(most of which were on sale as well and there were coupons in circulation for these items)and get an instant $5 off your bill.  Other chains may run this as a Catalina deal instead of an Instant Discount deal.  Among the included General Mills 'brands' were Green Giant, Old El Paso, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Yoplait, etc.

Included in the participating items were the small, boxed Green Giant veggies, which were on sale for $1.25 each.  This chain is also participating in a nationwide Green Giant Catalina through Oct. 3rd--Get a $1 Cat WYB 4 boxes/Get a $2 Cat WYB 6 boxes/Get a $3 Cat WYB 8 boxes or more, making this a great Double Dip Opportunity!

I've got no pic of all the items we bought but here's a shot of some of the frozen vegs...

So I bought.....
8 Green Giant veggies @ $1.25=$10.00
2 Betty Crocker Taters @ $1.25=$2.50
2 Coco Puffs Cereal @ $2.00=$4.00
SubTotal....$16.50

Coupons Used
2 x $.60/3 IP Green Giant Qs(1st identical Q doubles to $1)=$1.60
1 x $1/2 BC Taters IPQ=$1.00
1 x $1/2 GM Cereals IPQ=$1.00
Coupon Total...$3.60

$16.50-$3.60=$12.90
Minus Instant $5 off Bill for buying 12 items $12.90-$5.00=$7.90 OOP
And I received a $3 Catalina for buying the 8 Veggies, so after figuring in that, the 'OOP' is $4.90.

I brought Hubs along and at another register he bought....

8 Green Giant veggies @ $1.25=$10.00
3 Hamburger Helper @ $1.00=$3.00
1 Cheerios Cereal @ $2.00=$2.00
SubTotal....$15.00

Coupons Used
2 x $.60/3 IP Green Giant Qs(1st identical Q doubles to $1)=$1.60
1 x $1/3 Hamburger Helper IPQ=$1.00
1 x $.55 Cheerios IPQ=$.55(didn't double)
Coupon Total...$3.15

$15.00-$3.15=$11.85
Minus Instant $5 off Bill for buying 12 items $11.85-$5.00=$6.85 OOP
And I received a $3 Catalina for buying the 8 Veggies....$6.85-$3.00=$3.85
AND as an unexpected Bonus, Hubs received a $1.50 WYB  Beef/Chicken/Tuna Catalina(for buying 3 Hamburger Helpers)....$3.85-$1.50=$2.35 'OOP'

 $7.90 + $6.85=$14.75 OOP for 24 items(16 veggies, 3 cereals, 5 boxed taters and helpers)& $7.50 in Catalinas to use next trip, since I didn't use Cat from Transaction #1 in Transaction #2, as they were done simultaneously.

 The bad thing is that I have to go to this particular Shurfine affiliated store to use them and I can't use them at the store here in Teeny Tiny Town.
But I drive the 5 miles to go to that affiliated store anyway since they DO take internet coupons!

Other items purchased were 2 gallons of milk, 9 white eggplant, 5lb potatoes, 1 lb. red peppers, 1 lb. broccoli, 1lb. peaches, 6lbs. apples, 1.39lb. bananas, bottle of dipping mustard, 2 packages of Oreos, 9 lbs. of chicken & a pie that was on clearance.
We spent $53.11 combined($14.75 of that was on the GM Cat deal).
Reg. retail of all items was $116.06
Savings of 54.25%


We also went to Weis Markets on Saturday and picked up more groceries......have I mentioned I haven't gone grocery shopping since last month?lol


4 x Perdue bags of chicken tenders(for #2 son on band nights) on sale $4.00=$16.00
3 x Weis shredded cheese on sale 3/$5=$5.00
5 x Weis cream cheese on sale $1=$5.00
1 x 3lb. Jennie-O ground turkey=$5.99
2 x 8 oz. fresh oysters on clearance $3.59=$7.18
1 x iceberg lettuce on sale=$1.50
2 x fresh pears on sale=$.83
3 x fresh limes on sale=$.60
1 x celery on sale=$1.50
3lbs. sweet italian sausage=$6.05
SubTotal....$49.65

Coupons Used
4 x $1/1 Perdue chicken ManuQ=$4.00
1 x $3/1 Instant Discount Q for Sausage=$3.00
Coupon Total....$7.00

$49.61-$7.00=$42.65
Reg. retail $80.53
Savings of 47%

Grand Total spent for all shopping....$95.76
Total value of items....$196.59
Savings of 51.30%


