Frugal Friday......November 17th Edition

Let's see what actions of note we preformed to stay frugal this past week other than the usual..........

*  We finally decided on "the" buffet for the dining room.  I like this one as it's "me" style wise(yes, I am such a style icon lolz), it doesn't overwhelm the room and if in our retirement house we don't have a dining room per se the we can use it in a living room or other spot in the home.  It's a great storage piece.
I bought it online so it was cheaper and within the budget I set.  I also found a coupon code and went through a cash back site so got a few dollars in kickback money.

* The payment for selling those free to me TRU gift cards arrived and I cashed it in and added this to my money stash.

* I received some Weis(PMITA)Markets coupons in the mail.  Inside the cover was an offer for 10% off when you buy a $50 or $100 Visa/Mastercard Debit Gift Card.
So, depending on the purchase fee on these(and there is ALWAYS a purchase fee on these unlike a store branded gift card), if I buy a $100 Gift Card it ends up being a 7% or 5% offer.
If fee is $4.95 I pay $94.95 for a $100 card and if the fee is $2.95 I pay $92.95 for a $100 card.
So $5 or $7 free if I spend it all before they access a monthly $3 fee after 30 days.  No problem spending $100 in 1 month between groceries and prescriptions.

* I sold 6 of 8 items I listed on eBay last week.  That's $150 in my pocket before all those Paypal/eBay/shipping fees. 8-(

*  I bought a pint of "high protein/less sugar" ice cream called Enlightened this week.  It was $4.99 but after receiving a $4 Ibotta rebate and using a $1/1 Q from the Fall/Winter Weis Coupon book I got paid .01¢ to bring it home.  I'll let you know if it's as tasty as regular ice cream. 8-)))

*  I finally was able to exchange some of the size 5 diapers I got in Oct. as part of that Huggies/TRU gift card deal so I can sell them.  (Size 5s don't sell easily like the smaller sizes do.)  With that TRU deal in October all the Rite-Aids ran out of every size but 5's and have been slow to restock so it's taking time to get the right sizes.  I just keep receipts and a bag of diapers in my car and anytime I have to go in I just check if they have gotten any diapers in. lolz
I will probably just put the exchanged diapers out in the garage until the Holidays are over and get around to selling them on the local tag sale site in the Spring.  I don't "need" the cash now but a garage full of diapers is as good as money in the bank. lolz

Here's hoping y'all had some frugal wins this past week!
Tell us about any really good ones.

Sluggy

The Turkey Dilemna

Ok not really a dilemna of an important scale or anything but I can't decide where to get my Thanksgiving turkey from, either the Shursave Market or Weis(PMITA)Markets.

Here's the deal......

Shursave(which I didn't spend enough to get a reward certificate this year for Thanksgiving-they don't do free turkeys there)has a spend $25 this week on anything in the store and then you are allowed to purchase up to a 22 lb. frozen turkey for .49¢ a lb.

I have a $20 Shursave gift card(so it's money already "spent")so for another $5+ I could get the turkey there for as much as $10.78.
So I'd have to spent up to another $15.78+ besides using the gift card to get the turkey.

The deal at Weis is to get a free frozen turkey, again, up to 22 lbs., I need 50 points to cash in.  Points are earned in increments of 10 per each transaction over $50 during a certain time frame.  I currently have 40 points, which means I have to spend another $50+ in one transaction to have enough points to turn in for a free turkey. (Weis also have other turkeys(fresh, organic, brand names)for various "deals" with your 50 points but each of those require you to spend additional amounts along with your points, so they are not "free" like the basic frozen Weis brand turkey would be.

So I need to spend $15.78 at one store or $50 at the other store to end up with a turkey.

Now I don't necessarily need any great amount of food for the Turkey Day meal but if I spent $50+ now it's $50+ I don't need to spend in Dec., right?

Ok, I am off to do some real work.....like getting stuff up on eBay to sell or changing out my closet to Winter clothing or cleaning a bathroom.
Fun time I tell ya! 8-P

Sluggy

Rite-Aid, Produce Run, Buffet & Clean Garage

I had to take Hubs to the eye doc last Friday so I hit a few stores where the doc's office is located.  Oh goody another Rite-Aid to plunder! lol

They had Dr. Pepper flavored lip gloss at this store so I did the Lip Smackers/Jesse's Girl/Julie G deal on Daughter's card.  I hadto get a vanilla since they only had 3 DPs.
.75¢ OOP, in Plenti Points, no cash and 4 more lip gloss to add to my stash.
There won't be any more Rite-Aid pillaging for me until the Black Friday sale.

Then it was next door to the Big Lots just to look around..........

Anybody need a flamingo in a Santa hat?
How about a squirrel similarly attired?

I did get a few items off their food clearance rack-2 big bags of Chips Ahoy! and a jumbo box of peanut butter cracker sandwiches.  The box was about 6 times the size of the one pictured below.

