A Comedy of Errors at CVS

We were out and about in the town South of us on Tuesday and I remembered that a new CVS had opened there which we would be passing right by.  So we stopped in after hitting Ollie's.
I had planned to go to CVS on Wednesday to use some expiring ECBs but why not do it Tuesday and be done with that chore, right?
Ha!

I had my scenario all planned out.
Buy a gift card and earn $10 ECB to add to the $5 one that was expiring.
Then buy: 2 Softsoap Body Wash, 2 Dove shampoo, 2 Speed Stick deodorant and 4 Arizona iced tea drinks(for our trip next week).
After Qs and ECBs I'd pay .76¢ plus any tax due.
I'd also get back $5 in new ECBs.

So I went in and scanned my EC card.  The machine made some noise and nothing printed out....so I waited a few minutes because sometimes these machines are very SLOOOOW!
I looked and someone had flipped a homemade sign taped to the machine up onto the top of it.
It said, "Out of Order".
crap.

I needed a $3/2 Dove Q that was suppose to print out at that machine so I couldn't do my scenario but I could buy the gift card and get the $10 ECB.
So I did that much of it but the ECB didn't print.
I showed the cashier(who happened to be a manager of sorts)it didn't print and the ad in my hand showing it was suppose to print.  She worked her magic and made the register print it out for me.

So on Wednesday I had to run errands down the valley so I hit the CVS along that route.
I scanned my EC card at the machine and here's what printed out............

A whole lot of nothing!  I tried again and nothing.  I guess the out of order machine "printed" out my Qs for this week(even though it didn't)so now subsequent machines were not going to actually PRINT my Qs.
Ugh ugh ugh
Not wanting to have a big to-do with the store employees over this(and not knowing if they can print the machine Qs out for me or something because really, I know NOTHING about CVS!)I just decided to punt and make up a new scenario working with what I had(which was very little).

Here is what I decided to get.......

I got the 2 Speed Stick dodorants and the 2 Softsoap Body Washes as planned.  According to my calculations I needed to "spend" another $6.14 to use my $15 in ECBs fully.
I hunted around and tried different combinations and finally hit on these Ajax dish soap bottles as they were 50% off so .74¢ each.
I grabbed a bag of generic CVS brand Cheetos(good for the car ride next week)for $1.29 to round it out.

2 x Softsoap BW BOGO50%=$7.78
2 x Speed Stick deos=$4.98
7 x Ajax dish soap=$5.18
1 x Cheetos=$1.29
SubTotal.......$19.23

Qs Used
1 x .50/1 Softsoap AppQ=.50¢
1 x $2/$6 body wash CRTQ=$2.00
1 x .50/1 Speed Stick AppQ=.50¢
1 x $1/2 Speed Stick ManuQ=$1.00
Q Total.........$4.00

$19.23-$4.00=$15.23=$15 ECBs=.23¢ OOP(plus any tax)

But that's not exactly what happened since 2 x .50/1 Speed Stick APPQs came off so discounts were $4.50 making my total $14.73.
This meant I paid ZERO OOP and lost .27¢ on my ECBs value.
If I had known that Q would come off twice I could have gotten 8 bottles of dish soap and paid .47¢ OOP in the end.
No worries...I am not fretting over losing .27¢ worth of chit.

I did earn the expected $5 in new ECBs back though. ;-)

Moral of story......no matter how much you plan out your scenarios life and the unexpected will throw you curve balls some of the time so you need to have back up plans and roll with it and be happy if it all comes out well in the end.  8-)))



Sluggy

Oh the "Joys" of Having a Retired Spouse

Let me preface this post with the statement that I love my husband but there are times when all I can do is shake my head and mutter, "Bless his heart."  ;-)


After 36 years of  marriage(and 40 years together)you would think me and Hubs pretty much know everything about each other and are use to our foibles, right?

After all, we didn't go into marriage and have kids right away.  We spent 9 years married without any children so had ample time to get to know/get use to each other.

Well I've learned a few new things about my Hubs in the last almost 24 months since he is around the house pretty much 24/7 now.
Let me explain first that Hubs is what is known as a "left brained" person.  He is highly intelligent, has an advanced degree and is over"edumacated" as I like to call it.
He is lacking however is some common sense thinking.
The comedienne Jeanne Robertson explains it well in this stand-up piece she is known for.......


