Net Worth......November 1st Update

We have gone from acquisition mode with money into spend-down mode since we are now officially retired here at Chez Sluggy.

Our Net Worth will no longer be growing(well that's what I thought going into this phase)so I have to stay on top of what we have and where it sits.
I shared where we keep out money and why in the first Post-Retirement Net Worth post HERE.

So here is how the money did in October......

* Checking Account #1 Went up by $3624.52(mostly due to the deposit of the RMSA reimbursement).
* Checking Account #2  Went up .27¢(monthly interest)
* Savings Account  Went down .97¢(down $1 for fees, earned .03¢ interest)
* Online Accounts  Went up $61.25(monthly interest)
* Certificate of Deposit  Went up $245.21(interest)
* US Savings Bonds  Went up $11.70(interest)
* Cash on Hand  Went down $1,000(mostly due to puppy and related purchases)
* 401K Account  Went up $2,064.64(monthly interest) We didn't have to tap it in October so it just grew. 8-)
* HSA Account  Went up $1.54(monthly interest)  Again we didn't have to tap this account for medical expenses.
* RMSA Account  Went down $1463.98.  The interest earned on this account offset the healthcare premium reimbursement amount by about $300 so it didn't go down as much as it might have.

Overall we lived within the monthly annuity payment and paid the healthcare premium from the RMSA account.  The interest in our accounts basically added $3544.18 to our net worth in October and we ended the month with a bit more money than we started it with.

I am by no means a financial expert but I'll readily share what worked for us on our financial journey if you have questions.

Did you increase your net worth last month?
Do you have a retirement plan in place?

Sluggy

To-Do List.....October Update

So let's see how I did on my To-Do List for October......

* Pay Bills  DONE  The number one item on my list always.  Stay on top of the due dates and pay all the bills in full and on time.

* Read 1, 2 Books  DONE  I actually got THREE books in last month.

The modern American classic by Charles Portis, "True Grit".  I have seen both movies(the original with John Wayne and the remake with Jeff Bridges)multiple times but had never read the book.
Now that I have, I feel the book is a better way to spend your time. ;-)

I also read "Blood Beneath the Skin" by Andrew Wilson.  It's one of the better biographies of fashion designer/artist Alexander "Lee" McQueen.
A very complex person who fought more than his share of demons, Lee left our planet too soon. 
I give this book a recommendation if you enjoy fashion and reading about designers.

And I plowed through this one too.......

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith.  This one was a quick read and enjoyable.  I have moved onto the second book in this collection, "The Tears of the Giraffe".  While the books are a quick read, the characters he creates are enjoyable.  
When I first started reading this I got a bad "feeling" after seeing the author's name.  Alexander McCall Smith is so "English" sounding and white European but African in any way.  
McCall Smith is writing in this book as an African would speak and sometimes the language is simplistic.  I got the feeling that the author was appropriating another culture at times for his own monetary gain.  The English in previous centuries had a long history of appropriating lands(Hello? English Empire anyone?!).  All I could picture was a white guy talking down as Africans characters to sell a book.  Mostly this was just my perception.

Then I went online and read about the author.  Turns out he was born and grew up in Southern Rhodesia(now Zimbabwe)which was a British Colony at that time, so yes he is an Englishman by DNA but he is a Zimbabwean by birth. McCall Smith has resided in Scotland since he went off to college so I'd say he is more English than African.  This has nothing to do with anything really but at least I feel he isn't exploiting a culture not of his own anymore.
And I don't see why this series of books is so popular worldwide!  While it's an enjoyable read with interesting characters I don't find them THAT good.

If anyone has any recommendations for good books written by Africans on African cultures please speak up as I'd like some ideas.

* Donation to Salvation Army  DONE  I don't have any photos to share but we took a trunk full to Sallies.  I also took up some items to the local food bank; cold cereal, soup, laundry detergent and contact lens solution.

* Clean Garage  DONE  We did a sweep of all the containers in the garage which resulted in a Salvation Army donation.  I also straightened up/culled the food storage items out there and identified some items to sell.

