$32K Savings Challenge......SEPTEMBER 2011 Results

Ok, here is my Savings Challenge Update post.
This post is NOT about bragging or showing off....especially this month's update!lol
And here is the great photo from last month's post again.
I LOVE a special on crap, but I don't think this price is frugal enough for me......how about you?

The theme this month is some months you can tighten the belt and save better than others, and then other months?....well.....you are lucky to just get through it without dipping into the red.

On to the September report.....

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

I have 2 goals 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 September in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of September with?.......$975.52.

Income
We had $940.47 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Add in $22.99 of Rebates applied against the food expenses, $2.19 in Interest on the Checking Account, and a Dividend payment of $9.87 toward the Savings Challenge for a total of $975.52

Our monthly target is an average of $2,666.67 to reach our Year End Goal.
Obviously we didn't meet that target.
If you added our amount saved for both August and September together you'd get a little more than what I need to save for one month.

Ugh.

On the bright side, at least we aren't negative money. 8-)

Outgo
As for the expenses in September......

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 held steady.
* I stayed on the food budget.
* The Marching Band expenses were very low for a change.  September is usually a high spend month for this activity.

HERE are the BAD THINGS
* The credit card bill was over $1500.... the cost of Daughter's new laptop hit the bill as well as other things.
* The water bill went up $12+ in Sept.  I am still trying to figure out WHY!
* The school taxes were due...ouch.
* There was a car repair bill.
* The WAM & cash withdrawals were high.  As usual Hubs won't track his spending and get receipts so I have no clue where some of that money goes....sigh.
* I paid ahead for monthly garbage pick-up through the end of 2011.  One bill I don't have to worry about paying as we get into the Holiday Spending Season.
* And I hate to have to say this but.....the car repair place didn't get my check in time so I actually had to pay FINANCE CHARGES on it. ACK!  I don't know if having to tell y'all or having to pay $19.00 in FINANCE CHARGES hurts me more.  This is the first time in "I don't know how long" I've thrown perfectly good money away like this because I missed a deadline.  I think I need to take to my bed shortly before I faint. ;-)

The Food Budget costs for September are in another post, which is located HERE. Once I applied my rebate check total of $22.99 I was able to stay on budget with the food spending.
Go me!  8-)

What's ahead for October.......
* There are the usual suspects: electricity, water, phone, cable, credit card bill, food cash, etc.

* We've got a short trip planned so some fun spending is on deck this month.
* The credit card will be killer this month.  It's already up to $1300 and the billing period doesn't close until Sunday.  Most of these charges are for replacements due to the lightning strike we suffered. To make this worse, we are having a problem with being reimbursed by our home insurance carrier for this lightning strike that took out electronics and damaged our house's electrical system.  I'll go into this rant another time....

YEAR-TO-DATE TOTAL.....
With 9 months behind us, our Savings total to-date for 2011 is $23,536.37.
We are $400+ off in our monthly average to reaching our final goal at this point in the year. We should have $24,000 heading into October so we are now behind the Eight Ball to catch up over the next 3 months.


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.  Put it into savings, invest it or put it toward the principle in your home mortgage....just get busy and do this!

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 September 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

Pink Together Giveaway!

If you are a woman, or you know women, then you are bound to have Breast Cancer affect you at some point, in some way, during your lifetime.

My mother had 2 breast cancer scares with tumors that turned out to be benign thankfully.
But I do have a few friends who have battled and are survivors of this disease.
Unfortunately, a few weeks ago, one of my online friends lost her 5 year battle.

So when MyBlogSpark asked me to post about the 2011 Pink Together Campaign I was more than happy to oblige.

Visit PinkTogether.com to share your personal story and messages of hope and read about others’ personal journeys. To encourage personal connections, General Mills will donate $1 to the Komen organization for each Message of Hope that is sent to someone who has shared their story on PinkTogether.com (up to $25,000) during October. This is in addition to a $2 million donation General Mills is making to the Komen organization.  This year, for the first time in its five-year history, at PinkTogether.com consumers can choose how $1 million of this donation will be shared between two important Komen programs: the Treatment and Assistance Program, which assists women in securing care they otherwise may not be able to afford, and Prevention Research, which helps unlock the keys to preventing breast cancer. Visit PinkTogether.com from September 19, 2011 through April 14, 2012 to make your choice. Results will be announced on Mother’s Day 2012 – Sunday, May 13. Meet the 2011 Pink Together Survivor Ambassadors, and hear their amazing stories of courage and survival on PinkTogether.com and the Pink Together YouTube Channel. General Mills will also be turning the packaging of participating products pink in recognition of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October.

I have been supplied with a Prize Pack as part of my participation in this Pink Together Campaign.
MyBlogSpark has also supplied an identical Prize Pack for a Giveaway to one Lucky Don't Read This; It's Boring! Reader.

WIN IT!

Here is what you can Win...

