Kissing Off 2014......A Good Year for Sluggy!

** I am a bit late with this post but still wanted to get it published.  Blogger was giving me fits last night trying to get this finished.
Ok....maybe it was the 3 glasses of champagne too.  8-)))
Enjoy!** -Slug



Ok, so in reality my 2014 was much better than my 2013.
Almost dying(which I tried to do in 2013)is not a fun way to spend your year.
So I look upon 2014 with fondness by comparison.

Good things happened in 2014------

My health improved.  Despite the stress of having to deal with all the medical crap that was thrown at me.

And I celebrated a milestone birthday......

 

 

#2 Son graduated high school.......

And did well his first semester at college.............

 

 

The Daughter got a salaried management position at her work and we helped her buy a house........

#1 Son continues to be gainfully employed and has a good relationship with his girlfriend.  They came to visit and we went drinking.....very strange to go drinking with your adult children it is!

Hubs work continues to value his business contribution and rewards him well monetarily.

I was able to make us live well below our means in 2014 and sock away cash giving Hubs more options on when he can retire.

I/We traveled a great deal in 2014.......to Louisiana and back......

And met some internet friends in person too..........

 

 

to Washington, D.C. to Hubs' conference.......

 then to the Midwest and back.......

 to Virginia........

 and to Ocean City, MD

I tried to step outside of my comfort zone in 2014--first by attending the Bloggerpalooza in Rehobeth Beach, DE......

....accompanying Hubs to DC and then by traveling to
Pittsburgh/Illinois/Wisconsin/Iowa/Missouri/Illinois again......2 trips taken solo and the 1 havinhg to amuse myself alone in DC. (I am very proud of myself for doing all of these.)

I met a lot of internet peoples in person on these two trips and every one, without exception, was nicer and more welcoming than I expected.

I/We paid cash for a new car in 2014.   And it's purple.  8-))

Though we didn't do much gardening this year, we did 4 outdoor projects--power washing the house..........

having our Driveway paved and prettifying the ac/heat compressor area.........

And Hubs & College Boy took down the swimming pool.............

And 2014 was the year Hubs started making his own beer...............

 

While this wasn't MY accomplishment, like those little kids in the Shake n' Bake commercial, "I helped".

Though there wasn't mush gardening it didn't keep me from making my yearly batch of pepper relish.............

I worked on my genealogy a good bit in 2014 and made some breakthroughs and connected with kin.
I found another internet friend was related to me too. 8-)

I blogged a whole lot!  Hey, it keeps me sane......
I also did 5 giveaways in 2014.  I like making people happy giving stuff away.......

I de-cluttered a great deal in 2014.
First I finished emptying out my storage unit in Jan. 2014.........

And got rid of lots of garbage........

Then we sent 8 loads to Salvation Army over the course of the year and 2 old cars to other charities to auction off.

I bought some furniture and actually turned my living room into a living room in 2014.

That only took me 14 years to do!
And I made curtains and recovered chairs/made tablecloths too.......

I finally got around to doing some sewing in 2014(note curtains/tablecloths above as well as some clothing), though not as much as I hoped to do. 
I was on a roll until I left for my road trip in July and then just got busy with other things once I got home.....more trips mostly. ;-)

And there were lots of adult beverages in 2014...........

 

 

 

And then there were some not so great things that happened in 2014-----

Our last dog died in November........

College Boy didn't get accepted at Temple but OTOH he is LOVING the school he is attending and he made Dean's List his 1st semester so PPPPPbbbbbbbbbbtttttt to you Temple! 8-)

Gee, that's about the only really bad things I can think of for 2014.

Ok, I had a brain fart and almost bought a church...........

before I came to my senses.
We has some big expenses in 2014.........the repaving of the driveway, a hefty $4K health insurance deductible with a new plan we were on, a car purchase and pay for COLLEGE($$$$!)but it wasn't anything we couldn't financially handle.
Sometimes you just have to spend that money....

