2016 Goals.....How They Turned Out

Let's see how I did with my 2016 Goals.

FINANCIAL

*  Save $40K of our income this year.  I did it last year so I am going to try to get to this amount in 2016.  Unless Hubs ups and retires during the year or we get hit with some other financial catastrophe this should be feasible.....a stretch and not easy but possible.  I just have to resist spending on "wants".  Easier said than done, right?  ;-)

After the Daughter and BF moved back in here every day bills went up so I had to back down my Savings Challenge Goal to $38K.  And even that looked like it might not happen but we managed to pull it off. 
Go us! 8-)

*  Attempt to sell some stuff we need to get rid of.  There are some items we need to let go off that are like new or in very good shape that could bring in a few dollars so I need to get back into selling mode.  This could bring in potentially enough to fund a few months of groceries and I will earmark anything sold for that.

The selling sort of happened and sort of didn't happen.  In the Spring I made $93 on the local yard sale F/B site selling some of the toiletry stash.  I also sold a fragrance set right before Xmas but all the other Xmas time selling I planned to do didn't happen after Hubs' accident.

*  Take care of all the paperwork/bills/financial stuff in a timely manner this year.
Track spending monthly so we can adjust/correct any overspending/bad decisions asap and not come out the other end of 2016 with financial messes to clean up.

I did well with keeping up with the paperwork/bills/financial stuff in 2016.  The only sore spot there was not filing paperwork the last half of the year.

HEALTH

*  Continue with my exercise program, add to it, and do it every month.  It's a well ingrained habit, in that, even on days when I don't feel so well I still get on that bike and pedal way.  I need to add other components to this.  Maybe I'll see about paying a trainer to push me if it's not too expensive?  Because left to my own devices I will slack off if not held accountable to someone. 8-(

While I did a lot better with other health issues in 2016 the bike habit fell away the last half of the year.  Mostly because the bike my Daughter brought home(which meant getting rid of the bike I was use to)isn't a good fit to me.  Even though, I have been moving more and walking but I do miss the biking.

*  Do more Gardening than in 2015.   I think we will dig up where the pool use to be and use that as gardening space this year.  It's already cleared and it's in the middle of the backyard so gets sun most of the day making it perfect if we can fence it off from the rabbits.  More produce grown=more produce eaten=better health.

More gardening didn't happen.  The pool area wasn't utilized and I did about the same amount of gardening as in 2015.

*  Do some canning.  Other than making some peach jam last year I didn't do any other canning.  I had no tomato crop so I couldn't make my relish(thankfully I still had enough so we won't run out before I can make some this coming Fall)or can any tomatoes.  I have plenty of jars so I just need to get the produce and do this....no excuses.

I canned my relish in the Fall/late Summer.  I also went and picked my own produce too so extra points for that. lolz

*  Lose 20 pounds.   While I am exercising on a regular basis since last March and we are eating better/less and feeling better overall I still need to drop some weight.  I have various health issues that keep me from doing more and medications that keep me from losing but I need to do something to make this happen. sigh.  Perhaps at my next dr. check-up I'l pick his brain on what I can try that is alluding me.

A change in my mix of medications, keeping up walking/some biking and more moving, plus working on smaller portions at meals and I have dropped 20 lbs. from last January.  The bulk of the reduction in weight has come since August after medication changes, I hit 20 lbs. off in November and I have kept it off up until now.
The hard work will be to keep it up over the Winter and not get lazy and go back to bad habits so I can keep seeing that scale needle get lower.

PERSONAL

*  Paint 12 Items in my Ceramic Stash.  After ignoring the basement for so many years I am facing up to all the unfinished product down there now.  If I don't get anything else done this year I NEED TO PAINT this stuff!!!  And after I do I get to have to problem of doing something with all this newly painted stuff.  Unless I can talk 12 friends into coming to see me this year and then I will have presents for all of them to take home. ;-)

The Ceramic Stash is still there, unpainted.  I got so far as to clean out my paints and brushes and bring up 2 items to paint.....and then they sat for 6 months in the kitchen.  A total fail.

