Stocking up like it's nobody's business

Is anyone else over all the constant doom & gloom - Covid, monkeypox, war, inflation, gas prices etc? I tell ya, I'm over it. When can we all get back to normal? Do we even know what normal is anymore?

I haven't really stocked up the last few months for several reasons. I've only been adding things here & there. However, I keep reading about global food shortages in the near future. Then I read that the UK is already in a recession. So a decision had to be made. I told myself  'Girl, no matter what, we still have to eat'. Do I want to put stockpiling on the back burner and pay even higher prices later or do I want to risk running into shortages. Higher prices is one thing, but running out isn't an option for me. I'm a planner. I always make sure that we have more than enough of everything. I'd rather have too much and help out someone in need, than run out myself. I've always been this way. My ex boss used to tell me that I'm like a squirrel, preparing for winter months...lol The bottom drawer (big drawer) of my desk was always filled with snacks. Everyone in the office knew that if they needed a snack, they could just check my bottom drawer. That's how I roll. 

So this was a big stockpiling week for me. I decided to just do what I do best - shop for some deals. Here's some of what I did. 

Walmart

I stocked up on some canned veggies. I was very, very happy to find the Store brand no salt added peas. I got 8 cans. I don't normally buy this much, but the peas have been hit & miss the last 2 years and I love peas. I bought some AP flour and sugar too. I bake muffins every week and keep running low on AP flour. I'm also down to my last brown sugar, which I use in my coffee. 

Yikes. The Prego pesto went from $2.77 to $3.12

Bran Flakes - $2.30. Huh? Last time I was at the store, it was still $2.20. I initially bought this brand, because it was half the price of Fiber One with the same/similar nutritional value. The cereal was $1.80 or $1.90. Then $2 - $2.10 - $2.20 & now $2.30. It's a good thing I already have a decent amount stockpiled. 

I bought a few other things. Had a $20 Ibotta gc, so only spent $26.xx OOP. I'm very happy with that. 

Large cans Bush's baked beans (the only baked beans brand I'll eat) is now $2.49!!!! It was just $2.29 a few weeks ago. Last week my local grocery store had the baked beans for $1.99. No limits. Bless their hearts - they often have decent sales with no limits. However, I only bought 6 cans at a time (2 different locations). So 12 cans saved me $6. I still have more in stock. 

Target

I love this store! I rarely shop at Target, but I love the cleanliness of the store, and how peaceful it is to shop there. It's seldom packed, so shopping is a breeze.  I initially went there for the Tide/Bounce deal. I'm almost out of dryer sheets and was waiting for a good sale. It's crazy how I've been running out of things lately. This never happens to me. 

I don't know how I stumbled upon the Old Spice deal, but something made me check out the b/w at Target online (I like to add all my items online to see how the Circle coupons apply). I've mentioned before that DS only has a few b/w bottles left. The downside is that the Captain scent has now been discontinued. Ugh, I hate when they do this. PG keeps adding new scents to the Old Spice line and they're not all good (BBW does the same). I'll be the first to admit that the Captain scent smells amazing!!!, so I don't know why it's been discontinued. So this mama bear decided to go stock up. 

The deal is Spend $12, save $3

Buy 3, get $5 gc

10% off all Old Spice b/w

These 3 deals stacked, which makes for a good sale. I still had a $10 gc from before, so here's what I did

Trans 1

1 x Tide $12.99

1 x Downy 12.99

1 x Bounce 10.99

4 x Old Spice b/w 19.36 (total after all discounts). Original pice is $5.99 each

Less Downy DQ (2.00)

Less Bounce DQ (2.00)

Less GC (10.00)

Tax 3.38

OOP : $45.71

Earned $15 GC ($10 Tide, $5 OS)

Trans 2

4 x Old Spice b/w 19.36

Tax 0.86

Less GC from trans 1 (15.00)

OOP : $5.22

Earned $5 GC

Then today DS and I went to a different location since my store only had 2 bottles left after my last trip. 

Trans 3 & 4 (did the same deal twice)

4 x Old Spice $19.36

Tax 0.86

Less GC (5.00)

OOP $15.22

Earned $5 GC

Oh yes I did buy 16 bottles. Talk to me again when we can't find this scent at any store...lol I've only seen it at Target and a few select Wags. The online information is wrong. Neither Meijer nor Walmart carry this scent anymore. I actually bought the last 8 bottles at the 2nd store today. No regrets. I'm not a shelf clearer, but desperate times call for desperate measures...lol

I just kept rolling those gcs. So I got 16 bottles for $46.18 OOP. That's $2.87 per bottle, which is more than a 50% savings! Plus, they're the bonus size bottles. I'm a happy camper!

