Guess Who Went to Rite-Aid?

Yup, yours truly did.
I know all you Rite-Aid fanatics were wondering when I'd jump back into Rite-Aid pillaging! lol
Not quite a pillage since I have no +Up Rewards to roll and I DID spend actual money this trip.....but here is what I bought.

3 x Purex Laundry Detergent  on sale Buy 1, Get 2 Free=$6.49
2 x Palmolive Dish Soap on sale .88¢=$1.76
2 x R-A brand Facial Tissue on sale .88¢ but my 20% discount makes it .80¢ ea.=$1.60
1 x R-A brand Paper Napkins on sale .88¢ but my 20% discount makes it .80¢=.80¢

Subtotal.....$10.65

Coupons
1 x Free Purex Laundry Detergent ManQ(won in a giveaway earlier this year-max. value $6)=$6.00
1 x $1/2 Palmolive Dish Soap any size ManQ=$1.00
Coupon Total....$7.00

$10.65-$7.00=$3.65 + .22¢tax=$3.87 Out of Pocket(I have no +Up Rewards so spend)

And I received back a $1 +UP for buying 5 Palmolive/Simplify Brand items in 1 transaction.

If I had gone to one of the Rite-Aids in a surrounding town the Purex would have only been $5.99 and all 3 jugs would have cost me ZERO instead of .49¢.  Yes, we are the "wealthy" town in this part of the Armpit of PA....lolz

In the end, the dish soap cost me .38¢ a bottle, 3 jugs of laundry detergent cost me .49¢ for all and the paper products were .80¢ each and I get $1 worth of free goodies next time I go to Rite-Aid.

And I am finally 26 points($s)away from getting to the Gold discount level for 2013, which means I'll retain that 20% discount on all non-sale items in 2014 too.
Usually, when I was big into Rite-Aid shopping, I would get to the Gold level by March of the year but since I haven't shopped hardly at all in Rite-Aid in 2013 I am way behind in getting to the Gold level.  The only thing that has gotten me almost there is all the prescriptions I've had to have filled in 2013, first with my heart issue and now with the blood clot in addition to all my usual maintenance meds.

I do plan on doing some Rite-Aid shopping this Holiday season if the deals are there like they have been in past years.  But I am still overloaded with toiletries/HBA from previous years so there isn't much I need, so I'll only be going for the things we are out of or low on.

Sluggy

 

Part Two of Remodeling Work is Done & the Numbers...Yikes!

And here is the inside of the living room on June 27th,  BEFORE we began the renovations.......

And here is the only photo I can find at the moment of my dining room in the BEFORE state.  This is from a previous pre-Christmas season when I was heavily into decluttering via eBay and my dining room is "shipping central"........

And here are the in progress shots, first with the walls/ceilings painted.....

Then with the new flooring......

And now with the heating and a/c sytem in place, the mouldings done and all the thresholds and outlet/switch plates back on the walls.....

The only thing left to do is to change out the dining room chandelier and put furniture, rugs, lamps and décor into the rooms.

And to figure out how to arrange the furniture in the living room part as it's a tricky L shaped deal.


The original estimate by the Handyman Co. for all BUT the heating/air system and flooring supplies was $9,640.00.

We did the painting ourselves and didn't do the entire downstairs and the upstairs hallway/stairwell, saving the $3185.00 the Handyman Co. wanted to do that.  (The amount of painting we did in reality saved us about $1200.00 since we didn't do every room the Handyman Co. would have done.)
We got the flooring job(labor)down from the $3010.00 they initially quoted us to $1,875.00(which was lower than Lowe's wanted to lay the flooring).
In total, the Handyman Co. costs came in at $5,793.00 which was $3,847 lower than their initial estimate.



As for the money........sigh.......

We went into this escapade with the 2012 Savings Challenge monies I had saved last year as our funding source.
That amounted to $28,907.08.

Here is where the money was spent........

