Sluggy's Solo Road Trip.....Part 2......OH to IL

So after choking down a half stale bagel on Saturday morning at the Ramada in Elyria OH, I got onto the Turnpike heading west into Indiana.

My head wasn't in a good place that morning.
A not-so-restful night at the dingy motel combined with weather that was off and on again miserable Plus a general sense of trepidation as I drove toward the outskirts of Chicago and the clusterf*ck of traffic I'd have to dodge just took all the wind out of my emotional sails.

I stopped somewhere in IN at a turnpike rest area during a torrential cloudburst to eat a fish sandwich and some apple slices and buy a soda for the ride since I needed a caffeine boost to keep me going.
I downloaded the On Star directions that would guide me to Sonya Ann's house while I waited for the skies to let up.

I had a printed out MapQuest direction sheet but felt better having the GPS thingy on too, since once in traffic, it's hard to be looking at a paper for your next exit while driving 70 miles an hour.

I kept driving in and out of rainstorms until right before I got to the western edge of IN.

Once I got near my exit onto I-80 West I panicked when I saw that my exit was CLOSED due to construction.  And just where did the fine folks of the Department of Transportation detour me to?
The Chicago Skyway.
Crap!
Anyone who has driven this piece of Roadway Hell knows why I was crapping in my pants.

Hubs and I were sent through this Death's Highway last August when we went to IL for his sister's wedding.  But last year, HUBS was driving, not me.
Fan-so-tastic!

So I was doomed to the Skyway.  sigh

I have to say that the On Star GPS thingy worked well and other than the permanent marks left on the steering wheel from my white knuckle driving I did aok.  All those rainstorms slowed traffic around Chicago way down(which was good in a way), but it also made the time it took to get past Chicago longer.

Ok, here is where I get to rant and rave about the outrageous tolls I had to pay driving through OH, IN and into IL!

The Ohio Turnpike robbed my pockets to the tune of $17, the Indiana Toll Road for $10 and the Illinois Toll Authority/Chicago Skyway for $5.50.
$32.50 total.....and that was just one way on the trip!
Thankfully I was NOT returning along that route to get home again.

Incidentally, this stretch of the trip was the only part with toll roads in it.  Everywhere else I went had the good sense NOT to charge me to use their highways.

So my original plan would take me west of Chicago past Joliet, past the urban centers and then north, up to Sonya's house.   It was sort of a roundabout longer way but with less driving stress.
With the I-80 detour that plan didn't happen.  It was the Skyway around Chitown and then up to the suburbs. bleh.

Since the rain had stopped by the time I got to the Skyway I made a stop in Kildeer IL to do some shopping at a World Market store.

I won't go into the "almost incident" that happened in the parking lot at this shopping center when a over botox-ed anorexic old bimbo with an expiration date of 1990 walked out right in front of my car as I got between her and the overpriced shoe store she was wanting to get to, and she made a face at me(even through the Botox, what an effort that took!)and I saw red and pictured myself calling Sonya Ann from a local jail cell to come bail me out, after I had run this bitch over.
Nope we won't go there......

I "heart" WM.
I picked up 12 more gourmet sodas, which happened to be half price!

A bottle of a most excellent sparkling Moscato from Australia that is now discountined at WM

Bottles of Torani Syrup(also on sale), a couple of single bottles of craft beers for Hubs that we can't get in PA.

                                 One of the beers for Hubs--ChiTown

3 bags of dried cantaloupe fruit(love this and can't find it anywhere but WM), 2 large bars of Ghiradelli Chocolate at 55% off(A $1.26 for chocolate?  Yes, please!), and a bag of Maple Bacon flavored Potato Chips.
Mmmm....bacon......

 

This particular WM has just begun carrying hard liquor, besides the beer and wine offerings all WMs sell.  I spied a Utah based whiskey Hubs can't get in PA, so that also left the store with me as well.

You can tell Hubs likes it because it's already half gone! lol

After dropping $127 at World Market I gave Sonya a call and said I'd be arriving in about 45 minutes so get my drink ready because after the drive I just had, I really needed one! lol

And 45 minutes later I pulled into her driveway and gave her a big hug.....before taking my drink and parking myself in her living room.

