I Pulled the Plug Last Week

Yes folks, in the face of the Netflix increase since they are going to pricing Streaming separately from DVD mailing, I shut it all down.
No more Netflix in this house.
I had to do it on principle really.
Yes, I could have afforded the 60% price increase to keep both delivery systems.
But it really chapped my butt like an ammonia soaked diaper to pay that jacked up $17.99 price for the same exact service I had been paying $9.99 for.
So I blew both off.

I may calm down at some point and miss it enough to resub to one or the other.
But for now, I'm going cold turkey on Netflix.

How about you?
Are you a subscriber?
Are you paying the jacked up full service price or did you go to one or the other?
Are you as delighted with the price increase as I am?

Sluggy

Week 1 Food Spending for August & When Momma Ain't Happy....

Saturday marks the last day of the 1st week of food spending for August.(I'll add an extra day to each of the rest of the weeks to account for those 3 additional days this month beyond the 28th.)
I did quite a lot of food shopping this week....3 trips to the grocery store and a trip on Saturday to Big Lots.
At the local independent market I finally picked up some pie crust on sale and made my quiches.  I also picked up some plain yogurt to make tzatziki sauce for my ersatz Gyros.
While I was there I picked up on sale....4 bags of frozen veggies, whack biscuits, carrots, potatoes and strawberries for a total of $23.34.

Then at Weis Markets, along with more Swiss cheese for my quiches and the ground pork I got to make my DIY breakfast patties HERE, I found some other deals.....battered fish for half off(#2 son eats this), breakfast link sausage, some boneless pork chops and swiss steak on discount and store packaged feta cheese(for the Gyros).
I splurged and bought a container of hummus(on sale)and some store bakery garlic crustini rounds for a snack for me.
I picked up 16 bottles of gatorade on sale with hangtag Qs on them as well.  These are a donation for the Marching Band Camp next week.  The total was $55.16 at Weis.

Then on Saturday Hubs wanted to go out so we checked out Big Lots.  I got some quart sized canning jars I needed, Ocean Spray 100% juices for $2(my buy price for 100% juice other than apple), Oreos(for #2 son), a box of chocolate chip pancake mix(for #2 son to make), a Xmas stocking stuffer(it's a secret!), and 2 jars of mayonnaise on clearance.  I was very happy about the mayo since I was down to my last jar for a stock-up 2 summers ago at Acme where I got it for free.  And yes, mayo does last 2 yrs. past the sell by date on the jar. ;-)  We left that store $27.72 poorer....

Then it was off to Weis again, for more Gatorade for the Marching Band, Power-Ade for #2 son's use at Band Camp and a bunch of bags of chips.  #2 son talked me into all that snacking stuff since the house was bare and it was on sale so I don't feel as bad.  Plus he'll take a bag or two to band camp next week.  I do feel bad about the $34.78 I spent.  bleh.

In total I spent $141.00 of my $250 food budget for August in this 1st week of the month.
Ugh.
Ugh.
Ugh.
And I haven't even gotten any produce to put up for winter yet!

My savings percentages ran from just under 34% at the local market to 45% for one of the Weis Markets trips.   I had a 40% savings for all trips combined.

We ate the Meal Plan that I had made last week as posted already.
This week?
All bets are off on the menu.

Hubs is on vacation but we are staying home.
So he gets a staycation.
Saturday he bought more books.  I wish he'd go to the library or read what he has already!
Today he's at the local amusement park with #2 son and his friend.
Later this week he's going to go play chess.  This costs money and a ton in gas as it's 2+ hours away.

I get business as usual.
Can you tell I am not happy?


But I'd like to at least not have to cook this week.
If I don't cook, it's not like he will fix meals instead.
He'll just go buy fast food and spend unnecessary money.
If that happens, I won't spend any food budget money this week(as eating out comes out of a different kitty).
But I think a large scale amount of crappy fast food all week, along with being bad for us, is just a wasteful frittering away of our cash when good food is here in the house and he can't be bothered to throw a meal together if I am busy and he isn't.

Maybe I'm just in a bad mood today.
I am feeling overwhelmed and unappreciated by my children.
Why am I still having to deal with buying college books for the 20 yr. old student after 2 years of college?  It's bad enough I have to do their tax returns for them and now I have to find deals for Daughter, the incoming college student. Why can't he handle his book order now?
Both kids are in a state school(within the same system)yet their schools handled Everything so differently!  Instead of being easy, they make it so complicated.  One hasn't even posted the bill for this semester.....the bill that needs to be paid before Aug. 24th.  And they only let you pay online using a credit card and they make YOU pay the processing fee they are charged by the cc company.  You can't mail them a check or hand them cash in person. 
Just ridiculous....

And #1 son chooses to come home from his summer job for 3 whole days before he has to leave again for college.  And he expects me to get him 2 dr. appts., dentist appt. and an optometrist appt. AND fill an eye glass prescription within this time frame.  He could come home sooner and he could schedule all this his bad self, right?
I think 20 yrs. old is time to start handling your own shit....


