Sunday, November 2, 2014

Happenings Lately at Chez Sluggy


*  Halloween has come and gone......


We had a couple dozen trick-or-treaters this year.
Very unusual for our neighborhood.
Hubs mentioned that most of the kids are aging out of trick-or-treating around here and the neighborhood is growing older.
This might be true but I think the fact that our high school had a home football game on Friday is more of a factor.
Football is almost a religion in these parts of PA, even high school football.  I think the fact that most families(including younger siblings of players, cheerleaders and band members)were at the game explains why there were no older kids(over 10)out begging for candy this year.
 
 
One little girl was especially cute this year.  She was about 3 or 4 and had on a homemade dinosaur cotume(a T-Rex to be exact).
She walked up the driveway while her mom stayed at the street and onto the porch.
I said to her, "Oh please don't eat me scary dinosaur!"

She thought a moment, then took 1 tiny step toward me and said very quietly, "Chomp!".
So cute.
She got extra candy......
 
 
Here's our bowl of candy once the night was over.
It's a huge bowl and held 4 large bags of candy.  Even with giving out handfuls of candy to each T-or-Ter it's still half full!
That's ok.
I can throw what's left into the next package I send #2 Son, or he can eat on this when he comes home for Thanksgiving break in a few weeks.

*  The day before Halloween, the police finally caught "suspected" cop-killer Eric Frein, the latest entry onto the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List from around here.
We use to live in the Poconos, near the town where they held his hearing last week, and I use to drive by that PSP barracks where he shot at the police quite often in my daily life.
Knowing this area I knew it would be awhile before they flushed him out of the woods being as he was a survivalist devotee.  But I didn't think it would take just shy of 7 weeks to run him down!
Hubs and I really thought the authorities would have to resort to issuing Frein tags to the local hunters(hunting--another things that's akin to a religion around here)to finally get him.
"Ok Mack, here's your doe tag, your buck tag and your Frein tag.....now go out and do some killing!"

Hunters have been denied any of the various hunting seasons since the beginning of October around here but they got Frein just in time not to ruin turkey season.
I am also so glad because that's all that's been on the local tv news around here for 7 weeks. 

*  I got a letter back from the P&G laundry rebate I sent for on Saturday telling me I didn't spend enough to qualify for the deal.
Obviously someone working on this deal can't do math!
I have copies of everything I sent them to prove I spend enough.
You had to spend $30.
I spent $49.02.
Subtract coupons totaling $14.25.
That gives you $34.77.....well over the $30 required.

Now I am debating whether to just let this go or to send them a letter with copies of my copies and pointing out the math is correct and they have erroneously screwed me out of my $10 rebate...which they will probably ignore and I still won't get satisfaction.
Or I can just start boycotting P&G goods instead.
What would you do?


*  I got a deal last week.  This showed up in the mail about a month ago......


A sheet of coupons from K-Mart offering me various $ amounts of gift cards for transferring prescriptions.
It was expiring October 31st so I transferred an rx that was coming due the end of October and got a $40 gift card for my trouble.


The other 2 offers were only for $10 gift cards so I only moved 1 for the $40 card.

Free Christmas shopping money?
YES please!!  8-)


*  We have officially been cable TV free for 10 days now.
And I am not adjusting well.  Up until now I have been a cable show watcher.  There are very few shows I have watched on network tv for years now.  Big Bang Theory, The Middle and Modern Family being the few exceptions to this.  Though I am not a big tv watcher my fav shows are mostly on cable.  We don't have Netflix of Hulu Plus or watch DVDs here much.  It has been a difficult 10 days for me but I keep reminding myself that for the few shows I am missing it's not worth the $70 we are now saving each month.
The jury is still out on this experiment however.


*  It's the beginning of November so I dug through and organized the freezers.  I have lots of salmon in there as well as pork chops.  I keep putting pork chops on the menu but we always seem to not get around to making them. lolz  I am going to try to eat down the freezer over the next few weeks so I can hopefully get a second turkey cheap and fit it into there....or maybe just a turkey breast since it's difficult to finish off a whole turkey between just Hubs and I. 

*  I finally went though my Summer clothes last week.  About time since it looks like it might SNOW today.
bleh.
I had to wait until we went to OC to change out the wardrobe since I needed warm weather things to wear down there.  Now it's time to knuckle down and put away the sandals and shorts.
double bleh.


