Lackluster Rite-Aid Week

2 x Clear Men's Shampoo $7.49 w/Gold discount $5.99=$11.98
2 x Clear 3oz. Shampoo $2.49 w/Gold discount $1.99=$3.98
1 x Keri Hand Lotion (raincheck price b4 Xmas)=$.99
1 x Cella cherry w/Gold discount=$.26 *not pictured, eaten*
SubTotal.....$17.21

Coupons Used
2 x $3/1 Peelie Clear Men's Shampoo(on bottles)=$6.00
2 x Free Item Clear 3oz. Shampoo VV/AdPerksQ(deducted full $2.49 price ea.)=$4.98
1 x $2/1 Keri Lotion IPQ(from Dec. was stapled to raincheck when procured)=$2.00
Coupon Total.....$12.98

$17.21-$12.98=$4.23

I used $4+Up Rewards and put the .23¢ on my gift card.
I received back $7+ Up Rewards for buying $15 in Clear products.

My 50th Anniversary Promo tracking is now at $48.41(only the .99¢ Keri qualified).
I am still missing my Sharpie marker spending on my total.
But I guess it really doesn't matter because I am NOT getting to $100 of spending/tracking by the 26th.

I might just use my $11.50 in +Ups tomorrow and buy 2 large packs of TP, as the Scot is on sale.  Betwwen +Ups, Sale price and 2 Qs I have, I'll have to "spend" about $1.06 on my gift card.
TP is something we can use/need and I'll be out of +Ups so I can stop Rite-Aiding for a few months.

The deals at Rite-Aid are few and far between for me lately and I am just worn out and need a break.

I know everyone will miss these R-A posts.....LOLOL

Maybe I should hold a lottery and everyone can guess how long I can go before I go back to Rite-Aid? ;-)

This trip to Rite-Aid--
OOP....$0.00
Value of items.....$29.08
+Ups coming into this trip....$8.50
+Ups used....$4.00
+Ups earned......$7.00
+Ups at the end.....$11.50

 
**GRAND TOTALS FOR JANUARY-so far**

Out Of Pocket....$0.00  cash
Value of items bought.....$139.89
Savings Rate of  100%
Rebates due......$16.99(Neosporin 2x)
Savings Rate after Rebates.....100 %

+Ups at beginning of month...$32.50+
+Ups used....$37.00+
+Ups received...$16.00+
+Ups currently...$11.50+  


Sluggy

What Santa Brought Me.....Keeping the Costs Sensible

I know everybody is anxious to know exactly what presents Sluggy received for Christmas in 2012.
Oh come on.....you KNOW you want to know.  ;-)

Yes, we are lavish gift givers around here.
It's all about the bling.......the luxury........the decadence........
No, around here, we don't expect anyone to spend a big wad of cash on a pile of gifts for us.  We gift sensibly.  We give what someone wants/needs(within reason) and we try to get a deal if possible.

Here are a couple of gifts I got from extended family......first from my brother and his wife....

A pair of slippers and a cocktail shaker and mix

And from Hubs brother and the nephew.....

a Kitchen store gift card

We do a nuclear family Secret Santa gift exchange and #2 Son got my name.....

I got a book I wanted, "Everything You Were Taught About the Civil War Is Wrong", and a gift card to Ollie's Bargain Outlet "Good Stuff Cheap!".  #2 Son knows me too too well.....

And #2 Son gets extra credit because he bought the book from a used bookseller. ;-)


Then my older two kids, having jobs now and making a little of their own money, got some Christmas Spirit this year and decided to buy presents for each family member.  This was unexpected and yes, the thought of it was the best part of the gifts!

So #1 Son bought me....

Candles that smell like cookies and Cherry Blossom Bubble Bath

And the Daughter got me this.....

An Olive Oil Pump/Sprayer to break my addiction to PAM. lol

Then Hubs bought me a book.....Hubs considers a book the "perfect gift" so I can pretty much count on a book for Christmas....lol.....

