This Week on the Dining Table

The "Stinky Garage" Edition--

The guy in this photo is using an industrial fan to clean off our driveway.  On Saturday we had our driveway seal coated before Winter sets in.  It's all dry now thanks to a sunny Sunday.
But man on man!, does it stink!!!  And worse yet, inside the garage still stinks to high heaven.  I am hoping that by next week when we are ready to clean out the garage that the smell dissipates.

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

1. Sunday--Leftovers of Fend for Yourself(I had a pbj)

2. Monday--Pizza

3. Tuesday--Barbecue Pork Ring, Corn on Cob

4. Wednesday--Tacos

5. Thursday--Chicken Fajitas
6. Friday--Hot Dogs, Sugar Snap Peas
7. Saturday--Leftovers

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Leftovers or Fend for Yourself(I had a pbj)

2. Monday--Pizza, Corn on the Cob

3. Tuesday--Tacos

4. Wednesday--BBQ Pork Ring, Macaroni Salad

5. Thursday--Kielbasa on Rolls, Zucchini Casserole
6. Friday--Burger King(on gift card)
7. Saturday--Steak, Salad, leftover Zucchini Casserole

Last week saw 5 nights of home cooked dinners, 1 nights of leftovers and 1 nights of Take-Out.  

I made 3 trips to Weis Markets, 1 trip to Dollar Tree for eggs and 1 trip to the Shursave Market which brought the weekly food spending to $148.70 last week, and bringing food spending in September to $148.70 so far.   It sure didn't seem like that much as no trip was over $45.00 but it sure added up.

My savings percentages last week and for the month to-date?   Last week's percentage was 47% and the monthly ends up at 47% as well(without Rite-Aid trips added in). 

Leftovers going into this week........macaroni salad, corn casserole, zucchini casserole, 1 kielbasa hunk and bbq ring.

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

1. Sunday--Spaghetti and Meatballs, Cuke/Tomato Salad

2. Monday--Beef Pie

3. Tuesday--Ham, Brussels Sprouts, Sweet Potato Cornbread

4. Wednesday--Haluski

5. Thursday--Leftovers
6. Friday--Leftovers
7. Saturday--Leftovers

This week will see 4 new meals cooked, 3 night of leftovers and 0 nights of Take-Out/Eating-Out.

What I need to buy for this menu? Cabbage.  Daughter needs lunch meat as well.
Though College Boy decimated my stockpile of canned/boxed goods when he went back to school I am still trying to use a few things up this month.  I went through the freezer thoroughly and we are good for meats for awhile(except ground beef)so I am trying to use up some of that as well.
I won't be buying much this week at the grocery stores.

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

Our Summer Road Trip Costs & Review

Ok, I finally got around to tallying up what we spent on our month long Summer Road Trip.

I figured we'd spend about $5K on this extravaganza when all was said and done.

Here are the numbers......

Eating-Out....$957.42
Motels......$936.94
Gas.......$587.25
Car Rental...$844.88
Entry Fees....$118.68
Souvenirs/Gifts....$913.99
TOTAL SPENT......$4359.16

Eating-Out--This included all meals we paid for in cash or with the credit card.  Of course this would have been a higher amount if we didn't eat "free" at the motel stays(2 stays didn't include breakfast and 1 of those breakfast WAS discounted 50%), were not treated to some meals or served meals in friends' homes.
And we skipped a few lunches and/or dinners along the way too.

Motels--This number includes 17 nights in assorted motels and 1 night in a B&B. We were hosted in friends' homes(and relatives of friends' homes)for 11 nights.

Gas--Self-explanatory.  All the gas we bought to get there and back.  Luckily some states we traveled to and through have much lower taxes on gas than PA so this expense was quite reasonable considering we put 7409 miles on the rental car from door to door. We also paid for some gas for Kim's car since they were hauling us around for awhile sightseeing in ID/WY/MT in their vehicle.  I haven't even tried to figure out how many tanks of gas our spending on this category came out to be.

Car Rental--What it cost to rent the car for 1 month including taxes and fees.  It was suppose to be about $940 but, due to an issue with Enterprise, we received a 10% discount off the price of the rental.

Entry Fees.....This could have turned out to be $58 more than it was but we didn't do a couple of activities we had planned on that cost money and we didn't actually go into a couple of attractions that charged but still saw the sights there.

Souvenirs/Gifts--Ok, this sure looks like a big expense but it includes everything we bought that wasn't gas, motel nights, car rental cost, entry fees to sights and food snacks to eat asap/restaurant meals.
This DOES include.....liquor(an embarrassing amount of liquor even though most of it wasn't for ME!lol), souvenirs(t-shirts, tchotchkes, food gifts), books(many many books!), thrift store shopping and gifts.  Also a few things we needed to pick up(like a cork screw, baby wipes, etc.)along the way.