*  It's coming up on 2 months since we contacted Sears about our split-unit going out on us.  After sending out a repair guy who was clueless TWICE, they finally sent out the guy who installs these things and guess what?.....the whatever died last year on the compressor and was replaced is dead again.  Twice within 12 months they went.
He tried to get Sears to replace the whole compressor, since it seems to be a lemon, but guess who is opting to replace the part again?
Sears.
Have I said how much I hate Sears now??
When we called for service in August we didn't have a/c.  Now we need heat it's been so long. 8-(

Anyway, if last year's fun is any indication of this year's fun with this, the part is having to be shipped from Japan so it will take it's sweet time getting here and the unit getting fixed......again!
Have I told y'all how much I hate Sears lately???
So we hobble along using the baseboards and the ceramic storage heaters that still work to keep warm.
Boy, I can't wait to get out of PA and this house.
Only 3 more years.....

So what's new at your house?

Sluggy





 

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Food & Toiletries Spending......October Update

 Onward to October's food spending report.......



Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for OCTOBER 2014.

I have posted October's totals on the Total Grocery Savings for 2014 Page located HERE and have updated the Yearly Totals there.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in October.  If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom for the Totals Summary.

My spending includes Food, Toiletries/HBA, Pet Supplies, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable. We are a family of 3(2 at home this month)& 1 dog. No kids under 18.

******************


FOOD LION
OOP  $12.92
Qs/Ads  $2.46
Value  $15.38
Savings  16%

SAM'S CLUB
OOP  $65.06
Value  $88.00
Savings  26.06%

SAV-A-LOT
OOP  $7.77
Value  $9.35
Savings   16.90%

SHOPRITE
OOP  $47.65
Qs/Ads  $89.09
Value  $136.74
Savings  65.15%

TARGET
OOP  $5.81
Qs/Ads  $16.27
Value  $22.28
Savings  73.92%

RITE-AID
OOP  $10.29
Qs/Ads/+UPs  $464.51
Value  $474.80
Savings   97.83%
 
SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $87.77
Qs/Ads  $39.03
Value  $126.80
Savings  30.78%

WALMART
OOP  $13.79
Qs/Ads  $11.30
Value  $25.09
Savings  45.04%

WEIS MARKETS
OOP  $118.23
Qs/Ads  $64.51
Value  $182.74
Savings  35.30%
 

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 97.83%, Target  at 73.92% and Shoprite at 65.15%.  My WORST savings rate was Food Lion at 16%.
I shopped at 9 different stores this past month.


TOTAL Out of Pocket........$369.29
TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$711.89
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1,081.18
TOTAL Savings of...................................65.84%
TOTAL Savings WITHOUT Rite-Aid.............40.80%

This closes out the October food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

I thought I came close to the $300 budget but I miscalculated spending earlier in the month by $50.
meh.

The monthly savings percentage went down by 7.66% in October to 65.84% compared to September's 73.50% average.

The savings percentage went up for the year by 1.61% because of the great savings month that was October.  After September my yearly % of savings was 52.79% and after adding October in it stands at 54.40% for the year.
8-)

Even if I remove my Rite-Aid shopping out my October totals that monthly total is $359.00 spent with a 40.80% savings rate. 
Not bad.

Total spend on food/toiletries so far this year after 10 months.....$4,004.15.

The average monthly food/toiletries spending to-date for the year so far is $400.42.  Only pennies away from being back down to $400 a month or less.


LOOKING AHEAD TO NOVEMBER......

I am going to try again for a $350 food spending budget this month.  It's just Hubs and I here this month except for Thanksgiving break when #2 Son comes home for a few days.  There is the whole overblown Turkey day meal but we will try to keep it low key this year.  A turkey and about 4 sides and pie.
No gluttonous feast this year.

And I can't seem to do a $300 food month so I'll wave the white flag and concede to $350 a month this November.

 
If you have other ideas or guidelines you follow please leave a comment and share yours with us all.
 
*  How much did you spend on food/toiletries in October?
*  Do you track your yearly food spending?
*  If so, how are you doing thus far in 2014?
 
Sluggy

Friday, October 31, 2014

Last of the Rite-Aid This Week


I went and did something I hardly ever do.
I went to the movies yesterday by myself and saw the latest Bill Murray flick.
It was pretty good.  While I was in the town with the movie theater I went to a different Rite-Aid afterwards trying to do the Oxi Clean dish soap and Nexxus Deasl.   Nexxus Deal is Spend $20/Get $10 +Ups this week.  My R-A only had 2 bottles of the cheapo Nexxus 'Poo and I needed 4 bottles to get over $20 spent.
This R-A store had 1 bottle......well I thought it was 3 bottles but when I took 2 bottles up to the register, one was a conditioner and $3 more than the 'poo.
Ugh.
The R-A downtown had 1 bottle earlier this week but I didn't buy it because it has been opened and 3/4 of the product had been emptied from it.