*  Sew and COMPLETE 6 Projects.  I completed 8 sewing projects on my plate last year.  I still have a couple "already started" ones and I will start some new projects to get my 6 done.

Other than some hemming projects for Hubs I sewed nothing.  I really need to do some more repair work on clothing items of mine so that's on the front burner.

*  Complete 1 crochet project.   I have the yarn and the hook I just need to sit down and do this.  Last year with the cataract surgery and all the eye problems this wasn't even feasible so it's back on the list for this year.

Totally didn't happen.
I suck. ;-)

TRAVEL

*  Go on at least 2 trips for pleasure.   I am feeling like more of a homebody at the beginning of this year so I am not feeling that travel bug as much so I am thinking of ramping back the travel plans for 2016.  Only time will tell if I keep to this smaller amount of travel.   Perhaps no Family Reunion Trip this year and there will be no trips to find a kid an apartment and then back to move them.....so that's 3 less trips to make in 2016.   Maybe no trip to LA this year or we will fly out?  We have talked about going back to Maine this year as we haven't been in quite a few years and I really love Maine.  Perhaps I can stop in MA on the way and visit some family?
And then of course there is the invite to come see Kim in ID.  If Hubs retires unexpectedly this year we'll have the time to do that trip.  8-)

2016 saw a long trip to Louisiana again(but it wasn't much of a pleasure trip besides stopping for 2 side trips to see blogger friends), a vacation to Maine(with a stop in MA to see family)and a trip to the Family Reunion in Virginia.  Daughter and I also made a trip to VA in the Summer to see my eldest son and my brother and his wife.

HOUSE STUFF

*  Have 2 House Repair/Improvement Projects completed. 
There is still the bathroom redo/repair on our plate that we put money aside to complete this last year but never got around to doing it.  Plus we need to figure out which other Project we can tackle in 2016.  I am thinking window glass replacement as we have at least 5 glass seals that have broken.  Plus we need new window screens for most of our windows.  Not things we can do ourselves but things we can put money toward and get ticked off the repair list.  We just need to wait and see how much Hub's bonus will be this year to see how much we have to work with to pay for the 2nd project.

The master bath got a total redo in 2016 and used most of what we had saved/put aside for that.  The only other home improvement checked off the list was a ceiling fan/light replacement in the kitchen.  Just couldn't pull the trigger on any more projects for the year.

*  Get rid of 6 boxes of possessions plus some larger items that need disposing of.  I still have some "stuff" to get rid of in the house, even after sending 11 loads to Salvation Army last year.   I need to figure out how to dispose of most of my ceramic molds from when I had a ceramic business.  And I need to help Hubs go through the shed this Spring/Summer too.  I don't usually go in there but I took a peak back in the Fall and I can easily see many items we don't need to hang onto like old pool stuff and bicycles from when the kids were smaller.  I am sure there are many more things we can pitch or recycle in there too.

We did a total clean/clear out of the shed.  We also got rid of some furniture in the Spring when the Daughter and BF came here to live to make space for them.  Not much got taken to Sallie's this year otherwise.  I had plans for a few loads in December but Hubs accident put a kybosh on that.

BLOGGING

*  I will try to blog 6 days a week as this is pretty much how much I do now.  I have my regular weekly and/or monthly posts--Monday's Weekly Meal plans/results, End of month Savings Challenge.  Food Spending/Budget, and Monthly Goal Update posts.  

I kept to a sort of blogging schedule.  I did 348 posts in 2016 which means 17 posts shy of 1 per day on average so I am calling this goal complete.

Ok, now I can put 2016 into the books.
Time to figure out where to go from here in 2017.

Sluggy

Last of the Rite-Aid Porn This Week

Since I had to go right by Rite-Aid this morning when I went out to Ollie's(Good Stuff Cheap!)to use a $20 gift card and a 10% off my order coupon they mailed me, I went ahead and got some things there on my son's card......

