Well That Didn't Go as Planned!

I broke my Rite-Aid fast on Wednesday.  I had to go up to fill a couple of Rxs so I did a few deals too.
Before going I made sure to load my Rite-Aid Load2Card Qs onto my Wellness card, load a $5 off wyspend $25(after coupons and sale prices)Offer from my Plenti account and activate electronic Qs in my Saving Star account that is attached to my Wellness/Plenti card(s).

Then I bought all this.........

1 x Hot Tamales theater candy box on sale=$1.29
2 x Colgate toothpaste on sale $2.99=$5.98
2 x Dove 'Poo on sale=$7.00
2 x Tresemme 'Poo on sale=$8.00
1 x Pink Eye drops on sale=$7.49
1 x Ring Relief drops on sale-$7.49
1 x Degree men's Deo on sale=$3.99
1 x Axe 'Poo on sale=$3.99
1 x Dove men's body wash on sale=$4.49

SubTotal.....$49.72

Coupons Used

1 x Freebie Hot Tamales Rite-Aid FB Q=$1.29
1 x $1/1 Colgate toothpaste IPQ(coupons dotcom)=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Colgate toothpaste Load2CardQ=$1.00
2 x $2/1 Colgate toothpaste In-Ad sales flyer Q(stacks with the ManuQs/IPQs/L2CQs)=$4.00
1 x $3/2 Dove 'Poo Load2CardQ=$3.00
1 x $5/2 Tresemme 'Poo ManuQ(Sunday's inserts)=$5.00
1 x $2/1 Pink Eye drops IPQ=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Ring Relief drops IPQ=$2.00
1 x $1/1 Degree men's Deo Load2CardQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Axe Poo ManuQ(Sunday's inserts)=$1.00
1 x $2/1 Dove men's body wash Load2CardQ=$2.00

Coupon Total.......$23.29

$49.72-$23.29=$26.43 + .89¢tax=$27.32

I used all $21 worth of Plenti points on this card.

$27.32-$21=$6.32 OOP which was put on my Rite-Aid gift card.

I will receive back in my Saving Star account a check for $8.00(rebates on 2/Dove 'Poo $3, $1 1/Tresemme, $1 1/Degree deo, $1 1/Axe 'Poo, $2 1/Dove body wash), making my OOP now -$1.68.
Yes they are paying me $1.68 to buy all this. 8-)))

In addition I earned more Plenti Points--
$5 worth wyb $15 of select women's Dove/Tresemme items
$3 worth wyb $10 of select men's Dove/Axe items
$20 worth wyb 2 Pink Eye andor Ring Relief items($10 worth for each, limit 2)
$5 worth wyspend $25(after Qs and sale prices)at Rite-Aid on a single transaction

Total Plenti Points earned this transaction---$33 worth
Total Plenti Points spent this transation---$21 worth so I am "up" $12 in points as well as making overage of $1.68 after Saving Star rebates.

Value of items bought in this transaction.....$71.48
Cost OOP(on gift card)....$6.32
Plenti points on card.....$33


Well I went back this morning after my therapy appointment to do the men's Dove/Axe Deal, the women's Dove/Simple Deal and the Colgate toothpaste 1 more time on my son's card.  (I only got 1 tube of toothpaste because I wasn't sure I had a Load2Card Q for a second tube on this card.)  I also did the Pink Eye/Ring Relief Deals once each.

Well between yesterday and today, Rite-Aid changed the amount of points you earn doing the Pink Eye/Ring Relief Deals.

Because what should have earned me back $33 in Pts. only earned me $15 in Pts.
The Pink Eye/Ring Relief only gave back $1 in Points each instead of $10 in Points.  I guess it was suppose to give $1 all along but somebody goofed and they have now corrected this awesome Deal.
Sigh.

So I will be returning those 2 items since I only bought them for the points(don't "need" them but could have donated them if they were free or a moneymaker).

After I return them(and have the Qs I used deducted)my OOP put on the gift card will be $7.09.
I suppose they will also deduct the $2 in Plenti pts. from this account for the return, which is only right, so this card will have $13 in points on it instead of the $15 in points it now has.  I  used $12 in points to buy all this so I will still be "up" $1 in points.  Being $21 "up" in points on this card would have been nicer. lolz

Plus since I bought different items in those 2 men's Dove/Axe and women's Dove/Simple Deals with Saving Star rebates on them from the items in my first transaction(except for the Dove men's body wash), I'll also receive $6.50 in more Saving Star rebates for this transaction(.50¢ Axe, $1 Dove men's deo, $2 Simple cleaner, $1.50 Dove dry spray deo, $1.50 Dove women's deo).

