Chez Sluggy as a Vacation Destination-Part 1

It all began innocently enough.
An online blogger friend mentioned she had taken some time off from work, vacation time, but had no plans to go anywhere.
So I emailed her and said if she wanted to get away from where she lives for a few days, I had a spare bedroom/bed since the Daughter left home in May and she was welcomed to come stay here.
Of course, I also told her that this is the armpit of Pennsylvania and if she came to visit there wouldn't be a grand high class time to be had.....just normal every day type stuff and maybe we could go see something interesting/fun while she was here.

And the blogger friend actually took me up on my offer.
Shocking, right? lol

I love having company but nobody EVER takes me up on coming to visit....until now.
I must say I was giddy as a schoolgirl with anticipation!
My life is so boring.....I hope she wouldn't be disappointed.

Thus begins how Sluggy and Tanner met last month.

I was coming off of a Colonoscopy the Friday before and #2 Son had 3 wisdom teeth extracted the day Tanner said she would like to arrive.  So the decks were clear for her arrival on Wednesday.

Wise planning on her part......come for 3 days and not a whole week.  It's always scary meeting someone for the first time, ya know?  So going to stay at someone's house you are meeting for the first time, it's wise to only commit for 3 days and not 7, because frankly, even though you've "known" each other for months or years online, you really don't "know" each other.
Making it only a 3 day trip meant enough time to have fun together and to get to know each other better but not too much time in case we didn't "mesh" in person.
And besides, being around the awesomeness that is Sluggy for 7 whole days could just wear a person out.*
*Read the above sentence with a full load of sarcasm.*

So dependent on #2 Son having a successful extraction Wednesday morning, Tanner was slated to arrive sometime before dinner that evening and depart after lunchtime on Saturday.

And Tanner and Samantha made good time on the road(thank the lord for avoiding Philly at rush hour!)and cruised into Chez Sluggy around 3ish in the afternoon.

I guess having a strange large woman "of a certain age" grab her when she got to the front porch and hugging her to death didn't make her run screaming back to her car, because she came inside. lolz

Here's Tanner in my kitchen.  She hasn't even taken off her backpack and sat down.
Isn't she the cutest thing?!  Even after hours in a hot car she's perky and cute.
Why would anyone this cute and young want to hang out with old boring me?
I still can't answer that one.....

We spent the evening talking, making friends with the doggies, talking, eating dinner and talking some more.
Man, can that girl talk!
I have met my talking match it seems.
Pfffftt, I thought we'd have trouble finding anything in common and stuff to talk about...lolz

On Thursday, the first full day of her stay at Chez Sluggy things started slow.  We hung around the house, ate breakfast, chatted, I think we ate lunch?, and talked some more.  
Tanner really didn't want to be "doing" lots of stuff while she was here, so this was going to be a low-key kind of visit.
I like low-key. 
The major activity was just sitting around and getting to know each other.


For a change of scenery, in the afternoon I took Tanner for a ride to show her a "good time" in my town.
First we went to a cemetery.

Yes, a good time in my town when you are with Sluggy means you get to go to a cemetery.
Besides, I had 4 F.A.G.(Find A Grave)photo requests at a certain nearby cemetery I wanted to fulfill so I hauled Tanner out there with me.
And she proved to be a trooper and walked around looking for the headstones.  We never did find the folks we were looking for but I got some shots of other headstones to post on that website so the trip wasn't a total loss.

I could have sworn I had taken a shot of Tanner surreptitiously while she was walking the graveyard but I must have deleted it from my camera, so you have to just believe me when I say Tanner went walking through a cemetery.
I don't think she was feeling the love however during this activity.....

So we headed out to our next stop, the Burger's Farm Stand in St. John's PA.

                                     Not Tanner.

I needed tomatoes and some fruit so we hit the farm stand and procured said items.

They have a small enclosure with baby farm animals at the farm stand so I took Tanner's photo standing in front of it.

I tried to convince her to pet the goat but she declined.  The donkey in the background there is quite the vicious animal and had his own sign about staying away from him as he bites(and kicks too I think?).  I don't think Tanner is a farm animal lover in the "up close and personal" sense....

Here is a gratuitous shot of a chicken wandering around the farm stand area for Linda and any other chicken fans out there........

