Storage is Done!...Well, For Now......

See this photo here.....

This photo means I have physically gone through every box in storage.
Go me!
Remember what that area looked like before?....

Crammed full as far as the eye could see!lol
Now?....there is an echo if you talk in there.

Here is what is left....

The stacks on the left going to the back are stuffed animals, beanies, etc. that I need to dispose of.
Daughter's dollhouse is also to the right of those boxes.
The tubs stacked up in the center back are fabric.
The tubs/boxes to the right of the fabric are some toys bound for eBay.
The tubs in front of those boxes are more fabric.
And in front of all on the right is my excess tp/paper towel stash plus excess toiletries.

Obviously the Toy Sale didn't happen last weekend as I wanted it to.
It was a combination of my back issues which meant I didn't get everything done in time.
The rainy weather was a factor too.
#2 son also had a band competition on Saturday.

This weekend we are expecting nice sunny weather and no band practice/competition.
I have made strides in getting items cleaned up and shelved in the garage and if I can get Hubs to drag heavy tubs of toys around the house for me, and the drugs don't run out, this sale might actually happen.
I hope I'll be ready by Saturday!
I need to get some flyers put up in town still and the ads online on Wednesday or Thursday.

I am making plans for whatever doesn't sell already......yah, I am a geeky planner.lol
I can try selling some on the local online selling board.  That's the first notion but I don't have high hopes for that idea.

After that, I may make some of this available on a different online group.  It revolves around providing free Holiday gifts for those who can't afford them for their kids.  It's a statewide group but I'll need some of the 'angels' on that group to come up with some cash donations for the shipping costs to get the gifts to any towns not close by.  We'll see how that goes....

If none of this pans out, or if all of it does and there is STILL stuff leftover, then I'll be giving more stuff to Toys for Tots and/or Salvation Army.
Then I have all these white plastic shelving units to get rid of, so they will probably go to SA also.

I do still have a TON of items eBay-worthy besides the ones in the photo above.....and they are all sitting in my living room now!
Ugh.

To make this more of an "Ugh" moment.....2 days after I finish the sale, I have company coming to stay here for 2 days.
So just when I'll want to fall into bed from exhaustion, I'll need to clean out the living room and clean the house.

I just need to drink...... ;-)

Sluggy

Food Spending for Week 2 & Meal Planning Week 3

Last week's meal plan is in the books.

SUNDAY--Burger King-Hubs was not home, #2 son had a sleepover so I used a coupon to get fast food for $9.99 + tax for the teens.  I had whatever leftovers where in the fridge.
MONDAY--Grilled Reuben Sandwiches
TUESDAY--Tacos, Corn, Refried Beans
WEDNESDAY--Hot Dogs on buns, Boston Baked Beans
THURSDAY--Pork Chops, Roasted Potatoes and Carrot/Broc./Cauliflower Medley
FRIDAY--Leftovers
SATURDAY--Subway since #2 son was gone to a competition until 1 am.

I spent $28.50 at the grocery stores last week.  $5.08 was for rye bread and  sauerkraut for Ruebens, $12.78 at the Bread Outlet for 10 items(the seasonal bagels-pumpkin and cranberry were in!!, rolls, bread and donuts for Hubs).  The other $10.64 was for milk, 3 bunches of celery at .99¢ ea. and to do the GM deal at the local market, by getting 8 packages of Green Giant veggies, which after $4 instant discount, sale prices and 2 x $1/3 manuQs cost me .50¢ per package.
There was also a Redner's Cat deal I could have rolled my GM Cats AND I could have done the GM deal more times at the local market but my back is still not up to snuff, so I only did the bare minimum of driving/leaving the house last week.   Which was good for my wallet but bad for getting the deals.

And what did I do with 3 bunches of celery?
I cleaned and cut them up and frozen it for later!  .99¢ doesn't come around very often, so I won't be forced to buy any this winter when it's $3.49 a bunch!  Celery is something you always need....from soups, to chowders, to making bases, to stuffings, to mire poire.  I'll probably buy more when it goes on discount again right before Thanksgiving. ;-)

My savings percentage was 61.03% last week, as the reg. retail was $73.14 on the groceries I brought home.

This week's menu.....
SUNDAY--Country Fried Steak, Roasted Potatoes, Green Bean Almondine
MONDAY--Chicken Quesadillas, leftover Green Beans
TUESDAY--Breakfast?
WEDNESDAY--Barbeque Pulled Pork, Coleslaw, Rolls
THURSDAY--Chicken Parmesan, Spaghetti, Sauteed Cabbage
FRIDAY--Chicken and Dumplings
SATURDAY--Kielbasa, Onions, Sauerkraut, Rolls

Tues. Hubs won't be home for dinner so I might just make a big plate of pancakes for #2 son's dinner, as that would please him immensely and I'll just have soup or something.
The Pulled Pork is leftovers in the freezer from this summer when I smoked a pork shoulder.
About the only item I need for this menu is a head of cabbage(for coleslaw)and I'll saute the other half up to have with the Chicken Parmesan.

There are 2 deals at the local market this week.....a Kraft Buy $20/Get instant $5 off Deal(basically a 25% savings on each item you buy)and a $10 Cat WYB $30 of baking products Deal.  I see lots of cheese, some Oreo cookies, sugar and flour in my future.lol  I need to buy at the local market anyway to get my purchases up to a level to earn a Thanksgiving check so this helps.

