Last Rite-Aid Post of 2016

So Rite-Aid started their New Year/January Points Scheme early last Sunday(even though the new year wasn't arriving for another week).
Spend $50 on "Starting Points" designated items and earn $20 back in Plenti Points.  Basically this amounts to a 40% discount on purchased items.
A 40% discount unless you work it like I do! ;-)

As I traipsed up to Rite-Aid this past week to pick-up prescription refills I bought items to get me to $50 spent(the spending tracked and you could buy items in multiple transactions)....without spending $50 of course! lolz

The photo is a compilation of what I bought for this Deal but does not include some bulky things like 8 12-packs of Pepsi branded soda and 4 cases of Rite-Aid branded bottled water.

5 x Clear Care contact lens solution(not part of the Starting Points)=$39.95
2 x Progresso soup on sale=$3.00
8 x 12-packs of soda on sale=$26.64*not pictured*
4 x Big Win bottled water cases(rain check item)=$5.16*not pictured*
2 x Scott toilet tissue on sale=$13.98
3 x single serve Nabisco snacks on sale=$1.50
SubTotal.....$90.23($50.28 qualifies for Starting Points Deal)

Coupons Used
5 x $5/1 Clear Care In-AdQ=$25.00
4 x $5/1 Clear Care IPQ=$20.00
1 x $4/1 Clear Care CatalinaQ=$4.00
1 x .50¢/2 Progresso ManuQ=.50¢
4 x $2/2 Pepsi brand 12-packs IPQ=$8.00
2 x .70¢/1 Scott 12 pack tp IPQ=$1.40
Coupon Total.....$58.90

$90.23-$58.90=$31.33+$1.18 tax=$32.51

I paid with $32.51 of Plenti Points.
I earned back $26 in new Plenti Points($20 for buying $50 of Starting Points items, 2 x $3 wyb2 Clear Care items), thus making my total "spent" $6.51.
I also earned $1.50 in cash rebates($1 for buying 2 Progresso soups from SavingStar and .50¢ for buying 1 Diet Pepsi 12-pack soda from Checkout51), making my grand total for all the above $5.01.
No actual money was spent as I used Plenti Points to pay so I "spent down" my points by $6.51 and got $1.50 back in cash, making the "cost" $5.01.

Not only was the contact solution a moneymaker after my 20% Wellness discount and stacked coupons it also gave back $3 in Plenti Points when you bought 2.  Limit of 2 of this deal so I didn't get points back for the 5th bottle I purchased but that one still was a $1.01 moneymaker.
These items' $9.05 in overage I applied to the cost of the Starting Points items that were bought.

I could have saved another .60¢ on the toilet tissue had the store not been out of Cottonelle tp, which was also on sale for $6.99 and qualified as a Starting Points item.  I had $1/1 Qs for that brand but only .70¢/1 Qs for the Scott brand.

I had a rain check for the Big Win bottled water from this summer when it was on sale for $1.99 per case, which made it a better buy than this week's sale price of $2.50.  However when the cashier rang it up she somehow put it in for $1.29 a case and not $1.99 a case, which I didn't catch until I got home.
I should have been over $50 in purchases of SP items without those 3 packs of cookies.  These had to be bought the next day to get me over $50 spent and my $20 in Plenti Points credited to my account.

Since I try to only "buy" stuff that we can/will use and no one here wears contacts, that Clear Care solution will be sent to my eldest son's fiancee(if she can use it)or will be taken to the food bank and/or sold on the local FB yard sale site.
All the other items will be utilized by the household here.

My stats for 2016 are as follows......
* June and August saw no spending/shopping at Rite-Aid at all in 2016.
* 10 months I brought merchandise home from Rite-Aid, ranging from $19.29 worth in July to $717.24 worth in January.
* Total goods "bought" at Rite-Aid in 2016 was $3,390.29.
* Total out of pocket actual money spent at Rite-Aid in 2016 was $2.99.  Less than $3 spend for the year for $3390.29 worth of goods.  I managed to do this by rolling Plenti Points and using Plenti Points earned on prescription transfers or the purchase of gift cards for spending I was going to do, so why not use gift cards bought at Rite-Aid and get the Plenti Points benefit?
* Savings rate for the year of Rite-Aid shopping was 99.91%.  Not 100% but hey!, we aren't perfect.  ;-)

So ends a year of shopping at Rite-Aid.

