This Week on the Dining Table

The "Things Turned Around Quickly Here" Edition.......

That's me after getting my first Covid shot last week. 
Last Monday turned out to be a good day....first the dentist had a cancellation so I got my broken tooth taken care of that day and then that night I found a shot appointment for the following evening.  The only negative was that the appointment was a 1.75 hour ride away and we get to do that again in about 21 days. But I am NOT complaining! ;-)

Onward to the meal planning!

Moving On-

This is what was planned....

1. Sunday--Fend For Yourself

2. Monday--Chicken Parmesan, Green Beans

3. Tuesday--Squash Casserole, Tossed Salad

4. Wednesday--Hot Dogs, Sweet Potato Fries
5. Thursday--Leftovers and Cabbage

6.  Friday--Pizza, Salad

7. Saturday--Assorted Leftovers

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

1. Sunday--Fend For Yourself

2. Monday--Fend For Yourself(I had garlic mashed taters-broken tooth)

3. Tuesday--Cheeseburgers at BK(we were driving home)

4. Wednesday--Chicken Parmesan, Green Beans
5. Thursday--Hot Dogs, leftover Macaroni Salad

6.  Friday--Broiled Salmon, leftover Sweet Potato Fries, leftover Collards

7. Saturday--Fend for Yourself(I had a big salad/Hubs had chili)

Last week saw 3 nights of home cooked dinners, 3 nights of leftovers/planned overs or FFY, and 1 night of Take-Out/Eating Out. 

Not being able to eat "real food" because of my tooth threw the menu off and made for more FFY nights.  I had another salad and veggies for lunches since dinners were light on veggies this week.

We seem to be in a meal rut lately.  I just don't feel inspired to cook.  I've been making stuff Hubs likes that I don't necessarily eat or like(chili, meatballs/spaghetti, taco meat).  I can't just make a little of those things(sort of like making soup)so he eats them over the course of the week(and/or for lunches)and I just find a little something for myself or just eat part of the meal.

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

*  1 pack of Beef strips(2 meals worth)

*  1 pack of thin sliced Pork chops(2 meals worth)

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

*  Breaded Chicken cutlets

* 1 bag of Mozzarella Cheese

*  a pack of Hot Dogs

We spent $81.63 on food/toiletries/HBA/paper goods last week-1 tiny trip to Weis(PMITA)Markets for salmon and tea, 1 trip to Walmart, 1 trip to Dollar General and 1 trip to Discount Outlet. This brings our food/toiletries/paper goods Grand Total to $216.52 for March so far.

There are 9 shopping days left in March.

I've earned $151.23 on Ibotta in March.

I've earned $.05 on Checkout51 in March.

I've earned $9.00 on Coupons dotcom/Paypal in March.

I've earned 1,130 points from shopping on Fetch in March($1.13)

I've earned 10,200 point from food shopping on Shop Kick in March($40.80)

I've earned 0 points from food shopping on Swagbucks in March.

My savings percentage for last week was 60.19%(without "regular" Rite-Aid trips)for March and the monthly savings total for March comes in at 57.50%.(w/out R-A). 

Leftovers going into this week--Chili, Hot Dogs and 2 Chicken Parm.

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

1. Sunday--Pizza, Salad

2. Monday--leftover Chicken Parm sandwiches, Asparagus

3. Tuesday--"Sort of" Rueben Sandwiches, sauté Cabbage

4. Wednesday--Beef Stir-Fry w/Noodles
5. Thursday--Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches, Squash Casserole

6.  Friday--Leftovers or Fend For Yourself

7. Saturday--Assorted Leftovers

What do I need to buy to fix everything on this menu?  Nothing though we'll need milk later this week.

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?  Weis deals won't change until April sometime but I'll be doing the rest of the items for the $10 Ibotta March Bonus so there will be spending this week...hopefully not much however.

Sluggy

And the Giveaway Winner Is......

It's another Sluggy's Boring Blog Box Giveaway time!
Sorry I didn't get to pulling a winner for the Giveaway yesterday.  I was quite busy and just ran out of time.

With that said, I let Random dot org pick the winner this morning and without further ado the winner is......

Chef Owings!

