MAY Budget Results.....Food & Toiletries Spending TOTALS

Since I have finished my food shopping for the month I am posting my May Food Budget Totals today. I have also updated the Totals for the Year on the right sidebar.   It feels nice to be ahead of things for once... ;-)

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for MAY 2010.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in May.
These Totals include Food, Toiletries/HBA, Pet Supplies, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable.We are a family of 5(5 at home this month) & 3 dogs. No kids under 14.

CARONE'S(small local independent store)
OOP $144.90
Qs/Ads $110.49
Value $255.39
Savings 43.25%

ENTENMANN'S OUTLET
OOP $22.34
Ads/Sales $52.45
Value $74.79
Savings  68.80%

GERRITY'S
OOP $23.46
Qs/Ads $42.09
Value $65.55
Savings 64.22%

KEYCO(restaurant supply store)
OOP  $47.09
Qs/Ads  $67.86
Value  $114.95
Savings  59.03%

REDNER'S(local chain grocery)
OOP  $40.48
Qs/Ads  $37.47
Value  $77.95
Savings  48.07%

RITE AID
OOP $18.54 ($18.19 put on Rite-Aid Gift Card)=$.35 actual OOP
Qs/Ads $407.69
Value $408.04
Savings 99.91%

WALMART
OOP $8.88
Qs/Ads $26.72
Value $35.60
Savings  75.06%

WEIS (local chain Grocery store that doesn't take IP Qs in my town)
OOP $29.54
Qs/Ads $125.55
Value $155.09
Savings  80.96%

I don't track CVS's ECBs & Walgreen's RRs. They will be included when used on purchases under "Coupons".   I'll keep track of what rebates are received monthly.  Rebate money/gift cards will be considered 'income' & will go into the Food/Toiletries budget, offsetting the Out of Pocket. Cash will go immediately into the Budget kitty, while Gift Cards will be calculated in when spent.

REBATE CHECKS RECV'D. IN MAY

Pinecone Research....$3.00
Prevacid....$24.99
Rite-Aid SCR....$74.84
Snapple.....$12.98

Subtotal........$115.81

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES
Rite-Aid Allergy SCR $25 Gift Card

KMart $10 Gift Card(Reese's Pieces)
Staples $9 Ink/Paper Rewards Certificate

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received..$159.81

FREE ITEMS

Kraft Mac & Cheese x 2

Neti Pot

Fresh Express Salad FREE ITEM Qs x 2(giveaway win)

Kraft

Wheat Thin Bags x 3

International Coffees x 3

Chavrie Goat Cheese FREE ITEM Q

COUPONS

$1/1 EOS Shave Gel x 2
$1.50/1 Better Than Ears

My best 3 Store Savings Totals were from Rite-Aid at 99.91%, Weis at 80.96% and Walmart at 75.06%.

TOTAL Out of Pocket...............................$318.04
TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$869.32
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased.............$1,187.36
TOTAL Savings of..........73.21%

TOTAL of CASH Rebates........................$115.81
TOTAL OOP After  Rebates....................$202.23
TOTAL Savings of..................................82.97%

This closes out the May spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month-
After rebates were figured in, I stayed under my $250 budgeted amount....$47.77 under.  While I didn't do a lot of stocking up, except 'good' hot dogs and dog food, I did do much more food buying without using coupons.  The restaurant supply store is a new venue I am trying and while they don't take coupons(as most of the food stuff is NOT personal consumer sized), there are deals to be had that that end up saving me more.  I'll have a post of this later in the week.  With #1 son home for the month, we ate down on much of the meat/fish/chicken stockpile and I have not replaced much of it.

You will notice that I only frequented 1 drug store this month.  I find that I can fulfill our toiletry/drug needs working the game at Rite-Aid alone, and for basically free.  Unless I feel the need to build up the excess supply of toiletries for another yard sale or flea market venture, I'll be staying out of CVS and Walgreens this summer.  I know I can get it for almost free there too but we don't need it now and Rite-Aid is closer so why bother? ;-)

What's ahead for June 2010.....

The June 2010 Food/Toiletries Budget is set at $250 cash out of pocket since #1 son is leaving for the summer shortly and the other teens will be gone for weeks at a time during June as well so we won't be doing much eating so no need for much spending, right?
  Any rebates received this month will offset this OOP spending. I have almost NO outstanding rebates due(except for Rite-Aid)so there will not be much extra cash to offset the food budget this month.  Even with that, I feel $250 will be a generous budget.