Here are a few things he does that make me scratch my head........

*  He refuses to eat sandwiches for lunch since retiring.  Exception being if we go out to eat for lunch.  But he just can't eat a sandwich at home for that meal.  He'll eat one at dinner time rarely if it's a leftover night and neither he or I don't feel like cooking/heating anything up.  Weird, huh?

*  You can't let him near landscaping in the yard with clippers or a saw.  He decided to go out in the yard last Summer and trim some trees and bushes.

This is what my rhododendron bush looked like two Summers ago in all it's blooming glory.....

And this is what it looks like after Hubs hacked it up........

Hubs butchered the poor thing, hacking off all the lower branches of the bush on 3 of it's 4 sides.  It now looks like a tree(which is never a good look for a bush).
I was so mad!!!(and I guess I still am).

* I will let him drive me places even though I could run the errands in question quicker and more efficiently by myself.  So why do I let him drive me?  If Hubs doesn't leave the house at least once a week he starts getting antsy.  But he never plans to go anywhere by himself to do anything social or fun.(Ok to be truthful, in the last 24 months he has taken himself alone somewhere fun ONE COUNT 'EM ONE TIME.  To a one day chess tournament outside of Philly.)

He has no friends he gets together with and no social activities.  He will get antsy and decide he needs to drive "down the mountain" into the city for 1 thing then two days later drive to the city again for something else.  I have tried to suggest he save up these trips and do them all together to save time and gas but no, " I can't control him and what he wants to do!"is what I get told.  I am just trying to suggest we save money on gas by combining trips but he doesn't want to hear it.
So I let him drive me around(besides "driving" me crazy).
But if we go out for more than 2 hours he expects lunch out too.  I tell ya living with a retired spouse is no picnic! lolz

*  He had never refilled a liquid hand soap container in his entire life before he retired.  How do I know this?  I asked him to refill the container in our bathroom as it was getting low.  Take a close look at this container........

If you noticed it's a "FOAMING" hand wash dispenser you have one up on Hubs.

He tells me he refilled it and when I was in that bathroom later I went to wash my hands and realized that he doesn't know that when you refill a foaming dispenser with reg. liquid hand soap you have to water it down a lot.  I stood there trying to pump the mechanism and couldn't for the life of me figure out why the blasted pump wouldn't depress or squirt out any soap! lolz
Yep, he killed the foaming dispenser.......

*  He doesn't understand the reason for reflectors on your mailbox.

After this happened while on vacation with Kim and her DH in New England.......

He got the new mailbox installed and he decided to put big reflectors on it.  Here is where he put them.............

On the post holding the mailbox.  We don't need reflectors on our mailbox as a navigational aid for pulling into or out of our driveway so reflectors on the post serve no purpose at all.
We need reflectors on the end of the mailbox that sticks out into the road it's next too so nobody hits the mailbox because they can't see it!
Putting reflectors on the post BEHIND the mailbox serves no purpose to us.
So I tried to reason with Hubs and this is what he did..........

Put teeny tiny reflectors on the front of the mailbox next to the door.  Chester is showing you what he thinks of this whole situation.  lolz


*  He has taken to wiping every single item that comes out of the dishwasher with a hand towel.
When he retired he basically took over kitchen clean up duty.......I cook/shop/prep food so he now washes up/cleans up the kitchen afterwards.  This means he loads, runs and empties the dishwasher.

Nobody can load is right as far as he is concerned so I no longer bother putting anything INTO the dishwasher because I know he is just going to take it out and rearrange everything in there.
That I can live with.

But what drives me bat shit crazy is that everything he takes out of the dishwasher now gets rubbed down with a hand towel.  Ok, I can see doing that to the bottom of the glasses/cups in the top rack as they tend to hold a bit of water after coming through the wash/dry cycle.  It's fairly OCD with him now.

But he has to take every danged plate, bowl, utensil.....all of which are perfectly dry after being run through the dishwasher with the drying cycle........and hand towel them to death before putting them away.  Doesn't matter if the item is dry already.
Drives.
Me.
Insane!

And the worst thing is that I have seen him take a dirty hand towel(the one I keep to wipe my hands while cooking lives in a crocheted ring on the oven door)and use that one inside of a clean towel to rub the CLEAN dishes.............arghhhh!

