What I Bought Last Week....Boring Food & Toiletries Photos

Here is the extent of my shopping for this past week...Sunday to Saturday.

Hubs actually did this transaction for me last Sunday......

The independent grocer had a special on Chef Boyardee canned pastas at .88¢ a can.  I like to have this on hand for quick snacks for the teen that he can fix himself.  I'd rather have him eat a can of this than a bag of chips or a box of doughnuts. ;-)

There were $1/5 ManuQs expiring last Sunday(2/5) so my 10 cans for $8.80 ended up costing $6.80 OOP.   Reg. retail was $12.90.

I stayed out of the stores after that until Saturday.
I had $20 in +Ups expiring that day so I did this at Rite-Aid....

I know there was other stuff I could have gotten cheaper or for free but it wasn't stuff I needed.  That plus the items that were giving extra +Ups last week, I could find enough quantity of item to buy enough to trigger the extra +Ups in each deal.  Dagnabbit!

So everything I got was planned....the gum and candy for Hubs for Valentine's Day(shhh, don't tell him!!), the headphones(which were free with a raincheck from before Christmas)for #2 son for V-Day, the cookie mix for #2 son to fix himself for a snack, the lightbulbs  & facial tissue because we needed them, ditto on the TP(who doesn't need TP, right?lol) and the toothbrush?.....well I REALLY didn't NEED that after +Ups and stacked Qs, but it was free so whatthehell. ;-)
My total after Qs and $20 in +Ups came to .50¢, which I put on my free Rite-Aid gift card so no cash was used.  Reg. retail was $55.10.
And I got $5 in +Ups back($1 Toothbrush, $1 Cookie Mix, $1 Candy, $2 Light bulbs).

Oh, and almost everything I bought counted toward the Winter Resolution Spend $100/Get $20 +Ups Deal.  I had $31 toward the Reward going in and I have $50 toward it after this transaction.  Halfway there and I've only spent $4.77 in actual cash monies.....yay!


Then it was back to the independent grocer to stock up on a couple of items......

6 bottles of apple juice on sale 3 for $5.00.
8 cans of hash(corned and roast beef varieties) on sale for $2.00 ea.
Both are for #2 son.

Throw in a gallon of milk at some point for $3.50 and I spent $36.26 OOP on groceries last week.
I think 1 more week eating down the freezer and I can defrost it.  Got to get that puppy defrosted so I can stock up on meats again!
Spending so little of the weekly food shopping so far this month and last month, has left me with extra cash for a stock up when I get around to it.

Sluggy

Friday Fun with Red Nose Day

If you've gotten the Downton Abbey bug, you will chuckle at this Parody.

Every year in the U.K. there is a "Comic Relief" type event for charity called Red Nose Day.  The day is devoted to raising money for charity.  The BBC runs many comic shows/events/programs that day.
One of the shows "spoofed" in 2011 was Downton Abbey.

Check it out below.  It's in 2 parts....

If I don't post again today, have a good weekend!

Sluggy

Oooo Baby....I'm Hot for Decluttering P*rn!

Starting off February right!

 If the above photo doesn't make your heart race, then read on and check out the rest of the photos
 below for a thrill! 8-)

I finally got the Daughter to go through the boxes of crap in her old room.  This would be all the junk she left strewn about her room when she went away to college for the first time last Fall, that I then boxed up and stacked in the closet.

After she brought the boxes of things downstairs, I went through everything she designated to throw out before it was pitched.  4 garbage bags of actual trash left 2 weeks ago.  Sorry, I forgot to take photos of that....

And here is what I gleaned from the designated crap that can be recycled via Salvation Army.

1 Pr. Rubber Boots
12 Assorted Hats
3 Guitar Books
1 Art Case with some Art Supplies in it(pastels/colored pencils)
3 Stencils
4 HeadBands/Bandanas

1 Make-up Case(filled with hair bands, clips)
1 Fan/Water Bottle Spritzer thingy
8 YA Books
2 Purses
1 Personal Planner
2 Silly Hats
4 HeadBands/Bandanas
1 Flat Iron Hair Straightener

And yes that's a flat iron hair straightener and it works!  She had to have that expensive tool once upon a time.  Do you know how many Rite-Aid +Up Rewards it cost me???!!