Since we came in under the $5K I earmarked for this extravaganza I am good with what we spent.

Things we did to try to keep the costs down....
*  Skipped a few meals.
*  Stayed mostly at motels that provided some kind of breakfast.
*  Ordered less expensive meals.
*  Used a few gift cards we already had to pay.
*  Brought some food/snacks from home which were either free or purchased very inexpensively.
*  Bought alcohol and drank in the motel room and didn't order drinks at restaurants(mostly).
*  Booked motel rooms ahead after comparing different prices to receive a better rate(and know what we were looking at paying for each beforehand).
*  Cashed in motel points for a gift card to partially pay for 1 night at a very expensive motel.
*  Bought Shell gas gift cards to use along the way(though this backfired on us big time!).
*  Pushed back on car rental company when they screwed up our reservation.  Our time and aggravation is worth something!
*  We chose primarily free or low cost activities. (We are easily amused people.)
*  We chose to not enter a park with a fee on two occasions as it would have not enhanced our experience there substantially.
*  Mostly confined souvenirs to what we personally wanted to buy.
*  Didn't buy outrageously overpriced souvenirs at some venues and bought them at the local Walmart instead.
*  Some souvenirs we picked up for others will be Christmas/Birthday gifts so we used part of the souvenir budget to do Christmas shopping which took the sting out of some of that spending(and technically I should remove that spending from this trip and put it in the Xmas budget).
*  For unavoidable/needed items along the way we found an inexpensive place to purchase(Walmart mostly)instead of using the most convenient shop.

What would we do differently if we had it to do over again?
*  Not go to areas with a record breaking heat wave or traveling to areas with out of control wildfires!
*  Don't book a non-air conditioned sleeping accommodation during a heat wave. (Who was to know though in May that it would be 100F+ in late July there?)
*  Don't buy/take Shell gift cards(More on that later).
*  Don't book a motel in "Hipster Town" Colorado. Ever. Again.
*  Don't travel near Sturgis, SD at the beginning of August.
*  Buy tickets online to venues if possible(this time it was not possible).
*  Take more time to do/see everything that we did on this trip.  I'll tell you every day was jam packed!  Sometimes we felt rushed and it would have been nice to spend more time with some folks we saw or stayed with.
*  If Kim ever invites you to meet her brother in-law, be afraid, be VERY afraid! lololz
*  Don't spend a solid month in a car with your spouse no matter how compatible you are and how much you love them.(Unavoidable really but find ways to do things separately some days so you don't start entertaining murderous thoughts.)

Now I just need to find the time to edit about 2 thousand photos I took! lolz

Sluggy

Frugal Friday.....Sept. 8th Edition

Here's what went on at Chez Sluggy this past week that was frugal.............

* Rebates and refunds--When the tenants moved out of the LA house we told our insurance provider and got a partial refund check because now our insurance on that place is lower.  The cost went down by about HALF of what we were paying for insurance as a rental so we don't have two $1K payments to make each year and the one we made already for the year was about $20 too much for the whole year so we got a little bit back.  I also sent away for a rebate check I earned years ago but forgot about claiming and received it while away on vacation.............

I haven't used E-Bates in years!  I love that they say "Here's Your BIG FAT CHECK!"  A whole $3. lolz  We also banked a refund Hubs got on his business CitiBank card for a credit on it he had when work closed it.

*  Hubs and I stayed home and worked on home projects this past week. 
Hubs replaced the wooden strip in the French Door track so we could close the door properly.  It was imperative to get this done before the stormy/snowy season coming. 
We are waiting on estimates to get our driveway seal coated as well and the wooden deck will be cleaned and sealed next week once we get a string of dry/sunny days.  While this will all require spending money, better to maintain things before letting them deteriorate and then it will cost even more to replace.
Since it's been raining lately we've also done inside work.....filing papers and Hubs spent some time going through all his crap in his spare room.  We've culled 3 boxes of books to get rid of among other items.

I also tackled the upstairs hallway bookcase which serves to hold electronic hardware and software, notebooks, paper, pens, pencils, etc.
It was crammed full of stuff before.  Some items were moved to where they belonged and other things were pitched(like outdated software and anti-virus).  I forgot to take a BEFORE photo but here is what it looks like AFTER............

