It's All About the Bass, er Bonus Cash

I have figured out that pretty much I can never spend down all my Plenti Points as long as I have Bonus Cash.
I am trained to just buy items at Rite-Aid that are A-on sale, B-give a reward(now it's called BC), and C-have coupons for the item.  Using this formula I have gotten so much merchandise at Rite-Aid for free or pennies on the dollar.

But currently, the way their system works at R-A, "my" system utilized within their system will never let me spend Plenti Points.
As soon as you scan your Wellness card, the register takes off Bonus Cash on your card to put toward the total you owe OOP.  Cashiers are now ringing up items, then scanning through your paper coupons BEFORE they scan your card(to avoid having to do "post coupons" for every single paper coupon if you have coupons to apply but have lots of Bonus Cash too.  Doing transactions this way also means whether your Load2CardQs come off appropriately is a crapshoot too, but that's another problem.

For me, it means I have problems spending accumulated PPs on my cards/accounts.
So what I need to do is plan transactions that spend down my Bonus Cash temporarily until I use up my PPs.

This point was driven home to me on Saturday at Rite-Aid.  I went in to pick up an Rx and saw they restocked the Arm and Hammer laundry tabs and scent boosters.  I had a $3 off wyb $15 Catalina I didn't get to use on Wednesday since the new cashier didn't know when/how to scan it for my order that I wanted to use and one of the "pro" cashiers was manning the register so it was the opportunity to now use it if I could come up with a transaction on the fly.

Here is what I put together........

4 x Arm and Hammer laundry tabs on sale=$7.96
4 x Arm and Hammer scent boosters on sale=$7.96
2 x GE led light bulbs on sale BOGOFree=$7.99*not pictured*
2 x Nature's Truth Turmeric bottles on sale BOGOFree=$18.99
(I bought the chocolate candy hearts separately later.)
SubTotal.....$42.90

Coupons Used
4 x $1/1 Arm/Hammer laundry tabs ManuQ/IPQs=$4.00
4 x $1/1 Arm/Hammer scent booster ManuQ/IPQs=$4.00
1 x $2/1 Nature's Truth item ManuQ=$2.00
Coupon Total........$10.00

$42.90-$10.00=$32.90

When the cashier scanned my card, I had a $5/1 GE led lightbulbs L2CQ that did NOT come off but $31 in Bonus Cash attached to this card DID come off(2 x $10, $8, $3), leaving 2 x $2 and $5 in BC on that card.

If the L2C had come off then my total owed would have been $27.90 and a different combination of BC could have come off totaling $27($10/$8/$5/$2/$2), leaving me owing .90¢ on my R-A gift card and leaving $3/$10 in BC on that card.
At any rate, this proved to me that your BC is NOT being used oldest first, then newer ones earned(with longer times until expiration)but whatever combination the computer sees fit to use to get close to your total owed.  Basically you the customer has NO control over what BC gets used!

So after putting the $1.90 owed after BC came off on my R-A gift card(still couldn't use any PPs for this as the remainder was under $2)I saw that the light bulb Q hadn't come off.
Plus the cashier didn't put my $3 off wyb $15 Catalina as that would have meant having to scan the Wellness card first(the register won't take off Catalina spend X/get X without a Wellness card first and then having to do a "post coupon" for ALL the other coupons.....and the L2C still may not have come off.

In the end I used $31 in Bonus Cash, $1.90 on my Rite-Aid gift card and I got $15 in new Bonus Cash(I bought $42.90 in qualifying Bonus Cash items so over $40 threshold to receive $15 in BC).

So after I finished the transaction, the cashier gave me $3 back in cash for the SpendX/GetX catalina doing a "post coupon".

