Larry Is My Boy!

I haven't said anything about the whole Chik-Fil-A Brew-ha-ha......until now...... ;-)

I think Larry Winget has hit the nail on the head on this whole issue.
Give him a listen.....



Now tell me what you think.

Sluggy

JULY 2012 Budget Results.......Food and Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for JULY 2012.

I have posted July's totals on the right side bar under Total Grocery Savings for 2012 and updated the Yearly Totals.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in July.  If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom for the Totals Summary.

My spending includes Food, Toiletries/HBA, Pet Supplies, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable.We are a family of 5(2-4 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 16.
******************

BAKERY OUTLET
OOP   $9.89

Value   $33.92

Savings 70.84%

BIG LOTS

OOP  $26.00

Value  $47.39

Savings  45.14%

RITE-AID

OOP  $17.71

Qs/Ads  $423.33

Value  $441.04

Savings   95.98%

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $51.77

Qs/Ads  $34.17

Value  $85.94

Savings  39.76%

WALMART

OOP  $13.67

Value  $22.10

Savings  38.15%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $117.39

Qs/Ads  $75.81

Value  $193.20

Savings  39.24%

I don't track Rite-Aid's +Ups here, nor CVS's ECBs & Walgreen's RRs. They will be included when used on purchases under "Coupons".   I'll keep track of what rebates are received monthly.  Rebate money/gift cards will be considered 'income' & will go into the Food/Toiletries budget, offsetting the Out of Pocket. Cash will go immediately into the Budget kitty, while Gift Cards will be calculated in when spent.

REBATE CHECKS RECEIVED IN July

Total...$0.00

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES
TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$0.00

COUPONS and FREEBIES

1 Free Deodorant--giveaway winning

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were the Rite-Aid at 95.98%,  the Bakery Outlet at 70.84%, and Big Lots at 45.14%.  l shopped at 6 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket........$236.43

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$540.90

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$823.59

TOTAL Savings of...................................71.30%

This closes out the July spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

I went into July with $300 budgeted for food/toiletries for the month.  I was able to stay substantially below that amount.
Though I didn't actively coupon in July I was still able to get close to my dream goal of a 75% savings rate.  This was mostly due to paying next to nothing for what I bought at Rite-Aid and for "buying" a substantial number of items at Rite-Aid in July. It's not the way I wanted to hit the mark but I'll take it. lol

I didn't buy many meats this month, mostly produce/fruit, bread products and some dairy.  The only stocking up I did was on cream cheese, 100% juices and drinks for #2 Son for band camp. 

LOOKING AHEAD TO AUGUST....

I will be setting my food budget back to $400 for August.  #2 Son is home again.  #1 Son will also be coming home mid month for a week or so.  Between the 2 of them, I'll need to buy more groceries than last month.  I also need to stock up on dog kibble and at the end of the month restock on meats and there will be fresh produce for cheap to be frozen.

We ate down the freezer stock a good deal in July and I'll continue to eat it down in August so I can clean it out and restock later in August. 

How did you do in July with your Food Budget?
Did you stick to it?
Did you find any good rock bottom prices to stock up on groceries?

Please leave a comment or link to your post and let us hear about your progress!  By sharing our struggles and efforts we can help each other stick to our budgets and learn to be better guardians of our resources.

Sluggy

The Last of Rite-Aid for July with Totals

I ran back up to Rite-Aid last night to finish doing the J&J Spend $30/Get $10+Up Reward Deal for the third time.  I had $5 toward the $30 going in, so had to spend $25 and I had $11 in +Up Rewards to spend.
I also found a coupon I forgot to use last week on the St. Joseph Aspirin I bought, so the manager let me do a "post coupon".  This means if you forget a coupon, bring it along with your receipt from when you purchased the product and they'll take the coupon and give you cash for it.  My coupon was for $3 off, so I had $3 in free money(since if I had used that coupon when I bought the item, I'd have used less +Up Rewards to pay), and could apply to this order.....

2 x Johnson's Baby Wash/Lotion on sale BOGO50%=$9.43
2 x Johnson's Baby Powder on sale BOGO50%=$7.18
1 x Visine Drops w/20% Wellness discount=$4.39
1 x Listerine Zero on sale=$4.00
SubTotal....$25.00

Coupons Used
2 x $1.50/1 Johnson's Naturals IPQ(Facebook)=$3.00
2 x $1/1 Johnson's Powder IPQ(Facebook)=$2.00
1 x $1/1 Visine product IPQ(website)=$1.00
1 x $2/1 Visine In-Ad Q=$2.00
1 x $1/1 Listerine Wash TearpadQ(from Dentist)=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Listerine Wash In-Ad Q=$1.00
Coupon Total.....$10.00

$25.00-$10.00=$15.00
I used my $11 in +Up Rewards and the free $3.00 "Post Coupon" and paid the $1.00 + .35¢ in tax=$1.35  left in cash, so my OOP was $1.35.
Yes, I forgot to bring my free Rite-Aid gift card folks....doh!

