Can It Be?....More Weis This Week??

New sales ad started on Thursday and I went over to Weis(PMITA)Markets since Thursday is still the day here to check for Produce, Bakery and Meat markdown stickers.
Let's just say I hit the meaty motherlode!

Here are the most exciting parts of my trip.......

Weis facial tissue was marked down to $1 per box and I had a .25¢ off WeisQ so that was .75¢.
The Tribe hummus big tubs were marked 1/2 Off so $2.99 for that.
I wanted to see if the $1/1 Angel Soft coupons dotcom would work on the Angel Soft packs for $3.87 this week at Weis.  It did so I got that TP for $2.87 and it counts toward the $5 Angel Soft Rebate on SavingStar...woohoo!

Then I hit meat gold.

This variety of a local PA meat company's bacon, honey cured lower sodium, had $3 instant discount stickers on it as they are coming cose to their sell by date.
This Kunzler bacon runs $6.49 a package at our Weis but it just came on sale Thursday for $6 a package.
With those $3 off stickers it made this bacon $3 a package.
Can I get an Amen for cheap bacon?!? ;-)
I "only" bought 6 packages....yes I left a few for others.

The 2 Johnsonville Beef Brats were on sale for $3.50 this week and had $2 off stickers on them, so cost me $1.50 each for Beef Brats.
The 4 Hillshire Farms Cheddar Wurst Brats were on sale for $3 this week and also had $2 off stickers on them, so cost me $1.00 per package.

This order with other items included(and everything bought was on sale)came to $42.83 for $100.46 worth of reg. retail food.  $65.48 of that reg. retail was meat.

A 57% savings rate for all.

I went back to Weis today to get more Angel Soft toward the SS Rebate, get a Friday only Deal or two(ground beef and chicken)and to see if I could find anymore instant meat discount stickers.

And I spent another $34.55 on more groceries and saved 60%.....

I made a little video for this trip and maybe putting it up before the Friday Deals Sale ends today at Weis others can get in on them except YouTube too so long to upload this but there ya go......



I've spent more than 1/3 of my December grocery budget so far but if I can get awesome deals I am ok with it.


Sluggy

$28K Savings Challenge.....November 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 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 November report.....

I have posted my November 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 November with a Large amount leftover.
The extra amount we ended the month of November with?.......$4362.03

Income

We had $4085.11 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.

Other monies received in November totaled $276.92.  This included interest made on non-retirement accounts and blogging revenue.

This brought us to our gain of $4,362.03
Since we have no debt, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  Phone charges and internet were approximately the same as last month.
*  The cash withdrawals were the same amount as in October.
*  The water bill was down another $8.38 from October.
*  The electric bill was only up $39.97 from last month.  With electric heat this is an amazing total for heat and lights, etc. for November in northern, mountainous PA.
*  The credit card was only up $38.05.  Seeing as it's the Holidays that practically being the same as last month.  ;-)
*  The medical co-pay bills went down by $718.64 in November.

HERE are the BAD THINGS(and the not so bad)
.
*  The gas card bill went up $49.03 from last month.
*  There were two irregular bill expenses--two store credit card bills totaling $185.35 which were paid in full.

The Bad List was nice and short this month.  8-)

The Food Budget costs for November are in another post, which is located  HERE.  I stayed under my $300 budgeted amount(on this report grocery money comes out of "Cash")on that expense.
Plus I included some spending for the Food Bank donation in those monies so a Win/Win.

November was a fairly inexpensive month for us, but not the least expensive for 2015. Cheapest bill month's for us so far in 2015 are July, November, February and April from 1st to 4th respectively. These are typically the months we don't pay the irregular expenses in so that makes perfect sense, right? ;-)

The 2015 TOTAL.....
With 11 months accounted for, our Savings Challenge Grand Total for 2015 is $38,451.79.
That savings amount averages $3,495.61 a month put into savings so far. 