Then when I went over my receipt I saw the L2C for the light bulb didn't come off(and a cashier can't fix that and give you money back for it)so I returned them.
The register made the cashier give me back cash for that return, $8.47, even though I hadn't used but $1.90 in cash/gift card AND told her to return .48¢ in tax in that amount back, even though I hadn't been charged any tax on the transaction when it rang up the first time.
Huh???
I guess the system at R-A doesn't like/want to give money back as Bonus Cash even if you used some?
And the $15 I earned on this transaction?  Even though I returned the lightbulbs, as of this morning, I still have that $15 BC in this card's account.

Hmmm, I see lots of folks buying and returning stuff in the future if the system doesn't take back the BCs earned and gives you cash instead.  There will be a flood of folks converting Bonus Cash to actual cash in this way.

I just don't know....this whole new system baffles the mind and any sort of logical thinking. lolz

You'll notice, in the receipt above, this card has $98.22 in Plenti Points still attached to it and even though I've used it a number of times since the new BC system came into being I haven't been able to spend ANY of it down since the cash due is always under the $2 threshold for using PPs.

So now I have these BC amounts on this card....2 x $2, $5, $15(in order of when they were earned).

Oh, and I remembered to get those free heart chocolates before leaving the store........they were 2/$1 and I had a $1/2 Load2CardQ loaded on this card/account, so free chocolate.  8-)))

I left Rite-Aid Saturday with all the things in the photo above, spent $31 in BC/got $15 in new BC and $11.47 in cash in my pocket.  Technically I "spent down" my BC when all was said and done by $6.43(well technically $4.54 in BC and $1.90 in R-A gift card monies).

So basically I'll need to spend down to zero all the Bonus Cash on each card, then use up the Plenti Points on each card and try to earn new BC on the last transaction I have where I am spending down my PPs even though this goes against every fiber in my being. ;-)
Got that?
Good.

And this is how I have to keep track of the Bonus Cash......

A sheet of paper where I put down what I earn in appropriate amounts and scratch off what I use.
You are suppose to be able to log into your Wellness account on the R-A website and all your BC earned are at the top of you list of Load2Card coupons(when you go to L2C area)but........A-people are not having some BC show up there(even though if you get your cashier in the store to check after scanning your Wellness card they do show up on their screen)and B-if you have duplicate BC of the same amount(you've earned more than say, 1 $3 BC)only 1 of each amount shows up on your account on the R-A website).  Using pen and paper I can see at a glance what's left AND more importantly which one is expiring sooner so I can craft a transaction to use that one before it can no longer be used.  If you are participating in the Bonus Cash thing and you don't shop at R-A often(at least a couple times every 2 months), you could be in jeopardy of not using your BC in time before it expires now as BC is only valid for a 2 month window of time.

There was a young mother with her daughter who is a new coupon user playing the drugstore game and also new to R-A's BC system who was checking out at the register next to me on Saturday and things were not going well with her.  I overheard that she thought she had a $20 BC on her card/account but it didn't come off and she said nobody else would have used her card and used that $20 BC and she hadn't used it yet.  The cashier even checked her card/account on the register and didn't see a $20 BC there.  That customer was NOT happy!   Totally possible she used it already and didn't remember ,but at any rate, it shows you need to stay on top of your game especially as this BC system still has lots of kinks in it that need working out.

And if you read all the ways down to here, you must need help learning the new Rite-Aid system or are a masochist or you need a life as much as I do.  ;-)

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Wacky Winter Weather" Edition--

The photo above it was a typical Winter in the Poconos where we use to live looked like.  This was taken standing in our circular driveway from about 20 feet away from the house The high "pile" on the right?   One of our cars is actually under all that snow. lolz
Ah the good old days.....

We don't get nearly as much snow at our current location in PA but we do get a whopper storm every couple of years.
Last week has been crazy Winter weather with it not knowing what it wants to do.  Cold a couple of days then it warms up, snow melts and then it rains some?  It was 50F degrees here last night!  The yard is now officially a swamp.  It's suppose to hit almost 60F degrees later this week, at which time the yard will be Lake Poop(since Daughter never cleans up after her dog and the dog is large and poops three times a day!lol).

