This Week on the Dining Table

The "Things Are Moving Along If Not Slowly" Edition........

Well the folks came out and measured the room and the carpeting is ordered and paid for now(I put it on my Lowe's card and got a 5% discount). We are waiting on it to arrive and for the install to be scheduled when we get home from vacation.
They measured Hubs' room while they were here so when we pull the trigger on carpet for that room we have the sq. footage on record.  But that will have to wait until my new room is finished first.

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

This is what was planned--

1. Sunday--FFY/Leftovers

2. Monday--Chinese Take-Out(lunch entrees)

3. Tuesday--Turkey Breast, Stuffing, Broccoli, Rolls(for them that wants 'em)

4. Wednesday--Pork Chops, leftover Zuke in Sauce and Rice OR Grilled Sammies

5. Thursday--Stuffed Shells, Caesar Salad

6. Friday--Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches, Brussels Sprouts
7. Saturday--Leftovers OR Grilled Sammies w/a side TBD

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

1. Sunday--FFY/Leftovers

2. Monday--Chinese Take-Out(lunch entrees)

3. Tuesday--Turkey Breast, Stuffing, Broccoli, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy

4. Wednesday--FFY

5. Thursday--Stuffed Shells

6. Friday--Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches, Brussels Sprouts
7. Saturday--Leftovers

Last week saw 3 nights of home cooked dinners, 3 nights of leftovers/fend for yourself, 1 night of Eating Out/Take-Out. 
Lots of leftovers so no need to cook a fourth night last week.

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

* a bag of cheese(I had a partially used block that was going moldy so I cut off the bad spots and shredded what was left and put it into the freezer for later.)

What got taken out of the freezer and used last week.....
* that bag of cheese from last week

* a turkey breast
* breaded pork tenderloin 

A small trip to Aldi's, Ollie's, Shursave, CVS and 3 items from Weis(one was free)brought the food/toiletries spending last week to $45.45 and my June total to $158.36.  

My savings percentage last week was 69.54%(without Rite-Aid trips)and June's monthly savings total so far comes to 56.11%(w/out R-A). 

I have 13 more food shopping/spending days in June.

Leftovers going into this week.....corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, turkey breast, stuffing, gravy and stuffed shells.

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

1. Sunday--Grilled Steaks, Corn on cob, Mac and Cheese

2. Monday--Eating out w/my cousin

3. Tuesday--?

4. Wednesday--?

5. Thursday-?

6. Friday--?
7. Saturday--?

This week will see 1 new meals cooked, ? nights of leftovers/FFY, and ? nights of Take-Out/Eating Out.

What needs buying for this menu?  Nothing whatsoever.  Ex-College Boy will be eating leftovers and/or fending for himself.
There will only be a little bit of food shopping this week, just bits and bobs we buy in NH.

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  

Our Vacation in New Hampshire

We leave soon for our vacation.
We are staying with and visiting one of my three cousins in Maine.
Then we head up to the North Woods of New Hampshire.

Lancaster NH is right over the Connecticut River from Vermont and under 50 miles South of the Canadian border at Quebec Province.

We are going to PorcFest.
The porcupine is the mascot of the Libertarian party thus the reference and the name PorcFest.




Hubs has wanted to go for a few years now but it never worked out with our schedules.  Now that he's retired I told him now or never so we pulled a plan together.

It's a 6 day Festival for people who love liberty and advocate for personal freedom.
Most of the attendees have Libertarian leanings so this is my tribe(other than my frugal online tribe).

There are round table discussions and lectures on everything from economics, political activism, legal issues, bitcoin, technology, political satire, home schooling to branding and marketing.
But it's not all serious stuff.
It's also a big party with lots of fun social activities like RPG and LARP, something called beergasm, demonstrations about beekeeping, a shooting field trip to a range, tiny homes, green practices.
There is a bonfire at the end where we have Burning Porcupine(similar to what they do at Burning Man).

But the one thing I am most looking forward to seeing is Vermin Supreme's show.

If you don't know whom I am referring to, watch this...........




I confess that I am nervous going to this thing.  I won't know anyone there but Hubs.  I am not into politics really so I am going for the social aspects mostly.
Hubs in the political animal in this family so he'll be in his element.
 All the folks on the closed chat group seems very young so in terms of making friends I may be way out of place at this thing.

I'll report back next week on how it was and the wifi may be iffy up there so I may not post much in the coming week.

Wish me luck!


  Sluggy

Frugal Friday....the June 14th Edition

Some good frugal things happened around here this past week.............

*  Since the weather has been so cool and rainy I went ahead and planted some lettuce.  It's a bit late for that around here but I had some old seeds sitting in a bag so no money spent!

