This Week on the Dining Table

 The "Your Hair Looks Marvelous!" Edition.......

We kept one of our old recliners for the dogs to lay in when we got the new reclining loveseat.  Dixie will scratch on it to make it "soft" before she lays down as dogs will do.  Hubs snapped this photo of her one cold night after she was scratching on the chair.  Just a bit of static electricity, no? lol

Onward to the meal planning!

Moving On-

This is what was planned....

1. Sunday--Fend for Yourself

2. Monday--Rigatoni w/Meat and Mushroom Sauce, Caesar Salad

3. Tuesday--No Clue yet!

4. Wednesday--Halushki
5. Thursday--Chicken, Veggies TBD(Hubs is cooking)

6.  Friday--Tempura Shrimp, Cole Slaw, Sweet Potato Wedges

7. Saturday--Leftovers

And this is what really happened.......

1. Sunday--Fend for Yourself

2. Monday--Rigatoni w/Meat and Mushroom Sauce, Caesar Salad

3. Tuesday--Take-Out Chinese(Eggplant in Garlic Sauce for me)

4. Wednesday--Halushki
5. Thursday--Leftovers

6.  Friday--Tempura Shrimp, Cole Slaw, Sweet Potato Wedges

7. Saturday--Baked Chicken, leftover Squash Casserole, Alfredo Noodles

Last week saw 4 nights of home cooked dinners, 2 nights of leftovers/planned overs or FFY, and 1 night of Take-Out/Eating Out. 

What got put into the freezer last week....

*  10 servings of Coho Salmon(great sale at Weis!)

*  2 Sirloin Steaks

*  1.5 lbs. Stew Beef

*  1 lb. Ground Beef

*  4 frozen Chicken Wrap sandwiches

What got taken out of the freezer and used...

*  2 lb. of Shrimp

*  1 Large Chicken Breast

We spent $60.53 on food/toiletries/HBA/paper goods last week-1 trip to Ocean State Job Lot(Zero OOP), a trip to Target(Zero OOP)a medium trip to Weis($53.12)and 1 small trip to the Discount Outlet($7.41). This brings our food/toiletries/paper goods Total to $60.53 for April so far.  A lot of meats went into the freezer last week.

There are 25 shopping days left in April.

I've earned $54.60 on Ibotta in April.

I've earned $0.00 on Checkout51 in March.

I've earned $5.00 on Coupons dotcom/Paypal in April.

I've earned  points from shopping on Fetch in April(haven't submitted any receipts yet tho)

I've earned 0 point from food shopping on Shop Kick in April($)

I've earned 0 points from food shopping on Swagbucks in April.

Only 5 days into April and my Ibotta is over $50 for the month already! 8-)))

My savings percentage for last week was sn incredible 70.76%(without "regular" Rite-Aid trips)for April and the monthly savings total for March comes in at 70.76%.(w/out R-A).  Mostly it's so high due to using free gift cards at Target and OSJL.

Leftovers going into this week--Beef Stir-Fry, 2 helpings of Squash Casserole, lots of Rigatoni and Meat/Mushroom Sauce, lots of Halushki, 2 servings of Tempura Shrimp, 2 helpings of Cole Slaw, 1 helping of Sweet Potato Wedges, 1 helping of Alfredo Noodles.  I also have 1/4 of a head of cabbage to use up this week.

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

1. Sunday--Lasagna, Roasted Brussel Sprouts

2. Monday--Dinner out(Hubs' birthday)

3. Tuesday--Leftovers

4. Wednesday--Hot Dogs, sauté Cabbage
5. Thursday--Leftovers

6.  Friday--Leftovers

7. Saturday--Leftovers

What do I need to buy to fix everything on this menu?  Not a food item but we need napkins. Most of the week will be leftover nights since we have so many of them!  No cooking mostly....yay!  A week off from that chore. ;-)

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?  I haven't seen the new sales at for Weis(PMITA)Markets yet which come out the end of this week so who knows around here. Maybe I'll stick to the Discount Outlet.

Sluggy

2021 Food Spending Report....The March Edition

 

Easter Greetings to y'all if you celebrate the holiday!  It's a quiet day here at Chez Sluggy with just me, the Hubs and the puppies. 8-)

Onward to March's Food Spending report......

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for MARCH 2021.

