This Week on the Dining Table

The "I Hope There is Booze" Edition...

Hubs and I have been invited to Thanksgiving at my son's future in-laws house this year.  After I dash off to Rite-Aid first thing Thursday we'll set off for NJ and Ex-CB will stay here to watch the dogs.  I don't know what awaits us as far as the meal.  I've always cooked or gone to my mom's for Turkey Day so I don't know what to expect.  I'll be bringing a family recipe, Yeast Rolls from my Great Aunt Lula's recipe.  Maybe I'll stash a bottle of wine in the car just in case too. ;-)

Onward to the meal planning!

1. Sunday--Chicken and Dumplings

2. Monday--leftovers

3. Tuesday--Chinese Take-Out?

4. Wednesday--Hungarian Goulash
5. Thursday--? Hub is cooking so prolly leftovers

6.  Friday--Apricot glazed Pork Chops, Sauted Cabbage, Taters of some ilk

7. Saturday--Sloppy Joes, Sweet Potato wedges

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

1. Sunday--Chicken and Dumplings

2. Monday--leftovers

3. Tuesday--Hungarian Goulash over Noodles

4. Wednesday--Fend For Yourself(I had a late lunch so no dinner for me)
5. Thursday--Chinese Take-out

6.  Friday--Sloppy Joes, Sweet Potato wedges

7. Saturday--Pizza

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

*  1 plant based Chicken pot pie

*  2 bags of Brussels Sprouts

*  1 box of Garlic Toast

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

*  1/2 London Broil

*  1 Whole Chicken

*  1 pack of Ground Beef

I spent $86.09 on food/toiletries/HBA last week. This brings our food/toiletries/paper goods Grand Total to $188.96 for November.

There are 8 shopping days left in November.

I've earned $148.65 on Ibotta in November.

I've earned $19.00 on Checkout51 in November.

I've earned $19.65 on Coupons dotcom/Paypal in November.

I've earned $0 from Aisle.

I've earned 19,821 points from shopping on Fetch in November which equals $19.82.

I earned 4,735 points from food shopping on Shop Kick in November which equals $18.94.

I've earned 1,130 SB from food shopping on Swagbucks in November which equals $11.30.

That's $187.30 in rebates(not counting the Shop Kick/Swag Bucks/Fetch)on $188.96 in grocery spending so in reality it's $1.66 spent after the 4 rebate apps I count.  Yay me.....

My savings percentage for the last week was 61.49%(without "regular" Rite-Aid trips)and the monthly savings total for November comes in at 59.46%(w/out R-A).  Pretty awesome savings rate last week!

Leftovers going into this week....3 servings of Goulash, Sloppy Joe filling, 1 serving of Sweet Potato Wedges.

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

1. Sunday--Chicken Parm, Brussel Sprouts, Garlic Bread

2. Monday--leftovers

3. Tuesday--Apricot glazed Pork Chops, Sauted Cabbage, Au Gratin Taters

4. Wednesday--Whatever
5. Thursday--Dinner at future in-laws

6.  Friday--Thanksgiving leftovers

7. Saturday--More Leftovers

Though I'm not hosting Turkey Day this year I am cooking a small dinner.  Ex-College Boy will be spending the afternoon here to take care of the dogs on Thursday so I am cooking on Wednesday a turkey breast, stuffing, pie and rolls(taking most of the rolls with us to NJ)so he has the basics for Turkey Day.  If he wants anything else(potatoes, gravy, veggies)I have the ingredients here and he can whip those up.

Those poor pork chops just keep moving forward every week and don't get fixed.  Maybe this week? lolz

I've got everything here to make the minimal menu outlined.  I have half a cabbage to use up so that's why it's on the menu, to avoid food waste.  We did waste a bag of salad last week unfortunately but that was all.

What do I need to buy to fix everything on this menu?  Not a thing.  It's all here.

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 November 19th Edition

 A few frugal wins for this past week..............

*  Friday saw all this going to the local food bank.....

118 items gotten for free or for very low cost with sales/loss leader/couponing/rebating.

*  I spent very little OOP at the grocery store this week thanks to free gift cards.

*  When Sissie came to visit she brought me a giftie I forgot to show last week.......

