This Week on the Dining Table

The "What the ??" Edition--

When de-cluttering you never know what you'll find sometimes.  I found a shoe box full of S&H Green Stamps tucked into the cabinet over the refrigerator last week.  These came with us 17 years ago when we moved into this house.  My grocery store at the old house in the 1990's gave these out and evidently I had diligently collected them and pasted them into books.  I vaguely remember pulling them out a couple of years after we moved(as I was still unpacking moving boxes)and saw that you could turn these in to a website where there were now digital Green Stamps(called Green Points)which you can collect to earn things and gift cards.  But I guess I never sent them in and just tucked them away somewhere.
I also see that some folks buy old Green Stamps on eBay too.  Who knew? ;-)
This time I'll be getting rid of the Green Stamps one way or another.

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

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--?

And this is what actually happened--

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

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

3. Tuesday--Beef Stew, Rolls

4. Wednesday--Grilled London Broil, Garden Salad, Garlic Bread

5. Thursday--Leftover Chicken Enchiladas
6. Friday--Leftovers
7. Saturday--Fried Fish, Roasted Potatoes, Cole Slaw

Last week saw 5 nights of home cooked dinners, 2 nights of leftovers/fend for yourself and 0 nights of take-out. 

Last week's grocery spending included the Bread Outlet and Weis(where I spent $50+ to get a free turkey)and came to $70.16.  That brings November's food spending to $280.51.  There are 10 more days in my shopping month.

My savings percentages last week was 45.65% and the monthly savings so far ends up at 47.22%(without Rite-Aid trips added in).

Leftovers going into this week.......beef stew, chicken enchiladas.

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

1. Sunday--Leftover Chicken Enchiladas

2. Monday--Tuna Subs

3. Tuesday--Pizza

4. Wednesday--Chinese Take-Out

5. Thursday--Turkey Dinner w/all the bells and whistles
6. Friday--Turkey Dinner leftovers
7. Saturday--?

This week will see 3-4 new meals cooked, 2 nights of leftovers and 1 night of Take-out.
Leftover stew carried forward into this week will be lunches for Hubs.  Not much interesting in the meal plan this week as I'm concentrating on turkey day.

The only thing I need to buy to make these meals is maybe some milk?

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

End of Year Food Spending Chatter

Every year, during the last quarter of the year,  I stop and ponder what I've spent on food for my family for the year so far.

In 2016 I spent a grand total of $4696.81 on food/toiletries/HBA/paper goods.  You may recall that Daughter and her BF moved in with us halfway through that year.
Up until June we were on track to do a $3809.30 food spending for 2016(Jan-Jun spending was $1904.65).  We spent $887.51 over what the food was tracking at once Daughter and BF moved here.  Had they been here the entire year we could have topped $6K in food spending!

Then the BF moved back to Louisiana at the end of Jan. 2017 and over the next 4 months our food spending tracked at under $300 per month.  Hmmm.
I guess this is accurate as I was A--Cooking more food each night when he was living here, as there were more mouths to feed, B-- more food got thrown out as Daughter and BF didn't cotton to eating leftovers and  C--I was buying foods I don't usually buy as the BF had particular eating habits(or should that be peculiar?lol).  He had a preference for convenience foods and we all know that those cost more than what I call "basic" foods.

Anyway, with the BF no longer eating here the food spending has returned to a level I am more comfortable with.  We are currently at $3852.18 with 1.5 months to go.

Let's take a look at monies(other than regular income)I have to apply to the food budget for the rest of 2017.  I generally cash everything in(the cash rebates/cash refunds from the stores/post coupons/rolled coins saved)and apply it to December's food bill.

Rebate Apps--
* SavingStar  $27.55
* Checkout51  $79.00
* Ibotta  $19.25(though I can't cash out until I hit $20, but I'm close now)
* Walmart Savings Catcher  $4.23
TOTAL.....$130.03

Rebates & "Post Coupon" Refunds/Unexpected Cash
* Liquor  $15.00
* Schwarzkopf hair products  $9.62
* Right Guard Deo  $7.29
* Can't figure out what I wrote lol  $5.35
* Rite-Aid Post Coupon  $14.00
* Weis Refund  $4.00
* Rolled Coins  $55.00
* Nielsen  $1(they tucked into a "come back" letter)
* Cash for selling free TRU gift cards $42.00
* Carry over from 2016 that didn't get spent  $9.15
TOTAL......$162.41

Food Store Gift Cards/Store Script
* Giant  $25.00
* Target  $77.68
*  Catalinas-Minute Maid  $4.00
TOTAL.....$106.68

All the above comes to $379.12 of "free" money to grocery shop.

If needed I also have the cash I have from selling stuff here like excess toiletries/diapers and unwanted items around the house......

Cash Sales
* Selling Toiletries  $89.00
* Selling Items around the house  $20.00
* eBay Sales  $81.44(net after fees/cost of goods sold)
TOTAL.....$190.44

So basically I am in good shape to not have to spend a penny of our regular income on food/toiletries in December and theoretically I could stay at or under $4K in food/toiletries/paper goods spending for 2017.  I'd love to be able to be under what was spent in 2016.

How about you?
Do you track your food spending for the year?
Do you apply any cash rebates/catalinas/rebates toward your food budget?

Sluggy

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