Spending $ Left & Right on Food & Toiletries

That's been me the last couple of days.......spending cash left and right!

As you may have read here already, I withdrew some February food budget $ before January was over in order to take advantage of some deals at Rite-Aid.
1 trip there and I was OOP $20.01 but received $15 in +Ups.

Here's how I spent that $15 in +Up Rewards I got earlier in the week from Rite-Aid.
I went back Thursday evening and did this......

5 Tide detergents
1 Dawn dishwashing liquid

I'm glad I didn't wait to do this until Friday, as they had 1 bottle left on the shelf of the size that was on sale after I took these 5.
I spent $10.69 OOP after Qs and +Ups.
When was the last time you got 5 bottles of Tide for less than $2 a pop?
Never did I hear you say? lolz
I'll save these for the really dirty duds or mix it in with a cheapo detergent to stretch this stuff out.

I received a $10 +Up back for that transaction.

So I went back Saturday morning and spent that $10+Up thusly......

I did the Unilever Spend $15/Get $5 +Ups Deal on the BIL's card.
The axe face washes were 50% off, $3.74 and paired with my $2/1 Qs they came out to $1.74 each.
The Clear 'Poo was on sale for $5 and I had 2 Qs(VV and Manu)to stack totaling $3.50, making that item $1.50.
There was a L2C Q for $2/1 Tresemme which did not come off.  It was for the Tresemme 'Poos that were on sale for $5(higher price point ones), but the store was out of them, so I had to get this $4 item and get no further discount.  But that's ok since it is a huge bottle and will last me quite awhile.

The Unilever items came to $16.48 pre Qs and $8.98 after, but I had to spend at least $10 to use my +Up Reward.
So I threw in 2 Pantene on sale for $7/2, a $3/2 L2C Q came off the transaction and the total was at $12.98.
After $10 +Ups was applied, $2.98, add in the tax of .18¢ and I paid $3.16 OOP for all.

I received back $7 in +Ups.....$5 Unilever wyb $15 and a $2 Pantene wyb 2 bottles.

Not a bad day at the ol' Rite-Aid.

I went to the small independent grocer next(sorry no picture)to pick up 2 whole roaster chickens for .99¢ lb. and the bread I like for $2.50 a loaf. 

While in the store I did a Kraft deal (Spend $25, Get $5 off).  All the qualifying items were on sale and because they also had a few in-ad Qs for Mayo and Planters PB it made this an even better deal.

I got--5 bags shredded cheese, 1 block of Swiss, 1 large container sour cream, 4 bottle of dressing(sometimes I think #2 Son drinks this!), 2 jars Mayo and 1 jar PButter for $20.

I also picked up 1 quart of ice cream, a 1/2 gallon of milk & 3 frozen pizza w/a B2G1Free Q.
Total was $53.64 with a savings rate of over 60%.

Then I hit Weis(PMITA)Markets.  I went in for the Purex laundry detergent($1.77 and I had a $1 Q)but I came out with all this.....

4 lbs. of diced rutabagas and sweet potatoes 50% off-$3.99 total
2 bags of collards for 50% off-$2.69 total
1 bottle of Purex-$.77 after Q
1 bakery hoagie onion rolls 50% off-$1.64
2 OM turkey deli meat w/$5 in Instant discount stickers + $1/2 IPQ off-$3.98 total
Pepper $1 on sale, and Mushrooms were regular price-$3.27 total

Total spent was $16.37.
Savings rate?  53%  8-)))

So going into next week(which starts for me on Sunday), can you guess what will be on my meal plan?

Roast chicken-using the one in the freezer already and putting the 2 I bought today in it's place.
Some leftover chicken will be fajitas another night(using the pepper and mushrooms, plus more pepper, onion and tortillas I have here already and some of that Kraft deal cheese & sour cream.)
We'll have smashed rutabagas, roasted sweet potatoes with sea salt and olive oil, and collards cooked the proper Southern way.
I bought Kielbasa a few weeks back so we'll have those on the discounted onion hoagie rolls one night.
The rest of the leftover roast chicken combined with the 2 containers of turkey deli meat will keep me in turkey/chicken sandwiches all next week(as will 1 of the loaves of bread).

