August Budget Results.....Food and Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for AUGUST 2011.

I have posted August's totals on the right side bar under Total Grocery Savings for 2011 and updated the Yearly Totals.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in August.  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(3-6 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 15.
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BAKERY OUTLET
OOP  $4,78
Value  $22.74
Savings  79.98%

BIG LOTS
OOP  $27.72

Value  $43.97
Savings  37%

CARONE'S(small local independent store)
OOP  $71.63

Qs/Ads  $29.53
Value  $101.16
Savings  29.20%

DOLLAR STORE
OOP  $4.00
Value  $6.96
Savings  42.53%

KMART
OOP  $3.00
Qs/Ads $2.07
Value  $5.07
Savings  40.83%

MAINE SOURCE(restaurant/party supply store)
OOP  $59.30
Value  $128.03
Savings  53.68%

RITE AID
OOP  $3.13 (whole amount put on free Rite-Aid Gift Cards)=$.00 actual OOP
Qs/Ads/+Ups  $125.61
Value  $128.74
Savings  97.57% before gift cards/ 100% savings after free gift cards

ROEHNER'S PRODUCE MARKET
OOP  $4.75
Value  $9.98
Savings  52.40%

WEIS (local chain Grocery store in my town/doubles up to $1 total)
OOP  $105.22
Qs/Ads  $70.00
Value  $175.42
Savings  40.02% 

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 RECEIVED IN AUGUST
Pinecone Research....$6.00
Rite-Aid SCR...$22.38

Subtotal........$28.38

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES
$0.00

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$28.38


COUPONS and FREEBIES

Coke.....Free ITEM Q
Drumstick Ice Cream....Free ITEM Q
Pantene.....Free ITEM Q x 3

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My best 3 Store Savings Totals were from Rite-Aid at 100%,  the Bakery Outlet at 97.98% and the Maine Source at 53.68%.  I shopped at 8 different stores in August.


TOTAL Out of Pocket...............................$280.40
TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$341.67
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$622.07
TOTAL Savings of...................................54.93%


TOTAL of CASH Rebates........................$28.38
TOTAL Out of Pocket After Rebates........$252.02
TOTAL Savings including Rebates...........$370.05
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$622.07
TOTAL Savings After Rebates...................59.49%

Since my Rite-Aid shopping(which contains No OOP)always skews my savings percentages, I like to figure my Totals without the Rite-Aid numbers also.
TOTAL OOP after Rebates.....$252.02
TOTAL Value of Items Purchases(w/out Rite-Aid items)....$493.33
TOTAL Savings After Rebates(w/out Rite-Aid items).....49%
My food savings percentage seems to run about 50%-60% for the strictly food items only.
Those Rite-Aid purchases always boost up my savings total about 20% points.  This month Rite-Aid purchases only boosted my Savings Percentage just over 10%.



This closes out the August spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month-
With the crazy busy August here, I am thankful I only went over my food budget by $2.02. I would have stayed under budget if I hadn't supplied a day of Gatorade to the kids during Marching Band Camp, but I'm glad I did that even at the expense of my food budget.

Lots of fresh product and meat were purchased in August.  But not much stocking up on good deals since there were very few deals this month.  I also didn't shop much at Rite-Aid so I don't have lots of free to me items to boost my savings total for August.


What's ahead for September.....
The freezer is exhibiting signs of passing on to the "Big Freezer Place in the Sky".   I am trying to empty it out before the day comes when it won't get cold anymore so I won't be stocking up on any frozen food or meat deals until we replace it.
I'm hoping to keep September's food spending to $250 but if I go as high as $300 I won't complain.
With the higher food prices here I may be looking at $300 as my baseline going forward.  It doesn't make me happy one bit, but it is what it is.  Having just 3 of us at home this month might let me squeeze by on $250 one more month so cross your fingers on that! ;-)

How did you do in August with your Food Budget?
What are your challenges for September?  Any family coming to stay....or are you trying to figure out a food budget for the new school year because your kids are in lots of activities and you need to eat "on the go" more? 
Please leave a comment or link to your post and let us hear about your progress!  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

Finally Getting My Donation Act Together

Summer has almost come and gone here and I am finally getting my donation act together.
That only took me since late June to get back into my decluttering groove again.