After the thrill of the farm stand, I rode Tanner around our town to show her the sights.......the grocery stores(two, count 'em two!), the banks, the post office, the gas stations, the high school, the Subway, the Laundromat, the post office, the doughnut shops(two, count 'em two!), the pizza shops(a mind numbing number of those), the Rite-Aid and the Burger King.  That about sums up the sights in my town.

While at Burger King I spend lavishly on Tanner and I for a spur-of-the-moment mid afternoon treat.


Since we are/were a couple of hot babes, we hit the drive-thru and sat in the car and ate ice cream cones so we could get unflattering silly photos of each other to share with the world.

 Tanner looking all sexy-like with ice cream shoved on her face.....

Sluggy showing off her tongue work......ewwwwww!

Thanks for the great photograph Tanner!
 *Read with much sarcasm*

Yes, I have no shame and a dragged Tanner down with me.  ;-)

The rest of the evening was spent talking and eating a smoked barbecued fest and then talking some more.
By 11pm I was plum worn out and we hit the hay.
I tell ya this Tanner gal is high maintenance...... 8-))

More of our adventures in Part 2 coming soon.



Sluggy

Happy New Year!

Even if you aren't Jewish, Rosh Hashanah is still a holiday worth celebrating.  While it's the "Jewish New Year", it's also the beginning of a time of reflection for members of the tribe which culminates in the highly sacred day of atonement 10 days later called Yom Kippur.

Rosh Hashanah began last Wednesday so I am a tad late here on this. 
Any holiday that celebrates the renewal of life and introspection is one we can all use in my book.
So to that end I'm sharing this video clip, a Rosh Hashanah rif on Daft Punk's "Get Lucky".

And to all my Jewish friends, L'Shana Tovah and Gmar Chatima Tova.

 

Sluggy

Week 1 of the Boring Blog Box Giveaway for September....Come Enter!

It's  almost Fall and that means it's time for another of Sluggy's BORING BLOG BOX GIVEAWAYS!

 

Here's how it works if you are new here.......

 

I put things in the box(mostly what I have gotten for free or almost free)each week and when the box is filled we draw a winner from all the entries received.

Here is what went into the Box today......

 

 

 

 

1.  1 Colgate Toothbrush

2.  1 tube Colgate Toothpaste

3.  1 package Venus Disposable Razors

4.  1 Conair Color Vibe Hairbrush

5.  1 Reach Total Care Dental Floss

 Over $20 retail worth of HBAs!

 

If this is your first time, please go read all the rules for these Giveaways HERE.  *As always, if you are located outside the US, you CAN enter and win but weight restrictions/shipping costs may mean your prize box will contain less items.*

***Time to enter.....You can enter on this Giveaway post until I close this post to entries.

1 entry per person per day on THIS POST.
Leave your name/email address and a COMMENT on this post.  

This week I want to hear about how you feel about the Fall of the year?

Like it or not and why?

Are you glad to see Summer go or not?

 

You can come directly to this blog post or find it through the link on the right side bar to leave 1 comment per day.  The current Giveaway Post will be linked right at the top of the side bar.

Please NOTE--You MUST be a follower to enter the Giveaway.  If you aren't one, just click on the "Follow" button on the right hand side of my blog to become a follower.

There are 2 ways to get 2 EXTRA entries on this and each new Giveaway Post.......

1. Put my blog on your blog's Blogroll.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST with the URL of your blog so I can go check it out. **If I'm already on your Blogroll, say so in an extra entry comment once each week of this giveaway.

2.  Blog about this Giveaway on your blog with a link to this post.  Leave an extra comment for this entry on THIS POST with a link to your blog post so I can go view it.  You can do this extra entry once each week of this giveaway.

 

Three more weeks/posts after this and the box will be full and ready to pick a winner.

Any questions?  Just email me.

Happy Entering!! 

Sluggy

My Packer Love Story-A Tale of Bastardy, Landed Gentry, Quakers & Irish Civil War

I haven't done a good, long, rambling genealogy post in forever so let's do one today, shall we?
I hear you asking, "What does bastardy, landed gentry, Quakerism and the Irish Civil War all have to do with each other?"
Well pull up a chair and let me weave my ancestral tale......

I briefly posted before about my 10th great grandparents, Phillip Packer and Sarah Isgar Packer.

This blood line comes to me by way of my maternal great grandmother, Lucy Ellen Baker Vassar.
One of the Packers of PA married into a Baker line and great grandma was born a Baker 5 generations later in the piedmont of Virginia.
But let's concentrate on the beginning of this story and line.

