Rite-Aid.....Trying Some Deals & They Worked!

So I had to go to R-A for drugs so I tried a couple of deals I saw online so see if they would work.........

1 x Crest 3D White Glamorous White teeth whitening strips($46.99-20% Wellnes discount)=$37.59
1 x Jolly Rancher candy on sale=$1.50
1 x Twizzlers candy on sale=$1.50
SubTotal......$40.59

Coupons Used
1 x $12/1 Crest strips L2CQ=$12.00
1 x $5/1 Crest strips L2CQ=$5.00
1 x $10/1 Crest strips any In-AdQ=$10.00
1 x $12/1 Crest glamorous white Q in R-A Beauty Pamphlet=$12.00
Coupon Total.....$39.00

$40.59-$39.00=$1.59 +$1.24 tax=$2.83 paid in BC
Received back $3 in new BC($1 wyb2 select candy, $2 wyb select candy)


BUT.......
The cashier got to talking and was spacing out and hit the complete button before putting in the $10 In-Ad RAQ and the $12 Beauty Pamphlet $12 Q. sigh

Two different Crest L2CQs came off which were loaded on this card I used...both for whitening strips, one for $5 and another for $12.
Now I don't know if the cashier had put both these Qs through if it would have kicked off one of the two L2CQs that came off.
So I got 4 coupons applied to one item...crazy!

So I brought home $22 in cash for the Qs she forgot to put through, thus converting $22 worth of BC to cash.  This card with the new $3 in BC has $19.68 in BC attached to it.

Select brands/types of candies are double dipping for both a weekly and a monthly deal.  Types that quailfy are Twizzler twists and/or nibs in cherry and strawberry(not licorice)and Jolly Rancher hard candy, assorted flavors bags.
The Weekly Deal is Buy 2, Get $1 in BC and the brands are shown in the ad(limit 2 deals), the Monthly Deal is Buy 2, Get $2 in BC and is Twizzlers/Jolly Ranchers/Red Vines(limit 4 deals).
Bags of these candies are 2/$3 this week so buy 2 that qualify and get $1 weekly BC and $2 monthly BC so free after BC earned.

I didn't think I'd find the Crest strips on a Friday, none on the shelf where they are but I found 1 on an end cap display.

Not bad......a .17¢ moneymaker in total after cash back and BC earned.
And now I can have movie star teeth!

Sluggy

Frugal Friday.....the July 20th Edition

Let's see what frugal-ness got accomplished this past week......

*  The only eating out that happened was Hubs and I got a whopper each at BK, I used a BOGOFree Q and paid with a gift card.

*  I thought I was being frugal this week when I got my passport photos done at Rite-Aid.  The post office charges $15, CVS charges $14.95(and there is a $3 off coupon)and Rite-Aid charges $14(and there is a $7 off coupon-plus I get 20% off with my Gold Wellness status.).  I paid $5.94 including tax at Rite-Aid.  Didn't work out there as my face was too big(lolz)so I had to have them redone at the PO.  I did get my money back from Rite-Aid however so that's a win.

*  More goodies from the garden......

another 2 zukes, a squash and lots of lettuce=44.8 more ounces of food.

*  I gave Chester a bath and brushed him out.

He still looks a bit "phoofy" in this photo as he wasn't fully dried off yet.  I put this beach towel out on the sunny part of the deck so he could rub himself on it but after awhile he decided no, the towel needed to be out in the yard, so after a few rounds of "take the towel and mommy puts it back on the deck"(a fun game for him no doubt!)we brought the towel inside.  ;-)
Why pay someone else to wash and brush my dog when I can do it myself(in the kitchen sink no less)?  Chester is a very good at holding still and being calm for his baths so that's a double win.

*  Grocery Deals....not very much this week and I didn't get the Friday Freebie last Friday since it was a bag of marshmallows and we didn't need/want it.
I did get two pork shoulders at a different Weis this week(had to be in a different town running an errand)for .98¢ a lb which are going into the smoker later this morning along with the pork butt I got at Wegman's last week.
I did buy a lot of ice cream this week at Weis as part of the Buy6/Get $3 Off Mix and Match Deal......

