This Week on the Dining Table

The "First Snow of the Season" Edition--

Almost 4 inches here on Saturday.  We got another 1-2 inches on Sunday.

A coating of fluffy white stuff.

Daughter's dog, born and raised in Louisiana finds out what snow is all about.  She still isn't sure if she likes it or not. lolz

Moving on......

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

1. Sunday--Teriyaki Flank Steak, Stir-fry Veggies, Fried Rice

2. Monday--Macaroni and Cheese, Broccoli

3. Tuesday--Kielbasi, Pierogies, Sauted Cabbage

4. Wednesday--Fajitas, Refried Beans

5. Thursday--Leftovers

6. Friday--Tacos

7. Saturday--Leftovers

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Teriyaki Flank Steak, Stir-fry Veggies, Fried Rice

2. Monday--Macaroni and Cheese, Broccoli

3. Tuesday--Fajitas

4. Wednesday--Beef Pie

5. Thursday--Leftovers Buffet

6. Friday--Beef Enchilasagna Casserole(Daughter's idea)

7. Saturday--Leftovers

5 meals cooked at home, 2 of them a night of leftovers, and 0 nights of Take-Out. Kielbasa moves to this week.

As for the grocery spending.....3 trips to Weis and 2 trips to the Shursave market brought my weekly spending to $180.09 and my November food spending total so far is $502.14.
Yep.
Over budget again this month.

So far, so good in my savings percentages in November at this point however.  This week the savings rate average was 44.85% and the month-to-date stands at 48.57%.

Leftovers going into this week.......corn casserole, meatballs, sausage, stir-fry veggies, fried rice, fajita filling, mac and cheese, beef pie and beef enchilasagna.

Here is this week's "food plan".

1. Sunday--Tacos(using leftover beef I had cooked up)
2. Monday--Fish, Cauliflower, leftover Mac & Cheese
3. Tuesday--Kielbasa, Sauted Cabbage
4. Wednesday--Leftover Buffet
5. Thursday--Turkey Dinner
6. Friday--T'giving Leftovers
7. Saturday--maybe Take-Out? or Homemade Pizza

This week will see 3-4 new meals cooked and 1 nights of Take-Out(maybe) and 2 nights of Leftovers.

What I need to buy for this menu?  I still need carrots and rutabaga for Turkey day.  Will use my $10 reward at Shursave market to get them.

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten last week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week?


Sluggy

Dollar General Gift Card Deal Update

So Hubs and I went out on Saturday and we hit up a Dollar General south of here to see what qualifying gift cards they had.
We found $10 Burger King cards but when we tried to purchase them, the cashier couldn't get them to activate.
Meh.
So we picked up a couple of $20 Domino's cards there.

We hit another DG in the town south of us that we were going to for a late Lunch anyway.
They had $10 BK cards and variable amount Taco Bell cards too so we picked up 2 more Taco Bells(I got 2 earlier this week)and 4 Burger King cards.
$110 in gift cards for $70.

The $10 gift cards, at $10 off when you buy two means they are half price!
Nice.

I noticed on the receipts this coupon too.....

Evidently this gift card deal is good through Dec. 10th.  Not sure if you need this coupon though to do the deal after today.

Sluggy

Update on November Spending/Rewards & December $ + Food Bank Donation

So I just added up this past week's spending on food and we are at $502.14 for the month of Novemeber.  Plus I need to spend a little bit more(under $10?) before the month is over.
Bleh.

The good news is I got my last two gift rewards at the Shursave market......one Thanksgiving Reward and Baking Reward..........

Besides the Spend $X/Get $X Thanksgiving Reward there was a Spend $30/Get $10 Reward Baking Reward also going on and anything spend on Baking Reward stuff also counted in your total spending for the Thanksgiving Reward spending(double dipped).  I did the $10 Baking Spending Reward 3 times. 8-)

So I'll be using 1 of these early next week and save $10 on my shop.
The other $10 one expires 11/30/16 so I'll save that one to pick up a few needs the week after Thanksgiving.

I have also earned a few more cash rebates the past week or so--$2.75 more in Ibotta so I now can cash this one out as the total is over $20.