Your prize pack will contain:
• A 16 oz. box of Total cereal
• VIP coupons valid for one box of Cheerios and Multigrain Cheerios cereal and one cup of Yoplait yogurt
• Betty Crocker Living with Cancer Cookbook Pink Together Edition, which includes a collection of more than 150 delicious recipes with complete nutrition information and a 32-page Pink Together Survivor Ambassador bonus section that shares inspirational personal stories of survival as well as recipes
• Water bottle and removable silicone awareness bracelet
• Drawstring sport backpack
• Rhinestone ear buds

And Here is Your Mandatory Entry.....

•  Leave a comment about "How you have been touched by breast cancer".  Be specific or be vague, whatever you are comfortable sharing.
 

For additional entries....Go to PinkTogether.com and check it out.

•   Then leave a comment on "How you have interacted with the community on PinkTogether.com" for one additional entry.
• Leave a comment about what you find most inspiring about the Pink Together community for another additional entry.
• Leave a comment on which Susan G. Komen program you feel most passionate about at PinkTogether.com for another additional entry.
• "Like" Pink Together on Facebook then come back and Leave a comment that you did that for one additional entry.
• "Follow" Don't Read This; It's Boring! by clicking on the FOLLOW Bar on the righthand side bar, then Leave a comment here for one additional entry.
• Post about this Giveaway on your own Blog or a Message Board/Online Community then Leave 3 separate comments here for three additional entries.
• Follow me on Twitter.  Here I am.  Leave a comment on this post that you are a Follower with your Twitter name/id for an additional entry.
• Tweet about this Giveaway on Twitter.  Leave a comment on this post with your status link for an additional entry.  This entry can be done once a day for more entries.

There you go.....11+ ways to gain entries!  Do one, do them all or something in between.  It just depends on how much you want to win this. ;-)

This Giveaway will be open from the moment I hit the publish button until Sunday, October 16, 2011 at 11:59pm ET.
On October 16th, I'll borrow some extra fingers and toes to tally up all the entries and use Random Org to pick a winner.

And this is open to those with US mailing addresses only please.

Here is the Legal Mumbo Jumbo.....“ The Pink Together prize pack, information and coupons have been provided free of charge by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.”
I have not been paid to promote this campaign or feature this giveaway, but I did get some cool prizes.

So get busy and Good Luck!


Sluggy

The Frugal Weekend Report

Let's see.....what did I do over the weekend.....

Last weekend was one of my favorite frugal activities of the year.
One of the local churches holds a little festival, composed of a flea market, bake sale and then a country auction at the end of the day.
I go to this each year as it's a great place to round out my eating out options for the year.
Along with all the fine second-hand items donated, the ladies at this church get a load of gift certificates to local businesses to auction off as well.
Mostly the certs are for restaurants but they also have auto servicing(inspections, oil changes, etc.), hair cuts and other salon features, gas for the car, fuel for the home, et cetera.

I am a big spender at their auction and they always love to see me coming. 8-)
Not only do they like the cash I drop at this thing but I do a fair share of bidding other folks up.
Yes, sometimes certs will not be going for a fair price, so I'll jump in and start a bidding war so that the church actually makes a few dollars holding this thing.
It's one thing to get a good deal, but if you are walking out paying $2 for a $20 gift certificates over and over again, not only will they stop holding these(which I can't have happen!lol)but it's not charitable either.
Most certs go for about half of the value but the sought after ones go higher.  And since it's for charity, I will bid as high as the full retail price if it's an establishment that I would go to anyway and spend full retail at....like Mickey D's for #2 son for example.
But I don't like to make a habit of paying full price.....

Here is what I brought home.....

Mostly it's eating out certs but we snagged 2 barbershop haircuts for $5 each this year.
We enjoy eating out and this is one way I round out my eating out budget frugally.
Not only that, it supports this fine church group(though I am not a member)and because we often spend/eat in excess of the value of the certificate when we go to redeem it, it also helps support the local businesses.

While Hubs is still upset he missed winning a couple of used leather laptop cases, I did snag a food processor(used once!) and a swing arm lamp to mount on the wall next to my dungeon-like computer corner(it even still had a light bulb in it!lol)

In the end we won $300 in gift certificates, the lamp and food processor for under $200.
I always round up what I pay them to an even amount, so I cut a check for $200.

Winning!

On Sunday afternoon Hubs and I had a date.  We still had a gift certificate we won last year at the auction to a restaurant we enjoy that serves Greek food.  It's quite a distance from where we live so we decided since we had the day free to take a drive there and use this cert.
I scoped out and found that 2 different from what I usually shop at grocery stores were down the street from the restaurant so after scarfing down Moussaka and Spanakopita, we went to GiantPA.

I checked out the flyer online before we went and saw a small Deal I wanted to get there.  They had a "Buy 10 products, Get $5 off Instantly" Promotion.  Since it's a store I don't shop at regularly, in a town not nearby, this sort of instant discount promotion makes more sense for me than a Catalina one, where I would have to return to the store again to get the discount.
So I jumped on this deal since we are addicted to Brownies around here......

10 x Brownie Mix on sale 4/$5($1.25 ea.)=$12.50
The instant discount....$12.50-$5=$7.50
I also had 2 x $1/2 any Pillsbury baking item ManuQs...$7.50-$2=$5.50 OOP

This meant my brownie mixes cost me .55¢ each.
I can't buy the ingredients to make 10 batches of brownies for that cheap so I am happy paying this price.

