This Week on the Dining Table

The "We survived the Polar Vortex!" Edition.........   

Yep, it's almost 50F as I type this and will hover in the 40's and 50's this week.  Quite the change from last week's -15F nightime temps. ugh.
I'll be spending some time out in the garage organizing and inventorying the stockpile this week since I won't be freezing to death out there now. lolz

Moving On....

Onward to the meal planning!

This is what was planned--

1. Sunday--Chicken Piccata, Zuke and reg. noodles

2. Monday--Beef Pie

3. Tuesday--Meatball Subs

4. Wednesday--Pot Roast, Carrots, Taters and Onions

5. Thursday--Fend For Yourself

6. Friday--homemade Pizza, Salad
7. Saturday--something Mexican(TBD)

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Chicken Piccata, Zuke and reg. noodles

2. Monday--Beef Pie

3. Tuesday--Meatball Subs(from leftover meatballs)

4. Wednesday--Pot Roast, Carrots, Taters and Onions

5. Thursday--Fend For Yourself

6. Friday--Leftovers
7. Saturday--Tacos or Taco Salad

Last week saw 5 nights of home cooked dinners, 2 night, of leftovers/fend for yourself, 0 nights of Eating Out/Take-Out. 
Everything happened as planned(except the pizza, which I made yesterday)but perhaps on different days then planned.

What got put into the freezer last week.....
*  a small turkey meatloaf
*  2 packs of turkey meatballs

What got taken out of the freezer and used last week.......
*  4 pints of ice cream(daughter's)
*  a beef Roast
*  2 small packs BSCB
*  4 lb. pack of ground beef

The best news....I finally got that spiral sliced ham into the freezer! rah.

 A couple of grocery trips.....2 smallish trips to Weis($18.65/$36.88)and a trip to Target($0.00)brought the weekly food spending to $55.53 and brought the January monthly total to $440.62.  Not the low spend month I had envisioned but it's all good. ;-)

My savings percentage last week(only January spending)was 67.05%(without Rite-Aid trips)and January's monthly savings total comes to 53.25%(w/out R-A) or 78.21% w/my Rite-Aid trips. 

The weekend spending was Feb. monies so I'll report on that next week even though it was technically last week's spending.

Leftovers going into this week.... 1 helping of zuke in tomatoes, beef pie, some meatballs but no spaghetti, a helping of pot roast w/veggies, taco filling.

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

1. Sunday--Homemade Pizza, Hot Wings

2. Monday--Cheese Steak Subs, Spinach souffle 

3. Tuesday--Leftover Beef Pie or FFY

4. Wednesday--Pork Roast, Italian side dish w/Beans and Veggies, Baked Kale Chips

5. Thursday--Roast Chicken, Stuffing(maybe), Sweet Potato Casserole, Sugar Snap Peas

6. Friday--Ham, Mac and Cheese, Brussels Sprouts
7. Saturday--Leftovers

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

What needs buying for this menu? Milk

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  

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