2 Strange Vending Machines & Inedible Trucks.....Our Trip to IL PART 1

Well if you know me you KNOW I like to write ramble so it should be no surprise that this trip post will be a multipart report.  8-)

We usually take a short vacation each October to the shore, Ocean City Maryland specifically.
But we decided to change things up this Fall and take a trip elsewhere.

This was partly because the hotel we always stay at in OC didn't send me a special rate card/promo this year(we are long time customers there)so we would have had to have paid full fare for the room.  Add in, for some strange reason, when I went onto their website in mid-September, all their oceanfront rooms were booked for the time we usually visit.
Crap!
This has never happened at this time of year before at this hotel. 

And secondly I didn't get a chance to take a Summer Road Trip this year like I did last year because of cataract surgeries and recovery times and I needed to spend chunks of July aiding my Eldest son in his relocation to Virginia.

And thirdly, I wanted to visit my 8th cousin, blogger Sonya Ann and she lives in the middle of the country in Illinois.
So even though I am not a big fan of "The Land of Lincoln" we planned a trip out West......well, it's West for us in the East.

We left bright and early on a Thursday after a quick stop at the local Mickey D's so Hubs could get his coffee fix.
We crossed PA with no problems or back-ups so the drive that first day was fine.
Made another stop in Clearfield PA for gas and more coffee and a pee break.

Oh, if you are traveling along the interstates in PA and see one of these, do NOT under any circumstances stop and eat there........

It's a DUTCH PANTRY Restaurant and they all look similar and dot the interstates in much of PA.
This one is in Clearfield, PA.
You will live to regret eating there is you do.....just remember, you have been warned!! ;-)

I tried to get some shots of the fall foliage as we drove along rural stretches of the interstate.....

Not much color yet in many areas as we'd had a warm Fall so far.

These sections in a higher elevation was better.

The only snag we hit was in the middle of PA.  There was a wrecked tractor trailer that must have been there quiet awhile since they had enough time to set up signage for 2 miles before we got to it that there was an accident on the roadway and a lane of traffic was closed.

The trailer was still on the roadside and they were cleaning up it's cargo.

We finally got out of PA about 1:45pm......

We stopped outside of Youngstown OH for a late lunch.

We got the slowest waitress employed by a Bob Evans Restaurant in the universe named Dottie.  Don't get me wrong, she was personable and sweet even, and horror of horrors could do her job, but we didn't want to linger for hours at lunch and wanted to get back onto the highway.  But that was not in Dottie's plans.

This was after 2pm and they weren't busy but Dottie......well, let's just say she likes to get to know her customers intimately rather than make with the quick service.
Sigh.....or maybe it's me?  I do seem to bring something out in people I am told. lolz

So back on the road by 3:30pm(!!!)and we still had most of OH and half of IN to cross before stopping for the night.

Around 5ishpm we stopped for another coffee/pee break at the Turnpike Rest Area and I saw this vending machine.........

2015 is the 60th Anniversary of the Ohio Turnpike so they are selling crap fine quality merchandise commemorating this milestone in History.
How about a Ohio Turnpike keychain for your Sweetheart for Christmas?
Who wouldn't love that?!

The Ohio Turnpike is always an opportunity to see interesting things.  I saw my first triple tractor-trailer a couple of years ago while riding on it.
This trip it was an "inedible truck".
Now you would think that ALL trucks are inedible.....unless of course you are a Transformers Autobot, and then trucks are a special delicacy.

I give you the inedible truck........

If you look closer you'll see this too.....

I am glad they cleared that up for us all, aren't you?
Humans......don't eat trucks
Tranformers......eat trucks


After forking over $15.75 to the Ohio Toll Commission to get out of that fine state we crossed over into Indiana as the sun began to slowing sink into the West.....

By the time we got to our exit off the Indiana extortion toll road it was dark and going on 7:30pm.
Hubs got a bit cranky with me as our motel for the night was 7 MILES off the toll road and not right off the exit in SouthBend.
Hey, I wanted a night place to lay my head and not have to pay through the nose for a SouthBend motel room.

