$20K Savings Challenge.....MARCH Results for 2012

Ok, here is my March Savings Challenge Update post for 2012.
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 "unconscious" spending.

Just to update, My Savings Goal for the Year in 2012 is $20,000.  It's well below what I've saved in previous years I know.  But we also have a goal of paying for 4 home improvement projects at Chez Sluggy this year.  We plan on cash-flowing these projects with the additional money we save.

On to the March report.....

I have posted my MARCH End of Month $20K $AVING$ 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 $1,666.67.

I have to report that we finished up March in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of March with?.......$1022.68!

Income
We had $1005.24 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Add in $16.99 in Rebates applied against the food expenses & .45¢ in interest and  you get a total of $1,022.68.

Outgo
Traditionally March has been a tight month as far as the money goes.  2 paychecks have to cover the usual monthly bills like utilities, food, etc.  But we also have the yearly local taxes due starting in March and I pay the Sewage bill for the year in March as well as make a quarterly payment to the garbage service.  If you figure that I use to pay around $1K to the mortgage payment(when we use to have one), if this was before having paid off that debt, we would have been breaking even when all the chips fell at the end of March.  Not having that debt and not inflating our lifestyle since paying off the mortgage means we get to stash away that wad of money instead!!

As for the expenses this March......

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  The mild winter temps continued, which kept our heating/electric bill lower than usual.  I like that...

*  The credit card bill(which is paid in full each billing cycle)was under $700 this month. 

*  #2 Son did not get his driving permit in March so we delayed the increase in our car insurance rates a bit.  I'll take anything I can get.lol

HERE are the BAD THINGS

* Quarterly and yearly bills and taxes were paid in March.  While it's definitely on the "Bad" side of things, having the money and knowing it's coming up and being prepared for it, takes some of the "Bad" out of it.  Having to shell it out still stings though.

*  Hubs car had a $400+ repair this month when it went into to the shop for inspection.  This seems to always happen now, since our cars are getting up there in age, so I mentally prepare myself for the potential of receiving a repair bill anytime we take a vehicle in for inspection.  Just a sad, sad fact of motorized toys.

*  Hubs paid for dog licenses this month.  Though he didn't warn me he was spending the money this month, it wasn't so much of an expense that we couldn't handle it.  But it would be nice to know beforehand....

*  The cash withdrawals were very Very high this month!  Part of that was due to my $500+ withdrawal for food.  Hubs also stopped giving me his receipts again, so I have no clue what all he spent it all on besides buying coffee and lunch at work and paying for #2 Son's music lessons.  sigh.

The Food Budget costs for March are in another post, which is located HERE.  I overspent my budgeted amount, including the excess from Jan. and Feb. that I hadn't used those months.  I feel bad that I topped out at $511 on food for the month, but I did get some great deals which should keep our April food spending lower.

YEAR-TO-DATE GRAND TOTAL.....
With 2 month behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2012 is $4,016.59.

We didn't hit our monthly goal in March so now we are $983.41 behind for the year.

With 3 months done, we should be at $5,000 saved for the year.

So how much did YOU save in March?  Did you spent all your income or did you put something aside?

Do you have an emergency fund of 6-8 months worth of expenses?
Do you have debt?

Start living below your means NOW and put some money away for emergencies and/or start paying down your debt.
And once you get debt-free, continue to throw that debt repayment money into savings.  You won't believe how fast you can accumulate wealth once you have no debt!

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 $20K, 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 March 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

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

There were 66 valid entries for the Boring Blog Box Giveaway.
I used the highly scientific method of drawing a winner.
This involved writing each entries name on a sheet of paper, cutting up the names into little slips of paper, folding slip in half and chucking them all into a little wooden basket.....

After some agitating, and then some more agitating I shove the basket under Hubs nose and asked him nicely to pick a slip of paper out.
It's his birthday, so feel honored he even considered cooperating in this little endeavor!

He fished out a slip and handed it to me to unfold and make a fancy picture to announce that the winner is.......................

Congratulations FEATHER DUSTER!

You are the winner of the Boring Box of Stuff!!

Please contact me via email with your full name and mailing address so I can get your winnings in the mail to you.

Thank you to everyone who played along with this giveaway over this past month or so.

I'll have another box up soon so stay tuned to this Bat Channel for more freebies.....

Sluggy

Today's History Lesson a la Sluggy's Ancestral Peeps

Well I've traced another ancestral line back to another "1st one in the New World" peeps.
In my mother's side of the family I am finding it is chocked full of very deep immigrant roots in the US.
And up until WW2 not many of them left Virginia for other states and beyond!  Roots that stay put are far easier to dig up.......*snort*

Since many of these ancestors are of English extraction and came over very early in the history of the settling of the New World, I have lots of published genealogical research already mapped out I can tap into once I get back to about the mid 1800's in some lines.

