A Porn Fest from Rite-Aid

I did various deals on each of my 3 Wellness cards/account on Wednesday.  I loaded the Wellness Wednesday Load2Card Qs plus stacked the paper pamphlet WWQs and sprinkled in a few IPQ or ManuQs to triple stack on a few items too.

A couple of the WW deals double dipped with the "Spent $50/Get $20 Gas Visa Card" Deal--the Centrum and the Emergen-C.  After buying those I only needed a few more items that qualified(that were also on sale and I had IPQs for)to reach the $50 of spending.

 This all was on my son's card/account.  The Folgers L2CQ didn't come off(just the WW pamphlet Q did) that "costs $1.79 instead of being a moneymaker.  The R-A artificial tears were .39¢ after stacked Qs.
After stacked or triple stacked Qs, the Crest mouth wash was -.77¢, the Crest toothpaste was -.97¢, the Soothe XP was -$2.41, the throat drops were -.51¢, the large make-up remover pads were -.17¢, the Ginger Chews, the smaller make-up remover pads and the Power Toothbrush set were each -.01¢.

I made a tactical error buying the Centrum and the Emergen-C in the same transaction as it charged me full price for the Emergen-C(the highest priced item), took 50% off 1 Centrum and 20% discount on the second Centrum instead of BOGO50% on both Centrums and 20% discount on the Emergen-C.  Doing them all in one transaction meant I paid .30¢ for all 3.  Not a deal breaker.

To get to $50 of qualifying products I also bought 2 x Eucerin(BOGO50% + $6 in Qs), 2 Dial foaming hand soups($4-$1.50 in IPQ)and 1 Cover Girl blush palette($2 instant discount + $2 IPQ)which came to $22.62-$9.50 in Qs=$13.12.  With tax I spent $13.30 in Bonus Cash on all the above and earned a $20 Visa Gas Card.

This lot was bought on my card/account.
Again, the Folgers "cost" $1.79 because the L2C WWQ didn't come off. Same items were same prices above, most were slight moneymakers.  I also bought a Thermacare item($6.07-$3 L2CQ)as it qualified for the "Spend $50/$20 Gas Card".  I did purchase the Emergen-C and Centrum in separate transactions this time(saving myself .30¢)

I "spent" $2.94 total in Bonus Cash on this lot and I have $35.99 tracking toward the Gas Card Deal(Only $14.01 left to spend).

This lot was bought on my daughter's card/account. Same stacked WWQs used and a couple of regular manu L2CQs.  I had to add in the Dial hand soap pumps(plus a $1.50/2 IPQ)because my total was in the negative without them.
Total paid OOP in Bonus Cash(with tax)was .29¢

Before leaving I also bought these 4 small Lindt bags. Each has 2 truffles in it and they are strawberries and cream.
On sale this week at Rite-Aid for $1 if you buy 2 or more(otherwise $1.29 w/out Wellness discount level you are at).
I had 4 x $1/1 Lindt truffle bag IPQ(coupons dotcom)and they specifically say on this size bag or larger so they were free(no sales tax on food in PA).  8-)))

Free chocolate?  Yes, please!!

All together I spend $16.53 in Bonus Cash on $341.04 reg. retail worth of stuff at Rite-Aid.
Plus I earned a $20 Visa Gas Card and got $4 back on Saving Star in cash rebates.
**Edited on Friday to add that I got $2 back for the Thermacare purchase on Ibotta as well so I'm up to $6 in cash back on these purchases. 8-)))

Oh and I got a sample sized tube of Burt's Bees toothpaste which I forgot to photograph. ;-)

All in all not a bad Wellness Wednesday.....

Did you get anything at Rite-Aid this week?

Sluggy

Rite-Aid & Ollie's Porn

I went up to Rite-Aid to do some reconnaissance for Wellness Wednesday's deals on Sunday.
While I was there I picked up some nail polish...........

The Kokie brand polish and fake eyelashes give back $4 in Bonus Cash this week.(Limmit 2 Deals)
If you have Gold status these $4.99 items are $3.99 after 20% discount.
If you don't have sales tax in your state, even better as these will be a .01¢ moneymaker each.

If you have sales tax that's all these will cost you so figure out if it's worth it to you to pick them up.

Mine total for each 2 bottles was .46¢(sales tax of .48¢ on 2 bottles).  I paid with Bonus Cash so spent BC down on 3 cards by .46¢.


I also went to a different Ollie's(Good Stuff Cheap!)recently.  I should have taken Kim and her Sissie to this one when they were here.  This one must have a manager who has an independent streak as they always seem to have a bunch of food item marked down 75% and 50% off.....the same stuff at the other Ollie's I frequent NEVER have the same foods marked down thusly!
So I hit a deal.........

2 x Velveeta mac and cheese kits 50% off=$1.58
2 x OEP taco shells 75% off=$1.00(.50¢ ea.)
2 x Carrol Shelby chili kits 75% off=.80¢(40¢ ea.)
2 x spaghetti 2 lbs. 50%=$1.78(.89¢ ea.)
1 x Quaker Grits 75% off=.40¢
1 x Planters Pecan pieces 75% off=.87¢
2 x Kraft dressings 75% off=$1.28(.64¢ ea.)
6 x Nestle trio chocolate chips 75% off=$3.00(.50¢ ea.)
$10.71 OOP on $45.23 worth of food items.

The fancy pants chocolate chips were a great deal.  I suppose I have to bake some cookies now, huh? ;-)

Don't forget to get up to Rite-Aid today to do the Wellness Wednesday Coupons!!!  Load them to your card and get a sheet of the same paper ones in the store because they both come off.....except the Folgers Q-that Load2CardQ didn't come off.

Sluggy

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

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