December Food Spending Week 5, Meal Plan January Week 1

*I am taking part in Precious' MONEY SAVING CHALLENGE again for 2012.  You can find her blog FRUGAL MAKES CENTS and a list of other participants and their blogs  HERE.
Check it out.  You might find some new ideas for incorporating frugality into your life there!*


I love searching around for old photos and advertisements featuring kitchens from years gone by.  These are mostly the kitchens from my youth in the 1960's or earlier.  Some I look at surely stand up to being innovative and attractive even by today's standards, some are very "kitchy" lol now and then there are those that fall under the heading of "It SEEMED like a great idea at the time!".
With that I give you the Pepto-Bismol Nightmare Kitchen....

What was FORMICA thinking?lol
I guess the he-men who obviously ran that company in the 1950's were trying to appeal to the women's feminine side?
Egads!!
It's a cute novelty but imagine having to walk into that room every morning at 7 am and fix your family breakfast(not to mention having to spend more time in there throughout the day).  No wonder our mothers drank and took up prescription sedatives.....

Enough of that, onward to the Meals and Food Spending. 8-)


Last week's meal plan is in the books.  Here is what actually happened....

SUNDAY--Ham, Rolls from scratch, Deviled Eggs, Rutabaga, Green Beans, Cranberry Glop, assorted pies

MONDAY--Leftovers

TUESDAY--Leftovers

WEDNESDAY--Date Night-I have a free dinner for 2 to Applebee's

THURSDAY--Leftovers

FRIDAY--Cheese Steaks

SATURDAY--Crudites and chips with dip, homemade Pizza-using dough Hubs picked up last week for cheap

Instead of 2 meals to prepare, I made 3 meals. The ONLY explanation for making myself do more work than I wanted/had to was yes, I got tired of eating leftovers. lol

We still have a substantial amount of ham leftover to use this coming week.  I used the hunk of bulk bought roast beef deli meat #1 son wanted me to buy before Christmas(and then he didn't eat)to make the cheese steaks the night #2 had a sleepover.  Whatever meat was left after that was frozen.  We still have some barbecue pork and homemade rolls left to use up this week.

The food spending was fairly low last week.

In all, we spent $72.82 last week at the grocery/drug stores.....well not really, we actually only spent about $45 last week.  But this $72.82 amount includes $27.35 I spent the 2nd and 3rd week in December at Rite-Aid.  I forgot to add this amount in earlier this month, so I just tagged it onto my spending at the end of December.
I made 4 trips to various stores.   Reg. retail of $475.08(including the Rite-Aid items)so I saved 84.61% last week(mostly due to the Rite-Aid savings)....without R-A items it would have been about 60%.

My Dec. food spending total was $307.74.  Just over my budgeted amount of $300 for the month.

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Leftovers-Pizzas, BBQ

MONDAY--Ham, Harvard Beets, Mashed Potatoes, another green Veggie

TUESDAY--Fish, Wild Rice, Apple Salad

WEDNESDAY--Mac and Cheese, Broccoli

THURSDAY--Omelets,Fruit Salad, Toast or E. Muffins

FRIDAY--Rigatoni and Meat Sauce, Salad, Garlic Bread
SATURDAY--Kielbasa on rolls, Onions, Ginger Carrots

Items needed for this menu.....Salad Greens, Eggs, Rigatoni, Fruit, Milk.  There are some fish deals locally so I make do a little stocking up on that item.  No other plans for food shopping this week at the moment.
For January I am going to keep the $300 Food Budget since the daughter will be home for almost all of this month.  February's budget will go down to $250 since it will just be 3 of us again.

So what is everyone else eating this week?  

Sluggy

$32K Savings Challenge.....DECEMBER & 2011 Grand Total RESULTS

Ok, here is my last Savings Challenge Update post for 2011.
This post is NOT about bragging or showing off.  It's just what we are able to save given our income and being able to hang tough against so much spending.

On to the December report.....

