Wednesday, May 30, 2012

A Much Needed Mini Vacation

Saturday, I headed up to Western NY to visit my family (Dan and the pups stayed home).  The visit was mostly just hanging out which was definitely what I needed.

I ended up taking the new car because the Jeep is now leaking gas.  Yes - still not fixed.  Two weeks ago, it was back at the shop because of the gas fumes.  The body shop said that the gasket was bad and they fixed it.  Two weeks later, I fill it up and the fumes are still there and even worse after leaving the gararge door open all night.  I look underneath and there's a puddle of gas.  That's new.  I had already called the shop on Friday to tell them it needed to come back in - that was before I saw the puddle.

I did do some driving around to different cemeteries when I was "home" to get pictures of my ancestors headstones.  I have started to use Find a Grave in my genealogy research.  I can remember visiting the cemeteries before - it's just been so long and back then I didn't take pictures of the headstones.

My brother is going through chemo again and this time it is really wearing on him.  He's in a lot of pain and is very tired.  He's aged a lot this time.  When I look at him, I see my 90 year old aunt (skinny, hard to move around, soft spoken) - he's only 54.  He keeps fighting and the doctors feel that he is on the right track.  He is stable and hopefully this round will kick the problem out of his lymph nodes.

Today, is hanging out with hubby - it's his birthday.  We are going to go geocaching and to the movies - a nice relaxing day.

I can be found on Ancestory.com at rmcwentz and at Findagrave.com at rmcwentz

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Savings Summary Saturday - May 26, 2012

This is for the last 2 weeks since I didn't get around to posting last Saturday.

Grocery Shopping (and other savings) this week:
  • CVS shopping highlights
    • (2) Kraft bbq sauce - on sale for $1 used $1/2 - 50 cents each
    • (2) Gain dish soap - on sale for 1 - used $1/2 - 50 cents each
    • (2) Secret deodorant - clearance for $1.74 - used $1/1 - 74 cents each
    • Allegra - on sale for $17.99 - used $5/1 manufacturer coupon and $4/1 CVS coupon
  • Money made on yardsale - $70.
  • Office Depot
    • dropped off 9 toners from work - the cashier was great & ringed me in for 10 toners!
    • Used my rewards to get the following & paid only $12.33
      • toner ($29.99)
      • kitchen trash bags ($16.99)
      • (larger) binder for my coupons ($18.49)
Gas Savings:
  • saved 70 cents per gallon at Shell using my Giant card plus 2 cents per gallon by using my Shell Supersaver
  • Hubby used our Exxon credit card, which will have points towards Upromise.
Things we got in the mail:
  • Entertainment Weekly (mycokesrewards.com)
  • Fitness Magazine (goldrewards.com)
  • Tide pod sample
  • coupon for Dole salad from Giant food Shape magazine
  • Office Depot work rewards coupon for $43.61
  • Olay skin test from P&G
Rewards programs:
MyPoints (personal account) - 12787 points (12727 points -last week)
MyPoints (coupon account) - 3320 points (3290 points-last week)
Swagbucks - 2604 points (2500 points-last week)
Listia - credits 14157 credits (14157 credits last week) $0 paid out (when buying credits it is $0.10/credit) - I haven't posted anything on here lately.
Postpoints -2940 points (2925 points last week) - I keep forgetting to log on this daily!
mycokerewards - 4859 points (4742 points-last week)
Bondrewards - $25.91 ($25.71 last week)
Upromise - $16.03 ($15.59 last week) available for transfer
Capital One Rewards - locked out (3591 miles-last week) - haven't gotten around to unlocking the account :P
Thanks Again - 898 points (898 points last week)
Viggle - 55,165 points (55,152 points - last week) - haven't really been checking in
NCP - 39920 points (39200 points last week)

New Year, New Goals - (I need to get on this!!!!)
  • Use rewards programs to get gifts and daily stuff - no action this week
  • Use Restaurant.com coupons - no action this week.
  • Buy a New Car - BOUGHT IT! (BTW - paid cash for this).
  • Set up an Estate - no action this week
  • Monthly Review/Net Worth (new as of 5/9/12) - I saw this idea on Couple Money. I don't take enough time to review our net worth and keep track on how we are doing.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

And the Race Begins

This fella was in the alley way when I pulled out of the garage this morning.  A couple of years ago, we had an influx of turtles - I wonder if this is going to happen again this year.

Just crazy how the bunnies and the turtles all come out together - I guess that's how the fable got it's start.


BTW - he moved faster than the baby bunny.  I went to pick him up and he wasn't afaid at all - just started to "run" from me.