And they've already sprouted.  We may get something big enough to pick by the time we get back from New Hampshire.  I love getting almost free veggies!

*  I ordered my bi-pap supplies this past week.  There is a tubing length I need that runs from the oxygen concentrater to the bi-pap that they aren't allowed to order for me.....it has to be ordered from the "oxygen" department of their company so she transferred me to that department.

Twenty minutes later that CS person still couldn't find the item I needed and then they dropped the call.  Not wanting to get caught up in that frustrating crap again, I just went on eBay and looked for the item(you don't need a Rx for it and it's something you can sell there).

I found a listing for TWO of what I wanted for $5.95 w/free shipping.  I also had a $5 off Q from eBay so 2 lengths of tubing cost me $1.95 OOP.
The DME company was selling me 40 ft. of tubing(I only need 10 ft.)and after insurance was charging me $10+ per length of tubing for a copay.  Can you say rip-off???

And even better my eBay(from an Alabama DME no less)tubing showed up a day earlier than the order I places with my insurance's DME company. lolz

*  I found money!

A quarter under a display I saw while checking out at Walmart.

And a penny while walking out of Walmart.

*  And speaking of Walmart, I found these for cheap there...........

Cotton blankets.  We've been looking for a deal on lightweight blankets for our beds.  Went around a corner and these were on clearance; the king and full/queen were $5 each and the twin was $4.50.

Regular price on the shelf for the king was $29.96 though the clearance tag on the package was $24.96.  At either price, paying $5 was a great deal!  Not the colors I would have necessarily have picked(these were all they had)but we have one of each of these sizes of beds here now.

*  Then I found more money!

I went into Dollar Tree to pick something up for Hubs and found three more pennies!

*  Since I was driving right by this store, I went into Dollar General for this deal.......

$5 off wyb 2 of these gift cards.  The lowest amount available was $15 so I got $30 total in gift cards for $25 so somewhere between 16%  and 17% off regular price.  This wasn't a great deal(sometimes the discount is more)so I only got a couple gift cards to use on our trip.


*  Remember that free specialty burger I got from Mickey D's last week?.....

Since I knew we'd be going to Mickey D's for breakfast when we left for New Hampshire next week I did the survey on the receipt and got a validation code.
Now we can get a BOGO free deal on our 2 breakfast sandwiches when we leave for our trip.

*  I picked up some FREE nail polish at Rite-Aid............

The Kokie Cosmetics website has a $4/1 Q good at Rite-Aid. Don't know if it's still there but go check it out.
R-A Q.  It's a PDF so save it to your computer to print it out.  TIP-The register WILL take multiple of that Q in one transaction ,if your cashier will let you, otherwise, you'll have to buy them 1 at a time.

Anyway, Kokie items are Spend $12/Get $6 BC this week and if you have the 20% Wellness discount level the $4.99 nail polish is $3.99.  Add in a cheap candy because there will be .01¢ of overage you need to cover.
I got 4 bottles(to get to the $12+ level so the $6 BC would print)and 3 candies. 
4 x $3.99=$15.96 + 3 candies at .57¢=$16.53-$16 in Qs=.53¢ OOP.
Cost was .53¢ after Qs which was paid with my Bonus Cash and I earned $6 in new BC back making this a $5.47 moneymaker.

If you have Silver level discount(10% off reg. prices)the nail polish will be $4.49 and you'll only need 3 bottles to hit the $12 mark and won't need a candy because you won't have overage.
3 x $4.49=$13.47-3 x $4/1 KokieQ=$1.47(plus tax if applicable)and you'll earn the $6 BC so a $4.52 moneymaker which is still pretty nice. 8-)

*  I had $5 in ECB expiring on Thursday so I hit CVS too........

I already blogged about this trip yesterday.  All of the above was free and earned me $5 in new ECBs.

*  I had a 15% off chit for Ollie's(Good Stuff Cheap!)that was expiring this Sunday so Hubs and I went to the one that usually has a large clearance section in the town South of us and they did not disappoint!

Most of the discounted stuff but not all of what we bought.  These were the items that were clearanced, 50%, 60% or 75% off.
(Plus 2 more of the gallons of peach iced tea not in the photo.)

The Thinster's cookies were .50¢ea., the bread crumbs were .40¢ea., the pop-tarts were .50¢ea., the tea was .52¢ea., the slow cooker sauce was .25¢, the caramel cookie chips were .50¢ea., the caramel popcorn was .99¢ and the pb crackers were .89¢.
There was also another snacky thing, 6 jars of spices, 2 microwave mug items, a lb. of roasted almonds, a canister of french fried onions, a can of pie filling and 2 bags of pretzel rods.
$71.74 reg retail and w/the 15% off Q, and the 40-75% off on the clearance stuff I paid $24.13 OOP for all of it.
8-)))


*  I also found money at Rite-Aid........

