Guess Who Went to Rite-Aid?

Yup, yours truly did.
I know all you Rite-Aid fanatics were wondering when I'd jump back into Rite-Aid pillaging! lol
Not quite a pillage since I have no +Up Rewards to roll and I DID spend actual money this trip.....but here is what I bought.

3 x Purex Laundry Detergent  on sale Buy 1, Get 2 Free=$6.49
2 x Palmolive Dish Soap on sale .88¢=$1.76
2 x R-A brand Facial Tissue on sale .88¢ but my 20% discount makes it .80¢ ea.=$1.60
1 x R-A brand Paper Napkins on sale .88¢ but my 20% discount makes it .80¢=.80¢

Subtotal.....$10.65

Coupons
1 x Free Purex Laundry Detergent ManQ(won in a giveaway earlier this year-max. value $6)=$6.00
1 x $1/2 Palmolive Dish Soap any size ManQ=$1.00
Coupon Total....$7.00

$10.65-$7.00=$3.65 + .22¢tax=$3.87 Out of Pocket(I have no +Up Rewards so spend)

And I received back a $1 +UP for buying 5 Palmolive/Simplify Brand items in 1 transaction.

If I had gone to one of the Rite-Aids in a surrounding town the Purex would have only been $5.99 and all 3 jugs would have cost me ZERO instead of .49¢.  Yes, we are the "wealthy" town in this part of the Armpit of PA....lolz

In the end, the dish soap cost me .38¢ a bottle, 3 jugs of laundry detergent cost me .49¢ for all and the paper products were .80¢ each and I get $1 worth of free goodies next time I go to Rite-Aid.

And I am finally 26 points($s)away from getting to the Gold discount level for 2013, which means I'll retain that 20% discount on all non-sale items in 2014 too.
Usually, when I was big into Rite-Aid shopping, I would get to the Gold level by March of the year but since I haven't shopped hardly at all in Rite-Aid in 2013 I am way behind in getting to the Gold level.  The only thing that has gotten me almost there is all the prescriptions I've had to have filled in 2013, first with my heart issue and now with the blood clot in addition to all my usual maintenance meds.

I do plan on doing some Rite-Aid shopping this Holiday season if the deals are there like they have been in past years.  But I am still overloaded with toiletries/HBA from previous years so there isn't much I need, so I'll only be going for the things we are out of or low on.

Sluggy

 

Part Two of Remodeling Work is Done & the Numbers...Yikes!

And here is the inside of the living room on June 27th,  BEFORE we began the renovations.......

And here is the only photo I can find at the moment of my dining room in the BEFORE state.  This is from a previous pre-Christmas season when I was heavily into decluttering via eBay and my dining room is "shipping central"........

And here are the in progress shots, first with the walls/ceilings painted.....

Then with the new flooring......

And now with the heating and a/c sytem in place, the mouldings done and all the thresholds and outlet/switch plates back on the walls.....

The only thing left to do is to change out the dining room chandelier and put furniture, rugs, lamps and décor into the rooms.

And to figure out how to arrange the furniture in the living room part as it's a tricky L shaped deal.


The original estimate by the Handyman Co. for all BUT the heating/air system and flooring supplies was $9,640.00.

We did the painting ourselves and didn't do the entire downstairs and the upstairs hallway/stairwell, saving the $3185.00 the Handyman Co. wanted to do that.  (The amount of painting we did in reality saved us about $1200.00 since we didn't do every room the Handyman Co. would have done.)
We got the flooring job(labor)down from the $3010.00 they initially quoted us to $1,875.00(which was lower than Lowe's wanted to lay the flooring).
In total, the Handyman Co. costs came in at $5,793.00 which was $3,847 lower than their initial estimate.



As for the money........sigh.......

We went into this escapade with the 2012 Savings Challenge monies I had saved last year as our funding source.
That amounted to $28,907.08.

Here is where the money was spent........

A/C & Heating System Total.....$12,616.15

All other Repairs/Renovations......$6,862.32
 Handyman......$5,793.00 (includes labor and some supplies)
 Flooring...........$710.03
 Paint.................$108.10
 Moulding.........$224.72
 Misc. Supplies...$26.47

*Total Spent...........$19,478.47

Supplies Paid on Gift Cards......$279.78
Total Paid from Savings Challenge 2012.....$19,198.69

Monies left in 2012 Savings Challenge fund....$9,708.39

The Great Summer Road Trip of 2013 will also be drawing $ from this fund(and I'll reveal all about that during the coming weeks after I post about the Road Trip of 2013 Saga), but I am hopeful that after the Road Trip cash is moved out of that fund we will be able to keep our hands off what is left in that fund until the end of 2013, when it will become permanent savings and transferred into the Permanent Savings Account.

Yes I am going to try to decorate and furnish these rooms out of normal paycheck monies as they come into our checking account instead of continuing to deplete that Savings Challenge fund.
So it might take me awhile to finish furnishing those rooms.

