It's Not Snowing Here

We'll it's been a long two days getting down here to "The Land of Buffet Restaurants".

Here is my lunch plate from yesterday.

I sent my sister in law this shot to make her jealous and she said to bring her a to-go plate when we came back to her house.

There is a stretch of highway running through most of North Carolina into South Carolina with Buffets of all sorts advertised....soul food, barbecue, country cooking, Chinese, pizza and seafood all-you--care-to-eat restaurants.

We finally rolled into the beach city for our 3 day stay before the sun set on Monday and we are beat.
I don't plan on leaving my  maroom/balcony/beach except to find food for the next two days.

I may or may not blog for a bit while I decompress by napping, reading and drinking.
Back when I feel like it....😎

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Iridescent Eating" Edition.........

Found this flatware set in a Walmart.  Should have bought this a week ago and I would have been all set for Mardi Gras.😁   It's fun but I'd probably go blind if I had to use this every meal.

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

This is what was planned--

1. Sunday--Pork Chops, Green Beans, Mushroom Risotto 

2. Monday--Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches

3. Tuesday--Taco Chicken Casserole, a Veggie TBD

4. Wednesday--Corned Beef, Cabbage, Carrots, Taters

5. Thursday--Leftovers

6. Friday--Chicken Strips, Mac and Cheese, Tossed Salad
7. Saturday--Leftovers

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Pork Chops, Green Beans, Mushroom Risotto 

2. Monday--Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches

3. Tuesday--Chicken Strips, Mac and Cheese, Roasted Brussels Sprouts

4. Wednesday--Corned Beef, Cabbage, Carrots

5. Thursday--Grilled Brats w/Onions, Green Beans

6. Friday--Leftovers(I had leftover green beans and leftover mac and cheese)
7. Saturday--Leftovers(I had a salad and cheese and crackers)

Last week saw 5 nights of home cooked dinners, 2 nights of leftovers/fend for yourself, 0 nights of Eating Out/Take-Out.
4 of the 5 planned dinners happened.  I had some defrosted brats that needing cooking so the taco chicken casserole will wait for another week.

What got put into the freezer last week.....
*  1.4 lbs raw Shrimp(meat discount sticker deal at Weis)
* More pints of ice cream(hehehe)
* 3 packs of turkey breast
* JD b'fast sammies
* 3 Voila! dinner kits

What got taken out of the freezer and used last week.......
* 2 packs of panko-ed pork tenderloins
* 2 smallish corned beef briskets
* 1.5 bags of breaded chicken tenders
* 1 bag of Brussels sprouts
* 1 bag of green beans
* 4 pork chops
* 1 pack of Brats

 Lots and lots of little grocery trips..... smallish trips to Weis brought the weekly food spending to $95.52 and brought the March monthly grand total to $162.22.

My savings percentage last week was 56.01%(without Rite-Aid trips)and March's monthly savings total comes to 52.71%(w/out R-A).  

I have 20 more spending days in the month.

Leftovers going into this week....1 helping of pork chop, green beans and risotto, corned beef, cabbage, carrots, 1 brat.

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

1. Sunday--Eating Out

2. Monday--Eating Out

3. Tuesday--Maybe cooking 

4. Wednesday--Maybe cooking

5. Thursday--Maybe cooking

6. Friday--Maybe cooking
7. Saturday--Maybe cooking

This week will see ? new meals cooked, ? nights of leftovers/FFY, and ? nights of Take-Out/Eating Out.
The Daughter had a list of meal options printed out for her and EX-CB for the next 10 days on Saturday and had made a huge pot of chili already.  I'll check in with her after the week is over and see what they had.

What needs buying for this menu? Not much really, milk and I think she said she was going to buy Rye bread and Swiss cheese.

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  

Friday Shopping Weis & Rite-Aid

I went to Weis(PMITA)Markets yesterday to get the Friday Freebie and ended up with all this(plus a few other things too)............

