Giveaway Reminder.....Friday is Last Day to Enter!

Just a quickie that today, October 4th is the LAST DAY to enter my Giveaway.  Entries close at 11:59pm this evening so hop to it!!

Link to entry page is HERE.

Sluggy
 

September $20K Savings Challenge 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 September report.....

I have posted my September End of Month $20K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the Savings Challenge page tab at the top of the blog 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 black but just barely!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of September with?.......$40.12

Income
We had -9.51 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Yeah, not such a great month here.
 

Other monies received in September totaled $49.63.  This brought us back into the black and our gain to $40.12 for September.

 

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  Evidently I over paid the long distance phone last month so our bill was only .60¢ in Sept.

*  The food/toiletries bill was about $84 less than my $400 budgeted amount.

* Cash withdrawals were $70 less than in August.

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  The annual school taxes were due which ate up almost an entire paycheck.

*  The electric bill started going up, this month by only $7 but the trend will continue as the weather gets cooler.

*  Credit card bill was $700 higher than last month's bill which included the payment for the dog's surgery and a $600 car repair.

 

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

We came in under budget by about $84 last month but with the taxes due that wasn't enough to give us more than $40 leftover at the end of the month.

The 2013 TOTAL so far.....
With 9 months behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2013 stands at $16,302.96.  Only $3,697.04 left to save and 3 months left to accomplish this.

That comes out to $1232.35 per month for the next 3 months to reach the goal.  It is going to be tight to get us to that goal but it's doable.  Especially since we still have a 3rd paycheck month left this year.  8-))
 

Looking ahead for October......
 

*  The heat will get turned on sometime in October so electric usage will increase.

*  No big annual or semi-annual bills come due in October(the next one is in February)so we can save a bit of money this month.

 

*  We have another short getaway trip this month, so those costs will come out of October's pay.  I usually take trip costs out of the last year's savings challenge pot, but with all the remodeling/heating and a/c costs and summer road trip costs so far in 2013, the 2012 savings have been depleted.  So all Oct. trip costs will be paid for out of this October's pay.

 

So how was your September financially?  It wasn't a great month for us.  If not for the dividend checks with received from some investments, we would have had to dip into our savings to cover our expenses in September.
  

Did you put ordinary living expenses on a credit card last month and not pay it off in full when due?
Did you spend less than the income you had in September?
Did you received any "extra" or unexpected money in September, a dividend or bonus at work, and what did you do with those funds?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle?

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

Fundraising Update

Hey, if I haven't answered your email or acknowledged your contribution to the fundraising effort to help JUDY I am sorry for the delay.
Between this and my real life I am a tad overwhelmed at the moment.

I am getting to everyone as quickly as I am able.
So don't think I have forgotten you or am ignoring anyone.
I am working on it.

 

 

I sent over the Paypal money that was collected as of yesterday at 5pm to Judy's account and she about freaked out.....because it was more than she ever imagined!  And there is more coming in, plus the Go Fund Me site and some folks have money orders on the way too.

She also shared with me that today was the first day she's gotten up in the morning without a big old heaping of DREAD on her shoulders.
And every one of YOU GUYS DID THAT for her!!!

And I thought about something Kim over at Out My Window said on her blog on Wednesday this week in regard to Judy's situation but it rings true to me for many situations in my life......

"....and I just believe that prayers are answered through other people."

Kim is so right.  If you believe in a higher power(whatever you want to call it/him/her)this is how prayers/requests/wishes are answered, by that unknown/higher force placing people in your path through your life who can help you or are good for you in some way.

If I haven't said it yet, you guys are FANTASTIC PEOPLE drenched in AWESOME SAUCE!!

*And if you know me I don't rave all happy and perky like that at just anybody or anything..... ;-)

Now go carry on with your day and do some more good in the world. 8-))

Sluggy

 

TMI Thursday: How do you like......

TMI Thursday: How do you like….

How do you like_____?
1. Your coffee?

Don't like it and don't drink it except once in a blue moon.

2. Your sandwich cut? In half, square or diagonal? Crust or no crust?

Cut in half but a grilled cheese is ALWAYS cut on the diagonal.  Crusts left on baby!

3. Your tea?

Iced and when it's cold out, hot.  Luzianne because I am a GRITS and it's specially formulated/blended to make iced tea with.
Hot tea of choice is Chai.

4. Your alcoholic beverages?

Hard cider, wine(sparkling especially), mixed drinks or whisky(cinnamon infused or SoCo).  No beer.

5. Your ice-cream served: cup, cone, soft or hard?

HARD serve in a cone but I'll eat any kind of ice cream!

6. Your hair–long or short? Up or down? Straight or curly? Permed or natural?

Medium length and thinning.  It just hangs there....lol

7. Your cell phone?

An old dumb phone.  It's an LG model called "the Snapper".

8. Your computer?

Laptop-not a Mac

9. Your web browser?

Use to be Firefox until I got Windows 8(it sucks!), now I have IE  ppppfffffttt!

10. Your car?

A red Dodge Minivan.  Yes I am a mad mom in a minivan. lol

Now tell me what your TMIs are or post them on your blog.


Sluggy
 
 

Just Stuff & Nonsense

I went to the grocery store  yesterday for the first time since my blood clot adventure since I am now able to hobble around.
It only took me about 2.5 hours to do a medium shop in 1 store.
Ugh.
And then I couldn't get all the groceries in from the car when I got home as my feet just said "No!".
So I got in the produce and the fridge/freezer stuff and left the rest for Hubs to haul in when he got home from work.
Then I had to stay in the recliner with my foot up for 3 hours so he had to put dinner together in my stead.
Gosh, I do love that man sometimes! ;-)

So I am taking it easy today, even though I still need to get to the other store, to the bread outlet and to Kmart to return some clothes I bought that didn't "work for me".
I am just going to touch up the paint in the living/dining room after lunch and put the switch plates back on the outlets/light switches. 

Hubs needs to touch up some areas on the crown moulding where the guy had to caulk and then move the excess boxes of flooring out of the rooms so we can clean the floor.  But that all will have to wait until the Weekend to be finished.  Then I can get a photograph of the completed work to share.
And I will NOT share the completed/depleted savings challenge account from 2012, as it is almost bare from spending on all these home improvements/repairs/supplies. lolz

I really need to get a list together of what I need to get done this month and then prioritize it because everything can't possibly be accomplished during October.
And on that note, is anyone else having problems with Blogger and updating/changing their side bars in the Layout function??!!
I have tried for 4 days now to update my "TO DO" List on my side bar but the blasted Blogger won't let me save the changes I make.
Grrrrrr......

And can you believe I gained 7 pounds last weekend??!!  At least that is what my scale said to me Monday morning.  I just wanted to slap that thing......
Since I really didn't eat much more than I usually do, it has to be the sodium in what I ate that made me retain water.  I made pretty healthy choices with the food but it WAS restaurant type foods so overly salted/processed.
I've resumed my usual diet of foods w/out high sodium content and in 3 days I've dropped 3 pounds of that gain.  I should be back down that 7 by next week at this rate.

Ok, I am off to eat lunch, paint a bit, rest the foot, feed the puppies, take some quiche out of the freezer to thaw for dinner and then work on a blog post and answer some emails.

Project Runway tonight....woohoo!
I am so glad that drama queen Ken has been auf'd, aren't you?
I am thinking it's going to be Helen, Dom and Bradon at the Tents this time.....what do you think?

Sluggy