Price Chopper Steals & Deals...Olay & Clearance Food

Price Chopper Grocery Stores had a small sized Olay Body Wash on special this past week(July 19-25) at 2 for $3(or $1.50 each). I had 20 Coupons from the 7/5 P&G Sunday Coupon Insert-$2 off 1 Olay Body or Shower Wash.
So you KNOW I had to make a trip to PC this week. Mindful of being within $100 of going over my July budget & a week left to go in the month, I set out to the store. I had figured out ahead of leaving for the store that I would spend $5.15 including the tax on the Body Wash.
Piece of Cake, right?

Of course, seeing as I was trying so hard to keep within this $500 food/toiletries budget for July, as soon as I walked into the store I was greeted by 6 shopping carts full of just marked down items right at the door!
Argh!
Oh the temptation of cheap cheap foodstuffs.....
My downfall.

Here are the things I just couldn't leave the store without.

2 bags of Goya Beans @.50ea.=$1.00 (less than half price)
6 large containers of Rice Select rice @$2 ea.=$12.00(Texmati, Arborio, Jasmine) (I've seen this go for between $6-$7 ea. in stores)
6 boxes of Jasmine Rice @.50ea.=$3.00 ($2-$3 in stores)
2 Ginger Noodles @$1 ea.=$2.00 (Not such a tremendous price but daughter likes)
2 Goya large Tomato Paste @.32ea.=$.64 (reg. over $1 a can)
3 boxes asstd. wheat Pasta @.35ea.=$1.05 (reg. $1.50 a box)
1 Ginger flavored Soy Sauce @.50ea.=$.50 (reg. over $2 bottle)
2 Wild Rice Mixes @.79ea.=$1.58 (about half price)
2 Goya Rice Flour @.29ea.=$.58 (reg. $2.49 bag!)
2 A&H Essentials Cleaner Refills @.75ea.=$1.50 (reg. $4 or so ea.)
1 Bag PC brand Dog Food @.69ea.=$.69 (not sure reg. price-much more than .69¢ tho)
Subtotal $24.54

Then it was on to the items I came into the store to buy....

20 Olay Body Wash(I broke this up into multiple transactions & went through the line 4 times. I've summarized all these trips with the food item trip for clarity's sake here.)@$1.50ea.=$30.00

6 Ragu Pasta Sauce @BOGO 2/$2.19=$6.57
SubTotal $36.57

Total for all items $61.11
Tax $1.21
Total before Coupons $62.32

Coupons Used
20 Olay $2/1 (Adjusted down to $1.50ea.)=$30.00
2 Ragu $1.25/3=$2.50
Coupon Total $32.50

$62.32-$32.50=$29.82OOP

The regular retail on all this at P.C. is at least $125.00(low end actual figure is $124.64).
That's about a 76% Savings.

This(along with the $5.40 I spent at KMart this week)brings my July Food/Toiletries Spending to $415.06-still under $500 total. I have a little bit I spent at WAGS & CVS this week still to account for in upcoming posts.

I found out later that there is a printable coupon for $2/1 Rice Select. ugh! Since I had no clue it would be on deep deep discount before I got to the store, and I wasn't about to go back to see if any was left once I had printed out a coupon, there is no way I could have done better on the price of those 6 jugs of rice. I would venture further that HAD I returned with a $2/1 Q in hand and tried to get any of these $2 discounted containers of Rice for FREE, this being a Price Chopper(they are not known for being 'coupon friendly' here!), the cashier or front-end supervisor would have had some reason why they would have denied to accept the coupons. They are good at making up the rules as they go along if they see you are about to get something for pennies or for free. They gave me a big enough hassle over the Olays!lol

But it would have been nice to have had coupons to get all that Rice Select rice for FREE!
$15 for over 18 lbs. of Fancy Pants Rice is worth doing the Happy Dance over. This will keep us in rice for some time to come.

Sluggy

Spending my OYNO CATS at KMart

I just had to go to KMart this week.
The reason?
I had a handful of OYNO Cats to spend from buying lots of Unilever items during the Double Coupons Event a couple of weeks ago. They were all expiring this week.
Can't let MONEY expire now, can we?

The crazy rules at KMart however are that you can ONLY use ONE OYNO Catalina per Transaction. So, I had to group items into Eight Transactions, as I had 8 Cats of various values.
KMart also makes you pay the Sales Tax on the full value of the items you purchase, even if your coupons bring that purchase cost down to Zero, so unless you just buy food or clothing at KMart in PA, you are going to pay sales tax.

I shopped the clearance and sale items to maximize savings and here's what I got for almost free......

2 packages of Joe Boxer Socks-only 1 pictured. #2 son needed socks. Socks were on sale. $3.50 ea.=$7.00

5 bottles of Elmer's Glue .20¢ ea.=$1.00

1 Mandoline Slicer on clearance $10.00

1 Purse on clearance $12.00

Towels for #1 son for college. Something he needed and they were on clearance. #2 son picked out this 'manly' color-black!lol 2 Bath Sheets/1 Face Towel/2 Washcloths=$23.00

1 box of Canning lids=$2.49 The only NOT ON SALE purchase. I'll be needing these very soon.

SubTotal $55.49
Tax $2.91
Total $58.40

Subtract $53 in OYNO Catalinas (3x $14, 3x $3, 2x $1)

Grand Total $5.40OOP ($2.91 of that was tax)

Sluggy

Mystery Building under Construction near Teeny Tiny Town

When we moved to this area almost 9 years ago, there was an old restaurant we use to frequent. Actually, the building was old, not the restaurant. This building had housed an Italian restaurant originally but sometime before we moved into the area it had closed and someone had opened a Chinese Buffet restaurant in that location.