Phillip Packer was the son of John Packer(1572-1649)and Philippa or Philippi Mylles or Mills Packer(1590-?).  This family line lived in the areas around London England during the late 1500's.

                                Thought to be a portrait of John Packer.

Phillip's father, John, was Clerk of the Privy Seal which meant he was a high official of the state who handled the charters, pardons and other important legal documents/matters of the King's court under Kings James the 1st and Charles the 1st.

    Portrait of Phillip Packer by a follower of Sir Peter Lely, undated.

Phillip was born in 1618 in Spedhurst, Kent, England at Groombridge Estate.
Phillip's father bought Groombridge in 1618 from Sir Richard Sackville, the 3rd Earl of Dorset.  The Earl had large gambling debts to pay.
Phillip who had an interest and some education in architecture, built the Manor House, which stands to this day, called Groombridge Place in 1662 with the help of famed architect and friend, Christopher Wren.

         A current photo of Groombridge Manor House .

Phillip Packer was educated at Oxford and studied law at the Middle Temple and was called to the bar in 1647.  Yep, he was a lawyer.

He was friends with Christopher Wren and an acquaintance of Samuel Pepys and one of the original fellows in the Royal Society of London.

         Portrait of Isabella Berkeley Packer, attributed to Robert Walker, date unknown.

In 1653 Phillip Packer married for money and position to the heiress Isabella Berkeley, the daughter of Sir Robert Berkeley and Elizabeth Conyers Berkeley.

Phillip brought his new bride to live at Groombridge Estate and together they are thought to have produced 7 offspring, 2 sons and 5 daughters:  eldest Robert, John Phillip, Catherine, Isabella, Elizabeth, Katherine and Temperance.

       Portrait of son, John Phillip Packer by John Clostermann, date unknown.

    Portrait of Packer daughters Isabella, Katherine, Elizabeth and Temperance by John Michael Wright, date unknown.

This match was the "proper" marriage Phillip's parents pushed him to make.  His family held position in London society of that time, yet lacked financial resources so he found a marriageable young woman of good breeding and from a wealthy family, Isabella Berkeley.  Obviously the marriage was "fruitful".

We don't know if Phillip met Sarah Isgar before meeting Isabella Berkely or before his actual marriage to Isabella.

      Portrait of Sarah Isgar by John Greenhill, date unknown.

What we do know is that Phillip also was in love with and later took as his mistress. my 10th great grandmother, Sarah Isgar, born 1625/26 in West Lavington, Wiltshire, England.
I suspect he and Sarah were in love long before he was pushed to marry into the aristocratic Berkeley family.  Sarah's family from all information available was not wealthy, therein lies the difficulty.

Throughout his marriage to Isabella, Phillip kept Sarah, first somewhere in London(we know that as of 1654 she was living in Chelsea in the home of Sir Charles Danvers), and sometime after the birth of their first child and the death of Phillip's father in 1649, on an estate in Ireland, that Phillip inherited from his father John.
After inheriting property in Ireland from his father's estate, Phillip made regular trips to the Emerald Isle on business and to see his other family, which grew to include 3 sons, Phillip, James and William.  Being illegitimate, these 3 sons of Phillip Packer were raised outside of London society and were not entitled to any of their father's property once he died, though they seemed to have been raised in relative comfort and privilege.

    This is thought to be a portrait of Phillip Packer, son of Phillip Packer and Sarah Isgar by Charles Beale.

It is not known exactly when my ancestor, Phillip Packer(who we'll refer to as the émigré from this point) was born. It is believed that he was the eldest of the 3 brothers born to Sarah Isgar.  As he was thought to have been born in London and Phillip Sr. didn't inherit the Ireland land until after 1649, at which point he moved Sarah and any of her children there, he may have been born before 1649 but most put his birth date at about 1656/57.
Phillip Jr was followed by the birth of James around 1659 and William at about 1662.

Some amateur genealogists put Phillip Jr's birth at 1664 as that date coincides with the death date of Isabella Berkeley Packer.  They then go on to list Phillip Jr. as the offspring of Phillip Sr. and Isabella and make it appear that Isabella died as a result of giving birth to Phillip Jr.  This is incorrect as Phillip Jr. was NOT the issue of Isabella, rather the issue of Sarah Isgar.

