New Car Wrinkle

So I have an offer from Dealer #2 now on the Purple buggy.
Dealer #1 has thrown a monkey wrench into my negotiating plan as that salesman is off on Tuesday.
I can't wait around until Wednesday to respond to Dealer #2 car guy so I'll be bearding the den of liars and thieves at Dealer #1 by calling and speaking with a different salesman later today.

With all this pondering of spending WADS of CASH(makes me queasy just typing that!)I am feeling like I REALLY don't have to have a purple car.

Yes, it would be nice for once to get exactly what I want but if I can get a comparable deal and spend a little less, I could live with "not purple".

So I found another car at yet another dealer to consider.

This is a used 2013 Sonic.
Everything else the same, hatchback, automatic tranny, all that kind of stuff.
But it's black....not a fan.
And it's "used" but barely with under 3 thousand miles on it.
So practically new.

I am waiting to hear back on the carfax and what they'll charge me to take it off their hands.
Car Gurus says $15,109 is fair market price but I think I can get it for a bit less.
If I can save $3K buying this one vs. the best price on the purple 2014 one I am negotiating for I think I can get over it being "not purple".

It would be sweet not to take that thousands of $s new car hit on the 2014 model and still get an essentially new car.

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

The  "Cook Once, Eat Three Times" Edition.......

 

A photo from something bizarre I saw this past weekend.
At first they had their backs to us waiting at the traffic light and then he turned around.
Hubs thought they were aliens.
I had to inform him that they were "Sweet Frog" mascots.
I love the look on the face of that guy in the black car as he was making the turn.....lolz


Here is what was planned last week--

Sunday--Leftovers
Monday--Bratwursts on rolls, baked beans, leftover potato salad
Tuesday--leftover Fajitas
Wednesday--Pork Chop(freezer), Sautee Cabbage, fried apples
Thursday--Leftover Lasagna, Green Beans
Friday--Tacos
Saturday--Leftovers or Fish

And here is what got cooked last week---

Sunday--Leftovers
Monday--Bratwursts on rolls, baked beans, leftover potato salad
Tuesday--leftover Fajitas
Wednesday--Pork Chop(freezer), Sautee Cabbage, fried apples
Thursday--Leftover Lasagna, Green Beans
Friday--Tacos
Saturday--Leftovers or FFY(Fend For Yourself)

Finally got to the Pork Chops and we finished up most of the leftover.
I only cooked the Brats(if you can call brats cooking!lol)and the pork chop meal last week.
The taco beef was already browned and onion-ed, and Hubs added the seasonings and threw together that meal so I can't even claim that as a meal I cooked.

Ya know, I could get use to not cooking so much!

 

As for the food spending update.....I spent a total of $19.84 on $34.83 reg. retail on groceries last week at the local independent grocer. 
 

 

Going into the new week, here are the leftovers we have.....some taco filling and some fajita fixings.

 

Here is this week's meal plan----

Sunday--Take-out
Monday--leftover Taco(salad) and Fajitas
Tuesday--Chicken Fried Steak, Veggie, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy(I'll have leftover Pork Chop and Cabbage.)
Wednesday--Burgers on Pretzel Rolls(freezer-Hubs not home for dinner)
Thursday--Duck Breast(freezer), Risotto, Veggie(from freezer)
Friday--Sausage Sandwiches, Veggie(from freezer)
Saturday--Pasta w/Meatballs, Salad

Most everything I am pulling out of the freezer this week....duck breast, cubed steak, burgers, sausage, meatballs plus all the veggies.  I'm defrosting a roaster chicken now too in the fridge so it should be ready to cook on Sunday.

Time to clean the freezer out.
 

 

For snacks I'm buying 2 watermelons and there are Baked Lay's Chips here.

What I need to purchase for this menu?.......basically just salad greens and a few staples and fruit.
It's a skimpy food shopping week for me.  When I run out of lunchmeat for myself I'll make due with tuna fish, BLTs or a big salad for lunches this week.

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?

 

Sluggy

This is Getting Fun!

You may have read about my car shopping adventure on Saturday HERE.

And the salesman gave us the hard pressure sell on Sonic the Hedgehog here.....

 I spent the rest of the weekend doing some research and reading reviews of the car I wanted to buy, the Chevy Spark.

And while it is a good car it turns out it isn't the car I should buy.
I want to take a lot of long distance trips in this and it's just not cut out for long haul high speed interstate jaunts about the country.....unless I want to invest in a race car drivers kidney belt and really good earplugs. lolz

So goodbye to this Grape Ice little beauty......

Which means I am now focusing on buying a Sonic, the next size Chevy car up.