Sluggy

My Investments, Your Paycheck & Recession?....What Recession?!?

Yesterday's stock market tumble basically wiped out any gains most people's investments had made so far this year.  Ok, so you don't "play" the Stock Market but if you have any kind of investments(outside of a CD tho there are Market linked CDs)you are affected.
The national news outlets reported that the average 401(k) lost almost $12K worth of value.
Considering statistics noting that in 2011 the average 401(k) balance is $75K, that is quite a loss of value.
I can commiserate since my Vanguard account (which holds a portion of the money for my kid's college funds)fell to pre 2011 levels.  So much for using some of this account to pay tuition bills for 2 kids this month!
You know....I was going to transfer $ out of that account in May, since historically stocks go down during the Summer months.  I knew I needed to write tuition checks this Summer for the Fall term.

But then I was distracted dealing with other things.  When I got around to transferring the money, it had lost a goodly portion of it's 2011 gains.  So I checked each week and waited.....and each week it went down more and more.  And then the last 2 weeks it plummeted like Stonehenge baby!
Too late to pull it out now unless I want to take a loss....and that's not something I want to take!
I'll have to let that money ride and hope it recovers by Jan. 2012(or August 2012)when I need to write tuition checks again. 8-(
bleh.

On the other hand, if you aren't risk adverse, now would be a great time to let your investments ride or to jump into the Market.... ;-)


You may recall that the President gave us a tax break in 2011.
That was nice of him, wasn't it?
All working people got a yearlong Payroll Tax Cut, remember that?  That's the little bit of extra pay you've seen in your paycheck this year.
I bet you got use to relying on that little bit of cash each pay period to pay your regular monthly bills.
And now you rely on it being there, don't you?

Let me be the stick in the mud and remind you that this tax cut is temporary and will end at the end of 2011-less than 5 months from now.
Here's a tip.....
You might want to start throwing that extra cash into savings and start living without it now so that when it vanishes at the end of December you can still meet your bills without needing it.
You'll need it next year to pay your food bills since word is out that price inflation will be ramping up even more at a grocery store near you.
bleh.


Hours after the market closed, the government released the monthly jobs report which showed that Unemployment went down.....from 9.2% to....are you ready for this?......9.1%.
Oh...wow.
This was due to the creation of 117,000 new jobs in July, which was about 30,000 more than the White House was expecting.  Someone said those jobs were probably all Grief Counselor positions for all the Stock Market Traders who will need therapy after yesterday's close. lol
Even so, with the growing population, we need 300,000 new jobs a month to make any real progress in unemployment.  117,000 jobs means we are barely treading employment water. 
bleh.

Last night on the national news, after one of the segments on the national economy, an ABC News reporter made the comment that people are afraid we are headed into another recession.
Ummm, excuse me?
Did we come out of the current recession while I was blinking or in the bathroom or something?
I don't recall the recession that began in 2008 ending!
I don't see it locally or nationally.  And if you ask most anyone on the street, they don't recall that recession ending either.
bleh.

No matter the numbers the taking political heads throw out there, trust me, for Mr. and Mrs. John Q Public, the Recession never left!
I see it at the grocery store, hear it from people in line at the post office, read it on personal finance blogs and in the local newspaper editorial section.
It's still that good-for-nothing relative living in your basement for the last 4 years, using your electricity, driving your car(and not putting gas in the tank), raiding your refrigerator, texting on your cell plan and borrowing your credit cards.
Or for me it's like my 15 year old Teenager....he costs me excessive amounts of money, he expects too much, I can't reason with him and I can't throw him out of my house.

This Recession is entrenched and like your good-for-nothing relative, it ain't going away anytime soon.

Sluggy

$32K Savings Challenge for 2011.....JULY RESULTS....Extra Paycheck Edition

I have posted my JULY End of Month $32K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right for the specific numbers.

I have 2 goals really each month.....
The 1st is to actually finish each month in the black and not the red.
The 2nd is to hit the targeted savings amount of $2,666.67.

I have to report that we finished up July in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of July with.......$5,530.11.

Income
We had $5403.96 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Add in $23.97 of Rebates applied against the food expenses, $2.18 in Interest on the Checking Account and $100 from my Focus Group work and you have a deposit of $5530.11  toward the Savings Challenge!

Our monthly target is an average of $2,666.67 to reach our Year End Goal.

Outgo
As for the expenses in July....

HERE are the GOOD THINGS
* We paid the Sewage bill for the year a couple of months ago, so no quarterly payment this month.
* The electric bill was about $20 less than June's.
* The credit card bill was well under $1,000 for a change.
* Three paychecks this month!

HERE are the BAD THINGS
* While not due until August, I paid the home insurance bill in July, since the car insurance is due in August as well.
* The WAM money was much higher than usual.