Ok, so I bet you are asking yourself, "self, why did Sluggy buy this particular stuff?".
Glad you asked!! ;-)

To analyze the purchases....
*The Cat deal stuff is obvious--veggies for the freezer, helper & instant potatoes for quick fix nights, 1 cereal for me and the chocolate stuff for #2 son snacks.
Other items bought at Gerrity's Shurfine....
*2 gallons of milk--we were totally out of milk
*2 packages of Oreos--tried to use the free Oreo/milk Q but they wouldn't take it so I bought Oreos anyway for #2 son snacks(they were on sale at least)
*9 white eggplant--great price for this so Eggplant Parmesan is on the menu this evening
*5lb potatoes--cheap price for this
*1 lb. red peppers--ditto, I'll slice and freeze these for use this winter
*1 lb. broccoli--for dinner this week
*1lb. peaches--great price
* 6lbs. apples--ditto
* 1.39lb. bananas--ditto...daughter is on a fresh fruit binge lately
* bottle of dipping mustard--had $1 off coupon so got it for $1.25. #2 son likes this with his chicken tenders
* 9 lbs. of chicken--great price on boneless chicken breast so I stocked up some
* a pie--Hubs wanted this and with the $2 off instant coupon stuck to it, I said ok!lol
*4 bags of Perdue chicken-#2 son is in the midst of Marching Band season so he needs easy meal protein most nights since he isn't here for dinner.  It was $2.99 a bag after coupons so I bought as many as I had coupons for.
*3 Shredded Cheese-on sale for $1.66 bag and I still needed some in the stockpile.
 *5 Cream Cheese--stock up price so I did.lol
*Ground Turkey roll--Daughter needs easy meal protein some nights as well due to her part time job schedule. I divided this roll into burger patties for her.
*Fresh Oysters--50% off on something we hardly ever buy.  At this price, we splurged and had fried oysters for dinner last night. ;-)
* Lettuce-good price, we were out.
*Pears--sale price, daughter wanted
*Limes--sale price, I wanted for my iced tea
*Celery--good price, we were out.  I'll make clam chowder this week, plus use some for raw veggie sticks for snacks.
*3lb. italian sausage--with Instant Meat Dept. Coupon this was $1 a lb....half of any sale price around here so I grabbed it.  Many uses for this item....in spaghetti sauce, in meatloaf, in various other casseroles or just grilled and eaten on a bun.

My Meal Plan Menu so far for this week....
Sunday--fried oysters, fried potatoes, fried crabcakes, sauted yellow squash
Monday--eggplant parmesan, steamed broccoli
Tuesday--leftovers
Wednesday--grilled chicken, potatoes and onions, tbd fresh veggie-all on the grill
Thursday--spaghetti & meatballs, salad
Friday--Game night so Hamburger Helper, assorted  steamed veggies
Saturday--clam chowder and sandwiches or leftovers again

I'm using some of what I bought this week but I'll have chicken, chicken tenders, potatoes, ground turkey, italian sausage, cream cheese and the shredded cheese, along with most of the GM items from the Cat deal left for next week's meals.

Have you found any good Deals lately?

Sluggy

Price Chopper Grocery Store Catalina Deals Last Week

So how much can you buy at the Grocery Store for $92.32?
Here's what I can buy.....

 

How about some closer photos.....

21 Mac & Cheese
12 Jello
2 Planters Cashews
6 Capri Sun
15 Parmesan Cheese(1 not pictured)
10 Oreos
10 Ritz Toasted Crackers
4 Knorr's Sides
2 Wishbone Dressing
5 Quaker Oats
12 Old El Pas Sides & Seasonings
22 PC Tomato Paste small
14 PC Tomato Paste large
8 PC Pasta
3 Baking Soda
2 Cheez Doodles(1 not pictured)
1 Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream(not pictured)
2 PC Facial Tissue
1 PC Hand Soap
20 Dove Shampoo
15 Wisk Laundry Detergent
1 Dove Men Body Wash
1 Dove Men Soap
7 Dove Deodorant
1 Degree Deodorant
1 Dove Lotion
3 Caress Body Wash
1 Q-Tips
5 Toothpaste(4 Colgate/1 Tom's of Maine)
1 Marcal Paper Towels
4 Marcal Toilet Paper

That's 211 items.
A retail value of $642.22.
A savings of 85.62%.
Plus I ended up with $36 in Catalinas($6 On Your Next Meat Purchase/$30 on Any Purchase) to spend in the coming weeks.
AND...once I buy 5 single serve Mac&Cheese cups(when I find them on sale for .50¢ or less)I can send for the Kraft Back to School $20 Rebate.  I bought the 10 cookies/crackers(oreos & ritz) and 5 beverages(capri sun) in these PC trips for this rebate. 
And I received my FREE OREOS Qs(we got multiple copies of it & I don't know why...did anyone else?) in the mail Saturday morning, so I was able to use them on my last trip to Price Chopper to have an even lower OOP than I had planned.