Chef OwingsMarch 10, 2021 at 4:21 PM

We float as Hubby is German and I am 1 % of everything possible LOL. We might do corn beef hash. Hubby's great grandmother always celebrated planting peas on St Patty's day. We plan to do that this year.  

Congratulations Chef Owings!

You have 48 hours from the time stamp when this post goes live to email me your full mailing address.  (My email addy is in the side bar under "About Me".)

If she doesn't contact me in time I'll pull another name to win the box o' goodies.

Thanks to everyone who played along this time and I'll have another box up for grabs real soon(if life doesn't get in the way). ;-)

Happy Spring and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Sluggy

Frugal Friday......the March 19th Edition

Not a very long list this week of Frugal wins.  Life is like that, right?...sometimes you win a lot, sometimes you don't. 8-)

*  Last week I went to use my windshield wipers on my car and one of them broke(that makes twice within a year-the last time one flew off the car!lol).  Hubs took the car up to the auto parts store and had them replace both wipers.  Afterwards he noticed they only charged him for 1 wiper and discovered they were running a BOGO grand opening sale on wipers.  So he took his car up the next day to replace his wipers.  Half price wipers for the win!

*  Rite-Aid + Coupons + Ibotta + Bonus Cash + Shop Kick + Fetch=moneymakers this week at Rite-Aid.....

A $9.24 moneymaker.

A $195 moneymaker.

* I found money!

This dime was found at Rite-Aid in the middle of the floor at the entrance on Monday.

This penny was found in front of the pharmacy counter at the Rite-Aid where I got my covid shot on Tuesday.

And these two pennies were found in different places in my Rite-Aid on Wednesday when I went to finish my Ibotta MidWeek Bonus and pick up an Rx.

Total Found This Week..... .13¢
Total Found This Year.......$1.65

That's about it for this past week other than only spending $7.94 at Weis(PMITA)Markets on groceries this week so far.

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

Tell us all about them!

Sluggy

More Rite-Aid Deals This Week

 I needed to spend/roll more Bonus Cash plus I needed 4 more unique offers to get my MidWeek Bonus on Ibotta so I did this on my card.....

1 x Axe spray deodorant....$6.69
1 x Vaseline men's lotion....$8.49
1 x Degree men's deodorant..$5.79
1 x Suave men's body wash...B2Get1 Free
1 x Dove men's deodorant....B2Get1 Free
1 x Dove men's body wash....$7.29
1 x Got2Be men's hair styling product clearance=$1.99
1 x Centrum vitamins=$7.49
5 x Got2Be hair color chalk clearance($1.74 ea.)=$8.70
1 x Nutella on the Go 20% Gold Discount=$1.51
1 x L'Oreal lipstick clearance=$2.37
1 x Sally Hansen Miracle Gel nail polish clearance=$2.49
SubTotal....$52.81

Coupons Used
1 x $10/$50 Rite-Aid Q=$10.00
1 x $2/2 Dove men's items L2CQ=$2.00
1 x $1/1 Vaseline men's item IPQ=$1.00
1 x $4/1 Centrum item IPQ=$4.00
1 x $3/1 L'Oreal cosmetic item IPQ=$3.00
1 x $1/1 Degree item IPQ=$1.00
Coupon Total....$21.00

$52.81-$21.00=$31.81+$1.84 tax=$33.65 paid with Bonus Cash.

I earned back $4 in new BC(2 x $1 wyb2 Axe/Dove/Degree/Suave, $2 Centrum).
I earned back $17.50 on Ibotta(5 x $2.50 Got2Be, $1.50 Got2Be, $1.00 Sally Hansen, .50¢ Nutella and $1 Midweek Bonus, $1 Got2Be Bonus).
I earned back the equivalent of $14.10 in Shop Kick points for buying 5 of the men's items.

BC used......$33.65
BC/cash back/Shop Kick earned...$35.60
That means I got paid $1.95 to take all the items above home. 8-)))

I might have another transaction in me before the weekly sales end at R-A, if some of my Ibotta offers reset by Saturday.

Sluggy

I am What?!?! & A Toast to Being Irish!

 If you ever do a DNA test to check on your ancestral origins I have found out that it will change as the pool of folks who also test on whatever company's website changes.

As more people are included in the genetic pool it will affect how your DNA is read and placed into certain ethnicities.

