The Church Auction

We attend a local small church auction every Fall.
This year's was held last Saturday.

We ended up spending $400 at last year's event but we only spent $315 this year on our winnings.

Items offered include goods and services to local businesses as well as "things", both new and used, donated by church members.
Sometimes items when offered up don't garner bids so they add other more desirable goods to the pot.

This is why/how I ended up with a set of hair rollers(lolz), a used George Foreman grill, as well as this set of items........

A large pair of ceramic Staffordshire dogs.


Not something I want but the $50 of pet boarding and $20 in McDonald's certificates that came bundled with it was well worth my winning bid of $15.

These items they "throw into a deal" that aren't something we want or can use will be offered to family or then sent to Salvation Army as donations if no one else wants them.
And the SA donations we get to write off our taxes at the end of the year so it's just a win/win for us.

Here is what I ended up bringing home......

1 large jarred Yankee Candle
1 Fall décor tchotchke
$12 GC local Italian restaurant
$12 GC another Italian restaurant
5 x $10 GC McDonald's
$20 GC local bar/inn
1 Free Oil Change local garage
$20 GC local sub/pizza place
$25 GC Price Chopper grocery store
6 x Discount cards for Domino's Pizza
$20 GC Sonic
$20 GC Bonanza steakhouse
$20 GC Sheetz gas
1 George Foreman grill(used)
1 pair ceramic dogs
$100 GC  local pet boarding
$20 GC Red Robin
$25 GC Sweet Frog frozen yogurt
1 pie pumpkin
1 living room designer lamp
1 concrete Welcome statue w/puppies
1 free pizza local pizza restaurant
1 free haircut local barber shop
$50 GC local pet boarding
$25 GC Advance Auto stores
$10 GC local Greek restaurant

 

I figure the total value is about $605 for all this.
I paid $315.

                             
All the gift certificates except for 3 Hubs is holding onto.

A few of the deals were not so great.
I should know better than to do some of them since I go to this every. single. year.

The problem with the gift certificates is that you can't see what the actual "deal" is when you bid.
The give you the $ value of the item and where it's from.
Not until you win and you open the envelope do you see what you actually got.

One year I bid on a $40 value from a local restaurant and when I opened the envelope it wasn't just a GC worth $40.  It was 5 coupons for a free appetizer, each valued at $8.  This meant we'd get an $8 appetizer when we bought a meal, meaning we had to spend A LOT of money before seeing that $8 benefit. grrrrr.
 Not the deal I thought I was getting of a certificate worth $40 off your dining bill. lolz

Last year I bid on 2 different Domino's deals, worth $20 each, and won both.
One envelope held 2 $10 off gift cards.
The other envelope held 2 punch cards with 16 punches for a BOGO free pizza. 
These cards weree fundraising cards that could be purchased for $10 each(so $20 value). 

Now getting $10 or $20 off a pizza purchase is good, getting the opportunity to purchase 32 pizzas and then getting 32 pizzas free is NOT such a good deal.
Unless of course you eat A LOT of pizza on a regular basis. ;-)

Well stupid me bid on a $20 value Domino's envelope this year and won it.
Instead of OPENING the envelope and finding out that it was 2 of those stupid punch cards I didn't want I didn't THINK to check it before they offered more $20 Domino's envelopes up for bids.

I ended up winning THREE envelopes of Domino's punch cards for a total of 6!
Ugh.

Domino's had only given the church punch cards this year.......

So now I have until June 2015 to buy 192 pizzas and get 96 of them free.
That's 13+ weeks(THREE + MONTHS!) of eating nothing but pizza for dinner every night of the week.
Or if I spread it out over the whole stretch from now until the end of June 2015, that's a pizza for dinner about every 2.65 days.....or pizza about 3 times a week.

I.
Am.
An.
Idiot.

So I'll be offering some of these punch cards to my 2 oldest kids and maybe put one in the next giveaway box because we can't possibly eat that much pizza.

Well we COULD eat that much pizza but it wouldn't be a prudent thing to do....... ;-)

I did bid on and win 1 "thing" I wanted.
A lamp for the living room as we are still gathering items to furnish it.

