January Food Spending Week 2, Meal Plan January Week 3

*I am taking part in Precious' MONEY SAVING CHALLENGE again for 2012.  You can find her blog FRUGAL MAKES CENTS and a list of other participants and their blogs  HERE.

Check it out.  You might find some new ideas for incorporating frugality into your life there!*


I love searching around for old photos and advertisements featuring kitchens from years gone by.  These are mostly the kitchens from my youth in the 1960's or earlier.  

Today's kitchen......or rather today's appliance in honor of my Birthday, a 1959 Electric Range!

Ok....this ad is actually a 1958 Range.....here's the 1959 one.....

Now I don't think I could stomach a Pepto-Bismol pink kitchen but I truly would have loved to have had a TURQUOISE one!  Not blue, not sea green but true up turquoise.  Like this yummy GE range.  And notice Mrs. Tweed Jacked Pencil Skirt Suit also has those cutting edge metal cabinet doors in matching turquoise!

Back the year I was born they touted these new fangled Electric ranges/ovens as so space age and modern.  No more open flames of gas.  "Keyboard Cooking" was the buzz word. Dials and push buttons with numbers for accurate temperatures.  Automatic timers that were easier to set than a clock.  The oven door was removable for easy cleaning.....well, that was a nice feature but who the heck cleans their oven anymore??lol

This fashionable Cooking Machine's cost started at $149.00 in 1959.
Gulp.....that wold be $1,130 in today's dollars! 

Enough of that, onward to the Meals and Food Spending. 8-)


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

SUNDAY--bucket of KFC *weekend special for $11*, coleslaw, mashed potatoes, biscuits

MONDAY--Mac and Cheese, Broccoli

TUESDAY--Subway sammies

WEDNESDAY--Kielbasa on rolls, Onions, Ginger Carrots

THURSDAY--Grilled Pork Chops, Beets(leftover), Mac and Cheese(leftover)

FRIDAY--Breakfast for Dinner(Eggs, Pancakes, Meats)
SATURDAY--Fish, Wild Rice, Peach Salad

Except for the bucket of chicken we bought on Sunday and the Subway sandwiches for 3 of us(Hubs was sick), the rest of the food served was already here.  The only thing we needed last week was milk.
Therefore, the food spending was low last week.  1 trip to Weis for Juice and Nestle's Quik where my Catalina didn't print.  Then there were my trips to CVS stores to stockpile Finish dishwasher detergent.
Trips to Rite-Aid also but no actual money was used. ;-)

In all, I spent $39.86 last week at the grocery/drug stores.

I used 26 coupons(25 at CVS on non-food items, 1 at Weis on a food item).

2 Weeks in and I've spent $149.73 of my January food budget.  $150.27 left for the month.

Going into Week 3, we have 1 piece each of kielbasa and salmon leftover.  Since everyone is off of work/school and home today, I am counting on these to be scarfed down for lunch.

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Chinese Take-out *I wasn't feeling too well

MONDAY--homemade Pizza, carrot & celery sticks w/dressing

TUESDAY--homemade Chili, Cornbread

WEDNESDAY-- Sloppy Joes(with ground turkey or chicken), Rolls, Green Beans

THURSDAY--Baked Potatoes with Toppings, Mixed Veg.

FRIDAY--Chicken Divan
SATURDAY--Spaghetti Carbonara, Salad

Items needed for this menu are rolls and salad greens.  I have everything else on hand.
The grocery store ads look pretty pitiful this week as well, since it's the "store brand" week here.
I might stock up on salmon this week as somebody had a good deal on it....can't for the life of me remember which store it was.lol  I'll pretty much be staying out of the stores this week at any rate.

My menu might change if A-Daughter want's me to fix a favorite food since she is leaving to go back to school next weekend(yay!lol) or if B-I feel worse than I do now......I think I'm getting the flu or it might just be a cold.
bleh.

So what is everyone else eating this week?  

Sluggy

More Rite-Aid....Getting to 100

So our Intrepid Bargain Hunter(that's me!)rolls into the new Sales week at Rite-Aid on Sunday, with $51 toward the $100 needed to get her BIL's card to the $20 Resolution Reward.

Here is what we bought.....

