This Week on the Dining Table

The "It Ain't Emptying Very Fast" Edition.........

I did make some progress emptying out the chest freezer....heck I made enough room in there to put that $2.49 Stollen I got for half price at Aldi's after Xmas to keep until next Xmas.

But then.......a huge styrofoam container landed on my front porch.  Our belated Xmas present from my brother--an Omaha Steaks cooler of meats.
Sigh.
While we appreciate the gift, I now had to find room to put all this frozen goodness which meant there is no discernible difference in the amount of food in the freezer this week.  ;-)
So there isn't much progress eating down the freezer to report. 8-(

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

This is what was planned--

1. Sunday--Beef Stroganoff, Rice, Roasted Rainbow Carrots

2. Monday--Large Salads w/Grilled Chicken 

3. Tuesday--Meatloaf, Baked Potatoes, Saute Cabbage

4. Wednesday--Lemon Pepper Chicken w/Zucchini, Rice

5. Thursday--Chicken and Dumplings

6. Friday--Ham and Bean Soup, Cornbread
7. Saturday--Leftovers or FFY

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Beef Stroganoff, Rice, Roasted Rainbow Carrots

2. Monday--Large Salads w/Grilled Chicken 

3. Tuesday--Meatloaf, Baked Potatoes, Roasted Carrots, Creamed Spinach

4. Wednesday--Lemon Pepper Chicken w/Zucchini, Rice

5. Thursday--Chili, Cornbread

6. Friday--Leftovers
7. Saturday--Chicken Apple Sausages, Saute Cabbage and Onions, Au Gratin Taters 

Last week saw 6 nights of home cooked dinners, 1 night of leftovers/fend for yourself, 0 nights of Eating Out/Take-Out.  
The 2 soups didn't happen and Sausages did plus a night of leftovers

What got taken out of the freezer and used last week.......
* 1 London Broil
* 2 bags of grilled chicken strips
* 2.65 lbs. of ground beef
* 2 packs of boneless chicken thighs
* 1.35 lbs. of ground beef
* 1 lb. ground turkey
* 2 packs of chicken sausage

What got put into the freezer last week.....
* 2 packs of chicken sausage
* 2 bags of roast beef slices(lunchmeat)
* 2 packs of breakfast pork sausage

* And a cooler full of a Xmas present of meats 8-)))


 A couple of grocery trips.....2 smallish trips to Weis($20.85)and Walmart($7.67) and a trip to Maines for produce($30.08)brought the weekly food spending to $58.60 and brought the January monthly total to $145.30 so far.

I have 17 days left in my shopping month for January.

My savings percentage last week was 52.23%(without Rite-Aid trips)and January's monthly savings total so far comes to 50.38%(w/out R-A).  

Leftovers going into this week....some breaded shrimp and clam strips, meatloaf, lemon pepper chicken, zuke and rice, chili, cabbage and onions, sausages, some crab dip and au gratin taters.

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

1. Sunday--Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches, leftover veggies

2. Monday--Leftover Buffet

3. Tuesday--Chicken and Dumplings

4. Wednesday--Spaghetti and Meatballs, Salad

5. Thursday--Catfish Fillets, Cole Slaw, Veggie TBD

6. Friday--Lemon Chicken w/Couscous, Spinach and Carrots
7. Saturday--Leftovers

This week will see 5 new meals cooked, 2 nights of leftovers/FFY, 0 nights of Take-Out/Eating Out.

What needs buying for this menu? Lettuce, Tomatoes, Cucumber

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  

Rite-Aid This Week

I decided that this was a good week to divest myself of some Bonus Cash and roll it into a Rite-Aid Gift Card using the "Spend $50 on select items/Get a $20 R-A Reward Visa Card".
Even though the Visa card earned expires 60 days from when it's activated so the use by date is no longer than for Bonus Cash I just want to get rid of BC on some accounts.

So I spent down my BC on my Daughter's card and my card and earned 2 x $20 Reward Visa Cards this week.

3 x Huggies on sale $9 ea.=$27.00
2 x Aleve on sale BOGO50%=$8.68
1 x Thermacare on sale BOGO50%=$7.59
1 x Robitussin on sale BOGO50%=$3.74
1 x Visine 20% Wellness disc.=$4.63
SubTotal........$51.64

I used these coupons....
3 x $2/1 Huggies=$6
2 x $3/1 Aleve=$6
1 x $3/1 Thermacare(L2CQ)=$3
1 x $1//1 Robitussin(the $3/1 L2CQ didn't come off)=$1
1 x $2/1 Visine In-AdQ=$2
Coupon Total......$18.00

$51.64-$18.00=$33.64 paid for with Bonus Cash.

