Grocery Shopping Lately....Vacation & Beyond

So while down South I did pick up a few items to tote back home for the food stockpile.
First at Costco(since brother is a member and we don't have a Costco around here).........

4 lbs. of pecans
40 oz. of cashews(a treat for me!)
3 lbs. of minced garlic
Total was $46.90 OOP
If I had to buy these things around here at reg. retail I'd have had to spend $79.78 or thereabouts.

Then when picking up some stuff at Food Lion for the sister in-law I bought this to tote home......

4 cans of FL brand tomato soup on clearance for .48¢ each
2 cans of Generic tomato soup on clearance for .47¢ each
3 packages of country ham slices for $2.29 each *not pictured*
Total was $9.73

I usually pick-up Chuck Shaw wine for $3.29(or whatever it is priced at now)for cooking when down by a Trader Joe's but the Aldi near my brother's house had a Aldi brand wine, Winking Owl for $2.98 a bottle so I got 6 bottles of that.........

6 bottles Merlot and Cab Sav w/tax came to $18.38.

The only thing I bought for the food stockpile was a package of 4 blend peppercorns at $7.16 w/tax.

All totaled vacation food shopping for home that week came in at $82.17.

I've done a lot of food shopping this week too!

I hit Weis last Friday and these were the best deals I found.......

1 x Vero Gusto Barilla pasta sauce on sale=$4.99
2 x SeaPak breaded shrimp on sale=$10.98

I used 2 x .75¢/1 SeaPak IPQs that doubled so $3.00 off the shrimp making it $7.98 out the door.

There was a $6.00 Ibotta rebate on the pasta sauce and a .75¢ rebate on the shrimp(x2=$1.50)so I got $7.50 back.
Plus another $2.00 back from Checkout51 on the shrimp.

$12.97 spent on these 3 items and $9.50 back in cash rebates.
Nice.

On Sunday I did a little shop at Walmart.  Here are a few things I had rebates on..............

8 x Chobani flips and Greek yogurts=$9.76
2 x Oikos yogurt drinks=$3.92
2 x Dial hand soap=$1.96
3 x Country Crock "plant butter"=$6.54
Total......$22.18
I earned back $10.63 at Ibotta for buying this stuff so $11.55 after rebates.
I also bought a tub of sour cream, 3 cans of whack biscuits, a big hunk of cheese, almond milk for Hubs and 4.07 lbs. of summer squash, spending $41.06 w/tax on this shop.

I hit the Bread Outlet on Monday with Hubs...........

3 loaves of bread
2 packs of English Muffins
2 packs of hamburger rolls
1 box of cinnamon rolls
1 box of cheese danish(for Ex-CB)
And we spent over $10 so got a free box of doughnuts too.
$11.89 OOP for everything here.

We also hit Ocean State Job Lot on Monday.....

I picked up the coffee Ex-College Boy likes using a $10.78 gift card which was free for buying $10.78 of select food items on a previous trip.
Coffee came to $11.97 so I paid $1.19 OOP for these 3 bags.

I also picked up 3 jars of honey on an Insider coupon deal there. $8.97 OOP for all.

And the "Free Food" table had more of those imported cranberry/muesli cookies I liked so I got 6 more tins(one is already opened lolz)and a bottle of honey/maple syrup blend Hubs wanted to try.
Total was $16.99 for all this and we got another Crazy Deals gift card.  I now have $87.99 in these gift cards.

I also picked up 3 boxes of cereal at Rite-Aid Monday........

These are $1.99 each this week.  I printed off 3 x $1/1 IPQ cereal from my Kellogg's Rewards Account, making each box .99¢ ($2.97)which I paid for with a free R-A gift card.  I earned back $2.10 at Ibotta and these items put me over a Bonus there for $5.00 so paid $2.97 on gift card and got back cash rebates of $7.10 total.
Sweet.  If Ex-CB doesn't eat this by the end of the year they'll go to the food bank as they are always begging for cold cereals.

Total spent this week so far on food is $80.10.
Total earned in cash rebates $17.73 and a $16.99 OSJL gift card.

A bit more shopping is slated for this week/month.....Aldi and Malacari's produce market and maybe the freebie at Weis on Friday.  ;-)

What food deals have you found lately?

Sluggy

Shopping This Week

This post will be short as I am off to a doctor's appointment shortly.