Being the illegitimate issue of someone highly placed in English society at this time, the sons of Sarah Isgar and Phillip Packer would most probably have gone by their mother's surname of Isgar instead of Packer, at least until the death of Phillip's wife Isabella.  They were also caught in a world where they could not inherit from their father's estate upon his death.  So while they were well taken care of, their prospects as adults in English society was not promising.  Being bastards at that time, they would not have been admitted to any prestigious schools or been received into society.

At any rate, around 1664 Isabella Berkeley died, leaving Phillip free to then marry Sarah Isgar.
And that is what he did.  He moved Sarah to his estate Groombridge and wed her on 20 December 1666.  Their 3 sons did not move with their mother to London however, as their half siblings by Phillip's 1st wife Isabella resented their existence.

Philip and Sarah remained married until Sarah's death in 1677.  Philip followed her to the grave on Christmas Eve in 1686, passing away quietly while reading in his secret garden at Groombridge.
Sarah Isgar Packer is buried under the floor at the foot of the altar, of the St. John's Chapel on the Groombridge Estate with a stone inscribed--"Under this stone lie the remains of Sara Packer, beloved second wife of Philip Packer Esq., who died 17th September A.D. 1677".

But what was to become of Philip and Sarah's 3 sons?
We know that both James and William stayed in Ireland and fought and died in the Battle of Boyne in 1690, a well known conflict between the Jacobite Catholic forces of King James and the Williamite Protestant forces of King William for control of the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland.

Phillip however escaped that fate by leaving Ireland in 1683.  Being a young man, probably about 25 years old, and having no opportunities in English society and knowing that remaining in Ireland at this time was highly dangerous what with a civil war raging, Philip indentured himself to a Dublin merchant and Irish Quaker, Joseph Fisher.  Joseph Fisher, his wife Elizabeth, their children and servants, including my Phillip Packer, came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania aboard the "Lion of Liverpool" 14 August 1683. 

William Penn had been granted a large quantity of land in the Americas by King Charles II to satisfy a debt he owed to Penn's father in 1681.  William Penn was America's first great land speculator and real estate developer and these lands given to him encompassed large parts of modern day Pennsylvania and Delaware.  (Before being granted these lands he had gone in with other Quakers on buying large amounts of land that encompass most of present day New Jersey.)  He spent the next 40 years luring like minded Quakers in England and Ireland, as well as other persecuted religious minorities in England to the American shore to settle and populate his religiously tolerant community.

Only 2 years after Penn's land grants were secured, Philip Packer the émigré was heading to the New World.

Here's the wording from the "Certificate of Removal" from the Dublin, Ireland Quaker Meeting records.....

Dublin The 10th day of ye second month 1683. Whereas Joseph Fisher a member of ye meeting of us the people of ye Lord (Scornefully) called Quakers in ye City of Dublin and Kingdom of Ireland hath laid before our said meeting his Intentions of Transporting him self, his wife Isabel & family into America.

These are therefore to Certifie all whom it may concern that ye Said Joseph Fisher and his wife have
Demeaned themselves honorably as far as we doe understand, and we have nothing to lay to their charge to obstruct their Said Intended voyage and removal. As witness our hands y So with ye Salutation of our Dear love to all those faithful friends to whom these lines may come and with
your loving Brethren in ye Truth, (signed all members present).

And here is the list of those departing in the Fisher party for America--(the number after a name means that person is an indentured servant and the number is the amount of years required to work to pay off the indenture)--

Joseph Fisher & Elizabeth Fisher his wife, late of Stillorgin near Dublin, in Ireland, yeoman, borne in Elton in Cheshire, came in ditto ship: children Moses, Joseph, Mary, Martha Fisher: servants, Edward Lancastr, 4 yrs, Wm Robertson, 4, Ed: Doyle, 4, Ben: Clift, 4, Tho: Tearewood, 4, Rob. Kilearth, 8, Petr Long, 2, Phill: Packer, 4, Wm Conduit, 4, Mary Toole, 4, Eliz Johnson, 4.


After serving Mr. Fisher for 4 years, Phillip the émigré  received his freedom and 50 acres of land in Philadelphia County.  2 years after arriving in the colony of Pennsylvania, Phillip married Hannah Sessions in the house of his master, Joseph Fisher.  Hannah and her family were Quakers also who had come to Pennsylvania at the behest of William Penn and his "great religious experiment settlement".
It is not known whether Phillip Packer the émigré was a Quaker before becoming indentured to Joseph Fisher & left for America or not(as his father & the Packer family had been members of the Church of England-Anglican Protestant), but upon marrying Hannah he cemented his relationship within the Quaker religious community. 

