$24K Savings Challenge.....March Update

Every year I keep a close eye on our monthly expenses and our monthly income.
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 amounts, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision premiums 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, annual etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, clothing  etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2014 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $24,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the March report.....

I have posted my March End of Month $24K $AVING$ 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 $2,000.

I have to report that we finished up March with a larger than targeted amount.
The extra amount we ended the month of March with?.......$3,192.73.

Income
We had -$738.52 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Bad bad month for bills....between unexpected car repairs, yearly bills being paid in this month and a "higher than I like to see" credit card bill, the income outpaced the bills. 
 

Other monies received in March totaled $3,931.25.  This included interest made on accounts, stock dividends, a per diem from Hub's work and a federal tax refund.  Most of this was the tax refund.

This brought us to our gain of $3,192.73
Since we have no debt anymore, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  The electric bill went down almost $100 from Feb's bill.

*  I spent under $345 for food/toiletries in March.

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  Another unexpected car repair bill over $1K. ugh
*  2 extra flute lessons in March.

*  The yearly local taxes are due end of April but I paid them in March.
*  The c/c bill was $300 more than Feb's bill.
*  $310 MORE in cash withdrawals.
*  Sewage bill was paid for the whole year this month.
*  The local taxes were paid for the year this month.
 

 

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

The 2014 GRAND TOTAL.....
With 3 months accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2014 is $4,757.20
$1,242.80 short at this point of the $6,000.00 I should have put aside after 3 months.
 

 

Looking ahead for April......

*  I will continue to do this Savings Challenge and report in each month on how it is going.

*  I have a road trip to go visit my daughter scheduled this month so lodging, gas & food expenses will happen.

*  The electric bill should continue to go down as the weather warms and we turn down/off the heat.
 

 

So how was your March financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in March?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings in an emergency fund or a retirement account?

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

The "New" Plan

As some of you may know, Hubs and I are going on a road trip this month, with the destination point being the town where my daughter now lives.
I haven't seen her since she moved there last May, so it's been almost a year since she's been gone and we've seen her.

I miss her.
I can bet you that after 2 days being around her, I'll take that statement back. lol

Anyway, we are looking forward to visiting her and seeing a part of the country that, at least my Hubs, has never been to before.

The daughter's living situation is tenuous at this point.  She's been living with her boyfriend and his parents since May.
That situation has been "going downhill" for months now.  Nothing dangerous or bad but she and the BF want to move out as soon as they are able.  They are in their 20's now and want to get out on their own.

So here comes another one of my hair brained ideas....uh oh.....!LOLZ

Hubs and I are still up in the air in terms of what part of the country we are going to retire to, but he IS retiring in 4 years and Hubs wants to move away from the "snow belt" and I want to be near wherever my kids end up living, so we have come up with an idea.

I have contacted a realtor and while we are down in Louisiana we are going to be looking at property there.

The plan now is to find something inexpensive, a foreclosure, etc., we can buy soon,  that the daughter and BF can live in for the next few years, until Hubs retires.  At that point they can make arrangements to buy the house from us or they can move out and we'll move in and renovate or have a new home built on the property.

The housing market down there is still quite depressed and there are many many foreclosures and folks desperate to sell.
I want to find something we can pay cash for(since we won't be selling our house up in PA yet)and the kids can do any fix-up work to get it livable(on our dime).  In exchange for free rent, they take care of the place.  They will be responsible for the taxes and utilities.

We are thinking about properties with at least 2 acres outside of the cities there.  Most of these would be mobile home situations.  As long as the trailer is in good enough condition, these would be the cheapest option and the most attractive for our needs.
Once Hubs retires and we move down there, we'd move the trailer(or haul it off depending on condition)and have a new house built on the property for us(after selling the house in PA since we'd use those funds to pay for the new house).

I figure, Hubs will enjoy the weather there(thank goodness for A/C for me!lol), we will enjoy the laidback lifestyle down there, plus we'll be close by to where my daughter lives.  She plans on having kids so this is important that we be close by.  My oldest is also planning on relocating to the South at some point so we'll also be closer to him and his GF.  It's too soon to guess where #2 Son will end up as an adult so we can't even make a plan taking him into consideration.

So we'll see what develops from this trip.

Sluggy

Food & Toiletries Spending.....March Update

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for MARCH 2014.

I have posted March'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 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 4(3 at home this month)& 1 dog. No kids under 18.
******************

BAKERY OUTLET
OOP  $6.00
Value  $11.97
Savings   49.9%

DOLLAR STORE
OOP  $13.00
Value  $37.65
Savings    65.47%
 

RITE-AID
OOP  $11.53
Qs/Ads/+Ups  $158.16
Value  $169.69
Savings  93.2%
 

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $26.29

Qs/Ads  $10.97

Value  $37.26

Savings  29.44%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $81.96

Qs/Ads  $40.27

Value  $122.23

Savings  32.95%

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 93.2%,  the Dollar Store at 65.47% and the Bakery Outlet at 49.9%.  My WORST savings rate was Shursave Market at 29.44%.
I shopped at 5 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket........$344.86

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$380.76

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$725.62

TOTAL Savings of...................................51.80%

Even without counting the Rite-Aid shopping, my savings rate was 38.94%.