As far as my $300 food budget goes for February, I've spent $33.86 of it at Rite-Aid, mostly buying toiletries and detergents....if you don't count that pizza and tortilla chips "junk" food.
Add in the $70.01 I dropped at the grocery stores today and we are at $103.87 spending for February and it's only the 1st.

While it's crazy how fast you can spend on food/toiletries in a few days I'm not worried about overspending this month.

Spending this much on toiletries/cleaning stuff in one month is unusual for me, I won't be spending any more of those categories in February.  And I have $7 in +Ups to use if I find the need for something that isn't food in the next 2 weeks.

As for veggies, I'll continue to shop the 50% produce items at Weis or loss leaders at the independent grocer.  I have chicken breasts, steak, fish, a premade meatloaf & meatballs, chops and that duck breast still in the freezer, so if no meat deals appear, it's all good.

Ok, enough rambling.
I've got stuff to do now and then it's off to watch Suze deny a bunch of people who just "don't get it"....lolz

What did you do on Saturday?

Sluggy
 

Health Insurance Under ACA

Here's a short video where, a few days ago, a local news station filmed an employee meeting, in a small town near Pittsburgh, where the people working in this small business found out how the ACA has affected their personal coverage(monthly premiums and co-pays and deductibles).

Nobody in that room looks very happy about the financial changes, do they?
I can imagine this scene was being played out at many businesses in January.

I really feel for "Judy" in this clip.  She's about my age and her premiums went up by $431 per month from last year to $1360 a month this year, plus her Deductible went up to $4K a year.

This means with just premiums, she is paying $16,320 a year and if she actually uses her medical coverage up to the deductible, she will have spent $20,320 minimum on her health care.  After that huge yearly expense, then she gets the added joy of paying for co-pays, co-insurance and the %s of health related expenses that she will still be responsible for.
And you know, working at a small body shop business, "Judy" is not earning big bank.....

We paid $5892.12 in premiums last year for our insurance.  Add in another $1,158.56 for Vision and Dental premiums and it comes to $7,050.68.   Hub's employer does chip into help on the cost of the premiums so it could be worse on that score if he worked elsewhere.  Heck, we could be paying as much as "Judy" will this year if not for the largesse of Hub's employer!

You can tack on another $2K for last year's deductible, another $1500(at least)for prescription copays, and other OOP we paid of $2,967.99 and our direct medical expenditures for 2013 came to $13,518.67.

Our deductible went up in 2014 to $3K, and like I found out earlier this month, our prescription plan is NOT exempt from meeting this deductible(meaning we use to not have to meet it with money spent on rxs)so we are going to be paying through the nose toward this deductible right from the start.
But when we crunched the numbers of a high deductible plan with lower premiums versus a lower deductible plan with higher premiums, this coverage will be lower overall for us.....we think.

But it is still going to be more expensive by far than last year's plan.  Between the premiums and that $3K deductible we are already $9,285.00 in the hole for healthcare before we receive ANY benefits on the coverage.

Since we(or rather me)uses out coverage on a regular basis throughout the year for my chronic conditions, that means we need to come up with $3K pretty much in the first few months of the year, since I'll be getting drugs, having office visits and using durable medical equipment every month from Jan. 1st onward.

We have the cash set aside in savings(plus are dumping salary into a HSA) to cover this $3K right away(though I hate the thought of using the after tax basis savings if there isn't enough in the pre-taxed HSA by the date a deductible has to be paid)so we don't have to worry about not being able to go to the dr., get medicine, have tests done, etc. until after we've received enough paychecks this year to cover those costs.

Imagine someone who has little to no emergency fund having to meet a deductible amount like this(let alone pay out hundreds in premium money from their paychecks)when there is little money leftover each pay after you pay the fixed bills(including those premiums), taxes, the utility bill and put food on the table.

Just another reason why we all need to live BELOW our means and put away as much as we can for emergencies and the unavoidable unexpected costs in life.