Who knows what things we will "buy" in 2017 and if the Walgreen's merge will finally happen.

Sluggy

Some Frugal Wins Lately

Here are some of our Frugal Wins this past week.......

*  Who would have thought that having your spouse break his leg in a major way would lead to frugality?!

While this accident did lead to a tad more Eating-Out/Take-Out Spending it also has meant less money spent in other ways.
We have a Christmas eve tradition in our family of enjoying a meal out at our local Chinese restaurant.  This generally involves inviting the brother in-law and nephew, as well as friends of College Boy along for the evening.  We spring for a full spread-appetizers, sushi rolls and dessert if wanted as well as everyone's drinks(not alcohol)and entrees. Cost hovers in the $100 area for the night.

This year, since Hubs is unable to go out to the restaurant we ordered take-out from the place instead.  No extras were ordered just entrees and additional family and CB's friends were not invited to partake, just us 5.  With tip the meal ended up costing $60.  Since I spent over $50 on the order I also got a $5 off your next order coupon from there.

*  I got 5 Kohl's rebates sent in on Friday from my Black Friday online shopping.  At $12 a pop that comes to $60 in money coming back to me.  These were small appliances that are $7 after rebate-I gifted 3 different ones to Daughter and the BF for when they eventually get their own place again and I bought 2 toaster ovens for spares.  Our toaster oven is on it's last legs plus College Boy will be doing an internship his last semester and living goodness knows where for it(not at school)so I picked another toaster oven up in case he needs something to cook in wherever he is located for that 14 weeks.  It just made sense to take part in this appliance deal at that price.

*  This arrived in the mail last week.....

A coupon for a free 12 pack of Coke products.  I consider this a freebie as it was "bought" using coke points I acquire from drink bottles the BF throws away(He buys those bottles.)  Unfortunately this year the Coke folks limited each registered user to 1 redemption of this free 12 pack reward. boo!  In past years there was either a 5 reward limit or no limit at all.

*  I got a cash back summary for my online Christmas shopping from the site I go through when I shop via websites.
A grand total of $7.13 in cash back.
Whoopee, right?
Granted I didn't buy much online this Holiday season but every little bit helps.

*  Gasoline taxes are set to rise 8 cents per gallon here in PA on January 1st.  We already have the highest gas taxes in the nation so yeah, I am not thrilled about this.  I had 70 cents in gas discounts at Weis(PMITA)Markets that expired Dec. 31st so College Boy and I took both of our cars up to fill the tanks using that lower price.  The discount was good for $1.779 per gallon for 20 gallons and between the cars we were able to squeeze in 18.5 gallons, saving $12.95 on gas.  I told the Daughter that she and the BF should fill their car/truck tanks before Saturday, but when I went out on Thursday I saw that all the stations in town had already jacked up the regular gas price by 8 cents a gallon.
bleh.

*  I got all my medications filled before January 1st when our high deductible kicks in for 2017.  If it's a choice between paying ZERO OOP or the full Usual & Customary price on drugs after Dec. 31st, I'm all about the free rxs.

*  We've only used non-essential electricity this week during the cheaper off-peak hours.  This includes running dishwasher, washer and dryer and taking showers and some lighting.  This weekend will see bed linens/towels washed/dried as weekends are also off-peak times.

That's about it from Chez Sluggy for frugal wins lately.
What good things have you been accomplishing?

Sluggy

What Santa/The Mailman Brought Us Last Week....Yikes!

After the scare last week about not getting the disability paperwork in on time so that the paychecks keep rolling in at Chez Sluggy, Hubs got an envelope in the mail from our insurance company.

This wasn't in the packet of EOBs that came separately, the size of which could chock a horse.
No this EOB came under separate cover.

And just look at the amount of this bill..........!!!

Gulp!
Merry Christmas! lolz

This was not for the ER visit stuff or the X-rays, CT scans, docs, etc. or the surgeon and anesthesiologist fees.

