Ok, I love having people enter these giveaways(that's why I hold them, right? )
One tiny requirement is that when you enter I have a way to contact you if you win.
I see a lot of you entering but don't either.....
A-put your email into your comment
OR
B-email me your email privately
OR
C-have your email addy available on your Blogger member page that is linked to your comment.
OR
D-if you have a blog on a platform other than Blogger and you don't have your email addy listed on that blog.
If you don't have a Blogger account and your entry name hyperlink takes me to your Google circles page please be aware that I can't see your email on your Google page.
Please check to see if your comment either has an email addy or takes me somewhere I can find your email.
If it doesn't, you can't win.
I am NOT spending my time trying to hunt the winner down.
Make sure I can email you because if I can't, I'll pick another name.
After the trips to Target and the Bakery Outlet on Monday I finally set my menu for the cook-out on the 4th--
burgers(have)
hot dogs(have)
rolls(have)
leftover smoked bbq chicken(have)
smoke bbq ribs(have)
pasta salad(need stuff)
chips and dips(need stuff)
roasted corn on the cob(need)
cherry cheesecake pie(need stuff)
zucchini bread(have)
soda(have)
tea(have)
lemonade(have)
seltzer(need)
condiments(have)
With that in mind I hit the food stores yesterday......
A quickie at Dollar Tree(nothing for the picnic but stuff we need/use)
2 x Pot Stickers=$2.00
2 x taco shells=$2.00
2 x salad dressing=$2.00
2 x Fudgsicles=$2.00
2 x Hormel pepperoni packs=$2.00
1 x Palmolive dish soap=$1.00
SubTotal....$11.06(tax on the dish soap)
I used--
1 x .75/2 Kraft dressing ManuQ=.75¢
1 x .25¢/1 Palmolive IPQ=.25¢
1 x $1/2 Hormel pepperoni IPQ=$1.00
Coupon Total.....$2.00
$11.06-$2=$9.06 OOP
I also had a $1/2 Ortega taco shells IPQ but it beeped so the cashier wouldn't take it. I might have waited on the taco shell purchase but they were still a good deal at $1 a box rather than .50¢ a box.
I also hit a low priced produce market on the way home that I don't go to often. It is always so busy and you usually can't get a parking space, but on Wednesday I did.....
2 x 3lbs. Onions $1.49 ea.=$2.98
1 x Celery bunch=.99¢
Total....$3.97 OOP
I was down to my last 2 onions and needed more.
The celery will go into my macaroni salad for the cookout on the 4th.
Then it was off to Weis(PMITA)Markets for other needs for my cookout menu.
I won't bore you with photos and the long laundry list but everything I bought was on sale or a loss leader this week.
For the cookout I bought 2 chips($1.77), 2 cukes($1), 3 peppers($1), 2 cool whip($1) and 2 graham cracker pie crusts($1). I have the other ingredients to make 2 cherry cheesecake pies for the picnic.
The soda was 5 for $12 at Weis so even though I bought soda at Target earlier this week, I bought 5 more 12 packs. Included in the soda was Polar brand seltzer so I got 2 of those amongst the 5 packs. Plus II had a $1/2 Polar packs ManuQ so my 5 packs came to $11 instead.
Non-cookout needs I also picked up......1 sirloin steak sticker discounted to $3.33(almost a full lb. of meat), 2 bags of fresh veggies 50% off(for tonight's dinner), a jar of Vlasic pickles ($1 after Q), 2 bags of Croutons(.75¢ ea. after Q), 2 gallon jugs of zero peach Arizona tea(my favorite)for $1.77 ea.(I may go back for more of those as it NEVER goes this low!).
Rounding out the bill was 1 bottle of Sparkling Ice brand soda(on sale for $1 and I'll get that back as it's the full refund item on Saving Star this week)and 4 bananas(with will get me 20% of that purchase back at Saving Star this week as well).
Spend $41.91(.72¢ tax)and saved $42.53 with sales/Qs so just over a 50% savings rate.
Except for more tea and the corn I need to pick up on Friday or Saturday morning I am done shopping for the week. I am up to $62 + change spent for July at this point($25 of which was purely for the cookout).
I got a bag of these chips at Weis for when eldest son gets here.....
They are made with hot sauce made with beer.....two of his favorite things! lolz
I need to hide them for another week+ as he is suppose to be here next Friday.
Next week I have my eye surgery and then eldest son arrives that weekend so I won't be food shopping much at all next week. I foresee a few nights of take-out while I am out of commission if no one else steps up and cooks.
How is your shopping going this week?
How much do you spend on July 4th picnics?
Do you buy ahead on sale for some of your picnic needs?
We are $8,020.85 up from last month's net worth(only cash/investments, as I don't count housing or car values).
We are also $116,641.04 up from July 1st of 2014 net worth.
Yeah, I especially like that latter one. ;-)
Love me some good ol' compounding interest on large sums of money, ya know? lolz
I am frantically trying to get those old trip reports finished up so I can start on our road trip from May 2015 to Louisiana.
