January Food Spending Week 4, Meal Plan February 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.  

Today's kitchen......

This is from a 1953 KitchenAid magazine ad.  While it's before "my" time, my brothers were around during that year.  I seriously doubt this was anything like the kitchen in my parent's house at that time, seeing as my parents were very poor when my siblings were born and they didn't own a house until shortly before I made my appearance into the world.

 

But for 1953, this was cutting edge in kitchen technology--metal cabinets, a stove in the center of the room with a recessed range hood, a breakfast bar with stools, a stylish linoleum floor with a yellow accent stripe(which matched the formica countertops!).  The laundry room was right in the kitchen too, with built in ironing and drying racks.  And did you notice the little rolling dirty laundry hamper/bin with the yellow counter top on it, in front of the iron board?

Now the oven position & style is a little odd, the fridge is pretty ordinary for the era, but the television set sitting in the kitchen in 1953!?  This family was upper middle class for sure to even own a tv in 1953!lol

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--homemade Pizza, carrot & celery sticks w/dressing

MONDAY--Leftover Chili or Burritos or both

TUESDAY--Denny's for Birthday Grand Slam

WEDNESDAY--Soup and Sandwich or leftover Sloppy Joe

THURSDAY--Chicken & Dumplings with carrots

FRIDAY--Chinese take-out
SATURDAY---Red Robin for Birthday Burger

I used up the last of the frozen pizza dough.  I had some odd pieces of chicken getting old in the freezer so I made Chicken and Dumplings out of it.  I tried a different dumpling recipe(the one in the Joy of Cooking with calls for egg as an ingredient), which gave a lighter/airy dumpling.  I didn't care for it much, preferring my old recipe which makes a heavier/gummier dumpling.  

There wasn't much other cooking last week, just more using up leftovers, heating up canned soup, opening canned/jarred fruits and more Birthday eating out.

I also didn't step foot into a grocery store all week...AGAIN!.  Hubs picked up milk one evening and #2 and I went to the Ollie's closeout store and bought some foodstuffs on another night.   The weekly spending was $46.75.

4 Weeks in and I spent $207.68 of my $300 January food budget.  $92.32 leftover for the month. I'll roll this amount into February's food budget, giving me $392.32 for this month.

I don't plan on spending it all in February, the extra will cover if I go over my usual $300 in the coming month.  Any leftover amount at the end of February will get thrown into my Savings Challenge fund and I'll start at $300 going into March.

For February....

Going into February Week 1, we have a little bit of Chili leftover and a couple of helpings of Chicken & Dumplings from Week 4.

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Italian Sausage Sandwiches, Cauliflower

MONDAY--Taco Bell(I'm having leftover Chicken & Dumplings)

TUESDAY--Homemade Pizza, Fruit Salad

WEDNESDAY--Tacos, Corn

THURSDAY--Tilapia, Rice, Brussel Sprouts

FRIDAY--Lasagna, Tossed Salad
SATURDAY--Leftovers

This menu gives us I night of take-out(except for my dinner), 1 night of leftovers and 5 home cooked meals this week.

Items needed for this menu are...pizza dough(getting from Price Chopper tonight), fruit and salad greens. I've got all the proteins I'm serving and all the dairy and noodles for the Lasagna here already. 

I'll pick up extra salad greens this week, some fresh produce and fruit as well as any good deals I find this week.  I haven't checked the sales ads yet so I don't know what I'll be picking up, if anything in the way of good deals.

Before good deals, I'm figuring on $30 spending this week for immediate menu food 'needs'.

 

With my leftover cash, I'm starting February with $392.32 in the food budget.

So what is everyone else eating this week?  

Sluggy

Hopes/Goals for 2012

Since it's still January....ok, just BARELY.....I can still post my Goals for 2012.

Since I didn't achieve all my Goals for 2011 IN 2011, I'm building my Goals for 2012 from where 2011 left off.

