The Week is Over!!!

OH Yeah baby and I'm still standing!

Enjoy this and I may be back later with an Update.....

Sluggy

One More Day!

And the relatives will be gone.
Amen!

Is it Saturday yet????

Go on and let Marvin dance us into the weekend.

Crank up your speakers and boogie out......

Sluggy

Life is Like a Circus

Do you ever have days, no WEEKS!, where you think you are living in the midst of a 3 Ring Circus?

That's my life this week for ya.......a big old Big Top Circus.

And in honor of that, here is a song for y'all.
One of my favs but one of my favorite singers.....well, not really a singer. lol
Turn it up and sing along won't you?

Enjoy and I'll be back later after I keep all the plates in the air and spinning today.

Sluggy

$20K Savings Challenge Report for May 2012

Ok, here is my May 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 and/or our income tax refund.

On to the May report.....

I have posted my MAY 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 May in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of May with?.......$2,832.03!

Income
We had $2728.26 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Add in $2.00 in Rebates applied against the food expenses, $101.31 in blog ad revenue & $.46 in interest(HAHAHAHAHA!) and  you get a total of $2,832.03.

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

As for the expenses this May......

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  The water bill was boringly the same.

*  The mild winter temps continued, which decreased our heating/electric bill by about $25.  The second consecutive month for a decrease....yay!

*   The credit card was $400 less than last month's bill.  It was still over $1K though. bleh!
*  No car maintenance/repairs bills this month.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  Credit card bill was fairly high at $1000+.

*  We bought a new dishwasher.

*  The new dishwasher meant hiring a plumber to install it(our house is weird)....that was $265!!!

*  Another vet bill for 1 of the dogs.  Not large but it's still unusual spending.

*  Cash spending(my food money and Hub's WAM money)was WAY HIGH!  I'm going to have a talk with him about reigning it in this weekend.

The Food Budget costs for May are in another post, which is located HERE.

YEAR-TO-DATE GRAND TOTAL.....
With 4 month behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2012 is $9,422.83.

We hit our monthly goal in May and then some, so now we are ahead of where we need to be

With 5 months done, we should be at $8,333.35 saved for the year, so $1,089.48 ahead for the year!

As for a look ahead at JUNE.....
* There will be another vet bill for surgery the beagle had this week.(It was put on the credit card.)
* The quarterly garbage bill will be due.
* Mini-vacation will cost money but most charges will be put on credit card so not due until July.(Good for June's figures but not for July's.)
* A 3rd paycheck in JUNE!!!  We will NOT use it toward our saving challenge goal however.  This check will go toward paying the home improvement projects that NEED to begin soon.

I figure I should be able to meet the monthly savings goal for this Challenge in June, barring any money fiascoes.

So how much did YOU save in May?  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 May financially?
Did you spend less than you made?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
How much did you save in May?

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

Food spending May Week 4+ & Meal Planning June Week 1

It's the "Guess Who's Coming To Stay?" Meal Plan Week

***********************
And here is the meal plan that actually happened last week.....

SUNDAY--Leftovers and/or Whoppers
MONDAY--Burgers/Dogs cookout, baked beans, potato salad
TUESDAY--Alfredo with veggies and steak slices, tossed salad-used up a leftover
WEDNESDAY--Leftovers (crazy schedules night)
THURSDAY--Tacos-used up a leftover
FRIDAY--Pizza
SATURDAY--Subway Subs(only 2 of us home)

 The weekly food spending was $22.35 this past week.  I sent Hubs to the store for mozzarella cheese on pizza night and he bought reg. priced cheese instead of the $3 1lb. bags on sale....sigh.....thus my high spending on just a few items last week.

Personally, I didn't set foot in a grocery store last week.  I just sent peeps in for a thing here or there while they were out and about....eggs.....milk.....cheese.....
I didn't see any deals I needed/wanted so I just stayed away.

Tues. I used the half a London Broil that was leftover from last week.  Slapped some A-I and spices on it, seared it in the cast iron skillet to heat it up, sliced it up and paired it with fettucine with alfredo sauce. nom nom nom
On Thurs. I took the leftover Sloppy Joes, heated that up with Mexican spices(garlic, cumin, cilantro, cayenne pepper)and turned it into taco meat.
Made pizza dough on Fri. for homemade pizza.

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

This week's menu.....
SUNDAY--Chinese Take-Out
MONDAY--BLTs
TUESDAY--?
WEDNESDAY--?
THURSDAY--?
FRIDAY--?
SATURDAY--?

Sunday I was in the garage cleaning most of the day so we got take-out.  Seems if I don't cook, I can't get anybody else around here to make dinner and we always end up eating take-out.  I so hate this!  It puts a lot of pressure on me.  It's not like I don't have things here to make-for most any skill level-it just never occurs to anyone to offer to make a meal.
Monday the beagle had surgery.  She had a cancerous toe removed.  Between that, trying to clean the house before company descends, having to hem Daughter's work pants and the usual craziness all I could manage was to slap together some sandwiches for dinner.  They should feel lucky to get THAT!lol

As for the rest of the week?
I.
Am.
Clueless.

Yah see, the Sis-IL is arriving Tuesday.
And every time she comes to stay she has dietary restrictions.
And her diagnoses seem to come and go and change every time, so what she could eat last time won't be what she can eat this time.
And she is hyper picky about what she will eat anyway.
And then the Brother-IL is arriving on Wednesday or Thursday.
And he has dietary problems that he won't talk about.
So I don't know what he can or cannot eat.

Maybe I'll just fix a big pot of tasteless swill and put a condiment bar next to it so everyone can kick it up to whatever notch they can handle.
Yah, that's the ticket.....

By the time they have all left on Saturday morning I'll probably be so tense that my last nerve won't feel like cooking so I'll send Hubs & #2 Son out to Taco Bell or something for dinner.
And I'll just sit home and nurse a bottle of Southern Comfort.
For medicinal purposes of course!

If I find the time I'll be back later this week with some sort of menu plan.
Maybe I'll just go to the deli and buy 20 lbs. of sliced meats and cheeses, a couple loaves of good bread at Panera and make a plate of veggie and condiment fixings and make them all eat off of that for the week.

I'm certainly not taking them all out for every meal because they NEVER pay.

What would y'all cook/fix/buy if you were in my position?


Sluggy