Here's the first installment from the Fall 2014 vacation. After this one is completed I am all caught up.
Yay!
8-)
We left for our October Ocean City getaway on Sunday Oct. 12th. We usually start these trips on a Sunday as the hotel rates go down on Sunday.
As usual we made our stop at Total Wine & More in Delaware once we got over the line from Philly.
This year we had $100 in gift cards from Christmas presents to use...woohoo!
The new growler filling station while I waited for my fill of McKenzie's pumpkin cider.
That's my growler in the "transporter tube"........looks like Scotty is going to beam it up! lolz
We still spent $126+ more after the gift cards........
If nothing else, let me be accused of commitment......
Since we had to go through Rehoboth area Hubs let me take a little detour to Lewes.
Lewes is the first town in Delaware, founded in 1631, as a whaling and trading center by the Dutch. It was named Zwaanendael(Dutch for Swan Valley). The local Native Lenape tribes wiped it out in 1632 and it wasn't until 1662 that the Dutch began rebuilding, this time with a group of Mennonite settlers.
At any rate, this town has been around a long time.
Besides being a very early settlement area for European immigrants it is also the site of one of the first Presbyterian Churches in American.
In 1683 the Presbytery in Laggan, Scotland sent Rev. Francis Makemie to American to found the first congregation on the Eastern Shore. Makemie is considered the "Father of Presbyterian Faith" in America.
One of his young ministers named Samuel Davis was sent to Lewes in 1692 to form a congregation there. A wooden church was erected in 1707 and is thought to be the 2nd Presbyterian church built in America. A bit after Davis the second minister to head this church, Reverend John Thomson, was sent to Lewes to lead this congregation. Thomson was responsible for rebuilding the church(after a fire)during his tenure there from 1717-1729.
Rev. John Thomson was my 7th great grandfather.
I found out a few years back from digging into the family genealogy about my connection to Rev. Thomson. We are connected through my mother's maternal grandmother, Lucy Baker Vassar.
If you'll recall this photo I shared recently of 4 generations of my maternal line before me, Lucy is in the middle. The connection to Rev. Thomson veers off to the paternal line pre-Lucy(her mother Lou Foster's husband Patrick Henry Baker).
Anyway turns out John Thomson was rather a big deal back in the 1700's Presbyterian Church movement in America. But we'll go into that another day, when I am feeling the genealogical pull.
While the brick church Rev. Thomson built no longer stands(it was demolished in 1871)the church built to replace it in 1832 by Rev. Mitchelmore still stands.
And you know it just had to get a photo of it.....
Even though it was Sunday afternoon the place was locked up tight so no poking around inside on this day. I guess Presbyterians are early worshippers.....
After that detour we were about famished for lunch, so we hit something along Route 1 leading into Rehoboth for lunch.
We had always wanted to stop here.....
A fish and chips British spot called "Go Brit!"
The menu is limited but good and fresh.
The don't do much but what they do, they do well.
We were quite happy with our lunch(even with the price of $31 and if you've been to this area you KNOW restaurants are insanely expensive!) and the décor inside was funky to boot.
We didn't plan on going back north to Rehoboth during this trip like we did last year so we hit the 2 large liquor stores in Rehoboth along the way to OC.
Here's my de rigeur selfie with the display of FREAK SHOW wine bottles......
This new "tradition" all started last July in Wisconsin at Woodman's.........
Being so close to Halloween I appreciated the play on words of this pack of beer.....lol
After getting to the hotel around 6pm we set out to get a little something to eat and find some drinks in OC.
The Ocean City Brewing Company along the main drag in OC had opened that year.
Hubs got a flight served in this clever surfboard holder.
I got a dark brew, my usual "go-to", a stout called Lost Soul's Stout. A shipwreck/seashore themed beer.....
They had quite the selection of beers....
I liked my selection. It went well with the meatball sub special I had for dinner though they tried to overcharge us for it.
Hubs really like this Nuckin' Futs selection and got a glass of it after his flight.
OC Brewing was large and quite noisy with a sports bar feel. TVs everywhere and nothing on but sports! Not great on atmosphere.
The front of the building was a huge gift shop selling all kinds of crap, as well as pre-filled growlers of brews.
All the tchotchkes were way over priced(as is most stuff in OC)so I didn't buy anything.
This shirt was clever however it stayed in the store and didn't come home with me. 8-)
The next morning when we went out I saw this raccoon flying from someone's car arial. Very strange......
So we headed back to Assateague Island on our first full day of vacation.
Not being in a wheelchair this year was great! I got to walk along the shore at the beach this time.....
It was a very windy, gray and chilly day. I had to yell to get Hubs to hear me thanks to the wind and the roar of the surf.
I walked into the ocean barefoot. Though it was cold it felt great!
I was raised by the ocean and the smell of the salty air at the shore energizes me. Maybe it has something to do with the ion charged atmosphere too.
Hubs was bundled up tight and couldn't wait to get back to the car.
After we left the parking lot, we spied a group of ponies in the roadway tying up what little traffic there was.
They tell you to give the ponies their space for a reason folks.
