The Car Gods are Angry Again

The Car Woes of 2014 continues here at Chez Sluggy.

When we got my minivan inspected in March the auto shop said we needed body work done(a rust/corrosion issue underbody)sooner rather than later.
Said issue would definitely fail our annual inspection next year and take the minivan off the road.

So we bit the bullet and took the car up to our "Auto Body Shop Guy" on Friday.
The news is bad and badder.

IF once he gets it up on the lift and can bang around under there AND he only has to patch the ends of whatever he is repairing, it's going to run $1500.
IF once he gets it up on the lift and can bang around under there and AND the "whatever" can't be patched and the middle has to be replaced, it's going to run $3000.

bleh.

I would have no problem sinking that kind of money into the van since it only has 98K miles on it and it's a 2003.
But it's a 2003 and only worth about $3500 anyway.
Can I justify putting $3K into a car only worth $3500 after it's fixed?
*sigh*

So we have 1 car that needs potentially $3K in repairs, 1 car that has major issues to repair(but keeping the oil and transmission fluids checked and capped is working to keep it on the road w/out sinking the $3K it needs to fix those issues)we have to address eventually and 1 car that is aok right now and needs no work.
The only car without issues is the one #2 Son drives.......our kid has a better car than both his parents at this point. lolz

Once #2 Son goes away to college, we were going to get rid of a car....not the one he drives.
Hubs was going to get rid of his "leaking too expensive to repair mess of a car" vehicle and take over the third car. 
But now my van is on the table for discussion too.....so do we ditch the van instead, since Hubs car is drivable for the foreseeable future with the tweaking he does on it?
Or do we ditch 2 cars come August and become a 1 car family?

I don't need a car except for errands-going to the grocery store, gas station, bank and post office.  I don't commute to a job.  All these can be done when he gets home in the evening and/or on weekends.  It becomes a little inconvenient with the bank and PO, but still doable.
The problem would arise if I had a medical appointment or emergency.

So what would you do in this situation?

I hate these blasted machines' associated costs!

Sluggy


 

Rite-Aid Update

Here is what I bought at Rite-Aid since we went away on vacation April 12th.....

Yes, I went to Rite-Aid while on vacation.
This was bought the morning we left Fairhope Alabama.
I had 2 Coupons expiring that day I wanted to use with 2 AdPerk Rite-Aid Qs and a rain check I had and I KNOW once we got on the road Hubs wouldn't want to stop for me to do this transaction. lolz

After Qs and rain check these large bottles of dish soap cost me .50 each.
The baby food was free after rain check(there had been a +Ups Reward Deal for them).
In total with Alabama sales tax on the dish soap, I paid $1.09 for everything pictured.


Then last Saturday, before my $3 +Ups expired I did this.....

2 x select cookies on sale 2/$3=$3.00
I used my $3 +Ups to pay so $0.00 out of pocket.
And I received $1 +Up Rewards for buying these cookies.

Nice.

I spent a total of $3.46 on $102.42 worth of food/toiletries at Rite-Aid in April.

I'll be laying off Rite-Aid(once I spend that $1 +Ups)for the next few months.  Heading into Summer we are good on the stockpile of most toiletries for now.

Sluggy

I Need Your Help

Hey I don't ask for favors often but could everybody, do me a favor please?

My son's band, Docile Sponge, is trying to win a chance to play at a local music fest this Summer called JAM AT THE DAM.

Could you go to the website, http://www.thejamatthedam.com/ and scroll down to the voting for Week 6 and vote for Docile Sponge.

You can vote once per email/computer.
The band just found out  about this opportunity and REALLY want it.

Voting ends May 7th I think.
Much appreciated!

Sluggy

Food & Toiletries Spending.....April Update

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for APRIL 2014.

I have posted April'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 April.  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  $13.98
Value  $44.56
Savings   68.63%

BROOKSHIRE'S
OOP  $23.94
Qs/Ads  $11.35
Value  $35.29
Savings  32.16%

MAINE SOURCE
OOP  $62.34
Qs/Ads  $44.02
Value  $106.36
Savings  41.58%

PRICE CHOPPER
OOP  $91.77
QsAds  $60.89
Value  $152.66
Savings    39.88%
 

RITE-AID
OOP  $3.46
Qs/Ads/+Ups  $98.73
Value  $102.42
Savings  96.40%

SAM'S CLUB
OOP  $42.77
Value  $68.37
Savings  37.44%
 

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $75.47

Qs/Ads  $65.41

Value  $140.88

Savings  29.44%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $156.84

Qs/Ads  $56.80

Value  $213.64

Savings  26.59%

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 96.40%,  the Bread Outlet at 68.63% and the local Grocer at 46.43%.  My WORST savings rate was Weis(PMITA)Markets at 26.59%.
I shopped at 8 different stores this past month. (2 of them new ones while on vacation.)