A new lamp with a green base.  Won it for $15.
My new living room is slowing turning into the "Green Room"....... lolz

The only other regret on my bidding at the auctions that I had was that I didn't win that purple slow cooker!
I really didn't NEED it and the bids when to $26 which was too high for me.
But the freaking thing was PURPLE!

Sigh......


Sluggy


 

October Net Worth

I like to do these "snapshot" type totals on the personal net worth on the 1sts of every month.
Just take all your assets(cash,investments,loans owed to you) and subtract your liabilities(debts) and you get your Personal Net Worth.
Not very scientific but it gives me a sense of which direction we are heading in.  8-)

We are up from September 1's total.
Net Worth on just our cash and non-retirement accounts on October 1st went down $721.55 from the September 1st total.
Well that's what happens when, though you didn't spend all your month's income, you shell out a couple thousand dollars of savings on a new driveway.

The retirement accounts went up by $4,863.93 however, leaving us with an overall gain of $3,911.90 for October over our September net worth standing.

Yay us!

Since moving the bulk of our retirement money into safer more stable instruments(since we are so close to cashing out), we don't see the gains we use to on that money.  This disappoints me every month until I remember that we are being prudent and wise with the money at this stage in the game.
Not very wise to keep gambling with assets with the market so volatile.

Hubs and I had a sit-down a few days ago to see where we need to move money to.  We had some liquid cash sitting not earning anything for us so we'll move it into a CD where it will at least earn 1%......a pitiful 1%....... 8-P

How is your money doing?
Is this month better than last month or not?
How do you keep your money working for you when you aren't using it?

Sluggy




 

My Day Out & Grocery Shopping

The weather here was nice and the colors on the trees are about at their height for the season, so I had a rare day out by myself.

I drove an hour away to a Shop-Rite to get some groceries.
It's a wonderful drive through the forests on back country roads around here and little traffic as the ski resorts aren't open for another 2 months and the Summer tourists have gone home.
I had the moon roof open and the radio blasting.

And on the way back I stopped at an old isolated cemetery to snap some headstone photos to add to the back log I have of those.  During the Winter when it's too wicked to wander the graveyards I'll have lots of pictures to post on Find A Grave.
Just thinking ahead and gathering as many photos as I can before the weather turns.
But I digress......

I like to go to Shop-Rite a few times a year for some deals, if not for the lovely drive.
I must confess I haven't been in almost 2 years.  Eek.

I checked out the coupon matchups for this week, clipped or printed some Qs, and scored a few things.

First I did this transaction--

4 x Arm & Hammer laundry detergent $1.66 each
I used 2 x $2/2 ManQs to bring the price down to .66¢ a bottle.

2 x Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner
1 x Shout stain remover/cleaner
1 x Windex multipurpose cleaner
These 4 were $7.96 wyb 4.
I have $4 in IPQs(2 x .50¢ ones doubled), plus $2 in electronic Qs loaded to my Shop-Rite card so each bottle cost me .49¢.  I can't make my own cleaners for that cheap!
Buying these 4 also generated a $3 OYNO Catalina Q.

Then I spent $7.98 on 3 x Oreos, $6 on 2 x Ritz crackers and $6.16 on Power-Ades, totaling $20.14.
$3 in electronic Qs came off making all this $17.14.
I also earned a $5 OYNO for spending $20+(before Qs)on these items.

The total for all was $22.67 including .60¢ tax.
I received $8 in Cats to spend OMNO.
Regular retail value of $60.37.

Then I bought this load--

3 x Barilla boxes of pasta on sale .99¢
I used a $1/3 Barilla ManQ so these cost .66¢ a box.

1 x Box of Dole Corn soup on sale $2.50.
With the electronic $1/1 Q loaded onto my SR card and the $1/1 ManuQ combined this box o' soup cost me .50¢.

1 x Dole Smoothie Shaker on sale for $1.49.
With the $1/1 ManuQ this cost me .49¢.

