Sluggy's Mid December Holiday Week Ramble

It's been very cold here, like in many other parts of the country.
I tell you, I use to be impervious to cold, but not so much this year.
Maybe it's the weight loss and maybe I just stepped over into old age recently, but I feel every drop in degree lately and just can't warm up.
bleh.

Hubs and I went out to a local pub/restaurant.  I had a gift certificate that needed to be used by the end of December.  This place is always hopping on weekends, so we went during the week as I didn't relish eating in a noisy bar with inebriated customers surrounding me.
By the time we were finished with our meal and ready to leave the place was filling up fast even on a Wednesday, so we got that visit done in the nick of time.

I had a rare drink out with my meal.  They called this a GRAPE SKITTLES....you would like it Sonya Ann....lol

 It tasted like Grape Kool-Aid.
And Hubs had a Mad Elf ale......

As we were leaving the dining room area of the pub, I noticed that the 8 tables of diners/drinkers who were seated after us.....all but 1 table of people......every single person had a smartphone placed on the table in front of them, ready to pounce on it I suppose when it came to life signaling a text.
The one couple who was there before we came in, the guy was on his phone the entire time they were eating, ignoring his dining companion.
All I can do is shake my head at what in-person social interaction has become in this day and age.


We dropped the broken vehicle off last night to get it looked at and I just found out it is not good news.
#2 Son is costing us $2,300 as he let the oil run low(out?) and it needs a new engine now.
Lovely.  Another reason not to buy a new driver a new car. 
I am calling my Savings Challenge for 2013 officially over with and done, since this expense means there will be no money leftover at the end of December.  Heck, I may have to dig into last year's Savings Challenge funds, IF there are any left after what we spent on home renovations this year.

But enough of crappy news.  I refuse to dwell on it during the Holidays.

Hubs took #2 Son to school so I could have my car back today.  We are getting nasty weather tomorrow so I am off to run errands today......another trip to Rite-Aid to use +Ups expiring Saturday(since I won't be able to get there tomorrow) and a trip to the grocery store for those loss leaders I haven't picked up yet. 
Since we are going to be snowed in tomorrow(the forecast just got upped to 8 inches + sleet after the snow)I may pick up a discounted pizza today for dinner and we'll work on the leftovers for lunch and dinner on Saturday.

I got ALL my Christmas packages & cards mailed out yesterday so other than the errant eBay sale, I am done with dealing with the insanity that is the post office until 2014.

All the shopping was finished days ago(with the arrival in the mail of the last online purchase)so all that is left to do here is to deck the halls some more and divvy up the Xmas loot for the stockings and wrap/bag gifts up using rolls of paper I've had for years and the used gift bags/cloths that make their appearance every December.

I still haven't done any Holiday Baking this year.  I always send one Brother in-law oatmeal cookies but he's got stomach issues so I won't be doing that this year.  The only folks around this Christmas to eat any baking I do are me, Hubs and #2 Son.  I certainly don't NEED all these sweets and Hubs isn't a big sweets eater.  That leaves #2 Son and being so involved in music both at school and as an extracurricular activity plus his part time job, he is just never home to graze in the kitchen.  And working in a restaurant, he often eats there so I never know how much to cook anymore.  I am looking to downsize the food bill in 2014.  Between #2 Son not eating here much and me not eating as much the last 2 months I'm hoping to knock down the grocery bill about $50 in the new year.
But more on that later.....

Yesterday I spent some time going through my tubs of stuff in the garage and den and gleaned out 2 more boxes of Salvation Army donations. 
Then I spent some time organizing the garage some so I can get more tubs from storage to throw in there in preparation for going through them.  It is looking like getting the storage totally emptied and shutting down my account there is NOT going to happen by the end of December.  My absolute deadline for getting rid of the storage unit is Jan. 31st 2014.  Unless we get many snowstorms between now and then, I WILL get that accomplished!

This is what one side of the unit looked like back in mid July......still a significant amount of stuff in there......

And this is what it looks like as of this morning......

 

 

 

A wider shot so you can see how empty the unit is....

It's 12 tubs/boxes of stuffed animals still to go through.

And this poor little fellow lost his head......sort of looks like I feel like lately......lol

 

 

Today at 1:25pm my only daughter turned 21.  So apropos that today is FRIDAY the 13th.....lol

I "shared" this photo of her as a newborn on her Facebook timeline this morning.

I suspect she will be angry with me, as all her cool friends will see this.
At least I didn't post one of the MANY home movies I have and REALLY embarrass the crap out of her.  ;-)
Happy Birthday to my baby girl!
Mom loves you then and now.....

Off to Rite-Aid & the Grocery Store now before the snow flies........

Sluggy

Where My Rednecks At?

More later......

Enjoy!
 