A/C & Heating System Total.....$12,616.15

All other Repairs/Renovations......$6,862.32
 Handyman......$5,793.00 (includes labor and some supplies)
 Flooring...........$710.03
 Paint.................$108.10
 Moulding.........$224.72
 Misc. Supplies...$26.47

*Total Spent...........$19,478.47

Supplies Paid on Gift Cards......$279.78
Total Paid from Savings Challenge 2012.....$19,198.69

Monies left in 2012 Savings Challenge fund....$9,708.39

The Great Summer Road Trip of 2013 will also be drawing $ from this fund(and I'll reveal all about that during the coming weeks after I post about the Road Trip of 2013 Saga), but I am hopeful that after the Road Trip cash is moved out of that fund we will be able to keep our hands off what is left in that fund until the end of 2013, when it will become permanent savings and transferred into the Permanent Savings Account.

Yes I am going to try to decorate and furnish these rooms out of normal paycheck monies as they come into our checking account instead of continuing to deplete that Savings Challenge fund.
So it might take me awhile to finish furnishing those rooms.

We completed this project a bit frugally by--
Using gift cards bought last year for some supplies.
Doing the painting ourselves.
Waiting for a great deal on paint.
Shopping around for mouldings to get the best price and then painting it ourselves.
Making the Handyman Co. compete on price with Lowe's to lay the flooring.



The rooms are ready to decorate and furnish now and I can close the books on the Great Renovation of 2013.  8-))

Sluggy
 

Well the Remodeling Work is Finally Done! Part One, Outside

Here is a before of the outside of the house from a few years ago......

This photo was taken in 2007, before the dusty blue wooden trim around the garage door frame began to rot and fall off.  The dusty blue shutters were original to the house went it was built in the 1980's.
1986 called, it wants it's shutters back...... ;-)

Here is the house in September 2009 after we had the original  white roof replaced with a dark tan architectural shingled one.......still with the dusty blue shutters and trim.....

And here is the house today, with the new vents, trim and shutters.....

It might not look like much of a change in these photos, but up close in real life, it is a big difference.


Next up is the before/after of the inside work and the numbers on the cost.

Sluggy

Decluttering Porn

Just a bunch of stuff that finally left the house Sunday......

This weekend #2 Son's room gets cleaned so we'll start another donation to take in later this month.

Sluggy

On the Dining Table this Week

The "Some Weeks you Feel like a Horse's Rear End" Edition.......

This was the view as I left the furniture store last Sunday.
How fitting is that?!


Here's what was planned last week-- 

Sunday--Hubs had leftover Halushki, I didn't eat anything.
Monday--Leftover barbecue pork and coleslaw from our lunch stop on the way home Sunday
Tuesday--Spaghetti and Meatballs(balls in the freezer/pasta in the stockpile), Italian Green Beans(freezer)
Wednesday--Leftover Halushki, Quiche(freezer), Salad(using garden tomatoes)
Thursday--BLT sandwiches(tomatoes from garden), Fried Apples
Friday--Baked Fish and Crabcakes(freezer), Veggie Medley(freezer)
Saturday--Leftovers or something from the freezer

And here's what actually got eaten--

Sunday--Hubs had leftover Halushki, I didn't eat anything
Monday--Leftover barbecue pork and coleslaw from our lunch stop on the way home Sunday, watermelon
Tuesday--Spaghetti and Meatballs(balls in the freezer/pasta in the stockpile), Italian Green Beans(freezer), Strawberries
Wednesday--Quiche(freezer), Salad(using garden tomatoes)
Thursday--Leftovers-Hubs had spaghetti, I had a burger and watermelon
Friday--BLT sandwiches, applesauce
Saturday--Bob Evans-I had a BOGO meal coupon

I had a bad foot day on Thurs. so leftovers instead and the BLTs got moved to Friday, bumping the fish to next week.

As for food spending last week.....I spent $175.85 on $268.07 worth of groceries at 2 stores in 3 trips.
I stocked up last week on lunchmeat(so I don't need to purchase any this week because nothing I can have is on sale this week), dog kibble(2 large bags on sale), canned veg sale(corn, peas, beets and kraut), panko and bread crumbs(sale), bread(BOGO sale), local apples, OJ, Gatorade and frozen french fries(for #2), baking needs(sale), salad greens(sale), reduced muffins(#2), burritos and corn dogs(#2), bacon(sale), fruit, beans, some canned soup(reduced sodium), yogurt(sale), and seltzer(sale)accounts for most of it.

