$30K Savings Challenge....December 2010 Total and END of YEAR TOTALS

I have posted my DECEMBER 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 December in the black yet again!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of December with was.......$3,787.26.

Income
We had $3,595.01 left over of DH's salary after expenses were deducted. Add in $175.25 of Rebates applied to the food expenses, along with $17.00 in rolled Coins and you have a deposit of $3,787.26 toward the Savings Challenge!

Our monthly target is an average of $2,500.00 to reach our Year End Goal. We passed the $30K yearly target mark in November.

Outgo
As for the expenses in December.....there were a few large bills.  The credit card bill(which is paid off each month)was over $1100(had to replace my computer's hard drive among other things) and 2 car repairs cost us over $1500 as well. There were also some smaller non-regular or quarterly bills, like paying for the replacement retainer for Daughter's ortho and the sewage bill.  Then both the water bill and the electric bill came in VERY high this month...ouch.
It's a good thing there was an extra paycheck this month because otherwise we would have barely had anything to throw into the Savings Challenge pot after paying the bills.

The good news with December is that nothing I bought for the Holidays was put on a credit card.   Hubs did put his gift to me on the card and we have some Dining Out on it(Daughter's Bday, Steakhouse with #1 Son home from school and Christmas Eve eating out tradition at the local Chinese Restaurant). Add in the usual gasoline purchases and such and we still will have a substantial CC bill but nothing swollen beyond being able to pay it all in January.
No interest, no payments being dragged out until June or worse.....yay!

The Food Budget costs for December are in another post, which is located HERE.  The actual Food/Toiletries spending in December was kept low due to the large rebate amount received that month.


YEAR-END GRAND TOTAL.....
With December's addition we ended the $30K Savings Challenge with a Total of $34,019.88 saved for the Year!
I am so happy with how much we've been able to save in 2010.  This is $10,000+ more than we saved in 2009!

It was a great year!  I think the key to staying on course and having a good result was to keep track month-by-month and doing it publically.  If I had no one holding me accountable how easy would it have been to have just stopped putting the money away when things got too hard?  Yep, it would have been very easy to let it go and go on spending sprees for junk we didn't need. 

So how was your December 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

Last Grocery Shop of 2010....Using Up the Freebies! & 1st Shop of 2011.

I still had some free item coupons to use up on December 31st so I hiked up to Weis Markets.

The JollyTime popcorn was BOGO marked down to $2 each as well.  I had 3 x $1/1 Qs, so I ended up paying .25¢ per box.
I had Free Item Qs for the Dole fruit cups so they were better than free since they were marked $2 each and the coupon scanned at $2.59 each.
I also had Free Item Qs for the Cheese so that cost me nothing.
1 box of the Barilla Plus pasta was free and the other 2 were BOGO with the other VocalPoint Q, so $2.19 for both boxes.
I picked up the Weis brand of Rigatoni just because we were out and it was marked down to .79¢ a box.

The best deal was just shy of 5lb. total of Ground Beef at $1.39lb on special.  It's the fatty stuff so I'll just mix this with some lean stuff and use it in recipes where I need more 'moisture' in my meat.

Total OOP....$11.19
Value of items....$44.32
Savings of....$33.13...or 74.75%

Weis also had pork tenderloins, LARGE tenderloins for $1.47lb. last week.  I didn't buy one this trip on Friday, but sent Hubs back up Saturday afternoon and they were out, don't give rainchecks for it and the butchers had left for the day.  But the manager told him to come back early Sunday morning and he's let him have one for the sale price even though the sale was over on Saturday....cool!

So Hubs made the 1st food purchase of 2011.....a 10lb. pork tenderloin for $14.75.
Sorry, I didn't get a picture before I hacked that baby up.lol
I made 25 boneless pork chop medallions and a good sized pork tenderloin roast which I marinated before freezing. 

Food/Toiletries Spending for January 2011.....$14.75

Sluggy

Finishing Up Rite-Aid Business from Last Week...Updated!

Last week was a blur of Rite-Aid activity here.
With the passing of the $5 off $25 Coupon on the 31st, I crammed a bunch of extra trips to Rite-Aid into my schedule.
Here's my lone trip on the 29th.....