 

Sluggy

The Great Summer Road Trip of 2013.....Day 9 & 10.....THE END

We woke up on Day 9 in the little town of AltaVista, VA.
AltaVista was a planned community, built around the turn of the 20th century, by industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers, at the point of convergence of 3 rail lines that carried bituminous coal from the hills to the sea port in Hampton Roads, VA.
The Lane Brothers Construction Company bought acreage to lay tracks for the railroad where 3 rail lines met and then had a town laid out surrounding this convergence and the town of AltaVista was born.
Incidentally, a John Lane purchased a box plant in AltaVista in 1912 and had his son Ed, start a chest factory in his manufacturing plant.  It grew and prospered and became known as Lane Home Furnishings.  They were well known for their cedar chests or "hope chests" which many girls growing up in Virginia were given as teens.
This one looks like mine.....

But I digress.

So what in heaven's name were we doing in AltaVista, VA?

Well it's in Campbell County Virginia near where my mother's father's family is from, the Phenix/Brookneal part of the county.
And it's the closest town to there with a motel.

First thing after breakfast at the motel, we went into town for a few things and to look around at the local Rose's store.
I found my daughter a lovely frock I know she is so sad that I didn't buy it for her......

A sleeveless jean dress with a chiffon camouflage skirt.
Can you imagine somebody actually bought and worn that......on purpose?!?!

 

Today was my day to spend some time at the Campbell County library, in their genealogical collection.

But first, we hit the cemetery of the Falling River Baptist Church in Brookneal.
Many of my mother's father's side of the family are buried here......

Grand old Magnolia tree in the center of the cemetery.

Here is my 2 x Great Grandmother, Mary Agnes Holt Tucker.....

There are lots of Tuckers, Harpers, Holts, Masons plus more of my family lines buried here.

I even found this stone, which may be of interest to LINDA ........

It was a horribly muggy, humid day and after about 40 minutes in the cemetery shooting photos the skies opened up and we had to leave.  Unfortunately, the rain didn't cool much of anything or any one off.

We went into Brookneal to search out some lunch.  Being the huge metropolis that Brookneal is(pop. 1,112), the choices were few if not at all.
So we went to the elegant restaurant my brother, when in the area on business, would take our Great Aunt Ollie and Uncle Warren to dinner, the Golden Skillet.

This chain began in 1964 in Richmond, was sold out to Dairy Queen in the 1980's and then sometime after that, they sold the brand to a franchisee in NC.  This is one of the few GS still in operation.
We got there at the tail end of the lunch rush so we missed their Fried Chicken Buffet. 
We had a lunch special(chicken-of course!lol, 2 sides and a biscuit)along with some iced tea.
It was good and filling but definitely not low-calorie.

On the way in I spied the local "watermelon man"......

This is a common sight during the Summer in the rural South.  Somebody taking their garden produce(or buying a lot of produce from a wholesaler or market)into town, parking in a store's lot and selling out of the back of their truck.
The lady on the right in the photo was none too happy with what this guy was trying to charge for his melons.
Highway robbery.....or rather parking lot robbery.  ;-)

I would have bought some myself except with weren't heading home for another day and we didn't have anyplace to put them to keep them fresh, short of turning out motel bathtub into a giant ice chest.

Before we leave Brookneal let me just add this funny footnote--
Just to prove that I come from a long line of agitators and rebels......it is said that on August 23, 1852, Brookneal & it's citizenry succeeded from the United States of America for a couple of weeks.

The President sent 2 dozen armed soldiers to convince the town to rejoin the Union.  After hours of "peace talks", the terms of the compromise the town's mayor agreed to let the town return to the country and the Republic of Brookneal was given $2,000 and a rifle to every citizen of the town.
Of course, I have no doubts that 9 years later, most of those guns were drawn against the Union on the home front or in battle.  ;-)

See?
I come from true American non-conformist stock. 
But take this story with a grain of salt since I can't confirm it besides one online source.  ;-)

After lunch, Hubs took me to Rustburg(the county seat)and let me spend 2 hours going through books I can't get access to except in person.  I took my camera and was able to photograph many pages of potentially useful information.  I must say that I still haven't gotten around to actually reading all those pages but in the next couple of months I WILL read them.
We ran out of time to get to the courthouse next door to do some record searches there so that will have to wait until another visit.
I did get to see some town history books and some handmade family genealogy booklets.  The books had some great photos of assorted family lines I hadn't seen before too.

