Tuesday, May 22, 2018

And the Giveaway Winner is......


There were 111 valid entries for the May Sluggy's Boring Blog Box Giveaway.

Random.org picked this entry to win........




Watkins lotion

Gerry T
merlinsfamily@outlook.com

Congratulations Gerry T!!!

You now have 48 hours from when this post goes live to email me your full name and mailing address.  Please also let me know which items you want in your box, in order of "most wanted" to "least wanted" so I can start packing all your winnings up.

Thanks to everyone who played along as always.  Another giveaway will be coming up(maybe sooner rather than later). ;-)

Sluggy

Posted by at 5 comments:
Labels: , , ,

Monday, May 21, 2018

Last Day to Enter the Giveaway!!!

I almost forgot that today is the last day to enter the May Giveaway.
Go HERE.  Closes at 11:59 pm ET tonight.

You could win from your choice of all this, whatever will fit into the mailing box........


You want girly stuff? done.
You want light bulbs and men's toiletries? done.
You want chocolate and tampons? done. lolz

If you entered already make sure I didn't leave a comment on your comment that I don't have your contact info(email addy).  If I can't contact you, you can't win.

Sluggy
Posted by at 3 comments:

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Always Makes Me Laugh" Edition--

When I'm having a bad day Chester always seems to make me laugh or at least smile.
Here he is eating his dinner last weekend......on three legs. LOLZ  He stood like that for three minutes with his face buried in his food bowl.  One time he had both legs off the ground while he was eating.
Silly dog.....

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

This is what was planned--

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--?

And this is what actually happened--

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, Pie(Company's coming!)
3. Tuesday--Fend for Yourself
4. Wednesday--Hamburgers, leftover side dishes from Monday
5. Thursday--Leftover Spaghetti/Meatballs/Garlic Bread, Salad
6. Friday--Fend for Yourself
7. Saturday--Primo Hoagies(used a gift cert.)

Last week saw 4 nights of home cooked dinners, 2 nights of leftovers/fend for yourself, 1 nights of Take-Out or Eating Out.  

1 grocery trip each to Weis, Maine Source, Dollar Tre and Shursave Markets brought the shopping to $140.01 for the week and brought May's food spending total to $379.59.   

I've got $20.41 left in the food budget for May and 10 days left in my shopping month. I know I am going to go over budget this month since I did some shopping over the weekend and this total doesn't include that.  If it happens once in while I am ok with it.

My savings percentages last week was 34.48% and May's monthly savings total so far is at 47.48%.

Leftovers going into this week.......potato salad, garlic bread.  That's it.

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

1. Sunday--Chicken Tenders, Pear Gorgonzola Salad
2. Monday--Catfish, Cole Slaw, Sweet Potato Fries
3. Tuesday--Roast Turkey Breast, Stuffing, Asparagus, Cranberry
4. Wednesday--Ravioli, Salad, leftover Garlic Bread
5. Thursday--Pork Roast, Green Beans, Garlic Mashed Taters
6. Friday--Red Beans and Rice with Andouille Sausage or Fend For Yourself
7. Saturday--?

This week will see 6 new meals cooked, 0 nights of leftovers/FFY and 1 night of ?.
No leftovers means I get to cook a lot this week...yay me! lolz

What needs buying for this menu?  Salad Greens and who knows what else.  The Daughter has decided to follow a Keto diet so this mucks with my plans. sigh

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
Posted by at 5 comments:
Labels: , ,

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Lots More Rite-Aid Friday & Saturday

I got all this at my Rite-Aid in 3 different transactions on 3 different cards on Friday but will list it all together........


6 x Suave deodorants on sale=$7.14
3 x Hydralyte on sale=$3.00
1 x Schick razors on sale=$5.99
1 x Cover Girl lip pencil on clearance=$2.07
SubTotal......$18.20

Coupons Used
1 x .25¢/1 Suave deodorant L2CardQ=.25¢
3 x $2/1 Hydralyte IPQ=$6.00
1 x $4/1 Schick IPQ=$4.00
1 x $2/1 Cover Girl items IPQ=$2.00
Coupon Total....$12.25

$18.20-$12.25=$5.95 + .55¢ tax=$6.50 paid with BC
$8 in new BC earned back(3 x $2 Suave, $1 Schick, $1 Colgate)*
So I bought a tube of Colgate but the L2CardQ didn't come off so I returned it right away but I still got a $1 BC-if you return something the BC doesn't come back off your account.  I didn't do this to get a "free" BC, I wanted to buy the Colgate but when a L2CardQ doesn't come off, I am not going to keep it. lolz
Even without the "bonus" $1 BC this was a .50¢ moneymaker.