As for food waste, a couple of cukes last week. I was pickled out and nobody else wanted any cukes in salads or in vinegar for a couple of weeks so they went bad.  8-(

Leftovers going into this week--still picking tomatoes and there is leftover Spaghetti and leftover Halushki that has to go soon, either to the dogs or us. ;-)

Here's this week's meal plan---
Sunday--Leftovers-Hubs had Spaghetti and I had a roast beef sandwich
Monday--Hamburgers, mixed veggies, Cantaloupe
Tuesday--Baked Fish, Corn Pudding, leftover Green Beans
Wednesday--Out to eat, using a coupon
Thursday--Lobster, Rutabaga Casserole
Friday--Meatloaf, Roasted Potatoes, Beets
Saturday--Leftovers and Broccoli Cheddar Soup

On the shopping list......Lobsters(on sale again), hot dog rolls and lemon juice is it.  I have everything else here already.  These 3 things will run about $30 and I hope to stay out of the grocery stores except for those items this week to get my food budget back on track. 8-)

I might need some milk or some odd or end thing but I might do some stocking up the next 4 weeks or so, as the local independent market has begun their Thanksgiving Promo-get a $ amount reward toward your turkey meal dinner depending on how much you spend during the coming 5 weeks.  Since I don't spend as much on groceries per month, compared to their usual customer, this means I'll have to give up Weis PMITA Markets until Thanksgiving and only shop at this other market in my town to accumulate enough points to get a reward.  I won't go out of my way to buy stuff I won't need just to get a reward but I will buy stuff I'll need in the future to get to a $ amount to get a reward.

That's what's appearing on the kitchen table this week here at Chez Sluggy.

 What's getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Sluggy

For Judy-AN UPDATE

At Judy's request I have disabled the Go Fund Me site, as of Sunday, and I will no longer accept Paypal payments for the Fundraising we were doing for her.
She says what has been raised so far is more than enough and far greater than she ever imagined it would bring in.   8-)

There are some snail mailed payments on their way but here is what has been collected so far.....

The Go Fund Me site.....$775.00
After fees of $65.72, $709.28 will go to Judy.

The Paypal-ed donations tallied in at $1,381.50.
After fees(a couple folks didn't elect the "send to family or friends" method)of $1.37, Judy will receive $1,380.13.

There is $20 so far sent through the regular mail as well, which gives us a Grand Total at this point of.....

$2,176.50 raised and after fees of $67.12, the funds amount to $2,109.41.

So the goal was reached with a few more payments still on the way.  8-))

I am in the process of getting all the funds transferred into Judy's accounts as quickly as possible.
One Paypal payment is in progress and a second one was initiated yesterday.  This will clear out all monies received there.

The Go Fund Me monies are now winging their way to my credit union and I'll cut Judy a check as soon as they arrive and either hand deliver that to her(along with an Money Orders/Cash sent)or snail mail it if we don't hook up in person soon.

Once all the Money Orders arrive/all funds are in Judy's hands,  I'll send one last update in a week or so.
Just trying to be transparent with the funds here.....

You all deserve a pat on the back and a "huzzah!", whether you were able to send money or sent good wishes/prayers or both.

Let's close this with a little bit of fun and dancing.....

Y'all did indeed help Judy tap away some of her troubles! ;-)



Sluggy

Chez Sluggy as a Vacation Destination--Part 2......Long but Picture Heavy

If you didn't read Part 1 of this saga, go HERE to check it out first.

On Friday....oh we had some fun on Friday!
The one activity I mentioned, among them all, that lit a spark in Tanner was the one with trains.

You know?........"chugga chugga, toot toot" type trains.
So we headed north to Steam Town National Historic Park in Scranton PA to go look at all things train.

Steam Town is an old rail yard with a train turntable and train houses/sheds that they've preserved.  They have exhibits in the train sheds as well as actual train engines from various periods of rail history there.  They also have a piece of the train line tracks still in place and they give train rides of various lengths during the day.
We made it there in time for the last short train ride of the day!

Since Tanner works in a train related industry, she really dug Steam Town.
I mean dug it like a 4 year old boy!   *Not that she IS a 4 year old boy..... 8-)
Seriously.
Loving.
Trains.

Me? I had enough of trains for a lifetime, having a train obsessed son who had every word to every Thomas the Tank Engine video or PBS tv show memorized and liked to recite them constantly one after another on a daily basis from the time he was 2 until 7 years old.
So.
Over.
Trains.

