This Week on the Dining Table

The "Ready or Not, Christmas is Coming!" Edition--

While in KMart last week picking up free after gift card washcloths and drinks I took a wander through their Christmas aisles to see what new crap was available for the Holidays.
I am all for secular folks celebrating Christmas in a non-religious way, but have we run off the rails with it?  Outside and under tree decorations included hedgehogs, foxes, t-rex dinosaurs! and this cute little flamingo dressed as an elf.  At least there was no pig decoration this year......

Moving on......

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

1. Sunday--Pork Barbecue on Rolls, Cole Slaw

2. Monday--Crockpot Salisbury Steak with Mushroom/Onion Gravy, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans

3. Tuesday--Leftovers

4. Wednesday--Baked Chicken Thighs, Roasted Potatoes and Acorn Squash

5. Thursday--Clam Corn Chowder, TBA

6. Friday--Teriyaki Flank Steak with Stir-Fry Veggies(leftover taters for BF)

7. Saturday--Leftovers

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Pork Barbecue on Rolls, Cole Slaw

2. Monday--Leftover Kielbasa with Pierogies(new)

3. Tuesday--Crockpot Salisbury Steak with Mushroom/Onion Gravy, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans

4. Wednesday--Baked Chicken Thighs, Roasted Potatoes and Acorn Squash

5. Thursday--Leftovers(I had Pork Barbecue)

6. Friday--More Leftovers or Chicken Soup

7. Saturday--Primo Hoagies

6 meals cooked at home, 2-3 of them a night of leftovers, and 1 night of Take-Out.
Alll but 2 meals didn't happen-the Teriyaki steak and the clam chowder.  The daughter bought pierogies on Tuesday so we had those with leftover Kielbasi on Halloween.

Folks were fighting off colds later in the week here so it was leftovers or a big pot of chicken soup for dinners at the end of the week.
By Saturday we could all use a treat so we splurged and got Primo Hoagies(a chain out of Philly).  It was tasty but at $10 for a sub it won't be happening often here!

I roasted 2 of those volunteer acorn squash but no one liked it much.  I'll put the leftover(mashed up)into pancakes or something this week.

I also made Salisbury Steaks in the crockpot last week.  I have never made Salisbury Steak in all my 34 years of housekeeping/cooking.  It wasn't hard really as it's just a glorified hamburger. lolz

As for the grocery spending.....3 trips to Weis and 1 trip to the Shursave market brought my weekly spending to $148.81 and my November food spending Total so far to $148.81.
Hot damn!  I know it's high for so soon in the month but I am trying to get to $200 spent at Shursave before the 12th so I get that gift certificate offer.  I'll spend it anyway this month so spend it sooner rather than later and get the reward.  Plus some of this spent last week will come off my food bill as I picked up items for a Food Bank donation in these 4 trips.

So far, so good in my savings percentages in November at this point.  This week the savings rate average was over the top at 56.87%.

Leftovers going into this week.......pizza, barbecue, chicken thighs, salisbury steak, mashed potatoes.
Some of this will be eaten for lunches and some for dinner on Leftover Days.  Any leftover barbecue after this coming week will be put into the freezer for later.

Here is this week's "food plan".

1. Sunday--Meatloaf, Broccoli, Au Gratin Taters
2. Monday--Chicken Parmesan, Corn Casserole
3. Tuesday--Leftovers
4. Wednesday--Spaghetti and Meatballs, Salad
5. Thursday--Leftovers
6. Friday--Teriyaki Flank Steak with Stir-Fry Veggies(leftover taters for BF), Rice
7. Saturday--Leftovers

This week will see 4 new meals cooked and 0 nights of Take-Out and 3 nights of Leftovers.

What I need to buy for this menu?  Not a thing.

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

November Giveaway......With Chocolate!

It's so let's have another Giveaway!

This is the eighth Sluggy's Boring Blog Box Giveaway for 2016.
This time it's a blend of toiletries from the stash and Chocolate!

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

1 x Listerine Dental Floss
1 x Vaseline Cocoa Butter Lotion
1 x Dove Daily Moisture Shampoo
1 x Olay Exfoliating Lavender Body Wash
1 x Gillette men's Anti/Deodorant Gel
1 x Crest Toothpaste
1 x Rite-Aid Toothhbrush
1 x Rite-Aid cherry Cough Drops
1 x Bayer 325mg Aspirin
12 x Lindt Pumpkin Spice Truffles
1 x Cover Girl Mascara
2 x Jergens Glow Lotion
2 x Cover Girl Eye Shadow(gray and lavender)
2 x Wet n' Wild Nail Polish(white and clear)
1 x Julie G Nail Polish(light blue)
1 x Scunci Hair Elastics

Closeup shots of the goodies up for grabs......