2014 was a good year financially as well.  More on how we did earning and keeping some of our money in our own pockets in blog posts in the coming week.


I did a LOT of Rite-Aid shopping after I returned from my Summer Road Trip too but that doesn't cost nearly anything.
But keeping the stockpile you end up with in order IS a chore....

And between giveaways, gifting to friends and family and donating.........

we "shared the wealth" and spread the joys of stockpiling around.



Now that I think back on 2014 I think I WILL miss it!
Or at least most of what went on this past year.

And I enjoyed myself more in 2014.

So how was your 2014?
Are you sad to see it go or can't wait to close that chapter of your life?


Here's to everyone who survived their year and let's all look forward to all the GOOD THINGS coming our way in 2015!



Sluggy



 

Christmas 2014 Budget/Spending Autopsy

Ok, so calling this an Autopsy is not very festive or cheerful.
So call it "The Post Where I Talk About What I Was Going to Spend for Christmas and What I Actually Spent for Christmas".
Whatever works for you.....

I budgeted $1900 for Christmas spending.  Except for what Hubs spends on gifts for me, this is our entire spending budget for Christmas.
Last year I budgeted $1650.00 and we spent $2164.77.
8-(

We were going to travel again this year so I upped the budget by $250.00 and hoped we could stay within that parameter.  My budget for Christmas is still less than we spent last year but I wanted to not spend so much this year so I tired to reduce our costs. 

Our Christmas spending has been tracking upward since I began keeping running totals in 2010.
Except for 1 year, we have upped our spending each successive year.

2010.........$1000 planned/$881.64 spent
2011.........$1300 planned/$851.32 spent
2012.........$1000 planned/$1020.48 spent
2013.........$1650 planned/$2164.77 spent(Yikes!)

Time to get this back under budget!

How do I arrive at a budget for Christmas?  Nowadays I look at what we spent the previous years(because I have a full accounting for the last 4 years or so on the blog)and see where we did well and where we did "not-so-well" with budgeting and add in any unusual things we plan to do and after some papers are balled up and thrown away and there is one sheet left with lots of writing on it(as well as writing scratched out on it), we have a plan and a budget. lolz

No, really.....I look at possible spending categories and what I think we will use and compare it to what we have put aside by September of that year.
I generally use c/c points to get gift cards for free(to either give as presents or use to buy the presents to give), cash in our rolled up change(about $150 a year), use blog income and then chunk in a hunk of either the tax refund from that year, a part of Hubs' bonus he receives in March or a piece of the Savings Challenge $ we saved from the previous year.

There are many ways to save ahead for Christmas.....make regular deposits to a dedicated account or a Christmas club at a bank, use a one-time windfall like a bonus or a tax refund, etc........so use whatever works for your situation.

The only unacceptable plan is to GO INTO DEBT for Christmas!
Better to not spend on Christmas than to endure the grief/angst/anguish/stress by going into debt buying crap at Christmas you can't afford and having to pay off the bills incurred sometime in 2015, or 2016, or 2017 or beyond.

So we went into the Holidays with $2000 to spend.
Of course, I buy year round so some of that amount was already spent by September.

Here is where the funds were allocated.......

Shipping gifts/mailing Holiday Cards  $40.00
Gifts for immediate family(includes any cash gifts)  $800.00

Gifts for extended family & friends  $100.00

Electricity for lights   $15.00

A Christmas eve meal and show or movie   $100.00
Charity   $100
Christmas travel expenses(lodging, food, gas, booze)   $800.00

Extra  $45.00 (the "just in case" cushion)

Unlike last year, we didn't do a "Secret Santa" exchange this year so that category of spending was eliminated.

And here is where the money actually went.....