Wags

I needed to redeem some RRs, but somebody cleared my Wags out of all the Tide Simply. I don't get it. The Tide isn't even such a good price (especially compared to Target). The deals were few & far between this week, so I just figured I'd burn some RRs on Tide & Downy (those bottles are tiny). Then yesterday I learned that the 20 oz Palmolive is Buy 2 get $3 WC. That's a good price. So while I was out, I stopped at a different Wags and picked up 6 bottles. This is how it was supposed to go. 

Trans 1

4 x Palmolive $11.96

Less RR (4.00)

Less WC (5.00)

Tax

OOP : $2.96 + tax

Except, I had 3 blue bottles and 3 orange bottles. So after the cashier rang and bagged 4 bottles, I placed the other 2 bottles on the counter and said I want to pay for it separately. Cashier said okay, then proceeded to void and keep adding items that my head was spinning looking at the small screen. Then he hit total and it was $0.27!! WTH?! I knew this was wrong, but you can't make changes at Wags once the cashier hits total. Ugh, so my receipt prints and I noticed that he rang up the bottles by color and only had 3 on the first receipt. This is so wrong, cause I didn't earn all my rewards, because I had 3 bottles instead of 4. In my mind I'm cussing up a storm, but I gave him a polite smile and explained the situation in a very calm manner. He was young and super sweet. So I told him that it's okay. I have a way to fix it without having to void the transaction. I asked if he was new and he said Yes. So I told him that its oka to make mistakes. We all have to learn when we start a new job. So I had him call over the manager. I explained things to the manager, then asked her if I could just pay for the 2nd transaction (3 bottles again) and then have her add $3 Courtesy points to fix things. I was supposed to earn $9 WC for the 6 bottles, but only earned $6, because of only having 3 bottles per transaction. She agreed, added my points and 20 bloody minutes later....lol. I left Wags with my $9 rewards. Phew. But wait, then I got stuck in traffic. All I could see was flashing lights up ahead and I knew that once I get to the first available exit, I would have to take a long detour home. I still don't know why the traffic was backed up, cause there was no accident, just cops. Road finally cleared after cops checkpoint. Sigh, Wags never fails to disappoint. But guess what. I wasn't a pita customer who ruined the cashier's day because of a mistake. Instead I reassured him that it's okay to make a mistake. I even thanked him when I left the store. 

I also made a pit stop at Ollies for raisins and books, but alas, no raisins. But shocker, the Cashews that was $8.99 before is now $11.99!!! Shame on you Ollie's. I know inflation is biting everyone in the behind, but adding $3 to an item that's been in stock for months, is a bit much! Now see, this is when my crazy shopping skills pay off. Back when I bought all the nuts, I didn't even know we would have war, inflation, high gas prices etc. I bought the nuts to make my own trail mix and even used a 15% off Q. Well, looky here. I didn't know the prices were going to increase by a whopping $3 per item. I'm just gonna go into my pantry and grab a new bag from the shelf. Easy peasy. 

Half the time I don't even know why I'm stocking up on select things like it's the end of the world. However, I've learned that my gut instincts ALWAYS pay off. So if I'm doing crazy shopping, just know that there will eventually be a good reason for it - even if I don't know the reason yet. I'm not psychic. I don't believe in that mumbo jumbo, but I do trust God and I know that my instincts is God pointing me in the right direction. 

Kroger has milk, Kraft cheese & Prego (my preferred brand) on sale, so I'm gonna head there before the sale ends on Tuesday. I do need milk and Prego. I was just looking at the Prego price at Walmart earlier this week and noticed that it's over $2. Good thing I didn't buy any. Kroger has it for $1.27, so I'm buying the limit of 5. 

I'm in a slump. I'm not motivated to do anything, much less blog. I've had quite a few setbacks/stumbling blocks over the last few weeks. I'm talking big things. All I want to do is go lay on the beach with some cocktails and not have a care in the world. I just want to go smell the salty ocean air and forget all my troubles. Sadly, the beach is not going to happen in the near future, so I'll settle for a few cocktails and a hug. Maybe some chocolate too. Okay, I'm a hard liquor girl. So let's just skip the cocktails nonsense and call it what it is. I'd like some good hard liquor on the rocks...lol. It's weekend after all...lol

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!