Home Improvements.....Progress Report #1

Well we started the long slow slog of the home repairs/improvements by first cleaning and clearing out Daughter's old room.

Before what Daughter left........

After, cleaning(walls/window frame/ceiling fan, molding),vacuuming and shampooing the carpet and moving furniture and exercise equipment out.............

Daughter "supposedly" vacuumed in here thoroughly before she left, filling the vacuum canister SIX TIMES with dog hair/dirt.
I filled said vacuum cleaner another SIX AND ONE HALF TIMES before shampooing the carpeting. ugh.

After the carpet dried Ex-College Boy moved his stuff in.............

We also replaced the broken blinds on the window in there.  Ex-CB hasn't gotten around to putting anything on the walls yet but as far as I am concerned this bedroom is done.
Once he moves out, the room will get some more love(new paint and maybe new carpeting)but I am not spending time, energy and MONEY in here until he's moved out for good because well, Ex-College Boy is a slob when it comes to taking care of his room.  Like most 20 something males he is fastidious about his personal grooming but you'd never know it from looking at his room.  It looks not so bad here because he hadn't had time to pigsty-ify it yet.

Here's my new sewing room aka Ex-College Boy's old bedroom after he moved his furniture and most of his crap into his new room.......

Lots of "droppings".

And here's the closet before he emptied that.........

I swear I hauled three shopping bags of partially emptied water bottles as well as cans of unopened soda and nutrition drinks as well as some full water bottles.

Here are what is left of the partially used water bottle collection from his room.  Ex-College Boy has orders NOT to take another water bottle to drink until they are all used up.

Here's my new room after cleaning/clearing all Ex-CB's stuff out and vacuuming it...........

This was also hanging in Ex-CB's old room.

It's a sword belonging to Eldest son.  He got this for a birthday when he was about 16?  I called him and he doesn't want it and Ex-CB doesn't want it in his new bedroom.
Anyone want a dragon headed Game of Thrones type display sword? lol

I doubt Salvation Army will take this so I guess I'll be offering it up on the local FB selling site.
I can just imagine now the sketchy folks I'll be dealing with when I offer this beauty up on the site.
Fun time people, fun times........

Here is some of what we hauled out of the closet in Daughter's old room(not the things on the coffee table but in front of it)that were either going to Salvation Army or will be sold.

I found my long lost pullover sweaters that I got for free at K-Mart about 4 years ago.  I forgot they got stored in the back of her closet(which I didn't have access to while she was living here)and now they are too big. ugh.  I guess I'll try to sell them locally come Fall since they all still have tags on them and haven't been worn.

The living room has become the staging area around here.  I gained 2 Rubbermaid tubs from Ex-CB as now he can fit all his clothes in the 2 dressers in his new room.  I also uncovered 2 shopping bags full of  plastic clothes hangers.

A mysterious shopping bag of food appeared in the garage shortly after he moved his belongings/furniture into the new room.  It was full of boxed/canned/bottled food!  This was stuff he was given when he moved into the friend's apartment almost 2 years ago at the beginning of his Senior year of college.  He hauled it all home and shoved it under his bed and apparently it stayed their for the last 1.5 years when he moved everything home to do his internship his last semester of school.
When Daughter took his bed frame(her grandmother gave it to her and she took it to Louisiana)Ex-CB no longer had space under his bed/box spring since it now sits on the floor instead of the bed frame, hence the sudden appearance of the bag of food.
Mystery solved! lolz

Here's the first load we took to Salvation Army(everything in front/to the side of the green chair on the floor.(Except that lamp, it will be re-purposed.)

We uncovered two boxes of electronics that belonged to Daughter's fiancé-one in the bowels of her closet and one in Hubs' room's closet.  Some of it got saved and will find it's way to Louisiana in due time, Ex-CB scavenged  some screws and cables for his use and the rest got dumped in the trash or taken in for recycling at Best Buy and Staples.

New blinds were bought and hung in my new room, Ex-CB's new bedroom and the hallway main bathroom.  All these windows sorely needed them.

Then I set to repairing the walls in my new room before painting could commence........

Two walls done.  I couldn't believe the extent of the wall damage in there!
Well, really, I shouldn't have been surprised since two different adolescent to early twenties aged sons had lived in there.

Under the window was torn up good with what looked like stab wounds. lolz
Ex-CB told me that during a phase in high school he and his one friend had played with throwing stars up there.  Yah, now I know where their targets were...........

