Well the last 2 days of the Food Stamp Challenge were pretty quiet.
Sorry for the lack of photos but my camera is having issues. It shut down on me again while taking shots of the garden progress on Friday, telling me to change the batteries. I just changed the batteries last week!! I think it's on it's last legs.....sigh
We did a quick run to the store for hot dog rolls=$1.00. That was all the shopping that was done on those 2 days.
On Day 18-Friday-I fed #2 son and his friend pigs in a blanket in the afternoon. Costs for items I already had going into June....$.95(5 dogs), $.50(roll of whack dough), $.05(mustard), $1.00(can of chili)=$2.50
We deviated from the meal plan this week and cooked dogs out on the grill also that evening. Hebrew Nationals on rolls with fresh cut-up Cantaloupe. As it was too hot to cook inside and a big heavy meal was out of the question, this hit the spot. Cost of things already bought before June...$1.13(6 more dogs), $.25(condiments). Total spent for Friday=$4.88
**In case anyone is wondering how come my Hebrew Nationals only cost me .189¢ ea.....I stock up on them in the spring when they go on sale seasonally. With the sale and the coupons I usually get them for $1.50 a package(sometimes lower). 8 dogs in a pack=$.189 ea. I usually buy enough to last us until the next Spring and then stock up again. We usually go through 16-20 packages a yr.
Since I have various neighborhood teens eating through the house in the summer I do buy 'lesser quality' dogs too for that purpose. I don't buy the really low quality kind but I can usually find 'good' quality dogs in the markdown case for around $1.00 a package.**
We had additional food expenses later that evening when 3 teens decided they needed feeding after some time in the pool. I served them hot cocoa(made with milk) and a small cake(used a cake mix to make 2 small cakes, 1 went into the freezer for later). I couldn't believe that they fit 1/2 the bag of marshmallows into their mugs with the cocoa!lol
Costs--$.50(marshmallows), $.00(milk already accounted for this month), $.25(4 envelopes cocoa mix), $.50(cake mix), $.75(frosting)=$2.00
Friday's costs...$7.88
On Day 19-Saturday-we had homemade Chinese Food. My version of Sesame Chicken. Besides the chicken I also sauteed a bag of frozen "Stir-Fry Assortment of Veggies" with some sesame and olive oil. Steamed up some white rice and then put it all together with a generous handful of cashew pieces on top.
Good eats at a homemade price(chicken $.99 for a lb., bag of veggies $1.00, rice $.75, nuts .50¢, ingredients for sauce and oils $1.00)=$4.24 to feed 3 people.
Saturday's costs....$4.24
Both Days combined costs....$12.12
Spent to Date....$167.33
June Food Budget Left....$243.39
Days of Challenge Left....11
Sluggy
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
If You Bought Rembrandt Toothpaste at Rite-Aid....Read This!
Remember last week when I when to Rite-Aid and bought Rembrandt Toothpaste on June 8th & June 12th? The deal was....the toothpaste was $6.63 at my store after my 20% Wellness discount and when you paired that price with the $3 Manu. or IP Rembrandt coupons AND the $3/1 AdPerks/Video Value IPQ, you paid $.63 for the toothpaste.
$6.63-$3-$3=$.63.
Well this deal just got immensely better!
If you bought any Rembrandt product between May 21st & June 17th(also any Listerine Whitening product), you may possibly qualify for a $10 Prepaid Debit Card Rebate!
And you do NOT need a form to submit for it.
Here are the details as they appeared in People Style Watch magazine....
Purchase ANY Listerine Whitening or Rembrandt product and receive a free $10 prepaid debit card to put toward your favorite white must have item for summer. Mail your original receipt, dated between 5/21 – 6/17/10 with the Listerine Whitening or Rembrandt product and proof of purchase circled along with your name and address to: Dare to Wear Gift / PO Box 4938 / NY NY 10185. Please allow 4-6 weeks for shipping. Offer good while supplies last. Limit one per household.” Must be received by 7/1/10.
