And the Pillsbury Giveaway Winner is.....

I wrote all the names/entries on slips of paper and had DH pull the winner.  This is the 'scientific method' as my buddy Marilyn calls it. ;-)

So the Winner is.....




Cheryl F. {The Lucky Ladybug}

Congratulations and you have 48 hours from the time stamp on this post to email me with your name and address Cheryl.
You can find my contact email on my profile page.

Thanks to everyone for playing and thanks again to MyBlogSpark and Pillsbury for supplying gifties for this Giveaway.

The next installment of My famous Boring Box Giveaway will begin shortly....so stay tuned!

Sluggy

HAPPY SPRING! & This Just In.....Spending Update

Most people would say that this picture is their image of Spring.

But here in PA, this is what we see in our mind's eye when we think Spring.....

 Every year on the 1st Day of Spring, Rita's Italian Ice locations give away FREE Italian Ice!
Now how cool is that?!

I remember one year after we moved here, #2 son was in Kindergarten, which was a half day affair at that time.  I took him down to one of the local Rita's after school for our free Italian ice.  It was rainy/sleety and cold as a debutante's stare, but we had to get our ice!  Heck, we could have stood in the parking lot and held our cups up and gotten our own ice thanks to Mother Nature, if you know what I mean.lol

That year even sitting in the car shivering with the heater on, we still had to get our ices.
Unfortunately, today we missed out on the free ice.  And it was the most beautiful 1st Day of Spring on which to eat an ice.  Warm as puppy dog kisses it was....


So how is everyone doing staying on budget this month?

Since we are 2/3 of the way through March, I sat down and subtotaled my receipts for food/toiletries spending for the month.
I'm at $202.59 as of 3/20.
The rebates that have come in this month so far total $150.60.....goooood rebate month!!

After the rebate money is deducted, my spending total so far for March is $51.99.
Woot!

10 more days to go.....

 Sluggy

Last Chance to Enter my Giveaway....Ends Tonight 3/20! CLOSED

My Pillsbury Sweet Rolls Giveaway ends tonight at midnight.
Today is your last chance to enter so don't dilly-dally!

Please go enter on the post located HERE.

Sluggy

The Best Laid Schemes....You were so Right Bobby Burns!

Last year I won a $50 Gift Card to a local independent grocery store in a nearby town.  I blogged about it HERE.

Well, since it's been almost a year since I got the Gift Card I figured it was about time I actually went to this store and commenced to spend the bucks.
This grocery store is part of a loosely affiliated group of independently owned/operated grocery stores.  Seems they 'share' the same loyalty card program(you can use your card at any of this brand of store)but their gift cards are store specific(meaning I can only use the gift card at this store, not the other stores in the brand).

Well the sales ad for this 'brand' of store this week was pretty decent.
There is a Buy 7 Quaker Oats products, get an instant $3 off your transaction Deal plus there is a Spend $20, Get a $5 Catalina on Heinz products(like I didn't get enough ketchup at Weis last week!lol). 
I also had 7 Qs to use with that Quaker Deal and the on sale Classico Pasta Sauce(being a Heinz product)was included in the Heinz Cat Deal, plusI had $1/2 IPQs left to pair with the deal/sale AND $1.50 off Meat WYB 2 Classico Sauces ManuQs.
Add in that the Classico sauce was part of the Heinz Cat so I'd also get a $5 Cat outta the deal too!
I was going to pay $3.50 for 7 Quaker products and $15 for 10 jars of Pasta Sauce plus get $7.50 in Meat for free and get a $5 Cat.

So I decided to venture over to this grocery store today and check it out.  It's what you might call an 'urban center market'....translation=heavy car traffic, narrow parking lot, even narrower aisles with oversized shopping carts inside an older not-very-well-kept-up building.
ick.
So I walk all the way over to the end of the building where the Customer Service is tucked away, far from the entrance and get in line to ask about the coupon policy before I start throwing products in my cart.  Always a smart thing to check on the policy at a store you haven't shopped at yet, ya know?

Then I spied the coupon policy prominently displayed(ok, this is the first thing they have done right in my book!)and began reading.
And let me say that this was NOT a good read.

Nope.
Lots of coupon rules....the list was long.
And they lost me at the first 2 rules--
1. Only doubling 3 of any 'like' coupon and only up to .50¢
2. NO computer generated coupons(aka internet coupons).

Well isn't that just ducky?
No Quaker Deal nor Pasta Deal for me today.
Crap.
This makes the 3rd local store that doesn't take IPQs.