*  I earned a $5 e-gas card from a Ziploc Deal I did in early June.  This was expiring soon so I had to use it.  Easier said than done.  It was a big deal to use this at a gas station evidently but you could also use it anywhere to took Mastercard, but your total had to be exactly $5.  I tried my local Sunoco gas station but the cashier said she couldn't manually put in the numbers/code there.  So I took it to Rite-Aid and used it to get 2 cases of bottled water on sale for 2/$5.  It took a few tries but we got it to work in their system.

I'll think twice before doing one of these again.  Anybody out there do this Ziploc Offer too and NOT have a hard time using the e-gas card?

*  No eating out this past week or "want" spending.

*  I earned $3.75 in cash rebates on various grocery apps.
This pie cost me $2.99 after sale/$1off Q/2 x $1 cash rebates......

These were the best "Deals" at Weis last week.........

4 x Progresso Soups on sale $1.49 ea.=$5.96  I used 2 x $1/2 IPQs and got a $1 cash rebate on the purchase so $2.96 for all or .74¢ per can.
2 x Pop-Tarts on sale $1.88 wyb2=$3.78.  I used 2 x $1/1 Qs I redeemed Kellogg's points to get so $1.78 or .88¢ per box.  These are snacks for Daughter.
I also picked up the new Fall/Winter Weis Coupon Booklet while I was in the store........

Be sure and grab yourself a few when you go up to Weis(PMITA)Markets this week.

So what did you do this week to earn your Frugal Badge? '-)

Sluggy

Rite-Aid Shopping This Week

So I went up to get my Rite-Aid Freebies on Monday, plus a couple of "almost" freebies.........

3 x Mentos Now Mints on sale=$3.00
1 x Crest toothpaste on sale=$4.00
2 x Glide dental floss/picks on sale=$7.98(20% Wellness disc. was less than sale price)
1 x Oral-B toothbrush on sale=$4.00
1 x GE light bulbs on sale=$7.99
1 x vinyl tablecloth on clearance=.50¢
SubTotal......$27.47

Coupons Used
2 x $1/1 Mentos Now Mints CatalinaQ=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Crest toothpaste Load2CardQ=$2.00
1 x $1/1 Glide dental floss/picks IPQ(coupons dotcom)=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Glide dental floss/picks Load2CardQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Oral-B toothbrush ManuQ=$1.00
Coupon Total....$7.00

$27.47-$7.00=$20.47 + .54¢=$21.01

I used $21.01 in Plenti Points to pay and earned back $19.00 in new Plenti Points($1 wyb3 Mentos, $2 Crest toothpaste, 2 x $3 Glide items, $3 Oral-B item, $7 wyb1 GE).
So the Glide products were a .01¢ moneymaker each, the Mentos, toothpaste and toothbrush were all free, the light bulbs cost .99¢ and the tablecloth was .50¢ and I paid .54¢ in tax.(all in PPs of course).

I was going to get another toothbrush but the Load2CardQ didn't come off my card so I just got one toothbrush with the ManuQ I had.

I went back Wednesday morning and got this on my son's card........

1 x GE light bulbs on sale=$7.99
1 x Crest toothpaste on sale=$4.00
1 x Oral-B toothbrush on sale=$4.00
1 x Glide dental picks on sale=$3.83(Wellness disc. less than sale price .17¢)
1 x Glide dental floss on sale=$3.99(Wellness disc. less than sale price .01¢)
2 x Big Win candy bags on sale=$3.00
1 x Lotus cookies(Wellness disc)=$2.63
SubTotal......$29.44

Coupons Used
1 x $2/1 Crest toothpaste Load2CardQ=$2.00
1 x $1/1 Oral-B toothbrush Load2CardQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Glide dental picks Load2CardQ=$1.00
1 x $1/1 Glide dental floss IPQ=$1.00
2 x $1/1 Big Win candy bags Wellness Wed.Q in store=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Lotus cookies Wellness Wed.Q in store=$2.00
Coupon Total.......$9.00

$29.44-$9.00=$20.44+.47¢tax=$20.91

I paid with $20.91 in Plenti Points and earned back $18.00 in new PPs($7 GE light bulb, $2 Crest toothpaste, $3 Oral-B toothbrush, 2 x $3 Glide dental items).

The dental floss/picks were an .18¢ moneymaker, the toothpaste and toothbrush were free, the lightbulb pack was .99¢, the candy was .50¢ per bag and the cookies were .63¢.
I spent down my Plenti Points by $2.91.
I hadn't planned on getting the candy or cookies but the Wellness Wednesday Qs they had were too good not to.  The cookies are for Hubs to have with his coffee and the candy will be put into Xmas stockings come Christmas.

It's strange that when I bought the freebies on my card the Oral-B L2CQ didn't come off(so I couldn't get that second toothbrush(I had a ManQ to get one)but on my son's card the L2CQ DID come off!
Hmmm.