This was for the use of the OR, drugs, equipment and the subsequent 1.5 day hospital stay(2.5 days if you count the day between being admitted and when they actually performed the surgery), nursing costs, meals, etc. while there.

ER costs that have been billed amount to $2321.00 so far.  According to the insurance company's website there is another $6290.00 of charges on there for the EOBs that haven't arrived in our mail yet.

If you are keeping score we've got $95,626.82 in medical charges so far for his accident.
Add in 3 home health nursing/OT visits, the suture removal next week and then numerous Physical Therapy sessions in January to look forward to.
yay.......

Luckily(I guess it's lucky?)we hit our maximum out of pocket for 2016 so everything so far is covered 100% and we don't owe a penny of co-insurance/co-pays for any of this. (Add in $10K+ in charges for the Daughter's last back injection in November that was no cost either as we'd hit the maximum OOP before she had that procedure done mid November.)

Come January 1st, we are on the hook 100% for the first $3K in new medical charges out of pocket in 2017 and then 10% of each bill for co-insurance charges.
Goody.

I can't even imagine having a major health event without medical insurance!  No wonder medical debt is the number 1 reason people go bankrupt.
This was just broken leg(albeit a really bad one).  What do they charge for an organ removal/repair or a heart attack/stroke?

Sluggy

This Past Week at Chez Sluggy

Christmas prep continued last week, ready or not.
Tuesday was spent at home, recovering from Monday's excursion to Hub's eye doc. Daughter helped me complete 2 large pizza for dinner and I got a few more ornaments on the Xmas tree.

Tuesday also found me deep into cookie baking.

  Italian Ricotta Cookies. This recipe sure made a TON of them!

I don't usually make so many kinds of cookies for Xmas but A-I had to be close to home more than usual, due to Hub's and B-this year I have 5 people here(plus 2 more on Xmas Day)to eat all this stuff, so why not get "into" cookie baking this year.

      Coconut Macaroons cooling in the snow.

I had printed off 7 cookie recipes I wanted to do(plus 2 usual varieties I make). I also had some mint chocolate chip cookie dough that I bought Nov. 30th at the store on clearance that just needed putting onto a baking sheet and running through the oven.
This potentially gave us 10 different cookie types for Xmas...yikes!

     Lemon Gooey Butter Cookies. Good but a PITA to make.

I didn't get to all of them(either due to lack of energy/time or special ingredients-who knew the grocery store would run out of white chocolate chips!?)but I did make the following 7.......

Lemon Gooey Butter Cookies
Coconut Macaroon Cookies
Peanut Butter w/PB M&Ms Cookies
Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Italian Ricotta Cookies
Butterscotch Cashew Cookies
Chocolate Chip w/M&Ms Cookies

    The Cookie Tree, the best kind of tree.

I had to resort to this to keep the kids out of the cookies until Xmas.....

Yes I am that mom! 8-)

Also on Tuesday we spent an inordinate amount of time dealing with paperwork for Hubs' disability claim.  Not only does he have to submit paperwork to his work's HR, but also the disability board AND the FLMA folks.  His boss was suppose to handle some things with all this but she was wrong about it, Hubs had to do all this and he didn't jump right on it due to his boss saying she'd handle some of it and then she was on vacation this week.  So the paperwork is already late and he was freaking out that he'd not get it taken care of before the window closed and he's lose some benefits($$).
But we got everything back on track and the paperwork is in the pipeline now.

Wednesday, while I was out doing a Rite-Aid and grocery store run, a package arrived.

A bounty of unexpected Xmas gifties from buddy Kim.

MORE Cookies! lolz

Hubs even received a package...........

Homemade CANDY! *drool*
Thankfully the tag on his gift said he had to share it.  Score! lolz

My present said to open immediately.

And indeed I did because the next day I began the pie baking marathon.
And this lovely ensemble Kim sent me came in very handy..........

It's a Maxine apron(complete with ginormous rick-rack trim)and matching pot holders.
I posed for a photo with one of the pecan pies I made for Daughter.  Photo bombed by the dog too....how nice.  ;-)

On Thursday I made 3 pies-2 pecan and 1 mincemeat(for Hubs).  I bought 2 cream type pies at Weis(PMITA)Markets last week for $3 each.  One pie was for the BF and the other for the Nephew and me(Key Lime).

