The Return of the Eating Machine....And Other Tales

Yes, #1 son has been home 6 days now.  And my food budget is beginning to feel the strain.

It's barely 1/2 way through the month and I have spent $142.50 on food for May.  While this isn't such a terrible number for 2 weeks and we really haven't been grocery shopping much at all this past week, we are making quite the dent in the freezer/stockpile.  And alot of what I spent the 1st week in May on groceries was in anticipation of #1's return home. 
We've spent $14.32 on food since Monday.  This was on milk and fresh produce.  But I've been making dinners #1 requested like Beef Stroganoff, Corned Beef and Cabbage, Clam Chowder from scratch with BLT's.  Tonight is the Fish Fry and Mother's Day DH made Fried Chicken and tomorrow it's Burgers and Dogs on the grill.  It's been one big Meat Parade around here lately.
Add in that #1 has been raiding the freezer each night for "Fourth Meal" so I wake up to a kitchen full of dirty dishes and pans each morning.
I think next week I tell him the Honeymoon is Over and show him the shelf of Ramen Noodles out in the garage....

So we've been eating down on lots of stuff here.
I might be taking a short trip next week so there won't be any stocking up for another week or so until I get back. 

I still haven't made it up to Rite-Aid this week.
Maybe later today since I need to go to the bank for change for the Flea Market.
Yes, the FM is a go this Sunday.  Sunday's forecast is warmish and partly sunny so I sitting here trying to figure out pricing for my items.  I want to be a tad more organized this year since last Oct.'s FM foray was just NUTS once it opened!  Not a moment for 2 solid hours to catch my breath.  If I can't get everything actually priced with a sticker, I need to get a sheet made up for DH so he isn't so clueless about the prices.
It will also take some of the stress off of me if he can tell people the prices.
After I finish this and rouse 'Sleeping Beauty' aka #1 son, I am off to the living room with marker in hand to go through the stack of boxes of goodies.

Have you done a stockpile sale lately?
How did you do?  And what were your prices??
Help! ;-)

Sluggy

What I Hate about eBay #1....

When eBay Users who have no knowledge of English send you "Question to Seller" inquiries on the original eBay board.
Do I go on eBay China, eBay Russia, eBay Spain, etc. and attempt to buy stuff without knowing a lick of those countries languages?  Nope.....

These people need to be told that ONLINE TRANSLATORS may NOT be your friend and they should really find a friend in Real Life who reads/writes/speaks just a tiny bit of English to proofread their literal translations before sending.

Case in Point--
A question I received this morning......
"Hello I´m interesting in your products of Lego. I live in Spain, I like know the prize of the spend send."

Luckily, this one is decipherable.
Some of the ones I get are A LOT worse and totally unintelligible!
OK....so receiving Questions in other languages, which I also sometimes get, is no prize either!LOL

Now why, if I WAS in my right mind, would I want to sell something to this person? 
Since we have a pretty big language barrier right off the bat(since I don't speak Spanish and he obviously doesn't speak English), if ANYTHING goes wrong with this transaction(another question, he misinterprets my answer, there is a Paypal payment issue, he doesn't comprehend some finer point of the whole eBay scene/rules, etc.), this potential transaction will result in a whole mess a' nothing but badness.
I foresee being pissed off, losing money and possibly losing my item or any combination of these three.

"Dear Non-English Speaking User,
Thank you for your inquiry.  While the products of Lego is no Prize, the spend send is $55US, especially if you live in Spain."

Now let me run this response through the English to Spanish online translator and then send it.  It will probably make as much sense to him as if I reply rationally to his question.  ;-)

Sluggy

Now That You Got the 'Poo.....

Go to Libby's Facebook page and "like" them. 
Then click on the tab for FREE VEGGIES or click on this link HERE to get to the form to fill out.

Sluggy

FREE 'POO.....Hurry over to Facebook!

Want some free shampoo?

Go hurry over to Facebook and "like" Suave over there.
Then click on the "TRY SUAVE" tab or try this link HERE.

First 100,000 peoples get the snail mailed coupon for FREE SUAVE.  The link went live a couple of hours ago so HURRY!

Sluggy

Even If You Think You Know Everything about Doing Taxes.....

So.....when our Federal Income Tax showed up in our checking account via direct deposit a couple of weeks ago, it made me happy......

Really!....wouldn't that make anyone happy?lol

But the amount that was deposited didn't sound quite what I remembered it should have been.  So I went and got out our copy of the forms we filed and the numbers didn't match up with what we actually got back.
We got back more than we thought we would!
Hmmm....

So a few days later I received a letter in the mail from the IRS.
*Cue up the ominous music.....

After I picked my still beating heart up off of the floor, I proceeded to open the letter with trepidation, just waiting for a team of men in black suits to burst through the front door and haul we away in leg irons.
Luckily, that didn't happen.

The letter was an explanation of why we got back a refund that didn't jive with what we figured our refund was going to be.
It seems we qualified for that "Making Work Pay" Credit...line 63 on the long form if you are a tax geek.

Seeing as the government considers our income in the "rich people" range(see me slap my knee and keel over with laughter!),  I didn't even download the worksheet/form or instructions to see if we could claim this credit.  I just assumed we made too much money to apply for it.
Well, I was wrong.
Imagine that?

And my wonderful government had some diligent IRS employee recalculate our return figures and they sent us $800 more than we had expected back.

Now isn't that nice of them?
I thought so.

Moral of this story......
Even if you think you know everything about doing something, you probably don't.
It's always good to take a look at how you do things with a fresh eye.

Sluggy