Price Chopper had 2 Doubler Qs on their ads in the newspaper last week.  I used them on the $2 Marcal Qs so I got the Marcal products for $1.99 a package after sale, Q and doubler.  The rest I used on assorted items in the Catalina deals with higher value coupons.(Dove $1.50 shampoo Qs, Wisk $2 Qs, Ritz $2/2 Qs, etc.)  PC also had a store Q that doubled any Colgate Q in the sales ad.  Unfortunately, Colgate doesn't release high value Qs but my $1/1 Total Toothpaste Q doubled to $2 and the Colgate Tpaste was $2.50 on sale, making it .50¢ after Qs.

Price Chopper also had a store coupon for Facebook fans for $5 off WYB 10 PC/Store Brand items.
I used that Q 5 times....I got tomato paste for .22¢, pasta for .19¢, etc. doing that.

My favorite deal I got was the Quaker Oats.  I found a $3/5 Quaker  Manu Q  in a store sales ad from another store from a couple of weeks ago in my stack of newspapers in the garage.  Quaker oatmeal was on sale for $1.50 a canister.  I bought 5 canisters for $7.50 and using that $3/5 Q AND a Doubler Q I turned my Q into a $6 off Q, making my 5 canisters of Oatmeal cost $1.50 or .30¢ each!


I am proud of myself this time around at Price Chopper too because for the most part I bought things we needed(we had just run out of Parmesan Cheese!).  The pasta, baking soda and tomato paste are things I use alot of, plus toilet paper and laundry detergent is always welcomed here.lol  Most of the Dove will be making a trip to the flea market as we are still stocked to the gills with those items.

So the Price Chopper campaign is complete.
I just loooooove getting great deals, don't you?
Even as old and jaded as I am, I still get a thrill when this coupon obsession pays off.lol

I'm hoping they have another good Catalina Deal around Easter like they did last year, but I'm not holding my breath.lol

Now we open the floor to questions and comments......anyone?

Sluggy

The RETURN of Adventures in ACMELAND

So the lure of almost FREE FOOD got the better of me and I headed back to Acme on Wednesday.  It was a blessing really, having a "quest" like this to concentrate my energies on, as it helped me get through a couple of the roughest, physically painful days of my life.  When you are in pain, having something to take your mind off it is a help in getting through it.   Not being able to eat is a whole other issue though....

Anyway, the weather was nice and I enjoy having time alone in the car.  This trip I actually went to all 3 Acmes I had planned on visiting.  I had planned on going to the closest one, then hitting each of the other two stores, then backtracking and hitting store #2 again, as well as store #1 again, before heading home.  Well, I ended up hitting store #1, then store #3, then to store #2 and then home.  I had planned to go back to store #1 to finish off my shopping, but I got lost going between store #3 & #2 and ended up traveling in a giant circle so I lost a bit of time between that and the late afternoon rush hour traffic.  Also, when I finally arrived at store #2, I found that it was a fantastic, new, HUGH! Acme with hardly any customers and stocked on EVERYTHING and with FRIENDLY CASHIERS and MANAGEMENT who didn't have a problem with me going through the register oodles of times and using as many coupons and Catalinas as I dare well pleased!
Ahhhhhh.....Deal Shopping Heaven. ;-)

So, I just ended up hitting each Acme 1 time(many transactions though).
There were a couple of "glitches" on this trip.  At Store #1 doing my first double stack transaction(Buy$60/Get$30) my Catalinas printed out but they were BLANK!  Seems no one had cleaned the printer heads on the Cat machine in some time so nothing printed out.  The manager had the cashier hit some button on the Cat machine and then RERING every item in the order.
Ugh.
So again, the machine made the whirring noise to generate Cats but nothing printed on the papers!
So the Manager hauled all my bags over to the CSDesk and rang everything up a third time.
Double Ugh.
Finally, the Cats printed out...3 x $10 ones.  Now I was set to do double stack transactions the rest of the day.
That was until my second double transaction at Acme store #3, when only 3 x $5 Cats printed out.  I put a call into Catalina and there was a glitch with 1 item I bought(it didn't register in the system), so they are sending me my missing $15 in Cats.  Hey, I am NOT getting upset about this....if they show up they show up...if not, fine.  I more than got my monies worth on this deal without them.
But after the $15 didn't print, I was forced to do single transactions for the rest of the evening.  More walking out to the car and back in the store, so it took longer to finish up.

