Let's go Krogering!

I rarely shop at Kroger, because they're the highest priced grocery store around here. However, I totally love their Mega Event Sales. I'm also liking their cash back rewards that you can combine with other grocery rewards apps like Ibotta, Savingstar etc.

The event is Buy 2 Save $5 instantly. Prices are after ME discounts

4 x Mission Tortilla Chips $3.96

2 x Bic Razors 4.98

2 x Garnier Shampoo 4.58

5 x G2B Hairspray 19.95

2 x Suave Lotion 2.98

Less Bic DQ (6.00)

Less Garnier Q (4.00)

Less 2 Suave Qs (2.00)

Tax 1.95

OOP $26.40

Earned $10 Ibotta (G2B) + $10 Kroger cash back (G2B)

Total Cost after rewards $6.40

Had I know the Bic DQ was a limit of 5, I would've bought the max amount and used the overage to pay for my groceries. I wasn't planning on buying all these items. I just read about the Got2B and Bic deal and didn't know it was part of the Mega event. Thankfully I had Suave & Garnier Qs in my wallet.

It's a wipes kinda week

 Yesterday I was up at the crack of dawn (first time since being sick). So after I showered and brewed coffee, I decided to just go to Meijer instead of later in the day, as planned. My plan was to hit up 2 stores to do the Dial Deal (Buy $12 save $3 instantly), since I didn't know how much inventory they'd have or whether there would be limits posted on the shelves. 

Got to the first store and they had tons of Dial Soap and NO limits. So I just decided to do 2 transactions and skip the 2nd store. 

When I hit the cleaning aisle to get bleach (another thing I'm stockpiling), I spotted shelves half full of DISINFECTING WIPES! I couldn't believe my eyes!! It's like Christmas has come early. I was in such shock, I forgot to take a pic...lol The limit was 2, but that's no problem for me because we still have 3 new big tubs. All I could think was "who would be dumb enough to buy the small containers?" Even if you live alone, I'd buy a big tub. These things haven't been seen in 6 months, so who knows when we'll find it again. The wipes cost $3.99 each, but right now I don't care about price. I do have a plan for making my own wipes, should things come to that. However, combined with the open containers, we have enough wipes to last us about at least a year (if we use it sparingly).

I'll continue keeping an eye out for wipes though. I now know which stores to check and I have a few close friends who I know can use some. 

Well so much for not going to the 2nd store. You bet I was gonna look for more wipes...lol. No wipes or shelf space for it at the 2nd store though - very strange. However, I did another Dial bar soap transaction. $30 and 9 x 8ct packs later. I'm fully stocked for winter.

A funny story. When I went thrifting last week, I walked into the store at the same time as another woman. As we got to the carts, she put hand sanitizer on her hands and offered me some. I politely declined and told her that I have my own. Then I asked her if she wanted a wipe for her cart. The look on the woman's face when I hauled a tub of Clorox wipes out of my purse, was priceless. You'd think I took a gold bar out of my purse...lol. I guess wipes are seen that way these days. She was so grateful for it. Afterwards I wondered why she was sanitizing her hands before touching a dirty cart. Who knows. I'm not here to judge, especially since she was so nice to me. 

CVS

3 x 32 oz Dial b/w $21.00

Less BOGOF Dial Q (5.99) Max value is $5.99

Less Dial DQ (2.00)

Less $2/6 Irish Spring b/w DQ (2.00)

Less EBs (10.00)

Tax 1.14

OOP $2.15

Earned $7 EB and should get another $3 Beauty EB. So I spent $10 EB and earned $10 EB. 

I wasn't sure if the $2/2 Dial DQ would deduct, since I've already used the BOGOF Q and the digital was off 2 items.

The Irish Spring DQ was a surprise, because I didn't know that it would apply to ANY B/W. I'm so very happy about that. So glad the Softsoap b/w deal at WAGS last week ($2.50 after discounts) didn't appeal to me. I knew it's because I would find a better deal and whaddya know - $2.15 for 3 large bottles. I can't complain.

Nothing else at CVS appealed to me this week and I did zero WAGS shopping this week (shocker). 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'm Dial & wipes wasted this week...lol

Homemade Buffalo Wild Wings

 When Buffalo Wild Wings opened here years ago, we frequented the place. Chicken is my preferred meat and we loved most of their sauces. Then the quality of the food went down and the prices went up, so we stopped going there. The straw that broke the camel's back was when I asked for some Ranch dressing on the side (I love to dip potato wedges in Ranch) and they charged us $1-2 for the tiny cup. That was it! No more BWW.

