This Week on the Dining Table

The "Starting to Produce, Produce" Edition--

The veggies in the garden are starting to ripen and be ready to pick.  I've harvested lettuce three times now and there is more out there.  Usually by this time it's gotten too hot for lettuce but it's still going gangbusters this year.

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

This is what was planned--

1. Sunday--Chicken w/Queso and Noodles Casserole, Salad

2. Monday--Garlic Pork Roast, Brussels Sprouts, Stuffing

3. Tuesday--Pizza

4. Wednesday--Cook-Out Foods

5. Thursday--BLTs

6. Friday--Leftovers
7. Saturday--Chicken Tenders, leftover Cook-Out sides

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Chicken w/Queso and Noodles Casserole, Salad

2. Monday--Garlic Pork Roast, Brussels Sprouts, Quinoa w/Kale

3. Tuesday--Pizza(take-out)

4. Wednesday--Cook-Out Foods(burgers, dogs, sides, corn)

5. Thursday--Chicken Tenders, Grilled Squash, Mac and Cheese

6. Friday--BLTs
7. Saturday--Leftovers

Everything planned was served pretty much.  I used up a boxed meal thing and reserved a bit of macaroni I cooked up for the mac salad to make a small pan of mac and cheese(also using up leftover cheese sauce).

Last week saw 5 nights of home cooked dinners, 1 night of leftovers/fend for yourself, 1 nights of Take-Out or Eating Out.  

A trip to the Bread Outlet, a Produce Market and two trips to Weis brought the weekly food spending to $78.96 and the monthly total to $78.96.
I have 22 days left in my shopping month for July.  I went to Big Lots this past weekend and got some food items but I haven't had time to go through the receipt to separate the food from non-food and add it to my food tally for July so that will show up on next week's report.

My savings percentage last week was 55.14%(without Rite-Aid trips)and July's monthly savings total comes to 55.14% so far.

Leftovers going into this week......Chicken Casserole, Garlic Pork Roast, 4 Hot Dogs, Potato Salad and Macaroni Salad.

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

1. Sunday--Hamburgers and leftover Cook-out sides

2. Monday--Leftovers

3. Tuesday--Spaghetti and Meatballs, Salad

4. Wednesday--Eggplant w/Garlic Sauce, Rice

5. Thursday--Mushroom Parm(and Chicken Parm for someone), Salad

6. Friday--Leftovers
7. Saturday--Something w/Pasta

This week will see 5 new meals cooked, 2 nights of leftovers/FFY and 0 nights of Take-Out/Eating Out.

What needs buying for this menu? Portabello Mushroom caps, Ground Beef, maybe Eggplant.
Don't need much but I'm going to Wegman's and there's the Big Lots trip too to add into this week so spending will top out at $100+.

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

Chester Porn

Here's a little video of Chester as I have nothing ready to post today and I am running out to Big Lots soon so no time to write something up.


I was refilling the drink fridge and Chester grabbed the plastic outer wrapper from the case of water and was having a grand old time playing with it.
At one point he got his whole body stuck inside it but I missed that part. lolz



Sluggy

Presidential Genealogy Update

Back in April, in This Blog Post, after Barbara Bush died, I figured out that husband George Herbert Walker Bush was my 10th cousin.  This relation is through his paternal grandmother's line, Harriett Eleanor Fay on back to my Stith family line.

But I have now found a closer tie.  We are related through George's mother's side as well back to my Soblet/Sublett family line.

George Herbert Walker BUSH (1924 - )
9th cousin
Dorothy Wear WALKER (1901 - 1992)
mother of George Herbert Walker BUSH
Lucretia Lulie WEAR (1874 - 1961)
mother of Dorothy Wear WALKER
Nancy Eliza "Nannie" Holliday (1847 - 1942)
mother of Lucretia Lulie WEAR
Lucretia Green FOREE (1822 - 1847)
mother of Nancy Eliza "Nannie" Holliday
Peter G. Foree (1793 - 1838)
father of Lucretia Green FOREE
Elizabeth Ann GEVAUDAN (1754 - 1823)
mother of Peter G. Foree
Magdalene Chastain (1735 - 1771)
mother of Elizabeth Ann GEVAUDAN
Pierre Louis Chastain (1707 - 1756)
father of Magdalene Chastain
Anne Briant SOBLET (1664 - 1723)
mother of Pierre Louis Chastain
Abraham Soblet/Sublett (1648 - 1719)
father of Anne Briant SOBLET
Pierre Louis Soblet (1685 - 1754)
son of Abraham Soblet/Sublett
William Abraham Sublett (1723 - 1780)
son of Pierre Louis Soblet
Martha "Patsy" SUBLETT (1752 - 1829)
daughter of William Abraham Sublett
Elizabeth "Betsey" WEATHERFORD (1778 - 1854)
daughter of Martha "Patsy" SUBLETT
Sarah "Sallie" MASON (1805 - 1854)
daughter of Elizabeth "Betsey" WEATHERFORD
Mary Agnes DRISKILL (1837 - 1894)
daughter of Sarah "Sallie" MASON
Robert William HARPER (1881 - 1961)
son of Mary Agnes DRISKILL
Wirt Ross HARPER (1909 - 1968)
son of Robert William HARPER
Carole Frances HARPER (1934 - 2000)
daughter of Wirt Ross HARPER
ME