I also gleaned various HBA products that still had stuff in the containers.  These went back into the toiletries supply closet and drawers or her personal box of "in use" toiletries.  When she comes home she's using these up before she opens a new product!  Just because I don't pay money for toiletries doesn't mean she can throw out products when they are only half used!
Argh!!!

In addition to the half-used HBA goods, I gleaned a fistful of pens and pencils, cork board thumb tacks, some change(???!!!), 10 notebooks(with only a few pages used so I ripped those out and I have 10 new notebooks!), college prep books, knitting needles, novelty jewelry, her French Honor Society & National Honor Society pins, Academic Letter(for her letter jacket) and a perfectly good cell phone.

She was throwing away a working cell phone.....actually it was TWO cell phones but when I told her they were in her garbage pile, she went and took one out.
WTF?
Ok, the one she still wanted to throw out was "old" and not "fashionable" and didn't have a qwerty keyboard.....who could possibly be expected to use that one?! *insert eye rolls here*

The next time she loses her phone or something happens to it and she is desperate for a "phone fix", I'll sell her back this one she can't be bothered with. ;-)

After Hubs emptied his car at Sallie's last month, I got busy filling it back up again with new toy/old eBay inventory......

1 Small Soldiers Board Game
1 Small Soldiers Slot Car Set
2 Fisher-Price Briarberry Doll Furniture Sets
1 Cinderella 50th Anniv. Doll
1 Blackbeard's Ship Model Kit
3 Star Wars Concept Vehicles Sets
1 Box of Cinderella Trading Cards
2 Replica #1 Spider-man Comic Books
1 Johnny Lightning Partridge Family die-cast Bus
1 Box Star Wars metal trading cards
1 Power Rangers PVC White Ranger Figure
1 101 Dalmatians Night Light
1 Matchbox Replic Double-Decker Bus
1 Racing Champions Surf Rods die-cast Car
1 Racing Champions Set of 5 KISS die-cast Cars


58 more items this trip makes 108 total for the year(added to last month's 50 item donation).
2 donation trips down for 2012, lots more to go!


Sluggy

Social Coupons Suck....or How to Piss Off a Slug

Ok, I take about anything good I EVER said about Social Couponing!

You know what I'm talking about, right?
Those companies that offer "Deals" on goods and services(and even trips now).
Like reduced price gift cards to stores, or reduced price stays in B&Bs or spa/salon treatments or admissions to gardens or museums.
They count on the lower price point to be made up for by selling HUGE quantities of the deals.

The customer gets a deal, the, target business gets massive sales and the company arranging the deal gets a commission or percentage on each deal sold.

That's a well and good, except when the company and/or businesses involved take the customers money and then don't provide the deal and/or change the deal after it's paid for.

I've got 2 situations now with 2 diffrerent social couponing companies and/or their clients and I am Peter Finch style "Mad as Hell"....

Anybody ever heard of SAVE MORE?
They are based out of Dallas.
They were hot and heavy around Christmastime offering nice Social Coupons.
The one I bought was a $25 Barnes&Noble gift card for $15.
Hubs is a bibliophile and I love saving money when he spends on books, so you know I had to grab this one, right? 8-)

I "bought" the deal on Dec. 2nd.  Plenty of time to get if before Christmas if they sent the voucher in the next day or two(which most companies like this do)and then a week for the mailing it to me part.
And even if they didn't ship right away I could give it to him just after Christmas.
So I bought the deal on the 2nd.
And they sent me the "voucher"(the code to buy the card)....December 14th!  12 days to email me the stupid code.  Grrrr

I went ahead and redeemed the Voucher/code on December 14th, the day it was received by me.
And then I started waiting.....and checking my Save More account on their website.....every few days.....and grew angrier with each passing day as my account status didn't change.

So on January 12th-a full MONTH after purchasing this deal-I called their Customer Service.  When I finally got through to a live human, I was told that this particular deal had been back ordered.  She went on to let me know that it would be shipping next week.