I haven't really done much shopping this week.  Between medical appointments this week and cleaning/painting a bedroom there hasn't been much time nor inclination to do so.


I did go to Rite-Aid on Wellness Wednesday yesterday but there was really nothing worth buying for me.
I did have a card with $3.59 in Bonus Cash expiring in 7 days so I got this to use up the BC.

It was on sale for $3.99 so I paid .40¢ on  a gift card for it + the BC.
Now I only have BC on three of our cards and I intend to spend it all down to zero during June.


I also hit the bread store since I was nearby after going to Lowe's to order a carpet install..............

3 loaves for $4 and the bag of stuffing was .89¢.  I like that all the brands of bread are now the same price there(even though one brand use to be  3/$3).  Before I'd have to sometimes buy more bread than I actually wanted or not get all the types/brands I wanted.

I spent $4.89 total on groceries this week so far. 
Not sure if I'll hit Weis(PMITA)Markets for the Friday Freebie.  It depends on what it is.

Did any of y'all get any good grocery deals this week?


Sluggy

Frugal Friday......the March 29th Edition

Still trying to get a handle on life after vacation here but we had a few frugal wins this past week.........


*  Last Friday we left Chesapeake to see my son in Fredericksburg, VA.  I hit a Rite-Aid along the way for some of that mascara and toothpaste I posted about the other day so you don't need a recap of all that. lolz

*  Once we got to F'burg I took my son out to Weis(PMITA)Markets so we could pick up dinner.  Weis advertised as part of their Fantastic Friday sale Freschetta pizzas for $1.77 each.  When we got to the store they had posted on the door where the pizza was that the $1.77 price was an error and they should be $3.99 each so not to excellent deal it was suppose to be.  We still bought 2 pizzas, while I grumbled the entire time. lolz  The first pizza DID ring up for $1.77(since they advertised it at this price, per Weis policy they had to sell you one for $1.77)but the second pizza rang up $3.99. Boo.
Still paying for 2 take-out pizzas or going out for 2 pizzas would have been much more than the $5.76 I spent.

*  While in Weis I also picked up the Friday Freebie and left at son's apartment for them to eat.
Didn't take a photo of it before we left so here's a graphic of the item. ;-)

*  On Saturday after visiting a winery we took son and GF out to eat for lunch.

 I had $50 in Dickey's Barbecue gift cards and our Dickey's closed up at home the month after I bought them(my luck, right?lol)so we used the gift cards to treat the kids.  My son paid whatever was left on the bill after that $50.

*  On the way home on Sunday we stopped at a Food Lion along the way and I picked up some reduced meats.  I found a penny leaving the store.   When I checked my receipt in the car I saw one of the items scanned the reg. price bar code and not the reduced price code so back into the store I went and got $1.23 back to tuck into my grocery refund monies envie at home.
I also found a dime on my second trip out of that store. 8-)

*  We also stopped at a Weis(PMITA)Markets in West Virginia.  I picked up 2 packs of Perdue refrigerated chicken nuggets on sale 40% off plus they each had a $1 instant discount sticker on them, making them $1.40 each.  Also picked up were some discontinued Seltzers for .50¢ too. 
WV grocery stores carry wine/beer and this store had a WV local wine on clearance for $4.99 a bottle.  It would have been something my brother would like so I was going to pick it up for him for Xmas but stoopid WV has Sunday laws that they can't sell wine/beer until 1 pm in the afternoon and it was 12:45am when we were there.  I wasn't about to stand around and wait 15 minutes to give WV my money(the tax $ part of the sale)so we left the wine there.
Stoopid laws.......
I also found a penny in that Weis.

*  We stopped at an Ollie's outside Harrisburg to check their clearance too.  I found a bag of candy 50% off...slim pickings in that store on clearance.  But I did find 2 more pennies and left 1 penny which was under the counter(it was stuck and I couldn't "unstick" it lolz).

Total cash found and brought home on Sunday.....14¢

*  Hubs and I went out to lunch one day this past week and used an Applebee's gift card bought last year so no OOP in 2019 for that meal.  Believe me, we spent enough the last 2 weeks on meals. 8-(

*  While on our day out we hit the Bread Outlet since I haven't been in about a month..........

$4 OOP for these 3 bread products. 
You can see one of the loaves has already been hit hard. lol

*  I hit Weis(PMITA)Markets at home and did the Mix and Match, Buy 6/Get $3 Back Deal....

