End of April Rite-Aid Trips...Playing Catch Up

More shopping from the end of last week below.
Boring stuff.
Feel free to skip it and move along. 8-)
This is the only shopping I have to report in with since I didn't go to the grocery store AT ALL last week.

This past weekend, I ended up with 2 $20 GOS Certificates from last Decemeber to use(mine and BIL's)by Saturday, the day they expired.
Here is what I got with mine.....no nit picky details since these deals are past......

The good things I did were to combine some Herbal Essences Shampoo Free item Qs with a BOGO Q that was expiring on Saturday to get 3 bottles of  'Poo abso-freaking-lutely free. I also paired rainchecks for Mortin PM(and used expiring Sat. Qs), Toothpaste and Toothbrushes to get all that free as well.
The rainchecks for Glad bags and Coffee made those items very inexpensive.   The Veet was free plus overage and the Easter candy was 50% off.
Though it pains the 'green' in me to buy it, the plastic wrap was my love gift to Hubs....lol

And I stocked up on Saline Spray at .99¢ instead of the regular retail of $5.99......$5.99 really?!?....for salt water?!?!  Puhleez Rite-Aid!
After using the $20 Gift of Savings Certificate, I put the .04¢ left to pay on my free gift card.

I got over $161 in products with this Certificate so that pleased me. ;-)

And here is what I got with BIL's certificate.....

4 bottles of 100% juice for Daughter
2 cans of hash for #2 son
1 pack of TP and even at this sale price it was waaaay over priced!
1 more bottle of saline spray...no way I am being caught without some and have to pay $5.99!
1 flat of bottled water--which I HATE paying for but I have to keep some on hand in the summer
2 candy bars for the $1.76 in +Ups they gave(free after the +Ups)
All this cost me .42¢ on my gift card after using his $20 Certificate.

Unfortunately I didn't plan these trips all that well.  I had wanted to grab a bunch of TP for my stash but nothing was on sale for cheap and had Qs I could use this last week.  I should have bought the TP & used this Certificate in an earlier week....oh well!
But I did manage to get a bunch of things we need or will be needing shortly.

And then I realized I didn't buy the free after +Ups candy bars with my card, so I bought 2 bars and a single Reese's Easter egg so I could get over $2 to use my last $2+Ups that was expiring.  I put the .02¢ leftover on my gift card. 
(Those 3 little candies off to the side on the right in the last photo made up that last transaction.)

Even though these trips were in April, they are during the May SCR Period, so here is the beginning of the May tallies.


THESE TRIPS
Number of Transactions.....3
Total Spent....$.48 (put on free Rite-Aid gift card)
Value of Items....$207.13
SCR qualified for...$0.00
Other Rebates earned...$0.00
Gift Cards earned....$0.00
+Up Rewards earned...$6.52
+Up Rewards spent....$2.00
+Up Rewards left to spend.....$55.52 And I have $47.50 left on my gift card.


GRAND TOTALS--MAY Rebate Period so far

Number of Transactions......3
Total Spent....$.48 put on free Gift Cards/Certificates so ZERO OOP
Value of Items purchased....$207.13
SCR qualified for....$0.00
Other Cash....$0.00
Additional Rebates....$0.00
Additional Non-Cash Rewards....$0.00

+UPS Totals for May SCR period
+Up Rewards carryover from 4/23.....$51.00
+Up Rewards spent....$2.00
+Up Rewards earned....$6.52
+Up Rewards left....$55.52  includes ALL +Ups not just ones from this SCR period

So what did y'all buy last week at Rite-Aid?
Did y'all wait until the end to use your Gift of Savings Gift Certificate too?

Sluggy

April SCR Period Rite-Aid Totals....Free Stuff Feels Great!

Here are the particulars from my last trip to Rite-Aid(on 4/23) during the April SCR Period.
No photo but I bought 3 12-packs of Pepsi products(which gave $3+Ups), a Little Noses saline spray(which gave $3+Ups and a $1 SCR) and 4 candy bars.

THIS TRIP
Number of Transactions.....1
Total Spent....$.85 (put on free Rite-Aid gift card)
Value of Items....$23.76
SCR qualified for...$1.00
Other Rebates earned...$0.00
Gift Cards earned....$0.00
+Up Rewards earned...$6.00
+Up Rewards spent....$13.00
+Up Rewards left to spend.....$51.00
And I have $47.50 left on my gift card.

