My Weekly Rite-Aid Trip

Well IF the Load2Card Qs had come off like they did the last couple of weeks, this lot would have cost me $2.57 instead of the $10.57 I paid.  Yes, I had $8 in Load2Card coupons on my card that refused to budge off of it!
Ya hear that Rite-Aid??!!

 I forgot to put the Distilled Water I bought into the second photo for the order on the brother in-law's card.......

You will notice that somebody around here likes Peppermint Patties..... 8-)

As things went, the Pantene cost me $1 a bottle, the Tresemme(the more expensive fancy bottles)cost me .49¢ each, the Soft Scrub with my Freebie Coupon cost me $1.10 for both bottles(the freebie Q only paid up to a certain amount), the Axe body sprays were $1 each and the gift set cost me $2.98 after the +Up Rewards that I got back for these transactions.

The candy is a good deal.....big bags of mint patties or peanut butter cups on sale for $3.99 and give a $3 +Ups, so if you have +Ups to roll, these come out to .99¢ a bag.  Your store is probably out by this point in the week so get a RAIN CHECK for them(limit 2 deals)!

Retail value of this lot?
$100.24

I need to go back and get some gift cards since they are giving +Ups and they are for places we spend during the year anyway.
And I need some PowerAde(.57¢ each this week)too for Hubs.

So what good deals did you get at Rite-Aid or some other drugstore this week?

Sluggy
 

Duck on the Brain

Ok, I stopped at Wegman's yesterday while I was out for doctor appointments.
I had been having a Facebook conversation that morning with some folks about those Duck Dynasty guys.
Tell me the universe was NOT listening in.........

 

I went online later to confirm that this quacky stuff retails for $7.95 a package.
And it's now safely tucked away in my freezer until Dec.25th!

Sluggy

What I Did That was Frugal Last Week--Addendum

And here is something I forgot to list as a frugal accomplishment last week.

On Monday afternoon, the evening of which we were going to K-Mart to pick up our almost half price recliners, I saw a FREE PHOTOS Coupon Code for Walgreens that was only valid that day on their website.

I quick went online to the Walgreens site, uploaded a digital photo and put in the coupon code and voila!.....I got 25 free 4x6 photos.
Picked them up before we went to K-Mart that evening as there's a Wags less than a mile away from the Big K....so can I count combining 2 errands into one trip too as a frugal accomplishment? lolz

And now I have lovely photos to enclose in most of the Christmas cards I am sending out.

But while I was walking through Wags to get to the Photo counter I saw a display of DUCK DYNASTY items.
Uh oh......
How I ever lived without a DD Garden Gnome to this point in my life is beyond me!
At least I wasn't tempted by an Uncle Si Chia Pet....

Sluggy

Food & Toiletries Spending.....November Totals Update

Not that having to write THIS POST did anything to lower my blood pressure after yesterday's rant but some days it's the best one can do. ;-)
Onward to November's food spending report.......

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for NOVEMBER 2013.

I have posted November's totals on the Total Grocery Savings for 2013 Page located HERE and have updated the Yearly Totals there.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in November.  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(3 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 17.
******************

BIG LOTS
OOP  $25.50
Value  $53.50
Savings  52.33%

BREAD OUTLET
OOP  $20.89
Value  $77.53
Savings  73.06%

OLLIE'S
OOP  $82.73
Value  $158.58
Savings  47.83%

REDNER'S
OOP  $18.91
Qs/Ads  $9.54
Value  28.45
Savings  33.53%

RITE-AID
OOP  $14.74
Qs/Ads/+Ups  $382.77
Value  $397.51
Savings  96.30%
 

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $227.91

Qs/Ads  $

Value  $386.19

Savings  40.98%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $192.10

Qs/Ads  $

Value  $384.27

Savings  50%

I am no longer adding my rebates received into my food budget directly. I will use them on food on occasion and will note that when used.  I will keep track of rebates/gift cards/certs received here as before however.

REBATE CHECKS RECEIVED IN October.....$0.00

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES....$0

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$0.00

COUPONS and FREEBIES

Zero

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 96.30%, The Bread Outlet at 73.06% and Big Lots at 52.33%.  I shopped at 7 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket........$582.78

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$903.25

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1,486.03

TOTAL Savings of...................................60.78%

This closes out the November food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

I went into November with my usual $400 budgeted for food/toiletries purchases.
I went over by $182.78. 
Yikes!
Now this will only be ok if I can lower my food spending in December accordingly by about $180ish.
Spend more in November?.....spend that much less in December.