I received $15 in +Up Rewards for this transaction($10 for the "Spend $30/Get $10 J&J Deal" and since I spent $15+ on Johnson's Baby items, I got the "Spend $15/Get $5 Monthly Deal" double dip).

Then I bought this stuff here......

 2 x Huge bags of Peppermints on sale $5each=$10.00

No coupons and I used $10 in +Ups to pay, so ZERO OOP.

And I received back $9 in +Ups.....the $3 +Ups in the weekly add for buying $10 in select foods/candies, as well as each bag generated an additional $3 +Ups which is part of some monthly deal for July.

#2 Son loves these particular mints, so 1 of these is going on the Xmas tree this year for him.
I might use the other to restock my mother's Crystal Biscuit Barrel that I keep in the living room.

I am ending the month of July with $14 in +Up Rewards-the $9 I got for the mints and the $5 leftover I didn't use from the previous transaction.

And here are my final Totals for Rite-Aid for July.....

Out Of Pocket....$17.71 cash
Value of items bought....$65.52+$49.25+$49.19 + $36.01 + $81.35 +$112.10 + $47.62=$441.04
Savings Rate of 95.98%
Single Check Rebate due....$6.00
After SCR applied, Out of Pocket....$11.71
Savings Rate of 97.34%

+Ups at beginning of month...$33+
+Ups used....$135+
+Ups received...$116+
+Ups currently...$14+ 


$440+ worth of merchandise for $11+ OOP?
That's a deal! ;-)

How did you do at Rite-Aid in July?


Sluggy

The Overfed Sick Child Grows Up

As I continue to scan photos into my computer, I am getting way back into the pictures of my childhood....ok, make that my babyhood.

I started out in life on a precarious footing.
Soon after I was  born the folks found out I had food allergies.
This caused much concern for my survival back in the Days of early 1960's medicine.
It was not fashionable in that era to breastfeed your child.  And my parents were nothing if not social climbing fashionable wannabees.
All the hip people in 1960 were using modern technology and conveniences to make their lives easier and better.
Frozen tv dinners were the bomb.
Automatic washing machines gave the housewife more free time.
Breastfeeding a baby was so "your mother's generation" and time consuming.....why not buy this nifty new baby formula for your kid?  Just open the can, add water and slap that stuff in a bottle and feed your darling offspring.  No more having to wear special bras, dealing with engorged and leaky teats(and the added laundry they caused)and being tied to your baby 24/7.
A giant step forward for mankind, right?

The problem was that I had the bad fortune to be allergic to baby formula-which was based on cow's milk.
I'd drink a bottle and bring most of it right back up again.  Then they'd feed me all over again and hope that more would stay down.  Feeding me was almost a constant process in those early weeks.....forget having to clean a house, take care of 2 older boys, shop and cook dinner for a family.  The sick baby had to be fed continuously.

What stayed down wreaked havoc in my digestive system and came out the other end in much the same liquid state as it had gone in, but nastier.lol
It also caused me pain during the journey so I was a wailing, screaming child for much of the time I was awake during those first few weeks.
I also started not breathing well.  At 10 days old my mother came to get me up from a nap and I was turning blue and not breathing, which bought me a ticket to an ambulance ride to the hospital.

So the medical geniuses decided that the not breathing/not eating stuff was all tied together and they put me on straight goat's milk which was hardly available or affordable for my parents tiny income.  But if it kept their newborn alive, they scraped together the money and rejoiced that I would live on.

Then the story goes that I developed an allergy to goat's milk after a few months or so.
This is bad in the days before specialized baby formulas because everything was based on animal products.

The last resort was to put me on some newfangled thing called soy milk.  Soy milk was "new" back then to mainstream southern suburban American, hard to find and even more expensive than the goat milk.
But if it worked, they'd buy it, even if my grandmother had to work extra hours at her job to kick in money to pay for it.

It seemed to do the trick and everyone breathed a sigh of relief that the sick baby was going to be ok now.
The family doctor had more tests done on me to test for other allergies.
And my tests came back with blinking lights and warning signs flashing aplenty!
Not only was I allergic to lots of other foods but environmental stimuli too.  Luckily though no medicines set me off.   I came away with a diagnosis of severe allergies as well as asthma.