Shipping gifts/mailing Holiday Cards  $66.01 

Gifts for immediate family  $644.04 

Gifts for extended family & friends  $37.10 

Electricity for lights  $15 

A Christmas eve meal and show or movie  $96.60
Charity   $100
Christmas travel expenses(lodging, food, gas, booze)  $823.72  
TOTAL SPENT...$1,782.47

Here are the Spending Details....

$66.01  *Shipping/Mailing Holiday Cards & Gifts----Over $40 budgeted by $26.01
We sent out 30 cards(mailed 26 of the cards/4 put in boxes we shipped so no stamps used) and mailed 5 gifts.  Stamps cost $11.70 and the cards I had already from previous Christmases.  1 package mailed to Daughter and 4 boxes sent to friends/other family cost $54.31 in postage.
Ouch!
I just didn't budget enough for shipping costs this year.  Shipping costs are difficult to get around unless you travel around the country at the Holidays to hand out gifts, which would cost you much more.  ;-)

$644.04  *Gifts for family----Under $800 budgeted by $155.96
Last year I spent $698.82 on gifts for family.  In 2012, this included $300 in cash and $398.82 in gifts.  This year only 1 person received cash so most of the spending was on gifts. 
I upped my budget for gifts this year(since I was so far over budget last Christmas) and came in under.
Happy, happy!

I cashed in points on my credit card for gift cards and gave those or used some gift cards I got from points to buy gifts.  I "saved" $150 by doing this.    I did shop sales, both in store and online.  I got 1 gift for free as a Wellness Reward at Rite-Aid, 2 gift cards were bought using $5 off coupons at Rite-Aid, B&BW's items were bought 50% off during the after Xmas clearance sales.  I utilized sales/codes online for some gifts during the weekend before and weekend of Black Friday sales plus all online shopping was done through a rebate back shopping site/portal, saving me an additional $7.75.(Hey! Every bit helps, right? lol) I bought a couple of Groupons which saved me approx. $25 over retail on those items.
Lots of stocking stuffers were items gotten at Rite-Aid over the course of the year for little  or no money too.

The only cash gift given out this year was to College Boy as he is the only child not on his own yet.  He hasn't found a part time job yet at school so he needs cash.
 

$37.10  *Gifts for extended family---Under $100 budgeted by $62.90

Locally we give something to the nephew(a gift card and bags of good coffee this year)and a food box to his father/brother in-law.  I get deals on the food, items that he likes to eat, and always put a bag of Dunkin Donuts coffee that I buy at the Holidays on sale in his box. 
Hubs' sister got a small gift box this year and I sent boxes to 3 internet friends this year as well.
(My older kids' Significant Others' gifts are counted under "family".)
By keeping my eye out for deals I was able to keep well under the budget in this category.  This helps since the shipping for many of these presents was significant once you added them all up.
I didn't spend a lot on friends and extended family this year but postage it cost made up for that. lolz

 

$15  *Electricity for Lights----Even
Same stuff hung outside the house.
We used a smaller tree inside this year so less lights on that but we got them up sooner.  I figure we'll spend $15 on electricity this year.  It's really not a category that I can nail down the cost beyond an approximation.


$96.60  *A Christmas eve meal and show or movie----Under $100 budgeted by $3.40
We had 7 for dinner this year.  Hubs, College Boy, myself and BIL and nephew makes 5.
We let College Boy invite his friends this year and his 2 band mates accepted the invitation.  I guesstimated fairly close to what this ended up costing.  8-)

$100.00  *Charity----Even
I spent exactly what I planned to on this category.  My Holiday "giving" dollars didn't go to an organization I can write off my taxes this year but to an individual so our giving was more personal this year.

$823.72  *Christmas travel expenses(lodging, food, gas, booze, car rental, cash incidentals)----Over $800 budgeted by $23.72
Gas was $77.53(thank you lower oil!), Lodging was $205.18(including 1 breakfast we ate at the motel) and Meals out were $267.47.   #1 Son paid for 1 meal out.  We rented a car for the trip at $146.24.  We spent $100.57 on liquor.
Last year we spent over $200 on booze so I am happy with this result.
Some Incidentals spending of $26.73 brings it to $823.72 all in.