I had better stop now because my eye is starting to twitch here. 8-P

Sluggy

What's Happening This Week at Chez Sluggy

Stuff on tap this week around here.....a trip to Ollie's(to use an expiring 15% off flyer), a trip to Walmart(because we'll be near there at Ollie's), a trip to CVS(to use an expiring ECB), a trip to Panera, and a trip to Rite-Aid to try to get an Rx ordered early for my trip plus get some Home Depot gift cards(for stuff we need to buy soon)which will earn me some Bonus Cash.  Oh, and I'll be getting organized to leave on our NH trip.  

Any readers free on June 23rd along our drive home, between Wilkes-Barre PA and Lancaster NH who want a quick meet-up? I promise Hubs doesn't bite(unless you are made out of pasta)and I bathe regularly and we are delightful(in small doses....just ask Kim!lol)  Shoot me an email because you never know, you could be the lucky recipient of some free toiletries as well since I am known to travel with spares! 8-)

 On the blog we've got the end of that Ancestor's Survivor Store, an exposé on having a retired spouse, the start of another giveaway and the first of my 2017 Western Road Trip installments. 
Yeah, I know I am a bit late on recounting that one but I wanted it to "marinate" in my head first before retelling it and then life got in my way and *poof*, it's close to two years later.

So I am off to run some errands this morning while I still have enough "spoons" to do so

I see Anne is frantically cleaning her B&B inn *snort* and reader Jen G. is on her way to Hawaii-the land of $9 creamers?!? with her sister and Kim is chained in her dungeon doing "Wedding Hell Sewing Alterations But She Really Wants to be Playing Outside in the Dirt"(what's new there, right? lolz).


What's on everyone else's agenda this week?


Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Peonies are Blooming!" Edition........

I almost missed catching the peonies blooming this year.  The front porch has been overrun with trashed furniture for 3 weeks now so I haven't been sitting out there enjoying the weather(when it hasn't been raining).  A couple blooms were already past their prime when I thought to snap this photo.

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

This is what was planned--

1. Sunday--FFY

2. Monday--Corned Beef, Cabbage, Potatoes

3. Tuesday--Beef Pie

4. Wednesday--Roasted Turkey Breast, Stuffing or Potatoes, Broccoli

5. Thursday--Sourdough Grilled Sandwiches(cheese, blt, Rueben or turkey)and ?

6. Friday--Tacos
7. Saturday--Leftovers

And this is what actually happened--(everyone else here not me after Tuesday)

1. Sunday--FFY

2. Monday--Corned Beef, Cabbage, Potatoes

3. Tuesday--I didn't cook so it was FFY(I had soup)

4. Wednesday--Beef Pie

5. Thursday--McDonald's free burger, salad
6. Friday--Lemon Pepper Chicken w/Zucchini, Rice

7. Saturday--Tacos or Taco Salad

Last week saw 4 nights of home cooked dinners, 2 nights of leftovers/fend for yourself, 1 night of Eating Out/Take-Out. 

Roast Turkey & Grilled Sammies didn't happen and move to this week.  I forgot I had fresh zuke in the fridge so Lemon Pepper Chicken w/Zuke made an appearance instead.

Now that the Daughter has left and we don't cook much extra(except if it's something I KNOW Ex-CB will eat)we aren't having any food waste and haven't had any for weeks now. 
Well I did clean out the freezer this weekend and found lots of little baggies of unknown veg/fruit odds and ends that Daughter was known to tuck in there for possible smoothies. lolz

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

* a bag of cheese(I had a partially used block that was going moldy so I cut off the bad spots and shredded what was left and put it into the freezer for later.)

What got taken out of the freezer and used last week.....
* Corned Beef hunk

* 1.21 lbs. and 2 lbs. ground beef
* Bag of Green Beans
* 1 pack of Chicken Thighs

A small trip to the Shursave Market and a trip to the Bread Outlet brought the food/toiletries spending last week to $35.52 and my June total to $112.91.

My savings percentage last week was 38.63%(without Rite-Aid trips)and June's monthly savings total came to 46.64%(w/out R-A). 

I have 20 more food shopping/spending days in June.

Leftovers going into this week.....corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, zuke in sauce, rice, taco meat.