So enough of my rambling on.  I spent Thursday lugging everything out of my car, taking pictures and rebagging it all or wedging a few things into my stockpile.  Here are the photos of Wednesday's loot.

FINAL NUMBERS for This Shop
I did 13 Transactions(9 x $30 shops and 4 x $60 shops, so 17 x $30 shops).  I earned 17 x $15 in Cats=$255 in Cats. I spent $225 of those Cats and have $30 leftover.(One set of $15 in Cats didn't print and Catalina will be mailing those to me.)

VALUE of Products Bought in These Trips....$579.02
OUT OF POCKET on these Items...$16.57

SAVINGS of 97.13%


**************************************
GRAND TOTAL for ALL This Week's Acme Shopping

VALUE of Products...$1134.82
OUT OF POCKET....$62.75
NUMBER of ITEMS PURCHASED....442(includes 8 non-deal items)

SAVINGS of......94.47%

And finally, THE BIG LIST of WHAT WAS PURCHASED


Betty Crocker Brownie Mix   2

Betty Crocker Cake Mix   1

Betty Crocker Cookie Mix   14

Betty Crocker Potatoes    16

Bisquick   3

Bugles Snacks   4

Chex Mix   7

Chex Mix Bars    2

Cheerios Cereal    17

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal    13

Cocoa Puffs Cereal    10

Fiber One Bars    1

Fiber One Pastries   1

Golden Grahams Cereal   5

Green Giant Canned Veggies    78

Green Giant Asparagus   8

Gold Medal Flour    12

Hamburger Helper    3

Hellmann's Mayo    6

Kleenex Napkins   1

Kleenex Facial Tissue    24

Knorr's Side Dishes    40

Lipton Soup Mix    12

Lipton Tea    7

Pillsbury Crescent Rolls    6

Pillsbury Toaster Strudels   2

Progresso Bread Crumbs   10

Progresso Broth   7

Progresso Soup   72

Ragu Pasta Sauce    9

Scott Paper Towels   13

Skippy PB   2

Viva Paper Towels    10

Wishbone Dressing    5

Yoplait Yogurt   6

*******
Banana  1
Celentano Ravioli  2
McCormick Salad Toppings   2 
Scott Toilet Paper   2
Frozen Turkey  1




Now I get to spend the next few days after I recover from my tooth extraction(yes, I FINALLY had it pulled today....HOORAY!) going through all these goodies.  I'll have the Brother-in-law come over and take what he would like/needs, then I'll pull out what we can use.  The rest will be going somewhere it can do alot of good.  Stay tuned for that installment....
I'm going to take some more drugs and take to my bed and hope I recover quickly.

Sluggy

How Many Canned Veggies fit into a Minivan? Part 1

That's the riddle hubby said I was trying to solve today.
On Saturday, I took off for the afternoon(which stretched into the evening too)and made a pilgrimage to Acme. 
There is a Buy $30(shelf price), Get $15 Back Catalina Deal this sales week there.  Not as good as the last B30/G15 Deal in August, but with the crappy Deals at Weis around here....I'll take it!!

I had ordered coupons but they didn't come in Sat. morning's mail so I took what I had(some insert Qs and some IP Qs-not much really)and I flew like the wind to the store.  The area I went to had 3 Acmes within close proximity and I planned to hit A, then B, then C and backtrack, hitting B again and A again, before heading home.
I was ready this time.  I had the Qs organized in the envie, I had the shelf/sale prices written out in a chart, I had my calculator and I had done up some scenarios on Friday so I could quickly get a very low OOP after sale prices and Qs.

The B30/G15 deal reportedly was doubling and tripling but I kept to single transactions to keep under the radar.  After the "being held captive episode" in Aug. at the evil Acme, I wasn't about to try stacking multiple $30 transactions.

So what happened?