So we headed up into Michigan to stay at a motel in Niles.  It may have been a few miles out but it was reasonably priced and had an indoor pool, which I took full advantage of!

There was a KFC right next door so Hubs walked over and got us overpriced chicken dinner.
After dinner and a swim I noticed that strange vending machine on the way back to our room.

Food AND drinks in the same machine!  See the little wheels on the side?  You put your quarters in and turn the wheel for your item.

But the wheels/slots for the drinks are hidden inside the machine.  You have to open the front to access the drink selections.
I don't why this struck me as weird/odd but it did.
Maybe it was because it took me a full 5 minutes to figure out how it worked! lolz

After hurting my brain over this funky vending machine I went to bed.
We would need all our faculties about us for Day 2 when we hit Illinois.

Sluggy

 

 

The Eating Out

If you are a longtime reader here you already know that I track the money we spend on groceries and toiletries every year at Chez Sluggy.
I've ben tracking our food budget monies for well over 7 years now here on this blog.  In those years I've fed between 5 and 2 people on our grocery money and if I don't say so myself I've done a bang up job at both the feeding and the money watching.  ;-)

In order to be more transparent on what is spent on food I have started a page(link on the tab at the top of the blog)to track what I spend on "Eating Out" too.
Because unless you are a hermit and never go out and cook every single item you put into your mouth, you are going to have some meals at restaurants or as take-out from a restaurant.
And this spending adds up too!

 

 

While I don't include our Eating Out costs in my Grocery Budget, Eating Out does take a hit on the overall family budget.  I cubbyhole Eating Out in our Entertainment category in the Household Budget.
We enjoy dining out(though not as much as we use to as I find many restaurant foods overly salted)and experiencing new and interesting dishes we don't/can't make ourselves both locally and when we travel.  We also like a good hunk of steak now and again.....

As a category I like to keep the eating out costs around $100 per month, unless we are traveling(in which case eating out is mostly ALL one does!)or there is a special event/occasion(like a birthday meal out, a holiday meal out or company comes to visit).

When all the kids were still living at home, eating out could be very costly.  During any given month, just 1 night of Chinese take-out, 1 night of take-out pizza(2-3 pies required with 3 teens at home) and heaven forbid we all went out to dine that month(ack!) and that $100 limit was blown to bits! lolz
With only 2 of the family eating at home these days(sometimes 3), $100 seems much more ample, even as the cost of restaurant food has risen every year since I started tracking our spending in 2008.

If you take a look at our Eating Out spending for this year we have been pretty good at keeping it under $100 in months where we had no travel/special events happen. 
Unfortunately for our budget we have gone on trips 5 out of the last 10 months so here aren't many under $100 months this year.
Having to eat while living away from home and having no access to cooking facilities(a mini-fridge and a microwave in your motel room don't count in my book as "cooking facilities")isn't very conducive to eating cheaply AND well when traveling.
If you are going to travel(unless you are living in an accommodation with a full kitchen or going in a motor home)you need to account for increased spending on food.

Heck in February we only made one trip to Subway for sammiches to bring home for dinner so our Eating Out totaled $18.  For most people it's totally unrealistic to NOT budget for any eating out whatsoever in a month.
Unless your income is so restricted(in which case you really shouldn't' be splurging on eating out anyway)people are going to be spending money on meals made by someone else, aren't they?

So to all you readers who think I only spend $300 or whatever the spending was that particular month on food, here is the "whole" picture.

Year-to-date spending on Groceries/Toiletries....$3,723.41
Year-to-date spending on Eating Out...................$2,746.57
Total Spending on both Categories......................$6,469.98
Monthly Average Spending on Both Categories....$646.99

Seeing that I "spent" $646.99 a month on all food/toiletries related categories so far this year should make all you folks, who think my food spending was too low and could never be replicate by anyone else, feel better. ;-)
Of course including meals out also includes tips paid at real sit-down restaurants if we eat at those.  Tips while part of the experience of dining out aren't actually spent on "food" technically but on service, they are part of the bill. 

