The Fall of the Roman Empire Anyone?

".… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses."

--Juvenal  Roman Poet and Satirist




Sluggy

Rite-Aid Trip......Rotten Week Here

Well we didn't get the awesome Regional Ad, dagnabbit!
No free Compleats, no almost free Shampoo for me.....boo hoo.
I know EVERYONE is crying  at my little pity party, right? lol

So here is what I cobbled together......

2 x Lay's chips on sale 3/$6=$6.00
2 x Hormel chili on sale 2/$3=$3.00
1 x Nutter Butter cookies on sale=$2.99
3 x Milky Way candy bars on sale B2G1Free=$1.98
1 x Gas-X on sale=$4.99
6 x Puffs facial tissue on sale 4/$5=$7.50
1 x Dawn dish soap on sale 4/$5=$1.25
1 x RA brand magic eraser on sale 4/$5=$1.25
SubTotal.....$28.96

Coupons Used
1 x $1/2 Lay's Chips IPQ(Common Kindness site?)=$1.00
1 x $1/2 Hormel chili ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Nutter Butter cookies(Facebook)=$1.00
1 x B2G1Free Milky Way bars IPQ=$.99
1 x $1/1 Gas-X item IPQ=$1.00
1 x $2/1 Gas-X VV AdPerks Q=$2.00
1 x $1/6 Puffs tissue ManuQ(sunday's insert)=$1.00
Coupon Total....$7.99

$28.96-$7.99=$20.97 + .06¢tax=$21.03
I used $20.98 in +Up Rewards and put the .05¢ OOP on my Rite-Aid gift card.
I earned $11 in new +Up Rewards(2 x $2 Puffs/Dawn wyb4, $2 Gas-X, $5 wyb $10 in select food items).  I also have $1.99 tracking toward another $5 wyb $10 of select food items Deal.

I ended up spending "down" $10 in +Ups with this order.
I got junk foods for #2 Son, cookies for us all, 3 candy bars for my secret stash, and facial tissue/soap/eraser cleaner thingy/gas aid we need or will need soon.
The best deal was the Gas-X.  After sale, Qs and +Up it gave back, it was free.

There is almost free Right Guard bar soap in the regular ad but of course, my tiny store had none.  But the shelf of Right Guard Body Wash was OVERFLOWING with product?  What is up with that Rite-Aid!?!?  I did get a raincheck though so I'll cross my fingers that more soap comes in before my Q expires.

I might go down to another Rite-Aid and see if they have any chili so I can do the $5 +Up wyb $10 food again(limit is 2 deals on that one).
Otherwise, I'll just hang on to last week's $5 in +Ups and try to roll it next week before it expires.

Were you lucky enough to get the Regional Rite-Aid ad supplement this week in your area?  If you did, go ahead and tell me about it and rub it in.......sniff, sniff......I can take it.......


And now the Grand Total so far for October.....

Out Of Pocket....$0.00  cash
Value of items bought.....$45.83
Savings Rate of  100%
Single Check Rebate due....$0.00
Other Rebates due......$0.00
After SCR applied, Out of Pocket.... $0.00
Savings Rate  100%

+Ups at beginning of month...$25.98+
+Ups used....$20.98+
+Ups received...$11.00+
+Ups currently...$16.00+

Sluggy

$20K Savings Challenge....SEPTEMBER Update

As promised, this will not be pretty. 8-(

Ok, here is my SEPTEMBER 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.  Ok....not so much this month, but in general. lol

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 September report.....

I have posted my SEPTEMBER 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 September in the RED!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of September with?.......Negative $153.54
So we went backwards and are now $153.54 further away from our goal for the year.

meh.

Income
We had -$236.86 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Luckily we had a Stock Dividend, a car insurance Reimbursement and some Bank Interest to offset this net loss for September.  This combined $83.32 brought our net less down to -$153.54 for September.

Yes folks, the loss could have been worse without this little bit of income.

Outgo
The usual along with large irregular bill AND an unexpected/unplanned for expense converged on September to make it our worst month for savings since I can remember.

As for the expenses this September......

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

* The school taxes were paid and planned for so the money was there.

* The credit card bill decreased by $250.85.
* The cash withdrawals went down $550.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  The water bill went up $26.62-this was mostly due to Hubs closing the pool for the winter.

*  The electric bill went up $5.42.
* 2 unexpected car repairs totaling $1,551.75. Yah, THAT was the real bad ones.