And I forgot I have a stash of $42 in cash from "post coupon" transactions(cashier forgot to do coupons or I forgot to hand them over until the transaction was finished at Rite-Aid, so I paid with Plenti Points and they gave me cash for the coupons afterwards)done during the course of 2016.

So here is where we stand with "free money" to pay for groceries going into December......

Assorted Gift Cards.....$84.36
Cash Rebates--
 Savingstar...$111.02
 Checkout51..$39.10
 Ibotta..........$21.25
Rolled Coins...$87.50
Other Cash(post coupons)...$42.00

Total.....$385.23

I'll probably earn about $13.90 more on SavingStar before December is out and a few more at both Checkout51 and Ibotta too so I am figuring $400 at least for food shopping money next month.

It will be awesome if I can keep food at $400 and not spend "income" money OOP for groceries next month.

I also got a few more items together for the food bank donation......

I also have 2 more jugs of laundry detergent to take in as well which I didn't photograph.


Sluggy

Deals I Did This Past Week

Here are a few of the best grocery deals I purchased this past week or so(besides moneymakers at Rite-Aid)......

3 x Soup on sale .77¢ each=$2.31
I had a $1.20/3 ManuQ, making them $1.11 total or .37¢ a can.

3 x Facial Tissue on sale .88¢ each=$2.64
I had a $1/3 IPQ, making them $1.64 or .55¢ a box.

9 x Spaghetti Sauce on clearance for $1 per jar.
Total OOP for these was $9.00 as I had no coupons for it.
I just happened to spy these two varieties at the store were being discontinued.

4 x Butter on sale $3 each=$12.00
I had 4 x .50¢/1 Land O' Lakes half sticks variety IPQ(which doubled to $1 off), making them $2.00 each or $8.00 for all 4.
The cheapest that butter had gotten this Season is $2.37 a lb. and that was 1 store for 1 week, weeks ago.
Using these coupons helped me get butter for $2 a lb.  The best price I can find around here.
Oops! Spoke too soon...Price Chopper had store brand for $1.88 until Saturday.


I also did a "Mix & Match 6/Get $3 Off" Dealat Weis.....

2 x Chicken Broth on sale $1.99 each=$3.98
4 x Chili on sale $1.49 each=$5.96
Subtotal......$9.94
I had 2 x .50¢/1 IPQ(which doubled to $1)for the Broth plus another .50¢ Weis mailed Q(this doesn't double).
I had 2 x .55¢/2 IPQ(which doubled up to $1)for the Chili.

Total now became $5.44 after Qs and then another $3 off for doing the Deal, so $2.44 OOP for all 6 items or .41¢ per item.

I wish I had printed off more of these broth coupons while they were still available on coupons dotcom and then I could have gotten 4 broths and 2 chils and paid the same $2.44 OOP.  I'd rather have more of the broth than the chili but either way this works for us.

I also picked up 2 dozen eggs as they were .67¢ dzn.

But the best "score" I made this past week was this one......

Weis(PMITA)Markets had Fiora TP and Paper Towels half price on their last Fabulous Friday one day sale.
Reg. price of $6.99 so these were $3.49 each on sale.

I found Fiora IPQs on their Facebook page(.50¢/1 package, which doubled to $1 at Weis), so after coupons I paid $2.50 per package.
Then I jumped on Ibotta and claimed 2 x $1 cash rebates for each of these, making my OOP $1.50 for each.
8-)))

Besides the grocery stuff I also went up to my local Dollar General to do the Gift Card Deal that blogger American Dreamer clued me into.

I wanted to get Burger King gift cards but my store doesn't carry those but they did have a Taco Bell ones that qualify for the $10 off wyb2.
I chose to make them worth $15 each so $30 of gift cards cost me $20 or 33% off.
College Boy loves him some Taco Bell so don't tell him these are going into his Christmas gift pile. ;-)
If Hubs and I go out this weekend and we pass any DGs I'll stop and see if I can locate the BK gift cards too.

I hope you've found some good deals when out shopping in your part of the world.
Feel free to brag about your scores in the comments.

