January Food Spending Week 2, Meal Plan January Week 3

*I am taking part in Precious' MONEY SAVING CHALLENGE again for 2012.  You can find her blog FRUGAL MAKES CENTS and a list of other participants and their blogs  HERE.

Check it out.  You might find some new ideas for incorporating frugality into your life there!*


I love searching around for old photos and advertisements featuring kitchens from years gone by.  These are mostly the kitchens from my youth in the 1960's or earlier.  

Today's kitchen......or rather today's appliance in honor of my Birthday, a 1959 Electric Range!

Ok....this ad is actually a 1958 Range.....here's the 1959 one.....

Now I don't think I could stomach a Pepto-Bismol pink kitchen but I truly would have loved to have had a TURQUOISE one!  Not blue, not sea green but true up turquoise.  Like this yummy GE range.  And notice Mrs. Tweed Jacked Pencil Skirt Suit also has those cutting edge metal cabinet doors in matching turquoise!

Back the year I was born they touted these new fangled Electric ranges/ovens as so space age and modern.  No more open flames of gas.  "Keyboard Cooking" was the buzz word. Dials and push buttons with numbers for accurate temperatures.  Automatic timers that were easier to set than a clock.  The oven door was removable for easy cleaning.....well, that was a nice feature but who the heck cleans their oven anymore??lol

This fashionable Cooking Machine's cost started at $149.00 in 1959.
Gulp.....that wold be $1,130 in today's dollars! 

Enough of that, onward to the Meals and Food Spending. 8-)


Last week's meal plan is in the books.  Here is what actually happened....

SUNDAY--bucket of KFC *weekend special for $11*, coleslaw, mashed potatoes, biscuits

MONDAY--Mac and Cheese, Broccoli

TUESDAY--Subway sammies

WEDNESDAY--Kielbasa on rolls, Onions, Ginger Carrots

THURSDAY--Grilled Pork Chops, Beets(leftover), Mac and Cheese(leftover)

FRIDAY--Breakfast for Dinner(Eggs, Pancakes, Meats)
SATURDAY--Fish, Wild Rice, Peach Salad

Except for the bucket of chicken we bought on Sunday and the Subway sandwiches for 3 of us(Hubs was sick), the rest of the food served was already here.  The only thing we needed last week was milk.
Therefore, the food spending was low last week.  1 trip to Weis for Juice and Nestle's Quik where my Catalina didn't print.  Then there were my trips to CVS stores to stockpile Finish dishwasher detergent.
Trips to Rite-Aid also but no actual money was used. ;-)

In all, I spent $39.86 last week at the grocery/drug stores.

I used 26 coupons(25 at CVS on non-food items, 1 at Weis on a food item).

2 Weeks in and I've spent $149.73 of my January food budget.  $150.27 left for the month.

Going into Week 3, we have 1 piece each of kielbasa and salmon leftover.  Since everyone is off of work/school and home today, I am counting on these to be scarfed down for lunch.

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Chinese Take-out *I wasn't feeling too well

MONDAY--homemade Pizza, carrot & celery sticks w/dressing

TUESDAY--homemade Chili, Cornbread

WEDNESDAY-- Sloppy Joes(with ground turkey or chicken), Rolls, Green Beans

THURSDAY--Baked Potatoes with Toppings, Mixed Veg.

FRIDAY--Chicken Divan
SATURDAY--Spaghetti Carbonara, Salad

Items needed for this menu are rolls and salad greens.  I have everything else on hand.
The grocery store ads look pretty pitiful this week as well, since it's the "store brand" week here.
I might stock up on salmon this week as somebody had a good deal on it....can't for the life of me remember which store it was.lol  I'll pretty much be staying out of the stores this week at any rate.

My menu might change if A-Daughter want's me to fix a favorite food since she is leaving to go back to school next weekend(yay!lol) or if B-I feel worse than I do now......I think I'm getting the flu or it might just be a cold.
bleh.

So what is everyone else eating this week?  

Sluggy

More Rite-Aid....Getting to 100

So our Intrepid Bargain Hunter(that's me!)rolls into the new Sales week at Rite-Aid on Sunday, with $51 toward the $100 needed to get her BIL's card to the $20 Resolution Reward.

Here is what we bought.....

Hubs didn't feel like going out for the Sunday paper, so we picked them up.
2 x Sunday papers (1 was $1/1 was $1.20 w/my discount)=$2.20 I'm getting real tired of hearing about Joe Paterno and we aren't even in State College!lol
1 x Fritos on sale=$1.88 *
2 x Tom's of Maine items on sale $3.99=$7.98
3 x Theraflu items on sale $5.00=$15.00-must buy 3 for this price **
2 x GE Lightbulbs on sale $2.99=$5.98
SubTotal....$33.04

Coupons Used
1 x $2/1 Theraflu item IPQ=$2.00 (Our region didn't get the Theraflu ManuQs)
1 x $3/2 Theraflu items IPQ=$3.00
1 x $3/2 Theraflu items PeelieQ=$3.00 ***
2 x $2/1 GE Lightbulks In-AdQ=$4.00 ****
Coupon Total....$12.00

$33.04-$12.00=$21.04
We used my $20 Resolution +Ups and the $1 +Ups from buying the Hall's cough drops on Saturday to pay.
We put the remaining .04¢ on my Rite-Aid gift card.
We received $11 in +Up Rewards back(2 x $3 Tom's of Maine and $5 WYB 3 Theraflu).
BIL's card got $31 more toward his $100 because everything except the newspapers were qualifying items, so he's at $82 now.  Only $18 more of qualifying items to purchase to get his reward.

* As far as Frito-Lay's products go, $1.88 is about the lowest price you will ever see at Rite-Aid these days.  I tell you this in case you haven't noticed and you know, you want to stock up on junk food.  ;-)

** Who else is hating on this new Rite-Aid deal where you ONLY get the sale price if you buy in quantities they designate?  So NOT loving this.....

*** First off, I had a better scenario worked out for the Excedrin Deal(which was the other item you could buy with this Sale).  3 Excedrin bottles and $9 in stacked ManuQs/AdPerk Qs....pay $6 OOP and get $5 +Ups back.  But I didn't count on the Excedrin recall last week!  And Rite-Aid had pulled all Excedrin off the shelves, so the Excedrin scenario wasn't happening. ugh  So we resorted to Plan B-Theraflu.

You may have noticed I used 3 ManuQs on 3 Theraflu products, yet 2 of those Qs were for the purchase of multiple bottles/packages and not single bottles/packages. This particular Rite-Aid store has a policy that if an item has a PeelieQ stuck to it, you can use it, no matter if it's expired and/or if you came into the store armed with your own Qs to use on the purchase.  I found a box of Theraflu with a $3/2 PeelieQ on the shelf so I got a bonus $3 off my total. 8-)

**** After I finished my transaction, I was reading the sales flyer in the car and noticed that the GE Lightbulbs In-Ad Q says, "Limit one per customer."  I had bought 2 packages. Sluggy hangs her head in shame....
Now this wording could be open to interpretation....Limit one Q per customer, per item.....Limit one Q per customer, per transaction or visit......or you can only buy 1 package this week and use 1 Q 1 time, period.
If I had noticed the wording or the cashier had caught the wording, I would have only bought 1 in my transaction.  I find that most stores don't have a hard and fast rule on the In-Ad Qs.  If the In-Ad Q is for an item the store doesn't stock a large quantity of, you should always use restraint in the number of something you purchase.
For example, last Winter when Rite-Aid introduced their private label brand of toilet tissue and facial tissue, and was offering +Up Rewards equal in value to the paper products you purchased(which meant you were getting every single one of them for FREE after +Up Rewards).  Whole stores were cleaned out of these items in a matter of minutes on Sunday morning.  It was a blatant case of GREED.  And I dare say that as soon as Rite-Aid management noticed it they put severe limits on the amount one could purchase.  It saddened me to think that people would be so greedy and unscrupulous to do this and then some of them would go online and brag about it on certain blogs and message boards.
But I digress.....
The point is, try to pay attention to the wording but if you screw up, well, it happens.....and be considerate of others.
Some cashiers will enjoy busting your balls over the wording on every Q you try to use and some stores couldn't give a seahorse shaped craplet over the number/variety/wording of any of your Qs.  Use your discretion and good sense at these times.  If you take every flyer on the rack and try to use the In-AdQ to buy every pack of lightbulbs in the store in One Transaction, well yes, you are being an asshole and yes, you are going to piss not only the store off but your fellow shoppers....especially if you are in line AHEAD OF ME!lol 

At least 1 more transaction to go before we hit $100...maybe 2.