A neat Santa shopping bag.  I'll think of her every time I use it! ;-)

*  Lots of freebies last week at Rite-Aid..........

I rolled/converted to cash/spent down under $40 in Bonus Cash for all this(+some items not pictured, many that went to the food bank).  Nothing spend out of pocket.

*  Sissie also alerted me that Aldi had butter for $1.99 lb. this week so I hit up Aldi's here and picked up 6 lbs.

*  I attended the Bridal Shower last Saturday for my son's fiancée.  I won two of the games we played.....

The two flat black packages were those prizes(each had a bag of specialty tea bags, a bookmark with a famous author's quote on it and a piece of jewelry).  It was a "Bridgerton" themed shower....we drank tea from proper china cups and saucers and ate finger sandwiches and scones.  We played Jane Austen word searches, had to guess things about the bride and then a shower gift Bingo.  The party favors were the pair of bride and groom pretzels enrobed in chocolate and the cup and saucer with dainty handmade candies and more tea covered with shimmery netting and a bow.

*  Our kitchen backsplash got installed this past week!

First a reminder of the 1980's tile work we had removed.........

And now we are 40+ years into the future.......

                                        

The handyman only took 1.5 days to finish the job too!  While having work done on your house isn't frugal per se, Hubs added up both bathroom jobs and this tile work and it cost us LESS to have our handyman do all 3 jobs than the big contractor company wanted for just the main bathroom job.  So I'm calling this a frugal win! ;-)

*  Speaking of house projects, Hubs tackled a long delayed small job of replacing the hall closet doors.  We actually only had 1 bi-fold door after Ex-College Boy fell into the other door and broke it when he was home from college on break a few years ago.  Hubs finally bought new doors, painted the backsides and installed them(well, he installed them twice because the first time he put them in upside down!lol).  I'll post a photo once we get the fronts of the doors painted. ;-)

We are slowly chipping away at the house projects list......

*  I found money!

2 dimes next to my car in the parking lot at Walmart last Friday.

This nice shiny penny was leaning up on one of the frozen food case doors at Weis last Friday as well.

Found a penny at a Rite-Aid in NJ after the Bridal Shower when I went in to get some gift cards there.

Found a quarter at Weis on Wednesday when I went in for 2 items to finish my Mid Week Bonus.

Found This Week... .47¢
Found This Year...$20.03 

Woohoo!  Passed the $20 0f found change mark for the year!

That's about all I got for the week besides the usual stuff.

What frugal victories did you have this past week?  Let's hear all about them!

Sluggy

Rite-Aid & Walmart Scores Last Week/This Week

 Rite-Aid had a $10 off when you spend $50 in a transaction coupon last week.

Here is most of everything I brought home last week from R-A......

Missing is something that is a gift, 2 x12 packs of sodas, 2 bags of chips, 6 Tresemme shampoos, 1 Colgate toothbrush, 1 small box of tea bags, 2 x 6 packs of Irish Spring soap and a couple of Hallloween clearance items.

I used $231.65 in Bonus Cash and got $167 in new BC plus $9 in post coupons and $7.50 in Ibotta and a $10 visa prepaid card(Listerine), making all the above "cost" $38.15 in BC spent down.

I also hit up Walmart last weekend.........

Missing from this photo are a couple of drinks and a yogurt.

After using $50 in free gift card(Swag Bucks and Shop Kick)I spend $8.45 OOP.  I earned back $29.42 on Ibotta after gift cards/coupons/OOP making this a $20.97 moneymaker.

After that Walmart trip I was more than halfway to the big $10 Ibotta Bonus too.

So I bought all this(a Marie Callender's pie is in the cake keeper and 2 packs of Sargento cheese are not in the photo)Tuesday and Wednesday. 16 rebates at Walmart(the Pringles and Pop-Secret satisfied 2 separate rebates each)and the Kill Cliff drink and Perfect Bar on the far right in the photo at Weis(PMITA)Markets.

This all came to $51.19.  I used $50 from that hospital refund debit card and paid $1.19 OOP.  I earned $18.18 in regular rebates and $15 for the Midweek $5 Bonus and the $10 Turkey Day Bonus so $33.18 in rebates(not counting Fetch/Shop Kick,Swag Bucks) and $1.19 OOP.