So I bucked it up and bought the 1 'Poo and 1 Conditioner.  With my Wellness 20% discount the conditioner was only $7.99 instead of $9.99 so not as bad as it could have been.

Obviously this was bought on MY Wellness card.......


1 x Nexxus 'Poo 20% wellness disc.=$4.79
1 x Nexxus Conditioner 20% wellness disc.=$7.99
SubTotal.......$12.78

I used 2 x $3/1 Nexxus item VideoValuesQ....
$12.78-$6.00=$6.78

I used $6 in +Up Rewards and paid .78¢ OOP.
No +Ups Rewards back for this but $12.78 tracking on this card for the Nexxus Deal.

Then once back in my teeny tiny town I bought this on MY Wellness card.......


2 x Nexxus 'Poo(higher price in my town) 20% wellness disc.=$10.06

I used my last 2 $3/1 Nexxus VideoValuesQs......

$10.06-$6.00=$4.06

I used $4 in +Ups and paid .06¢ OOP.
And I received a $10 +Up Reward back for spending $20+ on Nexxus.

Then I bought this on the BIL's card......



2 x L'Oreal 'Poo on sale=$8.00 *
1 x Colgate toothpaste on sale=$3.50
SubTotal.....$11.50

Coupons Used
2 x $2/1 L'Oreal 'Poo IPQ(NLA)=$4.00
2 x $1/1 L'Oreal 'Poo VideoValuesQ=$2.00
1 x .75¢/1 Colgate toothpaste IPQ=$.75
Coupon Total.......$6.75

$11.50-$6.75=$4.75

I used $4 in +Up Rewards and paid .75¢ OOP.
I received back $3 +Ups for buying the Colgate.

$1.59 paid OOP for 3 transactions on $43.43 in products.
$14 in +Ups spent and $13 in +Ups received.

*  There is a L'Oreal +Ups Deal this week but I won't be completing that one since I didn't print out more of those $2/1 L'Oreal Qs when they were available.  Completing the L'Oreal Deal without them would cost more in my +Ups and not be worth it, especially since the last thing I need is more shampoo. lolz

Tomorrow I get to go grocery shopping finally since November's food budget kicks in.

Sluggy

Did Someone Say GIVEAWAY.....AGAIN?!?

I had so much fun last time, let's do another GIVEAWAY!!


 So here are the goodies I got for free(or almost free) that are available to win this time---more polish and office/school supplies.......
 

 
6 x Revlon nail polishes
2 x Sally Hansen nail polishes
1 x NYC liquid makeup
1 x Pantene Smooth & Sleek 'Poo
2 x Elmer's glue
1 x Gold Bond Eczema Relief lotion sample
1 x Arm & Hammer toothpaste sample
1 x R-A gift tape roll
2 x package of #2 pencils
1 x eraser caps for pencils
2 x Bic stick pens(1 blue, 1 black)
1 x Simple exfoliating facial wipes
1 x Reach toothbrush
1 x folding travel clock
 
Here's more of a close-up of the goodies.......
 
 
 



 I'll leave this giveaway open until November 14th, Friday, at 11:59pm.  The next day I'll put all the valid entries into a container and draw out a name and that person wins.

There is a limit of ONE ENTRY per Day by leaving a comment on this blog post.

To get 2 Bonus entries, you can do this once---

Post about my Giveaway on your own Blog or on Facebook with a link to this post.  This will earn you 2 additional entries for each action.  Please leave 2 additional comments on this blog post for each additional Bonus entry. 


 Disclaimer--This giveaway is open to those with mailing addresses within the US or Canada only.
If you are in Canada, you will receive a smaller box of goodies, as the shipping rates internationally are ridiculous and I am not taking out a mortgage on my house to pay to ship this stuff.  ;-)
**
If you need this shipped to Canada, I'll have to change the box and it's contents a bit.  I can ship a plain box weighing up to 4lbs. via 1st class mail, which, while more than the flat rate Priority to US addys, is still affordable.  These prize boxes usually weigh 7 or more lbs. when full, so if the winner is in Canada, I'll let them pick and choose which of the items they prefer sent in their box, until the box weighs 4lbs.  I hate to have to do this(not ship ALL prizes to them)but I would hate it even more to exclude them totally from entering the giveaway.

