Menu Plan Monday 10/14/24

Yesterday was a full day of cooking, but I'm glad I got everything done. It's so nice to be able to just heat dinner for the rest of the week. Here's what we're eating this week.

Monday : Sheet pan chicken & veggies with brown rice

Tuesday : Spaghetti & meatballs, salad and garlic naan bread

Wednesday : Same as Monday

Thursday : Same as Tuesday

Friday : Undecided. 

Saturday : Red Robin (DS)

Breakfasts :  Bran apple muffins, bacon, breakfast sausage, eggs or omelets, toast, chocolate brioche or raisin bread french toast, bagels, cereal, muesli

Lunch : Leftovers or protein from freezer with salad 

Dessert : Still no dessert and we don't mind

There's always fresh salad fixings and a variety of fresh fruit & veg available. 

I also made smokies sausage rolls for DS for lunch. 

I'll probably make meatloaf subs on Friday. The spaghetti & meatballs turned out to be a big batch, so I froze half. 

I love the mini garlic naan. I absolutely love garlic bread, but with the naan I can just pull one or two from the freezer whenever we want some. I don't have to bake a whole garlic loaf and then eat it all week long. 

I hope everyone stays safe & warm. Prayers for all those affected by the hurricanes/storms. 

Bon Appetit peeps!

Wags Fun!

How much candy is too much? Wags has a great deal on select candy bags this week. They are 2/$4. To sweeten the deal, there are RRs available (CATs at the grocery store).

Buy 3 receive $2.00 RR

Buy 4-5 receive $3.00 RR

Buy 6 or more receive $4.00 RR

You can also receive $5.00 RR WYS $20 on candy. This is a store Q, so this is a double dip deal. Here's what it would look like:

10 x candy $20.00 - OOP cost

Earn $4 + $5 RR = $9.00. 

This makes the candy $1.10 per bag after rewards. I didn't do it this way, because I had booster scenarios. You can just do the exact transaction as my 2nd one to take advantage of the booster deal and still score cheap candy. DO NOT pay with WC. You can use RRs on this transaction if you have any. 

I had good digital boosters on both accounts and RRs to roll, so here's what I did:

Trans 1

2 x Dove conditioner $8.00

2 x Oral b flossers 8.00

1 x Venus disposable razors 3.79

6 x candy 12.00

Less Dove DQ (4.00)

Less Venus DQ (3.00)

Less RRs (15.00)

Tax 1.19

OOP $10.98

Earned $7 WC (WYS $30) + $10 RR ($4 Candy, $3 Dove, $3 Oral B)

Total earned $17.00

Ugh, that $4 RR beeped AGAIN. I just bet I took back the scanned RR from my last trip. The other RRs were printed too faintly (CAT machine was low on ink) and wouldn't scan either, so the shift lead came over and manually entered all RRs. 

Another ugh & totally my fault. I had a different scenario planned. I was gonna buy 1 Crest t/p & 1 Oral B t/b and use $3 DQs. Then I remembered that we need flossers and saw that it was part of the weekly deal. However, I forgot to clip the DQ on this account. Totally my own fault, but no biggie. 

Trans 2

2 x Dove conditioner $8.00

2 x Oral b flossers 8.00

1 x Venus disposable razors 3.79

6 x candy 12.00

Less Dove DQ (4.00)

Less Venus DQ (3.00)

Less Oral b DQ (2.00)

Tax 1.19

OOP $23.98

Earned $6 WC (WYS $30) + $10 RR ($4 Candy, $3 Dove, $3 Oral B)

Total earned $16.00

I did the same transaction twice. However, my booster rewards were different on each account. 

I also received 2 x $7 WYS $35 paper booster Qs. I could've used one on my 2nd transaction, but I knew that I wouldn't earn another one. Besides, I'm planning on double dipping with my $10 WYS $40 DQ boosters next week. That's $17 free money. TMTMM! 😊 I sorta kinda already have a transaction worked out. It depends on what Qs are available next week. 

