Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

 Hope your turkey was juicy and your pie yummy!

Sluggy

November Giveaway Winner

40 valid comments for this quick November Giveaway.
Random Generator picked the winner, and that person is..........

MARTHA

1. MarthaNovember 18, 2021 at 10:38 AM
   staying home enjoying the turkey!
   thanks
   martha
2. Congratulations Martha!  Please email me within the next 48 hours from when this post goes live with your full name and mailing address so I can get this out in the mail to you.
3. Thanks to everyone who played along and December's Giveaway will be coming up early next month so stay tuned. 8-)
4. Sluggy

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