So all you folks who get a few inches of snow each Winter, I don't want to hear the bellyaching. ;-)

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

1. Sunday--pizza(one homemade, one store bought frozen)  No one was really hungry so these happened and everyone grabbed something else to their liking if they wanted more/different.  It was a strange food day.

2. Monday--Leftovers

3. Tuesday--Tacos or Taco Salad

4. Wednesday--Fish, Veg, Potato Salad or ?

5. Thursday--Ham and Cheese Quiche, Salad
6. Friday--Leftovers
7. Saturday--?

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--pizza(one homemade, one store bought frozen) or FFY

2. Monday--Leftovers

3. Tuesday--Leftovers

4. Wednesday--Tacos or Taco Salad

5. Thursday--Salmon, Au Gratin Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts
6. Friday--Manicotti in Sauce, Salad
7. Saturday--Leftovers of Fend For Yourself

Last week saw 4 nights of home cooked dinners, 3 nights of leftovers/fend for yourself, 0 night of take-out and 0 nights of Eating out. 

1 trip to Weis and 1 trip to Ollies(Good Stuff Cheap!),brought the shopping last week to $65.78 for all.  That brings February's food spending total to $143.97.  There are 16 days left in my shopping month.

My savings percentages last week was 58.80% and the monthly savings so far ends up at 53.08%(without Rite-Aid trips added in).

Leftovers going into this week.......some ham chunks, beef stroganoff, manicotti(2) and a little taco beef.  I've put the rest of the ham chunks into the freezer(except for some for Sun. and Tues. night's meals).  All the leftovers will be eaten as lunches as there isn't enough of any of them to be dinners.

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

1. Sunday--ham and cheese quiche

2. Monday--hot dogs on rolls, beans

3. Tuesday--ham and bean soup, cornbread

4. Wednesday--leftovers

5. Thursday--chicken fajitas
6. Friday--Italian pork roast, potatoes, onions and carrots
7. Saturday--leftovers

This week will see 5 new meals cooked, 2 nights of leftovers, 0 night of Take-out/Eat-Out.  I am trying to get my soup mojo back though it didn't happen on Sunday this week(Tues. will be soup night for now).

The only thing I need to buy to make these meals is some chicken breast and carrots as I am all out of those items.  I dug through the freezer and there is no chicken in there.  I'll go out there the day it hits 60F and look more closely for some chicken but until then I ain't spending that sort of time in the garage! lolz

The pork roast, hot dogs and ham bone along with some frozen veg to have with the hot dogs are in the freezer.  Baked beans, corn bread and pie crust(quiche)makings in the pantry, potatoes and onions in the root cellar and peppers in the fridge.

I shouldn't have to spend much this week at the stores and hopefully I WON'T! ;-)

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

Sluggy's Boring Blog Box Giveaway......February Edition

February means it's time for the second Sluggy's Boring Blog Box Giveaway for 2018.
February is zooming by so let's have a giveaway.  This box includes toiletries, some Winter Cold/Flu Season goodies(vitamins/sanitizer/OTC medicine)as well as the always popular-chocolate and candy!
Come on and enter.
Somebody has to win and it might just be YOU!

Here is what you can win if your entry is picked.

1 x Aquaphor lotion(sample size)
1 x Garnier cleansing face scrub
1 x Centrum vitamins(2 pack)
1 x Suave Infuobitussin cough + chest congestion DM medicine
1 x GE LED lightstick bulbs(2 pack of 75W)
1 x Purell hand sanitizer
1 x Crest Pro-Health toothpaste(mint)
1 x Sally Hansen nail gloss(lavender)
1 x Oral-B toothbrush(battery powered)
1 x Bic Comfort 3 razors
1 x Conair ColorVibes hair brush
1 x Listerine dental floss
9 x Lindt chocolate Truffles(assorted flavors)
1 x Twizzlers candy(strawberry)
1 x Almond Joy candy bar

Over $70 in regular retail of goodi
Closeup shots of the goodies up for grabs......