1 x Tropicana Juice on sale $1.97.
With the $1/1 ManuQ this cost me .97¢

2 x Hall's cough drops on sale .99¢=$1.98
With the electronic $1/2 Q loaded onto my SR card and the $1/1 ManuQ combined  these cost me negative .02¢.  8-)

4 x Flipz choc. covered pretzels on sale $1.50 each.
With the 2 x $1/2 IPQs I used, they cost me $1.00 a bag.
Nom. Nom. Nom.

I also picked up 4 x 1lb. blocks of mozzarella on sale for $1.99 each.
Good price as these are usually $6.49 each.

A 1.67lb. piece of Atlantic Salmon on sale for $7.99 lb.
That came to $13.34 for the whole piece after discount and will yield us 4-5 large helpings.

And 1.23 lbs. of fresh ground turkey on clearance for $2.52.
That came out to $2.05 lb. and usually retails for $3.99 lb. in the stores here so about half what we pay reg. retail here.(Of course I only buy it if it goes on clearance....lol)

Subtotal of $40.73-$9 in Qs=$31.73-$8 Cats from previous transaction=$23.73-$2.11 SENIOR CITIZEN Discount the Cashier spontaneously gave me without asking me if I was one!lolz=$21.62 + .06 tax=$21.68 OOP.
Regular retail on this stuff was $70.99.

Some of it I only bought because I had a coupon and it was on sale and it didn't cost much.  We've never had that Dole soup so for .50¢ will give it a try.
.97¢ for a bottle of 100% juice is a great price.  .66¢ for laundry detergent, .49¢ for cleaners and pasta for .66¢ are worth picking up as well at that low price.

I spent $44.35 total on $131.36 of groceries.

Now I am down to 3 items left on my grocery list to pick up tomorrow on my regular grocery shopping day--green chiles, trout and clams. 
Then there is the Rite-Aid run......of course! lolz

I had a pleasant day out and didn't spend it sitting on the internet in the house like usual and got me some dealz.

Have you found any good deals where you are this week?

Sluggy


 

Rite-Aid How To Tutorial

Reader Jennifer asked last week in a comment about how to get started at Rite-Aid.
So this post is for her and any other reader out there who wants to jump onto the Rite-Aid bandwagon.

First off, you need to go to the store and get this......

A Wellness Card
It's the Rite-Aid store loyalty card program.

Every time you buy something at Rite-Aid give them your card and you receive 1 point credit for every dollar you spend.
If you also have prescriptions filled at Rite-Aid, hand over the card when you pay for those and you'll get points for each rx paid for.(Usually you get 25 points per rx, but this can vary. If you fill pet prescriptions at Rite-Aid you can also get points on your card for those.)

This 1 point=$1 spent is calculated BEFORE you use any coupons or +Up Rewards you use to bring your out of pocket cost down.
Once your Wellness card account gets to 500 points you are at the Silver Level and will get to choose a Wellness Reward and you will then receive a 10% discount every time you shop at Rite-Aid on non-prescription items(Some exclusions apply).
After you get to 1000 points you will get 20% off on products in the store.  That's the highest discount level, or Gold Level.

These discounts apply to REGULAR PRICED MERCHANDISE in the store.  If the weekly sale price is lower you will receive the sale price on an item.  If your Wellness level discount % price is lower than the sale price you will receive that % discount price instead of the sale price.
Usually the sale price is lower than your % discount but sometimes if you have the Gold 20% discount level that may kick in as it's lower.

Now go to the Rite-Aid website(riteaid dotcom)and sign up for an online Wellness account.  That is where you can check your Wellness point total, load electronic coupons onto your card(called Load 2 Card) and access the AdPerk/Video Values Coupons.

Once you set up your online Wellness account you can sign in and go to the start page.
Scroll down and you should see something like this.....

I have circled where you can go to the Load2Card section and where you can link to the Video Values section.