I have posted March's totals on the Total Grocery Savings Page located HERE and have updated the Totals there.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in March.  If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom for the Totals Sum.  My spending includes Food, Toiletries/HBA, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable. We are a family of 4(2-3 eating at home this month). No "kids" under 26. (I don't count all the "freebies" I get at the Discount Outlet in my totals either.)
*****************

CVS

OOP  $2.10
Qs/Ads/ECBs  $12.06

Value  $14.16

Savings 85.17%

DOLLAR GENERAL

OOP  $31.34

Qs/Ads  $54.12

Value  $85.46

Savings  62.33%

OCEAN STATE JOB LOT
OOP  $11.96
Value  $22.96
Savings  47.91%

P and R DISCOUNTS
OOP  $34.36
Value  $78.33
Savings  56.13%

RITE-AID
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads/BC  $836.75
Value  $836.75
Savings  100%

WALMART
OOP  $80.36
Value  $192.69
Savings  58.30%

WEIS

OOP  $138.05

Qs/Sales  $72.67
Value  $210.72
Savings  56.13%

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, CVS at 85.17% and Dollar General at 62.33%.

The worst rate was at Ocean State Job Lot at 47.91%  I'll take that all day long! ;-)
I shopped at 7 different stores in March.

TOTAL Spent in March..........................$317.32

TOTAL Coupons/Store Sales.................$351.17

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased.........$668.49

TOTAL Savings of ................................52.53%

TOTAL Out of Pocket for March w/R-A...............$317.32
TOTAL Coupons/Store Sales w/R-A..................$1,187.92
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased w/Rite-Aid...$1,505.24
TOTAL Savings with Rite-Aid items....................78.92%

This closes out the March food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

I went into March without much of a plan in terms of stocking up or eating down the stockpile.  I was able to winnow out some old items and use them up(and not replace them).
I was able to spend less than $400(my usual average per month)but I didn't challenge myself to eat from only what we had so March's total spending was more than February's spending but only by about $106.

The monthly food spending savings percentage went DOWN by 6.02% in March 2021 to 78.92% compared to the February's 84.94% savings average.  Down over 6% but still almost at 80% savings is winning in my book. lol

With 3 months accounted for, I have spent a Year-To-Date Total of $507.19 on food/toiletries in 2021.

2020 Yearly Grand Total Spent....................$824.51

2020 Yearly Grand Total Value of Items....$4764.94

2020 Grand Total Saved..............................$3940.43

2020 Yearly Savings Total.............................82.70%

The average per month amount spent is $274.84 in 2021 so far.

LOOKING AHEAD To April 2021...........

Well I really haven't thought about April yet.  I would like to  continue to try to eat from the pantry/freezer this month and spend less than in April.   If I find a stellar deal on items we use(not including Rite-Aid where I buy "the deals aka the freebies or almost freebies" and pass on what we can't/don't use to the Food Bank, Ex-College Boy and into Giveaways)I will take advantage of those deals still.  With no Holidays in the foreseeable future(4th of July is next?)I don't think the grocery stores will be having many loss leaders until Jume.

If you have other ideas or guidelines you follow please leave a comment and share yours with us all.

*  How much did you spend on food/toiletries in March?

*  Do you track your yearly food spending?  It's really not that hard or time consuming; just have your receipts and either track it in a notebook or on a spreadsheet.

*  What was your savings percentage buying on sale and/or with coupons vs. buying at regular retail price last month, if you track that sort of thing?

*  What are your methods for keeping your food spending in check?

Is anyone out there up for tracking expenditures and trying to spend less but still eat well?


Sluggy

Frugal Friday on Saturday

 A fair amount of Frugal this past week.........

*  Many Rite-Aid Deals combining regular Bonus Cash Deals, sale prices, coupons and Spend $50/Get $15 BC back coupons.

*  I got two freebies last Friday at the Discount Grocery Outlet.  I took no photos but I can tell you it was a bag of some kind of "healthy" chips and a 4 pack of Bloody Mary mix.  I don't drink Bloody Mary's but I can just use those in spaghetti sauce or another sort of tomato based dish.

*  I took a rare trip to Target on Thursday and used a long ago paid for gift card to do the "Spend $50/Get a $10 Target gift card deal.
I found some meat deals--50% off a 1.5 lb. pack of stew beer and $1 off 1 lb. of ground beef.  "Spent" $58.96, "saved" $23.10 according to Target and really earned back $13.29 on Ibotta for some of the items I bought and got a $10 Target gift card. -)

*  I had a semi-annual dental check-up.  No cavities or problems, just x-rays and a cleaning.  I scored some toothpaste and mouthwash samples(as well as a couple of coupons good for a few months).