The Cover Girl purchase triggered a $3/2 Cover Girl purchase Catalina Q.  There was a $5 wyb $10 Cover Girl/Sally Hansen Deal last week and I had $2.06(even though the item was $2.07...hmmm)tracking on that Deal.  More on this later.

So Hubs let me stop by a different Rite-Aid last week while we were running errands downtown so I picked up this there..........


They didn't have any of the Suave deodorants(the monthly Deal items)or the Lever 2 packs of soap which were a moneymaker after BC back but they had 1 box of Hydralyte and I did the monthly Doan's/Vivarin/Midnite on my last card.

The Midnite was free after $1Q and $8 BC it gave.
The Hydralyte was $1 moneymaker after sale/Q.
$7 spent in BC, $8 in BC earned back.

On Saturday I was in the town South of us and stopped by a different R-A and bought all this on two different cards.......


4 x Barlow's men's dry shampoo 30% off F/S special offer=$19.56 *
3 x Hydralyte(1 bottle/2 tablets)on sale=$3.00
4 x Suave deodorants on sale=$4.76
1 x Schick razors on sale=$5.99
4 x M&Ms Kings size on sale=$4.00
SubTotal........$37.31

Coupons Used
3 x $2/1 Hydralyte IPQ=$6.00
1 x $4/1 Schick razors IPQ=$4.00
4 x .50¢/1 R-A stickerQ=$2.00
Coupon Total......$12.00

$37.31-$12.00=$25.31 + $1.51 tax=$26.82 paid for with BC.
$26.00 in new BC was earned on these transactions(4 x $5 Barlow's, 2 x $2 Suave, $1 Schick, $1 Candy wyb 4 King size), meaning I "spent down" my BC by .82¢.

After sale/Qs/BCs earned the razors "cost" .99¢ plus tax, the deodorants .38¢ for every two plus tax, and the candy was .25¢ per bag.

* All the men's Barlow products give back $5 each on a Monthly Deal(limit 2 per card).  With the 30% off promotion from Fri./Sat. for all Wellness Gold members these $6.99 reg. retail items were $4.89 so a small .11¢ moneymaker when purchased.

I also went back up to my R-A on Saturday to roll the Cover Girl Deal using 2 more $3/1 Cover Girl IPQs I printed off late last month and that $3/2 that kept generating another CatalinaQ on two different cards.......


2 x Barlow's dry shampoo 30% off special promo=$9.78
1 x Arm and Hammer toothpaste(rain check)=FREE
2 x CG mascara BOGO50%=$14.23
1 x CG pro mascara clearance=$1.57
1 x CG trublend clearance=$2.32
1 x CG trublend powder clearance=$2.64
1 x CG pro mascara curved 20% Wellness disc.=$5.03
2 x CG eye shadow palettes BOGO50%=$9.33
1 x CG lip pencil clearance=$2.07
1 x CG liquid makeup stick clearance=$2.07
SubTotal.......$49.04

Coupons Used
2 x $3/1 CG mascara IPQ=$6.00
4 x $3/2=$12.00
Coupon Total.....$18.00

$49.04-$18.00=$31.04 + $1.75=$32.79

$12.86 in the last of the Plenti Points on my card and $19.93 total in BC(from both cards)was used to pay.
I earned $30 back in new BC(2 x $5 Barlow's, 4 x $5 CoverGirl-2 on one card/2 on the other card).
I "spent down" $2.79 in BC on all this in the last photo.

Total Spent this Week at Rite-Aid(including Wed. stuff I posted about earlier in the wk)...$95.94 in Bonus Cash
Total new Bonus Cash earned back........$95.00 + $2.00 in Ibotta cash rebates.

I have finally used up the last of my Plenti Points. rah.
The plan going forward will be to slowly spend down most if not all of the BC on two of my cards.  With this 60 day window to roll them all and not being able to view "how much expires and when exactly" I am over it.
Right now I have $163.01 in Bonus Cash spread out over 3 cards.  Trying to keep these many balls in the air(and not have BC expire on me)requires me to "buy" too much stuff and then find ways to use it all.  That's more work than I want to do. 8-(  I just want to buy what we all need here, what I can give to family and friends and things to put into Giveaways.

