It's Almost Time for the Abbey

About an hour and a half to go before the premier of Season 4 of Downton Abey on my local station.
Can't.
Hardly.
Wait.

Until then, check this parody out......lolz......

 

Sluggy

Update On My Family Drug Dealer....Er, Doctor

And while I am digging through local newspaper articles, here is an update on my family doctor....you know, the one who almost killed me last year.......HERE.
He has been in jail since May 2013 and there are a few more details in this report.

What a train wreck!
And he hid it so well from so many patients, including me......up until February when he was obviously drunk during my appointment.

The man has big problems.  If he hadn't almost caused my demise I might feel more compassion toward him.....

Sluggy

 

Dodged a Fraud Bullet Last Month

First there was the Target card theft ring on Black Friday and now this......
I just saw on the news a few days ago that Hubs and I dodged a credit card scam bullet a couple of weeks ago.
We had gone to the Ollie's in a town south of here(remember my James Brown Christmas CD?)shopping a bit before Christmas.  We ate out afterwards and had I not had an Applebee's gift card with me that day to use, we would have gone to the Chinese Buffet Restaurant in that shopping center.

Thursday there was THIS REPORT on the local news.
Geesh!
We probably would have paid with a credit card had we eaten there that day.
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, with having credit card info. stolen.

It just never ends, does it?   8-)

Sluggy

Christmas 2013 at Chez Sluggy

Christmas morning before we had to chisel #2 Son out of bed at the crack of 10.....

#2 Son missed  breakfast of scrambled eggs, Smithfield salt-cured ham(sliced ever so thin)and Great Aunt Lula's Rolls.....

Presents waiting to be opened.....

 

 

Max the dog says, "Get that boy out of bed already, willya?!?!".
 

Seems like all our ornaments anymore are "kiddie" themed.....sock money, peace bear, Lamb Chop, Dudley the Dragon, Power Rangers, Pokémon, Big Bird......

Doing my Carol Merrill impersonation.....if you are under 40, Google the name.....

Me--

Carol--

Finally!
He lives........well, after his morning coffee.....

Opening gifties of smelly stuff......

From my brother and his wife.....

Look!
Santa left us an old beagle under our tree.....just what we wanted......

Hubs Secret Santa gifties.......I think these books are going to lead to more expenses, but hopefully, with yummy results!

Hey! It isn't Christmas without sox and undies.....

#2 Son opens his "big" gift(a new $$$ amp), plugs in his bass and cranks up the volume.....thankfully the windows didn't crack!......

Note to self--next time you give a gift like this, be sure to wear earplugs when you come downstairs....

There are never any pictures of me opening up presents.......must be because I am the only one who takes photos.

Can you believe the beagle slept through that?!?  Now I KNOW she is deaf....

The second batch of rolls waiting to go into the oven.....

.....so they can turn out like this.....Hey! Who stole 3 rolls?!

 

After presents and while food was cooking I set about setting the table.  We are still using that folding camping table for the dining room table, but no excuse not to put out the Christmas dishes and good table linens, right?
So I found a gold tapestry table cloth that was the proper length to cover it and pulled out some coordinating cloth napkins.
But for gosh sakes, look at the size of the TAGS on them!

Couldn't hide them when I tried to fold the napkins either......they kept flapping out.....

Snip, snip, say, "Goodbye Martha!".  If you want to come to dinner here, you have to be an unobtrusive guest.....

What an egomaniacal witch she is to have to have a tag that large on a napkin!
I can see a tablecloth(the tag on the table covering was the same size),but a skimpy 12" x 12" piece of fabric too?
Heck, I could probably seam these together and make another napkin! lolz


Forgot to photograph the dinner(too busy eating it), but here is one of the desserts, a Trifle.
Except I don't own a trifle bowl.....oh well, it still tasted fine.

It was a cheap dessert since it used up some items I got cheaply that needed using.....a chocolate Entenmann's cake from the bakery outlet($1), 2 packs of instant vanilla pudding($2), half a container of leftover Cool Whip from Thanksgiving(.44¢), a few squirts of aerosol whipped cream(.50¢)and a bag of frozen strawberries($1-Dollar Tree).
It was by far the biggest hit with the young'uns....

No pictures of the dinner guests, just the desserts.....Hey!, you saw them on my Christmas Eve post and they hadn't changed much in the 18 hours since then.....lol

So how was your Christmas Day?

Tomorrow we take down the tree and decorations and pack 'em away for another year.....

Sluggy

 

 

 

 

Using Those Leftovers

We got 7 inches of white stuff today/last night.
Plus it was bitterly cold & windy despite the sunny day earlier.

Ok, who do I contact to get this snow stuff discontinued?
I don't remember subscribing to this weather!  Take my name off that list please.....


As per my post earlier in the week, here was the Meal Plan for the rest of the week(after we got back home NYE).....
Wednesday--Chicken Parmesan
Thursday--Cod
Friday--Lamb Chops
Saturday--Pork Chops

We had the Parm Wednesday and Pulled Pork(leftover pork roast and coleslaw I made) Thursday.
(I put all the Cod I got on special in the freezer because we had to use the pork.)

