September Food Spending Week 2.5 and Menu Plan

 I love this little Flow Chart from Summer Tomato to help you find REAL FOOD in the grocery store.
Check it out!lol

Speaking of supermarkets, I made 3 trips to the grocery store last week...really 1 trip last week and 2 trips into Week 3 or Week 2.5.lol  I can't seem to line up the weeks with the menu plans.  I need to come up with a better system for reporting in.

The local market had some BOGO sales so I stocked up on basic things like onions, potatoes, bread and bagels(as I didn't get over to the Bread Outlet yet).  I bought a number of items for #2 son for snacking including 1/2 off muffins, juice, pizza and chicken strips. Also some Gatorade for band practice, and sweets like ice cream and pie.
I picked up some deals.....a package of trout, a package of hot dog rolls, frozen veggies, as well as a General Mills Promotional Deal when you bought 8 items you received $4 off your total.  For that I bought 4 boxed veggies, 1 sack of flour and 3 rolls of whack biscuits.  Total w/sale prices was $11.59....total after $4 and $2 in Qs off=$5.59 for 8 items.
I also used a $10 gift card I won ages ago to pay for a part of this order so my $20.84 total was $10.84 OOP.
Sweet!

My meal plan for last week ended up looking like this....
Sunday--Tacos
Monday--Ravioli, Salad
Tuesday--BLT Sandwiches
Wednesday--Mac & Cheese, Cauliflower
Thursday--Leftovers
Friday--Chinese take out
Saturday--Pecan Crusted Chicken, Cream of Spinach

The only items I needed to buy to accomplish this menu?.....A loaf of bread

So this week, using what I bought last week and what was already in the freezer/pantry, is looking like this.....

Sunday--Spaghetti and Meatballs(fresh sauce from garden and homemade balls for the freezer)
Monday--Chicken Biscuits, Corn(roll of biscuits, frozen chicken patties and corn in freezer)
Tuesday--Trout, Fries, Pan Roasted Summer Veggies(trout and taters I bought, veg. in freezer)
Wednesday--Pork Chops w/Apricot Glaze, Potato Salad, Brussel Sprouts(chops in freezer, taters and sprouts I bought)
Thursday--Meatloaf, Roasted Potatoes and Carrots(beef in freezer, taters I bought)
Friday--Leftovers
Saturday--Hot Dogs, Leftover Veggies/Potato Salad(dogs in freezer, rolls I bought)

Left to buy for this menu.....Carrots.
I know it's heavy on potatoes but 2 of us ate a lot of rice last week for snack meals and for lunch, so I'll make #2 son happy and serve fries instead of rice with the trout.

Last week I spent $116.29 at the store on $217.74 worth of items, for a savings rate of 46.60%.
I only used $4 in Qs.  Seriously, I can't find a coupon deal unless I want to buy a bunch of processed stuff lately.

I have spent a total of $181.47 so far for September in 2.5 weeks.  $68.53 left in the food budget with 11 days to go so I am short about $20 at this point in the month.

This week we need some dairy and eggs and I'll pick up what is on special and work it into a menu for next week.
If I find some good deals I won't worry about that $20 overage.

At this point, I'll hold off going to the bread store until next week or October.
I'm debating doing the Campbell's Catalina at Price Chopper(for the Prego sauce) as it will put me over the budget if I do.

What are y'all eating and buying this week?

Sluggy

A 7 Post.....Play Along

I am stealing this Post Idea from Judy over at We May Be Poor, But We Are Happy.  

It's about SEVEN THINGS.....the things we have done in this year to make your lives better, 7 things you still want to do, and 7 goals for next year.
Since I don't have debt any longer, you won't see any pay-offs of loans here.  It's a bit harder to come up with accomplishments for me. ;-)

7 Things We Have Done This Year

1. Paid for College w/cash
2. Put over $22,000 into Savings
3. Kept my Grocery Speding to an average of $207 month
4. Paint Half Bath after 11 years here
5. Donated to Food Bank and Salvation Army
6. Held 2 successful Toiletries Sales
7. Had a Garden

7 Things Still To Do This Year

1. Go through all boxes in storage
2. Sell and/or Donate inventory in boxes
3. Close Pool down/Clean up Yard
4. Sew Stuff
5. Put another $10000 into Savings
6. Clean the Garage-yet again
7. SURVIVE THE HOLIDAYS!