Hauling a donation up to the local Food Bank is problematic for me.
Ya see, they are only open on Friday mornings....for 3 whole hours.
Add in that I don't "do" mornings, plus it was summer so there was no other reason like school in session to get me up at the unearthly hour of anytime before noon.
Do you see the problem now?

So here I am up at almost 3 am on Friday morning, blogging about this problem and typing up the list of stuff I am taking in later today.  At this point, I'll just stay up, deliver the goodies when they open for the day and come home for a nap.

Moving on to the goodies....here are the Stockpile Sale leftovers I'm hauling up today.  Our food bank also takes non-food donations of personal hygiene products, paper goods(napkins, toilet paper, etc.)and cleaning products(laundry detergent, dish soap, etc.)

10 Shampoos
5 Body Washes
10 Deodorants
6 Toothbrushes
6 Feminine Products
25 Toothpaste Tubes
20 Diapers *not pictured*

Unfortunately, I have no food to add to this donation.  I have hardly done any deals this summer and the stockpile as well as the freezer is emptying out at an astonishing rate!  There was an awesome Catalina Promotion deal at Redner's a couple of weeks ago that would have let me get an embarrassing number of bottles of ketchup for a very low price.  But it coincided with the college packing and prep craziness week and I just couldn't make the trip all the way over to Redner's in time.
And ketchup is one thing that is always on the food bank ladies list of wants.
*sigh*
So this little collection of goodies will have to do for now.

Have you made a donation to your local food bank or shelter lately?
If you stockpile, go on and spread the deal love in your community, won't you?
Pick up an extra something when you go to the store and help feed those local folks struggling in this economy.

Sluggy

Just Plain Filthy.......or Digging Out & Taking My House Back!

With the departure of Daughter to college last Friday, I gained a new project here at Chez Sluggy.

When my kids leave home for college, I get their bedroom back.

Oh, they still get to stay in their rooms when they are home for the brief period of times between semesters and summer employment, but I get to rearrange/decorate/commandeer/refashion/repurpose  their bedroom.
This includes moving all the crap they leave behind.

No, I am NOT leaving their bedrooms as a shrine that is left undisturbed just as it was when they left home.  I plan to sell and move from this house in 3-7 years from now.  While I'm still in it, I plan to take back this room and use it.

When #1 son left home for college he didn't leave behind much for me to deal with.  He got the "cleaning bug" when he hit 14 or so, and he kept his room quite clean and tidy.  He is also not a "saver" so he regularly threw or gave away old stuff he no longer wanted/needed.
When he left home, I gathered his belongings he didn't take with him and fit them into the bedroom closet, all nice and tidy.
Then Hubs moved in his massive collection of books and it became a study.   There's a futon in the closet that #1 son can roll out for sleeping when he is home.

#1 son's sister on the other hand IS a saver.
She is such a saver that I was compelled to go on Facebook yesterday and post about it.  This is what ensued....

Write a comment...

Public

Denise Arcure

Attention Holly Caroline Arcure>After cleaning out your dresser I have decided that you are NOT allowed to EVER call me a Hoarder again.

· · Tuesday at 10:55am

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  Marsha Adams, Julia Park Tracey and Pamela Webber like this.
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    Holly Caroline Arcure Chut up, mom. i needed all those things!
    

    Tuesday at 11:28am ·
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    Denise Arcure When confronted by the psychologist, that's what all the Hoarders say on those shows.lol
    

    Tuesday at 12:07pm · · 1 personLoading...
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    Sonya Mott Laughing
    

    Tuesday at 12:22pm ·

    
    And to legitimize my claim, here is a shot of her bed with everything I pulled out of ONE of her dressers. You will note that there is NO CLOTHING in this shot...
    

     

    
    

    And this doesn't include what was ON TOP of the dresser!
    
    Here is what the top of the card table she was using as a desk looked like.....
    
    

    

    
    The card table is black under all the layers of dust there.
    
    And here is what the wall behind the card table looks like......
    
    

    

    There is a mysterious black/brown stain where was once a newly painted wall 4 years ago.
    
