What We Spent in 2018 & The January $$$ Meeting

What We Spent in 2018

2018 was the first full calendar year of Hubs retirement so I wanted to look back on how we did financially that first full year of retirement.

Our income included.....
*  12 months of an Annuity payment which came to a net of $38,482.83.
*  12 months of Interest earned on deposits which came to $4,053.05.
*  3 quarterly 401K withdrawals which netted us a total of $15,450.57.
*  4 quarterly Dividend payments which netted us a total of $395.43.
*  Blogging Revenue over the whole year of $490.29.
*  eBay Sales net for the year of $177.09.

This totals $59,049.26 of income in 2018*.

(* I took the Healthcare Premiums and the RMSA reimbursement out of the equation as the RMSA took care of the premium and this didn't impact our other finances.  Being a reimbursement account it's not technically income.)

(* I am not counting our Federal Tax Refund or any Cash Rebates/Refunds received in our "income" for this purpose, as those are not taxable.)


All our 2018 expenses came to $43,107.38.

This amount was from......
*  $34,275.98 in regular monthly expenses(utilities, food/toiletries/HBa/paper goods, internet, gas, medical we paid OOP, cash taken, c/c bills).
*  $8,831.40 in irregular bills(sewage, garbage, various insurances, taxes).

After expenses we had $15,941.88 leftover income when 2018 was said and done.

We also have $1016.74 in the Sinking Fund that carried over from Dec. 2017 into Jan. 2018 to account for in the overage.
Add in our tax refund, cash rebates/refunds and we finished the year with $23,237.05 in leftover funds.

I'd say, considering a few things, we did ok in 2018.......
Considering we were partially supporting 2 adult children.
Considering we owned a second house in LA for part of the year.
Considering we paid some tuition in Jan. of 2018 for Ex-College Boy.

In hindsight we probably could have done without any 401K withdrawals in 2018.
But Hubs insisted we take them.

Originally he wanted to take 4 withdrawals of $9K each but I talked him into taking only 3 withdrawals of $6K which was exactly half of what he planned.  ;-)
And even with half, we still had a boatload of cash leftover.  8-)))

The difference between our 401K in Jan. 2018 and Jan 2019 was only $5K....so our $18K in withdrawals for 2018 dinged our 401K to the tune of only $5K.

The January Financial Meeting

We sat down in January and went over all the numbers with Hubs and two things will change.

* Instead of taking 401K withdrawals in 2019 to cover irregular bills/to fund the Sinking Fund, we will use reserves of cash(in the savings and checking accounts)to cover irregular bills.
At least for now.

I'd rather use the cash earning less than what the 401K funds are earning to pay these bills.
Makes a lot of sense to me and Hubs agreed.

*  The other change is to how much WAM we take each month for personal use.  I am fine with the $100 we were taking but Hubs chafes at this limit.  So for at least the foreseeable future we will increase the WAM to $300 a month($150 for each of us).  I hope this stops his bitchin'.....lolz

My needs are few and my wants are simple(mostly).  Hubs?...who knows at this point.

*  We have a few large expenses coming in 2019 that aren't covered in the usual or irregular bills.

Both of our cars need new tires....mine need them tout suite.  My car has under 28K miles on it but the tires are coming up on 5 years old and they are starting to disintegrate and leak.  We are figuring $2K should cover both sets of tires.

Come Spring we will be getting some work done on the house.  Expensive things like remodeling a bathroom, new windows for the whole house, refurbishing the kitchen, replacing 2 bedroom's carpeting.  That stuff ain't cheap.

All these expenses will be talked to death here and we'll figure out how to handle them in time. ;-)
Retirement planning continues to be a moving target.....like nailing Jello to a wall.


How is your retirement going financially?
Do you revisit your finances periodically and revamp your plans?
What has been your biggest financial challenge in retirement?


Sluggy

2019 Food & Toiletries Spending......the January Edition

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

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for JANUARY 2019.

I have posted January'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 January.  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 4-5(4 at home this month). No "kids" under 22.

