The Good, Bad & Ugly Lately at Chez Sluggy

It's been a real mix of things here lately at Chez Sluggy.
Here's a rundown of the past few weeks.

* UGLY  Hubs had to go down to Louisiana and was gone 8 days.  Even though he stayed in the house while there it meant 2 nights of motel charges(1 on each of the way down and the way back), plus lots of money spent on gas and meals.  I did have a few fast food/casual dining gift cards he used and he made breakfast and some coffee at the house so it could have been worse than the $1100+/- it cost OOP for this trip.

* GOOD and BAD The reason for Hubs trip was to access the condition of the house there, clean a bit, fire our old realtor and interview for a new realtor and field some independent offers we got on the property, so that was good.
None of the independent offers turned up a sale so we signed a new contract once he got home and we got an offer with the new agent on the house last week.  Unfortunately, the financing for the people wanting the house fell through so we didn't sell the house. 8-(  But we have gotten a lot more traffic with this new realtor and that paired with a lower(more realistic)price may eventually get us a sale.  Sooner rather than later is my preference. ;-)

*  UGLY We have had 2 snowstorms in 2 weeks since Hubs has come back(plus 1  that arrived while he was gone), so I am blaming them all on him. lolz  And another Nor'Eastern is slated to hit mid week this week, which makes #4 though we aren't suppose to see much accumulation on that one, but still, it's the end of March for gosh sakes.....enough is ENOUGH!
March 2nd.....

I took Chester out before storm #2 hit(4 days after #1 hit and there was melt)and saw that we had had some deer activity in the yard.................

These tracks are much too large to be Chester's.
Then I spied at the top of the middle of this shot a strangely squared shaped track set apart from the other tracks.

A playing card buried in the snow. 
I guess our resident deer enjoy a game of Black Jack every now and again while traipsing through our development.  ;-)

March 7th.....

Hubs came home between the storms and was in charge of taking Chester out again......

* GOOD On March 8th we finally were all well enough to go out to celebrate College Boy's birthday.

My kids insist on going out to expensive restaurants for their birthdays so this time we went at lunch time and paid lunch menu prices for the expensive Hibachi meal.

This is Daughter's idea of "celebrating".....a punch bowl full of liquor!  It came with 2 straws but she wasn't sharing it!lolz  5 types of liquor and gosh only knows what else was in that drink.  She let me take a sip and all I could taste was alcohol so it was light on the fruit juice.

I passed on the sushi roll made with tuna, salmon and red snapple.....lolol

This hibachi master wasn't as crazy as the one we had back in 2011 for my Daughter's Birthday meal but this chef did have a special water bottle to put out the onion rings volcano........

We mentioned that is was CB's birthday so they thoroughly embarrassed him by banging a gong at the table and we all sang "Happy Birthday" and he blew out his candle on his dish or ice cream........

He finally got his Bday card and his check....

Then he posed for a photo with me before he left in a separate car to go to his internship.

Can you tell from my face I'd had a bit of sake by this time?

* GOOD and UGLY
I already blogged about my Rite-Aid trips............

I hit Weis a week ago Friday for some deals and a Friday Freebie which I talked about already.....

Then  I went back for a few deals on Wednesday and ended up doing a big shop.........

 Among the best deals was 4 more bottle of this organic OS juice for free(sale $2 using $2/1 Qs), 2 boxes of Puffs with lotion for .50¢ box after sale/doubled Qs, 2 more Well Yes! soup for .67¢ each after sale/doubled Qs, a can of coffee for $1.99 after sale/Q.............

4 bags of shredded cheese for $1.37 each after sale/Qs.......

 And I hit a bacon deal.  5 packs of John F Martin bacon(the local good stuff!)for $3 a pack after $3 off Instant Stickers on each.  These will go into the freezer for Summertime BLTs.  8-)))

I also bought a fair number of frozen entrees, ice cream(the kids are going through it at a rapid clip!), some Progresso soups for Daughter's lunch, soda 12 packs(stock-up price), devil dogs, pizza bagels, Power-ade, buffalo chicken bites and breaded mushrooms and chips for snacking for the kids, 2 cans of diamonds for snacking for me, some doggie treats for Chester, 2 packs of discounted meat, 2 boxes of muffin mix that was .50¢ after sale/doubled Qs, cole slaw cabbage mix and 2 bags of salad kits.  I also bought reg. milk, a full price container of sour cream(needed that night for our stroganoff dinner).
When that trip was said and done $241.85 if I had paid full reg. retail for all cost me $115.70 after sales and Qs(most doubled).
I spent a lot more than I planned(can I blame the discounted bacon??lol)but this week's shop should be a lot less.
Oh and since it was PI(e) Day on Wednesday I bought a pie............

