While out and about hauling in the After Christmas Deals I went into CVS, some place I hardly EVER go into anymore.
And this stuff followed me home..............
When you purchase $15 in select Gold Emblem/Abound snacks/nuts this week you earn a $5 Extra Bucks Reward.
I happened to print off some CVS Qs for these items before I went and all 6 items were also on sale(not all that qualify for this offer are on sale).
$15.96 before Qs, $4 off w/Qs made this $11.96 OOP.
$5 ECB back.
Now I just have to make sure I remember to go back to CVS before this expires to roll/use it.
All but the crackers are for College Boy to take back to school as part of his "snack/alternate meal 'because the dining hall food is inedible tonight' stash". ;-)
I have spent quite a bit this week restocking College Boy with goodies for next semester and it's all coming out of the $100 I put aside of the $300 food budget this month for that use.
Frankly I don't care to be playing more than one Drugstore Game at the time and I will be bowing out of CVS-ing again as soon as I can. I just wanted to reacquaint myself with CVS again since my beloved Rite-Aids will be becoming Walgreens later this year and I don't see a future for us together when this comes to pass. 8-(
Once we got back to PA I spent a goodly amount of time earlier this week hitting all the after Christmas sales.
Well not ALL of them, just the ones at Rite-Aid(3 different stores), 1 Walmart(since I was driving by it and the parking lot wasn't a ZOO!)and 1 Weis(PMITA)Markets near that Walmart.
Here is my haul from Rite-Aid.......
The 3 shops at Rite-Aids included cologne set and women's bath set, some large metal jingle bells(for a wreath I plan on making next Christmas), 2 gift boxes of chocolates, 4 boxes of chocolate covered cherries, 1 Terry Chocolate Orange, 2 huge peppermint sticks, a Megasized 1 lb. York peppermint patty, 2 pair of Holiday toe socks, a large bag of Kisses, 4 bags of Snickers, 6 bags of PB M&Ms, 2 bags of Reese cups, 2 bags of RS coconut Santas, a snowman tin of cocoa mix, a box of peeps with a Santa Peep stuffed ornament/toy, 2 boxes of Andes mints, 3 pine candles and 1 pine air spray.
All this stuff---the cologne, bath set, peeps, York pp patty, chocie Orange, Andes mints, 2 boxes of chocolates, socks and peppermint sticks are destined for gift giving either next Christmas or for February and April birthdays/Valentine's/Easter during this coming year.
The kisses are to make my bourbon fudge next Christmas, the PB M&M's and Snickers are destined for cookie baking. Hershey's kisses and m&ms keep like forever it put in a cool place during the Summer. 8-)
The chocolate covered cherries are all mine however! ;-)
Also from Rite-Aid(that I couldn't fit in the photo above)I bought 3 large cinnamon candles(for burning next Fall) and assorted Christmas cards(as we were on our last 2 boxes this year).
And not pictured was one of those big decorative popcorn tins I got for College Boy to munch on until he goes back to school.
Everything was 75% off.
I keep these purchases separate from my regular Rite-Aid shopping and pay cash.
All this cost me $65.89 OOP w/tax.
The rookies descend on the sale goodies at 50% off but I wait until things go down to 75% off. 8-)
At the Walmart I stopped into I got all this for $17.48 w/tax. The gingerbread marshmallows(most excellent in hot cocoa!)were .50¢ a bag, the peppermint M&M's(I will use for next Christmas baking)were .72¢, the mincemeat was $2.50 a jar(Hubs adores mincemeat pie and I owe him a couple of pies!), the nut tin was $4 and the nut brittle was $3.50. The gift box was $2.47.
I don't usually splurge on $4 tins of nuts but I figured whattheheck this year! ;-)
Also picked up at Weis(PMITA)Markets was this oversized mug for $1.24(gift stash)......
3 rolls of Star Wars paper for .75¢ per roll, Rudolph ring pops(.32¢ each)for stocking stuffers next Christmas and 2 boxes of Russell Stover's Pecan Delights for $2.49 each. The pecan delights weren't Christmas clearance but this Weis was discontinuing to carry this variety of RS so they were 75% off.
My Valentine's Day and Easter candy spending is done! Woot!!
Total spent at Weis.....$9.97 w/tax.
So the Christmas 2016 spending has already begun!
8 Christmas gifts already checked off my list now.
I'll keep my receipts for all this stuff separated so that when the Holidays roll around again I can add what I spent here for the Holidays to what I spend for the Holidays later this year.
Christmas Eve Day we saw this wine bottle tree outside of the beer making supplies store....very clever. You can't see it well but it had lights rigged up inside the bottles for nighttime veiwing.
While the Santa box and Santa bear and Santa snow globe kept watch over the house, we had out traditional Christmas Eve meal at the local Chinese Restaurant.........
Then it was back home and off to bed to await a visit from the jolly old elf himself!
Santa came!
Hubs gets a thrift store mug with his home state on it!
Nothing says Christmas like Transformers wrapping paper that is 8 years old. lol
I got me a fancy Vera Bradley wallet to hold my vast amounts of cash.....yeah, right!
