Frugal Friday.....the November 22nd Edition

Here's some of the frugal things that happened here this past week............

*  I got the Friday Freebie at Weis last week.....

A pack of paper plates can always be used around here.

*  I paid our 6 mos. car insurance.  Instead of mailing it and using a stamp I just stopped at the agent's office.

I also picked up free calendars for 2020 while I was there.

*  I found money!

A dime near the Customer Service desk at Weis last Friday.

And then a penny under the stack of shopping baskets near the register at Rite-Aid when I went to return something.

Another penny on Monday at Rite-Aid sticking out from under a shelf.

On Tuesday I found this old penny in the newspaper box return chute outside of Bob Evans.

And a trip for an Rx refill netted me another .27¢ from various places on the floor there.
This week's Grand Total for Found Change was .40¢.

* Speaking of Tuesday Hubs and I took a drive to another town to check out their Ollie's(Good Stuff Cheap!)store.  I still had a 15% anything in the store flyer to use too.
Here's the only food thing I bought.......

A box of English tea bags that were on clearance for 50% off so I spent $1.99 OOP on food there. ;-)
A bunch of books did also come home with me at Ollie's discount price PLUS 15% off that too.

*  I was a little low on gas last week so I took a partially used gift card for a gas station here and used it.  It had been sitting forgotten in my glove box for almost a year.
$5.55 of gas was almost 2 gallons and that much goes pretty far in my little Sonic.  ;-)

*  Hubs and I went to Bob Evans for lunch one day this week.  We used a coupon.  I didn't find any money there but I brought home these margarine spreads we didn't use........

*  I went to Weis(PMITA)Markets again this week and bought this.........

3 x Finish dishwashing tabs
2 x Lysol toilet cleaner double packs(1 pack didn't make it to the photo shoot)
1 x gallon of Milk(also missing from the photo)
2 x packs of breaded pork cutlets(had $2 off meat stickers on them so almost 50% off)
1 x massive Stouffer's lasagna(on sale $12.99 but I had a $12 off DigitalQ)
Total after sale prices and Qs used came to $16.76.

I used my last P&G prepaid $15 gift card..........

And then I paid $1.76 OOP for this lot of groceries.
I still have a $25 gift card for the local Shursave store, free or discounted Target gift cards and $80+ in free gift cards for OSJL, along with all that refund/post q/found change CASH to deploy next month.

* Speaking of groceries and Weis I also did another feedback survey this week and now have 622 points to spend even though I've only actually "spent" $179.24 at Weis this month.
400 of those points will get me a free turkey for the chest freezer and I can use another 100 pts. for a reduced price meat/vegan-meat options and the leftover 100 points will be used for discounted gas for the Sonic.
Working the system the best I can.  ;-)

*  I earned .30¢ on Ibotta this week. 
Go me. lolz
Some weeks are like that but it's still .30¢ more in my pocket for something I was going to buy anyway, right?

That's about it from here for the week.

Let us know what frugal wins happened in your world this past week!


Sluggy

My Weis & Target Scores + Gift Cards for Xmas

I hit the meat department at Weis(PMITA)Markets on Thursday and found some good deals.
The actual cost per pound/per piece after sale/stickers is in parentheses.

1.24 lbs. Angus Bottom Round Steak for 6.19-$2 Instant Sticker=$4.19 ($3.38 lb.)
2 x Marinated Chicken Breasts(4.62 lbs.)for $6.14 total-2 x $2 Instant Stickers=$2.14 (.46¢ lb.)
.84 lb. Angus Cube Steaks on sale for $4.52=$2 Instant Sticker=$2.52 ($3 lb.)
2 x packages Uncured/No Preservatives Hot Dogs on sale for $8 total- 2 x $2 Instant Stickers=$4 (.25¢ per hot dog)

$12.85 spent OOP on $24.85 worth of meats.
Savings rate of 48.29%.
8-)


I don't go to Target very often, maybe twice a year, but Hubs and I went on Monday.
Target had a Spend $50 on Food/Get a $10 Gift Card Deal that was only for Sunday or Monday of Labor Day Weekend and I wanted to see the damage I could do. ;-)

I used sales, coupons, instant meat discount stickers, rebates and a free(cashed in credit card points)$50 Target gift card and bought what's pictured below.......

4 x Tyson Chicken Tenders(on sale $4.99)=$19.96
2 x State Fair Corn Dogs(on sale $6.69)=$13.38
2 x Market Pantry Apple Juice(after 5% off Cartwheel $1.70 ea.)=$3.40
2 x Crunch Master Crackers(on sale $2.50)=$5.00
3 x 8 oz. Cheese Chunks(on sale $2 ea.)=$6.00
2 x 1 lb. 73% Ground Beef($3.79 ea.)=$7.58
1 x 2 lb. 93% Ground Beef=$10.49
1 x 1.5 lb. Stew Beef Cubes=$8.99
Sub Total..........$74.80

Coupons and Discount Stickers
4 x $1/1 Tyson Chicken product IPQ=$4.00
2 x .55¢/1 State Fair product IPQ=$1.10
2 x $1/1 CrunchMaster product IPQ=$2.00
2 x $1 Instant Meat Sticker=$2.00
1 x $5 Instant Meat Sticker=$5.00
1 x $4 Instant Meat Sticker=$4.00
Total........$18.10

$74.80-$18.10=$56.70

I used my free $50 Target gift card and paid $6.70 OOP.  8-)))

Total saved was $46.23 + $50 on free gift card turns this into $96.23 saved, or a 94.60% savings rate.


I earned $25 in new Target gift cards--1 x $10 for Buying $50 of food in one transaction, 3 x $5 for buying 2 frozen meat products(4 x Tyson, 2 x State Fair).

Plus I earned a $1.50 Checkout51 cash Rebate for buying 2 boxes of Crunch Master crackers.

So in the end I brought home all that food and am out $5.20 cash and have $25 in new Target gift cards for later.

The breaded chicken was for the BF(and for emergency meals when I can't cook), the corn dogs and apple juice also for the BF.  The cheese was because, well, you can't live without cheeses, the crackers to pair with cheese, and all that meat-I'll blend the 73% and 93% and make meatballs to put into the freezer for later and the stewing beef will become chili one night soon when the weather cools off some more.

After meat sticker discounts, the 73% Ground Beef came to $2.79 lb., the 93% GB came to $2.25 lb. and the Stewing Beef came to $3.32 lb.  Of course I paid with a free gift card so the whole lot cost me pennies in the end. 8-)

I bring a calculator when food shopping and regularly calculate the cost per oz./lb. for meats/seafood.  It can help your food budget to have clear limits on how much you willingly pay for things(this is why you keep a price book too).   A hunk of meat may seem like a good deal on the surface, even with an instant meat discount sticker on it, but until you know exactly how much you are paying, you really don't know if in fact it IS a deal.  The 93% was an amazing deal at $2.25 lb. while the Stewing Beef was an ok deal at $3.32 lb.

As for the gift cards earned....
I'll add this $25 in new gift cards to the $30 in Target gift cards I have stashed at home(that were earned for deals while spending other Target gift cards earned with c/c points)and that's $55 in free gift cards I currently have tucked away for Christmas.

Since it's past Labor Day I need to drag out the Xmas box and go through to assess where I am at in the "acquiring process" for Holiday gifties.  After buying a few things while on vacation in August I should be mostly done with gifts.  Now it's a question of where to find the cash component without pulling from regular income for that.
More on all that later.......

I just had to share these Weis and Targets trip as I thought I did so well. ;-)

Sluggy