2016 $38K Savings Challenge.....March 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 2016 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount to $38,000 this year, $10K more than my goal for last year.

I have reconsidered and changed my Goal from $40K to $38K for 2016.  With some things coming down the pike this year I thought it prudent to back up my Goal a couple of thousand.  8-)

On to the March report.....

I have posted my March End of Month $38K $AVING$ 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 $3,166.66.

I have to report that we finished up March with a large amount leftover exceeding my target amount.
The extra amount we ended the month of March with?.......$4947.49

Income

We had $2,803.42 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.

Other monies received in March totaled $2389.61.  This included interest made on non-retirement accounts, a tax refund and 2 stock dividends.

This brought us to our gain of $4947.49
Since we have no debt, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  Phone charges, water bill, and internet were approximately the same as last month.
*  The March electric bill was actually down $63.66 from February's bill.  With electric heat this is an amazing total for heat and lights, etc. in northern, mountainous PA. February and March are generally our highest electric bill months in the year.  I will be glad to see the electric start to slowing decrease even more for the next 7 months.
*  The credit card bill was down $474.99 from last month.  No travel and little shopping=not much spending on that card, other than gas purchases.
*  The gas card bill was down $46.67 as Hubs put more gas purchases on the Mastercard.
*  We received a tax refund this month.
*  The monthly medical bills were down $1,150.29 from February's total.  Yep, we paid off all those high deductibles now for the year.
rah.
go
me.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  Of course we had Real Estate taxes due in March and a sewage bill to offset all that medical bill we didn't have this month.
It's always something, isn't it? 8-(

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

March was a pretty expensive month for us.  The regular bills were very low this month coming in at under $1800, but we had taxes and a yearly sewer bill to offset that.  Still we were able to save quite a bit even with those expenses.

With 3 month accounted for, our Savings Challenge Grand Total for 2016 is $9414.82.

Final thoughts on March---
I am happy with what we socked away in March given the irregular expenses.
And compared to March 2015 we put $1150.37 more into savings this March
.
We have $9K+ saved so far in 2016, and we are only $8.185 behind at this point in the year.
We will be catching up for sure with the financial goals in April when the first 3 paycheck month of the year rolls around.
Yay 3 paycheck months!

THOUGHTS going forward into April----

I happily await April, the first tree paycheck of the year month for us. In addition I should receive a check for blogging in April which is a happy extra.  8-)

We do have a big car insurance bill due in April(under $1K though)but even so we will be able to catch-up(and even get a bit ahead)with where we should be with our savings goal for the year in this month.
May and June we have no irregular large bills so we should gain traction if we can keep the credit card bill under control.  I can do that IF we don't travel and we are suppose to travel in May so the bills will roll in from travel in the May and June c/c statements. sigh.

Again, it's so hard to save when you want to "live" life too because that means spending something.  ;-)

So how was your March financially?
  

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

As we go forward into 2016 why not make this new year the one were you clean up your finances and pay off your debts.
Plan to set something aside if you don't already now or increase what you bank now for your future self.
Live below your means and keep some change for a rainy day....because no matter how sunny it is in your life now, dark clouds come along and you'll be glad you have that umbrella to keep you dry.

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

It's the "I Got Nothing Here" Edition......
Been sick(not bad sick though)and have accomplished very little this past week beyond eating, sleeping and lazying around.
I don't even have a photo of the snow we got yesterday.
bleh.
Moving on......

Onward to the meal planning!

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

1. Sunday--Baked Ham, Corn Casserole, Monte Carlo Veggie Blend, Deviled Eggs, Dinner Rolls
2. Monday--Subway Sandwiches(Iz tired of cooking!lol)
3. Tuesday--Leftover Spaghetti and Meatballs, Salad
4. Wednesday--Cod, Baked Potatoes, Corn on cob(freezer), Leftover Asparagus
5. Thursday---Chicken Thighs(some way), Veggies-maybe leftover Sunday veggies?
6. Friday--Pork Chops w/Apricot Glaze, Sugar Snap Peas
7. Saturday--Leftover Chicken Thighs(if we have any) or Fish, Potato Salad, Veggies of some kind

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Baked Ham, Corn Casserole, Monte Carlo Veggie Blend, Deviled Eggs, Dinner Rolls
2. Monday--Subway Sandwiches
3. Tuesday--Leftover Spaghetti and Meatballs, Salad
4. Wednesday--Cod, Corn on cob(freezer), Potato Salad
5. Thursday---Chicken Pot Pie(Hubs had leftover Spaghetti)
6. Friday--Egg Drop Soup(Hubs had Egg Foo Yung)
7. Saturday--Tacos

4 meals cooked at home.
2 new meals, 1 night of leftovers, 1 night of processed food(pot pie), and 2 nights of take-out.  I have not been feeling up to snuff lately so have slacked off on the cooking for awhile.