Hubs didn't feel like going out for the Sunday paper, so we picked them up.
2 x Sunday papers (1 was $1/1 was $1.20 w/my discount)=$2.20 I'm getting real tired of hearing about Joe Paterno and we aren't even in State College!lol
1 x Fritos on sale=$1.88 *
2 x Tom's of Maine items on sale $3.99=$7.98
3 x Theraflu items on sale $5.00=$15.00-must buy 3 for this price **
2 x GE Lightbulbs on sale $2.99=$5.98
SubTotal....$33.04

Coupons Used
1 x $2/1 Theraflu item IPQ=$2.00 (Our region didn't get the Theraflu ManuQs)
1 x $3/2 Theraflu items IPQ=$3.00
1 x $3/2 Theraflu items PeelieQ=$3.00 ***
2 x $2/1 GE Lightbulks In-AdQ=$4.00 ****
Coupon Total....$12.00

$33.04-$12.00=$21.04
We used my $20 Resolution +Ups and the $1 +Ups from buying the Hall's cough drops on Saturday to pay.
We put the remaining .04¢ on my Rite-Aid gift card.
We received $11 in +Up Rewards back(2 x $3 Tom's of Maine and $5 WYB 3 Theraflu).
BIL's card got $31 more toward his $100 because everything except the newspapers were qualifying items, so he's at $82 now.  Only $18 more of qualifying items to purchase to get his reward.

* As far as Frito-Lay's products go, $1.88 is about the lowest price you will ever see at Rite-Aid these days.  I tell you this in case you haven't noticed and you know, you want to stock up on junk food.  ;-)

** Who else is hating on this new Rite-Aid deal where you ONLY get the sale price if you buy in quantities they designate?  So NOT loving this.....

*** First off, I had a better scenario worked out for the Excedrin Deal(which was the other item you could buy with this Sale).  3 Excedrin bottles and $9 in stacked ManuQs/AdPerk Qs....pay $6 OOP and get $5 +Ups back.  But I didn't count on the Excedrin recall last week!  And Rite-Aid had pulled all Excedrin off the shelves, so the Excedrin scenario wasn't happening. ugh  So we resorted to Plan B-Theraflu.

You may have noticed I used 3 ManuQs on 3 Theraflu products, yet 2 of those Qs were for the purchase of multiple bottles/packages and not single bottles/packages. This particular Rite-Aid store has a policy that if an item has a PeelieQ stuck to it, you can use it, no matter if it's expired and/or if you came into the store armed with your own Qs to use on the purchase.  I found a box of Theraflu with a $3/2 PeelieQ on the shelf so I got a bonus $3 off my total. 8-)

**** After I finished my transaction, I was reading the sales flyer in the car and noticed that the GE Lightbulbs In-Ad Q says, "Limit one per customer."  I had bought 2 packages. Sluggy hangs her head in shame....
Now this wording could be open to interpretation....Limit one Q per customer, per item.....Limit one Q per customer, per transaction or visit......or you can only buy 1 package this week and use 1 Q 1 time, period.
If I had noticed the wording or the cashier had caught the wording, I would have only bought 1 in my transaction.  I find that most stores don't have a hard and fast rule on the In-Ad Qs.  If the In-Ad Q is for an item the store doesn't stock a large quantity of, you should always use restraint in the number of something you purchase.
For example, last Winter when Rite-Aid introduced their private label brand of toilet tissue and facial tissue, and was offering +Up Rewards equal in value to the paper products you purchased(which meant you were getting every single one of them for FREE after +Up Rewards).  Whole stores were cleaned out of these items in a matter of minutes on Sunday morning.  It was a blatant case of GREED.  And I dare say that as soon as Rite-Aid management noticed it they put severe limits on the amount one could purchase.  It saddened me to think that people would be so greedy and unscrupulous to do this and then some of them would go online and brag about it on certain blogs and message boards.
But I digress.....
The point is, try to pay attention to the wording but if you screw up, well, it happens.....and be considerate of others.
Some cashiers will enjoy busting your balls over the wording on every Q you try to use and some stores couldn't give a seahorse shaped craplet over the number/variety/wording of any of your Qs.  Use your discretion and good sense at these times.  If you take every flyer on the rack and try to use the In-AdQ to buy every pack of lightbulbs in the store in One Transaction, well yes, you are being an asshole and yes, you are going to piss not only the store off but your fellow shoppers....especially if you are in line AHEAD OF ME!lol 

At least 1 more transaction to go before we hit $100...maybe 2.