I have $5 Cat to spend at Weis and $10 Cat to spend at Redner's.  No Cats to roll them into but I'll find something to buy.

At present, my October food spending stands at $311.22 with 14 days left in the month.  At this point, I foresee going over $400 by the end of the month. 
I'm trying not to freak out over this, as I haven't been higher than $364.30 in any month so far this year.

How are your food expenses doing this month?

Sluggy

and the Winner is.......

I used Random Dot Org to select the winner and it selected Comment #20, which makes the winner.....

Free!~

Free!~ said...

The most inspiring thing I saw over at Pink Together was the women all supporting each other.

October 6, 2011 7:13 PM 

Congratulations Free!~
You have won the Pink Together Giveaway!!

I need you to email me your name, address and phone number(it's a MyBlogSpark thing needing a phone number) privately within the next 48 hours(from the time this post goes live)so I can get your information to the folks who are mailing out the prize.
If you fail to contact me within the time frame then I'll have to pick another winner from the pool of entries.

Thank you to everyone who entered and I have another Giveaway on the boards, ready to launch as soon as I can get to it, so stay tuned!!

Sluggy

 

Pink Together Giveaway.....Ends Saturday! Low Entry, Go Now!

Don't forget to go enter my Giveaway.
It ends tomorrow, Saturday night and there are only 28 Entries as of now!
Find the link on the top of my right sidebar or click HERE.

I guess nobody wants free cereal and bling......

Sluggy

Oh Deer! What Big Antlers You Have!

Back in August Hubs took a day off from Mr. Bumble and the Workhouse(bonus points if you get this literary association) and we took a field trip a couple counties away.
I had won in my Chinese Auction travels a gift certificate to Rolling Hills Red Deer Farm, so we took a drive to check it out.

You would think, who in their right mind would want to pay money to go see pastures of cute little deer when PA is chock full of those critters and you can see them everywhere from your back yard to along side the highways in the form of roadkill?

Well, these aren't the little fluffy tailed White Tail Deer that are indigenous to PA and most of the eastern part of the US.
These are Red Deer, which are NOT related to White Tail Deer.
Red Deer are indigenous to Europe and related to Elk.
Think a white tailed deer on steroids!

They are large deer with an elk's rack.  This guy must have been 7 foot tall including his rack....

We climbed aboard a hay wagon and were pulled along down dirt paths over hills and through dales to the various pastures to get an "up close and personal" tour of the deer.
First were the fields of nurseries of females and babies....

 Most of them were resting as it was midday and the babies were nursing or trying to if the moms would hold still.....

 But once the adults saw the wagon, the bolder ones came right up to it since they knew the strange looking creatures on it had deer treats for them.....

The females are so docile you can hand feed them.
But they are relentless like 3rd World country city beggars and not above stealing your bucket of food!  Thank goodness they don't want wallets and cameras....yet.....

Some hinds(that's a female red deer)even climb right up on the stairs on the back of the wagon to better bat their long eyelashes at you to entice you to give them a treat like this one who hit me in the back when I was standing too close to the back of the wagon.  This one was over 6 foot tall standing on her hind legs....

                 "Hey you!  You know you want to feed me!"

This one took the tact of resting her muzzle up on the side board, looking pitiful, and then snorting forcefully out her nostrils if you still ignored her.  For the sake of a nasal gunk-free shirt I did NOT ignore her for long!

What beautiful creatures....

Then it was off to the male deer pastures.
This group of stags was part of a massive group that was resting in a shady dale by the brook.  The guide told us to wave our buckets and they would come follow us.....so we did.....and they did......

 It made me a little wary when some of the males came right up to the back of the wagon waiting for snacks.  Luckily none of the stags climbed the back stairs on the wagon and shish-kabobed me!

We saw a few fights break out, as the stags jostled for position near the wagon.  I was too busy crapping my pants to get my camera out in time to capture a good photo of these two stag who pawed the air at each other and jousting their racks moments before....

                "Hey! That's MY parking spot....Back off!"

 The guide said that the ones that get too aggressive get sold off or put into the hunting program.  Yes, you can go there, pick out your animal, pay for him and go hunt him.  These critters are quite large and are sold by the pound and points(antler points), so a few thousand dollars later you have a freezer full of venison steaks.

 Most of these stag still had their velvet, though a few were in the process of shedding it.  I tried to get a picture of some of them but they wouldn't get close enough and it wasn't a pretty sight anyway.

 Some of the stags would let you gently touch their antlers while you fed them treats, like this guy....

The difficulty was feeding him while touching his antlers AND trying to get a photo of it.  Why oh why did I leave that second pair of arms at home!

This guy was quite friendly.  He let me rub his muzzle....as long as I kept feeding him.  Sounds just like any male of our species too, doesn't it?

Afterwards it was back to the Gift Shop.
Too bad I don't use Antlers in all of my decorating.......I guess because my name is not Gaston....

While we turned down $200 chandeliers, we did cart home some red deer venison burgers and hot dogs.
The Jerky samples were good but we don't have much call for eating jerky in our house.

Oh poop!....I just realized I didn't include that venison purchase in my food spending in August since Hubs put it on the credit card.
We haven't eaten any of the venison yet but I am told red deer venison is not gamey like white tail deer venison.  I'll let you know once we dig into it.

Sluggy