Hubs went and bought enough paint to do this room and his spare room.  We used another free Lowe's gift card to buy the paint plus we already had 2 cans of ceiling paint leftover from when we had the downstairs painted so no money was spent on that either.

Not being able to find a competent painter who didn't change an obscene among of money to paint this smallish room I contracted with Ex-College Boy to help me paint the room.  He is only working part time right now and can use the money and I can't climb ladders and do some of this sort of work anymore so this was a good arrangement.  I let him do most of the actual painting(I did the cutting in work that I could reach)and I supervised and reloaded the paint tray, moved step ladders for him, etc.
We got the ceiling done and the first coat of paint/primer on the walls on Tuesday...............

It was determined(by me)that the room would need a second coat(plus the dark blue accent wall needed a third coat)and that the carpeting was too far gone with stains to be saved.  So on Wednesday since I was out at a doctor's appointment down the valley I went to Lowe's to arrange for carpet measuring and picked out which carpeting to get.  They are coming next week to measure and I am hopeful I'll have new carpeting in there by the end of June after we get back from our trip.  So for now it's a lot of hurry up and wait going on. I can't move anything in here until the floor is finished. 8-(

Hubs still has to touch-up the crown molding paint as I can't do it(the ladder thing)and Ex-CB is not careful enough to "stay in the lines". lolz  Hubs has been having to rest his shoulder/neck for a few days as he overdid something earlier this week so he is attempting the molding painting later today.

So the only cost associated with getting this room done will be the cost of the carpeting and what I paid Ex-CB for his work.

In other news......
I have taken all my clothes out of the dresser and the walk-in closet and the pile over by the étagère holding a load of fabric yard goods on a coffee table we have stored in our bedroom plus clothes I dug out of Daughter's huge closet.
And I have gone through it all.
Two bags of worn out stuff got tossed, another 3 bags got taken to Salvation Army and some dresses(4 I think?)as well as previously talked about sweaters will be sold on the FB local site or eBay.

Everything is now back where it needs to be in the dresser or closet...........except this pile of pants on my ironing board.

All these are a size too large now but I need to try them all on to double check if they still fit and/or if they need to be kept for wearing around the house/yard for work, trashed or taken to Sallie's.
This trying on of everything will happen today and the pile will be dispensed with.

Progress Report #2 will probably happen the end of June or early July.
It is killing me that I can't get anything finished yet and it's taking waaaaay too long to complete stuff.
Since I've been in a holding pattern for THREE YEARS on most of this stuff I am chomping at the bit to get it all done!!!


Impatient Sluggy

Frugal Friday....the June 7th Edition

Here's what frugalness happened around here at Chez Sluggy.........

*   My car was finally low on gas so I headed to Weis and used my second Bonus Cash Reward Prepaid Debit Card I had earned at Rite-Aid back in Feb.

The $20 on the card didn't quite fill my tank (just under 7 gallons)but it was close.

*  I hit the Bread Outlet this week.............

$4.98 for 3 large loaves and a bag of stuffing cubes.

*  I found money!

At the register tucked in the corner under the counter at Rite-Aid when I was spending the last of the Bonus Cash attached to one of my Wellness cards.

*  I went through the bags Daughter and Ex-College Boy threw into the Salvation Army pile before Hubs and I carted it all off and came up with these books.......

3 books I can add to my reading pile.  Not having to haul to the library and/or scour Ollie's for inexpensive books is always a good thing.

*  I had a $5 reward at Kohl's that was expiring last Friday.  I really didn't feel like going so I handed it to Hubs and said go buy yourself something cheap. lolz

He found himself a brown belt for when his current belt bites the dust.  After the $5 reward it cost him $4 and change for this $30 belt that was on clearance.

*  I got the Weis Friday Freebie last week.......

A single serve bottle of milk.

*  Among the improvements we are doing in the house are new window blinds........

Three rooms got them and Hubs hung them all.  They were free as we used a Lowe's gift card I sent for using some of our credit card points.

*  We got free sandwiches from McDonald's on Thursday...........

Well not exactly free but close!
McDonald's was doing a promotion for their International menu items.  Bring in any foreign currency and you can get 1 of the 4 items.
Hubs and I both took in a Canadian penny.

Hubs got the Canadian Tomato Mozarella Chicken sammie and I got the Spanish Grand McExtreme Bacon Burger sammie.  Mine had smoked Gouda cheese which was quite the upgrade from a regular Mickey D's burger bomb. lolz
My sammie is regularly $5.82 w/tax.  I'd never pay that kind of money for this.  It was far from worth almost $6.