First a little mood music through the streets of Colonial Willamsburg.....


So today we look back at my 10 x Great Grandparents.....Samuel and Alice Sneed(Snead).

These ancestors were right at the center of some lively times in the new colonies.

Samuel and Co. sailed to the Virginia colony in 1635 from England.  The Land Grant Office shows he received a tract of 200 acres from Charles I, in James City county(now York county), on the James River in Virginia.  He moved up river to new lands eventually and by 1664 was living on land on the Pamunkey River.  Though it sounds really far away, by today's standards, it isn't.

Migrating to America with his parents was Willian Sneed.  Two more sons were born in Virginia, Samuel and my progenitor, Henry Sneed.

Henry moved to the Pamunkey River land with his father and probably did much of the clearing of the land for his father as his father was of an advanced age by that time.
Henry married and had two sons, John and Thomas.  One of their neighbors, Gideon Macon employed Thomas, who in 1677 was coming into his prime adulthood, as one of the builders of the Bruton Parish Church.  This was the Church of England parish founded in James county.  The church was completed in 1683.
The church was nearby and served the residents of Middle Plantation, which over time was renamed......Williamsburg.  Very nice Georgian architecture.

Famous folks who worshiped there include Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, George Mason, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry.

Thomas, who helped build the church, is NOT my ancestor.  Mine is his brother John....he was probably off playing hooky and drinking rum instead.

Henry Sneed, Samuel's son/Thomas' father,  was also involved in Bacon's Rebellion.  Oh, to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.....lol

Bacon's Rebellion, to simplify it, was a group of frontier dwellers rebelling against the colonial governor and his ilk because he didn't provide protection against the hostile native Americans, who were only hostile because they were being pushed out of their ancestral lands by the expanding colonies.  Gov. Berkley held a friendly policy toward the native peoples, even in the face of their raids against the planters and refused to do anything to safeguard the farms, as his crowd was the hoity toity city dwellers and ruling class.

 There were lots of raids back and forth between the Europeans and the Native peoples, looting, pillaging, setting fire to buildings, shooting, killing, etc.  Nathanial Bacon said "enough!" and together with a group of ex-indentured servants, poor whites and free blacks and other planters, led a rebellion against Gov. Berkeley and chased him from Williamsburg.

The only thing the Rebellion accomplished in the long run was to send Berkley back to England and caused the ruling class in the colony to harden their racial caste system stance.  The "elites" were disturbed by the "regular people" forming an alliance against the Government, so they took steps to tighten up the societal laws so that the unwashed masses couldn't revolt in the future and put laws in place to divide the white and black in the serving classes.
This political move affected how slavery in the South progressed and developed, in a negative way.
Ya see what I was saying about being from the South and the whole slavery as an economic model being complicated?

Ruling class oppressing the masses?
Hmmmm......sounds eerily familiar, does it not?  ;-)

I was delighted to see that my ancestor Henry was on the side of the rebels in that affair.   "On Jan. 29, 1677, after the Rebellion, he was one of the signers of the petition of grievances to the English Commissioners, stating the reason for the revolt."
But we find Henry, shortly after this, selling his lands on the Pamunkey River anyway, and moving to the opposite shore.  I guess he figured, he was a marked man as far as the government was concerned(a troublemaker)and after the new government attacked the peaceful and friendly Pamunkey Indians in his area in retaliation after the Rebellion, he'd be sure to have problems from the natives as well.
A no win situation, so it's time to leave the county! lol

Anyway, Henry's grandson, Samuel......let's use some new names already!.....moved further inland up various rivers into south central Virginia and the rest is rather boring history.....unitl you get to ME! ;-)

Here's my 4 x Great Grandfather John Strong Snead 1802-1874.  What a hottie, huh?

His son, Lewellyn Snead was a private in Captain Wright's Virginia Heavy Artillery Company.  He saw action at the Siege of Petersburg, VA near the end of the war and was at Appomattox for the surrender.

Old rebelling Henry and his rebel 6 x grandson Lewellyn.
I guess I come by the non-conformist label honestly.......

Sluggy

Frugal Stock Ups with Instant Discount Deals

So the stores around here don't seem to do traditional Catalinas much anymore.
They do these "Instant Discount" deals....spend $X or buy X number of items and get $X off your order instantly.
No catalinas to roll.
I'm sort of liking them actually.

