Target & Wags Fun

It was one of those weeks. I was sick for 5 days, schools were closed until yesterday due to polar vortex & now DS is sick too. Thankfully, I'm feeling better. 

Target

This week Target has a great B2G1F deal on select laundry detergent. This deal couldn't have come at a better time, because I opened my last bottle of Tide earlier this week. I have lots of Gain, but Tide is my preferred brand. I also had a $10/60 Target Circle Q, so here's what I did

6 x 132 oz Tide @ $19.99 = $119.94

Less B2G1F deal (36.64) Target has always had weird math when a Q is used on sale items

Less $10 Q (10.00) 

Tax 4.40

OOP $77.70 Paid with a Target GC

I purchased those 10% off gcs in December, so here's the breakdown of my transaction

10% off gc $7.77

1.5% through CC used to pay for gc ($69.93 after 10% off) = $1.05

Total discounts $8.82

Total cost after discounts = $68.88 for 6 jugs or $11.48 each. That's 42% off the retail price. Well, the price includes tax, so the savings is slightly higher. 

I'm very happy with this deal, because deals are scarce these days. Even Wags has slim pickings lately, so I'm grabbing whatever good deals I can. More on that in another post. 

 

Wags

Well shucks, everything worked perfectly at Wags today. Even I was in shock 😂I told BF 'you know it's gonna be a good shopping day when Wags works well'. And it did turn out to be a great shopping day. Wags was my first stop & everything else went well afterwards. I had $12 RRs expiring today, so here's what I did

Trans 1 & 2

2 x Dove b/w $14.00

1 x Colgate t/b 4.00

1 x Colgate t/p 5.00

1 x Crest t/p 4.00

1 x Oral b t/b 4.0

1 x Dawn 0.99 (filler item for my RR to attach to)

Less Dove DQ (6.00)

Less Colgate t/b DQ (2.50)

Less Colgate t/p DQ (2.50)

Less Crest DQ (1.00)

Less Oral B DQ (1.00)

Less RRs (6.00) 

Tax 1.92

OOP $14.91

Earned $7 WC (WYS $30) + $8 RR ($3 Colgate, $3 Crest, $2 Dove)

Total earned : $15.00

I did the same deal twice. One on each account. 

Breakdown:

Number of items purchased: 14

Total Qs used : $26.00

Total Rewards used : $12.00

Total Rewards earned (RR, WC, Ibotta, Fetch): $30.00 - haven't scanned my receipts yet

Total OOP : $29.82 ($2.13 per item - this includes sales tax)

Total Retail value : $82.86 (excl tax)

I still need to check the CVS ad to see if there's anything good. My $10 EBs expired on Sunday, because I was too sick to venture out. 

Happy shopping peeps! Stay healthy, safe & warm!

Menu Plan Monday 01/20/25

Hi everyone

It's been a slow cooking weekend for me, because I'm sick again. That 'Back to school' germs hit me. I know that we usually end up getting sick after every school break. DS had a slight runny nose last week and on Thursday night I told BF how I'm glad we haven't been sick in a long time, cause we eat so well. I spoke to soon. Guess who has been sick since Friday. I think I have covid again, cause all I did was sleep the weekend away. I mainly have a sore throat and hoarse voice and tons of fatigue. I'm so worn out, I ended up doing my weekly cooking in stages.

Monday : Chicken soup with homemade bread rolls

Tuesday : Spaghetti with meat sauce, salad, garlic naan

Wednesday : Same as Monday

Thursday : Same as Tuesday

Friday : Haven't decided yet

Saturday : Red Robin (DS)

Breakfasts :  Lemon blueberry muffins, breakfast sausage, eggs or omelets, toast, chocolate brioche or raisin bread french toast, cereal, muesli

Lunch : Leftovers or protein from freezer with salad 

Dessert : Leftover cookies & pumpkin pie

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

My bread rolls didn't rise too well until it started baking. I knew that I didn't mix the initial yeast correctly, but didn't have the energy to start over. It tastes fine though.

I had planned on making spaghetti & meatballs, but again didn't have the energy to make meatballs. The meat sauce was easier to cook as I mainly pulled ingredients from the freezer.

Bon Appetit peeps! It's gonna be an icy cold week. Hope everyone stays healthy, safe & warm.

Frugal Friday 01/17/25

 

Hi everyone

Here's a few frugal things I've done since the beginning of the year. 

