Frugal Friday......the April 5th Edition

Here's what passed for frugal around here this past week. It was a good week except that I found NO change last week.....Kim must have beat me to all the money laying on the ground. lolz
But here is what we did manage to do........

*  I picked up the Weis Friday Freebie last Friday.......

A box of pizza bagels for Ex-College Boy.

*  I brought home an array of freebies from our vacation............

The booty consisted of travel sized bottles of toiletries, bar soaps, pens and paper, plus tea and coffee, jams, hot cocoa and oatmeal packets.  I love the tiny Nutella packs. lolz

*  I also did some pantry shopping on vacation..........

Everything here was 75% off reg. Ollie's price(except for 1 of the bags of chocolate which was 50% off).  Most of it was snacks and junk.  I was especially excited to find a bottle of Mega Red supplement for 75% off or $1.74!

*  I used that Free Dog Food Coupon Purina sent me before it expired............

And got this..........

It wasn't free since it cost $1.99 more than the value of the coupon but a good deal at that price.  I could have gotten a smaller bag of this totally free but that size bag was on sale for only $7 which would have meant losing $3 in value on the Q. ;-)

*  Then on Saturday while he was out running errands Hubs went to Petco and got this for Chester......

I guess Petco is pushing their grain-free dog foods and automated shipping(to compete with Chewy)thus this freebie promotion.   We'll see if he likes it....Chester, not Hubs. ;-)

*  There was no Wellness Wednesday pillaging this past week as Rite-Aid didn't release their WWQ digitally(so there was no stacking the paper WWQs w/the digital WWQs *sad face*)but I did find a few things to bring home for better than free anyway..........

The Yes To! masks are on sale for 30% off this week so the $2.99 ones are $2.09 each(except I screwed up and bought 1 $3.99 mask ack!).  Plus there is a $2/2 RA L2CQ making two of them $2.18 + tax and you earn $3 Bonus Cash back for buying 2 so an easy moneymaker with the L2CQ.

The Neutrogena Hydro masks are between $2.99-$3.49 plus your Wellness discount(my store they are $3.49 so $2.79 after Gold discount).  Buy 2, pay between $4.78 and $5.58 + tax and earn $6 Bonus Cash for each pair you buy so another moneymaker.  I believe this Neutrogena(Buy2 items/Get $6 BC) is a monthly deal so you can do it 4 times this month.

*  I got a few deals at Weis(PMITA)Markets this past week.....

I had 2 x .75¢/1 for Ken's vinaigrette dressing which doubled to $1.50 each.  2 of the Ken's bottles had .50¢/1 peelie Qs that doubled to $1 each.  The dressing was on sale for $1.47 per bottle, so I paid $2.35 for all 5 after sale/Qs.
Then I submitted for an Ibotta rebate(.75¢ back, up to 5 bottles)and got $3.75 back so these were a $1.40 moneymaker.

The Walker's shortbread cookies were on clearance, reg. $3.99 marked down to $1.99 per box.  I had $1/1 Qs from inside boxes I previously got on clearance after Xmas(the Xmas shaped cookies)so I paid .99¢ per box for these.  Short of making my own shortbread, these are really good. 8-)

Weis also had pork loins and chops Buy 1/Get 2 Free last week.  The chops were $1 per lb. More than the loins so I bought 3 pork loins and paid $12.92.  I got 7.75 lbs.of pork so this all cost me $1.66 per lb.
Why pay $1 more per lb. buying the chops when I have a knife and can cut the loin hunks into chops myself? lol

*  I finally got my PandG $15 Mastercard rebate deal from last year..............

I was shocked it came after the last time I did one of these and they denied it!  Glad to have it since buying the items for it at Rite-Aid didn't cost me anything. lolz

*  And don't forget that Saturday and Sunday at Big Lots...........

It's another Friends and Family sale there.  20% off everything in the store.  Print off the coupon HERE.  You need a Rewards card on Saturday to get the discount, the coupon on Sunday.
Go through your pantry today and make your list.  My brother always hits this sale up for toilet paper restocking at his house. ;-)


That's it from Chez Sluggy this week.

What frugal wins did y'all have this week?


Sluggy

Wanna Trade?

So, would you like to trade days with me?
Let me fill you in on what days are like here.
Take my Thursday for instance.....

