The First Giveaway of 2017!

January 2017 kicked me in the butt and I never got around to holding a January Giveaway.
Sorry about that folks.
But today is a new month and let's try a Giveaway today, ok?  ;-)

This giveaway is going to be a bit different than my Boring Box Giveaways.
Yes, this giveaway is for all you money nerds out there and especially for the ones nearing retirement age.
That's because I am giving away an awesome book and if you are within 15 years of retiring and then living off your accumulated wealth(or lack thereof)YOU NEED/WANT THIS BOOK!!!

While it is not the end all and be all of retirement planning(nor should it be)it is a nifty little gem and may open your eyes to things you just had no idea about like it did me a few years ago.
Even this money nerd, who thought she was on top of her money game, gleaned a few ideas from this book.

The book is called "The 5 Years Before You Retire" by Emily Guy Birken.

Personally I'd say you should read this a good 15-10 years before you retire, not wait until 5 years before taking the leap.

You'll be able to make course corrections easier 15-10 years out.  Waiting until 5 years before this stage in your life to read/heed what's in this book seems a bit too late to me.
This is not a book about investing, but rather a guide to setting up goals and time lines for accomplishing said goals and helpful advise on entering the world of Social Security and Medicare and beyond.

I know that many of you out there are way too young for this book(or may be retired already)so don't need to enter this giveaway.  But perhaps you have a parent who isn't retired yet who may need some guidance or a friend who is getting close to their "golden years" who may be a money mess and you could gift them this little nugget of a book.

I'll leave this giveaway open until Sunday, February 12th, 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. 

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, how close you are to retirement, or if you have retirement savings, or how you are doing on your retirement plan or any money related thing you want to say.

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!

Even if you don't win this book, I'd suggest you find it at your local library and check it out if you are within throwing distance of retirement. ;-)


So let's get this started!

Sluggy

Net Worth.....February 1st Update

We are actually up over $10k from the January 1st net worth overall(only liquid cash/investments/bonds, as I don't count housing or car values).  The retirement accounts were up $5K+ for February 1st 2017 from the January 1st 2017 calculations and the cash reserve/non-retirement accounts were up almost exactly $5K.

We are up $95,582.97 from one year ago, from the February 1st of 2016's net worth snapshot.  

We are still in acquisition mode and Hubs still has a good income. His disability pay is still at 100% of his income and he is returning to work next week(working from home as he is still not cleared to drive yet).  I'll be curious to see if this Friday's paycheck drops to 70% of income or not.  I'm still unclear on when the cutoff is for his first month of disability pay.

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

What I Bought This Week at Rite-Aid

First off I had a Load2Card Q for "Spend $20 in Rite-Aid Branded Items, Get $5 Off Your Order" attached to two of my Plenti cards.

Daylogic(a R-A brand)razor blades are $8 and give back $8 in Plenti Points this week(limit 2 offers per card).
DreamHouse candies are also a R-A brand.

So I bought this...........

2 x Daylogic razor blade refills on sale=$16.00
2 x Dream House Jordan Almonds BOGO50%=$4.48
SubTotal......$20.48

The $5 off $20 L2CQ came off....
$20.48-$5=$15.48+.72¢ tax=$16.20

I paid with $16.20 in Plenti points and earned $16 in new Plenti points back.
So all this "cost" me .20¢ in Plenti points.

The Daylogic refill blades fit the Gillette Mach3 handles and way cheaper than the Gillette Mach3 refill blades.
Daughter loves Jordan Almonds so I have already started collecting goodies for Christmas of 2017.  8-)))

My R-A only had 2 packs of blades so I'll try another location to see if I can do this deal again on my son's card(which also has the Spend $20/Get $5 off Q attached to it)to get razor blades and candy for .20¢ in points.

Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Changes in our Daily Lives" Edition--

The BF pulled out of town on Friday.  Though we all were sad to see him go(and wish him only the best)this also means some savings in our household spending and I now have to rework our 2017 Budget.

Moving on......

