Another week of "not normal" so let's try to bring some normality to our lives by doing a Frugal Friday. In this time of pandemic it's hard to remain frugal(except if you stay home and stay away from online shopping when home-guilty as charged lol).
* Hubs filed and we received our Federal Tax Return and it arrived via direct deposit into our account this week. We don't get a very large refund which is good since it means we don't 'loan' the Federal Government our money for a year. ;-)
Of course a piece of that refund will go into the state's coffers since we ALWAYS owe them something. 8-(
* I had to go to Aldi on Tuesday for mushrooms so I picked up some other things there that are cheaper than anywhere else(butter, tortilla chips, cream cheese, almond milk for Hubs, etc.).
I also went to this town's Weis(PMITA)Markets looking for my Stress Relief tea. I also bought some comfort foods while at Weis--2 bags of potato chips(haven't bought those in months!)and 2 containers of tapioca pudding(which wasn't on sale!). I Love me some tapioca pudding so I happily paid full retail for that. 8-O
* We got pizza take-out from Domino's last Friday which cost me nothing OOP due to gift cards. For some reason I have a metric shit ton of gift cards for Domino's(I went a little crazy last R-A Black Friday deal time when I already had some Domino's cards). For 2020 this is considered free pizza since I paid for all those last year(or in 2018 in some cases). I think we'll be plowing through this gift card stockpile for the foreseeable future what with our town finally getting it's own Domino's franchise and well, PIZZA!! ;-)
* Speak of Weis(was I?), they have cancelled Freebies and Fantastic Friday Deals until further notice and there is NO weekly sales ad that should have started today which will cut down on me getting any deals there since I won't be shopping there(much).
* While I was near Aldi since it was "Cheap Bagel Tuesday" I got a Baker's Dozen of bagels at Panera across the street at their drive-thru window. I used a free gift card to pay that I got with c/c points.
* I did go to Rite-Aid once this week since I had to get an Rx anyway and I found this stuff.......
1 x Love/Beauty/Planet Conditioner 75% off=$2.24
2 x Baby Ruth candy bars on sale .77¢=$1.54
SubTotal...$3.78
Coupons Used
1 x $1.50/1 Love/Beauty/Planet item IPQ=$1.50
1 x BOGOFree Baby Ruth ManuQ=.77¢
Coupon Total.....$2.27
$3.78-$1.51+.05 tax=$1.56 paid for with Bonus Cash.
* As mentioned in my opening I succumbed to some online clothes shopping on Sunday. I was going to get 2 Summer dresses anyway(as I do each year)but then the store was having a 50% off everything, including clearance items so I bought a bit more. I went through ShopAtHome and got 3.5% back in rebates on what I spent AND I found a Free Shipping code(which saved me another $19.99). I'll pay all this from my accumulated WAM.
* I found money! On the one day I had to go out I found change, first at Aldi........
First I got a free quarter when the lady wouldn't take my quarter for her cart. I guess a lot of folks are not wanting their quarters back now.
Then I found 2 pennies in the check-out line near the end by the register/cashier. I used a Lysol wipe to pick them up.....do you know how hard it is to use a wipe to do that? lol
When a lady handed me her quarter for my cart I had her drop it into the wipe in my hand, so I didn't touch it before cleaning it off.
And at Rite-Aid later that afternoon I found another penny........
This coin was found by the register. The floor mats in front of the registers are brown like an old penny so it's a good place to find those at Rite-Aid. lol
Again, I used a Lysol wipe to pick it up and all change was thoroughly cleaned once I got it home.
Found Money This Week...... .28¢ Found Money This Year so far....$44.55
* I earned $1.60 in Ibotta rebates this past week.
* I made myself a mask for when I have to go out in public again.............
I used sewing supplies I already had, which made this frugal. While it's no N95 mask it makes me feel a bit safer among the unwashed masses out there. I don't go many places but the drugstore and grocery stores anyway but those are the places everyone is in nowadays because they can't go anywhere else. lol
I think our county will become a "shelter in place" county soon. The infection is spreading here from NYC and Philly and the main county entry point from those cities where cases are exploding went into "shelter in place" status this week. Our county is a couple dozen cases below them now so it's going to be any day for us. The local bus service to NYC and Philly has suspended service until further notice.
Then word got out that NYC has bussed in convicts from Brookly into one of our local prisons. I can see the villagers with pitchforks and torches storming Castle Frankenstein any time now............
That's about it for this week.
Any frugal stuff in your world?
Stay Frugal, Stay Safe and Wash Your Hands!