Still, my mother had concerns about me thriving to adulthood.
She had so much concern that my mother shoved as much food into me as she could get down into my tiny stomach.  She put me on solid foods way too soon(now it's basic knowledge that you wait LONGER to introduce solids to a child that has allergies), and as long as it wasn't one of the foods I was allergic too, I was given the green light to eat it, whenever and whatever.

It didn't take long for me to pork up.
This is me at my 1st Easter.  I was a normal sized baby at birth.   I wasn't even 2 months old in this photo.....

And by August, I was about 7 months old and sporting the Jabba the Hutt look.  And this is one of my more svelte looking photo shoots....

I guess they figured that if I had another health scare, having a few extra rolls of fat on me would help me survive another episode of not being able to keep food down.

Here's a photo of me at about 9 months with a ginormous lollipop(it's blow pop sized!)crammed into my mouth.....

There are lots of photos of me either being fed or eating something myself all within my 1st year of life.
Back in the day a Fat Baby was a Cute Baby, so I must have been a real Looker!lol

As an aside.....do you notice how I don't look happy in any of these photos?  Ok, so I look bewildered in the first one, but I can find very few photos of me growing up where I am smiling or happy.....well, except for those pictures where I am hamming it up for the camera, putting on my actress face.

After I lived through that first year, my parents switched gears and began restricting my food intake.
As far back as I can remember, how much I ate was watched, limited and (the worst)was commented on.
Seconds were never offered.
Yet if a food was not "liked" I still had to "clean my plate".....because there were starving children in the world who'd have loved to eat those peas, or liver, or spaghetti, or mashed potatoes, etc.

And since my parents became the Food Police, I became the Food Sneak.  Well, as much of a sneak as I could manage living in that household with an older brother who would snitch on me in a heartbeat.lol
I usually would just wait until we went to a picnic or party with other people where the food was not policed and binge to my heart's content while my parents were off socialized and drinking.  Let's just say that we went to A LOT of parties.....

If they had just let me alone to eat until I was full and not enforced the "clean plate" manifesto and not made comments(like I'd never get a boyfriend if I wasn't skinny....and that was said to me when I was 6 years old), I might have grown out of being food obsessed.

But no.
I've spent the last 52 years dealing with an unhealthy relationship with food.
I bet there are lots of folks out there who can relate to this.....well, I am hoping so!

Enough of my little Pity Party.
Therapy session over for today.

Sluggy

Rite-Aid.....Tuesday Edition

More Rite-Aid fun today!

First we did the J&J Deal--Spend $30, Get $10 in +Up Rewards.
Note that there is a double dip that runs through today only....the Johnson's Baby products qualify for the J&J Deal AND a monthly for July Spend $15,Get $5 +Up Rewards.(There is a limit of 2 on the monthly deal.)
I incorporated the double dip deal in my Spend $30 Deal and I started today with $14 in +Ups....

2 x Johnson's Naturals Wash/Shampoo on sale BOGO50%=$9.43
2 x Johnson's Baby Powder on sale BOGO50%=$7.18
(These 4 totaled over $15, count toward the $5 monthly AND the $30 weekly deal.)
1 x Reach toothbrush on sale=$2.00
1 x Neosporin on sale=$4.00
1 x Visine reg. w/20% wellness discount=$4.39
2 x Reach floss on sale=$4.00
SubTotal.....$31.00

Coupons Used
2 x $1.50/1 Johnson's Naturals IPQ(facebook)=$3.00
2 x $1/1 Johnson's Powder IPQ(facebook)=$2.00
1 x $1/1 Reach Toothbrush Tearpad Q(from the dentist office)=$1.00
1 x $2/1 Neosporin ManuQ(expires 7/31)=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Visine ManuQ(expires 7/31)=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Visine In-Ad Q=$2.00
2 x $2/1 Reach floss Tearpad Q(dentist office)=$4.00
Coupon Total....$16.00

$31.00-$16.00=$15.00
I used my $14 in +Up Rewards=$1.00 + .25¢ tax=$1.25 OOP, which I put on my gift card.

I received back $15 in +Ups($10 for the Spend $30 Deal and $5 for the Johnson's baby monthly Deal).

Then I finished my 3rd Unilever Deal and bought this stuff here.....