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

ALDI
OOP  $16.82
Value  $30.15
Savings  44.21%

BIG LOTS
OOP  $2.25
Value  $5.00
Savings  55%

MAINES
OOP  $30.08
Value  $64.30
Savings  53.22%

OLLIE'S
OOP  $4.40
Value  $7.96
Savings  44.72%

RITE-AID
OOP  $0.00
Qs/Ads/BC  $1080.04
Value  $1080.04
Savings  100%

TARGET
OOP  $0.00
Value  $79.79
Savings   100%

WALMART

OOP  $19.89

Qs/Ads  $9.07

Value  $28.96

Savings  31.32%

WEIS
OOP  $367.18
QsAds  $359.09
Value  $726.27
Savings  49.44%

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were Rite-Aid at 100%, Target at 100% and Big Lots at 55%.  My worst savings rate was at Walmart at 31.32%.

I shopped at 8 different stores this past month.  

TOTAL Out of Pocket for January.........$440.62

TOTAL Coupons/Store Sales.................$501.81

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased.........$942.43

TOTAL Savings of ................................53.25%

TOTAL Out of Pocket for January w/R-A.............$440.62
TOTAL Coupons/Store Sales w/R-A...................$1581.85
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased w/Rite-Aid....$2022.47
TOTAL Savings with Rite-Aid items.....................78.21%

This closes out the January food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....
I made a half-hearted attempt to do a eat the freezer down/low spend thing in January but it was derailed by some good meat deals et al.  I went over my regular targeted food budget of $400 by $40.62.  So much for my low spend month! lolz


The monthly food spending savings percentage went down by .17 % in January 2019 to 78.21% compared to the December 2018 78.38% savings average.  Still over a 78% savings rate however so no worries there.  ;-)

With 1 month accounted for, I have spent a Year-To-Date Total of $440.62 on food/toiletries in 2018.


2019 Yearly Total Spent To Date...................$440.62

2019 Yearly Total Value of Items To Date...$2022.47

2019 Total Saved To Date..............................$1581.85

2019 Yearly Savings Total To Date of............78.21%

The average per month amount spent so far is $440.62 in 2019. 

LOOKING AHEAD To February 2019.......

I will again attempt to do a low spend grocery month in February.  This month I'll try harder. It's a shorter month after all so I should be able to keep spending well below $300.
What I won't do is keep my grocery spending so low that I miss out on awesome deals.  We have a fair amount of give in the food budget here and I won't sacrifice quality foods just to see a lower spending total.
But if we were facing a financial problem(need to come up with $$$ for an emergency and I had to pull money from the grocery budget to cover it, etc.)I would definitely think twice about my food spending IF there weren't funds in other categories I could raid first.  While we aren't extravagant with our food spending, I don't like to constrict that spending more than what we are use to since better foods/fresh and frozen produce/etc. costs more but keep us healthier in the long run.  I'd rather pull $ for an emergency from eating out, entertainment, travel or WAM allocations.
I won't buy substandard foods to keep a grocery budget low but I can eat down what we have here already.

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 January?

*  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

Frugal Friday....The February 1st Edition

Let's see what wins we had this past week on the frugality front.........

*  I found money!

Actually I found 1¢ last Friday and daughter was with me at Weis and found another 1¢, which she gave to me so 2¢ total went into the found change envelope.

*  I didn't get the instant $3 off when I bought 6 of the Mix and Match items at Weis(PMITA)Markets last week(evidently the Daisy sour cream I purchased wasn't coded into the scheme correctly)so I hauled back to Weis with my receipt and the ad to get my money back.....

Now my 6 items after instant refund and coupons used cost me $5.84 instead of the $11.94 with just the sale prices.  That's a difference of  $6.10 which was well worth pursuing in my book!

*  Back in early December of 2018 I sent away for a bunch of freebie samples and Qs.  The first one finally showed up this week in the mail..........

No Qs just a sample of this hair product.  Too bad we never get these good hair coupons in our paper inserts(heck we no longer get the Red Plum/Retail Me Not inserts at all in our area papers!)so I can't/won't be buying this stuff.

I got a follow-up email for the Breathe Right strip freebie I sent for asking me how I liked them.  Umm, well the sample never arrived so well, I can't tell you anything. lolz


*  I haven't been reporting in on my cash back/rebates weekly yet this year so let me give a report on what we earned back for all of January.

Ibotta 
 $36.40

SavingStar 
$15.25
($4 of that was from 2018 that was earned after I moved the 2018 earned into my bank account.)

Checkout51
$0.00 (I need $7.50 more to cash out of this but I hardly ever buy anything that qualifies for their rebates.)

So $51.65 earned in cash rebates on stuff I was going to buy anyway going into February 2019.

*  Last Friday I did go to Rite-Aid as I had to roll some Bonus Cash and I had a $5 Kimberley-Clark purchase Catalina expiring too.......