12 boxes of GM cereals@ $2 each
2 jugs of Gain detergent@ $4.94 each
2 boxes of Chloraseptic cough drops@ $5.29(BOGOF)
2 bottles of Visine allery@ $4.55 each

SubTotal was $48.27 before coupons.
Coupons came to $18.00.

$30.27+.35¢ tax=$30.62

I used $30.62 in Plenti points to pay and earned $23.00 in new Plenti points($20 when you spend $50-I had $1.94 tracking toward that before this transaction, $1.50 when you buy Chloraseptic drops x 2).
I also earned $2.50 in cash rebates at SavingStar and Checkout51($1 SS, $1.50 CK51)for buying assorted GM cereals-Lucky Charms x 1, Cocoa Puffs x 2, Any 2 cereals).

So in the end, I "spent down" $5.12 in Plenti points for all this.

College Boy wanted junky cereal to take back to school so 6 boxes will be going with him next weekend.  The Visine and the detergent will also go with CB back to school if we can fit all that along with his other crap into my car. lolz

In all likelihood I won't be frequenting Rite-Aid next week as there isn't much of anything I want on sale then.

Sluggy

2017....the Year of Austerity

2016 was a mixed bag financially for us here at Chez Sluggy.
I did reach my self-imposed savings goal of $38K out of the regular income put away for retirement but just barely.
(We also added to our actual retirement accounts automatically having cash taken out of Hubs' paycheck before we received it but my Savings Challenge is not about that, but the extra I put away for retirement.)

Then the Daughter moved back home bringing her BF in tow mid-year.....and a rather large dopey dog. ;-)
And she continued to have rather large medical bills with substantial OOP co-pays we needed to cover(she is still on our medical plan, as is College Boy)when she stopped working fulltime to go back to school.

Then Hubs had his accident.  While this hasn't cost us any extra or impacted our income yet, it will in 2017.  If he continues into disability pay past the first month, his pay drops by 30% in the second month.  Hopefully he will be able to work from home before the third month rolls around.
We had hit our family maximum OOP for medical bills by mid November(so this accident hasn't cost of anything OOP in 2016), but as of January 1st 2017 a new year starts for our medical plan and we pay the first $3K of charges before we go to paying co-pays on the next $4K of charges.
I am pretty sure we will hit $3K in bills before February ends between prescriptions for me(one of my drugs is $800 per month U&C) and Daughter's costs and PT/Ortho visits for Hubs.  And the next $4K in charges paid out in co-pays will probably be hit sometime in October this year if nothing medical changes going forward.

So between high medical costs($12K in charges OOP plus insurance premiums), increased costs for food/energy with more adults living here for a full year, needing to fund some more money into College Boy's college account, the county here raising property taxes this year, and a possible income drop short term, I am labeling 2017 the Year of Austerity at Chez Sluggy.

Our income can still cover all our costs but I just don't see how I am going to have even as much leftover to save as in 2016.
Therefore I need to reign in spending around here in 2017.  We don't waste much money on wants as it is(outside of vacations)but I am sure I can cut some categories.....

* Dining Out  I have a small stockpile of gift cards for dining.  By limiting a bit more in 2017 when we eat-out and using these gift cards when we do eat-out we can use up this stockpile and cut the OOP in this category.  I need to not treat these gift cards as "free eating out money" but use them judiciously like I would if I was paying cash.

* Alcohol  We have quite a stockpile of booze here as we tend to buy interesting or new drinks when we travel and Hubs gets a notion to wander up to the liquor store and buy stuff whenever he wants.  I'm going to try to get him to drink from what is already here and drink some of my acquisitions too as I just don't drink as much as I use to and someone has to use it up.