I'll be going back to buy myself some Tom's of Maine deodorant this week.  Costing only .99¢ after +Up Rewards is a great price!  Too bad there aren't any Qs out there now for it so it would be FREE! ;-)

Sluggy

Rite-Aid for Nerds...Another Torturous Math Post

So I am trying to get to the $100 in qualifying products in order to get my $20 +Up Reward to print.
When last we visited our intrepid bargain hunter(that would be ME!), she had made a purchase at Rite-Aid that should have netted her $95 toward her $100 goal, but $9 mysteriously didn't add to her tracking total.  The details of that transaction are located in this post HERE.

So your intrepid bargain hunter(Me again)went back to Rite-Aid on Saturday.
And I bought the suspected 18oz. 'special' Axe body wash bottles with me to exchange for 12oz. 'normal' sized bottles.....

I exchanged my Axe bottles for smaller ones(even exchange so no money involved BUT I did make them ring it all up so the credit toward the reward would be recognized).
I also added an Axe deodorant to the transaction.
And my suspicions were confirmed!  Those 50% MORE bottles were not coded to count toward the Reward!

Now, the Axe deal was you had to buy in units of TWO to get the 2/$9 price.  Buying a single item you paid $4.99 instead of $4.50.
BUT....the deodorant regular price is $5.49(in this store), and applying my 20% wellness discount, MY price for a single item came to $4.39, which is less than the sale price on a single item purchase.  If your wellness discount is lower than the sale price, you get the wellness price instead.
So I owed $4.39 on this transaction.
I used the $1/1 Axe ManuQ from the Sunday inserts, making my total $3.39.
I used the $3 +Up Reward I got for buying the Thermacare dohickey earlier in the week, so I owed .39 + .03 tax=$.42 OOP.
This was put on my ever present Rite-Aid gift card. ;-)

My receipt showed my $20 Resolution Reward total was now....
$99.
ack

$1 away from getting to $100 and my reward.

So I bought this back at the pharmacy register when I went to pick up a prescription.....

2 x Reese's PBCups on sale BOGO=$.99
I put the whole .99¢ on my gift card.
And miracle of miracles, my $20 Resolution Reward printed out.
Yay me!

So let's recap these transactions, shall we?
I did 6 transactions to get to $100 in spending credit to get my $20 the Resolution Reward.
Because of sales, coupons used and other +Up Rewards earned/used, I 'spent' $5.98 OOP for all that stuff I bought. 
Well I 'would have' spent $5.98 OOP except all that was covered by my Rite-Aid gift card, which cost me Zero money. 
Gotta love that, right? ;-)

Now that I've gotten my $20 Reward, it's time to work on getting the BIL his $20 Reward.
Here's what BIL bought.....

4 x Stayfree on sale 2/$5=$10.00
2 x Clean & Clear Scrub on sale BOGO50%=$10.48
2 x Visine 20% wellness discount($4.39)=$8.78
1 x Bengay 20% wellness discount=$5.19
SubTotal....$34.45

Coupons Used
4 x $1/1 Stayfree(2 ManuQ/2 IPQ)=$4.00
2 x $1/2 Stayfree In-AdQ=$2.00
2 x $2/1 Clean&Clear IPQ=$4.00
2 x $1/1 Clean&Clear AdPerks/VVQ=$2.00
2 x $2/1 Visine IPQ=$4.00
2 x $2/1 Visine In-AdQ=$4.00
1 x $2/1 Bengay ManuQ=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Bengay In-AdQ=$2.00
Coupon Total....$24.00

$34.45-$24.00=$10.45 +.17¢ tax=$10.62
I used $10 in +Ups and put .62¢ on the trusty Rite-Aid gift card.

BIL's card now had $34 tracking toward the $100 in purchases toward the $20 Reward.
He also earned the $10 J&J +Up Reward for this purchase.

Then we did this transaction.....

