Just Call Me Cyclops

Well I survived the surgery.

I am getting real tired of walking around and looking at stuff with one eye shut so I can use my glasses.

And I look like someone punched in the eye(all black and blue around my eye).
The woman sitting in the prep area next to me was getting her second eye done and she was 95!
And I was by far the youngest patient in the facility.

It's over so let the healing begin.
And I am so bad at putting eye drops in my own eye.....I may have to refill these bottles of drops! lolz

Sluggy

Lots of Little Things

This week is flying by and here are a bunch of little things I wanted to talk about......

* I have hit 50 miles of cycling for the month as of last night.  My goal for April was 30 miles, as I got in 22 miles in March so I thought that was a modest increase.   I am really going to have to think about what to "up" the target to for May.  Considering we'll be traveling for half the month and I'll be getting other kinds of exercise, plus probably won't have access to an exercise bike I don't know if I should change the goal.  Maybe just play it by ear and get in as much cycling as I can will suffice for a goal next month?

* I went ahead and did some grocery shopping the past couple of days on May's food budget money.
Since I won't be able to drive starting tomorrow for about a week I went ahead and got my food money cash at the bank and picked up some deals.
And speaking of eye surgery......

* I am a tad annoyed at this eye doctor thing.  It's a massive operation that he runs.  When I was giving all the forms and info about this surgery last month they wrote down all my follow up appointments but did NOT give me a time to report for the surgery, just the date.  The form said I would be called "a few days before" that date with what time to arrive for surgery.
Well, I am suppose to go in tomorrow, Thursday but as of yesterday Tuesday I still hadn't been contacted with the information.  Plus I keep getting forms in the mail from them the past month that need signing and returning, with notes attached that this dept. or that forgot to have me sign something.
This gives me NO FAITH that they will call or something else will happen to screw this up.
So I had to end up calling them yesterday asking for my surgery time.
Hey! I am suppose to put expensive drops in my eyes starting on Wed. and if everything wasn't in order yet and they were going to cancel this surgery date I wanted to know BEFORE I started using those drops.  Plus rescheduling this procedure anytime soon would be problematic as we are going away next month and I couldn't fit in follow-up appointments at appropriate intervals, etc.
Ugh.

I ran some errands and while I was gone I got two, COUNT 'EM  TWO phone calls from different people at the doctor's office about my surgery time.  So as of now, we are still on for this cataract surgery.

I must say that I am a bit scared about it all.  Anything involving my eyes freaks me out.  Heck, I have a real hard time putting drops in my eyes, what am I going to do once they come at me with scalpels?! 8-(
I hope they have a real good sedative for me, and maybe a straight jacket.
Don't expect to see me post much if anything in the next couple of days since my eyeball will be out of commission for awhile.

* I got a food bank donation up to the local church.  I put the stuff in my car which made me remember to take it all over while I was out bopping around town.

 That's 10 jugs of laundry detergent....

And 4 jars of peanut butter

Since I no longer extreme coupon my donations are a tad more modest.  But I still pick up extra when I find a really good deal.  I get to give without it costing me lots of ca$h and the food bank gets supplies.

* I got my new Rite-Aid card in the mail last week.....

It came in a big fancy envelope with all kinds of information.
Between the +Ups Reward program going away AND now the Video Values Program has been discontinued(!)I have serious doubts about what kind of savings I can see with this new Plenti deal.
I won't be able to drive mostly next week so I don't know if I'll even go in the first week the new program is in force.  I may just sit back and wait until I hear back from others who it's working for them before I venture out into uncharted waters at Rite-Aid.
Except.....

* There is one deal I want to do at Rite-Aid next week and if you have a Rite-Aid in your area Rivulet, you may want to get there and pick this up since you use Dawn.

Next week Rite-Aid has DAWN dish soap on sale, 3 bottle for $3 and buy 3 and earn 100 Plenti Pts.
There is a .25¢/1 Q on Dawn on Coupons dotcom.  Print 3 Qs(using 2 different computers since you can only print 2 per computer).
$3-.75¢=$2.25 OOP and earn $1 worth of Plenti pts.  So effectively $1.25 for 3 bottles of Dawn.
And remember to get a rain check if they are out!

