March 2024 To-Do List....How I Did

 Here is my March To-Do List and how it all turned out.  Sorry it's a month late.  Stuff happens. ;-)

MARCH

*  Pay Bills  DONE  Always first and foremost

*  Go to 5 Dr. Appointments  DONE   Saw my Orthopedist,  I also got sent for shoulder MRIs at the end of March after insurance approved those tests.  I also was sent for 2 MRIs by the Neurologist(not that he cares or ever gets back to me about any tests).

*  Have Shoulder Injections  DONE  The Orthopedist injected both my shoulders in the bursa sac. 

*  Send Package to Brother  DONE

*  Begin Going Through Merchandise to Sell  PASS  I pulled out some fabrics to sell on Etsy.

*  Send Boxes to Two Kids  PASS  Sent a box to youngest and stuff in there for Oldest he will pass on to him since I have no contact with him.  Still have to get a box to Daughter.

*  Start Packing for Cruise  PASS  Started packing and got most of it done before April began.

*  Make Appt. w/Old Dentist  DONE  After the disaster with attempting to use the Dental Discount Program that came with my Medicare Supplement, I decided to go back to our old dentist.  Had a cleaning and a couple of dental x-rays done.

*  Go Through Old Papers  PASS  I've gone through many of them but there is more to plow through in April and/or May.

*  Contact Lawyer about Will Changes  FAIL  I didn't get around to do this.

*  Read/Finish Two Books  FAIL  I had good intentions but this one got away from me.  I just haven't felt much like reading books.

*  Buy Stuff for House(Always)  DONE  Hubs bought "stuff".  I have no clue. '-)

*  Order Biz then Wash Baby Clothes  DONE  Evidently they don't sell Biz anywhere I can find on the Eastern and Central part of the US so I jumped on Amazon and had it delivered to my door(mailbox actually).  Kim swears by the stuff to whiten old wedding gowns of her clients who want to use their mother's or such gown.  I tried it on a bunch of old baby clothes I still had from when my children were young to try to get spit-up and other stains off of them.  It worked like a charm!

*  Giveaway/Donate Baby Clothes That are Salvageable  PASS  My Sister in-Law's Grandson and his GF had a baby boy in March so I shipped off a big box of baby clothes to them along with a small gift.

*  Start New Donation Box  DONE

*  Try to Hem Some of My Clothes  DONE  I got two dresses shortened and hemmed.  I only brought one of them on the cruise however.

*  Edit More Photos  DONE  Just when I think I've caught up, we take another trip and I have a big photo dump. lol

*  Post about Old Trips  DONE  Been working on posting the Western Road Trip STILL!  Will it ever end??

*  Work on Genealogy  DONE

*  Take Items to Goodwill  FAIL  Didn't get up to Goodwill in March.

*  Pick Out Fabric and Photograph to List  DONE  See going through Merchandise item above.

That's all I got done in March.

Sluggy

Frugal Friday....the May 3rd Edition 2024

There are very few Frugal wins over the past week.

*  I guess loosing electricity for 2+ days counts as frugal.  We didn't have an electric bill for that amount of time. 8-)

*  We did some housework and laid low last week.  Did a little grocery shopping last weekend before the power went out.

I looked at my CVS app and I had a free $2 to spend. woohoo!

So I went there and bought this......

Mini club soda 4 packs on clearance.  I paid .15¢OOP.

*  Had to eat out for 2 nights--Monday dinner was Catfish and sides & Tuesday was at Subway.  The Catfish joint is pretty cheap and I had a $4 in Rewards I used at Subway.

*  Of course all the stores had power(and a/c)so we went to Walmart to get my $4 in coupons from them.......

These tomato products had Peelie Qs on them when I purchased, but the person working the self-checkouts wouldn't/couldn't override the register when it wouldn't accept them.  Of course this happened right before we left on the cruise so I had to wait until we got back to deal with the situation.  I did contact Corporate via email about this pre-cruise and was told to go back and they'd honor those coupons.  

Of course the woman at the CS desk on Tuesday had no CLUE about any of this(even though the manager of the store had called me)but I got my $4 owned me.  Had they not honored the Qs those items would have been returned.  Homie don't play!

*  I did my April food spending rundown and we did pretty good on the saving $$ last month.  After all the rebates were accounted for, we were at less than $208 spent. 8-)

*  I found money!  

Went to Dollar General for greeting cards on Saturday and found three pennies....

