Thursday, February 8, 2018

Just WOW!

Forget the part of Wednesday's post where I expressed my worries about Hubs using any more of our cash to "help" his sister out.
After last night's phone call he is DONE with her forever.

A bit of backstory on his siblings first so you get the family dynamics at play.
Grab a chair and a stiff drink and read on.  I don't know how long I'll keep this post up so read it soon if you wish to.  I am still raw from the call last night so I may change my mind about exposing all this(even though his siblings and the nephew don't read my blog).

1-His oldest brother has issues.  He can't take stress and if provoked he flees instead of fighting for what he wants(the fight or flight reflex).  His being in the Vietnam war may have made this sort of  worse in his personality make up.  He came back from 'Nam, caroused around a bit(lived in his parents basement, worked, drank and partied and slept around a lot for a few years before settling down).  He married a religious, straight-laced woman he met at his job(phone company).  His wife has always been nice to us and we welcomed her into the family.  They were both older when they married(and highly religious)and though they tried, never had any kids.  This brother played surrogate father to his wife's sister's kids(her hubs was in the military and died very young).  But he really wasn't a real surrogate dad, he picked and chose where he wanted to be involved because oldest brother is most concerned with oldest brother.  He only wants to discuss himself and the world revolves around him(in his own mind).

Things got uncomfortable at work for oldest brother so he fled.  He took an early retirement package in his early '50s, bought a trailer in SC and moved.....without his wife.  He always told her and the family that when he left work he was moving to SC.  The wife's extended family(mostly the paternal side, maternal side hails from NC)lives around this town in SC.  Her parents fled the Jim Crow South after WWII for urban NJ to seek a better life but the rest of the clan stayed in the South. Wife told him from the beginning that she was NEVER moving down there. She is black, brother is white.  There is still pervasive racism in rural areas of that state and being in a mixed marriage?  You have no clue how bad it might be for them even in the 21st century.

So he left her in NJ and he's been gone 20+ years now and they are still married.  Huh??
Seems the wife was wound up in her mother's apron strings(which we didn't know about until later).  Wife never decided anything without consulting her mother first so yeah, the MIL was standing in the midst of their "marriage".
So oldest brother moved to SC to do....nothing.  He had no hobbies or plans to fill his retirement days.   He got a big settlement/early out payment to bridge his easily until his pension and social security and Medicare kicked in.  He decided to spend that whole settlement in less than 6 years.  He spent it on new trucks every few years and buying toys from his childhood that his parents couldn't afford to buy him when he was little and he filled his trailer home with model trains, cowboy and indian figures and soldier/war items.  He ended up having to get a parttime job for a few years and had to cut way back on his spending. 
Now he sits and watches old Westerns on tv when he isn't going to church.  That's all he does.  He has always showed  signs of being a narcissist and it's gotten worse.  The world revolves around his small little world with him at it's center.  Hubs can't have a formal conversation with him because oldest brother always turns everything Hubs says into retelling some old story involving oldest brother. Oldest brother is also the one who lived with their mother after the father died under the guise of helping her out(it was to get away from his marriage before he got the early payout at work).  He never did anything for her and when he noticed that something was wrong with her(she had as of then undiagnosed Alzheimer's)he packed a trailer of his stuff and moved to SC......without telling any of the siblings that their mother was having issues and might need help. (We had to find this out ourselves when Hubs and I had her moved to PA near us.)

2-The older brother has low intelligence.  His mother recognized his deficiency when he was little but refused to let the school system pigeon hole him.  Back in the 50's when he started school there really weren't special ed. classes.  He also had behavior problems, use to get into fights a lot as a kid and was easily excited....I am sure he could have benefited from medication with those and/or help to control his behaviors but no, she wouldn't let medical personnel test him.  All she did was keep his conditions hidden from authorities and fought for him to be mainstreamed and spent years helping him get through school.  I believe he has a form of autism as he had no social skills either.  But anything he is interested in he has an amazing ability to learn and remember a very narrow area of subject matter.  He got through high school(barely)and the mother got him a job at a state mental hospital(where she worked as a secretary)in their mail room.  He learned the job and rose to managing the mail room when his boss died in the late 1980's.  He lived in his parent's basement until he was 40 but his mind was locked in the 1960's and 1970's(and still is).  He met a woman at his job(she was a temp worker)and fell in love and they married after a few years of dating.

