The Boring Blog Box GIVEAWAY....Come Enter Again!

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.

Week 2 and here is what went into the Box today.....

1.  1 tube of Colgate Toothpaste

2.  1 Air Wick air freshener
3.  1 Halloween miniature stuffed M&M plush

4.  3 sample sized products--Colgate wisps, Eucerin lotion, Pledge wipe

If this is your first time, please go read all the rules for these Giveaways HERE.  *As always, if you are located outside the US, you CAN enter and win but weight restrictions/shipping costs may mean your prize box will contain less items.*

***Time to enter.....You can enter on this Giveaway post until I close this post to entries.

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 you did on the long Labor Day Weekend.

Did you have a cook-out or other gathering?  Did you shop?  Did you sleep in?  Did you do anything interesting or just recharge for the work week ahead?

 

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 2 EXTRA entries on this and each new Giveaway Post.......

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 once each week of this giveaway.

2.  Blog about this Giveaway on your blog with a link to this post.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST with a link to your blog post so I can go view it.  You can do this extra entry once each week of this giveaway.


Any questions?  Just email me.

Happy Entering!! 

Sluggy

$20K Savings Challenge....AUGUST Update

Ok, here is my AUGUST 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.
Our background info--We are a family of 5(kids are 21-16)with one living away from home.  We have 2 dogs. We own 4 cars at present and live in/own free & clear a 4 bedroom house in a small town.

On to the August report.....

I have posted my AUGUST 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 August in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of August with?.......$756.06.
So much for making our targeted amount this month. 8-(

Income
We had $753.77 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Add in $2.29 in interest income(Are you serious?  Really!) and  you get a total of $756.06.

Outgo
The usual along with 1 large irregular bill which was expected and planned for.

As for the expenses this August......

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

* The water bill decreased by $30+.

* The electric bill decreased by $21+.

* The credit card bill decreased by $702.
* The cash withdrawals went down $1170.....even with that they were high!

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  Semi-Annual Car Insurance was due at a cost of $1590.11.

*  Lots of little medical co-pays and prescription co-pays that added up to real money!
*  Lots of cash withdrawals(always a bad thing cuz Hubs doesn't track where this money goes). the cash taken was LESS than last month but it was still waaaay too much money so it goes under Bad Things.lol
*  Extra gas expenditures due to cross state pick-ups from camp.
*  Marching Band is back, which means $20 here, $30 there on a consistent basis. Also going hand in hand is....
*  Private music lessons cranking up again for #2 Son.  $120 a month.

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

YEAR-TO-DATE GRAND TOTAL.....
With 8 month behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2012 is at  $16,369.29.

We missed our monthly goal in August by $910.61.
Luckily due to having a few months where we saved more than the average, this month, where we didn't even save HALF of what we need to this month,  won't put us behind.

With 8 months done, we should be at $13,333.36  saved for the year, so we are $3K+ a little bit ahead for the year as of now!

In the next month we have another large irregular expense coming due.
September is school taxes at a yearly outlay of  $1950.

They are irregular because they don't come every month....like the water or electric bill.

But we know they are out there....lurking and ready to topple your budget.  So we calculate what 1/12th is for that bill and then every month set that amount aside and "hide it from the budget".  When the bill comes due in a year, the money is there to pay it.  It wasn't left in the general money fund(checking account)to mingle with the dollars that aren't earmarked for a specific purpose. 
Bill money has a funny way of doing that.......pretending it's really Not-Bill money or even Fun money and hiding in plain sight with the non-committed dollars in your account.

If you don't separate that irregular bill money, it's sooo easy to spend it on something else, possibly a non-necessity like eating out or a fancy coffee drink or going bowling on the weekend because you "deserve" some fun, or another shirt your kid really doesn't need because they have 38 more in their closet.
Even if you have to put that irregular bill money as a wad of singles into a coffee can and hide it in your shed or put it into a Tupperware into your deep freezer to keep from spending it on crap, DO IT!  You'll be glad you did when that irregular bill payment rolls around again....
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At this point, I need to come up with $3,630.71 for the rest of the year to make my $20K goal.  This breaks down to $907.68  per month for the next 4 months.  Unless something untoward happens we should be able to meet this goal.

