To-Do List....the December Update

*   Pay Bills  DONE  Boringly paid on time or early and no interest charges.  Boring is good sometimes.  ;-)

*   Read 1, 2 Books  DONE  I actually read THREE Books in December.......

"Grover Cleveland-The Forgotten Conservative" by John Pafford.
The one review on Amazon dumps on the book and it's author.....I agree that the book is way short but to rag on the author because he's obviously politically conservative?  Um, who else would write a book on a conservative POTUS?....certainly not someone with extremely liberal views! lolz
Short but very informative.  Grover Cleveland is truly one of the "forgotten" presidents even with him serving 2 terms.  Forgotten nowadays because of his unwavering conservative principless in office and that US modern society thinks "conservative" anything is a dirty word.
One of the few late 19th century and 20th century POTUS who did NOT usurp the Constitution and use his office to garner power to upset the balance of justice over the other 2 branches of government.  
A man of his convictions and a lot of common sense....not something you see much in politicians nowadays.

A short read but worth taking a look at to get a sense of the man.

Then I read...........

"Mary Boleyn-The Mistress of Kings" by Alison Weir
I thought going in that this book would be a fictionalized novel drawn from the little we know of the historical person of Mary Boleyn, the sister of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn.
But no, I was pleasantly surprised that the book, written by a well known historian and author, 
deal with the facts that are known of Mary's life and then posited possible rational suppositions from there.
No great surprising outcomes/facts were reached.  The reader is given the facts and suggestions of possibilities and left to draw their own conclusions.  It was thought provoking and would make a good Book Club selection...but of course I am biased here, because Mary is my 3rd cousin through marriage.  ;-)

And lastly I read this one............

"Death Come To Pemberley" by P. D. James

Not being a big Jane Austen fan I wasn't greatly invested in this read but it was enjoyable.  James is a well-known crime/mystery writer in the UK and abroad.  She used Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" as the jumping off point for this book.  It will help your enjoyment of this novel if you have read/are familiar with the P&P world/characters and the Jane Austen style.
I think P.D. James nailed the Austenesque style but with staying true to her own voice.
This book was made into a PBS show a couple of years back too.


*  Make Xmas Card List  DONE but a little FAIL too
I made my list but realized after mailing out my Xmas cards that I neglected to include a few folks.   Sorry about that! eek  I will be writing letters to them in January instead.

*  Write and Mail Xmas Cards  DONE but a little FAIL too
Ditto what I said above.

*  Get Out Xmas Dishes  DONE
Got them out, washed them up and used them for a few meals at Christmas.

*  Put up Xmas Tree  DONE
Got it up but the decorating took waaaaay too long since the kids didn't help. grrrr

*  Decorate other than Tree  DONE
I ran out of energy on this and we only also got the banister garland-ed(not a word), 3 of my Santas put out, the Xmas runner and the Crystal reindeer and sleigh put on the buffet and my Bavarian Whirligig set up.

*  Hold Giveaway  DONE

*  Mail Giveaway  DONE

The winner received it in a timely manner even though it went out right before Christmas. ;-)

*  Sew 1 Project  DONE

I actually got an unfinished sewing project completed in 2018!!!  I know it's shocking. lolz
I put myself under a deadline for it so it got done....otherwise it would probably still be sitting up on my machine table.
I had these jams for my brother to finish.  I told him about them, took them to VA in October so he could try them on and I could mark them to hem and put the elastic in the waist and gave myself a Xmas deadline so he could unwrap them for the Holidays.

Hubs is holding them up for the photo.

I even put this Vogue Menswear tag in them....I got those years ago when I bought a Vogue Menswear pattern or two.  After my brother opened them he was confused because he didn't remember trying them on in October when we were down in VA and he thought I had "bought" them for him since it has a Vogue label in them.  Hehehe  Maybe my sewing skills are so good the jams appeared to be factory sweatshop produced? lolz

*  Clean the House for Company  FAIL  Well a little cleaning got done(bathrooms mostly and some dusting)but I hurt my leg right before Xmas and Hubs made me try to stay off it and nobody else here did much of any cleaning in my absence.  sigh  The house was clean enough I suppose.