Sluggy's Personal List of Goals for 2012

1.  Get all the tax and college Paperwork completed and filed by the end of February.
2.  Convert all my vinyl LPs to CDs and purge the LPs from my life.
3.  Continue to Declutter everywhere.  Finish the garage and move what's in the living room into the garage so that the house is 100% done by April.  Be out of the storage unit by December.
4.  Complete 4 house projects in 2012. 2 inside/2 outside
5.  Read 20 books this year.
6.  Rework the stockpile.  Make it healthier and more compact.
7.  Finish up the eBay sales by May.
8.  Get the sewing going again.  Go through projects in-progress and alterations pile and get rid of stuff.  Sew clothes for myself for a change!
9.  Get the Etsy Store up and running.
10.  Spend more time with family, especially Hubs.
11.  Lose 40 lbs...there, I said it!  Now I have to do it!!
12.  Continue the Savings Challenge with a goal of $20K for 2012.
13.  Continue to be Frugal whenever possible and live well below our means!
14.  Take at least 1 REAL vacation and ENJOY IT!
15.  Just in case I think of something else later, I'm leaving #15 empty.


So tell us dear readers, what areas of your life are you going to be concentrating on making better in 2011?
We need to know!

Sluggy

Doing the Double Challenge Month over at Carla's Blog

CARLA over at "My 1/2 Dozen Daily" is hosting a “Double Challenge Month” for February!! After holding a January Low Spend Challenge, she's doing another “Low (no) Spend Challenge”, and a “Decluttering Challenge”! You can join in both challenges, or just the one you’re most interested in!
Go check it out HERE .



Here’s how the Low (no) Spend Challenge will work:

1. Choose a financial goal for the month!
 
Other than food/HBA spending, some eating out, and bills, I just don't spend money each month! So if bills & food shopping aren't 'spending' then I just have no demons to tame here.
I don't shop for fun, heck I don't even go to the mall!lol  My money isn't running out a faucet like some people's seem to do, as I have a tight grip on that spigot after the years I spent in my youth wasting money on junk!
I spend so little on wants these days that a "Low(no) Spend Challenge isn't a challenge to me. ;-)  Since I give myself practically no discretionary spending anyway, my goal setting will work differently than most.....see below.


2. How will you achieve your goal this month?

But I still want a financial savings goal this month so here's my approach to this....

I went through the usual February bills we seem to always have(using last year's bills as a guide)and when I take those away from our projected February income it leaves about $1,600 in 'unspoken for' income.  I'm giving myself $200+/- for unforeseen bills and another $200 for #2 son's birthday which leaves $1,200 for a financial goal to put toward my 2012 Savings Challenge.
So my target to save is $1,200 in February.  This $1,200 will go into my Savings Challenge ING Account that was set up 3 years ago to hold these funds.

If I see ways to cut back on the February bills I will put this money in with the $1,200 I am targeting.

**And before you hate on me for having such a big target, remember that I have no debt at all....no credit cards, no student loans and my house has been paid off for almost 5 years.  Once you get into this position, you too can save money at an amazing rate no matter your income as long as you have discipline and don't blow large wads of cash on crap. ;-)

3. How will you allot your spending this month?

We are paid every 2 weeks.  After payment comes in, I pay bills as they come in and/or until I run out of the current payment.  In which case, I wait for the next income check to hit the bank and continue to pay the bills.  Bills are paid via check or directly online to the company from our bank account. Eating out and gasoline purchases are put on the credit card.  Any unexpected purchases are also put on the credit card.  Most importantly the credit card is paid off EACH MONTH no matter the amount.
As for food/HBA purchases, I take cash from the bank and all food/HBA purchases are covered with this.  Hubs also takes cash each month to cover his incidental purchases like lunch, coffee, picking up milk on the way home, paying for son's music lessons, etc.

4. Track your purchases!

I track all my spending anyway.  Every receipt goes into my notebook and each transaction gets listed and posted on my blog at the end of each month.
I try to get Hubs to save his receipts so I can see where his cash withdrawals go but it doesn't happen on a regular basis.  He resents being held accountable...... 8-(

5. Are there any “exemptions” for the month?

The only unusual purchase will be #2 son's Birthday cash and meal out, which I have accounted for in my Financial Goal above.

Here’s how the Decluttering challenge will work:
1. There will be 4 main challenges for the month. I pick the theme, you pick the challenge!

Since I am still in Decluttering Mode this year,  after the Great Purge of 2011, I am all in on this Challenge too!