I figured we were staying 1 less day this year and I spent $878.52 last Christmas on this category so $800 seemed reasonable.  But we didn't rent a car last year(and the car rental wasn't planned this year, it just came up the day before we left because Hubs' car's check engine light came on.....ugh.)


All totaled, this year I budgeted $2000 and we spent $1782.47, so well under budget overall.
Much less than the $2164.77 total we spent Christmas of 2013.
Our spending was $382.30 less than last year and we still had a great Holiday and were able to gift and travel.
I think I planned better this Christmas, and how much better that my budget vs. spending aligned this year, shows that.

If you kept track of your spending for Christmas, how did you do?
Did you spend more. less or right about what you planned on spending?
Did you have any money epiphanies when you look back at the Holiday plan?
Do you see anything you'll change about your spending for Christmas 2015?

Leave a comment and let us know how you did and what you learned about yourself & money this year!

Sluggy

Christmas Week Wrap-Up....With Pictures!

Our Christmas Week was a little bit excitement and a lot of low key and peaceful.
Hubs took off the whole week(though he was on-call via his phone).
We got to go see our older son and ventured via rental car to Pittsburgh on the Sunday before Christmas.

The rental car was a last minute decision as we had planned to take the Malibu.
But on Saturday morning the dreaded check engine light alit.
sigh.
Not wanting to take any chances on that journey that it really WAS something that needed attention we dropped off the car to be looked at while we were away and rented a car for 4 days.
Rental company upgraded us from a full-sized to a "whatever the next size is" car and we headed to "Da Burgh" in a Hyundai SUV-y thing.
Stopped in Altoona as we usually do for lunch....

 Oh look!
Imported potatoes with our burgers....
Then we went to Giant Eagle to buy some beer.
GE has a food café so they can sell you 192 ounces of beer per transaction in PA rather than an entire CASE of beer from a beer distributor.
Talk about archaic liquor laws......

Once checked into our hotel outside of Pittsburgh and a brief nap, we went out for dinner at Primanti Bros.
College Boy had his first Primanti's sammich that night......

When I was at this location this past summer with #1 Son it was practically deserted.
Not so on Sunday evening.  The Steelers had won that day so there was a rather large crowd, 60% or so sporting Steelers jerseys or Steelers colors and the pitchers of crap beer were flowing freely.

Then we were off to #1 Son and GF's apartment once they returned from work.
We exchanged presents that evening.

I only got this one shot that evening of #1 Son opening his "gag" gift.......

It's a humongous roll of SMARTIES candy!  As a child this was his Candy of Choice, so when I saw this oversized container of Smarties shaped like the small rolls at 5 Below, I had to buy it. lolz
Oh wait!
He got another gag gift.....

This container shaped like a beer can of BEER FLAVORED jelly beans.
The man is serious about his craft beer! lolz
I haven't gotten a report back yet on how bad these tasted......

College Boy elected to stay the 2 nights at his brother's apartment, couch surfing, so the next morning we picked everyone up and headed out for lunch.

They opened up a new Burgatory Restaurant near their apartment so that's where lunch happened.

Some of us had alcoholic milkshakes.....note huge marshmallow on top of milkshake.....

And some of us had regular milkshakes......

I learned my lesson last Christmas at Burgatory, no alcoholic milkshake for me again!
I had the glass of Sangria.
An EIGHT DOLLAR glass of Sangria.
Except it was NOT Sangria.
Yes it was red wine but it was super DRY!
And there were no citrus type fruits in it......but there were tiny cubes of APPLES in it.
Don't get the Sangria at Burgatory.
I'm just sayin'.......