So get those receipts and UPCSs out and get your submission in the mail soon!
I've already mailed mine in and BIL will get his out on Monday.
It says while supplies last but it's still worth a shot, right? ;-)
Add these into my Rite-Aid total for the month....
Total Spent....$43.48--all put on free Gift Cards/Certificates so ZERO OOP
SCR qualified for....$41.98 in cash and $35 in Gift Cards
Other Cash....$15 MIR from Neutrogena
Additional Rewards....$5.00 Gift Card from Gillette(for survey)& $20 in Prepaid Debit Cards=$25.00
Total Spent.......$0.00
Total Gained....$56.98 CASH/$60.00 Gift Cards
And just in case you didn't notice I did NOT go to Rite-Aid this past week!
I know, I know.......I didn't go to Rite-Aid....the Earth must have tilted off it's axis and we'll all be burned to a crisp as we drift ever closer to the Sun.
At least I have plenty of gift cards left to get FREE Sun Screen.....
Sluggy
$6.63-$3-$3=$.63.
Well this deal just got immensely better!
And you do NOT need a form to submit for it.
Here are the details as they appeared in People Style Watch magazine....
Purchase ANY Listerine Whitening or Rembrandt product and receive a free $10 prepaid debit card to put toward your favorite white must have item for summer. Mail your original receipt, dated between 5/21 – 6/17/10 with the Listerine Whitening or Rembrandt product and proof of purchase circled along with your name and address to: Dare to Wear Gift / PO Box 4938 / NY NY 10185. Please allow 4-6 weeks for shipping. Offer good while supplies last. Limit one per household.” Must be received by 7/1/10.
So get those receipts and UPCSs out and get your submission in the mail soon!
I've already mailed mine in and BIL will get his out on Monday.
It says while supplies last but it's still worth a shot, right? ;-)
Add these into my Rite-Aid total for the month....
Total Spent....$43.48--all put on free Gift Cards/Certificates so ZERO OOP
SCR qualified for....$41.98 in cash and $35 in Gift Cards
Other Cash....$15 MIR from Neutrogena
Additional Rewards....$5.00 Gift Card from Gillette(for survey)& $20 in Prepaid Debit Cards=$25.00
Total Spent.......$0.00
Total Gained....$56.98 CASH/$60.00 Gift Cards
And just in case you didn't notice I did NOT go to Rite-Aid this past week!
I know, I know.......I didn't go to Rite-Aid....the Earth must have tilted off it's axis and we'll all be burned to a crisp as we drift ever closer to the Sun.
At least I have plenty of gift cards left to get FREE Sun Screen.....
Sluggy
Friday, June 18, 2010
JUNE Food Stamp Challenge....Day Sixteen & Seventeen--Cramping My Style!
This post is part of the June Food Stamp Challenge located HERE.
We have been cruising along on this food budget challenge for a couple of weeks now and it's been going well, except for 1 dining out roadblock on Day Thirteen I talked about HERE.
The last 2 days, the whole premise of only purchasing foods from stores that accept EBT and cooking every meal really began to cramp my style!
Wednesday I was feeling quite ill....nothing life threatening but sick enough that I wasn't able to throw together a made-from-scratch or even a semi-homemade dinner. Yes, we had plenty of ingredients for making a meal in the house.
But that would require some one else here to go into the kitchen and cook.
The teen doesn't cook. He can make grilled cheese and reheat stuff in the microwave and have I mentioned that he hates leftovers?
The DH 'can' cook....a bit.....but he chooses not to, given an opportunity(like this one)to go into the kitchen and whip up dinner. And he won't settle for a bowl of cold cereal or a peanut butter sandwich for dinner.
So we failed the challenge on Wednesday when DH hiked up to Subway and bought subs after I took to my bed.
In the past year, I have gone from a freezer packed with tv dinners and other preprocessed/packaged 'food' to a freezer packed with meats and veggies in their natural/raw state which I use to make the dinner magic. There is not alot of foods here anymore that are shortcuts to making a meal(outside of dehydrated milk or potatoes, canned soup, boxed mac & cheese and some Jello).