Breakdown

Number of items purchased: 22

Total Qs used : $16.00

Total Rewards used : $15.00

Total Rewards earned (RR, WC, Ibotta, Fetch): $80.70 (pending Ibotta) : $33.00

Total OOP : $34.96 ($1.60 per item - this includes sales tax)

Total Retail value : $96.58 (excl tax)

DS already took the candy to school, so that's one less thing to think about. 

Happy shopping peeps!

Menu Plan Tuesday

I might be late with my menu plan, but I'm not late with the cooking 😊 Mondays are always busy and I do the bulk of my cooking on Sundays, so there's no time to write a post. Here's what we're eating this week:

Monday : Meatloaf, baked potatoes, veg

Tuesday : Pesto chicken casserole, brown rice, veg

Wednesday : Same as Monday

Thursday : Same as Tuesday

Friday : Undecided. 

Saturday : Red Robin (DS)

Breakfasts :  Carrot ginger muffins, bacon, eggs or omelets, toast, chocolate brioche or raisin bread french toast, cereal, muesli

Lunch : Leftovers or protein from freezer with salad 

Dessert : I haven't made any dessert in ages and we don't even miss it.

There's always fresh salad fixings and a variety of fresh fruit & veg available. 

I also made a dozen chicken sausage rolls for DS for lunch. 

I cooked taco meat and refried beans and made burritos for the freezer. Being sick recently made me realise that I need to keep some extra prepared meals in the freezer so that I don't have to worry about cooking if I'm sick or busy. 

When I got home from shopping yesterday, I cooked the 2 lbs bacon I bought and froze most of it. DS doesn't like bacon and there's no way I'll even eat half of that now.  I always cook it immediately and freeze for whenever I want some for breakfast or a sandwich. I'm a 'cook once, eat many times' kinda girl. 

I really can't think of what to eat on Friday. DS just wants fast food on weekends. 

Have a wonderful evening peeps!

Whoomp there it is!

The port strike! Remember my previous post where I mentioned that my gut's telling me to stock up? Well, it looks like my gut was right again. The funny thing is that someone in my coupon group actually said the same thing yesterday 'it's time to stock up before the prices increase'. There I was, ahead of the game again 😊

Yesterday I hit 6 stores in just under 2½ hours. At Sams I decided to get another pack of Members Mark (their store brand) t/p. I usually buy a spare pack when I open the last one (I've done this for years before the pandemic, cause I don't like to run out of things). Well, guess who was out of t/p. As in all brands. I somehow expected this. They only had a few packs of Charmin t/p, so I grabbed one. I didn't really need it (I bought a MM pack 2-3 weeks ago), but I figured it's best to be prepared, just in case. I see that their t/p is now only available online and shipping is a whopping $8.23. I'm glad I grabbed that extra pack. I also got the last p/t pack (I actually needed this). I saw people stocking up on cases of bottled water too. I'm still scratching my head at that one, cause water comes from the tap/faucet. I use a filter & only buy bottled water for DS. We've had reusable bottles leak in our bags before, so he gets bottled water. 

I was on a shopping roll, cause I had a Wags plan. Well now, we all know how that usually works out. Here's what I did. 

Trans 1

3 x OS b/w $21.00

2 x Dove shampoo/conditioner 8.00

2 x Crest t/p 10.00

3 x Dawn 2.97.

Less OS DQ (5.00)

Less Dove DQ (5.00)

Less Crest DQ (3.00)

Less RRs (9.00)

Tax 2.52

OOP $21.49

Earned $7 WC (WYS $35) + $11 RR ($5 OS, $3 Dove, $3 Crest) + $6.70 Ibotta ($4 Crest, $2, OS, $0.50 Crest bonus, $0.20 any receipt)

Total earned : $24.70

Well, things didn't go as smoothly as it should have. This is Wags after all. I get to checkout and there's 1 person at the register doing some healthcare return. So we wait & wait & wait and this line's getting longer. A manager was called and they still couldn't figure this thing out. So another register was opened. I had 3 RRs ($5, $4, $3 - this is why I added the Dawn so it could attach to the RRs. Wags is tricky like that). So she scans the $5 RR, then scans the $4 RR twice. No, no, no. So she's checking to see what already deducted and I told her that I'll give her another $4 RR (I had the exact same RRs for my 2nd transaction - I told y'all I had a plan 😂), cause I knew they'd be $1 short when they cash out and nobody would be able to figure out why. So she tried scanning that $4 RR too 🤦 Somebody help me! 😂 I explained that she already scanned the correct amount and to not try scanning it again. Then she hit total and the register rejected on of the $4 RRs. Ugh! So I told her to just hand one back and I'll pay for my items. This was my first stop and I still had 5 stores to hit, so I didn't want to waste any more time.  Sigh. I think I might've taken back the $4 one she scanned and I hope it doesn't get rejected when I try to use it, cause I don't know if it has different bar codes.Sigh. 