I'll leave this giveaway open until Wednesday, February 21st at 11:59pm Eastern Time, so that gives everyone 10 days to enter this one.  On February 22nd  I'll mark all the valid entries and use Random dotorg to pick a number and that corresponding person's entry wins.

*Please note the rules*
I'll post the name/Id of the winner on this blog and that person has 48 hours from then to contact me privately via email(my email addy is listed on my "About Me" page).
If I am not contacted via email I'll attempt to contact the winner via the email they supply with their entry and if that email is not responded to within another 48 hours I'll pick another winner.

There are three ways to enter--1 Daily and 2 One-Time Only........

1. Leave a comment every day.

2. Be a follower of this Blog(Hit the "Follow" button on the right hand side bar.) Let me know if your comment for this entry the name you follow under to verify.  You can do this entry once.

3. Post on your own blog(or on your Facebook page)about the Giveaway and leave a link in your comment/entry to where I can find it.  You can do this entry once.
In your Daily Entry tell me in your comment......something like what here is the thing you most want to win, if you like the cold, if you like to do Winter sports, how cold is it usually where you live....stuff like that.

Disclaimer--This giveaway is open to those with mailing addresses within the US only.
As the cost of postage to foreign countries has gotten to high I am sorry to say I can no longer afford to mail boxes outside the US.  These giveaways are not sponsored by any companies, I pay for it all(cost of items given away and the postage to mail it all)out of my own pocket.

***PLEASE NOTE***

Please make sure there is a way for me to contact you in your comment.

If you're not a registered Blogger User with your contact information on your User page, please put your email addy in your comment or email me your email addy privately when you leave a comment so I can get a hold of you. If your Blogger associated user profile is a GOOGLE one with those Google Circles nonsense I CAN NOT CONTACT YOU as Google Circles doesn't show your contact info.

If I can't contact you then you can't win.  I am still having to disqualify entries due to this issue and I sure don't like doing that.  Thanks!

So let's get this started!

Sluggy

Frugal Friday.....February 9th Edition

Not much to report in on this week, but here it goes.........

*  Hubs and I used a voucher for a local Mexican restaurant on Monday for lunch.  The tab came to $4.91 more than the voucher and adding in the tip the meal cost me $10 of my WAM.

Speaking of WAM.....This how much WAM I ended January with--$130.  Add in my $100 Feb. allotment and subtract the $10 I spent on Monday for lunch and I'm down to $220 to spend this month(as any leftovers are rolled into the next month.  Hubs however never has any leftovers.  I am sure Hubs is down to his last $50 for February by now. lolz

*  A trip to Rite-Aid on Wednesday which netted me $7.50 in cash rebates on this haul.

*  Other than grocery shopping(shopping loss leaders and a few needs)and lunch out on Monday no other spending happened.....if you don't count the 5 books I bought at Ollie's(the cost of which-$12.70-will come out of my WAM).  There were a few food items clearance priced at Ollie's I picked up too.....

2 boxes of Archer Farms(target brand)K-Cups for $1 each.  75% off
3 bags of Aunt Jemima cornmeal for .25¢ each.  75% off
The cornmeal will go into the freezer until needed and should yield quite a few pans of cornbread.

And I already showed the discontinued dish soap score at Weis.......

.62¢ a bottle.

*  We don't "do" Valentine's day here.  Having said that those Russell Stover chocolate hearts are 2 for $1 and there are $1/2 Load2CardQs valid until Saturday on our 3 cards.  I've gotten 2 hearts already on one card and will go back before the Qs expire to pick up 4 more chocolate hearts for free.  All my folks living here will get a couple of choccies from me.  8-))

*  We have no plans to go out anywhere this weekend.  Staying home saves money on gas for the car at the very least.  We'll find ways to have "fun" at home.   Maybe I'll pull some fabric from my stash and start work on that buffet topper/runner I want to make.  ;-)

What's been going on in your frugal world lately?