Gotta love Stonewall Jackson!

And "Santa" filled my stocking with this strange mix of goodies....

2 packs of safety pins(I asked for those!lol)
Gas treatment ?
Post-Its ?
Chocolate coins ?
a high class bottle opener ?
I am still shaking my head over most of this stuff....I think Santa either lost his mind or had too much egg nog before he got to our house.lolol

As you can see, we just live on the edge, walk on the wild side, spend money like it's going out of style!!
Not.....

But here is the one thing I asked for and they & Hubs actually got for me.....

While the kids were all home at the same time for the Holidays(which doesn't happen nearly at ALL anymore), they went up to the local portrait studio and had this photo taken.  I haven't had a photo of the 3 of them together done since they were in elementary school.  And the bestest thing about it?  They are actually smiling REAL smiles, not those faked ones I get when I ask them to pose so I can take a picture!

Of course, I didn't get the portrait until late last week, but it made my Holiday.
Yes, it did.



Sluggy

Cliff Diving & When Is 2% Not 2%?

Well we got our first paycheck since falling off the cliff.
We have it direct deposited into the credit union.
My eyeballs nearly exploded when I saw a check with $300 LESS in it....$300 less for 2 weeks.
Yikes!
I grabbed the calculator and saw that if that $300 was 2% of our income, we'd be pulling in $390,000 a year.

Ummm, last I looked we were no where NEAR that neighborhood! lolz

BTW--someone making $390K a year is seeing $7,800 LESS in their take-home pay this year.  I am sure they are feeling the pain of that as much as all of us who make way less and are not seeing our 2%s.

Then I remembered that we have local taxes for the year, that are taken out of the 1st 2 paychecks in January, so January's pay is less anyway.
But still, that didn't cover a $300 reduction for 2 weeks of work.

And then Hubs brought home his paystub and there was a note on it.
A note explaining that the bookkeeping dept. of his company was asleep at the switch and took too much for something or other out of everyone's paycheck, and they would be adding this amount back in to the next check.

With the position we are in with the money, this "problem" was a non-problem for us.

But if we had no savings or emergency fund and needed Hubs entire check to cover our expenses for the next 2 weeks, having a $300 hole in the funds available could have been trouble.

Living paycheck to paycheck, with no savings would have meant going without things(hopefully not needs-like food or delaying paying an electric bill or mortgage payment)or putting some things on credit.
And if we had credit card debt already, it would have added to our debt load and/or added to the fees and interest we had to pay.

So my question to everyone......if your paycheck was reduced in error and you didn't have access to a significant chunk of money, could you weather that storm without financial repercussions?

Clearly $300 taken out of our paycheck in error was NOT a foreseeable problem, so there was no way to lessen it's impact.
Unless we lived below our means and made putting money aside for emergencies a priority in our financial lives BEFORE this happened.

Shit happens.
Make sure you aren't caught without a shovel.

Sluggy

It's the Middle of January Already?!?

I find it hard to believe that half of January has gone by already.
For gosh sakes, I haven't even settled on my Yearly 2013 Goals, let alone which ones to tackle in January! lol

2 Weeks+ into the year and I am already behinder.

So I'll refer to my "To Do" List posted on the sidebar for January(over there --->)
and see how I'm progressing.

*  Gather tax records  working on this one, slowly

*  Make new Price Book working on this one also, I've got 5 more weeks until it's done

*  Shutdown eBay Store  DONE!  Got it shut down and paid the bill, sort of.  I'll get a $10 credit on next month's bill, but eBay doesn't cut you a check for a refund....no, they keep a credit on your account.  As I don't want a $10 credit sitting there unused for another year or forever, I paid my last invoice minus the amount of the future credit, so that my next invoice will be a zero balance.  Makes sense right?  Oh, not to eBay!  They send me a collection email each week, with progressively more threatening language.  Ooooo!  They are going to charge me late fees(of 1.5%)and send my debt to a collection agency.  I am so scared!!  How will I ever afford that 15¢ late fee?
Get real eBay.....I don't care.