But DO get a burger as that's their specialty.  Some of us got fancy pants complicated "had to custom order it on a sheet of paper" burgers, but not I.
I went with a menu item called Morty's Steakhouse Burger.
It was topped with 4 pounds of onion straws(way too many and I had to scrape at least half off the thing!)and a big knife through the sandwich.
The coleslaw with a vinegar dressed concoction.  It could have used more dressing is all I'm gonna say.

Burgatory gave out fortune cookies at the end of the meal.
College Boy got the best one-which is now my Facebook cover btw....

We attempted a selfie outside afterwards......

The sun was in my eyes(I was holding the camera.....why do they let the person with the shortest arms control the selfie??), I totally didn't get College Boy in the shot and thanks for the horns Hubs!
Everybody is a smartass, ain't they?!

Since nobody gave me a "shelfie stick" for Christmas I just took a group photo of everyone else.....
Much better.

We went back to #1 Son's apartment and visited the afternoon away.

After #1 Son's GF left for work we went across the river to check out #1 Son's favorite beer buying place which was a Giant Eagle market which sold beer in their cafe.  I was looking for a particular stout that's only made around the Holidays, which this particular store had TONS of last year when we were there.  I wanted to pick up a few since at home I'd have to buy a case of them and that case was just shy of $80. ick.  That GE had none of the stout.....but that didn't stop Hubs and #1 Son from buying other beers, did it?

So we tried another GE that carried beer and again they had none, though Hubs and #1 Son picked up a few more beers there.
We stopped off at Trader Joe's once back on the other side of town so I could pick up some Lobster Ravioli.  We don't have a TJ in our area and the Lobster Ravioli is real good and such a bargain at $3.99 a package!  I stocked up on a supply to hold us until we got back to Pittsburgh again.

Then we tried a drive-thru beer distributor on the way back to his Swiss Vale neighborhood for my stout and they had gotten 1 case of it in and had sold it weeks ago. 
Curses!
Then we tried the beer distributor back near #1 Son's apartment and they didn't have any but he called around to his "sources" and found that a GE over in Robinson, PA(thru downtown and through a tunnel and over a bridge NW of "Da Burgh")had some in stock.
So do you think we drove 45 minutes away through the downtown RUSH HOUR to get to that GE?
Of course we did! lolz

We found the store and they had 4 bottles left which I bought.  I was able to find another stout there I hadn't seen anywhere else and wanted to try(at #1 Son's suggestion)so I got that as well.
Afterwards we had to find our way back to Pittsburgh in the dark and we hit the rush hour traffic heading out of downtown east....but then again the tunnel near Squirrel Hill backs up ALL times of day.

Since it was getting late we went to dinner at Rivertowne.

Oh gee, imagine that?  Rivertowne has a brewery attached to it!
This was totally #1 Son's idea and one of his hang-out places.
So he got to pay the bill.  ;-)
The crab cakes were good and the shrimp were monstrously LARGE and it's a good thing I didn't drink there because I would have never made it across the street to the parking lot in one piece due to the traffic on that dangerous road....geez!
Everyone just watched me hobble across the road while I played a real life version of FROGGER.
Thanks guys!!!

We visited a while longer at the apartment before heading back to the hotel for the night.

Next morning we all met at Bob Evans in Monroeville for breakfast before we headed home and #1 Son and the GF headed to the Erie area to spend Christmas with her family.

We waited about 25 minutes in the lobby for a table at Bob's while they seated many tables of people who had come in after us.
So Hubs went to ask WTF was going on!?
Hostess said they only had TWO tables to accommodate a party of 5(What?  You never heard of putting 2 smaller tables together!?!?)  Every time they seated a table they kept saying they would seat us soon, but when pushed by Hubs the Hostess revealed that 2 parties had been seated right before us at those 2 tables and had yet to ORDER so neither of them would be ready to vacate for a good half hour or more.
He gave them an earful at that point as they should have let us know that from the first!

Needless to say we left and took our business to Denny's right down the road where we got a table right off!
Bob Evans Assholes......

