Rite-Aid So Far This Month...We Are Killing Trees

It's already the middle of August and this is my first Rite-Aid post for the month.
Yes, I have a bit of catching up to do!lol
But this won't take long, I promise.

The 1st week of August at Rite-Aid I bought 7 Mead Notebooks.  Sorry I have no photo....not that it would be very interesting anyway, right?
2 trips for a total of 7 notebooks.  They were .29¢ each the week of July 31st-August 6th.  These were purchased on the 3rd and 6th.
I used a $1 Wellness Q and ended up putting $1.09 for them on my gift card.

Moving on to last week--August 7th-13th.
I did 2 transactions on Saturday the 13th.

First I bought 2 Kotex tampon packs, on sale for $3.50 each, along with 24 more notebooks, which came to $19.  I used 1 x $1 Wellness Q, 1 x $1/1 any Kotex AdPerks/VV Q, 1 x $2/1 any Kotex ManuQ(Rite-Aid had mailed that to me), so $4 in Qs.
I paid with $15 in +Up Rewards....all the +Ups I had left.
I received $7 in +Up Rewards back(6 x $1 wyb 4 Mead notebooks, $1 wyb 2 Kotex items).

Then I cut off a few +Up Rewards I just got back and bought 8 more notebooks.
8 x .50¢=$4.00
I used 1 x $1 Wellness Q and used 3 +Ups to pay and had NO OOP to put on a gift card.
That's my favorite kind of transaction. ;-)

I received 2 more $1 +Ups for buying the 8 notebooks.
Also, between these 32 notebooks, the 7 I bought the previous week and the Mead index card notebook for son's Band Camp on July 28th, I have "spent" $20.02 on Mead items, so I qualify for the $5 SCR(wyb $20 or more in Mead products).

**Analysis--The tampons were $1.50 a box after Qs and +Ups and Daughter wanted some.

The notebooks last week were .25¢ each after +Ups.  There was a limit of 8 "deals", so you could get 32 notebooks total per Wellness account/card that week and receive the +Ups, making them a quarter per book.  The notebooks also qualify for the $5.00 SCR #3 for Mead products. With 3 kids high school or higher level, we go through TONS of notebooks, so these were a no-brainer buy for me!  Between +Ups and gift card balance and the rebate these cost me almost nothing beyond some of my +Up Rewards.

This week the Mead 70ct. notebooks are .29¢ each but they still qualify toward SCR #3($2 wyb $10 or $5 wyb $20), making them a good deal if you buy enough/need enough of them.


  THESE TRIPS
Number of Transactions.....4
Total Spent....$1.21 put on free gift card
Value of Items....$69.69
SCR qualified for...$5.00
Other Rebates earned...$0.00
Gift Cards earned....$0.00
+Up Rewards earned...$9.00
+Up Rewards spent.....$18
+Up Rewards left to spend.....$6.00
And I have $31.48 left on my gift card.

Rite-Aid GRAND TOTALS--AUGUST Rebate Period so far

Number of Transactions......8
Total Spent....$5.76 put on free Gift Cards/Certificates so ZERO OOP
Number of Items purchased.....52
Value of Items purchased....$137.72
SCR qualified for....$17.99
Other Cash....$0.00
Additional Rebates....$0.00
Additional Non-Cash Rewards....$0.00

+UPS Totals for August SCR period
+Up Rewards carryover from 7/31.....$15.00
+Up Rewards spent....$40.50
+Up Rewards earned....$24.00
+Up Rewards left....$6.00  includes ALL +Ups not just ones from this SCR period

Sluggy

MIA

Sorry I've not been around enough to post this week.
I've been reading blogs some and I'll get to all the comments on mine soon.

Hubs was able to take this week off and we're having a bit of a Staycation here.
Some lunches out, some pool time, some just doing nothing and 1 small trip/activity.
This is in between lots of appointments and hauling teens around.

Maybe we'll do a movie today.
Maybe not.
Just going with the flow as they say.....

And newsflash.....I haven't stepped foot into Rite-Aid yet this week.
Nothing is expiring this week so I might just not darken their door until Sunday or Monday. ;-)

Here's hoping y'all have a nice weekend!
Anybody got any plans??

Sluggy

Two Great Minds I Know....Both Frugal in Their Own Way

I want to talk about 2 fellow bloggers today.

Annie Jones did THIS POST yesterday on her blog.
I have to say that I think she is my Cosmic Twin.
Why?
Because here is a shot of what's above my sink......

Yep, I've got a sink clothesline too!lol
Great minds DO think alike!

At the moment we have no ziploc bags on it.....
Notice that it's also a barbecue tool holder(you can't see the meat fork and long handled spatula in the shadows on the left)and restaurant grade tongs holder.
Hubs put this up about a year ago?...I think.  The old bag drying workaround was hanging them by a bottom corner from the closed cabinet doors upsidedown.  Sometimes that worked and sometimes they fell into the very wet draining mat.

In other news.....

Lookit what showed up in my mailbox yesterday!

A $20 check from Toluna.
My first $20 check from them.
It only took me how many months?......4 or 5 months to get this?
And the only reason I got it this quickly is because half the surveys I didn't get dropped out of before completing them where ones they wanted my teenage son to answer.  So I guess I should give half of this money to him, right?
IF I tell him it came.
Ssssshhhhh.....you didn't hear anything about this from me!