I have posted my DECEMBER 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 December in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of December with?.......$4,355.36!

Income
We had $4186.70 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Add in $6.00 in Rebates applied against the food expenses, $.84 in Interest on the Checking Account, $141.82 in dividends, and a refund of $20 on our car insurance rate toward the Savings Challenge & you get a total of $4355.36.

Our monthly target is an average of $2,666.67 to reach our Year End Goal.
This month we blew that goal out of the water, thanks to an extra paycheck.  8-)

Outgo
As for the expenses in December......

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

* The electric bill went up only $71.....that's good seeing as the heat was on!

* The food spending was almost on budget at $307.74
* The water bill was $50.50.  This is low when all the kids are home(extra showers and laundry).
* There were no taxes due this month...yay!!
* I continued to consistently sell in my eBay store in December.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

* The credit card bill was $1750+.  Even though $350 of that was fees paid to eBay on sales there we were still over our usual $1000 average on the credit card bill.  No matter the amount of the bill, it is paid off in full each month, ALWAYS.

* $1180 in car maintenance/repair bills.  Seems every time we take a car in for oil change or regular maintenance they find something else. ugh.
* Had $85 in unexpected medical associated bills to pay. (Need I mention #2 son lost his retainer AGAIN after getting the 1st replacement 2 weeks before hand, so we had to pay for ANOTHER replacement. He's repaying us for it with his allowance.)
*  Still a LARGE amount of cash withdrawals by Hubs. I'm not complaining this month because some of it was him buying me Christmas presents. ;-)

The Food Budget costs for December are in another post, which is located HERE.  We kept almost to the food budget amount again in December so I am calling it all good.

YEAR-TO-DATE GRAND TOTAL.....
With 12 months behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2011 is $34,461.31.
YES!
We blew our $32K Goal out of the water!!!

The extra paycheck in December gave us a hefty amount to tuck away after all the bills were paid AND left lots of room for Christmas indulgence!

So how did your savings go for the year?
Do you have an emergency fund of 6-8 months worth of expenses?
Do you have debt?
If you don't have the former, start living below your means NOW and put some money away for emergencies.
If you have the latter, start living below your means NOW and put a smaller amount away for emergencies and use the rest of your leftover cash each month to pay down your debt.
And once you get debt-free, continue to throw that debt repayment money into savings.
It is NEVER too early or too late to SAVE SOMETHING.
And the amount you save is NEVER too small!
Anything you can spare will go a long way to make you more financially secure in this crazy unstable world we live in.

So come along and Challenge Yourself to Save Money each Month Toward a Realistic for YOU Savings Goal or Debt 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 paying down your debt, 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.
Put it out there online and let us all stalk your money too. ;-)

So how was your Deember 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

What Do You Get.....

...when you mix this.....

And this.....

We will find out in a few hours from now.

Hopefully it doesn't look something like this by midnight......




Gawd, now I do NEED A DRINK!lol
Off to party 2011 out!!!

Sluggy

December Budget Results.......Food and Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for DECEMBER 2011.

I have posted December'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 December.  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(3-5 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 15.
******************

BAKERY OUTLET
OOP  $22.45

Value  $106.19

Savings  78.86%

PRICE CHOPPER

OOP  $9.98

Qs/Ads  $

Value  $23.94

Savings  58.30%

RESTAURANT SUPPLY STORE
OOP  $78.03

Value  $119.77

Savings 34.85%

RITE-AID DRUG STORE
OOP  $27.35(with an additional $17.04 put on my free Rite-Aid gift card)
Qs/Ads/+Ups $341.26
Value  $368.61
Savings  92.59%

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $109.26

Qs/Ads  $93.10

Value  $202.36

Savings  46%

TURKEY HILL

OOP  $3.66

Value  $3.66

Savings  0%

WALMART 

OOP  $8.98

Qs/Ads  $0
Value  $10.99

Savings  18.30%

WEIS (local chain Grocery store in my town/doubles up to $1 total)
OOP  $50.56

Qs/Ads  $53.65

Value  $104.21

Savings  51.50% 

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 DECEMBER
Pinecone...$6.00

Toluna.....$20.00
Subtotal........$26.00

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES
Burger King(giveaway I won)......$25.00

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$26.00 cash/$25 food

COUPONS and FREEBIES

Zero  *pathetic*

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 92.59%, the Bakery Outlet at 78.86% and Price Chopper at 58.30%.
I shopped at 9 different stores in December.


