May 1 Net Worth Snapshot

We are up $10,021.73 from last month's net worth overall(only liquid cash/investments, as I don't count housing or car values).
Two thirds of that gain was from the retirement account funds.  One third from the monies I save and control.

We are up $126,899.31 from one year ago, the May 1st of 2015 net worth snapshot.  Large sums of money generate goodly amounts even with a stagnant interest rate.
Curses on the FED though as we could really be earning much more if  it didn't artificially keep the rates in the basement. sigh.

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

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

It's the "Got Another Giveaway Going On Now!" Edition......

There's another Giveaway going so be sure and enter.   I'll also throw some more chocolate into the box so don't miss out! ;-)

Moving on......

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

1. Sunday--Smoked BBQ Ribs, Cole Slaw, leftover COC
2. Monday--French Onion Soup
3. Tuesday--Something Leftover and Easy.....Tacos?
4. Wednesday--Leftover Ribs, etc.
5. Thursday--BBQ Baked Chicken, Roasted Cauliflower and Potatoes
6. Friday--Salmon, Noodles for Hubs, Veggie pulled from the freezer
7. Saturday--No clue yet

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Smoked BBQ Ribs, Cole Slaw, leftover COC
2. Monday--Chinese Take-out(I had a rough day.)
3. Tuesday--Leftover Take-out
4. Wednesday--Hubs had Leftover Rigatoni and Sauce, I had some Roasted Potatoes
5. Thursday--Leftover Ribs, Cole Slaw, Deviled Stuffed Clams
6. Friday--Meatball Subs, Tomato and Cuke Salad
7. Saturday--Hamburgers w/Lettuce and Tomato, Fries

4 meals cooked at home.
2 new meals, 2 nights of leftovers, and 3 nights of Take-Out(or their leftovers).
Mostly kept to the plan but no bbq chicken and French Onion Soup.  This all moves to this week.

As for my grocery spending..... I spent a total of $39.05 on Sunday.
I have spent $39.05 in all for May so far and have $260.95 left of my food budget with 29 days to go.

Leftovers going into this week.......a chunk of bbq ribs.  That's it.  I didn't finish my portion of the ribs as the rub I made up was too spicy for me.  Hubs will finish them this week, no doubt about that! lolz

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

1. Sunday--Chicken Parm, Cuke & Tomato Salad
2. Monday--BBQ Chicken, Roasted Cauliflower and Potatoes
3. Tuesday--French Onion Soup
4. Wednesday--FFY aka Fend for Yourself
5. Thursday--FFY
6. Friday--FFY
7. Saturday--Probably pizza and salad

This week will see 3 new meals cooked and 3 meals of leftovers or "Whatever You Can Find" and 1 meal of Take-Out on Saturday as that is when College Boy comes home.

What I need to buy for this menu.....nothing needed except maybe milk?
I'll also hit the bread outlet at some point.
Weis has Eight O'Clock Coffee BOGO until Wednesday so I'll use a Q and go get some really inexpensive coffee this week too.

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

Happenings Lately at Chez Sluggy

Here's what's been going on here at Chez Sluggy lately........

*  Well the cardiologist has cleared me for surgery in June.   My heart is a rock star....no sign of heart disease at all.  But I will always have that right-sided heart failure thing on my medical record now....stupid family doctor who tried to kill me!
(I see that the state finally suspended his medical license indefinitely in 2014.  About time!)

Anyway, if I decide to go through with this surgery for my HS condition I have been given the green light.  Now I just have to make 500 phone calls between the hospital business office and my insurance provider to see what this surgery will cost us out of pocket.  Then I'll weigh that factor along with the whether this surgery will actually give me any long term relief and see if I want to go through with the operation. I currently have a place on my right armpit that is paining me and the spot they were going to operate on is not flaring so WTF?!?
I don't know.  I am thinking more and more this is just not the right time to do this with all the other stuff going on here.


*  The cardiologist made a small change to my BP meds at this visit so I had to go to Rite-Aid to pick-up a new rx.
While I was there I bought this.......

Centrum vitamins(mints variety)were on sale last week at Rite-Aid for $6.99.  I had a $4/1 Vitamints IPQ so they were $2.99 using my Plenti Points.
No new PPs were generated but I had activated an offer in my Saving Star account for $4 cash back when I bought 1 Vitamints and the rebate has already hit my acount.
$2.99-$4=$1.03 moneymaker!