I got up after being serenaded for 2 HOURS straight by the dog with the largest case of separation anxiety known to man or beast.  This dog will howl non-stop if someone is not physically in the same room with him.  I can be in the dining room with the gate across(as the dogs are NOT allowed in there)with this dog not 2 feet away from me in the kitchen and he's STARING a whole through my head.  But because that gate is there, he will whine and whimper and then start the howling hysterics because he can't GET TO ME!
I am NOT an early riser, therefore once the kids and DH are out the door I am not downstairs with the hounds yet, so I get sung to every morning.  It is ANNOYING as hell but after so many years, I can block it out and sleep right through it.

So I'm up and dragging around.  Check the email, write a blog post to put up later in the day and then I do any eBay emailing/listing/photoing/packing/shipping I need to do.  Next is checking for deals on other deal blogs and check out what my favorite bloggy friends are up to.

I had a 1st class international package to mail yesterday so I was FORCED to go to the PO.  I like my PO, really I do.  It's a teeny tiny town and I am on a first name basis with the clerk Pete.  Pete is great and lifts my spirits when I get to chat with him.  I have been known to bring him a cup of Dunkin' Donuts java on occasion....hey, you want good service it helps to grease the wheels. ;-)
We use to have 2 clerks but Jim retired and the PO is hemorrhaging money so they are NOT replacing Jim.
Poor Pete....
So anyway I go in with my package and get in line.  Some guy gets in line behind me a bit afterwards.  Suddenly this guy is screaming into my ear!  Well, HE thought he was screaming into his phone, but HE was so close and within my 'personal space zone' and at the right height that his shouting went right past his phone and into my left ear.
"Yes, this is XXXX  returning your call. I can be reached at XXXX.  Please call me back when you get this message."
It's a small room at our PO and this asshole could have waited until he got back into his car that leave that message, dontcha think?
Geez.....
So I got to turn around and give him the look while I waited for the ringing in my ear to subside.
The woman in front of me in line(an older woman with a dour look on her face)shot a look back at old "Can you hear me now? Guy" too.  Then she turned around, and also invaded my personal space zone, and tugged on his arm.  I thought for a minute old granny was going to give him "what for" but she then said, "Aren't you Aunt XXX's son?....Don't you know my mother XXX?"
Turns out these 2 folks are some distant cousins or something.  I'm sorry I can't provide you with the play by play genealogy but I didn't take notes as they went on and on and on! figuring out just how they were related.  Seems their mothers were sisters tho from what I could tell as they shouted back and forth over me.  Then when they got to granny's mother I got to hear all about her 90 yr old mother's health issues....from the catheter to the ostomy bag to the other non-essential organ removable surgeries to needing skilled nursing care 24/7 and she was now living with granny lady and she has to have one of those monitor things on her when she leaves the house in case something happens to mom when she steps out to run errands.  And then we got to hear about how she retired finally from her job and then all these older relatives started getting sick and she is worn out from caring for them all.  Geez lady, can't you say NO to anybody??
It seemed like a year and a day but granny finally got her turn and left and I got my package mailed.

So I then get to have the highlight of my day.....going to the local grocery store and getting free dog food with my coupons!  I was in and out in 10 minutes.  Now why couldn't that part of my day take longer instead?

I come home and deal with putting the dogs out to do their 'business' and go pack some more packages to mail tomorrow.
As I'm rocking out to some music turned up VERY loudly I hear dogs barking in the distance.  That's weird I think because they sound like OUR dogs but our dogs are in the den sleeping.
Nope....
The wind had blown the backdoor open and all 3 dogs had make a break for it.  Cherry our female beagle(our runner-who loves being outside and will take EVERY opportunity you give her to runaway)was standing on the deck barking at the now totally out of sight other two dogs.    So I had 2 loose dogs to NOT chase....no, I don't run after dogs anymore.
Peanut, our bagel(bassett/beagle mix)is all about food.  He use to run like a beagle but now at his age he likes napping and eating more(kind of like me).  I took a bog of dog biscuits outside and walked around the yard shaking it and calling his name.  About 20 mins. later he appeared in the next door neighbor's yard racing around like a maniac.  He saw me and heard "Cookies" and he came running.  Of course, we have a small netting fence between the yards(so that their black lab doesn't come over here and poop when they let him loose in their yard), so Peanut ran to the fence and then along it up to the front yard where he could get around it.
But then it didn't appear back in the backyard.  So I walked to the front door and he was standing and barking at the closed front door......he is not the brightest crayon in the dog box, is he?

The chihuahua was still MIA.  She will snarl and bark and stand at the edge of the deck if she sees someone or something move but she rarely leaves the deck and attacks anything because she is all bark.  But I guess Peanut's leaving gave her the courage to bolt.
I got a phone call a bit later from #2 son's friend's adult brother that he had her in his yard up the street so I sent #2 son up there to retrieve her(she is HIS dog anyway)when he got off the bus from school.