Over a few years, that Chinese eating establishment had declined in quality and we had stopped dining there. I guess we weren't the only ones who had stopped frequenting this restaurant because it had closed up within a year after we stopped eating there.

Fast forward a few years to last year.
One day as I drove by this intersection, I noticed that the old building had been torn down.
Not only that, but the old bank building next door that sat on the corner of the intersection had also been demolished.
A few months later the lot was cleared and the city had begun forming concrete curbs and cut-outs on the perimeter of the lot.
Then, about 4 months ago, I saw that construction had begun on a mysterious commercial building. Here's a picture I snapped Friday of the building in progress.

Now back 2 months ago, when the only thing standing was the metal framework on this building-to-be, I told hubby that I KNEW what they were building, even though no "Future Site of XXX" signs had been erected.
It was going to be a WALGREENS!
And how did I know this??

Here's another picture I took of the building. Compare it to the photo below it of the completed WAGS building. I dare you to tell me I am wrong!lol

My Under Construction Wags....


A completed Wags.....
That telltale angled cut-off of the front 'corner' of the store design is a Dead Giveaway!!

Now I will have THREE Count' em Three WAGS in my area. This new one is on the southeastern end of Wilkes-Barre PA and the closest to my house. I won't have to venture over the river to the other side of downtown to go to Wags anymore once it opens.
Yippee!!

Sluggy-who is truly thrilled by the smallest things in life

FREE Olay Body Wash at PRICE CHOPPER

If you have a Price Chopper Grocery Store in your area(not the Midwest PC-the Northeast US PC), you can get the item pictured here for FREE!
Price Chopper currently has a 6.8 ounce size of OLAY Body Wash on special for $1.50(or 2 for $3, as it's worded in their current sales flyer). I found it on the shelf with the other body washes in the bar soap aisle at my local store. It doesn't appear to be an item they regularly carry, as there was no shelf tag for this size of Olay Body Wash. There was also no signage denoting that it was on special this week.

If you got the Sunday coupon insert for P&G a few weeks ago, there was a $2 off 1 Olay Body Wash or Shower Item Coupon. You can use that $2/1 coupon to get this Olay Body Wash for FREE. The coupon will automatically adjust down to the item price of $1.50....or at least it did at my store.

But hurry! The current sale ends Saturday and there is no way to know if this Olay item will continue at this $1.50 price past this sale period.

Sluggy

The Lettuce Fairy is Loose & A Walk Through My Garden

Yesterday I got to play LETTUCE FAIRY! With the unusually cool summer weather we have continued to have, most of my garden is still not at the harvesting stage.

Except for the lettuce and other salad greens.
Those are out of control.
Seriously!
Here's a photo I took of the salad greens about a month ago.



And here is a photo I took today.....it was MUCH WORSE than this yesterday, before I took the scissors and radically trimmed/cut back the plants.



So I picked my HUGE Pasta Colander to overflowing with greens.



I divided the bounty into 6 piles. Wrapped in a paper towel and put into a brown paper lunchbag. I had promised my favorite Post Office clerks Marie & Pete a bag each, as well as my Dr. and his Receptionist Jan some greens when I was in for my appointment on Wednesday. I had a Dentist appt. yesterday, so I took a bag in for both my Dentist and his Assistant Lorraine. Everyone very much appreciated the goodies.
I still have so much left!
I should make up more bags tomorrow morning and set up #2 son down at the corner of the road with a sign and Salad Greens so he can make some money.

So I remembered to take some pictures when I was poking around in the garden beds this morning. Though everything is behind in maturing this summer, things are ripening.
Here is the 1st summer squash....



The green pepper plants are small this year but are starting to produce....



The tomato plants seem to be catching up but slow to fruit. Here is the 1st baby tomato....look closely, it's behind the metal support pole in the center of the photo.



I finally found a cucumber too! Actually, the joke's on me because after I snapped this photo I noticed another LARGER CUKE in the upper left side of the photo I took.lol The sun glare was awful this morning so I'm shocked I even took decent pictures.



I am a haphazard 'weeder'. I do weed the obvious grass intruders but sometimes if some 'weed' appears that looks interesting I let it grow, just to see what develops.
That was a good thing last year, when I let a couple 'weeds' grow and ended up with a huge Sunflower! I've never been able to grow one here on purpose but one stray seed dropped here by some bird gave me a beautiful surprise.
This year I had some interesting 'weeds' take hold in the same spot as my Sunflower last year. These 'weeds' have spread a little too much and I went to pull and cut them back this morning. I found a big lovely Swiss Chard underneath! It's in the center of the photo....


Here is another Swiss Chard(red stalks)that finally grew. I never though this plant would get big enough to produce. This is my 1st year growing Chard. The chipmunks that rule my yard LOVED these chard seeds. We replanted it many, MANY times!lol



And just to prove that I am NOT the world's best gardener, here are my purple bush beans. For some reason, beans have NOT been good this year! So my yard is not straight out of the play, OUR TOWN. (If you are familar with this piece of literature, & you got my play on the line from the play, you may groan now.lolol)
I planted both bush type and pole variety beans. These piddly little puny bush bean plants are all that came up. The pole beans are MIA.




So that's a walk around my yard for today. I'm off to go fix some lunch without a STOVE!gggrrrrr and then to go through leftovers from the Yard Sale of last weekend.

Sluggy