Funny story here.......I had gone to this McDonald's at lunch time on Thursday to get an Unsweet Tea after filling up my gas tank.  I asked the gal working at the window if they were doing the promo w/the foreign currency and she said yes but not 2-5pm like every other store was doing but 5-7pm.
I asked her again to confirm it, she confirmed, I took my drink and went home.

So Hubs and I went up shortly after 5pm.  The gal at the counter inside took my order and I handed her my CDN penny.  The manager had to come over and key in something because technically I wasn't paying anything(it was free), she rolled her eyes and told the counter gal that this was the last one being as it was after 5pm.  The gal said the guy behind me also had foreign currency to pay with(Hubs)and the manager said ok, after him no more.

So I told her what the lunch time gal had told me(about this store doing it 5-7pm instead)and she rolled her eyes at me.  Evidently the lunch/afternoon folks were misleading people who asked and telling them the wrong/later time but nobody on the dinner/late shift was told the time was changed.

I didn't realize there was a big snafu over this because when I handed the cashier/counter gal my penny she had said to me that I was only the second person who had taken advantage of this promo of a free item.....which led me to believe that the store had just started taking foreign currency at 5pm.

Then the eye rolling and remarks of the manager clued me in. lolz

But y'all KNOW I would have raised hell if they had denied me after being told by an employee earlier that day that I was there at the correct time to do the offer!lolz
But no worries, we got our free burgers and no blood was split in the process.  ;-)

So that's it for me.

What frugal goodness happened to ya'll this past week?


Sluggy

Shopping This Week

This post will be short as I am off to a doctor's appointment shortly.


I haven't really done much shopping this week.  Between medical appointments this week and cleaning/painting a bedroom there hasn't been much time nor inclination to do so.


I did go to Rite-Aid on Wellness Wednesday yesterday but there was really nothing worth buying for me.
I did have a card with $3.59 in Bonus Cash expiring in 7 days so I got this to use up the BC.

It was on sale for $3.99 so I paid .40¢ on  a gift card for it + the BC.
Now I only have BC on three of our cards and I intend to spend it all down to zero during June.


I also hit the bread store since I was nearby after going to Lowe's to order a carpet install..............

3 loaves for $4 and the bag of stuffing was .89¢.  I like that all the brands of bread are now the same price there(even though one brand use to be  3/$3).  Before I'd have to sometimes buy more bread than I actually wanted or not get all the types/brands I wanted.

I spent $4.89 total on groceries this week so far. 
Not sure if I'll hit Weis(PMITA)Markets for the Friday Freebie.  It depends on what it is.

Did any of y'all get any good grocery deals this week?


Sluggy

To-Do List.....the May Edition

Here's how the progress on the May To-Do List turned out............

May

* Pay Bills  DONE  Always at the top of the list and the first thing I get done.

* Read 1, 2 Books  DONE
I read this one..........

"Blood Brothers:The Story of the Strange Friendship Between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill" by Deanne Stillman
The title is a bit misleading once you get into this one.  Mostly it's biographical information on various people of this era-Sitting Bull, Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, George Custer and a few others and how their lives intersected along with  general history of the end of the "Old West".  
There really wasn't much of a "friendship" between these two other than Sitting Bull spent 4 months touring with Buffalo Bill's show in 1885.  The author uses this brief acquaintance as a jumping off point to delve into the events such as the Battle of the Little Bighorn(Siting Bull was for decades thought to have been the one to kill Custer), the Ghost Dance and Massacre at Wounded Knee and the Murder of Sitting Bull.  A few interesting stories but more an easy, light read(except for all the Native American slaughter and such). 8-(

And this one........

"Ten Hills Farm:The Forgotten History of Slavery in the North" by C. S. Manegold

This book traces the life of John Winthrop, the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony(the second colony founded in what is now Massachusetts), his descendants and other families who owned the farm-five generations of slave owners who profited from human misery at Ten Hills Farm.

Winthrop owned the 600 acre farm which is where Medford MA now stands called Ten Hills Farm.  It is Winthrop who wrote the first law in the New World condoning slavery and owned a large number of slaves that toiled on his farm there, all the while proclaiming their colony as a beacon of enlightenment and justice.  
Slavery was an entrenched way of life in New England but it is rarely recognized or admitted to.  Many of these founding fathers in MA not only owned slaves but traded in slavery(even when it was outlawed)but also owned slave sugar cane plantations in Caribbean lands(most notably Barbados).  And this doesn't even touch on the New England shipping industry that profited from the Atlantic triangle of trade between the New World, the Caribbean plantations, the shores of Africa and England.