In a situation like this one above, having a couple of tv dinners or a frozen pizza would have saved us from resorting to Subway. The processed frozen food would have taken a bigger bite out of the food stamp budget for the month compared to only buying 'real' food with the food stamps, but in the end if a dinner emergency happened we could have eaten w/out resorting to less desirable fare if we had no cash available to spend on pre-made, hot, ready-to-eat food that is not covered by EBT/food stamps.
Seems to me that if you are on food stamps and you are the lone cook in your home, it might be wise to keep a couple of spare pre-made dinners in your freezer. Even better though, would be to make ahead a double batch when you cook/make a meal and freeze half. This way, if you are 'indisposed' and you have someone there who can at least turn on/turn off an oven or microwave, you can have them pop that homemade 'convenience food' meal and avoid spending your precious cash on fast food. I usually have something I pre-made in the freezer to heat and eat but I got caught without one this time.
So on Wednesday we struck out to the tune of $15.75. I need to think about how I am going to handle this in regards to my budget. Perhaps I need to add the cost of this fail to my donation check to the food bank.
I figure I need to have a penalty here....
Which brings us to Thursday, which was a much better day for the Food Stamp Challenge at our house.
Dinner consisted of pulled pork sandwiches on rolls and coleslaw.
I had leftover boneless pork ribs, from the cookout when the relatives were visiting, that I had cooked as 'just in case we need more food for teens that dropped in at dinnertime' food. We hadn't eaten them, so I shredded the meat, made up a small pot of our secret family North Carolina style barbecue sauce, threw in the meat and heated thoroughly. Spooned the 'cue out onto the leftover crustini rolls I bought last week and topped each one with the pre-made coleslaw from the grocery store that DH picked up on the way home from work.
Ok, so this isn't the actual photo of my food, but it looked pretty close to this(sans the chips and pickle).
Food budget spending for this meal....coleslaw $1.69 , rolls already figured in last week $0, meat $2.38(bought last month on sale), ingredients to make the sauce from the pantry $.40=$4.47.
On Thursday #2 son and I also ran some errands on the way to his guitar lesson. I had wanted to hit up the Bakery Outlet but they don't take EBT, so I had to pay almost retail for some bread and bagels. I found a BOGO sale on both at the local market so I have 2 bags of bagels and bread to the tune of $7.98.
This just about killed me since I could have possibly gotten all this at the bread outlet for $4.00...if I wasn't limited to only stores that accept food stamps!
We also stopped by my favorite local discount/close-outs store that carries food items. I had found this great little product there last month & picked up 1 bottle then......
It's a cold press EVOO that's grown, harvested, pressed and bottled in the USA(California)in a GLASS BOTTLE! and at the low price of $1.99 a bottle!
Ok, it might not be the best quality of Olive Oil but PA does not have much olive growing and olive pressing going on so this is a good deal here.
I had wanted to get a quantity of these for my stockpile after trying the 1 bottle I bought.....but I can't.
Because this close-out store does NOT accept EBT....so I have not been able to buy any food items there in June!
I am hoping there are some bottles left in the store come July.
If not, I've missed out on a food opportunity, just like anyone who lives around here and has to use EBT all the time to eat would have.
I tell ya, that sucks!
And it's starting to annoy the beejeezus outta me!!
'Spending' for Day Sixteen and Seventeen...$12.45 * +penalty of $15.75 for the Subs*
Spent to Date....$155.21
June Food Budget Left....$255.51
Days of Challenge Left....13
Sluggy
We have been cruising along on this food budget challenge for a couple of weeks now and it's been going well, except for 1 dining out roadblock on Day Thirteen I talked about HERE.
The last 2 days, the whole premise of only purchasing foods from stores that accept EBT and cooking every meal really began to cramp my style!
Wednesday I was feeling quite ill....nothing life threatening but sick enough that I wasn't able to throw together a made-from-scratch or even a semi-homemade dinner. Yes, we had plenty of ingredients for making a meal in the house.