Part 1 of our trip is HERE. Part 2 of our trip is HERE. Part 3 of our trip is HERE.
So Chris got home from work and off we went to dinner to a place called The Fish River Grill.
"A Funky Junky Redneck Joint" as the menu says. My kind of place! lol
It's a local casual dining restaurant that serves local seafood which is right up my alley.
They serve something called "Swamp Soup".
An ominous moniker for a food, but it tasted much better than it sounded. lolz
Every diner gets a free sample cup of it with your dinner. It's basically a greens and beans soup with a hint of sausage. I'm not a big fan of beans(except the pork and bean kind)and it has beans in it(Great Northern/Navy)but it had a great flavor. I may have to try to make this some day...maybe the next time I visit my brother because I KNOW his wife will love this sort of thing!
Hubs got a fish dinner and I got a combo fish and oyster platter(which Hubs had to eat about 1/3 of for me). I love this photo Lorraine took. I was squeezing my lemon on my fish when she snapped it and the lemon squirted Hubs in the eye so his smile turned into a grimace as he hurled an expletive in my direction.
Priceless!
On the way out of the restaurant I spied these colorful plastic miner hats with headlights attached.
The sign said they were crabbing hats.
Is nighttime crabbing a thing?
I spent Summers of my youth crabbing all. day. long. We used lines of chicken backs on string to lure them in to shore.
But never at night just using lights and a net.
But it seems to be a "thing" down here and the video below is from a crabber in Virginia where I am from so it's a "thing" there too and I never knew that.
Anyway as we drove back to Lorraine and Chris' house I noticed all the Holiday lights in town........
I forgot that it was still the Christmas Season and decorations would be up. lolz
Home and a couple of hours just talking before bed.
The next morning by the time Hubs and I got up Chris was already at work, Lorraine had run a marathon, painted the house, cured cancer AND gone out to a local pastry shop for Donuts, Kolaches, and Sausage Breakfast Pastries for us.
Nom nom nom
And Lorraine had fixed us each up a present.......
A pack of Abita Mardi Gras beer, beads and a mask for Hubs.........
And a bag of red and white striped candies(Red Bird mints, Hershey kisses)a Peppermint Chap Stick and a handmade soap in the shape of a candy plus a small wooden sign to hang in my kitchen.
I LOVE peppermint Chap Stick and I used to always have one in my purse. I used my last one up about a year ago so this one will be cherished and used......did she know I loved this? I don't think I've ever blogged about my addiction to peppermint Chap Stick. I guess she has omniscience as another one of her Super Powers, huh? 8-)
So after a quick photo together, since we hadn't taken one yet...........
Notice I let Lorraine stand on the fireplace hearth to be taller than me in the photo because ya know, I am soooo much taller than her in real life. *snort*
And a blurry photo of Zoe where her eyes are glowing and she looks possessed......
No kitty photos because basically they hid from us for the two days we were there. I hear cats tend to do that around strangers.
And back in the rental car we went and headed West to Louisiana. We still had a 6+ hour drive to the hotel in Shreveport.
We stopped somewhere in Eastern Louisiana for lunch. It was rainy and Hubs was in a crappy mood because I tried to use a coupon on my Burger King app AND pay with a gift card for his meal and a freebie coupon for my meal I still had from their Xmas promotion. He gets annoyed so easily.....especially when he needs more coffee.
I just got the so yummy chicken fries, no drink or anything because I didn't want to sit there with him so I just sat in the car by myself for awhile.
Can you tell from my chicken fries selfie I am annoyed with him? lol
So back on the road with another pit stop somewhere between Baton Rouge and Alexandria, at a McDonald's with the nastiest bathroom I've seen since the Summer of 1999 on a trip down to see my family and we stopped at THE WORST BATHROOM OF ALL TIMES. There was also a convenience store attached.
3 pennies found by the Mickey D's registers and 1 penny found in the convenience store while Hubs waited on his coffee order.
I also saw locally made pork rinds.........
And this soda........
Delaware Punch soda.
I'm 60+ years old and I've never seen this soda before.
It's a grape fruit(not a grapefruit)punch flavor, not carbonated and not caffeinated.
I say, "What's the point of it then?". lolz
Seems it can be found in parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and around EasternTexas and was invented in 1913 by Thomas E Lyons. Ya learn something new every day.
Just one more stop for gas and for potty time outside of Chopin LA. The bathroom was the size of a broom closet and the door knob was in peril of falling out of the door and there was no lock but this place seemed to do a booming business mostly in fried chicken and booze sales. Well it was a late Friday afternoon so most places do a brisk booze business at that time/day.
