$20K Savings Challenge......November 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, health insurance premiums, long term care insurance premiums, 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 November report.....

I have posted my November 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.
But seeing as I hit the $20K goal in October, we'll just see how much more I can sock away in November.

I have to report that we finished up November with a nice amount.
The extra cash amount we ended the month of November with?.......$1,825.64..

Income
We had $1,764.52 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in November totaled $61.12.  This brought us to our gain of $1825.64 for November.

At this point, any money we save until the end of 2013 is bonus and I am glad to have it! 8-))

 

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  Evidently I overpaid(again!)the long distance phone last month so our bill was only $4.05 in Nov.

*  Cash withdrawals were $370 less than in Oct.
*  I didn't buy any living room furniture yet so no spending there. 

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  I overspent on the food budget by $182.

*  The electric bill was $130 MORE than in October because of the heat being on.

*  We had pet related spending of $186 due to having to put our doggy down. 8-(
*  The credit card bill was double Oct.'s bill due to clothes spending, but mostly due to mini-vacation spending.

 

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

The 2013 TOTAL so far.....
With 11 months behind us, our Savings Grand Total for 2013 stands at $22,751.92. 
 

We surpassed our goal by $2,751 so far and have 1 more month to try to sock away some more!
 

Looking ahead for December......
 

*  Christmas happens, oh yes!, it does this month.  We are traveling during the Holiday season so there will be additional expenses for food, lodging and gas before December ends.

*  The credit card bill(with a lot of holiday shopping!)has closed as of yesterday so we will have a big expense paying it off this month(we never run a balance or pay interest on a credit card).  All those Home Improvement Gift cards I bought are on that bill too.  We will have enough cash to cover our bills this month but it will eat up much of our excess cash from paychecks, so I am not hopeful for saving much cash into the Savings Challenge in December.

 

*  Add in that the 3rd car(the one #2 Son drives)broke down last night, so we are looking at a not-yet-determined repair bill for that.  There goes more cash that might have been saved in December.

*  That living room furniture I haven't  bought yet?  It looks like it's not going to happen until sometime in 2014 now.  But I am ok with that.  It's not like we don't have awesome new inexpensive recliners to sit on instead. ;-)

 

So how was your November financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in November?
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

Today's Fun at Rite-Aid

On the brother in-law's card.....

4 x Monster energy drinks(for #2 Son) on sale $1.50=$6.00
3 x Renuzit air fresheners on sale $1.00=$3.00
2 x Sinful nail polish on sale $1.99=$3.98
2 x Goodness granola bars on sale $1.00=$2.00
2 x Ghirardelli candy bars on sale $1.99=$3.98
1 x Phillips ear buds RAINCHECK=FREE*
2 x Scunci hair elastics RANICHECK=FREE*
1 x R-A brand facial tissue on sale=.59¢
SubTotal.....$19.55

I used 2 x $1/1 Ghirardelli candy bars IPQs=$2.00 off
SubTotal....$17.55

I paid with $17 in +Up Rewards and paid $.55 + $.11 tax=$.66 OOP
I received back $11.98 in +Up Rewards(2 x $2 Monsters, $2 Renuzit, 2 x $1.99 Sinful, 2 x $1 Goodness).

*These items were free after +Ups during the Black Friday sales, so totally free with a Raincheck now.

Then I had $3 in +Ups expiring tomorrow on my card, so I got this.....

4 x Monster drinks=$6.00
2 x granola bars=$2.00
SubTotal.....$8.00

Paid with $8 in +Up Rewards and got $6 in +Ups back.

I'll go back in the next few days and convert some cash into $50 Home Improvement gift cards.
Our house must know I am doing this, because today the front door latch decided to break.
Ugh.  We can lock the door and/or leave the house through it but we can't use it to get back into the house.
If one thing isn't breaking something else is.
It's always something, isn't it?
8-(

At least I have my fun Rite-Aid trips to keep me happy.
Yes, I AM easily amused.....

