Food Spending August Week 4 & Meal Planning Week 4+

Ok, so this photo doesn't have anything to do with cooking.  Though it is a reminder to slow down in life and enjoy the ride. ;-)

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And here is the "meal plan" that actually happened last week.....

Sunday--Son's belated Birthday dinner out-Steak

Monday--Pulled Pork BBQ sandwiches, Cole Slaw, Birthday Cake

Tuesday--Lime Citrus Chicken Quesadillas, beans

Wednesday--Leftovers

Thursday--Chinese take-out

Friday--burgers, green beans(from garden)

Saturday--Leftovers again

 

 

The weekly food spending was $79.30.  I stocked up on 100% juices again, butter, ravioli at rock bottom prices.  The needs were milk, cabbage(for coleslaw), 1 onion, small packet of ground beef, rolls, lunchmeat, deli cheese and 2 kinds of fruit.  The family's wants were crackers, ice cream, frozen fries, whack biscuits and Kraft mac and chemical cheese--all on sale.

I have $2.72 left of my $400 food budget for August and 5 days left in the month.  That's enough for 1 half gallon of milk.  I may be going over slightly for the month if anything comes up this week.

Going into the new week I have the following leftovers to use up.......2 portions of the lime citrus chicken, 1 portion of barbecue pork(after Sunday's dinner), half a bowl of coleslaw, 1 portion of green beans.  I am figuring on using the chicken on Friday when it's only 2 of us at home.

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This week's menu.....

Sunday--Barbecue Pork Sandwiches, Coleslaw

Monday--Taco Bell-after music lesson

Tuesday--Dinner Out-30th Anniversary Date night

Wednesday--Pork Chops, Saffron Rice, Broccoli

Thursday--Alfredo Primavera

Friday--Chicken Tacos(using leftover chicken)

Saturday--Leftovers 

 

 

What I need to buy this week to serve this menu?.....rolls, some fresh veggies(for the primavera).

Basically 3 of my meals are based on leftovers and 2 are Eating Out, so only 2 new meals cooked this week.  This makes it an easy week for me in the kitchen, what with getting 2 students back in school and not running the oven since it's hot and muggy again here.

So what are you cooking at your house this week?

Sluggy

My Rite-Aid Trip Week of 8/26

Here are my "gets" at Rite-Aid this week....

2 x Herbal Essences Shampoo on sale $3=$6.00
1 x Scope mouth wash on sale($4.29)but 20% Wellness discount is less=$3.99
2 x Crest mouth rinse on sale $4.99=$9.98
SubTotal.....$19.97

Coupons Used
1 x $3/2 Herbal Essences ManuQ(8/5RP)=$3.00
1 x $1.50/1 Scope ManQ(8/26P&G)=$1.50
1 x BOGO ManuQ(7/29P&G)=$4.99
1 x $1/1 Crest Rinse ManuQ(8/26P&G)=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Crest/Oral-B item Oral Care BookletQ=$1.00
Coupon Total....$11.49

$19.97-$11.49=$8.48 + .09¢tax=$8.57 OOP
I used $8 in +Up Rewards and put the .57¢ on my Rite-Aid gift card.

I received back $12 in +Up Rewards($2 Herbal Essences, $2 Scope, 2 x $4 Crest mouth wash).
Use $8, get $12 back.....not bad! ;-)

*  If your reg. shelf price on the Scope is less than the $4.99 price at my store, AND you have the GOLD 20% discount, after +Ups and Q, the Scope will be close to free.  Mine was .49¢ after discount, Q and +Ups.

*  With the Crest rinses, be sure you buy 1 large 1Liter and 1 the 500ml(or similar sized) rinses in order to use the BOGO Q.  The white bottle smaller Crest rinse(like the one I bought above) will produce the $4 +Ups.
On the Crest bottle that was NOT free after the BOGO Q, I stacked a $1/1 Oral Care booklet Crest Q with a ManQ $1/1Crest rinse in Sundays P&G insert.
2 bottles were $9.98, I used $6.99 in Qs, paid $2.99 OOP in +Ups and got $8 in +Ups back.  Great little way to grow your +Ups this week.

*  Though I didn't do it, there is a good deal on Glad bags this week.  $3.99 per box.  There is a $2 Adperks Q(watch before Thursday!) and a $1/1 ManuQ IPQ on Glad's Facebook page(the tab for the wild animals game,etc)to stack with it, making each box $.99 this week.

