This Week on the Dining Table

The "No Time for Photos" Edition--
I've got company arriving this afternoon so no time for photos or to even write anything here.  I've got to get my butt back into the kitchen to cook!

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

This is what was planned--

1. Sunday--Fend For Yourself

2. Monday--Leftovers(various)

3. Tuesday--Pizza, Salad

4. Wednesday--Kielbasa on Rolls w/Onion, Brussels Sprouts

5. Thursday--more Leftovers

6. Friday--Fish, Cole Slaw, Sweet Potato Fries

7. Saturday--?

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Fend For Yourself

2. Monday--Leftovers(various)

3. Tuesday--Kielbasa on Rolls w/Onion, Brussels Sprouts

4. Wednesday--Pizza, Salad

5. Thursday--Burger King

6. Friday--Fend For Yourself

7. Saturday--Spaghetti w/Meatballs, Salad, Garlic Bread

Last week saw 3 nights of home cooked dinners, 3 nights of leftovers/fend for yourself, 1 nights of Take-Out or Eating Out.  The kids didn't eat much of that tempura shrimp I made last week so I've been eating it reheated 3 nights this past week.  Silly kids.....
One of the Stromboli we bought a week ago last Saturday didn't make it to Sunday since College Boy found it after work Saturday night and ate the ENTIRE thing! save for the small bit I had for dinner that night. sigh.  So basically I went on strike most nights and told them all to eat leftovers since we had a lot of that.

1 grocery trips to Weis and 1 large trip to the Grocery Outlet brought the shopping to $141.71 for the week and brought May's food spending total to $239.58.   

I've got $160.42 left in the food budget for May and 17 days left in my shopping month. 

My savings percentages last week was 53.38% and May's monthly savings total so far is at 52.94%.

Leftovers going into this week.......spaghetti and meatballs, salad, garlic bread but nothing else that I can find. lolz

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

1. Sunday--Steaks on the grill, Green Beans, Corn on Cob(Daughter is cooking)

2. Monday--Ribs and Pork BBQ, Cole Slaw, Potato Salad, Mac Salad, Beans, Pie(Company's coming!)

3. Tuesday--Fend for Yourself

4. Wednesday--Not Sure Yet/Something in the Freezeer

5. Thursday--Leftovers

6. Friday--Fish, Cole Slaw, Sweet Potato Fries

7. Saturday--?

This week will see 4 new meals cooked, 2 nights of leftovers/FFY and 1 nights of ?.

What needs buying for this menu?  Peppers, Cabbage, Potatoes, Milk all of which have been bought already this weekend(will be on next week's post).

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

A Small Local Adventure in April

For Hubs birthday I had gotten him a gift certificate to a local brewery with a tap room in a town south of us, Conyngham.
A tiny village this, the population hit a high in the 1980's but has been on the decline since then, with not much to recommend it but a post office, a restaurant(which College Boy worked at while in high school)and this tap room/brewery.

The town is named for a sea captain/merchant/privateer during the American Revolution named Gustavus Conyngham.  Info on Conyngham the man HERE.
Why this village in the hills of PA was named for a guy who never even was there?  It's all because of Gustavus' cousin, Redmond Conyngham.  Redmond served as as a representative in the PA legislature from this county in 1815 and went onto serve in the State Senate in 1820.
George Drum was the first person to settle in what is Conyngham.  George owned land and built up the nearby town of Drums, which is named for him.  When where he lived was large enough of a village to receive a name the idea of naming it after Redmond Conyngham was bandied about.  Redmond said they should name the village instead after his cousin Gustavus who was an unsung hero of the revolution, so they did....but being named Conyngham, nobody nowadays remembers that it's after Gustavus rather than Redmond.

Gustavus had a mighty important friend in his day that you might have heard of-Benjamin Franklin.
Old Ben saved Gustavus' neck(literally, he was to be hanged by the British!)a few times during the American Revolution.
More on Gustavus Conyngham HERE.
I am shocked after reading up on Gustavus that Hollywood has never made a film about his exploits!

I know....this is more than you ever wanted to know about Conyngham, the man AND the village.  ;-)

So we found the tap room rather handily on the main road through the village(not much else there so it wasn't hard to find lol).

The tap room had a pirate theme(being as a privateer like old Gustavus C. was just a legally sanctioned pirate)....from the growlers with sailing ships to a table in the alcove next to the bar with a game of checkers on it being played by a skeleton wearing a tri-corner hat and a parrot on his shoulder(Arrgggh....I forgot to take that picture!).

Daughter came along with us and put away a few drinks plus a flight along with Hubs.

They had some interesting brews such as a  Jalapeno lager, a Grodziskie(that's a smoked Polish ale)and a Heather ale(which is a Scottish Gruit-beer brewed without hops, how beer was brewed in Ancient times before someone thought to add hops).  We all agreed that the Heather ale had no bitter taste at all(due to no hops I suppose).  Someone who doesn't like beer might enjoy this one immensely!