We needed this box of vitamins but seeing as I have to move all my stockpile of toiletries before my daughter returns home(it's looking like the end of May now is when she will come home)I have put myself on a Rite-Aid moratorium.  Unless it's something we are out of I am NOT buying anything at Rite-Aid for the foreseeable future!
Sorry if some of you will miss my Rite-Aid pillaging trips but this gal has got to do what this gal needs to! 8-)

*  And with that said this weekend Hubs and I have been moving crap around the house.  Fabric and toiletries have been put into tubs or shelves and relocated to other places in the house.  I am feeling my age about now and Mr. Tylenol is my special friend today.  It sucks to get old and have to do physically taxing work for pay OR no pay. 8-(

*  I went to a different Dollar Tree last week and bought this to finish off my bathroom redo....

3 rolls of vinyl liner to put under the new vanity/sink unit before I pile things under there.

All finished with 1 roll leftover.  This is the cheapest purchase in that whole renovating project. lolz

Then I finished putting all the bathroom stuff away and I am calling it done(except for hanging a painting back up in there and buying/hanging new blinds for the window.

Perhaps I'll buy another roll of vinyl in a matching pattern and put it down in the hall bathroom's cabinet too.

*  In the realm of "repurposing", I emptied an under bed storage container that use to hold gift wrap and gift bags.

I really never have occasion to use any of this stuff anymore, so it's all waiting on the sofa now to be taken to Sallie's Army.

And now that container is filled with "my" toiletries.....things I will use......

I also sold another $24 worth of toiletries on my town's FB selling page.
Go me! ;-)

*  I got this sample of Dove Body Wash in the mail from Rite-Aid last week along with a $3 off 1 Bottle coupon.
Curse you Rite-Aid!  Tempting me when I have no room to bring anymore free stuff home.

The Coupon is good until the end of July though so maybe by them I can lift my moratorium on R-A shopping.

*  Other than cooking, shlepping crap around and making piles of stuff to send to Sallie's, and figuring out how much $ we have left over from April's income, this is all that's been going on here.

*  This coming week I need to take my car in for it's last free service appointment(had it been 2 years since I bought that car already!?), take a load to Sallie's, buy some more storage tubs(maybe 3 will finish it off)and figure out where to put those three tubs, and finish relocating my fabric stash to the shelving we put up in the bedroom.
And then I get to go through all my clothes and pack for our trip to Louisiana.
Fun times, fun times.......
Add in a trip to the grocery store as I didn't go last week at all.
And then renting a cargo van to haul College Boy and all his crap home on Saturday.
This week is going to be just a load of laughs, ain't it? ;-)

By the time we climb into the car to go on our "vacation"(which had morphed into an anxiety ridden trip to take care of business rather than to have fun and relax)I will be spent already.

If I am MIA the next week or so I am just buried with things to get done here and am stressing out over it.

I hope your week goes well or at the very least you get through it unscathed.

Sluggy

Another Giveaway......Sluggy's Boring Blog Box

Ok Folks, here is the third Sluggy's Boring Blog Box Giveaway for 2016.

The last box went to a winner in Canada so she didn't get everything.
I have taken what she didn't want the most and have added some more things to make up a new awesome box of goodied for you all to win!

Here is what you can win if your entry is picked.......

1 x Dove Shampoo
1 x Listerine Mouth Wash(Agent Blue Kid's)
1 x Olay In-Shower Lotion
1 x Jergen's Sun Glow Lotion
1 x Tresemme Dry Shampoo(trial size)
1 x Bayer 325mg Aspirin
1 x Arm & Hammer Toothpaste
2 x Russel Stover's mini Chocolate boxes
1 x Reach Toothbrush
1 x Simply Venus disposable Razors
1 x Scunci Kids Barrettes
1 x Maybelline Mascara(black)
4 x Sinful Nail Polish(Blue Persuasion, Dawn, Love Bite, Dumpling, )
2 x Wet n' Wild Lip Sticks(Will You Be With Me? and Dark Wine)
1 x Cover Girl Eye Shadow(Tapestry Taupe)


Over $60 in regular retail of toiletries(and chocolate).

Here are close-up photos of the potential winnings.............

I'll leave this giveaway open until Sunday, May 15th, at 11:59pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time, so that gives everyone a full 15+ days to enter this one.  On the 16th I'll put all the valid entries into a container and draw out a name and that person wins.


You may get ONE ENTRY EVERY DAY by leaving a comment on this blog post until the Giveaway ends.
Tell me what here is the thing you most want to win in your comment or tell me whatever you feel like telling me in your comment.  8-)

You can also get 3 BONUS ENTRIES by posting this Giveaway on your own Blog OR if you are a Follower of this blog.  Please leave 3 separate entries for these bonus entries with either a link to your blog post where you talk about the giveaway OR the name you follow under so I can verify your entries.

