2017 Food & Toiletries Spending......August Update

Onward to August's food spending report.......

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for AUGUST 2017.

I have posted August's totals on the Total Grocery Savings Page located HERE and have updated the Totals there.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in August.  If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom for the Totals Sum.  My spending includes Food, Toiletries/HBA, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable. We are a family of 3-4(3-4 at home this month). No kids under 21.

******************

ALDI
OOP  $24.91
Value  $43.75
Savings  43.06%

BREAD OUTLET
OOP  $9.00
Value  $35.12
Savings  74.37%

DOLLAR TREE
OOP  $3.00
Value  $4.50
Savings  33.33%

MAINE SOURCE
OOP  $58.17
Value  $94.29
Savings  38.31%

RITE-AID
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads/PPs  $74.93
Value  $74.93
Savings  100%

SHURSAVE MARKET
OOP  $64.57
Qs/Ads  $51.35
Value  $115.92
Savings  44.30%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $174.29

Qs/Ads  $204.03

Value  $378.32

Savings  53.93%

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My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, the Bread Outlet at 74.37% and Weis Markets at 53.93%.  My WORST savings rate was at that Dollar Tree at 33.33%.

I shopped at 7 different stores this past month.  Or rather my Daughter and I shopped at 7 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket..........$333.94

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$337.96

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$671.90

TOTAL Savings of ..................................50.30%
Total Value of Items Purchased w/Rite-Aid....$746.83
TOTAL Savings with Rite-Aid items..........55.29%

This closes out the August food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I wanted to stay under $420 spent in August and I ended up $86.06 under that mark.  I am pleased as punch I could meet that expectation.

The monthly food spending savings percentage went DOWN by 9.79% in August to 55.29% compared to July's 65.08% savings average.  We still have over a 50% savings rate so it's all good.

With 8 months accounted for, I have spent a Grand Total of $2,760.34 on food/toiletries in 2017 which is a 69.37% savings rate for the year to-date and averages out to $345.04 per month spent in 2017. 8-)


LOOKING AHEAD To September........

With College Boy back at school we are down to 3 adults at home for meals.  With Hubs home full time now I am hoping any remaining food waste will go away.  Hubs doesn't want to eat sandwiches for lunches(as he did mostly when he was working)and he loves leftovers so he is more than happy to attack dinner leftovers.  8-)))
Setting a monthly budget for September.....Hmmm, let me think.  Not much will be available in the way of Holiday deals(mostly baking items/canned goods)this month but we'll need to get tomatoes to can at the farm.
I am thinking $350 budget for September will be sufficient.  Since we are still living on a reduced income this coming month if I can do it for less than that, more's the better. ;-)

If you have other ideas or guidelines you follow please leave a comment and share yours with us all.

*  How much did you spend on food/toiletries in August?
*  Do you track your yearly food spending?
*  What was your savings percentage buying on sale and/or with coupons vs. buying at regular retail price last month, if you track that sort of thing?
*  What are your methods for keeping your food spending in check?

Is anyone out there up for tracking expenditures and trying to spend less but still eat well?


Sluggy

The Past 10 Days or So at Chez Sluggy

Well the "Great American Eclipse" came and went a week ago Monday.
Here in my part of PA we only got 72% totality.......

This photo was taken at our peak(2:41 pm).  Instead of looking like 2:41 in the afternoon it sort of looked like 4:41 in the afternoon. lolz

Daughter's dog in her usual spot chilling under my desk on Tuesday.

On Wednesday it was time to load College Boy up and take him back to school.  He had an audition on Thursday so he needed to be back and unpacked on Wednesday.

This semester he is sharing an apartment that two friends of his(sisters)rent.
He will only be there for 1 semester so this was the best situation for both him and me(me financially).  It is soooo much cheaper than being in a dorm! 8-)))
Since it is a 2 bedroom apartment he is getting the living room for his bedroom.
Before his crap......

After his crap......

He had it all organized and set up before going to bed that night.

Hubs took a couple more pics of the apartment........

