Spending Money to Make Money

So here's some shopping I did this past week.....

Sis-IL went with me to Weis on Tuesday.  I waited until she got here to make a meal since I didn't know what she would/could eat this time.

I spent $52.78 on....
1 Qt. Yogurt reg. price
4 1lts. Half&Half Soda Mixers on sale
2 Rolls of Breakfast Sausage half price
2 2lts. Diet Coke on sale(only thing SIL drinks)
1 Small jar of Honey  reg. price ouch!
3 lbs. yellow squash on sale
2 bags Sargento shred cheese on sale
4 blocks Weis block cheese on sale
2 bags of Onions BOGO
1/2lb. American cheese on sale
1 container of Strawberries on sale
3 red peppers on sale
1lb. mushrooms on sale
1 box of corn dogs reg. price ouch
5 pkgs. OM lunchmeat *

Total included a $3.50 off $45 order Catalina, 5 x .50/1 Peelies on the OM lunchmeats and a "Senior Discount" of $3.29.  It was Senior day.  This is the first time I've gotten an automatic old people discount at Weis.
Damn that teen boy cashier!  Not everyone over the age of 20 is a senior citizen....

The lunchmeat packages were reg. .99¢ each and each had a .50¢ store discount Q on.  Buying 5 caused a $4 OYNO Catalina Q to spit out at the register, so basically I paid $2.50 and the store gave me back $4.00.
Nice!! 8-))

There was also a Dairy Deal-buy select items, get an instant $3 off your order.
The cheese I bought qualified, though I bought more than I had to because it was working off the shelf price....3 bags of Sargento and 1 block of cheese would have been enough.
oh well....

I saved 40% off of reg. retail price on the order and I got that $4 OM Cat back and saved $3 more on the cheese I bought.

So Saturday Hubs and I went back up to the store......
I wanted to do the P&G Catalina Deal(buy 5 select items, get $5 OYNO Catalina Q)and the Clorox Catalina Deal(buy $20 select items, get $7 OYNO Catalina Q).

I wanted to buy 5 Bounty napkins for the P&G Deal but they were totally out.
So the Manager gave me a raincheck for the $2.50 price for 5 packages and a $5 Weis gift card since I wouldn't get the $5 Catalina next week when the napkins came in.
So I got $5 for buying nothing......
I could really get use to that!lolol

So I am "up" $5 and I haven't bought anything yet. 8-)

I purchased 4 Clorox Clean-up cleaner bottles(necessary for the chihuahua who poops in the house) and 3 jugs of Clorox bleach.  $19.96 + tax OOP and I got a $7 Cat Q back.
Unfortunately there are no Qs out now for these products to bring my OOP down, so $12.96 after Catalina or 7 products for $12.96.

Then I bought "$12" in cheese(based on the reg. shelf price).....3 bags of Sargento shredded and 1 block of cheese for $8 on sale, minus the $3 instant discount=$5.00 for 4 containers of cheese.  This makes them $1.25 each which is rock bottom here for cheese!  (I did this cheese deal 5 times in total.)

I also bought 2 Cantaloupes as they were BOGO and actually smelled like cantaloupe, a box of frozen breakfast biscuits sammies for the teens(on sale for $3.99),as well as a beef tenderloin(6.66 lbs. at $3.99lb)for $26.57. (I got 12 thick steaks out of that tenerloin as well as a bag of stew beef after I broke it down.)
My total OOP this trip, after using my $4 OYNO Cat from the OM lunchmeat from earlier in the week was $56.71.
I got the $7 OYNO Cat for the Clorox stuff(and the $5 gift card).

Then I bought.....
3 more Sargento cheese bags
1 more block of cheese(the $3 discount deal again)
5 pkgs. of the OM lunchmeat at .99¢ w/.50¢ discount stickers on them
2 Store Gift Cards totaling $50

I didn't use my $7 Cat or the $5 gift card and paid $57.45.
Of that amount, $7.45 comes out of my food budget.

I received a $10 OYNO Catalina(for buying $50 in select gift cards)...ok, the Cat didn't print so the CS gave me a $10 voucher on a raincheck form-same thing.  I also got another $4 OYNO Catalina for buying the 5 pkgs. of OM lunchmeat.

All my $26 in free grocery money for next week.....

I am OOP $64.16 today or $116.94 for the whole week from the food budget.
I also have $26 in free Cats/gift cards to spend next week.....so I "spent" $38.16 this past week.
Ok, not really, just in that fuzzy logic way in my head way.lol

And I have 30 more gas points, 10 for each other 3 trips over $50.  My next gas fill up I get .80¢ off per gallon.

