Last Chance to Enter the Good Earth GIVEAWAY...ends TUESDAY Night!

Today is the last chance to enter my current giveaway for the Good Earth products so go on over  HERE now.  It closes at midnight tonight so hurry!!

**Well I must have heat stroke because I am a day ahead......the Giveaway closes TUESDAY night, not Monday night!
So you have until midnight July 6th to enter.
Sorry for the confusion.

I'm off to get some stuff done today.  It's suppose to be 98 degrees here so in between I'll be submerged in the pool trying to avoid heat stroke! 8-P

Sluggy

Do You Want to Be "H-O-T"?

Do you know what is "In" nowadays?
It's spelled F-R-U-G-A-L.

Yes, Frugal is the new black.

Who would have ever thought that Sluggy would be part of a trend.....a movement......one of the beautiful people?!?!

And do you know who else is trendy, moving and beautiful?

Lisa B. over at her blog  Easy Frugal Living.

And Lisa B. is holding a Giveaway for this....

Yes, it's a book about being thrifty...aka frugal....and just might help you achieve hot & trendy status like us!

So go on over and enter her giveaway at this link HERE.  Don't wait because it ends on July 5th.

You can thank me later.....in a hot  & trendy way......or with cash.....I'm easy...... ;-)

Sluggy

Store Bought VS Home Made....Finding a Balance

It's an age old debate.....which is better--to buy from a store or to make it yourself?

My feeling is, it depends.

In our mother's and grandmother's generations, you either had to make it yourself or you did without. Buying ready made anything was not an option or it was an expen$ive option. Women use to make everything from scratch....meals, cleaning products and even their own clothing. If you had an income producing job(or your husband did), you had the option to hire someone else to make your meals, clean your home/make the cleaning products and make your clothing.

When technologies took off after WWII, companies began marketing more convenience food/HBA products to the American public. Those items were NOT cheap! Being able to afford Swanson TV Dinners & Cokes & Mac and Pizza Kits in a Box were a status symbol of their day.
Can you imagine.......being able to afford Kraft Mac & Cheese being a status symbol?!?lol

As technology advanced & factory farms grew, the relative price of those new processed foods came down to where it was cheaper now to buy those than to make food from scratch using farm fresh ingredients. People over the last few generations have gotten disconnected from the earth, from growing food.
People moved away from the farm and rural areas.

Nowadays it's not uncommon to find urban children who have never seem a farm animal or food growing in the ground in person.
And if you were to survey American adults you would find that a surprising number of them don't know how to cook at all.....even the basics!  Their cooking skills span from "open the box and remove item" to "press the ON button on the microwave".....or even sadder, "pick up the phone and make a reservation".

People don't know how to prepare food from scratch and the really sad part is that they don't care to learn! They would rather buy processed foods they can stick in a microwave and eat NOW, because god forbid they have to wait 30 minutes for something to cook in a 'real' oven. And even sadder, the fact that they don't use coupons or wait for sales to at least get their food for the best possible price.

Enough of my rant.....basically I believe that home-made anything gives you more control over your life. Yes, it takes more of your time but it's time well spent.

You can make food just how you like. Leave out ingredients you don't want or like, put in healthier ones. High Fructose Corn Syrup is hidden in so much processed foods nowadays, as are other unhealthy chemicals. It's difficult to avoid the bad stuff unless you diligently read your product labels.

I think you can balance using Store Bought & using Home Made things. Both have their place in my life. Some processed foods are ok and even better when you can get them cheaper w/coupons. And anyone should & can teach themselves basic cooking skills.

We must go back to previous generations' times, when being self-sufficient was important. The more life skills you have, the better you are equipped to handle situations that may come up in your life.

Personally, we garden each year and raise as many vegetables as we can. We freeze &/or can what we don't eat and share with our neighbors. We also either join a CSA and/or frequent farmer's markets for what we don't grow ourselves. We buy some local farm meat/dairy as well when the budget allows, as we aren't in a place where we can have chickens or cows. We buy from the store when we can't obtain food from these other sources. And we use coupons whenever possible.

I don't use many commercially made cleaning products. You'll find few scented this and that sprays/etc. in my home. Ok, I do have a few candles and simple deodorizers(Renuzits)but that is all.

Why pay all that money for chemicals when you can clean most anything without all the 'fragrance air pollution' using baking soda, vinegar, bleach and lemon?

And most of the new 'green' cleaners are just water, baking soda & vinegar anyway! You are paying a premium price for those pretty colored plastic bottles it comes in. Save the bottles and refill them with your own homemade cleaners!  You'll cut down on the cost to you and the amount of plastic that needs to be manufactured and then dealt with when the product is gone.

Sluggy

The Last of the Rite-Aid Trips for this Week

 I had $5 off $25 coupons that were expiring on June 30th so I made 4 more trips to Rite-Aid earlier this week to use them up.