We got into the Best Western in Shreveport at 4 something pm.
After checking in and unloading the car we headed back out to meet our older son(who flew in from Virginia), daughter, her fiancé and a couple of his friends at a local Brewery at 5 pm.
They were running some sort of Holiday promotion and were giving out envelopes with prizes in them for every beer you ordered.
Hubs and I paid for this gathering(my daughter's idea of a pre-wedding dinner as there was no rehearsal)and we all won brewery stickers like pictured above, 50% off food items, money off your next beer, and stuff like that.
I gave the 50% food coupon I won to my daughter since we wouldn't be coming back here anytime soon. ;-)
Hubs, our eldest and the fiancé's friend enjoying their brewskis.
They also had live entertainment(a singer/guitar solo act)which was pretty good though we were sitting a little too close as conversing was difficult with the noise level.
Everybody ate and drank and had a good time. Hubs and I left around 10 pm as we were beat and needed a good night's sleep as the wedding was the next day.
I did get out a bit last week(mostly to Rite-Aid while picking up Rxs)and out to Weis for some foodstuffs and Hubs went out to find a thermometer on Sunday(as ours was about 12 years old and dead).
Trying to limit social contact now and eating from the freezer because it's still darn full as you can see!
Moving On....
Onward to the meal planning-
This is what was planned for last week.......
1. Sunday--Salmon, leftover Mac and Cheese, Green Beans
2. Monday--Hamburgers or Cheeseburgers on Rolls, leftover assorted Veggies or Salad 3. Tuesday--Beef Stroganoff, Rice or Noodles, Salad
4. Wednesday--Fend for Yourself
5. Thursday--Hot Dogs and homemade Beans, Sweet Potato Fries
6. Friday--Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches, Veggie TBD
7. Saturday--I might make Chili for the guys or Tacos or ?
And this is what actually happened--
1. Sunday--Salmon, leftover Mac and Cheese, Green Beans
2. Monday--Cheeseburgers on Rolls, leftover assorted Veggies 3. Tuesday--Chinese Take-Out
4. Wednesday--Fend for Yourself
5. Thursday--Hot Dogs and homemade Beans, French Fries
Last week saw 4 nights of home cooked dinners, 1 nights of leftovers/FFY, and 2 nights of Eating Out/Take-Out. No meals out obviously but some take-out happened. The Stroganoff didn't happen because we only went to the local Weis and I just couldn't pull the trigger on full price(read overpriced)fresh mushrooms. ;-)
What got put into the freezer last week....
* 3 small tv dinners
* 3 pints of ice cream(yes we went to the grocery store for pandemic ice cream.....if I am cooped up with the family in this house I "need" emergency ice cream--and booze) ;-)
What got taken out of the freezer and used..... * a big piece of Salmon * 1 bag of green beans * 1 pack of hot dogs * 1 pack of pork chops
2 trips to Weis(PMITA)Markets this past week in the amount of $53.62(a lot of what was spent was for crappy cheap snacks, clearance drinks and toilet bowl cleaner beyond the necessities)brings my March Grand Total spending on food so far to $277.81.
No worries as we are below target for a $400 spend month. I doubt we'll buy much more before March ends(if anything).
I've earned $32.15 in Ibotta rebates too in March so far.
My savings percentage last week was 27.74%(without Rite-Aid trips)and March's monthly savings total comes in at 52.42% so far(w/out R-A). The savings rate took a hit but it was for a good cause, ice cream. ;-)
I have 8 more food shopping/spending days in March.
Leftovers going into this week.....1 bowl of Clam Chowder(and 2 Biscuits).
For whatever reason(preoccupation with virus prepping, folks not going online as much to stay away from fake news or headlines, not a lot of readers now who haven't won a giveaway, etc.)I had a mere NINE valid giveaway entries. But don't worry, the giveaways will continue. So I had Random dotorg pick at random(duh!)the winner this month. And that person is..............
I haven’t won yet but I love trying! Spring plans have been put on hold with this dang virus. Our youngest is a Junior and his soccer games consume our Spring. They have been canceled and we’re all snuggled at home together Lord help me! 😁. Tebble tebblestearns@yahoo.com
Congratulations Tebble!! Please email me your complete mailing address and I'll get this out to you asap.
Please email me within 48 hours of this post going live or I'll have to pick another winner.
Thanks to everyone who played along this month.
The April Giveaway will be going live in the first week of the month(hopefully)and it will be open to ALL readers.
