Young Love!

My Daughter bought her first car this weekend.

A 2002 Hyundai Accent.

I don't think I've seen her smile so wide before!
She's in love.......

And since she bought the car, she has her own policy and is off our car insurance.
Woohoo!!
One down, two more to go..... ;-)

I just wonder how she's going to fit all her stuff in that cute little car when she moves to Louisiana?

Sluggy
 

$20K Savings Challenge.......March Update

In our family we save money.
It is important to us to put money aside for "rainy days".  You know.....those unexpected days when things happen in your life that you can't plan on, but that DO happen and they cost you money you didn't know you'd need to pay out.

Our income is mainly the salary my Hubs draws from his job.  We have money taken off each paycheck from the top to put into savings, before we even get our hands on it.  This money that's taken goes into various pots....life insurance, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.
Once the automatic savings, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision payments are taken out, it leaves what we get to "live on".  From this amount we budget for bills, both monthly and irregular bills(semi-annual, etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2013 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am going to keep the Goal amount at $20,000 again this year.

On to the March report.....

I have posted my MARCh 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 March in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of March with?.......$1,352.60

Income
We had $1280.04 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted. 

Add in 2 quarterly dividends, some bank interest and a rebate check, and we get another $122.56.  This brought our gain to $1,352.60 for March.

Outgo

As for the expenses this March, here are the good and the bad side of things....

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  The water bill was $13.18 lower than Feb.

* The electric bill was $99.82 lower than Feb.(Our heat is electric.)

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  The credit card bill went up $98.91(but was still paid off at month's end.)

*  The cash withdrawals were up $200 over last month.
*  The doctor bills were up $67.05 from last month.
*  The long distance phone bill was up $4.01 from last month.
*  We owed $44 in state taxes.
*  The yearly sewage bill was paid this month.

*  The yearly local taxes were due this month.(I received a discount from paying them before April 1.)

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

We managed to stay well within our $400 food budget in March.

The 2013 TOTAL so far.....
With 3 month behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2013 stands at $5,489.63.  Only $14,510.37 left to save and 9 months left to accomplish it.

We just missed our $1,666.67 target goal for the month, but not by much.  Considering the yearly taxes and the yearly sewage bills paid, I'd call March. a WIN for us on the money front.

Looking ahead for April......

*  We don't have any quarterly or yearly bills due this month.
*  Since #2 Son got his driver's license, we have an additional car insurance bill due this month, to the tune of almost $400. sigh.

*  Due to my health scare and visit to the ER and hospital, the bills will start to roll in this month, so I can't even hazard a guess if we'll be able to make our monthly savings target of $1666.67 in April.  We shall see in the fullness of time.

So how was your March financially?

Have you finished paying off those presents from last Christmas you put on credit?
Did you spend less than the income you made in March?
Did you received any "extra" or unexpected money in March and what did you do with it?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debt or put extra toward your mortgage principle?
Did you receive a tax refund and what did you do with that money?

If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check you out your progress too and celebrate with you!

Sluggy

MARCH 2013 Budget Results....Food & Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for MARCH 2013.

I have posted March's totals on the right side bar under Total Grocery Savings for 2013 and updated the Yearly Totals.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in March.  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(4 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 16.
******************

BREAD OUTLET

OOP  $5.78

Value  $21.34

Savings   73%

MAINE SOURCE(restaurant supply)

OOP  $153.15

Value  $245.07

Savings   37.50%

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $99.06

Qs/Ads  $46.41

Value  $145.47

Savings  32%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $79.45

Qs/Ads  $33.57

Value  $113.02

Savings  29.70%

I am no longer adding my rebates received into my food budget directly. I will use them on food on occasion and will note that when used.  I will keep track of rebates/gift cards/certs received here as before however.

REBATE CHECKS RECEIVED IN February.....$5.00

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES....$0

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$5.00

COUPONS and FREEBIES

Zero

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were the Bread Outlet at 73%,  the Restaurant Supply Store at 37.50% and Shursave affiliate market at 32%.  l only shopped at 4 different stores this past month. 8-)

TOTAL Out of Pocket........$337.44

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$154.17

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$491.61

TOTAL Savings of...................................31.36%

This closes out the March food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

I went into March with $400 budgeted for food/toiletries for the month.  I have $62.56 leftover in my March food envelope. 

I didn't count the number of Qs that were redeemed in March but there were very few.  I did NO Rite-Aid shopping in March, which lead to a substantially lower savings rate overall.  My almost free shopping at Rite-Aid always brings up my rate of savings for the grocery stores.

Looking ahead to April---We'll stick to our $400 food budget again this month.  With the sudden changes I need to make to my diet this month I am not sure how this will affect our food budget.  I suspect we will need to spend more on food. April will see some changes in our food spending.

 

And here is the run down of my Food & Toiletries Spending for 2013 so far--

2013 Total Saved $932.72

2013 Yearly Total Value of Items  $1,914.70

2013 Yearly Total Spent $990.98

2013 Yearly Savings Total of 48.25%

How much did you spend on food in March?
 

Sluggy

I Can't Make This Stuff Up

I feel like I need to use the old Hillbilly Southern preface to a story here, the one that goes like......

Y'ALL AIN'T GONNA BELIEVE THIS SHIT!

Because I can hardly believe my life the last month or so.

I am alive and back online. 
And out of the hospital. 
And I have a new doctor.
And when I feel more lucid and stronger, I'll blog about this all.

Until then, I'll just be lurking on your blogs because that's the best I can do right now.  ;-)
And I might through up my March Totals post and/or a YouTube video until I get around to blogging about my adventures.

Here's my theme song for today.

This one is for my young and "hip" friends......



And for my "artsy" friends, here is your version......



And for my theatrical friends, here's your version....



And for all my old friends for whom only the original will do.....



Sluggy


 

I'm Still Alive Here....

...but barely.

Now I know I am going to burn in hell for posting this today.....Holy Saturday as all you Christian types know.
But this is too funny.....or maybe in my drug induced stupor, it's just funny to me. 
Whatever.....you know I am wacky and I'm apt to do things like this.

Anyway, enjoy some humor!




Sluggy