Actually it's a nice little apartment with a cute kitchen.
Just wait until College Boy starts banging around in there....it won't be so clean and neat. lolz

You can tell a couple of "20 something" gals live here and not guys.  They even had a little garden out back. ;-)

On Friday last week Hubs and I ran errands.  I wanted to see if I was in time to get and can tomatoes this year from the local farm.

I drug out my canning jars and I had 32 quart size ones to use.

Smile calf!
Seems tomatoes are ripening slower than usual here this Summer so we were a couple of weeks early.

 We'll go back after Labor Day, calling first, to pick maters.  We got some corn and zukes while we were there so as not to waste the trip out.

Then we circled back to the town South of here to hit the Weis Fantastic Friday deals there.

The best deal was 4 bags of coffee for .72¢ a bag that I already blogged about.

On the way to the other side of town there I saw this massive furniture store that has been having a "going out of business" sale since before we moved to this area 17 years ago......

And they actually WENT OUT OF BUSINESS finally!!! lolz

It only took what?.....20 years!?!

Then we hit Aldi for a few things.  I gladly left these deep fried Twinkies in the store though.
ick.

Saturday I kept tabs on Hurricane Harvey down in the Gulf as it made landfall in Texas.  Historic levels of rainfall there and flooding!  Surprisingly the death toll has been low considering the size and scope of the flooding and people seem to be pulling together in this crisis.  Next month, when we have some free income I'll consider how best/where to send a check to help.

The rain is slated to crawl up the coast and inland into Louisiana including where our house there is located.
I'll have to reach out to our realtor there to keep tabs on things for us.

Last Sunday I picked the first ripe tomato out of our garden.
Yah!

Hubs also sat down with me lasts Sunday to go over our money situation.  Since the dust had settled on all the retirement things that were up in the air it was time to see where our $ was sitting and see what needing to be moved and where.
We threw a big chunk of the regular savings we have which were in some higher yield(ha! higher!!)online accounts into a CD.  This will earn us double what they'd been earning...almost double of NOTHING but still, it's a little more.  8-(
We still need to keep quite a bit liquid however because A-we have to pay for work on the house in LA still and B-we need to pay for our healthcare premiums(OUCH!)OOP and be reimbursed from our Retiree Medical Savings Account(RMSA).  Hubs still hasn't started the paperwork for that so no clue yet on how long they take to reimburse this expense.  bleh.

On Monday the mail brought this great offer........for a retirement home/senior assisted living.
Not even a free lunch which was offered to tour the facility would get me to go look at it. lololz

I guess if you retire, even if you retire YOUNG, that triggers a slew of old age services to be offered to you via mail and phone.
Oh yes, we are getting phone solicitations too for stuff like this.
I don't think Hubs nor I are decrepit enough yet to need assisted living. 8-(

Also on Monday Hubs and I celebrated our 35th Wedding Anniversary........

We were low key about it, and just went out to Chili's for lunch(using a free gift card we have had for AGES).
Then Hubs snuck out that evening and bought me some flowers and a card at Weis.
35 years.
Now I do feel old enough for the Assisted Living place. lolz

We did some weeding in the yard on Tuesday.

Here is what the flowers out front looked like mid June after the critters stopped nibbling on them.

And they have made a nice recovery by late August.

And I picked some more veggies from the garden-more tomatoes and our only Summer squash.

Now we've started a big project--dealing with the rotting wood under and around our French doors to our deck.
Oy vay!  What a mess!!

Actually Hubs isn't handy and isn't anywhere near qualified to redo this stuff so we are cleaning it out and cobbling something together to keep the elements out for this Fall/Winter and will have to hire someone to do the "real work" on it come Spring as it will be expensive.
Since it will mean replacing some sub flooring in the den too we'll probably go ahead and have the laminate flooring in that room replaced at that time since it needs to be done before we put this house on the market anyway.(There are holes in the flooring, etc.)
If I get ambitious this Winter I'll think about repainting the room as well, since it needs that also.

I always love to when you start to deal with house problems it's always like opening a can of worms and leads to more problems and money that needs to be spent.
Sigh.