A dime under one of the chairs in the waiting area by the pharmacy.
I finished the week at finding a total of .39¢ in change.
Nice.

*  There was NO Weis(PMITA)Markets freebie for me this past week.  It was pre-cooked, packaged hard boiled eggs so I took a pass.  Heck I didn't even darken Weis' door all week!

What frugal goodness happened in your world this past week?
Tell us what wins y'all had! ;-)



Sluggy

A Comedy of Errors at CVS

We were out and about in the town South of us on Tuesday and I remembered that a new CVS had opened there which we would be passing right by.  So we stopped in after hitting Ollie's.
I had planned to go to CVS on Wednesday to use some expiring ECBs but why not do it Tuesday and be done with that chore, right?
Ha!

I had my scenario all planned out.
Buy a gift card and earn $10 ECB to add to the $5 one that was expiring.
Then buy: 2 Softsoap Body Wash, 2 Dove shampoo, 2 Speed Stick deodorant and 4 Arizona iced tea drinks(for our trip next week).
After Qs and ECBs I'd pay .76¢ plus any tax due.
I'd also get back $5 in new ECBs.

So I went in and scanned my EC card.  The machine made some noise and nothing printed out....so I waited a few minutes because sometimes these machines are very SLOOOOW!
I looked and someone had flipped a homemade sign taped to the machine up onto the top of it.
It said, "Out of Order".
crap.

I needed a $3/2 Dove Q that was suppose to print out at that machine so I couldn't do my scenario but I could buy the gift card and get the $10 ECB.
So I did that much of it but the ECB didn't print.
I showed the cashier(who happened to be a manager of sorts)it didn't print and the ad in my hand showing it was suppose to print.  She worked her magic and made the register print it out for me.

So on Wednesday I had to run errands down the valley so I hit the CVS along that route.
I scanned my EC card at the machine and here's what printed out............

A whole lot of nothing!  I tried again and nothing.  I guess the out of order machine "printed" out my Qs for this week(even though it didn't)so now subsequent machines were not going to actually PRINT my Qs.
Ugh ugh ugh
Not wanting to have a big to-do with the store employees over this(and not knowing if they can print the machine Qs out for me or something because really, I know NOTHING about CVS!)I just decided to punt and make up a new scenario working with what I had(which was very little).

Here is what I decided to get.......

I got the 2 Speed Stick dodorants and the 2 Softsoap Body Washes as planned.  According to my calculations I needed to "spend" another $6.14 to use my $15 in ECBs fully.
I hunted around and tried different combinations and finally hit on these Ajax dish soap bottles as they were 50% off so .74¢ each.
I grabbed a bag of generic CVS brand Cheetos(good for the car ride next week)for $1.29 to round it out.

2 x Softsoap BW BOGO50%=$7.78
2 x Speed Stick deos=$4.98
7 x Ajax dish soap=$5.18
1 x Cheetos=$1.29
SubTotal.......$19.23

Qs Used
1 x .50/1 Softsoap AppQ=.50¢
1 x $2/$6 body wash CRTQ=$2.00
1 x .50/1 Speed Stick AppQ=.50¢
1 x $1/2 Speed Stick ManuQ=$1.00
Q Total.........$4.00

$19.23-$4.00=$15.23=$15 ECBs=.23¢ OOP(plus any tax)

But that's not exactly what happened since 2 x .50/1 Speed Stick APPQs came off so discounts were $4.50 making my total $14.73.
This meant I paid ZERO OOP and lost .27¢ on my ECBs value.
If I had known that Q would come off twice I could have gotten 8 bottles of dish soap and paid .47¢ OOP in the end.
No worries...I am not fretting over losing .27¢ worth of chit.

I did earn the expected $5 in new ECBs back though. ;-)

Moral of story......no matter how much you plan out your scenarios life and the unexpected will throw you curve balls some of the time so you need to have back up plans and roll with it and be happy if it all comes out well in the end.  8-)))



Sluggy

Oh the "Joys" of Having a Retired Spouse

Let me preface this post with the statement that I love my husband but there are times when all I can do is shake my head and mutter, "Bless his heart."  ;-)


After 36 years of  marriage(and 40 years together)you would think me and Hubs pretty much know everything about each other and are use to our foibles, right?

After all, we didn't go into marriage and have kids right away.  We spent 9 years married without any children so had ample time to get to know/get use to each other.

