Wise Words for a Monday

In these days of Graduations and Graduation Speeches here are a couple of videos with awesome advise to impart.

First, the original video of THE SUNSCREEN SONG.  The lyrics are based on a column written by Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune in 1997.  The real title of the work is "Advise, like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young".  In the introduction Ms. Schmich noted that were she called upon to give a commencement speech, this would be it.  Baz Luhrmann set her words to music in 1998.




And here is the Commencement Speech delivered by Conan O'Brien to the Class of 2011 at Dartmouth this past May.
It's long but it's worth watching the whole thing.




Sluggy

Goals for 2011.....Halfway Point Check-Up

 Every January on my blog, I post a list of Hopes or Goals for my year.  HERE's the post from earlier this year where I talked about what I hoped to accomplish in 2011.

Since we are halfway through the year......let me say that again.....halfway through the year!......I thought it would be a predictable time to check-in and see how I'm doing or how I'm NOT doing at this point in 2011.

1. Put more Money Into Savings.

PASS-We are slightly ahead of our Savings Goal at the halfway point from 2010.  I only upped my Savings Goal 2 thousand dollars in 2011 since food costs have been rising this year and with another teen starting college in August, we have more expenses to cover.  We are on track as of now to meet our savings goal. 8-)

2. File all the Paperwork that needs filing  and completing it on time.

PASS-We got all the college and income tax paperwork completed with time to spare earlier this year.  I also tackled a huge pile of papers that needed filing in May(was it?)  Going forward I am going to try to file every 2 months so the pile doesn't get too unruly.


3. Declutter my entire house and garage, and storage unit(and then stop renting the storage unit).

PASS(so far)-This goal is ongoing throughout 2011.  I had the storage unit down to half-empty.  Then I had to temporarily put a large load of boxes from the garage into the unit so I could stage for a garage sale this month.  Besides just the moving of crap around in this way, I have decluttered at least 6 loads(off hand I think it's 6, I might be wrong) so far from the house and unit.  After the garage sale is over, more loads will begin leaving again for Sallie's.
This Goal is my largest, ongoing, physically challenging one for 2011.  It may just kill me by December. ;-)

4. Read 30 books this year, with 75% of them being non-fiction.

FAIL-I am STILL on Book #6(this one is a 'difficult' read) plus I pitched Book #5 before finishing it because it was just horrible!  So technically I am on Book #5 with 25 more to go. 
bleh.
I am just not feeling much like reading yet.  Maybe next month when the weather turns beastly hot I'll want to do nothing but sit still and read in the a/c.

5. Finish ALL in progress sewing projects and alter ALL clothing that needs it or give it away.

FAIL-I hemmed some pants and worked on some PJ pants for my Daughter but haven't finished them.  Hubs bought 4 pairs of pants for me to hem so the pile has gone UP not DOWN. 
bleh. bleh. bleh. 
I just can't seem to get into a sewing zone.  This is worrying me.  People are going to start thinking I really can't sew.lol

6. Cook more foods from scratch and phase unhealthy options out of my stockpile.

PASS-I was doing very well on this earlier this year.  I was cooking much more from scratch and we were down to a small number of cans of soda(of which I was only drinking 1 can per week if that)and I only had 2 tv dinners in the freezer.....no frozen pizzas, no 'snack' foods like Pop-Tarts or Toaster Pocket thingies, Froot snacks, only a few Helper type mixes.  Ok, I still had a ton of cake mixes and breaded chicken products.lol  Then school ended and I caved and bought some pizza rolls, pizzas, chicken strips, ice cream and more soda for #2 son.  The kid has to eat lunch, right?lol  And unless I want to spend ALL DAY cooking this summer, I'm giving him easy things to make for lunch(rather than spend a fortune buying Taco Bell and Baconators at Wendy's)and I'll give him healthy foods for dinner.  It's the compromise I'll make to get through until school starts again.

And I promise I shall NEVER buy Pop-Tarts again....Nasty!

7. Grow more of the food we eat or source our food from non-grocery chain stores.

 FAIL(so far)-With the wacky weather and being super busy in May/June with the impending Graduation and all that entailed I was sooo not 'into' my garden this year.  We did get it planted but not everything I wanted.  I don't feel we will have as much to eat from our garden this year as we did last year.  As for sourcing from non-grocery chain stores, we are just getting into the season where we can buy from the local farms.  I am determined to get to the farm stands this summer and put up produce for 2012.  I am still looking for a local source for meats.  The closest is over an hour's ride away so not very economical.