His new wife's parents hid a whole shit ton of bad stuff from the older brother and Hub's family.  Turns out the wife had many mental issues(schizophrenia, bi polar and I don't know what else but there are several other conditions).  She also had had two children from two different fathers(we only learned about the second kid years later)-her first husband was a Spanish national, they had a son and then her issues surfaced so he took the baby back to Spain(knowing her issues I'd probably have kidnapped him too)and she didn't see or hear from her son until he was 18 years old(when the kid got too belligerent to handle, his father let him come back to the US once he was of age).  After Hubs #1 left she was living back with her parents and dating a married man and became pregnant.  And the married man was black.  Her first generation Catholic Italian parents refused to let her keep/raise the baby(illegitimate and mixed race)so she gave it up for adoption.  When she married the older brother she wanted another baby and older brother wanted a kid so they got pregnant at 40.  The wife descended into insanity(off her meds and some post partum issues)soon after the child's birth and was incapable of taking care of the baby.  My mother in-law basically raise that kid until he started Kindergarten. The older brother dropped the kid off at his mom's house on his way to work everyday and picked him up and took him home after work.  The kid's mother was never left alone with the kid until years later.
The wife refused to take her meds(or was on the wrong meds at times)so there were lots of interventions by social services.  She would go to the ER and tell the dr. that her hubs was beating her or some other fantasy in her mind and social services would come and take the child away.  She tried to run over the older brother once with their car and at that point I drove to NJ and took the kid to live with us for a few weeks while the wife was locked in a loony bin.  She was in and out of mental facilities for years.  She was under court orders to not leave the state/her town and a nurse was sent to her house every day to give her her shots since she couldn't be trusted to take them herself.

Then the wife got cancer and it was quite advanced and an aggressive form.  In order to have chemo treatments she had to be put into a mental hospital since her stabilizing medications were contraindicated and would interfere with the chemo drugs.  So she spent months in the hospital without meds and the chemo was too little, too late.  She died in 2005 before her kid's 11th birthday.
That's when we recommended that older  brother move near us as there was no family left in NJ(other than oldest brother's wife and mother, whom really had no relationship with older brother and kid).
We tried to be their safety net(and if things went badly, we wouldn't have to drive 4 hours away to rescue the situation).  The older brother situation is an ongoing problem off and on.  He is now having cognitive issues and this won't end well as his son, though bright, has issues with having any sort of drive in life.  Older brother also lives in a fantasy world in his mind, talks to himself and only can converse about certain subjects which all devolve into old stories about him that we've all heard for years on end.  The script never changes.

3-The sister.....sigh......she's a year older than Hubs so they grew up together(Hub's brothers were 8 and 7 years old than Hubs).  Sister has always been what I call "peculiar".  She is rigid in her views and has a high moral opinion of herself.  She's what you'd call a "square" but only in the worst sense of the word.  She is very particular about what she will and won't do, what she will and won't eat, where she will or won't live, and where she will work or won't work(certain states, no big towns and no for-profit organizations).  She has impossible standards and won't compromise on them.  She desperately wanted children(or so she said)but since she couldn't get anyone to marry her who wanted them she never had any.  I just think the kids stuff was all talk as she was too selfish to have kids and be a good mother.
She has always been a hypochondriac too.  She delights in talking about her real or imagined medical ailments(and this was when she was young, it's not an old person issue). lolz  She may have a light touch of Munchausen Syndrome(but I am not a doctor nor do I play one on the internet).  She would have diseases appear and disappear on a regular basis. 

She got a degree in library science(not a very useful degree but then again, my degree is in theater so I can't talk lol)in 1979.  She worked at a University's library in NJ and met a guy and got married in 1980.  They bought a house near her parents and she started pressuring her hubs to have kids(which he wasn't ready for).  In Sept. 1984 Hubs and I started renting out the second floor of oldest brother's 2 family house(after living in Hubs parents' basement for 8 months trying to get set up in jobs/save money).  The sister appeared on our doorstep one afternoon crying that her hubs' wanted a divorce.

They got divorced and he paid for her to go back to school to get medical coding certification and paid her living expenses while she was in school in lieu of alimony since they were only married a short time.

After getting her certification she got a job in Queens NY and moved there.  She met a man from Hoboken NJ, a journalist and free spirit type and they dated for years.  She got tired of big city living and this man wouldn't commit to marriage so she left.(We found out recently that he was willing to marry her but he wanted a guarantee that there would be no children as he didn't want kids.  She was unwilling to take that deal so she left.)  Sister  up and got a new job in small town IL and moved halfway across the country in the 1990's. 

