Frugal Friday....the May 10th Edition

There are a few Frugal wins over the past week.

*  I did a shop at Kroger and bought this last Friday.....

The $9.99 Kellogg's cereals in back were on clearance for $2.49.  I had $2 Ibotta rebates so they cost .49¢ each.  The Keebler mini crackers were $2.49 or $2.29 after coupons and I am suppose to get back $6 total($2 per box)from KCB, making them .29¢ or .49¢(depending on variety).

I had a Best Customer Q making the Peanut Butter free and I had a Manufacturer Rebate making the Pop Chips free as well.

The Aleve was a clearance find for $6.37, which had a $3 Kroger digital Q and a $3 Ibotta rebate so .37¢ in the end.  The Bob Evans Veggies were $4.99 on sale with Q and I had $2 Ibotta rebates for each, so $2.99 OOP.

The yogurt remix things(Dannon)were$1.50 each and I had a .50¢ off one and a $2 off 4 digital Q so $3.50 for all. I had a Shopmium .50¢ Q for one and a TaDa .50¢ for another one too so $2.50 for all. I believe I had a KCB offer as well but it hasn't been applied to my account. 8-(  KCB has been a hassle for me.

Then I stopped in a different Kroger on Tuesday before the sale ended and bought this........

The 3 boxes of toothpaste were a total of .97¢ after digital Q($5/3)and 3 x $2 Ibotta rebates(headed for the food bank).  The Aleve was more clearance, $3.37 after digital Q and I had a $3 Ibotta rebate so .37¢ after all that.

The Move Free was also a clearance find at $9.80, had a $5 Ibotta rebate and a $5 KCB so it will end up being a .20¢ moneymaker....if the KCB ever works.

*  I hit up Walmart for this.....

3 x Tylenol Extra Strength travel size tubes for $1.88 each.  I got $2 back on Ibotta for each so a .36¢ moneymaker.

*  CVS rewarded me for going in last week by giving me $3 in ECBs expiring Sunday.

So I went there and bought this......

Two boxes of GM cereal on sale for $1.99 each.  I paid $.98 OOP and submitted to Ibotta and got $1.00, making this free cereal.  The Cocoa Puffs will go to the food bank and the Cheerios are staying here.

*  I noticed that none of my KCB offers I did have been applied to my account(since the beginning of April!)so I called to get clarification on a few things.

It's difficult to keep track of KCB since as soon as you use/apply an offer and purchase the item, the offer disappears from your available account and it doesn't show anywhere as pending.  Going forward I'll track what offers I use and when so I can contact CS if they don't show up after 1 week.

The person I spoke to put a courtesy $10 on my Kroger card  but I'll be darned if I won't be calling back on Friday(which will be a week since purchase)to get the $6 in KCB for those crackers bought last Friday. ;-)  

*  We have been using food here and eating leftovers.  No eating out so far this week.

*  I went to PT on Wednesday for my shoulders.  Because of my Medigap Supplement, PT there won't cost me any copays.  Therapist gave me some exercises to do at home and I am doing them. 8-)

*  I found money!  

Last Friday I went to Kroger and used a self-checkout register.

This was in the coin return.....

a Quarter!

Then on Sunday I went to Walmart to pick up Rxs and found this......

A penny while walking on the entrance aisle past the registers in the store.

Then also on Sunday while in CVS to use my free $3 in ECBs they gave me I found these.........

They have one self-checkout register right by the door and next to where they keep the shopping carts.  As I took a shopping cart, I looked down and saw three pennies on the carpeting next to the register.  People really don't like pennies around here I guess.  I was glad to bring them home. ;-)

Total Found last week.... .29¢ 

Grand Total Found this Year.......$4.41 & 5.30 Euros

That's all I got.  

Any frugal wins in your neck of the woods?  Let's hear all about them!

Sluggy     

There is Always Excitement Around Here!

 Well I saw no naked men since Monday but that doesn't mean we had no excitement here. 8-)

I went out Tuesday to Kroger and I passed this location which we often pass(this was a photo from a previous day when Hubs was driving not from Tuesday).......

There was a man with a cargo van parked at this abandoned location setting up wooden plank shelves.  When I came back through he had one of those wing signs on a pole and his whole display in place.  He was selling BONSAI.  Now this being Louisiana I thought that was the most random thing! lolz  We often see people set up with a tent and table in various abandoned commercial locations right before holidays(Xmas, Easter, etc.)selling gift baskets, but I guess he thinks there is a booming market for bonsai trees for Mother's Day?? ;-)

I also go through an area known as MLK town on the way to Kroger.  At this light on the far right side of the intersection as pictured.......

There usually stands a guy we have dubbed "Hatman".  Hatman creates as you'd assume "creative hats", made out of found items, with messages, usually religious but some political.  He is just trying to inform the masses about the state of the world and heaven.  He might be crazy or not.  I have never stopped to "chat" with him but I do wave as I go by.