TOTAL Out of Pocket........$313.74

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$632.76

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$946.50
TOTAL Savings of...................................66.85%


TOTAL of CASH Rebates........................$6.00 *I don't use my Toluna $ for food budget.
TOTAL Out of Pocket After Rebates........$307.74
TOTAL Savings including Rebates...........$638.76
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$946.50
TOTAL Savings After Rebates...................67.49%

This closes out the December spending AND the YEARLY Spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month & the Year.....
I went back into Rite-Aid in December and did some of the better deals there.  While I did spend cash there in December(as I had NO +Up Rewards to start with), I still had a 92% savings rate over regular retail!  And I still have +Up Rewards and FREE Gift Card money going into 2012.

I was able to stay close to my $300 food budget limit.  While I didn't really stock up at all in December on anything, we were able to eat well and do a good sized Christmas dinner.  I had to spend a bit more on the Hunk of Meat to barbecue but we are still eating on that a week later.  1 more meal with the Christmas ham tomorrow and then I'll divide up what is left and freeze it for later.

In Total, we have spent $3,080.59 Out of Pocket on food/HBA in 2011.
That comes out to $256.71 per month for our family of 5.
We brought home items with a reg. retail value of $14,234.09 for the year.
That's a savings of $11,153.50 or 78.36% for all of 2011.

Before you think I've done something remarkable, remember that my food budget does Not include eating out $.  And we do our fair share of eating out around here. ;-)

This closes the books on Food Spending for 2011.  I think we did pretty well sticking to a budget overall without having to live on ramen noodles. lol

How did you do in December with your Food Budget?  Did the Holidays drive you over the edge with food spending?  Or were you able to celebrate within your means?


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

Hopes/Goals for 2011 ......Final Report on How We Did

We are hours away from 2012 as I type this.
Wow.
Another year gone and almost in the books.

Let's stop and look back at what went on in last year first before we drink the New Year in, shall we? ;-)

Here is the Overview of my Goals/Hopes for 2011.....

1. Put more Money Into Savings.
2. File all the Paperwork that needs filing  and completing it on time.
3. Declutter my entire house and garage, and storage unit(and then stop renting the storage unit).
4. Read 30 books this year, with 75% of them being non-fiction.
5. Finish ALL in progress sewing projects and alter ALL clothing that needs it or give it away.
6. Cook more foods from scratch and phase unhealthy options out of my stockpile.
7. Grow more of the food we eat or source our food from non-grocery chain stores.
8. Use my skills to step up what I do for Others.
9. Be more "in the Moment" for my Family.
10. Organize the running of my Home. 

And here is how I graded myself on meeting those goals....

1. Put more Money Into Savings.
PASS--I undertook a $32K Savings Challenge in 2011 and was able to surpasss that total! *Post coming soon on the specific amount I tucked away.

2. File all the Paperwork that needs filing and completing it on time.
PASS--We got the taxes and the college paperwork finished and submitted on time in 2011.  I let the filing pile up however on the back end of the year and didn't get it filed every 2 months as I had wanted.  This was partly me being passive aggressive, as Hubs NEVER files any paperwork and I get damned tired of having to do it all.  So I purposely let it pile up until he gave in(yes!lol)and broke down and started it.  It was touch on go there whether I'd crack first tho...lol