She started a new life in IL.  She is a conformist.......has to be a church member(nothing wrong with that), joined a service organization and looked for a man she could change.  She had a couple of failed relationships there(among them, she labored under the delusion that a Mexican waiter who flirted with her at a restaurant she use to go to a lot wanted a relationship).  She persued him vigorously and showered him with gifts until he had to tell her to leave him alone.

Then she found a real winner......an ex-con, burglar, alcoholic, chain smoker who was 4 years older than her.  You may remember that Hubs and I were the only family who went to her wedding to him in 2013.  Evidently he had other medical problems stemming from his lifelong alcohol habit and cognitive/dementia problems and didn't try to work and hung out drinking with his buddies all day.  She kept this relationship going for 18 months before throwing him out of the house and filing for divorce.

Along the way in IL, though she never made more than $28K a year she decided to buy a house.  She also kept buying new cars every two years(at the urging of oldest brother, the car guy in the family)so after 10 years out there she was underwater in a car and struggling to pay her mortgage.  While their mother was still alive(and before she got put into a home w/Alzheimer's and Hubs took over her finances)the sister would tell the mom she needed money and mom would sent her a big check.  We found this out after Hubs' mother died.

Hubs' was her executor, held her POA and Medical directives for the 7 years she was incapacitated and none of the other three siblings lifted a finger to take care of ANYTHING!  We did it all.  So I had the task of going through Hubs' mom's financial papers after her death to do her taxes and settle her estate and found big fat cancelled checks made out to his sister, written on a semi-regular basis.

Once mom wasn't around to prop her up, sister's finances started sinking fast.  She called us once to lend her thousands of $s to get her car back, which had been repo-ed.  Since if she got the car back she couldn't afford to make the payments anyway we said no.  We told her to get a used car she could afford, which she eventually did.  We also found out at this time that she had never done a budget nor lived within her means(ya think?).

Then she quit her job about 2 years ago and I've talked about her frittering about $20K in paid vacation time money she collected and farting around about getting another job.  She was weeks away from losing her house and had just had another car repo-ed when Hubs went down to IL to rescue her and deliver her to SC to live with oldest brother.  We shelled out $1800+ to move her and her crap halfway across the country.
Hubs had what he thought was a frank conversation with her before this all happened and she swore she was near destitution and had $300 to her name.(She had liquidated her 401K from her last hospital job over the last few years-when she bought that house and started drawing $ out again when she quit her job.)

She couldn't find a new job due to her health(mostly mental health)issues and really due to her age(though employers didn't say that, it had to weigh in heavily in the decision not to hire her).

So Hubs did the right thing and we dipped into our savings and paid to extricate her.....and he swore he wouldn't give any of them another nickel after this incident.

The oldest brother called last week after she got the job, as he is antsy for sister to move out of his place(he started saying this after she was there 2 weeks).  He wanted Hubs to front her the money for a security deposit and last month's rent for an apartment so she can leave asap.  Oldest brother didn't offer to give/lend her $ to move so why are we asked for it yet again?

My feeling is that since she has nothing besides some clothing, 2 chairs, 2 bookcases and a cedar chest she doesn't need an apartment yet.  She has no kitchen wares, no linens or towels...nothing you need to set up an apartment since she left it all in the house in IL and decided that 10 tubs of stuffed animals would be the prudent choice  of things to bring with her to SC. 

Then we heard that the mortgage company that took back her house offers those who turn houses back to them a relocation allowance.  The sister said it was $3K at most, less depending on the condition of the house when it's turned in.  Hubs figured that she wouldn't see a penny of that money due to the hoarder situation she turned that house into.  Heck, we figured they'd bill her for them having to shovel it out. lolz

So last night Hubs called the oldest brother and sister to see how things were progressing now that she is due to start this new job in 10 days or so.  He talked to the oldest brother and found out that the sister had lied to him on two counts--1, the relocation amount from the bank was $10K, not $3K. She knew this all along and lied about the amount in question.

And the service organization she belonged to in IL, after she whined to some of them, they went in and totally cleaned out her house for FREE before the bank took it back.  So she had hid what she might get back and of course she had NEVER offered to reimburse any of what we paid out to move her(not that we expected her to offer).  Had Hubs known she could get anything near $10K relocation funds he never would have offered to move her and pay for it, but would have made her stay in the house until they cut her a check to relocate and then helped her arrange for a moving company to do the job.

