The Old Coupon Scramble & Rite-Aid Shopping Today

The Newspaper Insert gods have attempted to strike me down again!

You may have seen my post about my plan to get almost FREE Johnson & Johnson Baby Care Products at Rite-Aid this week HERE.

Well, my local newspapers(note, there are TWO! that monkeyed with my plan)had NO Johnson's coupons yesterday.
Zip.
Zilch.
Zero.

But even 2 major news publications can't keep Sluggy from accomplishing her mission!
I needed 10 coupons. I had 1 lone Peelie sitting on my desk.  As #2 son would say, "Sad Face."
So, I had to scramble around town for out-of-town papers. No Philly papers anywhere, at All!
I found the next best bet(the major city paper 1 hr. away)and yes, their coupon inserts had the coupon I needed. But I could only scare up 4 copies of that paper instead of buying my usual local papers.
Still 5 coupons short.
And I really didn't want to have to resort to eBay or a clipping service buy.

I went online to see if there were any IP Johnson's coupons I hadn't gotten my limit of or that had been reset. I finally found a couple of the multiple coupons(the $ off of 2 or 3 items ones)that I could print.

So with some hustling around, I got the tools needed for the job.
Geez, this shouldn't have to be so hard, yah think?

Let the Plundering Begin.....

 

They had the CankerMelts so I used the FREE ITEM Q and bought this...

7 x Assorted Johnson's Baby products on sale @$2.99=$20.93

1 x Canker Melts on sale @ $4.99=$4.99

Subtotal  $25.92

Coupons Used...

$5/$25 Rite-Aid purchase=$5.00

4 x $1/1 Peelies on Bottles=$4.00

1 x $3/3 IP Q=$3.00

1 x FREE ITEM Q for Canker Melts=$4.99

Coupon Total  $16.99

$25.92-$16.99=$8.93+ tax $1.02=$9.95 OOP
This was put on a Rite-Aid Gift Card earned from one of last month's SCR offers, so ZERO OOP.

I plan on buying 3 more Johnson's Baby products this week and submitting for Offer #43 to receive a $10 rebate.
The good news was that I found some bottles of Johnson's products with $1 off Peelies on them, so I didn't have to sweat having enough coupons after all!  Plus I found some bottles of the Baby Shampoo with bonus Baby Wash samples on them....bonus score!

In case your area didn't get the $1/1 Johnson's products coupon either, here are some bricks links to print the coupons online....

$1/1 Bubble Bath & Wash

$1/1 Baby Lotion

$1/1 Baby Shampoo

$2/2 Desitin or Johnson's Baby products

$3/3 Johnson's Baby products

$1/1 Baby Powder

$1/1 Head to Toe Wash

These links should work if you are running IE. If you are browsing in Firefox like me, you'll probably have to change the "wi" in the url to "wg" to get the links to work properly for you. You know what I mean.....when you click on the link and it just goes into 'PLEASE WAIT Hell' for hours and prints nothing.

Enjoy!

Sluggy

Meal Plan Monday.....September 14th Edition Bread & Eating from the Stockpile Week

Last Week's Menu Post Mortum......

We had a spontaneous 'going out to eat' night last week the day the roofers were here.  They worked until dark and I just couldn't take another minute in this house with the noise AND cook dinner so we went out.  And we did leftovers another night, so the Fried Fish & the Italian Chicken didn't happen and will be moved to this week's menu.
I was happy that I could use up some meat odds n' ends on Sunday in the Chili. I had a small London Broil, a small chunk of ground turkey and ground beef.  None of which was big enough to make a full meal.  It was perfect to whip up some Chili.  I have some veggies in the freezer that aren't enough for enough servings for a meal, so once the weather gets a bit chillier, I'll be throwing those into a big pot of soup or stew to use them up.

I found some ears of local corn I had frozen last fall on Saturday.  Since we have fresh local corn now and I need to use these up, I'll be making Corn Chowder with the frozen ears this week.

This week I am still trying to move out some older frozen foods and stockpile boxed canned items.  But as of yesterday I have some new things to use up too.
Yes, I took son out yesterday and I found that those Evil people at ENTENMENN'S opened a Discount Bakery Outlet near my house, unbeknownst to me.

So I had to go in and scope it out.
And then I had to go and buy a bunch of day old rolls and treats.
So now I have hamburger rolls, steak rolls, english muffins & dinner rolls that need to be used before they expire.  I'll be working these bread products into my menu for this week.