Not a bad week+ of shopping without busting the budget. ;-)
And anything we don't use/need will go to others(Ex-College Boy or Food Bank mostly).

Sluggy

Less Stuff Frees Up Your Life

I just wanted to share this video......

Sluggy

November & Snow, Time for Another Giveaway!

Who's ready for the Tenth  Sluggy's Boring Blog Box Giveaway for 2021?!?

It's November and we are close to Thanksgiving and then Christmas....when did this happen? lol
We even got a dusting of snow already.

As I mentioned before November's box is all about girlie stuff.......make-up and other girly toiletries and chocolate!
Let's take a look at what is in the Giveaway Box this month........

1 x Yardley lavender soap

1 x Neutrogena oil-free make-up remover liquid

1 x Whole Blends shampoo

1 x Nivea body lotion

1 x Jergen's bronzer lotion

1 x Sally Hansen nail polish

1 x Wet n' Wild red nail polish

1 x Wet n' Wild glow in the dark nail polish

3 x Freeman face masks

1 x Neutrogena bar soap

1 x Biore witch hazel pore strips

2 x Almay eye shadow

1 x e.l.f. eye shadow brush

1 x Neutrogena HydroBoost face mask

1 x Cover Girl eyebrow pencils(black)

1 x Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips Blush

1 x Rimmel eyebrow pencil w/brush(brown)

1 x Rimmel Stay Glossy lip gloss

1 x Almay Goddess Gloss(Ethereal-blue)

1 x Conair Hairbrush

1 x Sally Hansen top coat nail polish

1 x Cover Girl mascara

1 x Revlon Youth FX Concealer

1 x Cover Girl Cheek Blush

1 x 5 Gum Pack(Avengers)

12 x Andes chocolates

11 x Lindt truffles

Close up shots of these goodies.....

Depending on where you shop, the winnings have a reg. retail value of approximately $70-$80+.

Here's how this is going to work.....

* The giveaway is open to ALL readers, previous winners or not.

* There is a limit of ONE ENTRY PER PERSON PER DAY.  Come back each day to enter again.

* Only VALID entries will be posted.  A Valid entry is a limit of one per day and I MUST HAVE VALID CONTACT INFORMATION FOR YOU(either you are on the Giveaway Contact List which I maintain, your comment is connected to a Google/Blogger profile which links to your email address or you email me directly(my email is in the side bar on the Blog)your email address.

IF YOU ENTER THE GIVEAWAY AND DON'T SEE YOUR COMMENT It's because I haven't gone online that day/evening or I don't have a way to contact you if you win.

From all the VALID entries I receive I'll pick a winner at random and the winner has 48 hours from when the post goes live to contact me with their full mailing address.

In your entries I'd like to hear about how you celebrate Thanksgiving, if you do.  Will you travel for it or not?  What's your favorite dish and what traditional foods did your parents serve for Turkey day when you were young?  Any favorite activities other than eating and napping on Thanksgiving?

If you are on my Giveaway emails list just leave a comment and your name(with last name initial please)to enter. If you aren't on the Giveaway emails list make sure you leave your email in your comment OR email me your email privately after you leave a comment(my email is in the side bar area under "About Me").
I'll leave this giveaway open until November 23rd, Tuesday at 11:59 pm Eastern  Daylight Savings Time. On November 25th, Friday, I'll draw the winning entry and post the Winner.

*Please note these rules*
I'll post the name/ID of the winners on this blog on  and those persons have 48 hours from the time stamp on that post to contact me privately via email(my email addy is listed on my "About Me" page, as well as on my side bar).

Disclaimer--This giveaway is open to those with mailing addresses within the US only.  As the cost of postage to foreign countries has gotten too high I am sorry to say I can no longer afford to mail boxes outside the US.  These giveaways are not sponsored by any companies.  I pay for it all(the cost of items given away and the postage to mail it all)out of my own pocket.

***PLEASE NOTE***

Please make sure there is a way for me to contact you in your comment.

If you're not a registered Blogger User with YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION on your User page, please put your email addy in your comment or email me your email addy privately when you leave a comment so I can get a hold of you. If your Blogger associated user profile is a GOOGLE one make sure your email info is linked to your profile.

So let's get this Giveaway started. Good luck to everyone!!!

Sluggy