8. Use my skills to step up what I do for Others.

 NEUTRAL-Ok, I can't say Pass or Fail on this one.  OTOH, I have done on par with last year in terms of family and food bank donations so far this year.  As soon as the garage sale is done I have another donation to take to the food bank.  But since I have not been 'extreme couponing' this year(due to the lack of deals locally, not traveling where the deals are because of the price of gas and wear and tear on the minivan AND the lack of good value coupons this year, due to the tightening up on coupons by manufacturer's in part because of "That Couponing Show Which Shall Not Be Named")I haven't had as much to donate as in past years.  It will take me MORE money in 2011 to donate the same amount of food as I did in 2010.  I just don't know if I can come up with enough money this year to put toward this goal to "step up" what I give. 
I may have to look at other ways besides monetary/food donations to do for others.

9. Be more "in the Moment" for my Family.

PASS-I feel that, so far in 2011, I have been more 'there' for the family.  I have tried to limit my time on the internet by blogging less(ok, not MUCH less!lol), and spending less time deal hunting.
See?....crappy coupons and local deals give me more time to be with family, so there is one good thing about the dirth of deals!lol  With less of a stockpile I spend less time organizing it.
Of course, the teens don't actually want to spend time with me when they are home, unless I have cooking them food or handing over cash....oh, the blessings of having sullen, eye-rolling teens! ;-)
Now that #2 son is home from camp, I'll be offering to drive him places and do some things for him so he can hang out with people that aren't his family. 

10. Organize the running of my Home.  

How to score this one?.....
I guess I'm on my way to a PASS with this one.  With 2 less kids home things are running fairly smoothly.  With less clutter in the way, it's easier to keep what is here organized and clean.  But with so many projects pending or in progress(garage sale, cleaning out the storage unit, sewing, home repairs/remodeling)it seems like everything is at 6's and 7's and just a moment away from flying off the tracks.  Since the older 2 kids don't have a car while working across the state this summer(due to the car wreck in May), I'm having to deal with business stuff for them like driver's license renewals, dr. appointments, prescription refills, college papers/forms, scholarship forms/requirement, ordering books and tuition bills.  This is stuff they should/would be taking care of but since they don't have transportation or bank/credit card access it's all falling on me.  I haven't screwed anything up yet, knock on wood.lol

So how about you?
How are your goals for 2011 panning out?
Are you on track to accomplish what you want to this year?
Have your goals changed significantly since the beginning of 2011?

Sluggy 

Using Up the +Ups on Saturday

Here's how I used my $10 in +Up Rewards....

2 bags of Doritos
2 teeny tiny boxes of Whitman's Sampler chocies
1 teeny tiny box of suger-free Whitman's Sampler chocies
1 pack of sheet protectors
1 Cella cherry

$11.18
I used a $1 Wellness AdPerk/VV IPQ and those $10 in +Up Rewards and put the .18¢ on my Rite-Aid gift card.
I received $4 in +Ups(3 x $1 for the chocies, 1 x $1 for the Doritos).

Analysis....
*Doritos=teen boy snacks + it gave a $1 +Up so I rolled something
*teeny tiny choccies=stocking stuffers + it gave a $1 +Up each
*sheet protectors=son needed for marching band camp + it was a good price for this item
*cherry=filler so I could use my last +Up Reward-the sugar free box of chocies was .08¢ less than the regular so my total was less than I had calculated.

I have $16 in +Ups to use this week.  I don't see many item to roll them with that I can use so it might be another week of burning them.  At this rate I will be out of +Up Rewards in a couple of weeks.
It might be a good thing to be out and take some weeks off from my Rite-Aid adventures. 8-)


THIS TRIP
Number of Transactions.....1
Total Spent....$.18 put on free gift card
Value of Items....$15.07
SCR qualified for...$0.00
Other Rebates earned...$0.00
Gift Cards earned....$0.00
+Up Rewards earned...$4.00
+Up Rewards spent.....$10.00
+Up Rewards left to spend.....$28.00
And I have $38.89 left on my gift card.


Rite-Aid GRAND TOTALS--JULY Rebate Period so far

Number of Transactions......10
Total Spent....$2.95 put on free Gift Cards/Certificates so ZERO OOP
Number of Items purchased.....63
Value of Items purchased....$300.58
SCR qualified for....$22.38
Other Cash....$0.00
Additional Rebates....$0.00
Additional Non-Cash Rewards....$0.00

+UPS Totals for July SCR period
+Up Rewards carryover from 7/13.....$34.00
+Up Rewards spent....$82.69
+Up Rewards earned....$53.38
+Up Rewards left....$28.00  includes ALL +Ups not just ones from this SCR period

Sluggy

Quick Trip to Price Chopper for Coupon Doublers and Edy's Catalina Deal

After getting a gold star this morning at the dentist.....8-))....I made a dash down to Price Chopper to roll my $5 Catalina Q from 2 weeks ago for buying all that Dove Men's Soap.
PC had 3 Coupon Doubler Qs in the ad here on Sunday and there is an Edy's Ice Cream Catalina Deal(Spend $12/Get $4 Cat Q)so I pulled a few Qs and went deal hunting.