Here's a frugal tip.
If you are going to have to spend money on something anyway, buy a gift card that gives you a benefit to pay for that expense.

Last week(and this week at Weis)when you buy $50 total in gift cards, you get a $10 OYNO Catalina Q good on anything in the store(except smokes, lottery tickets, etc.)
I bought the $50 in gift cards because we are going on a trip next week.

And we are going to have to spend money anyway to eat and Hubs wants to eat better than fast food.  So I googled what eateries are out where we will be staying and picked up 2 $25 gift cards. (One of these places we have locally here to, in case we only want to go out one night and not both that we will be in Columbus.  We can use the other at a later date here.)

Why not spend the money on a gift card to a restaurant that is located where we are going and get the free $10 worth of groceries to spend later?
So by purchasing these ahead(and the cost doesn't come out of the food budget) I get $10 in free groceries later.
Works for me! ;-)

Rite-Aid also has a Buy a certain Gift Card good at "Home Improvement" Stores Deal this week.
Buy the $50 gift card and get a $10 +Up Rewards good for $10 worth of stuff at Rite-Aid.
If you are going to spend money anyway at a Home Depot, Lowe's or one of the other stores that qualify, why not buy that gift card ahead and get the free $10 credit in goods at Rite-Aid?

We have home improvement projects coming up so buying these gift cards at Rite-Aid for free shampoo, tp and other stuff is a no brainer for us.  

I might actually go do the Gift Card deal again this week for another free $10 in groceries.
#2 Son needs some clothes before he packs off to camp next Sunday and dropping $50 on clothes won't take much effort, will it?
ugh.
Might as well get some free food to ease the pain in my wallet on that score too. ;-)

Have you done any Catalina Deals lately?
Have you saved money on one category of your spending by taking advantage of a deal in another area of spending?


Sluggy


 

Full On Sluggy Brain Dump....Long and Ranty

Have you ever had one of those weeks?
One of those weeks were it was like living in a roller coaster car?
Going from good things to bad things.....going from control to emotions all over the place.....going from knowing what was going on to being cluesless.....going from standing still in calmness to racing about like a headless poultry?

That's the kind of week it's been.
From happy to sad to angry to frustration to looking on the bright side to wanting to stomp the crap out of someone to being in the deepest pitt of despair to sucking on a glass of sangria and feeling no pain.

Ok, enough of the generalizations, let's get to the nitty and the gritty details, shall we?

Daughter is home now fulltime.
She came home and went out the first Monday she got back, looking for a job.
And the first place she applied, she got hired.
Made it look so easy, didn't she?

Even though her cousin, who is/was a senior in High School has been telling Hubs and I that he's been earnestly looking for a parttime job for MONTHS now.
Daughter is only 1 year older than him.  She has a little work history but not much.

Some how we now feel he really hasn't been all that earnest in his job search.

Ok, we KNOW he hasn't.

This is the kid who turned his nose up a year ago, when pushed to go out and look for a job, he turned his nose up at working at any fast food establishment, the local grocery store as a cashier, or any other type business that is all about giving teens their first work experience.
Back then, he would only deign to take employment at a mall store like Hollister or Aeropostale or AE Outfitters.
You know, the hoity toity stores that he can't afford to shop at but does.(That would be another long tirade of mine for another time.)

So we are happy for Daughter's new job.  Once she is trained she'll be eligible to make commissions on her sales.
Yes, she has dollar sign$ in her eyes.....

She is also dealing with boyfriend troubles and some medical issues that have been going on for the better part of a year and things in that arena came to a head this week.

After the nimrod doctors have not been able to diagnose and treat the ailment for so long, Daughter broke down in frustration.  And the doctors started piling on more medications to deal with the new symptons without getting to the root of the original issue.
Which to my non-medical degreed mind, makes little sense.
It's like when old people are on so many medications, each from a different specialist and each specialist doesn't know what the other is prescribing and meds start interfering with each other and causing new problems.
It's that kind of deal.
And I can't convince Daughter of that.
Why anyone would believe a doctor before they'd take the good sense advise of their own mother is beyond me.