We have well surpassed our $28K Savings Goal by $10K+ at this point in the year.
And there is one more month left to save some more though I don't expect to be able to shove much more into my goal for 2015 since we need to keep some of the December savings in reserve to put toward high medical deductibles which reset in January.  8-(
It would be "nice" however to be able to sock away another $1,548.21 into the 2015 Savings Challenge in December.  That would give us a total of $40 Thousand saved this year.
I like nice round figures, don't you? 8-)

Final thoughts on November---
More monthly bills were down rather than up this month and we kept our usual monthly costs fairly low.  Not bare bones low but still pretty low.

THOUGHTS going forward into December----

I'll have a $467+ co-pay from my first cataract surgery to pay as the insurance company finally sent the dr. a payment leaving me on the hook for another $467+. sigh.  But this is the last of the cataract surgery bills and I am NOT looking back! lolz
Same eye doctor's office screwed up Hubs bill which came last week to the tune of a $185 overcharge.  It is suppose to be about $31. Yikes!  The billing department was contacted and they are sending out a new invoice with the correct amount.  But still that's almost $500 more in medical co-pays(over and above our usual prescription & DME co-pays for a month)that are due in December plus about $40 in Physical Therapy co-pays which the bill for the PT should be arriving soon too.

As for the holidays, most everything is already bought and paid for, from gifts to traveling arrangements and will appear on the December c/c statement and then I need to write a few checks.
The credit card bill is paid in full each cycle so there will be no January c/c hangover nor any interest paid on any Holiday gifts.

With 11 months behind us we have surpassed our savings goal in 2015 by a wide margin!
Even so, I am NOT letting up on socking cash away for the last 1 month of the year.  Expenses in December should be about average for us so we will have some leftover money come Dec. 31st.

But with the 2016 high medical deductibles kicking in Jan. 1st I am unsure how much we'll be able to put toward the Savings Challenge in December.  I like to carryover at least $1K of any leftover $ from December into January to put toward those insurance costs.  I am guessing I'll have about $1000? more to put toward the Savings Challenge next month.  Not sure but come back next month to see how it turned out.

So how was your November financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in November?
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!

Sluggy

December 2015 Net Worth Snapshot

December 1 Net Worth Snapshot

We are $10,117.81 up from last month's net worth(only liquid cash/investments, as I don't count housing or car values).  Over $4K of that if due to savings put away in December from our household accounts.  The other half of the uptick is from our retirement/investment accounts.

We are also $125,000  up from one year ago, the December 1st of 2014 net worth.

Once Hubs retires I will miss these little monthly look backs, when we move from acquisition mode with money to spend-down mode. ;-)


Sluggy

The Other Side of the Food Budget

While I budgeted $300 for food/toiletries spending in November there is the "other" food spending every month.

The Eating Out spending.
Except for what Hubs spends at work on lunches(which he pays for out of his WAM=Walking Around Money)this amount includes all ready made foods/drinks from convenience store snacks/drinks to take-out foods to restaurant meals.

I like to keep it at $100 per month or less, unless we are taking a trip(s).  Trips always involve eating out spending(unless someone else is feeding us and that doesn't happen often).

In November we spent $79.90 on regular Eating Out and $33.00 Eating Out while on a trip.  Picking up College Boy last month meant an overnight stay in his college town and we took him out for dinner.
Luckily this trip was only a few hours so we left after lunch and the motel included breakfast in our room charge so there was only 1 meal out while away from home for all of November.

Combined total for Eating Out in November came to $112.90.  Below target for the regular Eating Out but a bit over with the trip meal.

I have a tab HERE where I have been tracking out Eating Out in 2015.
We are up to $2859.47 spent on this category so far for the year.

You can clearly see by looking at the monthly subtotals when we made trips this year.
Dang we were gone a LOT, weren't we? lolz

Keeping it under $3K for 2015 will be tight as we are off again on a short trip later this month so there will be more money spent on meals away from home.  I'll be lucky if we stay under $500 in December for trip meals.

I read that in 2012, the average American spent 4.5% of their income per year on meals away from home.  That seems like a LOT of money to me as a percentage of income to be spending on eating out.  I feel better that we are WAY under that for our income level.
I feel that if you aren't neglecting putting enough $ toward other categories of spending which are more of a priority in life(like rent/mortgage, utilities, retirement savings, etc.)then it's aok to spending on eating out if that gives you pleasure.


