Food Spending for Week 3 & Meal Planning Week 4

Last week's meal plan is in the books.  Here is what actually happened....


SUNDAY--Country Fried Steak, Roasted Potatoes, Green Bean Almondine
MONDAY--Leftovers
TUESDAY--Soup
WEDNESDAY--Barbeque Pulled Pork, Coleslaw, Rolls
THURSDAY--Chicken Parmesan, Spaghetti, Sauteed Cabbage
FRIDAY--Scrounge whatever you can find
SATURDAY--Chinese Take-out

I only cooked half of what I had planned.  #2 son didn't want to eat the nights Hubs wasn't home so I just had soup or leftovers.

I spent....sit down for this...... $148.60 at the grocery stores last week.
Ack!
I did the Kraft Deal at the local store 3 times.  How could I not when it gave me bags of shredded cheese for $1.87?lol  I also bought canned veggies for half price, cranberry sauce on sale, bags of sugar to get to $30 to earn a $10 Catalina(not quite there yet)and some on sale frozen fruit bars, chips and some soda to hide from  #2 son.  I am also working on my Thanksgiving Voucher at this store so all things being equal, I'll be going there until Thanksgiving to spend the grocery money.

I also used my $10 in Redner's Cats to get 3 bags of sweet potato fries and 3 jars of pasta sauce for .14¢ OOP.  The $5 Weis Cat was used on 3 bags of burritos, leaving me an OOP of $5.01.  I am going back up to Weis today since the burritos were advertised as 3/$10, but my receipt has the amount it took off keyed in wrong in their system, so they came out to 3/$10.01.  I am going to have them make good on their "if it rings up wrong on sale, you get your money back and the product free" guarantee.

Hubs just shook his head at me and said, "You are REALLY going up there because you were overcharged a penny?", when I told him my plan.
Damn right I am! lol

My savings percentage was 45.83% last week, as the reg. retail was $274.32 on the groceries I brought home.

This week's menu.....
SUNDAY--Baked Catfish, Crab Cakes, Hush Puppies, Coleslaw
MONDAY--Kielbasa, Onions, Sauerkraut, Rolls
TUESDAY--Chicken & ? or ?
WEDNESDAY--Lasagna in the Freezer or ?
THURSDAY--Hot Dogs or ?
FRIDAY--?
SATURDAY--?

The Brother-IL is staying here for 3 days and we are bugging out for a mini-vacation so I have little control over the menu after Monday as he will cook what he wants.
When we get back I'll whip up some meals or have what we didn't last week(like the Chicken & Dumplings and/or Quesadillas).

At present, my October food spending stands at $459.82 with 7 days left in the month.  I've left $400 in the dust and am creeping up on $500 for the month...which is double what I usually spend.  Between laying in a few things today for BIL, nephew and #2 son and leaving them some cash for necessities I forget, $500 is gonna happen at least.

I'm hanging onto a 55.22% savings rate over regular retail for October.  Hoping to stay over 50% for the month when all is said and done.

How much have you spent this month on food/toiletries?
Has it been an expensive month or a cheap month for you?

Sluggy

Can You Stand Some More Decluttering P*rn?!?!

Ready or not, here it comes!
Just the pictures because I don't even want to talk about this stuff.  It's bad enough I have to show you the photos....

It struck me today as I shot these photos that I have Clutter Bulimia.  I use to buy shit and now I am purging it. 

I am well on my way to becoming a Minimalist.....well, except for that whole high end technology snobbery/hoarding(My Apple product is superior to your "fill in the blank" and I am allowed to spend huge amounts on them and replace them freely as new items come out so that I have every Apple related product on the planet but have only 3 pairs of pants but it's because I spend ALL my money on technology because my priorities are so screwed up, not because I believe you should only own 3 pairs of pants so you can save the planet, because if I thought saving the planet was important, I wouldn't be supporting the over consumption of technology products and the precious metals it takes out of the Earth and the slave labor that is harnessed to harvest the raw materials)thing they do.

Ok, so maybe I'll never be a Minimalist...until they get over themselves.  ;-)

80 more items to chalk up upon the Clutter-Free tally sheet....yippee!

Sluggy

Just Shoot Me In The Head Next Time!

Well, obviously, since I am on the computer this morning and NOT out in the garage running my Toy Sale you can guess that the said Toy Sale is NOT happening.
Lots of crap is aligning around here that has just made it not possible to have this Sale.
And I've been feeling quite depressed all week because of this.

I don't do well under stress anymore and things around here have been stressing me out a LOT!
Hubs reminded me, right in the middle of my panicked "I've got to get this up and running but nothing is working out right" state that we don't NEED the money this Toy Sale might bring in.  And I had my doubts that we'd make much anyway.

So I said "screw it!" and pulled the plug on the sale idea on Wednesday and said haul it all off to charity.
Besides, we NEED the tax write-off more to get us over the standard deduction amount so it pays to itemize instead of taking the standarad deduction for our filing status.
One of the big drawbacks of being middle class and having a paid off house is that it's difficult to have enough deductions to itemize(unless you live somewhere the property taxes are Very high and/or you have out of pocket medical or employee costs)without that mortgage interest deduction.

Then on Friday I reconsidered hauling it ALL off to charity and thought I'd attempt to recoup some cash by selling some of the toys on a local online sale site.

This is where I'll interject my post title....somebody just shoot me in the head next time!!!

I posted about 30 items yesterday with really low prices.
Now I am in the midst of dealing with people wanting things and having to arrange pick-up/drop-off days/dates/times.
There goes my weekend.....