Today is February 8th.
Can you guess what still has NOT arrived in my mailbox?
So I called one last time to Customer Service.
And now I get a recorded message.

I just got off of live chat with my credit card company.  They opened a dispute with SaveMore and are issuing me a permanent credit on this so I don't have to worry if SaveMore pushes back on this that I won't get my $ back.
SAVE MORE....unethical Hacks!


And on to my other "mad as hell" item du jour.

I bought a LIVING SOCIAL deal back in Nov.(might have been Dec.?)and gave it to #2 son for Christmas.
It was a set of McDonald's Coupons.....5 for FREE Big Macs and 5 for FREE Large Fries.
#2 son has band practice 2-3 times a week and there is a McDonald's almost next door to the high school, so he and his buds often walk over there between the end of school and the start of band practice for a mid afternoon snack.
My "beef"(groan) here started being with this particular McDonald's, not with Living Social.

Here's the Deal I bought....

#2 comes home after practice last night and tells me that when he went over to McDonald's after school that day and tried to use the last set of his FREE ITEM coupons, the cashier and manager told him the coupons(which are clearly marked you get the item for FREE!)are NOT for getting food for free.
Huh?
Yes, they charged him $1.50 CASH for his 2 items that he had FREE ITEM Coupons for!!!
And he paid it!

That was me swallowing my tongue......

Let me say that, over the course of the last 6 weeks since Christmas, he has used the other 8 FREE ITEM coupons at this same McDonald's.
So it's not like they didn't 'accept' these coupons at this particular Mickey D's.....which I was told were valid at ANY McDonald's when I purchased them over at LIVING SOCIAL.
I know for a fact that the registers at this McDonald's have a dedicated KEY on them for these Living Social coupons.  I had a conversation with the drive-up window gal a few weeks back and she told me this.

Here is what I thought.....
The owner/manager of this Mickey D's has gotten A LOT of these Free Item Coupons redeemed in their location.
And they don't like the idea of giving stuff away for FREE.....of course, I PAID for these Coupons so they are NOT giving it away for FREE now, are they?

AND they pulled this scam "You owe us $1.50 for your FREE items" on a teenage boy.....who was there with OUT a GROWNUP/PARENT. 
Teenage boy less likely to stand up for himself in the face of a store manager/authority figure so this McDonald's  are more likely to GET AWAY with UNSCRUPULOUS UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR when they pull it on kids!

So I start rooting around online for information.
Seems #2 son was lucky as he redeemed 8 of his before this happened.  I see now that other McDonald's started charging to use the FREE ITEM coupons they bought back in Dec.
Go read this HERE.


People bought these coupons and saved about half on the future purchase of 10 Mickey D's items.  So Mickey D's decides to charge $1.50 for the Big Macs and $1.00 for the Fries at point of sale.....so now anyone uses these FREE ITEM Coupons is paying AT LEAST REGULAR RETAIL!


What a ripoff!


So am I angry?
Yep....you betcha!

Am I on the warpath with McDonald's?
You KNOW IT!!!

Will I also let LIVING SOCIAL know they suck?
Well...Duh?!? lol



SHAME ON YOU McDONALD'S!
SHAME ON YOU LIVING SOCIAL! 

Please don't buy ANYTHING from Save More and don't buy ANY McDONALD's Deals on Living Social.

Sluggy

I Don't See What the Big Deal is Here....ALL YOU is NOTHING NEW!

Back, oh.....about 2+ years ago, a new magazine was created by Time Inc. called ALL YOU.
I found this blurb online describing this new magazine....

"ALL YOU is a new magazine that speaks directly to value-conscious American women. In each issue, you'll get helpful articles on taking care of yourself, healthy and fast ways to feed your family, clothes you can wear and afford, do-it-yourself home repair projects and relationship advice."

From that it sounds just like some other "women's magazines" that have been around for a very long time....Women's Day, Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, McCall's and Family Circle, to name a few.


Everyone in the online couponing world was abuzz about this new publication though as it contained a high number of Coupons!  There was even a "coupon index" so you could find them all without having to hunt through each issue.

