This Week On the Dining Table

I am right on schedule with this post this week....will wonders never cease?!

 

Here's what was planned last week--

Sunday--Hot Dogs, leftover beans, corn and 'new pickles'
Monday--Fend for Yourself night as Hubs was late from an out-of-town meeting
Tuesday--Chicken Fajitas
Wednesday--Chicken Parm, Sumer Squash Casserole
Thursday--Tacos
Friday--Fajitas Redux
Saturday--WTHK---> Who The Heck Knows!

 

We stuck to the list fairly well though not on the days I had planned.  I got Chinese take-out on Thurs. so we didn't do the Tacos, and Hubs wasn't up to a big meal the last 2 days so it was leftover Fajitas for moi only.

I spent $46.02 on $73.93 worth of groceries last week.  Mostly on produce, eggs and crabmeat.


Here's this week's meal plan--
Sunday--Grilled Pork Chop, Summer Squash Sauté, Macaroni Salad
Monday--Tacos, Corn
Tuesday--Ravioli, Salad, Garlic Bread
Wednesday--Sloppy Joes on Buns, Brussel Sprouts
Thursday--Quiche, Salad
Friday--No Clue
Saturday--No Clue

#2 Son is home for dinner 3 nights this week so I asked him for 2 dinner suggestions.  He said he'd eat Tacos(of course!lol), Ravioli and Quiche and I should make other things the nights he's working.
Thus he avoided giving me 2 dinner suggestions....the boy is a genius I tell ya! ;-)

So I am taking suggestions from my readers for what to serve 2 nights this week.  Something for 2 people, that is low sodium but tasty and hopefully I have most of the ingredients to make already here.
A bonus if one meal uses the Fajitas filling(chicken, peppers, onions and mushrooms)I have leftover.
Good luck! 8-))

On the shopping list so far--

fruit, orange juice, produce, salad greens, turkey breast meat, cheese, half and half and "junk" for Noah(ramen noodles, hash browns, burritos, etc.)

So that's where the food money stands now and 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

The "A" Triple Play

Well I have known for awhile that on my mother's side of things, I come from a line of French Huguenots who fled France around 1572.

But I never for the life of me thought I'd find a Huguenot connection on my father's side of the things....the Catholic side of things......and in, of all places Ireland!

I have a double dose of French blood it seems.....
Sacré  bleu!

And not only does this line make me a distant cousin of a known(or should that be infamous?)French Revolutionary & Anarchist in recent generations.

 

VIVE LA RÉVOLUTION!

 

 

 

It also seems I come by my dramatic nature honestly, as this same line contains quite a few Irish "Scenery Chewers" aka "Stage Hams" aka Actors.

And to top things off, I appear to have a rather large contingency of relations in......
Australia!

Actors, Anarchists and Aussies......

Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction.

Sluggy

$20K Savings Challenge......May Update

In our family we save money. It is important to us to put money aside for "rainy days".  You know.....those unexpected days when things happen in your life that you can't plan on, but that DO happen and they cost you money you didn't know you'd need to pay out.

Our income is mainly the salary my Hubs draws from his job.  We have money taken off each paycheck from the top to put into savings, before we even get our hands on it.  This money that's taken goes into various pots....life insurance, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.
Once the automatic savings, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision payments are taken out, it leaves what we get to "live on".  From this amount we budget for bills, both monthly and irregular bills(semi-annual, etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2013 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am going to keep the Goal amount at $20,000 again this year.

On to the May report.....

I have posted my May End of Month $20K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right for the specific numbers.

I have 2 goals each month.....
The 1st is to actually finish each month in the black and not the red.
The 2nd is to hit the targeted savings amount of $1,666.67.

I have to report that we finished up May in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of May with?.......$3,129.06
This was only possible due to the 3 paycheck month in May, as we had a rather large hospital bill co-pay due this month.

Income
We had $3045.02 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted. 

Add in a per diem expense reimbursement check and interest gives us another $84.04.  This brought our gain to $3129.06 for May.

Outgo

As for the expenses this May, here are the good and the bad side of things....

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  The water bill was within a dollar of being the same as last month.
*  The credit card bill was $900 less.
*  There were no semi annual or quarterly  bills to pay.

*  The electric bill was almost $100 less.
*  The prescriptions were about $67 less than April.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  The dr./hospital bills(co-pays/deductibles) were $1500 more than in April.

*  The cash withdrawals were $280 more(mostly because of graduation).

*  We had a $346 vet bill(their annual visits + meds).
*  The food bill was about $100 more than budgeted food(and $65 more than last month).

The Food Budget costs for May are in another post, which is located HERE.

We overshot the food budget by $100.55 last month.

The 2013 TOTAL so far.....
With 5 month behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2013 stands at $11,726.84.  Only $8,273.16 left to save and 7 months left to accomplish this.

That comes out to $1,181.80 per month for the next 7 months to reach the goal.

Looking ahead for June......

*  Still waiting for the other medical shoe to drop(ie--medical bills from tests and procedures to slowly drip into my mailbox).  I foresee more medical spending on co-pays and deductibles this month.
 

*  Hubs is repairing and opening the pool for the year, which means a sky-high water bill in June.

*  The only non-normal bill from last June was extra cash spending for a short vacation to Ohio, which isn't happening this June.
 

So how was your May financially?
 