    If you are reading this daughter, you have some cleaning and repainting to do when you come home for break.
    
    For now, the dresser I just cleaned out will be moved to in front of this wall so I don't have to look at it for the next 3 months.
    
    I have just begun to dig out in there.  There is a very long closet with crap filling it too.
    Ugh.
    
    In conjunction with the bedroom clean out I have undertaken a bathroom cabinet clean out too but more on that later.
    
    I am sorry if you are embarrassed by this post Daughter.  But after all the ribbing you do on me about being a hoarder, and all the picking on your little brother you do about his room being a pigsty you deserve at least this.
    
    Sluggy

My Checkered Artistic Past

From time to time I've mentioned that I was a Costume Designer way back in my younger days.
Back before kids.
Back in the Prehistoric days of my youth, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

A few weeks ago, while I was cleaning some things out of the garage in preparation for one of the Stockpile/Garage Sales, I came across some sketches from my old portfolio from college.

Since I have nothing else worthwhile to blog about today and I have a feeling nobody actually believes half of what I say here, you get to see these stunning works of art *cough*.

Though it may appear to be a simple job, a costume designer has to wear many hats and have many skills.
First you have to create a vision or rather bring the artistic vision of the director of the play to life via clothing.  You must create a cohesive design for all the garments in the play.

Then you have to draw or otherwise put to paper this design.
Not only do you have to convey the design in a 2 dimensional medium, but you have to locate fabrics and trimmings appropriate to turn your design concept into an actual garment that can be worn.
A costume rendering not only is a work of art but it is first and foremost a working tool.
It gives voice to the vision and serves as a guide to the seamstresses as they set about bringing the design to life as an honest to goodness garment.

It's great if a costume designer is a very good artist, but designing clothing that works well on actors is a designers most important skill.
It's a job that you learn from the ground up.  Nobody falls out of the sky and  becomes a costume designer without first learning how to sew, make and cut a pattern, fit a garment and all those non-designing skills.  It's a very hands on profession.  The nitty gritty skills you learn on your way up to being a designer makes you a better designer.

And because of a lack of time, a costume designer generally has little time to create renderings of the costumes.  Usually it's a very quick pencil drawing with some splashes of color thrown onto the paper.
Having the luxury of the time to create proper costume renderings is only a dream to all but the most successful and well paid designers.  And once you rise to that level a good portion of designers don't even do their own renderings.....that's what your paid flunky assistants are for. ;-)

Let me say that most struggling costume designers are also magicians sometimes, having to make expensive looking clothing on a shoestring budget.  Unless you are designing for top film or tv companies, you never have an adequate amount of cash for supplies.  College departments give you bare bones budgets, professional shops give you a pittance and if you work for a shop that uses Equity actors(unionized), then all their production budget goes to paying their salaries and the non-unionized production staff gets screwed.

But enough of that for now.
Onward to the sketch.....

This 1st rendering is for a character in a short play by Anton Chekov(very Russian and very turn of the century, Victorian era).
I used pastels on colored paper to render this sketch.
The blob on the left top are the swatches of the fabrics used to construct this costume, including an example of  'jewels' I handmade to embellish the front of the overlay of the skirt. Money for profession jewels made with Swarovski crystals?  Not in this budget!lol

Here is another costume sketch for a Molière play.  The clothing is apropos to French society of 1670's, the Baroque era.
I created this sketch in watercolors on watercolor paper.

Here is another rendering for another show I can't recall by whom at the moment.  The setting is Ancient Greece.
Again it is rendered in watercolors.

And here's another sketch for the same Molière play as before.....

This last sketch is dear to my heart because it is of ME.
Yes, not only did I design the costumes of this show and build a lot of them, I was also a major character in this production.

I apologize that my photos aren't so great and you can't see much of the detail that is in them.
I could talk for days about the techniques employed to give texture to both the drawings and the actual costumes, because, well, this is my first love.

Now I need to locate the photos of the actual costumes from these renderings, so I can show you how they looked on actual actors.lol

Sluggy

Last Rite-Aid Trips for August & Grand Totals for the Month

Basically, I've been on a break from Rite-Aid this month.
Not a full break, but I haven't darkened their door much and when I went there, I didn't haul much home.
As a result I don't have many +Up Rewards left or many items to report.