We had a lovely breakfast from that point on and a great waitress.
Ate our fill and then some quick photos in the parking lot.

#1 Son and Girlfriend.....

Most of my family........

 Hey! Let me in the photos too......

My boys.........

Then we headed for home via Altoona.
We stopped for lunch at a Chinese buffet since we wanted something quick.
Down the shopping center from the restaurant was a craft store so we ducked in to walk a bit.


Gosh darn it!
I missed Bob Ross........

 

 

I swear this guy's voice is better as a sleep aid than any pharmaceuticals ever invented!

Happy little trees............

I also found Sonya Ann's stocking here..............

Hubs had to stop at a Rite-Aid along the way home so I could finish doing an +Ups Deal.
No worries we passed a few along the way when we weren't on the interstate.

The next day was Christmas Eve so we did a few last minute things like grocery shopping.
I picked up our Rib Roast for Christmas dinner as well as a few other things.
We made a trip to Sam's Club for some produce and croissants and then had a look around at other things.

I found this nice Thomas the Tank Engine book but alas!,
I found it 20 years too late for my Thomas fan.....he's 23 and a half now.....lol

That evening we went up to our local Chinese restaurant for our traditional Christmas eve Chinese dinner.
The brother in-law and nephew joined us again this year and College Boy's Docile Sponge bandmates also came along.

Everyone was up at the crack of noon for Christmas.
Well "I" was up at the crack of 9am to work on dinner.

We opened presents once College Boy came downstairs.....

 A Rite-Aid gift card?!?
Gee, how did you know.....lol

 Clothes for College Boy

 Nuts for my honey....

More clothes for College Boy.....

 Drawers for Christmas....a family tradition......

Snacks and a year's supply of Chap Stick.....well more like 6 months of Chap Stick if you are a flutist.

And More clothes for College Boy.

I think everyone was happy with their loot.

BIL and nephew came over around 1 for dinner and we all ate until we were ready to bust.
Later we had coffee/tea and ate pie/cookies/Christmas crack/name your poison.

I realized that I forgot to make the Calamari I bought for Christmas the next morning, so Friday's dinner was.......get ready for it......Calamari!  ;-)

Saturday Hubs and I went to one of our favorite places for a couple of beers.....

Well I had one beer, Grumpy Bill's Porter.....

And hubs had a flight and a beer.

 

 Old signs on the wall.....

Lunch was a thin crusted pepperoni pizza....mmmmm.....

We took a scenic drive afterwards and then spent the rest of Saturday relaxing.
Just a real low key Christmas week here in Podunk, PA.

How was your week?

Sluggy

Rolling/Spending the +Up Rewards This Week.....Part 2

Back to Rite-Aid after having blood drawn to return the Dove 'Poo and then I bought this on BIL's card.......

2 x Dove 'Poo on sale=$7.00
2 x Gear Deodorant on sale=$6.00
2 x GE light bulbs on sale=$7.98
1 x Bayer aspirin 20% wellness disc.=$2.79**
2 x Haribo gummies on sale=$2.00
1 x case Simplify water 20% wellness disc.=$2.79 *not pictured*
SubTotal........$28.56

Coupons Used
2 x $2/1 Gear Deo IPQ(coupons dotcom)=$4.00
2 x $1/1 GE light bulbs(NLA)=$2.00
1 x $1/1 Bayer product ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $2/1 select Bayer item In-AdQ=$2.00
1 x .30/1 Haribo gummies(NLA)=.30
1 x $1/2 Haribo gummies VideoValuesQ=$1.00
Coupon Total......$10.30

$28.56-$10.30=$18.26

I used $16 in +Up Rewards and put $2.26 on the R-A giftcard that had $8.04 from the Dove 'Poo return.

I received back $11 in new +Up Rewards($2 wyb2 Dove, $2 wyb2 Gear, 2 x $3 GE bulbs, $1 Simplify water).