* I sold another piece of fabric on Etsy this week. rah. 
That makes 7 pieces sold since I relisted a bunch of fabrics earlier this month.  Once August gets here and they all expire I'll see if I want to relist any of the 60 or so fall/winter fabrics I still have.

* I am slowing getting through my daughter's things she left here when she moved to Louisiana.  They are still all strewn about my living room but the piles are getting smaller.  I've bagged up 3 more piles of stuff for Salvation Army and thrown away another bag full of old worn out clothing.  Some of the items I was going to bring to her(clothes and toiletries)I had bought for her, she now can't wear(underwear) or doesn't need(tampons). So I guess I'll be putting that stuff up on eBay once my Summer traveling is done.  Or if I just don't want to bother it can go to Salvation Army(underwear) and the food bank(tampons).  Thankfully I no longer have need for tampons.... ;-)

* I am chomping at the bit to do my Savings Challenge numbers for April and my May 1 net worth.
We had a third paycheck this month and kept our expenses low, so the savings will be MASSIVE!
Can't wait to post that one since it will be a big kick in the pants toward our goal.

* I found my phone charger cord!  It has been missing for ages......I hardly ever use my cell phone.  I just turn it on to make a call or if I am anticipating receiving a call.  Last week I used the phone quite a bit and the battery died, so suddenly, finding the charger was a big deal and on my radar.
I dug through the bookcase by my desk where I shove stuff like that and found it.
I also found the plastic casing piece for one of the end of it that came off in my car last Summer(while traveling)so was able to duct tape that back on as well.  My phone is now fully charged and I know SONYA ANN is ruing the day I found that charger.  Maybe I should prank call her while she's in Vegas.  I should wait until 7am tomorrow when she is hung over and trying to sleep, right? ;-)
And speaking of Sonya Ann.....

* Sonya is having a $25 Amazone gift code Giveaway on her blog while she is partying hardy in Vegas.  So go on over and enter it HERE and tell her I sent ya!
Oh, and you have to split the winnings with me if you win it. 8-)

And speaking of giveaways--don't forget that my Sluggy's Boring Blog Box Giveaway is open until May 10th and you can enter every day on that one too!

Sluggy
 

2015 Food & Toiletries Spending......April Update

*I am posting this a few days early since I am done shopping for the month.*

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for APRIL 2015.

I have posted April's totals on the Total Grocery Savings for 2015 Page located HERE and have updated the Yearly Totals there.  I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in March.  If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom for the Totals SumMy spending includes Food, Toiletries/HBA, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable. We are a family of 3(2-3 at home this month). No kids under 19.

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

DOLLAR TREE
OOP  $9.00
Value $18.50
Savings  51.35%

MAINE SOURCE
OOP  $112.79
Qs/Ads $80.63
Value $193.42
Savings  41.69%

PRICE CHOPPER
OOP  $27.64
Qs/Ads $20.03
Value $47.67
Savings  42.02%

RITE-AID *(see below)
OOP  $1.55
Qs/Ads/+UPs  $66.13
Value  $67.68
Savings  97.71%

 

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $13.23

Qs/Ads  $6.09

Value  $19.32

Savings  31.52%

TARGET
OOP  $33.76
Qs/Ads $33.41
Value $67.17
Savings  49.74%
 

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $103.44

Qs/Ads  $85.65

Value  $189.09

Savings  45.30%
 

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 97.71%, Dollar Tree at 51.35% and Target at 49.74%.  My WORST savings rate was the Shursave store at 31.52%.



I shopped at 7 different stores this past month. 