The good news is that I received a $7/35 paper booster. Yay. I knew I could double dip on my 2nd transaction.

So I went to a different Wags, because they don't have enough Captain b/w to do multiple transactions at one store. 

Trans 2

3 x OS b/w $21.00

2 x Dove shampoo 8.00

2 x Crest t/p 10.00

3 x Dawn 2.97.

Less OS DQ (5.00)

Less Dove DQ (5.00)

Less Crest DQ (3.00)

Less RRs (11.00)

Tax 2.52

OOP $19.49

Earned $14 WC (WYS $35 Paper & Digital double dip) + $11 RR ($5 OS, $3 Dove, $3 Crest) 

Total earned : $25.00

Wait a minute. Where's my RRs. Nothing printed, so I had them call a manager to add $11 points to my account. I'm not upset about this, because I don't have to worry about RRs expiring in 2 weeks. Points are good for a whole year, so this was actually a blessing in disguise.

I'm waiting to see if the Crest & O/S will reset on Ibotta. If it does, then I'll earn another $6. I'll also earn an additional $5 Ibotta mid week bonus (I just noticed this today), so I'm keeping fingers crossed. 

Even better. There's a $15 P&G rebate available on Crest & OS, so I'll add one of last week's receipts and submit for my rebates and points. I should also get another $5 P&G gc for scanning my receipts. 

So, this whole trip will be a huge MM.

OOP : $40.98

Total earned : $73.70 (RR, WC, Ibotta, P&G)

Profit of $33.72 for 20 items. My guys are swimming in OS and I couldn't be happier with getting paid to shop 😊

Breakdown:

Number of items purchased: 20

Total Qs used : $26

Total Rewards used : $20.00

Total Rewards earned (RR, WC, Ibotta, Fetch): $80.70 (pending Ibotta) : $73.70

Total OOP : $40.98 ($2.05 per item - this includes sales tax)

Total Retail value : $99.80 (excl tax)

The Dove & Crest are FREE after rewards & DQs this week. I opted for the bigger Crest, because it's still free after Ibotta. Actually, it's a small MM with the bonus. Why buy the small tubes when you can get the bigger ones for free too?

Happy shopping peeps!

Best Laid Plans

Hi everyone

Well, I had these grand plans to get blogging regularly again and then ended up sick last Monday. I initially thought it was the flu, but by Wednesday I told BF I'm convinced I have Covid again. All I did was sleep last week. I wasn't happy. I was so sick that I let my RRs and EBs - all $28 of it expire. By Friday, I finally dragged myself to the store, because we were out of bread and some produce items. Saturday was a good day, but by Sunday I needed sleep again. I'm finally back to normal, but I'm now playing catch up. I'm so far behind.

I had another $10 RR expiring this week, so I took a trip to Wags. 

Here's what I got 

Trans 1

3 x Maybelline Baby Lips B2G1F $10.98

2 x Colgate t/p 9.00

2 x Garnier shampoo 8.00

2 x Tresemme 12.00

1 x Dawn 1.29

Less Maybelline DQ (6.00)

Less Colgate DQ (2.00)

Less Garnier DQ (3.00)

Less Tresemme DQ (5.00)

Less RRs (10.00)

Tax 2.48

OOP $17.75

Earned $12 RR ($5 Tresemme, $4 Colgate, $3 Garnier)

Wait a minute! Where's my $15 WC ($10 WYS $40, $5 WYB 2 Maybelline)? Ugh! I have to wait until I get home to check my account. I did earn $7 WYS $35 Booster, so I decided to stack it with my Digital booster in my 2nd transaction

