This Week on the Dining Table

The "Holiday Hangover" Edition--

In retrospect, perhaps I should have bought the giant flask I found in the store the day before Hubs had his little accident.  I sure would have come in handy over the last month.  ;-)

Moving on......

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

1. Sunday--Beef Eye Round Roast, Yeast Rolls, Green Bean Casserole, Mac & Cheese

2. Monday--Leftovers

3. Tuesday--Chicken Enchiladas(premade Stouffer's)

4. Wednesday--Tacos

5. Thursday--Xmas Dinner 2.0

6. Friday--Clam Chowder and Biscuits

7. Saturday--NYE tapas(aka appetizers)

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Beef Eye Round Roast, Yeast Rolls, Green Bean Casserole, Mac & Cheese

2. Monday--Leftovers(Don't recall what we had)

3. Tuesday--Chicken Enchiladas(premade Stouffer's)

4. Wednesday--Tacos

5. Thursday--Leftover Ravioli

6. Friday--? I don't recall that I ate dinner.

7. Saturday--NYE tapas(aka appetizers)

The chowder and biscuits didn't happen but most everything went as planned otherwise.

7 meals cooked at home, 2-3 of them nights of leftovers or Fend For Yourself, and 0 night of Take-Out/Eating-Out.

As for the grocery spending.....1 trips to Weis for lettuce and milk bought the food spending last week to $5.55 and brought my December food spending Total to $410.24 for the month.
My December "found money" budget ended up at $444.39 so I had $34.15 leftover for the month.

My savings percentages last week was 0% as neither item I bought was on sale and no coupons were used.

Leftovers going into this week.......potato salad, a piece of Xmas roast.

Here is this week's "food plan".  As talked about in my December Grocery Spending post yesterday I am instituting a simplified meals/1 involved meal per week Plan going forward.  I have noted the "complicated" meal for the week with an *.

1. Sunday--Xmas Dinner 2.0 + Corn Casserole
2. Monday--Roast Beef Hash from scratch, Scrambled Eggs *
3. Tuesday--Kielbasa on Rolls, Potato Salad
4. Wednesday--Chicken Chili w/Sweet Potatoes
5. Thursday--Quesadillas or Taco Salad(leftover Taco Beef)
6. Friday--Clam Chowder, Biscuits
7. Saturday--Spaghetti and Sausage, Salad, Garlic Bread

This week will see 7 new meals cooked, 0 nights of Take-Out/Eating-Out and 1 night of Leftovers.

What I need to buy for this menu?  chicken breast, hot dog rolls, milk and breakfast sandwiches for the BF.
We start a new month with a $500 food budget to work from.

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

2016 Food & Toiletries Spending.....December Update & FINAL Tally

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for DECEMBER 2016.

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

* I actually bought a pie at Walmart but didn't want to do a whole category for 1 item so I tucked the cost of the pie under Weis spending.*

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

BOYER'S
OOP  $35.62
Value  $70.07
Savings  49.00 %

BREAD OUTLET
OOP  $13.75
Value  $47.77
Savings  71.22%

DOLLAR TREE
OOP  $2.00
Value  $4.98
Savings  59.84%

RITE-AID
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads/PPs  $433.33
Value  $433.33
Savings  100%

SHURSAVE MARKET
OOP  $33.88
Qs/Ads $35.59
Value  $69.47
Savings  51.23%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $324.99

Qs/Ads  $350.27

Value  $675.26

Savings  51.87%

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, the Bread Outlet at 71.22% and Dollar Tree at 59.84%.  My WORST savings rate was Boyer's Market at 49%.  If 49% savings is my worst rate then things went really well in December.  ;-)
I shopped at 6 different stores this past month. *And the pie at Walmart would make it 7 stores.*

TOTAL Out of Pocket..........$410.24

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$890.64

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$1300.88

TOTAL Savings of ..................................68.46%
TOTAL Savings w/o Rite-Aid of ..............52.71%

This closes out the December food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I went into December wanting to spend no income on the food budget.
Here is the break down of my food budget for December utilizing cash/rebates and gift cards I had--

Gift Cards.....$64.36
Cash Rebates--
 Savingstar...$148.03
 Checkout51..$42.75
 Ibotta..........$44.25
Rolled Coins...$103.00
Other Cash(post coupons)...$42.00

Total.....$444.39 for food in December.