I also moved some stuff in the family room and found this.....

...a bag of items that were supposedly taken up to the food bank last month.
sigh.

On Friday, at least I think it was Friday, I made a quick shopping run to 4 different stores at the ass crack of dawn while the weather was good.  I was still in search of something for Hubs for Xmas(a style of shirt he likes that NOBODY makes anymore), plus some odds and ends for stockings and such.
The shirts were found at Kohl's and I used gift cards to pay plus got $10 in Kohl's Cash for later.
I also saw this sweet Xmas decoration........

A Xmas tree made from a plunger. 8-P

I found a Sara Lee pumpkin pie on clearance at Walmart(in there looking for Hub's shirts).  The pie was $3.50 for which I had a $1 off Q and there was a $1.50 rebate so for $1.00 OOP I didn't need to make College Boy his pie of choice for Christmas. Woohoo!
I also saw this at Walmart.......

I picked up 2 containers of 18 count eggs at Dollar Tree for $2 but my trip to Family Dollar netted me nothing.
A run to Weis later that day for a bottled water stock up and Christmas candy for 50% off and using coupons may have also been purchased. ;-)
I found this at Weis.....

Zitner's  is a Philly area candymaker.  I knew they made Easter confections but I'd never seen a Christmas one.  Ok, so it's just a peanut butter Easter egg in a red box. lolz

Saturday was pretty uneventful here thankfully.  I didn't need to go anywhere, just fill stockings and do some last minute wrapping.
My cookbook from the giveaway I won did arrived Christmas eve...........

I haven't had a chance to do anything but glance into it but something Anne didn't tell anybody about this book is that she was one of the editors for it!  It looks to be interesting and chocked full of recipes from famous chefs and/or restaurants throughout the country.
Thanks Anne!

Sunday....oh Sunday!!!

Santa came!

The kids arose about 10 am....finally!  Daughter made Sausage Gravy and Biscuits for breakfast.
The biscuit took twice as long to bake.  The oven just wasn't heating up for some reason.  Come to think of it, my cookies were all baking "weird" the other day....taking longer to bake and spreading out like crazy due to that.
After the oven cooled off I took a close look in there with a flashlight and noticed that there were a couple of places on the lower element that were deformed, like they had super heated and melted a bit.
Sigh.

But onward to the gift opening, which commenced around noon.

Daughter not thrilled with having to play Santa first.

Cinnamon hugging her new toy from her other grandparents in Louisiana.

Who invited this lumberjack to Christmas? lolz

My new slippers, purple of course!

The BF grinning about his Teletubbies wrapped gift.

If you haven't guessed by now, we have OLD wrapping paper we still use, that has been collected over many, many years.
The Daughter excited for her Justin Beiber paper.....

We had a new Santa's elf this Christmas.  Everyone takes a turn in the Santa hat.

My "Precious" giftie.  A robotic vacuum built specifically for pet hair.  Hmmm, I wonder why I now need this? lolz

The BF confounded by massive amounts of tape.  The tape monster(aka me)strikes again!

Daughter loved this tie-dyed psychedelic kitty head shirt that was a last minute purchase at Walmart on Friday.

The doggy chilling out.

College Boy with his obligatory AXE gift set.

The BF seemed to like his lined work pants we got him.

Even Hubs got festive and decorated his "boot".

And he really liked the authentic Viking chain and pendant Daughter gave him.

And likewise, Daughter was thrilled by her WOW(aka World of Warcraft)wallet and Firefly hat that the BF gave her.

WE followed gift opening with stocking emptying.  I think everyone was well taken care of by Santa this year.

I think the doggy sums up my morning on Christmas.  Happy but tired.  8-)

So I warned Hubs that our oven may be shot and our Roast Beef and Mac & Cheese Xmas dinner may be in jeopardy.  I had him call his brother to let him know we may be bringing a hunk of meat, mac and cheese and pans of rolls to his house to cook off.  I had done the Green Beans in a crock pot so that was one thing I didn't have to worry about.
After punching down the dough and making it into rolls at 1 pm I tried the oven again.
Nothing.
It barely got warm.