Today I went digging in the fridge and found 1 slab of rib roast plus the ribs Hubs had sliced off that had tons of meat around them.
I totally forgot about that leftover from Christmas dinner!

So instead of chops tonight, I boiled the bones down, did a sauté of onions and celery, added potatoes, green beans from the freezer and had Hubs pick up a bag of frozen carrots(sliced).  A little flour to thicken and some browning and fresh ground pepper gave us Beef Stew for dinner.....

We had leftover homemade rolls from Christmas dinner to sop up the juice.

No additional food cost except for $1 for the bag of frozen carrots.....everything was sourced from provisions already here.
And there is enough for 4 more servings, so at least 1 more meal's worth.
A great filling, rib sticking and warm meal for a beastly frigid night!

Tomorrow either lamb or pork chops are on deck with stuffing, apple sauce and Brussels sprouts.

Then I get to make a menu for next week.....oh, the thrills of my life just never end. lolz

We've got Stew and Pulled Pork leftovers, Cod and either Pork or Lamb(depending on what we eat tomorrow night)already here for next week.  Only 3 more meals to go for next week's plan to be completed.  If the cold & snow continues and I don't want to go out in it, I have 2 hunks of lasagna and quiche in the freezer I can thaw out for meals.  That just leaves 1 more meal to thunk up and buy supplies to prepare.

It looks like next week will be a light grocery shopping week.  Sounds good to me!  8-)

Sluggy

Net Worth Report/Changes....2013 to 2014

I started doing a monthly Net Worth statement in January 2013.
So on the heels of reporting in on my 2013 $20K Savings Challenge here is the change in our Net Worth from Jan. 2013 to Jan. 2014.......

This includes all the monies I get my hands on and don't spend(net income, dividends, interest, side income, tax refunds, etc.)during the year, plus all the retirement monies.  I don't include the house value(since we couldn't liquidate it and need to live SOMEWHERE)and the value of the stock we own(a tiny little amount), nor do I include the College Account monies(since that's technically not "our" money but the kids' money....even though it "was" our money to begin with lolz).

Anyway, our Net Worth from January 2013 to 2014 went up $62,734.61.

Most of that up tick is due to increases in the retirement monies because we spent $23,611.66 on emergencies(house improvements, repairs and supplies, car expenses) and vacation spending/travel last year from the $28,907.08 I saved in 2012, so we are only "up" $5,295.42 in the monies I control for 2013 from 2012.

I hope that last bit made some sense. ;-)

$62K is good but not great at this point in our journey to retirement.....but it's still better than a poke in the eye, right?

Sluggy
 

$20K Savings Challenge.....December Update & GRAND TOTAL for 2013

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 December report.....

I have posted my December 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 December.

I have to report that we finished up December with a little pile of cash to tuck away.
The extra cash amount we ended the month of December with?.......$1,281.68.

Income
We had $1,157.18 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in December totaled $124.50.  This brought us to our gain of $1281.68 for December.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  Cable, Phone, Water were all approx. the same amounts as in November.

*  I spent under $300 for food/toiletries in December.  (This almost makes up for overshooting that budget by $180 last month).
*  I didn't buy any living room furniture yet so no spending there. 

 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  $310 more was spent in cash over November's total of cash spending.  I blame Hubs paying cash for Christmas stuff.

*  The electric bill was $100 MORE than November's bill.  I blame the cold weather/turning the heat up.

*  We had unexpected pet related spending of $104 due to the dog having ear infections.
*  The credit card bill was almost $500 MORE than November's bill. I blame Christmas again.

 

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

The 2013 GRAND TOTAL.....
With all 12 months accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2013 is $24,033.60. 
 

We surpassed our goal by $4,033.60!  8-)))
 

Looking ahead for January and all of 2014......

*  I will continue to do this Savings Challenge and report in each month on how it is going.
 

*  I need to sit down with Hubs and have our Yearly Financial Meeting to go over how and what we spent on in 2013 and see where we need to cut back, change or expand the spending for 2014.  We'll break down the monthly spending and analyze how we did financially in each category.  Then we'll look ahead into 2014 and try to anticipate where we'll need to put our money toward and how much we can hope to save.

*  Figure out how much of the money saved in the year before's 2012 Savings Challenge didn't get spent in 2013, so it can now be tucked away permanently into a savings/investment instrument.  Going forward into 2014, any funds saved in 2013's Savings Challenge now become our mini-emergency fund for 2014.  Any emergencies that can't be paid for using extra income each month after the bills are all paid will be paid for out of this $24,033.60 Savings Fund.(Then when 2015 rolls around whatever was saved in 2013 and not spent on emergencies/extras in 2014 gets tucked away permanently into savings.)

*  January credit card bill will once again be large like December's(due to Christmas and travel expenses)but will be paid off this month.  No interest paid evah! ;-)

*  The quarterly garbage bill is due this month.

*  Semi-annual car insurance will be due in February so I need to keep an eye on credit card spending in January so we don't have to dip into the Savings Challenge funds to pay the insurance.  It's just a matter of watching WHEN we spent not so much NOT spending on something.

 

So how was your December financially?
  

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