First off, some of the items were on "knockdown".  While this is good for regular shoppers(because the price is lower), this is BAD for working a Cat Deal.  If an item is on knockdown, it means the shelf price does NOT apply.  IE-BC Cake Mix, the reg. shelf price is $1.59 so buying 19 boxes will put you over the $30 mark($30.21 to be exact).  However, the cake mix is on sale for $.99 box, meaning you will pay $18.81 for 19 boxes instead of the shelf price of $30.21.  Use the $15 in Cat Qs from your previous transaction and you pay $3.81 for 19 boxes of cake mix(or less if you have Qs for the cake mix) AND you get another $15 in Cat Qs to roll into another transaction.
Being on "knockdown" means you now have to buy 31 boxes of cake mix to get to the $30 threshold.
Using your $15 in Cats from a previous transaction means you have to pay $15.69 for those 31 boxes....$.49 a box for cake mix is ok but not such a great deal compared to $3.81, right?
So the items that had "knockdown" prices blew some of my scenarios right out of the water.
Ugh!

That was about the only problem....that and they were cleaned out of the Chicken Broth.  Having to do scenarios on the fly took me longer, making for a very long day.  But being out of the house and away from dogs, kids and yes, even hubby was a nice change.  That and there were hardly ANY people in this Acme!  I was there for many, MANY Hours and there was barely a line at anytime throughout the day/evening.

I never even got to the other 2 stores.  The store was deserted, was stocked and no managers bitching at me for doing small transactions. 
 Every B30/G15 Transaction worked perfectly and I got all my Cats each time.  Oh, it was a thing of beauty I tells ya! 
Some of my OOPs were a bit high(because of having to rework most scenarios to use what few coupons I had and to allow for the "knockdown" prices),but I managed to keep most of them under $1 for each transaction.

It was Acme Heaven!lol

 
The cashiers were young, males....my FAVORITE kind of Cashier.  No hassles from them or management.  By about the 10th trip through the register, it got to be a joke with the cashiers.....one of them asked if I had my sleeping bag so I could take a nap(it's a 24 hr. store) and another was going to get me a job there as a goodwill ambassador, for my work helping other shoppers find items in the store.
Why is it people always think I work in whatever store I am in, and start asking me questions, like I'm an employee??  This happens to me alot!lolol

Anyway, I took it slow and just kept doing transactions...
One.
After.
Another.
I took a break after 5 or 6 and went down the street for a late lunch/early dinner at a Chinese place.
Then back in for another 5 or so.
Then back to the car to call home and have some water and a banana I bought.(Had some overage to kill so I bought 1 banana...lol)
Then back in and more shopping.

I noticed a sign in the front window about a FREE TURKEY Deal....spend $300 and you get a free bird.  None of the stores around me locally do the Free Turkey for Thanksgiving anymore.  Only Shop-Rite and I haven't been in there in awhile so I'd probably never spend that much in time to get the bird.  All the grocery stores use to do the Free Turkey, then they stopped a few years ago.  Now it's either a piddly little Gift Certificate($5 or $10 depending on how much you spend)at the local grocery or a percentage off your next shopping trip at Weis(10% after you spend $300).  I hate those percentage deals because they make you spend $300 and up to get them.  Now once most people have spent $300 or more, they really don't need to spend a big amount the next shopping trip, so they spend like $50 and get $5 off.  Big Whoop, I say.....  To make a percentage deal good, you need to spend ALOT.
I don't know, I just always thought those were lame offers.  I'd much rather spend $300 and get a turkey. ;-)

So back to the Sign at Acme....they are running a spend $300, get a free bird. 
So after the first 6 transactions, I look at my receipt to see how they are calculating for the free bird-what I was actually spending or what the total was before discounts.

I had spent about $6 OOP at that point.
The receipt said I had $92+ toward the bird.
So that became my GOAL for the day.
To do enough transactions that my "spending" was over $300 and I could get a Free Turkey.
I told the cashier I couldn't go home until I spent enough for the turkey and it became a running concern each time I hit the register.....
Will she spend enough this time???!!!  
How many more trips will she have to do???!!!
Can her legs hold out to $300??!!


I finally shot past the magic number of 300 at around 7pm.
She shoots, she scores!


And there was much rejoicing in Acmeland.....

Then 1 final shop to get the bird and roll that $15 in Cats one more time....

So, after we get a shovel and "dig out the backseat area of the car" tomorrow in the daylight, I can take some pictures/make a list/get my receipts and do a final tally of my numbers.


For now, I am going to bed....my feet are killing me!
Part Two to follow--

Sluggy

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