I'll be going back to buy myself some Tom's of Maine deodorant this week.  Costing only .99¢ after +Up Rewards is a great price!  Too bad there aren't any Qs out there now for it so it would be FREE! ;-)

Sluggy

Rite-Aid for Nerds...Another Torturous Math Post

So I am trying to get to the $100 in qualifying products in order to get my $20 +Up Reward to print.
When last we visited our intrepid bargain hunter(that would be ME!), she had made a purchase at Rite-Aid that should have netted her $95 toward her $100 goal, but $9 mysteriously didn't add to her tracking total.  The details of that transaction are located in this post HERE.

So your intrepid bargain hunter(Me again)went back to Rite-Aid on Saturday.
And I bought the suspected 18oz. 'special' Axe body wash bottles with me to exchange for 12oz. 'normal' sized bottles.....

I exchanged my Axe bottles for smaller ones(even exchange so no money involved BUT I did make them ring it all up so the credit toward the reward would be recognized).
I also added an Axe deodorant to the transaction.
And my suspicions were confirmed!  Those 50% MORE bottles were not coded to count toward the Reward!

Now, the Axe deal was you had to buy in units of TWO to get the 2/$9 price.  Buying a single item you paid $4.99 instead of $4.50.
BUT....the deodorant regular price is $5.49(in this store), and applying my 20% wellness discount, MY price for a single item came to $4.39, which is less than the sale price on a single item purchase.  If your wellness discount is lower than the sale price, you get the wellness price instead.
So I owed $4.39 on this transaction.
I used the $1/1 Axe ManuQ from the Sunday inserts, making my total $3.39.
I used the $3 +Up Reward I got for buying the Thermacare dohickey earlier in the week, so I owed .39 + .03 tax=$.42 OOP.
This was put on my ever present Rite-Aid gift card. ;-)

My receipt showed my $20 Resolution Reward total was now....
$99.
ack

$1 away from getting to $100 and my reward.

So I bought this back at the pharmacy register when I went to pick up a prescription.....

2 x Reese's PBCups on sale BOGO=$.99
I put the whole .99¢ on my gift card.
And miracle of miracles, my $20 Resolution Reward printed out.
Yay me!

So let's recap these transactions, shall we?
I did 6 transactions to get to $100 in spending credit to get my $20 the Resolution Reward.
Because of sales, coupons used and other +Up Rewards earned/used, I 'spent' $5.98 OOP for all that stuff I bought. 
Well I 'would have' spent $5.98 OOP except all that was covered by my Rite-Aid gift card, which cost me Zero money. 
Gotta love that, right? ;-)

Now that I've gotten my $20 Reward, it's time to work on getting the BIL his $20 Reward.
Here's what BIL bought.....

4 x Stayfree on sale 2/$5=$10.00
2 x Clean & Clear Scrub on sale BOGO50%=$10.48
2 x Visine 20% wellness discount($4.39)=$8.78
1 x Bengay 20% wellness discount=$5.19
SubTotal....$34.45

Coupons Used
4 x $1/1 Stayfree(2 ManuQ/2 IPQ)=$4.00
2 x $1/2 Stayfree In-AdQ=$2.00
2 x $2/1 Clean&Clear IPQ=$4.00
2 x $1/1 Clean&Clear AdPerks/VVQ=$2.00
2 x $2/1 Visine IPQ=$4.00
2 x $2/1 Visine In-AdQ=$4.00
1 x $2/1 Bengay ManuQ=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Bengay In-AdQ=$2.00
Coupon Total....$24.00

$34.45-$24.00=$10.45 +.17¢ tax=$10.62
I used $10 in +Ups and put .62¢ on the trusty Rite-Aid gift card.

BIL's card now had $34 tracking toward the $100 in purchases toward the $20 Reward.
He also earned the $10 J&J +Up Reward for this purchase.

Then we did this transaction.....

2 x Axe Body Wash on sale 2/$9=$9.00
1 x Axe Deodorant wellness discount=$4.39
2 x Hall's cough drops on sale=$3.00
2 x Hershey candy bars on sale BOGO=$.99
SubTotal....$17.38

Coupons Used
1 x Axe BOGO ManuQ=$4.50
1 x $1/1 Axe Deodorant ManuQ=$1.00
1 x $1/2 Hall's cough drops IPQ=$1.00
Coupon Total....$6.50

$17.38-$6.50=$10.88 +.02 tax=$10.90
We used the just earned $10 +Up Reward and put the .90¢ on the Rite-Aid gift card.
BIL earned a $1 +Up Reward for the cough drops.
BIL's card has $51 tracking toward his $20 +Up Resolution Reward.
$49 more in purchases and he hits the $100 mark.

And we've spent $1.52 on the gift card to get him halfway to that Reward.

Next week, we 'spend' $49 to get his Reward but we don't pay any money OOP.
Come back then to see how we get there!

Do you shop at Rite-Aid?
What great deals have you gotten there lately?

Sluggy

Finish-ed for Another Year

If you have been at this couponing thing for years like I have, you know that every new year, for the last couple of years anyway, brings a Perfect Storm scenario for dishwashing products.
Each January the company that makes Finish products releases a really good manufacturers coupon for their brand.  They do it just once a year so you'd better get it and use it before it expires!

This year, the coupon was $2.15 off 1 package of Finish powerballs, gelpacs or quantums(excluding 10 or 12 ct. packs).  The coupon came in the first set of Sunday paper inserts of the new year on 1/1.

Then CVS drugstores puts this Finish item on sale for $3.50 during the 1/8-1/14 sales week.
Doing the math, each Finish package you buy this week at CVS comes to $1.35 OOP.
Nice, right?

To make this price even more awesome, Finish qualifies as part of the "Spend $30, Get $10 in CVS Cash" Deal CVS has going this week!

So buy 9 packs, spend $31.50, use 9 coupons, get $19.35 off, pay $12.15* and get a $10 CVS gift card.
*Before sales tax if your state charges that.

Ok, so the Finish coupons says limit of 2 coupons per transaction.
So you have to do 2 item transactions to get to the $30 spend threshold to get the $10 gift card....and you have to do this 4.5 times. lol
So you find a cashier who lets you A-buy more than 2 packs in a transaction or B-let's you do 5 tiny transactions one right after another. (Or if there is a line at the register, let's you buy 2 packs and then go to the back of the line and buy 2 more, rinse and repeat until you have purchased 9 and hit the $30 threshold.

Whatever it takes, you can buy 9 packs and get there if you have the patience. ;-)

So on New Year's Day I started going through the 1st batch of coupon inserts for the year, hunting for the good coupons, like the Finish one.
And as is MY LUCK, my region did NOT get any Finish coupons this year!
Ugh.
Ugh.
Ugh.

Did I say Ugh yet?

Then mid week(last week)I saw CVS was putting Finish on sale during the 1/8-1/14 weekly ads and was part of their $30/$10 Deal.
Poop.

So I resorted to a clipping service to get my hands on the $2.15 Finish Qs.  And since it's more cost-effective to get a quantity of Qs from this source, rather than say 9, I sourced 20 of these Qs.

After the Qs arrived on Tuesday, I spent the afternoon/evening(and Daughter hit one up as well for me)visiting 5 different CVS stores in my area, doing lots of little transactions, so as to keep myself within the coupon limits and to keep from taking more than a normal amount of packs from any one store.  Shelf clearers burn my butt......

