The To-Do List....November Edition

First here is a photo of my rosebush from Dec.4th........

Still blooming into Winter.  This is going to take getting use to. ;-)

Here is the list of everything that I needed to get done in November and how it all panned out.........

*  Pay Bills--DONE  Everything got paid.

*  Move Into House--DONE  We moved into the house, emptied the POD, emptied the U-Haul Truck mostly into the garage and we've been slowly going through all the boxes/tubs in the garage.  We are far from finished going through it all.

*  Clean and Organize stuff in House--Working on it.  This is going to take months.

*  Buy Stuff for House--Working on it.  So far we've bought shelving units, a bed, replacement parts for the ginormous fridge, curtain rods, a night stand,  2 chairs for the kitchen island, 

*  Close on PA House--DONE.  While the people who bought the house had aid they wanted to close before Thanksgiving, they left town for the holiday so that didn't happen.  The closing happened on Nov 29th and our check got overnighted the next day.  So glad to have that headache off our hands!

*  Clean out Inserts/Coupon Envie--DONE  I small chore I get done every month, sometimes twice in a month.

*  Editing More Photos--Working on it.  I haven't taken many photos since we got back from the beach so not much to edit.

*  Post about Old Trips--FAIL  Nope, didn't work on any of those posts.  Been busy moving and putting the house in order.

*  Work on Genealogy--FAIL  Haven't felt like working on this, see above.

*  Change All Addresses/Contact Info--DONE except for SwagBucks.  SB is being an asshat about changing my email addy so I can't cash any of my $$ out of that account.  I'll have to phone them after the trip.

*  Celebrate Thanksgiving--DONE  We actually had two Turkey Day celebrations.

*  Change Driver's Licenses--DONE  Went to a rural town North of here as they had appointments available sooner.

*  Register Cars in LA--DONE  After we got the driver's licenses changed, Hubs took the paperwork into the OMV and got the cars registered here and inspected too.

*  Get new Auto Insurance--DONE  We renewed our old insurance but in LA as we were in the midst of changing licenses and car registration.  After the new year we'll look into changing companies perhaps.

*  Set Up New Bank Acount in LA--DONE  This has been a royal pain to get done.  Seems none of the banks or credit unions down here would take our money until we had LA driver's licenses and at least 2 bills addressed to us at this address which meant we had to be here long enough to generate bills. lolz  None of the local banks have national or even widespread regional presence(mostly state banks).  Then we realized one of the banks I had money in that I dealt with only online has actual branches here(at least 4 in the area)so instead of setting up yet another bank account we'll get checks for the until-now online bank and use it as our primary bank.

*  Pack for Cruise--DONE  And we are outta here!  See y'all later! 8-)))

Sluggy

Income & Spending 2022...the November Edition

Now that we are living on an annuity, 401K$ withdrawals and social security payments, 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.

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 November report---

I had 2 goals for November.......
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 2022.

This month I also had a goal to survive the move and have a little fun.  So far, so good.;-)

I can report that we finished up November in the red.

The amount we ended the month of November with?...-$8,816.68

Income or Funds We Can Access

The "income" in November---

*  Monthly annuity payment of $3,235.81(after tax withholding)

*  SS income of $3570.00
*  Interest earned on non-retirement accounts of $104.30

*  Storage deposit refund from PA $25.00

*  C/C credits on m/c statement of $76.04

Total "Income" for November....$6,986.15

Expenses in November---
* Irregular bills in November were $1,661.66

* Variable Expenses in November came to $11,915.04

* Health insurance premiums totaling $2,226.13

Total Expenses....$15,802.83

$6,986.15-$15,802.83=-$8,816.68

Slush into November of $70.334.97 in that Fund, subtract November's shortfall of $8,816.68 and we get $61,518.29 going into December's 2022's Slush Fund.
The Slush Fund on it's Page(tab at the top of the blog)shows a subtraction of $8,816.68.