*  Purge Inserts  DONE  Got the old inserts purged and purged my clipped coupons out of my coupon case(aka pencil case).  Only about 6 inserts left in the stack.

*  Go Through Xmas Gift Box  DONE  Got if gone through and all the gifts in there wrapped or put into the stockings.

*  Finish Shopping  DONE  I really didn't have much to buy coming into December(I'm a shop ahead person for the Holidays.)  There was no pressure to hit the stores for another.  Hubs always waits until the last possible minute to give me his list and then it's scramble time to get something he wants...drives me crazy.  I usually do that shopping online so I don't have to face the crowds in the stores.  Hubs and I did shop a little store browsing/shopping at our leisure.  No pressure, just the way I like it.

*  Wrap Presents  DONE  Everything got wrapped/bagged.

*  Mail a few Xmas Gifts  DONE  Only had a few items to mail out and I got them all out in the post in time to be received before Xmas.

*  Plan Winter Holiday  PARTIALLY DONE  Well I did some thinking and planning on this but Hubs has been dragging his feet with imput or ideas.  Nothing is booked yet so still up in the air.
Sonya is not ready for a visit yet so the SW is out so we have less ambitious ideas for where to go/what to do.  I really do want to go somewhere out of the snowbelt in February so I'll continue to work on this in January.


So that's it for what got done in December.  Nothing very ambitious and mostly having to do with Christmas time.

I hope y'all got everything you needed to do done last month!
I'll be back in the coming days with my Yearly 2018 Goals and how all that turned out too.

Sluggy

Frugal Friday.....the January 4th Edition

Let's take a look at the frugality that happened around here during the first week of January 2019.......

*   Last Friday I headed to Weis for the Fantastic Friday Deals.......

These jars of fruit were BOGOF and I paired the sale with a couple of  ManQs which meant I paid $1 each for them.

I picked up this whole eye roast for $2.50 lb., a fabulous price!  I'll cut this in half and have 2 big roast meals sometime this year.

Weis also had this artisanal Sauerkraut on sale for .67¢ a jar when you bought 3.  Since St. Pat's day will be here before you know it and I have 2 corned beefs in the freezer this purchase will come in handy for March.  Plus Hubs like kraut on his hot dogs so IF there is any leftover after that, he'll make quick work of this. ;-)

*  I found money.....or so I thought..........

While in Rite-Aid I spied a penny on the floor but as I approached it, it turned out to be a kid's play money.
Whomp whomp


*  I got the Friday Freebie at Weis last week.............

A jar of dill pickles.  We will definitely eat these.

*  I hit the 75% off clearance for Xmas stuff at Rite-Aid and Weis.
First Rite-Aid............

After taking stock of wrapping supplies on hand, I picked up 1 box of Xmas cards, 2 bags of bows, 1 package of gift boxes and 1 container of gift containers.  I also bought the holiday wrapped hand soap pumps as they were .82¢ each.
But no wrapping paper was picked up for cheap.   I went through the wrapping paper we have and was able to send 4 rolls off to Salvation Army(or it might end up on the local FB site being given away for free).  It's all kiddie themed paper we don't use anymore.

I also bought ahead for next Xmas some gifts at 75% off......but I can't show any of that in case certain people are snooping on the blog.  ;-)

But I can show y'all all this.........

Chocolate, hot cocoa mix and beauty sets I picked up at R-A for cheap to put into Giveaway Boxes in 2019....woohoo!

And at Weis I picked up this stuff........

The wine gift bags(for us as we were out of those)were .50¢ each, the Kisses were $1 a bag(for next year's fudge making), the Panettone for $2(that's a gift), the fudge kits for .50¢ a box after a doubled coupon(for cheap sweets during the year).  The ginbgerbread air fresheners were $1 each(and are for next Xmas)but the Hershey's Gold bags?......the Hershey Gold bags cost me .25¢ each after their $1 price and my doubled coupons and they are also for putting into Giveaway Boxes this year! 8-)))

*  And I pillaged Rite-Aid on Wellness Wednesday as I already posted about..........