3 x Friendly's ice cream on sale($2.49)=$7.47
2 x Talenti ice cream on sale($3.49)=$6.98
1 x Huggies wipes=$1.99
SubTotal........$16.44

Coupons Used
2 x Talenti $1.50/1 IPQ=$3.00
1 x Huggies wipes .50¢/1 IPQ=.50¢(doesn't double)
1 x $3 instantly Off Mix and Match Deal=$3.00
Total.......$6.50

$16.44-$6.50=$9.94
Reg. retail of $23.04

I did this twice last week(except the other time I got 2 Friendly's and an On-Cor entree instead of 3 Friendly's and that total after Qs and $3 off was $10.88 OOP.

*  As far as cash rebates go, I earned .25¢ from Ibotta(for any item)and $1.25(for Talenti)from SavingStar last week so $1.50 total.

*  Meanwile, at Rite-Aid...........
I returned some expensive vitamins that Hubs didn't want.  Had paid with Qs and points so I got $12.98 back in BC and $5.01 cash since they can't return Qs.  Don't get why it was $5.01 and not $5.....

Then I took those $12.98 BC and bought these items that were all on 75% off clearance......

1 x Love and Beauty shampoo=$2.37
2 x Apothocare Essentials shampoo=$6.74
3 x Apothocare Essentials body wash=$9.96
Total.....$19.07

I had $2/1 Qs for all these(the Love and Beauty one was on Coupons dotcom, don't remember where I had gotten the others)so $12 off=$7.07+.52¢tax=$7.59 paid with BC.  Since I got back more BC for the return than I spent I'll call this a moneymaker.
Add in that I earned $5 in new BC($5 wyspend $15 on Apothocare)and it's even better.  8-)

But the cashier left out one of my Qs and only put $10 worth through so I was charged $9.59.  I called the manager when I got home and noticed this and went back another day and got my $2 post coupon cash.  The $5.01 and that $2 are now tucked away in my refunds/post Q Envelope in my desk.

That's about it this week.

What frugal wins did you have this week?
Tell us all about it. 8-)))

Sluggy

A Visit With Randy From Nebraska

Back in May, a blogger friend came for a visit.
His name is Randy and I met him at the Bloggerpalooza Gathering in Delaware back in 2014.

L to R back row-Pat, Randy, Ron, Jay
Front row-Java and Sluggy

Anyway, last July, on our way to Idaho, Hubs and I stopped in Nebraska where Randy lives and spent most of a day with him there.

So when Randy said he was coming East for a Ham Radio Convention in PA, I insisted he stop by here!

He arrived early afternoon on a Monday.  Unfortunately all the brew pubs around here are closed on Mondays so I couldn't take him to one.  *sad face*
So we sat around and "some of us" *ahem* had a few drinks and we just had a good chin wag.

I made bbq ribs and pulled pork sandwiches and sides for dinner.
When it got dark we headed outside and had a fire and sat and talked.  It was nice and relaxing.
Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures on Monday......but I did on Tuesday.

After I made breakfast for Randy on Tuesday I thought he was going to take off toward Stuebenville OH on his journey home.
But no, he had time to hang around until late afternoon so we came up with something to do.

Now there isn't much in terms of sightseeing around here, unless you want to either A-go down in a coal mine or B-go see old locomotives.
So we settled on something else where we've never been before either, Eckley Miner's Village.

Uh, oh, this is turning into a history lesson now so grab a drink and a chair and sit back for while.  ;-)

This place started out as a quiet small town named Shingletown in the woods of Eastern Pennsylvania.  The name came about because the residents made shingles from the trees in the area.  That was until coal was discovered there in 1853.

Four men formed a company, the Council Ridge Colliery, to mine the area after securing a 20 year lease on the land.  They built a sawmill to began milling lumber for building houses, a company store, offices and a colliery so they could start mining the vein of coal.
This was a "patch town"-a village that grows up around a mining operation where the people who work in the mine live with their families.  The town was called Fillmore after the then outgoing US President Millard Fillmore.

