Frugal Friday....the May 18th Edition

Let's see what frugal wins we had this past week at Chez Sluggy......

*  I sold some more stuff-4 packs of diapers...........

$22 richer.

* I get emails from a savings site called "My Perks" for local deals.

They had 50% certificates, $15 for $30 worth of hoagies at Primo Hoagies.  This is a place we go to anyway and with hot weather approaching I am all about sandwiches for dinner and not running an oven to make meals.  I bought 2 certs and have 3+ months to use them.

*  I got a bunch of stuff at Rite-Aid which I already did the run down on.........

Basically got paid $2.17 in BC/cash to take this all home.

*  The Daughter made dinner for me on Mother's Day, steaks and corn on the grill and garlicy green beans. It was yummy AND she paid for the food too!  A double win in my book. lolz

*  This came in the mail this past week........

A coupon for 7 tins of free dog food.  Chester will appreciate this!

*  I received back $4.50 in various cash rebates on Ibotta.

*  And the BIG ONE.........

We sold the house down in Louisiana!!!

Goodbye state taxes, goodbye insurance, goodbye property taxes, goodbye utilities, goodbye maintenance and repairs, goodbye lawn care!

Not much to crow about this past week but they were definitely BIG wins! 8-))))))))))))

So what good things/frugal wins did y'all have this past week?
Tell us all about 'em.

Sluggy

A Little Rite-Aid This Week

Up to Rite-Aid for a few items this week.

On Daughter's card...........

2 x large bags M&M's caramel on sale=$5.00 **
2 x Gatorade BOGOFree=$2.49
2 x Blue Diamond Almonds BOGOFree=$5.29
2 x 2 pack Lever soap BOGO50%=$4.48 ***
1 x Hydralyte on sale=$1.00 *
1 x Colgate toothpaste on sale=$3.99 ****
SubTotal........$22.25

Coupons Used
1 x $1/1 PeelieQ on one of the M&M bags=$1.00
1 x $1.50/2 Blue Diamond cans ManuQ=$1.50
1 x $2/1 Hydralyte IPQ=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Colgate In-AdQ=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Colgate ManuQ=$2.00
Coupon Total.....$8.50

$22.25-$8.50=$13.75 + .42¢ tax=$14.17

$14.17 in BC was used to pay and $10 in new BC was earned($5 wyb2 Select bath items-Lever, $1 Colgate, $4 wyb $12 food items).

I also submitted for $2 in Ibotta cash rebates(2 x $1 M&M caramel flavor).

* The Hydralyte Q was $1 more than the sale price of the item so you need to have something else in your order to absorb that overage.
** The 6 food/drink items were part of a Spend $12/Get $4 BC Deal.  College Boy(got to find a new name for him now, don't I?lol)can always use Gatorades, he also loves M&M's and I can have the Almonds.  There was a surprise $1 off peelie on one of the bags and $2 from Ibotta cash back on this variety of M&Ms so not bad at $4.28 for all 6 after BC/cash back.
*** If you can find the 2 packs of Lever soap it's a small moneymaker this week.  At BOGO50%off the soap comes to $4.48 and gives back $5 in BC.
****The Colgate was a 1¢ moneymaker after stacking the $2/1 In-AdQ and the $2/1 ManuQ in the sunday insert a couple of weeks ago.

Then I bought this stuff on my son's card.......

2 x Liquid IV hydration packets(rain check)=FREE(They were out of this item on a Deal last year and I got a rain check.)
1 x Hydralyte on sale=$1.00 *
1 x Doan's pain cream on sale=$9.00 **
1 x Remfresh(rain check)=$5.00
2 x Lever soap on sale BOGOFree=$4.48 ***
SubTotal........$19.48

Coupons Used
1 x $2/1 Hydralyte IPQ=$2.00
1 x $4/1 Doan's cream IPQ=$4.00
1 x $5/1 Remfresh IPQ=$5.00
Coupon Total.....$11.00

$19.48-$11.00=$8.48 + .18¢ tax=$8.66

I used $8.66 in BC and earned back $13.00 in new BC.