Take that $6.50 and deduct it from what I paid on the gift card, $7.09, and all the items in this transaction cost me .55¢(plus I received $1 in points above what I spend in points).

Still a very good haul but not the blockbuster point maker I thought I was going to have.  ;-)

Value of items bought in this transaction.....$45.33
Cost OOP(on gift card)after I make the return.... .55¢
Plenti points on card.....$13(or $15 if they don't yank those $2 in points for the return)

Outcome for both cards/transactions
Total "spent" put on gift card--$13.41
Total value of items--$116.81
Plenti Points used--33,000($33)
Plenti Points earned--46,000($46)
Saving Star Rebates earned--$14.50

OOP spending total..... -$1.09(moneymaker overage)
Points are "up".........$13

Overall this was worth doing.

Next week at Rite-Aid there is nothing that is free or a great cheap deal so I won't be darkening their doors.
I have one rx that needs refilling at Kmart next week that I might transfer to Rite-Aid which will earn me $25 in Plenti Points(There is a refill/points Q in this week's ad that is good until 10/10 you can use to get free points).  Why not, right?.....after all, $15 in free stuff is $25 in free stuff! lolz

Sluggy


 

A Weis Quickie Yesterday

The sales ad was ending tonight so I made a quick trip to Weis to get 2 more whole chickens for .87¢ lb. as we never see a price that low on fresh whole chickens.
While there I picked up a few other things--more Jiffy mix, spaghetti sauce, bakery bread, a discounted meat and a cuke.  Everything I bought was at least on sale........

2 x whole Chickens=$9.67
2 x FR spaghetti sauce=$1.94
2 x Jif cornbread mix=$1.20
1 x cucumber=$1.00
1 x sourdough bread 50% off=$1.69
1.27 lb. 85% ground beef w/$3 discount sticker=$4.23
Sub Total..........$19.73

I have 2 Weis Qs to use---
.25¢/1 cuke=.25¢
.75¢/1lb. ground beef=.75¢(beef came out to $2.74 lb. after all the discounts)

$1.00 total in Qs brought my total down to $18.73
(There was no tax on anything I bought.)

I used that free $10 Weis gift card I received for that disaster transaction/cashier event earlier in the month so I paid $8.73 OOP for all this.

$38.44 worth of regular retail items.
Saved $19.71 for a 51% savings rate............

But since the gift card was FREE I saved $29.71on this order, or a savings rate of 77.29%!  8-)


New sales ad starts today at Weis so what's on my list to Buy this week, you ask?

Definitely cottage cheese(Weis brand)at $1.99 a container, 1 box of San Giorgio pasta for .67¢(as I have a .25¢ Weis Q to use for it making the price .42¢), perhaps some Hunt's tomato products if the Buy One, Get Two Free sale makes them a low price(and if I can find some Qs for them mores the better!)and a container of Half & Half for $1.99.
That's what is planned but you never know what kind of meat/produce/bakery specials will turn up when I am at the store that will loosen my grip on the wallet.  ;-)


Sluggy

The Retirement Meeting

Hubs and I had a big sit-down over all the retirement money stuff in August.
We got all our numbers set down on paper in one place and went over the options.  This took about 3 hours but was well worth the time to get everything gathered and all the information hashed-out.
It was our big reality check moment after so many years of working our plan.

First off the medical insurance stuff--
Once Hubs retires we need to buy our own insurance until Medicare kicks in at 65 years.
Hubs company puts money into a retiree medical savings account each year for him to pay for medical bills once he retires(in lieu of a retiree medical pension plan). This money is in addition to any money the employer and employee contribute to the HSA account each year until he leaves the company, which by then will be another small pot of money to pay these expenses from.

We've figured that the best plan once he leaves his job is the pay for COBRA coverage for the 18 months after his retirement date, then buy a High Deductible Health Plan(HDHP)for the 34 months after COBRA eligibility expires until he reaches Medicare age(plus we'd have to keep paying for the HDHP for another 8 months for me alone until I reach Medicare age too).

When the time comes to pay for the COBRA we'll explore the cost of ACA plans-if this current system is still in place- instead of COBRA and will choose whichever is less money for equal coverage.

Then we both are on Medicare and the fun begins on figuring out which plans beyond Part A & B we need to buy.
Fun. Fun. Fun.

At this point in time, that medical retiree savings account has almost enough to cover premiums for buying coverage until Medicare time fully.
We project it will be just under $7K short for our needs.  That's not a problem for us to cover that bit with personal savings or use whatever is in the HSA to cover this piece of the premiums we will be short.