BUT......if you don't need to roll expiring +Ups this week, hold these Qs for the week of 9/9 for a better deal!  The Glad bags will be $4.49 BUT you get a $3+Ups wyb 2.  Print 2 of each Q and the deal looks like this.....
2 x $4.49=$8.98-$6Qs=$2.98 and get $3+Ups back, so FREE bags!!

*  I may go back this week to do the $5 wyb various $15 worth of P&G items(limit 2 deals) on the back page of the ad.
I have $2/1 tampax Pearl Qs and could end up with 4 boxes of that plus 1 tube of Crest toothpaste for $2.19 each.  I have to see if Daughter needs these or not but $2 is a great price for tampax Pearl.


Here are the August Grand Totals so far.....

Out Of Pocket....$.70  cash
Value of items bought....$501.26
Savings Rate of  99.86%
Single Check Rebate due....$5.00
After SCR applied, Out of Pocket.... -$4.30
Savings Rate  100%

+Ups at beginning of month...$14+
+Ups used....$162+
+Ups received...$178+
+Ups currently...$30+

As for my Wellness cards and spending for this year......
My card hit 1000 pts. a month or so ago, so I am Gold 20% off for 2013 already.
BIL's card should hit 700 pts. with this transaction, so only 300 pts. to go with 4 months to get there to get him to Gold for next year.  Even if I don't buy anything else with his card for the rest of the year, just putting our prescriptions on it will get him to Gold easy by Dec. 31st. ;-)



Do you see anything you need/want to get this week at Rite-Aid?

Sluggy

My Mystery Peeps

If you are the family archivist, I implore you,  PLEASE LABEL YOUR PHOTOS!

While my mother was pretty good about labeling family photos, I do have scads of photos with no information about them....not the people, the place or the date.  But most of them I recognize the people peering out from those pieces of paper as I knew them at some point in their lives.

But there are some that reach back, way back into the past and I am clueless!

If any of my mother's relatives......the Baker, Vassar, Tucker, Harper branches of our tree are out there reading this, and you recognize this photo or these people, please leave a comment or email me privately!

Here's the first photo......

And then there is this family portrait.....

I believe these are copies of photos my mother obtained at one of the Baker/Vassar Family Reunions she attended back in the 1990's in Charlotte County, VA.  She left no information about the photos or the folks in them.
I am assuming I am related somehow to these peeps but a few names would be nice to know.  ;-)

I also have a copy of a photo from the 1920's or early 1930's(I believe)of my Great Grandmother and Great Grandfather with some of their children(and possibly a few spouses of their children and the children's children(my GGrands grandkids).
I'll post the photo here in case some of my Baker/Vassar relatives are reading this and can help me out by identifying the people I can't.......

My Grandmother is the older of the 2 girls kneeling in front holding babies(the one to the left not sticking her tongue out).
My Great Grandmother is to the right of the really old woman in the center. GGrand is wearing an apron.
Those are the ones I recognize definitely.

I think my Great Grandfather is behind and to the left of the really old woman in the center.
And I believe that the really old woman in the center is either my GGrandmother's Mother or my GGrandfather's Mother.
I believe the younger adult woman  to the left of the really old woman is Louise or Rosabel.
I believe the younger adult woman  behind and to the right of my Great Grandmother is Virginia.
I believe the adult man in front of her with the "prominent ears" is Lealon.
I believe the girl kneeling with her tongue hanging out is either Doris or Lula.
If the baby my Grandmother is holding is my mom, then one of the other babies may be Grandma's youngest brother Barry.....but that would only be the case if this photo was taken after 1934.
As for the men.....I really don't know my Grandmother's brothers by sight, so I don't know which are  brothers and which are spouses of her sisters.

It would have been nice to have had the folks labeled on this picture. *sigh*

So many questions I have! 8-)

Sluggy

Things That Grow That Are Green

Remember my bean vines that thought they were Kudzu?

Here is how it looks this week......

You can't even see the plant hook anymore! lol

This vine reminds me of the old segment of the movie CREEPSHOW.  The one where Stephen King plays Jordy Verrill, a not-too-bright Maine hick who ends up being swallowed up by strange vegetation that grows thanks to the alien slime that came out of a meteor he poked when it fell to Earth on his land.

I don't recall any meteors falling in the backyard so I think I am safe from that characters fate at least. ;-)

I did get the wind chimes taken off and moved before it totally enveloped the pole.
And now look at the plant hook pole on the other side of the deck where I moved the chimes to......

