Music for a Thursday

Ok, so the title is lame.
I got nothing worth saying today.
So here's an awesome song from an awesome singer.
From back when singers used their instrument instead of electronics and other crap to make them sound better than they are.


And here's another excellent version.  I am torn by which version I like best.  What do you think?



Sluggy

$20K Savings Challenge Report for April

Ok, here is my April 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 April report.....

I have posted my APRIL 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 April in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of April with?.......$2,574.21!

Income
We had $2565.90 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Add in $6.00 in Rebates applied against the food expenses & $2.31 in interest and  you get a total of $2574.21.

Outgo
Traditionally April has been a fairly normal month as far as spending goes.  No big tax bills or lump payments. 

As for the expenses this April......

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  The mild winter temps continued, which decreased our heating/electric bill by about $80.  I like that...

*   Hubs decreased his WAM withdrawals this month.
*  No car maintenance/repairs bills this month.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

* Credit card bill was fairly high at $1400+.  A large part of that was the Summer Camp bill for #2 Son.  The good news is this is the LAST CAMP BILL WE WILL EVER PAY!  #2 Son is in Counselor Training this year so next year he starts working at camp. Yay!!!!

The Food Budget costs for April are in another post, which is located HERE. My stocking-up and overspending in March did help me stay under $230 in food spending for April.

YEAR-TO-DATE GRAND TOTAL.....
With 4 month behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2012 is $6,590.80.

We hit our monthly goal in April and then some, so now we are only a little behind where we should be for the year at this point, because of our bad March total.

With 4 months done, we should be at $6,666.67 saved for the year.  Only $75.87 to be caught up!

So how much did YOU save in April?  Did you spend 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 April 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

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for APRIL 2012.

I have posted April'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 April.  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 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 16.
******************

BAKERY OUTLET
OOP   $9.89

Value   $38.41

Savings  74.25%

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $78.54

Qs/Ads  $47.11

Value  $125.65

Savings  37.50%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $142.60

Qs/Ads  $144.47

Value  $287.07

Savings  50.33%

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 APRIL

Rite-Aid SCR....$6.00
Subtotal........$6.00

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES
Nothing

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$6.00

COUPONS and FREEBIES
Nothing

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were the Bakery Outlet at 74.25%, Weis at 50.33% and Shursave Grocer at 37.50%.  Ok, so I only shopped at THREE STORES all MONTH!lol

TOTAL Out of Pocket........$231.03

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$220.10

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$451.13

TOTAL Savings of...................................48.80%


TOTAL of CASH Rebates........................$6.00
TOTAL Out of Pocket After Rebates........$225.03
TOTAL Savings including Rebates...........$226.10
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$451.13
TOTAL Savings After Rebates...................50.12%

This closes out the April spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I went into April with $300 budgeted for food/toiletries for the month.  I was able to stay well below my budgeted amount, even with hosting an Easter dinner for what turned into a Feast for 7 at the last minute.
I used very few coupons in April, though I did buy many meat items.   Using those store clearance meat dept. coupons assisted my budget there.  I didn't shop at any drug stores this month, especially Rite-Aid where I have or have close to 100% savings rate.  That is why my overall savings percentage is only 48.80% in April instead of 60-80%.  But even though the rate is much lower this month, I'll gladly take it.  Besides the paper products I bought this month, I bought no other HBA or non-food items.  An almost 50% savings rate on just food items is wonderful!  Especially when I only used 3 ManuCoupons, 2 PeelieCoupons and 2 CatalinaCoupons.

As for the discounts I used in April....
*3 ManuQs
*2 Catalina WYB Qs
*2 PeelieQs
*12 Meat discount Qs
*16 Store Qs(4 of which were Free item Qs)

Besides the few coupons I used, utilizing UTOF meats, in season produce, buying at lowest sale price in the cycle in the stores and finding alternate sources for groceries(outlets), helped me spend less of my cash in the grocery store than my neighbor on identical items this month.

LOOKING AHEAD TO MAY.....My Daughter will be coming home to stay in another week.  My oldest Son will be coming home for 10 days or so with his girlfriend in tow next week.  So we will be a family of 6 for 1/3rd of the month and then a family of 4 for the remainder of the May.  More people means more food spending.  My oldest has already asked me to make him some favorite foods while he is home and of course they are not cheap foods.  Most of them involve smoked meats so I'll be firing up the smoker soon. ;-)

I will be increasing my food budget to $400 for May.  As for the meats I'll need for the smoker, I'll be going to the restaurant supply store this month for the best deals locally.  I'll continue to seek out in-season produce, store loss leaders/lowest priced in the store cycle goods and keep my eyes peeled while in the store for instant discount Deals.

