Sluggy's Boring Blog Giveaway Box Week #3......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.  an Airwick Plug-In Unit
2.  an Airwick Refill (Cinnamon Apple)
3.  a Revlon Nail Clipper
4.  a Revlon Emery Boards
5. a Rimmel Mascara (black)
6. a Nivea Lip Gloss (pink)

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 address and a COMMENT on this post.  

This week I want to hear about your thoughts on the current American High School Prom scene.  Do you know the history behind the prom?  Do you think how they are done now is "over the top" or not?  If you sent a kid to prom recently, how much did you spend?  Did you go to your prom and how different was it from what a prom is nowadays? 

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

My Boring Food Shopping Trip & Other Snoozing Things

4 bottles of apple juice
4 boxes of taco shells
5 boxes of mac and cheese
3 bags of salad *not pictured*
1 bunch of celery *not pictured*
2 containers of mushrooms  *not pictured*

The apple juice, taco shells and mac & cheese were at their lowest price book price(.99¢, $1.25, .60¢ respectively) and were stock-ups.
The salad was at the lowest price of $1.99, the celery at low of $1.29 and the mushrooms at low of $1.99.
Mushrooms were necessary for a meal this week.
$23.20 spent.
$41.31 regular retail cost.

Weis has some Catalina deals this week but I seriously doubt I'll take part in those.  One is for junk food, the other is for pet food.  We just opened our last 2 large bags of dog food into the can which means our stockpile of that is gone.  I am risking having to buy the next batch for reg. retail by not stocking up.  Yes, this is how I live dangerously.....by NOT buying dog kibble.lol

I'll be getting more juice, more taco shells, more salad and some canned green chilies this week instead.

And I won't be going to Rite-Aid again this week.  I haven't been to Rite-Aid or any drugstore for that matter since mid March!   I don't have +Ups expiring and there is nothing I need, so why buy more toiletries?
I have put myself on a ban from buying the usual toiletries until what I have is gone.  Ok, so it's more a ban so the KIDS use up what we have.  If I go buy....or more accurately "get" more since I don't pay money for it....if I go get more the kids will use the new stuff instead of using the old stuff.
They just don't get this whole "rotate the stock" deal.  So we are on Toiletries Lockdown teens.....deal with it!

I don't need to shop, even much grocery shopping.
So I don't.
And I grocery shop close by in town.  No trips down the mountain to Wegman's or Price Chopper or CVS or Target or Walmart.  Just Weis or the independent market in my town.
I hardly ever leave town.
Heck I hardly ever leave my house lately!

It keeps me from spending money unnecessarily....which is a good thing.
And I save gas.  I bought gas almost 4 weeks ago and still have a full tank.  I think I've put 20 miles on the car in the last 3 weeks.

But it gives me nothing to write about.

I could show you a list of what food I bought in April......
or I could show you the bag of weeds I pulled up trying to clean the front flower bed.

Nevermind.
Sometimes being frugal and living simpler isn't exciting or interesting.

I apologize for being THIS boring! 8-(

So can you top me in the boring department?


Sluggy

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