***NOTE***
Please make sure there is a way for me to contact you in your comment.  If you're not a registered Blog User please put your email or email me your email addy privately when you leave a comment or something so I can get ahold of you if you win. If I can't contact you then you can't win.  Thanks!

So let's get this started!

Sluggy

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Sluggy's Road Trip Part 9......IL Conclusion

Before I finish with our adventures let's back up a bit so I can show you this short video I took at the pie shop at the beginning of our day.
I completely forgot about it until a little while ago........



Now to continue........
So after hitting the Thrift store, we had more stops before ending our adventures.

Next up Robin drove us here......



Yes, don't be shocked but we went to a wine bar.......


Adult Slurpees?
Yes please!
 


 
 

A classy joint this......



Why they ever let a couple of winos like me and Pam is beyond me! lol



Even old Abe gets into the act.  Personally I think he would have been a much better president if he had drunk more.......


Robin acting silly.
Relax she was the designated driver.....


Wine as far as the eye could see.


And we each walked out with a bottle of this one......


Caramel Apple Wine

I want to know why alcoholic grapes cost more than alcoholic apples?
Wine has gotten crazy expensive!
I'll stick to hard cider for most of my buzzes.....easier on the pocket. ;-)

With a wine buzz it was off to see a disaster site in.......Ok, guess the name of the town?


Of course this disaster happened 109 years ago.....


We are use to coal mine disasters around here in Pennsylvania. 
There really wasn't much to see as the access road to the mine was blocked off, so we drove on.
Besides it was too hot outside the car to go schlepping through the flora and fauna.

Then we went to another town, to see the water tower shaped like a "flying saucer"......



And then to see another sight, though this one wasn't on Roadside America......


This one is not on the books.....yet. lol


Here are some close-ups of those headstones......




And sitting right in the front yard of this house is this........a nekkid lady mannequin in a bathtub with a chain around her neck(the chain is because people kept stealing her).........


Words just fail me.......



Then we were off to Pam's house since I have never been there before.  She has a cute house and she's remodeled it so nicely to fit her lifestyle.

Pam has a great garden out back too........
 

She spends a lot of time out here working on it when she's not volunteering at the local animal shelter.
And she spends a lot of time out here relaxing and enjoying the fruits of her efforts too.
Maybe she'll come work in my yard some day......yah, I can dream, right? lolz



This is a little fairy garden she composed......


And I got to meet a few of her cat babies.
This is Karma Kitty.......she's quite old and ill, the poor thing.....


This is the baby of the family Cleo-catra.......


Pam also has a black and white cat named Gabby Gert but she wouldn't come out of the basement for but a minute and I didn't get a shot of her.

I am patting myself on the back for remembering the names of her babies because I am usually so bad with names.....but that's with people......lol

Then we were off to dinner.  The place Robin wanted to take me was closed on Tuesdays so we ended up going to Pisa, Italy!




Ok I lied.
We didn't go to Italy.
But we did go to Verucchi's Ristorante.........


They are a landmark around here and have been for the last 100 years!
There are Battista and Mama Verucchi with Pam......


I had Chicken Marsala....or was it Chicken Piccata?
Whichever it was, it was without pasta(my request)and delizioso.


Pam and Robin got something called "Italian Fried Chicken"......???

Family Style Chicken is something that is very popular around here.....every restaurant seems to serve it.  They tried to explain it to me but I was just real dense that day.   It just sounded like half a fried chicken to me. lolz

Anyway, dinner was lovely and I had great company for it!

Then we drove back to the hotel.
Don't you love this carved bench outside the front door of the hotel?


If you can't make out the photo, the "legs" are hollow logs with bear rear ends sitting out of them. lolz

We chatted in the room and visited some more.
Robin saw this sight out the room window at the McDonald's across the parking lot........


A farmer getting Mickey D's at the drive-thru window while hauling hay.
Now that's something I NEVER see at home at my McDonald's! lolz

Then we went down to the pool and I swam a bit while Pam and Robin watched me.
Next time ladies you are all getting in the water.........

It was getting late and Robin had to work the next day so my friends bid me farewell and we parted.
It was a fun day ladies and maybe we can do it again, hopefully when you both come visit ME!  8-)

Sluggy