But even old jaded me found it thrilling to see the real thing up close and personal either sitting in a train car being pulled/pushed by an engine or watching an engine scoot by and being close enough to reach out and touch it.
And Tanner was a great companion to have along for this excursion.

Here's shot of an engine in the yard.  Old 514 is a diesel engine and it was to be the engine that pulled our cars on our little ride.

Here's a brief clip of the Park Ranger trying to talk over all the rude passengers who can't seem to keep their mouths shut long enough to LEARN SOMETHING.....ggggrrrrrr.....




Here's another quick video before the ride began.....


Here are some shots while we rode around the train yard at 5 or 15 mph.....

                               A really old steam engine.

                            More train cars.....

     T enthralled as we pass another train with a caboose sitting on another set of tracks.

After finally getting T's attention......lolz

                        Me trying to get a "selfie" shot.

Me again, take 2 of the "selfie" shot.  Gawd!  Throwing a peace sign and smiling gritting my teeth! lol

This is my *favorite shot*-note the high degree of sarcasm.  The set of tracks we took runs past the old Train Station which is now a Radisson Hotel.  It displays French Renaissance style architecture, having been finished in 1908.  Of course my shot is of a back employess parking lot and a big blue dumpster.....with the station/hotel in the distance.  8-P

A History of the Lackawanna Train Station is located HERE if you are interested in learning more about it and seeing much better pictures. lol

And here is what is written on the train car overhead as you exited the front car after our ride.....like I would even CONSIDER doing that......

I made a couple of short videos of one of the engines being taken to the turntable and being turned and then run back down the track to get it ready to hook up to some cars for the weekend longer ride to Moscow PA.

First up is the video were I thoroughly EMBARRASSED the hell outta myself.
As I was watching the engine come down the track onto the turntable I was looking through the camera's view finder so I didn't see the Conductor standing on the outside of the engine as it went by and I was being silly and cute and all and talking TO THE ENGINE and oh my!.....Open my mouth and insert a foot or FOUR!
Just watch it and you'll see how bad what I said sounded.....



I swear you can't take me anywhere!! 8-P

And here are the rest of the train videos......




And here is the video after T told me I had embarrassed myself propositioning the Conductor.....

  


And here is the last video, the one where I called the Engineer the Conductor.....doh!
I guess after 14 years, the time since my oldest son was gaga for trains, I haven't retained much of what I learned. lol



Then after the thrill of watching that big engine move about, we climbed up on the outdoor platform and took a couple of shots....

   They were bringing another engine back from the line, having switched it to the yard line.  The smallish building on the left is now the Gift Shop.

And a shot of  T with the turntable and sheds in the background.  I think she needs to blow this one up, frame it and put it on her desk at work!


Then we went inside and checked out the exhibits.....

Then we walked to another building and Tanner had to sit down and rest for a bit.  She wasted that pose since no dating prospects were around.....hehehehe

And then I got silly too....ha!, like I am NOT always silly.....

Sluggy the Eastern European peasant immigrant with her parents so happy to be in this brand new land....

And when I couldn't talk T. into sitting on the conductor mannequins lap and playing "nice" with him, I got fresh with a hunky porter.......

Funny but he was real standoff-ish and didn't cotton to my advances, even when I tickled his ear.
He was all business.
Some men......

After we closed down the Park(I think we were the last ones to leave that day!), we headed over to Friendly's for Lunch....Dinner....LINNER......

And of course, there was ice cream.

Hhhmmmm.....this seems to be a recurring theme for this visit.....

Gawd!  Look at the face.....it could melt ice cream......and it did!


Later on that night we sat out at the fire pit and started a fire.
And I learned that T has pyromaniac  tendencies.......
Yep, the girl likes fire!
And likes to catch small sticks a light and write in the air with them.
But then again who doesn't like to do that?? ;-)

On Saturday we had a nice picnic lunch and then had a surprise Birthday cake for T.  I know I shared it in August but here it is again if anyone missed it the first time around on the blog.....




And then a quick photo of just the two of us.....

And then, just like that, T was gone....

Thanks for the good times T.  And maybe it wasn't too too boring and you'll want to come back again sometime.  ;-)

Sluggy

Boring Blog Box Giveaway Winner

And the Winner is.....

