On Monday Hubs and I had signed up with our insurance company to have some health screenings done in a town nearby. I was glad to hear we are not ready to keel over from Afib, PAD, Atherosclerosis or abdominal aortic aneurysm any time soon, rah.
Afterwards we headed somewhere for lunch and ended up near where my Discount Grocery use to be before they closed up this Summer. 8-( Also in that area was one of the R-A's I frequent so I popped in, even though I didn't bring my coupon envie or have any plans. Here is what I got......
The Colgate toothpaste(certain types/sizes)are $3.50 this week. With the In-Ad coupon it's $3 off so .50¢ OOP.
I had a $2/1 Colgate Load2CardQ for this type of toothpaste so with both Qs applied I had $1.50 of overage to use up on something else. This store carries these dog treats($1 a bag and .80¢ with Gold discount)so I added two bags.
$1.60+$3.50=$5.10-$5 in Qs=.10¢ + .10¢ sales tax=.20¢ OOP.
Free toothpaste and a bag of doggie treats for the puppies for .10¢ each.
Saw this ugly car in a Target parking lot in the last month or so and had to take the photo. Not only is the color weird but it's a Mercedes Benz Jeep looking thing of some sort(a G Class SUV I found out later). This thing costs $131,000+! That's more than we paid for our first house and almost as much as we paid for our current house. lol
I know everyone has their own style/taste(I actually like the color)but seriously? Who needs a $100K+ vehicle? And who are you trying to impress with it??
4. Wednesday--Fend for Yourself 5. Thursday--Meatloaf, Acorn Squash
6. Friday--Fend for Yourself
7. Saturday--Leftover Beef Pie
Almost half of what I planned didn't happen last week. We had so many leftovers to use up so why make new?
What got put into the freezer last week....
* 2 containers of ice cream
What got taken out of the freezer and used...
* 1 roll breakfast sausage
* 1 package of Pepper Bacon
* 1 Meatloaf(thanks Sissie!)
I spent $69.18 on food/toiletries/HBA last week at Walmart, Weis, the Bread Outlet and Ollie's. This brings our food/toiletries/paper goods Grand Total so far to $121.62 for October.
There are 13 shopping days left in October.
I've earned $69.86 on Ibotta in October.
I've earned $3.64 on Checkout51 in October.
I've earned $5.25 on Coupons dotcom/Paypal in October.
I've earned $4.00 from Aisle.
I've earned $3.27 from an ice cream offer.
I've earned 1023 points from shopping on Fetch in October which equals $1.02.
I earned 1875 points from food shopping on Shop Kick in October which equals $7.50.
I've earned 9008 SB from food shopping on Swagbucks in October which equals $9.00.
That's $85.94 in rebates(not counting the Shop Kick/Swag Bucks/Fetch)on $121.62 in grocery spending so in reality it's $35.68 spent after the 4 rebate apps(+the ice cream offer)I count until I cash out on the other three apps. 8-)))
My savings percentage for the last week was 60.35%(without "regular" Rite-Aid trips)and the monthly savings total for October comes in at 50.29% so far.(w/out R-A).
Leftovers going into this week....nothing but some meatloaf and 1 helping of squash.
What do I need to buy to fix everything on this menu? Nothing. I just have to dig stuff out of the freezer really. Still no Ibotta Bonuses as of Monday morning so no reason to hit Walmart unless I see a freebie there. Weis prices are getting outrageous so I won't be going there either.
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?
So I am still not getting ANY Ibotta Bonuses and it's almost 3 weeks now! Anybody else having this problem? One of the Youtube couponers I watch is also having this problem. I wrote to Ibotta and asked about this problem and got this canned response....
"Hello Denise,
Thanks for your interest in the MidWeek bonuses. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that specific offers or bonuses will be available to every Saver. We try to mix up our offers and bonuses so we have some that are achievable for everyone, so stay tuned!
Please let me know if there is anything else I can assist you with at this time. Thank you for using Ibotta. Have a great day!