TOTAL Out of Pocket........ $301.41

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$241.44

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$542.85

TOTAL Savings of...................................44.48%
TOTAL Savings WITHOUT Rite-Aid.............36.89%

This closes out the April food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I went into April wanting to do a $300 monthly spending and actually accomplished this....if you don't count the $1.55 I spent at Rite-Aid which put me $1.41 over.  ;-)

The monthly savings percentage went down by 25.28% in April to 44.48% compared to March's 69.76% average.
Didn't I tell y'all when I stopped buying stuff at Rite-Aid my percentages would plummet? 8-(

The savings rate for the year so far now stands at 65%.  That's a 3.70% decrease in savings over March's YTD total.  It's still hanging in well over a 40% savings rate for the year but will be going down further unless I jump back into Rite-Aid shopping at a savings rate comparable to before they ditched the +Ups Rewards Program.

I have spent a total of $1,233.86 on food/toiletries in 2015.  That averages out to $308.46andahalf per month.
I'm pretty happy with that.

LOOKING AHEAD To MAY.........

I want to continue to eat down some of our stockpiles of canned/boxed food and empty out the freezer a bit more. We will be back up to 3 adults for May since College Boy comes home on the 9th for the Summer.

I will mostly probably need to increase my food spending in May to accommodate another mouth to feed and buy items Hubs and I don't eat but that College Boy considers essentials.

I won't set a number yet but will play things by ear.  We'll be traveling for part of May so the eating out/vacation spending will increase and the food budget spending may actually not increase even with another person to feed.

What I am trying to say is that May will be a total crapshoot.  8-)
 

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 April?
*  Do you track your yearly food spending?
*  What was your savings percentage buying on sale and/or with coupons vs. buying at regular retail price last month, if you track that sort of thing?
 

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

It's the "What's For Dinner" Edition--

Last Friday I pulled the last 2 pieces of salmon out of the freezer for dinner.  I have always wanted to try to replicate the Bourbon Glaze Lone Star puts on their salmon so I did just that.  I cooked it a little too long and it came out too thick(almost soft ball stage)so I ended up scrapping much of it off my fish.  But I still had enough to make my salmon taste very yummy.  Paired with a macaroni salad(which used up bits and pieces of peppers, carrots and celery that was getting past it's prime)and a big pile of sugar snap peas it made for a very filling and tasty meal.
I believe I used the recipe found HERE.
Why pay $17 at Lone Star for something you can easily make for much less?
 

Anyway, onward to the meal planning!

 

Here's what was planned last week.......

 

1.  Hamburgers on rolls, Corn on cob
2.  Leftovers

3.  Meatloaf, Squash & Onions, Macaroni Salad
4.  Ravioli, Salad

5.  Salmon, Macaroni Salad leftovers, Sugar Snap Peas/Corn

6.  Lena's Lemon Chicken w/Zuchinni, rice
7.  Leftovers

And this is what actually happened--

1.  Hamburgers on rolls, Corn on cob
2.  Leftovers(Hubs had Spaghetti, I had Soup)

3.  Meatloaf, Squash & Onions
4.  Tacos

5.  Lena's Lemon Chicken w/Zuchinni, rice

6.  Salmon, Macaroni Salad leftovers, Sugar Snap Peas/Corn

7.  Leftovers (Hubs had soup, I had a big salad)

Everything went as planned, except no ravioli, tacos instead to use up that ground beef I bought on Sunday.

Last week I made 3 trip to the food stores and spent $91.65 OOP on $181.67 worth of reg. retail groceries. 

I had 0 transactions at Rite-Aid last week....again.

$299.86 spent of my $300 April food budget, leaving us .14¢ for the last 4 days of the month.(Counting that $7 Weis gift card I have $7.14)

Leftovers going into this week are--spaghetti and meatballs, taco meat, macaroni salad, meatloaf, squash and onions, lemon chicken w/zucchini, fajitas filling, rice and sugar snap peas.
TONS of leftovers and it is a good week for them this coming week.
 

Here is the plan for this week.........

1.  Osso Buoco, mashed Potatoes
2.  Leftovers

3.  Leftovers
4.  Leftovers

5.  Leftovers or Take-Out or Fend for Yourself

6.  Leftovers or Take-Out or Fend for Yourself
7.  Leftovers or Take-Out or Fend for Yourself

The only night I plan to cook a new meal is Sunday.