So while her Aunt(the Sis-IL) was here we had a heart to heart about what was going on.....since SIL in her younger years dealt with the same issue Daughter is dealing with.
And SIL confirmed my view of the whole situation as being the correct one.
So now I have to convince Daughter to go off of all this medication/treatments and deal with the root problem.
And to trust me for a little bit.
Because I can't deal much longer with what has been passing for normal in her life lately!

Now that Daughter is working pretty much fulltime, I have no car.
She's been driving my car so I have to schedule my driving needs around her schedule.
Which blows. 
I've spent this past week trapped at home pretty much with Hub's sister.
And let me tell you.....that was all kinds of special!

I have a feeling we'll be going car shopping for that 3rd beater car shortly after we get back from our trip to Ohio.  I hate paying for another car, AND insurance, AND repairs/maintenance but not having access to transportation isn't making me happy.

Now to get to the other issue this past week and why the relatives all came to town.
Yesterday, Friday, was the High School Commencement Ceremony.
The Nephew was suppose to graduate yesterday..

Notice that I said "suppose to".
As of last weekend, we, meaning all the family that wasn't nephew and his father, were under the impression that he was set to graduate with his class.
When one of our clan graduates high school, all the relatives comes to town......the Bro-IL from SC drives up for a few days(after stopping in NJ for a few days), the Sis-IL from IL drives here and spends a week with us.
People go out of their way to plan, spend money to get here and such and attend.
So everyone was set to leave last weekend.
The Nephew calls our house last Sunday afternoon and wants to come over on Monday and "speak with us".
Hubs and I look at each other after he hangs up and tells me who it was.
We said "this isn't good, whatever it is" in unison.
My first thought was that he wanted money or he wanted to come live here for awhile(like he did last summer after he had a big fight with his dad).
In the back of my head I thought, "Maybe he isn't graduating?", but I thought, no, that can't be it.  He wouldn't have waited until now to say anything.

Hubs decided to go over immediately and get whatever bad news this was, out of the way.
And that hideous little thought was correct.....Nephew was NOT graduating!

He has fucked up his life once again......He failed Math for the year.
For someone all of barely 18 years old, he has done a huge amount of fucking up his life so far.
But he will be the first to tell you that none of this is his fault and he is the world's biggest victim.
Again, that is a rant for another time.
But I digress....

Now I am sure he KNEW long before the last week of school that he had flunked the subject for the year.
But he waited until less than a week before graduation to say anything.
We still don't know if his father(Hub's brother)KNEW that he wasn't graduating.
His father is how we say, "In his own little world" but it is highly likely that the Nephew just didn't tell him.  The school district here has gone paperless, so unless you have a computer and go onto the school's website and make an effort to see what is going on with your kid and their grades, it's very easy for a kid to keep their parent clueless about how they are doing in school.  BIL has no computer and besides, he doesn't even know how to use one.

So the Nephew has to take summer school math in July to get his diploma.
And he is not allowed to walk at graduation.
Hubs said nephew tried to make it sound like this was "ok" and he was technically graduating and it was not a big deal.
And that is when Hubs asked him if he was allowed to be in the commencement procession and walk at graduation.
And he was not.

And then Nephew almost got hit.....not because he hid this sort of IMPORTANT news but because
He had the nerve to ask Hubs at this point, "Do you think Aunt Judy(not her real name) is still going to give me my $250 Friday?"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAccccckkkk!
*This Aunt traditionally gives her nieces/nephews $250 when they graduate high school.*

Now I KNOW at this point Hubs was displaying remarkable self-control as the little voice in his head chanted,  
"Must control fist of death.....Must control fist of death.....Must control fist of death....."

I think he replied something like, "The only reason why your Aunt and Uncle are coming here is to see you graduate.  I hope they haven't left yet!  Otherwise they will have spent all this money and time to come here for no reason.  Of course she isn't giving you anything, you aren't graduating yet!"

What a stupid inconsiderate little prick......

And yes, the Bro-IL had already left and was in Maryland en route by the time he got back to the message we left.  Money wasted on motels and gas for nothing.
But the Sis-IL didn't leave to come here until Monday but she visited anyway.  But at least she knew before she left home that there was no graduation to go to and she'd be saving herself $250. ;-)

On Thursday, Hubs and I took the whole extended family out to Bob Evans for dinner.  Partly so I didn't have to cook one night and to give me a break.  And partly because he is too good to his siblings because anytime we go anywhere with them, they never offer to pay for themselves or anyone else.  That drives me bonkers and has led me to voice many snitty remarks about his family to him.
Ok, I am evil but I think in this case, it is warranted. ;-)

So on Thursday, Hubs called his brother(the father of the Nephew)to remind him of what time to come over so we can go out to dinner altogther.
Do you know what Bro-IL says to Hubs on the phone?
"Oh, do you want me to pick up a cake for the party?"