The rest of the day was devoted to drinking and gabbing, then a little eating(it was a spaghetti feast & Den made a really good dip/salsa thing with sun dried tomatoes too!)and then more drinking and gabbing until we just couldn't do either anymore and we fell into bed(well, 2 different beds....get your minds outta the gutter willya?!).

Next time, Sonya makes a big impression, we go to Vegas, buy out a liquor store, frugal shop and eat cheap steak.

Sluggy






 

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Our First Week Being Kid-Free in 23 Years" Edition........

 

 

Youngest is away at college now and happy as a pig in mud.  Pig in mud is about correct....have you seen the mess he left in his room at home?!? lolz

 What was planned last week--

 

1.  Chicken Parm, Caesar Salad, Spaghetti(leftover)

2.  Beef Brisket Sandwiches, Grilled Asparagus

3.  Eating Out

4.  Leftovers

5.  Chili, Tossed Salad
6.  Tuna Noodle Casserole, Green Beans with Red Peppers and Mushrooms
7.  Leftovers

 

And this is what actually happened--

 

1.  Chicken Parm, Caesar Salad

2.  Beef Brisket Sandwiches, Grilled Asparagus

3.  Leftovers of our Chinese lunch out the day before

4.  Spaghetti and Meatballs

5.  Subway Sammiches-which were free from points on my Subway card...yay!
6.  Leftover Meatloaf(grilled), California Medley Veg
7.  Leftovers....fend for yourself

 

2 of the meals planned were served.   No chili or tuna noodle casserole was made/served and they get moved to this week's menu.  We didn't take #2 Son out to eat as he had a full social calendar this, his last week in town.  Hubs and I went out to lunch, as he took last week off from work to get some things done around the house.
  

Last week I made 3 trips to 3 different grocery stores and spent $103.21 on $163.61 worth of groceries/toiletries.
So much for only spending $30 last week. 8-(  But I did stock up on salmon(it's going on sale this time of year), onions, whole chickens and a few other things.

Going into this week, in leftovers we have.........1 romaine head, 1 serving of chicken Parm, 1/2 red pepper, a big hunk of smoked brisket, and 1 serving of mac and cheese.

Here is the plan for this week......besides all the debauchery Hubs and I have planned hehehe.......

1.  Pulled Beef Brisket Sandwiches, Sugar Snap Peas

2.  Beef Pie-my version of a Shepherd's Pie but with cornbread on top

3.  Roast Chicken, Carrots, Potatoes and Onions

4.  Pot Roast with leftover veg from Roast Chicken and leftover brisket

5.  Chili, Tossed Salad
6.  Tuna Noodle Casserole, Green Beans with Red Peppers Saute
7.  Leftovers-assorted

No eating out this week.  We are on an austerity plan with the entertainment budget(which includes all eating out)since I have to pay the c/c with all my trip expenses on it this week. (ouch)

I'll cook double the carrots, onions, potatoes with the chicken and then add them to the leftover smoked brisket hunk and call it Smoked Pot Roast for another meal. 
The half of the Roasted Chicken leftover from that meal will be used for a Chicken dish in next week's menu.
Whatever brisket, from that 15lb. hunk I bought, that doesn't get used this week will be going into the freezer.

What needs buying for this menu to happen?
Potatoes.
Cheese, eggs, applesauce, salmon, canned tomatoes and the croutons I like are on sale this week so I'll be stocking up some of those things as well as buying a small bag of potatoes(which are also on sale).

No food waste again last week.
My leftover eating machine aka Hubs was home from work all week so that helped a lot! lol
   

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?
Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten that week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week?

 

Sluggy

More Mish-Mosh

One day until college blast-off here!

Running more errands today(not college related though)--

*  Up to Rite-Aid to get $2 back for Command hook coupons I forgot to use last week.  I am loving this "coupons post-sale" refund thing they have.  8-))
Last week's Rite-Aid $15.03 OOP turned into $11.53 OOP after post couponing back $3.50 for Compleats and Command hooks.

*  Then we hit Price Chopper for cheap lunchmeat(applewood smoked turkey breast!), salmon fillets, a watermelon and G2 Gatorades.

*  To Lowe's for new range hood vent screens and new reflector pans.  We used a gift card so no OOP for that.

*  After errands we had lunch at Bob Evans and used the last of an old gift card so the meal was cheaper than it would have been.