So Hubs called his brother to have him preheat his oven and Daughter and I headed out to brother in-law's house to cook the food.
When the food came out and hour and 15 minutes later, we called home to have College Boy bring over the pans of rolls and take the roast and mac back home.
20 minutes after that all 4 of us heading to our house with the rolls and got dinner on the table.

The hungry diners.  We ate about 3 hours later than planned.

And me, silly with hunger trying another failed selfie.  8-)

After dinner we exchanged gifts with brother in-law and the nephew.

Afterwards the youngin's sat and checked phones, vaped and checked out their gifts.

On Monday I didn't go out and hit any after Christmas sales.  I was too busy with Hubs and digging out from Christmas(cleaning out, dishes, etc.)and getting the garbage ready for Tuesday morning's pick-up and locating a heating element for our oven.

I think I can just replace the element and get the oven up and running again and not have to go buy a new appliance. Spending $16 as opposed to $500+ would be much better, right? ;-)

And those are the highlights of our week here at Chez Sluggy.

So what's up in your world lately?

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Well This Christmas was Different!" Edition--

Sorry to be MIA the last few days.  It's been stressful around here what with nothing going as planned.
I haven't had time to do much online nor any inclination to.
I am just so tired.  Gee, like I haven't said that before? lolz

I haven't even tallied my grocery receipts for this past week until now.....throwing them in my receipt book is all I could manage.
Let's just say that I thought my December Grocery Challenge was bust due to not being able to cook like I usually do because of demands on me and Hubs accident causing me to buy stuff I usually don't just to get through the day.  I had no clue what I had spent especially this last week.

Wednesday evening I had a mini meltdown here.  The kids kept coming downstairs asking about when dinner was going to be served while I was trying to deal with doing things for Hubs(who's been a bit demanding)and trying to prepare a home cooked meal that was a bit complicated.(Not a good combination for future reference.)
Not once did they offer to help me make dinner or help out in some other way and I just went off on them.

Right now I am taking everything one day at a time.  If we can get through the day with everyone being warm, fed and clothed, I call it a win.  The budget is just an afterthought for me at the moment.  This is why I have been avoiding sitting down and calculating receipts.

Moving on......

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

1. Sunday--Flounder, Cauliflower, au gratin Taters

2. Monday--Soup Night or Fend for Yourself

3. Tuesday--Hot Dogs or Kielbasa, Potato Salad, Beans

4. Wednesday--Chicken Marsala, Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli

5. Thursday--Tacos

6. Friday--Leftovers or ?

7. Saturday--Xmas Eve Chinese Meal Out(Take-Out this year as Hubs can't go)

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Flounder, Cauliflower, au gratin Taters

2. Monday--Soup Night or Fend for Yourself

3. Tuesday--Homemade Pizza

4. Wednesday--Chicken Marsala, Mixed Veggie, Alfredo Noodles

5. Thursday--Hot Dogs, Beans, Potato Salad

6. Friday--Fend for Yourself(I had a salad, Hubs had soup)

7. Saturday--Xmas Eve Chinese Meal(Take-out)

6 meals cooked at home, 2 of them nights of leftovers, and 1 night of Take-Out/Eating-Out.

The Dec. Buddget update--

$10 more in rolled coins, $10.75 in Ibotta and $6 in SavingStar, making my totals as follows-- 
Gift Cards.....$64.36

Cash Rebates--

 Savingstar...$148.03

 Checkout51..$42.25

 Ibotta..........$44.25

Rolled Coins...$97.50

Other Cash(post coupons)...$42.00

Total.....$435.39

As for the grocery spending.....3 trips to Weis, 1 trip to the Bread Outlet since I was out taking Hubs to a dr. appt., and 1 trip to the Shursave Market for mushrooms only brought the week's spending to $137.89 and brings my December food spending Total to $404.69 so far this month. 4 Days left to spend in December and $30.70 left in my December budget.

I am amazingly still under budget(I am shocked really!)and I may squeak by on this food challenge.  8-)

My savings percentages this week was 55.04%.

Leftovers going into this week.......potato salad, ravioli in sauce, some Chinese take-out.

