Net Worth....Dec. 1st Update

We are actually up over $10k from November 1st's net worth overall(only liquid cash/investments/bonds, as I don't count housing or car values).  The retirement accounts were up $7K+ for December 1 from November's calculations and the cash reserve/non-retirement accounts were up almost $3K.

We are up $92,308.80 from one year ago, in the December 1st of 2015's net worth snapshot.  Even with miserable interest rates and a lackluster stock showing lately, over the course of a year it still grows at a decent clip when you have a good chunk of money invested. ;-)  Even though we are mostly out of the stock market with our investments now since we are so close to retiring we still earn a nice hunk because of the size of the pot.

We are still in acquisition mode and Hubs still has a good income.  Unless something unfortuitious happens we should keep rolling along and tucking money away, even with our expanded living costs with 2 grown kids home fulltime, for at least another year+.  The plan is still for Hubs to retire once College Boy graduates college but the moving away piece of the puzzle won't be happening quite as soon as that since Daughter is still living here so she can finish school.

Life happens and is expensive so save as much as you can for those rainy days no matter your age or how close/far away you are from retirement.

Did you increase your net worth last month?
Do you have a retirement plan in place?

Sluggy

The Boring Blog Box Giveaway for December!

Here it is.....my last Giveaway of 2016.

This is the ninth Sluggy's Boring Blog Box Giveaway for the year.
This time it's all about Christmas and Chocolate!

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

1 x Pantene shampoo(w/bonus sample)
1 x Olay body wash
1 x Listerine mouth wash
1 x Arnicare topical pain reliever
1 x Garnier facial cleanser wipes
1 x Colgate toothpaste
1 x Oral-B toothbrush
1 x Yardley lavender soap
2 x Nivea hand cream tins
10 x Reese's candy bells
8 x Lindt pumpkin spice truffles
1 x Cover Girl mascara
1 x Cover Girl eyebrow pencils
2 x Cover Girl eye shadow(1 teal, 1 gray)
1 x Toblerone dark chocolate bar
1 x Soulful Christmas Music CD(Motown type singers/groups)
1 x Boyd's Bear Twinkle Bear w/stocking
2 x No-Nonsense pairs of socks

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

I'll leave this giveaway open until Sunday, December 11th, at 11:59pm Eastern Time, so that gives everyone a full 10 days to enter this one.  On the 12th I'll mark all the valid entries and use Random dotorg to pick a number and that corresponding person's entry wins. I've allowed a few less days for this one to run so I can get it mailed out before Christmas. 8-)

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 win, do you do Christmas up big or small, what foods are traditional for you to eat/serve at Christmas, the favorite thing you got from Santa as a kid,  your most favorite childhood memory of Christmas, 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 these entries.

Disclaimer--This giveaway is open to those with mailing addresses within the US only.
As the cost of postage to foreign countries has gotten to high I can no longer afford to mail boxes outside the US, sorry.  These giveaways are not sponsored by any companies, I pay for it all out of my own pocket.

***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

Rite-Aid 4 Day Sale Freebies

Be sure to get up to Rite-Aid by Saturday for the 4 Day Sale running Wednesday through Saturday.

Here are the freebies you can score......

Regular sized Kit-Kat and Reese's candy are on sale 3 for $2.00 and they give back $2 in Plenti Points=free chocolate!!!


Plus while you are there ask a cashier for a Friends & Family Sale coupon.....

Saturday is the F&F sale day and with this coupon you get 30% off everything(exclusions apply)unless the sale price is lower than 30% off.

If anyone needs Fragrance Gift Sets for gifts this Christmas this is the week to buy them at Rite-Aid.

Select $15.99 and over ones qualify for a Spend $50/Get $10 back in Plenti Points.

If you purchase them on Saturday you get 30% off each set but that's just the beginning.

Here's what the deal looks like--

Buy 2 x $15.99=$31.98
Buy 2 x $21.99=$43.98
Subtotal.$75.96

30% F&F discount off on Saturday=$53.17 + tax

Use 4 x $2/1 IPQs from coupons dotcom(Stetson, Nautica, Vera Wang, Addidas, Beyonce, etc.)
$53.17-$8 Qs=$45.17 + tax

Then you get $10 back in PPs so $35.17 + tax OOP

Submit for $8 in Ibotta cash rebates(make sure you only buy 1 of each qualifying fragrance set as there is a limit of 1 rebate per fragrance brand), so $35.17-$8 rebates=$27.17+ tax.

Plus if you have your Rite-Aid card linked to SavingStar there is a $5 Refund when you buy $30 of select Coty fragrance sets(some of these are the ones that qualify as part of the Spend $50/Get $10 in PPs at Rite-Aid Deal), so if you buy the right sets you could get another $5 off making this $22.17 + tax OOP or $5.54 + tax per gift set.

That's an amazing price if you need fragrance sets!

Sluggy

2016 Food & Toiletries Spending.....November Update

* Posting this a day early as I am finished spending on food for November.*

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for NOVEMBER 2016.