*  Burned some sensitive old papers inside of shredding them.

Tonight I'll make Chicken Parmesan for #2 Son's last meal. 

Oh, I forgot to mention on the money post yesterday that I got out of paying 2 medical bills last week.
Hubs has been paying on the medical bills as the FSA account gets funded from his paycheck.  He got behind and really doesn't like doing this sort of stuff, so I took it over last week and set about getting caught up.
I saw that the DME company billed us for 2 services, for a full month of service even though those 2 were discontinued before the month was over(back in March), and the company never sent a corrected bill to the insurance company so insurance was still billing us for the full amounts.  I called and spoke to someone about having these pro-rated so we could pay the correct amounts.  After the insurance and DME company went back and forth it was decided by the DME co. to just take those 2 charges off our account and not pro-rate the bills.  I guess it was easier to just write it off or whatever....the bottom line is they aren't due anymore and the DME will be returning the full payment to the insurance company and we don't owe it.  It comes to about $200 so I am not complaining.
It's nice to actually come out ahead for once. lolz

And is it really cold anywhere else out there?!?!
It was all of 67F here today.......in the middle of August!?!
It hit almost 40F last night and we had to put the comforter on the bed. Brrrrr
Most Summers I am nekkid in bed and throwing the sheet off of myself during the night.....I know that was TMI, wasn't it? hehehe

We have had about a 1 week stretch in late June of hot weather(over 84 degrees)here.
It has been such a mild Summer.  And even stranger there has been 0% humidity here!
So weird.

But it's NOT that I'm complaining much since I am not a big fan of real hot & muggy temps.

I can't wait to see what kind of weather September brings.....

Ok, off to pay some bills and then start dinner.

Sluggy




 

Miscellaneous Stuff...Mostly Money

Just a mish-mosh of stuff......

*  I paid #2 Son's Fall school bill with cash.  I toyed with the idea of using the credit card to pay this bill and then paying off the c/c bill before any interest accrued.
Our c/c is in a rewards program so all those dollars on that card would have only earned me a $100 gift card.
Hey, $100 is $100 but since the college passes on the fee the c/c company charges to accept our payment to us(thanks a lot institute of higher learning!), it didn't make sense to pay $264 cash to "earn" $100.
Sigh.

*  Speaking of the Fall school bill--I used the 529 funds in the Vanguard account for #2 Son to cover this bill.  Luckily I remembered that August is a bad bad month historically for the stock market and I yanked the funds before the market took a nose dive about 2 weeks ago.  Saved myself $500 in funds we would have lost if we cashed it out later than I did!

*  Starting with September's regular bills I can start tracking how much our regular monthly expenses are going to go down since the last kid is outta the nest fulltime.  True, expenses will start to decrease mid August(next week)but full monthly bills won't come through until September.
I am anxious to see what our new "nut" will be.  8-)

*  I am happy about how we kept the college living expenses down by shopping from home(using what we already had)and waiting for sales and deals on items we had to purchase.  We could have spent less than we did(there is always room for improvement)but I can live with the results we achieved.

*  Hubs company has what they call a "market adjustment".  In order to keep valued employees from leaving, every few years they see what the going rate for the jobs their employees do are earning at other companies and if salaries have gone up elsewhere, they get a raise, so he did.
Of course after taxes it won't amount to much per week(enough for a cheap meal out...maybe)but it's something.

*  I continue to sell fabric on Etsy in drips and drabs.  A few sales a month is better than a poke in the eye, right?  ;-)   I received an email from another Etsy store owner today.  She has 2 store fronts....one selling baby clothing and another selling jewelry.  Said owner wants to trade me her items for my fabric.  Umm, I don't THINK so!  I want cash for my goods thankyouverymuch.