First my few samples from the Wellness table.

And then all the goodies they paid me $$ to take home.............

And some of this too will be going into Giveaways during the course of this year!

*  I cashed out all my rebate app monies in mid December.  As of today I have $15.85 in Ibotta, $8 in SavingStar and the $12.50 I carried over from 2018 in Checkout51.


It was a great start to 2019 in terms of discounted goods and/or freebies....not such a great start for finding change. lolz

What frugal wins did y'all have last week?




Sluggy

Wellness Wednesday Haul...So Much Rite-Aid Porn!

Wednesday was the first Wednesday of the month so you know what that means?  The one day Wellness Wednesday coupons at Rite-Aid!

And boy, were there some good deals to be had!!!

But first, I picked up a few samples on the WW table........

A small Aquaphor lotion spray and 2 Cold-Eeze sample boxes.  Hubs loves those Cold-Eeze things when he comes down with a cold.

I won't go into the details of my transactions but I had both the paper one-day Qs and had them loaded digitally to my Load2Card accounts on 3 cards held in this household and all the Qs came off both from the paper ones and the digital ones.
I printed out a few manufacturer's Qs too to stack with some of the WWQs as well.

Here is a shot of everything I brought home yesterday........

A couple of items in the first few transactions I bought the wrong size or type of item but mostly the cashiers pushed those Qs through when they beeped. oh well...

I used a total of $46.94 in Bonus Cash across three different Wellness cards.

I earned back $57.00 in new Bonus Cash, so this was a $10.06 moneymaker trip, growing my BC by $10.06.

I also earned $19 in cash rebates from SavingStar and Ibotta(still waiting on one rebate to reload so I can claim it again but it's $16 earned so far).  8-)))

I also can sell those Pampers in the back on the photo and net another $45 cash.

Of course I have plans for all these items...either we need/want them here at Chez Sluggy, I'll donate some items to the food bank here in town or they'll be going into a Giveaway box this year! ;-)

So many of the items were better than free with the double coupons I had to buy other stuff to cover all that overage.  I tell ya it's was crazy!

Did you pick up anything at Rite-Aid on Wellness Wednesday?



Sluggy

What I Got for Xmas.....Such a Boring Post!

Sorry I was MIA today...between real life here and spending waaaay too much time in Rite-Aid(it was Wellness Wednesday and there were oodles of deals to be had with the one day coupons this month!!!)there wasn't a lot of chance to be online.
Such is life some days.

I've got a few moments now before bed so I'll show you what Santa(and his assorted helpers)brought me for Christmas.

I already showed of pic of my garden snail stepping stone but above is the rest of my loot.

A pine-scented candle, a good book(well, we'll SEE if it's a good book once I commence to reading it lol), a bottle of sangria, an Ollie's gift card(all these were from Santa/Hubs), a tin of loose tea and local honey from Elder son, a Rite-Aid gift card from my Secret Santa person(which was Hubs), a mug and a mini bottle of liquor from brother and sister in-law(the steaks they ordered still haven't arrived)and a vintage '50s style photo/snarky magnet and luggage tag from Kim(along with the MOUNTAIN of Xmas cookies she sent....I think she's trying to fatten me up but the jokes on you Kim because I'm already fat!lolz).
The other stuff-kiddie scissors, a car air freshener, 2 peanut bars and the silicone tipped tongs were in my stocking.
Not a lot of stuff but then again, I don't NEED a lot of stuff, but it was all picked out just for me so it's all good and appreciated. 8-)))

I still need to do my To-Do List for December outcome post, my Christmas Spending Autopsy and something else I can't remember right now before I can wrap up 2018 and move on into 2019.
And of course like most of y'all it will be 3 months before I stop writing 2018 on my checks!..am I right?!?  lolz

I'll be back on Thursday to yak at y'all some more.

Sluggy

2018 Income & Spending Report.....the December Edition

Now that we are living on an annuity(like a pension) and 401K$ withdrawals(retirement savings), 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.  This leftover cash will go into a "Slush Fund" for now to be used if we have any emergencies come up during the year.  If we still have Slush Funds at the end of the year we'll decide then what to do with those funds.