I'll leave this giveaway open until Sunday, November 20th, at 11:59pm Eastern Time, so that gives everyone a full 2 weeks to enter this one.  On the 20th I'll put all the valid entries into Random dotorg to pick a number and that person's entry wins.

You may get ONE ENTRY EVERY DAY by leaving a comment on this blog post every day until the Giveaway ends.
Tell me in your comment, what here is the thing you most like to serve/eat at Thanksgiving, do you host dinner or show up elsewhere with a dish, does someone in your family get drunk and cause a scene, 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/ID you follow under so I can verify you follow the blog for your entries.

Disclaimer--This giveaway is open to those with mailing addresses within the US only.
I am not the government with unlimited funds to pay postage, sorry.

***PLEASE 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 privately 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

Frugal Friday on Saturday

Here's some of the stuff I did that was Frugal this past week--

* I got a free toothbrush and toothpaste at Rite-Aid by combining sales/coupons/Plenti Points.

* We've been eating Leftovers/Planned Overs the last 3 days(and will continue to eat them over the weekend too)instead of cooking new food and throwing the old stuff out.

* I went to Weis(PMITA)Markets for their "Fabulous Friday" 1 Day Sale Deals this week.  Daughter has been fighting a cold/the crud so I picked up a whole chicken on sale for .85¢ lb. and using various other food ingredients I have already I made a big pot of chicken soup.  I also dug through my OTC/HBA tubs and found her Mucinex, Vitamin C and Zinc cough drops to help her fight this thing off.

* I also found 2 cheap Holiday/Christmas food idea solutions at the "Fab Friday" Sale.
1--We like to have chips and onion dip during the Holidays but I like to cut the sour cream with Greek yogurt(cuts fat and saves calories)but Greek yogurt can be more expensive than sour cream often times here.  Weis has their brand single serve Greek yogurt cups 1/2 off on Friday(.50¢ ea.)and they carry a plain non-flavored one.  There is a $1/10 Greek Weis yogurt cups Q in the Weis Q Book so I bought 10 single cups(1/2 price for $5)and used that Q making the cost $4 for 5.3 oz. cups X 10.  A quart container of plain Greek yogurt runs at least $5.49 here so I saved a bit of coin during this.

2--The bigger win were the 2 whole Eye of Round Roasts I bought.  Hubs likes to have Beef for Christmas and we usually end up buying a Prime Rib Roast for $8 or so a lb.($50-$60 total)to prepare for dinner.  With 2 more to feed this year(7 total)I can't see spending even more for 1 hunk of meat.
The eye round roasts were $2.50 lb!

I got an 8+ lb. roast for $20.40 after discounts.......

This cut is not as fatty as what I usually serve(plus it has no bone)but I am sure I can marinate and roast this baby up to be a tasty Christmas dinner.
This means I'll get the free turkey for Thanksgiving instead of the ham for Xmas at Weis with my points.

I also picked up a second slightly smaller roast to put into the freezer for another time.

* While at Weis I also got this......

There was a mostly drank abandoned Powerade sitting on the curb where I parked my car.  So when it was still there when I left the store to get back into my car, I plucked the cap off and took it home.
Why you may ask?
Because it's worth 3 points in my Coke Rewards Account! lolz  I did put it into a tissue and washed it at home before handling it to reap the code.  ;-)
I have been compiling points all year in wait for the Holiday sale on free 12 packs of Coke products.

* While at Rite-Aid I also bought a bag of Halloween candy for 50%.  This is going into a loved one's Christmas present.  Why pay full price for Christmas decorated bags when you can get it for 50% because it's Halloween decorated?  The candy inside is still the same taste/quality.

* Hubs mentioned that we were running low on wash cloths lately.  So I went to Kmart and bought a pack of 8 cloths on sale for $2.99.......

But no, these didn't cost me anything because I used part of an old gift card I had gotten for transferring prescriptions a couple of years ago.  Need met and no money spent out of pocket.


Now I am off to continue with the cleaning tear I seem to be on today.  I've already cleaned 3 floors, cleaned out my painting tubs, washed 2 walls, cleared off my desk and moved some things out of the living room to a new storage place.
I'd better get back to it before I collapse......

What are y'all up to today?

Sluggy

Quickie Rite-Aid Porn

While refilling an Rx at Rite-Aid these jumped into my order this past week.........

