Christmas Bargain Shopping and a Shared Meal

On September 15 2016 the new discount card I received in the mail from Kohl's becomes valid.  This time I received a 30% off coupon.  I've been waiting for the 30% coupon because there are a couple of Christmas/birthday gifts I want to purchase.  Not only can I use the 30% coupon, they are also offering cash back.  For every 50.00 spent, I will receive 10.00 in cash back vouchers to be spent during the next cycle.

Here's the scenario:

1.Cost of gifts: $460.00
2.Purchasing online through www.ebates.com cash back promotion of .03%  Minus $9.66
3. 30% coupon, minus $138.00
4. Kohl's cash, 60.00
5. 2 you rewards, $15.00

460.00
- 138.00 = 322.00 (coupon)
-9.66 = 312.34 (ebates reward, rounded down)
- 60.00 = 252.00 (Kohl's cash)
- 15.00 = 237.00 ( 2 you rewards)
This comes out to be a savings of 223.00

I like this!  First thing in the morning I will take advantage of the free shipping online and order the items.


Monday I woke up with so much energy that I did a marathon session in the kitchen.  The beef stew and home made bread made a great meal that I shared with friends and family.  I enjoyed the visit and had fun setting the table with a fall theme.   The meal was topped off with a garden salad and jello.  The kids ate mac and cheese with some salad and the jello.  The adults topped off the dinner with a store bought coffee crumb cake while the kids chomped down a few candy corns.

Because I don't use recipes, I just fling
meals together, I was hoping the stew
was good.  I got a few thumbs up!

I meant to take a picture of the table
setting, but got side tracked.  These tulips
were in the center.  You know I love
tulips!

I used the bread machine to make
this loaf.  It was stored in a 'green' bag
which lived up to the claims of the creator.


 

After dinner I sat in the back yard while the kids drew race tracks on the patio and the four year old ate every blackberry she could find on the bushes.  I had a nice time with everyone.  I even had help with the dishes.  Many hands make the work light.

I also made a quiche to use up small amounts of mushrooms and spinach.  The quiche will be cut into single servings and placed in the freezer for future meals.

Nothing was lost when I made this quiche.
The eggs were fresh from a friend's
chickens (I'm sooo thankful) and the
veggies were fresh.

I love the blue color of the eggs.

This picture is for a friend who thinks
when I cook I'm a neat freak.  I just
create and worry about the mess
later.  I do separate clean from dirty
though.  Just ingrained in me from
medical and surgical training.

All clean now.  I thought my hands were
going to fall off after cleaning dishes
four times during the marathon!

Stay safe.

Lots of Surprises in the Mail

There are the days that I know when I go up front to the mail boxes there will be bills in the mail.  I don't have many, just the utilities and one credit card that I use all month to get points on.  I'm careful not to spend more than the money I have to back up the purchases.  If I had to pay interest on the borrowed money, then the points wouldn't mean much.

This week was different.  To my surprise there were a number of free offers in my mailbox.  So many that the excitement to share them is overwhelming.  Kohl's send me two different mailings with two different catalogs.  On each of the mailings was a $5.00 off $5.00 coupon.  JC Penney jumped on the bandwagon and sent a $10.00 off $10.00 purchase plus a free bed pillow.  Before those two offers came in Victoria's Secret sent a coupon for free undies -twice.  I gave one to my daughter and I'll use the other to put away as part of her Christmas gifts.

That's adds up to $27.00 in free merchandise plus the pillow.  I'd call that a good week.

The Dollar Tree had Valentine candy for twenty five cents.  I picked up a package of suckers to put in the grands small Easter basket they get from Grandma.   I also picked up two packs of three small spring colored bins to use as the baskets.  To top it off there was a pack of six Chicklets gum to add to the items I already purchased.

$3.25 cents bought the Easter baskets and half of the items that will go in them. 
The other two items were purchased last week at the dollar store.  I have filler
put away that didn't cost anything from packages that came in
the mail. 

My final trip today was to the Wal Mart grocery store across the street to price match items.  In the basket went two oranges for .50 cents each, two pounds of butter for 1.99 each, iceberg lettuce for .98, grapes at 1.49 a pound and bananas that were their regular price of .67 cents a pound.  The total was $6.67 plus 2.5% tax.  It's not the best thing that tax is on food where I live, but the general tax rate is 6.5% which is 2 percent less than where I lived in the North.

Fruits and veggies are my favorites along with dairy foods.
I know I should eat meat more than I do, but it's tough enough eating it once a week.
I never have enjoyed meat, even as a child.  My favorite meat is meatballs in sauce.
I never get tired of those!

I also pay thousands less in property taxes than I did in the North.  There may be vehicle tax here, but it's low so the savings on property tax is huge.

What did your mail look like this week?  Did you find any good deals at the grocery store? 

As always, stay safe and know I appreciate each of you my dear readers.