As for my grocery spending...... Hubs made 3 quickie trips last week and I spent $18.00 total.
I have spent $18 in all for April so far and have $232 left of my food budget with 28 days to go.

Leftovers going into this week......baked ham, potato salad and taco meat.  We have eaten most of the leftovers up(well Hubs did really).  Not many leftovers remain so I've got to jump back into cooking, like it or not. 8-(

Here is this week's "food plan"--

1. Sunday--Meatloaf, Leftover Easter Veggies, Baked Potato
2. Monday--Leftover Tacos/Taco Salad
3. Tuesday--Hubs Birthday meal Out
4. Wednesday--Tandoori style Chicken Thighs, Rice, Harvard Beets
5. Thursday---Beef Bourguinon, Bread
6. Friday--Leftover Ham on Rolls, ?
7. Saturday--Pork Chops w/Apricot Glaze, Sugar Snap Peas

This week will see 4 new meals cooked and 2 meals of leftovers(re-purposed into new dishes or not) and 1 meal Out/Take-out.
Friday I am drawing a blank on so you get to see next week what we actually had. lol

I haven't been in the stores since a week or so ago so that will change in the coming days.  We really don't need anything as Hubs mini-trips have kept us in fresh produce and there are still plenty of freezer/pantry stocks.
Depending on how this week goes I may be less ambitious with the cooking and just do simpler meals.

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 last week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week?

Sluggy

Been Sick & Blah

I've been feeling not so great this week.  Might have had a stomach bug around Friday.  Having vertigo and sinus issues, feeling lethargic....you name it, I've felt it. lolz
But I'm feeling better today but still weak and tired.
I've been working on my end of March posts between running to the bathroom(TMI I know).
Now I am going to sit down and figure out the meal plan for the coming week...which won't be too difficult if I just move all the meals I didn't make last week to this coming week's schedule. lolz

Since I didn't get out to the grocery stores at all last week I don't have much grocery spending so far in April.  Hubs picked up a handful of items for us over the course of the week.

I did send Hubs out on Wednesday night as he wanted to go to the liquor store right next door to Weis(PMITA)Markets.  I sent him into Weis to do a deal I didn't get around to doing last week.
If you bought 2 x "ICBINB" margarine, which was on sale for $2.50 a container, you got $1 off an 18 ct. of large eggs(which are $3.55 reg. retail).  I sent him off to buy these three items along with 2 x .55¢/1 ICBINB Qs(which double up to $1 at Weis).
$9.13 reg. retail-.58¢ on sale items=$8.55-$1 on the eggs=$7.55-$2 in coupons=$5.55.  There was also a $1.50/2 ICBINB Rebate on SavingStar(which I have already gotten credit for in my account)so in the end these 3 items cost me $4.05 OOP.
That's about my only frugal shopping accomplishment for this week. ;-)

It snowed here last night and we awoke to an inch or so on the ground.
Happy April!!! ha
And it's windy as hell and the cold is coming right in through the walls and more of the same is expected tomorrow.  End of the week it should warm up to the 50's-60's(at least during the day).
I hope it's not this dreadful out by Wednesday as I must go out to a consult with a surgeon and the walk from the parking lot will be brutal in these temperatures.

The project manager from Lowe's finally came to the house this past week to check on the bathroom job and put in a work order for the 3 small issues remaining.  We are lucky we got our reno job on the contractor's schedule back in February when we did because project manager nows says that the contractor is backed up into JULY with work!  People poured into the store late Feb. through March signing contracts for work and there is now a 3 month backlog! Geez.

We need work done in the other upstairs bathroom but we can wait and this backlog gives us time to save up the money for that job now instead of yanking funds from the emergency fund for it.  It's looking like we won't get that job done until early next year or December of this year at this point.

Just not much being accomplished around here lately.  No Rite-Aid trips either.
Oh well.
Not much else to report in on so I'll sign off.

What's going on with y'all?

Sluggy

John Redfern.....My Wandering Ancestor Part 2

So let's recap our story as of 1850-- So by 1850, John Redfern, his second wife, Mary Hagen, and their children Barnabas, Margaret, Alice, Francis and May A, as well as John's 2 sons William John and James Redfern by his deceased first wife are all in Bedford County PA.

Sarah Redfern is married to Robert Spencer Bowman back in Ireland and they have a 1 year old son, Matthew Bowman.

The next federal census in 1860 finds the Redfern family is no longer living in Bedford, PA.
They are in Richland township, Jackson County, Iowa!
Richland is 20 miles south of Dubuque Iowa right near the Mississippi River.
Today you can travel between these places by car in about 12 hours.  But back in 1860 it would have taken a lot longer to cover that 775 miles in a wagon with a horse and with some people walking alongside on primitive roads or paths.

