This Week on the Dining Table

The  "Do I Really Have to Cook Again?!?" Edition--

I am easing back into cooking again at Chez Sluggy. I tried to come up with meals not involving turning on the oven last week and will keep that trend going this coming week too.

Just one of the many foods I cooked on Sunday.......it's still the weather to smoke meats!

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

1. Sunday--Meal at Chris' house

2. Monday--Eating-Out

3. Tuesday--Easy Meal at Home

4. Wednesday--No Clue Yet

5. Thursday--No Clue Yet
6. Friday--No Clue Yet
7. Saturday--No Clue Yet

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--BBQ Turkey Breast,Corn on the Cob, Tomatoes, Fruit Salad, Ice Cream(Mmmm)

2. Monday--Bowl of Soup and Zuke Fries

3. Tuesday--Spaghetti and Meatballs, Garlic Bread

4. Wednesday--TV Dinners(I had pork chop, taters and apples)

5. Thursday--Kielbasa on Rolls
6. Friday--Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches, Green Beans
7. Saturday--Beer Can Chicken, Stuffing, Corn on Cob

Last week saw 6 nights of home cooked dinners(1 night was tv dinners tho), 0 nights of leftovers and 1 nights of Eating-Out.
The Daughter had made dinner for us when we got home on Tuesday and had bought TV dinners so I didn't have to jump back into cooking for another day too. 8-)))
I managed to do Kielbasa on Thursday as it was an easy meal(didn't make anything to accompany it though), we had pork chops and green beans in the freezer still for Friday's dinner and I had bought two chickens on Friday so roasted chicken on the grill for Saturday.

I made 1 trip each to the Bakery Outlet, Weis Markets, Maine Source and the Shursave Market.  $106.07 was spent last week, bringing food spending in August to $214.44.
There are 10 days left in the month so I think I'll make my under $420 goal for August. 
Go me.  ;-)

My savings percentages last week and for the month so-far? Last week was 57.15% and the monthly is 49.21%(without Rite-Aid trips added in).

Leftovers going into this week........roast chicken, stuffing, pork tenderloin,

Here is this week's "food plan".....

1. Sunday--Chicken Marsala, Noodles, Salad

2. Monday--Marinated Steak, Mac and Cheese, Veggie of some kind

3. Tuesday--Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Cole Slaw

4. Wednesday--Take-Out Pizza

5. Thursday--Chicken Salad Sandwiches
6. Friday--Leftovers
7. Saturday--BLT Sandwiches

This week will see 5 new meals cooked, 1 nights of leftovers and 1 night of Take-Out/Eating-Out.

What I need to buy for this menu?  Rolls, Cabbage and Carrots(or a bagged Cole Slaw mix).  College Boy leaves on Wednesday so it's just Daughter and I for dinner that night so we'll get a pizza.  The end of the week will be using up leftovers mostly or I'll dig something out of the chest freezer that I can prepare without turning on the oven.

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

College Boy's Summer Savings

I feared for the worst when Hubs and I took off a month ago for our Road Trip.
Feared for College Boy's progress toward financial/saving success.
If you remember, CB has only recently taken baby steps toward handling money well, and we had a sit-down heart to heart talk with him over money and how things would work this Summer.
That post is HERE.

I figured that once we left on our vacation all his good intentions would fly out the window and he'd stop putting his paychecks away to save.

But my fears were for naught it turns out!
College Boy didn't regress back into his spendthrift ways when I wasn't there to oversee his saving progress.

In fact, he withdrew his pay from that stupid "pay debit card" his employer loads up with his paycheck each week while we were away and had tucked the cash into an envelope in my computer desk awaiting my return and me putting this all in the bank..........

He was almost up to $1,100 saved by the time we returned!

This past week's check was spent on a new cell phone(and service)and a new keyboard for the computer he bought earlier this Summer(he hadn't bought a keyboard with it and was using an old one we had which shit the bed recently).
He'll get two more paychecks(one before leaving and the other once he is back at school)before ending his Summer employment which should get him close to his $1,500 goal.($2,100 total with $600 being spent on a planned purchase of a new computer, so $1,500 in cash.)

And that's even with his hours being cut at his job for a couple of weeks.