*  Clothing  Neither Hubs or I are "clothes horses".  We don't go out and buy clothes on a whim or on a fashion trend.  We prefer to wear out our clothing and replace anyway.  Heck, it's like pulling teeth to get Hubs to buy clothes or to get him to agree to let me buy him something.  His last pair of pants was bought a year ago last November and before I bought him new shirts for Xmas he hadn't bought a shirt in a good 2 years.
I have inventoried our wardrobes and we shouldn't need to buy any clothing in 2017(unless one of us loses more weight and goes down a size and I won't be sad about buying better fitting clothes then).  8-)

* Vacations/Trips  Last year, besides trips to drop-off or pick-up College Boy from school Hubs and/or I went on 4 trips plus 2 day trips.  May was a 2 week trip to Louisiana, July for a 1 week trip I took with the Daughter to VA, end of July/early August was Hubs and I for 9 days to Maine and end of September was 3 days to VA.  I day trip to see College Boy perform and another day trip to a brew pub.  We were slated to go to see eldest son at Christmas time for a week but that didn't happen due to the accident.
It's looking like we'll need to go down to LA again this Spring to deal with our "vacation" home but that might involve a flight down and not a road trip and only one of us will go so expenses should be lower for that type of trip. This won't be fun trip but a business one.  We still would like to take one nice, long vacation this year and will be looking for ways to keep the costs down for it.  Not sure yet on how many small trips we'll be able to do.  If we go to see relatives we can avoid hotel costs if we stay with them though.  Still working on how many trips this year and where.

* Stockpile  I have a moderate food stockpile but a rather ample toiletries, paper goods, household goods stockpile at this point.  I inventoried a few items recently and I have on hand--
421 rolls of tp
57 boxes of facial tissues
27 boxes of dishwasher tabs
100+ bottles of laundry detergent
100+ bottles of shampoo

Shocking amounts, right? ;-)
I had no CLUE I had so many laundry detergent jugs(the shampoo I knew was out of control)!
I'll stop stockpiling on some foods temporarily and on some non-food items longer(like tp, kleenex, dishwasher tabs, detergent and 'poo).  I'll also cull some 'poo and detergent to send to the food bank later this month or in February plus give some to the brother in-law and sent some aside for eldest son to take to him.
Not stockpiling just these items will lower my monthly grocery spending a bit for now.

With all this said, I am still  up in the air on a final budget for 2017 and how much spending I can actual cut.
I'm going to put it out there that I'll shoot for a $35K Savings Challenge amount this year.  It's a bit lower than 2016's goal and I see us getting there with some effort.

So what areas can you think of that you have cut your costs that might give me ideas where I can cut mine in 2017?

Sluggy

More Rite-Aid Haul Porn...So Far this Week

Ok, so I did this on my son's card on Sunday........

$36.66 w/tax paid in Plenti points and earned $30 in new Plenti points and earned a $10 Catalina for buying the diapers.

Then did the same transaction on my card.......

$26.79 w/tax paid in Plenti points(used the Catalina to bring the total down another $10)and earned $30 in new Plenti points and earned another $10 Catalina for buying the diapers.

So on Tuesday I bought the same stuff on Daughter's card.......

4 x $8.99 diapers=$35.96
2 x $7.99 lightbulbs=$15.98
SubTotal.....$51.94

I only had 1 $3 Huggies Q and 3 $2 Huggies Qs for this transaction and no lightbulb Qs, so $9 in Qs + the $10 Catalina=$19 off=$32.94 + .96¢ tax=$33.90 paid in Plenti points and $30 in new Plenti points earned.

Plus my third $10 Catalina printed.

Then my plan hit a snag....

First off I had planned another $50 transaction on my card which included buying Herbal Essence shampoos but alas, these aren't Starting Points items.  8-(

Secondly, I was under the assumption that $25 bought in Kimberly-Clark items in a single transaction would generate a $5 Catalina for that purchase.  Evidently this Catalina deal is regional and not available here.  8-((

So this is what my second $50 Starting Points transaction turned into.....

First off I saw I had 3 activated offers in my card's Plenti account--
1-$2 in points for buying Purex detergent(which is on sale for $1.99 this week). Can do this offer 2 x.
2-$1.50 in points for buying Kleenex bundle packs. Can do this offer 2 x.
3-$1.50 in points for buying Chloraseptic, Can do this offer 2 x.

I also had $1.94 tracking from my first transaction on this card so only need to spend $48.06 to get to $50 spent in Starting Points items.