The Iowa territory was established in 1838 and achieved statehood in 1846.
In 1858 according to a Redfern family narrative, John and his family pulled up stakes and set off west ward again and headed for Jackson County, Iowa.  1858 was about 18 years after Iowa became a state.

The Redfern clan settled near Farmer's Creek in Jackson County.  I don't know if John bought land there or not as no land documents have been found yet.  As he lists farming as his occupation in this 1860 Census it's assumed he either was farming his own land or someone else's land.
 I found a land grant for a John Redfern, signed by Ulysses S. Grant for 80 acres in Plymouth County(which is by Sioux City Iowa on the western edge of the state and nowhere near Jackson County near the Mississippi River)dated 1875.  Perhaps John moved further west between arriving in Iowa in 1858/59 and 1875?  It is only speculation at this point.

This is the sort of land speculation poster(from Wikipedia)that circulated out East to try to entice people out to the now open states of Iowa and Nebraska.  Buy land for no money down.

When John Redfern moved to Iowa he was not a young man, being 48 or 49 years old when they arrived.  His wife, Mary, was about 43-44 years old.
The 1860 Federal census gives us a snapshot of the family and their ages in that year.......

John 50
Mary 45
Alice 14
Francis 12
Peter 9
Anna 9

No longer listed with the family are the oldest sons by John's first wife, William John and James, as well as Barnabas, Margaret, and May A.
New children, born since the 1850 Census are Peter and Anna,both listed as 9 years old, most probably were twins.

Also now living with the Redferns is a Patrick Redfern who is 40 years old.  He is possibly John's younger brother or a cousin of some sort.  I believe this census is erroneous in listing Patrick's birth place as Pennsylvania(unless he is a cousin and his Redfern parents were from Ireland and immigrated).  He is listed as a stone mason just like John's occupation in the 1850 Census.


So how about my ancestor, John Redfern's oldest daughter, Sarah Redfern Bowman.....where is she and how is she doing?

The next record we find for her is the 1860 US Census.  Yes, her and her husband, Robert Spencer Bowman and their children are living in Montgomery, Orange County, NY at the time of the 1860 Federal Census. As for the children....Matthew is now 11 years old and he has younger siblings named John aged 8, Robert aged 6, Adeline aged 4 and Anna aged 1.

So when did Robert and Sarah come to America exactly?
Well in this 1860 Census we can narrow down the immigration year as the younger two Adeline and Anna are listed as being born in New York and the two boys, John and Robert, are listed as being born in Ireland. The last child born in Ireland is Robert, born 1854 and the first child born in NY is Adeline, born 1856.
So that gives us a time frame of late 1854-early 1856.

I found a record of arrival for a Robert Bowman on board the ship "West Point", in NY harbor on April 17, 1855.

An example of a clipper ship from that era courteous of Wikipedia.

The West Point  was built in 1847 by Westervelt and McKay, a company that acquired renown by constructing streamlined clipper ships and fast steamships.  The West Point was built of southern oak in a time when using iron and copper was on the rise.  10 years later, in 1857, it was refitted with iron to keep up with the times.
The West Point was a full rigged vessel for the Robert Kermit Red Star Line, which carried goods, mail and passengers on a route between Liverpool England to NYC and was in service until 1863.
The Ship's Master on that 1855 voyage was William R. Mullins.
The West Point would have disembarked her passengers at Castle Garden, the first official American Immigration Center which was located at the tip of Manhattan in the Battery area.  This is where all immigrants into NYC were processed from mid 1855 to 1890, before the Ellis Island complex was constructed.
Unfortunately a fire at Ellis Island in 1897 consumed all the Castle Garden administrative records to 1890 so if you an ancestor who arrived during this time frame you may never find their arrival date, unless they are listed among the Customs Office passengers lists that were stored in D.C. rather than on Ellis Island.
Let me add that prior to August of 1855 passengers did not have to be processed through Customs and many just walked off the ship into the streets of Manhattan and beyond.  Since my Redferns arrived in April of 1855 the record for Robert Bowman may be the only one I ever find.

Years later on the 1900 Federal Census participants were asked, if they were born outside of American shores, what year they had arrived in the US.  Robert Bowman had self-reported that he arrived in 1852 and Sarah his wife reported that 1855 was the year.  Now it's highly possible that Robert had come over in 1852 as that was often the case with married couples, the husband would come over before his family/wife, establish a home and employment and then send for the family at a later date once he had earned enough money for the passage(s).
But as there were children born to this couple in 1852 and 1854 in Ireland, Robert would have had to have left in 1852 after making his wife pregnant and would have had to have returned in either 1853 or early 1854 to "knock up" Sarah again to be both children's father and then have left for America again with his wife and the, at this point, five children.
Something tells me we will never know if Robert traveled to America by boat from Ireland once or twice.
We do know that he arrived in Spring of 1855 at NY harbor and thus my Redfern/Bowman American story begins.