2 x MC tv dinners
1 x Celentano ravioli
2 x Birds Eye chicken meal bags
1 x Kleenex 3 pack tissues
Reg. price......$24.14
Subtotal w/sale prices....$20.45
Qs used.......$4.50
Mix and Match Deal.....$3

$20.45-7.50=$12.95 for those 6 items.
I also earned $2 back on Ibotta for the Kleenex(.75¢), the Ravioli($1)and .25¢ for buying any item at Weis so $10.95 OOP in the end so $1.83 per item.  Not a great deal but pretty good.

I also picked up 8 more Ragu pasta sauces for .39¢ after doubled Qs, 12 more cans of Hormel chili for $1.45 per can after doubled Qs and a couple more free Oh! yogurts after doubled Qs.
The chili also earned me this...........

A $5 OYNO Catalina good on anything at Weis.  I have 2 weeks to use it.

*  I also found 2 pennies on that trip to Weis........

* While we were away this arrived in the mail...........

A 10% off coupon.  I guess I spent a bit of $$ at Ollie's on our vacation, enough to earn this. lolz
It's good until the middle of June plus I am awaiting a 15% off coupon Ollie's sends out to Ollie Army members every Spring/Easter.

That's it for me this past week.
What frugal wins did y'all have??


Sluggy

Frugal Friday......the October 19th Edition on Sunday

Let's see what frugalness happened around here this past week......

* I hit the bread outlet.

$10.95 for 4 loves of bread, 2 bags of rolls, 2 boxes of donuts and 3 bags of English muffins(cranberry!).  I spent $10 or more so I got a free bag of whole grain English muffins too.
Bought at reg. retail in the grocery store this all would have cost $47.49.  Even on sale at the grocery store it would have been around $29+/-.

*  I sent Hubs up for the Friday Freebie on the 12th........

A 2 lb. sack of flour.  Something I can always use so free was good!

*  I did a big shop at Weis(PMITA)Markets last weekend before we left on our trip.  Here are the highlights.......

The Kraft expertly paired cheese bags were on sale for $2(must buy at least 3-I bought 5).  I had a $1.25 cash rebate on Ibotta for these, up to 5 bags so they were .75¢ each in the end.
The tv dinners were on sale $1.99 each and I had a .75¢ cash rebate on Ibotta for these so $1.24 each in the end.
The Breakstone sour cream were $1.50 on sale and I had a .50¢ cash rebate on Ibotta for these so $1.00 each in the end.
I also had a coupon in a recipe book available at Weis for $1/1 Larabar.  The Larabars were $1 last week so this was free after coupon.

*  I found money on Tuesday.........

Hubs and I were in line at an Ollie's(Good Stuff Cheap!)in Delaware when I spied this dime on the floor in our cashier line.  I reluctantly must say that I almost shoved the shopping cart violently into Hubs to get him to "move outta the way!" so I could pick this up before anyone else spied it.  Then I remembered that Kim wasn't with us and I took my time getting to it then. lololz

*  And speaking of good buys at Weis, I picked up these two pork butts before we left town too(part of that big shop I did at Weis mentioned above)......

These were .97¢ per lb.!  Haven't seen that price in something like 15 years around here so I grabbed two(making sure the sell by/use by date was long enough)and will be smoking these this week when we get a warmish day.
Then they will be finished off in the crock pot, shredded and the meat portioned out into freezer bags for the chest freezer for eating in 2019.

*  I don't remember if I mentioned this or not before........

My free EOS/Special K lip balm arrived.

*  We stopped at Walmart on the way to our vacation spot and picked up breakfast food, drinks and munchies.  We ate breakfast in the room each day and only ate 1 big meal out(dinner the first night/late lunch the second night)to save money.  Much more cost effective to not be eating out for every meal. 8-)

*  The last of the basil got pulled up the day before we left town.

I dried it in the oven and ended up with 2 small mason jars of dried basil.

In the background in that shot is also the last of the tomatoes we picked before we left and the weather turned much colder.  Now I have to tally up the grand total of what we harvested from the garden this past season.

*  And finally look at what arrived in the mail..........

My seasonal 15% off purchase coupon for being part of the "Ollie's Army".  We'll figure out how we plan to use this in early November to get the best value from it.

That's about it here.  Sorry I am so late with this but I didn't even open the computer a couple of days and the internet was not optimal anyway and who wants to be online when this is the sight out your front door................