With 5 months of the year behind us, we have averaged $172.92 per MONTH after rebates on food/toiletries spending for 2010 for a family of 4-5 adults/teens.


How did you do in May with your Food Budget?  Leave a comment or link to your post and let us hear!  By sharing our struggles and efforts we can help each other stick to our budgets and learn to be better guardians of our resources.

Sluggy

Last Trip to Rite-Aid for May's SCR Period & Monthly Totals

I was going through my Rite-Aid receipts since the May SCR Period ended today, May 29th, so I could post my totals.  I found a receipt/transaction I somehow forgot to report in on.  This was from May 1st.

Lost Transaction....sorry no photo.
4 x Benadryl $4.39 with 20% Wellness discount level=$17.56
4 x Rite-Aid brand Benadryl BOGO sale($4.49)=$8.98
2 x Kashi Cereal BOGO sale($4.99)=$4.99
SubTotal...$31.53

Coupons Used
1 x $5 off $20 Purchase AdPerks VV IPQ=$5.00
2 x $5/2 Benadryl ManuQ=$10.00
6 x $2/1 Any Cold/Cough/Allergy Wellness CRT Q=$12.00
1 x FREE Kashi Cereal Q(max. $4 off)=$4.00
Coupon Total....$31.00

$31.53-$31.00=$.53 put on Rite-Aid Gift Card=ZERO OOP
Value of Items....$49.90

True to form, I waited again until the end of this week to get up to Rite-Aid.
Oh well.....
I just had a few things to buy this trip(more juice and finishing off the allergy rebate) but I added the clearanced cans of tuna at .37¢ each so my total was about $1.50 more than I had planned on.

2 x Welch's Grape Juice on sale w/Wellness card $3=$6.00
4 x Benadryl  $4.39 w/Wellness 20% discount level=$17.56
5 x Bumblebee Tuna clearance .37¢ each=$1.85
SubTotal....$25.41

Coupons Used
1 x $5 off $20 AdPerks VV IPQ=$5.00
2 x $1/1 Welch's Grape Juice IPQ=$2.00
2 x $5/2 Benadryl ManuQ=$10.00
1 x $1/$10 Cough Cold Allergy OTC Wellness CRT Q=$1.00
Coupon Total....$18.00

$25.41-$18.00=$7.41 total **Put on free Rite-Aid Gift Card**=ZERO OOP

This Benadryl purchase put me over the $75 purchase amount needed for SCR #553-a free $20 Allergy Gift Certificate.
Value of Items....$39.79


MAY SCR PERIOD TOTALS
Number of Transactions.....12
Out of Pocket.....$21.27--all but $.35 put on free Rite-Aid Gift Card=$.35 OOP
SCRebates due....$33.00 Cash & $90 in Rite-Aid Gift Cards/Certificates(2x #552 $25 GC & 2 x #553 $20 GCerts)


What I Bought--
8 Nivea Body Wash
24 Benadryl
2 Eos Lip Balm
1 Motrin PM
4 Rite-Aid brand Benadryl
6 Tresemme Shampoo
2 small Aveeno Lotion
1 large Aveeno Lotion
1 Toothpaste
2 Dove Shampoo
4 Ban deodorant
1 Schick Razor
2 Kashi Cereal
2 TGIFriday's Snacks
2 Cordial Cherries
2 Hershey Dark Bars
2 Snickers Dark Bars
1 Trident Gum
2 Kotex
3 Puffs w/Lotion
4 Oreos
6 M&M's
3 Grape Juice
5 Tuna
1 set of Paper Lanterns


Value of Items....$408.04
What I 'paid'--.35¢ Cash
What I'll get back--$33.00 Cash and $90 in Gift Cards/Certs.


Sluggy

Check Out SonyaAnn's CSN Giveaway!

My blogging buddy SonyaAnn over at A Mom, Money and More is holding her 1st Giveaway!

Head on over HERE for the details on entering.
She is especially excited about the Track Lighting Dept. over at CSN located HERE.  I am more of a chandelier kind of gal myself.

The deadline for entry is JUNE 4th so go enter soon....you don't want to miss out on an awesome prize..... ;-)

Sluggy

Holiday Weekend Time!

If you are spending your holiday weekend someplace that looks like this I have one thing to say to you........




TAKE ME WITH YOU!!!