It's noticeable this Summer that he's being more thoughtful with his spending, even when I wasn't home to ride him about it. lolz

Now to see if he can hold it together when he gets back to school and doesn't fall off the spending rails when confronted with all the bad, bad temptations living away from home in his first apartment situation will present.

It's nice to see your kids "grow" up. 8-)

Sluggy

Income & Spending Report.....July Update

* As Hubs retired effective July 1, I am no longer doing my 2017 Savings Challenge.
We ended that on June 30th.  The goal was $17.5K saved for the half of 2017 that Hubs was working.
We actually saved $21,100.42 all totaled, so $3600.42 over goal!

Now that we are living on savings and an annuity(no annuity until October)I am still going to keep track of our monthly spending and income, and hopefully we'll still be able to live BELOW our means and I'll have some leftover monies each month to tuck aside.
But this money leftover at the end of each month, at least for now(as we find our new financial "normal")won't be saved toward a yearly Savings Challenge.

The issue now is to cover all the bills with just the annuity payment each month plus some liquid savings(checking account cash)until October.
October is when Hubs turns 59.5 and then we can access the 401K retirement savings.  Until then things will be tight here at Chez Sluggy, so all the leftover monthly cash will get tucked aside to pay irregular bills that will be popping up in August and September.

Got it?
OK, let's move on.

Though nothing will be put toward it the rest of 2017, the 2017 $17.5K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals are still available
Check out the Savings Challenge page tab at the top of the blog for the specific numbers HERE.

On to the July report--
I have 2 goals for July.....
The 1st is to actually finish the month in the black and not the red.
The 2nd is to try to have a little cash leftover at the end of July to apply toward irregular bills that are coming due the next two months.

I have to report that we finished up July in the black.....barely.
The extra amount we ended the month of July with?.......$154.88

Income

The income in July was the monthly annuity payment and Hubs' last paycheck(which was only for 1 week of work, his last).
We had -$17.60 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.

Other monies received in July totaled $172.48.  This was interest made on non-retirement accounts.
I am thankful for the small crumbs of interest in July.  If not for that little bit we'd have been negative at the end of July.

This brought us to our gain of $154.88
Since we have no debt, this will get put aside to apply to the irregular bill coming due in August--the homeowners insurance.

Outgo

As for the expenses this July, 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 water bill was $7.62 less than in June.
*  The gas card bill was $40.88 lower than last month.
*  The cash withdrawals were $220 lower than in June.

HERE are the BAD THING

*  The electric bill was $17.46 more than last month's mostly due to the washer/dryer running more and the kids having the a/c units in their rooms turned on all month.
*  The credit card bill was $43.94 higher in July compared to June.
*  The medical bills were $5.72 higher this month over last month's bills.
*  We had to pay deposits to have the electric and water put in our name at the LA house which came to $600.
*  I have a c/c charge for $153.41 for replacement clothing for me(mostly underthings and a Winter coat).
*  We had to pay the July health insurance premium of $1577.66(this use to come out of Hubs' paycheck automatically).  We haven't set up using the health insurance account through his employer yet to pay this bill so it came out of our monthly income.
*  I sent a birthday check to our eldest son for his July birthday.
*  We had a small bill for electric at the LA house.

The Food Budget costs for July are in another post, which is located HERE.

So we end July in the black with $154.88 to apply to the house insurance bill due in August.  That bill amounts to $668, so I just have to eek out another $513.12 from our August income to cover that along with all the regular monthly bills.


FINAL THOUGHTS on July---July kicked our asses mostly.
Between a high credit card bill, the utility deposits in LA and having to pay the health insurance premium OOP there were lots of irregular/variable bills last month.  These combined cost us $2100 or so over our usual "nut".  Making some interest on our accounts made the difference between making enough this month to cover all the bills.


THOUGHTS going forward into August of 2017----
August will be tight this year, I won't lie.
Between still paying the health insurance premium out of regular income and the yearly house insurance premium being due this month AND having a reduced income(just the annuity payment), August will be a "squeaker".  I am SO glad I have that $154.88 leftover after paying July's expenses to put toward the August bills!  That just might mean the difference between staying in the black for August.