I hit Maines restaurant supply too while I was out as they had some good produce deals I wanted to partake of........

I have a homemade "root cellar" I keep in my garage.  It's basically a 10 gal. plastic storage tub with newspaper for added insulation.  I keep all my root veggies and onions in it.

Maines had a variety of 10 lb. bags of veggies on sale for $2.88 last week-carrots, onions, red and white potatoes and beets.  I picked up 2 x onions(20 lbs.), a red taters and beet bag.  Thinking back I should have gotten the carrots too.  I also bought sweet potatoes and rutabagas as both were .58¢ and .68¢ a lb. respectively.
With the taters and onions and 1 lone sweet potato I already had in my root cellar there was not room enough for another 40 lbs. of veg in there!

Luckily I commandeered one of my 18 gallon Rubbermaid tubs to put all that overflow of product into.  I had an empty tub because of this.........

I bought a dining room buffet cabinet last week.

A few years back I donated my oak country-style dining room table, chairs, buffet and hutch to Salvation Army.  When I did that I had to pack up all my "good" dishware and store it in tubs in the garage(what I didn't also get rid of when the furniture went).
Now that the new floors are in, the walls fixed and painted and the trim done it was time to fill that room again.

I didn't want a massive dining room set as it's a smaller space really.  Hubs and I looked at local furniture stores and looked some more and could find nothing that was acceptable in all three criteria-size, price and style.  I didn't want a buffet with a hutch sitting on top as those would just dwarf this room. I found this one on Overstock dotcom and loved it.  So I went online found a coupon to get it cheaper and bought it.  Even with the tax added it still came out $32 cheaper than their regular price. Plus I went through a cash back rebate site and got 1% back in cash.  ;-)

After it arrived early last week, amidst much cursing and gnashing of teeth Hubs but this mother of tinker toy kit together(with help from me as I am good at reading drawings and diagrams).  By Friday evening I was dragging out tubs of dishware from the garage.

Hubs was in charge of washing everything.

More odds and ends I need to find a home for.  Disregard the eBay stuff.....lol

I found stuff in some of the tubs that I had forgotten I had!

While I was dragging out and cleaning stuff we did a little clutter purging too......

And I am still filling the thing with dishware, flatware and linens.  And now the room will look a bit more "together" come Thanksgiving.  We are still using my collapsible table and dragging chairs from the kitchen to eat in there though for Turkey Day.

Some items the Daughter wants or are hers(inherited from her grandmothers)so I filled one of the newly emptied tubs with her stuff, marked it and it's going back in the garage soon.


And speaking of garages...........

I spent a good part of Sunday in the cold out in the garage organizing and tidying the stockpile.  Kim you will notice almost ALL the cans are now off the floor....woohoo!
And I have another almost full load of "stuff" for Salvation Army and a load of toiletries and laundry detergent for the Food Bank. 

And this blurry shot has all the shelving neat and orderly finally and the floor swept out.
The other side of the garage is still a bit of a hot mess after dragging out tubs....things need to be put back, rearranged and tidied there still.

So that's what I was up to over the weekend.
Now I am in eBay hell as my auctions ended yesterday.
Plus I have lots of errands to run today...bank, Rite-Aid, PO, grocery stores.

What have you been up to?

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Making Progress" Edition--

This weekend was all about going through stuff and reorganizing the dining room and the garage.  I am sore from all the physical activity and bending and toting.  Today will be a low key sit on my butt kind of day......well as much sitting on my butt as I can do with a puppy underfoot. '-)

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

1. Sunday--Fend for Yourself

2. Monday--Asian Chicken Salad

3. Tuesday--Olive Garden Gnocchi Chicken Soup

4. Wednesday--Rigatoni w/Meat and Mushroom Sauce, Salad

5. Thursday--Leftovers
6. Friday--Calzone or Stromboli(homemade)
7. Saturday--maybe Eggplant Parm in the freezer?

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Fend for Yourself(Don't recall what I had)

2. Monday--Eggplant Parm

3. Tuesday--BK Hamburgers, Fries
4. Wednesday--Tortellini Soup(sort of)

5. Thursday--Calzone and Stromboli(homemade)
6. Friday--Rigatoni w/Mushroom Sauce, Meatballs
7. Saturday--Leftovers(I had soup)

Last week saw 4 nights of home cooked dinners, 2 nights of leftovers/fend for yourself and  1 night of take-out.  I discovered I was out of gnocchi too late to thaw anything else so the Whoppers happened on Tues instead.  I found tortellini on sale on Wednesday so I changed the soup up and substituted that for the gnocchi and left out the leftover roast chicken too as the tortellini had meat in it and it was very good, different but good!  We got 2 lumps of pizza dough out of the freezer on Thursday and I helped Hubs make the calzone/stromboli.  We also used up that opened ricotta from last week when Hubs made lasagna in the calzone/stromboli so it's a win/win.