When I saw these bottles at Walmart a few weeks ago, I just had to have some. After all, Caribbean Jerk is the one I always ordered at BWW. So I marinaded the chicken tenders (that I got at Sams) in the sauce overnight, then baked it in the oven. 25 Minutes later, we had to most delicious, juiciest chicken tenders ever. That tenders turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because it cooks so fast. That did it for me. This sauce is now one of the items I have to stockpile....lol

So this is what we did for dinner that night. Tenders, baked potato, baked beans, carrot/pineapple salad. It was so good that DH said he's gonna try the sauce on fish too. A week later, I cooked double the amount of tenders and made chicken sandwiches for ourselves with Romaine salad (I don't buy lettuce, cause it would just go to waste here), roasted red peppers, pineapple slices. We had that with potato salad. A sandwich like this would set you back at least $10 at BWW or other restaurants and you get no sides with it. So how much did it cost us?

Package of non GMO chicken at Sams (around 5 lbs) $10-12 (this is packaged in 4 individual bags.

Let's say I used half the chicken. That would give us a price of $5-6 (you only need 2 tenders per bun). I'm using the $6 price

8ct Buns $2.50

BWW Sauce $2.96

Can pineapple slices $0.92

Jar Roasted red peppers $1.98

Bag salad $2.98

Total cost to for 8 sandwiches = $17.34 or $2.17 per sandwich.

The best part is that we're getting good non GMO chicken. You can't find that in a restaurant, unless you pay a ridiculous price for it. 

Today we made chicken wraps with the leftover tenders for lunch. I now just freeze the leftover cooked chicken and nuke it when we need some. Soooo good!

Tonight I'm gonna try to make Taco Bell crunchwrap supreme.

I'm gonna try to make all kinds of restaurant foods at home. We're sick of getting carry out. Not only is it safer & cheaper to make our own, but it tastes way better too.

Warning: If you don't like Hot or Spicy food, stay away from these sauces. 

This week's stockpiling highlights

I'm only posting some stockpiling highlights, as I'm recovering from a cold and didn't have the energy to set everything up for pictures. I spent the better part of the weekend in bed and didn't even get the paper on Sunday. So bummed, because I wanted those BOGOF Dial Qs. So off to Walmart I went on Monday, because I know they still sell the Sunday paper on Mondays. I first stopped at Dollar Tree next door. They had papers, but no inserts. ugh.

While at Walmart, I decided to just do grocery shopping on the fly. As I walked into the store, I saw a man with what looked like disinfecting wipes in his cart. It was under other groceries and I could just make out the top part. So I hightailed it to the cleaning section and found empty shelves :( I'm guessing I was wrong, because I didn't see anyone else with wipes). I did go to the Beauty section though to see if they had any Wet Ones. I had a 'be still my heart' moment when I spotted these babies. It's only the 20ct packs, but I was so very happy to see these again (I forgot to check RA last week). So I took 2 packs and placed it in my cart. Then I thought 'there's no limit', so I went back and got another one...lol I do still have 2 tubs of Wet Ones (I always keep these in my car for when I go thrifting or to yard sales), but decided to get more since we don't know how long shortages will last. 

I also bought 2 more cooking spray. I don't know why I bought more. I had that exact same thought when I bought Softsoap refills last year. The refills were on sale for $1.99, so I bought 3, used $5 points and paid $1.06 for 3 bottles. I remember thinking 'why on earth am I buying more soap when we still have a new refill bottle at home (I know that one bottle lasts us a year).... and then Covid happened. So I'm just trusting my instincts on this. 

Walmart had zero canned peas. Yikes. I've been shopping at a different Walmart (a few miles further from home), because DH said that our local Walmart is near a hotspot area (this was when the pandemic started). But since I was out that way, I decided to just stop there. I also couldn't find any molasses. I remembered that I need molasses for my ginger(bread) cookies. I'll have to check Meijer. I did find more of those Libby's pumpkin pie filling cans, so picked up another one. No regular canned pumpkin though.

Still no yeast to be found at any Walmarts, but DH found some at Aldi. I'm thankful that we have a good yeast supply now. 

If you love baking over the holidays, then I'll advise you to stock up now. It's scary to see how empty shelves are. What if there's another lockdown? Things will look even worse then. 

I was very happy to see store brand chickpeas. I got 6 cans, but when I got to checkout I noticed that one was dented, so I left it behind. 

I also stopped at the produce market. As I walked into the store, I saw these blueberry boxes for $2! Whoo-hoo! I'm a berry girl, but blueberries are my absolute favorite. DH knows to bring blueberries when he finds it at a good price. It doesn't matter if we already have blueberries at home. He knows I love this stuff. There were 8 x 18 oz containers per box (DH already took one package to eat when I got home). I really wanted another box, but the rest were in poor shape. 

Let me tell you that cleaning these suckers is no small task. Well separating the good from the bad is the hard part. I got that done yesterday. I filled 2 gallon size bags and froze them. So happy to have some berries for winter. I love them in smoothies.

I also bought a huge bag of red peppers for $8.xx. There were 15 peppers in the bag. Another favorite of ours. Today I'll clean, dice and freeze those.