On to the retirement savings--
We have 2 separate "retirement" accounts.
One is the cash balance account(what replaced the company's pension plan).
The other is our 401K containing what we've socked away over the years from his pay.

There are 3 options on the cash balance account--
1. take it as a lump sum and invest it, drawing down as we need funds to live on and if needed, continue to draw it down once Social Security kicks in.
2. Buy an annuity that's "grandfathered". (A portion of his money is grandfathered, meaning it's earning at a higher rate as it was the cash in his pension account before his company went to a cash balance plan.)
3. Buy an annuity that separates the 2 parts of the cash balance money.

Option 1--
We ran the numbers and if we take out the lump sum we may run out of that money in 18 years unless we invest it in riskier parts of the stock market.

Now if interest rates do head up before we have to decide in 3 years, we could take the lump sum and not need to put it into riskier places and NOT run through it in 18 years.
So depending on what happens in 3 years with the economy option 1 "might" work if market conditions change for the better.

Option 2 & 3--
He works in this field(retirement/insurance)so he gets a special, better rate if he buys an annuity.
Of those 2 options, Hubs wants to take out an annuity with the cash balance monies that doesn't separate the two parts(grandfathered/non-grandfathered).  We ran the numbers between the 2 annuity options and combining the monies version gives us more income.

Since he plans to retire the end of the year in which he turns 60 this annuity has 2 different payout rates--one for the 4 years/3 months before he turns 65 and one which is $755 less per month after he reaches 65 until his death.
That's a yearly drop of $9K a year from what we'd collect for the 4+  years before he turns 65.
I don't quite understand why this is set-up like this.  It could be that the powers that be who concocted this scheme give you more until your Social Security kicks in since that will cover some of your expenses.
But for now Option 2 is the plan for that money.

Now since Hubs is retiring before he plans to collect Social Security at his designated full retirement age of 66 yrs. 10 mos. we'd have to live on this annuity amount alone which isn't our idea of an optimum situation.  It "might" be enough but it might not be and at this point we can't tell which way it would go.

So Hubs wants to drawdown on our 401K funds until we start collecting SS.  The 401K monies after he leaves his job will stay invested in the account they are currently in.  It has a guaranteed rate of return of at least 3.5% per year but we've been seeing 7-8% during this Recession, meaning we could see better returns in the future(or not)but it won't go less than 3.5%.  This money is NOT in the stock market and won't see much if any losses over the years if we keep it where it is invested now.

If we withdraw $30K a year for 7 years we will still have 77% of the balance we started with in that account after 7 years.  Even though we would have taken out almost half of what we had in there, because of the interest it continues to earn it will only deplete the account to the tune of 23% of it's value.

Once Social Security kicks in, the 401K monies stop being tapped and we will live only on the annuity amount and Hubs SS check amount.
This SS and annuity amount will be slightly more than the annuity and savings drawdown amount we lived on for the 2 years preceding that date(but still almost $8K less than the annuity and savings drawdown amount from the first 4 years after he leaves employment).

This all means we'll have about $8-$9K per year more to live on during the first 4+ years after he leaves his job and then a pretty even amount to live on once he hits 65 years old and beyond.

So here is the financial snapshot once Hubs starts collecting SS---
We'll have what is left in the 401K after the drawdown before SS kicks in(over $350K), all this cash savings I've been able to tuck away from our take-home pay since 2009(projected to be about $150K by end of 2015 plus whatever I can add to that in the next 3 years by 2018).
Add that all to the monthly payments we'll be receiving---between the annuity and Hubs SS we'll have over $6K a month "income" and once my pitiful little SS checks start it will be over $7K a month coming in.

I think we can manage to live on $7K a month plus a half a million $ nest egg we can tap.  8-)

Plus we'll have lower living expenses(hopefully)overall and a paid for house in retirement and it's looking mighty fine for us.  8-)

The only bleak part is that if Hubs dies before me.

The annuity goes down by half and his SS payments go away.
If I am not collecting SS when this happens I'll get almost his full SS benefit amount(as a surviving spouse)until I am SS eligible, then my SS payments will drop by half. 

Once I start collecting SS it will be half of what he was collecting in benefits so at that point I'll have almost half of what we had together to live on in my old age.

I doubt if Hubs will go before me since he is by a wide margin the healthier of us two, but if something happens to him I am half screwed as far as the income is concerned. 8-(

Hopefully, if that scenario comes to pass, we will still have a substantial amount in our savings account to supplement my income, but we are also considering continuing a small amount of life insurance on Hubs(if it's not ridiculously expensive by then).