* Again I made sure to have something else besides the Hydralyte in the order to absorb the Q's overage.
** The Doan's is part of a monthly Deal of Doan's/Vivarin/Midnite.  The $4/1 Q brought that price down to $5 and it gave back $8 in BC.  There is a limit of 1 per card/account on this Deal so be careful and don't try to do it twice on the same card.
*** Again, the 2 packs of Lever are a .52¢ moneymaker after BC earned for buying it.

The electrolyte drinks/tablets/packets are something that's always good to have on hand in the Summer months(or for re-hydration after certain diarrhea inducing illnesses run through your family).  College Boy will be working a warehouse job this Summer and might need this stuff so if the store is giving it to me for free(or better)I am buying it.  ;-)


Here's the summaryof how I did.....

Total spent in BC.....$22.83
Total earned in BC....$23.00
Total cash rebates earned...$2.00
I was able to roll some BC and actually make money on this trip.

Go me. lolz

Sluggy

WooHoo! 🤗🎉🤗🎉

If you are friends with me on Facebook you saw my post last Friday on the 11th.

The sale of the house went through and we are no longer the owners of a house in Louisiana.
On Saturday the proceeds check arrived via Overnight Fedex and promptly got deposited into our bank Monday morning.  

                    🤗🎉🤗🎉


All I can feel at this point is relief.........
* Relief that we don't have to pay to have the yard taken care of 9 months of the year.
* Relief that we don't have to pay for electric and water service because it's listed for sale.
* Relief that we no longer have to pay insurance on the thing....insurance which was WAY too much money due to being in LA and it being a manufactured home and not a stick built type.
* Relief that we no longer are getting bent over by the property taxes, because it's not our primary home so LA piles on the taxes for us out-of-staters.
* Relief that we no longer have to pay taxes on 50% of the rental income on this LA house to PA(when we rented it), even though we already had to pay taxes to LA for the very same income!  What a crock of shit!!!
* Relief that I no longer have to deal with real estate agents and some of their smarmy tactics.

It's done and I am over it now.

We have learned some valuable lessons with this whole episode.
And our Daughter owes us BIGTIME! lolz

My company's gone now so I'll try to get back to regular posting soon.  I've got to get out to pay a bill(car insurance)and run some errands today.

We had a hellacious rain/hail/tornadic windstorm come through here yesterday afternoon, after a day of muggy Summer temps and sun.  I am worn out from cleaning, cooking, entertaining and the atmospheric pressure. lolz
I've got to get back into a routine here.

What's going on in your world?

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

The "No Time for Photos" Edition--
I've got company arriving this afternoon so no time for photos or to even write anything here.  I've got to get my butt back into the kitchen to cook!

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

This is what was planned--

1. Sunday--Fend For Yourself

2. Monday--Leftovers(various)

3. Tuesday--Pizza, Salad

4. Wednesday--Kielbasa on Rolls w/Onion, Brussels Sprouts

5. Thursday--more Leftovers

6. Friday--Fish, Cole Slaw, Sweet Potato Fries

7. Saturday--?

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Fend For Yourself

2. Monday--Leftovers(various)

3. Tuesday--Kielbasa on Rolls w/Onion, Brussels Sprouts

4. Wednesday--Pizza, Salad

5. Thursday--Burger King

6. Friday--Fend For Yourself

7. Saturday--Spaghetti w/Meatballs, Salad, Garlic Bread

Last week saw 3 nights of home cooked dinners, 3 nights of leftovers/fend for yourself, 1 nights of Take-Out or Eating Out.  The kids didn't eat much of that tempura shrimp I made last week so I've been eating it reheated 3 nights this past week.  Silly kids.....
One of the Stromboli we bought a week ago last Saturday didn't make it to Sunday since College Boy found it after work Saturday night and ate the ENTIRE thing! save for the small bit I had for dinner that night. sigh.  So basically I went on strike most nights and told them all to eat leftovers since we had a lot of that.