The one good thing about August and September bills will be that all the Road Trip expenses put on the credit card(some due on August's bill and some due on September's bill)will be paid out of our savings and NOT our August income.  We planned and saved for this trip so it won't impact our regular bills/income.

So how was your July financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in July?
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.

Sluggy

Frugal Friday......the August 18th Edition

Vacations on the whole are NOT frugal in the least and we have been away from July 18th through August 15th.

Spending money is NOT frugal on it's own but by making spending choices you can be more frugal on vacation.....or not.

Here are some things we did the last 2 weeks or so that were frugal in one way or another.

Making a stop at Rite-Aid for an rx, the freebies and discounted beer.  I got 4 packs of light bulbs for free although no photos were taken before I gifted them along the way home.  Then I discovered that in Idaho you can sell beer/wine in most stores(including drugstores)so I bought a 6 packs and then discovered that yes, my 20% Wellness discount at Rite-Aid also worked on beer!

Taking full advantage of "good" motel breakfasts when we got one(so hit or miss).  We'd fill up and not have to eat lunch that day(or just have some car snacks instead of a full meal), thus saving some cash for other things.

Taking advantage of free food along the way(popcorn and coffee), when sometimes we didn't feel like eating the snacks we brought along on the trip.

And nearly running over a turkey along the highway and getting a free dinner out of it. lolz

Shopping at discount liquor stores for souvenirs/gifts because what's better than showing up somewhere with booze?

Finding offbeat activities and sights.  Hey!, free is FREE!!!

Before housekeeping threw out the Sunday papers in the public areas at the motel in Fargo, searching those newspapers for the coupon inserts.
Not buying newspapers and getting the coupons for Free?  Yes please!

Thrift store shopping with your cousin and finding a bank in the likeness of another one of your cousins......always a trip!

More historical free activities.

And an end of road trip splurge at the outlet shop.
60% off so I bought two!

Next week will be back to regular frugality stuff....blah, blah, blah.  Not as much fun but nobody can stay on vacation forever.

What did you do lately that was frugal?

Sluggy

Food & Toiletries Spending....July Update

*I'm a bit late getting July's food spending wrapped up due to our trip.  But here it is now.*

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for JULY 2017.

I have posted July'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 July.  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 3-4(4 at home this month). No kids under 21.

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

BREAD OUTLET
OOP  $4.75
Value  $15.36
Savings  69.08%

RITE-AID
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads/PPs  $390.51
Value  $390.51
Savings  100%

SHURSAVE MARKET
OOP  $85.18
Qs/Ads  $29.42
Value  $114.60
Savings  25.67%

WALMART
OOP  $49.25
Qs/Ads  $23.48
Value  $72.73
Savings  32.28%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $186.29

Qs/Ads  $152.52

Value  $338.81

Savings  45.02%

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, the Bread Outlet at 69.08% and Weis Markets at 45.02%.  My WORST savings rate was at that Shursave Market at 25.67%.

I shopped at 5 different stores this past month.  Or rather my Daughter and I shopped at 5 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket..........$325.47

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$216.03

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$541.50

TOTAL Savings of ..................................39.89%
Total Value of Items Purchased w/Rite-Aid....$932.01
TOTAL Savings with Rite-Aid items..........65.08%

This closes out the July food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I went into July wanting to spend $250 the first half of the month and left the Daughter $120 for the rest of July, making my goal $370 for food spending for July.  I spent $224.42 in July before leaving for our trip and Daughter came in at $101.05 for the rest of the month.
We came in under $370 spent by $44.53.
Rah.

The monthly food spending savings percentage went DOWN by 1.08% in July to 65.08% compared to June's 66.16% savings average.

With 7 months accounted for, I have spent a Grand Total of $2,426.40 on food/toiletries in 2017 which is a 70.64% savings rate for the year to-date and averages out to $346.63 per month spent in 2017. 8-)


LOOKING AHEAD To August........
Hubs and I weren't home half of the month.  I assumed the Daughter would spend the other $120 I left her for groceries in August before we got home.  I will probably have to restock some items in August.  I am going to say $300 for the second half of August so $420 total for the entirety of the month to spend on food.
It would be good if I spend less than $300 this month but we'll see how things go.  There are only 15 days left in August so how many trips to the grocery store can I really make? lolz

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 June?
*  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