2 x Axe Body Wash on sale 2/$9=$9.00
1 x Axe Deodorant wellness discount=$4.39
2 x Hall's cough drops on sale=$3.00
2 x Hershey candy bars on sale BOGO=$.99
SubTotal....$17.38

Coupons Used
1 x Axe BOGO ManuQ=$4.50
1 x $1/1 Axe Deodorant ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $1/2 Hall's cough drops IPQ=$1.00
Coupon Total....$6.50

$17.38-$6.50=$10.88 +.02 tax=$10.90
We used the just earned $10 +Up Reward and put the .90¢ on the Rite-Aid gift card.
BIL earned a $1 +Up Reward for the cough drops.
BIL's card has $51 tracking toward his $20 +Up Resolution Reward.
$49 more in purchases and he hits the $100 mark.

And we've spent $1.52 on the gift card to get him halfway to that Reward.

Next week, we 'spend' $49 to get his Reward but we don't pay any money OOP.
Come back then to see how we get there!

Do you shop at Rite-Aid?
What great deals have you gotten there lately?

Sluggy

Finish-ed for Another Year

If you have been at this couponing thing for years like I have, you know that every new year, for the last couple of years anyway, brings a Perfect Storm scenario for dishwashing products.
Each January the company that makes Finish products releases a really good manufacturers coupon for their brand.  They do it just once a year so you'd better get it and use it before it expires!

This year, the coupon was $2.15 off 1 package of Finish powerballs, gelpacs or quantums(excluding 10 or 12 ct. packs).  The coupon came in the first set of Sunday paper inserts of the new year on 1/1.

Then CVS drugstores puts this Finish item on sale for $3.50 during the 1/8-1/14 sales week.
Doing the math, each Finish package you buy this week at CVS comes to $1.35 OOP.
Nice, right?

To make this price even more awesome, Finish qualifies as part of the "Spend $30, Get $10 in CVS Cash" Deal CVS has going this week!

So buy 9 packs, spend $31.50, use 9 coupons, get $19.35 off, pay $12.15* and get a $10 CVS gift card.
*Before sales tax if your state charges that.

Ok, so the Finish coupons says limit of 2 coupons per transaction.
So you have to do 2 item transactions to get to the $30 spend threshold to get the $10 gift card....and you have to do this 4.5 times. lol
So you find a cashier who lets you A-buy more than 2 packs in a transaction or B-let's you do 5 tiny transactions one right after another. (Or if there is a line at the register, let's you buy 2 packs and then go to the back of the line and buy 2 more, rinse and repeat until you have purchased 9 and hit the $30 threshold.

Whatever it takes, you can buy 9 packs and get there if you have the patience. ;-)

So on New Year's Day I started going through the 1st batch of coupon inserts for the year, hunting for the good coupons, like the Finish one.
And as is MY LUCK, my region did NOT get any Finish coupons this year!
Ugh.
Ugh.
Ugh.

Did I say Ugh yet?

Then mid week(last week)I saw CVS was putting Finish on sale during the 1/8-1/14 weekly ads and was part of their $30/$10 Deal.
Poop.

So I resorted to a clipping service to get my hands on the $2.15 Finish Qs.  And since it's more cost-effective to get a quantity of Qs from this source, rather than say 9, I sourced 20 of these Qs.

After the Qs arrived on Tuesday, I spent the afternoon/evening(and Daughter hit one up as well for me)visiting 5 different CVS stores in my area, doing lots of little transactions, so as to keep myself within the coupon limits and to keep from taking more than a normal amount of packs from any one store.  Shelf clearers burn my butt......

Let me just add that when you use a clipping service(or a coupon train for that matter), you run the risk of your coupons arriving too late for whatever deal you intend to use them with.  So you need to have a plan B for them just in case.
My coupons didn't arrive until Tuesday(for a sale that started Sunday), so I was 2 days late to the party at CVS.
Luckily for me however, 2 things occured.
1st--my region didn't get the coupon.  Therefore everyone else here didn't buy the Finish at CVS this week or had to mail away for the coupon as well.  This leveled the playing field.
2nd--The 5 CVS stores I went into here?....only 1 had the sale price marked on the Finish products and none had the "$30/$10 Deal" marked on the shelf.  This meant the likelihood of someone stumbling upon the Deal while in the store was almost nil.  You had to be going into the store prepared to get this deal.

