Giveaway Update.....Attention Nancy & Martha!

Would Nancy Ives and Martha who entered the current giveaway on the blog please email me...arcure@ptdprolog.net.
I don't have Martha's contact info for your entries to be valid.
And I think I have Nancy Ives under an alias so I need to hear from her too to make sure it's the same person on the contact list.

You three have until 4 pm today, Oct. 25th to contact me so I can get this Giveaway winner drawn.

Thanks so much!

Sluggy

Buying Groceries on Vacation....Am I Weird?

**Today's the last day to enter my Giveaway.  If you have never won one of mine before go HERE to enter before 11:59 pm ET tonight.**


I am a simple woman who enjoys simple things in life.
When on vacation I have been known to buy groceries.
Yes, if I see a store I don't have around here(even some we do have here)I like to go browse and see if I can find some deals.
You just never know what you'll find because life is an adventure.  ;-)

So on the way down to Virginia last week we stopped at an Ollie's in Delaware that was along the way.
There is no sales tax in Delaware so right there is a savings!

I found peanut butter and honey flavored oatmeal packets for $1.49 per box.  Something different to try.
I also found a big squeeze bottle of blue cheese dressing for $1.69.
Cornbread stuffing is hard to find around here in Pennsyltucky(and that is at Thanksgiving-the rest of the year, fat chance!)so I picked this Stove Top brand bag of cornbread stuffing up for .79¢.

The Panko bread crumbs I found at the Grand Opening of a Dollar Tree in North Carolina for, you guessed it?, $1 per canister(plus tax).

I also found all this on clearance.........

The ranch dressing was 50% off so .64¢ per bottle.
The M&M's were 50% off(Valentine's colors)so $1.14 per bag.
The crackers were 75% off(and not stale either!)so .24¢ per box.
The MegaRed was 75% off(!!!)so $2.50 per bottle.

Altogether everything pictured in the 2 photos cost me $22.87(including the sales tax on the Panko).

Add to that that I found a dime on the floor in Ollie's and a nickel on the floor at Dollar Tree so I am OOP $22.72 overall.  ;-)

Not to be totally a nerd I did buy a couple of souvenir t-shirts on vacation too.

Do you like looking in grocery stores to see what sort of different things they have that your stores at home don't have?

Sluggy

What I Bought at Rite-Aid Last Week

On Monday of last week I bought 1 tube of Colgate and the Alka-Seltzer Powermax meds.
There is a full price rebate(up to $11.99 on them HERE.  If you use a coupon they deduct that from the rebate you will receive back.) 

Sometimes it's good that a cashier screws up your transaction. 8-)))

My transaction was this......

1 x Colgate toothpaste on sale=$3.50
1 x A-S Powermax pills on sale but Wellness disc. better=$7.99
SubTotal........$11.49

Coupons Used
1 x .50¢/1 Colgate toothpaste ManQ=.50¢
1 x $3/1 Colgate toothpaste In-AdQ=$3.00
1 x $3/1 Alka-Seltzer powermax ManQ=$3.00
Coupon Total....$6.50

$11.49-$6.50=$4.99

Except.....
The cashier didn't ring in my $3/1 In-Ad Q for the Alka-Seltzer so my total was $7.99

So I got $3 cash for a "post coupon" situation.
And since no coupon used for the Alka-Seltzer appears on my receipt I'll get $7.99 cash refund instead of a $4.99 refund. 8-)

I also earned $2 in Bonus Cash for buying the Alka-Seltzer product.

During out trip to VA/NC I picked up 3 more tubes of Colgate making sure they were the varieties that were part of a monthly deal giving back $3 in BC wys $12.........

* 2 tubes in Pocomoke City MD on the way down, used 2 x In-AdQs(had no more .50¢/1 ManuQs)so paid $1.42(.42¢ TAX!!!)total for those 2 tubes, using Bonus Cash of course.

* 1 tube in PA on the way home to finish off the $3 BC deal.  My sister in-law gave me the .50¢/1 Colgate Q from her Sunday paper so I used that and paid Zero on that tube.

In total I paid $9.42 in Bonus Cash for everything pictured, I earned $5 back in new BC($2 Alka-Seltzer, $3 wys $12 Colgate), $3 in cash for the forgotten Q I used, and $7.99 cash back from Alka-Seltzer.  That makes this a $6.58 moneymaker.

This week I have a $5 Catalina to use by Friday when it expires.  I'll either buy some Huggies(earn another $5 Cat and $10 in BC)and sell the diapers to make a small profit or buy some Ricola Immunity drops and earn back $6 new BC.
Decision, decisions, decisions.....

What are you buying this week?

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Something I've Never Seen in a Grocery Store Here Before" Edition--

In case the signage is too small or you don't recognize these, they are Jackfruit from India.
And they are ginormous!  I read that a jackfruit can get up to 120 lbs......geez!
My question is--why are they in a grocery store in podunk PA( very small town a half hour west of my town with no Indian/Southeast Asian population)?!?
Has provincial small town PA suddenly developed a taste for something more exotic than pierogi and halushki?  Lololz
I am still shaking my head over this one.......


Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

This is what was planned--

1. Sunday--Beef Stroganof, Rice, TBD Veggie

2. Monday--Halushki

3. Tuesday--?

4. Wednesday--?

5. Thursday--?

6. Friday--?
7. Saturday--FFY(Fend for Yourself)

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Beef Stroganof, Rice, TBD Veggie

2. Monday--Halushki

3. Tuesday--Leftovers at Brother's house

4. Wednesday--Fried Shrimp, Salad, Mashed Taters

5. Thursday--Pizza, Salad

6. Friday--Beef Brisket, Sweet Potatoes, Cole Slaw, Banana Pudding(Hubs and I shared a platter)
7. Saturday--Fend for Yourself(I had an English Muffin)

Last week saw 2 nights of home cooked dinners, 2 nights of leftovers/fend for yourself, 3 nights of Eating Out.  We were in VA and NC for a large part of the week so there was a bit of eating out.  Tues. we had leftovers the night we got to VA(had lunch at Chick Fil-A on the way down). Wed. we had breakfast out, no lunch and a dinner out. Thurs. we had breakfast at the motel, a late lunch at Pizza Hut and munchies in the room for dinner. Fri. we had breakfast at the motel, lunch at a BBQ joint and a burger at BK after going to the movies. Sat. we had Micky D's for breakfast on the road, lunch w/older son at Chili's and dinner was FFY at home.

1 big trip to Weis, a Bread Outlet trip and a trip to Maines restaurant supply for mostly produce-all before we left town last week-brought the weekly food spending to $123.76 and brought the monthly total to $153.61.
I have 9 days left in my shopping month for October.

My savings percentage last week was 48.93%(without Rite-Aid trips)and October's monthly savings total comes to 48.55%(w/out R-A)so far.

Leftovers going into this week......beef stroganof, halushki, cheddar broccoli soup.  The kids didn't seem to have eaten any of the leftover foods....gee, what a surprise. lolz

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

1. Sunday--Cheese Lasagna

2. Monday--Leftovers

3. Tuesday--Chicken Strips, Sweet Potato Fries, Veggie TBD

4. Wednesday--Beef Stew, Biscuits

5. Thursday--Rigatoni, Meat Sauce, Salad(Hubs will cook this)

6. Friday--Chicken and Chilies Enchiladas, Beans, Rice
7. Saturday--FFY(Fend for Yourself)

I made a big pot of pasta sauce w/meat on Sunday to use on the Lasagna.  Leftover sauce will be used on Thursday so Hubs can give me a night off from cooking(He can boil pasta and add the sauce and open a bag of salad aka as "cooking" in his world. lol)

This week will see 5 new meals cooked, 2 night of leftovers/FFY, 0 nights of Take-Out/Eating Out.  Between the trip to Maine and the trip to VA/NC I have had my fill of Eating Out for awhile. ;-)

What needs buying for this menu?  Nothing really except salad greens and milk.  Should make for a cheap grocery week, right? ;-)

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  

Frugal Friday......the October 19th Edition on Sunday

Let's see what frugalness happened around here this past week......

* I hit the bread outlet.

$10.95 for 4 loves of bread, 2 bags of rolls, 2 boxes of donuts and 3 bags of English muffins(cranberry!).  I spent $10 or more so I got a free bag of whole grain English muffins too.
Bought at reg. retail in the grocery store this all would have cost $47.49.  Even on sale at the grocery store it would have been around $29+/-.

*  I sent Hubs up for the Friday Freebie on the 12th........

A 2 lb. sack of flour.  Something I can always use so free was good!

*  I did a big shop at Weis(PMITA)Markets last weekend before we left on our trip.  Here are the highlights.......

The Kraft expertly paired cheese bags were on sale for $2(must buy at least 3-I bought 5).  I had a $1.25 cash rebate on Ibotta for these, up to 5 bags so they were .75¢ each in the end.
The tv dinners were on sale $1.99 each and I had a .75¢ cash rebate on Ibotta for these so $1.24 each in the end.
The Breakstone sour cream were $1.50 on sale and I had a .50¢ cash rebate on Ibotta for these so $1.00 each in the end.
I also had a coupon in a recipe book available at Weis for $1/1 Larabar.  The Larabars were $1 last week so this was free after coupon.

*  I found money on Tuesday.........

Hubs and I were in line at an Ollie's(Good Stuff Cheap!)in Delaware when I spied this dime on the floor in our cashier line.  I reluctantly must say that I almost shoved the shopping cart violently into Hubs to get him to "move outta the way!" so I could pick this up before anyone else spied it.  Then I remembered that Kim wasn't with us and I took my time getting to it then. lololz

*  And speaking of good buys at Weis, I picked up these two pork butts before we left town too(part of that big shop I did at Weis mentioned above)......

These were .97¢ per lb.!  Haven't seen that price in something like 15 years around here so I grabbed two(making sure the sell by/use by date was long enough)and will be smoking these this week when we get a warmish day.
Then they will be finished off in the crock pot, shredded and the meat portioned out into freezer bags for the chest freezer for eating in 2019.

*  I don't remember if I mentioned this or not before........

My free EOS/Special K lip balm arrived.

*  We stopped at Walmart on the way to our vacation spot and picked up breakfast food, drinks and munchies.  We ate breakfast in the room each day and only ate 1 big meal out(dinner the first night/late lunch the second night)to save money.  Much more cost effective to not be eating out for every meal. 8-)

*  The last of the basil got pulled up the day before we left town.

I dried it in the oven and ended up with 2 small mason jars of dried basil.

In the background in that shot is also the last of the tomatoes we picked before we left and the weather turned much colder.  Now I have to tally up the grand total of what we harvested from the garden this past season.

*  And finally look at what arrived in the mail..........

My seasonal 15% off purchase coupon for being part of the "Ollie's Army".  We'll figure out how we plan to use this in early November to get the best value from it.

That's about it here.  Sorry I am so late with this but I didn't even open the computer a couple of days and the internet was not optimal anyway and who wants to be online when this is the sight out your front door................

What frugal stuff did you do this past week?  Tell us all about it.


As always, remember the words of the "Frugalest Man in the World"......

Sluggy