Back to the Giveaways!.....Come Enter

This is the sixth Sluggy's Boring Blog Box Giveaway for the year.
Come on and enter.
Somebody has to win and it might just be YOU!

Here is what you can win if your entry is picked.  Lots of "girly girl" type stuff this time and chocolate......

1 x Colgate Optic White Toothpaste
1 x Clean Shampoo(trial size bottle-Total Care)
1 x Pantene Smooth & Sleek Shampoo(w/Bonus Airspray)
1 x Dove Women's dry spray Deodorant
1 x Revlon Nail Polish(clear)
2 x Sinful Colors Nail Polish(Chopstick, Dusk)
3 x Sally Hansen Nail Polish(Green w/Envy, The Real Teal, Purple Potion)
1 x Revlon Matte Lipstick(Nude Attitude)
1 x Cover Girl Eye Shadow(Swiss Chocolate)
1 x Revlon Eye Shadow(Violet Starlet)
1 x Cover Girl Brow and Eye Pencils(w/sharpener)
1 x L'Oreal Infallible Lip Liner(Plum)
1 x Rite-Aid Nail Clippers
1 x Revlon Tweezers
1 x Ace Disposable Cold Compress
1 x Oral-B Toothbrush(Battery operated w/Replaceable Head)
1 x Raio citrus mint Body Lotion(sample size)
1 x Aveeno Pure Renewal Shampoo & Conditioner(sample packs)
1 x Clear Total Care Shampoo & Conditioner(sample packs)
1 x Conair Hairbrush
1 x Mentholatum Nighttime Vaporizing Rub sample
1 x Banana Boat SPF 30 Sunscreen Lotion
10 x Cadbury Chocolates(6 x Dark Choc. w/Sea Salt & Caramel/4 x Milk Choc. w/Raisins & Almonds)

Over $60 in regular retail of goodies.

Closeup shots of the goodies up for grabs......

I'll leave this giveaway open until Tuesday, September 26th, at 11:59pm Eastern Time, so that gives everyone a full 2 weeks to enter this one.  On September 27th I'll mark all the valid entries and use Random dotorg to pick a number and that corresponding person's entry wins.

*Please note the rules*
I'll post the name/Id of the winner on this blog and that person has 48 hours from then to contact me privately via email(my email addy is listed on my "About Me" page).
If I am not contacted via email I'll attempt to contact the winner via the email they supply with their entry and if that email is not responded to within another 48 hours I'll pick another winner.

There are three ways to enter--1 Daily and 2 One-Time Only........

1. Leave a comment every day.

2. Be a follower of this Blog(Hit the "Follow" button on the right hand side bar.) Let me know if your comment for this entry the name you follow under to verify.  You can do this entry once.

3. Post on your own blog(or on your Facebook page)about the Giveaway and leave a link in your comment/entry to where I can find it.  You can do this entry once.
In your Daily Entry tell me in your comment......something like what here is the thing here you most would like to win, or what your Fall plans are, will you be vacationing and where, what thing/place you'd most like to see in your life or just tell us something about yourself.

Disclaimer--This giveaway is open to those with mailing addresses within the US only.
As the cost of postage to foreign countries has gotten to high I am sorry to say I can no longer afford to mail boxes outside the US.  These giveaways are not sponsored by any companies, I pay for it all(cost of items given away and the postage to mail it all)out of my own pocket.

***PLEASE NOTE***

Please make sure there is a way for me to contact you in your comment.

If you're not a registered Blogger User with your contact information on your User page, please put your email addy in your comment or email me your email addy privately when you leave a comment so I can get a hold of you. If your Blogger associated user profile is a GOOGLE one with those Google Circles nonsense I CAN NOT CONTACT YOU as Google Circles doesn't show your contact info.

If I can't contact you then you can't win.  I have had to disqualify more readers than I care to due to this issue and I sure don't want it to happen again.  Thanks!

So let's get this started!

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Stinky Garage" Edition--

The guy in this photo is using an industrial fan to clean off our driveway.  On Saturday we had our driveway seal coated before Winter sets in.  It's all dry now thanks to a sunny Sunday.
But man on man!, does it stink!!!  And worse yet, inside the garage still stinks to high heaven.  I am hoping that by next week when we are ready to clean out the garage that the smell dissipates.