I have posted November'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 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 5(4-5 at home this month). No kids under 20.

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

DOLLAR TREE
OOP  $3.00
Value  $5.00
Savings   40%

KMART
OOP  $0.00
Value  $8.94
Savings  100%

RITE-AID
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads/PPs  $522.04
Value  $522.04
Savings  100%

SHURSAVE MARKET
OOP  $188.71
Qs/Ads $99.80
Value  $288.51
Savings  34.59%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $330.38

Qs/Ads  $477.68

Value  $808.06

Savings  59.11%

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, Dollar Tree at 100% and Weis at 59.11%.  My WORST savings rate was Shursave Market at 34.59%.
I shopped at 5 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket..........$522.09

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$1,110.51

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1,632.60

TOTAL Savings of ..................................68.02%
TOTAL Savings w/o Rite-Aid of ..............52.99%


This closes out the November food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I went into November wanting to do a $400 food budget for the month.
I actually spent $522.09 which was $122.09 over my limit.

The monthly food spending savings percentage went up by 12.62% in November to 68.02% compared to October's 55.40% savings average.
A killer savings rate  brought about by a lot of free items at Rite-Aid during the month.  Even without all the freebies at R-A the month ended overall with a 52.99% savings rate which is not too shabby either.

With 11 months accounted for, I have spent a total of $4,696.81 on food/toiletries so far in 2016 which averages out to $426.98 per month spent.  This is $9.51 MORE per month than October's average.  My savings rate for the year is holding now at 61.92%.

LOOKING AHEAD To December 2016........

I have implimented a plan to spend only grocery and Visa gift cards and cash rebates received and not spent so far this year, to pay for all the groceries in December.  If I can succeed at this that means my 2016 total spent on food & toiletries will remain at November'syear to-date total of $4,696.81.
Add in that I stocked up on many items in Novemeber(to get a store reward)so some things I'd buy in December are already in the larders, including Holiday goodies and a big hunk of meat for Christmas dinner.

Stay tuned in December to see if my plan works or if I crash and burn the food 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 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?

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


Sluggy

My Frugal "Me" Day

This post is subtitled "My Day with Brad Pitt", because, well, why not?  ;-)

Monday was a rare "Me" Day at Chez Sluggy.
The weather was good so I hit the road to the town South of here for a bit of fun.  Hubs was back to work and Daughter back to school but she would be home by noon so I got a reprieve from watching the dog.

First off was a movie at the actual movie cinema.  I used that movie ticket I got free for buying M&M's at Rite-Aid back in October.  Post about that Deal is HERE.

I saw "Allied", a little touted release this month about spies during WWII.  It was pretty good and even if it wasn't, Brad Pitt is easy on the eyes.  ;-)

You can save yourself $12 on a movie ticket and just watch this trailer and you'll have seen the best moments of this flick.


It was a rare 10:30 am showing, I guess because the local public schools were still not in session due to the Thanksgiving break.
That being said this is not the kind of movie kids would want to see(history? Ewwww!)so I had the entire movie theater to myself.
Loving that!!!

Then there was a quick stop at Aldi to see what mushrooms were going for there this week, as I needed them for Stroganoff making this week. $1.97 for an 8 oz. package?!?  Egads, and no thanks!

But while in Aldi I perused the German Christmas treats.  Being a German company, they always have a nice selection of German made goodies at the Holidays and at a decent price.
I just had to pick this one up.....

Cherry Stollen for $4.99
A yummy splurge.

Then it was over to Bonanza to use the last Free Lunch/Dinner Buffet certificate we won at the Church Auction in October before it expired on the 30th.
Ok, I had to pay for my iced tea drink but  leisurely lunch for $2.43?  I'll take it.

Between eating I had brought a piece of paper and pen and started writing up our Christmas card list.  Yes, I am one of those people who still send cards in the mail. 8-)

Feeling quite stuffed(but not too stuffed)I stopped at a local grocery store to see what deals I could find before heading home.
Since I've closed out November's food spending anything I bought on Monday goes on December's tally.

I found 1 lb. packages of bacon with $2 off stickers making them $1.97 each!  If I had had more room in the freezer at home I would have bought them all(there were at least 15).  I had to settle for 4 packages coming home with me. 8-)
I found mushrooms for $2.50 per 12 oz. box so picked those up for the Stroganoff.

Another find were these packages of mint chocolate chip cookies marked down to $1 each due to quickly approaching sell by dates.  These will go into the freezer to be baked off once Christmas is near and the cookie making commences.

And I even picked up 2 stocking stuffers for College Boy for free after coupons......

Then I headed home and did some Cyber Monday shopping for myself--
A Vera Bradley purse for 50% off and free shipping and some Bath & Body Works candles for cheap.
There may have also been Christmas presents purchased as well. ;-)

All in all a nice relaxing "me" day and it didn't break the bank.

Sluggy