And here are my Final Numbers for the April Single Check Rebate Period.....

GRAND TOTALS--April Rebate Period

Number of Transactions......16
Total Spent....$6.99 put on free Gift Cards/Certificates so ZERO OOP
Value of Items purchased....$704.86
SCR qualified for....$59.91
Other Cash....$0.00
Additional Rebates....$0.00
Additional Non-Cash Rewards....$0.00

+UPS Totals for April SCR period
+Up Rewards carryover from 4/20.....$58.00
+Up Rewards spent....$161.96
+Up Rewards earned....$99.96
+Up Rewards left....$51.00  includes ALL +Ups not just ones from this SCR period

I used $6.99 of my free Rite-Aid gift card and got over $700 worth of products.
I'll also receive just shy of $60 back in cash rebates for buying these items.
I also have $51 in +Up Rewards left to spend in the coming weeks.


Not bad, huh? 8-))

Sluggy

I'm an Island of Frugal in a Spendthrift Family

I swear, every time I turn around, I just can't win.
I try to be frugal.
Sometimes to the point of being ridiculously frugal....or so my family tells me.

But they sure don't help me want to loosen up on the frugality measures, when every time I turn around, they are being spendthrifts.
Or just not doing what I ask them....to carry out the small frugal measures I ask of them.

Like Hubs for instance.
He was going to Lowe's this morning for gardening supplies.....manure, seeds, plants, etc.
I had a $10 off $50 purchase card which expires today.
I gave him my list and the card with instructions to spend enough to use the discount.
Pretty simple, right?

So he comes back with most of the things on my list and hands me the receipt.
He spent $43.49 BEFORE tax....$46.10 after sales tax.
So he spent just under enough to get a $10 discount.

What part of spend OVER $50 and use the $10 discount did he NOT understand???!!!
So he gave up $10 in FREE gardening supplies.......
Unreal.

He is looking at me like, "Hey!...It's no big deal."
And he walks away....

I on the other hand just want to SCREAM & SMACK HIM!

This is what he does.....he throws away money.
He throws shit out that's perfectly useful and buys new.
He doesn't take advantage of deals and discounts.
It's "not HIS way" he says.....
He feels that since he makes a good income, he can afford to waste money.
This is the guy who was writing checks for cups of coffee while in college....lol
And the kids know how he is, so they never ask me for things.  They go to him because he will buy stuff he knows I wouldn't approve of and he will just buy at full retail too! argh

I keep telling him when his income goes away and we retire, he won't have the luxury of being a spendthrift.
I keep reminding him that if he had been more aware of wasting money throughout our marriage until this point that he could have retired at 50 like he wanted to.


This trait of his drives me insane!
I get so discouraged sometimes.....

Is your partner on board with your frugal ways or are you fighting their spending like a salmon swimming upstream too?

Sluggy

The End of Year Season has Begun! & a Bit of Bad News and Good News

Before you think my cheese has totally slipped off it's cracker, I am NOT referring to the End of the Calendar Year Season, but the End of the School Year Season.

If you have kids in school, whether Pre-School, Elementary, Jr. High, High School or College, the Month of May through June is a very busy time of year!
As various school programs and extra-curricular programs come to an end and summer plans begin, total mayhem takes over the parental life.

For example, here is what is coming up in my kids' lives in the next 8 weeks....

*High School Concert and Jazz Band Concert  Completed last night
*Senior Prom
*Final College Exams
*High School Marching Band Banquet
*High School Marching  Band Disney Trip
*Finishing Young Scholars College Classes(Dual Enrollment Seniors)
*French Honor Society Ceremony
*Graduation Practices
*Honor Society Ceremony
*Final Exams
*Senior Awards Night
*Graduation
*Senior Lock-In Party
*Packing 2 off to Summer Camp employment
*College Orientation
*Packing 1 off to Summer Camp

Add in bringing 1 kid home from college, taking him out for staff training for the summer job, having him come home for his sister's graduation, hosting a house full of relatives for said graduation, trying to clean and fix up house before said relatives descend on house for graduation, running around to get stuff kids need to go to summer camp(either to work or as a camper).
Throw in doctor appointments, dentist appointments, orthodontist appointments, eye doctor appointments and refilling medications.