Comment #47--
Rachel!

Rachel  September 18, 2013 at 7:01am
9/18
"I don't can, but I do freeze veggies for the winter, especially zucchini and peppers.  Here in central Ohio, we are still getting tomatoes, zucchini and peppers.  I am hoping to get to the apple orchard maybe this weekend to pick apples with the kids.
Have a great Wednesday!"

Congratulations Rachel!
Please email me privately your full mailing address so I can get this box of goodies out in the mail to you on Monday.
If I don't receive a response within 48 hours of this post going live, I'll have to draw another winner.

And thank you to everyone who played along and entered.  There were 106 valid entries this go around, which is awesome!

I might have one more Giveaway to do before Christmas/December so keep tuned to this blog for details.

Sluggy

Giveaway Reminder.....Friday is Last Day to Enter!

Just a quickie that today, October 4th is the LAST DAY to enter my Giveaway.  Entries close at 11:59pm this evening so hop to it!!

Link to entry page is HERE.

Sluggy
 

September $20K Savings Challenge Update

In our family we save money. It is important to us to put money aside for "rainy days".  You know.....those unexpected days when things happen in your life that you can't plan on, but that DO happen and they cost you money you didn't know you'd need to pay out.

Our income is mainly the salary my Hubs draws from his job.  We have money taken off each paycheck from the top to put into savings, before we even get our hands on it.  This money that's taken goes into various pots....life insurance, investments and retirement savings.  It's automatic so we are never tempted to NOT put it into savings.
Once the automatic savings, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision payments are taken out, it leaves what we get to "live on".  From this amount we budget for bills, both monthly and irregular bills(semi-annual, etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2013 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am going to keep the Goal amount at $20,000 again this year.

On to the September report.....

I have posted my September End of Month $20K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the Savings Challenge page tab at the top of the blog 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 $1,666.67.

I have to report that we finished up September in the black but just barely!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of September with?.......$40.12

Income
We had -9.51 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Yeah, not such a great month here.
 

Other monies received in September totaled $49.63.  This brought us back into the black and our gain to $40.12 for September.

 

Outgo

As for the expenses this September, here are the good and the bad side of things....

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  Evidently I over paid the long distance phone last month so our bill was only .60¢ in Sept.

*  The food/toiletries bill was about $84 less than my $400 budgeted amount.

* Cash withdrawals were $70 less than in August.

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  The annual school taxes were due which ate up almost an entire paycheck.

*  The electric bill started going up, this month by only $7 but the trend will continue as the weather gets cooler.

*  Credit card bill was $700 higher than last month's bill which included the payment for the dog's surgery and a $600 car repair.

 

The Food Budget costs for September are in another post, which is located HERE.

We came in under budget by about $84 last month but with the taxes due that wasn't enough to give us more than $40 leftover at the end of the month.

The 2013 TOTAL so far.....
With 9 months behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2013 stands at $16,302.96.  Only $3,697.04 left to save and 3 months left to accomplish this.

That comes out to $1232.35 per month for the next 3 months to reach the goal.  It is going to be tight to get us to that goal but it's doable.  Especially since we still have a 3rd paycheck month left this year.  8-))
 

Looking ahead for October......
 

*  The heat will get turned on sometime in October so electric usage will increase.

*  No big annual or semi-annual bills come due in October(the next one is in February)so we can save a bit of money this month.

 

*  We have another short getaway trip this month, so those costs will come out of October's pay.  I usually take trip costs out of the last year's savings challenge pot, but with all the remodeling/heating and a/c costs and summer road trip costs so far in 2013, the 2012 savings have been depleted.  So all Oct. trip costs will be paid for out of this October's pay.

 

So how was your September financially?  It wasn't a great month for us.  If not for the dividend checks with received from some investments, we would have had to dip into our savings to cover our expenses in September.
  

Did you put ordinary living expenses on a credit card last month and not pay it off in full when due?
Did you spend less than the income you had in September?
Did you received any "extra" or unexpected money in September, a dividend or bonus at work, and what did you do with those funds?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle?

If you posted your financial progress on your own blog, leave a link in the comments so we can go check you out your progress too and celebrate with you!

