Wednesday Chit-Chat

Well I've showered, done a load of laundry, poured my morning iced tea(don't judge me!), printed a fistful of Qs off, cooked and had my steel cut oats, taken dinner out to thaw(salmon), read my bloggy friends musings, lined up 9 eBay listings to write and mailed a package(well it's on the porch and the mail lady is coming to ME!lol).
And it's only 10 am.
Usually I am just rolling out of bed at this hour......sometimes later. ;-)

We are on Thanksgiving Countdown here!
T-Minus 8 days and counting.
Actually, I need to get the house in order by Sunday, as one of the BILs will be arriving from SC on that day.  He is not staying through to Thanksgiving but still, the house needs to be presentable even if the kitchen will be a disaster since I'll be scrubbing out the fridge and cleaning/organizing/going through the pantry foodstuffs.  He'll sit in Hubs recliner all day anyway except when he's getting himself more coffee or trying to get me to fix him food/wait on him......good luck with that last thing!lolol

And did I mention Hubs took off all of next week from work?  At least he can keep his brother amused and stay the hell outta my way unless I need something broken mangled fixed moved around the house.

Then Daughter arrives home on Tuesday and I am sure her Beau will be arriving shortly afterwards. He may be staying here since he still doesn't have a place to live due to the flooding in September of his mom's house.  I think he is still staying with his Grandmother off and on.  Daughter is suppose to assist with the Turkey Day meal but otherwise I don't think I'll be seeing much of her....unless she needs money, then I'll be seeing her out stretched hand.....

I also have to empty the dining room so we all have a place to eat together next Thursday.
This is where I'll need assistance since the dining room is eBay Central.  I store the crap I am selling in tubs in the living room but I photograph and pack everything in the dining room.  Meaning that room is full of bubblewrap rolls, newspapers and shipping boxes.  That has to all go into the garage until next Friday.

Speaking of eBay......
I've sold 14 items in the last 10 days.  I'm not upset about the slow start since my worry/concern until Black Friday is to get my Store loaded with items.  I am striving for 10 listings a day but I've only done 8 per day the last couple of days, so I'm falling behind my goal.  I've got 65 live listings at the moment and I hope to have 75 more done by next Friday for a total of 140(unless I sell some things between now and then).  140 would be a fine goal and make me smile! 8-))

I'll be heading to Weis Markets aka The Evil Empire in a bit for......wait for it.......more gravy!!lol
I've also got a $5 Cat Q to spend and a few other good deals to pick up.

I hate having to go out after school hours, as I find my energy ebbing around the 3pm hour, but today it can't be avoided.  #2 son threw away his brand new retainer.  We've been trying to track it down(he threw it away at someone else's house)for the last week or so and were crossing our fingers it would turn up but no such luck.  Now we have to go replace it.  We had to replace Daughter's when she sat on it(lol)so we are giving #2 son a FREEBIE this time and he won't have to pay for it.  I am not happy but if it happens again, HIS WALLET WON'T BE HAPPY!lol  Having to go to the other side of Wilkes-Barre to the Orthdontist's nice, fancy, new office to have the retainer fitted after 3pm is NOT making me happy either.  Rainy weather, pre-rush hour traffic and having to race home to feed ravenous canines and to slave over a hot stove for dinner. 
I'll be using up my Cranky Cards later today.....

I have posted a Vital & Timely Poll that needs your attention, up on the top of the right sidebar.
Please exercise your inalienable right as a Citizen of Bloggyland and vote!

Sluggy

Some Frugal Weekend Fun with Hubs.....

And no, it is NOT that kind of fun!
SonyaAnn, Mark.....get your minds out of the gutter you two!lol

As we drive around doing our shopping errands Hubs and I notice stuff on the back of the cars.  We often watch for funny bumper stickers on cars as we tool around town.  It is our frugal fun thing to do and something to do while sitting in the car.  Other than the money for gas(which we'd have to spend anyway), it's cheap entertainment.

I sure wish I had had my camera with me to snap some photos on Saturday because we found 2 real gems!

We love to find cars with things on them that kind of don't go together.....non sequiturs......contrary ideas or concepts.   Kind of like that WIFE SWAP TV Show that would pair up two families with widely contrasting personalities and then switch moms and watch all hell break loose for our viewing pleasure.  So it's kind of like Wife Swap for cars.   Follow me here.....

The first car had 2 bumper stickers.  The 1st one on the back door of the SUV read....
"Remember to Keep Christ in Christmas".....A nice very religious sentiment, right?

The other sticker, located on the bumper read....
"If I wanted to listen to an asshole, I'd fart"......not such a loving neighborly thought, is it?



Then we got a special twofer day!  As we were pulling out of the parking lot at Weis Markets and we saw another set of non sequiturs on a car.

This car had one of those metal "Fish" symbols that denote the person is a Christian or a Catholic.
Across from the fishy was a bumper sticker that read....
"Badass Ta-Tas"

Yep, a pious soul with a smokin' bode!!

No folks, I can not make this stuff up!

Sluggy

Just for Judy......Can You Spell Gravy?

So after dropping 3 packages at the PO that have to go overseas(eBay sale...yay!), I trotted over to Weis to hunt down the moving Gravy Display.
Found it!.....the Evil Managers at Weis may be good, but I am BETTER!
Muuuwaaaaaah!

1 x PF Cornbread Stuffing on sale=$2.50
4 x Campbells Gravy on sale=$2.00
6 x Campbells cooking Soups on sale=$4.80
SubTotal....$9.30

Coupons Used
1 x $1/5 Campbells Soup IPQ=$1.00
Instant Discount WYB $15 of PF/C/S Deal=$5.00
Coupon Total...$6.00

OOP....$3.30

They tried to pull a fast one on me too!
I forgot that the reg. retail shelf tag on this soup was $1.25.
There was no shelf tag on the endcap where they moved/hid the Display and the Display sign said the reg. retail on the soup was $1.49.....which meant I only needed 5 soups to get to the $15.
Well the little sonofabitchcans rang up $1.25-.45¢=.80¢, not $1.49-.69¢=.80¢.
So I was one can short of getting my $5 off the order.

I made one of the cashier/front end gals, who was bored to tears just standing around because nobody was in the store but me, go get me another can of soup because I was sure as heck not walking the length of that store one. more. time. for. one. can.

26 cans and counting.   lol

I've got until Friday morning when I head over to the food bank to run this Deal some more.
Maybe I'll go against my good sense and sneak into Weis on Tuesday and run the old people gauntlet on Senior Day for more gravy.
I wonder if Judy would let me borrow her mom too?lol

Or maybe not since it will take me hours to park, do the shop and get out of the parking lot.
That still leaves Wednesday and Thursday.
What do y'all think? ;-)

 Sluggy

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