These New Englanders of the gentry class also suppressed religious freedom other than the mainline Puritan teachings(exiling and/or killing those who didn't subscribe to the Puritan ways).  Among the native peoples they made and broke treaties to suit their needs, looked upon the natives as lesser forms of humans and started wars with them so as to sell the captives into slavery and ship them off to their Caribbean plantations. 

It's a long sorted past that the North refuses to acknowledge and it's a breath of fresh air to read this awesome book and see the truth of how widespread this cancer was rooted in the Northern colonies.
Slavery wasn't just a stain upon the Southern parts of America, it was an affliction upon all of it.  The North just got rid of slavery sooner than the South as the North due to weather conditions ended up as an industrial economy while conditions in the South was more conducive to an agrarian economy.  

John Winthrop's legendary "city on a hill", the example for the world of rightful living and a model of "Christian charity" was anything but to anyone other than it's leading citizenry.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interesting in American history and New England history specifically.


* Hold Giveaway  DONE

* Mail Giveaway  DONE  And it's winging it's way to Sue L. as I type this.

* Go on ED Plan  DONE

So far it hasn't turned up any foods my system/my HS doesn't like.   Except my body doesn't like eating only potatoes.  I'm ok as long as it's not a potato monotrophic diet.  I haven't added back in dairy(other than a bit of cheese on that cheeseburger last Thursday)and there were no issues in the 24 hours after eating that.  My HS symptoms haven't changed since going on this ED either(for the good or bad).  

* Start Home Projects  DONE  The Monday after the Daughter pulled out of the driveway we began the purging and cleaning.

Things have been uncovered that haven't seen the light of day since the Daughter moved back home 3 years ago.  The living room has become the dumping ground for items leaving and for items we have to keep and find a new place for.
We have completed a few tasks and we are deep into this project now.
It's a process people! 8-)

* Email a Company  DONE

I emailed Alka-Seltzer about their informing my entry was invalid AFTER the window to resubmit it closed(and they told me to resubmit it!)  Radio silence from them so I am putting them on my AVOID THEIR PRODUCTS list and moving on.
I did return the product to the store for a refund of course!

* Purge Garage Again  IN PROGRESS
We got lots of things removed from the garage, including the evil Dreadmill which Daughter packed into her POD.  However the garage doesn't look like much progress has been made yet since it's packed with garbage cans and trash bags awaiting being carried off by the garbage company.  Daughter and Ex-College Boy have filled so many trash bags that we've had to space out throwing them into our trash collection pile for pick-up over the last three weeks.

This morning 2 large trash cans, plus another 5 trash bags and a large broken exercise bike got picked up.
We only have a large broken desk sitting on the front porch to send to the garbage now.

This is a shot of the garage this morning before Hubs took one of the garbage cans to go back and live on the side of the house as we usually only fill 1 can, but we've been filling two cans+ for the last 3 trash pick-up weeks.
See the clear pathway through the garage?  We haven't been able to walk out of the garage on this side since Daughter started packing and throwing shit out.

* Sort Through Seeds  DONE
I went through my old packets of seeds and found quite a few things I can plant this season.  I put some mesclun salad mix seeds in the half barrels with the broccoli and cauliflower plants.  I've got some basil to sow among the tomato plants later today and in late August I'll plant some spinach seeds after the cukes and Summer squash are done.

* Buy Plants  DONE

Plants were bought in early May from our favorite nursery and everything got planted by mid-month.


* Plant Garden Beds  DONE

We've had lots of days of rain(too many days!)but the plants are hanging in there.  The broccoli and cauliflower are loving the cooler temps though.

* Cash in Savings Bond  DONE
Cashed in the first chance I got to go to the bank and the proceeds are squirreled away with all the other funds from cashed in matured Savings Bonds.

* Move More $ Into a CD  DONE sort of
I got this accomplished on the last day of May(so it was still processing until June).  I say sort of did it because I moved the $$ but I didn't put it into a CD as the rate was lower than the rate to just move the $$ into an online savings account.  I didn't move that much, just the portion of interest earned last year on a previous CD since I didn't roll that CD over fully into a new one.
That $4K+ in interest is now sitting in my "Misc." Fund at Capital One and earning 1% instead of .25% at the brick and mortar bank.
This is just temporary until Hubs and I can sit down and talk over what we want to do next with this $$.