As for a look ahead at SEPTEMBER.......

*  There is that School Taxes Bill. (Another irregular bill I've been saving every month for.) 

So how was your August financially?
Did you spend less than you made?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
How much did you save in August?  Did you use it to pay down debt or build your Emergency Fund?

Even if what you are able to save each month doesn't look like a lot of money, figure out what percentage of your income you saved.  You might feel that it's a more substantial amount in those terms!

We saved 12.71% of our take home income in August.  My goal is to shoot for 50% each month.
Our heavy expenses in August had us fall short of my goal.

Leave a comment and share with us what you did with your money, both the good and not-so good.
Did you have debt you were able to pay on?
Did you pay off a car, a house or a credit card?
Did something financial blow up on you last month?
What are you doing financially to change your life?

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

Go See Carla.....Maybe Win Something!

She is having a Giveaway for a Lilla Rose Gift Card. 
This company has some neat hair fastening products as well as other things.
Check out the giveaway HERE,
Tell em Sluggy sent ya! ;-)

And while you are in Giveaway Mode, don't forget to enter my Boring Blog Box Giveaway HERE.

Now back to making cookies.....

Sluggy

MIA The Last 5 Days.....What's Up?

Not to worry....I've been here but busy and not really chatty. 
Working on the End of August financials and trying to get everyone back into a school year routine.

So then the high school gave the kids a 4 day Weekend.  Oh, thanks for thwarting my evil plan school district!  I really appreciate that......

Hubs took the day off too so we took a ride to the Farm Stand on Friday and loaded up on ingredients for making Pepper Relish.

A bushel of peppers, 25lbs. of onions, 1 watermelon, 1 cantaloupe, 6 cucumbers and 2 zucchinis later I am $31.50 more broke-r.
But look at all those beauties.....


Friday was all about the opening football game of the year.  "Our" team hosted the #1 team in the conference so the Band had a bigtime food concession going which Hubs worked.  It wore him out so Saturday was spent icing muscles.lol  #2 Son worked hard at staying in formation during the marching band performance.  The Band was great, the football team?....not so much.....not that I care about football..... ;-)
Daughter helped me grocery shop on Friday.....let me rephrase that.....Daughter helped me overspend my grocery budget for August on Friday.  There, that's more accurate. lol

Saturday while Hubs was recuperating from his concession ordeal I had a Canning Day!  I was making Pepper Relish year.
This is such a labor intensive process that I like to make enough to last 2 years so I only have to do this every other year.  It would be great if someone around here would help out with this.
They are all great consumers of this product but as soon as I drag out the equipment and produce, you can't find a one of the family to take part in the creation of this heavenly foodstuff.
Why is that?

First I had to chop all my ingredients into tiny bits..............

I about filled a 5 gallon bucket with bits!  Next time stirring it with a boat oar rather than a puny little wooden spoon might be smarter on my part.

I must say that now that I have a food processor this part of the process only takes a quarter of a day instead of the full 12 hour day it use to take me when I had to do it all. by. hand.  That used $8 processor I won at the Church auction 2 years ago is paying for itself bigtime now!lol

Then it's time to salt the veggies and let the moisture leech out for an hour while I get the syrup ready and the jars and lids sterilized.
Cook down the liquid, plop the relish into the jars and boil in a water bath canning pot and you get this......

I ended up with 11 quarts, 1 pint worth.....

That's a 2 year supply with enough leftover for my sister in-law's Christmas gift.
The quart sized jars in back are for her, though 3 jars won't last her much past Feb. since she likes this stuff so much she eats it straight outta the jar with a spoon!
Ick.

That and a nap was basically my Saturday.
What a production!

Sunday I was up extremely early and took some photos out on the deck while my morning glories were open.

I haven't bought morning glory seeds in years now.  I just let the volunteer plants wither and drop seeds from their pods each Fall and every Spring I get beautiful new flowers.