In 1860, after 5 years living in America the Bowman clan are settled in upstate New York, in the town of Montgomery, Orange County(which is situated along the banks of the Wallkill River) to be exact and Robert is working as a Day Laborer and Sarah is keeping house and rearing, their now, five children.

What changes would the coming War Between the States and the 1870 Federal Census bring to our Redfern/Bowman families?  Will John Redfern get the itch to move yet again?

Stay tuned for the next installment of our saga.

Sluggy

2016 Food & Toiletries Spending.....March Update

* I've closed out the March books a couple of days early as I am done shopping.  Anything bought in the next 2 days will come out of April's funds. *

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for MARCH 2016.

I have posted March's totals on the Total Grocery Savings for 2016 Page located HERE and have updated the Yearly Totals there.  I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in March.  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 20.

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

BAKERY OUTLET
OOP  $6.00
Value  $27.25
Savings 78%


CVS
OOP  $0.00
Value  $3.96
Savings  100%


MAINE SOURCE
OOP  $34.47
Value  $62.78
Savings  45.09%


OLLIE'S
OOP  $6.22
Value  $22.77
Savings  72.68%


RITE-AID
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads/gift card  $484.06
Value  $484.06
Savings 100%

SHURSAVE MARKET
OOP  $43.55
Qs/Ads $29.71
Value  $73.26
Savings  40.55%


TARGET
OOP  $18.96
Qs/Ads  $65.98
Value  $84.94
Savings  77.68%


WALMART
OOP  $1.48
Qs/Ads  $2.01
Value  $3.49
Savings  57.59 %

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $121.46

Qs/Ads  $103.35

Value  $224.81

Savings  45.97%

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, CVS at 100% and the Bakery Outlet at 78%.  My WORST savings rate was The local Shursave grocery at 40.55%.
I'll take it. ;-)

I shopped at 9 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket..........$232.14

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$755.18

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$987.32

TOTAL Savings of...................................76.48%
TOTAL Savings without Rite-Aid...........53.87%

Value of items excluding Rite-Aid bought ones was $503.26.
Rite-Aid goods brought home totaled $484.06

This closes out the March food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I went into March wanting to do a $250-$300 food budget for the month.  I ended up staying under the low end of my goal.  This was surprising to come in under $250 as I figured I'd be somewhere between that and $300 spent in March.  But I did manage to eat down what was here a bit and didn't do a lot of stocking up besides.

Of course if you look at our Eating-Out Totals for March they are up while the food shopping totals are down.  The Eating Out is up more than the food shopping is down however since we had an expensive for us Birthday meal out in March and Hubs and I did a fair amount of lunch type eating out around Easter time as well as lunchtime cooking fatigue for myself some days where I got some fast food out(mostly Subway)which is something I usually don't do most months.  Eating Out totals got a bit pricey in March.  It's nothing we can't handle in our budget but might help to explain how I can spend so little on groceries.  Even so we spent way less than most Americans on Eating Out in March and way less than those same Americans for food shopping so I am good with what we spent.

The monthly food spending savings percentage went up by 3.13% in March to 76.48% compared to February's 73.35% savings average.
If you delete the items bought at Rite-Aid in March our savings percentage goes down to 53.87% which is still well above the 40% savings rate threshold I like to stay over.

While saving 3/4 on food every month is unsustainable it's nice to see and better yet is the over 50% percentage saved not including the bulk of the toiletries spending, so we got over 50% savings on food alone.

With 3 months accounted for, I have spent a total of $941.20 on food/toiletries so far in 2016 which averages out to $313.73 per month spent.  The average in February stood at $354.53 per month spent to that point in 2016 so we are down $40.80 spent per month from last month.  I can't believe I am still under $1K spend on food and toiletries with a quarter of the year behind us!  If all things go at this pace for the rest of the year we could end the year spending UNDER $4K for 2016.  We haven't been under $4K for the year in food/toiletries spending since 2011, back when there were lots of rebate offers and better coupons and I heavily into that sort of shopping.

It would be so nice to continue this less spending trend back down below $4K for the year.  Though I am not prepared to buy lesser foods and processed foods just to get my spending to that level but if I can get down there and still maintain the level of quality we enjoy now, all's the better.
It's still very early in the year so I am not getting my hopes up that this trend will continue, especially if certain events materialize later in the year which are planned(more on that later).

LOOKING AHEAD To April 2016.........
No College Boy visits this month and no Holiday spending should make for a low outlay in April for food/toiletries.
I will continue with my usual shopping ways in April....buy loss leaders or great deals which we can use.  I will try to empty some more freezer space and eat down from the pantry as well this month.
I am going to try for another $250 food/toiletries spending month in April.

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 March?
*  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?

Is anyone out there up for tracking expenditures and trying to spend less but still eat well?


Sluggy