Frugal Friday....the May 22nd Edition

Looking around here and this is what we did that was thrifty this past week...........

 * Remember those two rotisserie chickens we bought last week for $3.99 each?

One was eaten that night for dinner plus we had leftover meat from it.  I also had a handful of red grapes getting long in the tooth in the produce drawer.
So we combined those with the chicken, a handful of pecans, chopped celery, salt, pepper and mayo to make Chicken Salad for lunch on Thursday.  We have enough left for 2 more lunches. go us!
No money spent and using up what we have.
The other rotisserie chicken is in the freezer to be remade into a dish another day. ;-)

* I found money!

This shiny dime greeted me on the floor in front of the register counter last Saturday at Rite-Aid.

Total $ Found This Week...... .10¢
Total $ Found So Far This Year.....$45.18

*  I already showed what I got at Rite-Aid last Saturday.........

Nothing spent OOP.

* I did a big shop at Weis this week too.  Here are the best deals I got........

These 1 lb. bags of Carolina Blend rice(Jasmine and Long Grain)were on clearance 50% off for $1.25 each.

I got there just after the meat guy put out a gazillion 1 lb. packs of grass-fed ground beef.  They all had $3 off instant stickers on them so instead of $5.99 per 1 lb. they were $2.99 per lb.  The regular Weis beef was $6.29 per lb. so I scooped up 5 of those grass-fed packs at that price!
I also found ground turkey 1 lb. packs with $2 off instant stickers on them so instead of the sale price of $3.99 they were $1.99 each!

I found two of these Oikos blue label yogurt cups on quick sale for 50% off at .50¢ each.  I only have a photo of one because Hubs ate the other one already....this is the man who NEVER eats yogurt!  lol
I also used a .65¢/1 Oikos blue label IPQ which fully doubled to $1.30 off so I got paid .30¢ to bring these yogurts home. ;-)

And all this was bought for the Ibotta weekly Buy 8 items/Get $5 Back Offer.
There are only 7 items because they didn't have anything else I wanted at that Weis that qualified.
I'll get a Carvel ice cream Cake later today at my Weis to finish off this deal.
$28.83 spent plus another $14 after $3 Q for the ice cream cake for the cookout=$42.83.
I'll get back $8.05 for these 7 items plus another $2.60($2.50 cake, .10¢ any bag of chips I plan to buy for the cookout)and $5 for buying 8 items.
$42.83 spent, $15.65 back(plus 2 Giveaway entries on Ibotta)=$27.18 OOP on all this and an outrageously priced ice cream cake. ;-)

*  The only shoes that fit my wide feet are Easy Spirits.  They use to have outlets all over the place were I could get them for cheap but alas! All around here(Rehoboth DE and Reading PA)have closed up so I am reduced to buying them online.
My every day shoes are about shot so it was time to bite the bullet and buy some shoes.  They had a Mother's Day Sale(30% off even the sale priced pairs)plus free shipping so I ordered 8 pairs.  6 arrived(the new to me sandals didn't fit right so they are going back in the mail)but they didn't ship the last two pair I ordered(they were mauve!).  I checked my c/c balance and there is now a $96.60 credit on my card for the 2 pair they never shipped.  I suppose they were out but Easy Spirit never emailed me about it, just gave me back the credit.  asshats! So I am out $227.50 for 5 pairs of new shoes(3 clogs and 2 slip-on sandals).  I got a good deal and I can throw out 4 pairs of shoes now and won't need to buy shoes again for 2 years.

*  I had Hubs go up to Price Chopper Thursday and buy 3 lobsters.  They had a flyer Q to get it for $5.77 lb.  A great buy but lobster at any price is far from a cheap dinner.  We paired it with corn on the cob for $1 for 6 ears(another flyer Q)which was inedible unfortunately.  They will be getting an email over that wasted $1. ;-) But the lobster was yummy and bonus--Ex-College Boy didn't want his so I get to eat that leftover one for dinner tonight on Fend for Yourself Night....woohoo!

That's about it for  me this week other than watching lots of shows on Roku and Amazon for free and some book reading for entertainment.

What frugal wins did y'all have this past week?



Sluggy

How My Days Go Lately-Down Rabbit Holes

Not that this Stay at Home order has changed my routine much, other than traveling to visit friends/family, but I find myself escaping down rabbit holes with more frequency.
Rabbit Holes=starting on one thing online and ending up somewhere unexpected or totally different from where you began.

For example--A couple of days ago I was wandering around online looking at real estate.  We still don't have a pin in a particular scenario or where we will be moving to so this searching is sort of all over the map.  Well not ALL over the map as we have about a dozen areas I've been looking at.
One of which is somewhere in lower VA near where my mother's kin are from.