Let me just add that when you use a clipping service(or a coupon train for that matter), you run the risk of your coupons arriving too late for whatever deal you intend to use them with.  So you need to have a plan B for them just in case.
My coupons didn't arrive until Tuesday(for a sale that started Sunday), so I was 2 days late to the party at CVS.
Luckily for me however, 2 things occured.
1st--my region didn't get the coupon.  Therefore everyone else here didn't buy the Finish at CVS this week or had to mail away for the coupon as well.  This leveled the playing field.
2nd--The 5 CVS stores I went into here?....only 1 had the sale price marked on the Finish products and none had the "$30/$10 Deal" marked on the shelf.  This meant the likelihood of someone stumbling upon the Deal while in the store was almost nil.  You had to be going into the store prepared to get this deal.

I not only bought 20 boxes of Finish, but I bought 5 tubes of Rembrandt toothpaste, as it was also part of the 'Spend $30/Get $10 CVS Cash Deal', it was on sale for $3.99 AND there were $2/1 IPQs for the Rembrandt.
Since 20 Finish didn't get me enough spending to get to 3 x $10 CVS Cash, the 5 Rembrandt tubes helped to get me to the spending threshold.

The candy bar was just a no brainer.....spend .75¢, get a .75¢ ECB back.lol

By doing the small transactions, once I got the 1st $10 CVS Cash card, I was able to use it to cover some, if not all my OOP after the Qs were applied to the orders.

I'm not going to give a play-by-play on each transaction because, frankly I'd be here all day typing it out.
Let's just do the final results, shall we?

I got....
20 x Finish dishwashing tablets
5 x Rembrandt toothpaste
1 x Snickers candy bar

I spent OOP(including tax)....$19.15  Regular retail was $96.89.
I have left in CVS Cash....$11.77
I could have had a lower OOP but I forgot to use the Cash card once...ugh.
Since this CVS card does NOT expire, I could theoretically save it until next January and use it if there is a similar CVS Deal and use it to cover the large OOP at the beginning. 
Or I could say I "spent" $7.38 here and deduct the Cash card amount from my OOP like so many others do.

I'll just call it $19.15 for 26 items.
And I'll mark having to buy dishwashing tablets for another year off my "To Do" List for 2012.
I can live with that..... 8-)

Sluggy

Why Can't Companies Do Anything Right Lately?

Yes, my life these days seems like Joe Btfsplk's.
You know....that character from the old Lil' Abner comic strip.....the guy with the dark cloud over his head who goes around spreading misfortune.

Ok, so I don't purposely spread misfortune but I don't seem to be able to get out from under Joe's cloud!
Especially, it seems, when dealing with Corporate America!

Let me say first, that I despise using the telephone.  If I go to hell when I die, it will be a big call center and I'll be damned for all eternity to make phone calls.

In December, my cell phone company billed me TWICE for one month of service....twice within 3 days.
So I had to call them and talk to "Robot John".  He talked like a robot and said his name was "John".  From what I could tell, he was in India, spoke a heavily accented English so he talked like a robot to cover up his true nationality(and went by the decidedly UN-Indian name of John).  It didn't fool me. at. all.  And I didn't care who or where he was, I just was pissed I had to call his company's call center for being charged incorrectly.

Then I bought one of those 'social coupon deals'.  It was a gift card that was to be a Christmas present.
I purchased on Dec. 2nd.  The voucher/code was delayed and not ready to redeem until Dec. 14th.  I redeemed it on the 14th and was told the card would be mailed within 5-8 business days.
It's almost the middle of freaking January and guess what hasn't arrived yet? 8-(
So that necessitated another phone call to a corporate entity's CSC(=Customer Service Center).  After 10 minutes on hold(two times!)I was informed the gift card was back ordered(would have been nice to tell me this oh.....a MONTH ago!)and would be mailed out next week.
Shall I hold my breath on this one?

Also right before Christmas, the 3 packs of Orbit gum I bought at Rite-Aid for $1 each, that was suppose to give me 3 x $1 +Up Rewards didn't.  I didn't bother calling about it until last week when I had another problem with something else at Rite-Aid I had to call them about.

I tried the new Rite-aid "electronic e-coupons" that you can load onto your Wellness card(HERE is where I talked about it).  Qs loaded successfully but didn't come off the item's purchase at the register.  After speaking with TWO different people at Rite-Aid CSC(and being hung up on and having to call back!), I was told that a high mucky-muck would be calling me to discuss the issue and work out the "kinks in the system".
This high mucky-muck is supposedly in charge of the whole new e-coupon system and as I am one of the first people to tell them that their system is NOT WORKING!, they want to speak to me and find out why.
Evidently, they really don't want to get it working properly and were just giving me lip-service, since Mr. High Mucky-Muck still has NOT returned my call a week later.
I don't give a crap at this point if their system every works.  I just want my FIFTY FREAKING CENTS BACK for that blasted e-coupon I used!
Next week, I return the item for a full refund, then call back CSC and tell them I am NOT amused and will Twitter evil thoughts about them into the Twitterverse.

And this week?
Oh, you KNOW it has to continue.....this lucky lucky gloomy streak of dispair.
First up....Rite-Aid again!
Earlier this week I bought this.....

1 tube of Ben-Gay, 2 packs of OB tampons and 2 bottles of Visine.(Daughter took one of the tampon packs already.)
SubTotal after 20% Wellness discount was $18.57.
I used a $2/1 Q for each item(either ManuQ from inserts or a IPQ), bringing my total down $10.
Then I used the Sales-Ad Qs for the Bengay($2), Visine(2x$2)and the OB($1/2), for an additional $7 off my total.
After these discounts my total was $1.57.  I had $2 and $3 +Ups to use so very bad planning on my part.lol   I put the $1.57 OOP on my free Rite-Aid gift card instead.

I went into this week with $50 toward the $20+Ups Resolution Reward.  This purchase gave me $19 more toward the $100 needed to earn that reward. (I guess they rounded up from $18.57 to $19?)
There is also a separate J&J Spend $30/Get $10 +Ups reward.  All these items count toward that goal, so I have $19 toward that reward as well.

So I am at $69 toward the $100 mark and $19 toward the other $30 mark.

I go back to R-A the next night and buy this....

2 x Clean & Clear BOGO 50%off($6.29)=$9.43
2 x Axe Body Wash on sale $4.50=$9.00
1 x Bengay w/20% wellness discount=$4.79
1 x Thermacare on sale=$3.00
Subtotal....$26.22

Coupons Used
2 x $2/1 Clean & Clear ManuQ=$4.00
2 x $1/1 Clean & Clear AdPerks/VVQ=$2.00
1 x BOGO Axe ManuQ=$4.50
1 x $2/1 Bengay ManuQ=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Bengay Sales-Ad Q=$2.00
Coupon Total....$14.50

$26.22-$14.50=$11.72
I used $10 in +Ups and put the $1.81($1.72 +.09¢ tax) on my Rite-Aid gift card.
This purchase put me over the $30 spending threshold for the $10 J&J +Ups(which printed)and I received another $3 +Ups for the Thermacare, so $13 in +Ups back.

In addition, ALL THESE ITEMS qualified toward the Spend $100 get a $20 +Up Reward.
So I should be $26 closer to that $100 mark, right.
Nope.....according to my receipt I only got credit for $17 worth of purchases.
I am missing the last $9......which coincidentally is what the 2 Axe body washes add up to.
Hmmmm.....
So I notice that the bottles I bought are "50% more product" bottles.....so not 12 oz, but 18 oz size bottles.
How much do you want to bet that the "50% more product" bottles are NOT CODED AS QUALIFYING PRODUCTS???!!!
So now I either have to call Rite-Aid YET AGAIN and get them to credit my account for this Axe purchase or exchange these bottles for normal sized ones and bet my bottom dollar that the normal sized bottles WILL ring up correctly.  I would get my credit but lose the extra product in the larger bottles.

ARGH.

And to top of my week, I finally get over to Weis(pound you in the ass)Markets to do the Nestle Catalina Deal.
Spend $20 in qualifying products, Get a $5 Catalina Q.

This is $20.43 worth of Nestle qualifying products.
You will notice that there is NO Catalina Q in the picture.
That's because one did not print out.
And it's hopeless to get my Q at this store.  CS is just so clueless about this stuff.
I'm so tired of the 'deer in the headlights' looks and having to explain to them what they should know already.
So now I get the thrill of calling Catalina Corp. to get my $5 CatQ.
(I will add that these were the only 3 canisters of Nestle's Quik in the store.  So much for stocking up on it.)

