Just Purse Your Lips & Whistle

Is it Friday again?

I think we can all use a dose of frivolity about now, don't you?

Take off your thinking caps, put on your tap shoes and just go with this.......



I'll be back during the Weekend with my January numbers.


Sluggy

Food Waste=Lost $$

And this is just one thing wrong in this country.

I watched this segment on the national news the other night on Food Waste.
Go check it out HERE.
Go ahead.....I'll wait.

My thoughts......
First off, they seem to have no clue what they actually spend on food for a week.
I think they pulled that $300 number out of the air, because then they go on to think it extrapolates out to up to $1500 per month.
Yah.

Second, the husband is a financial planner.
Hello?!?
You work as a money professional and you don't seem to operate with a budget on a personal level, you have no clue how much money is going to your food expenses AND you are allowing on average 13 POUNDS of food to be thrown away every week?!
Would you want this guy to be advising YOU on how to take care of YOUR money? lol

 Third, have these people never heard of LEFTOVERS?
Obviously they've never had to eat them before given the amount of money they make.
How difficult is it to take Taco Meat and incorporate it into something else?....or take Squash Soup and remake it into a sauce or blend it into some kind of baked good?.....or take leftover produce and do ANYTHING with it?  Heck, she could have even just taken those greens and juiced them.

The report went on to quote that the average monthly food waste costs in the US today amount to $190 per family.  Using this figure, a family would throw away a whopping $2,280 worth of food every year and I would bet that most of that food was still perfectly edible!

Good Googley Moogley people!!

I've seen "experts" say that a family/person should be spending between 9-15% of their income on food.  They didn't say whether that was on their gross or their net income.  Somewhere in that range seems to be the accepted happy place for food spending in the US.  Is your food spending falling within this 9-15% range?
I find this method of figuring how much to allot for your food very flawed.  It might sound reasonable for a family on the lower end of the income scale. But a family with 2 wage earners making over $100K per year?  The lower end of 9% would see them spending $18,000 a year on their food needs or $30,000 if they allotted 15% of income to food expenses. 

I'm not making a judgement call on how much families spend on food here.  I get it that people on the lower socioeconomic rung of the societal ladder have to spend more of a percentage of their income on food.....that's just the way the math works.

I'm just saying that if we all were more vigilant on NOT disposing of perfectly edible food, imagine how much of the food we need to REBUY each week to feed our families wouldn't have to be purchased again, saving each of us part of our income.
Now add up that say, $20 a week we throw away, and multiple it by a year of weeks.......the weekly food we waste and don't think it's a "big deal" to our budgets......it starts to really add up to serious dollars.

Serious dollars over the coarse of a year you could have spent on other priorities in your life--paying down debt, socking away into an emergency fund, beefing up a fund so that your next cars didn't have to be financed......the list goes on and on.
I'm not saying to cut down on the type or amount of food you buy.  Just use ALL of what you buy.  Don't waste anything!  It would be like found money(the money you were spending to rebuy the food you let go to waste). Found money to put toward other goals in life!

Stop overbuying food you aren't planning on preparing to save for later(canning/freezing/dehydrating).
Get a handle on portion sizes so you aren't cooking more food than you need for a meal.
If you do end up with leftovers, find ways to incorporate them into new dishes.
Clean your fridge/pantry so that you can find the foods in there that need to be used up by a certain date.
If a food does go bad on you even after all your steps to avoid it, make it do duty in your compost pile(if applicable)and grow something.  Compost is the "saving grace" for food waste.

Have a look at this TED talk too....


Sluggy

We don't Need No Stinking Licenses!

For those who asked the driver's test didn't go as hoped yesterday.  #2 is walking around like Joe Bfstplk today.

I won't go into a tirade about state government bureaucrats aka driving examiners masquerading as asshats...and their bias against kids who have their parents teach them(and actually force them to do the full 60 hours of road work)as opposed to those who pay for a driving school(where they don't actually meet the state min. road requirements but I suspect they give kickbacks to some of these examiners)....but I really could! lol

Let's just say there is no joy in Mudville today......