7 Things To Do in 2012

1. Redo Bathroom
2. Paint Living Room/Dining Room
3. Replace flooring in LR/DR
4. Fix Ceilings
5. Pay cash for more College
6. Go through Fabric Stash
7. De-Clutter

So what are your accomplishments?
And what do you still want to get done this year and in 2012?


So enjoy your TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY.
Aaaargh.....I'm off to get another load from storage, matey! 

lol

Sluggy 

It Done Rained on my Master Plan

Circumstances beyond my control(isn't EVERYTHING pretty much beyond my control?lol)have caused me to change my Decluttering plans.

Here is what I was going to do....
1. Sell Stockpile goods leftover from Garage Sales at the local Flea Market.  Hopefully this would leave me with little extra stock to store away for later.
2.  Go through boxes of  "Stuff to Sell" in storage unit.  Sort into 3 piles--A)eBay worthy, B)Charity Donation worthy, C)Toy Sale worthy.
Many of the things I haven't put on eBay yet in storage are not worth the expense or time involved to sell them there any longer.  Prices are down, shipping costs are up and fees well, I don't even want to THINK about the cost of some of those anymore!!
So I'll be sorting through every single item in every single box.  If it's still worth putting on eBay, I will do that.  If it's not worth selling there, it goes into my Garage Sale Toy stack.  I plan on filling the garage with all this stuff, advertising it and having a big Before Christmas Toy Sale.  Garage Sale prices on new in the package older toys and collectibles.
And after I hold this, there will be many donations to charity with what is left.
3. Hold the Garage Sale Toy Sale.  This will require a massive reorganizing and temporary cleaning out of the garage as soon as possible.  I am shooting for mid October to hold the sale....close enough to Christmas to get people to buy but not so cold that we can't open the garage door and extend the area were we can display items since it is NOT all going to fit inside the garage.
Trust me.....it's an ass ton! ;-)
After the Master Plan is implemented, I would be able to fit everything I have in storage into the garage(no, we don't actually keep CARS in our garage....what of it?lol)and stop renting that unit.

Well that WAS the plan.....

Hubs and I were going to do the local Flea Market this Sunday or next at the local drive-inn theater.
We've had a couple of successful outings there in the past 2 years selling my excess Stockpile of Toiletries/Food/Household Goods.
You can read about our 1st trip in Oct. of 2009 HERE and our 2nd trip in May of 2010 HERE.

Then The Great Flood of 2011 happened.
The Drive-In was decimated by the flood so it is closed under further notice.
I can't share photos of the damage so if you'd like to see it, go to their Facebook Page.
*Sigh*

I feel badly for their losses and I hope they can rebuild.  It would be a shame to lose them.

So no flea market for me.
Now I have to box up all the leftover toiletry goods and find a place for them in the storage unit temporarily.

The 2nd part of my "Master Plan" has now begun.  I've gone through 30 boxes so far and need to make another trip to storage for more boxes to sort through.  Most of the stuff so far has gone into the Garage Toy Sale pile.  This is my main chore for this weekend.

Next week I start Part 3--Getting the garage cleaned up and rearranged to display all the toys, deciding on what day to hold the Sale and getting the word out to advertise it.

Back to plowing through the stuff.
Wish me luck!

So what's on your weekend agenda?

Sluggy

More September Decluttering P*rn......Ooooh Baby!

For your decluttering viewing pleasure, here's another installment of Salvation Army worthy P*rn.

Most of today's haul is courtesy of #2 son from The Great Dig Out of 2011.  Along with all the trash we pitched, we also salvaged stuff worthy of a Sallie's donation.  A few things are courtesy of Hubs as he spent part of Sunday cleaning off his dresser. (Bonus points if you can spot which items were part of his donation to the effort.)  The rest is from my boxes of merchandise I have begun to go through from storage.