The Benefiber are on SCR this month and the drink powder boxes also qualify.  After 20% wellness discount & the $4/1 IPQ it was/is $2.15.  Add in the $3 SCR and they pay YOU $.85 to take it home!
(Your store's base price on this item may vary from mine.)  And you can submit for 3 of this rebate per household too!

The Progresso Soups are a month long deal until Jan.22nd.  For every can you buy, you receive a $1+Up Rewards(when you use your wellness card).  They also count toward the $20+ Resolution Reward Promotion.  Too bad they aren't on sale this week, like they were last week when I bought them.  With any luck, they may go back on sale before the 22nd....cross your fingers!

Grand Total on this trip was $.52 OOP put on my free Rite-Aid gift card.   I used $5+Ups to pay and received $8+Ups back making this a $3 moneymaker.

And here is what I bought on 12/30 and 12/31.....

9 trips. * I bag of stuff disappeared in the garage.  I found it on Tuesday evening and have updated my totals accordingly.

I could let the $5 off $25 coupon go out with a whimper now, could I?lol
I also had some other $X of $XX coupons to use up....$3 off $15, $4 off $20, 20% one-time use discount, those $1 off any AdPerk/VV Qs, etc.

Not pictured are 2 boxes of Prevacid and 1 bottle of Rite-Aid brand Mucinex DM.

Out of Pocket Spending.....$3.19-put on my free Rite-Aid gift cards so ZERO out of pocket!
Retail Value.....$337.03
+Ups Used.....$56.00
+Ups Gained...$79.00
After the +Ups are figured in, I basically got paid $20 to take all this home. ;-)

I have $47 in +Up Rewards expiring the end of this week so I'll be heading back to Rite-Aid in the next or 2, so stay tuned to see what I'll bring home(hopefully for free!).lol

THESE TRIPS
Number of Transactions.....10
Total Spent....$3.71(put on free Rite-Aid gift card)
Value of Items....$379.33
SCR qualified for...$6.00
Other Rebates earned...$0.00
Gift Cards earned....$00.00
+Up Rewards earned...$87.00
+Up Rewards spent...$61.00
+Up Rewards left to spend....$165.00

 
GRAND TOTALS--January Rebate Period so far

Number of Transactions......14
Total Spent....$4.70=5 put on free Gift Cards/Certificates so ZERO OOP
Value of Items purchased....$508.02
SCR qualified for....$6.00
Other Cash....$0.00
Additional Rebates....$0.00
Additional Non-Cash Rewards....$0.00

+UPS Totals for Jan. SCR period
+Up Rewards carryover from 12/28.....$134.00 includes ALL +Ups left
+Up Rewards spent....$78.50
+Up Rewards earned....$125.00
+Up Rewards left....$165.00


Sluggy

December Budget Results.....Food and Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for DECEMBER 2010.

I have posted December's totals on the right side bar under Total Grocery Savings for 2010 and updated the Yearly Totals.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in December.  If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom for the Totals Summary.

My spending includes Food, Toiletries/HBA, Pet Supplies, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable.We are a family of 5(4-5 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 14.

BAKERY OUTLET
OOP $19.45
Value $68.63
Savings  71.66%

BIG LOTS
OOP $5.70
Value $11.90
Savings  52.11%

CARONE'S(small local independent store)
OOP  $80.26

Qs/Ads  $73.88
Value  $154.14
Savings  48%

DOLLAR TREE
OOP  $5.00
Value  $15.45
Savings  67.64%

GERRITY'S
OOP  $47.85
Qs/Ads  $51.36
Value  $99.21
Savings  51.77%

REDNER'S(does not double coupons)
OOP  $70.38
Qs/Ads  $33.34
Value  $103.72
Savings  32.15%

RITE AID
OOP  $23.03 (whole amount put on free Rite-Aid Gift Cards)=$.00 actual OOP
Qs/Ads  $2.044.01
Value  $2,067.04
Savings  96.19% before gift cards/ 100% savings after free gift cards

UNI-MART(local minimart/gas station)
OOP  $3.50
Value  $3.50
Savings  0%

WEIS (local chain Grocery store that doesn't take IP Qs in my town/doubles up to $1 total)
OOP  $35.64
Qs/Ads  $52.18
Value  $87.82
Savings   59.42%

I don't track Rite-Aid's +Ups here, nor 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 DECEMBER
Google Ad Revenue....$102.35
Pinecone Research....$6.00
Rite-Aid SCR(various months)...$66.90

