Got all my +Up Rewards rolled at Rite-Aid.....Finally!

I managed to get all my +Ups rolled on Friday that were expiring on Saturday at Rite-Aid.
That was a relief!lol

Since the Deals are over, here are the abbreviated details.
$39.74 subtotal
$10.50 after coupons
$10 +Ups used
$.50 on gift card
$85.32 value of items
$33 +Up Rewards received(including BIL's $20 Winter Reward)
This transaction was a $13 moneymaker.


Now I had $29.93 expiring on 2/12.....and another HUGE $ amount expiring on 2/19.....so I bopped up to Rite-Aid Saturday before the rain turned to nasty stuff to begin rolling the 2/12s.

Since the Deals are over, here are the abbreviated details.
$30.38 subtotal
$8.88 after coupons
$7.96 +Ups used

$.92 on gift card
$57.19 value of items
$13 +Up Rewards received
This transaction was a $5.04 moneymaker.

As of Saturday night I have $141.97 +Ups to roll before 2/19.
ACK!!!

My "These Trips" includes the trip on 2/3 that I posted earlier this week but didn't include that information....

THESE TRIPS
Number of Transactions.....3
Total Spent....$1.51 (put on free Rite-Aid gift card)
Value of Items....$173.15
SCR qualified for...$0.00
Other Rebates earned...$0.00
Gift Cards earned....$00.00
Resolution Reward....$00.00
+Up Rewards earned...$55.00
+Up Rewards spent...$23.96
+Up Rewards left to spend....$224.97
 
GRAND TOTALS--February Rebate Period so far

Number of Transactions......13
Total Spent....$5.24 put on free Gift Cards/Certificates so ZERO OOP
Value of Items purchased....$664.73
SCR qualified for....$19.99
Other Cash....$0.00
Additional Rebates....$0.00
Additional Non-Cash Rewards....$0.00

+UPS Totals for Feb. SCR period
+Up Rewards carryover from 1/30.....$193.93
+Up Rewards spent....$164.96
+Up Rewards earned....$233.93
+Up Rewards left....$224.97 includes ALL +Ups not just ones from this SCR period


Sluggy

Sluggy's Birthday Boring Blog Giveaway Post #6....Time to Enter Again!

Are y'all getting bored with these giveaway posts yet?lol

Time for Post 6 for the Birthday Boring Blog Giveaway!

If this is your first time here, get up to speed on how this Giveaway works by looking HERE.

Check out the rules.....
The Rules
1. You must be a "Follower" of my blog to enter and still be a Follower if/when you win.  Lookie on the right sidebar and press the big ol' FOLLOW button if you are not already a follower.
2.  Sorry but this Giveaway is open ONLY to those with a mailing address within the USA.  Hate to have to do that but the postal rates outside the country are KILLER.
3. 1 vote/entry per post with 1 exemption.  You can leave more than 1 comment per post but only your 1st vote/comment will count.

The 1 Exemption....You can earn EXTRA ENTRIES this way....
*If you get someone to become a Follower and enter this giveaway you can earn an Extra Entry for each person you bring on board.  You can blog about the giveaway or email people or post about it on a message board or call your neighbor on the phone....whatever way you want to recruit them, I don't care.  Just make sure that they mention in their vote/comment/entry that You(your name here)told them about the blog/giveaway and you get an extra entry that post.


As always, this is not a company sponsored or company supplied Giveaway.  Any costs associated with this Giveaway are coming out of my pocket because I'm just that kinda gal.  Please patronize our blog ads....I'm just sayin'.... ;-)


Now down to the business at hand.

Here are your 3 items to choose from today....

1. A Candle-cinnamon scented
2. Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Tea-Chamomille
3. Glade Candle/Oil Tin w/oil candle-fresh linen scent


Just leave a comment on this post within the next 3 days with your choice of #1, 2 or 3.
Additional praise for me on the anniversary of my birth is welcomed but won't earn you any Brownie points for the Giveaway. ;-)

Sluggy

Keeping Your Eyes Open for Deals in The Stores

While I DID succeed in blowing up my Food Budget for January, I don't consider it a total FAIL.
I didn't go over by a large amount(thank you rebate checks!)and I did manage to pick up some very nice deals, both planned for and not planned.