2 x Dove Shampoo on sale=$7.00
2 x Axe Deodorant on sale but Wellness disc. was lower=$8.78
2 x Oral-B indicator Toothbrushes on sale=$2.00
1 x Aim Toothpaste w/20% wellness discount=$.80
1 x Aquafresh Toothpaste on sale=$1.99
1 x Hawaiian Punch drink on sale but Wellness disc. was lower=$.80
1 x Listerine Zero on sale=$4.00
SubTotal....$25.37

Coupons Used
1 x $3/2 Dove Shampoo ManuQ=$3.00
1 x $2/2 Dove Shampoo AdPerkQ=$2.00
2 x $1/1 Axe products ManuQ=$2.00
1 x $2/2 Axe products AdPerkQ=$2.00
1 x $1/2 Oral-B indicator Toothbrushes ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Aquafresh Toothpaste IPQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Aquafresh Toothpaste AdPerkQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Listerine Q on the bottle=$1.00   **YMMV
1 x $1/1 Listerine TearpadQ(from the dentist)=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Listerine AdPerkQ=$1.00
Coupon Total....$15.00

$25.37-$15.00=$10.37
I used $10 in +Ups, leaving $.37 + .04¢ tax=$.41 OOP which I put on my gift card.

I received $7 in +Ups($5 for spending $15 in Unilever products, $2 WYB 3 aim/pepsodent pastes and/or oral-b toothbrushes on sale for $1.) 
I add these $7 to the $5 I got from the last transaction that I didn't spend and I now have $12 in +Up Rewards.

If you have the Gold Reward/Discount level you can buy a combination of 3 Aim and/or Pepsodent toothpastes this week for .80 each.  They are "on sale" for $1 but that is the regular price on these 2 items!  Only the Oral-B toothbrushes are actually higher priced than $1 normally.
So buy 3 toothpastes and pay $2.40, and get a $2 +Ups back.  Your "cost is only .40¢ for all 3 tubes.
Great deal if you need toothpaste and don't even need coupons for it.  8-)

The stacking 3 Listerine Qs is a YMMV scenario.  This store lets you use any Q attached to the product, even if you are already using 2 stacked Qs and/or if the attached Q is expired.  Sweet bonus for me.... ;-)
and I bought the Listerine, all things being equal, to get my total after Qs high enough to use my $10 +Ups(I was at $8.77 before I added it).  It got my total up enough to use the +Up Reward AND if I decide to do the "Spend $30 Johnson's/Get $10 Deal" again before the week is over,(there is a limit of 2 on this one), I have $5 already toward the $30 mark.

So I've got $12 in +Ups after this transaction so I then got this stuff.....

2 x Trolli Sour Crawlers on sale $5 bag=$10.00

I used $10 of my +Ups to pay and spent ZERO money.....woohoo.
I received $9 in +Ups back.  This item is part of the "Spend $10 on assorted food items, Get a $3 +Ups back".....on the +Ups it's identified as the "Aquafina" Deal.

But there is some monthly +Up deal on them and EACH BAG also generates a Farley's brand $3 +Ups as well.
So I spent $10 in +Ups and got $9 back.
2 huge sacks of sour gummies for .50¢ each.
I now know what #2 Son will be taking to the Band Camp Pool Party.....lol

Add that $9 to the $2 leftover I didn't spend from 2 transactions back and I have $11 in +Ups.
So I bought this thing next.....

1 x Lanacane cream on sale=$5.00
I used $5 in +Ups($2+$3 ones)and paid ZERO OOP.
This generated a $5 +Ups.
Add that to the $6 in +Ups I didn't spend and I still have $11 +Up Rewards going forward.

If you are keeping score, that's a total of $112.10 worth of stuff I brought home.  I spent $1.66 on my gift card.

In my continuing efforts to NOT buy crap we don't/can't use, I have to account for everything I buy.
Shampoo and deodorant are pretty standard for anyone, as are toothpaste and toothbrushes.  Excess makes it into my Boring Blog Box Giveaways.
First Aid items also needed.  Hubs insists on Mouth Wash.  #2 Son will take that Hawaiian Punch thing to band camp one day.  The only questionable items I bought?.....the baby wash/'poo and powder.
One of the gals at Rite-Aid I have befriended has a baby due in late August.   The wash/'poo and 1 powder will go into a gift bag I intend to make up for her.  If I go back and buy more, she'll get more of that stuff.
I am keeping one of the baby powders for myself.  It's chamomile and lavender scented.... ;-)



Here's the MONTHLY TOTALS so far.....

Out Of Pocket....$16.36 cash
Value of items bought....$65.52+$49.25+$49.19 + $36.01 + $81.35 +$112.10=$393.42
Single Check Rebate due....$6.00

+Ups at beginning of month...$33+
+Ups used....$114+
+Ups received...$92+
+Ups currently...$11+ 


Rite-Aid is giving me warm and fuzzy feelings this week!
How about you?? 8-)


Sluggy