This past weekend for some reason I went and took another look at mine, my son's and my brother's DNA results again.  I initially had my DNA tested in 2013 and my son and brother's both tested in 2015.

Back then my results came back in a pie chart form........

My DNA was 98.86% Western European(they had a 1.44% margin of error back then so it "could" have been 100% Western Europe).

It also came back with a 100% makeup of Orcadian population.  This refers to the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland(which are part of modern day Scotland)so includes Scottish, English, Irish, and then Viking and other Scandinavian populations.

So when I went back recently to look this is how my DNA results have changed.

First my map(they highlight places on a map now instead of using a pie chart....

You'll notice I have 3 areas highlighted--Ireland, Finland and the areas around Greece.
And here is my % breakdown....

Europe 100%

Western Europe
Ireland 95%

Southern Europe
Greece & Balkans 4%

Finnish
Finland  <2%

GREEK?!  WTF and where the heck did that come from?!? lolz  Well I do like Greek food. ;-)
And now ALL my Western European DNA is Irish?

Now let's compare my DNA with my brother's(and yes, we are full siblings so nobody was adopted nor did one of our parents have an affair or something).........

Brother's map.......

Areas highlighted include Iceland, Sweden, Norway-Finland-United Kingdom-Ireland-Poland, Denmark, Germany, Austria and France.  And you'll notice how his areas overlap too, one with another.

But the glaring difference you'll notice is he has no Greek or Balkans like I do!

And his % breakdown.......

100%
Western Europe

Ireland 56%
Central Europe 36%
England, Wales, and Scotland 4%
Scandinavia 4%

Finnish
Finland <1%

Lastly, let's take a look at my son's map.  Note that half son's DNA comes from Hubs.  Hubs ancestry is 50% Italy from his father and his mother gave him Dutch, German mostly but a little bit of Irish and English.

Son's % breakdown......

Europe 100%

Western Europe
Ireland 43%
Central Europe 29%
England, Wales, and Scotland 7%

Southern Europe
Italian Peninsula 13%
Malta 5%
Greece & Balkans 3%

So if you take out the Southern Europe piece(Italian Peninsula and Malta which obviously isn't from my side)son's map looks mostly like my brother's map rather than mine!  Except son has that weird Greek thing like I do.

So my son on paper could be my brother's son rather than mine! lolz

Now if you combine mine and my brother's maps it makes sense to what the paper trail so far has been...well, except that Greece & Balkans thing.  And I suspect that something I've been pondering about my Y-DNA may be true and if so, it would have made my father happy.

More on that later.

For now let's raise a green beer or rather a good Irish beer(I'll take a Guiness Stout!)and celebrate our Irish heritage.

The Irish, much like the Jews, Africans who were enslaved in various countries and others have experienced a Diaspora of their people from their homeland over the last few centuries.

First the English tried to eradicate the Irish and take over Ireland itself by force, giving their lands away to Scottish peoples who emigrated to the Emerald Isle.  Then the English and the Ulster Scots used the 2 Potato Famines to starve out the Irish and the Irish natives began a mass exodus in the 1840's to the lands west-the US, Canada and Australia mostly.  Some Irish were also part of the "transportation" scheme whereas England got rid of any poor and/or criminal element by shipping them overseas to one of various English colonies. 
The Irish who fled to the US's eastern cities(especially New York and Boston)didn't find a hearty welcome.  Being new immigrants they were at the bottom of the food chain and there were "No Irish Need Apply" signs  everywhere. 
The only group that welcomed the Irish off the ships in the North was the US military if  a ship arrived after the start of the War Between the States(1861-1865).  Recruiters for the Union army met arriving ships at the harbors to sign newly arriving Irish emigrants up to fight in the war for the Yanks.  Not even citizens they were asked to die for this country in battle yet no business would give them a job thus many had no alternative but to muster in.
The Irish had a rough start in the US but over time and due to their ability to overcome oppression have survived and thrived here in America.

If you descend from the great Brian Boru or not(and if you have ancestors with the surname of O'Brien you  are)let's wish Sláinte to our tribe!

I post this song every St. Patty's Day....

Here are some more Irish bands or songs for your enjoyment.....

And lets close with this lovely traditional song......

Sluggy