I not only bought 20 boxes of Finish, but I bought 5 tubes of Rembrandt toothpaste, as it was also part of the 'Spend $30/Get $10 CVS Cash Deal', it was on sale for $3.99 AND there were $2/1 IPQs for the Rembrandt.
Since 20 Finish didn't get me enough spending to get to 3 x $10 CVS Cash, the 5 Rembrandt tubes helped to get me to the spending threshold.

The candy bar was just a no brainer.....spend .75¢, get a .75¢ ECB back.lol

By doing the small transactions, once I got the 1st $10 CVS Cash card, I was able to use it to cover some, if not all my OOP after the Qs were applied to the orders.

I'm not going to give a play-by-play on each transaction because, frankly I'd be here all day typing it out.
Let's just do the final results, shall we?

I got....
20 x Finish dishwashing tablets
5 x Rembrandt toothpaste
1 x Snickers candy bar

I spent OOP(including tax)....$19.15  Regular retail was $96.89.
I have left in CVS Cash....$11.77
I could have had a lower OOP but I forgot to use the Cash card once...ugh.
Since this CVS card does NOT expire, I could theoretically save it until next January and use it if there is a similar CVS Deal and use it to cover the large OOP at the beginning. 
Or I could say I "spent" $7.38 here and deduct the Cash card amount from my OOP like so many others do.

I'll just call it $19.15 for 26 items.
And I'll mark having to buy dishwashing tablets for another year off my "To Do" List for 2012.
I can live with that..... 8-)

Sluggy

Why Can't Companies Do Anything Right Lately?

Yes, my life these days seems like Joe Btfsplk's.
You know....that character from the old Lil' Abner comic strip.....the guy with the dark cloud over his head who goes around spreading misfortune.

Ok, so I don't purposely spread misfortune but I don't seem to be able to get out from under Joe's cloud!
Especially, it seems, when dealing with Corporate America!

Let me say first, that I despise using the telephone.  If I go to hell when I die, it will be a big call center and I'll be damned for all eternity to make phone calls.

In December, my cell phone company billed me TWICE for one month of service....twice within 3 days.
So I had to call them and talk to "Robot John".  He talked like a robot and said his name was "John".  From what I could tell, he was in India, spoke a heavily accented English so he talked like a robot to cover up his true nationality(and went by the decidedly UN-Indian name of John).  It didn't fool me. at. all.  And I didn't care who or where he was, I just was pissed I had to call his company's call center for being charged incorrectly.

Then I bought one of those 'social coupon deals'.  It was a gift card that was to be a Christmas present.
I purchased on Dec. 2nd.  The voucher/code was delayed and not ready to redeem until Dec. 14th.  I redeemed it on the 14th and was told the card would be mailed within 5-8 business days.
It's almost the middle of freaking January and guess what hasn't arrived yet? 8-(
So that necessitated another phone call to a corporate entity's CSC(=Customer Service Center).  After 10 minutes on hold(two times!)I was informed the gift card was back ordered(would have been nice to tell me this oh.....a MONTH ago!)and would be mailed out next week.
Shall I hold my breath on this one?

Also right before Christmas, the 3 packs of Orbit gum I bought at Rite-Aid for $1 each, that was suppose to give me 3 x $1 +Up Rewards didn't.  I didn't bother calling about it until last week when I had another problem with something else at Rite-Aid I had to call them about.

I tried the new Rite-aid "electronic e-coupons" that you can load onto your Wellness card(HERE is where I talked about it).  Qs loaded successfully but didn't come off the item's purchase at the register.  After speaking with TWO different people at Rite-Aid CSC(and being hung up on and having to call back!), I was told that a high mucky-muck would be calling me to discuss the issue and work out the "kinks in the system".
This high mucky-muck is supposedly in charge of the whole new e-coupon system and as I am one of the first people to tell them that their system is NOT WORKING!, they want to speak to me and find out why.
Evidently, they really don't want to get it working properly and were just giving me lip-service, since Mr. High Mucky-Muck still has NOT returned my call a week later.
I don't give a crap at this point if their system every works.  I just want my FIFTY FREAKING CENTS BACK for that blasted e-coupon I used!
Next week, I return the item for a full refund, then call back CSC and tell them I am NOT amused and will Twitter evil thoughts about them into the Twitterverse.