Load 2 Card(aka L2C)is where you can clip coupons to your Wellness card.
L2C doesn't always work properly.
Sometimes coupons you clip and try to use don't come off your bill.
Sometimes if you have a L2C but you want to use a paper coupons instead because it's a higher value, once you scan your Wellness card, the L2C coupon comes off and then when the cashier tries to scan your paper coupon the register will beep and not accept the paper coupon.  The cashier can "push" the coupon through(by putting it as a generic manufacturer's coupon.  Other times the L2C will automatically fall off your transaction once the cashier puts the paper coupon through.
You just never know which it will be.
Many cashiers either don't know or don't care about the L2Cs if they pop onto your receipt and cause havoc in this way, so if the L2C won't drop off your transaction when the cashier scans the paper coupon just show them you bought the correct product and they will usually push the coupon through.
(Coupons beeping at the register is very common in the couponing world.)
There may be a way for the cashier to manually remove a L2C but I have never seen a cashier do that.

Video Values are short commercials you watch(you don't have to actually watch them, just play then and keep the screen active but go do something else online in a different screen until they are finished), and then can print a Rite-Aid coupon for a product.  Go to the Rite-Aid website to access the site with these videos on them.  You can print and use each VV coupon one time.  Of course if you have multiple Wellness accounts, each account can use 1 of these VV coupons.

You can stack a Video Values coupon with a Manufacturer's coupon(either one from the Sunday inserts, or other printed one like a peelie or from a tearpad)or a Manufacturer's coupon you print online.  In regard to stacking coupons, some stores will also let you use a manufacturer's coupon found stuck onto the product you are buying(called a peelie)-they can "push" these type through at the register, just make sure they scan them AFTER the paper manufacturer's coupon you want to use and/or they will also allow you to stack a third coupon on a product, just as a Rite-Aid Facebook coupon or an In-Ad coupon from the weekly sales flyer.

In-Ad coupons--These are found in the weekly Rite-aid sales flyers.  If you don't get one in your local Sunday paper, just pick one up when you go into the store.  You can access the weekly sales ads weeks ahead of time to plan your transactions at websites such as "I 'Heart' Rite-Aid"(iheartriteaid dotcom) and Slick Deals (slickdeals dotnet).
Most In-Ad coupons will say "Limit one per customer."  Some stores don't enforce this rule, some do.
Some deals you want to do may require purchasing more than one of the item in a transaction to get an +Up Rewards so you may have to use more than 1 of these In-Ad coupons(only 1 per item though).  You can try to use more than one but don't get greedy and try to use many multiples.  My store is a bit lax on this Limit of 1 rule, but I don't push it and only will use 2 of these coupons in an order(buying 2 items, 1 of these coupons per item).
Not 3 or 5 or 10.  Just 2.  And I have never had a problem.
You need to get to "know" your store and see if they have a problem with this.
As with many other things in couponing, "Your mileage may vary" aka YMMV.

Rite-Aid also puts out coupons through it's Facebook account.
Go HERE and "like" them.
tTen you can check that page often to find coupons you may want to use, or just go check I Heart Rite-Aids webpage because she posts when their Facebook coupons are released.
The RA Facebook coupons are usually limited to 10K prints and are usually only up there for a week so don't delay in printing ones you may want to use.  The period in which they are valid for can be just until the end of that week's sales ad or can run 2-3 weeks or the entire month.  It varies.

Once you have a Wellness Account and R-A has your mailing address they may send you coupons and/or offers by snail mail.  I rarely get this sort of mail from R-A, but it does happen.

Some Rite-Aid stores have Catalina machines connected to their registers.  These are small grey boxes that sit next to the register at your checkout counter.  When you buy certain items this machine may print out a coupon for you.  These are called Catalina coupons or CATS for short.  The machine will be prompted to print you a CAT because you bought a product made by one company and they want you to try a similar product form another company, or it may print out a CAT because you bought a product from a certain company and they want you to buy more(ie-you purchase 3 cans of cat food so they give you a $off CAT when buying 5 cans of the same product).

