Tunes in the Key of Christmas

This music video is Faaaaabulous!

Sluggy

Out & About on Saturday

Hubs and I went out Saturday....he had Christmas shopping to do(he drives me nuts waiting until the last minute!) and I had a Fashion Bug gift card to use up since the stores are going out of business.  I wanted to get into that store before everything good got bought up.  I found a couple of things and used up my gift card and waited in the car for Hubs to emerge from Walmart.  No way I was setting foot in Walmart during the weekend before Christmas! lol

Then we hit the bread store to stock up on bread products since I haven't been back since Nov. 24th.  I may have gone overboard with the Holidays here, buying things like doughnuts, cakes, Stollen too.....I LOVE Entenmann's Stollen!
$22 later and 7 loaves of bread, 3 packages of rolls, 2 Stollen, 2 packages doughnuts, 1 cheesecake, 1 pecan danish ring and 2 cheese buns, we left the store.
This should get us through the rest of December AND well into January.

I had to pick up 2 prescriptions at Rite-Aid too, so while I was in the store, I "bought" a couple of other things......

3 x Pretty Woman Magnetix Nail Polish clearanced colors $1.99=$5.97
1 x Cepacol drops on sale=$3.99
1 x Russel Stover large box of Candy on sale=$8.99
1 x Cella cherry w/Gold discount=$.26
SubTotal....$19.21

Coupons Used
1 x $1/1 Cepacol IPQ=$1.00
1 x $3/1 Rite-Aid Cepacol FacebookQ=$3.00
Coupon Total.....$4.00

$19.21-$4.00=$15.21+.06¢ tax=$15.27
I used $15 in +Up Rewards and put the .27¢ on my gift card.

I received back $5 in +Up Rewards($2 Cepacol, $3 Russell Stover big box of candy).
I can submit for SCRebate #3--$6 wyb 3 Pretty Woman Magnetix nail polish (Limit 2 rebates).
I "spent" $15 in +Ups  and got back $5 in +Ups and $6  in +Ups converted to cash, meaning this transaction "cost" me $4.
The Cepacol was a $2.01 moneymaker, the Magnetix polish was a .03¢ moneymaker and the RS Candy box cost me $5.99 after sale/+Ups.

This trip to Rite-Aid--
OOP....$0.00
Value of items.....$47.58
+Ups coming into this trip....$63.00
+Ups used....$15.00
+Ups earned......$5.00
+Ups at the end.....$53.00
SCR earned....$6.00

*And here are my MONTHLY TOTALS*
 
GRAND TOTALS FOR DECEMBER so far.......

Out Of Pocket....$0.00  cash
Value of items bought.....$685.87
Savings Rate of  100%
Single Check Rebate due....$14.00
Other Rebates due......$3.00
After SCR applied, Out of Pocket.... $0.00
Savings Rate.....102.48 %

+Ups at beginning of month...$47.00+
+Ups used....$230.00+
+Ups received...$236.00+
+Ups currently...$53.00+    




The Oldest son arrived home safely late afternoon on Saturday.
And my Holiday miracle--an item I ordered in November from overseas arrived BEFORE Christmas!  I had given up hope on it getting here in time for present unwrapping time.
It's wrapped up and under the tree.

Now I am one contented mama.

And we got a light dusting of snow which made the snow-crazed beagle happy.....

I actually got a shot of her standing still for once.  Usually when she sees snow, she's jumping all over the place or rolling around on her back in it. 
Silly dog.....



 And I still don't know what I'm cooking for Christmas dinner......sigh.....



Sluggy

Getting Ready To Celebrate

I went back to Dollar General yesterday since I had another $2/1 Axe Gift Set Dollar General Q and a $3.75/1 Axe set ManuQ.  I also took along a couple of $2/1 Dana fragrances Qs and $2/1 Playboy fragrances Qs since the DG ad noted that they carried the small bottles of Dana brands for $2 and Playboy body sprays were on sale for $3.50 this week.

I ended up finding the last one of each of these products at this particular store!

1 x Axe Gift Set=$10.00
1 x Dana fragrance=$2.00
1 x Playboy spray=$3.50
SubTotal....$15.50

Coupons Used
1 x $2/1 DG Axe gift set Q(don't remember where..coupons dotcom?)=$2.00
1 x $3.75/1 Axe gift set ManuQ=$3.75
1 x $2/1 Dana brands IPQ(dana website)=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Playboy brands IPQ(redplum dotcom)=$2.00
Coupon Total....$9.75

$15.50-$9.75=$5.75+.34¢ tax=$6.09 for all

After Qs, the Tabu was free, the Playboy was $1.50 and the Axe set was $4.25....plus tax.

Then Daughter and I did some Holiday baking yesterday as well.
We did 3 batches of fudge.
Then we had a take-out lunch.
Then we lost the motivation to do anymore baking and napped.

But here is what we got done before lunch....

Chocolate Nut Fudge
Butterscotch Nut Fudge
Salted Butterscotch Fudge

Then I went and used our hotel points to make a donation of $40 to Rebuilding Together.  The membership company doubled the donation to $80.
Awesome!