My theory about Philip and his Quakerism--After experiencing firsthand in his home of Ireland, the death and destruction wrought upon all by the warring Catholic and mainstream Protestants factions, I believe that Philip was very welcoming of a religious philosophy that did not believe in force and violence in which to get it's point across.
But that's just me.  ;-)

As for Philip.....
Philip the émigré and Hannah had a son, Philip Packer Jr., born in 1686 in Pennsauken, Camden County New Jersey.  Philip Packer, Jr. is my 9th Great Grandfather.
Not only do I have a lawyer as an ancestor, I also have an ancestor that was born in New Jersey, much to my chagrin and much to the perverse delight of my Hubs. 8-P

Hannah Sessions Packer died around 1689/90, when Philip Jr was 3 years old.  Philip the émigré remarried quickly to Rebecca Jones in 1690.  Philip and Rebecca went on to have 11 children.  Evidently the Jones/Parker clan was a close-knit one as many in the succeeding generations didn't realize that the oldest child, Philip Jr. wasn't Rebecca's natural born son.

Philip the émigré and his family lived around the Princeton NJ area, moving to near present day Elkton MD for a short time and then back to the Chester County PA area around Philadelphia and Trenton NJ, near the Delaware River.  Phillip built and owned a sawmill in the Yellow Springs area of Chester County, PA.  He was injured at some point in an accident at the mill and spent his later years disabled and required two staves to walk about.  Phillip died in that area of Chester County in either 1739 or 1740 a very old man for that time.

Quite the story, no?

I'll leave off here for now as this has grown quite wordy.

Sluggy

How My Savings Challenge Works & Why We Save This $

Today I'm going to revisit my Savings Challenge and how I put money away each month for this.

I talked, in detail, specifically about this, way back in June of 2011.  If you'd prefer to read that again, go HERE.
So I'll go over this for everyone who hasn't been reading since that time.

Every year, since 2009, I have tried to keep a close eye on both the monies coming in and where the monies is going out.  You really can't have an accurate accounting of the finances if you don't know how much comes in AND how much goes out and where it goes.  Not keeping an eye on one or the other end of things is like only doing half the job.

I am old school.  I don't use a software program to track my income and spending. 
I could use one but I just find having to plug numbers into a program tedious.  I know it would save me having to calculate everything in my head but I enjoy using my brain where the math is concerned.  And being a woman of a certain age, my brain can use a little more exercise anyway. 8-)

I use a sheet of paper each month instead.

I make 2 columns on the paper.....
On the left side I list all the categories of spending for the month--water bill, electric bill, cable bill, credit card bill, music lessons bill, phone bill, medical bills, prescription costs and cash withdrawals are my usual items.  Months were I have those items that don't occur every month like car insurance, taxes, house insurance, garbage and sewage bills, I just add those to the list if needed.
On the right side I list all the categories of income for the month--paychecks, rebates, stock dividends, tax refunds, per diem reimbursements, side hustle monies(like selling something or blog revenue), etc.  Of course paychecks are listed each month and the other categories are listed as needed on the income side of things each month.

I don't have a food bill category since I use cash for groceries, so the grocery expenses are in the cash withdrawals(and on rare occasions in the credit card charges bill).  I do detail & track the grocery/toiletries spending separately in my notebook so I know how much of my cash withdrawals go toward groceries.

Back to the monthly tracking of income and outgo......
Once all the bills/expense items are paid and marked on the sheet I add them up.
Then I add up all the income for the month and subtract the total expenses, which gives me either a positive or negative amount, meaning I have either some excess money at the end of the month or I am in the red at month's end.

As for our paycheck amounts--Hubs has insurance premiums(health, dental, life and long term care), all taxes, withholding and retirement funding taken out of his pay automatically.  It's easier that way.  So whatever shows up in the bank account in the paycheck direct deposit is ALL fair game for me to spend or not to spend however I/we see fit.  I know those categories are taken out and put where they need to be before I even get my hands on the pay.  It helps me sleep at night.  8-)

So we just pay the bills as they come in each month and then if we have money left over at month's end, I sweep it into an ING(now Capital One)fund called Savings Challenge.  If we have a bad financial month where we need more funds than the paycheck provides to pay everything off that month, I can transfer a portion of what has been saved for the year back into the checking account.