And face it, the fact that I had 2 Stockpile/Garage Sales this summer where I sold the stuff I get from Rite-Aid AND I still have a big load of stuff left, I really don't NEED to be hauling things home from Rite-Aid. ;-)

First let's catch up on 2 weeks ago.
2 sales ads ago I bought this.....

1 x Nutella raincheck price=$2.50
1 x Crest complete toothpaste on sale(20% wellness discount less)=$3.43
SubTotal....$5.93

Coupons Used
1 x $1/1 Nutella AdPerk/VV Q=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Crest toothpaste ManuQ=$1.00
Coupon Total....$2.00

$5.93-$2.00=$3.93 OOP
I used $3 in +Up Rewards and put the .93¢ on my gift card($30.55 balance).
I received $2 in +Up Rewards for the Crest toothpaste.
At least I was suppose to get $2 in +Ups.
My receipt says "you have received the maximum number of +Ups for this offer".
The sales ad states Limit of 1 +Ups offer for this sale item.
Well this was my one and only transaction at Rite-Aid that week, so it was my one and only tube of Crest that week.  Don't know how I could have maxed out on the offer.lol
I have had so much going on here with the kids' college stuff I didn't get around to contacting Rite-Aid about this screw up.  I may just return it as it's turning into a huge hassle, at least in my mind, and the last thing I NEED is more toothpaste, right?lol
Moving on.....

I went back this past Friday evening to check for Nutella and bought this.....

2 x Nutella raincheck price=$5.00
1 x Crest toothpaste! on sale=$2.99  *Yes MORE of the SAME toothpaste, but a smaller tube
SubTotal....$7.99

Coupons Used
1 x $1/1 AdPerks/VV Wellness Q=$1.00
2 x $1/1 Nutella AdPerks/VV Q=$2.00
1 x $1/1 Crest toothpaste ManuQ=$1.00
Coupon Total....$4.00

$7.99-$4.00=$3.99 OOP
I used $3 +Up Rewards and put the .99¢ on my gift card(balance of $29.56).

I DID receive the $2 +Up Rewards for the Crest this time.  That week, the smaller Crest complete tube gave a $2 +Up and the limit was 2, but I only bought 1.

Now I KNOW you are wondering why all the toothpaste.
Well, there is a SCR #35--Buy $25 of select Crest/Oral-B/Scope items and get a $5 rebate.  I needed $5 more so the last 2 toothpaste tubes were to put me over $25.

Nutella?
That's easy.....#2 son is addicted to it.  I need to purchase stock in that company....it's THAT bad here!lol

The August SCR Period ends today, Tuesday, August 30th.  I don't plan on going to Rite-Aid today, so this is my end of the month post.

  THESE TRIPS
Number of Transactions.....2
Total Spent....$1.92 put on free gift card
Value of Items....$19.05
SCR qualified for...$5.00
Other Rebates earned...$0.00
Gift Cards earned....$0.00
+Up Rewards earned...$4.00 *but I only have $2 right now*
+Up Rewards spent.....$6.00
+Up Rewards left to spend.....$4.00
And I have $29.56 left on my gift card.


And now, the monthly totals.

Rite-Aid GRAND TOTALS--AUGUST Rebate Period

Number of Transactions......10
Total Spent....$7.68 put on free Gift Cards/Certificates so ZERO OOP
Number of Items purchased.....57
Value of Items purchased....$156.77
SCR qualified for....$22.99
Other Cash....$0.00
Additional Rebates....$0.00
Additional Non-Cash Rewards....$0.00

+UPS Totals for August SCR period
+Up Rewards carryover from 8/13.....$6.00
+Up Rewards spent....$46.50
+Up Rewards earned....$28.00
+Up Rewards left....$4.00  includes ALL +Ups not just ones from this SCR period




So in August, I spent $7.68 of my free gift card "money", brought home $156.77 worth of items and Rite-Aid will be sending me cash rebates of $22.99 for shopping there.

How was your month at Rite-Aid?


Sluggy