Here's what I will be serving our family of 4 this Week...

MONDAY--Lasagna(leftover), Salad Greens(garden-still!), Garlic Bread(pantry)
TUESDAY--Kielbasa on Steak Rolls, Onions, fresh Corn on cob
WEDNESDAY--Burritos(freezer) w/leftover Chili with Cheese, Squash Casserole(garden/freezer)
THURSDAY--Marinated Italian Chicken(freezer/marinade in stockpile), Rice(stockpile), Veggie Melange(freezer)
FRIDAY--Fried Fish(freezer), French Fries(pantry), Green Beans(freezer)
SATURDAY--Turkey Sloppy Joe's on Rolls(freezer/stockpile/pantry), Squash Casserole(leftover from Wed.)
SUNDAY--Corn Chowder(freezer), Grilled Cheese or Leftovers
Dessert--Zucchini Bread, Seasonal Fresh Fruit


Last week I spent $62.37 on food & pet food.  Most of that was for lunch meats(that should last 2 weeks), a lot of milk, rye bread and fresh fruits....oh, and the Entenmenn's outlet bread products.  There was a little bit of stocking up on cranberry sauce.

This week's shopping list is light again....1 package of Kielbasa, fresh local corn on the cob and more fresh fruit.  I am sure I'll need milk this week too.  I'm figuring about $15 should cover it.  I'll have plenty of money leftover this week for stocking up if I find something we can use, that's on a great sale.

Food Waste Report....nothing thrown out last week. 8-))
There is some leftover BBQ Chicken legs that need eating and the dogs can't have that(because of the sauce).  I'll probably pick the meat off the bones and make myself a BBQ Chicken sandwich for lunch this week to use it up.

We did have to throw out some juice yesterday.  It was some new product I had bought on sale with a coupon this summer to try it.  It's called VitaminSense.  It was soooo NASTY!!!  It made me physically gag when I tried it and neither of the kids will drink it.
Just yuck.
I don't feel bad in the least for pouring it down the drainer.....well, I felt worse for wasting that $1.00 I spent on it.lol

Check out Organizing Junkie's Website Here to see what other Home Cooks are serving this week!

Sluggy

FREE STUFF next week at Rite-Aid 9/13-9/19

Here is what I am buying at Rite-Aid this upcoming week, September 13-19.

*  The Suave Lotion/Shampoo/Body Wash is on sale for $1.99.
Use a $1/1 Suave Lotion Coupon when you pay.  This coupon was from the 8/2 Red Plum Insert.
Pay .99¢.
Submit for the Single Check Rebate of $1.00 for the Lotion.
That makes the bottle of Lotion more than FREE!

* If you haven't used or printed your limit of $1/1 AJAX DISHWASHING LIQUID Coupons at Coupons.com yet, you can use them next week at Rite-Aid.  Ajax will be on sale for .99¢ a bottle so be sure and pick up your Free Ajax.  I won't be buying this because I used my printables already at KMart last week, but if I had the coupons, I'd buy it. 8-))

* Next week Johnson's Baby Care products are on sale $2.99 each.
Check out the scan of the ad below, in the upper right hand corner.
There will be a $1/1 Coupon this Sunday for Johnson's Baby products in the coupons inserts.
When you buy 10 Johnson's Baby products, you can submit for a $15 Rebate as part of the Rite-Aid Single Check Rebate program.

Here is the scenario I'm going to do.

First I'll print off the $5 off $25 Rite-Aid coupon available at Coupons.com.
Then I'll clip 10 Johnson's coupons from the inserts, or supplement my insert coupon supply with IP Johnson's coupons from various places online.
I'll also bring my $1/1 Suave Lotion coupon.

Buy...
1 Suave Lotion @$1.99
10 Johnson's Baby Care Products @$2.99
Subtotal  $31.89

Hand over the $5/$25 Coupon (-$5.00)
Subtotal  $26.89

Hand over 1 Suave $1/1 & 10 Johnson's $1/1 Coupons (-$11.00)
Subtotal  $15.89
Pay a total of  $16.84(including tax)

Submit for SCR #43 ($15.00) & #64($1.00).


In addition, this purchase will earn you a $5 Gift Certificate valid at Rite-Aid, as part of The Rite Aid Gift of Savings Program.  Rite-Aid had this deal last year too, but later in the year.  Purchases made between 9/13(this Sunday) and 10/17 can earn you up to $20 in Rite Aid gift cards.