But that would require some one else here to go into the kitchen and cook.
The teen doesn't cook. He can make grilled cheese and reheat stuff in the microwave and have I mentioned that he hates leftovers?
The DH 'can' cook....a bit.....but he chooses not to, given an opportunity(like this one)to go into the kitchen and whip up dinner. And he won't settle for a bowl of cold cereal or a peanut butter sandwich for dinner.
So we failed the challenge on Wednesday when DH hiked up to Subway and bought subs after I took to my bed.
In the past year, I have gone from a freezer packed with tv dinners and other preprocessed/packaged 'food' to a freezer packed with meats and veggies in their natural/raw state which I use to make the dinner magic. There is not alot of foods here anymore that are shortcuts to making a meal(outside of dehydrated milk or potatoes, canned soup, boxed mac & cheese and some Jello).
In a situation like this one above, having a couple of tv dinners or a frozen pizza would have saved us from resorting to Subway. The processed frozen food would have taken a bigger bite out of the food stamp budget for the month compared to only buying 'real' food with the food stamps, but in the end if a dinner emergency happened we could have eaten w/out resorting to less desirable fare if we had no cash available to spend on pre-made, hot, ready-to-eat food that is not covered by EBT/food stamps.
Seems to me that if you are on food stamps and you are the lone cook in your home, it might be wise to keep a couple of spare pre-made dinners in your freezer. Even better though, would be to make ahead a double batch when you cook/make a meal and freeze half. This way, if you are 'indisposed' and you have someone there who can at least turn on/turn off an oven or microwave, you can have them pop that homemade 'convenience food' meal and avoid spending your precious cash on fast food. I usually have something I pre-made in the freezer to heat and eat but I got caught without one this time.
So on Wednesday we struck out to the tune of $15.75. I need to think about how I am going to handle this in regards to my budget. Perhaps I need to add the cost of this fail to my donation check to the food bank.
I figure I need to have a penalty here....
Which brings us to Thursday, which was a much better day for the Food Stamp Challenge at our house.
Dinner consisted of pulled pork sandwiches on rolls and coleslaw.
I had leftover boneless pork ribs, from the cookout when the relatives were visiting, that I had cooked as 'just in case we need more food for teens that dropped in at dinnertime' food. We hadn't eaten them, so I shredded the meat, made up a small pot of our secret family North Carolina style barbecue sauce, threw in the meat and heated thoroughly. Spooned the 'cue out onto the leftover crustini rolls I bought last week and topped each one with the pre-made coleslaw from the grocery store that DH picked up on the way home from work.
Food budget spending for this meal....coleslaw $1.69 , rolls already figured in last week $0, meat $2.38(bought last month on sale), ingredients to make the sauce from the pantry $.40=$4.47.
On Thursday #2 son and I also ran some errands on the way to his guitar lesson. I had wanted to hit up the Bakery Outlet but they don't take EBT, so I had to pay almost retail for some bread and bagels. I found a BOGO sale on both at the local market so I have 2 bags of bagels and bread to the tune of $7.98.
This just about killed me since I could have possibly gotten all this at the bread outlet for $4.00...if I wasn't limited to only stores that accept food stamps!
We also stopped by my favorite local discount/close-outs store that carries food items. I had found this great little product there last month & picked up 1 bottle then......
It's a cold press EVOO that's grown, harvested, pressed and bottled in the USA(California)in a GLASS BOTTLE! and at the low price of $1.99 a bottle!
Ok, it might not be the best quality of Olive Oil but PA does not have much olive growing and olive pressing going on so this is a good deal here.
I had wanted to get a quantity of these for my stockpile after trying the 1 bottle I bought.....but I can't.
Because this close-out store does NOT accept EBT....so I have not been able to buy any food items there in June!
I am hoping there are some bottles left in the store come July.
If not, I've missed out on a food opportunity, just like anyone who lives around here and has to use EBT all the time to eat would have.
I tell ya, that sucks!
And it's starting to annoy the beejeezus outta me!!