I have set up a page to track the Slush Fund.  Click on the tab marked "Slush Fund 2018" at the top of the blog.

  I am trying to be as transparent as I can with how much is coming in and how much is going out.  8-)

On to the December 2018 report--

I had 2 goals for December......
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 tuck back into a slush fund.  This slush fun may be to apply toward unforeseen bills that are coming due in subsequent months, to spend on "extras/wants" during the year or to just sit there and grow until the end of 2018.

I have to report that we finished up December in the black.
The extra amount we ended the month of December with?.......-$1498.77

Income or Funds We Can Access

The "income" in December---

* Monthly annuity payment of $3218.16(after tax withholding)
* RMSA(Healthcare account)reimbursement of $1813.48
* Dividend income of $99.12
* Refunds/Rebates of $754.76
* Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $377.86

Total "Income" for December......$6263.38


Expenses in December---

* Healthcare Premium for December was $1813.48.(paid with RMSA reimbursement)
* Variable Expenses in December came to $5948.67
Total Expenses....$7762.15

Sinking Fund--The balance in the Sinking Fund coming into December was $468.37. Nothing was paid from this fund so it goes into 2019 at $468.37


We went into November with $24,662,94 in the Slush Fund.
Add in December's overage of -$1498.77 to the Slush Fund and it stands at $23,164.17 going into January 2019.

Outgo

As for the variable expenses this December, here are the good and the bad side of things....

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  Phone charges, internet and water bill were approximately the same as in November.(Within $1 or so).
*  The health insurance premium was the same as in November.
*  The cash WAM withdrawals was the same amount as last month.
.

HERE are the BAD THINGS-lots of bad. lolz

*  The c/c bill was $1299.506 higher than in November.
*  The electric bill was up $144.36 from than last month.
*  We paid Long Term Care premiums in December out of reg. income.
*  The gas card bill was $33.71 higher than in November.
*  I had to pay for my drivere's license renewal in December.
*  There was $996.47 in charges on my Visa card this month.
*  Hubs had a $29.84 in charges on his Discover card.
*  There was $22.28 in medical copays that didn't get put on the HSA account.
*  I spent $270 on discounted Target gift cards in December.
*  Besides stuff bought on the credit cards for Christmas I took $150 in cash out of the bank for Christmas giving.

The Food Budget costs for December are in another post, which is located HERE.  Food costs are covered in the credit card payment(sometimes our WAM cash too).

So we end December in the red with -$1498.77 in overage to subtract from the Slush Fund, leaving it at $23,164.17 heading in 2019.
The Sinking Fund goes into 2019 standing at $468.37.

FINAL THOUGHTS on December---
No quarterly 3rd quarter 401K withdrawal meant December was going to be tight since we paid the Long Term Care premiums out of reg. income instead of the Sinking Fund. Lots of big bills, mostly related to Christmas spending and buying a LOT of gift cards for use during 2019.  Some unplanned bills too(car inspection, car maintenance/repair, driver's license renewal, etc)and that sure added up.
I won't say December wasn't expensive because it was!!

Still, I am glad we didn't take a 401K withdrawal as that $ is making more where it is and we could pull from the Slush Fund which isn't somewhere earning a lot right now.  I really wanted to see if we could forestall a quarterly withdrawal in 2018 and survive.....and we did! ;-)


THOUGHTS going forward into January 2019----
January.......let's see what's coming up.

Normal WAM withdrawal this month(so far).
Normal or lower than normal food spending planned.
The credit card should be around $1K of usual charges in Jan. as there are no Xmas bills coming due on it.(Yay!)

Hubs and I need to sit down and run the numbers in January and see what we need to change in our budget for 2019: if we take more or less WAM this year, when to time the 401K withdrawals and how much, what to do with that $23K Slush Fund and what to do with a CD we have maturing the end of Feb....that sort of thing.

So how was your December financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in December?
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!

Make this year was the one were you clean up your finances and pay off your debts.
Plan to set something aside if you didn't already or increase what you have banked now for your future self.
Or pay 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