Sluggy

eBay Brings Out the Weird in People at the Holidays

I tell you folks, this year has been the WORST Holiday selling season on eBay since I have sold on there back in 1998.

Since I listed items in October(so getting on to 2 months of selling)I have "sold" 16 items.
Granted I've only listed 61 items in that time, but still, Christmas has always been the peak selling season for what I sell-new in the box toys and collectibles mostly.....gift worthy items.

I put "sold" in quotes because though I've sold 16 items, 2 persons backed out of their purchases and did NOT pay for them....both were overseas sales to people who didn't ASK how much shipping was before they contracted to buy the items.  Another sold item I am still waiting for the payment to process on Paypal....they must have paid with a check that hasn't cleared.

So really, at the moment I have 13 sales in 2 months.
Bleh.

On most listings, since the sales are so dismal this season, I have put the "Best Offer" feature and/or marked down my selling price after it's been up a few weeks.
This "Best Offer" feature has proved to be a constant source of amusement, if not surprise to me over the last 2 months.

It never ceases to amaze me how low the offers people make are.
I research my items for current selling prices online before I decide on a price, so I know what any particular thing is fetching in general.
I price my items competitively this way.....and if I just want it gone, I lower it from there.

I use to get "Best Offers" in the 75% of the items current selling price.
Not any more.
Now I am "lucky" is someone offers me at least HALF of what I am asking for it.
And those half-of-value offers are rare these days.

One not-too-bright fellow recently offered me $30 for a $29.99 listed item with a note enclosed that the $30 was for the item's cost AND shipping. 
Well, the item was going to CA so the shipping was $12.25, so basically I was offered $17.75 for a $29.99 item.
Just over half of what I was asking.

The problem was that when you make a "Best Offer", it clearly states on the page that the offer price is just for the item and shipping is additional.
So if I had accepted this offer, eBay would have sent them a congratulations email that they now owe me $30 and $12.25 in shipping or a total of $42.25.
That would have been fine by me but I know they wouldn't have paid me. 8-)

So I had to spend my time counter-offering him and enclosing a note to explain that he can't do what he wanted to offer me and how I countered a $12.00 reduction in the price of the item for him which mostly covered his shipping costs and he would owe me a total of $30.24 with shipping.
And of course I didn't hear another word from this doofus.
But that's ok because someone else made me a $22 + shipping offer which I accepted on the same item. 8-))

Here are some of the other jack wagons that make me offers I COULD resist....

*  $25 for a $150 item, which they upped to $35 when I refused it.(I sold it for $125 to someone else.)

*  $51.10 for a $125 item.

*  $15.00 for a $37.99 item.($15 is what used ones are selling for, mine is new sealed in the package.)

*  $9.00 for a $29.90 item.  They said the shipping was too high.  Well I can't control that or the fact that you live in CA.  I don't DO free shipping.  I already feel like a sharecropper on eBay so I am not paying the shipping costs buyers incur.  If you don't like shipping prices complain to the post office or better yet move closer to where your seller lives. lol

*  $17.00 for a $34.99 item.  I sent a counter offer of $20.00 and they replied with another counter offer of $15.00! LOLZ  Yes, I turned down $17 and they THINK I will accept $2 LESS than their last offer?  When I receive my lobotomy maybe. 
So I countered again with a price of $34.99......I would have sent an offer HIGHER than my selling price if the system had let me.....2 can play THAT game asswipe!

*$2.00 for a $24.99 item.  Seriously?  Whatever you are smoking I want some!!

And then there is the guy who emailed a Question to Seller and it was totally in Spanish.
I don't speak Spanish but the gist of it was "How much to ship to Mexico?"
I just told him I don't ship to Mexico and moved on.
I don't like dealing with people who can't conduct business in English(if something goes awry because of the language barrier, eBay will side with the Buyer usually)and there are security issues with the mail in certain countries, Mexico being one of those. Add the one with the other and I don't need the headaches this transaction could end up costing me.