* Sell Stuff  FAIL  I tried to sell a few things on the local online yard sale site but no buyers.  I didn't get around to listing anything on eBay however due to getting a puppy mid month, which cut down on my time available to sell stuff. sigh.

* Sew Stuff  FAIL  Again, new puppy means less time for sewing so all sewing(unless it's a repair or an emergency situation)will go on the back burner and will leave my To-Do Lists for the near future.

* Hold Giveaway  DONE

Giveaway completed and winner selected.

* Mail Giveaway  DONE  Mailed and received, as far as I know.

* Wrap Xmas Gifts  DONE

Since I had been storing my accumulated Xmas stash in College Boy's room since he went back to school, and he is coming home for Thanksgiving, I needed to get them out of there.  Since I don't have a hiding spot right now I went ahead and wrapped everything I have already.  The little stocking stuffer items I can hide in a box in my bedroom closet.

* Shampoo Rug  DONE  As part of the garage clean/straighten we took a rug my mother willed me out of the garage and cleaned it.  I really don't have a place to put it done in this house so it's going back into wrappings and storage but in a closet in the house as keeping it in the garage is not good for rugs.

* Pick-up Puppy  DONE

We are going into week 3 of being Puppy Parents and we are so tired. lolz  It's almost as bad as I remember having a toddler was.  They never stop and get into everything.  I'll be glad when this puppy phase is over. ;-)  From what I read at 8 months Chester should start to calm down a bit.  Let's hope I last that long......

* Puppy to Vet  DONE  Chester got checked out and given a clean bill of health.  He's had two shots so far and only needs his distemper booster now and he's good to go for awhile on shots until his yearly rabies then.  

* Dr. Appointment  DONE  Not to be confused with Chester's doggy doctor appointment. lolz  I have been cleared of the infection and am back to my regular routine.

So did you get anything accomplished in October?
Tell us what got done that you are glad for.


Sluggy

Frugal Friday.....the November 3rd Edition

Here's some of the frugal stuff we did last week.......

* I had a hankering for bagels so on Tuesday I went to Panera armed with a free gift card and got a Baker's Dozen.  Only $6.99 for gourmet bagels on Tuesdays.

* We attending the local Church Auction that we always patronize......

They had oodles more "stuff" to bid on and not so much, as usual, in the gift card category unfortunately this year.
The only "stuff" things we bid on and won was a Halloween skeleton and a nice set of table flatware............

Everything else was a gift card.........

Everything from grocery store gift cards, to gas gift cards to restaurant gift cards.
We didn't spend as much as in years past but still using these, which went for below face value, will save when we buy gas, groceries and meals out..

*  While not something frugal I did, I'll call it a win--Chester the puppy lost his last two baby teeth this week.  At his initial doctor visit the vet noticed he still had 2 baby teeth that would need pulling if he didn't lose them on his own.  So we set out to give him lots of things to chew on to work those teeth out.

Chester working on his rawhide stick.

Yesterday morning, right before we took Chester for his distemper shot the last baby tooth came out....rah!

So no vet bills for tooth extractions. Yay Chester!

*  I got all this at Rite-Aid this week....

and got paid $13.37 in Plenti Points and cash rebates to take it all home.
Since it was Wellness Wednesday I got some samples to bring home for free as well.....

*  A few of the best grocery deals I got this past week......

The Shursave market had free 2 lb. bags of onions for free if you clipped the digital Q to your card and they had cartons of stock half price for .99¢ each.  Sometimes Dollar Tree has broth for $1 a carton but it's hit and miss at our stores here so I loaded up.
Fall/Winter is soup and stew season so stock up on broth for cheap when you can.

And Weis had a closeout of pouches of Geisha brand tuna, reg. .99¢ for 3/.99¢, so I bought 12.

That's about it worth noting at Chez Sluggy.
What frugal wins did you have this week?