Trans 2

3 x Maybelline Baby Lips B2G1F $10.98

2 x Colgate t/p 9.00

2 x Garnier shampoo 8.00

2 x Tresemme 12.00

1 x Dawn 1.29

Less Maybelline DQ (6.00)

Less Colgate DQ (2.00)

Less Garnier DQ (3.00)

Less Tresemme DQ (5.00)

Tax 2.48

OOP $27.75

Earned $7 WC (WYS $35) + $12 RR ($5 Tresemme, $4 Colgate, $3 Garnier)

Ugh!!! The receipt only printed my opening balance, so I can't see what I earned. I tried the app, but it kept shutting down, so again I have to wait until I get home. 

When I finally checked my account, I saw that my digital boosters were for Spend $45 not $40! 🤦This was my own darn mistake! I especially added the Dawn to get my total to $40 😂

I actually added everything to my cart online and it showed my $10 WC earnings, but I had 3 Crest ($15) instead of Colgate in that order. I didn't want to spend too much OOP, so I switched to Colgate and ended up messing things up myself. Phew, Wags get a pass this time 😂 I know what happened. Everyone in my coupon group talked about their spend $40 boosters and posted scenarios, so I thought mine was for $40 too. The Q itself only displays $10, but you have to click on the Q to see the spend total. Sigh. Lesson learned.

I contacted CS about the Maybelline deal, but they said it's an online deal only. WTH Wags! How do you offer a deal and not state that it's online only? 😡 I love the Baby lips, so I'm not too upset about getting it at such a low price. That $10 reward would've been nice though.

Breakdown:

Number of items purchased: 20

Total Qs used : $32

Total Rewards used : $10.00

Total Rewards earned (RR, WC, Ibotta, Fetch): $31 (I haven't scanned my receipts yet)

Total OOP : $45.50 ($2.27 per item - this includes sales tax)

Total Retail value : $103.40 (excl tax)

Definitely not my best work, but I'm happy to be stocking up again. My gut is still telling me to keep this stockpiling thing going, so that's what I'm doing. 

Have a wonderful weekend peeps!

I'm back!

Hi everyone!

I can't believe that summer went by so fast. Heck, I can't believe this year has gone by so fast. Only 3 months to Christmas and I'm so far behind. Thus far, I only have one gift purchased each for BF & DS.

I haven't done much drugstore shopping in a while, but a few weeks ago I got the gut feeling that I need to get back to taking advantage of the deals. It's not like we're low on or out of any HBA. We have plenty, but I have this nagging feeling that I need to stock up again. I don't know why. I don't know if it has anything to do with all RA stores closing in our state. CVS hardly has good deals, so Wags is the only drugstore with great stock up deals and no limits. Well, I 've noticed that most of their deals are on repeat lately and sometimes there are very slow weeks. Uh oh. I told BF that I don't want to shop because it's more things for me to move with, but I know enough to trust my gut. So off to Wags I went this week to do a small deal. 

Tresemme is Buy 2 get $5 RR

Trans 1

2 x Tresemme $12.00

Less DQ (5.00)

Less WC (5.00)

Tax 0.72

OOP $2.72

Earned $5 RR

Trans 2

 x Tresemme $12.00

Less DQ (5.00)

Less WC (4.00)

Tax 0.72

OOP $3.72

Earned $5 RR

I only had $4 WC available on this account, so that's what I used. I still have plenty rewards on my other account that I've slowly been spending down. $1 + tax (after rewards) for a bottle of Tresemme works for me. 

I've noticed lots of changes at various stores. My Target no longer carries the Old Spice Captain b/w, so I used some rewards last week to purchase some at Wags, cause that's our favorite fragrance. 

Dove has changed the formula of the Antibacterial b/w (my favorite). I learned this the hard way after I bought some the last time. I was out of b/w so I just grabbed one of the new bottles I purchased and headed to the shower, instead of having to get one out of my storage containers. I hated the new scent. I don't like floral or musky fragrances. This one smelled like sweet flowers and I ended up throwing out the entire bottle. I'm so glad I have lots that I purchased throughout the year, so I'm good for a while. I like their Sensitive one too and I'm hoping that they didn't change that one too. 