I overspent our weekly budget by $10, but that always happens when I go to the produce market. I go every 3-4 weeks and fill my cart.

I still need to head to Meijer & CVS for Dial deals. Meijer has the spend $12 get $3 discount again, so I'll pick up bar soap. I'll get b/w at CVS, since the price is better than Softsoap.

I'm so glad I did all the shopping and cooking on Monday, because I couldn't keep my eyes open yesterday. I needed to run some errands and just plopped down on the couch when I got home. Thankfully I'm feeling better today, so I can get some stuff done. 

This week's Walmart stockpiling trip

Well so much for my $20-30 a week stockpiling. Reading about European countries shutting down again, gives me more of a sense of urgency to get our stockpiling completely done. 

Here's what I got at Walmart.

3 x Bush's baked beans $5.94

2 x Organic chickpeas 1.84

3 x Rotel 3.94

5 x Peas 2.20

3 x Black beans 1.74

4 x Mixed vegetables 2.32

5 x Green Beans 2.20

3 x Beef broth 1.50

4 x Tomato paste 1.68

4 x Mushrooms 2.28

3 x Pineapple 2.76

1 x Peaches 0.96

1 x Salsa 2.98

1 x Pesto 3.98

1 x Large oatmeal 2.46

2 x Whole wheat pasta 2.56

3 x 2pk Boxed potatoes 6.75

2 x 1lb Lentils 1.96

Total $50.05

We normally eat mainly fresh and some frozen produce, but I've decided to get canned because we don't know how bad things will get this winter. That's why I've decided to add mixed vegetables, canned mushrooms and box potatoes.I'm not really crazy about box potatoes, but I'll eat it if fresh isn't available. This pandemic has taught us to set our pickiness aside and make the most of what we have available.

I've been buying bigger jars of salsa & pesto, because it costs less than buying 2 smaller jars. 

I won't be buying more oatmeal, because we still have 2 large Quaker canisters in the pantry. We mainly eat cereal and oatmeal is mostly used for baking.

I'm hoping that Meijer will have a good Prego pasta sauce sale again, because I'm running low. I can't see myself paying $2 a jar, when I know that they usually run a 99c (or was it 75c) sale. I normally buy enough sauce for a year. I also need to add lasagna to my stockpile list.

I wanted more brown rice, but they didn't have any 2 lb bags. These cost less than buying the 1 lb bags. It's not a problem, because I already have 14 lbs stockpiled. In my culture, we eat a lot of rice, so I have to keep that on hand.

DH has been picking up dried pinto beans and vinegar at Aldi every week. We make our own refried beans. We no longer enjoy canned refried beans, since we started making our own. There's such a huge difference in taste and we know exactly what ingredients are in it. 

Do you make any of your own food items, instead of buying it? Please feel free to share your recipe(s)

We're in decent shape now. Not much more I need to stockpile. I have a number in my head for select canned goods. We love peas & baked beans, so those are 2 things we need lots of. Boy I'll be glad when this stockpiling business is done. It's stressful having to plan for it, but it will give me peace of mind knowing that we're well provided for. 

It's laundry week at WAGS

Wags has an awesome sale on Purex & Snuggle this week. Buy 2 @ $2.99 get $4 BR points. This makes each item 99c each. 

Even better if you have points to pay with. If you don't have any points, just pay for your first transaction and then roll your points into the next transaction. Rinse & repeat.

The best part though is that there are NO limits. I'm not buying anymore this week, because I already have 25 bottles of detergent in my stockpile (please don't judge. I use detergent for business purposes too). I'll stock up on Snuggle liquid if I can find it though. It's my favorite fabric softener.

I hit up 3 stores (did my shopping in 40 minutes, since the stores are all near my home) 

Store 1

4 x Purex $11.96

4 x Snuggle softener 11.96

Less Snuggle q (1.00)

Less BR Points (20.00)

Tax 1.44

OOP $4.36

Earn $16 BR Points. 

Store 2

4 x Purex 11.96

4 x Snuggle dryer sheets 11.96

Less BR Points (20.00)

Tax 1.44

OOP $5.36

Earn $16 BR Points 

Store 3

8 x Purex $23.92

Less BR Points (20.00)

Tax 1.44

OOP $5.36

Earn $16 BR Points 

I only had 1 Snuggle q left from the last sale. The Q expires today, that's why I decided to shop today.

Store 2 only had Snuggle sheets. I would've preferred the liquid.

Store 3. Someone had cleared the shelves of all things Snuggle....grrrr

I started out with $52 Points and ended with $40 Points. So I spent down $12 Points

Total OOP $15.08 for 24 items. That makes it $0.63 each

Retail value : $151.76

I've never seen the Snuggle this cheap and haven't seen 99c detergent since the pandemic started, so get yours while you can.