Last week's grocery spending was large as I hit quite a few stores but surprisingly I stayed out of Weis(PMITA)Markets! lol  I hit the Shursave Markets, Big Lots, Dollar Tree, Ollies and Maines Restaurant Supply and everything came to a whopping $154.94.  That brings November's food spending to $210.35.  There are 17 more days in my shopping month.

My savings percentages last week was 47.64% and the monthly savings so far ends up at 47.73%(without Rite-Aid trips added in).

Leftovers going into this week.......roast chicken, calzone, tortellini soup, rigatoni and sauce.

Here is this week's "food plan".....

1. Sunday--Chicken Enchiladas, Spanish rice and beans

2. Monday--Italian Sausage Patties w/Onions, Sauteed Cabbage

3. Tuesday--Beef Stew, Rolls

4. Wednesday--Leftover Rigatoni w/Sauce, Salad

5. Thursday--Fish, Cole Slaw, Sweet Potato Fries
6. Friday--?
7. Saturday--?

This week will see 4 new meals cooked, 1 night of leftovers and 2 nights of "I haven't got a clue".
Leftovers carried forward into this week will be lunches for Hubs except the roast chicken and the rigatoni.

The only thing I need to buy to make these meals is salad greens.  And we need milk too.

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

November Giveaway......Come Win Some Stuff!

This is the eighth Sluggy's Boring Blog Box Giveaway for the year.
Fall is definitely here now(we had snow even the other day!!)and Winter is right around the corner.
The Holidays are bearing down on us so take a few minutes to do something for yourself by entering this giveaway!
Come on and enter.
Somebody has to win and it might just be YOU!

Here is what you can win if your entry is picked.  Some "girly girl" type stuff, some guy stuff and chocolate......

2 x Neutrogena facial soap bars
1 x Jergens Wet Skin lotion
1 x Schwarzkopf shampoo-Repair & Moisture(it's from before the restyling of the packaging)
1 x Dove dry spray deodorant
1 x Edge shave gel
1 x Neosporin lotion
1 x Sally Hansen nail color(Retro Grey)
1 x Scotch tape dispenser(because everybody needs tape at the Holidays!)
1 x Glide dental floss
1 x Oral-B toothbrush
1 x Gillette Mach3 disposable razors 3 pack
1 x Colgate Optic White toothpaste
1 x Revlon emery boards
1 x Physician's Formula eye shadow palette(green/hazel eyes colors)
16 x Lindt chocolate truffles(assorted flavors including pumpkin spice)

Over $80 in regular retail of goodies.

Closeup shots of the goodies up for grabs......

I'll leave this giveaway open until Tuesday, November 21st, at 11:59pm Eastern Time, so that gives everyone 11 days to enter this one.  On November 21st  I'll mark all the valid entries and use Random dotorg to pick a number and that corresponding person's entry wins.

*Please note the rules*
I'll post the name/Id of the winner on this blog and that person has 48 hours from then to contact me privately via email(my email addy is listed on my "About Me" page).
If I am not contacted via email I'll attempt to contact the winner via the email they supply with their entry and if that email is not responded to within another 48 hours I'll pick another winner.

There are three ways to enter--1 Daily and 2 One-Time Only........

1. Leave a comment every day.

2. Be a follower of this Blog(Hit the "Follow" button on the right hand side bar.) Let me know if your comment for this entry the name you follow under to verify.  You can do this entry once.

3. Post on your own blog(or on your Facebook page)about the Giveaway and leave a link in your comment/entry to where I can find it.  You can do this entry once.
In your Daily Entry tell me in your comment......something like what here is the thing in the box you most would like to win, what food is a MUST to have on Thanksgiving, how you feel about the explosion of pumpkin flavored everything in the Fall(yeah or nay) and/or how big your thanksgiving gathering is if you have one.

Disclaimer--This giveaway is open to those with mailing addresses within the US only.
As the cost of postage to foreign countries has gotten to high I am sorry to say I can no longer afford to mail boxes outside the US.  These giveaways are not sponsored by any companies, I pay for it all(cost of items given away and the postage to mail it all)out of my own pocket.

***PLEASE NOTE***

Please make sure there is a way for me to contact you in your comment.

If you're not a registered Blogger User with your contact information on your User page, please put your email addy in your comment or email me your email addy privately when you leave a comment so I can get a hold of you. If your Blogger associated user profile is a GOOGLE one with those Google Circles nonsense I CAN NOT CONTACT YOU as Google Circles doesn't show your contact info.

If I can't contact you then you can't win.  I am still having to disqualify entries due to this issue and I sure don't like doing that.  Thanks!

So let's get this started!

Sluggy