Sluggy

Haters Gonna Hate

Ok folks, what follows below is the kind of dimwit commenting that anonymous persons try to get me to approve on my blog.

Yep, I am putting this particular comment front and center so everyone can see the sort of hateful, bullying garbage internet trolls post, when anyone disagrees with them or offers differing viewpoints on issues, especially during this election cycle.

Not only are supposed race baiting Trump supporters emboldened nowadays(as the left calls them)but as I see them, ultra liberal folks who have opened their minds so much that their brains are falling out are likewise taking shots.
Yes, I went there.

Comment--
"Sluggy...proud of what exactly?? You should read the new book "Hillbilly Elegy"...written by a white guy (some refer to him as White Trash and he acknowledges this). He points out that to be working class in America and white these days means you: use drugs, have kids out of wedlock, are obese, don't work,are in poor health, collect food stamps and can barely speak/write English...Trump supporters ARE racist no doubt about it. Why not just own up to it and move on? In your case, and judging from the photos you post, this fits your family to a T...why not just admit you are your kind are racist, homophobic, indifferent to women's rights and hostile to immigrants? The fact that you refuse to post critical comments suggests you are fundamentally a coward who refuses to accept responsibility for the nonsense you publish."-Anonymous Commentor


First off you don't even "get" the gist of the book you reference nor the author's point in writing it. You are showing your special kind of stupid using this as an argument to condemn me and "my kind".  Everything you mention above can also be used in an equally hateful way to describe inner city poor, or black/any other ethnicity than white if you prefer those labels.  And I am not black/hispanic either.

Personally, I didn't vote for Trump(and wouldn't have)and in addition, I NEVER would have voted for Hillary either.  Not that that has anything to do with the gist of my post of yesterday.

My post was a plea for sanity and calm in our country in the days ahead and in addition, an attempt to clue folks in who are living in the "bubble" as to what other Americans who don't agree with them may be thinking.  I suppose since I don't live on the coasts or inside the Beltway and I talk to people in many socioeconomic classes in this country I may have an insight that the liberal elite types don't have.

So you think I am White Trash who is a racist, homophobic, indifferent to women's rights and hostile to immigrants?  You couldn't be more wrong.

I am a woman who identifies as a libertarian(small "l"), I graduated from a women's college(yes I am a college graduate)and I donate to Planned Parenthood, so tell me again how am I indifferent to women's rights?
And by the way, my Hubs has an advanced degree from Johns Hopkins University while we are at this(he was born into a poor Northern family and he and his sister where the first ones in their family to earn university degrees).

I had a serious relationship with and almost married a man from the Philippines.  Me have a problem with immigrants?  I doubt it.

I have an African American sister in-law.  Yep, I am a big old racist.

One of my best friends from college is an African American lesbian who converted to Judaism and adopted 2 children.  Racist, Homophobe, religiously intolerant.....that's me evidently.

I worked in theater in my younger days so I have many LGBTQ friends.  Just ask my gay friends how much of a homophobe I am.

When I was younger I was a foster parent to 4 kids....1 white, 1 latino and 2 biracial(black/white).
More racist actions on my part.

One of my own children is B on that LGBTQ spectrum.  Gotta hate my own flesh and blood it seems.

I have financial supported a charitable organization since 1988 which cares for orphaned children in various African countries(and brings some to the US and Canada for adoption when that is the better option).  Supporting foreign non-white children and encouraging foreign adoption/immigration.....how evil can I get?!

And as for ".... fundamentally a coward who refuses to accept responsibility for the nonsense you publish."
I sign every post I write and identify myself, which is a lot more than I can say for your snide hate-filled diatribes personally attacking me.
You think it's nonsense, that's your right.  But I don't have to listen to you attack me from the shadows.

So "Anonymous" this is why sometimes you should STFU and get your facts straight before you attack someone you know nothing about.

And everyone can thank this "Anonymous excuse for humanity" for me no longer allowing anonymous comments of any kind(even after moderation)on my blog.
I know I am losing some very fine commentors by doing this but I just don't need to see the negativity I have to endure when I attempt to protect all my loyal readers from wickedness like this type of online troll.


Sluggy