I actually spent $410.24.
Here is what I have left of cash and chits....

A Giant market $25 gift card and $9.15 in cash from various rebates. With Hubs' accident I just didn't get a chance to get to a Giant store(it's half an hour away)in December.
I'm going to tuck that $9 into my wallet for emergency cash and throw the .15¢ into the change jar to start the ball rolling with rolled coins. 8-)

The monthly food spending savings percentage went UP by .44% in December to 68.46% compared to November's 68.02% savings average.

I think I did an ok job sticking to this grocery challenge, considering the events of December. ;-)

With 12 months accounted for, I have spent a Grand Total of $4,696.81 on food/toiletries in 2016 which averages out to $391.40 per month spent in 2016.

If you count the $410.21 I spent in gift cards and cash rebates/rolled coins/post coupon cash into my total for the year the actual spending comes to $5,107.05 for 2016, or $425.59 per month.
Still mighty good for a total feeding between 2-5 people(most of the year it was 4-5 people).
That's $425.59 per month for all food, toiletries, paper goods and HBA for the year for the entire household.  The only category not counted in this category is Eating out/Take-out.

LOOKING AHEAD To 2017........

I sat down and did a breakdown of food spending-before the kids moved in/after the kids moved in.
The 5 months of Jan-May vs. the 7 months of June-Dec.
The average per month food spending Jan-May was $298.91, feeding 2-3 adults.
The average per month food spending June-Dec was $516.07, feeding 4-5 adults.

While in my head, before figuring the math out on this issue, I thought the June-Dec spending was way out of control.  But looking at the actual numbers for it all, even with the higher spending June-Dec we were averaging around $100 per person per month, just like the numbers tell us we were doing Jan-May.

So things were not as dire the last half of 2016 as I had talked myself into believing they were.

So where do we go from here into the Great Unknown of 2017--
Nobody is moving out or taking on more of the food spending costs in 2017.  Hubs and I will still be feeding everyone under our roof(with a few exceptions that are already in place).  Therefore I don't foresee our food expenditures going down substantially and I certainly don't want them going up!
Our food spending will be higher in 2017 than in 2016 as we weren't feeding 4-5 adults for the whole year then.  I am not going to kid myself into thinking I'll be able to lower this spending category under $500 per month, which is $6,000 for the whole year.

I may be able to do a bit better on the spending by addressing the food waste area.  We had increased food waste once the kids moved in, as they don't eat many leftovers, leading to more food spending.  I will need to tighten up amounts that are cooked to reduce leftovers.  This is a double edged sword though because Hubs and I like having leftovers and a night off from cooking now and again lightens the workload on me.
What to do, what to do?
Having someone else cook 1 night a week hasn't worked out very satisfactorily for me in 2016.
And if everyone else here had their druthers we'd be ordering in and eating a heck of a lot more processed foods, which would blow our budget out of the water as well as our waistlines(for those of us who HAVE waistlines).
I am thinking of instituting a simpler meal plan for 2017.  Easier meals, basic meals with only involved dishes every now and again.  Part of that will be to rely on my crock pots a bit more than I do now.

All that being said, I am setting a $6K food budget for 2017.
I will continue to shop how I do now-buying loss leaders, at rock bottom price at whatever food purveyor I can scope out, utilizing coupons when applicable and perhaps growing a bit more of our own food this Summer.

GRAND TOTAL FOOD & TOILETRIES SPENDING 2016

TOTAL Out of Pocket..........$5,107.05

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$8,937.28

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$13,634.09

TOTAL Savings of ..................................62.54%

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 December?
*  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

Last Rite-Aid Post of 2016

So Rite-Aid started their New Year/January Points Scheme early last Sunday(even though the new year wasn't arriving for another week).
Spend $50 on "Starting Points" designated items and earn $20 back in Plenti Points.  Basically this amounts to a 40% discount on purchased items.
A 40% discount unless you work it like I do! ;-)

As I traipsed up to Rite-Aid this past week to pick-up prescription refills I bought items to get me to $50 spent(the spending tracked and you could buy items in multiple transactions)....without spending $50 of course! lolz

The photo is a compilation of what I bought for this Deal but does not include some bulky things like 8 12-packs of Pepsi branded soda and 4 cases of Rite-Aid branded bottled water.