*  Clean out InkFrog files & Close Account working on this one too, trashed 300 files so far.  I need to transfer my descriptions and images back to my HD and then onto a flash drive in case I ever need them again.  I hope to get this finished before I have to pay another $9.95 a month.

*  Scan 1 scrapbook of photos Not even begun yet
I'll start this later this week.  No time limit on it but I want to get it done this month.


*  Finish reading John Lee Holt book working on this one, on page 105.  It's not an easy read.  Plus it's quite depressing, since I know the outcome and it's someone related to me.  Chronologically I am at Aug. 18, 1862.....almost to 2nd Bull Run.  I have to keep stopping every so often to refresh my memory on particular battles of the war so I don't get lost.   John is now a part of Pickett's Brigade, Longstreet's Division.  About 9 mos. before Gettysburg.....
Perhaps I should avoid reading any books concerning Lincoln's War in the Winter time. 8-)

*  Put Christmas stuff away  DONE!
Usually this takes all month or longer, but I nagged enough to get everyone cooperating enough to finish the tasks.

*  Defrost and organize Freezer  DONE!  Got the freezer de-iced last week.  Amazing amount of space once the ice was gone!lol  Filled up the new empty space last week as well with some good meat deals.

*  Drop NCP Membership  DONE!  Just waiting on the scanner to arrive back at the HQ in NY.  Gawd!  I will be so glad when this whole adventure is done!!!  What a PITA this was.  Whoever gave me the notion to join this Nielsen Home thing in the first place?  You better be glad I can't remember shit anymore because if I could, I'd be showing up on your doorstep to kick. your. ass.
If you ever see these people advertizing for Panelists, RUN in the opposite direction!  It is so not worth it unless you like doing mindless crap for NO reward.


*  Celebrate my Birthday!  Not time yet--next week  Friday kicks off Birthday Week at Chez Sluggy!  My and Martin Luther King are partying hard this year.....just no CHEESEcake! lol

Sluggy

Colonel Mustard in the Kitchen with the Lasagna

I don't know if it's SAD(Seasonal Affected Disorder)brought on by the lack of sunlight or my own post-Holiday blues or both, but I just can't seem to get traction on anything around here lately.

I just want to sleep.
I don't feel well.  I guess I'm sick but it's not something I can go to the doctor for and get a pill or such.
I thought I had flu, but I don't.
I know I'm having sinus issues, which I shouldn't be having at this time of year.
Maybe my soul is stuck in a malaise and it's presenting itself as physical illness.

And not that anyone wants to read this but.....even though I've been eating 'normally' my lower gastrointestinal tract has not been "happy".

So I looked at what I had been eating lately and played Clue with myself and I think I found the culprit for some of this unpleasantness.

As a result, I've taken myself off of eating cheese in any way, shape or form for 1 week.

I've noticed that cheese is making me "gunky".....high falootin' professional medical term "gunky", right?
And between gunkiness and sinus issues I am a gurgling, wheezing mess in the chest.  Coughing to beat the band too.  "Need to invest money into Kleenex stock" coughing.
So I am off cheese and also keeping away from milk.

And as soon as a say no to cheese and try to meal plan, I notice that if you take into account every dish I cook that includes milk and cheese, we eat quite a bit of it around Chez Sluggy.
I heart cheese but it's not being kind to me.

My denouement with fromage came last Thursday when I served the Lasagna from the freezer.  I had a small serving and by bedtime, my Gunkometer was through the roof!
That's when I gave cheese the heave ho! for a week.

I am now on Day Four sans cheese and I think my coughing and congestion is down.  Not running through the tissues at an astonishing clip anymore.
But I am still not feeling like my old self.  (Including the lower gastro area either...even after some additional citrus and roughage.)

And the cheese in the kitchen keeps calling to me it's siren song of creamy, tangy goodness........
Please make it stop!

Sluggy-who dreamed she was a grilled cheese sandwich last night