2--She also had lied about only having $300 to her name. She swore up and down and sidways that she was near destitution and had only $300 left in her bank account and no other money, having liquidated her 401K at her most recent job and spent that all.
Turns out she still had a 403B retirement account at the University library she worked at in the early 1980's before divorcing Hubs #1.  She never rolled that money over to a new employer. She has liquidated that account now and just got a check for $24K from it.

And to top it all off, the oldest brother said in that phone call that  he was taking the sister out in the next few days to buy a car. (Knowing the oldest brother he will direct her toward a brand new car.)
So instead of trying to find a place to live she is going to use the bulk of that windfall to buy a car.

(This is the woman who has had two cars repo-ed so far.)because she doesn't want to be limited on where she can move to and doesn't want to be inconvenienced by relying on rides or the town's bus system.
When Hubs found this out all he could say was, "Are you f#@king kidding me?!?"

The only way she can buy a car is with cash at this point as her credit is shot.  Any car loan would have exorbitant interest rates.  I also think she is going to have a problem getting an apartment once they check her credit(a mortgage default and 2 car repos...who wants to lend someone like that money or rent to them??).

So Hubs had oldest brother put sister on the phone so he could try to talk some sense into her.  He talked to her for awhile and then he asked her(since we didn't know at this point where she had gotten the $24K from).
He asked her, "Where'd you get $24K from?".
Her reply, "That's none of YOUR damn business!!"
And then she slammed the phone down and hung up on him.

And just like that Hubs is done with her....and so am I.
No more help, no more money, no more advise(since obviously she doesn't need that since she's made such a fabulous mess of her finances so far! lol).
And no more contact with her either.

After he calmed down Hubs called back and oldest brother answered the phone.  That's when he learned about the source of the secret $24K she has and that the mortgage company could give her up to $10K to relocate.
He told oldest brother to convey this message to their sister, "You are a lying sneaky bitch . I expect want my $1800 back and I am done with you!"
Of course I doubt we'll ever see that money again but he has written her out of his life.

If he had been in the room with her when she pulled that none of your business crap I know he'd have slapped her or worse. 
This was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.
She is a user and a liar.

I may complain about my brother but good lord these 3 take the cake!

Dontcha love family?!?

I need a drink now........

Sluggy




Wellness Wednesday Afterall

I got to work on the tub of goodies for giveaways.
Here is everything in the Rubbermaid tub and in the grocery tote bag laid out on the table....


And here is some of the candy.........


I've got 7 boxes put together and filled them up with goodies already so we are good to go through August now for giveaways.  8-))

About noon Wednesday Hubs went out to commence the shoveling and the snow had turned over to ice and rain and by 1 pm it was all rain.  Generally where we live if the weather folks say, "higher elevations will see snow and not sleet", that's what happens.  We are colder in the higher elevation here but this time the temp climbed over 32F here so we got rain, turning the roads to slush.

So Hubs drove me up to Rite-Aid during this short window of opportunity above freezing and I got my stuff and we scooted home.
Well I got my goodies after the pharmacist found the Wellness Wednesday stuff in a locked cabinet. 

The Wellness Ambassador person who handles WW stuff didn't come in today as she has a small child and all the schools were closed yesterday.  And of course the assistant manager who was there didn't know where the stuff was kept(heck he didn't even realize it was WW!lol).  Luckily the pharmacist having no customers basically(did I mention I was the only customer in the store while I was there?)so she had a few minutes to hunt down the Qs.  I would have been so disappointed if I had gone up there in this weather and couldn't buy anything.

Here is what I got..........