3. Declutter my entire house and garage, and storage unit(and then stop renting the storage unit).
PASS sort of--While not everything is gone(sold or given away), considering what else was going on this year, I am very close to being totally done!  The GREAT PURGE of 2011 will continue as The GREAT PURGE of 2012....at least for a few months into the new year.  I have loads in the garage for Salvation Army(just need to get it hauled off) and the last of the eBay-able stuff is in tubs in the living room.  The storage has empty boxes(for shipping stuff), as well as boxes of stuffed animals to haul away to Sallies.  Besides that the only things left in there are my extra toiletries and my fabric stash.  After I close up the eBay shop, I start weeding through the fabric stash.....but that's a 2012 goal, so more on that in another post.
I'd say I am 75% of the way to totally completing this Goal!

4. Read 30 books this year, with 75% of them being non-fiction.
FAIL--Yah, I totally blew this one.  I read 8 books and am halfway through #9.  While I am not a voracious reader, I do read a lot.  I guess I just had an off year.  It didn't help that some of the books I had were Not compelling in the least.

5. Finish ALL in progress sewing projects and alter ALL clothing that needs it or give it away.
FAIL--Sewing took a backseat AGAIN in 2011.  I did get a little more completed but it was mostly alterations and/or hemming pants.  Nothing much creative.  I just didn't feel inspired.  Once I get my fabric stash out in 2012, I'm hoping I'll feel more in the sewing groove. 

6. Cook more foods from scratch and phase unhealthy options out of my stockpile.
PASS--The stockpile has evolved in 2011.  No more nasty foods bought(well, except for brownie/muffin mixes for #2 son), and you won't find processed foods in my freeezer(unless I get something free or cheap for the kids ever so often).  I'm down to a soda about 1-2 times a month and I've reduced #2 son's intake as well(but not that little a month because he'd just plotz!lol) 

7. Grow more of the food we eat or source our food from non-grocery chain stores.
PASS--We did finally get the garden going late and we ate from it for a few months.  I really didn't have much extra to freeze though for the winter months and we lost nearly our entire tomato crop in September with the Flood, so no canned maters or pepper relish....sniff....sniff....
I did shop veg from produce markets instead of the grocery store when I could.  Still looking for a reasonably priced source for 'clean' meats that isn't store based.

8. Use my skills to step up what I do for Others.
FAIL--As for the local food bank....I wasn't able to do MORE food bank donating using coupons and deals in 2011, but I believe I did about on par with what I donated in 2010.  The deals were harder to find, the coupons were not as useful toward my goals and I just didn't put the extra effort into getting more items to donate.  I was also heavily helping 2 family members with food/toiletries the 1st half of  2011 so that counts too.  And I also was the transportation for the same family members for 1st quarter of the year as they lost their car to a wreck.
As for the Christmas Help List--I did a little better with that.
I need to face facts that I am NOT the great humanitarian I set myself up to be. 8-(


9. Be more "in the Moment" for my Family.
PASS--I feel I was more there for my family in 2011.....well, when they actually WANTED me there, which isn't always the case when dealing with teens.lol  I spent more time with Hubs one-on-one and tried to make him feel more appreciated.

10. Organize the running of my Home.  
PASS--Since there is less crap lying around, the house is more organized by default, isn't it?lol

We still suffer from HSS....Horizontal Surface Syndrome.  We see a clean surface and we are COMPELLED to put something on it.
It's a chronic condition with no cure I'm afraid.lol

The house is more organized but there is still lots of room for improvement.  Getting back a big chunk of storage space within the home when Daughter went off to college helped a lot with organizing the upstairs spaces.  The kitchen and pantry could still use some organizing help.

I am feeling positive about the changes I made in 2011.
I hope you had good stuff happen to you last year as well.

Now it's onward and upward to 2012!
I'll be taking the next week or so to ponder where I want to direct my energies from here.

Have you thought about what you wish for in 2012?
More income?
More health?
More time with your loved ones?
Blogland domination?
Now is the time to figure out what steps you can take to turn those wishes into reality!

Here's hoping your 2012 life is your best one yet!
 
Sluggy