And you can add in the unmitigated JOY I have been having the last 2 months with the HOMESCAN people(previously known as NIELSON).  Yes, I am one of those schmucks who scans all her purchases via a scanner and reports in to these hallowed marketing gods so they know what kind of crap to put over on sell the American consumer.
That lightning strike we suffered back in late September?  Among the items it took out was the HOMESCAN SCANNER.
Except these nimrods at Homescan don't believe that the scanner if broken and insist I keep using it.
Oh, they are another "piece of work" company which I'll kvetch about another time.

So tired of dealing with companies that suck and telephones.

What companies are on your Shit List this week?
C'mon, spill the beans!
Don't let me wallow around in misery alone....

Sluggy

With Liberty and Justice for All?......Not Always

Sometimes the World is just one big ball of FuckedUpness!

I am preempting my blog today and sending you elsewhere.  I just don't feel like being amusing right now.

Go see my friend, Mark.
He's got some serious shit going on in his life.
My heart is aching for his family today.

Go read THIS and THIS.
Then imagine that you have a sibling, a close friend, a son or daughter, or even that you are a kid and  YOUR parents were going through a similar situation.

Like I said before.....a big ball of FuckedUpness.

Want to do something?
RePost about his family's plight on your blog.
Twitter about it.
Spread the word any way you can.

But more importantly WRITE and CALL your elected officials!
Antiquated laws need changing people......

And then do me a personal favor.
If you get the chance......
Go kick Bill Clinton in the nuts and tell him DOMA was a bonehead move.

Sluggy

What Have I Done?.....The One Where Sluggy Freaks Out!

Longtime readers will remember that I held 2 Stockpile Sales(think Garage Sale but with new excess food and HBA items)this past summer.  Catch up on those adventures HERE and HERE.

I can't recall at which Stockpile Sale the following happened but it really doesn't matter I guess.

Anyway, during one of those sales, one of my customers was chatting with me and as inevitably happens in the conversation, they asked where I got all this nifty stuff I am selling.  I usually just answer that I "coupon" and that either shuts them up OR acts as a gateway for them to start plying me with questions about the whole couponing/money saving/frugal lifestyle thing.
Hey, I am always glad to share my saving ways with anyone who asks!

Well this gal seemed intrigued and after we got beyond that whole "extreme couponing" ugliness that is shown on tv which all the non-believers want to know about(lol), we had a nice little chat.

Then she sucker punched me......
Ok, she didn't actually hit me or anything, but out of the blue, she asked me to come speak at a local women's club meeting about couponing.

Turns out she is the President of said club in my teeny tiny town, which meets monthly for lunch and a talk by some speaker, on a topic of interest to said gaggle of women.
She said she's had members ask her about getting someone in to talk about coupons and saving money at the grocery store.
And I am guessing since I have more stuff, obtained through couponing, than I can use, that I must be good at this, so she asked me.

Not being someone who turns down the opportunity to run-off at the mouth to a captive audience(longtime readers KNOW this!lol), I said I'd do it.
I said yes because it was summer and she wanted me to come speak in January of next year.....which at the time seemed like a gazillion years away and I'd have pleeeeeenty of time to organize my thoughts.

Well, here it is the second week of January and I am slated to give this Epic presentation in less than 10 days and my brain is a jumble of mushy facts.
Ack.Ack.Ack.

I need to at least make myself some kind of outline to follow or my 10 minute talk will resemble a Bill Clinton press conference and I'll have hawkers in the audience selling sleeping bags and bug-out packs of 3 days worth of MREs to sustain my audience through to the end of my 'brief chat'. ;-)

Now that this thing is almost at hand I am freaking out.  Why did I ever agree to do this thing?!
I am not a public speaker.  Ok, I use to be an actress but that was eons ago and I wasn't writing my own script!lol

The club prez did confide that it's not a big deal and they don't expect a ToastMaster, a Power Point, a Steve Jobs company meeting presentation or anything like that.  Just talk about what you do and then field questions from the audience, she said.  And she suspects there will be oodles of questions since many of the women are younger moms with small children at home who could benefit from and will be eager to hear what I have to say.

So, dear readers......what would YOU cover if YOU were asked to give this talk?  How long would you speak and how specific would you get?

I am just hoping when they introduce me as "one who uses coupons" that I don't get a lot of questions about extreme couponing and "the show that shall not be named on TLC".
I sure don't want to spend 20 minutes distancing myself and what I do from that Ball of Crazy!

Whatever transpires, I hope I come off looking like this.....

And not like this.....

Yah, I guess I'd better start practicing my balloon animals now just in case.....

Sluggy

January Food Spending Week 1, Meal Plan January Week 2

*I am taking part in Precious' MONEY SAVING CHALLENGE again for 2012.  You can find her blog FRUGAL MAKES CENTS and a list of other participants and their blogs  HERE.

Check it out.  You might find some new ideas for incorporating frugality into your life there!*


I love searching around for old photos and advertisements featuring kitchens from years gone by.  These are mostly the kitchens from my youth in the 1960's or earlier.  

Today's kitchen......

The house design is one of those California style, open concept homes of the 1950's-the early1970's.  The cabinets are enameled metal with those funky colors, which put them squarely in the 1950's to early 1960's timewise.  I like that there is only 1 set of overhead cabinets  and 1 strip of the kitchen is open above the floor units.  The two tone pink and turquoise is a tad much for my eyes tho.lol 
And the unit on the far left looks like it's a washer or dryer?  Laundry facilities in the kitchen were oh, so modern back then and never really continued here in the States, once that era was over.

Enough of that, onward to the Meals and Food Spending. 8-)


Last week's meal plan is in the books.  Here is what actually happened....

SUNDAY--Leftovers-Pizzas, BBQ

MONDAY--Taco Bell

TUESDAY--Ham, Harvard Beets, Mashed Potatoes

WEDNESDAY--Leftovers

THURSDAY--Rigatoni and Meat Sauce, Salad, Garlic Bread

FRIDAY--Chinese Take-Out
SATURDAY--Chicken Parmesan, Brussel Sprouts

The leftover ham and barbecue pork, along with some fresh mushrooms I didn't use after Christmas got frozen.  Everyone was tired of eating those two proteins now, so it's either freezer it for later or toss it, and we just don't toss food in this house anymore!

The food spending was high last week.

In all, I spent $109.87 last week at the grocery/drug stores.

I made 8 trips to various stores....3 to Rite-Aid, 2 to Big Lots, 2 to the local Shursave market and 1 trip to Save-a-Lot.   Reg. retail of $276.73(including the Rite-Aid items)so I saved 60.30% last week(mostly due to the Rite-Aid savings)....without R-A items it would have been 34.80% savings.
And besides Rite-Aid, I didn't use a single coupon. ;-)

1 Week in and I've spent 1/3 of my January food budget.

Going into Week 2, we have leftover penne pasta, meat sauce and some odds and ends.

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--bucket of KFC *weekend special for $11*

MONDAY--Mac and Cheese, Broccoli

TUESDAY--homemade Chili, Cornbread

WEDNESDAY-- Fish, Wild Rice, Peach Salad

THURSDAY--Leftovers-fried chicken/mac and cheese/chili or ?

FRIDAY--homemade Pizza, carrot & celery sticks w/dressing
SATURDAY--Kielbasa on rolls, Onions, Ginger Carrots

I plan on using the leftover pasta to make mac and cheese(as there is a lot left), the leftover meat sauce will go into the crockpot chili(a small container of corn that's hanging out in the fridge will go into the cornbread that evening).

Other than the chicken we had Sunday night, there is no other take-out being served here this week.....crossing fingers.

Items needed for this menu.....I have everything needed to make/serve this menu. 
There is, however, a Catalina Deal on Nesquick at Weis this week which I may run, as the stockpile needs refilling.  If I run the deal 4 times I'll net 16 canisters + 4 other items and it will cost me $56.80 for all(with a $5 Cat Q leftover).  My cost will be 40% off reg. retail(not counting the leftover Cat Q).  If I can find some coupons to use, the deal will be better.  At any rate, those 16 canisters should get us through to next year.