Hubs trying to pick up a massive chunk of coal.

Four years later the town applied for a US post office but the town name of Fillmore was already in use elsewhere in PA where there was a post office.  So the town name was changed to Eckley, named after Eckley Coxe, the son of one of the owners of the mining company, Judge Charles Coxe.

The first residents/workers in Eckley were experienced miners, immigrants from England and Wales.
Once the Potato Famine hit Ireland, Irish arrived and took the low skilled/low paying mining jobs.
By the 1880's/1890's immigrants from Eastern Europe arrived in Eckley to take over the low paying jobs there as the Irish and English worked their way up to better mining jobs or gained other skills and moved on.

Some of the clapboard houses still standing there.

One of the multi-family homes.
Most if not all of the 'shacks' of the lowest paid workers are gone.


Many of these immigrants went to the coal fields with the intention of staying a short time, saving money and taking it back to their homelands to live there lives out there in a better condition.
This didn't often happen as mining was tedious, hard labor and didn't pay well.  In addition, the miners relied on the "company store" for all their needs.  The store would advance you credit and inflate prices on basic goods so that it was almost impossible for you to get free and clear of your debt and leave, very much like this old classic standard song.



Over time besides a company store, the workers lodgings and the business buildings and equipment, churches were built and a full time doctor was engaged to see to the medical needs of the patch town residents.

After World War II, as coal mining became not as lucrative, the mines of the Eckley area were sold off and eventually closed.  Most people moved away but I was shocked to find that there are people who still live here!  As we drove around we say that a few of the old houses are still occupied presumably by descendants of people who worked these mines.

The whole town was slated for demolition back in the 1960's but along came a major motion picture called "The Molly Maguires".
More about The Molly Maguires in this History Channel episod...


Based on the group called The Molly Maguires, which was a secret organization of Irish coal miners who fought against the unjust treatment at the hands of the wealthy coal mine owners by sabotaging equipment and mines in the Anthracite coal mine region in PA.  This group began in Ireland and Liverpool England among coal miners there and as these miners immigrated to the PA coal fields their unrest spread to America.  In the 1870's they were most active in this region of PA and in 1877 things came to a head when 10 men accused of terrorist acts and murder carried out by Molly Maguires were hanged, 6 in Pottsville and 4 in Mauch Chunk(now called Jim Thorpe PA).  Over the next year or so another 10 men tried and convicted were hanged in the towns of Mauch Chunk, Pottsville, Bloomsburg and Sunbury as well.

When Paramount Pictures scouted locations for the setting of the Molly Maguires film starring Sean Connery, the obvious choice was Eckley PA since this town still looked like it had stepped out of 1870.
They only had to bury utility lines and removed antennas.
They also built a prop company store and breaker since the originals had long since been torn down.

The coal breaker which is fenced off so you can't get near it.

Neither company store building or the coal breaker have been maintained(other than some paint on the store)but they are still standing 50 years later.

After the movie, the town looked so good historically speaking that instead of demolition it all, it was given to the PA Historical and Museum Commission to operate.

There is a 17 minute film which explains about patch towns and the history of Eckley, as well as a look into the daily live of these mining families.  There is also quite an array of displays and artifacts related to the history and this are of Pennsylvania in the man building, which is located where the school house to educate the miners' children use to be.

Since we visited during a weekday, there were no guided tours offered and most of the buildings which are part of the museum were locked but we could drive around and look at stuff and peek into windows unless it was marked a private residence.

You can see the hierarchy of mine labor-shacks were occupied by unskilled slate pickers, to 2-story clapboard houses housing multiple skilled miner families(and single men miners who had to live with a family), to small single family houses for bosses and overseers.
I didn't think to take any photos of the shacks and clapboard houses.

On the end of the street stands the Gothic Revival-style home built for the mine owner, Richard Sharpe.  It's the grandest building in the town.

The Catholic church stands at the end of the main street through Eckley nearer the shacks as the Irish immigrants were among the lowest paid workers and the Protestant church is closer to the clapboard houses of the English/Welch mine workers.

