Quick check in...

Just a short note to say that I'm still here. I've been experiencing computer problems - Again - for a week now. I'll be back to regular blogging (hopefully soon) as soon as I get everything fixed. 

Have a great week peeps!

Frugal Friday 10/18/24

Most of my savings were in the kitchen this week. With the constant increase in grocery prices, we are trying to waste less. Here's some ways we saved this week.

• Had some peppers that were getting old, so I washed, diced and sautéed that with some caramelized onions and have been using it in my omelets all week.
  
  
• Had some tomatoes that needed to be used up so I made smoortjie (mainly tomatoes, onions, peppers & garlic), a typical South African dish that you can add to most meat. We'll use this with Italian sausage.
  
  
• I was determined to eat all the bread heels (we had quite a few) and that's exactly what I did. I just made myself toast with my omelets all week & I'm happy to report that the heels are all gone. 
  
  
• Since I didn't use much of the regular bread and we have muffins too, I decided to freeze the bagels to prolong it's shelf life.
  
  
• About 2-3 weeks ago, I got notification that my printer toner was low. I immediately ordered a new toner, but I still haven't replaced the old cartridge. Why? Because it still prints perfectly. It said 'Toner low' not 'Toner cartridge empty' - that's my thinking 😂. I've always done it this way. I use my printer cartridges until I notice a difference in the printing. Only then do I replace it. 
  
  
• I have many rewards that stores have sent me (I really need to write a post about this), but let some of it expire. It's not worth it to me to pay $9-11 shipping on every free purchase (after rewards). I only use the ones that offer Free shipping.  Saving myself money on things I don't need. BF & I have big financial goals, so we're trying to save in whatever ways we can.

Have a wonderful weekend peeps!

Run to Wags!

Wags is on fire🔥 this week! They have a really great P&G promotion running through 11/02/24.

Spend $15-29.99 earn $5 RR

Spend $30-$49.99 earn $10 RR

Spend $50 or more earn $15 RR

The good news is that the P&G Q rolls. So you can use it on more P&G items and will earn another P&G Q. 

The bad news is that the Q expires 3 days after printing

I'm so glad I saved last week's paper boosters. Here's what I did:

Trans 1

2 x Dove b/w $14.00

2 x Crest t/p 18.00

2 x Loreal shampoo 10.00

1 x Colgate t/p 4.50

1 x Colgate t/b 4.50

2 x Dawn 1.98

Less Dove DQ (5.00)

Less Crest DQ (4.00)

Less Loreal DQ (3.00)

Less Colgate DQ (2.00)

Less Colgate DQ (2.00)

Less RRs (10.00)

Tax 3.18

OOP $30.16

Earned $17 WC ($10 WYS $45 Digital Booster + $7 WYS $35 Paper Booster) + $5 WC (see below) + $21 ($3 Dove, $4 Colgate, $4 Loreal, $5 Crest, $5 P&G WYS $15+) + $4.50 Ibotta (Crest)

Total earned : $47.50

Everything went great at Wags until checking out. The cashier hit enter after scanning all coupons and the register froze. It was just hanging & hanging & hanging. Then it would slowly apply one coupon every minute. I kid you not. I was very cool about it, but a long line had begun to form and they opened another register. 

My $5 Crest DQ didn't deduct so CS added $5 WC to my account. Ugh, what a pain. I got someone who can't speak a lick of English. I told her I don't understand what she was saying. She must've transferred me to someone else, because I finally got someone who I could understand and who knew what I was talking about. 

I added the Dawn as fillers, because this is Wags 😂 I wanted to make sure all my DQs deduct. Well, so much for that 😂

Trans 2

2 x Dove b/w $14.00

2 x Crest t/p 18.00

2 x Loreal shampoo 10.00

1 x Colgate t/p 4.50

1 x Colgate t/b 4.50

2 x Dawn 1.98

Less Dove DQ (5.00)

Less Crest DQ (5.00)

Less Crest DQ (4.00)

Less Loreal DQ (3.00)

Less Colgate DQ (2.00)

Less Colgate DQ (2.00)

Less RRs (10.00)

Tax 3.18

OOP $25.16

Earned $17 WC ($10 WYS $45 Digital Booster + $7 WYS $35 Paper Booster)  + $21 ($3 Dove, $4 Colgate, $4 Loreal, $5 Crest, $5 P&G WYS $15+) 

Total earned : $38.00

Thankfully, the register didn't hang this time and my $5 Crest Q applied. I wonder if it's cause the system was messed up during the first transaction, because I did the exact same deal. I'm waiting to see if Ibotta will reset. I doubt it will, because it never reset the Crest offer I used last week. Either way, it's still a MM transaction for me.

Trans 3

1 x Gain $15.99

Less DQ (4.00)

Less P&G RR (5.00)

Less WC (5.00)

Tax 0.96

OOP $2.95

Earned $5 P&G RR

The P&G is a Store Q (see top of coupon), so you can stack it with a Manufacturer's Q

So I decided to hit another store to roll the P&G RRs.

Trans 4

1 x Gain $15.99

Less P&G RR (5.00)

Less WC (10.00)

Tax 0.96

OOP $1.95

Earned $5 P&G RR

Well shucks. There was a line at this store and another lady ahead of me with a pile of Charmin in her cart. I knew that she was there for the P&G deal 😊They opened another register for her and then it was my turn to go to the first register. Thank goodness, because the CAT machine didn't work at her register. I really wasn't in the mood to wait on a manager to explain how much they owe me if the RRs didn't print. My RRs printed just fine. Phew!

But ugh, I just noticed that I didn't have the $4 DQ clipped. Double ugh. Oh well, I can now still use it next time and I had points to use.

Trans 5

2 x Pampers $21.00

Less DQ (3.00)

Less P&G RR (5.00)

Less WC (10.00)

Tax 1.26

OOP $4.26

Earned $9 RR ($4 Pampers, $5 P&G)

And then the register hung again. Sigh. Despite the few issues, Wags was fun. I'm ready to go back for more 😂

Here's a list of products that have been reported to work for rolling the P&G RR.

Gain - liquid & pods

Tide - liquid & pods

Pampers

Charmin

Charmin essentials

Bounty

Downy -priced $12.99 & $15.99

Old Spice 

Gillette

Always - the always have been reported to print a $5 off next feminine care Q instead of P&G, so you can't use that RR on just any other P&G items.

I'll do a breakdown at the end of the week. 

Happy shopping peeps!

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!