Then I got a buyer with over 200,000 feedbacks.
WTF?
Who buys that much crap on eBay??lolz
So I did some research and the feedbacks are ALL from buying, not from any selling......most people with that high of feedback are sellers but not this one.
This User Id had bought 29 other items on the same day they bought from me and 50 items the day before.....every day they were buying tens of items for months.  This made by fraud radar go off so I dug a little deeper.

Turns out this User Id(plus a few more IDs they own)is a company in CA that has built an eBay portal in Japanese, through which folks in Japan who don't speak/understand English can buy items through this portal on eBay, pay this company and they act as a middleman by paying/buying your items, you mail it to them in CA and they freight all the purchases to Japan to the customers.
Pretty cool really and it saves the customers shipping money, even with paying fees to the middleman.

As for me and eBay.....there are only a few days left before I put my listings on vacation mode until after Christmas.  I don't want to be at the mercy of last minute Christmas shopping procrastinators 2 days before the 25th buying items from me and getting angry & leaving me negatives when the Post Office can't magically get packages to their destinations in time for Christmas morning, because the buyer waited too long to purchase something.  Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

I take a break after Dec. 16th until the New Year on eBay.

Anybody else get any wacky eBay buyers?

Sluggy

 

It Has Begun!

Let the carols fly.....the tubes of wrapping paper have arrived from the garage.

It's an orgy of tape, scissors, bows, tags and ribbon.
The sound of crinkling paper is in the air.
The wrapping of presents has begun!

If you are of a "certain age" as am I, this song will stir something in your soul.......





Sluggy

For All of You with That Evil Machine.....

For all you Keurig machine Addicts Users(and yes, I am talking about you Sonya)......

Now I don't know if this is an eBook of recipes to make your own K-cups or recipes of things to add to your beverage after brewing it so have a look and let me know, won't you?

The link to get the eBook is HERE.

Sluggy
 

The Rite-Aid Haul from the End of Last Week

Here's a really fuzzy photo of 2 Rite-Aid shops from last Thursday or was it Friday?
I had so much going on I can't recall at the moment.

Used my Black Friday sale raincheck to get the box of Cereal for -.21¢(they paid me .21¢ to buy it....LOVE those deals! lol)
The Dawn was on sale for .97¢ ea. and I have 2 x .50/1 IPQs(coupons dotcom), making each bottle .47¢
The Pantene.....lord the Pantene! grrrr
It was SUPPOSE to cost me $1 a bottle(like the Pantene I bought earlier in the week-it also had Peelie Qs on the bottles).
But I was downtown and went to the Rite-Aid there instead this time.

I had a Load2Card Pantene $3/2 ManQ that did NOT come off my card.
Of course when using L2C Qs I ALWAYS have the cashier check the register to see if the coupon did indeed come off my card for the transaction before I hand over +Ups or Cash to pay.
Well, THIS Rite-Aid either does NOT train their cashiers to use the register properly(as this cashier had NO CLUE on how to check if my L2C Q had been applied to the transaction
OR
this cashier was being lazy and just didn't want to bother to MAKE THE CUSTOMER HAPPY!
Either way, she picked the wrong customer to be this way with because as soon as the transaction was over and I got into my car, I was on the phone with Rite-Aid Customer Service, giving them an earful about just how unhappy I was with this store, this cashier's attitude, this L2C program and this transaction.

if Sluggy ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.....

So the CS person verified that yes, I did have a L2C $3/2 Pantene Q on my card and a Rite-Aid gift card for that amount is winging it's way to me as I type this.

Some days I just get so tired of having to fight businesses for what is suppose to happen......

I also bought a PowerAde for Hubs for the prep for a future medical procedure he is having....don't go there.....lolz

After my +Up Rewards, I spent .30¢ OOP on all that.