Besides the paychecks coming in, we do keep a small cushion of money in that checking account for peace of mind and as a first line of defense against surprise expenses and so that the bank doesn't charge us a fee to have a checking account.

So I try to save what I can each year out of the incoming cash.
At the end of the year I throw that amount saved for the year into an account to sit.
The following year, if we have expenses that our regular income each month can't cover, we take money from the previous year's surplus to cover that.
When that year is over, and we are done having to possibly cover extra expenses incurred, then that amount saved in the previous year gets moved into a permanent savings vehicle or account.

Does that make sense to anyone? ;-)

For example--
In 2009 we saved $23,865.36.
That amount got thrown into the ING account over the course of 2009.
In 2010 we incurred some "above the usual" expenses that the regular paychecks didn't cover......a car purchase at $10,600, a new fridge purchase at $773.81 and 3 trips for a total of $2087.00.  We used $13,460.81 of that $23,865.36 we saved in 2009 to cover these 2010 incurred expenses.
This meant that at the end of 2010, when all expenses were paid out for that year that we still had $10,404.55 of what we saved in 2009 to now throw into a permanent savings fund.

While we were paying for these irregular/unusual expenses in 2010 with the 2009 savings, we were still saving a piece of our income from 2010 and putting that into a new Savings Challenge fund.

In 2010 we saved a whooping $34,019.88 from all our income sources.
In 2011, while we were saving money each month, we also used $427.81 of what we had saved in 2010 to pay on irregular/unusual expenses in 2011.
So at the end of 2011, when we were ready to throw whatever was left of the monies saved in 2010 into a permanent savings fund, we had $31,834.15 left of that initial $34,019.88.

In 2011 we saved $34,461.31 from all our income sources.
In 2012, while we were saving money each month, we also used $2,627.16 of what we had saved in 2011 to pay on irregular/unusual expenses in 2012.
So at the end of 2012, when we were ready to throw whatever was left on the monies saved in 2011 into a permanent savings fund, we had $31, 834.15 left of that initial $34,461.31.

In 2012 we saved $28,907.08 from all our income sources.
In 2013(so far), while we were saving money each month, we also used $25,574.22 of what we had saved in 2012 to pay on irregular/unusual expenses in 2013.
At this point we will only have $3,332.86 left of what we saved in 2012 to throw into a permanent savings fund come the end of 2013.
2013 has been a very expensive year at Chez Sluggy, but having put all this money away year after year, we've had enough to cover all our spending.

I know I could just dip into the current year's savings challenge amount instead of raiding the previous year's account when unusual expenses come up, but I like being able to see the pile of money get higher and higher without dipping into it.  There is a sort of "snowballing" effect when you aren't making withdrawals.....it makes it easier to not spend money emotionally when you see the cash adding up sitting in an account and not being tapped.
Or maybe that's just me.  ;-)

At this point in the journey of all the money we have "permanently" saved from 2009 until 2011(since I don't touch the savings amounts once the following year's spending is over)comes to $75,830.77.

Yes, we could have just upped our lifestyle over the last few years and spent what I've managed to tuck away into this fund.  Not buying used cars instead of new, going on expensive vacations, spending more on all those variable categories in our budget could have raised our lifestyle but I doubt that it would have discernibly made us happier as people.

The fact is the percentage of Hubs salary we actually live on each year is fine by us.  We are happy in our life as it is, and don't hunger after more, better or newer things.  More things and more money after a certain point doesn't make your life any better.  It just brings with it a whole other set of problems.

Being responsible type folks at our core(see "old fuddy duddies"), we thought it was a better plan to put this money away for when the day comes that we can't generate income.

This savings challenge fund is only to be touched in dire emergencies(like a job loss), as it's planned to be additional retirement savings for Hubs and I.

It is above and beyond what we are saving automatically from each paycheck for retirement income.
Once we retire (and Social Security kicks in), we'll have SS, our Cash Balance account(or something similar to a CBP), our Personal Employee Savings Plan account(like a 401K), any cash on hand or in checking accounts as well as this Savings Challenge fund to draw from until the day we kick the proverbial bucket.
This Savings Challenge money is the 4th leg of our retirement stool.  I figure a 4 legged stool is a mite better than a 3 legged stool any day. ;-)

Sluggy