Meal Plan Monday.....February 22nd Edition....Use it Up Week

Last Week's Menu Postmortem...
The Pork Chop and Fish meal didn't happen so are moving to this week's menu. The only leftovers I am starting the week with are the Baked Chicken and homemade Clam Chowder.  The chicken will reappear in a Casserole this week and the Chowder I'll finish off for lunch.

Between my stock-ups and the bad weather predicted this week, I'll be staying out of the grocery stores again this week.  I do have some Weis Catalinas expiring this week so I will have to go once to use those up.

Here's what I will be serving our family of 4 this Week.....our household presently consists of 2 adults and 2 teens at home.  No children under 13.

This week is all about using what I have and incorporating leftovers.
MONDAY--#2 son's Birthday meal out!
TUESDAY--Spaghetti and Meatballs(freezer/stockpile), Salad, Garlic Rolls(fridge)
WEDNESDAY--Chicken Casserole(leftover/stockpile), Broccoli(freezer)
THURSDAY--Hot Dogs(freezer), Rolls(leftover), Beans, Sauerkraut(leftover), G. Beans
FRIDAY--Fish and Stuffed Clams(freezer), Mixed Veggies in Cheese Sauce(freezer)
SATURDAY--Sloppy Joes(freezer/stockpile), Rolls(leftover), Corn(freezer)
SUNDAY--Pork Chops(freezer) with Plum Glaze(stockpile), Noodles(stockpile), Mixed Veggies(freezer)
SNACKS/DESSERTS--Cantaloupe and Applesauce(stockpile), Birthday Brownie(stockpile), Ice Cream

LAST WEEK'S FOOD SPENDING
$10.87 was spent on food last week.  $4.89 at the local independent grocer for milk that hubby picked up & $5.98 at Price Chopper when I went to use my Catalinas.  Except for that trip to PC I was successful in staying out of the grocery stores...yay!lol
I have exactly $2.42 left in my Feb. food budget, unless some more rebates come in this week.  Between that cash and $17 in Catalinas it looks like I'll be able to get through Feb. without going over budget. I could do this menu without buying anything, but I'd like to get some more salad veggies(red cabbage, cuke) to augment the salad.  Other than that we'll need milk and fruit this week.
I'll be using my remaining Weis Catalinas expiring this week to obtain these things so my OOP should be close to zero.

The baked chicken from last week will reappear this week in the chicken casserole. Everyone stopped eating bread for awhile so I have alot of bread from the outlet to use up now.  That's why Sloppy Joes and Hot Dogs are on the menu this week.  I might attempt Bread Pudding again for hubby too if there is still bread leftover after those 2 meals.

FOOD WASTE REPORT
The doggies where quite proficient leftover eaters this week so no waste, and I composted the veggie trimmings.

Check out ORGANIZING JUNKIE to see what other Home Cooks are serving this week.

Sluggy

The Last of the Rite-Aid & I Almost Go a Whole Week without a Grocery Store Visit

Friday night I ran out to finish some rebate stuff at Rite-Aid.

Rite-Aid #1

1 x Lysol Hand Soap System thingy=$12.99  egads!
1 x L'Oreal EverStrong Shampoo on sale=$5.99
1 x Vaseline Lotion on sale=$2.99
SubTotal....$21.97

Coupons Used
1 x $5 off $20 Purchase AdPerks IPQ=$5.00
1 x $3/1 Lysol Hand Soap System ManuQ=$3.00
1 x $5/1 Lysol Hand Soap System In-Ad Q=$5.00
1 x $1/1 Lysol Hand Soap System AdPerks IPQ=$1.00
1 x $2/1 L'Oreal Shampoo ManuQ=$2.00
1 x $1/1 Any Hair Care item over $1.99 Wellness IPQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Vaseline ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $2/1 Any Skin Care item over $2.99 Wellness IPQ=$2.00
Coupon Total....$20.00

$21.97-$20.00=$1.97 + $.12tax=$2.09 OOP  Put on a Rite-Aid Gift Card.
Single Check Rebates....$1 Lysol


Then to Store #2....

2 x L'Oreal EverStrong Shampoo on sale $5.99=$11.98
2 x Starbucks Coffee on sale $1.66=$3.32
2 x Luden's Cough Drops on sale $.99=$1.98
1 x Vaseline Lotion on sale=$2.99
1 x Wet N' Wild Makeup 40% off=$2.39
SubTotal......$22.66

Coupons Used
1 x $5 off $20 Purchase AdPerks IPQ=$5.00
2 x $2/1 L'Oreal EverStrong Shampoo ManuQ=$4.00
2 x $1/1 Any Hair Care item over $1.99 Wellness IPQ=$2.00
2 x $1/1 Starbucks Coffee IPQ=$2.00
1 x $1/2 Luden's Cough Drops ManuQ=$1.00
2 x $.25/1 Luden's Cough Drops GOLife Q=$.50
1 x $1/1 Vaseline Lotion ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $2/1 Any Skin Care item over $2.99 Wellness IPQ=$2.00
Coupon Total....$17.50
**Checking my receipt now, somehow the Cashier rang up an extra Hair Care $1/1 Q, so I got $18.50 in Coupons instead of the $17.50 I was due.