We share 8th Great Grandparents in Abraham Soblet and Susanne Briant.  George's 7th GGrands are Pierre Chastain and Anne Soblet(who is my 8th Great Aunt and the sister of my 7th Great Grandfather).  This makes George and me 9th cousins.

And that makes me double cousins with George and Laura's twins, Barbara Pierce Bush and Jenna Welch Bush Hager, my 8th cousins through their mom Laura Welch Bush.

Sluggy

Frugal Friday.....July 6th Edition

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

*  I had Hubs pick up the Weis Friday Freebies last Friday...........

A free box of Saltines.  Come Winter and we are in the throes of Winter and soup weather, these will come in handy.

*  Hubs and I hit the Bread Ouutlet since we were down to our last half loaf.....

4 loaves of bread, 2 packages of rolls, 1 package of English muffins, 2 boxes of chocolate donuts and for spending over $10, we also got a free box of donuts....woohoo! lolz

*  Lots of stuff for free from Rite-Aid which I posted about already this week....

*  The Weis gas points expired on July 4th so Hubs and Ex-College Boy took both cars up and filled them up on the 3rd.

Only saved .30¢ per gallon but still, $4.82 saved is $4.82 saved. ;-)

*  While on FB Wednesday evening I saw a Q for free Heinz mayo pop up on my feed so I printed 2 of those coupons off.

When at Weis on Thursday I picked up better than free mayo.......

It was on sale for $3.99 this week but the cashier put in the full value of the Q($4.50)so I got paid $1.02 in other groceries to bring these home. ;-)
Then I got another .50¢ in cash rebates on Ibotta for buying these.  Sweet!

While at Weis I also picked up these for the kids at their request...

DD creamers are $2.99 this week at Weis.  I earned $2.25 in cash rebates(.75¢ per bottle)at Ibotta for this purchase so they cost $2.24 each after that.

I also found a pack of thick pork chops with a $3 off sticker plus these are BOGOFree this week so I picked up another similar pork chop pack.  I paid $3.30 for 2.12 lbs. of chops.
Then these value packs of bacon had .50¢ discount stickers on them, making them $2.77 each.  $3 is my buy price currently for bacon so I bought 4 packs.

I also did the Mix and Match buy 6 Items/Get $6 Off.......

2 x 8 pack Gatorade for ex-College Boy on sale=$10.00
2 x Breyer's ice cream on sale=$5.98
1 x Ben and Jerry's slices on sale=$3.99
1 x Hanover frozen veg on sale=$1.99
SubTotal....$21.96

Coupons Used
1 x $1/2 Gatorade 8 packs HangtagQ=$1.00
1 x $2/1 BandJ slices IPQ=$2.00
Coupon Total....$3.00

$21.96-$3-$6 Offer=$12.96 for all 6 items
Not a bad price and then at the register this Catalina printed off......

$1 off my next order for buying 2 Breyer's ice cream.
I have a feeling I'll be going back to Weis this week for more ice cream.  ;-)

Hubs went out to buy a back-up filled propane tank for the grill this week.  I gave him $29 in Home Despot gift cards to use toward that so it only cost us $22.99 OOP.
Good thing he bought one because the current tank ran out of fuel right in the middle of cooking during the 4th..

That's about all I have for this week.
What frugal wins did you have this past week?

As always, heed the words of the "Most Interesting Man in the World"..........

Sluggy

To-Do List...........June Update

The To-Do List update for June....let's see how it all shook out!


* Pay bills  DONE  Everything got paid on time, no interest or fees assessed or paid.

*  Read 1, 2 Books  DONE

My Brother's Crown by Mindy Starns Clark and Leslie Gould.
I picked this one up because of the Huguenot emblem on the cover....had no clue if it would be good or not.
It's one of a series of books by these two authors all about women from one fictional family, a Huguenot family from France that immigrated to Colonial America.  It jumped from a story line in present day Virginia to 1600's France and a story line of the present day person's ancestor.  It was well done and flowed well, very readable.
Not too heavy on the history but I still enjoyed it.
If you have Huguenot ancestry you might want to give this a go.

Then I read.......