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

1. Sunday--Birthday Steaks, Baked Potato, Caesar Salad

2. Monday--Fish, Cole Slaw, Sweet Potatoes, something Noodle for BF

3. Tuesday--Baked Potato Soup

4. Wednesday--Homemade Pizza

5. Thursday--Beef Pie

6. Friday--Leftovers

7. Saturday--Leftovers

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Birthday Steaks, Baked Potato, Brussels Sprouts, Bday Cake

2. Monday--Salmon for us/Breaded Fish for the Kids, Cole Slaw, boxed Mac and Cheese for BF

3. Tuesday--Chicken Cordon Bleu, Broccoli, Stuffing(Mashed Taters w/Gravy too for BF)

4. Wednesday--Beef Pie

5. Thursday--Primo Hoagies(Take-Out)

6. Friday--Leftovers

7. Saturday--Leftovers

6 meals cooked at home, 2 of them nights of leftovers or Fend For Yourself, and 1 night of Take-Out.
The sweet potatoes had gone bad so Brussels sprouts happened instead on Sunday. Work bought the BF had pizza for lunch his last day so pizza didn't happen here, we got subs instead(good but pricey).  Nobody wanted to potato soup so I made Cordon Bleu(premade/boxed)instead w/boxed stuffing and broccoli.

As for the grocery spending.....2 trips to Weis and a stop at the Surplus Outlet on the way back from taking College Boy back to school brought the food spending last week to $167.69 and brought my January food spending Grand Total to $551.27 for the month.
If I hadn't gone to Surplus Outlet I'd only be $14.26 over but I don't get the opportunity to go there often and I found a great deal on Olive Oil(plus the cashier forgot to ring 2 bottles up!)so I am not going to beat myself up over going over budget.

My savings percentages last week was 54.22%.  Anything over 50% is awesome. 8-)

Leftovers going into this week.......spaghetti w/meats, beef stew, beef pie.  Not much of any of these(only enough now for single lunches)so it will be a heavy "new food prep" week.

Here is this week's "food plan"....
* Denotes "complicated" meals

1. Sunday--Pork Chops, Stuffing(using leftover stuffing), Cauliflower in cheese sauce

2. Monday--Tacos or Taco Salads

3. Tuesday--Beef Stroganoff, Rice, Green Beans *

4. Wednesday--Hot Dogs on Rolls, Beans, maybe something else too

5. Thursday--Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup

6. Friday--Pizza

7. Saturday--Leftovers

This week will see 6 new meals cooked, 0 nights of Take-Out/Eating-Out and 1 night of Leftovers.

What I need to buy for this menu?  Mushrooms, Green Beans, Sour Cream, Cauliflower, Lettuce.

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

2017 Food & Toiletries Spending....January Update

* Posting my grocery totals a few days early as I am done food spending for January.  If for some reason I shop again before Wednesday, this amount will go onto February's spending.*

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for JANUARY 2017.

I have posted January's totals on the Total Grocery Savings Page located HERE and have updated the Totals there.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in January.  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 4-5(5 at home this month). No kids under 20.

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

BREAD OUTLET
OOP  $10.75
Value  $54.90
Savings  80.42%

RITE-AID
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads/PPs  $873.20
Value  $873.20
Savings  100%

SHURSAVE MARKET
OOP  $50.74
Qs/Ads $27.28
Value  $78.02
Savings  35%

SURPLUS OUTLET
OOP  $37.01
Value  $102.01
Savings  63.72%

TARGET
OOP  $0.00
Value  $66.46
Savings  100%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $452.77

Qs/Ads  $433.45

Value  $886.22

Savings  48.91%

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, Target at 100% and the Bread Outlet at 80.42%.  My WORST savings rate was Shursave Market at 35%.
The bulk of my money was spent at Weis Markets in January and I had a 48.92% savings rate there.
I shopped at 6 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket..........$551.27

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$433.45

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$886.22

TOTAL Savings of ..................................73.25%
TOTAL Savings w/o Rite-Aid of ..............53.58%

This closes out the January food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I went into January wanting to spend $500 on food and toiletries.
I went over budget by $51.27 because of a few stock-up opportunities.

The monthly food spending savings percentage went UP by 4.79% in January to 73.25% compared to December's 68.46% savings average.  January's Rite-Aid haul of freebies after sales/coupons/points really helped raise the savings rate overall this month.

With 1 month accounted for, I have spent a Grand Total of $551.27 on food/toiletries in 2017 which averages out to $551.27 per month spent in 2017. 8-)


LOOKING AHEAD To February........

3 weeks into January and word came that the BF was going back to Louisiana to live.  For me, this means I can back down on my grocery/toiletries spending in 2017.  I no longer will need a $6K food budget for 2017. 8-)))
I should be able to do a $300-$400 food budget per month now so I am shooting for between $3300 and $4400 in food spending for the rest of 2017(or $3800 to $4900 for the full year).

For February I am going to try for a $300 grocery budget as College Boy won't be home this month.
Perhaps I can do even better by heavily relying on the stockpile/freezer in February?  Time will tell.

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 January?
*  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