Sluggy

Just WOW!

Forget the part of Wednesday's post where I expressed my worries about Hubs using any more of our cash to "help" his sister out.
After last night's phone call he is DONE with her forever.

A bit of backstory on his siblings first so you get the family dynamics at play.
Grab a chair and a stiff drink and read on.  I don't know how long I'll keep this post up so read it soon if you wish to.  I am still raw from the call last night so I may change my mind about exposing all this(even though his siblings and the nephew don't read my blog).

1-His oldest brother has issues.  He can't take stress and if provoked he flees instead of fighting for what he wants(the fight or flight reflex).  His being in the Vietnam war may have made this sort of  worse in his personality make up.  He came back from 'Nam, caroused around a bit(lived in his parents basement, worked, drank and partied and slept around a lot for a few years before settling down).  He married a religious, straight-laced woman he met at his job(phone company).  His wife has always been nice to us and we welcomed her into the family.  They were both older when they married(and highly religious)and though they tried, never had any kids.  This brother played surrogate father to his wife's sister's kids(her hubs was in the military and died very young).  But he really wasn't a real surrogate dad, he picked and chose where he wanted to be involved because oldest brother is most concerned with oldest brother.  He only wants to discuss himself and the world revolves around him(in his own mind).

Things got uncomfortable at work for oldest brother so he fled.  He took an early retirement package in his early '50s, bought a trailer in SC and moved.....without his wife.  He always told her and the family that when he left work he was moving to SC.  The wife's extended family(mostly the paternal side, maternal side hails from NC)lives around this town in SC.  Her parents fled the Jim Crow South after WWII for urban NJ to seek a better life but the rest of the clan stayed in the South. Wife told him from the beginning that she was NEVER moving down there. She is black, brother is white.  There is still pervasive racism in rural areas of that state and being in a mixed marriage?  You have no clue how bad it might be for them even in the 21st century.

So he left her in NJ and he's been gone 20+ years now and they are still married.  Huh??
Seems the wife was wound up in her mother's apron strings(which we didn't know about until later).  Wife never decided anything without consulting her mother first so yeah, the MIL was standing in the midst of their "marriage".
So oldest brother moved to SC to do....nothing.  He had no hobbies or plans to fill his retirement days.   He got a big settlement/early out payment to bridge his easily until his pension and social security and Medicare kicked in.  He decided to spend that whole settlement in less than 6 years.  He spent it on new trucks every few years and buying toys from his childhood that his parents couldn't afford to buy him when he was little and he filled his trailer home with model trains, cowboy and indian figures and soldier/war items.  He ended up having to get a parttime job for a few years and had to cut way back on his spending. 
Now he sits and watches old Westerns on tv when he isn't going to church.  That's all he does.  He has always showed  signs of being a narcissist and it's gotten worse.  The world revolves around his small little world with him at it's center.  Hubs can't have a formal conversation with him because oldest brother always turns everything Hubs says into retelling some old story involving oldest brother. Oldest brother is also the one who lived with their mother after the father died under the guise of helping her out(it was to get away from his marriage before he got the early payout at work).  He never did anything for her and when he noticed that something was wrong with her(she had as of then undiagnosed Alzheimer's)he packed a trailer of his stuff and moved to SC......without telling any of the siblings that their mother was having issues and might need help. (We had to find this out ourselves when Hubs and I had her moved to PA near us.)