Sluggy

Fundraising Update

Hey, if I haven't answered your email or acknowledged your contribution to the fundraising effort to help JUDY I am sorry for the delay.
Between this and my real life I am a tad overwhelmed at the moment.

I am getting to everyone as quickly as I am able.
So don't think I have forgotten you or am ignoring anyone.
I am working on it.

 

 

I sent over the Paypal money that was collected as of yesterday at 5pm to Judy's account and she about freaked out.....because it was more than she ever imagined!  And there is more coming in, plus the Go Fund Me site and some folks have money orders on the way too.

She also shared with me that today was the first day she's gotten up in the morning without a big old heaping of DREAD on her shoulders.
And every one of YOU GUYS DID THAT for her!!!

And I thought about something Kim over at Out My Window said on her blog on Wednesday this week in regard to Judy's situation but it rings true to me for many situations in my life......

"....and I just believe that prayers are answered through other people."

Kim is so right.  If you believe in a higher power(whatever you want to call it/him/her)this is how prayers/requests/wishes are answered, by that unknown/higher force placing people in your path through your life who can help you or are good for you in some way.

If I haven't said it yet, you guys are FANTASTIC PEOPLE drenched in AWESOME SAUCE!!

*And if you know me I don't rave all happy and perky like that at just anybody or anything..... ;-)

Now go carry on with your day and do some more good in the world. 8-))

Sluggy

 

TMI Thursday: How do you like......

TMI Thursday: How do you like….

How do you like_____?
1. Your coffee?

Don't like it and don't drink it except once in a blue moon.

2. Your sandwich cut? In half, square or diagonal? Crust or no crust?

Cut in half but a grilled cheese is ALWAYS cut on the diagonal.  Crusts left on baby!

3. Your tea?

Iced and when it's cold out, hot.  Luzianne because I am a GRITS and it's specially formulated/blended to make iced tea with.
Hot tea of choice is Chai.

4. Your alcoholic beverages?

Hard cider, wine(sparkling especially), mixed drinks or whisky(cinnamon infused or SoCo).  No beer.

5. Your ice-cream served: cup, cone, soft or hard?

HARD serve in a cone but I'll eat any kind of ice cream!

6. Your hair–long or short? Up or down? Straight or curly? Permed or natural?

Medium length and thinning.  It just hangs there....lol

7. Your cell phone?

An old dumb phone.  It's an LG model called "the Snapper".

8. Your computer?

Laptop-not a Mac

9. Your web browser?

Use to be Firefox until I got Windows 8(it sucks!), now I have IE  ppppfffffttt!

10. Your car?

A red Dodge Minivan.  Yes I am a mad mom in a minivan. lol

Now tell me what your TMIs are or post them on your blog.


Sluggy
 
 

Just Stuff & Nonsense

I went to the grocery store  yesterday for the first time since my blood clot adventure since I am now able to hobble around.
It only took me about 2.5 hours to do a medium shop in 1 store.
Ugh.
And then I couldn't get all the groceries in from the car when I got home as my feet just said "No!".
So I got in the produce and the fridge/freezer stuff and left the rest for Hubs to haul in when he got home from work.
Then I had to stay in the recliner with my foot up for 3 hours so he had to put dinner together in my stead.
Gosh, I do love that man sometimes! ;-)

So I am taking it easy today, even though I still need to get to the other store, to the bread outlet and to Kmart to return some clothes I bought that didn't "work for me".
I am just going to touch up the paint in the living/dining room after lunch and put the switch plates back on the outlets/light switches. 

Hubs needs to touch up some areas on the crown moulding where the guy had to caulk and then move the excess boxes of flooring out of the rooms so we can clean the floor.  But that all will have to wait until the Weekend to be finished.  Then I can get a photograph of the completed work to share.
And I will NOT share the completed/depleted savings challenge account from 2012, as it is almost bare from spending on all these home improvements/repairs/supplies. lolz

I really need to get a list together of what I need to get done this month and then prioritize it because everything can't possibly be accomplished during October.
And on that note, is anyone else having problems with Blogger and updating/changing their side bars in the Layout function??!!
I have tried for 4 days now to update my "TO DO" List on my side bar but the blasted Blogger won't let me save the changes I make.
Grrrrrr......

