Randomness on a Sunday

*  I am still editing photos from my road trip last month.  Eventually I'll get them finished and be able to blog more about my trip.

*  We are in the final weeks of getting #2 Son ready to pack off to college.  We are ALL ready for this day to finally arrive.  I am down to my last 6 items to procure before he heads off.  So glad I never have to do this again! lolz

*  I'm happy to report that the net worth went up $6,500+ for August.
Most of that gain was from interest on the retirement accounts.  The September 1st Net Worth snapshot will NOT look as rosy I fear.

*  I need to get some more sewing done.  I also need to get more tubs of fabric out to measure, photograph and list on Etsy.  Unfortunately we are heading into the hot/muggy days of Summer here and that gives me no motivation to get any of this done. bleh.

*  I just discovered that there is bus service from #2 Son's school to a nearby town so for those short holidays he needs to come home, I don't have to drive out to get him if I pay for a fairly inexpensive bus ticket.

*  I figured out my gas expense for my road trip--$309.26.  Taking into consideration how many miles I drove and that gas expense, I got just over 37 miles per gallon.  Add in the fact that my car was loaded with glass bottles of booze for most of those miles and I'd say I got pretty good gas mileage. lolz

*  It's August and I still haven't finalized a 2014 Goal List.  I guess I need to give up that this will happen this year. 8-)))

*  My poor neglected garden is chugging along.  The critters dug up everything we planted from seed, save 2 bean plants which survived their mayhem.  I came home to one of our cauliflower plants gone.....plant, roots and all....wtf?  Something big surely dug up that monster plant and hauled it away.  The only thing we've managed to grow successfully this year are tomatoes, cauliflower and morning glories.

*  I smoked that 15 lb. brisket yesterday and am finishing it off in the oven today.  Fresh made potato salad and roasted carrots will complete our dinner tonight.  I'll freeze some of the brisket we don't eat today so we'll have bbq in the coming months too.

What's going on in your world?

Sluggy

Rite-Aid Again

So I did end up going back to Rite-Aid for this today.....

2 more Tide detergent bottles.
After $3 in coupons and my $3+Up Reward it cost me $3.92($3.88 + .04¢ tax)out of pocket.

I'll pick up a bottle of Gain dish soap when it goes on sale for .99¢ and then I can send for that second $10 prepaid gift card from P&G.

Now I'm off to figure of what I may want to buy at Rite-Aid next week.
#2 Son wants some Hormel Compleats and 3M Command hooks to take to college so I might pick those up this coming week as they will be on sale and giving +UPs back.

Sluggy

$24K Savings Challenge.....JULY 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 July report.....

I have posted my July 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 July with a greater than needed amount.
The extra amount we ended the month of  July with?.......$2,421.10.

Income
We had $2317.04 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in July totaled $100.56.  This included interest made on non-retirement accounts and a per diem from Hubs' work.

This brought us to our gain of $2,421.10.
Since we have no debt anymore, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  Flute lesson bill was $80 less than in June(3 less lessons in July).
*  Both cash spent and credit card bill were about the same as last month's bills respectively.
*  Many of our regular monthly expenses were the same as in June or just a little more and we didn't have any non-monthly expenses which was good for our bottom line.
 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  We paid $55 fee for #2Son to be in marching band at his college.
*  The water bill went up by almost 25%.  This was most probably due to extra laundry and showers because of 2 extra people in the house.
*  The electric bill was up $59 due to a/c use.
*  We paid a medical bill of $704 for #1Son.
*  I spent money on my vacation, checks of $160.22 and $420 in cash.

 (The rest was put on the c/c so will show up and be paid in August.)
 

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

The 2014 GRAND TOTAL.....
With 7 months accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2014 is $14,093.64
Super excited that we are on target now to save $24K, since we have saved an amount equal to $2K a month now for 7 months.  Let's hope this trend continues. 8-)
Our monthly average is $2013.37 saved.

Only $9,906.36 left to meet the yearly goal and 5 months left to dig this up out of our income.
  

 

Looking ahead for August......

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

*  Both the semi-annual car insurance bill and the house insurance bill are due this month, totaling $1,903.20 combined.

*  The credit card is already up to $3,425.95 and we have 10 days until it closes and we get our August statement.  $1,304.32 of that is for #2 Son's new laptop and software for college.  $309.26 is from gas purchases on my trip.  I've still to break down all my trip costs at some later date.  I will need to dip into our savings challenge monies from last year to pay for at least a part of my trip costs so we don't go into the red in August.  We usually pay for vacations(at least a part of them)with our ersatz EF/last year's savings challenge funds so I was fully expecting to do this anyway.
 

 

So how was your July financially?
  

