Here is how I did with my To-Do List in April......
* Pay Bills DONE Everything paid and on time, no interest charges levied or paid out. Why pay extra of your hard earned income for not being mindful of deadlines....am I right?
* Read 1 Book DONE Well, actually I read half of two books which makes 1 book read. That's my story and I'm sticking to that. I like alternating my reads that way so if I don't feel like reading one right now, I can read the other. They are different enough that I can keep the plot lines/stories straight. I plan on finishing both books in May.
And no, I am not related to the Hatfields and/or McCoys of KY and WV. lolz I also have 3 more books to bring along to VA this month as I'll have tons of free time for reading.....
And yes, I DO have a connection to the subjects in two of these books. 8-)
* Go to Dr. Appointment DONE I went and all my blood work was good or better than good. My numbers are even lower and my weight is trending down again. Go me.
* Go to Dentist Appointment DONE I had a crumbling old filling that needed mending. All done and just waiting on what we need to pay that insurance didn't. I go back in 6 months for a check-up.
* Go through Q Inserts & Purge DONE I reduced the stack of coupon inserts substantially. I like to purge them every 3-4 months. I will cut out any Qs in the inserts I pitch that haven't expired yet. I now have none that are older than mid March on the shelf now.
* Hold Giveaway DONE
* Mail Giveaway DONE Rhitter won the goodies and I shipped them off to her.
* 1st Load to Salvation Army FAIL I just didn't get the paperwork written up for this so Hubs could drop the load off. Oh well.....it will go out in May instead.
I had a short list in April so not much of a stretch for me but I got all but 1 chore accomplished.
* This is a long one folks, so grab a drink and have a seat before plowing through this post. You may want to take notes as there will be a pop quiz later. ;-) *
I was sort of bored a week ago Sunday and I can't remember now what I was researching in my genealogical past but somehow I got going on a branch and I read something on a FAG memorial and within a couple of hours I had made connection to another famous person on my family tree.
You may know him like this..........
Or maybe like this......
While he is best known for his role as The Godfather in the film of the same name, this part in "The Wild One", this first film that would depict the rebellious teen generation of the 1950's, is now a cult classic.
As you watch these three clips from "The Wild One" take note of the guy playing the harmonica in the first scene and the guy with the trophy in the last scene.
The harmonica player, "Mouse" in the movie is actor Gil Stratton, who went on to play "Cookie" in Stalag 17(the guy who releases the "racers")and he was also the voice of the Narrator in that film.......
Of course you recognize the guy betting on the races(Robert Strauss) from various bad guy roles in film and tv as well as in small appearances in M*A*S*H the tv series.
In the last "The Wild One" scene that's Lee Marvin playing Chino, the rival gangs leader(who has the trophy). Lee Marvin it appears is also a distant cousin of mine but that's a post for another day. 8-)
Some other supporting and bit part actors in "The Wild One" are faces you might recognize from 1960's tv comedies....
* Jack "Aly" Moore who played Hank Kimball on "Green Acres"
* William Gerald "Jerry" Paris who played Jerry Helper the dentist, next door neighbor to Rob and Laura Petrie on "The Dick van Dyke Show".
Jerry Paris was one half of the Jerry and Millie Helper duo....the actress who played Millie, Ann Morgan Guilbert died last June. Jerry had many parts in films and tv and went on to even great success as a director. He directed many hit shows....Happy Days, The Odd Couple, Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Partridge Family, That Girl, The Munsters and many more. Jerry Paris passed in 1986 of a brain tumor.
But I digress......
Marlon Brando is my 17th cousin 2 x removed(meaning he is 2 generations above me). Our common ancestor is Richard de Beauchamp, the 13th Earl of Warwick and Elizabeth de Berkeley.
Marlon's line goes back through his mother, Dorothy Julia Pennebaker to Richard and Elizabeth's daughter, Eleanor de Beauchamp and my line goes back through my line, Carole Frances Harper to Richard and Elizabeth's other daughter, Elizabeth de Beauchamp.
I could write out the entire line particulars but I won't bore you with that. 8-)
My relation to Marlon goes back through his mother to her Great Grandfather, Samuel Wilson Pennebaker who married Sarah "Sallie" Finley and through her mother, Mary "Polly" Gaines. Then you go up through Polly's maternal grandmother's line to the Dabney's and way on back to England for our connection.
But interestingly(at least to me), if I have researched this Gaines line correctly, Mary Gaines' father, William Henry Gaines was the brother of Sargent Richard Gaines. Richard Gaines had a son, William C. Gaines who was the grandfather of Robert Henry Gaines, who married Mary Ann Wilmer Marshall. Mary Ann Marshall was the oldest child of Hunter Holmes Marshall and Sarah Wilmer Stith, who were the original owners of "Roxabel" Plantation, the property that my great grandparents bought in the 1930's. So as Sarah Wilmer Stith is my 4th cousin 5 x removed that makes her daughter, Mary Ann Wilmer Marshall Gaines my 5th cousin 4 x removed. Her husband also relates me to Marlon Brando through marriage. Mary Ann Marshall Gaines' husband, Robert Henry Gaines, is 3rd cousins 3 x removed with Marlon Brando through their common ancestor, Richard Gaines(born 1686).