4 x Centrum vitamins=$39.96
4 x Neutrogena concealer makeup=$25.64
4 x Arm and Hammer detergent=$7.96 *not pictured*
4 x Ricola cough drops=$8.00
2 x R/S candy chocolate hearts=$1
2 x Thermacare back patches=$12.14
SubTotal.......$94.70


Coupons Used
4 x $4/1 Centrum WWQ=$16.00
2 x $3/1 Centrum IPQ=$6.00
2 x $2/1 Centrum IPQ=$4.00
4 x $5/1 Neutrogena make-up WWQ=$20.00
4 x $1/1 Arm and Hammer detergent IPQ=$4.00
2 x $1/2 Ricola ManuQ=$2.00
1 x $1/2 R/S candy hearts L2CQ=$1.00
2 x $3/1 Thermacare IPQ=$6.00
2 x $2/1 Thermacare In-AdQ=$4.00
A $2/1 Thermacare L2CQ also came off=$2.00
Coupon Total.......$65.00

I also had a $3/WYS $15 CatalinaQ but the new inexperienced cashier scanned it after giving my Wellness account and scanning all the other Qs so it didn't come off(my total by then was too low because $28 in Bonus Cash came off automatically when the Wellness card got scanned).  As long as I have Bonus Cash on a card I'll never get to use one of these $3/$15 Catalinas. sigh.

$94.70-$65.00=$29.70
$28 in BC came off(the $20 I wanted to use plus another $8 BC)and I paid the rest, $1.70, with a Rite-Aid gift card(I couldn't use PPs because the balance was under $2).

The first 4 items in my transaction all counted toward the Spend $40/Get $15 Back in Bonus Cash Deal and totaled $81.56 before Qs, so I earned back 2 x $15 in new Bonus Cash on those.

Two of the Centrums were $2.99 and two were $3.99 after stacked Qs.
The Neutrogena items were $1.41 each after WWQs.
The Arm and Hammer detergents were .99¢ each after Qs.
The Ricola bags were $1.50 each after Qs.
The Russel/Stover chocolate hearts were free after L2CQ.
The 2 Thermacare items .14¢ after Qs but I also earned $4.50 in SavingStar on two different rebates for Thermacare(yesterday was the last day to earn one of them).

I also earned a $3 SavingStar rebate on one of the Centrum purchases, so $7.50 total in SavingStar rebates on yesterday's transaction.

Used $28 in BC, put $1.70 on a gift card.
Earned back $30 in new BC and $7.50 in cash rebates.
A pretty good trip to Rite-Aid.  8-))

Sluggy

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Random Stuff from Chez Sluggy

I know how McVal loves to do random posts so I thought I'd do one and offload some of these topics from my brain.  Brain dump time....woohoo! ;-)

* So here is a photo of what it looks like outside as of 9 am here..........


I doubt I'll get out to Rite-Aid today to take advantage of the one-day WW coupons. sigh.  And no, like someone said/offered, they won't let you use them on Thursday, even if they know you/like you and you ask sweetly. lolz

*  Checkout51-I really really detest how they don't removed the offers where all the rebates have all been claimed for that item!  Really??!!??  
I go there and see a big long list of offers and 50% or more are no longer available.  Save me and others a little time having to scroll and read all that crap we can't claim rebates on already!

Plus now many of the offers can't be claimed if you also use a coupon?  WTF?!?

And let's talkeabout how the offers just don't change on there...ever!  I've been looking at the same offers for months now.  And they are forever putting offers up for items they don't sell around here too.  What's the point of showing me those?!  8-O

* A few weeks ago when I went to put Chester out first thing in the morning so he could do his "business" I saw these ice crystals on the wooden deck railing.......

 If you look closely these ice crystals are like shards of glass, sitting up off the wood.

The ones where two were joined together sort of reminded me of tiny ice butterflies.



*  So let's rant about Ibotta too while I'm at it. lolz  Since I don't have a smartphone(I use my Daughter's phone to cash out but I have to use the laptop to load offers onto my account)I can't load and don't get to see but a limited number of offers. argh.

*  My low spend on groceries February is just about circling the toilet and it's only Feb. 7th!  I had a receipt/trip I forgot to put on January's total so I started the month behind the 8 ball.  Then I remembered I had an Ollie's 15% off flyer that expires on the 18th which, although it's 15% off already reduced foods(which is Good!)it will mean more spending in February.
Maybe I do have a spending problem?  Nah, I just have a TIMING problem. lolz

*  I really need to get back to working and posting about genealogy.  My last post on that was months and months ago!  I just looked and it was Nov. 9th.
And I need to work on some trip posts.....I am only up to Part 2 of our August 2016!!! trip to Maine and I posted that one in early Oct!
I have so much to show y'all from our trips and I guess that would be a tad more interesting than financial numbers and random shit like this, huh?  8-)))

