A few happenings

I apologise for my lack of posting. I'm so far behind - with everything. Holiday weekends don't help either, because they throw me off completely.

We went for a mini getaway over the holiday weekend. While we were having dinner, the power went out at the restuarant. No problem since we had already finished our meal. We didn't mind finishing our drinks in the dark, because it was still light out and the sun was streaming through the windows. Surprisingly, no generator kicked in at the restaurant.

When we left, we noticed that the traffic lights were out and power was out in the entire area. So we decided to go for a long drive. After about an hour of exploring, we returned to the hotel only to discover the power was still out. I told DH that we should just drive home, because there's nothing we can do in the dark. DS was not happy, because he was looking forward to a swim in the pool and I wanted to hit the jacuzzi and sauna. I'm just glad that we hadn't unpacked our bags yet and that we at least got to enjoy dinner out.

This has been a very spendy month. At least that's how I feel. Whether I paid cash or with gcs, I feel like I shopped a lot this month.

Spent $126.28 on some pants and tops for DS. I included some items to resell, so that should cover our total OOP cost.

Spent $93.51 on much needed bras. I absolutely hate spending a  lot of money on a bra, because its just a small piece of fabric. Why on earth does it cost so much? I never spend more than $10 on these babies. I've only paid $20 for it once, and that was with a gc. This time I decided to splurge on some really nice ones, but paying $23.37 (incl tax) still feels like a lot to me (these were clearance prices. The bras retail for $59 each). I've seen bras that were $70-100. For that price, they'd have to be spun from gold...lol. I think retailers feel like they can charge whatever they want, because it's a necessity for women. I'm curious as to what the highest price is that anyone spends on a bra. Am I just being cheap?

I really haven't done much drugstore shopping.The deals haven't been great lately.  I just stopped at CVS last week to use expiring EBs. My store no longer accepts expired EBs, so I spent $16EB and earned back $10. I should get another $3 EB Beauty reward on my next trip.

I've also decided to get back in the WAGS game. I gave up years ago when they rolled out their new rewards program. On top of that, my store managers were extremely rude. Now that we have new managers and I've figured out their points program, I'll do free or MM deals. No RR deals. That's too much of a pita. I'm not gonna write about it, because I don't plan on doing much shopping there.

Today I checked my RA account to see when my BC expires. I didn't see any BC under L2C clipped qs. WTF RA? I even checked the unclipped qs. I know that I have $13 BC that I earned at the end of last month. Ugh, I'm not liking RA's new rewards system. They should've rolled out the same system as Plenti, cause that was so easy to use. If anyone knows where the BC is located on your account, please let me know.

I haven't earned much gcs this month, because my Encraves disappeared about a week ago. I don't have the time to babysit other point earning offers. It was slow earning this month, but I still managed to redeem for some gcs.  I'll post the amounts in my May numbers post.

Used gcs to purchase a pool at Target. I saw that it was included in their toy sale (spend $100 get $25 off instantly), so I told DH that instead of just paying cash, we can use some of the gcs I have to lower our OOP. So our $100 pool cost us around $40 OOP.

Remember that DSW gc that I purchased with my Mother's Day gift? Well I made it to the score and had such fun. I love that you can score more than just shoes at that store. I always head straight to the clearance section, because they have extra discounts on all clearance. I got the $100 gc and the $25 (wyb $100 gc) was also added to this card. I also had $30 in rewards and a $60 off $199 q. I also had a $5 reward in my account. For some reason I couldn't get it to print, so I hauled the Ipad to the store with me, only to discover they don't have Wifi. Oh boy. So here's what I did.

Items total = $224.88
Less 60/199  (60.00)
Less reward (30.00)
Less gc (125.00)
Plus tax 8.09
OOP $17.97

Total Savings $549.12

Now I could've had $0 OOP, because I still have a $25 gc that I redeemed earlier this month. However, I figured that $125 was enough to cover everything and I was too lazy to print the gc. Lesson learned. Always take all your gcs with you...lol

I earned a $5 reward for my purchases and still have the other $5 in my account and $25 gc. I'll save these for a rainy day.

Now I need to get everything photographed and listed. I figure that after fees, I should make about $280. So that's turning my $100 gift into almost $300. I got my shopping fix and I would've almost tripled my money. I'm a happy mama :)

My allergies have been really bad the past 2 days, so I'm off to take a hot bath and then to bed with a good book.