Did you put ordinary living expenses on a credit card last month and not pay it off in full when due?
Did you spend less than the income you had in May?
Did you received any "extra" or unexpected money in May like a tax refund or bonus at work,
and what did you do with those funds?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debt or put extra toward your mortgage principle?

If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check you out your progress too and celebrate with you!

Sluggy
 

It's Here, It's Here! & Other Stuff

It may not be the phone book but I'm just as thrilled as Navin R. Johnson!





Before......

After....

The new freezer!!!
It is a bit shorter than the old freezer but inside it's about the same square footage of space.
So purty and so clean! lol

Before.....

 

After......

And just to make my week complete I got this in the mail.....

Finally.
One of the many perks of being an old person in this country.
I've got a tag and now I can park any damned place I want to! lol

Oh the joys of getting old and crippled.....getting old is NOT for sissies......

 Sluggy

May I Introduce to You.....

Someone unknown to me until now, a distant cousin on my Baker family tree, sent me an email last evening through Ancestry.  In it, he provided some information that provides confirmation on my Baker line of ancestors via DNA testing.   This news means I can now introduce you to one of my long, long, long ago ancestors.
She was not a Baker but the Bakers of my Great Grandmother's family links her to my generation.
At least that is how it appears at the moment.  There are still unresolved questions about the blood line.

I proudly introduce to you who appears to be my 10 x Great Grandmother, Sarah Isgar.....

 

 

Daughter of William Isgar and Elizabeth Sainsbury Isgar

Born abt. 1625 in West Lavington, Wiltshire, England
Died 17 Sep 1677 in Groombridge Estate, Speldhurst, Kent, England

Nice looking gal, huh?


And here is her husband Phillip Packer, my 10 x Great Grandfather......

Born 24 Jun 1618 Speldhurst, Kent, England
Died 24 Dec 1686 Groombridge Estate, Speldhurst, Kent, England

And here is their son, Philip Packer, my 9 x Great Grandfather.....

Born abt. 1656 in London, England.
Died 1739 in Burlington county, New Jersey, USA


There's a story behind all of this of course.
A story involving love, bastardy, climbing the social ladder despite the English caste system, intrigue, exile, the fight for Irish rule of Ireland, the reign of Stuart King, Charles II of England, being a  victim of primogeniture, Quakers, Mormons and gunsmiths.
And William Penn kinda figures into it as well.

Some day I'll get around to rambling on about it.

Sluggy

 

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

This post is a quick one, to show you a picture I snapped  coming home from the cemetery the other day.  I pulled into the Wendy's parking lot and this is what was in front of me.....

A trucker pulling a #43 Richard Petty Motorsports car trailer. 
I keep forgetting that we are just down the road from Pocono Raceway and the Pocono 400 is this weekend.
Like the Petty blue" color?
If you look closely it says, "Fueled by Bacon".

My reply is.....Who isn't?  8-)

P.S.
If you are reading this Judy, remember Sunday is race day so watch out for the traffic!

Sluggy

This Week On the Dining Table

I'm late as usual with the meal plan stuff......ugh....

Here's what was planned last week--

 Sunday--Cookout...burgers, dogs, homemade potato salad and baked beans and new pickles(all low sodium except for the nitrite-free bacon in the beans)
Monday--Bob Evans cooked us dinner(used a coupon for a BOGO deal)...I had potato crusted flounder.
Tuesday--Chicken & Dumplings-using leftover roasted chicken-not sure how much of this I can let myself have yet
Wednesday--Catfish fry, leftover baked beans, carrots and potato salad
Thursday--leftover Garlic Chicken w/Broccoli and coconut rice
Friday--Ravioli in Sauce w/leftover meatballs, green salad
Saturday--Whatever is still leftover
The Ravioli didn't happen on Friday or any other day.
Friday I served leftovers as well as on Saturday.

I spent $78.86 at the grocery store last week when I only wanted to spend $40-$50, putting me .35¢ over $500 in food spending for May. 
Those "ICE" drinks put me over, all 38 of them.  But I am set for the summer now with those.  No more beverage spending until Fall, except for the adult beverages.... ;-)

Leftovers at the moment consist of 1 piece of catfish(will use for a fish sandwich).  I had the 1 serving of chicken and dumpling this morning for breakfast.  Chicken & Dumplings aka Southern Penicillin...... 8-)

Here's this week's meal plan--
Sunday--Hot Dogs, leftover beans, corn and 'new pickles'
Monday--Fend for Yourself night as Hubs was late from an out-of-town meeting
Tuesday--Chicken Fajitas
Wednesday--Chicken Parm, Sumer Squash Casserole
Thursday--Tacos
Friday--Fajitas Redux
Saturday--WTHK--->Who The Heck Knows!

I've already spent $43 and change at the grocery store.  We went to the restaurant supply store on Sunday as they had a $5 off $50 coupon.  We got lots of produce, some eggs, crabmeat and Doritos for #2 Son plus bought a plastic tray for bringing food out to the patio set to dine al fresco this Summer.  Will make the transporting much easier I think!
It came to $46 after coupon but they overcharged me on the crabmeat so I got a $3 credit on the c/c, making it $43 and change.
I need to pick up more turkey meat and milk still this week.  All the proteins this week are from the freezer(have to empty it some before they bring the new one TODAY!!!--can you tell I am excited?lol), and I'm not stocking up on anything, making this a cheaper shopping week.

So that's where the food money stands now and 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