Some deals I got were intentional.  Like this one.....

I saw that the local chain market was running a special on the veggie Ronzoni pasta...$1 a box.  I jumped on eBay and found a deal for 20 $1/1 coupons.  After they arrived I managed to get my hands on 18 boxes of the pasta.  With shipping the coupons cost me $2.28.  Not a bad price for 18 boxes of noodles.

Here's some of the 14 boxes of dishwasher detergent I talked about earlier this week, that I picking up at CVS as well....

Between CVS, Wags and Rite-Aid I got 20 boxes and am set for another year.

And here is another deal I saw and jumped on.....

Weis markets had these croutons for $1 a bag.  I was almost out of croutons so I picked up a stack of $.50/1 coupons.  Weis doubles(to $1) up to 4 of an alike coupon per transaction, so I spent that week buying 4 bags at a clip so the coupons would double and they would all be free.  Now I am set for croutons for another year.

But there are always unexpected deals that pop up if you look around the store sometimes.  Keeping your eyes open can reap rewards like this.....

I found these cans of Comstock Pie Filling at CVS on the After-Christmas Clearance shelves.  There were only stocked for Christmas so went to 75% off with the bows and paper and candy and such.
Though not an extremely great price at .69¢ per can, I had 3 .55¢/1 coupons for Comstock pie filling from the Sunday inserts, so I paid only .14¢ for 3 of these cans.  Not a bad haul for $2.49, right?

And how about these....

I was walking around the local grocery store since I had to drive my BIL there to do his shopping and spotted these bottle of olive oil on clearance marked down half price to $3!
I showed BIL the great deal and after he took as many as he wanted, I grabbed the rest.
Being a good person can reap unusual rewards....lol

And here was another Jan. unexpected deal.....

The day I was in Redner's market they were clearancing these yogurt packs for .99¢ since they were going out of date soon.
Great price.
But even better because I had GM inserts in the car with $1/1 coupons for these....woohoo!
Free yogurt!

So just in Jan. I got enough pasta, croutons, dishwasher detergent to last me a year.....olive oil and pie filling to last me at least 6 months, and yogurt to last a few months or longer(yogurt is great frozen too).
And now I can mark those items off my stockpile shopping list for quite some time and concentrate on other items.

I am usually one to quickly get my items, get through the store and get out.  But sometimes it does pay to take your time and wander slowly through the grocery store looking for unexpected deals, markdowns, clearanced items and even tearpad or blinkie box coupons.

Remember those croutons?  Every trip to buy 4 bags I picked up a few blinkie box coupons for Hormel Compleats at the other end of that aisle in the store.
Hubs likes to take those Compleats to work for lunch and you know that Rite-Aid puts them on sale fairly regularly so I can use those coupons I gleaned for more free Compleats! 8-)

Do you wander the grocery store aisles looking for coupons or unexpected deals?

Sluggy

A Quickie at Rite-Aid on Thursday

I ran out between storms tonight to get the shelf numbers so I can go back tomorrow during the day to get some rain checks on things on sale this week but are sold out.
If you missed some of the goodies this week, be sure and get your rain checks!

I also found a couple of things to roll my +Up Rewards on.....

2 x Edy's Ice Cream $2.99=$5.98  They restocked!! **not pictured**
2 x K-Y product on sale BOGO50% $4.49=$6.73
2 x Rite-Aid soup on sale .69¢=$1.38
2 x Stayfree Pads BOGO=$3.99
SubTotal....$18.08

Coupons Used
1 x $1 any Purchase AdPerks/VV Q=$1.00
2 x $3/1 K-Y item IPQ=$6.00
1 x $1/2 Rite-Aid soup IPQ=$1.00
1 x Stayfree BOGO IPQ=$3.99
Coupon Total...$11.99

$18.08-$11.99=$6.09 OOP
I used $6 in +Up Rewards and put the .09¢ on my Rite-Aid gift card.
I received $9 in +Up Rewards back....2 x $2 Edy's and $5 for buying 2 select K-Y items.

