Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Happenings This Past Week at Chez Sluggy

What a week!

I am worn out.
Between my usual stuff(cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping and deal hunting)and all my new caregiver chores, plus all the Holiday "getting ready" stuff,  it doesn't leave a lot of time for blogging OR "me" time.
Just sitting down, closing my eyes and doing nothing for 10 minutes is my idea of heaven lately.

On Tuesday we had some excitement since it was my Daughter's 24th birthday.
She wanted to go out to the newish Mexican restaurant that opened up here earlier in the year.  This worked out well since I had a $25 gift certificate I had bought a few months ago for a 50% discount.


Daughter had a shot and a beer to start things off and then some dish with a mole sauce with a side of fried plantain.

I'm not a big Mexican food fan but it was Taco Tuesday($2 tacos)so I got 3 tacos(1 carne asada/2 al pastor) and a side of rice and beans.

This restaurant is sort of dark inside so when my tacos came I put some lime and a verde sauce on and started munching down.
A few bites into taco #1 I noticed it tasted funny.....funny bad.
By the time I finished taco #1 it finally hit me-Cilantro!

I thought the green on top was finely shredded lettuce or parsley but no, it was fresh cilantro.

It turns out that I am one of the 4-14% of the population on earth who share a group of olfactory-receipt genes called OR6A2, that pick up on the smell of aldehyde chemicals that are both found in cilantro and soap.

Yes, cilantro makes food taste like Ivory soap to me.

So I spent some time picking all the cilantro out of my tacos.....


The Daughter happily ate my inedible tacos and she gave me a few bits of her enchiladas and mole sauce.  1 soapy taco, a few bits of enchilada and my rice and beans was plenty for me.



Then since I mentioned that it was Daughter's birthday, the staff came out to sing Happy Birthday, make her wear a sombrero and attempted to set the building on fire with a firecracker in her slice of cake...EEK!



After extinguishing the rocket Daughter ate her cake and I paid the bill and we made the treacherous drive home up the mountain in a snowstorm.
Fun times.....
Of course I had to get in on the hat action too. ;-)



On Wednesday I managed to roll some more coins.........


Another $10 added to my rolled coins for the year bringing me to $97.50.
So close to $100 in coins for the year.

On Wednesday we also got a delivery of meat.......


My brother and his wife sent us an Omaha Steaks gift bundle for Christmas.
Unexpected but yummy.

Of course it would have been nice to know I was getting 18 lbs. of frozen foods ahead of time so I could make sure I had room in the freezer for it all!!

Luckily, this time of year, my entire garage can sub for a deep freezer since it's below freezing here in PA.
Between eating some of this the past 4 days and making room in the freezer we've about made room for what is left.  Of course we saved the steaks first!! lolz


On Thursday Hubs had his 1 week post op appointment with the orthopedic surgeon.

 Here's the x-ray from the ER.  Oh he did a fine job breaking that leg, yes he did!
Spiral fractures of both bones...ouch.


Here's the x-ray taken after a metal rod was inserted into Hubs leg plus some screws into his ankle area during surgery.........



The leg in real life with sutures at various spots.  The incision on the knee is where the metal rod or "nail" was put in.


The next day Hubs went on YouTube and tried to watch a video of the surgery he had.  When the doctor started hammering the metal nail into the patient's knee he had to turn it off. lolz

Hmm, another patient in the casting room who didn't look too well.....hehehe


We go back in 2 weeks to get Hubs' sutures out.
We won't talk about how I almost killed Hubs once we got home, getting him from the car to the house.  No we won't go there......

Friday evening Daughter went to pick up College Boy from school after her last final exam.  College Boy's exams were finished on Thursday so he got to party before leaving for Winter break.  They beat a snowstorm that was heading East that evening/early Saturday morning.


Saturday and Sunday was cleaning, cooking, laundry, patient care-the usual.  Throw in some shopping and meeting folks who bought 2 of the fragrance sets I sold on the local FB yard sale site and it was a bursting full weekend.

Remember those fragrance sets I bought at Rite-Aid?  Well "buy" isn't quite accurate since I paid with Plenti points and received cash rebates too.  Ok, I "spent down "$21.74 in points when all was said and done.
I sold two of the sets for $22 cash so now I "made" .26¢ on that transaction plus I still have two fragrance sets for free to use for gifts.  That all worked out exceptionally well! 8-)))

A few Christmas cards got written and addressed as well on Sunday and they got mailed on Monday.

On Monday Hubs had his eye dr. appointment and shot. ouch.
I shlepped him into the car, out of the car and into the dr. office, back and forth in a wheelchair through the humongous office from waiting rooms to exam rooms and back again x 4.  Then he had a reaction to the shot so we got to visit at the office for an extra 30 minutes.
Fun times.....
Then it was shlepping him back into the car to home and back into the house.
I don't know who was more exhausted after that excursion, Hubs or me.


As for the Christmas tree..............