"The Great Influenza" by John M. Barry.  This was a historical account of the Spanish Flu Pandemic that swept the world between 1918 and 1920.
As the generations that actually experienced this world changing pandemic have died off, the horror of this time in our history has faded from our collective memory.  Just to refresh the scope of this disease, the Spanish Flu killed more people in 20 weeks than AIDS has killed in 20 years and killed more people in a year than Bubonic plagues during the Middle Ages killed in a century.
Choked full of detailed medical history, important researchers and leaders in the field of American medicine, as well as timelines, how authorities greatly mishandled the outbreak(from the government to the military to the news media) and the first hand accounts of victims and others from that time.  This book gives one a real sense of just how devastating this influenza outbreak was everywhere in the world and how it's consequences affect our lives today.
The influenza affected the waging of World War I all the way to the terms of surrender and our then current POTUS and his life and term in office.
Any history fans out there need to pick this one up and give it a go!

*  Clean Laundry Room  DONE  Our laundry room was in need of a good cleaning, including the machines.  The pan under the washer was removed and scrubbed down(and then promptly broken but fixable)and the dryer was disconnected and the hose and back of the machine were cleaned out.
The pan being broken happened because Hubs didn't reconnect the water hose tightly enough and a week later we found that the leaking hose started to over run the pan with water which meant moving everything AGAIN to dry it all out and during this transfer period it got cracked on one corner.  Luckily there was no floor(or ceiling on the first floor)damage since we found the problem quickly and some duct tape fixed the pan edge.
After all the extended work we had to do cleaning and moving stuff times 2 I am calling this a....

 *  Do 1 Home Improvement Project  DONE  The floor has never looked so clean in the Laundry Room after two scrubbing downs. lolz  Hubs even removed the louvered vent where the dryer hose attaches and I scrubbed that.  Other than some paint the laundry room is in ship-shape shape now.

 * Organize Garage  FAIL  It's been too hot and Hubs hasn't cooperated  when it wasn't too hot to go through stuff.  I have been picking up in there and moving stuff around a little and tidying a bit but no major clean out yet.  I did get Hubs to dig out the old a/c unit to give to his brother and the nephew as they have no air in their apt. and we had a week long of 90+F heat wave.  It's an even bigger mess at the moment and I am hoping I can get Hubs to help me this weekend(the weather is suppose to be less humid and cooler)to go through and put some of it right.
The garage can only get so clean until next Spring when Daughter moves out and takes all her stuff stored in there(plus the stuff stored IN the house).  I guess I need to be less critical and don't expect too much until that happens. ;-)

* Hold Giveaway  DONE

*  Mail Giveaway  DONE  Mailed and received.

* Purge Coupon Inserts   DONE

Went through all the inserts, clipped a few Qs that weren't expired yet that I might use before they did and put back about 10 whole inserts on my bookshelf.
It feels so good to purge papers sometimes.  8-)))

*  Plan possible 2018 Travel  DONE...sort of
We've got a possible plan....nothing wild or crazy or long and nothing happening until September.  Still working on some Winter plans too and lots of details need to be fleshed out still.

* Work on 2018 Goals   PASS  some of the big yearly goals have been worked on or finished, some have not.  Here they are.....

  *  Sewing--NOT DONE  Other than hemming and mending I've done nothing yet on this one. I'll try to dig out and decide on which fabrics to use in July for the table runner I want to make.

  *  Dropping some weight--NOT DONE  Well I have lose some weight but it was weight I put back on this Winter.  Winter and being sick for 2 months is not conducive to weight loss I have decided. lolz

  *  Culling more of my toiletries stockpile--SOME DONE  Until this week, I had been scaling back on the freebies from Rite-Aid but having to roll Bonus Cash within 2 months is crappy. 8-P
I did make a Food Bank donation already this year(Was it March? I don't think I wrote about it when I did it.).
I'll be giving the Brother In-Law and Nephew some stuff in July which will jump start the purge again.  And once we go traveling I'll be giving stuff away too so I see more toiletries flowing out of here.

  *  Make a new Password/Log in Book and new Address Book  DONE AND NOT DONE.

  Password Book done.
  Address Book not yet.  I still need to buy an Address Book.

  *  Deal with the house in Louisiana.  DONE!!!

  Goodbye house!

  * Sell more stuff.

   Done and done.

    I should start ramping up some more eBay stuff in the next 2 months since we aren't leaving      town until September.

  * Start putting together a punch list of things to address in the house here in preparation for         putting in on the market--NOT DONE
     We will sit down and put a preliminary list together in July, along       with a timeline and           how to handle paying for it all.

  * Put my genealogy stuff in a software program--NOT DONE Still looking for which software        I want to use.  Will make this a priority to get done by January 2019.

  * Gardening and travel--DONE  Gardening got done in May.  Travel is still up in the air                 though we do have a soft plan now.

Looking at the Yearly Goals list we still have plenty to finish there along with smaller monthly goals I have planned.

June was productive overall and we'll head into July with good intentions on getting lots accomplished.

How was your June in terms of getting to chores and plans?
Any successes or epic fails?

Sluggy