I'll get time around June 20th to sit down and breath again I am figuring.....lolol

Most of this craziness stems from #2 Son being in the band and Daughter being a senior in high school.
I suspect it won't be nearly as hectic next year when I have just the lone Sophomore in high school.
One kid left at home fulltime....
Wow!
I can't wait!!!

Mostly that's due to the fact that my Daughter is alot of work.
You mom's out there with both sons and daughter....do you find that the girls are just so much more exhausting?
Or is it just me.....and my girl?
Please tell me it's NOT just me!lol

Besides the High School Concert last night, we also got 2 pieces of news from the University Daughter is going to be attending.
First the bad news.....
Due to the proposed state budget for PA, the state colleges here are having their funding slashed, BIGTIME.
Daughter got a letter with the estimated updated costs to attend(since the state budget doesn't even get voted on until June sometime, we won't know the final costs until then).  Instead of the usual 8% rise in attendance costs, it's looking more like 18%!
More than DOUBLE the usual rate.
Suddenly the one school that Daughter wouldn't have to go into debt to attend is going to leave her with a small pile of debt when she is finished there.
At least she got that small Board of Governors Merit Scholarship for all 4 years of her undergraduate schooling, so if she can save some summer job money, she might squeak out with a teeny tiny pile of debt to pay back.

Now the good news.....
Daughter heard back from that pre-med program at the school and she was granted one of the five guaranteed seats at the Medical School after she obtains her 4 year degree at the college!
This means if she keeps her grades up through college and after she gets her B.S., she is automatically accepted into the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. 
I just think that is awesome! 8-))

So are you running the End of School Year gauntlet too?

Sluggy

Did Ya Miss Me? & My Easter Trip in Pictures...Sort of

Well I'm back....sort of.

You know what's worse than being sick?
Being sick and going on a trip.

Hubs, #2 son and I had promised to go to my brother's house in VA for 5 days at Easter.
I woke up 2 days before we were suppose to go with sinus problems.  At that point unless I was hanging over the toilet bowl or unable to stand up we had to go.  That and the fact that I had promised to bring my Sis-in-Law's Christmas present to her.....the pepper relish she dearly loves that I had canned.  I dare not mail those glass canning jars so she had been waiting patiently for it to arrive.
So I sucked it up and we went to VA.....and tried to keep my whining and moaning to a bare minimum.

We left Thursday morning and stopped in Dover Delaware so I could go to the grocery store.
Yes, we stopped at a Safeway grocery store on the way to Virginia.
Why?
Because I had a $25 Safeway gift card to spend and there was a Safeway along the route we took.
It's totally logical, right?
Since there was nothing on sale that week that I had coupons for and that I wanted/needed, I bought 4 12 packs of soda(on sale), 2 packages of Smithfield country ham(for breakfast biscuits)and some snacks for #2 son to eat/drink on the trip.
$40 worth of regular retail put on the gift card and $1.49 OOP in cash put on my food spending for April.
I'm ok with that....

Since we made such good time, we stopped at the outlets in Delaware also.  #2 son has never been with us before when we've stopped there.  This outlet has a VANS store.  #2 son "hearts" Vans.  $130 later, we also hit the Converse and Easy Spirit outlets.  Again, the Easy Spirit outlet had nothing in my size......the last 2 times I've found nothing. *sigh*

We stopped here for a late lunch......

The crab soup was good but my fish "sammich" was awful.
It had a big gift shop with many inappropriate and suggestive t-shirts.  We had to drag #2 son out of the gift shop....

The bar was called the "Bimbo lounge".
#2 son posed outside the lounge with one of the local bimbos.....

I think he coped a feel.
Oh, how fast they grow up.....

We got into Chesapeake at my brother's house around 8pm and had a late dinner and hit the bed around 10pm.

On Friday morning Hubs took #2 son to the skatepark.  This was his first time at a real live skatepark with half pipes and such.  He was thrilled yet bummed since he was clueless about how to "drop in" and ride a half pipe.  Some 30+ year old guy was there showboating and having his kids take pictures of him riding.  That made #2 son feel even more lousy in front of all the other kids there.  Eventually, the showboat guy gave #2 some pointers and helped him figure out the half pipe.