I'll probably go back before this sale week is up on Saturday to get the oral care freebies on Daughter's card too....if anything is left by then.

Since it was Wellness Wednesday(the first Wed. of the month at my store)I brought a few freebie samples home too.........

Toothpaste, arthritis balms and eye vitamins.  Most of this(along with some of all the stuff I actually "bought") will begin appearing in future Giveaway boxes.  8-)))

What good deals did you get at your local drugstore this week?

Sluggy

Income & Spending Report.....August 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 an annuity and 401K$(no 401K$ 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(probably), 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 August report--
I have 2 goals for August.....
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 the previous month to apply toward irregular bills that are coming due in the next month.

I have to report that we finished up August in the black.
The extra amount we ended the month of August with?.......$562.41

Income

The income in August was the monthly annuity payment and the July overage of $154.88.
We had $250.72 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.

Other monies received in August totaled $311.69.  This was interest made on non-retirement accounts and a blogging revenue check.

This brought us to our gain of $562.41
Since we have no debt, this will get put aside to apply to the irregular bill coming due in September--school taxes(these are a component of our property taxes).

Outgo

As for the expenses this August, 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 $11.98 less than in July.
*  The gas card bill was $49.63 lower than last month.
*  The cash withdrawals were $200 lower than in July.
*  The electric bill was $33.52 lower than last month's bill.  I guess the kids actually turned off the a/c when they weren't using it. lolz
*  The credit card bill was $1003.58 lower in August compared to July. (This doesn't count trip charges on the c/c as those are paid out of monies put away for the trip.)

HERE are the BAD THING

*  The medical bills were $6.40 higher this month over last month's bills.
*  Home insurance was due in August.  Nuff' said. 8-(
*  We had to pay the August health insurance premium of $1577.67(this use to come out of Hubs' paycheck automatically).  We hadn't set up using the health insurance account through his employer yet to pay this bill so it came out of our monthly income.  UPDATE-Papers are filed so we are waiting to receive reimbursement.  Since we paid the last 3 months of healthcare premiums out of our regular income, once the reimbursement check is received these funds will be added back to our "Other Income" category and used toward bills, both regular and irregular.

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

So we end August in the black with $562.41 to apply to the school/property taxes bill in September.

The school taxes bill amounts to $2012.31, so I just have to eek out another $1449.90 from our September annuity income to cover that along with all the regular monthly bills.

As we'll only have $1763.55 of our annuity to live on after paying the school taxes I'll have to pull money from regular savings to cover the healthcare premium of $1771.94 for September.  That bill would have swallowed what was left of our annuity check after paying the school taxes and left us in the hole to the tune of $8.39 AND WE'D STILL HAVE TO PAY ALL OUR REGULAR BILLS FOR SEPTEMBER STILL!
Ugh!!!
Luckily I have regular savings(in our checking account)and I don't have to dip into the online accounts earning a pittance of interest.

Hubs has been taking his time to do the paperwork to get reimbursed for our healthcare premiums from our RMSA account which has been annoying me.  Now that he's FINALLY gotten around to filing, he just told me that it may take two MONTHS for them to reimburse those premium expenses!
This means I'll have to yank another $1700+ out of savings for two more months before we get that money back!
Ugh ugh ugh!
I am so thankful we have saved so much over the last ten years or so out of our regular paychecks so I can not have to worry at nights over this snapfu and know we have enough cash to cover it all.

Enough of my ranting, let's move on.

FINAL THOUGHTS on August---Surprisingly our regular bills in August came in at under $800(not counting the portion of c/c bills for the road of course). But add in the homeowners annual insurance payment, the healthcare premium and a $55 store c/c bill(for clothing for me) and the bills topped $3K. Ugh.

THOUGHTS going forward into September of 2017----
September will be more than tight this year.  There is no way the annuity payment, a bit of interest and the August overage $ will cover all the bills AND the school taxes.
Sigh.
We have always covered any irregular bills with our extra monthly income(as we mostly seemed to live well below our means and had cash to spare each month).

Now that funds are tighter(much tighter until Oct.!)we need a new game plan in regard to those irregular bills.

I'll be setting up a sinking fund to cover these irregular costs for 2018, meaning I'll set aside a specific amount each month in 2018 so that when these irregulars come due I have cash enough in that account to pay them without dipping into regular savings.

There is one more big irregular bill in 2017 coming in November--the semi-annual car insurance premium of approx. $900.  I should be able to cover that with regular income this year but I think I'll begin the Sinking Fund in October of this year anyway and get a jump on the 2018 irregular expenses so we can cash flow all the irregulars in 2018.

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

So how was your August financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in August?
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