Sluggy

Not Shopping Today

Remember my This Week On the Dining Table Post earlier this week?
The one where I said I was going to spend as little as possible this week on food/toiletries because I spent so much last week?

Well, so far so good.
I've spent OOP .65¢ all week, and that was at Rite-Aid.
I haven't made one trip to the grocery store this week, not even to pick up the loss leaders I wanted to get.

Go me! lol
If I keep this up I'll be able to come in under the food budget for December.

Of course it helps that I had lots of food here already going into this week.
Then #2 Son's car died yesterday so I am stranded until further notice without a car so I can't run to the store.

Tonight we'll have that discounted roaster I picked up at Wegman's last week.  I cooked it up last week so I just have to heat it up and throw together some sides.

Tomorrow is leftover meatloaf and a green veggie.
Saturday?....who knows.  Depends on what is going on that day and how I am feeling.  But we don't have to buy any food if we don't want to, that's for sure! ;-)

Sluggy
 

$20K Savings Challenge......November 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, health insurance premiums, long term care insurance premiums, 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 November report.....

I have posted my November 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.
But seeing as I hit the $20K goal in October, we'll just see how much more I can sock away in November.

I have to report that we finished up November with a nice amount.
The extra cash amount we ended the month of November with?.......$1,825.64..

Income
We had $1,764.52 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in November totaled $61.12.  This brought us to our gain of $1825.64 for November.

At this point, any money we save until the end of 2013 is bonus and I am glad to have it! 8-))

 

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  Evidently I overpaid(again!)the long distance phone last month so our bill was only $4.05 in Nov.

*  Cash withdrawals were $370 less than in Oct.
*  I didn't buy any living room furniture yet so no spending there. 

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  I overspent on the food budget by $182.

*  The electric bill was $130 MORE than in October because of the heat being on.

*  We had pet related spending of $186 due to having to put our doggy down. 8-(
*  The credit card bill was double Oct.'s bill due to clothes spending, but mostly due to mini-vacation spending.

 

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

The 2013 TOTAL so far.....
With 11 months behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2013 stands at $22,751.92. 
 

We surpassed our goal by $2,751 so far and have 1 more month to try to sock away some more!
 

Looking ahead for December......
 

*  Christmas happens, oh yes!, it does this month.  We are traveling during the Holiday season so there will be additional expenses for food, lodging and gas before December ends.

*  The credit card bill(with a lot of holiday shopping!)has closed as of yesterday so we will have a big expense paying it off this month(we never run a balance or pay interest on a credit card).  All those Home Improvement Gift cards I bought are on that bill too.  We will have enough cash to cover our bills this month but it will eat up much of our excess cash from paychecks, so I am not hopeful for saving much cash into the Savings Challenge in December.

 

*  Add in that the 3rd car(the one #2 Son drives)broke down last night, so we are looking at a not-yet-determined repair bill for that.  There goes more cash that might have been saved in December.

*  That living room furniture I haven't  bought yet?  It looks like it's not going to happen until sometime in 2014 now.  But I am ok with that.  It's not like we don't have awesome new inexpensive recliners to sit on instead. ;-)

 

So how was your November financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in November?
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

Today's Fun at Rite-Aid

On the brother in-law's card.....

4 x Monster energy drinks(for #2 Son) on sale $1.50=$6.00
3 x Renuzit air fresheners on sale $1.00=$3.00
2 x Sinful nail polish on sale $1.99=$3.98
2 x Goodness granola bars on sale $1.00=$2.00
2 x Ghirardelli candy bars on sale $1.99=$3.98
1 x Phillips ear buds RAINCHECK=FREE*
2 x Scunci hair elastics RANICHECK=FREE*
1 x R-A brand facial tissue on sale=.59¢
SubTotal.....$19.55

I used 2 x $1/1 Ghirardelli candy bars IPQs=$2.00 off
SubTotal....$17.55

I paid with $17 in +Up Rewards and paid $.55 + $.11 tax=$.66 OOP
I received back $11.98 in +Up Rewards(2 x $2 Monsters, $2 Renuzit, 2 x $1.99 Sinful, 2 x $1 Goodness).

*These items were free after +Ups during the Black Friday sales, so totally free with a Raincheck now.

Then I had $3 in +Ups expiring tomorrow on my card, so I got this.....

4 x Monster drinks=$6.00
2 x granola bars=$2.00
SubTotal.....$8.00

Paid with $8 in +Up Rewards and got $6 in +Ups back.

I'll go back in the next few days and convert some cash into $50 Home Improvement gift cards.
Our house must know I am doing this, because today the front door latch decided to break.
Ugh.  We can lock the door and/or leave the house through it but we can't use it to get back into the house.
If one thing isn't breaking something else is.
It's always something, isn't it?
8-(

At least I have my fun Rite-Aid trips to keep me happy.
Yes, I AM easily amused.....

Sluggy