At Walmart on Tuesday and found another penny.........

Then I did laundry after we got power back on Wednesday evening and found this in the dryer.....

House rules-Any money found in the laundry is mine! ;-)

Total Found last week.... .05¢ 

Grand Total Found this Year.......$4.12 & 5.30 Euros

That's all I got.  

Any frugal wins in your neck of the woods?  Let's hear all about them!

Sluggy     

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Back to Reality" Edition.....

Here's Hubs standing next to the paella pan at the restaurant we ate at in Ibizia, Spain.  I doubt even he could have eaten that whole thing. lolz

Well I put on 13 lbs. during the cruise, but am already taking it all back off(9 lbs. off as of today)by doing intermittent fasting since Friday.  Another week or so and I'll be right as rain again. 8-)

Onward to the meal planning!

This is what was planned for last week...........

1. Sunday--Twisted Root Burger

2. Monday--No Clue

3. Tuesday--No Clue

4. Wednesday--No Clue

5. Thursday--No Clue

6. Friday--No Clue

7. Saturday--No Clue

And here's what actually happened(we were on the ship until Tuesday)......

1. Sunday--Crusty Bread w/EVOO and Balsamic, Salad, Calamari, Paella, dessert I can't remember and oh, so much wine!

2. Monday--Endive Salad, Filet Mignon, Cheese Plate for dessert

3. Tuesday--Bruschetta, Ribs and Shrimp, Apple Brown Betty

4. Wednesday--Some Chicken dish w/Rice on the plane, a roll, a crumbly cake, a fancy UK Hot Pocket and many Dr. Pepper Zero Sugars

5. Thursday--Muffaletta Pizza

6. Friday--Leftover Muffaletta Pizza

7. Saturday--Beef Fajitas  

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

*  Nothing  

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

*  1 pack of Catfish

*  1 pack of Salmon

*  3+lbs. of Pork Tenderloin  

Last week we spent $167.89 on grocery shopping for April.  I had an Ibotta Bonus to hit and dby gosh I was going to get there. ;-)  

Total shopping come to $538.55 for April.   There are 0 shopping days left in April so I am done for the month, obviously.

Rebate monies earned this month so far.....

I've earned $243.50 on Ibotta in April.

I've earned $24.50 on Shopmium in April.

I've earned $32.50 on Alexa app in April.

I've earned $11.24 on Kroger Cash Back in April.

I've earned $29.39 on TaDa in April.

I've earned $1.50 on Checkout51 in April.

I've earned $32.41 on Aisle, etc.

I've earned 35,644.00 points on Fetch from food shopping in April.

I've earned 8,250 points from food shopping on Shop Kick in April.($33.00)

I've earned 3,497 Points on My Points in April.($16.63)

I've earned 0 SB from food shopping on Swag Bucks in April.

That is $331.30 in rebates(not counting Shop Kick/Fetch/MyPoints/KCB/Alexa)on $538.55 of grocery spending so in reality it's $207.25 in food spending after the rebate apps I count. I now separate out the Food Bank donations and don't count those in the grocery spending.

My savings percentage for the last week was 56.35% and the monthly savings total for April comes in at 45.22% spent so far. 

Leftovers going into this week...Fajita filling.

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

1. Sunday--Cheeseburger(bun optional), Teriyaki Green Beans, Stuffed Mushroom Caps

2. Monday--Catfish, Shrimp, Green Beans

3. Tuesday--1/2 Subway Tuna Sub

4. Wednesday--1/2 Subway Tuna Sub

5. Thursday--Brisket, Baked Sweet Potato Fries

6. Friday--Leftovers

7. Saturday--Leftovers

My meal plan blew up when we lost power for 2+ days.  This is my revised plan since I got back online this morning. 8-))

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 deals on food at your stores this week?  

Sluggy      

Thank You McDonald's

 Sitting in a McDonald's charging our phones.  Electric company says they expect power to be back on by Wednesday night at 10pm.  That's more than 3 days since it went out.  It could be worse...our trash guy had a tree limb come through his roof Sunday night.

Anybody want to buy a house here?  I'll gladly sell you mine!

Don't know what's going on in the big wide world out there and won't until we get power back.  FML at the moment

Sluggy

Welcome Home

 We had a hellacious storm just after I finished my call with youngest kid.  Power went out and remains out as of now.  Don't know when I'll be back online.  At least we didn't have a tornado come through here.

Welcome back to Lousyiana....

Sluggy