So what is everyone else eating this week?  

Sluggy

I Must Be Out of My Mind.....or Not

Yes, I spent money!
I spent it non-frugally.
And I spent it on.....gasp!....myself!!

Let me start at the beginning....
Last month when Daughter came home from college for the Winter break, I had to take her clothes shopping.  She had to do job shadowing this month at the dr.'s office and she has an interview at the Medical College next week, so she needed some business/professional clothes--2 dress slacks, a blazer, 2 blouses.  We hit Fashion Bug first(sales and I had a gift card)and found nothing.  We hit Salvation Army and found a blazer and 1 shirt.  Then we hit Kohl's and found 2 pr. of slacks and another shirt-all on sale.  I also found some pants for #2 son and a new comforter for his bed(which I have been promising him for about a year)-all on sale while we were there AND they had that Spend $50/Get $10 in Kohl's cash thing going all month, so we got items on sale and got Kohl's cash for later.
I also went back and made some Christmas purchases the following week.
In the end, I had $60 in Kohl's Cash to spend during the week between Christmas and the day after New Years.

After Christmas, Daughter gave me the pitiful look and said she needed new sweat pants, so I gave her $40 of the KCash and sent her up to look at sweat pants.
She came home with .02¢ left on the KCash and 2 pair of pants.
"$20 for sweat pants?!?!", I screeched.
"No, nice casual pants I can use as sweat pants", said she.
"If you wanted/needed sweats you should have gone to Kmart/Target/Salvation Army and bought sweats for way less than $20 a pr. and not spent MY KCash!!", I retorted.
Ugh.

So I had $20.02 left in KCash to spend.  I don't buy clothes for myself at Kohl's and I had picked up all the non-clothing items I wanted/needed there before Christmas so I decided that I would go buy myself a 'nice' purse.

My current purse came from Target online and cost $5 on clearance.
The one before that was some outrageous amount like $7 on clearance at Kmart.
As you can see, I am not about carrying around an expensive hunk of faux leather/plastic/fabric on a strap status symbol that costs about a week's pay.
But I thought I'd throw caution to the wind and get myself a marked down to $20/usually much more expensive purse with this KCash.

Thus began the great Purse Hunt.......
Hubs decided to accompany me on this safari into the jungle of the purse dept. at Kohl's.  Just about every purse was marked down from 40-60% off, which helped my KCash go further and helped me NOT to have convulsions when I looked at the price tags on the bags.
WTF?!?!?
$110 for a hunk of plastic with 2 handles that you can cram the stuff you can't leave home without into?
Ok, so it was $60 on sale, but even so!!

An identical bag was only $30 on sale but that was because it did NOT have the name Vera Wang on it.

Too bad that one didn't meet the Sluggy bag test--1 strap not 2, the strap has to be long enough for me to carry said bag on my shoulder but not too long that it hangs to my knees, and the strap has to be substantial enough that it won't fall apart within a short time even though the bag is still in good condition.

All the bags that would have not cost me anything OOP were tiny "going out on a date" bags or for a nubile  20-something gal bags.  I could have maybe wedged my wallet into one of those but keys?....checkbook?....lip stuff?....phone?......never would have fit.

After a solid hour of bag hunting, in which I believe I tried on every single style/color/brand configuration of bag they had I found 1 that met the Sluggy criteria.

*Satchel style
*Colors black and grey with purple, fuschia and teal-they had a tone-on-tone of this same fabric in black/charcoal I liked better but they didn't have this style bag done in that fabric
*Strap a good size, not rolled so it stays on the shoulder and extra wide at the center(you can't see that in this shot)to reduce 'slipping' plus strap width reduces change of strap breaking prematurely
*Not too many pockets/zippered compartments inside and ample enough for all my stuff
*Price?.....well even on sale and using $20.02 in free KCash I shelled out $13.04(After an additional 15% off the amount after using the KCash and then state sales tax).

So it's not a Vera Wang, a J-Lo, a Dana Buchman or whomever Designer bag.  I don't care.
I did still spend more than I wanted to but I can live with this price.
Hopefully it lasts me for a good long time.

Of course, while we were in Kohl's Hubs decided to look at the men's business dress shirts and he ended up bringing home 2 of those as well.  My first inclination was to put the bag back and used the KCash on his shirts.
But I stopped myself and got the bag.
I saved $34 Thousand of our income last year dagnabbit!.....I DESERVE that $14 purse! ;-)

I like my purse and I am content with the money I spent.
That's all that really matters, isn't it?
That and the fact that I didn't put this on a credit card. 8-))

Sluggy

Ever Slow Sluggy Saves-A-Lot on Meat

 **This post is linked to the 2012 Money Saving Challenge over at Frugal Makes Cents.**

I confess I am a slow learner.
Nay, I am a VERY slow learner!

For the last few years, Hubs and I have taken short mini vacations to Ocean City MD in the fall, after the hoards of sun worshipers leave and the place is once again civilized and empty.

As is my frugal habit, we do our souvenir shopping at food stores down there.  Hardly ever stuff, just food.
One such outfit we frequent is Save-a-Lot.  That's the penny pinching cheaper brother of the mega Acme, Albertson's or Jewel-Osco chains.  All are owned by SuperValu.
There is a Save-a-Lot in West Ocean City we like to stroll through and often bring non-perishable foodstuffs home from.
We get home from those trips and I lament that we don't have access to those Save-a-Lot deals around here.

Well the other day, I suddenly realized that yes, WE DO have a Save-a-Lot in a town about 20 mintues south of here!
Yes, I'm rocking the Homer Simpson "Doh!" now. ;-)

Having great weather for a January yesterday, Daughter and I took a ride down there to do some browsing and we came back with this....

The box of Easy Mac in back is for Daughter to take back to college....not a great deal at $2.59.
The 2 no name mac & cheese dinner boxes were .39¢ so I bought them for Daughter to try while she is home. *She is addicted to that chemical cheese thing.lol
The cole slaw was also not a frugal buy at $2.99 and the Tootsie Pops are my weakness at $1.19 a bag.lol

Moving on to the actual deals here....
The bananas were .38¢ lb. and the 1lb. hunk of liverwurst(Hubs addiction)was $2.49.

They had 1lb. packs of bacon for $1.99.  Not a name I know but the slices looked real nice and thick.  You can barely touch bacon around here on SALE for $3.99, forget regular retail which is upwards of $6.99!
I found Gwaltney(a well-known name in pork down South that is hardly EVER seen up here!)roll sausage, 12 oz. rolls for .99¢ each.  At that price, the 1 lb. rolls I am use to buying/seeing would be $1.32, which is an amazing price!
The store also had country ham!!.....biscuit slices, ends, side meat, steaks and whole country hams!  The whole hams were $1.99 lb......I think I actually squealed with delight when I saw that.lol
I bought 3 rolls of sausage and I will definitely be back for more later. ;-)

But the best were the prices at the fresh meats counter.  Swift Pork Tenderloins for $1.99 lb.  I bought one that was just under 5lbs. and plan to cut it into chops.  They had Angus ground beef for $1.79 lb. and boneless/skinless chicken breasts for $1.38 lb.   I also bought 2 packages of discounted/UTOF sirloin tips marked down to $1.79 lb.
The fresh meat came to 4.77 lb pork loin, 5.80 lb chicken breasts, 6.01 lb. ground beef, 1.60 lb sirloin tips.
Add the 3 rolls sausage, 3 packs of bacon, 1lb. of liverwurst and the non-meat items for a total OOP of $55.40.  Regular retail around here would have been $75.86.
And nary a coupons was in sight......

The store isn't that far and I have other errands I can run to make the trip more economical.

The worst part?  It's next door to a liquor store and there was a drunk staggering around the parking lot as we left soliciting for money so he could "fortify" his bottle of orange juice he carried with him, taking swigs of every now and again.

If you have a Save-A-Lot in your area, go check them out!

Sluggy

Rebating and Side Monies for 2011 Totals

Well to sum up my rebating efforts in 2011 were, to use a kind term, Half Assed!lol

In 2011 I received $433.22 in rebates.  This is way down from my previous year's total of $1160+. HERE is my post from last year on my 2010 Rebating Totals.