This closes out the March food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

I went into March wanting to keep my food/toiletries budget at $300, but I went over by $44.86.
It sure beats spending $400 though.  ;-)
Over a 50% savings rate for March was only possible because of my Rite-Aid deals last week.  The "normal" rate I like to try for is 40%.

I tallied up our Eating Out spending for March and it came in at $155.11(including tips).
$96.31 of that was #2 Son's Birthday dinner and the other $58.80 was meals out on my trip to Delaware.
This spending doesn't come out of our food/toiletries budget however.


LOOKING AHEAD TO APRIL......

I am not even going to attempt to predict what April's food/toiletries spending will look like.  I have a road trip coming up this month (!!!)so I'll be buying convenience foods this month for those staying home.  These typically cost more anyway so we'll see where we stand on the spending come May 1.

 

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

Total spend on food/toiletries so far this year.....$1,040.66

The average monthly food/toiletries spending this year so far is $346.89.

 

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

Sluggy

Rite-Aid-The Perfect Deodorant Storm

First let me say that last week I got a little ahead of myself.  The plan for this week I had to get a bunch of stuff for $2+ is actually the plan for NEXT week.  This week is/was a bit bare in the deal department. 8-(

I did a quick small transaction up at Rite-Aid on Sunday.

It was one of those days where the planets all align and I got paid to buy something.

I had a rain check from a few months back for Mitchum Deodorant for $2.99(reg.$4.99).
I also had a manufacturer's coupon for $2/1 that expired on Sunday.
AND Rite-Aid has a RA coupon in the sales flyer for $1 off Mitchum Deodorant.

$2.99 price-$2 MANQ-$1 RAQ= -.01¢.
Of course Rite-Aid won't pay me .01¢ to buy their stuff, so I bought something else to cover that penny, and it was stuff I was going to buy anyway.....

1 x Mitchum rain check=$2.99
3 x Dawn dish detergent on sale $1=$3.00
SubTotal.....$5.99

Coupons Used
1 x $2/1 ManuQ Mitchum=$2.00
1 x $1/1 RA Mitchum Q=$1.00
1 x .50/2 Dawn IPQ=$.50
1 x .25/1 Dawn IPQ=$.25
Coupon Total....$3.75

$5.99=$3.75=$2.24- $2 +Up Reward=.24¢ + .02¢ tax=.26¢ OOP

All this for .26¢.

This is probably all I'll buy at Rite-Aid this week....unless I pick up some restaurant gift cards(they are giving $10 +Ups when you buy $25 gift cards.  I may have need for a couple of these soon.

Sluggy
 

It's SPRING! Who's Ready for a Giveaway?

Ok, we went from this Sunday night....

 

to 4 more inches of "that stuff that shall not be named" the next morning......

But then the sun came out it hit 52 degrees F and it melted......

and I seem to have a spurt of energy today!

It finally feels like SPRING here.....

So let's have one of my Sluggy's Boring Blog Box Giveaways, ok?

Instead of dragging this out for 4 weeks, cuz really!?, hasn't Winter been dragging out enough without any help from me, let's just post it all today.

So on with the Giveaway!

Here's the deal--
I fill a box with goodies.
Usually stuff I've gotten for free or cheap at the drug store(God bless Rite-Aid!).

If you want to win the box of stuff, just leave comments on this blog post.
At the appointed date I draw a name from a hat or some other container that I find laying around my house.
If I draw your name, you win, and I mail this box of stuff to you!

Easy Peasy....

So let's look at what I put into the box......

An Air Wick Freshener(the plastic came unglued from the cardboard backing but it's new in the package), a bottle of Crest Rinse, a bottle of Dry Idea roll-on deodorant/anti-perspirant, GasX Prevention pills(for gas), Tag men's deodorant....

a tube of Colgate and a tube of Crest toothpastes, a Crest toothbrush, a bag of Ricola cough drops, a tube of Aveeno lotion, a bar of Dove beauty soap......

a bag of Ghirardelli Dark Mint Chocolates!!!, one of the Bloggerpalooza II goody bags I gave out and a small jelly jar of homemade "No Rubbish Relish".

So how about it?
Who wants to win??!

I'll leave this giveaway open until April 27th at 11:59pm.  The next day I'll put all the valid entries into a container and draw out a name and that person wins.

Disclaimer--This giveaway is open to those with mailing addresses within the US or Canada only.
If you are in Canada, you will receive a smaller box of goodies, as the shipping rates internationally are ridiculous and I am not taking out a mortgage on my house to pay to ship this stuff.  ;-)
**
If you need this shipped to Canada, I'll have to change the box and it's contents a bit.  I can ship a plain box weighing up to 4lbs. via 1st class mail, which, while more than the flat rate Priority to US addys, is still affordable.  These prize boxes usually weigh 7 or more lbs. when full, so if the winner is in Canada, I'll let them pick and choose which of the items they prefer sent in their box, until the box weighs 4lbs.  I hate to have to do this(not ship ALL prizes to them)but I would hate it even more to exclude them totally from entering the giveaway.

There is a limit of ONE ENTRY per Day by leaving a comment on this blog post.
IF you post about my Giveaway on your own Blog or on Facebook with a link to this post, this will earn you 2 additional entries for each action.  Please leave additional comments on this blog post for each additional entry.

So let's get this started!

Sluggy