*  #2 Son has his last private flute lesson on Monday.  This has been a regular monthly expense for the last 2 years.  It's going away now....of course replacing it is college tuition.  Not much of a win there, huh? lolz

*  I topped $100 in revenue on Google for my blog so I should see a direct deposit by next month into my bank account.  Go me! 8-)))
Who says you can't make money blogging? lolz

*  We got the 1098 from oldest son's college concerning educational expenses paid in 2013 to said college in April...possible AFTER the tax filing date.  (Aren't schools, like employers suppose to get those out in late January?)
Anyway since we didn't claim oldest on the 2013 tax return, we gave this potential tax credit hunk of money to him to use on his return.  But he had already filed so now an amended return has to be filed....oh joy!   And since oldest son doesn't know how to do one, guess who gets to file out the return and figure this out?
Yep.
Yours Truly.
I got everything gathered and printed out so next week I'll attempt to tackle this chore.
Whatever did I do to deserve an encore round of Tax Filing Hell anyway??!!
I thought I was done for the year back in April......

*  As for my $24K Savings Challenge for the year--we are on track to meet that goal by the end of 2014.
However......I just got around to noting all the August bills and it's clear there will be NO excess monies to throw into that goal once all is paid this month.  I like to throw $2K(after taxes and all payroll deductions)per month into this goal.  But with paying for #2 Son's laptop for school, the bill for the nifty lime green chair(which was on this month's c/c bill)and all my spending put on the c/c for my road trip(some of which I need to tap into my 2013 Savings Challenge savings to cover), the August savings total will be nil.
bleh.
Not that this means we are in any money crisis(just the pretend one in my head!)but this month will be a wash.
We don't have these kind of months on a regular basis.....if we did, we'd have to totally rethink what we do with our money!  Now and again, things come up(or you bring about things coming up by spending money you don't usually spend) which throw you off the money tracks.  We have emergency funds up the wazoo so no worries.  It's just a momentary bump in the financial road.

How is your money holding up this month?

Sluggy

Rite-Aid....This Week's Haul

I had a few things to get at Rite-Aid this week.

On Sunday I went up and bought this......

2 x Cottonelle TP on sale $7.49=$14.98
1 x Mucinex Allergy 5ct. on sale $7.50 but 20% Wellness Discount more=$7.19
Subtotal.....$22.17

Coupons Used
2 x $1/1 Cottonelle ManQ(Sunday's inserts)=$2.00
2 x $1/1 Cottonelle Video ValuesQ=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Mucinex Allergy ManQ(Sunday's inserts)=$2.00
1 x $3/1 Mucinex Allergy Video ValuesQ=$3.00
Coupon Total......$9.00

$22.17-$9.00=$13.17 OOP

I received back $10.50 in +Up Rewards($5 WYB2 Cottonelle, $5.50 Mucinex Allergy) AND as an unexpected bonus, the Catalina machine spit out a $2 off your next shopping trip Q for buying 2 Cottonelle packs.
Sweet!  This will make my OOP this week $2 less.

The Mucinex counted toward the Spend $30/Get $10 +UPs Deal for this week too, so I am $7.19 into that reward.

Then on Monday, while out and about, I went into Rite-Aid and bought this stuff here......

1 x Mucinex Allergy 5 ct. 20% Wellness Discount=$7.19
1 x Mucinex Allergy 30 ct. on sale=$19.99
1 x Gain dish soap on sale=.99¢
SubTotal......$28.17

Coupons Used
1 x $2/1 Mucinex Allergy ManQ(Sunday's inserts)=$2.00
1 x $7/1 Mucinex Allergy ManQ(Sunday's inserts)=$7.00
1 x $3/1 Mucinex Allergy Video ValuesQ=$3.00
Coupon Total.....$12.00

$28.17-$12.00=$16.17

I paid with my $10.50 in +Ups and that $2 OYNO CatQ....

$16.17-$12.50Cat/+Ups=$3.67 + .02¢tax=$3.69 OOP

I received a $10 +Up Rewards because I had bought $30 or more($34.37) of Mucinex Allergy this week.

The Gain dish soap put me over $30 on the Tide/Gain Rebate(remember all that Tide I bought 2 weeks ago?) so I'll be getting a $10 gift card(prepaid Visa card)after sending away those receipts.

I am OOP this week $16.86, have 2 large packs of TP, a bottle of dish soap and 40 allergy pills and got back/will get back $20 in +Up Rewards/gift cards.

**Addendum**
I just noticed that the Tide/Gain Rebate is after coupons used.  After coupons I only spent $20+.
Crap! 
I have until the end of September to spend another $10 on products to qualify for this rebate.  I might or might not send for it now, depending on the deals I find between now and 9/30 that get me to $30.

Sluggy