We completed this project a bit frugally by--
Using gift cards bought last year for some supplies.
Doing the painting ourselves.
Waiting for a great deal on paint.
Shopping around for mouldings to get the best price and then painting it ourselves.
Making the Handyman Co. compete on price with Lowe's to lay the flooring.



The rooms are ready to decorate and furnish now and I can close the books on the Great Renovation of 2013.  8-))

Sluggy
 

Well the Remodeling Work is Finally Done! Part One, Outside

Here is a before of the outside of the house from a few years ago......

This photo was taken in 2007, before the dusty blue wooden trim around the garage door frame began to rot and fall off.  The dusty blue shutters were original to the house went it was built in the 1980's.
1986 called, it wants it's shutters back...... ;-)

Here is the house in September 2009 after we had the original  white roof replaced with a dark tan architectural shingled one.......still with the dusty blue shutters and trim.....

And here is the house today, with the new vents, trim and shutters.....

It might not look like much of a change in these photos, but up close in real life, it is a big difference.


Next up is the before/after of the inside work and the numbers on the cost.

Sluggy

Decluttering Porn

Just a bunch of stuff that finally left the house Sunday......

This weekend #2 Son's room gets cleaned so we'll start another donation to take in later this month.

Sluggy

On the Dining Table this Week

The "Some Weeks you Feel like a Horse's Rear End" Edition.......

This was the view as I left the furniture store last Sunday.
How fitting is that?!


Here's what was planned last week-- 

Sunday--Hubs had leftover Halushki, I didn't eat anything.
Monday--Leftover barbecue pork and coleslaw from our lunch stop on the way home Sunday
Tuesday--Spaghetti and Meatballs(balls in the freezer/pasta in the stockpile), Italian Green Beans(freezer)
Wednesday--Leftover Halushki, Quiche(freezer), Salad(using garden tomatoes)
Thursday--BLT sandwiches(tomatoes from garden), Fried Apples
Friday--Baked Fish and Crabcakes(freezer), Veggie Medley(freezer)
Saturday--Leftovers or something from the freezer

And here's what actually got eaten--

Sunday--Hubs had leftover Halushki, I didn't eat anything
Monday--Leftover barbecue pork and coleslaw from our lunch stop on the way home Sunday, watermelon
Tuesday--Spaghetti and Meatballs(balls in the freezer/pasta in the stockpile), Italian Green Beans(freezer), Strawberries
Wednesday--Quiche(freezer), Salad(using garden tomatoes)
Thursday--Leftovers-Hubs had spaghetti, I had a burger and watermelon
Friday--BLT sandwiches, applesauce
Saturday--Bob Evans-I had a BOGO meal coupon

I had a bad foot day on Thurs. so leftovers instead and the BLTs got moved to Friday, bumping the fish to next week.

As for food spending last week.....I spent $175.85 on $268.07 worth of groceries at 2 stores in 3 trips.
I stocked up last week on lunchmeat(so I don't need to purchase any this week because nothing I can have is on sale this week), dog kibble(2 large bags on sale), canned veg sale(corn, peas, beets and kraut), panko and bread crumbs(sale), bread(BOGO sale), local apples, OJ, Gatorade and frozen french fries(for #2), baking needs(sale), salad greens(sale), reduced muffins(#2), burritos and corn dogs(#2), bacon(sale), fruit, beans, some canned soup(reduced sodium), yogurt(sale), and seltzer(sale)accounts for most of it.

As for food waste, a couple of cukes last week. I was pickled out and nobody else wanted any cukes in salads or in vinegar for a couple of weeks so they went bad.  8-(

Leftovers going into this week--still picking tomatoes and there is leftover Spaghetti and leftover Halushki that has to go soon, either to the dogs or us. ;-)

Here's this week's meal plan---
Sunday--Leftovers-Hubs had Spaghetti and I had a roast beef sandwich
Monday--Hamburgers, mixed veggies, Cantaloupe
Tuesday--Baked Fish, Corn Pudding, leftover Green Beans
Wednesday--Out to eat, using a coupon
Thursday--Lobster, Rutabaga Casserole
Friday--Meatloaf, Roasted Potatoes, Beets
Saturday--Leftovers and Broccoli Cheddar Soup

On the shopping list......Lobsters(on sale again), hot dog rolls and lemon juice is it.  I have everything else here already.  These 3 things will run about $30 and I hope to stay out of the grocery stores except for those items this week to get my food budget back on track. 8-)

I might need some milk or some odd or end thing but I might do some stocking up the next 4 weeks or so, as the local independent market has begun their Thanksgiving Promo-get a $ amount reward toward your turkey meal dinner depending on how much you spend during the coming 5 weeks.  Since I don't spend as much on groceries per month, compared to their usual customer, this means I'll have to give up Weis PMITA Markets until Thanksgiving and only shop at this other market in my town to accumulate enough points to get a reward.  I won't go out of my way to buy stuff I won't need just to get a reward but I will buy stuff I'll need in the future to get to a $ amount to get a reward.

That's what's appearing on the kitchen table this week here at Chez Sluggy.

 What's getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Sluggy