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

1. Sunday--Leftovers of Fend for Yourself(I had a pbj)

2. Monday--Pizza

3. Tuesday--Barbecue Pork Ring, Corn on Cob

4. Wednesday--Tacos

5. Thursday--Chicken Fajitas
6. Friday--Hot Dogs, Sugar Snap Peas
7. Saturday--Leftovers

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Leftovers or Fend for Yourself(I had a pbj)

2. Monday--Pizza, Corn on the Cob

3. Tuesday--Tacos

4. Wednesday--BBQ Pork Ring, Macaroni Salad

5. Thursday--Kielbasa on Rolls, Zucchini Casserole
6. Friday--Burger King(on gift card)
7. Saturday--Steak, Salad, leftover Zucchini Casserole

Last week saw 5 nights of home cooked dinners, 1 nights of leftovers and 1 nights of Take-Out.  

I made 3 trips to Weis Markets, 1 trip to Dollar Tree for eggs and 1 trip to the Shursave Market which brought the weekly food spending to $148.70 last week, and bringing food spending in September to $148.70 so far.   It sure didn't seem like that much as no trip was over $45.00 but it sure added up.

My savings percentages last week and for the month to-date?   Last week's percentage was 47% and the monthly ends up at 47% as well(without Rite-Aid trips added in). 

Leftovers going into this week........macaroni salad, corn casserole, zucchini casserole, 1 kielbasa hunk and bbq ring.

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

1. Sunday--Spaghetti and Meatballs, Cuke/Tomato Salad

2. Monday--Beef Pie

3. Tuesday--Ham, Brussels Sprouts, Sweet Potato Cornbread

4. Wednesday--Haluski

5. Thursday--Leftovers
6. Friday--Leftovers
7. Saturday--Leftovers

This week will see 4 new meals cooked, 3 night of leftovers and 0 nights of Take-Out/Eating-Out.

What I need to buy for this menu? Cabbage.  Daughter needs lunch meat as well.
Though College Boy decimated my stockpile of canned/boxed goods when he went back to school I am still trying to use a few things up this month.  I went through the freezer thoroughly and we are good for meats for awhile(except ground beef)so I am trying to use up some of that as well.
I won't be buying much this week at the grocery stores.

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 last week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week?


Sluggy

Our Summer Road Trip Costs & Review

Ok, I finally got around to tallying up what we spent on our month long Summer Road Trip.

I figured we'd spend about $5K on this extravaganza when all was said and done.

Here are the numbers......

Eating-Out....$957.42
Motels......$936.94
Gas.......$587.25
Car Rental...$844.88
Entry Fees....$118.68
Souvenirs/Gifts....$913.99
TOTAL SPENT......$4359.16

Eating-Out--This included all meals we paid for in cash or with the credit card.  Of course this would have been a higher amount if we didn't eat "free" at the motel stays(2 stays didn't include breakfast and 1 of those breakfast WAS discounted 50%), were not treated to some meals or served meals in friends' homes.
And we skipped a few lunches and/or dinners along the way too.

Motels--This number includes 17 nights in assorted motels and 1 night in a B&B. We were hosted in friends' homes(and relatives of friends' homes)for 11 nights.

Gas--Self-explanatory.  All the gas we bought to get there and back.  Luckily some states we traveled to and through have much lower taxes on gas than PA so this expense was quite reasonable considering we put 7409 miles on the rental car from door to door. We also paid for some gas for Kim's car since they were hauling us around for awhile sightseeing in ID/WY/MT in their vehicle.  I haven't even tried to figure out how many tanks of gas our spending on this category came out to be.

Car Rental--What it cost to rent the car for 1 month including taxes and fees.  It was suppose to be about $940 but, due to an issue with Enterprise, we received a 10% discount off the price of the rental.

Entry Fees.....This could have turned out to be $58 more than it was but we didn't do a couple of activities we had planned on that cost money and we didn't actually go into a couple of attractions that charged but still saw the sights there.

Souvenirs/Gifts--Ok, this sure looks like a big expense but it includes everything we bought that wasn't gas, motel nights, car rental cost, entry fees to sights and food snacks to eat asap/restaurant meals.
This DOES include.....liquor(an embarrassing amount of liquor even though most of it wasn't for ME!lol), souvenirs(t-shirts, tchotchkes, food gifts), books(many many books!), thrift store shopping and gifts.  Also a few things we needed to pick up(like a cork screw, baby wipes, etc.)along the way.

Since we came in under the $5K I earmarked for this extravaganza I am good with what we spent.