1 grocery trips to Weis and 1 large trip to the Grocery Outlet brought the shopping to $141.71 for the week and brought May's food spending total to $239.58.   

I've got $160.42 left in the food budget for May and 17 days left in my shopping month. 

My savings percentages last week was 53.38% and May's monthly savings total so far is at 52.94%.

Leftovers going into this week.......spaghetti and meatballs, salad, garlic bread but nothing else that I can find. lolz

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

1. Sunday--Steaks on the grill, Green Beans, Corn on Cob(Daughter is cooking)

2. Monday--Ribs and Pork BBQ, Cole Slaw, Potato Salad, Mac Salad, Beans, Pie(Company's coming!)

3. Tuesday--Fend for Yourself

4. Wednesday--Not Sure Yet/Something in the Freezeer

5. Thursday--Leftovers

6. Friday--Fish, Cole Slaw, Sweet Potato Fries

7. Saturday--?

This week will see 4 new meals cooked, 2 nights of leftovers/FFY and 1 nights of ?.

What needs buying for this menu?  Peppers, Cabbage, Potatoes, Milk all of which have been bought already this weekend(will be on next week's post).

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

A Small Local Adventure in April

For Hubs birthday I had gotten him a gift certificate to a local brewery with a tap room in a town south of us, Conyngham.
A tiny village this, the population hit a high in the 1980's but has been on the decline since then, with not much to recommend it but a post office, a restaurant(which College Boy worked at while in high school)and this tap room/brewery.

The town is named for a sea captain/merchant/privateer during the American Revolution named Gustavus Conyngham.  Info on Conyngham the man HERE.
Why this village in the hills of PA was named for a guy who never even was there?  It's all because of Gustavus' cousin, Redmond Conyngham.  Redmond served as as a representative in the PA legislature from this county in 1815 and went onto serve in the State Senate in 1820.
George Drum was the first person to settle in what is Conyngham.  George owned land and built up the nearby town of Drums, which is named for him.  When where he lived was large enough of a village to receive a name the idea of naming it after Redmond Conyngham was bandied about.  Redmond said they should name the village instead after his cousin Gustavus who was an unsung hero of the revolution, so they did....but being named Conyngham, nobody nowadays remembers that it's after Gustavus rather than Redmond.

Gustavus had a mighty important friend in his day that you might have heard of-Benjamin Franklin.
Old Ben saved Gustavus' neck(literally, he was to be hanged by the British!)a few times during the American Revolution.
More on Gustavus Conyngham HERE.
I am shocked after reading up on Gustavus that Hollywood has never made a film about his exploits!

I know....this is more than you ever wanted to know about Conyngham, the man AND the village.  ;-)

So we found the tap room rather handily on the main road through the village(not much else there so it wasn't hard to find lol).

The tap room had a pirate theme(being as a privateer like old Gustavus C. was just a legally sanctioned pirate)....from the growlers with sailing ships to a table in the alcove next to the bar with a game of checkers on it being played by a skeleton wearing a tri-corner hat and a parrot on his shoulder(Arrgggh....I forgot to take that picture!).

Daughter came along with us and put away a few drinks plus a flight along with Hubs.

They had some interesting brews such as a  Jalapeno lager, a Grodziskie(that's a smoked Polish ale)and a Heather ale(which is a Scottish Gruit-beer brewed without hops, how beer was brewed in Ancient times before someone thought to add hops).  We all agreed that the Heather ale had no bitter taste at all(due to no hops I suppose).  Someone who doesn't like beer might enjoy this one immensely!

I enjoyed a Peanut Butter Porter.....and then I had another one.  Two drinks and I was all about having my picture took(much to the Daughter's chagrin)and trying to keep from falling off the bar stool(which I didn't do though getting down from the stool was tricky).....

It was a short pleasant outing and we'll have to do it again sometime.

If you are ever in the area this place is worth a stop.
Conyngham Brewing


Sluggy