  September Donation #2

15 young adult books
2 Cube World cubes
2 Gamecube Game Books
1 Get Smart beanbag doll
1 hand massager
1 collectible tin box
1 Crayola Xmas ornament
1 quartz hand carved turtle
1 set of Speed Stacking cups
1 pair of safety goggles

1 pair of Designer Sneakers(hardly worn)
1 Power Rangers Lunchbox
1 LL Bean Lunchbox
1 over the door bathroom rack
1 roll of wallpaper border
1 package of stationary

1 GI Joe Footlocker
1 Star Wars Figure Maker toy
1 Sylvester the Cat Pen
3 Star Wars Pez Dispensers
1 Matchbox helicopter
1 Cat in the Hat Watch
1 Pokemon cards Booklet and collection of cards
1 collectible Mets die-cast car
2 Legos Bionicle comic books
1 Star Wars boxes and figures Set

More Decluttering coming soon to a blog near you!

Sluggy

My Brain & A Check Go Missing & 4.5 Years Ago Today

2 days ago I got mail from my insurance company.
Inside was a Notice of Cancellation of our homeowner's policy.

THUD!

After I picked my excessively large butt off the floor I then said....

WTF?!?!

I am a class act if nothing else.

Seems we are being terminated for lack of payment.
Translation--The insurance company didn't get our check!

So I went to the checkbook register to see if indeed I wrote and recorded a check.
Yes, July 29th.

So I went online to our bank account and saw that the check in question had not been cashed yet.
Hmmmm.

Now I am thinking that it got lost while in the capable hands of the almost bankrupt US Postal Service.

But just in case that is NOT the answer I began to go through the stacks of paper on my desk.

I have stacks and stacks of paperwork on my desk and on the bookcase next to my desk.
It's about hit Critical Mass Stage and needs to be filed, organized or otherwise pitched.
This MIA check payment was just the impetus I needed to start throwing papers around and muttering under my breath.
Ok, so I mutter under my breath anyway.....

And after 2 hours of thrashing about I did NOT turn up the missing check or envelope or anything!
So I started channeling my dead doggie Mango(which meant I started grumbling and saying "Crap!" in the cute grumpy old doggie voice we imagined he would have had, had he been capable of speech)and I went about putting all those papers back into assorted piles.

About an hour later, #2 son comes home from school and is raiding the kitchen for snacks.
As I am standing next to my desk talking to him, I look at the space between the back of the desk and the wall it sits in front of.  There, laying halfway underneath the desk is an envelope.  I get the yardstick and fish it out from behind the desk.

Do I REALLY have to say what it was??lol
Yes all you Miss Cleo wannabees....it's the envelope with the missing check.
It seems in the chaos, that was my August, the payment never actually got mailed.

This is so unlike me.....yah, that's my story.

So yesterday I bopped up to the agent's office and hand delivered said insurance payment.
All is now right with the universe until the next bookkeeping catastrophe hits.

Which brings me to the second part of this post.
As I was looking at the paperwork I enclosed with insurance payment, I saw that they still have our mortgage company listed as the lien holder on our house.
Hell NO!!
I need to get the release papers out to send to the insurance company so they take the mortgage company off.

You see, 4 years and 6 months ago today, we paid off our mortgage in full.
March 15, 2007.
I will never forget that date.
That is our personal Independence Day.

By paying off our 30 year fixed rate mortgage in 6 years, 6 months & 25 days instead of 30 years, we saved roughly $109,088.00 in interest.

If we had taken 30 years to pay off the mortgage we would have paid out $142,792.39 in interest alone.
We only paid less than 24% of that interest amount by not dragging out the payments the full 30 years.

And yes, the grass IS greener now in the yard & the air IS fresher without a mortgage! ;-)
And yes, it IS easier to squirrel away money into savings....a LOT of money into savings, once you aren't paying a mortgage too.
Money to buy cars with cash.
Money to pay cash for college.
Money to pay cash for most anything if you save up that new found income instead of buying stuff with it.

If being mortgage-free is your dream I hope you get there, and I hope it's soon.
You can do it!  8-)


Sluggy