Here is this week's "food plan".
Due to circumstances out of my control(no oven-details coming later), meals will be a bit different if not easier and quicker.

1. Sunday--Beef Eye Round Roast, Yeast Rolls, Green Bean Casserole, Mac & Cheese
2. Monday--Leftovers
3. Tuesday--Chicken Enchiladas(premade Stouffer's)
4. Wednesday--Tacos
5. Thursday--Xmas Dinner 2.0
6. Friday--Clam Chowder and Biscuits
7. Saturday--NYE tapas(aka appetizers)

This week will see 5 new meals cooked, 0 nights of Take-Out/Eating-Out and 2 night of Leftovers.

What I need to buy for this menu? Lettuce, milk.

And for the record I'll NOT have to buy anything dessert related or needed to make dessert type foods for at least 3 weeks.(6 pies, 7 types of cookies plus candy and cookies gifted to us & nephew made whipped cream on Sunday here.  It's a sugar wonderland!)

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

Merry Christmas from Sluggy

Here's something I like to share at Christmas.
It's sort of a tradition here at Chez Sluggy now.

I'd like to dedicate this song to Cousin Sonya this year.  ;-)


Sluggy

Grocery Deals This Past Week

A few items I bought this past week.....all at Weis(PMITA)Markets.

Last Friday these were Buy One Get Two Free(reg. price $3.99).
I bought 6, paid for 2=$7.98
I used 2 x .55¢/1 ManuQs(doubled to $1 each)=$2.00 making the OOP $5.98 so less than $1 per bag.
I also earned $1 cash rebate in my SavingStar account so in the end, $4.98 paid for 6 bags.
(1 bag is missing as it is in a Christmas stocking.) 8-)

8 O'Clock Coffee was BOGO this past week.
At Weis even if an item is BOGO you can use 1 coupon for each item, even the one you are getting free.
So I got 8 bags(reg. price $5.49), paid for 4=$21.96
I used 8 x $1.50/1 IPQs so $12.00 off=$9.96.
I also have a $1.50/1 Weis Q which stacked so $9.96-$1.50=$8.46 or $1.06 per bag OOP.
(1 bag is missing here too since College Boy made coffee with one.)

Weis had/still has Angel Soft 12 packs of TP for $5.49 on sale.
I had a $1/1 IPQ making it $4.49.
I also had a $1/1 WeisQ that stacked making the final cost $3.49.

4 x Pepsi product sodas on sale for $11(must buy 4).
I used 2 x $2/2 Pepsi products 12-packs IPQs=$7
I unlocked and received a $4 Ibotta cash rebate for buying the 2 packs of new Mtn. Dew flavors, making my cost $3 for 4 12-packs, or .75¢ per 12-pack.
You will notice the "Mom's" notes on them all.  Not that I drink Mtn. Dew(I will drink a Dr. Pepper now and again)but in order to keep them from disappearing in a nanosecond permission has to be asked to have one otherwise these are not to be touched.  The things I have to do to monitor usage around here! ;-)

Select General Mills cereals were $1.88 per box in the ad that just finished at Weis(Must buy 4 to get this price.)
2 boxes of Chex(for making Muddy Buddies)and 2 boxes of Cheerios were purchased for $7.52.
I used a .50¢/1 Cheerios(doubled to $1 off)ManuQ and a $1/2 Chex ManuQ making this $5.52 for 4 boxes.  I'll receive $2($1 for buying 2 Chex, $1 for buying 2 Cheerios)cash rebates back in my SavingStar account and I also got $1 cash back in Ibotta for buying the Chex so these 4 boxes will end up costing $2.52 total, or .63¢ per box.

I also bought 3 Pillsbury crescent "whack" rolls for $6 total.
I used a $1/3 IPQ and will get back $1 in SavingStar, making these $4 total for 3 tubes.

I get the Cabot brand emailed newsletter and had printed off a $1/1 Cabot cheese IPQ last month. Weis had Cabot chunks for $2.50 on sale this past week so I got 2 chunks for $1.50 each with coupon/sale price.

