Rolling the +Up Rewards on Monday & Black Friday Mania...Not!

Here's how I rolled my $8 in +Ups on Monday.....

1 x Pudding on sale=$1.00
2 x Wyler's drink powder on sale $1 but 20% discount made them .80¢=$1.60
2 x Nail Polish on sale $2.50 but 20% discount made them $2.39=$4.78
2 x Chocolates 20% discount made them .40¢=$.80
SubTotal.....$8.18

I used my $8 +Ups....
$8.18-$8.00=$.18 OOP

I received $8 in +Ups back($5 nail polish & $1 each for 3 food items).

I went in planning on doing the Blue Diamond Almonds x 2($4.00)and the Beef Jerky x 2($4.00)for stocking fillers, but they were out of all the food items that are free after +Ups except for the Wyler's drinks mixes and the Pudding.  I've maxed out on the limit of the pudding/ravioli, drink mixes and this particular brand of nail polish deals.

So I got rain checks and will hope the nuts and jerky come back into stock before Dec. 15th(when I need to mail a package).  And they were out of the oatmeal cups too so I'll get a rain check on that as well.

The only thing left of the $30.99 of freebies after +Ups I want is a body spray/parfume for $3.00.
I'll probably do that and the toothbrushes or toothpaste later today(thought the brushes won't be free but almost)when I go out for a dr. appt. and then I am done at Rite-Aid until the Black Friday sales hit and I can get more free or real cheap toiletries.


I don't go out to "real stores" on BF or that whole weekend usually because the only things they have deep sales on are things I don't want/can't use.

BF as far as I can see from perusing the ads is all about televisions, electronics, smart phones, appliances, overpriced jewelry, pajamas and kid's clothing, movies & cds, holiday food "gifts" or junk food and of course TOYS and whatever the HOT "must have" gizmo of the year/season is(which is usually an electronic gizmo or game system).

I no longer have young kids.....I HAVE a tv, have a "dumb" phone, appliances & jewelry.
Don't want most of what they are hawking or need ANY of those things enough to get up before dawn & fight crowds.

I will confess that I did venture into KMart about 10 years ago, the first time they opened ON Thanksgiving for a few hours to get my youngest some handheld game system thingy.  That was a year they were hard to find(sold out everywhere)and it was his main desire, so after I got the turkey in the oven I went down to KMart and bought it for him and headed straight home.  No browsing around to look at all the rest of the shiny baubles, I was on a mission. lol

The only other time we did the BF shopping thing was as a family when all the kids were younger and still living at home.  Hubs had BF day off from work(VERY rare!)so we picked up the nephew and took the kids out shopping as a family at the outrageously early hour of 10am. lolz
No crowds and no hassles as all the crazy shoppers had left the building and were home napping.
We leisurely meandered around stores looking for a few items and the kids did their Christmas shopping for family and friends.
Then we went to Bob Evans for a late lunch together and headed home.
Yes, we are a zany, crazy family....what can I say??

After the Mad Holiday Shopping Frenzy is over with, what I do want to buy is this.....

But that desire can wait until next week and maybe they will go on sale too. 8-)

Sluggy

 

More November Decluttering Porn & Today's TO-DO List

Here is what went to charity on Saturday.....books, bears, beanies, more toys, sheet sets, etc.......

And I am working on another load, for Hubs or I to drop off on Tuesday.

Here's Today's TO-DO List.....

*Finish up the Sallie's donation load for Tuesday and type up the sheet of items
*Go to Rite-Aid to roll my +Up Rewards
* Reduce the price on some items listed on eBay for the Holidays
* List a few more items on eBay
* Clean the den floor Yuck!
* Open up a few more tubs of stuff to go through to see what I should donate
* Call my Sister in-law back
* Call KMart about picking up items I bought online yesterday
* Make a meal plan for this week(besides Turkey Day)

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.....make Dinner for tonight!  lol

So what's going on at your house today?

Sluggy


 

Rite-Aid Shopping Black Friday Week

Here's what I got from Rite-Aid on Sunday.....

3 x Tresemme Shampoo on sale$4.99(but 20% discount was $4.79 ea.)=$14.37
1 x Chef Boyardee Ravioli on sale=$1.00
Subtotal....$15.37

Coupons Used
2 x $2.50/1 Tresemme ManuQ(from a few Inserts ago)=$5.00
1 x $2/1 IPQ on coupons dotcom=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Load to Card Q=$2.00
Coupon Total....$9.00

$15.37-$9.00=$6.37
I used my $5 in +Up Rewards....
$6.37-$5.00=$1.37 Out of Pocket

And I earned $8 in +Ups for the transaction($7 on Tresemme, $1 Ravioli)

I added the can of ravioli to my order to make sure the Load2Card would come off, since I already had 3 Qs "attached" to my shampoo bottles, so I needed another item to "attach" to the Load2Card Q to make sure it came off my card in this transaction.
I got my $1 back in +Ups for the ravioli anyway, so the 3 bottles of shampoo together "cost me" .37¢.

