Got My Stuffing!....More Boring Food Shopping

I hit Weis for the Pepperridge Farm/Campbell's/Swanson Deal on Friday....

2 x PF Cornbread Stuffing on sale=$5.00
4 x Campbell's Soup on sale .80¢=$3.20
4 x Campbell's Gravy on sale .50¢=$2.00
1 x Dr Pepper Ten on sale=$1.67
Subtotal....$11.87

Coupons Used
1 x .25/4 Campbell's Gravy ManuQ(doubled)=$.50
1 x .30/4 Campbell's Cooking Soups ManuQ(doubled)=$.60
1 x FREE ITEM Dr. Pepper ManuQ=$1.89 *
1 x Instant $5.00 off Discount WYB $15 of deal items=$5.00
Discounts Total.....$7.99

$11.87-$7.99=$3.88+.10¢tax(on soda)=$3.98 OP
Regular retail would have been $18.43 on all this stuff, for a savings of 78%.
EGADS! 
$18.43 for this little pittance?  It's a wonder how people who don't shop the sales, loss leaders and/or use coupons or deals can afford to feed themselves anymore!

*The cashier took off the regular price of the Dr. Pepper instead of the sale price, so I got an extra .22¢ discount.   Kind of makes up for having to pay tax on that soda, huh?  ;-)

I was all set to hand over my $5 Catalina Q to roll it after I gave her my coupons but then I realized that the PF/Campbell's/Swanson Deal was an INSTANT DISCOUNT, NOT a Catalina Deal.

No harm, no foul....I just have to hope for a Cat Deal next week to roll it or I'll have to spend the $5 Cat.

So I realized while laying in bed last night that you could do that PF/C/S Deal and get 12 cans of Gravy for $1.00  12 cans is over $15 reg. retail.  It comes to $6.00 on sale this week and after the instant $5 discount, Voila!....$1 OP without any Qs.

Maybe I need to drop by Weis today again and get a load of gravy for the Food Bank?  Since not everyone makes it from scratch, it could be a worthwhile donation.

If you just want the Soup it will run you $4.60 for 12 cans w/out Qs and after the instant discount.

Other than Weis and the local Shursave grocer, I am off to do some shopping today with Hubs.  Heading to KMart, Fashion Bug(to use a gift card I've had since last Xmas!lol) and who knows where else at this point.lol

Sluggy

Got Decluttering P*rn?.......Some People Need a CLUE!

Another Load for Salvation Army already, leaving today or tomorrow, depending on if Hubs feels like dropping it off today or not.

I'm turning into a crazy purging woman I tell ya!  Ok....so you knew the crazy part already.....

2 more Yoda Star Wars Complete Galaxy Figure Set
1 Darth Vader Star Wars Complete Galaxy Figure Set
1 more Star Wars 12" Action Figure
1 Power Rangers Falcon Summoner toy

3 Star Trek 12" Action Figures

1 Set of plastic shelving

1 Book
2 plastic plates
1 plastic popcorn bucket
a ceramic commemorative miniature plate(try saying that fast 10 times!lol)
3 sets of notecards/stationery
1 set of vintage diaper pins
1 power rangers music tape

1set of Pokemon curtains
1 Star Wars top sheet
1 Power Rangers sleeping bag

4 Star Trek Miniature Playsets
2 Sheets of Cat in the Hat Window Clings

2 Silver plated Serving Dishes *I forgot to take a photo before I bubble wrapped these suckers so I borrowed this photo off of someone's eBay listing ;-)  So just imagine 2 of these things here.
 
I have to tell y'all a FUNNY thing that happened.
A few months back, I tried to link one of my Decluttering posts to a Blog That I Care NOT to Name Here, who's focus is on Cleaning and Making Your Home Happy and Functional.  She has a link up thing every once and awhile.
Even though she is not one of those militant Christian Mommy Blogs(you KNOW the ones...), I mistakenly believed she had a sense of humor!  And that she would totally "GET" my tongue in cheek Decluttering post titles where I refer to the crap you declutter as P*rn.  It's not like I actually typed out P-O-R-N, right?

Evidently she was born without lower frontal lobes in her brain that control our sense of funny.

Because a few hours after linking to her Linky Thing, she removed me!
Just like that!.....no email to me asking me what WAS I thinking or letting me know why she pulled my bloggy plug. 


Ok Miss Thing Who has decidedly NO sense of humor or fun.
I can now say I have seen it all!
I've met someone with a smaller sense of humor than Sheldon.


Sluggy

Using My Head Instead of My Cash on Groceries!

Longtime readers may recall...ok, maybe not, that I won a local couponing contest sponsored by a local newspaper. This was 2 years or so ago. My prize was a $50 gift card to a local grocery store downtown in the Big City nearby.
Frankly, I despise that store! It's old, not quite clean, with narrow aisles. I get claustrophobic in there and then you add all the old people clogging up the aisles, keeping me from quickly shopping and getting OUT and I get the shakes just thinking about going there. It's also not in the best area of town to be out and about alone....not that anyone has messed with me yet. They also have a HORRIBLE coupon policy(no internet coupons at all!).
As a result, in 2 years I have only used $8 of this gift card.lol

But earlier this week, I realized that this grocery store is part of the affiliated stores in the ShurSave brand. And as such, this current Spend $XX, Get a Gift Certificate Promotion is being offered at ALL ShurSave grocers in the area. So I can go buy stuff there and have it count toward my Total I have running at the ShurSave store in my teeny tiny town.
Hmmmmmm.....

So I picked the coldest and wettest day of the Fall to go into town to use up my gift card and rack up some more cred toward my gift certificate.