Spent $16 +Ups.
Gained $9 +Ups.($2 Dove ones counted in the last trip.)
Paid $0 OOP.
Brought home items valued at $33.03(again, not counting the Dove 'Poo).

I'll go back on Friday to roll another $4 expiring on the 2nd.

** There is a $2 off In-Ad Q for selected Bayer products this week.
The 36 ct. Bayer 81mg aspirin is $3.49 a package.
If you have the 20% Wellness discount it's $2.79, if you have the 10% Wellness discount it's $3.14.

Pair the $2 In-Ad Q with a ManuQ(12/14 RP insert)/IPQ(coupons dotcom)for $1/1 and pay -.21 with 20% Wellness or .14¢ with 10% Wellness level.  Of course if you have the 20% Wellness discount you'll need to buy something else to cover the negative .21¢.  ;-)

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Eating Out A Lot" Edition..........

 

 

 

We went to Pittsburgh for a few days early last week before Christmas to see our eldest son.  College Boy came with us and got to hang with his brother AND eat his first Primanti's sandwich.  I had to take half of my sandwich back to the hotel! lolz

Onward to the meal planning.....................

What was planned last week--

1.  Dinner Out
2.  Dinner Out

3.  Dinner Out

4.  Chinese Out(Xmas Eve tradition)
5.  Rib Roast with Roasted Veggies, Homemade Rolls, Pumpkin Ravioli w/Sage Butter Sauce

6.  No Clue
7.  Mushroom Risotto, Tossed Salad Greens

 

And this is what actually happened--

1.  Primanti Bros.
2.  Rivertowne Restaurant

3.  Leftovers OR Fend For Yourself

4.  Chinese Out(Xmas Eve tradition)
5.  Rib Roast with Roasted Veggies, Homemade Rolls, Pumpkin Ravioli w/Sage Butter Sauce

6.  Calamari and Leftovers
7.  Spaghetti with Chorizo and Meatballs

We ate out a good bit as we were out of town in Pittsburgh.  Then more Eating Out Christmas Eve.  I cooked Christmas Dinner(I think I cooked 3/4 of the day!). I picked up a chunk of Chorizo sausage and Chicken Thighs for cheap on Xmas eve so we had spaghetti(using the sausage) on Saturday night and the Chicken Thighs will be cooked early this week.
I forgot to make the Calamari for Christmas(!!!)so we had it the night after Xmas.
 

Last week I made 3 trips to 3 different  markets and spent $153.26 on $289.94 worth of groceries.  1 trip to Weis for a Xmas roast and a few things, then a trip to Sam's Club for some stock-up things and then we went to Trader Joe's while in Pittsburgh, mostly to pick up a supply of lobster ravioli(mmmmm)as we can't get that around here.

 

Here is the plan for this week.........

1.  Leftover Roast & Roasted Veggies
2.  Eggplant Parmesan, Salad

3.  Chicken thighs, Veggies and Risotto

4.  Assorted Leftovers
5.  Brats on Rolls, Cabbage, Fried Apples

6.  More Leftovers
7. ?  Don't know yet.....more Leftovers if not already eaten by then

Lots of leftovers to work on but a little bit of new cooking.  The chicken thighs and the eggplant I picked up last week will get prepared.  We already have the brats, cabbage and apples.  I also have half an acorn squash to fit in somewhere and a head of cauliflower to use up.....and fresh mushrooms too.
 

 

What I need to buy for this menu.........nothing.   The plan is not to shop this week, other than milk.


I am up to $440.87 spending for December with 3 days left in the month.
But I do have that Rite-Aid overage in Nov./Dec. and a SavingStar account deposit for 2014 hitting my bank this week.  These will help offset/be applied to my Dec. food/toiletries spending.

 

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?    

Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten that week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week, other than clearance deals on Xmas themed plastic and paper goods?

Sluggy