These are wild animals and though they look docile enough they will kick you if you get too close to their hind end business and they will bite too.
I prefer to use the zoom on my camera and give these critters a wide berth.
Enjoy this film clip I took of the ponies, especially the part where I am muttering under my breath at the assholes getting too close to a couple of them.....lol......
And here is the pony that was on my side of the roadway making up her mind whether she wants to cross the road.....or not.....
A horse in the roadway didn't keep some idiots in cars from zooming past. Slow down how about it?!?
I am shocked more tourists aren't injured and more ponies killed during the Season.
After our excursion to the Island(and I didn't take a single photo of horse crap on the side of the roads either!) we stopped first at a gas/convenience store........
We stopped not for gas but because they had a giant rooster standing outside.
And you know that rooster are a "chick magnet".......even for this human chick.....lol
And then we stopped at a touristy spot(closed down for the season)along the road on the way back to West OC.
Because they had a giant shark.....and this is what I do-pose with things.
Help! I'm being et by Jaws......
While IN West OC we went to Sav-A-Lot over in Berlin to stock up on some groceries.
I loved the name of this tea.....Deja Tea.......I get the feeling I have drank this before.....lolz
They even had crab chips in Sav-A-lot.....
My Daughter who is a fan of bizarre chip flavors(her fav being Clam Chips we found in Maine years ago)would have liked these.....
Then it was time to stop at our favorite haunt nearby, Burley Oak Brewing......
We had a couple of brews before heading back to the hotel.
Someone else sitting at the bar had brought his puppy along.....
I went over to her and started petting her since she looked so forlorn and forgotten. She was a true Bassett Hound because she rolled over and gave me the "full frontal belly" profile so I could rub her properly. lolz
After that she kept trying to get over to my side of the bar for more rubs. and kept giving me those sad Bassett eyes. What a sweetie!
Then back to OC for an early dinner at a pub called "Coins". It was too early for their dinner specials so we ordered off the lunch menu. I had a bowl of cream of crab soup and a salad with blue cheese and walnuts. Both were surprisingly good! Hubs had a soft shell crab sandwich with fries which he gave a thumbs down-ish to. Food and 2 iced teas and tip we were $38.98 poorer.
Imagine if we had ordered off the dinner menu!?!
Now do y'all see what I am saying about how overpriced restaurants are down in OC?
At least this place the seafood was fresh and the ingredients high quality. I don't mind paying for GOOD food.
We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening with a short walk along the boardwalk, something small fixed in the room's kitchen and some drinks and ocean watching on the balcony.
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 or these other categories.
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 an interest bearing Savings Challenge account.
For 2015 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge. I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $28,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.
On to the June report.....
I have posted my May End of Month $28K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the Savings Challenge page tab at the top of the blog for the specific numbers HERE.
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 $2,333.33.
I have to report that we finished up June with a smaller amount of leftover cash.
The extra amount we ended the month of June with?.......$1,369.37
Income
We had $1,143.02 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Other monies received in June totaled $226.35. This included interest made on non-retirement accounts, 2 dividend checks and a per diem from Hub's work.
This brought us to our gain of $1,369.37
Since we have no debt, this goes into savings.
Outgo
As for the expenses this June, here are the good and the bad side of things....
HERE are the GOOD THINGS
* Phone charges, internet and electricity were approximately the same as last month.
* Cash withdrawals went down a crazy $936.52 from May's total. Vacation $ mostly.
HERE are the BAD THINGS
.
* The credit card bill was $2,445.89 higher(May's trip expenses).
* We had a car repair of $441.61 on College Boy's vehicle.
* Water bill went up by $7.16
* Gas card bill went up by $87.27(May's trip).
The Food Budget costs for June are in another post, which is located HERE .
The 2015 TOTAL.....
With 6 months accounted for, our Savings Challenge Grand Total for 2015 is $18,797.36. That averages $3,132.89 a month put into savings so far.
We have left $9,202.64 to put away this year to reach our $28K Goal.
With $18797.36 saved already we only need to put away $1,533.77 each of the next 6 months to reach the $28K goal for the year and that's highly doable for us. ;-)
THOUGHTS going forward into July----
No irregular bills coming in July, which is good.
The only trip planned this month is a 2 day apartment hunting excursion to VA so a few extra bills(hotel, gas, food out) for that.
There are eye surgery co-pays and prescription co-pays which I will pay for OOP instead of the HSA in July which should amount to about $300+/-. Hubs also has some eye issues and co-pays this month which I don't have a handle on the amount yet.
We are having a cook-out picnic for July 4th, then the eldest son will be home for a bit later in the month, so there will be extra food/drink spending in July(but I am stocked up on many items for this so I don't anticipate going over my food budget this month).
With 6 months behind us we have $18,797.36 down and $9202.64 left to save in 2015.
So how was your June financially?
Did you spend less than the income you had in June?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
What did you do with any money leftover at the end of the month?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings, in an emergency fund or a retirement account?
Or did you blow it on a want?
If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check out your progress too and celebrate or commiserate with you!