Well I've learned a few new things about my Hubs in the last almost 24 months since he is around the house pretty much 24/7 now.
Let me explain first that Hubs is what is known as a "left brained" person.  He is highly intelligent, has an advanced degree and is over"edumacated" as I like to call it.
He is lacking however is some common sense thinking.
The comedienne Jeanne Robertson explains it well in this stand-up piece she is known for.......


Here are a few things he does that make me scratch my head........

*  He refuses to eat sandwiches for lunch since retiring.  Exception being if we go out to eat for lunch.  But he just can't eat a sandwich at home for that meal.  He'll eat one at dinner time rarely if it's a leftover night and neither he or I don't feel like cooking/heating anything up.  Weird, huh?

*  You can't let him near landscaping in the yard with clippers or a saw.  He decided to go out in the yard last Summer and trim some trees and bushes.

This is what my rhododendron bush looked like two Summers ago in all it's blooming glory.....

And this is what it looks like after Hubs hacked it up........

Hubs butchered the poor thing, hacking off all the lower branches of the bush on 3 of it's 4 sides.  It now looks like a tree(which is never a good look for a bush).
I was so mad!!!(and I guess I still am).

* I will let him drive me places even though I could run the errands in question quicker and more efficiently by myself.  So why do I let him drive me?  If Hubs doesn't leave the house at least once a week he starts getting antsy.  But he never plans to go anywhere by himself to do anything social or fun.(Ok to be truthful, in the last 24 months he has taken himself alone somewhere fun ONE COUNT 'EM ONE TIME.  To a one day chess tournament outside of Philly.)

He has no friends he gets together with and no social activities.  He will get antsy and decide he needs to drive "down the mountain" into the city for 1 thing then two days later drive to the city again for something else.  I have tried to suggest he save up these trips and do them all together to save time and gas but no, " I can't control him and what he wants to do!"is what I get told.  I am just trying to suggest we save money on gas by combining trips but he doesn't want to hear it.
So I let him drive me around(besides "driving" me crazy).
But if we go out for more than 2 hours he expects lunch out too.  I tell ya living with a retired spouse is no picnic! lolz

*  He had never refilled a liquid hand soap container in his entire life before he retired.  How do I know this?  I asked him to refill the container in our bathroom as it was getting low.  Take a close look at this container........

If you noticed it's a "FOAMING" hand wash dispenser you have one up on Hubs.

He tells me he refilled it and when I was in that bathroom later I went to wash my hands and realized that he doesn't know that when you refill a foaming dispenser with reg. liquid hand soap you have to water it down a lot.  I stood there trying to pump the mechanism and couldn't for the life of me figure out why the blasted pump wouldn't depress or squirt out any soap! lolz
Yep, he killed the foaming dispenser.......

*  He doesn't understand the reason for reflectors on your mailbox.

After this happened while on vacation with Kim and her DH in New England.......

He got the new mailbox installed and he decided to put big reflectors on it.  Here is where he put them.............

On the post holding the mailbox.  We don't need reflectors on our mailbox as a navigational aid for pulling into or out of our driveway so reflectors on the post serve no purpose at all.
We need reflectors on the end of the mailbox that sticks out into the road it's next too so nobody hits the mailbox because they can't see it!
Putting reflectors on the post BEHIND the mailbox serves no purpose to us.
So I tried to reason with Hubs and this is what he did..........

Put teeny tiny reflectors on the front of the mailbox next to the door.  Chester is showing you what he thinks of this whole situation.  lolz


*  He has taken to wiping every single item that comes out of the dishwasher with a hand towel.
When he retired he basically took over kitchen clean up duty.......I cook/shop/prep food so he now washes up/cleans up the kitchen afterwards.  This means he loads, runs and empties the dishwasher.

Nobody can load is right as far as he is concerned so I no longer bother putting anything INTO the dishwasher because I know he is just going to take it out and rearrange everything in there.
That I can live with.

But what drives me bat shit crazy is that everything he takes out of the dishwasher now gets rubbed down with a hand towel.  Ok, I can see doing that to the bottom of the glasses/cups in the top rack as they tend to hold a bit of water after coming through the wash/dry cycle.  It's fairly OCD with him now.

But he has to take every danged plate, bowl, utensil.....all of which are perfectly dry after being run through the dishwasher with the drying cycle........and hand towel them to death before putting them away.  Doesn't matter if the item is dry already.
Drives.
Me.
Insane!

And the worst thing is that I have seen him take a dirty hand towel(the one I keep to wipe my hands while cooking lives in a crocheted ring on the oven door)and use that one inside of a clean towel to rub the CLEAN dishes.............arghhhh!

I had better stop now because my eye is starting to twitch here. 8-P

Sluggy