Spent $6, got $9 back made this a $3 moneymaker.
And I have $8 in +Up Rewards left to spend/roll by Saturday....and a new storm is due here that morning so I'll be going to Rite-Aid today.

I've also hit $102.64 in Buy& Save purchases, so I got the $20 Winter Resolution Reward +Up Reward.

Yay me!lol
 

Sluggy

$32K Savings Challenge of 2011.....January's Totals

Since I foresee food prices, as well as other expenses/costs/taxes to rise in 2011, I am only upping my Savings Challenge Goal by $2,000.  While I hope to bring in more income this year, I feel we will be spending more on necessities in 2011, thus the small increase in goals.

So I present to you the beginning of the 2011 $32K Savings Challenge!

I have posted my JANUARY End of Month $32K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right for the specific numbers.

I have 2 goals really each month.....
The 1st is to actually finish each month in the black and not the red.
The 2nd is to hit the targeted savings amount of $2,666.67.

I have to report that we finished up January in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of January with was.......$2,293.97.

Income
We had $2206.37 left over of DH's salary after our expenses were deducted. Before you decide that we are idle rich folks here, remember that we have NO mortgage or car payment, having paid off both of those debts.  Oh, yah....and we hardly ever buy "things".   I will say that Hubs has a very generous paycheck. ;-)
Add in $87.60 of Rebates applied against the food expenses and you have a deposit of $2293.97 toward the Savings Challenge!

Our monthly target is an average of $2,666.67 to reach our Year End Goal so we didn't meet our 2nd monthly goal in Jan. bleh

Outgo
As for the expenses in January....there were a couple large bills.  The credit card bill(which is paid off each month)was over $1700.  Then the electric bill came in VERY high this month since we lost our off-peak rate discount at the end of 2010.  There was also a smaller payment, the garbage bill which is paid quarterly due in Jan.

The good news in January is that the cable bill did Not go up as it usually does each Jan. and we were able to reduce our cash withdrawals by about $300.  Hubs spending other than gasoline purchases, is mostly through cash bank withdrawals and he does NOT keep/give me receipts.  He is my Wild Card in trying to keep spending down and staying on a tight budget.  It drives me nuts but there is little I can do about it other than give him the stink eye.... ;-)

The Food Budget costs for January are in another post, which is located HERE.  The actual Food/Toiletries spending in January was a smallish disaster....ugh!

What's ahead for February.....
Looking back at last year's check register, I see we are bound to have another whopper of an electric bill this month and we have the semi-annual Car Insurance bill due.
Bleh.
I know our rates aren't as high as many areas of the country, given we have 3 cars on the road at present and 2 teenage drivers on the policy(one of them is also male which is even worse!lol), but it's still a LOT of money to shell out and I write that check under great duress! 8-P

On the bright side, I am going to try to keep a closer eye on Hubs cash withdrawals and question expenditures he makes more and I am hoping to SLASH the food spending budget in February by half.
Just call me crazy now and get it out of the way.....


YEAR-TO-DATE TOTAL.....
Being the 1st month of the year, our Savings total to-date is $2,293.97.

And if you need to start putting money into savings......What's that you say?  You don't have an emergency fund of 6-8 months worth of expenses!!??....consider playing along in 2011 with me and Challenging Yourself to Save Money each Month Toward a Realistic for YOU Savings Goal!
Not everyone can shoot for $32K, I fully get that!
But everyone can shoot for some number, right!?

Find a money goal that works for you and put that number out there for everyone to see.  It will help keep you accountable to your goal if other eyes are on you.
Ooo, that sounded kind of creepy didn't it? ;-)

So how was your January financially?  Leave a comment and share with us what you did with your money, both the good and not-so good.   Do you have any tricks or tips that help you to end your month before the money runs out?    Let us know!
If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check you out too!

Sluggy