*  Oh!, the sister in-law got a JOB!!!!!  She starts later this month.  And the brother in-law she is living with is pushing hard for her to get her own apartment(well, actually he's been pushing her since the second week she was living with him).  The problem is the bus line near his house doesn't run to the hospital where her new job is very often and doesn't go right by it.  And she doesn't have nor can she afford to buy/own a car right now.  And brother in-law doesn't want to be put upon to drive her to work.  So yeah.......  I told Hubs she should look at renting a room if someone near the hospital has one for rent.  It would be easier, closer and cheaper than having to get an apartment(especially since she has ZERO money now).  There is talk about she is getting some money back from the mortgage company she gave back her house to at some point in the future.  I have visions of once she gets that money that brother in-law is going to talk her into buying a car(which she can't afford)with it all.  She has had two cars repo'ed already(and one was an old POS car, not new).  What's the odds that she'll take a little of that money when she gets it and pays us back for the $$ we laid out to move her and her shit?  Yah, I don't think doing that will even cross her mind.  8-(
And now Hubs, after swearing to me that he was done financially bailing out his siblings, is now talking about giving her some money for a security deposit and last month's rent for an apartment!!!!! Can you tell I am NOT pleased?!?! I freaking kill him right now if it wouldn't impact the annuity payment. lololz
So the sister in-law saga continues.....

*  In lieu of Rite-Aid pillaging and showing y'all Rite-Aid Porn I guess I'll go work on Giveaways today.
Last month when I was up going through old files and purging them in the spare/office/hubs man-cave room I also did some organizing of my toiletries stockpile tubs in that room.

The last few months of 2017 I had just been throwing bags(mostly from Rite-Aid)onto the tubs and things were not being integrated into the proper tubs and items rotated by dates.
So I spent a few hours and went through EVERY TUB and reorganized.  And I pulled out an entire tub+ of items for Giveaways.  Last Saturday my supply of mailing boxes arrived from the USPS so I am all set to put together more boxes of goodies to giveaway....yippee!!!

Here's what I have to go through now and make up boxes.........


An 18 gallon Rubbermaid tub of all sorts of goodies.


Plus a grocery bag of more stuff!

And that doesn't even count the two Rite-Aid bags of candy I have. lolz

So I am off to sort goodies and get a year's worth(I hope!) of giveaway boxes ready.

What are you up to today??

Sluggy


Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Winter Shopping

I find myself in the midst of the Winter Shopping Season.
Around here, like in other areas among the Snow Belt, in the Winter you never know when you'll be able to get out to the stores.  Storms sometimes are predictable and more often than not, they are not.
So having a stockpile is a very good idea around here during the Winter at least.

I usually do my shopping on Wednesday(the last day of the Weis ad)but find I have to go out earlier this week as an all day snowstorm is predicted for tomorrow.
I already did this week's Mix and Match Deal at Weis this week.........I bought other things but I wanted to show you the M&M Deal most as it was the best deal...........


1 x Pinesol on sale=$1.99
1 x Lysol wipes on sale=$1.99
1 x Lysol toilet cleaner on sale=$1.99
2 x Mardi Gras napkins on sale=$1.99
1 x Sandwich Bros. on sale=$3.49
SubTotal.....$13.44

Coupons Used
1 x .75¢/1 Pinesol(fully doubled)=$1.50
1 x .50¢/1 Lysol Wipes doubled=$1.00
1 x .50¢/1 Lysol toilet cleaner doubled=$1.00
2 x .55¢/1 Mardi Gras(fully doubled)=$2.10
1 x $1.50/1 Sandwich Bros=$1.50
Coupon Total......$7.10

$13.44-$7.10=$6.34-$6 M&M discount=$.34 +.38¢tax=.72 OOP for all 6 items.  8-)))

I also picked up more Eggland's eggs on the trip above as they were still half price and I had another $1/2 ManuQ, making the eggs .75¢ per dozen.

I decided to go out to Weis again this morning and do the Mix and Match Deal a couple more times.  Of course when I got to the store, they were out of Lysol disinfectant wipes so I had to punt and get this instead........


The 5 Lysol items, Pinesol, Hidden Valley Ranch dressing, the 2 Celetano Eggplant parms, the 2 Sandwich Bros. sammiches and the Ling Ling Yakatori were all part of the Mix and Match Buy 6/Get $6 Off Instantly Deal.  After sale prices totallying $34.38, fully doubling up to .99¢ Qs totaling $12.50 and $12 instantly off, all 12 items came to $9.88.   8-)))
I also bought 4 bottles of Palmolive dish soap($1 after sale and Qs) and 4 bottles of Ken's salad dressing(after B2/Get2Free and $1 off peelies on 2 of the bottles they were .99¢ per bottle).