The fact is, if you can't afford eating out on your income level you shouldn't do it.  It is NOT a necessity of life but a luxury.  But if you are human(and who isn't?)it's very difficult to never EVER go out to eat/get take-out food even on a poverty level income.  I'd be hard pressed to find someone in our Modern Society who never eats out, ever.

For us Eating Out is a luxury that we enjoy and/or a hazard of traveling(which we also enjoy). Sure we could eat out less or not at all but if we have a level of income that gives us excess monies in our budget and we are debt-free and saving tons of cash for retirement too, why not use some of that extra income to enjoy ourselves along the journey?

So do you keep track of your Eating Out spending?
When added to your food/grocery spending how does that combined total spending make you feel?

Sluggy




 

Last of the October Shopping

I had a $5 off $50 Purchase Coupon for Maine Source(the local restaurant supply store)and they had some good deals on Sunday(the weekend specials and the new weekly specials good on this day)so I hiked up there to finish off the bulk of my food shopping for this week.

Pictured are acorn squash, sweet potatoes and butternut squash I bought.  The squash was .49¢ lb. and the taters were .69¢ lb.
If some of this lasts long enough to make it to Thanksgiving it will be making an appearance on the Turkey Day table too.  ;-)

I also picked up in this trip--
10 lb. potatoes @$1.69
1 head green cabbage(3.23 lb.)@.59¢ lb.
1 head red cabbage(1.80 lb.)@.69¢ lb.
1 lb. liverwurst(Hubs lunches)@$2.49
2 lb. med. raw shrimp @$11.49 bag
8 lb. ground chuck @$2.69 lb.
1 package paper plates @$1.79(to get me over $50 spent)
Total came to $50.30-$5 coupon=$45.30 OOP

They didn't have sour cream for a good price or any reg. carrots(just those shaved up baby ones)so when Hubs went to Walmart to get a pair of boots afterwards, I picked up a bag of carrots, a container of sour cream and a 8-pack of frozen burritos(Hubs go-to weekend lunch).
These items were free as I had a $50 Walmart gift card(gotten free with credit card points)to use on the food and the boots.  And there is $23+ left on the gift card now.

This finishes off my food/toiletries spending for October so I'll be closing the books now on this month and posting my grocery totals in the next couple of days.  I know I didn't spend over my $300 Oct. budget and can't wait to see how much under I ended up at.

I have also been buying this month with an eye toward having to prepare Thanksgiving dinner.  Little by little I have been squirreling away items I need to make that meal.....turkey, veggies, flour for rolls, pumpkin, evaporated milk and sugar for pies, etc.  About the only item I still need to purchase is some bread for the stuffing and a bottle of Redi-Whip or a carton of Heavy Cream if I want to make my own whipped cream. ;-)

If the Weis ads are good when they come out on Thursday I'll either wait until after Saturday to purchase anything there on November's money IN November or I'll just get my November grocery money a few days early and start the November buying before the weekend.

Some of the squash and cabbage already made it to my table on Monday...........

Potato encrusted Cod, Cole Slaw and Mashed Butternut Squash.
Yum!

Sluggy



 

Grocery Spending Last Week

Well we were on vacation last week but I still managed to buy groceries. lolz

A week ago Sunday Sonya Ann took me to Jewel-Osco Markets so I could buy a few things that we mostly ate while on vacation.  I could technically put this spending under the Vacation Budget but I went ahead and filed them under the Food Budget.

No photo but here's what I got....

2 large containers of unsweetened Iced Tea(on sale for $2.00 ea.)as I can't LIVE without my iced tea
1 jar of pickles for $2.50
Another jar of pickles for $2
1 box of crackers for $2.50
1 bag of chips for $2
2 large G2 Gatorades for $1.50 each
1 Ghirardelli chocolate bar for $2(which I left behind at Sonya's house). 
TOTAL OOP.....$18.61 with tax.

Then before we got home Friday night, we stopped at the Surplus Outlet, since we were driving right by it and got a few more food deals.........