And one of the many fun perks of dealing with people locally is dealing with the crazies.

For example...I posted my items with prices.  As things are spoken for, I repost an updated list of what is left.   So everybody can see what is still for sale.  Sounds sensible, right?

I had a post of 12 dolls.  I sold 10 of the dolls so I updated and reposted that 2 of the dolls were the only ones still available.  This email was posted with the original email copied below it.

This morning, I get an email reply on that repost that says this.....
"Wanted other things. TY."

So what the hell is this person saying?

1. Did they want the other dolls that I sold already, but felt the need to email me and tell me they wanted what I sold already and don't want the ones still available?  If so, why do I freaking care??!!
2. Do they want the things that are left?  Or do they want "other things" that I am not selling and I'm suppose to be clairvoyant and KNOW what they want?  In either case, why do I freaking care?


I also had 2 people ask for dolls that were already sold....they sent their emails as replies on the post where I said that these dolls were sold already!!
Give it a minute to let that one sink in......


After today, I am so DONE with this......seriously.
Take this crap out of my house before I change my mind again.lol


Sluggy

Fun Friday Nights GIVEAWAY!

 I know that when Friday rolls around my family is more than ready to end the work week.  Hubs is done for the week at the office, #2 son is done with school and I am done with whatever it is I do all week long. ;-)

Since my kids have been about 10 years old, they have had sleepovers on Friday evenings.  This always means fun foods, snacks and movie rentals.

MyBlogSpark and Totino's  recently clued me in that Totino's Pizza Rolls and Party Pizzas have specially-marked packages out now with promo codes that can be redeemed for a free one-day redbox DVD rental.  That's a nice deal!
And since a redbox kiosk moved into our town this past summer, this makes it an easy deal to take advantage of for me!

Here's the Details on the Promotion......
Purchase 4 specially marked Totino’s Party Pizzas or 2 Totino’s 40 count Pizza Rolls to receive a free one-day redbox DVD promo code that can be redeemed at the following

• Rolls: totinosfridaynight.com/redbox_pizzarolls
• Pizza: totinosfridaynight.com/redbox

With more than 27,800 locations, and available nationally at Walmart, there’s always a redbox kiosk nearby! Find the closest redbox kiosk by checking redbox.com/locations.

MyBlogSpark and Totino's sent my family a prize pack this month, so we had a Friday Fun Night of our own last week.
We were supplied a Free Redbox movie rental code and coupons for both a box of Totino's pizza rolls and a party pizza.
What teenage boy doesn't like pizza rolls and pizza?  This creature does NOT exist I tell ya!

I also included in this prize pack were 2 plates shaped and decorated like slices of pizza, a reusable popcorn container and what I have dubbed the "Pizza Wheel of Death"......

Anything that comes with TWO interchangable blades and a plastic safety guard on it is not playing around!
Have you ever seen a more serious pizza cutting implement in your life??

Seriously.
You could hack up Zombies with this thing without breaking a sweat!  A Great tool in the kitchen or for the Zombie Apocalypse.

Speaking of zombies....
#2 son and his buddy set to work inhaling the pizza rolls and party pizza and other assorted snacks and soda last Friday evening.
They also watched the movie I let them pick out.
Ok, so that might not have been a wise choice, to let THEM pick out a movie, because have you seen the taste level of 15 year old boys?
Let's just say no adult would want to eat pizza after watching this movie......

I would call this Friday Fun Night a success!

And thanks to MyBlogSpark and Totino's, you can try to win a Prize Pack for your own Friday Fun Night right here on my blog!

Your giveaway winner’s prize pack will contain:
• 2 VIP coupons
• Free one-day redbox DVD promo code
• 2 pizza slice plates
• 1 popcorn bucket
• 1 pizza cutter

WIN IT!

Your mandatory entry is this....

•   Make a guess on which redbox movie my 15 yr old son rented.  Leave a comment with the Movie Title.  You don't have to get it correct, just take a guess.  I just want to see who can think like a 15 yr. old boy. ;-)

Easy, huh?

You can gain additional entries by doing any or all of the following as well.....

• "Follow" Don't Read This; It's Boring! by clicking on the FOLLOW Bar on the righthand side bar, then Leave a comment here for one additional entry.
• Post about this Giveaway on your own Blog or a Message Board/Online Community then Leave 3 separate comments here for three additional entries.
• Follow me on Twitter.  Here I am.  Leave a comment on this post that you are a Follower with your Twitter name/id for an additional entry.
• Tweet about this Giveaway on Twitter.  Leave a comment on this post with your status link for an additional entry.  Use this text " Win Movie Rental and Totino's Snacks at Don't Read This; It's Boring! http://simpleslug.blogspot.com/2011/10/fun-friday-nights-giveaway.html #slugmama #MyBlogSpark "  This entry can be done once a day for more entries but be sure to leave a comment for each time/day that you tweet about the giveaway.

This giveaway will end on Friday, October 28th at 11:59pm. On Saturday the 29th  I'll pick a winner randomly from all the valid entries. Good luck! Legal Mumbo Jumbo--“Disclosure: The VIP coupons, prize pack, information, and giveaway have been provided by Totino’s through MyBlogSpark.” Sluggy

Wordless Wednesday....OK, Maybe Not....A Musical Interlude

While I am off getting my crap together for this Garage Sale, here is a wonderful singer, singing a great song.
I "heart" Raul Esparza.
He was in a production of that great old Sondheim musical "COMPANY" a few years back.
PBS recorded a live performance of it for their "Great Performances" Series.
This is the last song in the show.

Enjoy!

Sluggy