That's the extent of my grocery deals this week and my shopping adventures.  No retail therapy around here as all the Christmas gifties were bought and paid for by early December.
Nothing much to do around here ltely except grocery shop, make cookies and cook meals.
Oh, and taking care of that invalid guy that showed up. 8-)

Sluggy

Sluggy's Financial Woes...Maybe, Maybe Not

Besides the negatives of falling down and breaking a limb, which in and of itself is bad, there is another down side.

I am speaking of having to go on short term disability.
I went and looked online and saw that here in PA that means an income reduction of 40% until you can return to work.
That means 40% less money coming in for us, going into 2017.
Ouch.

Hubs talked to HR and what I saw isn't accurate for his situation and his employer, thankfully.  He was told the first month he'll get 100% of his income and then it drops to 70% in month two.
There is a 1 week wait or something where you can't collect until you've been out of work for 7 days(and don't get paid for those 7 days).  Luckily Hubs still has personal days he can use for those days so we won't go without pay for that week.
For now the tentative return to work date is Feb.7th. so we will have a month of 70% less income.

And to have this all to be happening at the Holidays just sucks.  It's a good thing that I have bought ahead for Christmas(and all that is already paid for)and haven't put any recent Xmas expenses on credit cards that I can't pay off monthly in full.

Hopefully Hubs last paycheck for December which arrives this Friday won't reflect any reductions yet.

On the bright side are two things(well one has a bright side, sort of)--
It wasn't a worse injury and Hubs will fully recover and be able to return to work and his nice salary.
The other bright side(sort of)to all this is that we have not only met our deductible but maxed out our deductible with out of pocket for medical co-pays for the year.

No, not satisfied the high deductible(that happened in about March).  We have hit $7K in medical deductibles and co-pays out of pocket for 2016 so from about mid November forward all the medical bills/prescriptions/DMEs/etc. have not cost us one penny more.
This means it's fortuitous that Hubs broke his leg this month and not in January....if you can call breaking one's leg fortuitous. ;-)

Add that $7K to the $5600 we have paid in insurance premiums this year and we are out of pocket $12,600 for medical costs in 2016.
ouch.

Until Friday when I see the paycheck I can't be confident that I'll be able to achieve my Savings Challenge goal for 2016.
Between our expenses this month, a possible reduction in income and having to hold back a percentage of whatever is leftover after expenses are paid for December to help cover the High Deductible of our insurance policy(before they pay anything)which rolls over January 1, I am crossing my fingers we can meet our savings goal for the year.  It will be close if we do make it. ;-)

With my prescription costs in January alone and Hubs beginning physical therapy in January plus Daughter's medical appointments that month, we will hit our high deductible in record time in 2017 and I predict we will max out our co-pays before 2017 is over as well.
Not something to look forward to but it is going to happen.

Between this possible short term income reduction and other financial changes we might be undergoing next year(that aren't set in stone and I am not at liberty to talk about yet)I really can't sit down to finalize our 2017 Household Budget like I had wanted to by mid December.

I had planned to make 2017 the Year of Austerity Spending BEFORE Hubs' accident happened.

What with 2 more adults living here and us basically paying their living expenses(rent, utilities and bulk of food costs) for the next 2 years so Daughter can finish her degree, our basic costs have gone up and will continue to be higher.

Once December is over I can see actually how much more their living here has cost us over the last 6 months and make plans to adjust how and where the spending happens.
I had planned on cutting back on categories and putting the fear of MOM into these kids when it comes to wasting water/electricity/food.  Yes, they need to be more aware of what/how much they are using.
A short term income reduction brings this point home even more now.  Plus the fact that Hubs will be retiring shortly(could be in a year, could be sooner now)changes will be coming whether they like it or not.  Once Hubs retires we can't sustain the current level of spending on our retirement income(not until Social Security kicks in anyway but that won't be happening until well after he retires).

And on the bright side.......
We received a refund of car insurance on Monday, finally after cancelling the car coverage in September!

I will attempt to NOT spend this all in one place.
Though I could do some damage at Rite-Aid with that pittance. ;-)

We are thankful for good medical care and insurance coverage and an income to pay for it all here at Chez Sluggy  today.  You never know what life with throw at you but by planning and handling your finances well, you can help your chances of surviving the shit that happens.

No matter what comes our way in the future I know we will be ok. 8-)

Sluggy