A space I cleared out for the tree.

It is up and lit, albeit fuzzy.........

I am glad now we decided to put up the small tree instead of the huge tree.  With the big tree up it would be difficult for Hubs to navigate with his walker in there where he is sleeping/recuperating.

Perhaps a few ornaments will actually get ON the tree this week if I do it.
Nobody here(the kids)seems to want to decorate and I just am stretched too thin to do it at the moment.
meh.
I bet if I said that no presents would be under the tree unless they decorated it that would get their butts in gear, eh?

And that catches everyone up on the highlights of a Week at Chez Sluggy.

I am soooo behind getting Christmas related chores finished at this point I can't worry about that any longer.
What gets done, gets done and what doesn't, well, it too will get done eventually...or not.

Maybe I just need to get lit like the tree and stop worrying about anything else. ;-)

I hope everyone is doing better than I am at keeping up.
All I can say is if you aren't in shape for the Holidays yet, don't sweat it.
Don't be so hard on yourself and just enjoy the season no matter.


Sluggy

Monday, December 19, 2016

This Week on the Dining Table


The  "This is a Strange Christmas Season" Edition--



The juxtaposition of festive Christmas tree(the doc is hiding behind it)and an x-ray of Hubs broken leg at his follow-up appointment last week.
Perhaps Santa will bring Hubs a new leg for Christmas? hohoho

Moving on......

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

1. Sunday--Pork Loin Roast, leftover Macaroni Salad or au gratin taters, Sugar Snap Peas
2. Monday--Ravioli in Marinara, Salad, maybe Garlic Bread
3. Tuesday--Eating Out/Daughter's Birthday Meal
4. Wednesday--Flounder, Cole Slaw, French Fries
5. Thursday--Chinese Take-out or homemade Pizza
6. Friday--? Not sure, Leftovers or Breakfast for Dinner
7. Saturday--Leftovers of Fend For Yourself

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Pork Loin Roast, leftover Macaroni Salad, Sugar Snap Peas
2. Monday--Chicken Soup using leftover Roast Chicken
3. Tuesday--Eating Out/Daughter's Birthday Meal
4. Wednesday--leftover Meatloaf, leftover Macaroni Salad, Salad
5. Thursday--Smothered Pork Chops in Mushroom Gravy, Baked Taters, leftover Sugar Snap Peas
6. Friday--Chinese Take-Out
7. Saturday--Ravioli in Mushroom/Meat Sauce, Salad, Garlic Bread

The flounder moves to this week and I made soup with the leftover roast chicken of last week.  Daughter actually cooked dinner one night, hooray!
5 meals cooked at home, 1 of them nights of leftovers, and 2 nights of Take-Out/Eating-Out.. 


As for the grocery spending.....2 trips to Weis & 1 trip to the Shursave Market brought the week's spending to $117.66 and brings my December food spending Total to $266.80 so far this month. 12 Days left to spend in December and $144.84 left in my December budget.

My savings percentages this week was 56.77%.

Leftovers going into this week.......ravioli in sauce, chicken soup.

Here is this week's "food plan".

1. Sunday--Flounder, Cauliflower, au gratin Taters
2. Monday--Soup Night or Fend for Yourself
3. Tuesday--Hot Dogs or Kielbasa, Potato Salad, Beans
4. Wednesday--Chicken Marsala, Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli
5. Thursday--Tacos
6. Friday--Leftovers or ?
7. Saturday--Xmas Eve Chinese Meal Out(Take-Out this year as Hubs can't go)

This week will see 4-5 new meals cooked, 1 night of Take-Out/Eating-Out and 1-2 night of Leftovers.

What I need to buy for this menu? Lettuce, mushrooms, milk.  I've got a few things I want to buy this week on special(and I have coupons for some of it too)....3 cans crescent rolls(in case I can't get around to making my own rolls for Xmas), bottled water, 2 blocks of cheese, canned veg for .37¢ a can, and BOGO coffee.

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

Thursday, December 15, 2016

My Rite-Aid Haul This Week

At first I didn't find anything exciting(read free or cheap)at Rite-Aid this week.
But that changed on Wednesday.

I had to go out to my last dr. appointment on the year(and get a break from my Invalid for awhile)so I hit Rite-Aid.

I had gotten this Catalina on eldest son's card recently......


Earn 500 Plenti Points($5)when you spend $50.
I didn't think I'd be using this Catalina but a couple of deals came up.

Everything in the photo was done on two different cards.....


On eldest son's card I bought--
4 x I-Caps vitamins BOGO50% (3 were $16.79 reg. retail, 1 was $22.99 reg. retail)=$56.56
1 x Garnier shampoo on sale=$3.49
8 x Renewal/Daylogic hand soap BOGOFree($2.29 reg.)=$9.16
SubTotal.......$69.21

Coupons Used
4 x $10/1 I-Caps vitamins(any size)IPQ=$40.00
1 x $2/1 Garnier shampoo ManuQ=$2.00
Coupon Total......$42.00

$69.21-$42.00=$27.21+ .64¢ tax=$27.85
I used Plenti Points to pay so Zero OOP.

