Cherry picking week and stocking up on Christmas gifts

I thought this week would just be a cherry picking week at Meijer, because we don't need much and I had $20 CATs to use. Well, that was until I checked my Mperks account and saw that they sent me a 5/$50 q. I still have one $5 CAT to combine with it and today I received store qs from them too. So I'll wait until Friday, to see if next week's ad has anything better than this week. If not, then I'll just shop the 10/$10 sale, use some store qs, ibotta/ck51/savingstar offers, to get the most bang for my buck. One of my store qs is for a big bottle of vinegar (that I use for cleaning), so that will save at least $2. Since yesterday, I've spent less than $20 oop (don't feel like hauling out the receipts now) and earned back over $7 Ibotta.

Today was a busy errand day. I'm pooped, but still have quite a few things to do for the day. I hit the Dollar Tree for bread. Unfortunately, they were out of bread :( Picked up some other items and as I got to the register, I saw Sunday papers by the front window. I told the cashier to wait and checked for q inserts. So I grabbed 2 papers. We only got the Smartsource insert yesterday. I picked up 2 papers at Meijer yesterday ($2 each), cause I figured DT wouldn't have any more papers by 4pm (when I went out). Well, now I know to check my store and go back on a Monday if I need extras.

Then for dinner I threw some chicken breast strips, onions, peppers (I bought some at Produce market 2 weeks ago and filled 12 bags with mixed peppers that I froze. I paid less than $10 for all those peppers), artichokes, potatoes and seasoning into a casserole dish and into the oven. Served over brown rice, with carrots and broccoli on the side. And just before dinner was done, DH rocked up with loads of food from my favorite Mexican restaurant. I'm not complaining, cause I love their food. The good news is that I don't have to cook for the rest of the week. There's still enough dinner left for another meal and the Mexican will last for 2 days as well. So Friday I'll make some BLTs for dinner or the falafel that I had planned (if Meijer will only stock their shelves with pita pockets).

Since the oven was on, I decided to make some blueberry lemon muffins too (I'll try to take a pic later). I haven't used this recipe in years, so I hope it tastes as good as it smells. You can just use a blueberry muffin/bread recipe and add lemon zest to it. I added zest of a whole large lemon and it paid off. That lemon smell made my mouth water.

Has anyone baked with wheat flour? I find that it leaves my batter coarse and dry, so I always have to add extra milk to my batter. I don't mind doing that, cause the muffins still turned out well. I'm just wondering if I'm doing something wrong or if this is normal.

Today I received a $10 off anything Victoria's Secret q. I haven't shopped there in years, but I'm still signed up for their emails. I read that they have extra 25% off clearance today only, so I went online, ordered 5 VS makeup bags and paid $9.76 oop. $8 of that was for shipping. Grrr. I really can't complain about paying less than $2 per gift. Remember all that free makeup we get at the drugstores? I can fill the bags with makeup and they'll make cute gifts for my nieces. Well, that's if shipping doesn't cost too much. Heck, they'd be happy just to get a VS bag without makeup too...lol

I also bought some gifts for my nephews with my Macy's gcs. They had extra 30% off and I spent $40.69 in gcs and will get 10% back through Ebates. Just my luck, cause Ebates now has 15% cash back at Macys, but I don't need anything. So I paid $9.76 oop for gifts for 7 people. That's a win in my book.