Tuesday, February 5, 2019

2019 Income & Spending Report......the January 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.

Two changes we implemented for 2019 at your financial meeting in Jan--

* Hubs wants to take $150 per person WAM(aka Walking Around Money)in 2019.  I found last year's $100 per month adequate but Hubs chafed at that little so we are upping it this year to $150 per person per month.
                                                                                                                                                             
*As for our 2018 Slush Fund, this is how we are going to handle it in 2019......
We won't be taking a quarterly 401K withdrawal in 2019 until we "need" to, instead of taking one each quarter as we had planned back in 2017 when Hubs retired.

Since the Slush Fund ended 2018 with $23,164.17 in it and the Sinking Fund ended 2018 with $468.37 in it, we are for now at least not take any more 401K withdrawals and use what is in the Sinking Fund and/or Slush Fund to cover all irregular bills that come up in 2019.

I have set up a page to track the Slush Fund.  Click on the tab marked "Slush Fund 2018-2019" 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 January report---

I had 2 goals for January.....
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 2019.

I can report that we finished up January in the black.
The extra amount we ended the month of January with?.....$409.77

Income or Funds We Can Access

The "income" in January---

* Monthly annuity payment of $3218.16(after tax withholding)
* RMSA(Healthcare account)reimbursement of $1833.50
* Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $386.58
* Blog revenue of $161.02(3 months worth)
* Withdrawal from my Paypal account of $233.72.
Total "Income" for January....$5,832.98


Expenses in January---

* Healthcare Premium for January was $1,848.67(paid for with RMSA reimbursement)**
* Variable Expenses in January came to $3,574.54
Total Expenses....$5,42321

** The folks holding our retirement medical reimbursement account screwed up and didn't reimburse the bit for the dental payment we made, thus we paid $1848.67 but only got $1833.50 back.  the shortfall will be accounted for when it finally comes in.

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


We went into January with $23,164.17 in the Slush Fund.
Add in January's overage of $409.77 and the Slush Fund goes into February at $23,573.94.


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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  Phone charges and internet were approximately the same as in December.(Within $2 or so).
*  The gas card bill was $89.71 than last month(mostly these charges went on the MasterCard rather than the gas card so not necessarily lower).
*  The health insurance premium was the same as in December.
*  The c/c bill was $877.01 lower than last month.
*  I paid for a whole year of garbage removal in January for a 1 month discount over the regular yearly price.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  The electric bill was up $18.96 from than last month.
*  The water bill was $4.56 higher than in January.
*  The WAM withdrawal was $100 higher than last month.(Agreed upon change.)
*  Hubs had $82.04 in charges on his Discover card in January.
*  I had $134.60 in charges on my Amazon card(mostly my Prime renewal).
*  I had $20 in charges on my fat lady clothing charge card.

The Food Budget costs for January 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 January in the black with $409.77 in overage, leaving the Slush Fund at $23,573.94 heading into February.
The Sinking Fund goes into February 2019 standing at $468.37 with no deposits made into it in Jan.

FINAL THOUGHTS on January---
Not a bad month really.  Food spending a bit higher than I wanted it.  We paid an annual irregular bill out of reg. income and not the Sinking Fund and still have just over $400 extra money to carry into February.  The only troubling item is the RMSA account folks shorted us on our premium reimbursement.  I hope that doesn't take forever to straighten out(and doesn't happen again!).  If it does it's only $15.17 and not the end of the world but it does screw with my accounting. ;-)

THOUGHTS going forward into February 2019----
February.......let's see what's coming up.
NO irregular bills in February(but March we've got over $2600 worth).
The credit card bill is going to be high for Feb. mostly due to getting new tires and sensors on my car,  paying for new glasses,  my car was due for an oil change(synthetic oil=$$$), there is Birthday meal spending and Hubs spent $200 on two subscriptions on this statement coming up.  We are almost up to $2K in charges and the statement doesn't close for another 6 days.....I think I need to keep Hubs home this week so he can't spend anything. lolz
I don't see anything unusual outside of these items.
Everything else will be normal spending(well, the electric bill will be seasonally high(hello Polar Vortex!).

So how was your January financially?
  
Did you spend less than the income you had in January?
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!


Sluggy

Monday, February 4, 2019

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  

Sunday, February 3, 2019

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

Saturday, February 2, 2019

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

Friday, February 1, 2019

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