We got a call on Saturday from Daughter who is finishing up her training week at summer camp.  She was suppose to come home with DH on Sunday, when he went to drop off #2 son for his 2 weeks of camp.  Then she was suppose to go back to camp when we went to pick up #2 son and start her weeks of work there.
I guess she impressed the 'high mucky mucks' running the joint and/or some teens didn't show up for their designated weeks to work, as she was asked to work 2 extra week long sessions--the first week in the kitchen and the second with the 'special needs' campers.  So Daughter got 2 extra weeks of employment and is quite happy at the moment not to have to come home to the 'Boring House'.  Yes, not only is my blog boring but it seems everything I touch is boring....

As Daughter didn't pack but enough 'stuff' for 1 week of training I had to spend Saturday packing all the things she says she "desperately needs!" for the next 7 weeks of her life.  I about got writer's cramp taking notes over the phone, making the gargantuan list of items to take to her!  Then I got to spend a few hours hunting down and gathering all of those things in her rat's nest of a room!
Ugh.
So much for my Saturday....
Here are a couple of photos from the website from last week.

#1 son is standing on the far left.  And again, a fine looking group of teens & 20-somethings....

Yes, these are some of the future leaders of our nation...

 

And though my Daughter is very good at avoiding peoples with cameras I did find this lone shot w/her in it...on the left in turquoise with a sign on her chest.  Looks like some king of team building/role playing activity.  Oh, I KNOW she was enjoying that *voiced with a heavy dose of sarcasm*.....LOLOL

DH delivered #2 son & his 'stuff', along with daughters 'stuff' to the camp on Sunday and I got to sit home and babysit the dogs...ah!, the story of my life.....

That massive thundering noise you heard this afternoon was me turning cartwheels at the though of being CHILD-FREE for 2. Whole. Weeks!  8-))
Now if I could just afford to send the dogs to camp too....

I spent most of the day Sunday inside as it was beastly hot here.
Did I fall into a coma and it's really August now and not June because baby, it sure FEELS like August!?
I went online and checked out the weekly grocery/drug store sales flyers and took notes on what looked like a good deal this week.

I saw that Price Chopper(NE) has a teeny tiny Unilever product Catalina Deal this week.  There are ten, count 'em ten items that qualify and you have to buy $25(that's reg. shelf price, not sale price)to get a $7 OYNO Catalina.
The problem is that all the Qs that are out for the products(most had valid Qs available)expire on SUNDAY-June 20th-so you had to do the Catalina deal that day!!lol

I had 3 Unilever product inserts from May so I sat down and figured out I could do 3 transactions, spend $30.46 Out of Pocket and end up with $74.89 of groceries + a $7 OYNO Catalina to roll in the next couple of weeks.
It would have given me....
9 Ragu Sauce
6 Wishbone Dressing
11 Knorr Rice/Pasta pouches
4 Lipton Teabag boxes
3 Ice Cream containers

But in the end, I didn't even go to the store and do the deal.  I am lousy with sauce, dressing, rice/pasta and even teabags at this point and I really don't need anymore.
Yes, I really just said I don't need anymore.
The savings even with rolling the deal didn't give me enough savings to make it worth my while.
Am I loosing my killer coupon edge?

Maybe....
But I did hike up to Rite-Aid(where else would I go?!lol)and got some fun stuff.
More on that tomorrow....

Sluggy

JUNE Food Stamp Challenge....Days Eighteen & Nineteen

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

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

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

Free TEA Samples...Limited Time Offer so don't Delay!

The TEASTA Tea Company is giving out Free loose leaf tea samples.  You chose 2 different samples from their offerings, enter the Discount Code provided and they'll even ship it FREE.  How awesome is that?!
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