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

1. Sunday--FFY/Leftovers

2. Monday--Chinese Take-Out(lunch entrees)

3. Tuesday--Turkey Breast, Stuffing, Broccoli, Rolls(for them that wants 'em)

4. Wednesday--Pork Chops, leftover Zuke in Sauce and Rice OR Grilled Sammies

5. Thursday--Stuffed Shells, Caesar Salad

6. Friday--Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches, Brussels Sprouts
7. Saturday--Leftovers OR Grilled Sammies w/a side TBD

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

Next Sunday is Father's Day and I had planned to bake a cake for Hubs but since we are leaving town the next morning(and Ex-CB would most likely eat the whole thing before we got back)I'll make the cake on Wednesday instead and we can fete Hubs a bit early. 8-)

What needs buying for this menu? I've got everything needed here to make all of these meals(except the Chinese take-out obviously).

Haven't even looked at the ads yet and may not go to the store this week except to pick up a few things for Ex-College Boy to fix/eat while we are away next week. 
The only meal plan I have for next week, is to make a big batch of Chicken Parm for dinner Sunday, because I am leaving the next morning on our trip and I KNOW Ex-CB will eat that(plus the leftover Roasted Turkey and Stuffed Shells from this week's plan and Hamburger Patties and Cauliflower in the freezer)so he'll have at least 5 easy "real food" options if he doesn't feel like cooking(just reheating)while I'm gone.
Instead of picking up food at the store for him this week I'll just leave him a gift card to get a pizza as a treat.

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  

Home Improvements.....Progress Report #1

Well we started the long slow slog of the home repairs/improvements by first cleaning and clearing out Daughter's old room.

Before what Daughter left........

After, cleaning(walls/window frame/ceiling fan, molding),vacuuming and shampooing the carpet and moving furniture and exercise equipment out.............

Daughter "supposedly" vacuumed in here thoroughly before she left, filling the vacuum canister SIX TIMES with dog hair/dirt.
I filled said vacuum cleaner another SIX AND ONE HALF TIMES before shampooing the carpeting. ugh.

After the carpet dried Ex-College Boy moved his stuff in.............

We also replaced the broken blinds on the window in there.  Ex-CB hasn't gotten around to putting anything on the walls yet but as far as I am concerned this bedroom is done.
Once he moves out, the room will get some more love(new paint and maybe new carpeting)but I am not spending time, energy and MONEY in here until he's moved out for good because well, Ex-College Boy is a slob when it comes to taking care of his room.  Like most 20 something males he is fastidious about his personal grooming but you'd never know it from looking at his room.  It looks not so bad here because he hadn't had time to pigsty-ify it yet.

Here's my new sewing room aka Ex-College Boy's old bedroom after he moved his furniture and most of his crap into his new room.......

Lots of "droppings".

And here's the closet before he emptied that.........

I swear I hauled three shopping bags of partially emptied water bottles as well as cans of unopened soda and nutrition drinks as well as some full water bottles.

Here are what is left of the partially used water bottle collection from his room.  Ex-College Boy has orders NOT to take another water bottle to drink until they are all used up.

Here's my new room after cleaning/clearing all Ex-CB's stuff out and vacuuming it...........

This was also hanging in Ex-CB's old room.

It's a sword belonging to Eldest son.  He got this for a birthday when he was about 16?  I called him and he doesn't want it and Ex-CB doesn't want it in his new bedroom.
Anyone want a dragon headed Game of Thrones type display sword? lol

I doubt Salvation Army will take this so I guess I'll be offering it up on the local FB selling site.
I can just imagine now the sketchy folks I'll be dealing with when I offer this beauty up on the site.
Fun time people, fun times........

Here is some of what we hauled out of the closet in Daughter's old room(not the things on the coffee table but in front of it)that were either going to Salvation Army or will be sold.

I found my long lost pullover sweaters that I got for free at K-Mart about 4 years ago.  I forgot they got stored in the back of her closet(which I didn't have access to while she was living here)and now they are too big. ugh.  I guess I'll try to sell them locally come Fall since they all still have tags on them and haven't been worn.

The living room has become the staging area around here.  I gained 2 Rubbermaid tubs from Ex-CB as now he can fit all his clothes in the 2 dressers in his new room.  I also uncovered 2 shopping bags full of  plastic clothes hangers.