+Up Rewards are the scrip you get back when you do a "deal".  Some items in the sales ad will give you back this "Rite-Aid $" if you buy certain items in certain quantities.  Sometimes you have to buy them all in a single transaction, sometimes you can buy them over the course of the week(or month if it's a monthly deal).  "Usually" if you need to purchase items costing over $10 to get a Deal, the purchases will "track"(be recorded to your card) so you can buy them in more than one transaction.  Generally Deals where you need to buy under $10 worth of items don't track, so make sure you purchase them all together in one transaction.  It doesn't always apply but it's a good rule of thumb to follow this advice.

The point of the game is to buy items you need, when they are on sale, using coupons to bring that price down more, spend previous +Up Rewards to pay so you spend very little real cash and get back more new +Up Rewards to pay for items you will buy next time.
If everyone is working well and you plan carefully you can spend only pennies on the dollar.

In order to get the best mileage out of your coupons and get the best deals you need to access coupons and Rite-Aid sales ads well in advance of when the sales begin on Sunday.
You must plan out your transaction ahead of time.
Slick Deals and I Heart Rite-Aid both post scans of upcoming sales ads weeks ahead.  Readers on both those sights will also post ideas for what to buy and what it will cost out of pocket after sales/coupons/rebates/+Up Rewards.

One more thing you need to do--the first time you go to Rite-Aid, after you sign up for the Wellness account/card, tell the cashier before you do your first transaction that you want to OPT OUT of having your +Up Rewards electronically attached to your Wellness card.
Very important step to do!
If you don't OPT OUT, when you receive a +Up Reward for purchasing an item(s), that +Up Reward will be electronic and attach to your card.
If you OPT OUT, when you receive a +Up Reward for purchasing an item(s) it will print out on your receipt.

The next time you go to do a transaction at Rite-Aid you can choose which paper +Up Reward to use or not.  This is helpful if you have access to more than 1 Wellness card, because you can use +Up Rewards you earned on one card to pay for purchases made on a different Wellness card in subsequent trips.

If you do not wish to use a +Up Rewards and it's attached electronically to your card, you must first go into your Wellness account online and "unclip" it under your Rewards Earned tab.

I OPT OUT for 3 reasons....
1. I can use +Up Rewards between multiple cards.
2. It's a PITA to have to unclip +Up Rewards if I don't want them used on a certain transaction.
3. Like the Load2Card coupons, I don't trust this electronic system either.

Now, after you've done your transaction and you qualified for a Deal, you will receipt one of these....

A +Up Reward.
There is a 2 week(14 day)time frame in which you Must use this before it expires.  It will be 14 days from the day it prints out on your receipt.  You can use it to pay for most items at Rite-Aid(except for lottery tickets, gift cards, money orders, milk, etc. which is printed on the bottom in the fine print).

The point in doing the Rite-aid Game is to use sale prices, coupons and +Up Rewards to pay for your items bought and pay no cash out of your pocket.
When you spend +Up Rewards and get back an equal amount in +Up Rewards to what you spent it is called "Rolling your +Ups".  Rolling +Ups is optimum but not always possible.  Sometimes you have no choice but to "Spend Down your +Ups".

To get started you will need to actually spend some money because, while you have coupons to use, you won't have any +Ups at first.
That will quickly change after you do a couple of transactions on items that give back +Ups.

Another thought about prescriptions and earning rewards--Now and again Rite-Aid will put an offer for a $25 +Up Reward into their weekly sales flyers if you transfer a prescription from another company's pharmacy to Rite-Aid.  You only have to have it filled one time by Rite-Aid and then you can transfer it back somewhere else, so basically no strings attached to $25 in free Rite-Aid scrip, except to get it filled there once.  Be sure to read the offer(in the form of a coupon in the ad)as there will be a limit of how many transfers you can earn the scrip on, plus the transfer coupon will also have an expiration date.
Using 2 different Wellness cards I transferred 3 Rxs the end of August for $75 in free Rite-Aid scrip, which I have been using over the last 2 months to get lots of items for nearly free. 8-)