5 x Clear Care contact lens solution(not part of the Starting Points)=$39.95
2 x Progresso soup on sale=$3.00
8 x 12-packs of soda on sale=$26.64*not pictured*
4 x Big Win bottled water cases(rain check item)=$5.16*not pictured*
2 x Scott toilet tissue on sale=$13.98
3 x single serve Nabisco snacks on sale=$1.50
SubTotal.....$90.23($50.28 qualifies for Starting Points Deal)

Coupons Used
5 x $5/1 Clear Care In-AdQ=$25.00
4 x $5/1 Clear Care IPQ=$20.00
1 x $4/1 Clear Care CatalinaQ=$4.00
1 x .50¢/2 Progresso ManuQ=.50¢
4 x $2/2 Pepsi brand 12-packs IPQ=$8.00
2 x .70¢/1 Scott 12 pack tp IPQ=$1.40
Coupon Total.....$58.90

$90.23-$58.90=$31.33+$1.18 tax=$32.51

I paid with $32.51 of Plenti Points.
I earned back $26 in new Plenti Points($20 for buying $50 of Starting Points items, 2 x $3 wyb2 Clear Care items), thus making my total "spent" $6.51.
I also earned $1.50 in cash rebates($1 for buying 2 Progresso soups from SavingStar and .50¢ for buying 1 Diet Pepsi 12-pack soda from Checkout51), making my grand total for all the above $5.01.
No actual money was spent as I used Plenti Points to pay so I "spent down" my points by $6.51 and got $1.50 back in cash, making the "cost" $5.01.

Not only was the contact solution a moneymaker after my 20% Wellness discount and stacked coupons it also gave back $3 in Plenti Points when you bought 2.  Limit of 2 of this deal so I didn't get points back for the 5th bottle I purchased but that one still was a $1.01 moneymaker.
These items' $9.05 in overage I applied to the cost of the Starting Points items that were bought.

I could have saved another .60¢ on the toilet tissue had the store not been out of Cottonelle tp, which was also on sale for $6.99 and qualified as a Starting Points item.  I had $1/1 Qs for that brand but only .70¢/1 Qs for the Scott brand.

I had a rain check for the Big Win bottled water from this summer when it was on sale for $1.99 per case, which made it a better buy than this week's sale price of $2.50.  However when the cashier rang it up she somehow put it in for $1.29 a case and not $1.99 a case, which I didn't catch until I got home.
I should have been over $50 in purchases of SP items without those 3 packs of cookies.  These had to be bought the next day to get me over $50 spent and my $20 in Plenti Points credited to my account.

Since I try to only "buy" stuff that we can/will use and no one here wears contacts, that Clear Care solution will be sent to my eldest son's fiancee(if she can use it)or will be taken to the food bank and/or sold on the local FB yard sale site.
All the other items will be utilized by the household here.

My stats for 2016 are as follows......
* June and August saw no spending/shopping at Rite-Aid at all in 2016.
* 10 months I brought merchandise home from Rite-Aid, ranging from $19.29 worth in July to $717.24 worth in January.
* Total goods "bought" at Rite-Aid in 2016 was $3,390.29.
* Total out of pocket actual money spent at Rite-Aid in 2016 was $2.99.  Less than $3 spend for the year for $3390.29 worth of goods.  I managed to do this by rolling Plenti Points and using Plenti Points earned on prescription transfers or the purchase of gift cards for spending I was going to do, so why not use gift cards bought at Rite-Aid and get the Plenti Points benefit?
* Savings rate for the year of Rite-Aid shopping was 99.91%.  Not 100% but hey!, we aren't perfect.  ;-)

So ends a year of shopping at Rite-Aid.

Who knows what things we will "buy" in 2017 and if the Walgreen's merge will finally happen.

Sluggy

Some Frugal Wins Lately

Here are some of our Frugal Wins this past week.......

*  Who would have thought that having your spouse break his leg in a major way would lead to frugality?!

While this accident did lead to a tad more Eating-Out/Take-Out Spending it also has meant less money spent in other ways.
We have a Christmas eve tradition in our family of enjoying a meal out at our local Chinese restaurant.  This generally involves inviting the brother in-law and nephew, as well as friends of College Boy along for the evening.  We spring for a full spread-appetizers, sushi rolls and dessert if wanted as well as everyone's drinks(not alcohol)and entrees. Cost hovers in the $100 area for the night.