TOTAL Out of Pocket........$470.57

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$393.61

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$864.18

TOTAL Savings of...................................45.52%

Without counting the Rite-Aid shopping, my savings rate was 38.39%.

This closes out the April food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

I went into April with no expectations, which was a good thing since we spent well over $400 this month.  We did a bit of stocking up on loss leaders and took some food/toiletries to my daughter in Louisiana. I shoot for a monthly savings rate over regular retail of 40% and we surpassed that with the Rite-Aid spending included.
While I get good value for what I spend(my OOP vs. the regular retail price)I am finding it difficult to keep the actual spending low.
I sucked at being frugal on food/toiletries in April.
bleh.



LOOKING AHEAD TO MAY......

After a runaway food spending month in April plus the road trip expenses I'll be trying to reign in the outgoing cash in May.  I want to try to keep food spending to $300 or so.
We don't have any celebrations with food related costs for May so let's see if I can keep the spending down.

Of course after saying all this, I went out and spent $89.54 at the grocer store this week.
I suck.

 

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.....$1,511.46

The average monthly food/toiletries spending this year so far is $377.87.

 

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

Sluggy

Hidden Savings When Sending a Kid off to College

I can't wait for August to get here!

The reason is that #2 Son leaves for college that month.
In a way I am sad to see him go(ok, stop laughing Sonya Ann!) but our budget will draw a modest sigh of relief.

The bulk of the expenses he generates will transfer from our regular monthly income onto his college fund money(except for those times he is home on breaks).

Ok, so while in college he probably won't cost us less, at least we have college money set aside for his expenses once he hits the dorms so our day to day expenses here will go down.
His expenses will be drawn from a source other than our monthly income.

 I guess if you don't have money put aside for your kids' college like us, there really is no savings when your offspring head off to those hallowed halls of higher learning(and partying). ;-)


I've been doing a quick calculation of possible savings on our monthly budget once he leaves home.

*  No longer paying for his long, lingering hot showers(multiples per day sometimes), savings on the water bill of at least $10 per mo.

*  No longer paying for the computer upstairs to be on 24/7, running the a/c 24/7 in his room from June to September, lights left on, and running the dryer to "fluff" the outfit he wants to put on, savings on the electric bill of anywhere from $50-$75 per mo.

*  No longer paying for private music lessons(will be included in the tuition we pay from college fund), savings of between $120-$200 a mo.

*  No longer paying to feed him, savings of between $50-$75 on the food bill per mo. AT LEAST!

*  No longer paying for fast food or his eating out,  savings of $20 per mo.  WAAAY UNDERESTIMATED! lolz

*  No longer paying for gas in the car to get him to school, savings of $35 per mo.

*  No longer paying for car insurance, inspections, registration or repairs for a 3rd car, since we'll ditch it when he leaves.  Savings there but no way to tell yet how much we'll save on this score.
If he needs to go somewhere while on break or during the Summer, he can use my car since I don't need it much.
Once we ditch the car, we save $36 in registration fees, $75 in yearly inspection fees, about $300 in insurance, so $411 before you figure in repairs(which exceeded $3K on this car last year!).

I figure once he leaves for college we'll realize at least a $435 a month savings on our monthly day-to-day living expenses. (With a monthly estimate for car repair bill costs.)

That doesn't even begin to cover all the odds and ends we spend on him.....costs associated with school, like Prom tickets, Band costs(new band shoes and clothes, trips and fundraising), etc.
We'll still be covering the cost for new clothing & shoes(but he'll have to get use to buying "not name brand"), toiletries(I still have quite the stockpile of freebies on most items)and rxs and doctor visits out of our regular budget.

Of course not having him home means our trip taking gets curtailed(because no one is here to watch the dog)or trip costs go up(if we have to kennel the dog).

Aw well.....everything in life is a trade-off, ain't it?

But keeping that extra $5,200 or more a year from our budget and kicking it into savings will be grand!

Now to find a way to send him packing before late August.....hmmmmm...... ;-)

Sluggy