I earned the $20 Reward Visa card, a $5 Catalina(for spending $25+ on Huggies), and $6 in cash rebates on SavingStar($3 Thermacare/$3 Robitussin).

I then bought 3 more diapers on my card..........

3 x Huggies on sale $9 ea.=$27.00
I used the previously earned $5 Cat, 3 x $2/1 Huggies IPQs and a $5 Visa card I earned in November for buying SC Johnson items mid November Deal Here.

So it was $27.00-$16.00=$11.00 paid with Bonus Cash.
I earned another $5 Catalina.

Then I rinsed and repeated that transaction and bought 3 more bags of Huggies..........

Same $2/1 Qs, previously earned $5 Cat and a second $5 SC Johnson Deal Visa card, paid $11 OOP with Bonus Cash.
I earned another $5 Cat and got the code to get a second $20 R-A Reward Visa Card.

Bonus Cash spent  $55.64

Reward Visa Cards earned  $40.00
Catalina left  $5.00
9 packs of Diapers to Sell  $45.00


Sluggy

Frugal Friday.....the January 11th Edition

Let's take a look at the frugal wins we had at Chez Sluggy this past week............

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

These will get used and we were almost out of croutons too.

*  I found some money!

A dime in the Walmart parking lot.  Sorry for the bad photo. 8-(

2 dimes found in the Weis(PMITA)Markets in town, both at the register but on the customer's side of it.  30¢ for the week!

*  I got some free food(and half price food)....

These jars of pimento were half price according to the shelf tag so I picked up three.  Checked my receipt after the transaction and they rang up regular price.  So I went over to Customer Service, after taking a photo of the shelf tag to show them.........

I got 1 free since they rang up incorrectly and I got back 50% what I paid on the other two so I paid $1.30 total for all 3 jars.
Sweet!


*  The best "deal" at the store this past week........

Turkey breakfast sausage packs were on sale for $4 each.  These two also had $3 off instant meat discount stickers on them plus I had a $1/2 Peelie Q(from buying 2 packs last month and could only use 1 Peelie Q on those)so these cost me .50¢ each.


*  I also found a few more Christmas clearance items at a different Weis this past week.......

2 x Glade double pack of pumpkin scented candles for $2.  I used Qs so paid $1 for each 2-pack.
2 x Ghirardelli peppermint chocolate chunks for $1 each(goes into the baking goods box).
4 x Walker's shortbread cookies-the Holiday shapes were $2 a box.  I had $1 off Qs from the box I bought the week before so paid $1 per box.
1 x Ferrero Roche hazelnut chocolates in a Xmas tree shaped box for $2.  I had a $1/1 IPQ to use so paid $1 for the box.
$9 spent OOP on over $35 worth of reg. retail items.

What frugal wins did y'all have this past week?



Sluggy

The Big Things I Accomplished in 2018

Here is a list of the main things I actually accomplished in 2018.  

Some were written about/identified in my Yearly Goals(such that they were)and some in my Monthly Goals.

I have put them in order of how much satisfaction achieving them gave me. 8-)

#1 Deal with the house in Louisiana.  

We sold it in June and it is gone!!!  It was the largest source of anxiety in my life for the 1.5 years before it got sold.

'Nuf said.

#2  Continue to drop some weight. I lost and have kept off 11 pounds in 2018.  Add to the 30 I lost in 2017 and I am 41 lbs. lighter in 2019

#3  We took 3 trips in 2018.
A short weekend trip to VA in April to see our older son and meet his GF.......

A medium sized one to New England w/Kim and her Hubs in late September/early October......

And a short excursion down to the Outer Banks of NC later in October........

Bonus points because we got too have lunch with our son on the way back home from that one.....

Not a lot of traveling in 2018 but what we did was greatly enjoyed!

#4  I got my new passwords book done........

#5 Sold some things........

22 bags of diapers got sold on the local FB site.

And 6 items left the building from eBay.

More would have been better but this was enough in 2018.

#6  I broke down and got a smart phone.........

Alert the media-Sluggy joins the 21st Century.....lolz

#7  We consolidated our banking and cashed in bonds.

Having both a B&M bank and a credit union account was just too complicated so, being unhappy with the CU we closed the account there.  Now we just have a B&M bank and an online bank.

We stayed on top of maturing Savings Bonds and cashed them out in a timely fashion.

#8  Gardening and Preserving the Harvest

 The infamous Basil Tree....lolz

 Tomatoes out our ears by September!