You got all that? ;-)
While researching Marlon's lines I found some other interesting items to note.....
One of Marlon's closest friends was fellow actor Wally Cox.
If you are really old you may know him as "Mr. Peepers" from early 1950's tv.
If you are just sort of old you would know him from this cartoon series.......
'
Marlon's parents moved the family to Evanton, Illinois when he was a child and Wally Cox lived in the neighborhood. Marlon and Wally attended school together but Wally moved frequently and left Evanston with his sister and divorced mother. After World War II Wally's family moved to New York City and there he reconnected with Marlon Brando who was living there trying to break into show business and studying acting with Stella Adler. Wally supported his now invalid mother and sister by making and selling silver jewelry at this time. Wally Cox gave a job in his metal smith workshop to a guy named Richard Loving. Marlon had 2 older sister. The younger of the two was named Frances "Frannie" Brando.
Here is a photo of her from her freshman year at UCLA in 1941.......
Frannie ended up marrying Richard Loving and became a teacher. They moved to the Brando family homestead in Mundelein, IL called "Penny Poke Farm" and had a daughter Julia.
Richard Loving became an artist of note, first in enamels on copper plate........
Richard Maris Loving eventually moved on to more traditional painting on canvas but still in an impressionistic and abstract realm. There was a gallery exhibit in Chicago in 2014 which you can learn about at the link HERE.
Marlon's other sister, Jocelyn was also an actor. Though not as famous as her little brother Marlon, Jocelyn worked pretty consistently for 5 decades before passing away at the age of 86.
One of her small parts was in the 1981 movie "Mommie Dearest".
Jocelyn plays Barbara Bennett a "Redbook" reporter in this clip(the older woman sitting at a typewriter at the beginning of the scene)......
You all know that "Mommie Dearest" was based on the memoir penned by Joan Crawford's oldest adopted daughter, Christina Crawford, about her memories growing up as the daughter of that Hollywood star.
So this is just my way to tie the Brando tales into and bring us around to my next wandering....
The more interesting genealogical thing I found after reading up on Mr. Brando is that he also has French Huguenot ancestry like me. He is the 7th great grandson of Louis DuBois and Catherine Blanchan on one of his father's family lines.
Louis immigrated to America in 1660 with his wife being granted land in 1663 in what would become New Paltz. During this era there were wars going on with the Esopus Indians of that area and in 1663 there was a raid on the settlers in which 21 were killed and Louis' wife, Catherine and 3 of her children were carried off by the Esopus Indians and were held captive for 3 months before being freed by a contingent of Dutch soldiers.
Marlon Brando even talked about this on an interview on Johnny Carson's Late Show a long time ago so he was aware of his Huguenot ancestry.
Though I don't share this DuBois Huguenot line with Marlon(directly)we both share Huguenot ancestry with this other celeb.....
1930's Screen Legend Joan Crawford.
Or with her real name, Lucille Fay LeSeur, the descendant of French Huguenot immigrants on multiple family lines. Supposedly she is related to Marlon Brando through her Huguenot ancestors but I haven't found exactly how yet.
I find it interesting that Jocelyn Brando, a descendant of French Huguenots played a role in the film about the life of Joan Crawford, also a descendant of the same French Huguenots who fled France for America.
As for my relationship to Joan, or should I say Lucille....
Joan's 4 x Great grandfather, David LeSeuer, married Elizabeth Chastain, who was the daughter of Pierre Chastain and Anne Briant Soblet. Anne was the sister of Pierre Louis Soblet(aka Peter Lewis Sublett)thus is my 8th Great Aunt, as she and I share her father, Abraham Soblet as a common ancestor. All of this also makes Lucille Fay LeSuer aka Joan Crawford my 7th cousins 2 x removed.
Here is Faye Dunaway chewing the scenery in clips from "Mommie Dearest" as my cousin Joan.....
If you want to know more about the life of Joan Crawford check out this documentary......
Also through our shared French Huguenot Soblet and Chastain ancestry both Joan and I are cousins with her......
Actress Jessica Chastain.
I really enjoyed her in this film........
So that's what I've been up to lately.....going down the research holes of genealogy for hours at a time and finding more cousins.
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 savings 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 2017 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.
I have decided to lower the goal amount to save for the year to $35K.
Then Hubs decided to retire the end of June 2017, so this changes my goal again.
* I'm going to half my goal now, since I've got 6 months to get to the Savings Challenge Goal this year since Hubs is retiring effective June 30th.
This means the new revised goal is $17.5K for 2017 which was half of $35K.