4 x Cottonelle TP 12 packs BOGOF=$24.58
2 x Kleenex bundle packs BOGOF=$5.79
2 x Purex detergent=$3.98
2 x Chloraseptic BOGOF=$5.29
2 x Visine drops 20% discount=$9.10
SubTotal.......$48.74

Coupons Used
2 x $1/1 Cottonelle ManuQ=$2.00
1 x .75¢ Kleenex bundle packs IPQ=.75¢
1 x $1.50 Kleenex bundle packs R-A mailedQ=$1.50(can be stacked with IPQ/ManuQ)
1 x $1/1 Chloraseptic IPQ=$1.00
2 x $1.50/1 Visine IPQ=$3.00
2 x $2/1 Visine RA in-adQ=$4.00
Coupon Total....$12.25

$48.74-$12.25=$36.49-$10 Catalina=$26.49 + .36¢ tax=$26.85
I paid with $26.85 in Plenti points and earned back $30 in new Plenti points($20 wyb $50 Starting Items, 2 x $2 Purex, 2 x $1.50 Kleenex, 2 x $1.50 Chloraseptic). Even though 1 of the Kleenex bundles and 1 of the Chloraseptic were free they still generated the Plenti points for their purchase.

Altogether I spend $124.40 in Plenti points for all 4 transactions and I earned $120.00 back in new Plenti points.  This means all the items bought "cost" me $4.20 including tax so I basically "spent down" $4.20 of my points.
If that Kimberly-Clark $5 Catalina had generated this whole shebang would have been a .80¢ moneymaker instead.

And I now have 12 packs of diapers that I can handily sell locally for $5 or $6 a piece so I've got potential for making $60-$72 cash off of those.

I am probably done with Rite-Aid this week unless something else turns up.
I don't have the Purex or Kleenex Offers on the other cards but I do have the Chloraseptic one on one card.
Be sure to check and activate any Plenti Offers on your Plenti account before going in to buy anything.

So tell me what goodies you got for free or cheap at Rite-Aid this week.

Sluggy

Sunday's Rite-Aid Haul Porn

So first on my son's Wellness card I did this.........

4 x Huggies diapers on sale $8.99=$35.96
2 x GE lightbulbs on sale $7.99=$15.98
SubTotal.........$51.94

Coupons Used
4 x $3/1 Huggies IPQ=$12.00
2 x $2/1 GE lightbulbs ManuQ=$4.00
Coupon Total.......$16.00

$51.94-$16.00=$35.94 + $.72 tax=$36.66

I used $36.66 in Plenti points to pay and earned $30.00 in new Plenti points($20 for buying $50 in Starting Points items and $10 for buying 2 x GE lightbulbs-the lightbulbs double dip on 2 deals).
And I earned a $10 CatalinaQ for spending over $30 on Huggies diapers.
So a bit of a moneymaker if I can roll that Catalina into another deal.

So then I bought all this, basically the same transaction, on my card......

4 x Huggies diapers on sale $8.99=$35.96
2 x GE lightbulbs on sale $7.99=$15.98
SubTotal.........$51.94

Coupons Used
4 x $3/1 Huggies IPQ=$12.00
2 x $2/1 GE lightbulbs ManuQ=$4.00*
1 x $10 CatalinaQ=$10.00
Coupon Total.......$26.00

$51.94-$26.00=$25.94 + $.85 tax=$26.79
I don't know why the tax was different this transaction as I bought the same items?!?

I paid with $26.79 in Plenti points and earned back $30.00 in new Plenti points.
And I earned another $10 CatalinaQ for the Huggies purchase.

$63.45 spent in Plenti points.
$60.00 earned in new Plenti points and 1 $10 CatalinaQ for my next trip.

When I was selling off some of my toiletries stash last Summer to make more room in the house for the arrival of Daughter and the BF, I found that I could easily sell packs of diapers for $5-$6 per package.  So why not pick up more diapers if I can get them basically free or for pennies and sell them and make a profit?
Every little bit of cash coming into my household is a good thing.....

Sluggy