* Help Daughter Pack  DONE

All packed into the POD and her car and the POD got picked up the day after she left for Louisiana.

* Start Selling Locally  DONE

I put a few things on the FB site but the only thing selling are the diapers and pull-ups.  That's fine by me because I had 3 large boxes filled with diapers.  I still have quite a few left(about 30 packs)but I've made $115 so far.
I really don't want to do a garage sale(and I really don't have enough stuff to make it worthwhile)but Summer is not the time to list stuff on the FB site around here as people just want to go to garage sales now. sigh.
Plus people around here answering my FB ads are driving me crazy.  Morons, imbeciles and idiots, the lot of them!!!


Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

The "It's Going" Edition........

Another typical plate of food for me on this Elimination Diet last week.
ugh.
I am so over potatoes now. lolz
Except for that lunch out last Thursday we have stuck to this plan.  Except I can't just eat potatoes after three days as they give me diarhhea(TMI, sorry).

We are up to adding in potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, cucumber, onion, corn, lettuce, tomatoes, sugar snap peas, cantaloupe, mushrooms, hummus, olive oil, tuna, chicken(white meat)and beef(ground and steak).  I ate some crackers the other day too but that was "my bad".
So far nothing is making my HS flare, even the tomatoes(nightshade).  Adding back bread and pasta will be a test for the HS symptoms.
Adding in cabbage later today.
Oh goody!

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

This is what was planned--

1. Sunday--Brats w/Onions, Corn on Cob, Cukes in Vinegar, Potato Salad, Peach Cobbler

2. Monday--Steak, Grilled Asparagus, leftover Potato Salad

3. Tuesday--Fettuccine Alfredo w/Chicken(I'll have Chicken on Salad)

4. Wednesday--Corned Beef, Cabbage, Potatoes

5. Thursday--Sourdough Grilled Sandwiches, leftover sides

6. Friday--Roasted Turkey Breast, Stuffing or Potatoes, Green Veggie TBD
7. Saturday--?

And this is what actually happened--(everyone else here not me after Tuesday)

1. Sunday--Brats w/Onions, Corn on Cob, Cukes in Vinegar, Potato Salad, Peach Cobbler

2. Monday--Steak, Grilled Asparagus, leftover Potato Salad

3. Tuesday--Fettuccine Alfredo w/Chicken(I had Salad w/Chicken)

4. Wednesday--FFY(I had leftover Steak and Salad)

5. Thursday--FFY(I had Hummus, Crackers, Cukes)

6. Friday--Meatloaf, Sugar Snap Peas, (Hubs had Mac and Cheese too)
7. Saturday--FFY(I had Salad)

Last week saw 4 nights of home cooked dinners, 3 nights of leftovers/fend for yourself, 0 nights of Eating Out/Take-Out. 
With EX-CB working again he hasn't been eating much here and I've been doing my Elimination Diet thing so Hubs still has tons of leftovers this week.  We didn't need to make the corned beef or the roast turkey yet so those move to this coming week(or will stay in the freezer a bit longer).

What got put into the freezer last week.....

* 7.21 lbs. ground beef
* 1 pack of brats

What got taken out of the freezer and used last week.....

* bag of roast chicken strips

* 2 lbs. ground beef

* 2 steaks

* 1 pack of brats

* 1 box of corn dogs(Ex-CB)

A small trip to Weis  and a trip to Maines brought the food/toiletries spending last week to $77.39 and my June total to $77.39.

My savings percentage last week was 49.66%(without Rite-Aid trips)and June's monthly savings total came to 49.66%(w/out R-A). 

I have 27 more food shopping/spending days in June.

Leftovers going into this week.....fettuccine Alfredo w/chicken.

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

1. Sunday--FFY

2. Monday--Corned Beef, Cabbage, Potatoes

3. Tuesday--Beef Pie

4. Wednesday--Roasted Turkey Breast, Stuffing or Potatoes, Broccoli

5. Thursday--Sourdough Grilled Sandwiches(cheese, blt, Rueben or turkey)and ?

6. Friday--Tacos
7. Saturday--Leftovers

This week will see 5 new meals cooked(if I feel like it), 2 nights of leftovers/FFY, and 0 nights of Take-Out/Eating Out.

What needs buying for this menu? Nothing at all.  I loaded up on fresh veg last week at the restaurant supply store and I am trying to eat down the freezer/pantry here.

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