$22.66-$18.50=$4.16 = $.15tax=$4.31 OOP  Put on a Visa Prepaid Card.
Single Check Rebates qualified for....$2 Wet N' Wild, $5 L'Oreal EverStrong Items totaling over $13(adding in the 1 Shampoo in the previous transaction)=$7 SCR

Total OOP.....$0.00
SCRebates.....$8.00

I discovered that I made a tactical error earlier this week.  I bought 2 L'Oreal Shampoos for BIL's  $5 L'Oreal SCR.  Only the EverStrong 'Poos qualify for this rebate, not the EverPure ones.  I bought 2 EverPures by mistake.  OOPs!  Since this rebate runs the full month and not just the week the 'Poo was on sale, I can take those 2 bottles back and exchange them for the right ones and get my receipt fixed so I can submit for the SCR.  What a pain....

And I almost went the entire week without setting foot in a grocery store!  What sunk me was that I had $16 in Catalinas expiring on friday night from my Kraft/Unilever trips to Price Chopper the week before last.  So I was forced to go grocery shopping....the horrors!lol
No photo but I got...
1 head of lettuce=$1.49
1 lb. of frozen squid=$4.99
2 pork loins BOGO=$9.53 (for just under 2lbs. each)
3 Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream on sale $2.99=$8.97
SubTotal....$24.98

Coupons Used
3 x $1/1 Ben & Jerry's=$3.00
And the $16 in Cats=$16.00
Total....$19.00

$24.98-$19.00=$5.98 OOP
The value on the order was $38.01 before sales.

With 1 more week to go in February I've calculated that I have $2.42 left in my $250 monthly food/toiletries budget.  Here's hoping I receive some more rebates this coming week to give me a bit of wiggle room, otherwise I'll be staying out of the grocery store for another week, except to spend those Weis Catalinas that will be expiring the 27th!

Sluggy

Yearly Spending Post Mortem 2009....Why Should You Do One?

I am a 'numbers gal'.....yep, the OCDness in me shows up as me being pretty anal about money and the accounting of it.  Hey, my father and one of my brothers were/are CPAs....I come by this naturally.lol

Every year in January I do a Post-Morten of our spending for the previous year.  I get out all the check registers and canceled checks, the bill receipts and invoices and even the cash register receipts if need be.  Yes, I save all that stuff in the short term to be able to do this.

I go through and add up what we spent our money on for the year.  I break it down into categories and then after I have the yearly total for each category, I find the average monthly amount spent.  It takes about 3 hours to complete if everyone leaves me alone for that long.lol

So I can tell you that in 2009, we spent $336 on garbage pick-up or $28 per month.  (No, this isn't included in the municipal taxes we pay here.)
And our landline phone bill was $266.98 or an average of $22.25 per month.

Why do I do this?
Besides satisfying my OCD, we can analyze where the $ went and maybe find where we spent too much or find places where we can change things up and spend less this year.

For instance....hubby and I looked at the post-mortem and saw that we spent a whopping $525.43 on long distance phone service for our landline in 2009.  We don't have a cell phone plan so we had signed up a couple of years ago for an AT&T flat rate long distance plan for the landline.  At the time we found we were making alot of long distance calls(between hubby's sibs and my sick brother in VA)and #1 son had friends who lived in OH he wished to talk to for HOURS on end.lol
At the time, that flat rate plan was very cost effective for us.

Now, we don't make all those long distance calls and #1 son is at college so we are overpaying for this service for the few calls we do make a year.  I had kept the service during #1 son's 1st semester since we thought he would get a landline phone there so we could call him if he needed us for something.  He never got the landline and he finds that emailing us is just as good as calling when he needs something.

So we are dropping this long distance plan.  For the little long distance we use, we will get phone cards to use with our landline.  I am figuring that should cost us approximately $100-$200 a year.  This will give us an extra $425-$325 a year to spend elsewhere in our budget or to drop into savings.

It's also interesting to see from month to month how spending changed or didn't in some categories.