Weis had a Unilever Instant Discount Deal last week which involved spending $15 in select products and getting a $5 discount on your order.

I was running low on spaghetti sauce, mayo and peanut butter so this came at the right time for me.

I bought this.....

 8 x Ragu spaghetti sauce on sale $1.50.
The regular retail is $1.99 each so the total was $15.92 shelf price so it qualified for the $5 discount.
But the sale price that week was $1.50 each, so my subtotal was $12.00.
The $5 discount brought the total down to $7.00.
And I had 2 x .50¢/1 IPQs which doubled to $1 off each jar, so I got an additional $2 off the order,, making my OOP $5 for 8 jars which is 62.5 cents per jar.
Even without the additional Qs, the per jar price would have been 87.5 cents each.
Around here, the jarred sauce buy price is $1.25, so I was very happy to get this deal.  I didn't do this deal more than once though because I got jarred sauce at the Shursave market Heinz deal last week as well.

Then I went back and did this deal....

3 x Hellman's Mayo reg. price $4.39, sale price $3.00
1 x Skippy PButter reg. price $3.29, sale price $2.50
Reg. price subtotal was $16.49, Sale price subtotal was $11.50

$11.50-$5 Instant Discount=$6.50.
I had a $1/3 Hellman's ManuQ which brought my OOP down to $5.50.

Then I downloaded 4 more Qs from the Walmart site for Skippy and Hellman's Mayo and bought this....

2 x Skippy PButter reg. price $3.29, sale price $2.50 each
2 x Hellman's Mayo reg. price $4.39, sale price $3.00 each
Subtotal reg. price $15.36, sale price $11.00 OOP
Instant Discount $5 applied, making the OOP $6.00




I had 2 x $1/1 Hellman's IPQs=$2.00 off
I had 2 x $.75/1 Skippy IPQs(which doubled to $1)=$2.00
Total Qs=$4.00


$6.00-$4.00=$2.00 OOP
This made each item .50¢.

Not bad for things I needed to stock up on, huh?

Sluggy

March 2012 Budget Results.......Food and Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for MARCH 2012.

I have posted March's totals on the right side bar under Total Grocery Savings for 2012 and updated the Yearly Totals.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in March.  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(3-4 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 16.
******************

BAKERY OUTLET
OOP   $12.67

Value   $36.01

Savings  64.82%

RITE-AID DRUG STORE
OOP  $2.99 put on free R-A gift card so $0.00 OOP

Qs/Ads/+Ups $104.87

Value  $107.86

Savings  100%

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $230.24

Qs/Ads  $203.57

Value  $433.81

Savings  46.93%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $268.36

Qs/Ads  $280.99

Value  $549.35

Savings  51.15%

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 MARCH
Brita Filters....$10.00

Rite-Aid SCR....$6.99
Subtotal........$16.99

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES
Nothing

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$16.99

COUPONS and FREEBIES

2 x Suave Shampoo FREE ITEM Q

1 x P&G  FREE Cover Girl Mascara

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, the Bakery Outlet at 64.82%, and Weis at 51.15%.

I shopped at 4 different stores in March.


TOTAL Out of Pocket........$511.27

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$615.76

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1127.03

TOTAL Savings of...................................54.64%


TOTAL of CASH Rebates........................$16.99
TOTAL Out of Pocket After Rebates........$494.28
TOTAL Savings including Rebates...........$632.75
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1127.03
TOTAL Savings After Rebates...................56.14%

This closes out the March spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I went into March with $300 budgeted for food/toiletries for the month and $176.80 carried over from food monies I didn't spend in Jan. and Feb......so I had $476.80 potentially to spend this past month.

And spend it I did!lol

I spent that AND another $17.48.

But I am ok with spending what I did.  I used the extra cash to stock up on some good deals on meat. By combining annual sales on corned beef in March with clearance deals and store instant discount coupons on end of date items I could stick in the freezer, I got 12+lbs. of fresh ground meat, 12lbs. of Angus burgers, 6 lbs. of fish, 6 corned beef briskets and another roasting chicken too for great prices.

I also did some instant Catalina deals to stock up on "good" pancake syrup, pasta sauces and supply #2 son with quality junk food.lol
My freezer is once again packed to the gills.

LOOKING AHEAD TO APRIL.....
With Easter this week, I'll be doing a bit of shopping soon.  As for the other 3 weeks in April, I don't see me hitting the stores much at all, except for milk and an odd ingredient or two I might need. 

I will be keeping my food budget at $300 for March.  Hopefully no great deals appear so I won't spend so much in April.

How did you do in March with your Food Budget? 


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