1 x Weis bag of veggies=$1.97
3 x Bird's Eye Voila! meals chicken and shrimp ones on sale Friday only=$8.97
2 x Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches on sale=$9.00
3 x Shady Brook Farms turkey breast slices=$20.85
SubTotal.........$40.79

Coupons Used
1 x Weis FRIDAY FREEBIE=$1.97
3 x Birds Eye Voila! PeelieQs which doubled to $1 each=$3.00
2 x .75¢/1 Jimmy Dean Bfast sandwiches IPQ which doubled to $1.50 each=$3.00
3 x $3/1 Instant Meat stickers=$9.00
3 x $1.50/1 Shady Brook Farms item(excludes ground turkey)=$4.50
Coupon Total....$21.47

$40.79-$21.47=$19.32 OOP

I also picked up some fresh produce and 90% ground beef on special for the kids and a bottle of tea(which I'll be getting for free since it rang up incorrectly but I need to get to the store to take care of that).
Everything I bought came to $36.24.

The bag of Veggies were free so a no-brainer buying that.
The Bird's Eye Voila! meals were $1.99 each after sale/Qs.
The JD b'fast sammies were $3 a box of 4 or .75¢ each sammie after sale/Qs(and were something EX-CB had requested).
The turkey breast packs were $7.35 total.  Together they came to 3.48 lbs. so $2.11 per lb.

I also went up to Rite-Aid(again!)on Friday and bought this...........

7 x Great Grains cereals on sale $2.50 wyb at least 2=$17.50 paid for with Bonus Cash.
I had a card with BC I wanted to use up.
Every $8 worth of this cereal purchased gave me back $3 in new BC, so I earned $6 BC.
I also applied for .50¢ Ibotta rebates for each box(you can do up to 5 rebates per flavor of cereal)so I got $3.50 back in cash as well.
After BC and cash back these cereals cost me $8 or $1.14+ per box.  A really good price for one of the better quality cereals(not kiddie stuff).
I believe this R-A cereal deal is a month long one(a Limit of 4 Deals)as my receipt doesn't show I maxed out this deal after 2 Deals.
It would have been an even better deal if there were Post Great Grains Qs out there somewhere to use on this but hey!, $1.14+ a box is still a good deal if you eat this stuff.

I also bought 5 more Fig Newton packs..........

With Gold Wellness discount they are .63¢ per pack so $3.15 paid for with BC.
Checkout51 has that .75¢ Fig Newton rebate again this week until Wednesday(limit of 5)so I got $3.75 back in cash rebates there.
Also SavingStar has a .75¢ Fig Newton rebate(limit of 1)now so I spent $3.15 in Bonus Cash and earned back $4.50 in cash rebates, making these a $1.35 moneymaker. 8-)))

Now I've got to get some things/errands done today so we can take this road trip to South Carolina and North Carolina and Virginia.

Last chance to let me know if you live in those states if you want to meet up with Hubs and me.  Just email me and we can set something up.
Would love to meet some readers!!

So what's going on this weekend for you?

Sluggy

Why I Buy Stuff on Wellness Wednesday

Because someone asked........

I buy the stuff on Wellness Wednesday because the paper WWQs and the L2C WWQs stack....meaning if widget A is $3 off with the paper WWQ you also get another $3 off if you load the L2CQ to your card's account.  This doubles the Q discount you receive on widget A.

Now if widget A is also on sale that week OR your account has the Gold Wellness Discount(meaning you get an instant 20% the reg. retail price-if the sale price that week is less)that's an even better deal.

And the colliding of all the goodness in the Universe will happen if you can also find a Manufacture's coupon(any kind-IPQ, ManuQ from the Sunday inserts or a magazine, Hangtag Qs, Peelie Qs or a Q the manufacturer sends you directly in the mail)to stack with the double R-A Qs and a sale price/20% Wellness discount.
The much beloved triple stack deal.  ;-)

So I'll reconnoiter at my R-A store a few days before WW when the paper WWQ info is leaked and the L2C WWQs appear in my account.....to see the reg.shelf prices on the items w/WWQs for that one day of WW.

I then figure out how much they will cost w/my 20% Wellness discount.

For example, the R-A brand women's bladder pads are $11.79 at my store(my store is usually a bit higher than some R-As).
With the 20% Wellness discount they were $9.43 per pack.
With 2 x WWQs(a paper one and a L2C digital one)for $5/1 so that's a $10 discount.
This made them free after 20% discount and stacked Qs and gave me .57¢ overage in the transaction to apply to something else I bought.
As long as you can use or pass the item along to someone who can use it, it's common sense to get any item on WW that is free or gives overage.