• Spend between $25 and $50 and receive a $5.00 Gift of Savings Certificate

• Spend between $50.01 and $100 and receive a $10.00 Gift of Savings Certificate

• Spend $100.01 or more and receive a $20.00 Gift of Savings Certificate 
  

So your Out of Pocket cost ends up being .84¢ AND you qualify for a $5 Rite-Aid Gift Card.
And you are only $18.12 away from qualifying for another $5 in Rite-Aid Gift Card in the Gift of Savings Program.  Be sure and get your purchases to $25 and use another $5/$25 Rite-Aid coupon too, to bring down your total OOP paid.

Like I've said before, you don't need to have a baby to use these Baby Care products.  The shampoo & 'baby' wash are gentle cleaning products for people with sensitive skin & scalps.  And the baby wash & lotions smell wonderful!

What are you planning on getting next week?

Sluggy

Think about Debt & Cars in a NEW Way!

                Above-The 'Family Heirloom' 1990 Toyota Corolla


In this family, we don't DO Car Payments!

We did once upon a time.
The year we bought our LAST car and FINANCED it was 1994.
We have been Car Payment FREE for 15 yrs.
And you can be too!

Sluggy's 2 Rules for Buying Cars

1.  Don't buy new.  A new car can lose up to 20% of it's value in the 1st yr.
Yes I said 20%!


2.  Don't finance it.  Save up and pay cash.  This will keep you from getting into car debt and keep you from buying more car than you need.  Once you get into "Car Debt Hell" it is very hard to extract yourself.  Just say NO!

Think about it this way....if you finance a $20 thousand Dollar car over 5 yrs(at the current avg. rate of 8% interest), you will be paying over $24 Thousand Dollars for that car.  Your $20K good deal may not be such a bargain once you figure in what you actually paid the bank and that your $20K car after 5 yrs. is now only worth $6K.


4 of those 5 cars we bought since our last "car-payment" car in 1994 were used.  The car we bought new I don't know WHAT I was thinking at the time....it was not my best moment but at least we got a deal on it and we paid CA$H.

Buying a car(new or used)on Credit is very BAD for your financial health.  Every car should have that warning label on it's side, just like packs of cigarettes do.
And I am NOT joking about that!

This is something I feel strongly about and it's the biggest single reason(outside of not having health insurance & abusing credit cards)that keeps people from getting & staying out of debt.

Save up to buy a car.  Once you buy it, keep putting aside the amount you put aside to buy that first car.
That way you can save up for the next car and not have to finance it.  You are already in the habit of putting money aside for a car while you were saving to buy the first one, so just keep putting the money aside.  And don't find other ways to spend it....no trips to Disney World, no Big Screen TV, no extravagant dinners out, no new wardrobe, etc.

If you do this, when your current car finally belches it's last puff of smoke, you'll have money to buy a new-to-you car for CA$H!

I came across this video from Dave Ramsey that may help you see the whole cars & debt thing differently.
Hopefully it will make you come around to seeing that you too can be Car Debt-Free!



Sluggy

I'm leaving home for the day!

It's at times like this that I wish I had a job away from the house!
Our 1980's built home still has it's original shingled roof.
After today, that will change.

We are biting the bullet and spending our tax refund(which is just us giving the government a year long loan anyway, isn't it?)on replacing our roof.  It needs it badly.

The contractor said yesterday in our phone conversation that the roofers would be here around 7:30am but I didn't have to be up or anything if I sleep later than that time.
I reminded him that I have 3 dogs(2 beagles-the baying machines, and a psychotic people-hating chihuahua), so if the workers were here, I'd be awake & so would the entire neighborhood!lolol

It's been about 1 hour since they arrived and it's going to be a race to see who--either the Chihuahua or I--will be having a nervous breakdown first.

So in order not to have to listen to constant barking for the next 7 hours, I'm getting into my car, stopping at McDonald's for a chicken biscuit and going to my storage unit.  I'll sit there in the relative peace & quiet of traffic noise as cars wiz by on the highway, eat my breakfast and go through boxes of stuff in my storage.  Maybe I'll count my stash of toilet paper/facial tissues/napkins while I'm at it so I can hold a "Guess Sluggy's  Stockpile" Giveaway Contest on the blog.
Now THAT would be fun, right?

When I get tired or bored with that, I'll wander over to the Library and pick-up the book that's on hold for me and go into the stacks somewhere and start reading it.

Have fun online today without me.
I'm out of here before my sanity and hearing is shot!

Sluggy