2-The older brother has low intelligence.  His mother recognized his deficiency when he was little but refused to let the school system pigeon hole him.  Back in the 50's when he started school there really weren't special ed. classes.  He also had behavior problems, use to get into fights a lot as a kid and was easily excited....I am sure he could have benefited from medication with those and/or help to control his behaviors but no, she wouldn't let medical personnel test him.  All she did was keep his conditions hidden from authorities and fought for him to be mainstreamed and spent years helping him get through school.  I believe he has a form of autism as he had no social skills either.  But anything he is interested in he has an amazing ability to learn and remember a very narrow area of subject matter.  He got through high school(barely)and the mother got him a job at a state mental hospital(where she worked as a secretary)in their mail room.  He learned the job and rose to managing the mail room when his boss died in the late 1980's.  He lived in his parent's basement until he was 40 but his mind was locked in the 1960's and 1970's(and still is).  He met a woman at his job(she was a temp worker)and fell in love and they married after a few years of dating.

His new wife's parents hid a whole shit ton of bad stuff from the older brother and Hub's family.  Turns out the wife had many mental issues(schizophrenia, bi polar and I don't know what else but there are several other conditions).  She also had had two children from two different fathers(we only learned about the second kid years later)-her first husband was a Spanish national, they had a son and then her issues surfaced so he took the baby back to Spain(knowing her issues I'd probably have kidnapped him too)and she didn't see or hear from her son until he was 18 years old(when the kid got too belligerent to handle, his father let him come back to the US once he was of age).  After Hubs #1 left she was living back with her parents and dating a married man and became pregnant.  And the married man was black.  Her first generation Catholic Italian parents refused to let her keep/raise the baby(illegitimate and mixed race)so she gave it up for adoption.  When she married the older brother she wanted another baby and older brother wanted a kid so they got pregnant at 40.  The wife descended into insanity(off her meds and some post partum issues)soon after the child's birth and was incapable of taking care of the baby.  My mother in-law basically raise that kid until he started Kindergarten. The older brother dropped the kid off at his mom's house on his way to work everyday and picked him up and took him home after work.  The kid's mother was never left alone with the kid until years later.
The wife refused to take her meds(or was on the wrong meds at times)so there were lots of interventions by social services.  She would go to the ER and tell the dr. that her hubs was beating her or some other fantasy in her mind and social services would come and take the child away.  She tried to run over the older brother once with their car and at that point I drove to NJ and took the kid to live with us for a few weeks while the wife was locked in a loony bin.  She was in and out of mental facilities for years.  She was under court orders to not leave the state/her town and a nurse was sent to her house every day to give her her shots since she couldn't be trusted to take them herself.

Then the wife got cancer and it was quite advanced and an aggressive form.  In order to have chemo treatments she had to be put into a mental hospital since her stabilizing medications were contraindicated and would interfere with the chemo drugs.  So she spent months in the hospital without meds and the chemo was too little, too late.  She died in 2005 before her kid's 11th birthday.
That's when we recommended that older  brother move near us as there was no family left in NJ(other than oldest brother's wife and mother, whom really had no relationship with older brother and kid).
We tried to be their safety net(and if things went badly, we wouldn't have to drive 4 hours away to rescue the situation).  The older brother situation is an ongoing problem off and on.  He is now having cognitive issues and this won't end well as his son, though bright, has issues with having any sort of drive in life.  Older brother also lives in a fantasy world in his mind, talks to himself and only can converse about certain subjects which all devolve into old stories about him that we've all heard for years on end.  The script never changes.

3-The sister.....sigh......she's a year older than Hubs so they grew up together(Hub's brothers were 8 and 7 years old than Hubs).  Sister has always been what I call "peculiar".  She is rigid in her views and has a high moral opinion of herself.  She's what you'd call a "square" but only in the worst sense of the word.  She is very particular about what she will and won't do, what she will and won't eat, where she will or won't live, and where she will work or won't work(certain states, no big towns and no for-profit organizations).  She has impossible standards and won't compromise on them.  She desperately wanted children(or so she said)but since she couldn't get anyone to marry her who wanted them she never had any.  I just think the kids stuff was all talk as she was too selfish to have kids and be a good mother.
She has always been a hypochondriac too.  She delights in talking about her real or imagined medical ailments(and this was when she was young, it's not an old person issue). lolz  She may have a light touch of Munchausen Syndrome(but I am not a doctor nor do I play one on the internet).  She would have diseases appear and disappear on a regular basis. 