Sluggy

What I Got at Rite-Aid This Week

Wednesday was the 1st Wed. of the month, thus it was Wellness Wednesday at my Rite-Aid store.
There was a special sheet of coupons good for that day only too.
Plus I had a $5 off $50 purchase Catalina for my Wellness card that was expiring on Thursday I wanted to try to use.

I was going to do the P&G Spend $30/Get $10 PPs Deal by buying a bunch of Pantene but I seriously don't need any more shampoo!  Plus, my store was already out of the 3 Minute Miracle Pantene Conditioner so I couldn't utilize the BOPanteneGO3MinuteMiracleCon.Free Qs for this Deals so I punted and came up with a substitute plan.

There were Tena and Conair Wet Flex Qs in the one day Q Ad that I could pair with reg. Manu Qs and In-Ad Qs for the toothbrushes, plus the toothbrushes double dipped and the Remfresh generated PPs.

Here is what I bought.........

2 x Tena overnight underwear Wellnes 20%off discount($11.99)=$23.98
2 x Remfresh sleep aid Wellness 20%off discount($7.99)=$15.98
1 x Conair Wet Flex hairbrush Wellness 20%off discount=$6.39
2 x Arm and Hammer battery operated toothbrushes on sale($5.99)=$11.98
Subtotal........$58.33

Coupons Used
1 x $5 wyspend $50 CatalinaQ=$5.00
2 x $10/1 Tena underwear One Day SaleQ=$20.00
2 x $5/1 Tena underwear IPQs=$10.00
2 x $5/1 Remfresh ManuQ=$10.00
1 x $5/1 Conair Wet Flex One Day SaleQ=$5.00
1 x $2/1 Conair Wet Flex CatalinaQ=$2.00
2 x $2/1 Arm/Hammer Toothbrush In-AdQ=$4.00
Coupon Total........$56.00

$58.33-$56.00=$2.33 +.30¢ tax=$2.63 OOP

Except that for some reason the register wouldn't take my $5/1 hairbrush WellnessQ so my total was $7.63(w/out that $5Q).

I thought maybe the CatalinaQ and the WellnessQ didn't want to "stack" so I said take off the $2 CatQ and just put the $5 WellnessQ through, that's fine by me only using 1 of the Qs.
But instead the manager said I'll just give you $5 cash and we'll treat this as a "post coupon" situation to which I said, "Yes."  Heck, why not, right?

So my card was deducted $7.63 in Plenti Points and I got $5 cash.

But.........you knew there was a but coming, didn't you? ;-).......I also earned $10 in new Plenti Points for this transaction.
2 x $3 for buying 2 Remfresh(limit 2 deals per card).
2 x $1 for buying 2 Arm/Hammer toothbrushes
1 x $2 for buying 2 Arm/Hammer toothbrushes(a monthly deal? wyb in lots of 2)-Only two varieties of the Arm/Hammer toothbrushes qualify to double dip both toothbrush deals so be careful which you select.
Except I ended up getting $12 in Plenti Points back.

The cashier hit the submit button to total out the transaction BEFORE I handed her my stack of coupons......I was standing there holding them out and waiting for her to get to the point she could scan then and she just had a blond moment and forgot to take them. ugh.
So she had to return all the items and ring them up again in a new transaction.

But, here's the dirty little secret about Rite-Aid and Plenti Points.............
When you have to re-ring your items, the Plenti Points that you used and were deducted from your account to pay, when they get returned to your account(for the return)if you bought anything that earned new Plenti Points those don't get taken off your account.
So I earned $10 in Plenti Points for the transaction that had to be returned.

Then I earned another $2 in Plenti Points on the 2 toothbrushes again.  There were 2 PP Deals on those, while the weekly earns $1 on each toothbrush bought(limit of 2 deals), the monthly PP Deal which earned $2 if you bought 2 per transaction has a limit of 4 deals.  So I earned a second $2 PP Deal on re-buying the toothbrushes.  I suppose one could return and re-buy the toothbrushes two more times and earn the limit of 4 deals and another $4 back in PPs.  But really, that's not very ethical, is it?
I don't do this(make the cashier mess up)to purposely earn more PPs than I am due and really the store staff can't do anything about taking the PPs back from me(which would be fine by me if they did).  It's a flaw in the system that I don't try to exploit.  It's up to Rite-Aid to fix it if it's a problem.  I just go with whatever happens. 8-)

So I earned $12 in new Plenti Points instead of $10 in new PPs.