 

That guy is most probably my 2nd cousin 3 x removed from the little digging I have done on him.  (His grandfather was the brother of my 3x Great Grandmother.)  He was killed working on a bridge and his wife ended up in a mental hospital in 1930.

That evening we went out for dinner at this place we saw along the highway......notice the Kudzu swallowing up the trees behind the place.....

We figured the lot was full so it must be good, right?
It was pretty much a dive type place inside, so I felt right to home. lol
The adult beverage selection was excellent and the food was good....not great but good.
And the a/c was going full blast(it was late August)so it was all good for me.  8-))

We parked next to a big bush and look at what was hanging out on it......

The bush was covered in butterflies!  Wish I had a better camera and more time to shot them but Hubs was hollering for me to get a move on!

When we got back to the motel I suited up and went out into the motel pool.  It was still beastly muggy so that water felt good.  The skeeters kept away long enough for me to get a swim in.

Back in the room, I opened a bottle of wine and took a nice hot bath.....funny how our 1st room & last room on the trip both had a big ass tub in them.....

That sliding glass door opened the bathroom up into the motel room, so I slid it open and sipped wine in a plastic cup and watched TV while lounging in my hot bath.

Day TEN

The next morning we hit the free hot breakfast in the lobby HARD!(Kim hits her sewing hard but I hit breakfast hard. lol)then checked out and started the 8+ hour trip home to PA.

Some interesting sights on the road......

Here's a closer view....anybody remember this brand of soda?
Incidentally, you can still buy this stuff in some South American, Central American countries, as well as Pakistan and South Africa.

Too bad it was too early to stop for lunch when we passed this place......

We took a smaller road through the Rockfish Valley, up toward Waynesboro.  Kept seeing signs for a place called Saunders Brothers Farm and Orchard along the road, so we turned off to check it out.
It's a high falootin' farm market, crawling with mostly what seemed like tourists and people passing through bound for yuppie towns like Charlottesville.  At least that's what the prices were reflective of.
The veggies and fruits were pretty but the prices were like what you'd find in Whole Foods and such.
And they had a large selection of supposedly home canned condiments, salsas, relishes, jams and jellies and spreads with quite the high sticker prices to.
No thanks.
And I didn't even feel the need to take any pictures even though some fruitcake of a fellow kept following us around the market and kept trying to get us to talk to him about melons.
???
That was our cue to split.

Instead of jumping onto I-81 at Waynesboro, we decided to take a detour.......




Yep, we took the long meandering way through here.....

Now for some gratuitous photos along the Skyline Drive......

And here's another video......music to drive through the mountains of Virginia by.....



Here's some more info on Jim Lloyd and The Skyliners....



After we left the Skyline Parkway(we only drove a portion of the whole thing),  we stopped at a liquor store in Elkton and Hubs stocked up on some Dickel whiskey since we can't get it up in Yankeeland PA.
I went into a Food Lion and stocked up on this......

Cheerwine.
A cherry soda they only sell in the South.
It reminds me of cough syrup my mother use to give me when I was a kid.....reminds me in a good way. 
I "heart" cherry flavor.  8-)

In Harrisonburg we hit this place for lunch.....

Good subs there.

Then we tried to make some good time and stuck to the Interstate......

I LOVE this photo.......Oooooo! A hot shirtless man!!

Here it is again, but closer......on closer inspection maybe shirtless is NOT the right look for this guy.....

 And here's a tight shot.....

"Breathtaking Scenery is RIGHT!"
A sweaty hairy middle aged paunchy man.....
Euwwww!
Bwwaaaaaahhhhh!!!

Ok enough of disgusting, let's look at some nice pictures.......

 

Hey!  I wonder if I have any family living there?

And not soon enough, we were crossing back into WV.....

Potty & picture break in Wild and Wonderful WV....

Then shortly after we crossed into MD.....

And after a very short while, into PA.....

And to illustrate once again, how I always attract the strange and weird, look at what we passed on the Interstate once we got into PA..........

You can read all about Lynda Farley HERE .
I love that I caught her taking a drag from her cigarette in that last photo.  8-)
She must have been on her way to NJ for a court appearance when we passed her in August.
Or she could have been on her way to fight summons issued in PA, since she has gotten those too.