Sluggy




Posted by at 4 comments:
Labels: , , ,

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Another Royal Wedding....Oh Goody!

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few months, you are aware that today was the day Prince Harry of the UK married American actress Meghan Markle.

Yes, this is an interesting event as not only is Harry marrying a commoner but *gasp* an American!
I am not an anglophile personally nor am I a Royal Watcher but being the whitest white woman on Planet Earth, and also having been researching my ancestry full-bore for the past 9 or so years, you probably know that I am related to the English royal family.

Prince Harry(and his brother Prince William)are my 19th cousins.  Interestingly, we are cousins through both his father, Prince Charles' and Princess Diana's ancestry.  Charles and Diana are BOTH my 18th cousins 1 x removed.(Charles through his maternal lines and Diana through her father's lines.)



I relate to Prince Harry through our shared ancestor George de Neville, 1st Baron Latimer, through his father, Ralph De Neville on both his parents' family trees.

And as it turns out I am also related to Meghan Markle.  She's my 21st cousin 2 x removed.
I also relate to Megan Markle through George de Neville, 1st Baron Latimer, but through his mother, Joan de Beaufort, Countess of Westmoreland.
Meghan and I are also direct descendants of Edward III.

                             Good ol' Edward III

So this means Harry and Megan are also related to each other via many different lines of ancestry but nothing too close.  I believe their closest shared ancestor is Ralph Bowes of Streatlam 1480-1516 which would make them 15th cousins.

Since my invite never arrived(I am "family" after all, right?) I will assume that the English postal system or USPS lost it somewhere along the line. sniff*sniff*

And all this other talk about this union being so historic as the Royal Family is having someone of African ancestry marry into the bloodline?
It's true that Meghan is bi-racial, her father is "white", her mother is "black"(actually her mother is bi-racial--not black as many of her direct ancestors are listed as "mulatto" in federal censuses) but this is NOT the first instance of ethnic ancestry being injected into the English Royal Family.

I posted about Queen Elizabeth II having a direct ancestral connection to the Profit Muhammad back in March HERE.
This line of descent connects her(and me)to various Spanish Royals so there has already been much Hispanic blood flowing through the veins of English royalty.

The first known royal with "African" ancestry was Queen Consort Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz who married King George III(the monarch we colonies revolted against).


This is one of the portraits of Charlotte painted by Allan Ramsay painted in 1761 when she was 17 years old not long after her marriage to George III.  There are eye witness descriptions of her looks that allude to her African genes.  If you look at the genealogical records you will find that Charlotte was descended from a branch of the Portugese family through Alfonso III.  Alfonso's armies captured the Moorish town of Faro and demanded the Governor's daughter as a "spoil of war". The Governor's daughter, Ouruana, went on to have three children by Alfonso III.  Martin, one of Alfonso and Ouruana's sons married into the de Sousa line.  This noble line also held African ancestors so Charlotte owed her ethnic roots to both her paternal and maternal lines.

Interestingly enough, at the time of Charlotte's wedding, the question of slavery and it's abolishment was swirling around England(and also the civilized world).  Allan Ramsay, the painter of many portraits of Queen Charlotte, was an ardent abolitionist on this issue.  He was married to the niece of Lord Mansfield who ruled in 1772 that slavery within the British Empire should be abolished.
Allan Ramsay was also Uncle by marriage to Lord Mansfield's grand niece, Dido Elizabeth Lindsay.
Dido's father was Sir John Lindsay, the brother of Margaret Lindsay, who became Allan Ramsay's second wife.  John and Margaret's mother was the sister of Lord Mansfield....got that?


Portrait of Dido and her cousin Elizabeth Murray, painted in a Zophanian style, now attributed to English artist David Martin.

You may have seen the feature film they made about the life of this child of naval officer and nobility member Sir John Lindsay and a captured slave from the West Indies named Maria Belle called "Belle" back in 2014.


And it seems fitting that Meghan will take her vows and become Princess in the very same place that Queen Charlotte is buried-St. George's Chapel in Windsor Palace.

If you want to see the pedigree of both Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and how they are related(at least their closest connection)go HERE.


Sluggy



Posted by at 12 comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)