A mysterious shopping bag of food appeared in the garage shortly after he moved his belongings/furniture into the new room.  It was full of boxed/canned/bottled food!  This was stuff he was given when he moved into the friend's apartment almost 2 years ago at the beginning of his Senior year of college.  He hauled it all home and shoved it under his bed and apparently it stayed their for the last 1.5 years when he moved everything home to do his internship his last semester of school.
When Daughter took his bed frame(her grandmother gave it to her and she took it to Louisiana)Ex-CB no longer had space under his bed/box spring since it now sits on the floor instead of the bed frame, hence the sudden appearance of the bag of food.
Mystery solved! lolz

Here's the first load we took to Salvation Army(everything in front/to the side of the green chair on the floor.(Except that lamp, it will be re-purposed.)

We uncovered two boxes of electronics that belonged to Daughter's fiancé-one in the bowels of her closet and one in Hubs' room's closet.  Some of it got saved and will find it's way to Louisiana in due time, Ex-CB scavenged  some screws and cables for his use and the rest got dumped in the trash or taken in for recycling at Best Buy and Staples.

New blinds were bought and hung in my new room, Ex-CB's new bedroom and the hallway main bathroom.  All these windows sorely needed them.

Then I set to repairing the walls in my new room before painting could commence........

Two walls done.  I couldn't believe the extent of the wall damage in there!
Well, really, I shouldn't have been surprised since two different adolescent to early twenties aged sons had lived in there.

Under the window was torn up good with what looked like stab wounds. lolz
Ex-CB told me that during a phase in high school he and his one friend had played with throwing stars up there.  Yah, now I know where their targets were...........

Hubs went and bought enough paint to do this room and his spare room.  We used another free Lowe's gift card to buy the paint plus we already had 2 cans of ceiling paint leftover from when we had the downstairs painted so no money was spent on that either.

Not being able to find a competent painter who didn't change an obscene among of money to paint this smallish room I contracted with Ex-College Boy to help me paint the room.  He is only working part time right now and can use the money and I can't climb ladders and do some of this sort of work anymore so this was a good arrangement.  I let him do most of the actual painting(I did the cutting in work that I could reach)and I supervised and reloaded the paint tray, moved step ladders for him, etc.
We got the ceiling done and the first coat of paint/primer on the walls on Tuesday...............

It was determined(by me)that the room would need a second coat(plus the dark blue accent wall needed a third coat)and that the carpeting was too far gone with stains to be saved.  So on Wednesday since I was out at a doctor's appointment down the valley I went to Lowe's to arrange for carpet measuring and picked out which carpeting to get.  They are coming next week to measure and I am hopeful I'll have new carpeting in there by the end of June after we get back from our trip.  So for now it's a lot of hurry up and wait going on. I can't move anything in here until the floor is finished. 8-(

Hubs still has to touch-up the crown molding paint as I can't do it(the ladder thing)and Ex-CB is not careful enough to "stay in the lines". lolz  Hubs has been having to rest his shoulder/neck for a few days as he overdid something earlier this week so he is attempting the molding painting later today.

So the only cost associated with getting this room done will be the cost of the carpeting and what I paid Ex-CB for his work.

In other news......
I have taken all my clothes out of the dresser and the walk-in closet and the pile over by the étagère holding a load of fabric yard goods on a coffee table we have stored in our bedroom plus clothes I dug out of Daughter's huge closet.
And I have gone through it all.
Two bags of worn out stuff got tossed, another 3 bags got taken to Salvation Army and some dresses(4 I think?)as well as previously talked about sweaters will be sold on the FB local site or eBay.

Everything is now back where it needs to be in the dresser or closet...........except this pile of pants on my ironing board.

All these are a size too large now but I need to try them all on to double check if they still fit and/or if they need to be kept for wearing around the house/yard for work, trashed or taken to Sallie's.
This trying on of everything will happen today and the pile will be dispensed with.

Progress Report #2 will probably happen the end of June or early July.
It is killing me that I can't get anything finished yet and it's taking waaaaay too long to complete stuff.
Since I've been in a holding pattern for THREE YEARS on most of this stuff I am chomping at the bit to get it all done!!!


Impatient Sluggy