On to the April report.....
I have posted my April End of Month $35K $AVING$ 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 $2,9916.66.
I have to report that we finished up April with a goodly sum.
The extra amount we ended the month of April with?.......$4617.30
Income
We had $2637.41 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted which was almost my targeted amount to save per month.
Other monies received in April totaled $1979.89. This was interest made on non-retirement accounts and our federal tax refund.
This brought us to our gain of $4617.30
Since we have no debt, this all goes into savings.
Outgo
As for the expenses this April, 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 electric bill was $131.31 lower than last month's bill due to less cold weather.
* The cash withdrawals were $330.00 lower than in March.
* The medical bills(paid directly by check)were $36.90 lower than last month.
* I had a Kohl's payment due again in April but it was $175.90 lower than March's payment.
HERE are the BAD THINGS
* The credit card bill was $732.59 higher this month, mostly due to medical charges and drug refills.
* The water bill was $9.80 higher than in March. Not "bad" but still higher than last month.
* The gas card bill was $98.21 higher mostly because we had no gas card bill last month.
* The landline phone bill was $5.35 higher than March because Hubs made a long distance call when he was working from home.
* We had to pay state taxes to PA and LA that totaled $222.00. While not a huge payment they did put a dent into what we got back from the feds.
The Food Budget costs for April are in another post, which is located HERE.
With 4 months accounted for, our Savings Challenge Grand Total for 2017 is $14,751.88. FINAL THOUGHTS on April---
We had a fairly low expense month, not great but acceptable, and we were able to tuck away over the monthly goal of $29916.66.
Compared to April 2016 we saved $1573.23 LESS to put into savings this April. This was mostly due to last April being a third paycheck month. Had it not been, we would have put $1400+ MORE away this April.
THOUGHTS going forward into May of 2017----
The regular bills will be on autopilot with me traveling this month. So far the credit card bill is low but travel expenses will be on the bill we get in June. We do have the semi-annual car insurance due in May so there's about $900 of our income automatically gone for that.
Four months into the year and we have put $14,751.88 into savings.
There is $2748.12 left to hit our $17.5K Saving Challenge target for the year. This averages out to $1,374.06 per month for the next 2 months. I think that this one is in the bag unless a disaster befalls us.
So how was your April financially?
Did you spend less than the income you had in April?
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!
I hope this year was the one were you cleaned up your finances and paid off your debts.
That you planned to set something aside if you didn't already or increased what you banked now for your future self.
Or paid 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.
We are up over $13k from the April 1st net worth overall(only liquid cash/investments/bonds, as I don't count housing or car values). The retirement accounts were up over $9K for May 1st 2017 from the April 1st 2017 calculations and the cash reserve/non-retirement accounts were up almost $4K.
Most of that cash reserve/non-retirement accounts earnings was regular pay and a federal tax refund.
We are up $96,891.24 from one year ago, from the May 1st of 2016's net worth snapshot.
I know those of you paying off debt dread interest rates going up but those of us trying to grow our savings and are too close to retirement age(or retired)to risk a lot of it in the stock market, so we hunger for interest rates to climb. They have been artificially depressed for soooo many years by those in charge and our federal government that it's almost impossible for regular people who are saving to get ahead of the inflation rate. This is a travesty!
But I digress.....
We are still in acquisition mode and Hubs still has a good income. We continue to live well below our means and sock away as much cash as we can for retirement. Luckily in April we didn't have any big money emergencies as I try to be proactive in looking ahead for problems to avoid them.
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?
Every payday now I think to myself..."OMG, there are only X more paychecks until Hubs retires!"
And then I have a little hyperventilating fit before I calm down.
I guess I am not taking this well. lolz
Moving On....
Onward to the meal planning!
Here's what was planned last week--
1. Sunday--Manicotti in Sauce(from freezer), Salad, leftover Garlic Bread
5. Thursday--Mac and Cheese w/Ham, Brussels Sprouts
6. Friday--Breakfast for Dinner(Daughter is making this.) 7. Saturday--Teriyaki London Broil, Broccoli Tots, Rolls
We ate ZERO leftovers last week so 7 nights of making new dinners....except the Daughter made Friday's meal. Even though I/we cooked 7 nights we have very few leftovers heading into this week. Two trips to Weis, plus 2 small trips to the Bread Outlet and Dollar Tree earlier in the month that weren't recorded yet, put a dent in the food budget of $48.51. This brought my April food spending total to $260.54. There are 0 days left in the month.
My savings percentages last week was 75.20%.
Leftovers going into this week....... Ham bone, Rolls, Roast Chicken slices, Taco filling, Mac & Cheese, 1 Kielbasa, London Broil slices.
Here is this week's "food plan"....
* Denotes "complicated" meals
1. Sunday--Primo Hoagies(take-out)
2. Monday--Tacos, Salads or Burritos(using leftover filling+)