Lemon meringue for half price. lolz

* BAD And then I had my slip and fall Thursday which has curtailed any going out and spending $ up to this point. 
Good think I got those frozen & prepared foods since I haven't been up to making meals since Thursday(though I am putting a corned beef into the crock pot today-a day later than planned).
I doubt I'll go to Rite-Aid this week other than for any Rxs as the deals are thin now and for next week too as far as I can tell.  I do need to get to Ollie's(Good Stuff Cheap!)in the next week or so as I have a 10% off discount card that is expiring the end of the month.

And let's end with something good.........

* GOOD  I was contacted out of the blue this past week by a 1st cousin 1 x removed on Ancestry.
Her mother and my paternal grandfather were siblings(making her my father's 1st cousin).  I had no inkling she existed because I never met that Great Aunt and didn't know she and her husband had had any kids!!  I don't think she knew I existed either until she saw the same people on my tree that are on hers. lol  We are emailing back and forth now and are sharing info, stories and photos(though she has a lot more photos of that part of the family than I do).

This is a photo of a photo she sent me of  my father with his parents(the baby in my grandfather's arms)I am guessing was taken in 1932 in upstate New York.  This is the oldest photo I have of my grandparents(as well as of my dad).
I'm looking forward to more photos and stories from my newly found cousin. 8-)))

That's about all to report in lately from Chez Sluggy.

What's been going on lately in your world?


Sluggy

Happenings Lately and Stuff in My Head

*  First the Rite-Aid business.....lol

Purex detergent is $1.99 a small jug at Rite-Aid this week.
Pair that with $1/2 Qs from the Sunday inserts and a Spend $15/Get $4 Back cash rebate with Saving Star and it makes for some really inexpensive suds.
And then I paired the 2 jugs I bought earlier this week with 2 moneymaker March Pain Deals to get all this for free.

2 x Purex on sale=$3.98
1 x Joint Flex 20% discount=$16.79
1 x Similisan 20% discount=$8.79
SubTotal........$29.56

Coupons Used
1 x $1/2 Purex ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $3/1 Joint Flex ManuQ=$3.00
1 x $1/1 Similisan Product IPQ=$1.00
Coupon Total.....$5.00

$29.56-$5=$24.56 + .18¢tax=$24.74 OOP

I paid with $24.74 in Plenti Points and earned $26.00($17 Joint Flex, $9 Similisan)back in new Plenti Points making this a $1.26 moneymaker.

And I have $3.98 tracking for the Saving Star rebate.
I'll go back and get 6 more jugs this week(or rain checks if they are out)and finish off this Rebate.
After sale/Qs/rebate 8 jugs of detergent will end up costing me $9.62 in Plenti Points.  No cash spend OOP.
Nice.

*  I went to pick up College Boy on Saturday.  After riding in the car for 2.5 hours I was forced to use his dorm suite's bathroom.  With two 20 year old males sharing it, I knew it wouldn't be pretty.
It wasn't quite as dirty as last Spring when I picked him up for break.  Here's the bathroom waste basket as it appeared in March 2015...........

This time the bathmat I sent with him in the Fall was a disaster.  You couldn't see the blue color for the black mold covering it.
Ewwwwww!  "Well", I thought, as I sat using the toilet and contemplating the rug, "At least we won't have to haul that home when he moves out.". ;-)

*  Since we have a sizeable chunk of retirement money we are all the time getting "invitations" in the mail to a free lunch, mostly to Ruth Chris' Steak House locally.  The caveat being we had to sit through a sales presentation by some financial peddler while we choke down that free steak as they want to talk us into letting them get their hands on our assets because they know they can best manage them for us.....after they take their cut of fees and commissions for investing it wisely for us.

But we got something a little different in the mail recently....

"You are invited to the most Important Retirement Summit of 2016" it says.......

Really?!
Should I feel honored for this invite?

No.
It's just a supposedly free lunch and talk by that IRA guy who pops up on PBS now and again, hawking his books and dvds as a "reward" for a rather large donation to your local PBS channel.

But no, this supposed free lunch is NOT free!  A $50 "donation" is required at the time of registration to attend once you read the invite.
"There is no additional cost or obligation and nothing will be sold." it reads as well.