1 x Crest toothpaste on sale=$3.50
1 x Oral-B toothbrush on sale=$3.50
Subtotal..$7.00

Coupons Used
1 x $1/1 Crest toothpaste ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Oral-B toothbrush ManuQ=$1.00
(Both Qs were in Sunday's P&G coupons insert.)
Total....$2.00

$7.00-$2.00=$5.00 OOP
I used $5 in Plenti Points to pay and earned back $5 in new Plenti Points($2.50 for each item) so these were free after PPs.

In all likelihood I won't be back to Rite-Aid for anything other than medications and maybe a gift card that gives back PPs until the Black Friday sales start on the 24th.
I hope Sonya Ann can hold out that long for more Rite-Aid posts. lolz

Sluggy

2016 $38K Savings Challenge......October 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, $8K more than my goal for last year.

On to the October report.....

I have posted my October 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 October with a yummy amount.
The extra amount we ended the month of October with?.......$4,449.89

Income

We had $4298.78 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.

Other monies received in October totaled $151.11.  This was solely interest made on non-retirement accounts.

This brought us to our gain of $4449.89
Since we have no debt, this goes into savings.

Outgo

As for the expenses this October, 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(Within $1 or so).
*  The credit card bill was down $50.77 from September's amount.
*  The water bill was $17.18 less than last month.
*  The electric bill was down $42.90 from September's total.
*  The gas bill was $57.29 lower than last month(more purchases for gas put on the c/c rather than the gas card.)
*  Cash withdrawals were $700 lower(due to using the c/c for most if not all grocery spending + Hubs took less cash in October).

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  The direct medical spending was up again $190.09 from September's costs plus we still have an $800+ bill not received yet for Daughter's August procedure. gulp
*  We had a $275 non-recurring bill for attending a local Church's auction.  Not really a bad thing as we go each year and bid on local services/goods we would used anyway and pay less than retail for them.  We get a deal, the church gets some funds raised....win/win!  And we did spend $45 less at the auction this year compared to last year.

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

With 10 month accounted for, our Savings Challenge Grand Total for 2016 is $33,247.21.

FINAL THOUGHTS on October---
I was able to tuck away about $1K more than I had projected in October.  Mostly that was due to the car insurance payment moving from October to November, so really, we still have that expense, it just gets dumped into the next month so no gain or loss really.
Medical co-pays were the only category that we spent more in, compared to September(and it was under a $200 increase)so that's good.

Compared to Octoberber 2015 we put $1,972.44 LESS into savings this October.  This can mostly be explained away because of car insurance premiums, $500 more spending on the c/c and medical co-pays of over $800 last October compared to October 2016.
.
We have $33,247.21 saved so far in 2016, and we have only $4,752.71 left to save over the next 2 months at this point to reach our goal of $38K saved.  That averages out to $2,376.40 a month for the rest of the year.  This means for the rest of the year I need to average $790.26 per month LESS than our monthly savings target goal of $3,166.66.  But even with that, this will still be a tight race to get to $38K this year.  We have higher everything bills now with 2 extra adults in the house + more medical co-pays plus can I mention that Christmas is coming!?!?

Only 2 months left in the year to get to my savings goal.  We are quickly running out of time in 2016.


THOUGHTS going forward into November----

Semi-annual car insurance comes due in November.  The electric bill will rise as we will see the heat being turned up in November.  More medical co-pays will be due(including Daughter's $800+ one from August)in November so that will increase outlays this month.  But want based purchases should stay steady/low and we have no trips planned this month which always derails our spending.  We have some "already accounted for in the finances" gift cards/certs for eating out so not much spending on that category for November.  Gas charges will be up as we need to retrieve and return College Boy for the Thanksgiving holiday this month but that expense shouldn't top $50 for gas.

Besides the electric bill and medical payments it should be a fairly regular/low expenditure month for us....if I can keep the food spending down.

However....since I need to keep part of what I save in December out of my Savings Challenge to cover when the High Deductible Medical Plan deductibles kick back in on January 1st(and the cost of the first $3K in medical bills fall on us totally before we see any sort of benefit),
I need to aggressively save more in November than the $2,376.40 I "need" to save in each of the next two months, because in December I probably won't be able to save the other $2,376.40 I need to meet the 2016 Goal.  (Plus there will be increased holiday spending on at least gifts in December.)
So I am getting into Savings Ninja Mode for November.  Or I at least hope to. ;-)

So how was your October financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in October?
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 the last half of 2016 why not make this 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.
Or pay extra on the principle of your mortgage if your house isn't already paid off.

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