 

What I need to buy for this menu......nothing actually.  We may need a bit of milk but that's it.  Hubs will not be home a few nights for dinner so I'll just heat up leftover something or other(plenty to choose from!)and Thursday I have my eye surgery so I probably won't feel like cooking(IF I can see to cook lol) and Hubs doesn't "cook" so it will be leftovers, Chinese take-out, sub sandwiches, pizza or whatever we can scrounge around the kitchen.

After I pick up the milk, I'll be closing out the month's spending early.
Friday starts a new month so I'll probably wait until then to pick up a few good deals this week, so it's on May's food budget.

The local ShurSave affiliate store has a Spending $25 on certain item(Grilling Season)get a $10 OYNO Coupon back starting this week.  One of the items is Glad products.  There is also a SavingStar offer of Spend $25, Get $5 Back on Glad and Clorox products.  So I could spend $25 and just buy the Glad products and get $10 Voucher from ShurSave and $5 cash back from Savingstar, making my OOP on this deal $10.
I think I will do this deal but since I've already got $12 from buying Glad trash bags on Rite-Aid rain checks toward the SavingStar component of this double deal I'll just get $13 of my $25 worth of items at ShurSave in Glad items and the other $12 in bags of charcoal(to use in my smoker this Summer).
 

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

Double Standard Much?

As I hear more on the earthquake that struck Nepal my heart goes out to all affected.

An associated story on Yahoo yesterday told of a chief executive at Google who was killed while making a climb on Mt. Everest yesterday, due to an avalanche that was triggered by this same earthquake.
It's just a terrible event all 'round and I am saddened by what has transpired as are most other folks.

Not to denigrate this natural disaster that has left many dead, homeless or worse, but this event got me thinking about something else in regard to that mountain climbing executive in general.
I am not casting aspersions at him personally.
This is rather a commentary on our society and the way it operates.

In regard to this American who was killed in the avalanche.
He's a highly placed Google executive.
I'll bet he's very valuable to the company and worth a lot of money.
And he engaged in a highly risky hobby, mountain climbing.
And his company was "a ok" with that evidently.  I'd go so far as to say they probably encouraged him in this pursuit seeing as it lent an air of excitement and glamor to him but also attached itself to his company.

Now suppose you are a lowly peon in a company, not an executive making fists of money, and slogging away in a job, being a cog in the wheel and making a modest salary.
It's a sure bet you can't afford to traipse off to another continent to play adventurer.  Get your employer to allow you to have that kind of time off from your job? Nope. Not to mention you having the sort of disposable income that mountain climbing in far off lands would cost you.....passports, plane flights, accommodations, guides, equipment, etc. 

So maybe you have another risky hobby.....like smoking cigarettes.
Hey, it relaxes you and it's something you can afford to indulge in and something you don't have to fly somewhere to engage in.

But practicing this hobby also had consequences.
Consequences that the company that you work for and provides your health coverage deems "bad".
So your employer puts pressure on you in various ways to give up this hobby.
Your fellow workers who don't smoke get health bonuses while your rates to go.
The company bans smoking on their job site which makes your job experience unsatisfying.
A peer pressure culture at the office against smoking takes hold and you are made to feel bad about yourself and this company pressure even extends into your lifestyle outside of the office I'll bet.

And this all "a ok" with the people who run your company, because they are among this upper, elite class of society....and they make the rules.

IMHO-This is  just another case of our society having a double standard.

The Elitist Class is admired and encouraged to engage in risky behaviors and are seem as glamorous.  And we, the unwashed masses, are told by the elitist media to look up to these folks and their behaviors.

Why am I not surprised?
The elite in this country run our companies and make-up our governing bodies.
Over 50% of the current sitting legislators in Congress are millionaires-271 of the 533 members.
The wealthy have everything in this country locked up.
They are not looking out for you or I.
We are on our own out here.

The Double Standard is alive and well in America in 2015.

Sluggy