Keep in mind that I do NOT live in a NBPR state(that's No Beer Purchase Required)so I don't do those awesome alcoholic rebates that net you free or close-to-free food.  If I tried to do the NBPR rebates, I would be required to spend money on booze and appear to be an alcoholic.  The former would make me go insane and the latter would make me not care about being frugal, now would it?lolol

Even $433.22 is pathetic in Rebating circles.
In my defense, the rebating opportunities outside of NBPRs tightened up even more in 2011 from 2010.  Add in that Rite-Aid didn't have nearly as many good SCR opportunities last year.

And the primary reason I sucked at rebating last year?....I just didn't make much of an effort.

My side income did much better however.
* I netted $48 in Pinecone payments.  I didn't do all the surveys offered however.  Yes I was a slacker there too.

* After a rather slow start, I cashed in for $60 in checks with Toluna and I am halfway to another $20 check.  I need to give a thank you! shout out to SonyaAnn for turning me on(oh, don't go there!lol)to them.  While my demographic gets dumped out of most of the surveys, I kept persevering and actually got some cash monies....ka-ching! ;-)  I do find that on occasion surveys would freeze up and not be recorded as complete, thus I would go through all that effort for NOTHING(and I have let them know just How I Feel on that score.lol) and then other surveys are so damned looooong and booooring and if I think it's boring, well, it's a doozy! 8-)

* The big winner for me in 2011 income was Focus Forward, where I earned $880.  I did some surveys with them but their main thing is focus group work.  Some of it is short term and some can take weeks but you pick and choose what you want to do, once you qualify, that is.
If anyone wants to join their team please use my referral link HERE.  Thanks if you do!

* As for making money advertising on my blog.....I made nothing in 2011.  That's not quite right....I made something but not enough for anyone to cut me a check.  I should be seeing a check within the next 3 months or so unless everyone stops coming by here to say "Hey!" tomorrow.

All side income came to $988.  Too bad that's all reportable income and the $433.22 in rebates isn't.  The other way around works better for me.lol


* Gift cards came to $76.  That includes gift card rebates, gift cards sent to me for reviews/promotions/marketing purposes and gift cards I won in other people's giveaways.
In 2010 I received over $500 in free gift cards.  2011 wasn't a very good year for me but something is better than nothing, right?lol

* I received 45 Free Items, mostly in the form of Free Item Coupons that I redeemed, rather than actual free products mailed to me.  The previous year I received many more Free Items, mostly from companies jumping onto the Facebook promotion bandwagon.  Not as many or as lucrative Facebook offers in 2011.  I see 2012 being even more of a Freebie desert on Facebook(with the exception of a company launching a new product).

So did you do any rebating or survey/focus group work in 2011?
What are your totals looking like for the year?
How do you feel about continuing to rebate and/or do internet side work in 2012?

Leave a comment and let us know!

Sluggy

More Rite-Aid Shopping for Free & e-Coupon Program Problems

So I went back to Rite-Aid on Tuesday night and bought another set of the items I bought on the 2nd with a couple of additions......

The additional items were the 6 pair of No Nonsense Socks and the big bottle of Alcohol(rubbing, not drinking). ;-)

The socks were on a raincheck from early in December when they were BOGO50%off and gave a $3 +Up Rewards wyb 2 pair.  $1.99 socks, 1/2 off 2nd pr. at $.99=$2.98 w/ $3 +Up wyb 2=FREE Socks!

The Ear Buds I have a raincheck for are still out of stock so no Freebies there yet.

The alcohol......oh my.  If you go onto Rite-Aid's website you'll see that they are touting their "load your coupons onto your loyalty card so you don't have to use paper coupons" program.  Yes, Rite-Aid is attempting to step into the electronic age like the grocery store chains that have e-coupons.
Unfortunately, Rite-Aid's system is NOT working.  I loaded an e-coupon for .50¢ off a 32. oz. bottle of 70% Rite-Aid brand Rubbing Alcohol onto my Wellness Card a couple of days before heading out to buy the bottle in the photo.  While I got my 20% Wellness discount on the item, the coupon did NOT come off my order.
Bleh!

Now I get the great joyful job of calling corporate customer service about this newest snafu.  I guess I'll bring up the Orbit gum deal from before Christmas when I didn't get my $3 in +Ups back for buying 3 packs of gum that week too.
I plan on voicing my displeasure about something always not ringing up right/+Ups not printing right that seems to be de rigeur at Rite-Aid lately.
To have everything go smoothly at the register would just be a pleasure I haven't had in a great while!

UPDATE**
Just got off the phone with Rite-Aid.  This was the second call, the first girl was a Wellness person and couldn't help me with this e-coupon issue so she transferred me and after 4 min. on hold they disconnected me. grrrr
So I called back and explained the issue and was told I am one of the first to call about problems with the e-coupons(LUCKY ME!!!)in the country.  I am suppose to get a call back from some High Mucky-Muck about this issue to see what is going on.
Frankly I don't CARE what is going on, I just want my .50¢ discount!
And I want to stop having issues with Rite-Aid EVERY TIME I TURN AROUND!
 


At any rate, I spent $5 in +Up Rewards, put the remaining $.79 OOP on my free Rite-Aid gift card and received $2 in +Up Rewards back for the Centrum Supplements. 
No cash spent out of pocket yet again.

This order brought me up to $50 toward earning the $20 Resolution +Up Reward.  $50 left to spend to get that.
I can also submit for another $4 in Centrum supplement SCRs and the Oral-B toothbrush SCR under BIL's account.

I have to go back to Rite-Aid before Saturday night, as I still have $3 in +Ups expiring this week.
I don't know what I'll spend that on.  There is nothing I 'need' that's cheap this week.  I could get some Pantene conditioner for #2 son but since he cut his hair he isn't using it as much.  I'll find something we can use that also qualifies toward the Resolution Reward.

What has everyone else bought at Rite-Aid this week?
And have you tried loading and using the e-coupons on your Wellness card yet?

Sluggy

It's Time for Another Brain Dump

So I came to bed the other night.  I am laying there tossing and turning as is my usual MO, when Hubs started laughing.  I turned to make a sarcastic remark to him and saw he was dead asleep!
I have never known him to laugh in his sleep.  I was almost tempted to wake him up just to see what was so darn funny that I was missing.

I could have used a laugh after having Daughter home again for 15+ days.
Why oh why do winter college breaks have to be so loooooong?!  I don't remember mine dragging out for MORE than a MONTH!!
I love the girl but geez, she is Drama Central and High Maintenance.
Plus she and the youngest don't get along, which ramps up the negative energy around here.
I sort of got use to having some tranquility in my life the past few months.

And yes, both of my college student kids brought me Dirty Laundry for Christmas!
Fortunately, they both have working appendages and can run the washer themselves because after I told them what it was going to cost them to have ME do their stinking laundry, they made time to take care of that chore themselves.
Some day......I'll get them fully trained. ;-)

I am happy with how the whole eBay thing turned out this season.  The weirdos and stoopid buyers are good for a laugh(usually that's after the fact, NOT while I'm having to deal with them!lol).  I didn't have any buyers flake on me and not pay....this is a FIRST for the Holidays!
I sold a good deal for ok to good prices but there were some big ticket items that didn't go before Christmas.  I put the store on vacation settings about 5 days before Christmas because, from past experience, I KNOW I don't want to deal with the panicked last-minute Christmas buyers.
Ever.
Again.
I was going to wait a week or two into January to open the store back up, but a little voice instead of me said, whattheheck!....open it up the week after Christmas.
And I'm glad I did because I sold 3 of those big ticket items between Christmas and New Years!
Go me! ;-)


Hubs was home all week from work from the day before Christmas until  this past Tuesday.
I'll just say this.....
3 kids, 1 husband and 2 annoying dogs for 1 week solid can drive a person to drink.