I paired the 30% off Friends and Familys Q(valid on Fri/Sat.)with $2/1 Everpure IPQs and stacked a $1/1 Everpure R-A Q with that(since as I noted above, we don't get the good beauty/cosmetic RetailMeNot Qs)so each tube was $5.59(30% off of reg. retail)+ $3 in Qs off, making each tube $2.59.  I bought over $30 worth(before Qs of $18)so I earned $10 Bonus Cash back.
$33.55-$18Qs=$15.55-$5 Catalina=$10.55 paid for with BC, earned $10 BC back so .55¢ for all 6.

*  I talked about the Target freebie trip already.......

Everything in the photo plus $25+ in drinks paid for with a free gift card.


That's about it for me this week. 
The only other thing is no eating out this past week.
It's too dang cold out to go anywhere much! lolz

What frugal wins did y'all have this week?

It's currently -5F here but going up to a balmy 15F today....woohoo!
Stay warm!!!


Sluggy

Some Free Groceries at Target

Monday was a really nice sunny(but cold as heck!)day.  Hubs and I felt like getting out of the house so we went into the city to Target.
And yet again, there was a problem at Target.
Am I a jinx or what?? lolz

They have a "Spend $25 on drinks/Get a $10 Gift Card" Deal this week and we were running low on seltzer and water so we decided to stock up a bit.

I got..........
3 x cases Water $1.69 each
4 x Bubly seltzer packs 3/$10
3 x Diet Pepsi 6-pack bottles on sale $2.50 each
SubTotal....$25.89 so qualified for the $10 GC
I also have 2 x $1/2 Bubly peelie Qs I used.

But for some reason(evident later, read on)the $10 GC prompt didn't come up on the cashier's screen and we had to call for manager approval for the GC Deal.

We also picked up all this........

6 x Hershey's Gold bags
These were 30% off on a Cartwheel offer(but only 4 items qualified, which I didn't realize until we got home)so I got the sale price of $3.33 on 2, $2.33 Cartwheel price on 4.  I used 6 x $2/1 IPQs so $3.98 for all 6 bags.

2 x Quaker Pumpkin spice oatmeal boxes on clearance.  The sticker was $2.20 but they rang up $1.28 each box.  I used a $1/2 Quaker TearpadQ so $1.56 for both boxes.

1 x Dunkin Donuts peppermint chocolate coffee on clearance.  The sticker was $5.08 but it rang up $2.98.  nice.

2 x Head & Shoulders white charcoal conditioner bottles on clearance of $2.98 each.  I used a $5/2 H&S ManuQ so .96¢ for both bottles.  8-)

Hubs also bought 2 cans of Market Pantry coffee for $5.38.
My total should have been $58.75-$20 in Qs=$38.75 + tax.

But it was $42.65+ tax.
So I looked over the receipt and instead of 3 cases of bottled water at $5.07 total there was something called "AF Snacking" on the receipt, 3 x for $8.97 total!!

Over at CS they pulled up the code AF Snacking and it was for Dark Chocolate covered Almonds, of which I had gotten none.
WTF?!?

So we returned the "phantom" nuts I bought and rerang the water I DID buy which lowered my total by $3.90(difference between phantom nuts and water bottles).
So OOP finally was $38.75 + .59¢ tax=$39.34 .  Reg. retail price for all this was $79.79.
I paid with a free with c/c points Target card and received a $10 Target GC back so actually only "spent" $29.34 of my free GC.

Since the water wasn't seen as being rung up that explains why the Spend $25/Get $10 GC Deal didn't trigger because I "only" had bought $20.82 of drinks(when I had really bought $25.89 worth of drinks).

In the end I spent Zero OOP and made that free Target GC money stretch even further using sales, clearance, a Cartwheel offer, a Gift Card Deal and coupons.
I was happy those clearance prices on the coffee and the oatmeal were even lower than marked on the packages. ;-)

But it always seems to be something messed up when I shop at Target....let's call it the Sluggy Jinx. lolz

Just another reason to double check your receipts before leaving the store when you shop!  I am 7 times out of 10 finding errors on receipts and that adds up fast to losing unnecessary money in your budget!!!


Sluggy

Random Stuff from Chez Sluggy

*  First a weather report from Teeny Tiny Town..........

It was 1F in the car this morning.