• I ran out of coffee filters and didn't feel like making a trip to the grocery store for just one item. So I used my electric kettle and coffee press to brew coffee. I have forgotten how good coffee from the press tastes. 
  
  
• Stocked up on my DD coffee at Sams (I only needed 2 canisters) since they have an Instant Savings coupon on it. The coffee discount only happens once or twice a year and I always stock up then. I still had 2 canisters in my stockpile and this will last us for over a year. 
  
  
• Did my annual Hickory Farms shopping at 65% off. When I checked their sale after Christmas, it only had 40% off. Not good enough for me. Then a few days into the new year, I received an email for 65% off select items. So I got a few of these boxes (I love that their products have long expiration dates). This was $28 down from $80. That's $2.15 per item, which is a great deal for good quality meat & cheese. 
  
  I'm not a fan of their turkey sausage, so I'm going to shred it in the blender and use it in quiche. 
  
  
• Cleaned my makeup bag and replaced the entire contents with items from my stockpile. 
  
  
• Replaced several HBA items (moisturiser, body lotion, body wash, toothpaste, shampoo) from my stockpile. I love shopping at my own store (stockpile) 😂
  
  
• Used my discounted BBW gc (one I got through my CC) to stock up on my favorites during the SAS. I actually discovered that my favorite scent was retired, so I bought a lot of it (it's rare for me to find something I really like and then they always end up discontinuing the best scents). I'm so glad I did, because that scent is now OOS. 
  
  I also had a Birthday reward for a free item, so I redeemed it with my order. Then I received 2 more free item rewards and used that before the sale ended. 
  
  
• Used a large grocery shopping bag instead of a garbage bag in my office bin/garbage can.
  
  
• Ate the bread heels for breakfast most of the week. I've decided to now just eat the heels when we finish a loaf of bread so I'm not stuck eating it for a week.
  
  
• I'm back to zesting all my citrus fruit (lemons, limes, oranges) before using/eating and freezing the zest for baking. I don't know why I stopped doing this, because I love baking with fresh ingredients. 
  
  
• Red Robin sent me an email for 20% off gcs again, so I bought a few more. 
  
  
• Wanted to order Taco Bell for DS and saw that a Crunchwrap now costs $6.39!  So I checked the rest of the menu and discovered that a Crunchwrap meal (crunchwrap, burrito, taco, chips & cheese sauce) costs $7. So the meal is what he got. It makes me wonder how many people even bother to check the different prices and options available. I'm guessing most people will just pay that $6.39 for one item without bothering to check. 
  
  
• I ordered 2 Sams pizzas for dinner tonight instead of Taco Bell. That was $19 and will feed both of us at least 7 meals. I just add salad to it. 
  
  
• I still get lots of free money from retailers, but only take advantage of it when there's free shipping
  
  

Not exactly frugal, but I wanted to share. Okay, I did save 5% on it and used my 10% discounted gc on it, so I guess it's frugal😂 I bought a few of these reusable bags at Target and what a game changer it is for me. I take these bags to Sams with me and once I leave the store, I pack all my groceries into it. It's so much easier for me to haul the groceries into the house (especially during winter), than making multiple trips to the car for individual items. The garage isn't attached to the house, so it's me going outside to collect groceries from my car. I initially bought 2, but liked it so much that I bought 2 more. I've actually thought about using some scrap fabric to line the bags so it can last longer. I'm still brainstorming that idea.

Have a wonderful weekend peeps! Stay healthy, safe & warm. 

My new grocery shopping strategy

Hi everyone

I apologize for my lack of posts. I've just had a lot on my plate lately. 

I've decided to increase our grocery budget, because it's just plain hard to keep up with the ever increasing prices.I've increased it to $400 per person per month. This includes food, HBA & cleaning. My goal is to only spend $300 p/m, but I'll take whatever savings I can get. 

To add insult to injury, Kroger kept skipping MI with the egg sale price. Well, the last time I went to the store for sale eggs, I saw a sign that our state passed a law that only Cage Free eggs can be sold in grocery stores. That explained our high egg prices. That's fine with me. I'm all for better quality food, but I sure wish they would pass a law for better meat. None of that 'broth' filled junk and stuff that doesn't even look or taste like meat. I told BF that I'm gonna check Trader Joe's & Whole Paycheck (aka Whole Foods) for organic chicken. I bought grass fed ground beef at Sams and what a difference that was in flavor and it doesn't even cost much more than their regular ground beef. I've noticed that their regular ground beef smelled & tasted different for the past month, hence my decision to try the grass fed beef. That's now my new ground beef of choice.