I think this Husband Day Care is a GREAT idea!
I just remembered it's alternative name....the BAR.lol

Between my glasses of wine nerve medicine, Hubs and I got some quality couples time in and did some paperwork/filing/getting stuff together for taxes so it's not all on me to slog through.  We also sat down and went through our goals for 2012 and went through the financial stuff to see just where we are with the money at the moment.
Speaking of money, I am trying hard to ignore the fact that I have to write checks amounting to $15,000+ in the coming weeks.   It's the price we pay to keep the two oldest in college and NOT HOME!


Funny Spam Time!
I did a review of a product back during the summer of 2010.  It was a boxed supper-type product called "Good Earth"....it's from Betty Crocker or something and based on the meals they serve at Good Earth eateries, of which there are NONE around here, so I am clueless as to what they serve.
Anyway, I get a comment to moderate about 6 weeks ago.....a comment posted on that Blog Post from over a year ago.

Here is the blog post title...."Good Earth Review and GIVEAWAY TIME!"

Here is the comment......verbatim....
"okay so i have to read the good earth for school but it is soo boring every time i try to read it i doze off because it is soo boring.  HELP!"

Yes folks, she thought my product review was a review of the classic book, THE GOOD EARTH by Pearl S. Buck.
I should have directed her to the excellent old movie of the book with Paul Muni and Luise Ranier.  I believe Ms. Ranier won an Oscar for that role?(I just looked and Ms. Ranier is still alive at 101 and is having a birthday next Thursday!)
Of course, if the commenter found the book boring I kinda think she'd find the film stinko too.  Maybe an updated version starring Lucy Liu and Jet Li as poor dirt farmers in rural China would be more exciting to her?  Or maybe not......

What I DO know is that Mormons are H.O.T.
I have more keyword searches hit on my blog for this one word than any othere topic.
Maybe I need to talk about Mormons and my favorite "Plig" family more often?
Or I could just direct you over to This Blog HERE to get your fix of Those Wacky Browns.
Thanks go out to 444 Express for the heads up on that blog.
*And on a side note--don't Google Search Images for the word "Plig"....unless you are looking for lots of images of pigs.

Other keywords sending me viewers recently are.....
cat hoarding
cat hoarders(these are perennially among my tops search words....WTF?!?!)
mead xpanz 2" organizer binder, new release (huh?)
good grades in school ornament

And my most popular post last week was my BRAIN DUMP from mid November!
Really?
That train wreck of wackiness gets 144 pageviews and saving $34 THOUSAND DOLLARS in 1 year gets 20???
Even my jackwagon Sunny D and Rum(yum, yum)post got 49 hits.
I give up!
People are wacked......

And speaking of wack jobs....

There is a blog(which shall not be named here)I have off and on followed for a year or so.  It touts itself as a PF(thats "Personal Finance" to all you non-PF peeps)blog.  She isn't a prolific blogger like yours truly, but she posted a monthly networth accounting and then shortly afterwards, a spending accouting each month.  After a few months I noticed that her networth always went up yet her spending was always MORE than her income.  After seeing this consistently I commented and was "pooh-poohed" with the retort that her checkbook always balances out and any overage is covered by their savings.....though they never show this savings acct. in their accounting each month.
The numbers just didn't add up for me.

And over the year she continued to overspend their income by $1K to $2K each month(except for 1 month when it was only $250+).  They never lived within their income a single month in the last year.

And then she stopped posting her spending report this past summer and soon after her networth report.
When they bought a rental property when they had no money to do so and it needed renovations as well, and they continued to spend on frivolous crap(eating out and expensive hobbies)and had HELOC loans, credit card balances, 2 student loans still(in their 30's) each month, along with all the other bills and a mortgage, I threw up my hands.

Let's review--
Spending more each month than you make.
Buying rental property with advances on credit cards and HELOCs.
Buying rental property that needs renovating and you don't have the cash and/or the ability to do any of the work yourself.
Still paying off Student loans will into your 30's.
Eating out and spending large amounts on food each month.
Spending on non-essentials like fancy manis, hair salons, coffee, clothing.
Taking in rescue cats that have chronic conditions that need serious vet care(surgery/pills/etc.)on an ongoing basis.
Going on expensive vacations.

While she is NOT giving out financial advise, I hope people don't see this as a good example of how to handle your finances.
Of course, she is not disclosing everything so there may be money stuff coming in/going out that the blog doesn't show(and after her previous blog was brought to my attention, I honestly believe this is true), so I shouldn't judge her just from what she posts.
It's just my humble opinion folks that she has a long way to go in her money journey.  I just hate to see people make that journey to Money Valhalla even longer and more painful than is has to be.

I really need to sit down and figure out where the blog and my life by default is going in 2012.  I need to set some new goals and review old goals to see what still works for me and what I need to trash.
I also need to update/redo the blog list as it is sorely out of date.
In addition, I have to get rid of the Holiday theme and find something a tag more exciting than my green background.   Hopefully what I come up with won't hurt your eyes like a Mexican Bus....

Sluggy

The GREAT PURGE of 2011.....Final Numbers!

Longtime readers will remember I posted back in May of 2011 about my Great Purge of 2011.
The post is HERE.
That was when I posted my intention to Declutter my home/life BIGTIME in 2011.
I actually began sending loads to Salvation Army in February of 2011 and had already donated 3 carloads to charity by the time I publicly announced 2011 was The Year of the Purge.

I just finished going through all my paperwork in preparation for tax time later this month and here are the final results for The Great Purge of 2011.
*Now before you freak about when you see the amount of things I got rid of, remember that I was emptying a storage unit of merchandise as well as personal items in my home.

16 Loads of Stuff
OR
1,016 Items were donated to charity and left my house.

In addition.....
3 Loads of Food/Toiletries
OR
314 Items were donated to the local Food Bank.
(This doesn't include the items given to family in need.)

I know many of you enjoyed my Decluttering P*rn last year.
And I am here to tell you that you are in luck!

While I had a great year of getting rid of stuff at Chez Sluggy in 2011, the job is/was so massive that not everything that needs to leave has left yet.......
Meaning the Great Purge of 2011 is extending into the Great Purge of 2012!

Yes, another year of P*rn until it is all G.O.N.E.

I've already got half of a load ready to go to Salvation Army later this week....woohoo!

So stick around for more Decluttering P*rn here at "Don't Read This; It's Boring!".

I know some of my blogging friends were on the decluttering warpath at some point last year.....MARK and ALEX M. to name a couple.  They both did(or are doing)a fantastic job!  A round of applause to each of them. 8-)

So what about you?.....Did you declutter in 2011?
Do you need to declutter in 2012?

Why don't you join along and get rid of all that crap that isn't working in your life!
Just make a commitment and get moving on it!!
And once you start letting go of stuff, stop bringing more stuff in to replace it!
Yeah, it's kind of important to do that STOP buying/collecting part unless you just want to ALWAYS be intensely decluttering until you die.

Leave a comment about your decluttering successes of 2011 and your hopes and plans for 2012.
We all want to see your p*rn and cheer YOU on too!

Sluggy
 

Happy New Rite-Aid Year!

So this deal actually got me out of my warm jammies and into clothing to go to Rite-Aid in.lol

2 x Centrum ProNutrients supplements on sale BOGO50%off(reg. $12.29)=$18.43
2 x Colgate Optic White Toothbrush on sale $3.49=$6.98
1 x Oral-B Xaction Power White Toothbrush on sale=$5.99
SubTotal....$31.40

Coupons Used
2 x $5/1 ProNutrients IPQ(on red plum website)=$10.00
2 x $4/1 ProNutrients AdPerks/VV Q=$8.00
2 x $3/1 Colgate Optic White Toothbrush AdPerks/VV Q=$6.00
1 x $1/2 Colgate Toothbrush ManuQ(1/1 insert)=$1.00
1 x $3/1 Oral-B Power White Toothbrush ManQ(1/1 insert)=$3.00
Coupon Total.....$28.00

$31.40-$28.00=$3.40
I used $3 in +Up Rewards expiring this week and put the .40¢ on my free Rite-Aid gift card.

I received $2 +Up Rewards back(wyb 2 ProNutrients).
I also qualified for $6.99 in Single Check Rebates--$2.99 for the Oral-B toothbrush and 2 x $2 for each ProNutrient supplements.