Weather dotcom says it's going to climb to a balmy 19F today before diving to -5F tonight.
Yay! *snort*

*  If you want to know why we were out in the insanely cold weather this morning, I had to go get my driver's license renewed.  Well I had to go have my photo taken for the license.  I was going to do it earlier in the month except our DMV was closed until Jan. 24th for renovations.  Um, other than moving a kiosk I didn't see any improvements in the building. lolz   So I am forced to go out in this yuck because it has to get done before Feb. 1st or there will be complications like Hubs having to drive me around everywhere and that's not happening. ;-)

*  Last week we had a deathly cold day, so cold that Chester refused to go outside.  Poor baby was trying to lift all 4 paws off the ground at the same time it was so cold on his feet.
Hubs ran right out and got him a pair of booties...........

They didn't have straps so we had to use rubber bands to keep them on his feet.  He kept them on long enough to do his business and then tried to tear them off. lolz

*  About Linda......I had a call from her earlier this week.  She got the money together to get a new laptop but what she wanted was out of stock so it's been ordered.  Linda should be back online in a week or two?  I am just guessing on this but it sounds plausible.  ;-)

*  About Sonya Ann.....she is finally divorced and all the martial assets have been untangled so she has no ties to the Asshole(as we call him)anymore.  She moved last Spring out West, in with her daughter.  The house daughter bought was a clusterf*ck so it's been a whole different kind of stress living there but.........Sonya has moved to a place of her own as of last week and is enjoying the peace and quiet.  She's now at a place where she can heal emotionally and physically.  It's been a very long, rough journey since October 2017 but she is on the mend now.  I know she is in a better place in her own head because she tortured me yesterday with a text that it was 65F where she is living...the stinker!! ;-)

*  I finally jumped through all the hoops to sent for that P&G Beauty $15 Rebate Visa that ran from late Oct. until Dec. 31st of 2018(Your envie has to be postmarked by Jan 31st 2019).
Man, the crap you need to do and send to qualify for the rebate is such a hassle!!  It's hardly worth doing them anymore.  I have backed up my submission with copies in case they deny the rebate(which they did once to me a few years back which made me stop even submitting for these rebates).  If this one gets denied I am so over P&G!

*  Here one of the more innane ads I got in the mail end of 2018........

A handbag with my initials in a Louis Vuitton pattern.  Done is genuine imitation leather *snort*.  The purse if 14" wide and 10" tall and comes with a goldtone keychain with my name on it.
Only $139 + shipping and handling of gosh knows how much.  I rarely spent more than $20 for a purse......
What a bargain!  How can I refuse. 8-)))

*  Neither of my $20 Rite-Aid cards I sent for have arrived yet from the "Spend $50/Get a $20 R-A card Deal" earlier this month.  Anybody else get them yet??


*  I was looking at the fridge magnet Kim sent me for Xmas.  It's one of those vintage women scenes with a sarcastic caption...........

I think I am offended..........Kim called me a ham face!?!?

*  I am getting ready to do our end of the month finances.  I don't think my piggy bank will be happy when it's all written out......
There is always next month, right?

*  Strange fortune cookie fortune I got recently........

*  I have so much to do before Friday and it's not all going to get done.  I just can't seem to get my brain organized lately.
It might have something to do with weening myself off the crazy pill I take.  I need to get off this one for awhile to see if these tremors are related or not and have some testing done.

*  We got the reimbursement from the medical account(that pays our healthcare premiums)and it was $12.60 short.  Another phone call to those idiots and some one didn't included the vision part that we paid.  I just wish people could do their job and not cause issues for customers. ugh.

*  I got a lovely spam comment on my Birthday.  Letting me know all about a great moneymaking opportunity if I work for live girls dotcom doing webcam porn I could make up to $5K a month in my spare time.
Seriously?!  Nobody wants to look at this 60 year old body nekkid.......


*  I'll close with a gratuitous photo of Chester........

He has three beds....well 2 beds and a piece of fabric we call the Ex-Bed because he tore it up and pulled all the stuffing out.
Anyway, the brown fuzzy bed we call "the Girlfriend" because that's the bed he humps.  The grey bed is the one he got for Xmas this year.  He will carry the "Girlfriend" and try to put it into the grey bed and then have sex with the "Girlfriend".  It's hysterical to watch.  Kim's sister enjoyed watching Chester try to do this, especially since he didn't get the Girlfriend in correctly and his leg was on the laminate flooring while he was "going at it" so he had no traction.  Oh, it's just a three ring circus around here sometimes..........lolz

What's been happening at your place?



Sluggy