'Spending' for Day Sixteen and Seventeen...$12.45 * +penalty of $15.75 for the Subs*
Spent to Date....$155.21
June Food Budget Left....$255.51
Days of Challenge Left....13
Sluggy
Free TEA Samples...Limited Time Offer so don't Delay!
I haven't tried this brand before so I can't wait to get mine.
Go HERE to get your free samples.
This offer is for a limited time so don't delay!
P.S.
LisaPie, you are NOT allowed to send for this....lol
Sluggy
Thursday, June 17, 2010
June Donation #1......Starting off the Month Late Again
June is halfway over and I am just getting my 'donation act' together for this month.
Ugh.
Life happens.....need I say more?lol
Here is what is leaving my house this week.....
1 AnnaLee Rabbit Doll(vintage/used)
1 Set of Mad Magazine miniature cars
1 set of 6 Boxes of Star Trek Trading Cards
12 packages of Power Rangers Jewelry
2 bottles of Star Trek Bubble Bath
1 Weebo Toy from Flubber-the Movie
1 box of McDonald's play food....plastic chicken nuggets anyone?lol
1 Boyd's Bears Bearstone Resin Figure
1 cassette tape of Toy Story music
1 Polly Pocket doll set
1 David Winter's Cottages book(used)
And this stuff....
1 Nightmare Before Christmas Cookie Jar
1 Snowman Stocking Hanger
1 Collectible Matchbox NY Mets Truck
1 Santa Ornament
1 Set of Lighthouse Shower Curtain Hooks
7 pairs of men's Jeans(used)
2 women's short sets(used)
2 women's swimsuits(used)
2 women's polo shirts(used)
1 women's l/s shirt(nwt)
2 pair of women's shorts(nwt)
1 womens' t-shirt(nwt)
Total Items for this Donation....45
April Total....96
May Total....72
June Total....45
Yearly Total to Date....213 Items.
Yearly Food Bank Donation Total....78
Yearly Total for all Donations so far.....291
In other news......I think all my eBay listings expired this past week so I need to decide if I take off from selling there for the summer & close my store since it's slow time or if I ramp the listings back up and keep the store open. I hate to just put the store on vacation settings for 2 months and still have to pay that monthly fee.
Anybody out there have an eBay store? How do you handle summers in regards to eBay??
Sluggy
Ugh.
Life happens.....need I say more?lol
Here is what is leaving my house this week.....
1 AnnaLee Rabbit Doll(vintage/used)
1 Set of Mad Magazine miniature cars
1 set of 6 Boxes of Star Trek Trading Cards
12 packages of Power Rangers Jewelry
2 bottles of Star Trek Bubble Bath
1 Weebo Toy from Flubber-the Movie
1 box of McDonald's play food....plastic chicken nuggets anyone?lol
1 Boyd's Bears Bearstone Resin Figure
1 cassette tape of Toy Story music
1 Polly Pocket doll set
1 David Winter's Cottages book(used)
And this stuff....
1 Nightmare Before Christmas Cookie Jar
1 Snowman Stocking Hanger
1 Collectible Matchbox NY Mets Truck
1 Santa Ornament
1 Set of Lighthouse Shower Curtain Hooks
7 pairs of men's Jeans(used)
2 women's short sets(used)
2 women's swimsuits(used)
2 women's polo shirts(used)
1 women's l/s shirt(nwt)
2 pair of women's shorts(nwt)
1 womens' t-shirt(nwt)
Total Items for this Donation....45
April Total....96
May Total....72
June Total....45
Yearly Total to Date....213 Items.
Yearly Food Bank Donation Total....78
Yearly Total for all Donations so far.....291
In other news......I think all my eBay listings expired this past week so I need to decide if I take off from selling there for the summer & close my store since it's slow time or if I ramp the listings back up and keep the store open. I hate to just put the store on vacation settings for 2 months and still have to pay that monthly fee.
Anybody out there have an eBay store? How do you handle summers in regards to eBay??
Sluggy
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