3 x Jif cornbread mix....3/$1.00
2 x Velveeta ready meals for CB.....2/$2.78
1 x box of spaghetti......59¢
2 x cans pumpkin....2/.$1.78
3 x jars of spaghetti sauce....3/$2.97
1 x dozen eggs....$1.69 *not pictured
1 x gallon vinegar....$2.19
2.54lbs. onions.....$.99(.39¢ lb.)
1 x Contessa bagged frozen dinner....$3.59 *not pictured
1 x 8 lb. bag of breaded Chicken cutlets....$9.99 *not pictured
2 x candy bars.....2/$1.00 *not pictured
TOTAL OOP.....$28.57 no tax

We were out of white vinegar and chicken cutlets and the rest were good deals.

Total spending last week on food budget $47.18.
I've got a bit more shopping to do this week and then I can close out the books on October and post this month's outcome.

Sluggy
 

This Week on the Dining Table

It's the "You Mean I Actually Have to COOK Again?!?!" Edition--

 

 

Yeah, visiting at Sonya Ann's house means not having to fix food because her Hubs is a fabulous cook!
This was the spread we had on Saturday night when we were there.  Homemade everything from the corn to the squash to the potatoes to the pot roast to the gravy.  I am spoiled now.....and fatter. lolz
 

Onward to the meal planning!

 

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

1. Sunday--Barbecue Pork Sandwiches with Cole Slaw, Sun Dried Tomato Salsa on Toast
2. Monday--Lena's Lemon Chicken with Zucchini and Tomatoes over Rice
3. Tuesday--Leftovers
4. Wednesday--Dinner Out
5. Thursday--?
6. Friday--?
7. Saturday--?

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Barbecue Pork Sandwiches with Cole Slaw, Sun Dried Tomato Spread on Toast
2. Monday--Eating Out-Culver's(I had a pork tenderloin sandwich, salad)
3. Tuesday--Leftovers-Pot Roast and Mushrooms in Gravy, Butternut Squash, Garlic Mash
4. Wednesday--Pizza
5. Thursday--Eating Out-Pot Roast Sandwich, Cole Slaw & French Fries
6. Friday--No Dinner, Eating Out for Lunch-Chicken Salad Sandwich w/ raw Veggies and Dip
7. Saturday--Take-Out Chinese food

We were on vacation last week so the plan was loose.  Lots of eating out and I got pampered at Sonya's because Den cooked. Mmmmmmm!!!  I was going to cook for everyone one night but all hell broke loose(I'll let Sonya tell y'all about that! lolz)so I didn't fix that meal.  Then lots of restaurant meals on the 2 days it took to get home. 

As for my grocery spending last week......$18.91 spent at Jewel-Osco while at Sonya's house and stopping at Surplus Outlet on the way home and spending another $31.85 for groceries put my food spending from 10/15 to 10/24 at $50.46.  This bit brings the monthly spending to $192.34 for October so far.  $107.66 left in the $300 monthly budget for food in October with 5 days left to spend.

Leftovers going into this week....nothing.  We ate up or froze all the leftovers before we left.  This meant eating a huge slice of homemade apple pie for Breakfast the morning we left on our trip.
Ah the sacrifices I make....... 8-)
 

Here is this week's "food plan"--

1. Sunday--Cheese Ravioli with Meat Sauce, steamed Mixed Veggie
2. Monday--Fish or Shrimp, Butternut Squash, Cole Slaw
3. Tuesday--Pork Chops, Harvard Beets, Garlic mashed Potatoes
4. Wednesday--Spaghetti and Meatballs(Hubs request), Collards
5. Thursday--Chicken something, Roasted Veggies
6. Friday--Tuna Noodle Casserole, Leftover Veggies
7. Saturday--Leftover Pork Chops, Corn Casserole, ?


What I need to buy for this menu?.........Butternut Squash, Cabbage, Carrots, other Veg? too and Sour Cream.

I have meatballs, pork chops, fish, shrimp, ravioli, chicken and ground beef for spaghetti sauce in the freezer.  There are canned beets and corn, noodles, tuna and tomato sauce in the pantry and collards still in the garden that need to be harvested.
I foresee making a pot of soup also in my future this week as well but I have all the ingredients for that too.

$50 on food should get us through this week and that is counting a run to the Bread Outlet as well.
 

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