Not pictured in my order was a half gallon of milk, a bag of 50% off bagels and 2 cartons of ice cream(gotta have ice cream during a snowstorm)along with these.........


8 bottles of Sun brand dish soap.  These are being discontinued at my Weis Markets so they were .62 per bottle.  I believe Dollar Tree carries this brand so other than this clearance price you can't get them for under $1+ tax around here otherwise.
If there are any left on my next trip day there I'll get more but 8 bottles should last us a long while(plus the 4 bottles of Palmolive I also picked up this trip).


I spent $36.51 OOP for all the above, a savings rate of 61% according to my receipt.
I love to see anything over a 40% savings rate when I shop.


With the storm coming in Wednesday I am sad as it might keep me from going to Rite-Aid for the Wellness Wednesday.  WW is the first Wed. of the month and there are one day only R-A coupons available to stack with Manu/IPQs.  This sometimes makes for very cheap or free items at Rite-Aid.

On Sunday I worked up a plan for Rite-Aid for WW.  This plan involves using a $20BC that expires beginning of March(plus another $3 BC)and earns me 2 x $15 BC(doing the Spend $40/Get $15 BC Back Deal x 2)back as well as between $6 and $7.50 in SavingStar cash rebates.

It also involves buying a LOT of laundry detergent but that is something I can give to the local Food Bank and they will gladly accept it, so no worries.
If I can't get to Rite-Aid tomorrow I'll figure something else out.  I might not try to do the Spend $40/Get $15 Back in BC if Wednesday is a washout.  I'll use that $20BC on something like OTC nasal spray or turmeric capsules(the turmeric is BOGO this week). 
It is always wise to have back-up plans.


Sluggy

Saturday at Rite-Aid

Hubs decided to brew more beer on Saturday and took over the kitchen for the day.  He's now doing all grain brewing(instead of the easier part grain/part liquid extract type)and it makes the entire house smell like a fermenting tank x 20.
PU!
It got so overpowering that I was nauseous and had to leave the house(you could even smell it upstairs in a closed room).
So I went to Rite-Aid to hang out for a bit.

The mail had arrived that day already and I received a snail mail of some coupons good at Rite-Aid so I took those with me to see if anything was cheap/free/moneymaker after sales/Qs/bonus cash offers.

While there I decided to also see if they had any inexpensive Jovan or Coty colognes which I hadn't looked for yet that week...........


Select GE LED lightbulbs were on sale for $7.99 and gave $5 in Bonus Cash.  The snail mail coupons included a $5 off 1 GE LED lightbulb pack.

$7.99-$5.00Q=$2.99 and $5 back in BC.

I found two bottles of men's Cologne of the Jovan/Coty variety that were at a price point that made them either free or a moneymaker after my 20% Wellness discount, plus last week these gave a $10 Bonus Cash per purchase.

Jovan Ginseng NRG cologne reg. 12.00-20% discount($2.40)=$9.60
Stetson cologne reg. 12.50-20% discount($2.50)=$10.00

On my son's card......$7.99+$9.60+$10.00=$27.59+.04¢tax=$27.63

The new cashier scanned my card BEFORE trying to put my $5Q through so $27 in Bonus Cash I had on that card/account came off automatically.  I put the .63¢ left on a Rite-Aid gift card.
The  cashier gave me $5 cash for my Q and I earned $25 in new Bonus Cash(2 x $10 colognes, $5 lightbulb).  This transaction I came out a bit ahead, $2.37(converted $5 of BCs into cash and that goes into the "Post Q/Refunds/Rebates" envelope in my desk).


I also bought this lot on my card..........

1 x Remfresh=$7.99
2 x Schick razors on sale=$11.98
SubTotal......$19.97

Coupons Used
1 x $5/1 Remfresh IPQ=$5.00
2 x $3/1 Schick razors IPQ=$6.00
Coupon Total........$11.00

$19.97-$11.00=$8.97+.08¢tax=$9.05

An $8 Bonus Cash came off and I paid the $1.05 left with a R-A gift card.  I earned back $7 in new BC(2 x $2 Schick, $3 Remfresh).

Not a moneymaker but pretty cheap for razors, right?

Sluggy