If widowed I could downsize my living situation or get a roommate/housemate to help with living expenses and knowing me, I'd find a way to live cheaper.  8-)

Otherwise my future as a widow will mean living with one of my kids.
I had better be nicer to them, don't you think?  ;-)

Now we just have to figure out WHERE we are going to retire to as we are not staying here.
Once Hubs retires at the end of the year he turns 60, College Boy will be finished with school(in May of that year)so we don't need to be living in PA any longer for either Hubs job or CB's in-state tuition rate, so we will be free to relocate anywhere in the country where we want to live.
That part, the deciding where to live in retirement part, is a lot harder and will take more researching and planning.
And where we land may depend on where our kids are at that time, especially if any of them have kids by then.

This money stuff was easy by comparison....... ;-)

How are your retirement plans going?
Do you have a handle on where you are financially in regard to where you want to be at retirement?
Are you close enough to run the numbers yet on possible scenarios in retirement?

Sluggy

Monday Grocery Shopping Videos

So I went up to Weis(PMITA)Markets on Monday for my main grocery trip for the week.

I got so much it couldn't all fit on top of the freezer for a photo shot so I did two short-ish films.

First what I went to get(what was on my list) is located HERE.

Then the rest of what I bought is located HERE.

$61.42 spent on $106.64 of retail price goods.
A savings rate over retail of 42% and I used not a single coupon either.
It just goes to show how you can buy meat and get a good deal if you focus on buying on sale and/or clearance foods.

I got enough meat for at least 10 meals for 2.  Not a bad haul with all that meat, right?

Sluggy



 

This Week on the Dining Table

It's the "The Fun and Eating is Over for Another Year" Edition--

 

This is my brother holding his now empty pan of ribs.
The family reunion picnic has come and gone for another year.

Onward to the meal planning!

 

Here's what was planned last week.......
 

1. Sunday--Beef Stroganoff, Mixed Beans & Carrots(Noodles for Hubs)
2. Monday--Fend for Yourself Night
3. Tuesday--Chicken n' Dumplings w/Carrots
4. Wednesday--Fend for Yourself Night
5. Thursday--Leftovers-Stroganoff, Chicken filling from Tacos, Chicken n' Dumplings
6. Friday--Eating Out
7. Saturday--Eating Out

 

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Beef Stroganoff, Mixed Beans & Carrots(Noodles for Hubs)
2. Monday--Fend for Yourself Night-I have a big salad
3. Tuesday--Chicken n' Dumplings w/Carrots
4. Wednesday--Fend for Yourself Night-I had leftover Stroganoff and Veggies
5. Thursday--Subway sandwiches
6. Friday--Asian dining out
7. Saturday--Italian dining out

Not much cooking as we were going away and we tried to eat up all the stuff that would go bad while we were traveling this past weekend.
 

As for my grocery spending last week......a half gallon of milk, a small trip to Weis for deals and a bag of biscuit flour while in VA at the Food Lion took my weekly grocery spending to $17.21 for a monthly total so far this month of $141.23(plus the .87¢ I've spent at Rite-Aid this month).
I have $207.90 left in the food budget for September, which ends on Wednesday.

Leftovers going into this week....beef stroganoff and chicken and dumplings(I'm having that for breakfast Monday and Tuesday).  I also have half of my Sunday dinner sandwich leftover to have Monday for lunch.
 

Here is this week's food plan--

1. Sunday--Eating Out while traveling-I had a Roast Beef Panini and Salad
2. Monday--Leftover Beef Stroganoff, Veggie TBD
3. Tuesday--Ribs, Yellow Squash and Onions
4. Wednesday--Smoked Chicken, Smoked Potato Salad, Smoked Apples
5. Thursday--Fish, leftover veggies, cheddar broccoli soup
6. Friday--Leftovers
7. Saturday--Leftovers


What I need to buy for this menu?......ribs, chicken and apples which are on sale and I'll pick up today.  I will be smoking meat(and potatoes)Tuesday we will eat the rest of the week.  A fish dish will break up the smoked meat festival. lolz  I'll make a new smoked apple dessert on Wednesday too so stay tuned for that recipe late in the week.
I'll need to pick up more milk and salad greens(for me for lunches this week).

I have plenty of money left for September to buy meat and then on Thursday we roll over into a new month's worth of food money.

I'll also make the broccoli soup this week.  Later this week it's suppose to stay in the 60's(for highs)so that soup will be welcomed warmth. 8-)

 

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? 

Sluggy