So I was showing Hubs a house we should buy(being cheeky as it is way more than we want to spend and the place is huge!)in Charlotte County VA near were my mother was born.  This place is currently on the market for $450,000.   8,328 square footage(including basement), 5 bedrooms/4 bathrooms on 9.48 acres with a detached 5 car garage/carriage house. For what it is, it IS a steal(because of the area).
The listing has it in the wrong county and calls it a "Queeen Anne Victorian" style house even though it was begun in 1810 and finished before the Victorian Era, but I digress.....

Sylvan Hill Plantation was owned by Paul Carrington, Jr.
Here's a miniature portrait of him from his later years in the Yale Art Collection..........

He was born 1764 and died 1816 in Charlotte County, VA.  He was married to Mildred Howell Coles(1769-1840). I have Coles cousins in my tree.

Anyway, after Hubs laughed about me actually spending that kind of money on that house I told him who had it built and he says to me, "You know I worked with a guy early on at my company who was a Carrington.  He told me once that he was related to the Carrington family in Colonial Virginia.  His people were a second tier branch of elites in Virginia, just below the Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe sorts.  Mike said one of the buildings at the University of Virginia is named for one of his Carrington ancestors too."

Hhmm...You know, I have a couple of Carringtons hanging on my tree as well as a Carrington(Hannah)who married a Nicholas Cabell(also a family name of one of the buildings at UVA).
Maybe Mike is one of my cousins?

Well you know what I did........I pulled out my family tree macramé and did some digging on Hubs friend.
Hubs said this guy, Mike, born and raised in NJ, died sort of young, sometime after 2000 when we moved here.
That's all I needed to know to start working back to link Mike Carrington to my macramé.

After about 20 minutes I found Mike's death date/year(2007)and his real name was Malcolm Michael Carrington, born and raised in New Jersey.
Then I found his father, in a newspaper article in NJ and knew I was on the correct path.  Dad was also a Malcolm Carrington, born in Chicago in 1916 then moved to New Jersey where he died in 1999.

That's Mike's father from his college yearbook from Lehigh University in 1939.

Then it was Mike's grandfather named *wait for it!* Malcolm Carrington born in Richmond in 1874, died in 1943 in Summit, New Jersey.

Here's his headstone.....

Mike's grandfather also graduated from Lehigh U. in 1896.
Malcolm I's birth puts him in Virginia and from there it was a snap to link his line up to the Carringtons of Virginia.

Here is Mike's Great Grandfather, Isaac Howell Carrington taken sometime around 1865.........

And here is his headstone..........

Anyway I could go on boring you with all this but I found that Hubs' work buddy Mike Carrington is my 7th cousin 2 x removed.
We share of common ancestor in Samuel Burks(1680 Albemarle Co., VA-12 Feb 1756 Albemarle Co., VA).
Samuel Burks is my 8 x Great Grandfather and Mike's 6 x Great Grandfather.

And see his Great Great Grandmother's name on the headstone?
Emma Cabell Carrington.....so she's a Cabell and through basically the same pathway as Mike she's my 3rd cousin 6 x removed sharing the same common ancestor.

I can't believe with all this intramarriage with cousins I've got on the old mossy tree I don't have 8 toes on each foot, webbed fingers and an extra eyeball on my chest or something!

And after that matter was done and dusted I spent hours adding more Carringtons, Cabells, Coles and Dandridges to my family tree macramé.

Of course just finding the ancestors and dates is just the tip of the iceberg.
After that I like to go through the records and get the "rest of the story"......the whys behind what happened to the people.

And just like that, between dealing with dogs, cooking, cleaning-there goes my day!!

Hubs likes to say most of my friends are dead and related to me.  I seem to like a lot more dead people than living ones. lolz

Sluggy

New Giveaway Winner!

Since the previous May winner never contacted me in time I am forced to pick a new winner for the Giveaway.

And the replacement winner is............

Mimi

MimiMay 9, 2020 at 7:53 PM

Mu state is opening back up, but I am staying home except for work and the twice monthly grocery pickup. Looking forward to getting my yard looking presentable.

Congratulations Mimi!

Please email me your full mailing address within the next 48 hours of this post going live/the posting time stamp.

Sluggy

Rite-Aid Shopping

**NOTE**
Still looking for FLORA to claim her Giveaway prizes!  Time is running out so email me asap!!


I bought this stuff on Saturday............

1 x Tide on sale=$4.94
2 x Cover girl BOGO50%=$8.23
2 x Nice and Easy Hair Dye 20% Wellness Disc.=$13.58
1 x Crest Dental Floss on sale=$3.99
1 x Crest Toothpaste on sale=$3.99
1 x Cella cherry 20% Wellness Disc.=.31¢
Subtotal......$35.04

Coupons Used
1 x $10 wyspend $30=$10.00
1 x $2/1 Tide L2CQ=$2.00
1 x $5/2 Clairol hair dye IPQ=$5.00
1 x $4/2 Clairol hair dye In-AdQ=$4.00
1 x $1/1 Crest Dental Floss L2CQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Crest Toothpaste L2CQ=$1.00
Coupon Total.......$23.00

$35.04-$23.00=$12.04+.96¢tax=$13.00 paid for this BC(and gift care because of "issues" more below).