I dried oregano and basil we grew.

I also made pesto out of some of the basil and froze that.

 I canned pepper relish(mostly from farm produce Hubs and picked-we didn't grow this stuff).

 I canned peach jam from farm produce.

I canned tomatoes from out harvest.

 Grew lots and lots of Morning Glory vines......

 And saved a large amount of seeds from those.

The Grand Total output of our very little garden was 104.275 pounds of food!

#9 I got around to reading 22 books in 2018(plus 2 more I started but haven't finished yet.)  

At the moment I'd say these 5 were my favorite reads of 2018......

#10   2 Sewing Projects Completed.

  One was an unfinished languishing project.

A pair of jams for the my brother.

The other was a major lengthening/hemming job on two pairs of pants for my daughter.

#11  Giveaways Held-16

16 boxes of goodies left Chez Sluggy in 2018.  

That's an average of 1.33 giveaways per month.

#12  Food Bank Donations

This was what went to the foo bank in early November.

Another small donation made it's way there as well earlier in the year but I can't lay my hands on a photo of it right now.

#13  I got my Passport.

It happened in July after sending for my birth certificate in June.

#  14 House Projects Completed

Mostly this was Hubs accomplishments in 2018.  Some long neglected maintenance and repairs were achieved.....replacing 2 doorbells, buying and installing new blinds in the kitchen and the master bathroom, patching and repainting the pillars and trim on the front porch and cleaning/dehumidifying the crawl space under a part of the house.

#  15  Decluttering

Not much left the house in 2018 to go to the Salvation Army.  Yes, a lot of trash left and lots of toiletries/stockpile items went to relatives/giveaway boxes/got sold/food bank donations, but we didn't have much "stuff" to give to charity last year.  Maybe 4 or 5 garbage bags of items/clothing.  I don't really keep records of that anymore as we don't itemize charitable donations anymore.

#  16  Keeping Paper Under Control

I spent a good amount of time each month purging/shredding/filing paperwork in 2018.  I was able to keep anything from stacking up by doing this monthly.  This included all my coupon insert work too.

Now the state of my desk was another matter...EEK!!!

Let's close the book on 2018 and not dwell on the stuff I didn't get around to doing last year(and there was quite a bit).....let's celebrate the accomplishments and move on into 2019!

Sluggy

2018 Christmas Budget/Spending Autopsy

Ok, so calling this an Autopsy is not very festive or cheerful.
So call it "The Post Where I Talk About What I Was Going to Spend for Christmas and What I Actually Spent for Christmas".
Whatever works for you.....

I budgeted $850 for Christmas spending in 2018.  Except for what Hubs spends on gifts for me, this is our entire spending budget for Christmas(except for food for Christmas meals-which is accounted for in the food budget).

Last year I budgeted $850 and we spent $845.62.
So I based this year's Xmas budget on what was spent last year as we were pretty close to the targeted amount.  We weren't going to be traveling anywhere for the Holidays so this amount seemed adequate to me.

I have been tracking our Christmas spending since 2010--
2010.........$1000 planned/$881.64 spent
2011.........$1300 planned/$851.32 spent
2012.........$1000 planned/$1020.48 spent
2013.........$1650 planned/$2164.77 spent

2014.........$1900 planned/$1742.87 spent
2015.........$1800 planned/$1583.94 spent

2016.........$1600 planned/$793.72 spent
2017...........$850 planned/$845.62 spent

How do I arrive at a budget for Christmas?  Nowadays I look at what we spent the previous years(because I have a full accounting for the last 6 years or so on the blog)and see where we did well and where we did "not-so-well" with budgeting and add in any unusual things we plan to do and after some papers are balled up and thrown away and there is one sheet left with lots of writing on it(as well as writing scratched out on it), we have a plan and a budget. lolz

No, really.....I look at possible spending categories and what I think we will use in each one.

I generally use c/c points to get gift cards for free(to either give as presents or use to buy the presents to give)plus I buy a bit here and there during the year when a deal presents itself and those items are cash flowed from our regular monthly income.  I have been known to reserve blogging revenue, rolled coins and/or cash rebates from grocery purchases during the year to pay for Christmas expenses.
I generally don't set money aside each month throughout the year(like a Christmas club account or actual money in an envelope earmarked for Christmas spending)since we had a large cushion of cash in our checking and savings accounts and I can just pull from those sources when I need money to spend on Christmas stuff.  Since Hubs retired mid-2017 I will have to budget for Xmas better in the future.