Hubs, #2 and I hit the Dollar Store for a couple of supplies then off to "Cici's" for the pizza buffet.
It was me and Hubs' first time at a "Cici's".
I was Not impressed!  Cheap is good but the place should be called "Dough".
It's not pizza, it's a big piece of dough with some sauce, cheese and toppings on the 3" diameter in the center of the pizza shell.
I think I took a 3 hour nap after leaving there.  Still not sure if that was due to the "meal" or the prescription drugs I was on.

#2 did some skating out in front of the house.

My sis-in-law's 5 yr. old grandson has some homemade ramps at the house he let #2 use.  Then he joined #2 son on his little board.

*This is about the time my camera went missing.  No one seemed able to find it for the duration of the trip, so I'll have to 'borrow' other photos to illustrate the rest of this travelogue.
Oh, the camera did turn up late Sunday....in the car right where I told Hubs it was. ;-)

On Saturday Hubs and I took a little drive alone in the morning.  It was ridiculously hot for April, even for southern VA!  All I can say is I "heart" a/c....

We had 'cue for lunch.....really good 'cue at a hole-in-the-wall little joint.

(I used this photo just for Mark.  I know he will have something to say about that.lol)

Saturday afternoon Hubs took #2 back to the skatepark and I took some more drugs and napped.

My SIL spent days cooking for Sunday.  She also cooked breakfast for us each morning and dinner.
She can't help it....that's what she does.

She can not NOT make vats of food.
Even when she is sick and exhausted....which she often is.
I helped a little when I could on Saturday but I wasn't feeling my best either.

Luckily I remembered to go to Rite-Aid to spend the last of my expiring +Ups.

Priorities people, priorities!

By the time I got out of bed on Sunday, the circus had come to town.
Or at least, that's what it felt and looked like.
Sort of like this, but without the Elvis impersonators....

A bit of this but without the mosh pit.....

But more like this.....

I slept right though the Easter Bunny's visit though and the ensuing egg hunt.  This happened way early for me!

It was full out Chocolate/Sugar induced Pandimonium by the time I got to the party.
Colorful plastic eggs and candy wrappers strewn everywhere, wet bathing suit clad kids streaking through the house on the way out back to the homemade slip-and-slide and adults with beverages in hand milling about.....

I am still trying to figure out the familial structure on this side of my family.
Neither of my brothers ever had kids.
This remaining brother remarried the year my mother died to a woman who was previously married and had two kids.  By the time my brother married this wife(a big improvement over the previous wife I'd like to mention), her kids were grown.
Sis-in-law's 30 yr old was married and divorced.  He remarried about a year ago.  His new wife just had a baby 2 months ago.  She also had 2 kids from her previous marriage.
Sis-in-law's 28 yr old is married(though her husband pops in and out of their lives)and has a 5 yr old son.  She is not "self-sufficient" and let's just leave it at that.  Currently she & her son are living with my brother and her mother(sis-in-law), though she had been staying with her husband's grandmother in a nearby town...sometimes with her son, sometimes without.
Oh, and Sis-in-law's invalid mother also lives at my brother's house with them.

So imagine the Easter Dinner roster when we eventually sat down to eat....
Me
Hubs
#2 son
My Brother
My Sis-in-law
SIL's mother
SIL's son
SIL's DIL
SIL's DIL's Oldest kid
SIL's DIL's Middle kid
SIL's son & DIL's Baby
SIL's daughter
SIL's daughter's son
My deceased brother's next door neighbor
My deceased brother's next door neighbor's SO

And a contingent of 5 cats....some inside and some feral outside one.
The only thing missing was a pack of hounds sleeping on the front porch...

We packed up and bugged out early on Monday morning in order to miss evening rush out traffic around Philly.

Even with a long lunch stop at IHOP(at #2 son's request since we don't have one here), we got home safely before dinnertime.

Why is it that it takes as many days as you've been away to get back into your routine?lol
I am finally feeling a little better.
Luckily I was able to get on my SIL's computer quickly to check comments and post 1 short thing on the blog in those 5 days.
Mission accomplished.......Pepper Relish delivered, Familial Obligation completed and Onward to the Next Adventure in what passes for my life.
So we should be back to what passes for normal around here soon.

I hope everyone of y'all had a nice holiday!

Sluggy