Saturday, June 24, 2017

Grocery Shopping This Week.....Weis, Surplus Outlet & Bread Outlet

Here are the best deals this past grocery shopping week.

Since we were in that town to take Hubs out for Father's Day last weekend, we hit the  Amish owned Surplus Outlet.
You never know what you are going to find and what price you will find something at.  Most of the items are dented or damaged packaging and out of the "use by" dates so you have to check each item carefully. That being said, I have never had to throw anything I bought there out due to it being spoiled.
Here is what I picked up last week there.....


Ken's Greek and Caesar salad dressing for .20¢ a bottle.
Panko crumbs for .50¢ a box.
Stove Top for .50¢ a box.
Velveeta Skillet dinners for $1.19 a box.
Jiffy corn bread mix for 3/$1.

The Skillet dinners are for College Boy to take back to school.  As he will be in an apartment with a kitchen this is something he just needs to add ground beef to, to have something approaching a home cooked meal. lol


College Boy's favorite flavor of coffee for $1.99 bag.
Massive jar of Spanish olives for $2.49(ShopRite brand).
No Sugar Added Vlasic B&B pickles for $1.29 a jar.
Contadina pizza sauce for .39¢ a can.
Massive bag of raisin bran for $2.99(Malt O'Meal brand $2 cheaper than Walmart price).
I love those no sugar added sweet pickles but the only place around here I can get them is at a Weis South of here(where I don't go very often).....and NEVER for $1.29 a jar!(At least $2.19 a jar at that Weis on sale.)  Needless to say I bought all that no added sugar variety they had on the shelf. 8-)


Bottles of Heinz caramelized onion & bacon flavor Ketchup for .50¢
Sometimes you can find different flavors of staple items if they are new, change packaging or are not popular with the grocery shopping general public.
I'll probably end up shipping these off with College Boy back to school in August as this is something he will love.  8-)

I also got a 42 oz. bag of frozen Hanover brand cauliflower, 3 large Enchilda TV Dinners, milk, 67 oz. jar of Prego sauce, flour, 2 jars of mandarin oranges, Totinos pizza rolls, Mtn. Dew, Little Debbie cakes, crispy M&M's(previous 4 things for CB), large jar of mustard seeds, Hubs got 3 packs of gum, and the family bought assorted lunch meats and cheese(about 2 lb. total)for sandwiches.

$70.82 OOP for all.
Loosely figured reg. retail would have been $136.20.

Then I did a Weis(PMITA)Markets shop on Wednesday.......


T-Bone Steaks for $5.98 lb.
3 lbs. of Smoke Sausage $8-$3 off Instant Discount Sticker
2 packages of Beef Sausage on sale $2.50-$1/1 IPQ
2 packages of Scrapple $3.49-$2 off Instant Discount Stickers
1 fresh made Mashed Potatoes $2.99-$2 off Instant Discount Sticker
2 bags of 8 oz. shredded Mozz. Cheese on sale $1.77 each.


8 boxes of GM cereals on sale $1.97(must buy at least 3)- .50¢/1 IPQs for each box that doubled to $1 off=.97¢ per box.
Again the Lucky Charms will go back to college with CB.



I also found this clearance Deal on large boxes of Kleenex facial tissues with the lotion in them.
Reg. $2.79 for half price of $1.39.  I used a .75¢/3 IPQ that doubled to $1 so these were $1.06 each.
I'll go back Friday evening to pick up 3 or 6 more if there are any left as CB goes through these lotion ones in the Winter at a rapid clip.


I also picked up some boxes of dried pasta for .67¢ each.  A good stock-up price but I don't need that much as I already have a good quantity and we've been eating less pasta lately.  But I did need some for my killer Macaroni Salad as it is Summer now. ;-)
I picked up this Lysol bathroom cleaner for CB too, on sale and using a doubled Q it was $1.50.
The clear bottle is a Weis brand daily shower spray which was $1.67 on sale.  I'll park that in the kids' bathroom and see if I can get them to spritz the shower/tub after using it so the cleaning of said shower/tub isn't such a chore(which they have to do, not me).  8-)

Rounding out this trip was a bag of salad mix(50% off sticker plus used a .50¢/1 Weis Q so $1.24 OOP), a box of mini croissants for 50% off, 2 boxes of dog biscuits for 50% off on clearance and a watermelon on sale.