It was an interesting trip.
More history and information on Eckley Miner's Village HERE.

We headed home and after exchanging gifts of beer, Randy set out for Ohio and eventually home to Nebraska.

It was nice to see you again my friend!


Sluggy

Where the Money Stands....1 Year Into Retirement

This is what I envisioned before Hubs retired last year.

But we have pretty successfully navigated the waters of Retirement Year One.
Hubs has been retired one full year as of June 30th.

So it's time for a financial update at the one year mark.

Here is what the money breakdown was on July 1st of 2017......

* Pension account--This gives us an income stream of $3,173.13 per year.
* Retirement Savings
* Cash & Regular Savings
* HSA(Health Savings Account)
* RMSA(Medical Savings Account)
* Personal Days Payout(This was rolled into the Cash & Regular Savings after it was paid out July 2017.)
* Stock Account

And here is what the money breakdown is on July 1st of 2018.....

* Pension account--This gives us an income stream of $3,218.16 per year.  Taxes went down on this income stream in Feb. 2018 so we see $45.03 more per month than in July 2017.

* Retirement Savings--The total in that account is $5,916.10 more than what was in it on July 1st 2017.
We have withdrawn $6,000 from the account in this first year of retirement too, which means it grew $11,916.10 in interest this past 12 months.

* Cash & Regular Savings--$66,667.68 more in this pot than July 1st 2017.  The Personal Days were rolled into this, as well as the proceeds from selling the house in Louisiana, a federal tax return and some interest gains all account for this increase over July of 2017.

* HSA--This account is $2,321.40 less than July 2017.  Paying medical bill co-pays from this.

* RMSA--This account is $19,774.65 less than July 2017.  Paying healthcare premiums from this.

* Stock--Is worth $2,241.33 more than July 2017.  Stock went up a bit.

Overall we have $52,729.06 more in assets we can access on July 1st 2018 compared to July 1st 2017.(This doesn't count the pension account since it's a guaranteed income stream for life and not an account that can be liquidated if need be.)

Costs have been pretty stable here and no big financial emergencies have arisen so far.  We are living below our means, paying our bills, eating well, getting things taken care of and splurging a little.
No real travel yet but that's coming later this year.

I have calmed down about spending what we've built up over so many years.  It's still hard wrapping my head around spending down the money and I catch myself sometimes getting stressed but not as often as a year ago.

My life didn't change all that much when Hubs retired fully last July.  He's home more than I'd like(I had gotten use to having the house to myself most days)but we stay out of each other's hair.  He's got his routine and I've got mine.  He is considering doing some contract work for his former boss on an interim basis in the coming year.  I think he misses his work more than he lets on.

So that's about it.
Any questions, just ask. ;-)


Sluggy

One of My Scottish Ancestors in America

Speaking in general terms, when referring to the three first major English colonies in America, the ones in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were primarily founded for and by religious dissidents, the Puritans in MA and Quakers in PA,  but the one in Virginia was founded for and by Englishmen who wanted economic wealth and opportunity.  The Virginia colony founders were a mix of well off entrepreneur types, non-firstborn sons of wealthy families(family wealth all went to the first born son ie-primogeniture), tradesmen and a few servants.  Throw in a few adventurers into that mix as well.
Religious dissenters would also make up the population of the Virginia Colony arriving around 1700 and beyond(Huguenots fleeing Catholic France or other countries which they took refuge in after fleeing persecution in France).

Being as 95% or so of my direct maternal ancestors arrived in America before 1710 and to Virginia I find it interesting when I find one who came to the New World via another route(colony).  And I find it even more interesting when one came here for religious reasons.  And if you are a follower of American Presbyterianism then he is quite important to you as well.

One such ancestor of mine is John Thomson, my 7th Great Grandfather.

John Thomson was born in Northern Ireland about 1690.  He was of the Ulster-Scots, usually know in America as the Scots-Irish.  Ulster-Scots meant that his forebearers had come to Ireland from the Lowland areas of Scotland after English King James I sanctioned a plan to confiscate lands in Ulster County Ireland from Gaelic nobility and have those lands settled by Protestant English in a planned colonization of Ireland called "The Plantation of Ulster".