Earned back $5 BC for buying 5 select PandG items(Tide, 2 Cover Girl, 2 Crest).

The $10 off $30 L2CQ didn't come off so my total was $23.00(and I had to use $3 off a free R-A gift card along with all $20 of BC on this account)rather than just $13.00 of my $20 BC to pay.
The manager said that had been happening all week....great!

So I had to call Corporate on Monday and she said there was a "glitch" on that Q so she added $10 of BC to my account so I have $15 in BC plus $8 more for a gift card I bought so I am at $23 in Bonus Cash on my card.

Remember if you are using Load2CardQs with any kind of $X off $XX Q whether it's a L2CQ or a paper Q or those ones R-A snail mails sometimes, Your total must be over the $X off $XX Q threshold AFTER using any L2CQs.

SubTotal before any Qs was $35.04.
SubTotal after the other L2CQs came off($4)was $31.04 so still over $30 so the $10 off $30 would still apply, bringing my total down to $21.04 before tax.

I probably will stay out of R-A this week as there aren't any good deals this week and I don't need to roll BC.

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Holy Cow!" Edition..........

I ran into the local Shursave on Saturday to pick up about $10 worth of foodstuffs and cruised by the meat counter.  No limit signs but at the prices they were asking, Yikes!  $6.99 lb. for 80% ground beef and $9.29 lb. for 90% lean ground beef?  I didn't even hazard a look at the roasts and steaks.

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning-

This is what was planned.........

1. Sunday--Petite Steaks, Sweet Potato Fries, Asparagus
2. Monday--Ham Steaks, Broccoli or Tossed Salad, Baked Potato or reworked au gratin Taters
3. Tuesday--Leftovers

4. Wednesday--Quiche, Salad

5. Thursday--Pork Tenderloin Sammies, Squash and Onions

6. Friday--Hungarian Goulash over Mashed Taters or Noodles
7. Saturday--Leftovers

And this is what really happened........

1. Sunday--Petite Steaks, Sweet Potato Fries, Asparagus
2. Monday--Ham Steaks, leftover Sweet Pot Fries, Stir-Fry Veggies
3. Tuesday--Leftover Beans and Cornbread(all gone now)

4. Wednesday--Mushroom Quiche, Salad

5. Thursday--Roasted Chicken, Stuffing, Brussels Sprouts

6. Friday--Chinese Take-Out
7. Saturday--Pastrami Reuben Sandwiches

Last week saw 4-5 nights of home cooked dinners(5 if you consider a pre-roasted chicken from the deli home cooking lol), 1 night of leftovers/FFY, and 1 night of Take-Out.
The goulash and pork tenderloin sammies didn't happen but roasted chicken, pastrami ruebens and take-out did instead.
I used some of that liquid whole eggs for the quiche and it worked great!

What got put into the freezer last week....
* 1 lb. ground chicken breast
*  1+lb. of bottom round roast

What got taken out of the freezer and used.....
* Petite Steaks
* Ham Steaks
* 1/2 bag of Stir-Fry Veggies
* 1 pie crust
* 1 bag of brussels sprouts

3 trips--Hubs picked up cheese at Walmart for me($7.21), 1 trip to P and R for $60.28 and $9.98 spent at the local Sursave Market had me spending $77.47 this past week and brings my May Total spending on food to $307.43.

I am at $2.10 earned in Ibotta rebates in May after Saturday's trip to Rite-Aid.

My savings percentage last week was 53.46%(without Rite-Aid trips)for May and the  monthly savings total comes in at 41.96%(w/out R-A).  Not too bad and just like the old days savings totals because of the Amish Outlet and P and R Discounters trips.

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

Leftovers going into this week........chicken w/Korean sauce, 1 ham steak, quiche, some roasted chicken.

I have fresh produce of lettuces, celery, carrots, onions, 1 tomato, broccoli to use this week.

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

1. Sunday--Fend for Yourself
2. Monday--Beef and Broccoli, Rice
3. Tuesday--Stuffed Shells, Salad

4. Wednesday--Chicken Pot Pie
5. Thursday--Leftovers or FFY

6. Friday--Breakfast for Dinner
7. Saturday--Rigatoni  w/Meat Sauce, Squash and Onions

What needs buying for this menu?  Nothing that I can think of.  But if I find a deal on something I will definitely pick it up!

What's left on my master list of meals we can make from what's here...........
*Shrimp Tempura
*Kielbasa sandwiches
*Tuna Casserole
*Chili Dogs, Beans
*Roasted Chicken
*Chicken and Dumplings
*Shrimp Ravioli
*Cheese Ravioli
*Hungarian Goulash
*Spaghetti and Meatballs
*Haddock Fish Dinner  new
*Chicken Tenders  new

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