$61.84 OOP
$126.27 reg. retail and a savings rate of 51%.

I also hit the Bread/Bakery Outlet again this month as College Boy is on a grilled cheese binge and between CB, Hubs and Daughter making lunch time sandwiches, bread is disappearing at an alarming rate in the house!  $11 OOP spent on 5 packages of assorted types of rolls/buns, 4 loaves of bread and 2 boxes of chocolate donut holes.  All this would have cost me $40.80, or a bit less if on sale, at the grocery store so I am good with paying $11 or $1 per item at the Bread Outlet.
Have I ever mentioned how much I "heart" my Bread Outlet? 8-)))

So with my Rite-Aid trip this is all the grocery/drug store/outlet shopping that's gone on around Chez Sluggy.
Almost at month's end and I've busted my $260 food budget.  Still under $400 though so it's all good.

Sluggy


Friday, June 23, 2017

Rite-Aid Shopping This Week

Had to drop by Rite-Aid on Wednesday to order an Rx refill so I did a little shopping while I was in the store.

I read online that there are lots of clearance items in the pet department at Rite-Aid right now so I printed off a couple of Qs and headed up...........


2 x Purina Beneful dog food 3.5 lb. bags clearance($2.12)=$4.24
4 x Snickers candy bars BOGO=$2.30
1 x Friskies cat food can clearance=.24¢
2 x Crystal Water case of H2O bottles sale=$5.00 *not pictured*
SubTotal........$11.78

Coupons Used
2 x $3/1 Beneful dog food(any size)IPQ(coupons dotcom)=$6.00
2 x .75¢/2 Snickers candy bars IPQ(NLA)=$1.50
Coupon Total.....$7.50

$11.78-$7.50=$4.28 OOP



I used Plenti Points to pay and earned back $1 in new PPs($1 wyb2 Crystal Water).
After PPs earned the water was $2 per case.
The candy bars were .20¢ each after Qs, the dog food purchase gave me $1.76 in overage for the $6 in Qs used on it, to apply to the other items.

I look at it this way, I spent $0 on everything but the cases of water and I "spent" $3.28 on those. That price is well below what I can find this item for at the grocery stores so even though I "spent down" my PPs, I saved $ by not buying the water at the grocery stores.  lolz

I'll probably go back before this sale ends on Saturday evening for more water as we were almost out.
Now I just need to keep College Boy from drinking all the bottled water so I can use it for my BiPAP machine.  ;-)

Sluggy

Thursday, June 22, 2017

June Giveaway Winner!

59 Valid entries were received(out of 68 entries)for this giveaway.  Again I had to disqualify 9 entries because they did not include their email in their entry comment, they didn't email me privately their email information OR their online Google presence/account linked to them didn't contain contact info.
This makes me sad for them but again.....if I can't contact you, you can't win!

Back to the business at hand--
I numbered the valid entries and used Random dotorg to pick the winner.

And the Winner is...............

Valid Entry #10--Coleen!

Some of the items would make great stocking stuffers.....
Coleen
accrisanti at yahoo dot com

Congratulations Coleen!!
You now have 48 hours to contact me via email from the email you used to enter Coleen.  Please included your full name and mailing address so I can get this box out to you asap.

If I don't hear back from you within two days from the time stamp when this post goes live, then I'll have to pick another winner.

Thank you to everyone who entered!
Like I said before, I'll be taking a break from doing Giveaways on the Blog until the Fall now.  So much financially up in the air for us at the moment with the retirement in 8 DAYS!!! and lots of traveling happening soon so we'll step away, regroup and consider where to take Giveaways in a couple of months.

Sluggy

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Last Day to Enter the Giveaway!

Today is the last day to enter my current Giveaway so get your last entry in before 11:59 pm EDST.


Don't leave an entry on this post, go HERE to enter.

This will be the last giveaway for awhile(maybe forever), at least until October I am thinking.

Sluggy

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

2016 Road Trip.....Day 18 & Day 19 AL, to GA to SC, Rinse & Repeat then NC

After a leisurely breakfast we packed the car up and hit the road East out of Alabama........