Things we did to try to keep the costs down....
*  Skipped a few meals.
*  Stayed mostly at motels that provided some kind of breakfast.
*  Ordered less expensive meals.
*  Used a few gift cards we already had to pay.
*  Brought some food/snacks from home which were either free or purchased very inexpensively.
*  Bought alcohol and drank in the motel room and didn't order drinks at restaurants(mostly).
*  Booked motel rooms ahead after comparing different prices to receive a better rate(and know what we were looking at paying for each beforehand).
*  Cashed in motel points for a gift card to partially pay for 1 night at a very expensive motel.
*  Bought Shell gas gift cards to use along the way(though this backfired on us big time!).
*  Pushed back on car rental company when they screwed up our reservation.  Our time and aggravation is worth something!
*  We chose primarily free or low cost activities. (We are easily amused people.)
*  We chose to not enter a park with a fee on two occasions as it would have not enhanced our experience there substantially.
*  Mostly confined souvenirs to what we personally wanted to buy.
*  Didn't buy outrageously overpriced souvenirs at some venues and bought them at the local Walmart instead.
*  Some souvenirs we picked up for others will be Christmas/Birthday gifts so we used part of the souvenir budget to do Christmas shopping which took the sting out of some of that spending(and technically I should remove that spending from this trip and put it in the Xmas budget).
*  For unavoidable/needed items along the way we found an inexpensive place to purchase(Walmart mostly)instead of using the most convenient shop.

What would we do differently if we had it to do over again?
*  Not go to areas with a record breaking heat wave or traveling to areas with out of control wildfires!
*  Don't book a non-air conditioned sleeping accommodation during a heat wave. (Who was to know though in May that it would be 100F+ in late July there?)
*  Don't buy/take Shell gift cards(More on that later).
*  Don't book a motel in "Hipster Town" Colorado. Ever. Again.
*  Don't travel near Sturgis, SD at the beginning of August.
*  Buy tickets online to venues if possible(this time it was not possible).
*  Take more time to do/see everything that we did on this trip.  I'll tell you every day was jam packed!  Sometimes we felt rushed and it would have been nice to spend more time with some folks we saw or stayed with.
*  If Kim ever invites you to meet her brother in-law, be afraid, be VERY afraid! lololz
*  Don't spend a solid month in a car with your spouse no matter how compatible you are and how much you love them.(Unavoidable really but find ways to do things separately some days so you don't start entertaining murderous thoughts.)

Now I just need to find the time to edit about 2 thousand photos I took! lolz

Sluggy

Frugal Friday.....Sept. 8th Edition

Here's what went on at Chez Sluggy this past week that was frugal.............

* Rebates and refunds--When the tenants moved out of the LA house we told our insurance provider and got a partial refund check because now our insurance on that place is lower.  The cost went down by about HALF of what we were paying for insurance as a rental so we don't have two $1K payments to make each year and the one we made already for the year was about $20 too much for the whole year so we got a little bit back.  I also sent away for a rebate check I earned years ago but forgot about claiming and received it while away on vacation.............

I haven't used E-Bates in years!  I love that they say "Here's Your BIG FAT CHECK!"  A whole $3. lolz  We also banked a refund Hubs got on his business CitiBank card for a credit on it he had when work closed it.

*  Hubs and I stayed home and worked on home projects this past week. 
Hubs replaced the wooden strip in the French Door track so we could close the door properly.  It was imperative to get this done before the stormy/snowy season coming. 
We are waiting on estimates to get our driveway seal coated as well and the wooden deck will be cleaned and sealed next week once we get a string of dry/sunny days.  While this will all require spending money, better to maintain things before letting them deteriorate and then it will cost even more to replace.
Since it's been raining lately we've also done inside work.....filing papers and Hubs spent some time going through all his crap in his spare room.  We've culled 3 boxes of books to get rid of among other items.

I also tackled the upstairs hallway bookcase which serves to hold electronic hardware and software, notebooks, paper, pens, pencils, etc.
It was crammed full of stuff before.  Some items were moved to where they belonged and other things were pitched(like outdated software and anti-virus).  I forgot to take a BEFORE photo but here is what it looks like AFTER............

*  I earned a $5 e-gas card from a Ziploc Deal I did in early June.  This was expiring soon so I had to use it.  Easier said than done.  It was a big deal to use this at a gas station evidently but you could also use it anywhere to took Mastercard, but your total had to be exactly $5.  I tried my local Sunoco gas station but the cashier said she couldn't manually put in the numbers/code there.  So I took it to Rite-Aid and used it to get 2 cases of bottled water on sale for 2/$5.  It took a few tries but we got it to work in their system.

I'll think twice before doing one of these again.  Anybody out there do this Ziploc Offer too and NOT have a hard time using the e-gas card?

*  No eating out this past week or "want" spending.

*  I earned $3.75 in cash rebates on various grocery apps.
This pie cost me $2.99 after sale/$1off Q/2 x $1 cash rebates......