In this transaction the foot spray, Daylogic shampoo, Tena pads, R-A bladder pads, the Werther's candy, the Emergen-C(only because it also had a $2 RA discountQ attached to it too), the Zen balm, the R-A throat lozenges, the Centrum and the R-A eye drops all gave overage because the amount of the Qs for each item was greater than the cost of the item.

This meant all that overage could be applied to the Aspercreme and the Ensure drinks which were .19¢ and $3.47 respectively after sale and Qs(the Ensure L2CQ didn't work but it gave $3 back in new BC so still worth paying for). 

Still having overage after covering those 2 items I bought all that L'Oreal shampoo and conditioner, used the rest of the overage and L'Oreal Qs and some BC to cover it and earned back $10 in new BC for the 'poos/conditioners plus a $2.50 Catalina Q.

It's great to use overage on items giving it to buy other things you need but always have a plan for the thing you got free w/overage is my motto.

Everything but the bladder pads will be used here, given to family or go into potential Giveaways on the blog. 
The bladder pads will also be used..........given to the local food bank(they have a toiletry/paper products/HBA/laundry detergent area)and they will be thrilled to receive them for someone who can't afford to buy them.

Sluggy

Frugal Friday......the March 8th Edition

Let's see what frugal stuff went on this past week at Chez Sluggy.............

*  Almost free cereal x 2.....

This is the second batch of cereal I got this week.  None of these rang up the wrong price so I paid $8.70 then got $5.25(.25¢ was a bonus for buying MOM in 2 trips)back on Ibotta so $3.45 for all 5 bags OOP.  The first batch of 5 bags cost me $3.06 due to 2 bags ringing up reg. price/incorrectly(the first batch also had 1 bag which was larger/cost more).

*  Found change at 2 Rite-Aids...........

A penny at two different Rite-Aids this past week.

* I got my Friday Freebie at Weis last Friday......

Of course it was almost Lent and there is a large population of Polish descent Catholics in my town so pierogi was a VERY popular freebie.  I do believe this was the freebie sometime during Lent last year too.  ;-)

*  Free samples at Rite-Aid............

 I found these Hydralyte samples with $1 off Qs at a Rite-Aid I went in.

These Ricola immunity drops were on the Wellness table at my Rite-Aid on Wednesday.

*  Wellness Wednesday Haul.......

The WW haul update-This last photo of the transaction on my son's card "cost" me $1.18 in Bonus Cash.  I earned back $6 in new BC($1 Russell Stover eggs, $3 wyb Max Ensure, $3 wyb2 Ziplocs).
Grand Total "spent" in BC/gift card on Wednesday for everything brought home-$28.61.
Grand Total "earned" in BC/Ibotta on Wednesday for everything-$44.25.  I grew my Bonus Cash by $16.54 on Wellness Wednesday.
8-)

*  Almost free grocery shop at Weis on Tuesday...........

After Qs and overage my OOP was .85¢.
Sweet. 8-)))

* Found change at Weis too.........

Another penny over by the CS desk.

Besides money I also found this last Saturday at Weis(PMITA)Markets.........

A Visa card.  It was half tucked under the magazine rack across from the last check-out register.  I turned it into the Customer Service Desk and no, I didn't buy a cart full of groceries with it first. lolz

*  A Free dog food coupon

This free bag of Purina dog food Q finally showed up in the mail.

* I received $14.60 since last Friday in Ibotta rebates.  I am up to a total of  $75.20 in Ibotta rebates for 2019 so far.

*  We almost had a frugal misstep this past week.  Hubs and I went to Bob Evan's for lunch on Tuesday.  I gave Hubs the $5 wyspend $25 Q to apply to the bill and he went to pay.
He takes his cc receipt and we start to go to the car.  Of course, he didn't actually LOOK at the receipt and the cashier hadn't applied the $5 off, but I, of course, caught it and hauled him back in.

It took the hostess/cashier, the manager(he was new)and a long time employee who we had to wait to come out of the ladies' room to fix it.  20 MINUTES later and they had cancelled the first c/c receipt and reran the charge through w/the $5 discount.
Seriously?  20 minutes and the lady waiting behind Hubs' to pay her bill was none too pleased either.
I guess I need to take care of "complicated" transactions like this from now on? lolz

What Frugaliciousness did you experience this past week?

Anything good??

Let us hear all about it!


Sluggy