Sincerely, Erin
Denise Bowman-Arcure
Oct 11, 2021, 19:16 MDT
Just a question. The last Bonus I received on my account was the September Leaves. No midweek or weekend nor any special monthly/seasonal bonuses since I completed that one. I know everyone's account and what offers/bonuses they receive are different but why nothing for so long for mine? thanks, Denise Bowman-Arcure
Yah, didn't answer my question.
At any rate this complication has significantly "slowed my Ibotta roll" as it were. Without Bonuses of any size or kind it's very hard to have a moneymaker haul.
But I did go to Walmart on Friday since I had a $25 SwagBucks/Walmart gift card to spend.......
The only items I bought that aren't in the photo are a carton of Breyer's Reese's Ice Cream and a package of Klondike Reese's Ice Cream Bars. When the chest freezer died while I was at Sissie's we lost all our popsicles and ice cream so I had to restock on some ice cream. 8-)
Everything came to $33.17 after coupons used and the gift card. Between reg. Ibotta rebates, Aisle, a special Reese's ice cream rebate, Checkout 51, Shop Kick, Fetch and Swag Bucks I earned back $38.77 so a $5.60 moneymaker trip!
The Dole lemonade, Cheetos mac and cheeses, Mt. Dew energy drink and coffee drinks are for Ex-College Boy. The Splash drinks and the Gatorade w/Protein bottle are for me. I'll send one of the Mrs. Butterworth's to the food bank as well as some of the Airwick plug-ins and the small sized Tresemmé items.
Saturday we went through some kitchen cabinets and found 22 items to rehome.......
Ex-CB is coming over for dinner tonight so I'll see if he wants any of this stuff(probably not), then I'll check with the other 2 kids before taking it all to Sallie's. I'll give Ex-CB his Walmart stuff tonight too.
That's about all from me lately. A pretty boring weekend here. Anything interesting going on with y'all?
Taking a look around, here are the frugal wins for this past week....
* I had gotten an Ollie's(Good Stuff Cheap!)15% off digital coupon as soon as I got home from my September trip. It expired on Monday so Hubs and I went up to have a poke around and bought this....
We also got 12 trays of wet dog food(not pictured)for a grand total of $12.56 after discount.
* After Ollie's we had lunch out at Applebee's, using a gift card. Paid $15+ OOP on tip and about $7 the gift card didn't cover. I only ate half my Oriental salad so dinner was leftovers(I finished my salad.)
* Hubs got a flu shot at Rite-Aid on Tuesday. With that he received a $5 off when you spend $25 shopping pass.
* Speaking of that shopping pass I spent it on this stuff.....
2 x Pepcid 20% gold discount=$21.58
1 x Tom's of Maine toothpaste 25% sale=$5.99
SubTotal.....$27.57
Coupons Used
1 x $5 off $25 purchase flu shotQ=$5.00
2 x $2.50/1 Pepcid Q=$5.00
Coupon Total....$10.00
$27.57-$10.00=$17.57 paid with Bonus Cash
I earned back $8 in new BC for buying $20+ of Pepcid, I submitted my receipt to JandJ Caregiver Offer and have a $10 gift card on the way(snail mail)also for buying $20+ of Pepcid and I submitted for a $2/1 Coupons dotcom rebate for the toothpaste. I submitted for 2x $1.50 Ibotta rebates on the Pepcid as well.
Not too shabby....
* I hit up Weis on Tuesday for some provisions. I had some coupons expiring and a few that paired with digital Weis Qs too that also doubled........
The band-aids were a penny moneymaker after sale price doubled Qs.
The pepcid was $2.50 OOP after sale price, Qs and Ibotta rebate.
The Hall's cough drops were 50% on clearance so $1.14 a bag. After the $1.50/1 Qs 3 bags were a $1.08 moneymaker.
The Prego was on sale $2 a jar(if you bought 3 or more). After doubled Qs they were $2 total or .50¢ a jar.