But if you don't have extra cash lying around it is a good idea to take funds during the year and earmark them for the Holidays.
There are many ways to save ahead for Christmas.....make regular deposits to a dedicated account or a Christmas club at a bank, use a one-time windfall like a bonus or a tax refund, etc........so use whatever works for your situation.

The only unacceptable plan is to GO INTO DEBT for Christmas!
Better to not spend on Christmas than to endure the grief/angst/anguish/stress by going into debt buying crap at Christmas you can't afford and having to pay off the bills incurred sometime in 2019, or 2020 or beyond.

So we went into the Holidays with $850.00 budgeted to spend.

Here is where the funds were allocated.......

Shipping gifts/mailing Holiday Cards  $40.00
Gifts for immediate family(includes any cash gifts)  $600.00

Gifts for extended family & friends  $50.00

Electricity for lights   $10.00

A Christmas eve meal and show or movie   $150.00
Christmas travel expenses(lodging, food, gas, booze)   $0.00
Charity  $0.00

And here is where the money actually went.....

Shipping gifts/mailing Holiday Cards  $38.85

Gifts for immediate family  $640.46

Gifts for extended family & friends  $71.00

Electricity for lights  $10.00

A Christmas eve meal and show or movie  $84.72
Christmas travel expenses(lodging, food, gas, booze)  $0.00
Charity  $0.00
TOTAL SPENT...$845.03

Here are the Spending Details....

$38.85 *Shipping/Mailing Holiday Cards & Gifts----$1.15 UNDER budget
We sent out 23 cards(3 were put into packages and not mailed separately in envelopes) and mailed 1 package to my brother and his wife and 2 packages to 2 friends.  Stamps cost $10 and the cards I had already from previous Christmases.  The postage for two packages was $28.85 and the stamps cost $10.00

$640.46  *Gifts for family---- $40.46 over budget
Last year I spent $567.90 on gifts for family so I spent $72.56 more this year on the family's gifts.  Family included 5 people--Hubs, 3 kids, eldest's GF.  $150.00 of that $640.46 spent was on cash gifts.  We had 1 more person to buy for this year(Eldest son's GF).  If the GF wasn't here I would have been closer to target by $29.06.

$71.00  *Gifts for extended family---OVER budgeted amount by $21.00

Nephew's gift cost what I wanted to spend,  his dad's food basket was foodstuffs I used sales/coupons to get so either free or accounted for in the yearly food budget.  I spent $50 on my brother and the sister in-law's gift which was what put me over.  I sent cousin Sonya hair care stuff for free at R-A and a CVS gift card(that girl is all about the CVS!lol)but I got that free with credit card points. 8-)))

$10.00  *Electricity for Lights----ON Budget
We used the smaller tree again this year(less lights than a full size tree)and Hubs was able to do the outdoors lights too using the same stuff we usually hang outside.  No big Battle of the Xmas Lights here! lolz

$84.72  *A Christmas eve meal and show or movie----UNDER budget by $65.28
Dinner for 3 this year plus a to-go order for Ex-College Boy(who was working).  Eldest and GF weren't here and nephew and BIL didn't come so a small crowd.  Nobody drank liquor this year but we did all 3 get appetizers.
After tip we spent $84.72

$0.00  *Charity----NO Cash Spending on Charity this Holiday Season(still coasting on the "Rescue Mission last year to SC") but I did give a very large donation to the town's food bank of toiletries, laundry detergent and foodstuffs.  All that was either free with Bonus Cash at R-A or accounted for in the grocery budget.

$0.00  *Christmas travel expenses(lodging, food, gas, booze, cash incidentals)----NO Spending We didn't travel this year again as the Eldest came home for Christmas with his GF in tow.

All totaled, this year I budgeted $850 and we spent $845.03, so $4.97 under budget overall.


Thoughts for 2019--
I think I'll keep our budget at $850.00 for next Christmas.  We aren't hurting for money but we are on a fixed income with Hubs retired now.  Plus all of our kids are 22 or older(and 1 is established in a career and 1 gainfully employed now)so I don't feel the need to spend so much on them as when they were younger.
For our income and our needs, I think this is just the right amount to splash out on Christmas celebrating.
Unless our plans change and we travel for the Holidays, $850 seems a good target amount for spending.

If you kept track of your spending for Christmas, how did you do?
Did you spend more. less or right about what you planned on spending?
Did you have any money epiphanies when you look back at the Holiday plan?
Do you see anything you'll change about your spending for Christmas 2019?

Leave a comment and let us know how you did and what you learned about yourself & money this year!

Sluggy