I doubt I'll ever get as prolific as SonyaAnn with Toluna.  She's up to $200 or something for this year so far! 
She's my Toluna Idol.

Sluggy

I Pulled the Plug Last Week

Yes folks, in the face of the Netflix increase since they are going to pricing Streaming separately from DVD mailing, I shut it all down.
No more Netflix in this house.
I had to do it on principle really.
Yes, I could have afforded the 60% price increase to keep both delivery systems.
But it really chapped my butt like an ammonia soaked diaper to pay that jacked up $17.99 price for the same exact service I had been paying $9.99 for.
So I blew both off.

I may calm down at some point and miss it enough to resub to one or the other.
But for now, I'm going cold turkey on Netflix.

How about you?
Are you a subscriber?
Are you paying the jacked up full service price or did you go to one or the other?
Are you as delighted with the price increase as I am?

Sluggy

Week 1 Food Spending for August & When Momma Ain't Happy....

Saturday marks the last day of the 1st week of food spending for August.(I'll add an extra day to each of the rest of the weeks to account for those 3 additional days this month beyond the 28th.)
I did quite a lot of food shopping this week....3 trips to the grocery store and a trip on Saturday to Big Lots.
At the local independent market I finally picked up some pie crust on sale and made my quiches.  I also picked up some plain yogurt to make tzatziki sauce for my ersatz Gyros.
While I was there I picked up on sale....4 bags of frozen veggies, whack biscuits, carrots, potatoes and strawberries for a total of $23.34.

Then at Weis Markets, along with more Swiss cheese for my quiches and the ground pork I got to make my DIY breakfast patties HERE, I found some other deals.....battered fish for half off(#2 son eats this), breakfast link sausage, some boneless pork chops and swiss steak on discount and store packaged feta cheese(for the Gyros).
I splurged and bought a container of hummus(on sale)and some store bakery garlic crustini rounds for a snack for me.
I picked up 16 bottles of gatorade on sale with hangtag Qs on them as well.  These are a donation for the Marching Band Camp next week.  The total was $55.16 at Weis.

Then on Saturday Hubs wanted to go out so we checked out Big Lots.  I got some quart sized canning jars I needed, Ocean Spray 100% juices for $2(my buy price for 100% juice other than apple), Oreos(for #2 son), a box of chocolate chip pancake mix(for #2 son to make), a Xmas stocking stuffer(it's a secret!), and 2 jars of mayonnaise on clearance.  I was very happy about the mayo since I was down to my last jar for a stock-up 2 summers ago at Acme where I got it for free.  And yes, mayo does last 2 yrs. past the sell by date on the jar. ;-)  We left that store $27.72 poorer....

Then it was off to Weis again, for more Gatorade for the Marching Band, Power-Ade for #2 son's use at Band Camp and a bunch of bags of chips.  #2 son talked me into all that snacking stuff since the house was bare and it was on sale so I don't feel as bad.  Plus he'll take a bag or two to band camp next week.  I do feel bad about the $34.78 I spent.  bleh.

In total I spent $141.00 of my $250 food budget for August in this 1st week of the month.
Ugh.
Ugh.
Ugh.
And I haven't even gotten any produce to put up for winter yet!

My savings percentages ran from just under 34% at the local market to 45% for one of the Weis Markets trips.   I had a 40% savings for all trips combined.

We ate the Meal Plan that I had made last week as posted already.
This week?
All bets are off on the menu.

Hubs is on vacation but we are staying home.
So he gets a staycation.
Saturday he bought more books.  I wish he'd go to the library or read what he has already!
Today he's at the local amusement park with #2 son and his friend.
Later this week he's going to go play chess.  This costs money and a ton in gas as it's 2+ hours away.

I get business as usual.
Can you tell I am not happy?


But I'd like to at least not have to cook this week.
If I don't cook, it's not like he will fix meals instead.
He'll just go buy fast food and spend unnecessary money.
If that happens, I won't spend any food budget money this week(as eating out comes out of a different kitty).
But I think a large scale amount of crappy fast food all week, along with being bad for us, is just a wasteful frittering away of our cash when good food is here in the house and he can't be bothered to throw a meal together if I am busy and he isn't.

Maybe I'm just in a bad mood today.
I am feeling overwhelmed and unappreciated by my children.
Why am I still having to deal with buying college books for the 20 yr. old student after 2 years of college?  It's bad enough I have to do their tax returns for them and now I have to find deals for Daughter, the incoming college student. Why can't he handle his book order now?
Both kids are in a state school(within the same system)yet their schools handled Everything so differently!  Instead of being easy, they make it so complicated.  One hasn't even posted the bill for this semester.....the bill that needs to be paid before Aug. 24th.  And they only let you pay online using a credit card and they make YOU pay the processing fee they are charged by the cc company.  You can't mail them a check or hand them cash in person. 
Just ridiculous....

And #1 son chooses to come home from his summer job for 3 whole days before he has to leave again for college.  And he expects me to get him 2 dr. appts., dentist appt. and an optometrist appt. AND fill an eye glass prescription within this time frame.  He could come home sooner and he could schedule all this his bad self, right?
I think 20 yrs. old is time to start handling your own shit....


Sluggy