And can you believe I gained 7 pounds last weekend??!!  At least that is what my scale said to me Monday morning.  I just wanted to slap that thing......
Since I really didn't eat much more than I usually do, it has to be the sodium in what I ate that made me retain water.  I made pretty healthy choices with the food but it WAS restaurant type foods so overly salted/processed.
I've resumed my usual diet of foods w/out high sodium content and in 3 days I've dropped 3 pounds of that gain.  I should be back down that 7 by next week at this rate.

Ok, I am off to eat lunch, paint a bit, rest the foot, feed the puppies, take some quiche out of the freezer to thaw for dinner and then work on a blog post and answer some emails.

Project Runway tonight....woohoo!
I am so glad that drama queen Ken has been auf'd, aren't you?
I am thinking it's going to be Helen, Dom and Bradon at the Tents this time.....what do you think?

Sluggy

 

Let's Help a Gal Out! Important READ THIS!

My, or should I say our friend Judy has had a rough year so far because of the sudden death of her husband, Will.
And I wanted to do something for her so about a month or two ago I talked with her and she gave me the green light to get something rolling.

But then my Road Trip and Family Reunion Trip intervened......and then the health problem took hold of me so this all got delayed for a while.  And then coordinating with Judy during this trying time of her life put us behind schedule some as well because frankly, she's got more important stuff to deal with lately than me! ;-)
So forgive me for being a bit late in getting this all finished and ready to launch.

As her regular readers and followers know already, Judy over at That's udy with a J had her husband Will pass away earlier this year suddenly and unexpectedly.

 

Not only did it leave her and the family reeling emotionally, but it left them in dire straights financially.
You see, Will brought in 75% of their income.  With his death that income is no more and they are trying to live on the 25% that is still coming in from Judy's job.
Plus the life insurance Will had from his employment, which Judy thought was in place to get them over this stretch was not anywhere NEAR the amount that was needed.  So not only does she have to manage going forward on 1/4 of their old income, she didn't have that financial cushion of life insurance to see her to a point where they could get through the first 6 months or so monetarily, so she has been behind the 8 Ball ever since Will was taken.

Anyway, here's the deal.
I've set up a page on the Go Fund Me site to raise cash for Judy and her family to get specifically her car payments caught up.
Please go visit it HERE.

Excuse my lame video but it's the best one of 5 I tried to make and at least I didn't break down into sobs on it.
Sally Struthers I'll never be....lol

Please, if you can afford it, consider donating something....anything.  Even a few dollars would go a long way in helping Judy get caught up and continue to be able to get to her job.
I know many of us out here in cyper space are struggling with the finances but if everyone just gave $3, it could add up fast.

Now let me also say that this Go Fund Me thing does charge a total of 7.99% in fees from all monies collected to use their service.

So if anyone would prefer to use Paypal to send a donation that is also ok.  Paypal only charges about 3% in fees.  If you prefer to Paypal over some cash, just email that to my account which is under arcure@ptdprolog.net  Be sure to clip a note to any Paypal sent donation so I know it's for Judy because I also receive eBay payments at that account.

And if you don't want Paypal taking a cut, there is the option of snail mailing me a money order(money orders can be purchases for about $1 at many stores).  If you prefer to send a MO email me privately and I'll provide the mailing address/full name for you to send it off to.
I don't want to take personal checksd(or have Judy receive them directly) at this point as that opens me or Judy(depending on whom you make it out to)up to possible "bad checks" and having to pay hefty bank processing fees on them.  I know no one would send a bad check on purpose but if you don't have overdraft protection on your checking account and you have an OOPS!, it could happen inadvertently and cost one of us $30 or $40 in fines. 8-)

Now, no matter if you are in a place financially that you can or can't donate to Judy's cause, if you could SHARE THIS POST AND A LINK TO THE FUNDRAISING SITE that would help immensely to spread the word across the web!

You can also share the link to the Fundraising page via FACEBOOK and TWITTER.   If you have a large following/friend pool on either/both, Please share the link on those sites!  It amazes me sometimes how far things can travel on the net.

And if you have a blog, PLEASE be so kind as to blog about this effort to help Judy on your blog(with a link to the Fundraising site page please), or at least post something on your blog linking back to my blog post.