I enjoyed a Peanut Butter Porter.....and then I had another one.  Two drinks and I was all about having my picture took(much to the Daughter's chagrin)and trying to keep from falling off the bar stool(which I didn't do though getting down from the stool was tricky).....

It was a short pleasant outing and we'll have to do it again sometime.

If you are ever in the area this place is worth a stop.
Conyngham Brewing


Sluggy

Frugal Friday.....the May 11th Edition

Let's see what frugal wins we had this past week...........

* Forgot to put my Bread Outlet trip in last week's edition, so here it is now..........

$7 for 2 loaves of bread, 12 pack hamburger rolls and 2 boxes of Entenmann's black doughnuts(stop drooling Sonya Ann!lol).
Reg. retail on all this is in the neighborhood of $21. ick.

*  I got the Weis(PMITA)Markets Friday Freebie last week........

A free toothbrush

*  I also got this stuff last Friday at Weis..........

Tostitos were BOGOFree.  College Boy goes through these quickly so I got 8 bags(You'll notice one is already missing!lol).  I'll hide some in my walk-in closet and dole them out slowly so we don't run out and I have to pay full price for them.

*  Last Saturday out we stopped at a pizza place I had a gift certificate for and used it........

Dinner that night cost $7 after using the cert.


*  I got the $10 rebate for buying the Nasacort items on Wellness Wednesday last week...

It showed up on Thursday in my Paypal account.

*  I found money!

4¢
Woohoo!

*  In an effort to simply our finaces/banking I have decided to close out our credit union account in another month or so.  We have money in an online bank, the credit union and a local regional bank which has a branch in our town.  We pulled out of all national banks that took TARP funds back in 2008(I'm looking at you Wells Fargo!)and opened this credit union account.

The credit union, while a good idea, hasn't worked out too well-their hours suck(or lack thereof), they make us deposit checks into the savings portion and then move that money into checking after a hold period(it's not like we don't have ample funds to cover any checks written without that money!), then change my online access to the account on a whim and make me jump through hoops I shouldn't have to, the tellers are very unfriendly, and they just are very rinky dink(don't ask what that means, it's just bad).

So we'll be expanding our presence at the local regional bank which I've had a personal account with since we moved here in 2000.

So I ordered new checks at the bank two weeks ago as I am almost out.  Because of the type of account we have there, the checks are still free...woohoo!  The checks arrived this week.

* I received $3 this week on Ibotta and .50¢ last week(which I forgot to mention).  I'm up to $41.35 on that platform in cash rebates for 2018.

*  I put stuff up on the F/B yard sale site and sold some shampoo.......

$18 in my pocket for stuff I got for free at Rite-Aid.
No bites on the diapers yet......sometimes people are so flaky!!

There is a definite form you need to follow on this sales site.....you have to post "interested" and then you contact the seller via pm to arrange the details of the sale.  I constantly get folks pm'ing me and not posting on the sales ad first.  Why can't people follow freaking directions!!!
And then you get the assholes who can't read or see the items and ask you, "How many do you have?" or "How much for X?"  And then there are the ones who want it for nothing asking me if I'll take lower than $1.50 a bottle for high end shampoos like Nexxus and L'Oreal.
Seriously?  $1.50 is too much for you?  Just go away........lolz
Rant over.

What frugal wins did you have this past week?

Sluggy

May Giveaway Time!

May means it's time for the fifth Sluggy's Boring Blog Box Giveaway for 2018.
Come on and enter.
Somebody has to win and it might just be YOU!

So I am doing things a little different this time around.  I am letting the winner pick what they want in their box of goodies!

Here is everything you can pick from if you are the winner.............

You will get to select items from this array until the mailing box is filled!

Here are some close-up shots of everything you can select from...........

It's quite the array of goodies....everything from hair care, to cosmetics, to oral care, to skin care, to deodorants, to razors, to sundry household items to chocolate!

Once filled your box will contain over $70 in regular retail of goodies(if you pick the right things out). 8-)))

I'll leave this giveaway open until Monday, May 21st at 11:59pm Eastern Time, so that gives everyone 10+ days to enter this one.  On May 22nd  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 you most want to win, do you have kids in your life to give the child items too, is anything blooming outside where you live(pollen doesn't count lol), do have plan on planting anything this season, etc.....stuff like that.

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 am still having to disqualify entries due to this issue and I sure don't like doing that.  Thanks!

So let's get this started!

Sluggy

The Whole of My Rite-Aid Buys This Week

BIG week of Rite-Aid purchases this week.......*insert eye roll*

1 jar of Mentholatum rub on sale=$3.00
Paid with Bonus Cash.
I earned $2 in new Bonus Cash.

I also earned $1.75 in Ibotta rebates($1.50 Mentholatum, .25¢ on any item at R-A)making this purchase a .75¢ moneymaker.  8-)

The BC deal on this item is a monthly one and has a limit of one per card/account.
And this smells a bit less noxious than Vick's Vaporub. lolz
And it looks like this and the Arm and Hammer laundry detergent rebates are no longer available on my Ibotta account.  Oh well......didn't need more laundry detergent anyway.


Sluggy