John Thomson was sent to study at the University of Glasgow in 1706.  He was licensed as a minister by the Presbytery of Armagh(Ireland)in 1713 at about the age of 23.  In 1715 he, his wife, Margaret Osbourne Thomson, and their two children set sail for the port of New York.  By 1717 he was ordained by the Presbytery of Philadelphia and he was the minister of the Presbyterian congregation in Lewes, Delaware.  This was the second oldest Presbyterian congregation in the state of Delaware.

This is how that church looks today......

I believe the church he helped build was two buildings before this one and was brick but it's long gone.

Reverend John Thomson was elected as Moderator of the New Castle Presbytery in 1718 and Moderator of the Synod of Philadelphia in 1719 and 1722.

After leaving Lewes in 1729 he headed a congregation in Middle Octarara(Southeast of present day Lancaster PA)from 1730 to 1733.  He left because they had trouble coming up with the funds to pay him and at this time the Thomson family numbered 14(John, his wife and 12 children but some say there were more than a dozen children)so going without payment wasn't acceptable.

Rev. John received a call to Chestnut Level(17 miles further West from Middle Octarara in Drumore Township PA)where he continued his preaching from 1733 to 1744.  Around this time was what is called "The Great Awakening" was happening in religion in the American colonies.  In the Presbyterian sect there was a taking up of sides, either "Old Side" or "New Side" and Rev. Thomson was an Old Side believer.  He wrote many papers against the New Side and due to his being outspoken and "adequately endowed with Scottish sagacity" many of his congregation were at odds with him as well and they did not renew his contract in Chestnut Level.

Religious papers and books written by Rev. Thomson include.......

• An Examination and Refutation of Mr. Tennet's Remarks Upon A Protestation
• The Doctrine of Convictions Set in a Clear Light
• The Explication of the Shorter Catechism
• The Government of the Church of Christ
• A Poor Orphan's Legacy-this was written for his children after the death of his wife Margaret/their mother in 1735

The Poor Orphan's book as well as one of the religious tracts was printed by his friend, Benjamin Franklin.

The most influential paper he was the primary author of was "The Adopting Act of 1729" for the Synod of Philadelphia.  This act shaped the early Presbyterian religion in Colonial America.

After the death of his wife Margaret in 1735, John Thomson remarried to Mary McKean, the widow of Thomas Reid, a member of his Middle Octarara PA congregation.  They had one child, Hannah Thomson, together.

By 1744 he left his congregation in Chestnut Level and removed to what was then the "back country" of the Virginia Colony which was South Central VA.  Today his homestead in Virginia on the Buffalo Creek is in Prince Edward County(near Farmville VA).  He became a missionary in the frontier of the Virginia Colony.

When Rev. Thomson removed to Prince Edward County, Virginia most of his mostly now grown children went with him.  Three of his daughters, Mary, Jane and Elizabeth and their spouses also moved to Virginia near their father.  These three daughters all married brothers; Robert, Douglas and Samuel Baker.(Brother Caleb Baker also went to VA but didn't marry of Thomson girl.)
This Baker family was descended from a Baker from Massachusetts who resettled outside of Philadelphia and married a descendant of Phillip Packer, Jr.(the son of Phillip Packer of England and Sarah Isgar his mistress and later his second wife-Story HERE), Susannah Packer.
More on these Baker brothers at another time.

While in Virginia Rev.Thomson was very busy.  Congregations were small and far apart and without full time preachers in backwoods Virginia at this time.  He is known to have been an itinerant traveling preacher from 1744-1750 and attended to congregations in Winchester, Staunton, Rockfish Gap(Nelson Co.), Cub Creek(Charlotte Co.), Buffalo and Walkers(Amelia Co., now Prince Edward Co.), Hat Creek and Concord(in what would become Campbell Co.).
Once he started his missionary work he no longer participated fully in the Synod of Philadelphias doings though he would continue to write.