And this week?
Oh, you KNOW it has to continue.....this lucky lucky gloomy streak of dispair.
First up....Rite-Aid again!
Earlier this week I bought this.....

1 tube of Ben-Gay, 2 packs of OB tampons and 2 bottles of Visine.(Daughter took one of the tampon packs already.)
SubTotal after 20% Wellness discount was $18.57.
I used a $2/1 Q for each item(either ManuQ from inserts or a IPQ), bringing my total down $10.
Then I used the Sales-Ad Qs for the Bengay($2), Visine(2x$2)and the OB($1/2), for an additional $7 off my total.
After these discounts my total was $1.57.  I had $2 and $3 +Ups to use so very bad planning on my part.lol   I put the $1.57 OOP on my free Rite-Aid gift card instead.

I went into this week with $50 toward the $20+Ups Resolution Reward.  This purchase gave me $19 more toward the $100 needed to earn that reward. (I guess they rounded up from $18.57 to $19?)
There is also a separate J&J Spend $30/Get $10 +Ups reward.  All these items count toward that goal, so I have $19 toward that reward as well.

So I am at $69 toward the $100 mark and $19 toward the other $30 mark.

I go back to R-A the next night and buy this....

2 x Clean & Clear BOGO 50%off($6.29)=$9.43
2 x Axe Body Wash on sale $4.50=$9.00
1 x Bengay w/20% wellness discount=$4.79
1 x Thermacare on sale=$3.00
Subtotal....$26.22

Coupons Used
2 x $2/1 Clean & Clear ManuQ=$4.00
2 x $1/1 Clean & Clear AdPerks/VVQ=$2.00
1 x BOGO Axe ManuQ=$4.50
1 x $2/1 Bengay ManuQ=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Bengay Sales-Ad Q=$2.00
Coupon Total....$14.50

$26.22-$14.50=$11.72
I used $10 in +Ups and put the $1.81($1.72 +.09¢ tax) on my Rite-Aid gift card.
This purchase put me over the $30 spending threshold for the $10 J&J +Ups(which printed)and I received another $3 +Ups for the Thermacare, so $13 in +Ups back.

In addition, ALL THESE ITEMS qualified toward the Spend $100 get a $20 +Up Reward.
So I should be $26 closer to that $100 mark, right.
Nope.....according to my receipt I only got credit for $17 worth of purchases.
I am missing the last $9......which coincidentally is what the 2 Axe body washes add up to.
Hmmmm.....
So I notice that the bottles I bought are "50% more product" bottles.....so not 12 oz, but 18 oz size bottles.
How much do you want to bet that the "50% more product" bottles are NOT CODED AS QUALIFYING PRODUCTS???!!!
So now I either have to call Rite-Aid YET AGAIN and get them to credit my account for this Axe purchase or exchange these bottles for normal sized ones and bet my bottom dollar that the normal sized bottles WILL ring up correctly.  I would get my credit but lose the extra product in the larger bottles.

ARGH.

And to top of my week, I finally get over to Weis(pound you in the ass)Markets to do the Nestle Catalina Deal.
Spend $20 in qualifying products, Get a $5 Catalina Q.

This is $20.43 worth of Nestle qualifying products.
You will notice that there is NO Catalina Q in the picture.
That's because one did not print out.
And it's hopeless to get my Q at this store.  CS is just so clueless about this stuff.
I'm so tired of the 'deer in the headlights' looks and having to explain to them what they should know already.
So now I get the thrill of calling Catalina Corp. to get my $5 CatQ.
(I will add that these were the only 3 canisters of Nestle's Quik in the store.  So much for stocking up on it.)

And you can add in the unmitigated JOY I have been having the last 2 months with the HOMESCAN people(previously known as NIELSON).  Yes, I am one of those schmucks who scans all her purchases via a scanner and reports in to these hallowed marketing gods so they know what kind of crap to put over on sell the American consumer.
That lightning strike we suffered back in late September?  Among the items it took out was the HOMESCAN SCANNER.
Except these nimrods at Homescan don't believe that the scanner if broken and insist I keep using it.
Oh, they are another "piece of work" company which I'll kvetch about another time.

So tired of dealing with companies that suck and telephones.

What companies are on your Shit List this week?
C'mon, spill the beans!
Don't let me wallow around in misery alone....

Sluggy