Then at my regular store, I picked up some more gift cards that were giving back +Up Rewards last week.
One of them is already wrapped up for someone for Christmas and another is slated for a gift as well.
The other cards are for places we will be spending $ this coming year, so just converting cash into script for later use.
I received $22 in +Ups for buying those gift cards......bonus money for me!! 8-))

I'll be waiting until the 4 Day Sale later this week to go back to Rite-Aid to roll my +Ups.
Not much I can see that is a deal and things I can use......
*  The nail polish for $1.99 giving back a $1.99 +Ups for a gift maybe.
*  The free after +Ups Reward Goodness Granola Bars.
*  Monster drinks for #2 Son--2/$3, Get $2+Ups back.
*  Candy bars are 3/$2, Get $1 +Ups back and I think I have a Q or 2 for B2G1Free
*  Ghirardelli Candy Bars are $1.99 and I have $1 off Q
*  Speed Stick(Hubs brand)is BOGO and I have a $1.50/1 Q the register spit out in November so not free but a good deal.
*  Renuzits are 3/$3 and giving a $2+Ups back
*  $50 Home Improvement Gift Cards giving $10+Ups back so I might convert some more cash

Nothing great but some little deals this week.
I just got a look at next week's ad and it's dreadful so I do hope some of those Black Friday week deal items get into my stores here this week so I can use some +Ups on those raincheck items that weren't free after +Ups, like the 3 pack of Peanuts.  Last year they did the Planters gift pack and all the stores had plenty.  This year?  Everyone was out immediately....did this area go nut happy this year? lol

What is everyone else bringing home from Rite-Aid this week?

Sluggy
 

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Egads!  Can Christmas be only 16 Days Away?!" Edition.......

 

 

It's already the 9th of December and I have yet to catch any Christmas movies or specials on the television.
How did that happen?! 8-))

 On to the Meal Planning.
Here is what was planned last week--
 

Sunday--Stuffed Shells, Salad
Monday--Leftovers-Whatever you can find night and Roasted Asparagus
Tuesday--Leftover Stuffed Shells
Wednesday--Fried Chicken, Coleslaw, Green Beans, leftover stuffing
Thursday--Eating Out
Friday--Leftover Chili and Burritos
Saturday--no clue yet, maybe use a free Pizza coupon I have

Well we ate everything listed, but not on the days planned.   Except there was no pizza bought on Saturday, as I had gotten a big package of ground beef at Wegman's so we had hamburgers and used up some veggie side dishes that evening.

As for the food spending last week....
There were 4 trips to the stores and I spent $94.92(including my Rite-Aid trips-$10.87)on $285.76 worth of groceries/toiletries at 4 different stores.  Add that to the $34.68 I carried over from Nov.(when I closed out the books on that month and did some more grocery shopping on Nov. 30th)and we are at $129.60 spent on $356.25 worth of groceries/toiletries for December so far.
23 days left in the month and $179.40 left in the food budget.
Eh.

I am still hopeful I can pull off a $300 food month.  I don't plan on spending but $20 this week on a few loss leaders to use in the next 2 weeks.  That would leave us with about $150 left for the second half of the month's food shopping.

Leftovers going into this week--Shells, Coleslaw and some Fried Chicken.  I also have that whole roasting chicken I bought on Thursday and cooked up, plus a large package of ground beef also bought at Wegman's last Thursday to do something with this week.  Maine Source had a weekend special of yellow and green squash for .89¢ lb. so I bought 3+/- lbs. of each. and 2 doz. eggs.  I also picked up more asparagus as it was still on sale Saturday at Weis.

Here's this week's meal plan---

Sunday--used leftover Fried Chicken to make Lemon Pepper Chicken w/Zuke, Rice
Monday--finish the Leftovers Stuffed Shells, Salad
Tuesday--Dinner out w/a gift certificate(free)
Wednesday--Meatloaf, Squash Casserole, Asparagus
Thursday--Roasted Chicken(maybe w/BBQ sauce), steamed Broccoli, roasted Sweet Potatoes
Friday--Leftovers Medley
Saturday--No Clue yet-options of leftovers, lasagna from freezer or pizza take-out(w/gift cert.)


What I need to purchase for this menu?......a couple of sweet potatoes.  Add that to the loss leaders I'll pick up later this week if the weather makes it able for me to get to the store.


What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Sluggy