Walmart is no longer the cheapest grocery store. Their grocery prices are through the roof. I normally shop at Sams, then fill in the gaps at the grocery stores since they always have different items on sale every week. Walmart offers zero sale items, so their prices tend to be higher lately. I cherry pick at Aldi. I never could have imagined Sams becoming my go-to store, but it works out better for us, price wise. 

I'm definitely going to try to post more now that summer is over. 

Have a wonderful weekend peeps!

When 'Method to my Madness' pays off

As mentioned before, I've been downsizing my Ebay inventory so I can move. This a huge task. I'm already on my 2nd box of 90ct Sams trash bags that I've used to pack and donate the old inventory. I drop off at least 10-12 bags per week at the donation bins. 

Well, as I've been sorting through things, I pulled some of our 'old' clothing items and athletic shoes. Our clothes and shoes are in excellent condition. I used to earn so many gcs from point earning sites over the years, that I basically shopped for free for many years. So, I'd end up selling most of the items every time I got into closet purging mode. It wasn't that the items were bad, we just have an abundance of it. 

Now I know what y'all are thinking.... 'Ms Gee you said that you have too much clothes'. Yep, I still do.....but I've decided to keep some of the old items, because of the great quality. If any of you have been clothes shopping lately, you will find that the quality is by far more inferior than before and the prices are exorbitant. I checked athletic pants for DS at Sams yesterday and couldn't believe how thin it was. Everything is just junk - IMHO. So, I've decided to keep a few of our old things (I don't even know why I got rid of some of the stuff, because I found a few treasures) and will sell some of the newer stuff I bought instead. I always leave the tags on my items until I decide to wear it. So, I will be able to sell my newer items for far more than my old stuff, because it still has tags attached. And, we'll still have far better quality items to wear. I call that Win! I did the same with our athletic shoes. It's still in great condition. DS has enough of our old styles (new ones) available, but I only have 3 pairs left. So I decided to salvage an old pair that I had listed. Thank goodness it never sold, cause I can now get more wear out of it. The other brand I tried hurt my arches so I only wear it for short periods of time. 

Now I know that some of you think I'm cuckoo with my crazy shopping habits 😂, but BF gets me. He's like a breath of fresh air. He totally understands my craziness. Heck, he even agrees that we should get a new freezer 💖 The steam button on my iron broke a few months ago. The iron still worked great, so I just decided to keep using it. Then about a month ago, the iron started leaking water and it would turn cold (despite being turned on and plugged in). So guess what I did. I went into my stockpile and got out a new iron.  I mean who the heck stockpiles irons? 😂 Me ✋😂 In my defense, I bought that iron for my new home (heck, I bought all kinds of new things for my move. I'm starting afresh and I'm loving it! Okay, we're adding BF's items too, but you all know what I mean). You already know that I bought that iron on clearance. That's right! I didn't have to run to the store to buy a new iron and I didn't have to pay full price either. Now I will just keep an eye out for a sale price on a spare iron. Heck yeah, I'm getting another spare. Look how well this one worked out 😊

I also got a new charger from my stockpile for my phone & Ipad. I used my last charger until the wire was completely exposed. Hey, if it works then I'll keep using it (which I did). Well, it finally stopped charging, so I got out a new one. Every time we purchase new Apple products, I save the new chargers. I don't use it just because we now have new products. Heck no. I save it for a rainy day. Besides, we don't need to keep a pile of chargers out. I have 2 that I use regularly and the rest are still in the original boxes. If I ever decide to sell the boxes, I might get even more if I throw in brand new chargers too. TMTMM (There's method to my madness 😊). I did notice that the 'plug' USB part (whatever it's called) of the charger is now much smaller than the old ones, so I need to get a new adapter for my car, but that's an easy fix. 

So go ahead and save your spare or old items that are still in working condition. They always end up saving me $$$ and I'm absolutely loving it! 

I'm going to write about all the free money retailers have been sending me lately, next. I read about concerns about a possible US economy collapse, so I'm saving $$ wherever I can. 

Have a wonderful weekend peeps!