*  I went back to OSJL this past week to get more of those "Craveology" trail mix jars off the "Eat for Free" table but they were all gone!  So I picked up 2 bottle of Asian sauces and a box of pasta.  Total came to $7.97 but I used a Crazy Deal gift card to pay so Zero OOP.  Sorry no picture. 8-(

*  I found money!

Found these coins in various spots in Rite-Aid last Friday.

Found these two pennies by the front register on Saturday at Rite-Aid.

And found this dime on Tuesday near the pharmacy counter at Rite-Aid. 
My Rite-Aid was a honey hole this past week.   I just wish I could find lost quarters too.  8-))

Total Found This Week.... .24¢

Total Found This Year.....$2.14

That's about it this week.........

What frugal wins did y'all have this past week?

Let us know!!

And have a peaceful Easter weekend,

Sluggy

We Interrupt This Frugal Friday for Important Rite-Aid Shenanigans!

I'll get to the Frugal Friday post tomorrow.  I wanted to blog about my Rite-Aid pillaging before it is too late for someone out there to see and be able to get some of the deals which end Saturday night.

If you didn't know there are FOUR different Coupon Codes this week and you can use each of them once per card/account this week.  They are all Spend $50 Get $15 in Bonus Cash coupons.  That's $50 before other coupons you may have and use so you don't actually have to "spend" $50 to use the BC Q.

One coupon is either on the weekly ad or you can go online to the R-A website and print it off of the online weekly ad.
Another coupon is an emailed version.
The other two are from the R-A facebook page.  Like their page and there are two different links in a couple of posts there this week-one links to a BC Q and another link takes you to a different BC Q.  You can look at the numbers in the UPC codes and see that they are all different. 8-)

I did this transaction on my Hub's card on Wednesday........

3 x Big Win cold brew coffee on sale=$5.00
4 x Big Win  tea and lemonade on sale=$4.00
2 x Nature's Truth melatonin BOGOFree=$6.49
2 x Nature's Truth Turmeric BOGOFree=$19.99
2 x Nature's Truch D3 BOGOFree=$15.49
SubTotal........$50.97

Coupons Used
1 x $15 BC wyspend $50
3 x $2/1 Nature's Truth IPQ=$6.00

$50.97-$6.00=$44.97+.12¢ tax=$45.09 paid with Bonus Cash

I earned back $39.00 in new BC($15 wys $50, $2 Red Bull/Big Win coffee, $2 Big Win drinks, $20 wys $40 Nature's Truth).
I also submitted to Ibotta for 1 of the Nature's Truth items and got $2 in cash rebates.
So $41.00 back on $45.09 spent.

I then did this transaction on son's card........

1 x Tide pods on sale=$5.94
2 x Oral-B toothbrushes on sale=$13.98
1 x Oral- B floss 2 pack on sale=$6.99
1 x Crest Brilliance toothpaste on sale=$6.63
1 x Colgate toothpaste on sale=$3.35
2 x Colgate toothbrushes on sale=$7.98
1 x Rice Chex cereal on sale=$1.99
1 x Irish Spring body wash on sale=$3.99
SubTotal.......$50.85

Coupons Used
1 x $15 BC wyspend $50 Q
1 x  $1/1Tide pods L2CQ=$1.00
1 x $3/2 Oral-B items L2CQ=$3.00
1 x $1/1 Oral-B floss L2CQ=$1.00
3 x $2/1 Colgate toothbrush/paste in-Ad Q=$6.00
1 x $1/1 Colgate toothbrush L2CQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Colgate toothbrush IPQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Colgate toothpaste L2CQ=$1.00
1 x $2/1 Irish Spring In-AdQ=$2.00
SubTotal......$16.00

$50.85-$16.00=$34.85+.42¢ tax=$35.27 paid with Bonus Cash.
I earned back $31.00 in new BC($15 wyspend $50, $10 wyspend $30 PandG, $3 wyspend $10 select Colgate, $1 Irish Spring, $2 wyb 2 "Better for you Oral Care"-the charcoal toothbrushes).
I also submitted to Ibotta for $5.75 in rebates(2 x $1 Oral-B toothbrushes,$3 Crest Brilliance, .75¢ Chex)so a total of $36.75 back in BC and cash on $35.27 spent.

I went out today too but don't have time now to lay out those details yet.

Sluggy

Happy April Fool's Day!

NOT!!!

Sluggy