I also found that I stopped using checks to pay for groceries altogether in June 2009 and began using cash only.  I found writing checks to cash and using that money to buy groceries/toiletries and keeping the receipts so I knew how much I spent of it on those items each month worked well for me.  Now and again though I do slip up and use the credit card to pay for groceries.  And when I do, it highly annoys me.lol

I wrote checks totaling $5,950 to cash and $1,224.91 in checks to specific grocery stores for a total of $7,174.91 in 2009.  As I spent a total of $6,254.84 on food/toiletries in 2009, that means I had $920.07 of miscellaneous personal spending last year.  This would be things like a tiny bit of gas(most gets put on the credit card tho), buying a drink or lunch out, money for the kids for movies or such, ice cream in the summer at the ice cream place, newspapers, parking fees, etc.  I didn't keep track of each little thing I spent it on, but it shows that those little incidentals DO add up!

For me, $920.07 on these types of purchases is NOT acceptable!
This year I am going to put a notebook in my car and try to keep track of all these little miscellaneous expenses in hopes of trying to cut some of it or at least have a more detailed list of where every penny goes.

Keeping a spending jouranl isn't for everyone, but if you are having a hard time getting a handle on where your money goes, it's a good idea/tool for at least a month or so to keep one to see where you are spending and how much.  It may surprise you to see what you actually spend on and how much over time!

Now to revisit my Grocery spending for 2009, it totaled $6,254.84. Averaged out over the course of the year, that's $568.62 per MONTH(for 11 months).
WOW!
That's quite high.

DECEMBER     $101.55
NOVEMBER    $202.23
OCTOBER         $48.20
SEPTEMBER   $170.93
AUGUST          $446.50
JULY                $520.69
JUNE                $699.91
MAY              $1019.36
APRIL            $1104.32
MARCH           $855.39
FEBRUARY  $1085.76

But if you look at it per month you will see that I was able to bring it down consistently from month to month until I started to get it under control in July.  By being a bit smarter with my spending, getting the stockpiling method going and upping my income with rebating we did much better by the second half of the year.  The 1st 5 months of 2009 we spent an average of $952.95 per month of food/toiletries.
The last 6 months of 2009, that average cost dropped to $248.35 a month!
Whatever I am doing here seems to be working.....

If you are serious about reigning in your spending, especially on food/toiletires, try tracking your day-to-day expenses for 2 months. 
It may be eye opening!

Sluggy

Sluggy's Boring Blog Box Giveaway Week 3.....Enter to Win Now!

It's WEEK 3 of The 1st BORING BLOG BOX OF FUN GIVEAWAY of 2010!

Ok....after packing in this week's goodies, there is NO MORE ROOM for more stuff!  So this is the FINAL WEEK to enter to win this box!

Here is what went into the Box today.....

1.  1 Ty HALO Beanie Baby
2.  1 Bottle of DUCOLAX Balance
3.  1Tube of AVEENO Lotion
4.  1 Mesh Bath Sponge


If this is your first time, please go read all the rules for these Giveaways on THIS POST.

Time to enter.....You can enter this week from today, February 18th through Tuesday, February 23rd. 

1 regular entry per person per week.  Leave your name/email addy and a comment for a valid entry on THIS POST only.
MUST be a follower to enter.
MUST still be a follower at the time the the winner is posted.

There are 2 ways to get EXTRA entries each week....

1. Blog about my Giveaway on your blog or on a Message Board.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST only with a link to your blog post or the message on the board.  You can earn an extra entry each week by reposting about the Giveaway.
2. Put my blog on your blog's Blogroll.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST only with the URL of your blog. You can earn an extra entry each week by keeping my blog on your roll.

I'll post again about this Giveaway when the new week is here to remind ya'll it's time to enter again and let ya'll know what I've added to the box.
I think there's room in the box for 1 more week's worth of goodies so next week will probably the last week to enter to win this box of goodies!

Any questions?  Just email me at slugmama@yahoo.com

Happy Entering!! 

Sluggy

Wednesday's Rite-Aid Trip

Here's what I got yesterday at Rite-Aid....

3 x L'Oreal Everpure Shampoo on sale $5.99=$17.97
1 x Vaseline Lotion on sale $2.99=$2.99
SubTotal....$20.96

Coupons Used
1 x $5 off $20 Purchase AdPerk IPQ=$5.00
3 x $2/1 L'Oreal Everpure Shampoo ManuQ=$6.00
3 x $1/1 Any Hair Care Item over $1.99 Wellness IPQ=$3.00
1 x $1/1Vaseline Lotion ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $2/1 Any Skin Care Item over $2.99 Wellness IPQ=$2.00
Coupon Total....$17.00

$20.96-$17.00=$3.96+$.24 tax=$4.20 OOP
SCR qualified for $5 for buying $15 or more of Everpure Products=$5.00

$4.20 OOP-$5SCR=$.80 Moneymaker!

I'm going off today to buy some John Frieda, Motrin PM, Chestal, Sarna and on and on and on....

Sluggy