Sluggy

Wise Words

While I never cared much for Penn & Teller's act, I think Penn Jillette is a very intelligent thinking man who, at his core, gets the big issues in life right.

You may not agree with him on the religion thing(as most of mainstream America still  isn't very open minded or accepting yet when it comes to that realm), but I encourage everyone to look up some of his writings on most any other subject.
He has a lot to say and he articulates it much better than I!

Sluggy

Getting to $100 Spent at Rite-Aid Last Week

Well, I did go to Rite-Aid last week and try to get to $100 of tracking so the $20 +Up Reward would kick out.

If you remember the Daughter gave me a box of chocolates for my Birthday, using my Wellness card to pay, so the $5.99 she spent tracked toward the 50th Anniversary +Up Reward Promo and I gained a $2 +Up Reward too.

So I began last week with $13.50 in +Ups and $54.40 in tracking toward the $20 +Up Reward.

I bought....

2 x 12 pack Coke(not pictured)=$8  I had 2 Free Coke Qs from my Coke Reward Pts. left, and the cashier let me use the $1 In-Ad Coke Q as well. 8-)
2 x GE Energy Smart CFL light bulbs $3.99=$7.98 and I used 2 x $1/1 Qs.
2 x Mam bottle nipples BOGO40%=$8.46 and I used 1 x $2/1 Q.
2 x Ragu Sauce RAINCHECKS ($1.00ea.)=$2.00.
Subtotal was $26.44.

After $13 in Qs leaves me with $13.44.
I used $11.50 in +Up Rewards and put the $1.94 left on my gift card.
I received back $12 in +Ups(2 x $3 GE lightbulbs, 2 x $3 Mam nipples).

That made my +Ups total $14($12 new + $2 leftover from before).
All the items bought tracked for the Reward so $54.40 + $26.44=$80.84 toward the $100 goal.

Daughter needed bottled water so I bought 2 cases at Rite-Aid last week.
2 x 24 pack of Nestle's water=$7.98
1 x Cella cherry w/Gold discount=$.26
Total of $8.24.  I used $8 in +Ups and put the .24¢ on the gift card.

I received $2 in +Up Rewards back(2 x $1 Nestle) so my Ups+ going forward total $8.
The water counted toward the tracking so $80.84 + $7.98=$88.82 total.


So I bought some qualifying items on Saturday to put me over the $100 mark, even if I didn't have any Qs to use! lol

2 x Scott TP on sale for $3.99=$7.98
2 x Jif Peanut Butter w/RAINCHECKS($1.99 ea.)=$3.98

Total was $11.96+.12¢ tax=$12.08
I used my $8 of +Up Rewards left and put the $4.08 on my gift card...actually 2 gift cards with small amounts left on them and most of it on my "Merchandise Return Card" from a return I made some time ago.  I've got to haul out my last gift cards from 2010 pretty soon.  When they are gone it's back to spending out of pocket at Rite-Aid. sigh

$88.82 + $11.96 spent in qualifying items=$100.78
I received my $20 50th Anniversary Promo +Up Reward.....yay!

Other than the baby nipples this is all stuff we needed/can use.  I was happy to get those light bulbs as they are the right strength and size for my desk lamp, and I had just put my last replacement bulb in my lamp.  And who can't use TP and food? lol
The baby items will be given a proper home in the coming months--either in a donation to the food bank, making up a basket of baby stuff for a fundraiser locally or maybe to a Boring Blog Giveaway box in the near future. ;-)

These trips to Rite-Aid--
OOP....$0.00
Value of items.....$71.66
+Ups coming into this trip....$13.50
+Ups used....$27.50
+Ups earned......$34.00
+Ups at the end.....$20.00

 
**GRAND TOTALS FOR JANUARY-so far**

Out Of Pocket....$0.00  cash
Value of items bought.....$211.55
Savings Rate of  100%
Rebates due......$16.99(Neosporin 2x)
Savings Rate after Rebates.....100% +

+Ups at beginning of month...$32.50+
+Ups used....$64.50+
+Ups received...$52.00+
+Ups currently...$20.00+  




Sluggy