Food & Toiletries Spending.......January Totals

Onward to January's food spending report.......

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for JANUARY 2014.

I have posted January's totals on the Total Grocery Savings for 2014 Page located HERE and have updated the Yearly Totals there.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in January.  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 4(3 at home this month)& 1 dog. No kids under 17.
******************

RITE-AID
OOP  $1.71
Qs/Ads/+Ups  $75.37
Value  $77.08
Savings  97.78%
 

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $106.10

Qs/Ads  $68.24

Value  $174.34

Savings  39.14%

WALMART
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads/Gift Card  $86.90
Value  $86.90
Savings  100%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $189.56

Qs/Ads  $147.66

Value  $337.22

Savings  43.78%

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Walmart at 100%, Rite-Aid at 97.78%, and Weis at 43.78%.  My WORST savings rate was 39.14% so I think I did exceptionally well in January on the value of what I got!
I shopped at 4 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket........$297.37

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$298.17

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$595.54

TOTAL Savings of...................................50%

This closes out the January food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

I went into January wanting to cut my food/toiletries budget by $100, to $300 budgeted for ALL purchases.  I accomplished that feat in December so I wanted to try again this month.
I met that challenge.
Go me! 8-))

That $100 on a long ago paid for gift card I spent at Walmart went a good ways toward achieving a 50% savings rate in January.  Don't be expecting me to have more months as good as this one! lol

(Of course I DID withdraw some Feb. food spending funds the last few days and used it to get some deals on the February tab that weren't going to be around to get in Feb.  But that spending will be accounted for in the February Spending post.)

LOOKING AHEAD TO FEBRUARY......

Of course, I doubt I can sustain a $300 monthly food budget long term. 
I am going to try to come in under $300 on food for February but if I go over into the $400 range I won't be too upset, since $400 is my normal spending set point.

I will say that I found eating relatively healthy AND still keeping your food spending under $300 is HARD WORK!
It takes more planning, comparing and getting to certain stores, it takes changing your eating habits at times(having the same thing over and over or something you didn't really want to eat).  If I had to keep on a strict regiment of $300 a month due to income restraints it would wear on me.
To have to do it in the short term is interesting and a challenge and something I can get "into".

I don't know......am I just plain crazy to want to try to reduce our food spending by 25% of our usual budgeted amount....and amount which seems fairly LOW to begin with?
I have always been up for a money challenge I guess.

I figured with spending under $300 on food/toiletries this month, my Entertainment/Eating out spending would have been proportionately higher, right?

I tallied up our Eating Out spending for January and it came in at $96.86.
We ate out 3 times this month and had take-out twice, plus there was $ I gave to #2 Son for a run to McDonalds accounted for in that total.

Much of our meals out was paid for with free birthday certificates and one whole meal for 2 was comped at Lone Star.  Even with me eating for free at 3 restaurants plus a free pizza at one of those 3 restaurants, we still spent $55.93 at those 3 places.  That amount was for tip & drinks at one, just the tip where the meals were comped, and tip, salads and drinks at the third location.  Then $7.93 for #2 Son at Mickey D's.
$96.86 is not a lot to spend for 11 individual adult sized meals out + tips, but if it hadn't been for birthday meals we probably wouldn't have gone out/ordered in 6 times.

We have substantially cut down on our eating out spending for January.  That is a good thing..... 8-)

Without the Rite-Aid totals added in, my January Savings Rate is 43%.  Achieving a savings rate in the 40's is what I shoot for, with or without shopping at Rite-Aid.
 

If you have other ideas or guidelines you follow please leave a comment and share yours with us all.

 

The average monthly food/toiletries spending this year so far is $297.37.

 

How much did you spend on food/toiletries in January?
Do you track your yearly food spending?
 

Sluggy

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