On Tuesday Hatman has on a new chapeau.  I don't know what the actual hat was made out of but he had attached a long strip of cardboard to the front(might have been backed with balsa or some other lightweight wood)and on it was written "300 Trillion......".  I couldn't read the whole thing as I passed but 300 Trillion is/was the amount of the US Debt.  Hmmm.

Then when I came back through this intersection to get home, Hatman wasn't at his post(lunch break in the convenience store nearby maybe?)but he had left this in his stead..........

I was stopped at the light so could snap a photo of it, though I couldn't read the wording fully until I started driving when the light turned green.  He took an empty blue city trash can, turned it upside down and had fashioned white Styrofoam letters that spelled out "CHINA".  Me thinks Hatman is a very deep thinker and if I didn't sense he was a little "touched" in the head, I'd enjoy talking with him. ;-)

Tuesday evening our power went out again!  I was composing a letter on my computer keyboard Tuesday night and BAM!  The power went out.  There were no storms raging anywhere around here, not even windy.  I swear we are at the far outer edge of this power company's grid(operating somewhere in Texas).  But come to find out their service territory is Northwest and Central Louisiana, East Texas and the Texas Panhandle and Western Arkansas.  Their customers are divided thusly--552,665, including 235,287 in Louisiana, 191,296 in Texas and 126,082 in Arkansas.

This outage makes FOUR service disruptions in FIVE weeks!  The power went out in early April before we left for the cruise, Hubs got alerts on his phone that the power was out for hours while we were in Europe, the 2+ day outage at the end of April and now a shorter 4 hour outage this past Tuesday.  Had I known the electrical infrastructure was so vulnerable in this town I never would have moved here.  And it's not something we could have ascertained before moving into this house.  Our daughter is on another company even though she is only 7 miles away so we couldn't know from her experience.

My big worry in this house is keeping the fridge/freezer going in a power failure(as is most people's worry, outside of a/c in the Summer).  I have expensive drugs that have to be kept cold/cool in that fridge.  You see, we can't use a generator during a power failure to keep the fridge cold.  Our fridge/freezer is hard wired into the electrical panel.  The appliance doesn't have a plug we can connect to a generator. sigh  

So Wednesday I had PT for my shoulders.  Nice therapist.  Gave me some exercises to do at home and I go back next week and begin twice a week sessions with her for 4 weeks.  Most concerning to her is the partial tear in a muscle in my right shoulder.  Most concerning to me is not being able to sleep in my favorite/use-to be comfortable position with my left arm under my pillow/over my head.  It seems to be a balance of exercising these muscles and tendons but not too much.  So we'll see if this helps. ;-)

We passed the ramshackle house of "Rockman" on the way to therapy.(The house pictured is next door as the shot was taken from an angle.)  There is a guy who stacks rocks in front of a shabby dwelling(trim is painted purple and there is a tarp covering part of the roof).  If I am not driving I try to get a photo of his latest creations........

This was snapped in early April and you can see what I mean.  Yesterday it looked like this.........

The problem is this isn't a good part of town and people up to no good come through at night and knock his creations down.  But he will rebuild as he always does.

I have yet to get a good photo of some of his "nice" creations.......

I listed one of the two abandoned boats w/trailers that are on the property on FB Marketplace on Tuesday for FREE.  Getting lots of "is this still available?" messages but we'll see if anyone actually comes to takes it.  Hubs is handling the rest of this project(answering the messages and dealing with people part).  I only got involved in this because I have a FB account and know how to put stuff on various local FB free/for sale message boards.  I've got 14 asks so far on the boat for Hubs to deal with.

I'll be going to Kroger on Friday to get 4 x Fuel Pts. on any purchase I make.  Not sure what I'll be buying but I am sure I'll see some interesting stuff along the way. 8-))

Sluggy

Income & Spending....the April 2024 Edition

Now that we are living on an annuity, 401K$ withdrawals, personal savings and social security payments, I am still going to keep track of our monthly spending and income, and hopefully we'll still be able to live BELOW our means and I'll have some leftover monies each month to tuck aside.

We went into retirement in June of 2017 with no debt, no mortgage, nor a car payment.

I am trying to be as transparent as I can with how much is coming in and how much is going out.  8-)

On to the April report--

I had 2 goals for April....

The 1st is to actually finish the month in the black and not the red.

The 2nd is to try to have a little cash leftover at the end of the previous month to tuck back into a slush fund.  This slush fund may be applied toward unforeseen bills that are coming due in subsequent months, to spend on "extras/wants" during the year or to just sit there and grow until the end of 2024. 

*  I do not include/report on our retirement accounts here, just the non-retirement ones.