She got a degree in library science(not a very useful degree but then again, my degree is in theater so I can't talk lol)in 1979.  She worked at a University's library in NJ and met a guy and got married in 1980.  They bought a house near her parents and she started pressuring her hubs to have kids(which he wasn't ready for).  In Sept. 1984 Hubs and I started renting out the second floor of oldest brother's 2 family house(after living in Hubs parents' basement for 8 months trying to get set up in jobs/save money).  The sister appeared on our doorstep one afternoon crying that her hubs' wanted a divorce.

They got divorced and he paid for her to go back to school to get medical coding certification and paid her living expenses while she was in school in lieu of alimony since they were only married a short time.

After getting her certification she got a job in Queens NY and moved there.  She met a man from Hoboken NJ, a journalist and free spirit type and they dated for years.  She got tired of big city living and this man wouldn't commit to marriage so she left.(We found out recently that he was willing to marry her but he wanted a guarantee that there would be no children as he didn't want kids.  She was unwilling to take that deal so she left.)  Sister  up and got a new job in small town IL and moved halfway across the country in the 1990's. 

She started a new life in IL.  She is a conformist.......has to be a church member(nothing wrong with that), joined a service organization and looked for a man she could change.  She had a couple of failed relationships there(among them, she labored under the delusion that a Mexican waiter who flirted with her at a restaurant she use to go to a lot wanted a relationship).  She persued him vigorously and showered him with gifts until he had to tell her to leave him alone.

Then she found a real winner......an ex-con, burglar, alcoholic, chain smoker who was 4 years older than her.  You may remember that Hubs and I were the only family who went to her wedding to him in 2013.  Evidently he had other medical problems stemming from his lifelong alcohol habit and cognitive/dementia problems and didn't try to work and hung out drinking with his buddies all day.  She kept this relationship going for 18 months before throwing him out of the house and filing for divorce.

Along the way in IL, though she never made more than $28K a year she decided to buy a house.  She also kept buying new cars every two years(at the urging of oldest brother, the car guy in the family)so after 10 years out there she was underwater in a car and struggling to pay her mortgage.  While their mother was still alive(and before she got put into a home w/Alzheimer's and Hubs took over her finances)the sister would tell the mom she needed money and mom would sent her a big check.  We found this out after Hubs' mother died.

Hubs' was her executor, held her POA and Medical directives for the 7 years she was incapacitated and none of the other three siblings lifted a finger to take care of ANYTHING!  We did it all.  So I had the task of going through Hubs' mom's financial papers after her death to do her taxes and settle her estate and found big fat cancelled checks made out to his sister, written on a semi-regular basis.

Once mom wasn't around to prop her up, sister's finances started sinking fast.  She called us once to lend her thousands of $s to get her car back, which had been repo-ed.  Since if she got the car back she couldn't afford to make the payments anyway we said no.  We told her to get a used car she could afford, which she eventually did.  We also found out at this time that she had never done a budget nor lived within her means(ya think?).

Then she quit her job about 2 years ago and I've talked about her frittering about $20K in paid vacation time money she collected and farting around about getting another job.  She was weeks away from losing her house and had just had another car repo-ed when Hubs went down to IL to rescue her and deliver her to SC to live with oldest brother.  We shelled out $1800+ to move her and her crap halfway across the country.
Hubs had what he thought was a frank conversation with her before this all happened and she swore she was near destitution and had $300 to her name.(She had liquidated her 401K from her last hospital job over the last few years-when she bought that house and started drawing $ out again when she quit her job.)

She couldn't find a new job due to her health(mostly mental health)issues and really due to her age(though employers didn't say that, it had to weigh in heavily in the decision not to hire her).

So Hubs did the right thing and we dipped into our savings and paid to extricate her.....and he swore he wouldn't give any of them another nickel after this incident.