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

Rite-Aid Trip 3 for the Week

Back to Rite-Aid this morning before the day heated up.

3 x Tide on sale $4.94=$14.82
3 x Dawn dish soap on sale .99¢=$2.97
Subtotal......$17.79

Coupons Used
1 x $5/3 MQ Tide=$5.00
1 x .20¢/1 MQ Dawn=$.20
1 x .25¢/1 Load2Card  Dawn=$.25
Coupon Total.....$5.45

$17.79-$5.45=$12.34-$12 +Up Rewards=$.34 + .02¢tax=$.36 OOP

Having spent a total of at least $30 on select P&G items this week at Rite-Aid(Tide, Dawn and Crest mouthwash)the receipt today spit out with a code on it, whereby I will be mailed a $10 gas giftcard in 4-6 weeks.

And I still have a $3 +UP to roll in the coming 2 weeks.

So my total out of pocket this week was $16.09.

In return I have--
*4 Tide detergent
*2 Dove deodorant
*2 Oral B battery powered toothbrushes
*2 Oral B manual toothbrushes
*2 Crest mouth wash
*2 Gear men's deodorant
*4 Simple brand cleansers/wipes
*3 Dawn dish soap
*$10 gas card
*$3 +Ups remaining

Not a bad ROI I think.  ;-)

Now my big decision is whether I purchase $10.24 more in Tide and/or Gain products so I can use my Rite-Aid receipts to send for another $10 prepaid gift card(Citibank issued).  The Tide I bought this week qualifies for this second rebate deal. 
I could purchase 2 more bottles at Rite-Aid this week and then wait for a sale price on the Gain dish soap of .99¢ in the Aug. 10th sales ad to get me over $10.24 and send for this gift card as it goes until 9/30/14.

Figuring this would cost me $3.88 for 2 more Tides($4.94x2=$9.88-$3 Qs-$3 +Ups I have=$3.88 + tax OOP).
Then a bottle of gain on sale for .99¢ gives me an additional OOP of  approx. $5 for a $10 prepaid Citibank card.

Then my totals look like this--

Approx. $21 OOP

*6 Tide detergent
*2 Dove deodorant
*2 Oral B battery powered toothbrushes
*2 Oral B manual toothbrushes
*2 Crest mouth wash
*2 Gear men's deodorant
*4 Simple brand cleansers/wipes
*3 Dawn dish soap
*1 Gain dish soap
*$10 gas card
*$10 prepaid gift card

I just might have to do that deal......

Can I say how much I love when your purchases qualify for multiple rebate deals?
Double dipping can be awesome!

What do you think?  Spend another $5 to get this gift card?


Sluggy

Food and Toiletries Spending.....JULY Update

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for JULY 2014.

I have posted July'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 July.  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.

******************

BIG LOTS
OOP  $50.57
Value  $80.74
Savings  37.36%

MAINE SOURCE(restaurant supply store)
OOP  $150.29
Value  $207.80
Savings 27.67%

PEPPERIDGE FARM OUTLET
OOP  $1.32
Value  $4.98
Savings  73.50%

RITE-AID
OOP  $15.73
Qs/Ads/+UPs  $87.42
Value  $103.15
Savings   84.75%

 

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $71.34

Qs/Ads  $39.40

Value  $110.74

Savings  35.58%

SURPLUS OUTLET(discount food store)
OOP  $27.91
Value  $51.12
Savings  45.40%

WEGMAN'S
OOP  $40.93
Value  $53.55
Savings  33.56%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $44.06

Qs/Ads  $22.75

Value  $66.81

Savings  34.05%
 

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 84.75%,  the Pepperidge Farm Outlet at 73.50% and Surplus Outlet at 45.40%.  My WORST savings rate was at Maine Source 27.67%(which IS surprising!).
I shopped at 7 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket........$402.15

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$276.74

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$678.89

TOTAL Savings of...................................40.76%

This closes out the July food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

I came close to a $400 food month, going over by $2.15.
But looking back at last month's post I see I had hoped for a $350 spending month.
Oh well.....we can try again next month, right?  ;-)

The yearly savings percentage went down .75% in July compared to June's average.    Savings is still in the 40's which is good.

LOOKING AHEAD TO AUGUST......

I am going to try for a $300 food budget in August.
This is the month the teen who is still at home goes away to college mid month, so our food costs "should" drop in August.
Crossing my fingers this happens. ;-)
 

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 after 7 months.....$2,901.99.
The average monthly food/toiletries spending to-date for the year so far is $414.57.
Maybe August will be the month I get it down under a $400 per month average again.

 

*  How much did you spend on food/toiletries in July?
*  Do you track your yearly food spending?
*  If so, how are you doing thus far in the year?
 

Sluggy