Week One: Personal Space Challenge--This week will be all about my bedroom.
Week Two: Family Space Challenge--This week will be all about the den.
Week Three: Productivity Challenge--This week will be all about the living room/dining room.
Week Four: The “Dreaded” Challenge--This week will be all about the garage.

The Tossing/Selling/Donating 29 items part?
Oh, I have this down in SPADES!lolol
I'll probably toss/sell/donate that many items A DAY!

I'll be documenting all via photos.....both befores and afters.  Good times!

So go see Carla and sign up for one or both of these Challanges!

Sluggy

What I Bought at Rite-Aid Last Week & What's Ahead for This Week

After Hubs and I had my free Birthday meal at Red Robin on Saturday afternoon, I bopped into Rite-Aid on the way home and bought this.....

2 x Mentos UP2U Gum on sale=$2.00
1 x mentos Pure Gum on sale=$1.00
SubTotal....$3.00

Coupons Used
2 x $1/1 UP2U Gum ManQ=$2.00
1 x .55¢/1 Mentos Gum ManQ=$.55¢
Coupon Total....$2.55

$3.00-$2.55=.45¢ OOP
I put that on my free Rite-Aid gift card and received $1 in +Up Rewards for buying 3 packs of qualifying gum.

So .15¢ per pack of gum and $1 more in Rite-Aid Conscript.
And nothing out of pocket. ;-)

This week I have $6 in +Ups expiring on Saturday 2/4 so I'm looking at what to get.
As there is nothing we 'need' in food or HBA that's a deal this week, I am looking at getting stuff we can use that will rolling these +Ups.  I don't see any rolling opportunities so far.

I have a $2/1 Tide ManuQ and Tide is $5.99 this week at R-A so that would make free Tide with a couple of $s left to use up.
I already did the Colgate toothbrushes Spend $30/Get $10 +Ups Deal so that's out.

There is a +Ups Deal double dip....the Snack Foods/Soda Spend $15/Get $5 +Ups also includes a Pepsi buy 3 12-packs/Get $2 +Ups Deal, so if you buy the Pepsi 12 packs as part of the $15/Get $5 +Ups, you'll get $7 +Ups instead, meaning you get almost half back in +Ups on what you spend OOP.

Hmmm, I'm going to marinate in this one a bit before deciding what to do this week.

Anybody out there have any Rite-Aid plans/deals they are doing this week?

Sluggy

Is eBay Selling Worth Your Time Anymore?

While I wait on tax documents to get here so I can power through the taxes, and the much dreaded FAFSA(yes, I said that word!), I've been going through and calculating my eBay numbers.

Yes, if you sell stuff on eBay it's income and you had better report it.
I'm just sayin'.....

Even with just selling stuff for 2 months last year, the amount of paperwork and numbers I have to wade through is mind numbing.  It took me three solid HOURS to get through it tonight!
Ugh.

After deducting all the fees, supplies and the costs of the goods I sold, I netted a whopping.....you'd better sit down for this!......$1710.10.

And that's not deducting for the portion of the storage unit fees I incurred to store the things I sold.  I "could" deduct that IF I could come up with an acceptable formula to divide the storage unit fees between the square footage the eBay stuff occupied and the square footage where all the non-eBayed stuff sat.  I could also try deducting lots of other things too....like part of my internet connection cost, part of the cost of my computer/printer/paper/ink/etc.  But all that takes documentation and effort and sends up audit flags.   I'll just take that hit and not even bother.  I am beyond caring to go there.lol

So in the end all the fees I paid to sell this stuff?
It almost cost me as much as I netted!

I will not depress myself by figuring what my hourly wage was to make that $1710.10.
But I suspect I'd be better off wearing a paper hat and asking if you want fries with that! lol

This all just confirms my belief that selling on eBay as an income stream is so not worth it.  Might have been years ago but now?.....nah!

It's a great way to get rid of things you have laying around the house and such.  Or selling off things you don't want anymore.
But as a sustainable fulltime job?  Not so much.

I'll stick to Focus Groups and some Survey work.....though my patience for that stuff is wearing thin too lately.  ;-)

I need to find someone who wants to pay me to sit around and drink adult beverages!
Yah, now THAT'S the kind of work I could so get into!!  8-)

Sluggy