 

I'm happy to report that we finished up April in the black.

The amount extra we ended the month of April with?....$5,916.83

Income or Funds We Can Access

The "income" in April---

*  Monthly annuity payment of $2,530.11

*  SS income of $3,828.70

*  Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $680.88

*  Quarterly 401K Withdrawal of $6,215.06

*  Blog Revenue of $125.13

Total "Income" for April....$13,379.88

Expenses in April---

*  Irregular bills in April were $2,786.00

*  Variable Expenses in April came to $3,969.62

*  Medical Premiums in April were $707.43

Total Expenses....$7,463.05

$13,379.88-$7,463.05=$5,916.83

Slush Fund coming into April of $55,305.39 and the addition of $5,916.83 in April, our end of April 2024 Slush fund comes to $61,222.22

The Slush Fund on it's own page(tab at the top of the blog)shows an addition of $5,916.83

Outgo

As for the variable expenses this April here are the good and the bad side of things.....

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  The water bill and the cell phone bill(.08¢ lower)were all the same as in March.

*  The electric bill went down in April by $44.61

*  Hubs Amazon c/c bill was $389.11 lower than last month.

*  My Amazon c/c bill was $0.

*  The American Airlines c/c was $191.24 lower than in March.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  We had 2 irregular bills in April--

*  We had tree removal for $400.

*  We paid the Federal Taxes of $2,386.00(Will be adjusting our withholding so this isn't so bad next year.)

*  The WAM was $200 more in April due to taking a little extra $$ on our cruise.

*  The Mastercard was $1,844.79 higher than in March. Most of that was dog boarding we paid upfront while we were on the cruise.

*  Hubs Medigap Supplement went up by $9.41 per month as he had a birthday in April.

The Food Budget costs for April are in another post HERE.  Food costs are included in the credit card payments(mainly but sometimes our WAM cash too).

FINAL THOUGHTS for APRIL 2024---This month turned out a bit better than expected, even with paying Federal Taxes, dog boarding, etc.  Food spending was about half of what it was last month since we were not home and food shopping for about half the month.  The quarterly 401K withdrawal also was a bonus this month to keep us in the black.

THOUGHS GOING FORWARD INTO MAY 2024--That 401K$ quarterly withdrawal will come in handy in May what with State Taxes due and c/c spending on the Cruise will come due.

Here's hoping 2024 treats us all even better financially! 8-))

So how was your April financially?

Did you spend less than the income you had in April?

Did you stay within your budget or not?

What did you do with any money leftover at the end of the month?

Did you pay down/off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings, in an emergency fund or a retirement account?

Or did you blow all your excess monies after bills were paid on a "want"?

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

Sluggy

Great Start to the Week! *Not*

 Monday was a "day".

I had to go get bloodwork done before my PCP appt. on Friday.  So I headed out mid morning on Monday to pick up the lab order and head upstairs from the PCP office to the lab.

So I got deep into downtown(where it was pretty deserted), pulled up to a red light and what do I spy on the corner diagonal from me?  A naked man.  *WTF*  On a Monday morning.

Ok, let me back up a bit.....the naked man wasn't actually naked.  He had something wrapped around his head(which obviously didn't keep his brain from leaking out!)and he was holding a rag/towel/piece of material over his groin.  ???

Beside me at the light in the other lane was a cop car.  Of course when he pulled up and saw Mr. Au Natural his lights when on and he crossed right over to the unclothed one to take care of the situation.
But see that was such a great way to start your Monday, right?

Then I get another block further and there is a single railroad track which I had never seen a train use in the 1.5 years we've been here, but of course I get there and the warning lights start flashing and the gates come down.  The engine approaching had 9 cars hooked to it and was doing about 2MPH AND he was blasting his horn over and over again.  And being so close to this tiny train procession the horn was very loud so by the time the train cleared the crossing and I was able to proceed my head was throbbing.  And I still had to get the lab slip from the dr. office.

Get to the medical facility, found a good parking space, got the lab slip and went to the elevator(there is only one)to get to the 4th floor lab.  And I waited, and waited, and waited.

Finally get in the elevator and it dumps me out on the 4th floor.  Then I have to remember which direction to go to find the lab.  Get to the lab to check in and look around me and I swear half the folks living here were in the lab to get bloodwork. ugh.

So I wait and wait and I swear they didn't have but one or two phlebotomists working that day.  After hour one of waiting we all began grumbling to each other about it taking an eternity to be called.  Someone said they should serve snacks and I said they needed one of those airplane carts they use to serve beverages and cookies.  Two people couldn't wait any longer so they went up to the receptionists and took their lab orders back and left so that bumped me ahead 2 folks.  I was counting who had been there before me to see how much longer and just as I was about to surrender and leave(but that would mean coming back Tues. or Wed. and I didn't relish that idea)they called me back.  The stick was quick and clean and I was out of there before you could say Bob's Your Uncle.