There's an interesting article HERE on Bloomberg Business online about how earlier this year Americans' spending on eating out surpassed their spending at the grocery store for the first time since this sort of thing has been tracked.

They hint that this new normal in spending can be chalked up to the Millennial Generation and how they spend compared to how Boomers and Gen Xers have spent.  Millennials appear to be freer with their cash on categories like cell phones, car purchases, clothing and eating out.  They also pay a larger proportion of their income to rent/mortgage as well.  It seems that they may have more uncommitted cash than Boomers especially if they are NOT saving-for home purchases, emergency funds or for retirement.  Typically 25-34 year olds aren't as "into" saving mode yet for the biggies in life nor do they have the burden of supporting children.

Do you track your Eating Out spending and/or do you budget for it?

Sluggy

Food & Toiletries Spending........November Update

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for NOVEMBER 2015.

I have posted November's totals on the Total Grocery Savings for 2015 Page located HERE and have updated the Yearly Totals there.  I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in November.  If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom for the Totals Sum.  My spending includes Food, Toiletries/HBA, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable. We are a family of 3(2-3 at home this month). No kids under 19.

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

BAKERY OUTLET
OOP  $21.00
Value $88.80
Savings  76.35%

BIG LOTS
OOP  $10.90
Value  $18.50
Savings 41.08%

BOYER'S
OOP  $12.85
Value  $18.69
Savings 31.25%

MAINE SOURCE
OOP  $29.68
Value  $50.50
Savings  41.23%

OLLIE'S
OOP  $6.99
Value  $16.95
Savings  58.76%

RITE-AID
OOP  $0.05
Qs/Ads/gift card $677.79
Value  $677.84
Savings  99.99%

SHURSAVE MARKET
OOP  $36.34
Qs/Ads $30.79
Value  $67.13
Savings  45.86%

TARGET
OOP  $0.00
Value  $61.99
Savings  100%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $178.15

Qs/Ads  $230.00

Value  $408.15

Savings  56.35%

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Target  at 100%,  Rite-Aid at 99.99% and the Bakery Outlet at 76.35%.  My WORST savings rate was Boyer's Grocery at 31.25%.

I shopped at 9 different stores this past month.  

TOTAL Out of Pocket........ $295.96

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$1112.59

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1408.55

TOTAL Savings of...................................78.99%
TOTAL Savings without Rite-Aid...........59.50%

This closes out the November food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I went into November wanting to do a $300 food budget for the month and I only spent $295.96 leaving me with $4.04 leftover in the budget.  I met that goal. rah!

The monthly savings percentage went up by 19.65% in November to 78.99% compared to October's 59.34% savings average.  Anything over a 40% savings rate is a win in my book.  70+% is very rare and only happens now and again if I have a free store gift card to use.  8-)

The savings rate for the whole year so far now stands at 61.85%.  That's an increase of 2.64% in savings over October's YTD total(59.21%).  It's still hanging in well over a 40% savings rate for the year which is awesome!

I have spent a total of $4,019.37 on food/toiletries in 2015 so far at this point in the year. That averages out to $365.40 per month.  We are still under $400 per month average spending for the year.

LOOKING AHEAD To DECEMBER.........

We'll try for a $350 food budget for DECEMBER.  College Boy will be coming home the second week of the month when exams are over and will be home until the third week in January.  I suspect more money will be spent on food while he is home so I am not going to limit myself to $300 in December like I did in October and November.  I am planning on a Roast Beef dinner for Christmas and we all know how expensive beef is so there goes my $50 extra in the budget for this month. lolz

If you have other ideas or guidelines you follow please leave a comment and share yours with us all.

*  How much did you spend on food/toiletries in November?
*  Do you track your yearly food spending?
*  What was your savings percentage buying on sale and/or with coupons vs. buying at regular retail price last month, if you track that sort of thing?
*  What are your methods for keeping your food spending in check?


Sluggy