First week of January

Hello everyone

I can't believe the first week of 2022 is gone already. This has been a busy week for me. I always try to catch up on just about everything during the first week of January and tend to wear myself out. SIL always calls me an overachiever. I'm just trying to get those things I've neglected during 4th quarter, done. 

I still need to post the last 2 months' numbers. I have all the receipts ready, but am just not in the mood to crunch numbers. I need to get my act together, cause I need to work on taxes too (Sales tax is due next month, so we file our taxes early). The funny thing is that I used to do this for a living (number crunching and company taxes). I guess it's cause it's more fun when you get paid to do it...lol (Yes, I actually love accounting). Anyhoo, I'm gonna get that done tomorrow, then work on taxes. 

Some happenings this week. 

• I went to Sams, produce market & Walmart for grocery shopping. I needed to stock up on meat again, cause I haven't done a big Sams shop in almost a month. Same with the produce market. I'm happy to say that I still have $160 of our $400 budget left for the month. Easy peasy (well unless the drugstores decide to mess things up again), cause we don't need much.  I only need to pick up bread and bananas next week. Sams was out of all wheat bread when I was there - yikes! I haven't eaten white bread in about 30 years (not including rolls/buns). 

• Boy was I shocked at the price increases at Sams! It looks like they increased lots of prices while everyone was on Christmas break. I don't keep a price book, but I can easily tell when the prices are different (I have a photographic memory). All meat (lunch meat too) & cheese & other dairy prices have skyrocketed. Thankfully, we didn't need much at Sams this time around, but spending $150 for a few items was shocking.

• I used 5 lbs of the chicken breast to make fajita chicken. We used some to make tacos for dinner tonight and froze the rest. I had some old taco shells we needed to use up. I also cooked a pot of beans to go with it and added a big salad on the side. 

• I also made some pulled chicken that we can use for salad and wraps next week. I haven't made pulled chicken in years. I had some BBQ sauce I needed to use, so nothing went to waste.

• I finally go the last of my Christmas gifts delivered. DH didn't attend school due to covid exposure that Christmas week, so I didn't send in Christmas gifts. (I'm friends with many of his old teachers, so I send them all gifts every year).  However, I couldn't find all the gcs I purchased for them. I had some in my gc folder, but couldn't remember what I did with the Meijer ones. Finally found it in my birthday cards drawer (I keep a stack of cards, so that it's easy to just write one when someone has a birthday). Then I discovered that I didn't have enough Christmas cards for everyone. Oh no. But I then remembered that the ASPCA sent me some free cards, envelopes and address labels last month, so I used some of those cards. I wrote a personal note in each card, added the WAGS chocolates and gcs and everyone's happy. 

• I did almost no after Christmas shopping. We just don't need anything. We're still using Christmas wrapping supplies (wrap, tape, tags, bows, gift bags etc) that I purchased at 90% off over a decade ago. I only picked up a book for DH and some replacement lights. 

• A big thank you to everyone for their sleepwear recommendations. I checked Walmart again to see if they had better fabric. Their brand is the same as my current pjs I bought on clearance for $3 a few years ago (2-3 years), but the fabric content is different (that explains why the new ones look & feel so cheap). My current ones are 60% cotton, while the new ones are 100% recycled polyester. No thank you!! I'm seriously leaning towards Soma, but I just cannot bring myself to pay $45 for a sleep shirt. My parents worked in the industry, so my mom, sister and I used to get lots of fancy pjs and undies at cost price. My dad's company manufactured sleepwear for all the high end retailers in South Africa.I still have a terry robe (the first one he bought me almost 30 years ago). It's finally started to get small holes, so I stopped wearing it. But it shows just how good the quality was back then, because things were made to last. 

• I stocked up on more undies for DS after Christmas. He's not liking the Izod ones I bought him at Burlington (after struggling to find underwear at many stores) last year. I don't blame him. It's not 100% cotton, so it started to stretch. His favorite brand cost $43-45 per pack (only 3 undies per pack). There's only one store that I've been able to find this style and brand at  55% off. It's also the only place that had the 100% cotton ones, so I wasted no time. I got 5 packs and called it a day. He opened some of his favorite brand ones in the stockpile, so the new ones will all go back into the stockpile for a rainy day. 

• I also bought him some casual shorts at 70% off during those after Christmas sales. I needed to spend $60 to get free shipping, so I added a few extra items to resell. That will at least help recoup some of our OOP. 

• I bought him another 2 pairs of casual shorts at Kohls. I had $30 KC/Y2Y rewards to use by Jan 1st. I saw how hard it was to spend my BF KC, because their clearance items are still super pricey (at least to me). So I decided to just spend the KC on DS and pay shipping OOP. Paying that $8.95 shipping was totally worth it, compared to me having to waste an hour in store plus gas, just to try to find something to spend it on. The online order took me about 5 minutes. 

• I still have some bonus gcs that I need to spend on myself this weekend, as they are expiring. I don't even know what I want to buy. My closet's full.

• I only stopped at WAGS this week, because I had a $5 RR that was expiring. They have a good deal on Dial this week, so I decided to stock up on bar soap. I figured that the $2 per pack (8 ct pack) (without Q) is a great price. Here's what I did:

Trans 1 (my account)

2 x Dial b/w $8.00

Less DQ (1.50)

Less RR (5.00)

Less WC (1.00)

Tax 0.48

OOP $0.98

Earned $4 RR

Trans 2 (DH account)

2 x Dial bar soap $8.00

Less Dial DQ (1.50)

Less WC (5.00)

Tax 0.48

OOP $1.98

Earned $4 RR

Trans 3 (DH account)

2 x Dial bar soap $8.00

Less WC (5.00)

Tax 0.48

OOP $3.48

Earned $4 RR

Total OOP $6.44

This is a better price than when Target has the gc deal plus I have oodles of WC to lower my OOP.  I'm a happy camper.

I need to take a look at next week's RA ad, because I have BC I need use. 

I'm now going to work on cleaning my office. I have a lot of listing to do next week, so I need an organized space. Then I'm going to try and have an early night. I'm running on empty. I've been awake since my 4.30 am bathroom break. 

I also need to catch up on reading everyone's blogs sometime this weekend.

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