This year, since Hubs is unable to go out to the restaurant we ordered take-out from the place instead.  No extras were ordered just entrees and additional family and CB's friends were not invited to partake, just us 5.  With tip the meal ended up costing $60.  Since I spent over $50 on the order I also got a $5 off your next order coupon from there.

*  I got 5 Kohl's rebates sent in on Friday from my Black Friday online shopping.  At $12 a pop that comes to $60 in money coming back to me.  These were small appliances that are $7 after rebate-I gifted 3 different ones to Daughter and the BF for when they eventually get their own place again and I bought 2 toaster ovens for spares.  Our toaster oven is on it's last legs plus College Boy will be doing an internship his last semester and living goodness knows where for it(not at school)so I picked another toaster oven up in case he needs something to cook in wherever he is located for that 14 weeks.  It just made sense to take part in this appliance deal at that price.

*  This arrived in the mail last week.....

A coupon for a free 12 pack of Coke products.  I consider this a freebie as it was "bought" using coke points I acquire from drink bottles the BF throws away(He buys those bottles.)  Unfortunately this year the Coke folks limited each registered user to 1 redemption of this free 12 pack reward. boo!  In past years there was either a 5 reward limit or no limit at all.

*  I got a cash back summary for my online Christmas shopping from the site I go through when I shop via websites.
A grand total of $7.13 in cash back.
Whoopee, right?
Granted I didn't buy much online this Holiday season but every little bit helps.

*  Gasoline taxes are set to rise 8 cents per gallon here in PA on January 1st.  We already have the highest gas taxes in the nation so yeah, I am not thrilled about this.  I had 70 cents in gas discounts at Weis(PMITA)Markets that expired Dec. 31st so College Boy and I took both of our cars up to fill the tanks using that lower price.  The discount was good for $1.779 per gallon for 20 gallons and between the cars we were able to squeeze in 18.5 gallons, saving $12.95 on gas.  I told the Daughter that she and the BF should fill their car/truck tanks before Saturday, but when I went out on Thursday I saw that all the stations in town had already jacked up the regular gas price by 8 cents a gallon.
bleh.

*  I got all my medications filled before January 1st when our high deductible kicks in for 2017.  If it's a choice between paying ZERO OOP or the full Usual & Customary price on drugs after Dec. 31st, I'm all about the free rxs.

*  We've only used non-essential electricity this week during the cheaper off-peak hours.  This includes running dishwasher, washer and dryer and taking showers and some lighting.  This weekend will see bed linens/towels washed/dried as weekends are also off-peak times.

That's about it from Chez Sluggy for frugal wins lately.
What good things have you been accomplishing?

Sluggy

What Santa/The Mailman Brought Us Last Week....Yikes!

After the scare last week about not getting the disability paperwork in on time so that the paychecks keep rolling in at Chez Sluggy, Hubs got an envelope in the mail from our insurance company.

This wasn't in the packet of EOBs that came separately, the size of which could chock a horse.
No this EOB came under separate cover.

And just look at the amount of this bill..........!!!

Gulp!
Merry Christmas! lolz

This was not for the ER visit stuff or the X-rays, CT scans, docs, etc. or the surgeon and anesthesiologist fees.

This was for the use of the OR, drugs, equipment and the subsequent 1.5 day hospital stay(2.5 days if you count the day between being admitted and when they actually performed the surgery), nursing costs, meals, etc. while there.

ER costs that have been billed amount to $2321.00 so far.  According to the insurance company's website there is another $6290.00 of charges on there for the EOBs that haven't arrived in our mail yet.

If you are keeping score we've got $95,626.82 in medical charges so far for his accident.
Add in 3 home health nursing/OT visits, the suture removal next week and then numerous Physical Therapy sessions in January to look forward to.
yay.......

Luckily(I guess it's lucky?)we hit our maximum out of pocket for 2016 so everything so far is covered 100% and we don't owe a penny of co-insurance/co-pays for any of this. (Add in $10K+ in charges for the Daughter's last back injection in November that was no cost either as we'd hit the maximum OOP before she had that procedure done mid November.)

Come January 1st, we are on the hook 100% for the first $3K in new medical charges out of pocket in 2017 and then 10% of each bill for co-insurance charges.
Goody.

I can't even imagine having a major health event without medical insurance!  No wonder medical debt is the number 1 reason people go bankrupt.
This was just broken leg(albeit a really bad one).  What do they charge for an organ removal/repair or a heart attack/stroke?

Sluggy