As you can see my Savings Rate skyrocketed in November for the 40's to the 60's, because of my Rite-Aid shopping.
Without the Rite-Aid totals added in, my November Savings Rate is 48% which is more in line with my track record this year.  Add in Rite-Aid totals and my overall Savings Rate is 60.78%.

You will notice though, Rite-Aid shopping aside, that my savings rates in November were REALLY good!  My lowest rate was 33.53%.  Some months 33% is my best savings rate! lol  I got some really really great deals on prices in November so I am NOT going to whine about overspending too much. 8-)
 

Looking ahead to December---We are not holding a big Christmas gathering here so we won't be having much extra food spending.  And if I can keep from buying a Prime Rib Roast like I did last year, the Christmas food spending shouldn't get out of hand.  We will be doing our traditional Christmas Even dinner out but that cost comes out of the Christmas budget. 
To get to the spending threshold to earn the Thanksgiving Gift Certificate in November I have stocked up on quite a few items I won't have to spend on in December.  I am going to try to eat from the stockpile this month and keep Food Spending in December to between $250-$300. 

 

And here is the run down of my Food & Toiletries Spending for 2013 so far this year--
 

2013 Total Saved $3,426.65

2013 Yearly Total Value of Items  $7,702.36

2013 Yearly Total Spent $4,275.71

2013 Yearly Savings Total of  44.49%

 

In November, total savings percentage for the year has gone UP 3.89% over October's year-to-date total of 40.60%, to 44.49%. 
Holding steady in the mid 40%s with one more month of food spending to go.  I would be very happy to end the year with a savings rate in the 40's.

The average monthly food/toiletries spending so far this year stands at $388.70.
Let's see if I can keep the average monthly spending below $400 for the year after December is done.

 

How much did you spend on food in November?
 

Sluggy

I Just Give Up Already!

*****WARNING-Bad Word Rant!  DO NOT open this Post around your children!!*****

After sitting here for 2 hours I am throwing in the towel!
I dug out some Christmasy mailing address labels to print up from the boxes of Christmas stuff #2 Son brought down for me from the laundry room storage and decided to print up the 4 sheets into pretty labels for my Christmas cards.
Well.....or so I thought!

2 Hours later after downloading this and downloading that......then not being able to open this or that, so downloading something to open that other something....then finding out WINDOWS 8 Can SUCK my DICK......then getting up from the machine to go cool off and actually make progress at SOMETHING today......then coming back supposedly refreshed to try, try again.......then back to downloading and deleting this and that......then running a security scan or five hundred........then off to another website......and then all the downloads turned into something else I can't open......then off to the Windows App Store to actually break down and BUY something that will help me....hahahaha.....then that won't download or was it that my payment didn't go through, who the HELL knows! anything except that WINDOWS 8 Can SUCK my DICK!......then imagining myself taking a sledgehammer to this blasted machine........then letting a few choice words fly that woke up the dog and hence, she began to beg for attention and food......so off I go again to cool off and throw stuff into a bin to haul off to Salvation Army until it's full and I've regained some composure......then taking a drink(non-adult beverage variety though I could REALLY use a stiff one about oh, an hour ago!)and resuming the attempt to make mailing labels on a machine running WINDOWS 8 which in my opinion can SUCK my DICK!......and more of the same as before, rinse and repeat.....until I could feel my blood pressure zooming into "infinity and beyond"......and then this old gal threw in the towel and put these blasted labels into the Salvation Army pile for someone else to get them and drive themselves stark raving MAD dealing with it.

And that my friends is how to waste 2 hours of your life because you've got a stoopid Windows laden computer with WINDOWS 8 which is only good for DICK SUCKING.
And that will be why, if you receive a Christmas card from me there will be NO pretty Christmasy return address labels slapped onto the envelope and I will be recovering from a bad case of writer's cramp for the next week or so.


Did I mention yet that WINDOWS 8 CAN SUCK my DICK!?!?!?

Sluggy