I have already had one of Judy's loyal readers email me privately with a nice sized donation for her.
I'd like to say THANK YOU to this individual(you KNOW who you are!)and tell you that she approached me privately before she even knew about what we were working on behind the scenes here.  This person has a good heart...... 8-)
And thanks for being the kick in the butt to finally get this finished..... 8-P

So that's it folks.
The gauntlet has been thrown down and the challenge started.
Let's get Judy a little pile of money love together, shall we?

I am sure I'll be bringing this all up again to nag everyone in the near future.

Again here is the link to the Fundraising Page..... http://www.gofundme.com/3u67fw


If you have any questions, thoughts or comments of your own, feel free to email me privately or leave a comment on this post.

Thank you for reading!

I know bloggers and blog readers are awesome people......don't prove me wrong now, ok?
8-)))

Sluggy

September 2013 Budget Results.....Food & Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for SEPTEMBER 2013.

I have posted September's totals on the Total Grocery Savings for 2013 Page located HERE and have updated the Yearly Totals there.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in September.  If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom for the Totals Summary.

My spending includes Food, Toiletries/HBA, Pet Supplies, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable. We are a family of 5(3 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 17.
******************

FARM STAND

OOP  $22.40

Value  $64.45

Savings  65.24%

FOOD LION
OOP  $22.54
Value  $30.31
Savings  25.63%
 

SHURSAVE STORES(small local independent affiliated stores)
OOP  $90.31

Qs/Ads  $111.71

Value  $202.02

Savings  55.30%

WALMART
OOP  $79.77
Qs/Ads  $37.03
Value  $116.80
Savings  31.70%

WEIS MARKETS

OOP  $71.55

Qs/Ads  $47.44

Value  $118.99

Savings  39.87%

I am no longer adding my rebates received into my food budget directly. I will use them on food on occasion and will note that when used.  I will keep track of rebates/gift cards/certs received here as before however.

REBATE CHECKS RECEIVED IN September.....$0.00

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES....$0

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$0.00

COUPONS and FREEBIES

Zero

*********************
My best 3 Store Savings Totals were  at  the Farm Stand 65.24%,  at  the Shursave Market at 55.30% and at the Weis Markets  at 39.87%.  I food/toiletries shopped at 5 different stores this past month.

TOTAL Out of Pocket........$316.01

TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$216.56

TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$532.57

TOTAL Savings of...................................40.66%

This closes out the September food/toiletries spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month.....

I went into September with my usual $400 budgeted for food/toiletries purchases.
I stayed under budget by about $80.  It might have been by a wider margin had I not had a problem with my foot.  Having to send Hubs out for groceries was both good and bad.....good in that, I was more apt to use stuff we already had at home and bad in that, when something was needed he didn't care to shop around for the best price or buy it when it was on sale. sigh.....
We did end up taking food to the Reunion and we spend more on eating out while on the trip, but the eating out $ comes out of Entertainment not the grocery kitty.
 

I did NO Rite-Aid shopping last month again.  As we approach the holidays I will be going back to Rite-Aid a bit for their awesome Holiday specials, if they appear this season.  Though I don't need any toothpaste, soap or shampoo for at least another year, I'll take some home if it's free or drastically discounted when I am there.  8-)

 

Looking ahead to October---We have our annual Ocean City October Get-Away coming up.  #2 Son and whoever stays here with him will have to be fed so while a few days most of us won't be here to eat groceries will still need to be provided.  I also have a couple of restaurant discount/freebie coupons that expire this month so Hubs and I will be going out to eat at least twice in October besides the OC trip.  I really want to keep the OC trip food purchases low but that's a post for another day. ;-)

There are no birthdays or other activities going on in October that should make our food purchases rise above our $400 allotment.
I am going to work on using up some freezer goods this month to get ready to restock it with fresh meats.
 

And here is the run down of my Food & Toiletries Spending for 2013 so far this year--
 

2013 Total Saved $2,249.36

2013 Yearly Total Value of Items  $5,522.65

2013 Yearly Total Spent $3,273.29

2013 Yearly Savings Total of  40.73%

 

In September, total savings percentage for the year has gone DOWN .01% over August's year-to-date total of 40.74%, to 40.73%.  So we saw a VERY slight decrease in our savings rate on food/toiletries spending for the year.
We are holding steady in the 40%s.
Works for me! 8-)

 

How much did you spend on food in September?
 

Sluggy