What frugal stuff did you do this past week?  Tell us all about it.


As always, remember the words of the "Frugalest Man in the World"......

Sluggy

Frugal Friday.....the May 11th Edition

Let's see what frugal wins we had this past week...........

* Forgot to put my Bread Outlet trip in last week's edition, so here it is now..........

$7 for 2 loaves of bread, 12 pack hamburger rolls and 2 boxes of Entenmann's black doughnuts(stop drooling Sonya Ann!lol).
Reg. retail on all this is in the neighborhood of $21. ick.

*  I got the Weis(PMITA)Markets Friday Freebie last week........

A free toothbrush

*  I also got this stuff last Friday at Weis..........

Tostitos were BOGOFree.  College Boy goes through these quickly so I got 8 bags(You'll notice one is already missing!lol).  I'll hide some in my walk-in closet and dole them out slowly so we don't run out and I have to pay full price for them.

*  Last Saturday out we stopped at a pizza place I had a gift certificate for and used it........

Dinner that night cost $7 after using the cert.


*  I got the $10 rebate for buying the Nasacort items on Wellness Wednesday last week...

It showed up on Thursday in my Paypal account.

*  I found money!

4¢
Woohoo!

*  In an effort to simply our finaces/banking I have decided to close out our credit union account in another month or so.  We have money in an online bank, the credit union and a local regional bank which has a branch in our town.  We pulled out of all national banks that took TARP funds back in 2008(I'm looking at you Wells Fargo!)and opened this credit union account.

The credit union, while a good idea, hasn't worked out too well-their hours suck(or lack thereof), they make us deposit checks into the savings portion and then move that money into checking after a hold period(it's not like we don't have ample funds to cover any checks written without that money!), then change my online access to the account on a whim and make me jump through hoops I shouldn't have to, the tellers are very unfriendly, and they just are very rinky dink(don't ask what that means, it's just bad).

So we'll be expanding our presence at the local regional bank which I've had a personal account with since we moved here in 2000.

So I ordered new checks at the bank two weeks ago as I am almost out.  Because of the type of account we have there, the checks are still free...woohoo!  The checks arrived this week.

* I received $3 this week on Ibotta and .50¢ last week(which I forgot to mention).  I'm up to $41.35 on that platform in cash rebates for 2018.

*  I put stuff up on the F/B yard sale site and sold some shampoo.......

$18 in my pocket for stuff I got for free at Rite-Aid.
No bites on the diapers yet......sometimes people are so flaky!!

There is a definite form you need to follow on this sales site.....you have to post "interested" and then you contact the seller via pm to arrange the details of the sale.  I constantly get folks pm'ing me and not posting on the sales ad first.  Why can't people follow freaking directions!!!
And then you get the assholes who can't read or see the items and ask you, "How many do you have?" or "How much for X?"  And then there are the ones who want it for nothing asking me if I'll take lower than $1.50 a bottle for high end shampoos like Nexxus and L'Oreal.
Seriously?  $1.50 is too much for you?  Just go away........lolz
Rant over.

What frugal wins did you have this past week?

Sluggy

Frugal Friday....April 20th Edition

Let's see what frugal wins we had this past week.........

* I did a $40 shop at Weis this week.  Here are the best deals I got.........

 VO5 products were .77¢.  I used 2 x .50¢/2 Qs that doubled to $1 and bought 4 bottles.  OOP cost was .22¢ per bottle.  I don't use this brand on my hair(I get moreexpensive shampoos for free at Rite-Aid)so I'll use these watered down to refill hand soap container.  I should be able to get 2 refills from each bottle so 8 refills total.  8 bottles of hand soap even at the Dollar Tree cost $8.  I'll take $1.76 spent OOP over $8 any day.

 These ready-to-use pasta bags were on sale $1.50 each. I used 2 x $1/1 Qs plus a digital e-coupon came off my loyalty card so I paid $0.00 for both.

4 x Hormel quick wraps have been a monthly deal at Weis when you buy 4 they are $1.25 each so $5 for 4.
I used 4 x .50¢/1 IPQs that doubled to $1 each so $5-$4Qs=$1.00 for all 4 packages so .25¢ each.
College Boy has been eating these as they are a quick to grab meal when he is rushing off to the music studio.

* Last Week's Freebie at Weis(PMITA)Markets.....