4 x Texas Toast Croutons BOGO sale($2.29)=$4.58
2 x Edy's Fruit Bars on sale $3=$6.00
2 x Edy's Ice Cream on sale $3=$6.00
2 x Heluva Good Cheese on sale $2=$4.00
2 x Bic Comfort 3 Razors on sale $2.99=$5.98
SubTotal.....$26.56

Coupons Used
2 x $1/2 Texas Toast Croutons ManuQ(used 2 Doubler Qs)=$4.00
2 x $1/1 Edy's Fruit Bars IPQ=$2.00
1 x $1/2 Heluva Good items ManuQ(used 1 Doubler Q)=$2.00
2 x $3/1 Bic Comfort 3 Razor ManuQ(price modified down to $2.99 each)=$5.98
1 x $5 OYNO Cat Q=$5.00
Coupon Total.....$18.98

$26.56-$18.98=$7.58+.06¢tax=$7.64 OOP
And my Edy's Catalina didn't print!
Went to the counter and seems nobody's Cat for this is printing at this store, so the CSM gave me $4 cash instead.
Deduct that $4 and my OOP today was $3.64.
$37.68 worth of items gives me a savings rate of 90.34%.

Analysis.....


* The cheese was $1 a block after Qs.
* The croutons were 14&1/5 cents a bag after Qs.
* The razors were free.
* What's left OOP is $1.00(plus 6 cents for tax)for 4 containers of ice cream/popsicles which breaks down to 25 cents for each container.
 * In a way I'm glad I got cash today instead of a Catalina Q to roll.  I don't go to PC much in the summer so now I don't have a Cat that has to be used in 2 weeks hanging over my head.

This brings my food spending for July up to $78.37.  Half the month is over and we have $171.63 left in the budget.

How is your food spending, or NOT spending going so far in July?
Any great deals you had to have so far this month?
Or are you trying to eat down your pantry?

Sluggy

Say Hello to My Little Friend!

Let me introduce my new, close, personal friend........

He may be very one dimensional but we enjoy each other's company.lol
The downside is that Uncle Sam will want a cut of my new buddy here, come next April. 8-(

I brought Mr. Franklin home on Monday night.  He was my "thank you" for participating in a Focus Group/Mock Jury session held at a local hotel.  We also got some "parting gifts" as Monty Hall use to say but this was the incentive to get me to leave my house, drive 5 miles down the mountain and give my opinion on a case. 

The company I am registered with is turning out to be a good gig for me.  It took a year or so to get things rolling but this is the 3rd group event I've been selected for(2 have been online/1 in-person)since last Fall.  They also send emailed surveys but I seem to get dumped out of them before I get to the end so I only have $2 or so in my account for those so far.  It will be sometime before I can request a $20 check on that.lol
 
If you'd like to sign up with Focus Forward, I'd appreciate if you'd use my link HERE.
They are a nationwide LCC corporation.  Signing up is free and you will never be asked to pay for anything in order to participate in a group.  I highly recommend them.

Another company Hubs is involved with is Pinecone Research.  They send out online survey invites on average of 2-3 a month.  Each completed survey is worth $3 and you can have a paper check sent or request payment through a Paypal account.  Last year Hubs did 20 surveys so made $60.  Of course, Uncle Same also got a cut of that since it IS income.  You won't get rich participating but $60 is a utility bill or a week's worth of groceries, right?

Pinecone doesn't recruit or do referrals.  You have to wait until they have openings and go sign up.  They will advertise openings on various website via banners but there are no set sites or times so it's a matter of keeping your eyes open online and if you hear from some's blog or website that Pinecone Research is taking applications, you need to jump on it.
Hubs didn't get invited right away when he applied.  He had to wait until his demographic fit the profile they were recruiting from so if you don't get in right away, keep trying.

And there is good news on the TOLUNA front as well.  TOLUNA is an online survey company I signed up at the behest of my bloggy buddy SonyaAnn.  If these 2 survey's incentive points every come through from 2 Pending studies I did, I may just actually have enough points to request a $20 check...woohooo!

Sluggy