I had a back-up plan in case the coupon policy was a dud....which it was.
So I got some on sale deli cheese, some fresh veggies on special and then went looking for a certain frozen veggie mix we love(also on sale) plus the corned beef briskets that were marked at $2.27lb.
I found fairly quickly that they don't carry the veggie mix we like either and there was not one single brisket in the entire dingy little store!
Ugh.

So I spent a whole $8 on my $50 gift card and it sure took some trying to spend that much!
At this rate the gift card will still have buckies on it by next March....

Sluggy

Rite-Aid this Week....4 Transactions to Finish Off the J&J SCR Deal

I made 4 trips to Rite-Aid this week to do the J&J SCR Deal. Here's everything I bought.....

2 x Band-Aids on sale $1.99=$3.98
Used 2 x $1/1 ManuQs=$2.00 off

3 x Benadryl Allergy $5.49-Wellness Discount Price $4.94=$14.82
Used 3 x $2/1 In-Ad Q + 3 x $1/1 ManuQ=$9.00 off

2 x Sudafed PE $4.99-Wellness Discount Price $4.49=$8.98
Used 2 x $2/1 In-Ad Q + 2 x $2/1 ManuQ=$8.00 off

1 x Sudafed PE $6.49-Wellness Discount Price $5.84=$5.84
Used 1 x $2/1 In-Ad Q + 1 x $2/1 ManuQ=$4.00 off

2 x Visine $4.99-Wellness Discount Price $4.49=$8.98
Used 2 x $3/1 In-Ad Q + 2 x $2/1 ManuQ=$10.00 off

1 x Oral B Adventage Toothbrush on sale=$2.49
Used 1 x $1/1 ManuQ + 1 x $1/1 Any Oral Care Wellness CRT Q=$2.00 off

2 x Welch's Grape Juice on sale $3.00=$6.00
Used 2 x $1/1 ManuQ + 2 x $1/1 AdPerk IPQ=$4.00 off

1 x Welch's Grape Juice 6pack-Wellness Discount Price=$5.12
Used 1 x $1/1 6 pack WYB a 64oz bottle HangtagQ + 1 x $1/1 AdPerk IPQ=$2.00 off

1 x Cottonelle TP 12 pack on sale=$5.99
Used 1 x $1/1 ManuQ + 1 x $1/1 AdPerk IPQ=$2.00 off

3 x Reese's Easter Candy on sale $1.99=$5.97
1 x $2/3 ManuQ + 3 x $1/1 Any seasonal candy Wellness IPQ=$5.00 off

2 x Herbal Essences Shampoo on sale $2.99=$5.98
Used 2 x BOGO WYB 1 Styler ManuQ=$5.98 off

2 x Herbal Essences Styler on sale $2.99=$5.98
Used 2 x $1/1 ManuQ + 2 x $1/1 any Hair Care Wellness CRT Q=$4.00 off

1 x John Frieda Frizz-Ease Shampoo-Wellness Discount Price=$5.84
Used 1 x $3/1 ManuQ + 1 x $1/1 any Frizz-Ease AdPerks IPQ=$4.00

1 x King Size Reese's PB Cups on sale=$.88

Used 4 x $5/$20 AdPerk IPQs=$20.00 off

SubTotal.....$86.85

Coupon Total.....$81.98

TOTAL OOP...$4.87 was put on the Rite-Aid Gift Card I got Sat. night for returning the JFrieda Styler so ZERO OOP.

One of the cashiers took off an extra $1 somewhere because the receipts add up to $3.87 instead.

$3.87 spent and SCRs qualified for.....$25+$5.84=$30.84.


Why I bought what I bought......

The 1st 5 items in my list where bought to finish off the J&J Deal.  I had $11.88 already from earlier in the month toward that SCR, so these items--a total of $42.60--put me over the $50 mark for the $25 rebate.
I bought these particular items because we have allergy issues here and the Band-Aids......well, #2 son skateboards....need I say more? ;-)

The Frizz-Ease 'Poo was to finish off the SCR #4(buy Frizz-Ease styler and 'poo and get the price of the 'poo refunded).  I bought the styler last week so now I get another $5.84 back.

Great price on the Welch's 100% juice with the Qs.  The 6 pack was a spur of the moment buy because of the hangtag Q.  With the Qs and the wellness discount, it was a good deal and I had some $5/$20 to burn anyway.

The TP is always needed.

The toothbrush and shampoo/stylers will be making an appearance at a garage sale/flea market later this spring.

The PB cups was a filler for one of the transactions and the Easter candy is well, for the kids' easter baskets.

Sluggy