We got a little east of Oxford Alabama and saw a homemade billboard from the interstate for what looked to be an interesting place.  We weren't in a rush that day so we said, "What the heck!" and took a little detour.........


To the Dixie General Store.

This is an interesting little shop full of all things Dixie and Southern related--t-shirts, flags, hats, belt buckles, blankets, etc.

Bob, the gentleman who runs this operation knows his American history and we had a nice long chat with a fellow Southerner who loves his piece of our country.
Be sure and take the time to stop in if you are passing through this part of Alabama and check out his wares.  Bob is super nice and personable.  Tell me I sent ya! ;-)


And we bought a few things too. ;-)

Bob has an online presence as well here for all your SouthermConfederate needs-- Dixie General Store

Fairly soon after getting back on the interstate we were crossing over into Georgia.


And an hour later we hit Atlanta.......


Luckily we got through there before rush hour hit.


We did see the torch/flame where Olympic Park is(and where the 1996 Summer Olympics were held)from the highway as we passed by.....


We made a quick stop off the interstate in Conyers, Georgia to stretch our legs when Hubs saw a billboard advertising a liquor store. lolz
I went in but left to sit in the car as I had no shopping to do here(really? how much liquor can one person buy?!? lolz).
Next door was this food place with Louisiana cuisine.....in metro Georgia.


I went in but they were out of what I was going to buy so I got Hubs some Bread Pudding with a Whiskey Sauce to eat later that evening back at our next motel.

We stopped in Augusta for the night at a Comfort Suites.
After Hubs checked in he came out to the car for me and the luggage and hands me some tokens.
Evidently this particular motel has a manager's reception between 5-8pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays were they give you two free alcoholic drinks each.
And lucky for us, it was a Wednesday!

Not only drinks but they give you dinner too!  I sure wish I had known that before we checked in because we had already made arrangements to meet some online friends for dinner near their home.
Darn it!  Hubs was about near tears that he had to miss a lasagna dinner........

So we hit the road across the border into South Carolina down windy back roads.
Oh look!  A turkey vulture.  Was this an omen?


We finally arrived in the little out of the way town that blogger Java Jones and her husband Superman live in.
We met at a local to them brew pub called "The Mill House Pizza".


Good Times Brewing happens here and we partook of a few different beers.
I hadn't seen Java in person since the 2nd Bloggerpalooza back in March 2014 and I had never met her DH since he didn't attend that Blggerpalooza.

Hubs and I ordered and shared a pizza........


We didn't realize it was really really small or we would have each ordered one for ourselves. lolz

The hours just flew by as we caught up on each others' lives and bonded.  Before I knew it, it was after 9 pm and we had to hit the road back to the hotel.


Superman, Java and Sluggy


Across the street in the parking lot I saw two Giraffe statues.  Too bad it was so dark and the shot didn't come out very well.....

We stopped before leaving the town for gas and I was STARVING!  I grabbed a pre-made sandwich at the gas station convenience store to eat on the ride back to Augusta, GA.
The ride home was a bit spooky on those back roads, this time in the dark, but we finally made it back to the hotel, sleepy and tired.

After the free breakfast on Thursday morning we hit the road for our next stop.
Across the Savannah River on a gray and gloomy day........


And we were back in South Carolina, again!


We passed a small town with many orchards...........


More rain.

A big flag at the Camping World store outside of Spartanburg, SC.


Log Home Builder along the highway in SC.



Oh look!  Kudzu......

And more Kudzu........


After almost 3 hours we finally hit the North Carolina border.


Headed into the mountainous Western part of NC and the foggy mist descended.......


Oh look!  I found the way to the Bat Cave.....lol
Yes, it's a real town in NC.


Then it was off I-26 onto I-40 toward Maggie Valley....


Then more fog and mist and gray skies as we head West on the Great Smokey Mountains Expressway......


Into the town of Cherokee NC on the Eastern Cherokee Reservation.


And yes, they have a casino here now and no Sonya Ann, we didn't go in there. lolz

Now go bug her to start writing again on her blog and tell her I sent ya!


More of the adventures for Day 19 later........

Sluggy