The Food Budget costs for July are in another post, which is located HERE.  The actual Food/Toiletries spending in July was almost $50 under budget or $75 under when rebate checks were applied toward the food bill.

What's ahead for August.......
There will b no summer vacation this year.  While I am sad we can't get away this summer my wallet will enjoy not having to pay for the added expenses that going away requires.
There are the usual suspects: electricity, water, phone, cable, credit card bill, food cash, etc.

We will have some Marching Band associated expenses in August.
We will have the semi-annual car insurance bill to pay.
Having the whole family(plus 1 girlfriend)home for part of this month will mean higher food bills, as well as electric and water bills.
Back-to-school means some credit card charges for some dorm room stuff & supplies for our 1st time college student this year.  #2 son also will need a few school supplies that I haven't already picked up for free.
Gas spending will also be higher in August with having to transport 2 college students across the state to 2 different schools on 2 different dates. bleh.

YEAR-TO-DATE TOTAL.....
With 7 months behind us, our Savings total to-date for 2011 is $20,781.02. 
We are just over $2,000 ahead of our final goal at this point in the year.  If we end up having a really bad expensive month at some point in the next 5 months, this will help us to overcome it and still finish the year reaching our goal.  It's like a little "get out of jail free" card for our Challenge.  Having that little extra takes some of the pressure off me. ;-)

So how are your savings growing so far this year?
Do you have an emergency fund of 6-8 months worth of expenses!  You really should, you know. 
With the current financial climate in this country, you should try to put away into savings as much as you can each month.

So come along and Challenge Yourself to Save Money each Month Toward a Realistic for YOU Savings Goal!

Not everyone can shoot for $32K, I fully get that!
But everyone can shoot for some number, right!?

Find a money goal that works for you and put that number out there for everyone to see.  It will help keep you accountable to your goal if other eyes are on you.
Ooo, that sounded kind of creepy didn't it? ;-)

So how was your July financially?
Did you spend less than you made?
Did you stay within your budget or not?

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

My Meat!.....DIY Breakfst Sausage

I have my mouth all set for a biscuit with sausage patty this morning.
You know, like what Mickey D's sells on their $1 Menu.....for a dollar. lol

But I didn't want to have to go there to buy it.
So I went hunting for rolled sausage at the grocery store while I was there this morning.
The first store didn't have any rolls of sausage meat!  Just a cut up already roll on a styrofoam tray of Bob Evans brand sausage.  Seems like they were hiding an expiration date or lopped off an end of the roll that went bad or something by selling it in this manner.  And they wanted $3.99 for not even 12 oz.
No way.

So store #2 had 1 brand of rolled sausage, Johnsville.
And they wanted $4.99 for a roll!
Not even a lb. of sausage....12 oz.  That comes out to .60¢ an ounce.
Nope, not buying it.

So I spied some containers of ground pork further down in the meat case.
Ground pork for $1.99 lb.
Hmmmm.....
Since it was already ground up(I don't have a grinder attachment for a stand mixer or a manual table mounted grinder)and I didn't want to make links(no casings to buy or deal with), I bought that pork.

I came home and printed out a breakfast sausage recipe(Alton Brown's HERE).  I gathered the spices....

And measured them out.....

I sifted the spices and dumped in the pork....

After a few minutes using my "mobile, manual mixing attachments"(aka my hands)my sausage meat looked like this....

Then I slapped some patties together and set em to cooking in the cast iron skillet....

Here is the finished product.....

And here they are in the "delivery system of choice"(aka biscuits).....

And the Verdict?
O.M.G.
Mickey D's just lost the battle for my sausage biscuit dollars!


* I love that after the cost of the whack biscuits on sale here this week for $1.25 a roll for Grands!, the cost of the ground pork and $1.00 to cover the cost of the spices used I can make 8 sausage biscuits for $4.92.(8 large patties came to $3.67+roll of biscuits at $1.25)  That's 61.5¢ per biscuit sandwich.  If you make your own biscuits your cost goes down significantly from there.
Me?  I'm lazy....

* I love that I found already ground fresh pork.  This makes it super easy since you don't have to grind the meat yourself.  My $1.99 lb. price wasn't the best but I could wait for a deal on that to purchase it for next time.

* I love that you can play with the spices to your own taste.  With the recipe I used I left out the red pepper flakes since it called for ground cayenne pepper too.  I also substituted 1/3 of the black pepper called for with some ground multicolored peppercorns for a depth of flavor and a little less heat.
You could also add more brown sugar and/or add real maple syrup if you like your sausage sweeter.
You can also add other spices to make some Italian sausage patties.   Just google a recipe for Italian sausage to find which spices you need.

 I will definitely be doing this again!  Next time I hit the warehouse type stores to find a nice big deal on ground pork.  Then I can fill the freezer with semi-homemade sausage patties.
Yumm!

Have you ever made sausage yourself?
Did you go the whole Charcuterie route and cut and grind your own meat cuts?
Or did you work from preground meat?

Sluggy