2 x Stayfree pads
1 x Coppertone Sun Screen
1 x Veet hair remover
1 x small Aveeno Lotion
1 x Venus razors

Total OOP after coupons/sales/+Ups....$.68 put on a gift card
$11.34 more toward the Skin Care SCR#555
SCR earned....$2 for Venus razors on BIL's account
+Ups earned....$2 for the Venus razors

1 x Tresemme
2 x Coppertone Sun Screen
2 x Carefree liners
2 x Folger's coffee
2 x Mounds candy bars

Total OOP after coupons/sales/+Ups....$.85 put on a gift card
$16.38 more toward the Skin Care SCR#555
+Ups earned....$1 for Tresemme

2 x Huggies diapers
1 x Tresemme
1 x Veet
1 x small Aveeno lotion
1 x Sure deodorant

Total OOP after coupons/sales/+Ups....$.40 put on a gift card
+Ups earned....$1 for Tresemme
SCR earned....$1 for Sure, $2 for Huggies & 1 package of FREE Diapers(for buying 5 packs over the last couple of months-I bought 3 packs in June on that receipt I forgot about I talked about in an earlier post.).

2 x Welch's juice
2 x Dr. Pepper soda(the cashier forgot to put 1 of them in my bag).
2 x Folger's coffee
1 x Sure deodorant
1 x Veet
1 x small Aveeno lotion

Total OOP after coupons/sales/+Ups....$.59 put on a gift card
$11.34 more toward the Skin Care SCR#555
SCR earned....$1 for Sure on BIL's account
The Sure deodorants also have a TRY ME FREE rebate on them.   After Wellness discount I 'paid' $2.63 each(before coupons), so I can submit for a rebate for myself and the BIL, bringing my additional rebates to $5.26.

4 transactions
$2.52 'spent' put on free gift cards
SCRs=$6 + free diapers + $25 skin care gift card & bonus $5 gift card
$5.26 in additional cash rebates(Sure deos)


MONTHLY TOTALS-JULY Rebate Period

Number of Transactions......8
Total Spent....$6.64--all put on free Gift Cards/Certificates 
Value of Items purchased....$319.40
SCR qualified for....$21.98 in cash and $30 in Gift Cards & free diapers
Other Cash....$5.26
Additional Non-Cash Rewards....$0
+Up Rewards earned=$12.00

Total Cash I'm getting Back=$21.98
Total Gift Cards I'm getting=$25
+Up Rewards left to spend=$5.00


Sluggy

$30K Savings Challenge JUNE 2010 Totals.....Treading Water this Month!

I have posted my JUNE End of Month $30K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right for the specific numbers.

I have to report that we finished up June in the black....just BARELY!

The extra cash amount we ended the month of June with was.......$547.73.

Income
We had $260.53 left over of DH's salary after expenses were deducted. Add in some rolled coins amounting to $10.50, $44.00 in Rebates &, along with a $276.70 business expense voucher for Hubs and you have a deposit of $547.73 toward the Savings Challenge!

Seeing as our monthly target is $2,500.00 to reach our Year End Goal, we are waaaaay short again this month.

Outgo
As for the expenses in June.....it was our most expensive month so far this year!

The water bill almost doubled(extra showers/laundry/dishes for extra people here + the pool) and the electric bill went up about $12(extra hot June=a/c on a few days).

 The credit card bill(paid off each month)was over $1700. 
$750 of that was a car repair & car related expenses(besides gas). 
$200 of the $1700 was pool chemicals & $120 for assorted teens' clothing needs. 
$70 went for Hubs internet chess club dues.  
The rest was gas and some eating out charges and was within our normal range of expenses.

Out-of-the-ordinary expenses in June besides the CC Bill ones.....
There were people Dr. visits and follow-up dog Dr. visits for assorted people and dogs here, respectively.
There was another car repair to the tune of $775+. 
And then there was the camp payment for #2 son....2 weeks of fun doesn't come cheap at $945.
So basically we had $2600+/- in out-of-the-ordinary expenses this month.


The Food Budget costs for June are in another post, which is located HERE.  Food/Toiletries spending in June was $77.26 under the budgeted $250.00 amount and our Savings percentage was 89.30% which is awesome.

Looking Ahead to July....
I'll only be feeding 3 people for most of this month & the garden should start producing, so I am hoping for lower food spending.
The Credit Card bill is at $400 for the next statement period with 9 days left until it closes.  I'm hoping we can keep it around $500 and only put some gas purchases on it.
We'll try to lower the electric usage.  I don't have high hopes for containing the water costs since the pool is in operation.

I am determined to get through July frugally(barely some financial emergency)with only 1 child at home and to meet our monthly goal of $2,500 saved this month.

YTD Standings....
We have a Year To Date Total of $16,621.47 in Savings.  To save $30K for the year, we need to put away $2,500 per month average.  With our expensive June, we are now just barely ahead of schedule at this point in the year.

So how was your June financially?  Leave a comment and share with us what you did with your money, both the good and not-so good.   Do you have any tricks or tips that help you to end your month before the money runs out?    Let us know!
If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check you out too!


Sluggy