How did you do in April 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

April Food Spending Week 4, Meal Plan May Week 1

No vintage kitchen today folks.  I have depleted my stash of them and have to seek out more.  Maybe next week....

Onward to the meal plans!
And here is the meal plan that actually happened last week.....

SUNDAY--Leftovers 

 MONDAY--Tacos or Taco Salad

TUESDAY--Beef Pie
WEDNESDAY--Eggplant Parmesan, Garlic Bread
THURSDAY--Leftovers
FRIDAY--Chinese Take-Out
SATURDAY--Burgers, Corn
I also made a Carrot Cake and a pan of Fudge with Nuts.
 

We ended up getting Take-Out one night, which wasn't on the plan.   4 nights of new meals and 2 nights of leftovers make for a week I am happy with.

The weekly food spending was $77.53 this past week.

There was my $29.04 trip to Weis I talked about HERE.  Hubs picked up sour cream, a head of lettuce and 2 bags of cheese during the week and spent $5.97.  I went to the local grocer on Saturday and spent $42.52 on Ginger-Ale, 12 packs of soda for #2 Son, Orange Juice, Whipped Cream, 3 lb. of Butter, Pie Shells, Milk, Taco Shells and more bags of Shredded Cheese.  I stocked up on Butter, OJ, Soda, Whipped Cream, Pasta, Napkins, Paper Towels & bags of Cheese. 

The bags of Cheese I bought this past week I used with the Jumbo Pasta Shells and Ricotta Cheese I had bought earlier in the month to make a large quantity of Stuffed Shells on Sunday.  I froze 54 on them and we had the rest for dinner on Sunday.  Figuring costs, each piece comes out to .25¢ counting the pasta sauce too, so approx. $1.00 per serving.

Value of food bought was at $135.53 so my savings rate was 42.80% for the week.

************************

In terms of leftovers, I'm going into this week with leftover Eggplant Parmesan(and 1 helping of Shells from Sunday). 

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Stuffed Shells

MONDAY--Chicken Fajitas

TUESDAY--Leftover Eggplant/Fajitas

WEDNESDAY--Pizza
THURSDAY--Taco Bell, Salad
FRIDAY--Fish, Rice, Veg.(Son can have leftover Shells)
SATURDAY--Hot Dogs, Corn

This menu gives us 5 new meals and 1 night of leftovers and 1 night of Take-Out.

Hubs won't be home for dinner 2 nights so we are doing easy one night and take-out the other night.
 
As for items I need to buy for this week....red bell pepper, mushrooms, hot dog rolls.

We'll be buying milk as usual, along with some fruit.

Stock-up prices this week for me are taco shells($1.25), apple juice(.99¢), bagged salad($1.99),green chiles($1.25).

With what I "need" this week and the stock-ups, I'll be spending around $80.

So what is everyone else eating this week?

Sluggy

Sluggy's Boring Blog Giveaway Box Week #2......Enter Now!

Time for another......

Sluggy's BORING BLOG BOX GIVEAWAY!

Here's how it works.....

I put things in the box(mostly what I have gotten for free or almost free)each week and when the box is filled we draw a winner from all the entries received.

Here is what went into the Box today.....

 

 

 

 

1.  a bottle of Olay Quench Lotion
2.  a bottle of Olay Body Wash
3.  the book "Do-Over!" by Robin Hemley
4.  a tube of Rembrandt Toothpaste

If this is your first time, please go read all the rules for these Giveaways HERE.

Time to enter.....You can enter on this Giveaway post until I close this post to entries.  Then I will put up another post to comment on until the box is full.

1 entry per person per day on THIS POST.
Leave your name/email addy and a COMMENT on this post.  

This week I want to hear about what was your favorite subject in high school in your comments.  And did you end up doing something for a living that was related to that subject?

You can come directly to this blog post or find it through the link on the right side bar to leave 1 comment per day.  The current Giveaway Post will be linked right at the top of the side bar.

Please NOTE--You MUST be a follower to enter the Giveaway.  If you aren't one, just click on the "Follow" button on the right hand side of my blog to become a follower.

There are 2 ways to get EXTRA entries....

1. Put my blog on your blog's Blogroll.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST with the URL of your blog so I can go check it out. If I'm already on your Blogroll, say so in an extra entry comment.
2.  Blog about this Giveaway on your blog or on a Message Board.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST with a link to your blog post or the message on the board.


Any questions?  Just email me.

Happy Entering!! 

Sluggy