 You can see the fuzzy ass of a bumblebee in that center bloom.  He was not amused at having his posterior photographed and let me know it when he came outta there! lol

 I'll miss these beauties in a few weeks when they start dying off.....sigh

I accompanied Hubs to an indoor flea market later Sunday morning so he could check out a New Age store there.  He decided to take the bypass as a "short cut" to get there.  Of course, he didn't know where to get off the bypass so the "short cut" ended up taking us on the scenic route through about 3 little towns, as we went waaaay past where the flea market was held on our "short cut".  I just turned my head to the window and rolled my eyes silently at the passing scenery.  Men.....

We went early before the heat got bad.  I got some exercise walking around and a new bumper sticker for my car.
We also picked up some COC at the FM and had it with our burgers, dogs and potato salad at our Sunday evening cook-out.

Monday was spent on more garden chores--Hubs had picked a huge amount of green beans on our vine plants the last few days.  He surprised me by blanching and bagging them all while I was napping Monday afternoon.  He filled 5 freezer bags.....thanks honey!

 I cut up, bagged and froze the rest of the red bell peppers, I didn't use in the relish, for use later this winter.
1 bag of diced peppers and 4 bags of slices.

We also got a few swims in, in the pool and some tomatoes picked.  Lunch on Monday was BLTs using fresh tomatoes from the garden. 
Horror upon horrors though when I saw that we were down to our last three packs of bacon in the freezer....EEK!
I haven't loaded up on bacon in ages.

Now I'm on a quest for a bacon deal.
Ya know.....it's always something, isn't it?

Tuesday's dinner was suppose to be Alfredo Primavera but I substituted Stuffed Green Peppers and Stuffed Zucchini for dinner.  I had a leftover Zuke after making 5 loaves of Zucchini Bread and I had 2 green bell peppers put aside from my bushel of peppers I bought to make stuffed peppers for Hubs.
I just forgot to put the peppers meal on the menu.  We'll bump something else on there off later in the week.

I still need to make pickles and cut up the watermelon we got at the farm stand.  That will be on today's agenda.  I'll also be making Lemon Crisp Cookies and Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I don't know what's gotten into me......I'm all Betty Freakin' Crockerish suddenly!

Sluggy

Food Spending August Week 4+ & Meal Planning September Week 1

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

Sunday--Barbecue Pork Sandwiches, Coleslaw

Monday--Taco Bell-after music lesson

Tuesday--Dinner Out-30th Anniversary Date night

Wednesday--Pork Chops, Saffron Rice, Broccoli

Thursday--Pizza

Friday--Subway

Saturday--Leftovers 

 

 

The weekly food spending was $87.96. $31.50 of that was Farm Stand produce(part of which was for canning purposes).  The other part was 1 trip to the local market for canned tomatoes stock-up, snacks and convenience foods for the kids, milk, OJ, ranch dressing and spices for the canning.  The store was clearancing out some Hot Pocket type snack thing for 50% off so I picked up all 4 boxes left for the kids for "emergency rations"....aka "when they have to make something themselves to eat".lol

I went over my August food budget by $85+.  A little too much snack foods, red peppers to stock the freezer for winter and for making relish, and a large meat stock-up are mostly to blame.

Going into the new week I have the following leftovers to use up.......2 portions of the lime citrus chicken which are being used tonight.

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This week's menu.....

Sunday--Burgers, Dogs, Potato Salad, COC

Monday--Lime Chicken Fajitas

Tuesday--Alfredo Primavera, Caesar Salad

Wednesday--Roast Chicken, Stuffing, Cranberry Glop, Green Beans

Thursday--Stuffed Shells or Ravioli, Salad

Friday--Leftovers

Saturday--Chinese take-out

 

 

What I need to buy this week to serve this menu?.....tortillas, mushrooms, romaine lettuce, a chicken.  We also need milk, eggs, deli meat this week.  Using the 1 leftover item in tonight's dinner....I'll stretch it to feed 3 people by making Fajitas.  I will also be hitting up the bread outlet this week.  I'm figuring on spending about $50 this coming week.

So what are you cooking at your house this week?

Sluggy