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

YEAR-TO-DATE GRAND TOTAL.....
With 9 month behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2012 is at  $16,215.75.

Not only did we NOT save the $1666.67 we need to each month in September, but we lost $153.54 toward the goal that we had saved up to this point.

Luckily though, we had a few "better than our monthly goal" months so far so we are still on track to get to our $20K mark by the end of 2012.

With 9 months done, we should be at $15,000.03  saved for the year, so we are still $1K+ ahead.

At this point, I need to come up with $3,784.25 for the rest of the year to make my $20K goal.  This breaks down to $1,261.42  per month for the next 3 months.  Unless something untoward happens we should be able to meet this goal.

As for a look ahead at OCTOBER.......

*  No irregular bills are due this month.

*  Normal bills only are expected.

*  We have a trip to take so there will be some additional spending but it will not affect the budget.  Any cash needed for that will be taken out of the money I saved in 2011 for my Savings Challenge.

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

SEPTEMBER 2012 Budget Results....Food & Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for SEPTEMBER 2012.

I have posted September'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 September.  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.
******************

BREAD OUTLET
OOP   $20.89

Value   $73.21

Savings  71.46%

BIG LOTS
OOP   $15.12
Value   $21.79
Savings   30.61%

GERRITY'S
OOP   $7.00
Qs/Ads  $2.45
Value  $9.45
Savings  25.92%

RITE-AID

OOP  $38.65

Qs/Ads/+Ups/Gift Card  $523.23

Value  $561.88

Savings   93.12%

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $138.18

Qs/Ads  $93.06

Value  $231.24

Savings  40.25%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $204.76

Qs/Ads  $158.14

Value  $362.90

Savings  43.58%

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 September
Rite-Aid Single Check Rebate for July

Total...$6.00

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES
TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$0.00

COUPONS and FREEBIES

Nothing.

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were the Rite-Aid at 93.12%,  the Bread Outlet at 71.46%, and Weis at 43.58%.  l shopped at 6 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket........$424.60

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$808.95

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1,233.55

TOTAL Savings of...................................65.58%

TOTAL Out of Pocket after Rebates received this Month......$418.60
TOTAL Savings after Rebates of..........................66.07%

This closes out the September spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

I went into September with $400 budgeted for food/toiletries for the month.  I obviously blew through that mark plus another $18.60.   I know I did a bit too much stocking up on a few things and I bought a few too many snack foods for #2 son.  It's nothing I can't live with though.
My grocery savings hovered at below 45% for September.  I used very few Qs this month.  This lack of coupon usage seems to be a theme with me lately.  I do still buy on rock bottom price(or at least very good sale price) but don't find Qs much here for food items I want/need to buy.

 

LOOKING AHEAD TO OCTOBER......

I will be keeping my food budget at $400 for October.  We don't have any special dinners or holiday food spending this month.  I've already bought the Halloween candy to give out, but that came out of another pile of money that isn't the Food Budget anyway.
I'm going to try to cut back on spending a little this month but I'll leave the $400 budget in place since I now give Daughter a portion of the food Budget each month for her to buy convenience foods to take to work for her meal there.  The portion she spends is unpredictable so far.  I'll try to keep track the next few months to see if I can pin down how much it needs to be monthly and adjust my spending accordingly.
Hopefully I'll have a little leftover from my budget when the month is over but it is not guaranteed.

How did you do in September with your Food Budget?
Did you stick to it?
Did you find any good rock bottom prices to stock up on groceries?

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

Judy's BACK & Precious is Still MIA!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog post to bring you breaking news......Judy is Back!

You can go find her here at When I Get Where I'm Going.
Tell her Sluggy sent ya! ;-)

In other news.....Precious's  Frugal Makes Cents blog is still showing that "Invited Readers Only" Message.  Has anyone gotten invited to read her blog and/or has anyone heard from her that she is ok?
We would appreciate knowing if you have, thanks!

Now I need to go outside and wrestle with a massive green bean vine or seven!  The vine is done producing beans so it's time to tear it out before it starts decaying and kills my allergies.(I am allergic to dead leaves.)
Then there are Rite-Aids to pillage........*sigh*....my work is never done. ;-)

I might or might not be back later with my Meal Planning Post today.
If not then I'll get it up on Tuesday.

Don't forget to enter my Giveaway HERE.  You can enter it daily until it closes on Sunday, October 7th at 11:59pm.  There are $50+ worth of toiletry products in there so get going!!  You gotta be IN IT to WIN IT.  ;-)

Sluggy