A box of popcorn.  Again, Customer Service had no CLUE this was Friday Freebie freebie.  Good thing I sent Hubs because he's got a knack of getting them to give him the freebie without a hassle(maybe because he's a man?lol).
This will get used and saved me from spending money on it so it's a win!

*  I tried a new side dish last week-Zucchini with Anchovies and Capers.  Recipe HERE.
I don't usually keep anchovies in our pantry so had to buy them to make this dish.  Luckily the anchovies were on sale at least.  ;-)

Afterwards I was left with 1/2 a tin of salty fish to use up.
So I decided to put homemade pizza on the menu this past week to use them up.

I got out about 6 bags of partially used shredded cheese(why don't these people here use up a bag before opening a new bag?!?), 2 cans of pizza sauce I picked up at the grocery outlet last Summer, a small bag of pepperoni from the freezer, a can of olives and an onion in the pantry and that half tin of anchovies.  I made enough dough for 3 pies(one XL)--a pepperoni and onion, an anchovy and olive and onion, and a pepperoni and olive pie.  I forgot to take a photo of the anchovy pizza and this is all that is left after the meal(and College Boy hitting the leftovers for two late night meals. 8-)

*  I found a penny in the Weis parking lot.

Hey!  It's a small win but picking  random change that gets abandoned in a parking lot adds up.
I also found someone's key in a different parking lot with nobody around to ask if they lost it, and turned it in to the store.

*  I sold this on eBay last Friday..........

"Would you believe?" It's a complete dvd set of the 1960's series Get Smart(see what I did there?lol).
Hubs dearly loved this tv show as a kid so when they came out with this boxed set of the series I got it for him for Xmas about 10 years ago.  I think he watched 3 episodes and put it away. He said the show didn't "age" well and wasn't so fun to watch now.  I bit my tongue about saying how some PEOPLE don't age well either. hehehe

I took a lower offer on it just to get it out of the house and I am trying not to think about the sunk costs and instead about how this dvd set will make someone else happy.  Considering what I paid for it I lost money here but it's gone and I've got $44.30 after fees back in my pocket.

* And there was a small trip to Rite-Aid this week......

I should have been able to use $2 in BC or PPs on this(as my total should have been $2 after Qs)but 2 of the toothpastes were less than $3.50 with the 20% Wellness discount($3.43)so my total was at $1.86 instead of $2(A rookie mistake but even I am not at the top of my game some days.)
So I put the $1.86 on my R-A gift card.

*  Cheap Mouse for the Win!
My computer mouse went KAPUT! about 10 days ago so I went and got a new wireless mouse.....

It was a choice between this or a purple one with geometric shapes on it.  This one was a bit less expensive of the two on Amazon(an unpopular design they were clearancing out?).  It was free shipping with Prime, cost me $11.61 w/tax which was less than any brick and mortar wanted to just a plain boring black or blue name brand wireless mouse.

*  The federal tax refund hit our bank account.  After $381.03 in fees(for tax software and monies we had to pay the states of PA and LA and mailing costs for 1 state return we banked $5362.97.  Likely the fed. refund was so high due to Hubs working 50% of the year and having such high withholding in his checks so that when we dropped down to the retirement income level we had a large credit of withholding.  That doesn't sound quite right but I can't figure out how to say it right now. lolz
Anyway, we didn't go blow that check on a down payment on a car(people do that with tax refunds, use it to get a car but it only covers a down payment and then they are saddled with a new recurring car paymentbill), or spend it on something else that was a want.  If we had debt we'd have thrown it onto that bill but we don't thankfully at this point in our lives.
So we will transfer it to our online account(which will earn a tad more than at a brick and mortar bank)and just let it sit for now until we make a plan for that money.

*  While Hubs was out running an errand I had him hit the Bread Outlet since he was going right by there.........

I gave him a list with options.  He picked up 3 3/$3 items and 3 3/$4 items. (A package hamburger rolls is missing because we used them that evening before I thought to take a photo.)  He spent $7 on bread products that would cost $24.14 at the grocery store(not on sale, but even on sale it would have been at least $12+).
That blue labeled bread is Organic and goes for $5.99 a loaf!!
With that 5 lb. log of Cooper Cheese I bought College Boy is eating a LOT more grilled cheese sandwiches(he will eat 3-4 at a sitting!)so the bread was very low so I am glad we got restocked.

So tell us what Frugal wins you had this past week?

Sluggy