In 1743 the Synod of Philly finally got a school organized under the leadership of Rev. Francis Allison. As Rev. Thomson had pushed for a school for young men he was put on the original board of trustees. New Jersey gave this school a charter in 1769 as the Newark Academy.  Newark Academy continued on and eventually became the University of Delaware.

Though it's not proved, he may have helped found Hampden-Sydney College outside of Farmville, VA.  It is presently one of only three still all-male institutions of higher learning in America.
While residing and preaching in this area of Virginia Rev. Thomson began a school for young men.  This school is thought by some to be where the idea for Hampden-Sydney sprang.  John Thomson's son in-law, minister Richard Sankey(who married his daughter Sarah Thomson)was a trustee of H-S on it's original board and was closely associated with John Thomson  This suggests that Rev. Thomson was involved in some way in that school's beginnings.

While serving the back country of Virginia as a traveling preacher Rev. Thomson received a call to minister to flocks in central North Carolina.  This inland area of NC was settled by fugitives from the Virginia Colony, as well as Ulster-Scots, Germans and other non-Anglicans.  The settlers of this area of the Colony were generally poor hard-scramble farmers working on mountainous and poor soils.  Settlers here were few and far between.  Rev. Thomson left Virginia to go to North Carolina and minister to these flocks around 1751.  He built a cabin adjacent to his son in-law's property near Mount Mourne, NC, where he and his wife, Mary and their child, Hannah, lived.  This son in-law was Samuel Baker who had married John Thomson's daughter, Elizabeth.  Samuel and Elizabeth are my 7th Great Uncle and Aunt.

Rev. John Thomson ministered to many congregations in what is present day Iredell County NC.  It is said he established a number of preaching stations; under a poplar tree near where Davidson College now stands, another near Fourth Creek became the the site of the First Presbyterian Church in Statesville NC, another station became Third Creek Prsbyterian Church and the town of Concord NC grew up around another site.  He also visited/preached to flocks in settlements in which Centre(later Mooresville, Iredell Co.), Hopewell(later in Huntersville, Mecklenburg Co.), Sugaw Creek(later in Charlotte Co.), Poplar Tent(later in Concord, Cabarrus Co.)and at Cathey's Meeting House(later Thyatira in Salisbury, Rowan Co.)churches were established.
He was a busy guy. ;-)

At his death in 1753 he was buried under his cabin home.  This was the eve of the French and Indian War and Indian raids were commonplace on frontier settlements in NC   This explains why he was buried beneath the floor of his cabin to prevent looting.  Samuel Baker, Thomson's son in-law, died in 1757 and was also buried under the cabin.  This site eventually became known as Baker's Grave Yard and saw more Baker/Thomson family members enterred there.  Eventually the cabin was destroyed and the grave yard was surrounded by a rough rock wall.
In 1963 the site disappeared under the waters of Lake Norman, after the construction of Cowan's Ford Dam on the Catawba River.  The graves and stone markers where removed to the old Centre Presbyterian Church cemetery in Mooresvillee North Carolina in 1961.

Plaque hanging from archway reads "Baker Cemetery Relocated 1961".

There is also a commemorative stone there as well.

This grave marker was added later to the removed remains of Rev. John Thomson in the Centre Church Cemetery Baker enclosure.

Rest in Peace my 7x GGrand.

Rev. John THOMSON (1690 - 1753)
7th great-grandfather
Jane THOMSON (1717 - 1767)
daughter of Rev. John THOMSON
Douglas BAKER Jr. (1743 - 1778)
son of Jane THOMSON
Elliott BAKER (1775 - 1836)
son of Douglas BAKER Jr.
Richard W BAKER (1808 - 1887)
son of Elliott BAKER
Patrick Henry BAKER (1847 - 1930)
son of Richard W BAKER
Lucy Ellen Baker (1888 - 1973)
daughter of Patrick Henry BAKER
Lillian Grace VASSAR (1914 - 1967)
daughter of Lucy Ellen Baker
Carole Frances HARPER (1934 - 2000)
daughter of Lillian Grace VASSAR
ME

More on these interesting lines of family ancestors later......

Sluggy