Some one left a comment on the blog about showing off a photo of my nativity set that I just rediscovered in the basement after I got it set up.
It doesn't photograph well but here it is.
It's glazed ceramic. The color is called Royal Copenhagen.
Christmas day we had a nice prime rib dinner with the brother in-law and nephew then exchanged gifts that evening.
It was so warm we had to open windows....crazy weather!
I spent the day after Christmas making this gift to give my sister in-law.
It's a crepe paper snowball. You use an entire roll of it to wrap the present and then watch the recipient be tortured by having to unroll it all to get at the gift.
I saw this idea online and thought it would be fun to do.
More on this later.
On Sunday we were off to Virginia!
This was the car's dashboard temperature around about the time we hit Maryland. December 27th and 72F? Nuts I tell ya'!
We stopped for gas at the Virginia/Maryland border.
$1.89?
Coming from the land $2.39 a gallon this was a good kind of nuts. lolz
A sign at the gas station.....welcome to the South.
And if you have any doubts where you were now, here is a replica of a Confederate ironclad ship at the gas station too. lolz
About dusk saw us crossing the Chesapeake Bay to Virginia Beach.
Oh how I miss living near the water..........
After dinner at my brother's house we settled in for a visit and exchanged gifts.
Here's my sister in-law unwrapping one of her gifts, that snowball......
The next night I took us out for barbecue to the Beach.
Me and the Santa pigs in a heavy rain.
I bought a Groupon for the restaurant and we got this FAMILY FEAST for $25! Drinks and taxes set us back another $14.00 My brother covered the tip.......
Good food and good company and we even took leftovers back to the house!
They drove us by this house in their neighborhood that they thought I'd like.
The whole yard was done in purple lights!
There was one pink reindeer amid it all. It was stunning in person, not so much in photos.
We went to the big ass liquor store the next day so Hubs could buy some goodies for himself.
Oh, if they had only made this wine when my kids were little...."Mommy's Time Out".lolz
And the weather got even crazier....
It actually got a few more degrees warmer that day.
Crazy talk for December 29th, even in Virginia!!
The next morning we hit the road toward Fredericksburg. It was quite foggy once we got to Hampton/the Peninsula.
We got off the interstate to get lunch at Pierce's BBQ and made a wrong turn, ending up at the old entrance to "The Pottery" as we have always called it.
No photos from lunch as Pierce's was an absolute ZOO instead. It was so bad a couple actually ate their lunch outside on an umbrella shaded picnic table in the pouring rain!! Must have been some soggy ass Q! lolz
We went to our son's apartment and then accompanied him grocery shopping and to his big ass liquor store where Hubs bought more goodies.
Then we checked into our hotel and went out to dinner, our son's treat.
I had a Long Island Iced Tea with dinner and they had to pour me back into the car. lolz
Then back to son's apartment to chat until his GF got off work and then we exchanged gifts.
Back to the hotel to get a little sleep.
Breakfast and a swim were the first order of business on New Year's Eve day.
Then we were off to downtown F'burg for lunch.
Pretzel as big as your head and really REALLY good pimento cheese spread with baguette......mmmm
And I didn't even drink there! No, really I didn't......the menfolk did imbibe however.
The GF looking thrilled here to be having her photo taken, doesn't she? lolz
Group photo outside went much better.....
Back to the hotel for a nap and then eldest son came over to swim too.
We reconvened at dinner time for a corned beef feast cooked by eldest son and we watched a movie until the GF got back from work at 11:30pm.
We had some champagne toasts and ushered in the New Year......
All under the watchful gaze of the Grandkitty......
The next morning it was back on the road to PA.......
A late lunch/early dinner stop in Carlisle and then we headed home. The last hour of driving was dicey as the snow was falling in fits and bursts. We could have done without that.
Here's a recap of my 11 Yearly Goals from 2015.......some day I'll finish up with 2015 recaps but not today. lolz
* Save $28K of our income this year. PASS! Yep, we put away into savings a wonderful $40K in 2015.
* Sew and COMPLETE 8 Projects. PASS! I made 1 nightgown, 5 pair of pajama bottoms and 2 pair of shorts(jams). This doesn't include the repairing and hemming pants sewing I did in 2015. Yes, I could have gotten more sewing done but I hit the bare minimum goal at least.
* Lose 40 pounds. FAIL! This didn't happen at all. Well I did lose 15 lbs. at one point in the year but it found me again. While I didn't lose any weight I did start exercising regularly and I feel better overall.
* Have eye surgery. PASS! Had both eyes done and everything is healed and I see better than I have in 2 years.
* Go on at least 5 trips for pleasure. PASS! We took 2 big road trips(to Louisiana and to Illinois), visited my brother in Virginia with College Boy last January, went to the Family Reunion in Virginia and visited family again in Virginia during the Christmas Holidays. I also went to Virginia to find Eldest son an apartment and Hubs and I went back to help move him, so technically it was 7 trips but only 5 were pleasure trips.