Nothing may be sold at this lunch but it is being sponsored by an area financial instruments seller so you KNOW they are trying to drum up business and SELL you something!
The Ed Slott talk will be the same old stick you can see on PBS and you'll be paying $50 to charity for that and a sad business lunch....plus the sponsoring business gets to feel good and reap the benefits of giving your $50(and all the other attendees $50)to charity.
How nice of them.....geez, they must be good financial advisors, right?  ha

Be wary of anybody giving you a free lunch in order to get their hands on your retirement monies.
Are they giving you free financial advise only or are they actually trying to sell you financial instruments?
Here's a better way......pay for financial advise from licensed certified financial planners and NOT financial products sellers.

*  And we just sunk to a new low in the "Folks who want to get ahold of our money and 'help' us" Category.
We just received our first phone solicitation by a financial investments seller.  A subsidiary of NY Life wants to reach out to us and "help" us with our retirement assets.  Great!  Now I get to dodge phone calls from these bastards too and not just through the mail.
Lovely.

*  And in other news we took College Boy out for his Birthday meal to the local Hibachi Restaurant.
And yes that little kid at the other end of the table has a mohawk.  Don't be surprised, his dad had a tongue stud, piercings other places, massive tattoos and ear gauges.


And we sing Happy Birthday to him, though the only one you can hear on this is me! lol



This is the place that squirts sake into your mouth from a bottle.

You may remember my post the first time we went to this place back in 2011.
I blogged about it HERE.

Luckily for all involved our chef didn't pull a rubber chicken out of his hat so things didn't get very ugly that night.
I did take sake shots from a squirt bottle however.
Noah can't have the sake yet so he got the Lemonade baby bottles squirt.  Next year though he turns 21...he can't wait!

We sat at the grill with a family of 5(3 kids).  The mother has aspirations of being a My Little Pony I think.  I didn't get a picture but her hair looked just like this........

Honest to goodness I didn't know this was a "thing" until I googled it. lolz

She had to be in her late 30's this woman and was wearing cut-off jean shorts(more nothing than shorts)with her ass cheek hanging out and the cellulite of her legs on display for all to see.

Classy lady.

*  I had Hubs stop in at Walmart while he was out last weekend to buy this.......

A box of a tea I like.  There was a $1 off Q on the Good Earth website.  Tea cost $2.48 at Wal-mart-$1=$1.48 OOP.

There is/was also an Ibotta Rebate for $1.25 off of 1 box of any flavor of GE tea.  I grabbed Hubs smartphone and sent for that rebate so my box of tea in the end will cost .23¢.

Sweet......and Spicy. lol

*  The dumpster guy came and hauled off the construction waste on Wednesday.  He put what looked like a shower cap/hair net over the dumpster before picking it up onto the truck and driving away.

Hubs did add in a few larger items to the dumpster that had been sitting in our basement for years before they took it off.  Might as well fill the thing up since we paid for it anyway, right?

You will also notice in that shot that the "Behemoth" RV is NOT parked in the neighbors driveway!  They drove it off almost 2 weeks ago but if they are staying in it, it must be at a campground nearby because their cars keep coming and going at odd intervals to and from their house.  School is not out on break and the teenage daughter is staying at the house sometimes and going to school in the mornings I guess.

These people have always been odd but I am just glad that their RV is NOT here for however long that lasts!

*  The local high school has adult education courses each spring and we got a brochure recently.

You can pay $21 and go learn how to color.

WTF?  I just don't get this whole adult coloring book thing!

I didn't like to color in coloring books as a kid....I found them too restrictive and boring.....why on earth would I pay someone to let me color now?

They also had this course.........

Now THAT'S the course I should sign up for......just to be the smartass in the room who challenges what this instructor/amateur says. lolz

And why on earth does this "instructor" have to say he's a CPA?!?  It has nothing to do with the subject matter he is teaching.  It just lets people know that he is boring and this class will be a snoozefest....... ;-)

*  I took a ride down to the town South of us as the Weis(PMITA)Markets there now carries beer.

Chocolate Truffle Stout?  I might have to try that one......

I wonder if my Eldest Son has tried this?  He likes spicy hot stuff.......

Ah, this one called to my inner Viking........but not at $14.99 a 6-pack.

And then I saw this car parked next to me in the lot.............

Each side of the car was covered in insulting phrases appropriate to people who drive badly and talk/text on phones while driving.

Ah, a person after my own heart.

This might just have given me an idea or two........lolz

So what stuff and nonsense has been going on lately in your world?

Sluggy