The dog food was .79¢ per container and I had $4 total in Qs making them .29¢ each.
* A Target coupons arrived in the mail this week. Our store just had a remodeling so they are eager to lure you back in to spend money.
It's good until sometime in November so I'll pair this with circle offers/coupons and app deals to spend very little out of pocket.
* I found money!
A dime and a nickel at Weis on Tuesday. Someone left their change at the self check-out. My Rite-Aid has been dry lately.
Found Money This Week... .15¢
Found Money This Year....$18.64
* Sissie sent me home with 2 bags of homemade cookies and a meatloaf this past trip in September. We had the meatloaf on Thursday, my shot day when I don't feel up to doing much. It was a godsend having that already cooked and thawed to heat up. Wish I had gotten sisters sooner in my life! lol
So back in July, after I had a collagen shot in my knee after Kim and Sissie tried to break me on the "Shopping Death March" back in May/June, I went for a quick visit to Sissie's house outside DC.
Sissie promised not to break me this time so it was a low key visit. We did NO outlet shopping! Amazing, right? lol
I called from my car in her parking space and Sissie came flying out of the house looking a might confused. She thought I was coming on Wednesday when I had said Tuesday(or something like that). Oh well. I was here so it was time for hugs and laughs.
We did think of ways to torment Kim the whole visit, that was part of our fun. We'd send her photos by text to make her jealous and you wouldn't believe what she said in reply...oy! What a potty mouth!!
So here's the first one, taken the afternoon shortly after I arrived.
Sticking our tongues out at Kim. Neener, neener!
My buddy, Bud the cat, guided me upstairs to my room and showed me candy and lots of change on my bed. Good old Bud!
I screwed up Sissies dinner plan since I don't eat egg salad. 8-( But she went into action and make wienerschnitzel, spaetzle, gravy and veggies instead.
The next day we headed out for our BIG adventure-a trip to Ikea.
I had never been to an Ikea before though there is one 2 hours away outside of Philly. If I had thought of it, I would have brought my Viking helmet with horns and worn it in the store. lol
That place was a labyrinth! Just a maze of areas funneling you along until you were asking how the heck do I escape from this Swedish hell?!
I bet it didn't help that I was probably embarrassing Sissie by trying to pronounce all the signage which was both in English and Swedish. Luckily it wasn't very crowded in there during the weekday.
This says Welcome in Swedish. Anne, you need one of these! lol
A cute owl night light.
They had two areas where they had set up a full on tiny house using all Ikea goods. We both said we couldn't probably live in these if we didn't have spouses(and Sissie would need a spare one for a closet lol).
This one even had a pair of slippers by the door(they were attached to the floor so you couldn't take them...ask how I know that). lol
A room of Turkish goods.....lamps and rugs mostly but some lovely things.
I refer to this display as the "dead cat room". A blue rug hanging on the wall and on the floor, a blue chair and footstool with small white pelts draped over everything, like a bunch of dead skinned cats(or bunnies if you prefer).
Sissie contemplating the Mona Lisa.
Oh no! Sissie's glass is empty. I guess it's time to head into the Ikea cafeteria.......
So we got lunch. I had a Greek Salad and we split a bottle of water.
But Sissie opted for the traditional Swedish meatball plate only she got the children's sized portion with four meatballs and didn't even finish all of them.
I took a photo of these buns and texted it to Kim and told her it was too bad she wasn't here to taste some with us. *snort*
As we wound our way through the rest of the Ikea maze after lunch we came upon a room were they used 12 inch wooden articulated artist models to accentuate the decor of some displays.
One display had about 10 of them posed identically along a fireplace mantel. I told Sissie nobody with kids would be able to have that in their home because the kids(at least MY kids!)would think it jolly good fun to pose those mannequins in lewd positions when I wasn't looking. ;-)
Then Sissie spied "the hand".........