BUT

I still need to do something about the financial side of shopping. Walmart has been my go-to store since just before the pandemic, because of their low prices. Well, for the past year I've noticed that many of their store brand prices are now higher than some of the grocery store name brand prices. Then I switched to doing the bulk of my shopping at Sams (which I love) and the rest at Walmart & just cherry picking at the other grocery stores. 

Change of plan. Sams will remain my go to store. I will then fill in the gaps with sale items from Kroger, Meijer & Target. These stores also offer coupons and rewards, which add to the savings. Aldi has always been a cherry picking store for me. I mainly pick up bread, pie crust and a select few produce items at Aldi. I noticed that their eggs are 70c more than Kroger's. I'll still continue doing my drugstore shopping, although the deals are becoming more scarce.

I won't be purchasing everything at Sams. I noticed a Wags deal for Nature Made supplements for 99c, so I decided to stock up on my Iron pills. It turns out that the sale price is just for Zinc pills. My iron is $17.99/365 ct at Wags. So I decided to check Sams and saw that they charge $10.98/365 ct. Guess where I'm getting my supplements from. The same thing happened when we ran out of oatmeal (which I use for baking too). Sams unit price was way less than Walmart's. However, their Tide cost more than Target's (which also comes with coupons and usually a gc deal). Well, I'll use my discounted Target gcs (10% off) to roll into the Tide deal. 

I've always comparison shopped. The internet makes it so easy for us to find the best prices for things that we need. It takes a bit of time, but it's definitely worth the savings. Here's to hoping we can stay under budget while still living well. 

Have a wonderful evening peeps. Stay healthy safe & warm. 

Wags Christmas clearance - The Valentine's Edition

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I'm sure that, like myself, many of you are ready to get back into savings mode. 

I know my post title has some of you scratching your heads 😂 

I had zero plans to go after Christmas shopping. The mood just wasn't there, but when we went to Kroger earlier this week, I decided to just swing by Wags since their Christmas were 70% off. Well, I get to the Christmas section and the tags still showed 50% off (I knew it was 70% off, cause my coupon group posted about it). There were also quite a bit of goodies to be had, so I took advantage of this. 

I did a big order first (can't post it, because it includes goodies for BF & DS). I first asked the cashier to check if it was 70% off, since she was clueless about it. Success! It is 70% off, although one of the items I asked her to remove (only scanned at 50% off and this cashier was a pita), only to discover that she never did. It showed the $7.49 credit on the screen, but I don't know what she pressed to add the item again. Yeah, I paid $7.49+tax for nothing, because Wags has the item. CS was useless and told me to email another CS division. Sigh. But...... other things still worked great!

My absolute favorite find of the day was the Chips Ahoy priced at $1.58 and Ibotta has a $1.50 rebate (only works on this holiday flavor). Whoo-hoo for 8c cookies! Gotta love my coupon group. It's thanks to them that I knew about the 70% discount & cookies. I just wish my store had more than one available. 

I also purchased one bag of the Lindt mint chocolate (my favorite and it's only available over the holidays). When I checked my receipt in the car, I saw that the Lindt was priced at $1.94. So I told DS that we should just go buy more candy to use for school. 

So back in we went & did this deal:

11 x Ghirardelli slabs $14.08 (1.28 each - regular price 4.29)

4 x Lindt bags $7.76 (I know it's not all mint, but it's all they had and I wanted to use WC)

Less WC (20.00)

OOP $1.84

Why all the chocolate? I'm using them as Valentine's gifts. I did a similar deal for Christmas gifts (it's a long post that I still need to write). I'll get some Valentines cello bags at DT and add the cards. At this price I have 11 gifts and 5 bags of chocolate for myself. I'm one happy girl 😊 The slabs alone would've cost $47.19 at the regular price.

Above is what I did for Christmas. Each of DS's classmates got a big slab of chocolate and it didn't cost me much OOP. So Valentine's is done & dusted. Well, at least for school 😊 

I also bought some Hallmark gift tags for $0.74 each. Not the best price, but I love Hallmark's quality. 

I used a total of $70 WC (and I still have lots left to redeem) and $16.28 OOP. 

Earned $1.50 Ibotta (cookies) + $3 RR (Colgate) + $7.94 (money Wags owes me) = $12.44

Retail value : $206.74

We had a great shopping trip. Even DS was happy. 

Have a wonderful weekend peeps! Stay healthy, safe & warm.