The oldest brother called last week after she got the job, as he is antsy for sister to move out of his place(he started saying this after she was there 2 weeks).  He wanted Hubs to front her the money for a security deposit and last month's rent for an apartment so she can leave asap.  Oldest brother didn't offer to give/lend her $ to move so why are we asked for it yet again?

My feeling is that since she has nothing besides some clothing, 2 chairs, 2 bookcases and a cedar chest she doesn't need an apartment yet.  She has no kitchen wares, no linens or towels...nothing you need to set up an apartment since she left it all in the house in IL and decided that 10 tubs of stuffed animals would be the prudent choice  of things to bring with her to SC. 

Then we heard that the mortgage company that took back her house offers those who turn houses back to them a relocation allowance.  The sister said it was $3K at most, less depending on the condition of the house when it's turned in.  Hubs figured that she wouldn't see a penny of that money due to the hoarder situation she turned that house into.  Heck, we figured they'd bill her for them having to shovel it out. lolz

So last night Hubs called the oldest brother and sister to see how things were progressing now that she is due to start this new job in 10 days or so.  He talked to the oldest brother and found out that the sister had lied to him on two counts--1, the relocation amount from the bank was $10K, not $3K. She knew this all along and lied about the amount in question.

And the service organization she belonged to in IL, after she whined to some of them, they went in and totally cleaned out her house for FREE before the bank took it back.  So she had hid what she might get back and of course she had NEVER offered to reimburse any of what we paid out to move her(not that we expected her to offer).  Had Hubs known she could get anything near $10K relocation funds he never would have offered to move her and pay for it, but would have made her stay in the house until they cut her a check to relocate and then helped her arrange for a moving company to do the job.

2--She also had lied about only having $300 to her name. She swore up and down and sidways that she was near destitution and had only $300 left in her bank account and no other money, having liquidated her 401K at her most recent job and spent that all.
Turns out she still had a 403B retirement account at the University library she worked at in the early 1980's before divorcing Hubs #1.  She never rolled that money over to a new employer. She has liquidated that account now and just got a check for $24K from it.

And to top it all off, the oldest brother said in that phone call that  he was taking the sister out in the next few days to buy a car. (Knowing the oldest brother he will direct her toward a brand new car.)
So instead of trying to find a place to live she is going to use the bulk of that windfall to buy a car.

(This is the woman who has had two cars repo-ed so far.)because she doesn't want to be limited on where she can move to and doesn't want to be inconvenienced by relying on rides or the town's bus system.
When Hubs found this out all he could say was, "Are you f#@king kidding me?!?"

The only way she can buy a car is with cash at this point as her credit is shot.  Any car loan would have exorbitant interest rates.  I also think she is going to have a problem getting an apartment once they check her credit(a mortgage default and 2 car repos...who wants to lend someone like that money or rent to them??).

So Hubs had oldest brother put sister on the phone so he could try to talk some sense into her.  He talked to her for awhile and then he asked her(since we didn't know at this point where she had gotten the $24K from).
He asked her, "Where'd you get $24K from?".
Her reply, "That's none of YOUR damn business!!"
And then she slammed the phone down and hung up on him.

And just like that Hubs is done with her....and so am I.
No more help, no more money, no more advise(since obviously she doesn't need that since she's made such a fabulous mess of her finances so far! lol).
And no more contact with her either.

After he calmed down Hubs called back and oldest brother answered the phone.  That's when he learned about the source of the secret $24K she has and that the mortgage company could give her up to $10K to relocate.
He told oldest brother to convey this message to their sister, "You are a lying sneaky bitch . I expect want my $1800 back and I am done with you!"
Of course I doubt we'll ever see that money again but he has written her out of his life.

If he had been in the room with her when she pulled that none of your business crap I know he'd have slapped her or worse. 
This was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.
She is a user and a liar.

I may complain about my brother but good lord these 3 take the cake!

Dontcha love family?!?

I need a drink now........

Sluggy