And just so you know.....don't EVER Google "smoking granny", unless of course you want to see old lady porn....... 8-X

We stopped in Linglestown PA at a truck stop for dinner.
We just did the Buffet du Jour since we didn't want to wait for made-to-order food.  It was steak night.
Might have been nice if they had supplied something that cut better than a plastic knife.

Here's a pseudo cake/brownie.
I thought it was a brownie but it turned out to be a really dry piece of cake....what the plastic wrap covering it trying to keep the moist OUT or IN?!?
Beats me.....

There were random shreds of coconut inside it.  Not even coconut to flavor the thing, but more like someone in the kitchen said, "Hey! What should I do with this handful of coconut that is leftover?  I  know.....I'll put it into this cake that needs more moisture!!"
Just so you know kitchen worker.....it didn't help.

We pulled into the driveway around 9pm that evening.
Glad to be home but sorry that our travels had come to an end.

I can't wait to get out on the highway again!

This is your roving reporter signing off.....

Sluggy

Paying Your Life Away.......A Rant

I was working on the last installment of my Summer Road Trip Saga the other day.  I was going to include this little bit in that post but it really deserves a post of it's own.

This Summer we saw a lot of these signs while in the South.....these particular ones were seen in Virginia on our ride home......

close up of the previous shot....notice the little white/red signs on that building.....

Rent to Own sheds......and No Credit Check!

I don't see this sort of thing up here where we live, but then again, I don't get out much here, outside of my teeny tiny town or the big city in the valley below.  Let me know if this kind of thing-the Rent To Own concept-is prevalent in other parts of the country, besides the South, willya?


Seriously?
If you can't afford to pay cash for a shed, maybe you really don't need one now?

I think this is a sad, sad commentary on the state of our society.  Sheds are not like buying a house.
People really can't delay that gratification long enough to save up a couple thousand dollars and just go pay cash for a shed?
Really?!?

I rented a storage unit for many many years so this issue speaks to me.
Granted my storage unit was a business expense for most of the years I rented it, but I did store personal items in it too before I decided to let them go.

The storage industry is HUGE in this country now!
Facilities large and small to hold your goods temporarily when you don't have a place for them and more and more frequently, a place to store all your old junk and clutter that you don't need but can't emotionally let go of.
This idea started out as a good thing but it seems to have devolved into an industry that just is a languishing ground for our cast off junk.

Then those "pod" companies spun-off of the storage idea, so you could have your "stuff" on your own property(or picked up and stored in the pod at a facility if you didn't need access to it)but still be renting the container and not having to own a building.  While it's a good idea in the temporarily, I have seen people who have had these things parked next to their homes for YEARS now.  Temporarily went by the wayside long ago for some of the users of this business.

Plus there is this shed option, which has been around for ages--owning your own storage container/building on your own land in which to store your "junk".

Owning a storage shed use to be pretty straightforward.  Only folks who had property enough to put one up and lived in a place that allowed them on your property AND who could afford to pay for one owned storage sheds.
Lots of people have bought these buildings since before I was a small child.
But paying cash for a shed I guess made the potential customer base too small.
The people in the shed making/building business jumped onto the credit bandwagon at some point when I wasn't looking and now you can buy a storage shed on credit with rent to own terms.
Sigh.

Does this mean that sheds have gotten too expensive in the great scheme of things, if people can't afford to buy them outright?
Does this mean the economy has tanked so badly that no one has the funds to afford many things they use to buy handily with cash?
Does this mean Americans have gotten to the point that they can't delay gratification for ANYTHING anymore?

I just don't think buying a shed on "rent to own" terms is a very good idea.
And what happens when you don't make your shed payment?  They come put it on a trailer and cart it off with all your crap inside?
Uh oh!  Gotta watch out for that Shed Repo Man now.....lol

Making payments on houses, making payments on cars, making payments on furniture, making payments on riding lawn mowers, making payments on student loans, making payments on HELOCs.....When will the madness end????

Does anybody in this country wait until they can AFFORD something to buy it anymore?!

What is next?.....rent to own toasters?!?
Seriously, I can see this all coming to that.

Did anyone ever stop to think that all this buying stuff on credit, before you have the cash to actually pay for it will never lead us to a good place economically and culturally?!?

I just want them all to STOP IT.....STOP IT NOW!!!

