November Food Spending Week 2, Meal Plan Week 3

Last week's meal plan is in the books.  Here is what actually happened....

SUNDAY--Pork Chops, Cabbage, Sweet Potato Fries
MONDAY--Cheeseburgers, Green Beans
TUESDAY--Chicken Quesadillas, Corn
WEDNESDAY--Chinese Take-Out

THURSDAY--Lasagna, Salad *Lasagna is in the freezer leftover from previous meal
FRIDAY--Leftovers(I finished up my Crab Soup, Hubs had his Chinese.)
SATURDAY--Light Lunch out w/Hubs(salad) and Scrounging for Dinner(I had a can of Beefaroni)


Basically the meal plan was adhered to except for the Salmon, which was moved to this week's menu.

I come into this week with leftover grilled chicken from Tuesday's dinner.  I used it in this Sunday's dinner.

See my previous posts with my food shopping for last week.  Besides what I posted about I also hit another ShurSave store(one that takes IPQs)and finished off the spending needed to get my gift certificate reward.  I bought pie crusts, cranberry sauce(used IPQs), 7-Up, chips, baking cups, cookies(used ManuQ) and 2 big bags of dog chow(used IPQs)and spent $36.01.  6 of these items also counted toward the store making a $5 donation to the Wounded Warriors Project in my name.  That's a win/win as far as I'm concerned. 8-)
Total for all the food shopping last week came to $65.66.

My savings percentage was 75.10% last week, as the reg. retail was $263.69 on the groceries I brought home.  That $42 on the gift card went a long way toward lowering my OOP for the week.

My running total spent for the month is now at $122.45, which puts me right on target to stay within my $250 monthly food budget. 

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Homemade Chicken Pot Pie
MONDAY--Spaghetti & Meatballs
TUESDAY--Teriyaki Salmon w/ Veggie Fried Rice
WEDNESDAY--Kielbasa, Potato Salad, Cabbage
THURSDAY--Squash Casserole & Leftovers
FRIDAY--Breakfast for Dinner
SATURDAY--Leftovers

Items needed for this menu.....Cabbage, Squash, Eggs and the weekly ubiquitous milk purchase. 

If I find anything to stock up on for cheap this week I have about $60 to play with this week plus $25 in free money from a Catalina Q and 2 Store Rewards.

How about you? 
Do you have your Turkey Day menu set yet?

I am having trouble finalizing mine.  I am having 7 over for the meal but Daughter's BF is a picky eater I am told, #2 son is sort of picky, the Nephew is very picky and Daughter is probably on a diet after eating at the college dining hall for the last 2+ months.  She tells me they put laxatives in all the food because there is no fiber or vegetable matter and it's all highly processed junk so they have to, to keep everyone from being constipated and wreaking havoc on the schools plumbing.
Okay......lol

I have a turkey and I'll do stuffing.  I might fore go mashed potatoes and do baked sweet potatoes instead.  Rutabagas are a definite seasonal thing I fix at the Holidays and I'll make corn for the picky BF(because it's the only veg he'll eat).  I'll probably make a green veggie too, cranberry sauce, rolls and pie.  I will just do a crudité plate(raw veggies and dip)beforehand.

So what's on your menu for next Thursday?


Sluggy

Grocery Store Games.......Who's Got the Card? & Gravy Hide & Seek

Well my nefarious shopping plan was foiled yesterday.
This Sharsave grocer where I got the .49¢ lb. turkey with a $35 purchase last week?
It was a limit of 1 per loyalty card.
Now, for some reason I can't recall, Hubs has a separate loyalty card from mine....different numbers on the cards so I was forever yelling at him during previous years "points toward a gift certificate" deals because he'd use HIS card and not mine, so our points got split up between the two cards and I couldn't get to the amount of spending needed to get the free certificate.

So since I got to my point total for the cert. on MY card this year(plus got a $10 Baking reward to spend), I was going to use his card on Saturday(while the Baking reward deal was still going on)to get another Turkey for .49¢ lb. by spending $30 on qualifying baking items & $5 more on other sale deals.
So with the turkey being about $6-$7 after the discount, I'd spend $41-$42 and get a turkey, $35 of other items AND another $10 Baking reward to spend next week.

Ya still following this crazy train of a thought process?
I even had a list of everything I was going to buy and had it all figured out.
So Hubs pulls into the parking lot at the grocery store and I ask him for his card.....that's when the plan shit the bed.
Hubs had sometime in the last year THROWN AWAY His Card!
Not just put it away in his sock drawer or something, but thrown it in the trash.
Ugh.

"Curses, foiled again!", as Snidely Whiplash would say.

So I put my butt back in the car and tried not to grumble and we headed over to Weis "let's remodel the store during a Recession and jack up all the prices to pay for it even more than the economy is forcing us to" Markets.
At least I still had the PF/Campbell's/Swanson Deal to do.  I talked about it HERE if you need to get up to speed on this deal.

So I grab a cart and hobble over to the big ass PF/C/S display......
at least where it WAS the day before.
And they have taken it down or hidden it somewhere else in the store but I don't have the energy or the desire to go hunting for it, those blasted charlatans......grrrr....
So I go over to the gravy aisle.....after looking for where they have moved the gravy to......and of course it is NO WHERE NEAR the broth/stock/soups but near the ketchup and one aisle over from baby stuff?....if you were wondering.

Now I KNOW they have at least 20 pallets of this gravy.
I saw it late on Friday night over in the big ass PF/C/S display.
But they have not restocked the gravy on the shelves.  There are about 50 cans and of course it's on the TOP SHELF and just trying to use a ladle, for sale in a package, hanging on the front of the shelf, to try to get enough cans because they are ALL against the back of the shelf and have to be coaxed forward to reach!

So Hubs who is NOT much taller than myself proves to be deft with that ladle and we got 22 cans.

Since I don't have any Qs, I head to the self-checkout and start scanning gravy cans.  After 11 cans, I get over the $15 reg. retail and the $5 instant discount comes off....rah!

So I make the strategic error of going for 1 transaction with all 22 cans, hoping I can do the $5 off again in a single transaction.
Bad move.....no $5 discount for the 2nd set of cans.

So I put the HELP LIGHT OF SHAME on and call for a Front End employee to remove 11 cans of gravy from my order.  And to make it even worse, the FE guy had to remove each. single. can. one. at. a. time.
Frankly I could care less about doing this, "making a scene", but Hubs, who doesn't want to be part of my shenanigans, gave me the stink eye when he had to unbag and rebag those 11 cans.

So I did the 22 cans of gravy in 2 transactions.

Each transaction cost me a whole .50¢ after discount.
I spent $1.00 OOP on all this gravy.

I sure wished I could have gotten more to take to the local food bank this coming Friday but Hubs was in NO MOOD after this.

So I pick up the Weis ad this morning for this coming week and what do I see??
Yep, the PF/C/S Instant Discount Deal is still on!
Now I HAVE TO go back and find where they have moved that display to!

Hubs believes they have cameras in the parking lot and when my car pulls in, some early warning system goes off inside the store and they hide whatever it is that's a great deal that week just to piss me off.
I tend to believe he is correct some days.....

Sluggy

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