Here at Chez Sluggy in landlocked Pennsyltucky, we'll be rocking the back deck with assorted relatives instead.  Hopefully the weather holds out because the house inside is a mess and as you know, my dining room table is out of commission...perhaps permanently. 8-(

I have the honor of throwing a barbeque for said relatives.  Except I really don't feel like cooking.  How come nobody else ever throws that 'que so I don't have to work it?  Maybe I'll go on strike and make the relatives bring the food.....um, on second thought I DO like to eat so nevermindthat!lolol
I just hate to go to the grocery store(since I haven't been again this week!)and spend a load of $$$ on food.  The 'sales' at the stores this week are pretty lame unless you plan on eating nothing but mustard and drinking soda.

Speaking of soda....we officially ran out this week.  All those 12 packs of soda I had accumulated over the past 6 months or so are G-O-N-E!  The teens have been reminded every month as the supply dwindled that it would NOT be replenished......now they may actually realize I mean what I said!lol
I wonder how many hours until they start freaking out......

Today I've got to take the 3 dogs to the vet for their annual.  This should be fun times, no?lol   Fun times and another big hole in my wallet...
And we get to talk to the vet about our bladder challenged beagle also.....oh goody!  I have a feeling this will not go well for the beagle.....

Then I've got more clearing out and cleaning up to do at the house before Sunday when the relative shows up for a weeklong stay.
Next week you can either find me in the garage(more cleaning/organizing), in the storage unit(more clearing and digging out)or in the bedroom closet(changing over the clothes to the warm weather stuff).    Plus it's also the last week 2 of the teens will be home before they leave for summer jobs so there is stuff to get them ready to send off.


I don't know what, if anything, the relative has planned for her week.....

And next week means the end of the month calculating to see how we did on the budget and the Savings Challenge so check back for that.

And when I went to pick up the Minivan from the $667 a/c repair the guy told me the mechanic saw my steering was leaking while he was under the car......do you hear that crappy KA-CHING sound?
I do!
Good times......

I'll be here this weekend and probably posting when I get time.  Beats interacting with the family sometimes, don't it?lolol

Enjoy your time off, relax and hug a soldier if you get the chance!

Sluggy

An Alexander Day

So have you ever had one of those days were in hindsight, it would have been better to just stay in bed with the covers pulled over your head rather than get up and face the day?

Around here, we call those days "Alexander Days".  That's in honor of one of my kids' favorite kid books called, "Alexander and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day".

We all have em....
Well mine was a doozy.
I even considered moving to Australia it was so bad!!

After we dropped the food off at the food bank at the church in town #1 son & I dropped off a package at the PO and then took my minivan up to get the a/c recharged.  The guy said it would take a few hours so we came home to finish steam cleaning the dining room carpet before the relative arrives this weekend since they will be sleeping on the inflatable bed in the living room/dining room.
#1 son went to move the dining room table.....my big lovely heavy solid oak table.....my one good piece of furniture in the house that I've had since 1989.
Well he dragged it across the room.
And I heard a bad sound.
And this is what one of the two support columns of my lovely table now looks like.....
(the table is upside down on it's top)

And here is what the other support column looks like....ignore the cobwebs please......

Yep, he broke my table.

So now I have to find someone to fix it(hahaha), or give it away to someone who wants to fix it for themselves or let DH take an axe to it and make a big pile of very expensive oak kindling.
**sigh**

Now I have nowhere to pack my eBay stuff......or seat everyone for family dinners.....


As my fuming subsided into an overwhelming sadness & tears after a few hours, I called the car repair guy.

My $89.95 a/c recharging was not to be.  My minivan needs repairs to the a/c system before it can be charged.
I now have an "estimate" of over $600 and I'd be carless for another day or more.
K-aching!
There goes the flea market profits.....

1 table.
1 car repair.

The sadness just kept coming.....

And to prove that bad things do indeed come in threes, after I cooked dinner and put it on low to keep warm unto DH came home, I left things in the teens hands and went upstairs to hide in my bed.
It was so warm I put on the a/c in the bedroom, then I went into the bathroom to close the window.  As I closed said window my hand slipped and smacked the towel rack underneath and it came flying off the wall, crashing into 3 pieces onto the floor, towels and all!

So I took 2 painkillers and crawled into bed at 3:30pm in the afternoon....or 5:30am the next morning in eastern Australia time.

sigh.......

Yep, Alexander would have been proud.....

Sluggy