The ShurSave stores are also running a deal this week that goes like this.....Spend $35 in one transaction and get a Turkey for .49¢ a lb. instead of the regular $1.19 a lb. they are charging this November.  And both the $35 and the Turkey purchase also count toward earning the gift certificate.

So I got.....

2 x 1lb. of butter on special $1.99=$3.98
1 x Mayo on sale=$3.50
2 x Diamond walnuts 1lb. on sale $7.49=$14.98
2 x Keelber cookies bogo=$3.68
2 x Pop Secret popcorn bogo=$3.08
2 x Green Giant veggies bogo=$1.98
2 x Sargento cheese bogo=$3.74
2 x red potatoes bogo=$4.98
2 x 2lb. onions bogo=$1.98
1 x 2lb. carrots on sale=$1.99
1 x 16.11 lb. turkey=19.17
SubTotal....$63.06 *This amount gets credited toward my total for the gift certificate promotion*

Coupons
1 x $1/2 Diamond walnuts ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $1/2 Keebler cookies ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $1/2 Sargento cheese ManuQ=$1.00
1 x turkey discount=$11.28
Coupon/Discount Total...$14.28

$63.06-$14.28=$48.78
I used my $42 left on the gift card for a grand total OOP of....$6.78 cash.

The BOGOs and other sales prices that weren't coupon or turkey discounts saved me $25.45, making the regular retail value of this order $88.51.  Using my gift card gave me a savings of 92.34%.
Not too shabby! 8-))

Though it is sad to see that this amount of food that barely covers my small kitchen table would cost $88.51 without any sales or coupons.

The BIG production was once I got home.....making room in the freezer for the turkey!lol


While I was out, I hit up the Bread Outlet too since I haven't been in almost a month and we were running low on bread products......

 Not to go into a long detailed analysis here, so let's just say it's 9 pastries/cookies, 2 bags of rolls, 3 bags of breakfast items and 2 loaves of bread, and it cost me $17.89 and if bought full retail at the grocery store would have run me $72.44.  That's a savings rate of 75.30%.

Generally, since this is 'day old' stuff I don't like to buy so much at one time.  But since my entire garage now qualifies as a freezer with the return of the cold weather, I have no hesitation that anything will spoil before it can be consumed.  I didn't want to have to hike back over to the Bread Outlet before Thanksgiving so I laid in enough of the breakfast items, the Entemmann's pastries and nom noms(that is a technical term, yes?)to get us through the November company. 

So today's food shopping cost me $24.67.
Regular retail was $160.95.

I need to spend about $35 more to get my gift certificate.
I also have to get to Weis in the next two days to roll my Catalina Q and pick up some PF cornbread stuffing for Turkey Day.

Sluggy

Another Horrible Real Estate Outcome

Perusing Real Estate Listings led from one thing to another online until I happened upon this clip.

It seems very few have been able to avoid the downturn in the housing market.
Some stories are sad.
And then there are other stories like this one......

Sluggy  :-)

What's Going On at Chez Sluggy?

Just a post of Random Tidbits from my life lately.

* We had a good productive couple of days last weekend.  I got 2 pair of pants hemmed.  Hubs and #2 son raked the leaves up and the town carted away 31, yes 31! large bags of leaves yesterday.  I also worked on getting another load of clutter together for charity.  And I FINALLY changed out all my summer clothes to the winter stuff....just in time for a week of temperatures in the high 60's here.
Ugh.

* I sold 3 more dolls on the tag sale site.  Hubs is delivering them today after work.  11 more to go....sigh.....

* #2 son started up flute lessons again.  He is super psyched with this teacher and finally is putting some effort into learning his piece for the Districts audition.  He is playing in the pit orchestra for the school musical next month, finishing up Marching Band season this month, playing the electric bass in the jazz band, playing flute in the concert band and he was just recruited by the music director to play the contrabass in the String Ensemble because the only bassist graduated.  He's never played the contrabass but he plays the electric bass and there is no one else in the band who plays well enough so he got elected.
I feel he is tired and too busy but he is enjoying it.  His grades are doing well so far so I am not impinging on his pursuits.

* #2 son's best neighborhood friend moved away this week.  The stepdad took a job in Alabama & they just sold their house.  They had the closing on their house on Monday and left the state.  # 2 son is in the dumps over losing his friend.

                    ***this is NOT my old house***

* Just by chance I discovered that the home we owned before moving into our current home is for sale!
I found the listing and it was a sad sight to see what they have done to it.  It's bordering on the verge of "fixer-upper" now.  I told Hubs we should buy it back since they are asking only $7K more than we sold it to them for.  It's a steal, really!   I loved that little house in the woods.....

* I reopened my eBay Store for the Holidays on Sunday.  The next couple of months are the busiest time of the year for sales on eBay so I jumped back into the water.  I'll be spending the next few weeks getting my Store stocked with goodies in time for Black Friday when things dramatically pick up....or at least I HOPE THEY PICK UP!lol  I have ALL my remaining boxes of eBay inventory in my living room.  Have I ever mentioned I have NO FURNITURE in my living room?lol
I'll weed through, as I go through the boxes to list stuff, and send some more of it to Salvation Army I am sure.  I have already sold 7 items....go me!  I've put a link to my eBay Store on the right sidebar.  Feel free to browse around it if you feel the need to buy overpriced old toys and crap. ;-)

* I am cleaning out the freezer this week.  I need to find room for the turkey I have to buy in the next couple of days so we are eating down the contents as well as pulling out old stuff to mix into the dogs' dinner bowls.  I have no doubts my dogs will "heart" me this week.....

So what's new in your neck of the woods this week?

Sluggy