And if I get one, of course, I'd prefer it be Deep Magenta, the Limited Edition color for Spring 2014.

Like Sonic the Hedgehog pictured above.

I had put feelers out with Chevy dealers within a 75 mile radius last Thursday.
So one particular dealer has been leaving me emails and phone messages since then.
They seem hot to make some money.

So I went to their website and lo and behold they have the exact same Sonic in the exact same color and option package as the one the guy in Wilkes-Barre wants to sell me.

So now I am going to play ball with these two dealers.
A little game of "I have a price of $X from the other guy, so can you beat him out for my business?"

I wasn't totally happy with the price the WB dealer gave me for a bottom line so let's see if I can get this price down by buying the car from the other dealer OR if WB dealer will match or beat the other dealer's price.

I see on CarGurus that this car has been sitting for almost a year on their lot so that gives me some edge.

Let's see how far under $18K I can get them.
I've got some leverage since I am NOT emotionally invested in throwing this kind of money on a car and I can totally just walk away.
And I will.

This gal can play with the big boys....
I may not have a penis but boy, do I have balls!

Sluggy

 

Is It Time Yet?

Not only is #2 Son anxious to bug out of this hellhole town we live in(hellhole according to him....I much prefer to call it provincial on my better days), but I may be a wee bit anxious to get him out of the house too.

I started writing out my hard copy of the "College List" last Friday.
You know.....The master list of "what every college kid might ever need when they leave home" List that Sonya Ann and friends came up with before her oldest went off to college 4 years ago.

So I started gathering supplies for #2 Son that I have already.......

The boy does like to do ALOT of laundry.
I got these Purex Complete 3 in 1 laundry sheets back when they were new on the market and when Couponing was in it's Salad Days-when there were awesome coupons and sales and few limits and you could get shit free or almost free.
You know, the good old days.

I have enough sheets here sitting in the linen closet for #2 Son to do 224 loads of laundry.
I hope it will last him all 4 years.

I just discovered that the dorms where he will be living have free laundry!  He won't even need quarters.
Sweet.
A quick calculation and I figure with the water and electricity he alone will be using to do laundry nonstop on their dime vs. on our dime, the housing costs we have to pay are a win for US!!!

So he is covered on detergent.
And also covered on toiletries-deodorant, shampoo, soap/bodywash, toothpaste, toothbrushes.
He has an electric razor so the hairy face stuff is taken care of too.

While we were on vacation in April and then when we got home a week or so ago, I hit the Winter clothing clearance sales at Kmart.  We just happened to be in a KMart in Shreveport and found men's winter clothing for $2.99 a piece.  Then the next week when we were home I went into the local KMart here and the clothing was down to $1.99 a piece.
So of course I picked up some clothes for #2 Son to take to college with him.

It doesn't look like much since I just heaped it up on the spare bed for these photos.

Everything was either $2.99 or $1.99, except for the black coat which was $7.99 marked down from $60.
Score!
I got him long sleeved knit shirts, fleece PJ pants, longish Joe Boxer boxers, 3 casual dress shirts, a minky lined flannel jacket(original price of $24.99) and 2 pair of thermal underwear.
It's even colder than here in the Winter where he's going to school.  8-)
They also had 6 packs of men's boxer briefs on sale for $5.99 in his size.  Somebody must have mis-ordered because they had hundreds of this size in this style/brand of undies.

I had picked up at Ollies(Good Stuff Cheap!)a multipack of the socks he likes over the Winter for $2.99.
Between the Kmart score, the undies and sox, he is all set for going away to college clothing...unless of course, he wears out/grows out of his pants.

I wrote this and then went and read Sonya Ann's Post today.  Go read toward the middle of hers.
We really do think alike and lead lives in a parallel universe, don't we?  ;-)

We finally have a date now for when #2 Son will go sailing off into the sunset.
Freshman Check-In is August 21st.

I am synchronizing my watch as I type.

100 days and counting!!!
The countdown has begun.

Sluggy

 

Celebrate Your Mom Bad Self

I woke up to this today.......

A breakfast of French Toast and Bacon that I didn't have to make for a change!

 

And this.....

My oldest son called me on the phone and my youngest son gave me a card.
My daughter sent this and it arrived a few days ago.....

A Box!!!

Inside was.......

A miniature Gardenia Bush.
She remembered that Gardenias are one of my favorite flowers.

And the enclosed card read.....

This is a family joke.
You can read about it in this post HERE if you are interested.

Happy Mother's Day to all my women friends, and those guys too who've had to be the mother in their kids' lives.

Sluggy