I earned $29.00 in new Plenti Points($5 wyb $50, 2 x $8 wyb2 I-Caps, 4 x $2 wyb 2 Renewal/Daylogic hand soap), making this transaction a $1.15 moneymaker.

Supposedly there is/was a Garnier shampoo SavingStar rebate for $2 but I don't have it in my offers.  If I had it that would have made the Garnier purchase a $.51 moneymaker and the transaction a $3.15 moneymaker.
I thought I had it when I bought the shampoo so I might return it(as I don't "need" another bottle of shampoo)and it's purchase was not required to get me over $50 in the transaction to get those bonus $5 in PPs.

I then used my other card to purchase 8 more bottles of hand soap.  After points earned and tax paid of .55¢ all 8 bottles "cost" me $1.71 in Plenti Points on that Wellness card.

The eye vitamins are something we can use since Hubs has had an eye issue for the last 1.5 years.  Couldn't hurt to pop one of these every day, right?

That's all I got this week.

Sluggy

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

December Grocery Budget Update & Grocery Deals This Week



After receiving another $7.50 in my SavingStar account, $1 in my Checkout51 account and $2 more in my Ibotta account, here is the updated December Grocery Budget.....

Gift Cards.....$64.36
Cash Rebates--
 Savingstar...$142.03
 Checkout51..$42.25
 Ibotta..........$33.50
Rolled Coins...$87.50
Other Cash(post coupons)...$42.00

Total.....$411.64

After spending $149.14 the last 2 weeks on groceries I have $262.50 left to spend on food in December, coming into this week.

Here are some of the good Deals I got this past week......



Snapple and Ortega were part of the Mix & Match 6/Get $3 off Deal.
4 x Ortega shells=$5.96($1.49 ea.)
2 x Snapple 64 oz.=$3.98
$9.94
I used 2 x $1/2 Ortega items IPQ($2 off)and 1 x $1/2 Snapple 64 oz. Weis QBookQ($1 off)...$9.94-$3=$6.94-$3 for buying 6 qualifying items for the Deal=$4.94 for all 6 items.

I also bought Marcal napkins.....


2 x $2 on sale=$4.00- 2 x .50¢/1 IPQs that doubled to $1 each($2 off)=$2.00.
I also earned .50¢ in my SavingStar account for buying 1 pack of napkins so $1.50 OOP for both packs.



Weis also had Fiora towels and toilet paper half price last Friday ($3.49 each).
I printed off 4 more .50¢/1 FB Qs that doubled to $1 off each to use.
$13.96-$4.00=$9.96
I also earned $2 in Ibotta cash rebates($1 for buying 1 paper towel pack and $1 for buying 1 toilet paper pack) so $7.96 OOP for all 4 packs or $1.99 per pack.
A great price for paper goods.



All the above was bought in the same shopping trip on Friday and I earned a 61% savings rate over regular retail before the $2.50 in cash rebates also earned from buying these products.
The savings rate goes up to 67.30% once you figure in the rebates too.  8-)))

The only notable Deal this week so far has been this one.......



4 x Finlandia butter at Weis(PMITA)Markets bought over the course of 2 weeks(3 packs this week, 1 pack last week).

These are regularly $3 per 7 oz. package but are on sale for $2.50.
There are $1/1 Finlandia products Qs on coupons dotcom making each package $1.50.
4 x $2.50=$10.00-$4 Qs=$6.00 OOP

By buying 4, I spent $10 before Qs, thus fulfilling a Spend $10/Get $3 Cash Rebate in my SavingStar account.

$6-$3 rebate=$3 OOP

There is a $1 cash rebate on Checkout51 too for the butter.  I bought one of these the week before(on sale and using a $1 off coupon)so I could apply for the rebate last week and also again this week.  
$3-$2 rebates=$1.00 OOP

In the end, I "spent" $1 on 4 packs of butter totaling 28 ounces.
Not bad, huh?

I never would have spent $3 or even $2.50 and probably not even $1.50 on a 7 oz. pack of butter.
But throw in the $5 in rebates and I am all over this deal. lolz

I'll be back tomorrow with what I got at Rite-Aid this week.

Sluggy

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

And the Winner is........

*Sorry for the delay getting this up.  I thought I had published it yesterday afternoon.  Oops!*


61 Valid entries this time.  They were all numbered and Random dotorg picked entry #9 so the winner is.........




Chocolate! Hand cream! Very nice.

Congratulations Sam!
Please send me your full mailing address and I'll get this box 'o goodies out to you asap between fluffing pillows and fetching pain meds for Gimpy.  ;-)

Thank you for everyone who entered the giveaway.
Stay tuned in 2017 as the Sluggy Boring Blog Box Giveaways will continue! 8-)))

Sluggy