The wind chimes are starting to get swallowed up again.....this time by the volunteer Morning Glory vines on this end of the garden bed.

I have run out of places to hang the chimes now.
I guess I'll take them down until I can hang them up again on the other pole in a couple of weeks when the bean vines are done and can be pulled up.

What's new in your garden this week?

Sluggy

JB Fletcher Has Nothing on Me!

And if you get the reference in the title, you  are old and watched way too much TV in the 1980's!

The other day I was at Rite-Aid(of course I was!lol) picking up a prescription.
I commented to the pharmacist that my co-pay seemed ALOT higher than usual.
It was in fact almost double what I usually pay for the generic version I get of said drug.
We both shrugged our shoulders and I paid and when home.

Then Daughter picked up her prescriptions yesterday and when I went over the receipt to write her a check to reimburse her for paying for them, I noticed that 1 of her drugs was the exact same medicine in the exact same size with the exact same dosage.....and it did NOT cost almost double like mine did.

You probably can't make out my very bad, blurry photo but the receipt on the left says $18.72, the receipt on the right says $10.00 for the exact same meds.

So I dug out my old prescription bottle and my new prescription bottle and had my Eureka! moment......

Again, let me translate the bad photograph.....
The label on the right says "Take 2 tablets by mouth daily", the label on the left says "Take 1 tablet by mouth daily".
So my old bottle's 60 pill refill was for a month and my new bottle's 60 pill refill was 2 months worth.
Someone at Rite-Aid goofed when printing out the label.
And that goof  caused the insurance company to think I was getting 2 months worth so I got charged 2 month's worth of co-pay instead of 1 month's worth.

After 20 minutes of showing the evidence, explaining and wild gesticulating(see how I used a $20 word there?lol), the pharmacist checked my records, printed a new instruction label, changed some information in his computer and then handed me $8.72 back.

Not only do I get paid to buy toiletries at Rite-Aid but now I can claim that I get paid to get my drugs there too......well, at least this once, right? ;-)

While I was there, I took the opportunity to pick up a few more things and grow my +Up Rewards.....

2 x R-A Hand Sanitizer on sale $1=$2.00
1 x Max Freeze on sale=$7.00
2 x St. Joseph Aspirin on sale $4.99=$9.98
3 x $1 size R-A Juice drinks w/20% wellness discount.80¢=$2.40
SubTotal....$21.38

Coupons Used
2 x $2/1 St. Joseph Aspirin over $4.49 IPQ(HERE)=$4.00

$21.38-$4.00=$17.38
I used $17 in +Up Rewards and put the .38¢ on my gift card.
I got $18 +Up Rewards back(2 x $1 Sanitizer, $1 WYB 3 juice drinks, $7 Max Freeze, 2 x $4 St. Joseph).

I used $17 and got $18 back.

Analyze This!--
* The St. Joseph is part of a +Up Deal along with Anacin and something else that are each on sale for $4.99.  Each give a $4 +Up back.  Use the $2 IPQ and buy the St. Joseph's and it's a small moneymaker after +Ups.  I take a baby aspirin each day so I can score these larger pills.  I can stretch each 200 count bottle out to give me 2+ years worth of the baby aspirin dosage.
* The #2 Son can use these smallish juice drink bottles for Marching Band.
*  The R-A Juice drinks also qualify for a monthly $2+Up WYB $10 in R-A pantry items.  I believe it only runs through next week so you have to spend $10 quickly to get that $2 +Up.

Here's a heads up if you need free shampoo at Rite-Aid the week of 9/2.
Go to the Video Values before Aug. 29th and watch the Infusium23 clip while it's still available.
Then print out the $2/1 AdPerks Q and take it to the store the week of 9/2.
Infusium 23 products will be $4.99 that week.
Use your $2 Q and pay $2.99 and you will receive a $3 +Up Reward back(limit of 2 per card on this deal).
This makes the Infusium 23 free after +Ups.

Here are the August Grand Totals so far.....

Out Of Pocket....$.70  cash
Value of items bought....$472.71
Savings Rate of  99.85%
Single Check Rebate due....$5.00
After SCR applied, Out of Pocket.... -$4.30
Savings Rate  100%

+Ups at beginning of month...$14+
+Ups used....$154+
+Ups received...$166+
+Ups currently...$26+

Sluggy