I got a couple of items at Walmart, since there was one right across the street.  And of course as I was walking out I remembered that I had forgotten to check for another items so I threw that shopping bag in the car and wheeled my cart back into the store. bleh.  Found what I was looking for and hightailed it out of there again.  Then I had to check at Kroger(also on the route home)for something but they were out of it but I picked up "nut juice" ala almond milk for Hubs.

Got my bloodwork results back online and I am astonished to see that none of the PCPs I've seen down here run a Lipids Panel as part of routine bloodwork.  I went back and checked on the last labs I had done with this doc and the other two docs who were my PCP and none of them ran the panel.  Seems to me(yet I am not a medical personnel)that if you have a patient on Cholesterol meds it would be standard practice to run a Lipids panel when doing their routine labs.  Hmmm.

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table....the May 6th Edition

The "Well I Know I Am Back in The States" Edition.....

Went up to CVS on Sunday as I had $3 in free money expiring.  Stepped out of my car and look at what I see in the parking lot? lol

I swear I didn't see a single discarded dental pick the whole time in Europe but as soon as we hit an American airport, BOOM!, used dental picks everywhere.  I saw 1 in the Charlotte airport and 3 in Dallas.  *SMH*

As I mentioned before I put on 13 lbs. during the cruise, but I've already taken it all off.  go me.

Onward to the meal planning!

This is what was planned for last week...........

1. Sunday--Cheeseburger(bun optional), Teriyaki Green Beans, Stuffed Mushroom Caps

2. Monday--Catfish, Shrimp, Green Beans

3. Tuesday--1/2 Subway Tuna Sub

4. Wednesday--1/2 Subway Tuna Sub

5. Thursday--Brisket, Baked Sweet Potato Fries

6. Friday--Leftovers

7. Saturday--Leftovers

And here's what actually happened....

1. Sunday--Cheeseburger(bun optional), Teriyaki Green Beans, Stuffed Mushroom Caps(ate before the power went out)

2. Monday--Dinner out-Catfish, Shrimp, Green Beans

3. Tuesday--Dinner out-1/2 Subway Tuna Sub

4. Wednesday--1/2 Subway Tuna Sub

5. Thursday--Brisket, Baked Sweet Potato Fries, Teriyaki Green Beans

6. Friday--Rigatoni with Mushroom/Meat Sauce, Salad, Garlic Bread

7. Saturday--Beef & Veggie Stir-Fry Teriyaki w/Noodles

What got taken out of the freezer last week....

*  Brisket(it was less than stellar)

*  Cheeseburgers

*  Cooked Ground Beef

*  1 bag Stir-Fry Veggies

*  1 bag Green Beans

*  2 slices Garlic Bread

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

*  1/2 lb. thinly sliced Beef for Stir-Fry 

Last week we spent $66.38 on grocery shopping for May. 

Total shopping comes to $66.38 for May.   There are 25 shopping days left in May.

Rebate monies earned this month so far.....

I've earned $21.50 on Ibotta in May.

I've earned $1.50 on Shopmium in May.

I've earned $0 on Alexa app in May.

I've earned $6.00 on Kroger Cash Back in May.

I've earned $1.56 on TaDa in May.

I've earned $0 on Checkout51 in May.

I've earned $5.49 on Aisle, etc. in May.

I've earned 1,610 points on Fetch from food shopping in May.

I've earned 12 points from food shopping on Shop Kick in May.($)

I've earned 0 Points on My Points in May.($)

I've earned 0 SB from food shopping on Swag Bucks in May.

That is $23.00 in rebates(not counting Shop Kick/Fetch/TaDa/MyPoints/KCB/Alexa)on $66.38 of grocery spending so in reality it's $43.38 in food spending after the rebate apps I count. I now separate out the Food Bank donations and don't count those in the grocery spending.

My savings percentage for the last week was 52.41% and the monthly savings total for May comes in at 52.41% spent so far. 

Leftovers going into this week...Rigatoni in Sauce, Stir-Fry Beef & Veggies w/Noodles, 1 Cheeseburger, Hubs Chili.

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

1. Sunday--Leftovers(I had Stir-Fry)

2. Monday--Leftovers

3. Tuesday--Lobster cakes, Cole Slaw, Something else?

4. Wednesday--Salad, Soup?  Kind of warm here now for soup tho....

5. Thursday--Fish, leftover Cole Slaw, Sweet Potato Fries

6. Friday--Late Lunch Out, no Dinner

7. Saturday--???Whatever I pull out of the freezer

I am just feeling uninspired right now.  Like
Anne in the Kitchen", we have food, we'll eat something. ;-)

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 deals on food at your stores this week?  

Sluggy