I also picked up some inexpensive chicken breasts while in Giant.  Since Hubs doesn't enough wandering around the grocery store checking things out like I do, especially when he is full of Greek food and just wants to nap, I didn't do a whole lot of reconnoitering at Giant.  I did feel that the prices were a bit high and the sale prices weren't that great on the things I usually buy.
But then again, Weis is no great deal anymore either! 8-(

We also harvested the last items from the garden this past weekend......

My two last surviving pumpkins.  They weren't quite fully ripe yet but with it raining EVERY DAY FOR TWO WEEKS, I was done with waiting and chancing they would rot in the mucky, soggy yard before the rain stopped and they got the last dose of sun they needed.
They are now happily orange through and through and awaiting my skillful hands(skillful?...maybe....)to turn them into full-on yummy-ness. ;-)

So there you have it!

A weekend choked full of...
Buying Local
Buying Second-Hand
Buying At Discount Price
Growing Your Own Food
Can't get a much more Compact and Frugal Weekend than that, huh? 8-)

Sluggy

Guess Who Went to Rite-Aid Last Week?

Why, yes I did!

I know I said that I was on a break from Rite-Aid pillaging but I had 4 free item coupons that expired Sept. 30th.

First I need to update my Grand Totals for September Single Check Rebate Period.
I only darkened Rite-Aid's door 1 time during that SCR Period.
You can just go HERE if you want to see my numbers for September.

I am starting October with no +Up Rewards at all.  It's still hard to wrap my brain around being +Up-less....lol
So into Rite-Aid I went on Thursday afternoon, the 30th, and came out with this.....

4 x Pantene Conditioner on sale $4=$16.00
1 x Cella cherry w/20% wellness discount=$.26
SubTotal....$16.26

Coupons Used
4 x Free Pantene item up to $4.99 ManuQs(homemailers)=$16.00
Coupon Total.....$16.00

$16.26-$16.00=$.26 OOP which I put on my Rite-Aid gift card.

THIS TRIP
Number of Transactions.....1
Total Spent....$.26 put on free gift card
Value of Items....$21.49
SCR qualified for...$0.00
Other Rebates earned...$0.00
Gift Cards earned....$0.00
+Up Rewards earned...$0.00
+Up Rewards spent.....$0.00
+Up Rewards left to spend.....$0.00
And I have $32.39 left on my gift card.

And now, the monthly totals so far.
Rite-Aid GRAND TOTALS--OCTOBER Rebate Period

Number of Transactions......1
Total Spent....$.26 put on free Gift Cards/Certificates so ZERO OOP
Number of Items purchased.....1
Value of Items purchased....$21.49
SCR qualified for....$0.00
Other Cash....$0.00
Additional Rebates....$0.00
Additional Non-Cash Rewards....$0.00

+UPS Totals for September SCR period
+Up Rewards carryover from 9/6.....$0.00
+Up Rewards spent....$0.00
+Up Rewards earned....$0.00
+Up Rewards left....$0.00  includes ALL +Ups not just ones from this SCR period

Analysis-- Obviously I needed to use these FREE Qs up before they expired.  I kept waiting for a Get X+Ups WYB XX Deal to come up at Rite-Aid involving Pantene during this time to get more bang for my(their) buck,  but it didn't happen.
Bleh.
I bought conditioner not 'poo.  I have tubs and tubs of 'poo.
Of course, because of this, #2 son decides he NEEDS conditioner for his hair.....of which I have none.
This lot of bottles hopefully will last until I can get more for free or he gets a job and buys his own, but I am not holding my breath on option 2 happening.  >_<

While I didn't need to buy that filler cherry thing, not having a $0 transaction at the register means managers need NOT be called to give me the stink eye and press a button to ok the transaction.  Throw in a cherry and everyone goes away happily flying under the radar. lol

Now I was perfectly happy with this transaction and not jumping back on the Rite-Aid Crazy Train until I saw THIS Rebate.

Everyone is using the $8/2 CoverGirl ManuQ that came in Sunday's P&G insert to get well on the way to the $50 worth of product to qualify for this by doing the "Spend $30 Get $10 +Ups Deal".  Buying tons of make-up doesn't stir my heart and Venus razors or so pricey, but........Pantene is also included in the Pink Rebate.  And the begin date is 9/1/11, which means the $16 in Pantene I just bought qualities for this rebate if I care to give it a whirl.
Hmmmm.....I only need $34 more and there is that "Spend $30 get $10+Ups deal" at Rite-Aid, but I don't have 4 of the $8/2 CoverGirl Qs, only 2.
Now my eye is twitching and I fall asleep amidst thinking up scenarios in my head....

Sluggy

This Old Blog

With my computer being rendered deader than Charlie Sheen's humility last week I lost all my FAVORITES.
ACK!!!

I'd appreciate it if anyone who reads this could leave me the addy for your blog in the comments section.

I feel like Bob Villa today with having to rebuild everything around here. 
Bob Freaking Villa I say.....but with less facial hair!

Sluggy