This & that

Hi everyone

Menu plan post to follow tomorrow or Wednesday., cause I have an upset stomach. I think I have food poisoning, because I almost tossed my cookies while eating breakfast. I just opened a Canada Dry to help ease the nausea. 

Thank you for the housing input everyone. I have some good news. I received an email from my realtor on Saturday about another house in the area, but he also included a complete breakdown of costs. It turns out that my (buyer) closing costs is a lot less (less than 5 figures) than what his assistant told me. Hallelujah!! This made me very happy, but also annoyed me a bit. I really liked that other house (except for part of the exterior). Had she given me the correct information, I would've gone to view the house. I'm a professional. I hate when people give me half assed or wrong information. I like things done right, but I also do my due diligence. Anyhoo, I'm just happy to learn that the extras won't cost me that much more. I might still go view that house. I still don't want to spend that much, because I still want to have a decent financial safety net. 

On to other things:

• I bought myself new nightstands at Wayfair. I've had my eye on these for months and it's currently on sale. I was going to wait until Labor Day to see if there's a better price on it, but when I checked the site (I check for price drops daily) on Thursday, the pic was gone and when I added an extra one to my cart (I've had one in my cart so they could send me price change notifications), but number added was faint (like it was OOS). So I panicked. I was able to add the extra one to my cart though, so I decided to just see if I can check out. I hauled out my gcs and redeemed for another $75 one (10% off) through my CC. I was able to add all my gcs (one of the  RA ones kept saying it's invalid. WTH?), but it eventually accepted it after several attempts (the numbers weren't wrong, because I double check things before hitting Apply). However, the CC one wouldn't work at all. Ugh, this is a multi store card (they didn't have regular Wayfair ones on sale). I never buy the multi store ones, cause I've read horror stories about it before. Well, it looks like I need to shop through the gc link they provided. No way, I've already got everything in my cart on my desktop and the gc was on my Ipad. I wasn't going to log into all sorts of things and miss out on my nightstands. There were 2 others I had my eye on before & both sold out. I was determined to get these nightstands, so I paid the rest OOP. Ouch! Not a problem, because I still have my eye on a headboard at Wayfair, so I can use the gc on that. 
  
  I have no clue what furniture costs here, because we never bought new furniture (other than when DS's room was remodeled). I'm just surprised that one nightstand costs almost as much as my big vanity. I actually did pretty well (I think) on furniture purchases. Here's what I spent on a vanity & 2 nightstands:
  
  Gift card purchased OOP (Wags & RA) $321.00
  Cash OOP $350.00
  Total OOP : $671.00
  
  Earned - these are all extra points and gcs that I earned for purchasing gcs.
  Wags - $60.00
  RA - $16.00
  CC (3% on RA purchase) - $2.43
  Total earned : $78.43
  
  I've already rolled my drugstore points into new items and more points. It will take me a long time to spend it down (cause I keep rolling it into deals that earn new points), so we're basically keep getting free HBA with the drugstore earnings.
  
  The best part of Wayfair is that my items always arrive within 2 days. I received my nightstands yesterday and am very happy with my purchase. Well, the boxes were so badly damaged in transit that I was afraid the items would be damaged too. Thankfully, there's no damage. Phew! These nightstands were worth every penny. They are beautiful. Simple, understated beauty (that's how I like things). Now I just need to find a bed set (frame, box spring & mattress). I'm hoping to still come in under budget.
  
  So, on Thursday night I decided to search for lamps for my bedroom (I'm a decisive woman. I know what I want. I'll have a visual of what I'd like, then I'd start searching for things). I do an online search, then click on Images, so I can easily see things I like. Well, I didn't exactly find lamps for myself, but I did see that DS's lamps (I fell in love when these lamps when I first saw it. If you've watched my videos, you will understand my love for all things blue & nautical) I've wanted, was back in stock (store never notified me). So I pulled out a Home Depot gc and just paid tax OOP. I earned these gcs from the bonus offer when I opened a new CC. In fact, these gcs were on sale too, so I was able to stretch my bonus even further. Who would've thunk that drugstores would help you furnish a house. I bet nobody thought to do that before 😂 I know! I'm a strange bird, but it works 😂
  
  I did end up finding some lamps for myself, but I'm not completely sold on it yet. There's no rush. I need to focus on finding a good bed first. Also, can anyone recommend a good furniture store(s) for living room furniture. I've checked a few, but haven't seen anything I like.
  
  

• Madewell sent me a $10 reward, so I ordered a t-shirt. Paid $0.42 OOP and earned $0.21 Rakuten. 
  
  
  
• Loft first sent me a $15 off any full price item reward. I thought "this must be a mistake, cause I don't pay full price for anything" 😂 Then they sent me a $20 off anything and reminded me that I still have a free shipping code. So I bought a pair of jeans and 2 tops and paid $5.81 OOP and earned 25c Rakuten. 
  
  Retailers are definitely struggling, because I haven't shopped at these stores for over a year (I've never shopped at Madewell, other than with the rewards they send me), but they keep sending me rewards. I'll take the free money any day. I can still make money on these items after I'm done wearing it. Yeah, I love free money! 

• I've been rolling my drugstore rewards into Ibotta offers and had $60 to spend at Sams last week. It was very nice to pay less than $40 OOP for my groceries (including meat). 
  
  I then earned another $20 gc and used it on groceries this week. My grocery shopping for this week came to a whopping $56.68. We didn't need much this week and there's lots to eat.  I only shopped Sams and then stopped at Aldi for bread, broth & onions. 

That's all I can think of for now. I'm off to bed so I can feel better.

Have a great day peeps!!