  Disclaimer--This giveaway is open to those with mailing addresses within the US only.
I sent the last box to Canada and I found that the rates have gone way up since the last time I mailed anything to Canada!
Ouch.  As I can't afford to spent $25 to ship a prize anymore I have to keep these giveaways to US readers only now.  Sorry but that's how it has to be. 8-(


***NOTE***

Please make sure there is a way for me to contact you in your comment.  If you're not a registered Blogger User with your contact information on your User page, please put your email addy in your comment or email me your email addy privately when you leave a comment so I can get ahold of you if you win. If your Blogger associated user profile is a GOOGLE one with those Google Circles nonsense I CAN NOT CONTACT YOU as Google Circles doesn't show your contact info.  I again had to disqualify some entrants in the last giveaway because their profile is linked through Google and not Blogger.  Please check your profile!  And if you ARE entering through a Blogger profile PLEASE have contact info(email addy)in that profile.  If I can't access your email addy I can't contact you so email me your email addy or add your email address to your User Profile.  If you have sent me your email addy privately for a previous giveaway I still have it on file so no need to resend it for this giveaway.

If I can't contact you then you can't win.  I have had to disqualify more readers than I care to due to this issue and I sure don't want it to happen again.  Thanks!

So let's get this started!

Sluggy

2016 Food & Toiletries Spending.....April Update

* I've closed out the April books a couple of days early as I am done shopping.  Anything bought in the next 3 days will come out of May's funds. *

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for APRIL 2016.

I have posted April'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 April.  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 at home this month). No kids under 20.

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

BAKERY OUTLET
OOP  $4.75
Value  $20.45
Savings 76.77%

DOLLAR TREE
OOP  $20.00
Value  $54.64
Savings  63.40%


MAINE SOURCE
OOP  $62.56
Value  $84.00
Savings  25.52%


RITE-AID
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads/gift card  $144.98
Value  $144.98
Savings 100%

SHURSAVE MARKET
OOP  $29.66
Qs/Ads $53.59
Value  $23.93
Savings  44.65%


TARGET
OOP  $.98
Qs/Ads  $3.00
Value  $3.98
Savings  75.38%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $131.07

Qs/Ads  $137.64

Value  $268.71

Savings  51.22%

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, the Bakery Outlet at 76.77% and Target at 75.78%.  My WORST savings rate was Maine Source at 25.52%.  Other than Maine Source, all other stores were at least 44.65% savings.
I'll take it. ;-)

I shopped at 7 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket..........$249.02

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$381.33

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$630.35

TOTAL Savings of...................................60.50%
TOTAL Savings without Rite-Aid...........48.70%

Value of items excluding Rite-Aid bought ones was $485.37
Rite-Aid goods brought home totaled $144.98.

This closes out the April food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I went into April wanting to do a $250 food budget for the month.  I ended up staying under my goal just barely.
Yay me! ;-)

If you look at our Eating-Out Totals for April they are down from March's so we weren't buying food less and eating out more this month, which means we really were paying less to eat.

The monthly food spending savings percentage went down by 15.98% in April to 60.50% compared to March's 76.48% savings average.  Yes, this level of savings, though down from March's savings level is still a good problem to have! lolz

If you delete the items bought at Rite-Aid in April our savings percentage goes down to 48.70% which is still well above the 40% savings rate threshold I like to stay over.  We "brought home" less things from Rite-Aid this month so the difference between all savings % for April and not including Rite-Aid savings % in the April total is less of a range than in March when we "brought home" a lot more from Rite-Aid.

We did empty some freezer space even though the salmon and chicken sausage deals meant adding a bit more to the freezer, more food got used up than got added.  Some pantry goods also got used up and not replaced and the only new pantry goods that were added were items we had used up.

With 4 months accounted for, I have spent a total of $1190.22 on food/toiletries so far in 2016 which averages out to $297.56 per month spent.  The average in March stood at $313.73 per month spent to that point in 2016 so we are down $16.17 spent per month from last month's year-to-date tally. Compared to this point in the year to 2015's totals we have spent $43.64 less on food and toiletries in 2016.

It would be so nice to continue this less spending trend back down below $4K for the year.  Now that my daughter is moving back home for a couple of years I know this low amount of spending on food will not continue and we most probably won't get under $4K spent on it all for 2016.
And I am ok with that.

LOOKING AHEAD To May 2016.........
College Boy returns home from college on Summer break 1 week into the month.  This means our food spending will increase in May.  But some of us will be out of town this month and not be eating at home, so that might counterbalance somewhat the increase in food spending that CB being home  will require.

I will continue with my usual shopping ways in May....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 a $300 food/toiletries spending month in May.  A slight $50 increase hopefully will be enough to cover 1 more mouth to feed and still be able to stay under budget.

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 April?
*  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