These were the best "Deals" at Weis last week.........

4 x Progresso Soups on sale $1.49 ea.=$5.96  I used 2 x $1/2 IPQs and got a $1 cash rebate on the purchase so $2.96 for all or .74¢ per can.
2 x Pop-Tarts on sale $1.88 wyb2=$3.78.  I used 2 x $1/1 Qs I redeemed Kellogg's points to get so $1.78 or .88¢ per box.  These are snacks for Daughter.
I also picked up the new Fall/Winter Weis Coupon Booklet while I was in the store........

Be sure and grab yourself a few when you go up to Weis(PMITA)Markets this week.

So what did you do this week to earn your Frugal Badge? '-)

Sluggy

Rite-Aid Shopping This Week

So I went up to get my Rite-Aid Freebies on Monday, plus a couple of "almost" freebies.........

3 x Mentos Now Mints on sale=$3.00
1 x Crest toothpaste on sale=$4.00
2 x Glide dental floss/picks on sale=$7.98(20% Wellness disc. was less than sale price)
1 x Oral-B toothbrush on sale=$4.00
1 x GE light bulbs on sale=$7.99
1 x vinyl tablecloth on clearance=.50¢
SubTotal......$27.47

Coupons Used
2 x $1/1 Mentos Now Mints CatalinaQ=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Crest toothpaste Load2CardQ=$2.00
1 x $1/1 Glide dental floss/picks IPQ(coupons dotcom)=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Glide dental floss/picks Load2CardQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Oral-B toothbrush ManuQ=$1.00
Coupon Total....$7.00

$27.47-$7.00=$20.47 + .54¢=$21.01

I used $21.01 in Plenti Points to pay and earned back $19.00 in new Plenti Points($1 wyb3 Mentos, $2 Crest toothpaste, 2 x $3 Glide items, $3 Oral-B item, $7 wyb1 GE).
So the Glide products were a .01¢ moneymaker each, the Mentos, toothpaste and toothbrush were all free, the light bulbs cost .99¢ and the tablecloth was .50¢ and I paid .54¢ in tax.(all in PPs of course).

I was going to get another toothbrush but the Load2CardQ didn't come off my card so I just got one toothbrush with the ManuQ I had.

I went back Wednesday morning and got this on my son's card........

1 x GE light bulbs on sale=$7.99
1 x Crest toothpaste on sale=$4.00
1 x Oral-B toothbrush on sale=$4.00
1 x Glide dental picks on sale=$3.83(Wellness disc. less than sale price .17¢)
1 x Glide dental floss on sale=$3.99(Wellness disc. less than sale price .01¢)
2 x Big Win candy bags on sale=$3.00
1 x Lotus cookies(Wellness disc)=$2.63
SubTotal......$29.44

Coupons Used
1 x $2/1 Crest toothpaste Load2CardQ=$2.00
1 x $1/1 Oral-B toothbrush Load2CardQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Glide dental picks Load2CardQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Glide dental floss IPQ=$1.00
2 x $1/1 Big Win candy bags Wellness Wed.Q in store=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Lotus cookies Wellness Wed.Q in store=$2.00
Coupon Total.......$9.00

$29.44-$9.00=$20.44+.47¢tax=$20.91

I paid with $20.91 in Plenti Points and earned back $18.00 in new PPs($7 GE light bulb, $2 Crest toothpaste, $3 Oral-B toothbrush, 2 x $3 Glide dental items).

The dental floss/picks were an .18¢ moneymaker, the toothpaste and toothbrush were free, the lightbulb pack was .99¢, the candy was .50¢ per bag and the cookies were .63¢.
I spent down my Plenti Points by $2.91.
I hadn't planned on getting the candy or cookies but the Wellness Wednesday Qs they had were too good not to.  The cookies are for Hubs to have with his coffee and the candy will be put into Xmas stockings come Christmas.

It's strange that when I bought the freebies on my card the Oral-B L2CQ didn't come off(so I couldn't get that second toothbrush(I had a ManQ to get one)but on my son's card the L2CQ DID come off!
Hmmm.

I'll probably go back before this sale week is up on Saturday to get the oral care freebies on Daughter's card too....if anything is left by then.

Since it was Wellness Wednesday(the first Wed. of the month at my store)I brought a few freebie samples home too.........

Toothpaste, arthritis balms and eye vitamins.  Most of this(along with some of all the stuff I actually "bought") will begin appearing in future Giveaway boxes.  8-)))

What good deals did you get at your local drugstore this week?

Sluggy