After this transaction I used that Rite-Aid Facebook Coupon Direct Link or if that doesn't work try this Rite-Aid Facebook Coupon for $5 off a $25 Dunkin Donuts card and got it for $20+ tax for a Christmas gift for someone.
Hurry!  The DD Coupon expires Nov. 25th, Monday.

Hey, every little bit saved helps out the budget, ya know? ;-)

Now I'm off to plan what to roll these $8 in +Ups into on Monday/Tuesday....

Sluggy

Our Gal Penny

Friday was a sad day at Chez Sluggy. 
Our elderly Chihuahua, Penny, left us for the Rainbow Bridge.

We got her at the local shelter in Spring of 2006.
At that time she was already 10+ years old and showing her age.

 

She was my youngest son's dog technically, but as he became a teenager, he sort of lost day-to-day interest in her.
As I was the one home with her the most, she bonded to me as well.

The shelter we found her at was not a no-kill facility and she had been there a week already with no interest because of her age.

I like to think that we gave her a second chance at a comfortable life.

She was a pain at times, especially her habit of wanting to do her business on newspaper(I think she was trained as a young pup to go on papers and never got to go outside). 

She hated the feel of grass on her feet when we got her but being around the rest of our dog pack, eventually she began to act like a real dog.  Once she got use to being outside, she enjoyed laying on the deck when the sun was beating down on it in the Summer.

The last few weeks her sight, hearing and ability to stand/walk, plus non-stop infections and loss of bowel control signaled that she was going downhill quickly.  She wasn't in constant pain yet but that day was fast approaching.

So her mom and dad were with her holding her at the end.

I whispered into her ear for her to keep Peanut and Mango(our other dogs who had passed away before her) company once she crossed the bridge to wait for us.

We went to a brew pub that afternoon and raised our glasses to the memory of Penny.

R.I.P. Penny
Abt. 1995-2013

Sluggy

Commercialism and Consumerism and National Holidays

There is quite the discussion and consternation going on lately about the whole opening of stores on Thanksgiving and the wee hours of the morning Black Friday madness.

 

Looking at it from a business owner's POV, HERE is a valid reason why some stores NEED to open on one of the sacred cows of Holidays, Thanksgiving.

I'm not going to get into a debate with anyone over if stores opening Turkey day or in the wee hours of the morning of the Friday following it is a good thing or bad.  It all depends on your own situation I guess......

* If you are a business owner, it's one extra day to make sales during the Holiday season, so your company has the potential for a bigger profit.
*  If you are a consumer you get another chance to get a great deal on more crap to fill your home or get into a fist fight over a toaster.
*  If you are a worker in the retail industry then you get the burden of having to work at a "holiday".....just like nearly ALL food service employees & hospital employees have had to do for many years on that day.  Working on Holidays is a well-known hazard of certain occupations so either find another line of work or, how can I say this in a nice way?.....STFU. 8-) 
I have worked both food service and retail in my younger days.  Was it a PITA working Holidays?  You bet!  Did I bitch about it non-stop?  No and I was glad to have those jobs.

I think that this whole contentious issue will be moot in a couple more years anyway.
Now that the "Stores not open on Turkey Day/Black Friday foolishness" line has been breeched, there is nothing keeping stores from starting Black Friday sales/promotions on the Tuesday before the holiday or even earlier in the month.

My feeling is, as a consumer, if you want to participate in this shopping craziness, knock yourself out!  And as an employee, if you don't want to have to work at this time of year, don't get yourself hired into the retail business.

Personally I have conflicted feelings about the whole celebration of Thanksgiving anyway.

I DO like that we have a national holiday that doesn't revolve around a religious event/theme.  There are many great people out in our society who are not religious, or not a follower of a Judeo-Christian sect.
It's nice to have a day set aside that we can be Americans together and not exclude anyone due to a belief system.

But then again, this whole Pilgrim/Plymouth Rock thing everyone "thinks" this event stems from is a myth.
It is a fact that the "not driven by religious persecution" immigrants to America who came to Jamestown in 1607 were the FIRST to celebrate an ersatz Thanksgiving, and they did it BEFORE the Pilgrims even landed at Plymouth Rock.
Add in that the first Europeans on the continent were the Spanish in Florida and they have a good case for being first too.

At any rate, the native peoples who were here FIRST have always seen Thanksgiving as a day of mourning.  The Europeans arriving on their shores signaled the beginning of the end for their way of life and their culture.

Maybe we should start fresh with a new national day of peace and thanksgiving and not premise it on cultural genocide and exclusion and not celebrate it with overconsumption of both material possessions and food.

Sluggy