WTF?!?!?

A little background info.....a few weeks ago, Hubs had offered to let the father of Nephew to use our house for the little coffee and cake party after Graduation that is traditionally held in the family for the graduate.  Since Bro-IL and Nephew live in an apartment that is nasty filthy and ready for an episode of Hoarders since they haven't cleaned it since they moved in 5 years ago, we thought for everyone's health we'd have the party here.
Hubs told his brother if he wanted to get a cake, we would do coffee and host the graduation party.

Yes, delusional, self-involved Bro-IL thinks there is a graduation party after dinner at our house for Nephew, who is NOT graduating.
I heard Hubs end of the conversation that went like this....let's call Bro-IL Rick(not his real name).....

"Rick, hey, be over our house at 6 so we can all carpool down to Bob Evans for dinner, ok?"
****
"What?!"
****
"Rick!"
****
"Rick!  What are you  talking about a cake for?  There IS no graduation!  He isn't graduating and there is no party!!!"  And Hubs turned and gave me a look....
****
"We'll see you at 6"....click.....

Sometimes talking to the people in this family is like trying to have a conversation with a mental patient.
And that's all I'm saying about it for now.

It's Saturday and the week is over and the relatives are all gone.
Now I just have to deal with the normal insanity in my own little family here.
One more week until we take #2 Son to Camp and go on our little Vacation into the Wilds of Ohio......

Lord give me a grip and help me hang on until then!

Sluggy


 

The Week is Over!!!

OH Yeah baby and I'm still standing!

Enjoy this and I may be back later with an Update.....

Sluggy

One More Day!

And the relatives will be gone.
Amen!

Is it Saturday yet????

Go on and let Marvin dance us into the weekend.

Crank up your speakers and boogie out......

Sluggy

Life is Like a Circus

Do you ever have days, no WEEKS!, where you think you are living in the midst of a 3 Ring Circus?

That's my life this week for ya.......a big old Big Top Circus.

And in honor of that, here is a song for y'all.
One of my favs but one of my favorite singers.....well, not really a singer. lol
Turn it up and sing along won't you?

Enjoy and I'll be back later after I keep all the plates in the air and spinning today.

Sluggy

$20K Savings Challenge Report for May 2012

Ok, here is my May Savings Challenge Update post for 2012.
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 "unconscious" spending.

Just to update, My Savings Goal for the Year in 2012 is $20,000.  It's well below what I've saved in previous years I know.  But we also have a goal of paying for 4 home improvement projects at Chez Sluggy this year.  We plan on cash-flowing these projects with the additional money we save and/or our income tax refund.

On to the May report.....

I have posted my MAY End of Month $20K $AVING$ 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 $1,666.67.

I have to report that we finished up May in the black!
The extra cash amount we ended the month of May with?.......$2,832.03!

Income
We had $2728.26 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
Add in $2.00 in Rebates applied against the food expenses, $101.31 in blog ad revenue & $.46 in interest(HAHAHAHAHA!) and  you get a total of $2,832.03.

Outgo
Traditionally May has been a fairly normal month as far as spending goes.  No big tax bills or lump payments. 

As for the expenses this May......

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

*  The water bill was boringly the same.

*  The mild winter temps continued, which decreased our heating/electric bill by about $25.  The second consecutive month for a decrease....yay!

*   The credit card was $400 less than last month's bill.  It was still over $1K though. bleh!
*  No car maintenance/repairs bills this month.

HERE are the BAD THINGS

*  Credit card bill was fairly high at $1000+.

*  We bought a new dishwasher.

*  The new dishwasher meant hiring a plumber to install it(our house is weird)....that was $265!!!

*  Another vet bill for 1 of the dogs.  Not large but it's still unusual spending.

*  Cash spending(my food money and Hub's WAM money)was WAY HIGH!  I'm going to have a talk with him about reigning it in this weekend.

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

YEAR-TO-DATE GRAND TOTAL.....
With 4 month behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2012 is $9,422.83.

We hit our monthly goal in May and then some, so now we are ahead of where we need to be

With 5 months done, we should be at $8,333.35 saved for the year, so $1,089.48 ahead for the year!