So my afternoon was full of fun and mayhem.

Then the other highlight of my day was attending the school's band and chorus concert.

#2 son is in both the middle school and high school bands(tho he's in middle school because he is more advanced and was in the high school marching band, he gets to be in both this year) and daughter is in the Chorus.  It was nice to see them both perform but every time we go to one of these I think I am going to have a stroke!
Why?
Because of the rudeness and total lack of consideration among the parents in the audience.
If their kid is performing they are standing in the aisles or climbing over the seats with some bigass camera trying to get the perfect shot of  "their precious Tiffany".  They are blocking the view of everyone around them who is trying to WATCH the performance too.  I watched one guy last night prop himself up on 2 seats so he was almost as tall as if he had stood up, blocked the sightlines for about 5 people behind him for an entire set of numbers.  He never WATCHED the show that whole time his kid was performing.  He had his face in his viewfinder clicking on shots and then reviewing them to see if it was a shot worth saving.
And if their kids are NOT performing at the moment the parents talk incessantly while other kids are performing.  At the winter performance DH actually turned around and laid someone out for this kind of rudeness....not that it helped.
The other thing is people will get up and leave when their kid is done performing so the kids who go last have barely anyone left in the audience.
And people who get up and walk around DURING a piece....for gosh sakes, can't you hold still and do your moving BETWEEN performances??!
And then there are the parents who come in late. ARGH!  If you can't bother to show up on time(they do post the time it starts you know!), then have the courtesy to stand in the back(and NOT talk!)and wait until a piece is over and THEN walk down the aisle and find a seat in the 3rd row.
Finally, cell phones.....hello?!?!
Can you untether yourself from that piece of plastic for 1 hour people?  And if you can't please turn off the ringer or buzzer or whatever you have it set on.

Finally it was home to answer more eBay moron questions like......

*How much to ship this to Austria if you take it out of the box.  "Well, let's see....if I take it out of the box to throw it into a padded envie to verify the shipping for you, it will no longer be new and sealed in the box and if you end up not buying it after all that, I'll be left with something I can get even LESS money for than when it WAS new and sealed in the box."

*Is this the largest Iron Giant......do you know if they made a bigger one?  This is the type of ? I call the "fishing expedition".  They are not interested in buying your item....they either have one to sell to or they need this information for some other reason and figure they will bother you for the info rather than go look it up for themselves.

*I am interested in buying your xxxx but will you take $xx instead of $xxx?  "Dear buyer, Do I look like a flea market?"

*Will you take $xx for your item XXXX. "Sorry but that price is more than a 30% discount on the listing price.  If I wanted to give it away(after eBay and Paypal fees), I would just give it to charity now."

*I also have gotten 4 QTS emails so far from one guy about one item I have listed.  He is truly pestering me with every  possible question he can come up with about this item and some of it I can't answer since I am not omniscient.  I do think he will eventually buy the item but he is going to make me jump through all the hoops and spend an inordinate amount of time and energy on this sale.....sigh.....

And to top this day off, I found out on Thursday that we are going to have some "Relative Problems".  Sorry but I can't go into this whole other area of my life but I think there are some family members who actually read this blog sometimes so I can't dish about any of the juicy hilarity that would be our families.
It's killing me but I can't....lol

Between all this I had to make dinner and make sure laundry was done so the kids had performance clothing to wear(I even had to IRON A SHIRT...ack!).

So that was my day yesterday in a nutshell.
Now do you wanna trade??

Sluggy

Surprises Today...Beagle Seal of Approval!

So I'm out in the garage, trying to organize and take photos of some of the stockpile, and the UPS truck pulls up to the driveway.

Gee, whatever could this be??

My local friendly UPS man pulls a HUGE box out of the truck and lays it at my feet.

And after cutting the tape, I opened it to find.....

A 22.5 lb. bag of DOGSWELL DRY DOG FOOD!!

I had totally forgotten I had send away for one of these through their Bow-Wow Bailout(no longer available).

Also in the box was a Coupon good for $5 OFF an 11lb. or larger bag of Dogswell.

I will most definitely have to find a store around here to use this before it expires! Dogswell does have a website where you can purchase their products online if there are no stores that carry the line near you. It can be found Here.

I'll let everyone know what the doggies here think of this brand as soon as they give me the paws UP or DOWN.

Did anyone else send for this?

Sluggy