At first, I did find it curious that this new magazine was ONLY available at the store/newsstand level at Walmart to buy at a per copy price.  It is available per subscription directly from the publishers and their designated sales agents online.  I wonder what kind of deal Walmart struck with Time Inc. to be the sole per copy outlet?

Anyway, back to the magazine.....
I didn't subscribe to the publication for the 1st couple of years it was available.  I did hear that there were many high value coupons printed within each month's edition.  I don't often shop at Walmart personally so I wasn't tempted to buy a single copy and you know I wasn't about to pay the overinflated single copy price anyway!lol

I finally broke down and bought a subscription late last year.  I had gotten a group coupon deal on it so why not?, I thought.
I've received about 5 month's worth of the magazine at this point so I feel I can give a knowledgeable review of this magazine now from a savvy frugal gal's perspective.

The articles?
I find them pretty lame.
None of the tips are earth shattering or things most of us don't already know or have seen before.  I bet I can find all the information in the current articles this month online somewhere for free.  Us older gals probably read them in other magazines in earlier decades.
Why pay to see them reprinted in this magazine?

I especially find the frugality or 'savings' tips to be banal.  Anybody over the age of 30 who's lived a frugal life has more ninja frugality in their pinky toe than is contained in an issue of this magazine.
I guess all that newly "debt-ridden/need to become frugal" crowd needs this information and will find it new and mind blowing.
But not so for us ladies who've been around the tightwad block! ;-)

And there is a list of 31 readers who "helped create this issue" on page 7.  Now it doesn't say how they helped.....did they submit tips/information, did they suggest articles, what?
If they supplied substance to this issue are they getting compensated?
Or is the magazine using whatever they supplied to create the issue and "paying" them by listing their names in the edition?
Women is this culture tend to undervalue their worth in many ways.  I see an issue here with a business using these women's lack of business savvy and acumen to take advantage of their earning potential.
Yes, I said it.....Time Inc. is getting free fodder for their magazine from these 'helpful women'.  The women gain nothing and the business makes profits by turning around and selling this magazine to the very same audience it is stealing intellectual property from.
Wow, does Time Inc have a pair of balls or what?

If nothing else, that's enough to make me boycott this rag from now on!

The recipes are so-so.
The only one is this issue that even speaks to me is the "Slow-Cooker Lamb Stew with Rigatoni".  It's a variation on a Pork Ragu sauce over rigatoni pasta....but with lamb instead of pork.  It calls for 2lbs. of lamb.  I find it laughable that a magazine that touts itself as a read for the "value conscious American woman" has a recipe calling for lamb which averages from $10-$15 PER lb. in most parts of the US.  That makes for some really REALLY PRICEY pasta with meat sauce!
They give a serving as costing $3 and this recipe makes 8 such servings, so all the ingredients should cost you ballpark at $24.00 to make this dish.
I think the cost is underestimated given the price of lamb, but even at $24 for 1 meal(they figure 1.5 oz. of pasta per serving, which is NOT the amount most people eat at a meal, so I don't see this 8 servings covering 2 meals at all for a family larger than 3 people), it's a lot to spend on 1 dinner when you have to provide 7 dinners per week on a modest food budget.

So onto the true reason many people buy this rag.....the coupons!
Maybe because all the manufacturer's have cut back on coupons and cut back on the highly value ones, but I find there is very little in the way of couponage in this magazine that I can or will use.
The current issue in my hand claims to have a "Total Savings of $52.60".
Going over the list of brands/values of coupons in the index, at most I'll be using $4.05 worth of these coupons.
And very few of these coupons are for FOOD products.  Most are for HBA/OTC meds/non-food items and many of those are for obscure brands or types of items some people don't use on a regular basis.

Banal articles.
Lame recipes.
Worthless coupons.

Nothing really worth buying an ALL YOU subscription for.

Here's a thought......same your money.  If a fabulous coupon(s) turns up in the magazine some month that works for your budget/spending plan, go to Walmart and buy lots of single copies of that issue for the coupon(s).
That way you keep your money until buying the magazine does you some good at the grocery or drug  store register.

Sluggy