I bet we would all be better off if we just turned off our televisions for good.
No more marketing in our face in our homes 24/7!
No more pressure on our kids to buy/own/wear/adore certain "celebrities"......you know, those people your young people look up to, who have accomplished NOTHING of historical significance.
Unless you call twerking, marrying another celebrity, or walking up and down a runway an accomplishment for the ages.

Sluggy-who feels the pressure to become a hermit & excuse herself from the culture she lives among more and more each day

 

Rite-Aid Spending Spree.....Weeeee!

With all the nice +Up Rewards Deals this week, I broke down and went back to Rite-Aid.
That and I miss seeing my buddies who work there.

In order to NOT go over my January food budget, I withdrew my February food budget $ a few days early, so this is all being put on February's tab.

If I had had any +Ups left to roll, I could have gotten out of there with very little OOP.
But that not being the case, combined with the fact that some of the items I wanted to buy for some deals were out of stock, here is the best I could do......

2 x Tostitos on sale $3=$6.00
3 x DiGiorno Pizza on sale 2/$11=$16.50
2 x Simple Cleansers on sale $5=$10.00
1 x Simple Cleaning Wipes on sale=$5.00
1 x Clear Shampoo on sale=$5.00
2 x Tresemme Shampoo/Treatment on sale $5=$10.00
SubTotal.....$52.50

Coupons Used
2 x $1/1 Tostitos VideoValues Q=$2.00
1 x B2G1Free DiGiorno IPQ=$5.50
2 x $3/1 Simple Cleansers VideoValues Q=$6.00
1 x $2/1 Simple Cleansers Load2Card Q=$2.00
1 x B1CleanserG1FreeWipes ManuQ=$5.00
1 x $1/1 Simple Wipes VideoValues Q=$1.00
1 x $2.50/1 Clear Shampoo ManuQ=$2.50
1 x $1/1 Clear Shampoo VideoValues Q=$1.00
1 x $2/1 Tresemme Load2Card Q=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Tresemme ManuQ=$2.00
2 x $2/1 Tresemme VideoValues Q=$4.00*
Coupon Total.....$33.00

$52.50-$33.00=$19.50 + .51¢tax=$20.01 OOP

And I received $15 back in +Up Rewards(2 x $5 wyb $15 of Unilever hair/face products, $5 wyb $15 select food products-pizzas).
So after counting for what I got back in Rite-Aid script, my haul cost me $5.01.

Here is what each item cost after Qs--
2 Tostitos=$2 a bag
3 DiGiorno Pizza=$3.67 a pie
2 Simple Cleansers=$1 a bottle
1 Simple Cleaning Wipes= negative $1 a pack
1 Clear Shampoo=$1.50 a bottle
2 Tresemme Shampoo/Treatment=$1 a bottle


*Those Tresemme VV Qs....I wasn't sure if they'd take them since the wording didn't match ANY of the Tresemme products in the store.  But they did take them, no problem.

Now I can take that $15 in +Ups and go back tomorrow and buy 5 bottles of Tide and 1 bottle of Dawn......
5 x $5.94=$29.70
1 x Dawn=$1.39(sale price if you don't buy 4)
Subtotal....$31.09

Use the $6 in assorted Tide and Dawn Qs I have.....
$31.09-$6=$25.09

And pay with the $15 +Ups......
$25.09-$15=$10.09(plus tax) OOP

I'll get 5 Tide, 1 Dawn for $10.09 and receive $10 in +Ups back.....making my effective cost $.09.
8-)))

Then I can buy another $15 in select food(crap food for sure!lol), use Qs to bring it down to $11, pay with that $10 +Ups and spend $1 OOP on that lot, and get another $5 +Ups for buying the select food.

Hey, Pantene is 2/$7 this week, so I "could" use that last $5+Ups and a L2C Q for Pantene $3/2 and buy ZERO for 2 bottles of that and then have no +Ups to roll in future weeks.

Oh, decisions, decisions.......lolz

Sorry if nobody can follow this but I just ramble on in my head to work out these deals sometimes.
Lucky you who get to read it.....not! ;-)

That's the fun I had today.
Sad isn't it?

What has everyone else gotten at Rite-Aid this week?

Sluggy