And then when I got home I uploaded my receipt to Checkout51 and claimed 2 x $2 in cash rebates for the 2 packs of Tena.

For those keeping score at home......
Spent down $7.63 in Plenti Points
Earned $12 in new Plenti Points
Earned $4 in cash rebates
Got $5 in "post Q" cash.
So I am "up" $13.37 in cash/PPs and I have all the items pictured above to use and/or give away.

The Tena after sale price, Qs and rebate were -$5.01 or I was paid $5.01 each to take those home.
The Remfresh after sale price, Qs and PPs earned were -.01¢ each or I was paid .02¢ to take those home.
The Conair hairbrush was -.61¢ or I was paid .61¢ to take that home.
The Arm/Hammer toothbrushes were .99¢ each after sale price, Qs and double dipping PPs earned but my $5 wyspend $50 covered that OOP amount basically.

This back-up plan worked much better than the plan I was originally going to implement.
No shampoo to get rid of, just items I have a plan for that were moneymakers. 8-)))

Sluggy

Income & Spending Report.....October 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 October report--
I had 2 goals for October......
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 subsequent months.

I have to report that we finished up October in the black.
The extra amount we ended the month of October with?.......$3454.25

Income

The income in October was the monthly annuity payment and the September overage of $3145.15(this was mostly a healthcare premium account reimbursement).

Other monies received in October totaled $306.73.  This was interest made on non-retirement accounts.

This brought us to our gain of $3454.25.  If you deduct the overage from previous months that carried over into October, this means we spent $309.10 LESS than what we brought in IN October(annuity and interest earned on non-retirement accounts).

Since we have no debt, this will get put aside to apply to the irregular bills coming due in November(car insurance)and then rolled over into 2018 to pay either $3K HDHP costs or property taxes that are due near the beginning of the year.

Outgo

As for the expenses this October, 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 $14.16 lower than in September.
*  The gas card bill was $39.55 lower than last month.
*  The electric bill was $18.90 lower than last month's bill.
*  The credit card bill was $277.50 lower in October compared to September.
*  The medical bills were $7.30 lower this month over last month's bills.

HERE are the BAD THING

*  The cash withdrawals were $145.00 higher than in September due to puppy expenses.
*  Long Term Care Premiums were due(quarterly bill).
*  Garbage fee(irregular bill)was paid in October(I try to pay this quarterly as well).
*  We had to pay the October health insurance premium of $1646.04.
*  I paid a store card bill for clothing of $50.35(paid in full).

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

So we end October in the black with $3454.25 to apply to the semi-annual car insurance bill due in November and other irregular bills going into 2018.


FINAL THOUGHTS on October---It was a pretty good month financially.  Most of our regular bills were all a little bit lower than in September(We still had to use a bit of a/c in September.)  But with the turning on of the heat in November the electric bill will be on it's yearly climb into the much higher $$$s.  It's just a fact of living in the Northern part of the country during the Winter.

I started the Sinking Fund in October to help cover those irregular bills that come due throughout the year.  This is giving me a lot of peace of mind knowing I have a little pile of cash growing over to the side to apply to those irregular/quarterly/semi-annual/annual expenses that will come no matter what.
Serenity does indeed have a price.  ;-)

THOUGHTS going forward into November of 2017----

Electric usage(and thus costs)will rise this month, and a few medical co-pays will crop up due to my HS infection and dr. visits.  I also have blood work due so another medical bill(which probably won't come due until December however).  The credit card bill may be a tad higher due to buying a piece of furniture that is needed.
Food spending shouldn't be over $400(even though it's Turkey Day this month).
Most of the usual bills will be about what October's levels were.

So how was your October financially?
  

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