As for a look ahead at JUNE.....
* There will be another vet bill for surgery the beagle had this week.(It was put on the credit card.)
* The quarterly garbage bill will be due.
* Mini-vacation will cost money but most charges will be put on credit card so not due until July.(Good for June's figures but not for July's.)
* A 3rd paycheck in JUNE!!!  We will NOT use it toward our saving challenge goal however.  This check will go toward paying the home improvement projects that NEED to begin soon.

I figure I should be able to meet the monthly savings goal for this Challenge in June, barring any money fiascoes.

So how much did YOU save in May?  Did you spend all your income or did you put something aside?

Do you have an emergency fund of 6-8 months worth of expenses?
Do you have debt?

Start living below your means NOW and put some money away for emergencies and/or start paying down your debt.
And once you get debt-free, continue to throw that debt repayment money into savings.  You won't believe how fast you can accumulate wealth once you have no debt!

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 $20K, 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 May financially?
Did you spend less than you made?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
How much did you save in May?

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

Food spending May Week 4+ & Meal Planning June Week 1

It's the "Guess Who's Coming To Stay?" Meal Plan Week

***********************
And here is the meal plan that actually happened last week.....

SUNDAY--Leftovers and/or Whoppers
MONDAY--Burgers/Dogs cookout, baked beans, potato salad
TUESDAY--Alfredo with veggies and steak slices, tossed salad-used up a leftover
WEDNESDAY--Leftovers (crazy schedules night)
THURSDAY--Tacos-used up a leftover
FRIDAY--Pizza
SATURDAY--Subway Subs(only 2 of us home)

 The weekly food spending was $22.35 this past week.  I sent Hubs to the store for mozzarella cheese on pizza night and he bought reg. priced cheese instead of the $3 1lb. bags on sale....sigh.....thus my high spending on just a few items last week.

Personally, I didn't set foot in a grocery store last week.  I just sent peeps in for a thing here or there while they were out and about....eggs.....milk.....cheese.....
I didn't see any deals I needed/wanted so I just stayed away.

Tues. I used the half a London Broil that was leftover from last week.  Slapped some A-I and spices on it, seared it in the cast iron skillet to heat it up, sliced it up and paired it with fettucine with alfredo sauce. nom nom nom
On Thurs. I took the leftover Sloppy Joes, heated that up with Mexican spices(garlic, cumin, cilantro, cayenne pepper)and turned it into taco meat.
Made pizza dough on Fri. for homemade pizza.

************************

This week's menu.....
SUNDAY--Chinese Take-Out
MONDAY--BLTs
TUESDAY--?
WEDNESDAY--?
THURSDAY--?
FRIDAY--?
SATURDAY--?

Sunday I was in the garage cleaning most of the day so we got take-out.  Seems if I don't cook, I can't get anybody else around here to make dinner and we always end up eating take-out.  I so hate this!  It puts a lot of pressure on me.  It's not like I don't have things here to make-for most any skill level-it just never occurs to anyone to offer to make a meal.
Monday the beagle had surgery.  She had a cancerous toe removed.  Between that, trying to clean the house before company descends, having to hem Daughter's work pants and the usual craziness all I could manage was to slap together some sandwiches for dinner.  They should feel lucky to get THAT!lol

As for the rest of the week?
I.
Am.
Clueless.

Yah see, the Sis-IL is arriving Tuesday.
And every time she comes to stay she has dietary restrictions.
And her diagnoses seem to come and go and change every time, so what she could eat last time won't be what she can eat this time.
And she is hyper picky about what she will eat anyway.
And then the Brother-IL is arriving on Wednesday or Thursday.
And he has dietary problems that he won't talk about.
So I don't know what he can or cannot eat.

Maybe I'll just fix a big pot of tasteless swill and put a condiment bar next to it so everyone can kick it up to whatever notch they can handle.
Yah, that's the ticket.....

By the time they have all left on Saturday morning I'll probably be so tense that my last nerve won't feel like cooking so I'll send Hubs & #2 Son out to Taco Bell or something for dinner.
And I'll just sit home and nurse a bottle of Southern Comfort.
For medicinal purposes of course!

If I find the time I'll be back later this week with some sort of menu plan.
Maybe I'll just go to the deli and buy 20 lbs. of sliced meats and cheeses, a couple loaves of good bread at Panera and make a plate of veggie and condiment fixings and make them all eat off of that for the week.

I'm certainly not taking them all out for every meal because they NEVER pay.

What would y'all cook/fix/buy if you were in my position?


Sluggy