An After Christmas Shopping Haul, Apples Included

Monday was a rainy and dismal day.  The kind of day that's screaming fireplace and blanket.  The sun was sleeping behind total cloud cover and the rain was cold.  The perfect day, I decided, to stay home.  Something kept nagging at me to get a few groceries because we are expected to get some nasty (nastier) weather by Wednesday.  Reluctantly I got dressed and ventured out the door.  Thinking I could kill a few birds with one stone (as long as I was out) I first went to the mall which was just across the road from the grocery store.  The car had barely warmed up on the five minute drive to a prime shopping area. 

My first stop was at Dillards for a tree skirt at the customary 50% off after Christmas.  Being aware that on January first that same tree skirt will be 70% off, I bought it anyway.  I won't be at Dillards on January first.  I'm told that particular day is worse than Black Friday at Wal Mart.  I also found a few ornaments for the tree for next year.  It was a satisfying visit.

At $3.00 each I thought these tree ornaments were a good price.  I bought three of them.

You know muted colors are my favorite, but the small touch of red adds interest to the new tree skirt.

Off to Macy's with a 20% off coupon for new towels in the master bath.  Suddenly the master bath was gloomy and colorless.  I'm not one for a lot of color surrounding me, but this was ridiculous.  Macy's had towels for 9.99 - original price was 18.00 for the bath size.  So coupon in hand I paid 8.00 for bath towels and even less for hand towels and wash cloths.

The color isn't too bright on these purple towels, but lots better than the really light blue that were there before.  I'm not sure if I like the flower there, but I thought I'd try it to see if it's a keeper.

Since I was in the mall a visit to Bath and Body Works was on the agenda.  I had a gift card that I would forget about if I didn't use it.  It was only for a little more than $13.00, but I thought I could get quite a lot since they had a 70% off sale on quite a few items.  I hit the jackpot and paid $1.36 out of pocket for 4 sprays that were well overpriced with an original cost of $14.00.

Cinnamon pumpkin makes the house smell nice in the dead of winter.

Satisfied with my accusations, off to the strip mall across the street for groceries.  Intentions were good to go directly to the grocery.  Pier One was calling my name so an ignored response would be rude.  More great bargains here.  I got place card holders for a 90% reduction in cost.  How do they do that? 

How pretty are these place card holders?  The place cards are supplied, too.
I detect a give away coming up.

Finally the grocery store was in view.  Harris Teeter it is.  Even though this is the local hoity toity grocery store they sometimes have fresh fruits and veggies on clearance at ridiculously low prices.  It's a gamble, but well worth it.

Monday was the day to gamble.  They had organic apples (originally $4.99 a pound) on the cart for - get this - .50 a pound.  Eureka!  The produce guy packed up 15 apples for me at a total cost of about $4.70.

All I can say is, "Yummo!"

This afternoon will be an apple preparing party.  Two pies, a crisp and a few dehydrated apple slices are in the works.  Gosh, I love a deal.  Especially a food deal!

Have you been shopping the after Christmas sales?  Have you found any real great deals?  I'd love to hear from you in the comment section.

Stay safe.

CVS Shopping Spree

CVS has two sales and a free item this week.

1.  A coupon for free paper towels from the coupon machine.  Slide your CVS Extra Care Bucks card under the scanner to receive this one.  Along with this free coupon I received a .50 coupon off any purchase.  The more you shop there, the higher your coupon.  Mine was a small one.

2. Purchase one Purex laundry detergent for $6.29 (at my location) and get two (2) free.  You can do this scenario twice on a card.

3.  Many items in the store have a small sign under the shelf that says if you buy $30.00 you can choose a $10.00 gift card.  There were a number of choices for the gift card, but I only noticed the CVS one because I wanted to use it towards the Purex.

I bought Christmas stocking items at CVS rather than at the Dollar Tree.  Adding in 2 boxes of Klennix tissues and I reached the $30.00 rather quickly.

I did two transactions.  The first paying for the Christmas items to receive the 10.00 gift card (GC), then the laundry soap and paper towel.  After using the gift card and .50 coupon, as well as the free paper towel coupon, I paid 1.47 out of pocket.

Why did this make sense to me?  I would have purchased the Christmas items at the Dollar Tree with no $10.00 gift card given to me.  We* also need laundry soap.  Four free soaps and free paper towels made quite a bit of sense to me.

Christmas items
All of the items were on sale.  30.00 plus tax (1.80)
I can't take a picture of the entire haul because the recipients read this blog.

Purex
Regular price $37.74 for six
I bought six at a cost of $12.58
After using the GC and .50 coupon I paid $1.47 out of pocket

Paper towel
Free with .79 coupon

Total spent, including tax
$33.27

*I don't have pictures of the other items because I did the detergent scenario for my daughter.  She ordered Scency items for me and I paid her with the detergent.  After all of her shopping she ended up with 21 bottles of detergent.  Keeping it all in the family!

Here's some of the items I got.  The Kleenix was .99 a box, the gum and Russell Stover santas were .88 each. The pez dispensers cost the most at 1.59 each.  

CVS website

Mailing Gifts USPS

The post office is sending out Flat Rate shipping invitations.  Returning the post card requesting your holiday kit will give you:
4 sizes of flat rate boxes
a GC envelope
shipping tips

Also by signing up online at  www.usps.com/clicknship the mail carrier will pick up your packages.  Paying online also saves up to 14% on shipping costs.