Outgo

As for the variable expenses this November here are the good and the bad side of things....

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  The cell phone, WAM,  as well as the Health Insurance premium were all the same as last month.

*  There was no water bill in November.  It will be due in December.

*  The gas cc bill was $90.48 lower than in October.

*  We got a small deposit refund from the storage in PA,

HERE are the BAD THINGS(so many bad things...)

*  The Mastercard was $3,550.74 higher in November.

*  My Amazon c/c was $210.30 higher last month(mostly groceries).

*  Hubs Amazon c/c bill was $1,528.44 higher in November than in October.

*  We had many irregular bills due in November too--

  *  2 Vet bills for the dogs(1 for well check and shots, then Dixie got sick so another visit and meds.)

  *  Had to pay for an HVAC guy to put a dryer vent in.

  *  6 months of car insurance.  I think we'll change companies in the new year as the rate seems high.

  *  We paid the garbage service in advance for a full year and this is higher here than in PA.

  *  I had a small balance on a c/c I don't use much and don't remember what I bought. lol

  *  Car inspections once we registered the vehicles them in LA.

  *  New LA driver's licenses were bought and paid for as well.

The Food Budget costs for November are in another post HERE.  Food costs are included in the credit card payment(mainly but sometimes our WAM cash too).

FINAL THOUGHTS on November 2022---

November was another very expensive month.  Lots of bills from the move came due and were paid as well as having to purchase needed stuff like a bed, chairs, storage units, etc.  While our PA house sold on November 29th we have some residual utilities to pay there and theses will carry over into December bills.  I think November saw the last of the "move" bills.  After the house sale check arrives we can set up a bank account nearby which will make paying bills easier than it's been so far and we can close the PA account down and have those funds transferred here.  It will be nice to have our money settled down and consolidated again.  8-)))

THOUGHTS going forward into December 2022--Won't be around to spend much here but we'll be spending elsewhere in December.  There will continue to be small charges here and there as we fix things, remove and improve things, replace things that didn't come or make it to LA.  There will be an irregular bill as Long Term Care comes due in December and we'll be making the third house insurance payment(this is so weird here--you pay it over the first 5 months of your policy and then you are done for the year?).

So how was your November financially? 

Did you spend less than the income you had in September?
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 "LA-where you wear it with pride" Edition.....

Louisiana is the sort of place I am finding out where they wear the common man label with pride.  Found this bottle of wine in the local liquor store this past weekend from a local to LA vineyard of a muscadine wine labeled "Redneck Red".  lol

Onward to the meal planning!

This is what was planned.......

1. Sunday--Fend For Yourself (I had a can of soup)

2. Monday--Bake Potato Soup, Rolls, Leftover Turkey Day sides

3. Tuesday--Chicken Strips, Mac and Cheese, Cabbage

4. Wednesday--Shrimp Scampi w/Linguine, more Turkey Day sides

5. Thursday--Beef Pie w/Veggies and Cornbread

6.  Friday--Baked Potato Bar(I've got a lot of taters to use up)

7. Saturday--No Clue yet but I have lots of options in the freezer and some fresh produce to use up.

And here's what actually happened........

1. Sunday--Fend For Yourself (I had a can of soup)

2. Monday--Bake Potato Soup, Rolls, Leftover Turkey Day sides

3. Tuesday--Chicken Strips, Cabbage

4. Wednesday--3/4 of a Zaxby's Zalad

5. Thursday--FFY I had Egg Drop Soup

6.  Friday--FFY  I had some Chicken w/Cashews Chinese

7. Saturday--Sloppy  Joes

With being sick the meal plan veered way off course.  Lots more Fend for Yourself later in the week but I was up to cook on Saturday because I had a bag of cooked ground beef in the freezer.  It was what is was.

What got put into the freezer last week....