Ikea also had an articulated life sized hand and Sissie couldn't resist posing it thusly. We both had a few laughs over that hand and suspected the security guards had a camera trained on that part of the room and also had some laughs every day when someone would see that hand and pose it with the middle finger extended up.
Sissie wanted to buy one but we couldn't find another(this was the store sample/model)in that room. I told her to take it to the register and see if she could buy it but she decided not to.
When we got home from that excursion Sissie kept saying she wished she had asked to buy that sample hand. So I looked on Amazon and found multiple sellers on there selling the same articulated hand!
A couple of days later these happened..........
Sissie ordered 4 hands, one for herself, each of her sisters and me(her sister from another mother).
Mine holds a place of honor on the half wall by my desk in the den.
I call it my mood barometer.........it you see it at full mast it's better to leave me alone. lolz
We made a couple of trips during this stay to Sissie's hangout spot.
Contrary to popular belief, the geraniums out front were still not an ashtray! ;-)
We tormented Kim a few times on this trip, besides showing her the Ikea cinnamon buns she didn't get to have as mentioned above......
I texted her that I got her something from Ikea and then sent this photo........
The free little pencils to write down stuff while in Ikea.
I also sent her photos of any change we found at Mickey D's and other places.
And the big one was this photo..........
This photo of me smiling and holding a DD's bag and a chocolate covered donut and a large Diet Coke(Kim's 2 kryptonites).
You should have seen the awful language she texted me every time we texted her a torture photo! Maybe I should send those messages to her Bishop if I ever get that mad at her. hehehe
On the Saturday during my visit we headed up to a town in the area that had an Ollie's(Good Stuff Cheap!)and introduced Sissie's hubby to the wonders of Ollie's. Afterwards we headed across the road to a nice restaurant for Sissie and her Hubby's anniversary dinner.
Some yummy food followed.
Sissie's Hub's steak dinner.........
Sissie's fish dinner.....
my crab cake dinner..........
Afterwards we saw Kim outside the restaurant........
Sissie's Hubs got a better photo of all three of us with Kim's best side..........*snort*
Another day I was putting stuff in my car and found something(not money)on the ground and sent Kim a text that I was thinking of her...........
More horrible language was texted back to me! 8-)
A rare photo of Elliot(above) and Lucy(below)eating dinner. Lucy hid the entire time I was there except at dinner. These two aren't as social as Bud.
I hung out at Sissie's home during the week. I slept late, went to a store or two nearby, then blogged until they got home from work. Sissie fed me well(too well some days!).
Sissie needed a new mouse pad and brought this home one day......
It fits her to a tee...hehehe
A partial view out the back of Sissie's yard..........
And someday maybe y'all will hear the story behind this mangy bear rug in the den. Though Sissie's best efforts she has yet to manage to destroy it. She needs a jar of NAIR......
One day I ventured out by myself during the day to Home Goods and found this Kim wall art too........
Sissie's Hubs found out I do genealogy and before I left to go home I was able to answer a couple of family mysteries for him about his paternal grandfather's side. I love helping folks that way if I can.
The day before I left Sissie got busy baking in the kitchen.....
Awhile later she had made all this........
She sent me home with a loaf of sweet bread for my Hubs(and he didn't even share with me!)and a bag of peanut butter Rice Krispy treats. 8-)))
It was a very nice visit with Sissie but before I knew it, it was time to head home. I loved it and I miss Sissie, her Hubs and of course Bud.
Just a question. The last Bonus I received on my account was the September Leaves. No midweek or weekend nor any special monthly/seasonal bonuses since I completed that one. I know everyone's account and what offers/bonuses they receive are different but why nothing for so long for mine?
thanks,
Denise Bowman-Arcure
Yah, didn't answer my question.
At any rate this complication has significantly "slowed my Ibotta roll" as it were. Without Bonuses of any size or kind it's very hard to have a moneymaker haul.
But I did go to Walmart on Friday since I had a $25 SwagBucks/Walmart gift card to spend.......