* Have 2 House Repair/Improvement Projects completed. FAIL & PASS The Bathroom Redo didn't happen but the Outdoor Landscaping Project did. We have the cash sitting here waiting to spend on the bathroom we just didn't pull the trigger on it.
* Get rid of 6 boxes of possessions plus some larger items that need disposing of. PASS! I sent 11 loads of stuff to charity plus a car load to the Food Bank. This is well over 6 boxes of possessions. We also took some of Daughter's stuff to her in LA and then I mailed her some other things. Toiletries were also given to daughter, son and brother in-law.
* Complete 1 crochet project. FAIL! Nope, I didn't even work on it at all during the year. The project, hook and the yarn sat here right next to my desk all year and I just didn't 'feel it'. Sad Fail......
* Reorganize our Personal Files. Hubs was in charge of filing stuff. PASS! I took over the filing thought I should have worked on it more frequently throughout the year it is better and doesn't pile up as badly. I spent a large amount of time on it back in Jan./Feb. 2015 and purged a lot of old needless paper.
* Start an exercise program and do it every month. PASS! I started mid March and have exercised every month without fail. Of course Sept. and Oct. I did very little(Sept. I hurt my foot and part of Oct. I was in PT and not allowed to bike and the other part of the month I wasn't home w/my equipment.)but I did something every month. And by exercise it doesn't include just walking around or taking walks which I also did. 8-)
* Gardening. BARELY PASS. The garden was a partial success this year. We only put veggies in the back bed and not the front one(put flowers out front). Our tomato crop and green beans were a bust but the summer squash and collards did fabulously!
I am going to call 2015 a GOOD Year for my Goals as I passed 8.5 and only failed at 2.5 of them. Now to come up with 2016 Goals to add to what I didn't get done in 2015.
Did you get something accomplished in 2015 that you set out to do?
Tell us about it in the comments. 8-)
We went to the town South of here to hit a different Rite-Aid to do the Deals on my son's Plenti card.
The transaction was all kinds of screwed up BUT it was all screwed up in MY Favor so I'm good with that. ;-)
Here's what I bought.........
2 x Dove poo on sale=$7.00
2 x Suave gold poo on sale=$4.98
1 x Vaseline lotion on sale=$5.99
1 x Axe body wash on sale=$3.99
1 x Axe poo on sale=$3.99
1 x Nexxus conditioner on sale BOGO50%=$10.99
1 x Nexxus poo on sale BOGO50%=$3.49
(They only had 1 Nexxus poo at the $6.99 price point unfortunately.)
SubTotal.......$40.43+ $2.07 tax=$42.50
The Nexxus and Vaseline/Dove/Axe/Suave Deals double dip for their own Deals and with the Bonus Starting Points Deals.
How it should have gone is that I gave the clerk my coupons totaling $15.00, making my new subtotal $27.50(w/tax)which I would have paid with Plenti points and I would earn $28.00 in new Plenti points, making this a .50¢ "moneymaker".
But.......when scanning my Plenti card I elected YES use my points on the screen that came up and then, after the clerk scanned all my items he hit the button to finish the transaction and deduct my points BEFORE I handed him my coupons.
ugh.
So then we had a "post coupon" situation, where the clerk gave me $15 in cash for my fistful of coupons worth $15 I didn't get to use on the actual transaction.
That's fine because I'll just tuck that $15 away and consider it "points" once I exhaust all my accumulated Plenti points on this card.
No harm, no foul.
After getting home I looked at my receipt and saw that $42.50 of Plenti points was NOT deducted for my transaction(which is what my subtotal came to before coupons)but only $36.50 was deducted??
Then I looked closer and saw that $6 in Load2Card coupons had come off the transaction that neither of us had noticed. lolz
So I paid $36.50 in Plenti points and received $15 in cash back for the coupons the clerk didn't apply to my purchases, meaning with getting $28 in new Plenti points on the transaction AND $6 in electronic Qs applied to my bill, my .50¢ moneymaker turned into a $6.50 moneymaker. 8-)
Even better, I received $4 in Saving Star Rebates with this transaction too. ($2 Vaseline, $1 Axe hair, $1 Axe body wash)
This means my .50¢ moneymaker that turned into a $6.50 moneymaker had now turned into a $10.50 moneymaker! 8-)))
These "Starting Points" products bought gave me a $10 Bonus in points and I have tracking $10.43 toward a second $30 purchase for a second $10 Bonus in Plenti points. Meaning I need to spend just $19.57 in SP products to get $10 more in Plenti points.
And if I buy products that also double dip with other Spend $X Get $X Deals I'll not really spend $19.57 in the end to get $10 in new points.
I now need to figure out how to get that last $19.57 spent the cheapest way without actually spending $19.37. 8-)
Grand Total for this week at Rite-Aid........I am "up" $31.27 combined on both Plenti cards/points/cash so far.
Earlier transaction on my card was a $20.77 moneymaker.
This transaction was a $10.50 moneymaker.
$5 ECB back.