*  5 bags of frozen veggies

*  4 TV dinners

*  3 whole Chickens

*  2.86 lbs. of Ground Beef

*  3 small Eye of round Steaks

*  2 Ginormous 1/2 Chicken Breasts(seriously HUGE!)

*  6 Chicken Thighs

What got taken out of the freezer and used...

*  some Bacon

*  some Chicken Strips     

*  a bag of Cooked Ground Beef                                   

I hit Super 1 Foods for meats and frozen veggies as they had good sale(whole chickens for .87¢ lb.) Walmart for some stuff/deals with rebates to the tune of $133.01 last week.

This brings our food/toiletries/paper goods Total to $133.01 for December.  

There are 26 shopping days left in December.

I've earned $34.90 on Ibotta in December.

I've earned $1.00 on Checkout51 in December.

I've earned $12.50 on Coupons dotcom in December.

I've earned 9,360 points from shopping on Fetch in December.

I earned 2,390 points from food shopping on Shop Kick in December.

I've earned 514 SB from food shopping on Swag Bucks in December.

That's $48.40 in rebates(not counting the Shop Kick/Swag Bucks/Fetch)on $133.01 in grocery spending so in reality it's $84.61 spent after the 3 rebate apps I count.

My savings percentage for the last week was 37.71% and the monthly savings total for December comes in at 37.71% so far.  

Leftovers going into this week.....Sloppy Joe filling, 1 helping of Baked Potato Soup, Cole Slaw.

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

1. Sunday--Fish, Cole Slaw, Baked Sweet Potato

2. Monday--Leftovers or ?

3. Tuesday--TV dinners

4. Wednesday--Out to Eat in Texas

5. Thursday--Sissie's house or out to eat

6.  Friday--Sissie's house or out to eat

7. Saturday--Cruise ship food!

Using up anything open that might go bad or take it to my daughter's house Mode.

What do I need to buy to fix everything on this menu?  Nothing at all.

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 deals on food at your stores this week?  

Sluggy 

Frugal Friday.....the December 2nd Edition on Saturday

Welcome to Frugal Friday on Saturday! 

Not much for frugal wins lately.......

*  I felt sick so I headed to the Urgent Care and picked up drugs so I can get well.  Since I've hit my OOP this year on medical co-pays the doc and the drugs cost us nothing OOP.

*  On Black Friday the cruise line was having a BOGO cruiser sale so we called our consultant and booked a cruise for 2023 and one for 2024 for half the rates(if rates do up in the next year or two as they surely will it's an even better savings).  Means spending $$$ but for something we were going to do anyway so why not get all the savings we can on it?  We had bought the Cruise Next credits on our Dec. 2022 cruise so the deposits are covered and we don't have to pay anything else on them until at least mid January 2023.

*  I found NO money this past week!  I didn't go anywhere this past week.  Didn't spend any $$ so that's a win, right? ;-)

Total Found in last Week.... .00¢
Total Found This Year....$23.80

That's about all I've got for this past week.  

Any frugal wins in your neck of the woods?  Let's hear all about them!

Sluggy  

Christmas Time!

So some of y'all keep asking about seeing pictures of the new house.  Basically the house isn't photo ready yet....between boxes stacked everywhere(now mostly in the Bubba garage)and the work the house needs, I am not ready to show it.

But in the meantime here is our Christmas tree up for 2022........

The Charlie Brown Xmas Tree is the extent of our Holiday decorating for 2022.  Trust me!, it was an effort just to dig this thing out and assemble it. lolz

You'll notice Sluggy's gifts from Santa the Pharmacist around this magnificent evergreen.

Yep, your girl is sick with a sinus and ear infections right now.  Hopefully these drugs will knock it all out before we fly out of Dallas next week on our way to Sissie's house.  I don't want to spend the whole cruise in a cabin with Kim while our husbands are left unsupervised on the boat. ;-)

So enjoy your holiday and know that photos will be forthcoming in the new year.

Your  Bayou Slug