Subtotal........$175.25

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES
MyBlogSpark Safeway Gift Card...$25.00

VISA Preloaded (Giveaway win)...$10.00
Rite-Aid Oral Care....$5.00

Rite-Aid GOS Certificates....$40.00

Subtotal....$80.00

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$255.25

COUPONS and FREEBIES

Tim McGraw CD.....Giveaway win

Hamburger Helper....Giveaway win
Fun Serving Dishes....Giveaway win
Pyrex Dish & Marinade....Giveaway win
Fiber One...Free Box Coupon
Rachel Ray....Free Dog Food Coupon
Food Should Taste Good Chips....Free Coupon
Rite-Aid Glam Bag Offer....Free Bag and Samples

My best 3 Store Savings Totals were from Rite-Aid at 100%, The Bakery Outlet at 71.66% and The Dollar Store at 67.64%.

TOTAL Out of Pocket...............................$274.82
TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$2,335.59
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased.............$2,610.41
TOTAL Savings of...................................89.47%

TOTAL of CASH Rebates........................$175.25

TOTAL Out of Pocket After  Rebates.........$99.57
TOTAL Savings of....................................96.19%

This closes out the December spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month-

I went over my budget for December by $25.  With all the extras bought for the Holidays(soda, baked goods, appetizer type foods, etc.), it's no surprise I went over a little.  When you add the rebates received in December toward the food spending my out of pocket goes down to under $100 which is awesome!

What's ahead for 2011.....
I need to sit down with Hubs and analyze what went well and not-so-well in 2010.  Then I can decide if I want to publicly track our Food/HBA spending on the blog in 2011.
If you want any input on this, please leave a comment.
And stay tuned for further developments.....

With all 12 months of 2010 accounted for, we spent a total of $2,291.67 on food and toiletries in 2010.  That's an average of $190.97 per MONTH or $44.07 per WEEK after rebates for a family of 4-5 adults/teens + 2-3 pets.

Not only did $2,291.67 allow our family to eat well for an entire year, it also supplied our local food bank with 4 large food/hba donations during 2010, supplied a relative with approx. $500 in regular retail value of food during the year and we sold some excess items at a local flea market and banked $700!
So really, after putting $700 cash back into our pockets, we 'spent' about $1,600.00 Total for the year!

How did you do in December with your Food Budget?
Will you be tracking your food spending in 2011?  If so, what is the method you will use?
Please leave a comment or link to your post and let us hear about your progress in 2010!  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

Money Saving Challenge 2011....Get Busy with Your Coupon System!

This post was inspired by Precious' Money Saving Challenge series.  You can check her blog out at Frugal Makes Cents.




Now that 2011 is here, it's time to get going on preserving your family's income.

Let me say how I hate, yes-HATE! to give our family's money away.
...To much to the Government(who is quite inefficient in how they use it and waste quite a bit).
....To businesses and stores for their overpriced products.

While some of this spending is necessary(and required by law to boot), with the discretionary spending, I try to do what I can to reduce the amount we let leave Chez Sluggy.  

One of the areas where you can slow the money hemorrhage each month is by controlling your food spending!
One way to reduce your food spending is by using coupons.
If you do use coupons, now is the time to do a little maintenance on your system before you get inundated with the beginning of the year flood of coupons!

So I spent a little piece of my time today going through my Coupon Inserts from the latter part of last year and clipping out any coupons that have not expired by 12/31/2010 that I think I may use/need in the coming months.
I spent 2010 labeling my inserts and filing them.  I only clipped coupons as needed each week.
So I had quite the stack of inserts to sort through.

For now, I'll put each pile of coupons into one of the pencil cases I have, with all the Jan. expiring coupons in one case, the Feb. expiring coupons in another case, etc.

I'll reconsider going back to using a coupon binder for my system this month.  If the amount of actual FOOD coupons picks up I probably will.  2010 was a very poor year for manufacturers releasing Food coupons(except for the junkier food ones)into circulation.  I found I used far more internet printed coupons than manufacturer's coupons printed in the newspaper inserts.  It was so one-sided I am considering no longer buying the Sunday paper for coupon inserts and using a clipping service instead for the few coupons I would require.

Do you plan on using coupons more or less in 2011?
Do you have a system to keep them organized that works well for your?
Please leave a comment or question.

Sluggy