So I'm "down" $1 in +Ups but I'm getting $6.99 in cash back on this transaction......or I "spent" $1.40 in +Ups and gift card credit but Rite-Aid is paying me $6.99 in CASH for this stuff.  Either way you look at it, it works for me!lol


The Colgate toothbrushes and ProNutrients stuff qualify toward the BUY&SAVE $20+Up Resolution Reward.  Spend $100 in qualifying items and get a $20 +Up Reward back.  The amount is tracking on your receipt and this transaction got me to $25.  It actually should have been $25.41 so I'm thinking it's not recording increments less than $1?  Maybe it will roll over and record that .41¢ once I buy another .59¢ worth of qualifying product??

If you want to do this deal you'd better hurry because the ProNutrient SCR is only good on purchases made through 1/3/12, which is today!  It's still a good deal but you don't get $4 back unless you buy the supplements today.

Sluggy

December Food Spending Week 5, Meal Plan January Week 1

*I am taking part in Precious' MONEY SAVING CHALLENGE again for 2012.  You can find her blog FRUGAL MAKES CENTS and a list of other participants and their blogs  HERE.
Check it out.  You might find some new ideas for incorporating frugality into your life there!*


I love searching around for old photos and advertisements featuring kitchens from years gone by.  These are mostly the kitchens from my youth in the 1960's or earlier.  Some I look at surely stand up to being innovative and attractive even by today's standards, some are very "kitchy" lol now and then there are those that fall under the heading of "It SEEMED like a great idea at the time!".
With that I give you the Pepto-Bismol Nightmare Kitchen....

What was FORMICA thinking?lol
I guess the he-men who obviously ran that company in the 1950's were trying to appeal to the women's feminine side?
Egads!!
It's a cute novelty but imagine having to walk into that room every morning at 7 am and fix your family breakfast(not to mention having to spend more time in there throughout the day).  No wonder our mothers drank and took up prescription sedatives.....

Enough of that, onward to the Meals and Food Spending. 8-)


Last week's meal plan is in the books.  Here is what actually happened....

SUNDAY--Ham, Rolls from scratch, Deviled Eggs, Rutabaga, Green Beans, Cranberry Glop, assorted pies

MONDAY--Leftovers

TUESDAY--Leftovers

WEDNESDAY--Date Night-I have a free dinner for 2 to Applebee's

THURSDAY--Leftovers

FRIDAY--Cheese Steaks

SATURDAY--Crudites and chips with dip, homemade Pizza-using dough Hubs picked up last week for cheap

Instead of 2 meals to prepare, I made 3 meals. The ONLY explanation for making myself do more work than I wanted/had to was yes, I got tired of eating leftovers. lol

We still have a substantial amount of ham leftover to use this coming week.  I used the hunk of bulk bought roast beef deli meat #1 son wanted me to buy before Christmas(and then he didn't eat)to make the cheese steaks the night #2 had a sleepover.  Whatever meat was left after that was frozen.  We still have some barbecue pork and homemade rolls left to use up this week.

The food spending was fairly low last week.

In all, we spent $72.82 last week at the grocery/drug stores.....well not really, we actually only spent about $45 last week.  But this $72.82 amount includes $27.35 I spent the 2nd and 3rd week in December at Rite-Aid.  I forgot to add this amount in earlier this month, so I just tagged it onto my spending at the end of December.
I made 4 trips to various stores.   Reg. retail of $475.08(including the Rite-Aid items)so I saved 84.61% last week(mostly due to the Rite-Aid savings)....without R-A items it would have been about 60%.

My Dec. food spending total was $307.74.  Just over my budgeted amount of $300 for the month.

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Leftovers-Pizzas, BBQ

MONDAY--Ham, Harvard Beets, Mashed Potatoes, another green Veggie

TUESDAY--Fish, Wild Rice, Apple Salad

WEDNESDAY--Mac and Cheese, Broccoli

THURSDAY--Omelets,Fruit Salad, Toast or E. Muffins

FRIDAY--Rigatoni and Meat Sauce, Salad, Garlic Bread
SATURDAY--Kielbasa on rolls, Onions, Ginger Carrots

Items needed for this menu.....Salad Greens, Eggs, Rigatoni, Fruit, Milk.  There are some fish deals locally so I make do a little stocking up on that item.  No other plans for food shopping this week at the moment.
For January I am going to keep the $300 Food Budget since the daughter will be home for almost all of this month.  February's budget will go down to $250 since it will just be 3 of us again.

So what is everyone else eating this week?  

Sluggy

$32K Savings Challenge.....DECEMBER & 2011 Grand Total RESULTS

Ok, here is my last Savings Challenge Update post for 2011.
This post is NOT about bragging or showing off.  It's just what we are able to save given our income and being able to hang tough against so much spending.

On to the December report.....

I have posted my DECEMBER End of Month $32K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the side bar to your right for the specific numbers.

I have 2 goals each month.....
The 1st is to actually finish each month in the black and not the red.
The 2nd is to hit the targeted savings amount of $2,666.67.

I have to report that we finished up December in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of December with?.......$4,355.36!

Income
We had $4186.70 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Add in $6.00 in Rebates applied against the food expenses, $.84 in Interest on the Checking Account, $141.82 in dividends, and a refund of $20 on our car insurance rate toward the Savings Challenge & you get a total of $4355.36.

Our monthly target is an average of $2,666.67 to reach our Year End Goal.
This month we blew that goal out of the water, thanks to an extra paycheck.  8-)

Outgo
As for the expenses in December......

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

* The electric bill went up only $71.....that's good seeing as the heat was on!

* The food spending was almost on budget at $307.74
* The water bill was $50.50.  This is low when all the kids are home(extra showers and laundry).
* There were no taxes due this month...yay!!
* I continued to consistently sell in my eBay store in December.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

* The credit card bill was $1750+.  Even though $350 of that was fees paid to eBay on sales there we were still over our usual $1000 average on the credit card bill.  No matter the amount of the bill, it is paid off in full each month, ALWAYS.

* $1180 in car maintenance/repair bills.  Seems every time we take a car in for oil change or regular maintenance they find something else. ugh.
* Had $85 in unexpected medical associated bills to pay. (Need I mention #2 son lost his retainer AGAIN after getting the 1st replacement 2 weeks before hand, so we had to pay for ANOTHER replacement. He's repaying us for it with his allowance.)
*  Still a LARGE amount of cash withdrawals by Hubs. I'm not complaining this month because some of it was him buying me Christmas presents. ;-)

The Food Budget costs for December are in another post, which is located HERE.  We kept almost to the food budget amount again in December so I am calling it all good.

YEAR-TO-DATE GRAND TOTAL.....
With 12 months behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2011 is $34,461.31.
YES!
We blew our $32K Goal out of the water!!!

The extra paycheck in December gave us a hefty amount to tuck away after all the bills were paid AND left lots of room for Christmas indulgence!

So how did your savings go for the year?
Do you have an emergency fund of 6-8 months worth of expenses?
Do you have debt?
If you don't have the former, start living below your means NOW and put some money away for emergencies.
If you have the latter, start living below your means NOW and put a smaller amount away for emergencies and use the rest of your leftover cash each month to pay down your debt.
And once you get debt-free, continue to throw that debt repayment money into savings.
It is NEVER too early or too late to SAVE SOMETHING.
And the amount you save is NEVER too small!
Anything you can spare will go a long way to make you more financially secure in this crazy unstable world we live in.

So come along and Challenge Yourself to Save Money each Month Toward a Realistic for YOU Savings Goal or Debt Goal!

Not everyone can shoot for $32K, I fully get that!
But everyone can shoot for some number, right!?

Find a money goal that works for you and put that number out there for everyone to see.  Put it into paying down your debt, put it into savings, invest it or put it toward the principle in your home mortgage....just get busy and do this!

It will help keep you accountable to your goal if other eyes are on you.
Put it out there online and let us all stalk your money too. ;-)

So how was your Deember financially?
Did you spend less than you made?
Did you stay within your budget or not?

Leave a comment and share with us what you did with your money, both the good and not-so good.   Do you have any tricks or tips that help you to end your month before the money runs out?    Let us know!
If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check you out too!

Sluggy