I've got to get going here now.....it's Weis(PMITA)Markets Day and a trip to Rite-Aid for an Rx is also in order while I am out.

What's been going on in your world lately?

Sluggy

Last July's Trip to Virginia

*   Due to Hubs accident last December I got behind, among other things, on blogging about the trips we took in 2016.  I need to get these finished up before I can start on the May 2017 Trip to VA and the 2017 Road Trip report,  so you'll be seeing 3 separate trip reports from 2016 in the coming weeks.


Last Summer, between quitting her job at what Daughter called the "Shit Show" business and starting her new part time job cooking at Cracker Barrel, we took a quick trip to Virginia to see my brother and sister in-law, plus my eldest son.

We left on July 15th(Friday)and headed down the PA turnpike toward Philly.
Made a stop just over the Delaware line to the big liquor store(huge variety at that place and no sales tax in DE!)

We did pretty good filling up our cart as you can see........

Stopped in Salisbury MD on the Eastern Shore for lunch at Evolution Brew Pub

We each had a beer and some nibbles to soak up the alcohol before heading back down Route 13.
Crab dip and crackers?
Yes please!

On Saturday we went out and did some more beer shopping.

Or you can watch the video............


Of course beer shopping is thirsty work so a stop at 7/11 for Slurpees happened too.....

This was the first time I'd ever had a banana flavored Slurpee and I grew up where 7/11 stores were on every corner practically! lol

There was a trip to Jake's BBQ Saturday evening too. Mmmmmm!

On the Sunday before we left we went down to "The Narrows".  It's a hidden away part of First Landing State Park on the Bay side.  Hidden from the tourists but usually loaded with locals.

And loaded it was that hot, muggy day.
We crashed a wedding party......

After walking in the heat we set down on the beach and the Daughter headed down to the shore.

She saw a dog so had to go see that. lolz

Up in the shade my brother had a hitchhiker on his hat.......

Hello there Mr. Dragonfly!

The Police boat was busy that day keeping the boats passing on the channel near the beach from speeding through.

There was also a trip on a fishing charter boat into the Chesapeake Bay for the Daughter and my brother on Monday.

It was just too hot that day for me so my brother went with her.

He is not a fishing person but he did and had fun with his niece.

The Daughter showing off one of her catches.

Old mom here had to show her how to gut/clean/fillet the fish she caught.

It's a good thing she isn't a "girly girl" and not afraid to get her hands icky. lolz

On Tuesday, Daughter and I set off to see my Eldest son in Fredericksburg.

But first a couple of photos....

We took the back route to Fredericksburg.  Instead of taking the interstate to the Peninsula, we took Rte 17 to Smithfield and then Rte 10 to Surry and then Rte 31 to the Ferry......

This is the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry.  It runs from Scotland Virginia to Jamestown Virginia across the James River(and vice versa).

It's a free ferry and runs year round.  I hadn't been on it though since high school.

One of the many seagulls that escorted us across the river.

I got out of the car and stood on the deck at the railing.  There was an upper deck you could view from but the crossing time is short and I wasn't feeling like climbing all those stairs.

Seagulls on some pylons we cruised past(between the cars).

Calm seas that day.  I thought I had done a bit of video while on the ferry but I can't for the life of me find it now.
Oh well......

We avoided the Hampton Roads traffic(so much traffic!)going this route, then got on the interstate near Williamsburg and were in Fredericksburg in 2 hours time.
We hung out the rest of the day with Eldest.

The next day since Eldest son is a teacher and was off for the Summer the three of us took a trip to the local distillery.....

Me at the Abraham Smith Bowman Distillery.  A Bowman visited a Bowman.

Hubs and I had been here but we didn't do the tour so the kids and I did the tour this time.

The warehouse were the barrels are stored and aged.  It smelled so good!

Sluggy sitting in a barrel.....barrel chair that is.  This was after the "sampling" so I was feeling no pain either. lolz

My two eldest kids posed for a photo together.

We spent two days with Eldest son and his fiancée, then Daughter and I headed home on Thursday so she could start her new job.

A short trip but filled with fun.

Sluggy