A large box of gifties arrived today from my brother and sis-in-law.  The tree is looking quite grand and bountiful now.....

That old Christmas rug by the way has been in my family since before I was born.  It is a bit of tradition that makes the Holidays feel like home to me. ;-)

I also hung a few more ornies on the tree.....

Celebrate in Maxine style!.....

And everyone's tree needs other kinds of crabbiness as well.....

And really, if you have kids that grew up in the 1990's, it's not Christmas without cartoon characters like this one.....

And mom get's equal time on the tree for her childhood.....

Sluggy

Gift Wrapping 101...Just in Time for Christmas

Are you in the present wrapping weeds?
I know I have been the last few days.
Going into the Weekend before Christmas, we could all use some help, couldn't we?

We could all learn a lot from Aunt Chippy.....




Sluggy

A Close Shave

I printed off 3 $10/1 Norelco shaver IPQs at the end of November(before they changed the wording to only specific models).

There is a monthly +Ups Deal at Rite-Aid for December....Spend $30 on Norelco products, Get a $10 +Up Rewards.  There is a limit of 2 Offers per Wellness account/card.

I bought this on Tuesday...

2 x Norelco Groomer/Razor Sets reg. $20.99 w/Gold discount $16.79=$33.58

I used 2 x $10/1 Norelco Razor IPQs=$20.00

$33.58-$20.00=$13.58+.81¢tax=$14.39
I paid with $13 in +Up Rewards and put the $1.39 on my Rite-Aid gift card.

I received back $10 +Up Reward for spending $30 on Norelco products.(With $3.58 in tracking toward my next $30 spent.)

Then I used two Rainchecks I got on Black Friday weekend and bought all this last night......

1 x Norelco Shaver reg. $50.99 raincheck=$29.99
1 x Nivea Shave gel reg. $3.99 raincheck=$1.99
2 x Waggin' Tails dog treats on sale $2.99=$5.98
1 x Bayer Aspirin low dose 32 ct. w/Gold discount=$2.79
3 x 3 Musketeers candy bars B2G1Free sale=$1.98
SubTotal....$42.73

Coupons Used
1 x $10/1 Norelco Razor IPQ=$10.00
1 x $1/1 Nivea Shave gel In-Ad Q from Black Friday weekend(stapled to raincheck)=$1.00*
1 x BOGO Waggin' Tails ManuQ=$2.99 (automatically deducted $2.99)
1 x $2/1 Bayer/Aleve product under 36 ct. R-A Q HERE=$2.00
1 x $1/1 Bayer product IPQ HERE=$1.00
1 x B2G1FREE 3Musketeers IPQ (was available on coupons dotcom)=$.99
Coupon Total....$17.98

$42.73-$17.98=$24.75+.17¢tax=$24.92
I paid with $24 in +Up Rewards and put the $.92 on my Rite-Aid gift card.

I received back $10 +Up Reward for spending $30 on Norelco products.(The $29.99 spent this transaction added to the $3.58 tracking from my last transaction put me over $30 spent again, and triggered the Reward.)

* If you get a raincheck at Rite-Aid for an item that has an In-ad Q that week that makes it a good deal, be sure to cut that Q out of the sales ad and have the cashier staple it to your raincheck, so you get the sale price AND you get to use the Q you would have used IF they had had the item available the week of the sale.  Many stores will also let you staple a ManuQ or IPQ that is valid when you get the raincheck but may expire before the rainchecked item comes in again to the store.  Like on Sunday, I had a ManuQ for $1 off 2 Post cereals that was expiring that day! and the cereal was on sale 2 for $5.  If the store had been out of Post cereal, I would have gotten a raincheck for the cereal AND had them staple the then valid ManuQ to the raincheck so that when they got more cereal the following week and went to use my raincheck, they know I had the ManuQ ready to use during the dates it was valid, so they would accept it.

When in doubt, staple that Q to the raincheck!  If you find a better deal elsewhere before the Q expires, you can always remove it from the raincheck and use it somewhere else too.

$92.97 in Razors and $20.93 in other goodies, I am out $2.31 on my gift card and I am "down" $17 in +Ups or out $19.31 total.
Take out the cost of non-razor goodies and divide my total spent(with tax comes to $15.30) and each razor cost me $5.10.
$5.10 each for 3 nice Christmas gifts for the men in my life.

And I've used/rolled ALL my +Up Rewards that are expiring before Dec. 26th.


This trip to Rite-Aid--
OOP....$0.00
Value of items.....$113.90
+Ups coming into this trip....$80.00
+Ups used....$37.00
+Ups earned.....20.00
+Ups at the end.....$63.00

*And here are my MONTHLY TOTALS*
 
GRAND TOTALS FOR DECEMBER so far.......

Out Of Pocket....$0.00  cash
Value of items bought.....$638.29
Savings Rate of  100%
Single Check Rebate due....$8.00
Other Rebates due......$3.00
After SCR applied, Out of Pocket.... $0.00
Savings Rate.....102.28 %

+Ups at beginning of month...$47.00+
+Ups used....$215.00+
+Ups received...$231.00+
+Ups currently...$63.00+    

Sluggy