Here is a list of abbreviations of common Rite-Aid Terms--

L2C=Load 2 Card coupons
+Up=+Up Rewards
ManuQ or ManQ or MQ=Manufacturer's coupons
IPQ=Internet printed coupons
YMMV=Your Mileage May Vary
Roll=to use +Ups and get back an equal amount spent
VV or VideoValues or AdPerk=one type of Rite only coupons
Peelies=small MQs found on products...you peel them off and use them
Tearpad=MQs found on tearpads
Blinkies=MQs found in those blinking light boxes hanging on store shelves that usually
CAT=Catalina machine generated coupon
WYB=When You Buy
BOGO or B1G1=Buy 1 Get 1 Free
BOGO%=Buy 1 Get a % off a 2nd One
CRT=Cash Register Tape or your Receipt
HTG=hangtag Q or MQ found hanging on a product
OYNO=On Your Next Order
STACKING=Using multiple Qs on 1 product to reduce it's cost
FBQ=Facebook Coupon
RSP or PSA=Regular Shelf Price or Price Starting At
RA or R-A=Rite-Aid

If anyone has any questions or needs clarification on anything I wrote, I'd be happy to answer them if I can.  Either email me privately or leave a comment on this post.

I hope this long boring missive proves useful to some of y'all.

Sluggy
 

Rite-Aid Booty This Week & A Heads Up

My first trip to Rite-Aid for the week......

2 x Playtex tampons 32ct. 20% wellness disc. $7.59ea.=$15.18
1 x Vaseline lotion large one on sale=$5.99
SubTotal.....$21.17

Coupons Used
1 x $3/1 Playtex tampons L2CQ=$3.00
1 x $3/1 Playtex tampons MQ(coupons dotcom)=$3.00
2 x $3/1 Playtex tampons In-Ad Q=$6.00
1 x $2/1 Vaseline lotion L2CQ=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Vaseline lotion Video ValuesQ=$2.00*
Coupon Total......$16.00

$21.17-$16.00=$5.17 + .12¢ tax=$5.29

I used a $5 +Ups and paid .29¢ OOP.

I received back $4 in +Up Rewards($1 Vaseline, $3 Playtex wyb2).

* My $2/1 Vaseline Video Values Q printed with an expiration date of 10/4 on the banner at the top of the Q.  Many people had this problem if they printed out their VVQ early.  But the Q says expiration date 10/11/2014 at the bottom, just under the Q.  I pointed that out to the cashier when he saw the 10/4 expiration at the top.
He tried to scan it in anyway and it worked.  If your Q printed the 10/4 expiration date at the top, just point out that it's wrong(refer to the correct expiration date at the bottom)and ask them to try it anyway.  It should go through without a problem.

HEADS UP--If you want to do the $3 +Ups Playtex tampons, or $3 +Ups Edge/Skintimate shaving gel and/or the $3 +Ups Schick razors Deals this week please be aware that these are all part of the same +Ups generating Deal!
And the Wet Ones Deal if you did that one last week is also part of the same Reward.

There is a limit of 2 of these deals total per Wellness account so if you do more than 2 of any of these Deals you won't get the +Up after you receive it twice.

Sluggy


 

This Week on the Dining Table

The "The Garden is Kaput" Edition---

We got a hard frost the other night so the plants no longer look like this(taken 6 weeks ago).

They look like this......

I went out a little while ago and picked the last of the ripe tomatoes too.

Onward to the meal planning!

What was planned last week--
1.  Leftovers

2.  Fish fry, leftover coleslaw, veggie of some kind from the freezer

3.  Leftovers

4.  Leftovers

5.  Pork Chops, Red Cabbage w/Apples
6.  Chili(using leftover taco meat)over Rice or with Burritos
7.  Subway sandwiches

 

And this is what actually happened--
1.  Leftover Lasagna, Tossed Salad w/almond slivers

2.  Fish fry, leftover coleslaw, veggie of some kind from the freezer

3.  Me-leftover lemon chicken and zuke, Hubs-leftover stuffed peppers w/rice

4.  Hubs-leftover lemon chicken and zuke, Me-large salad

5.  Leftover stuffed peppers w/rice
6.  Chili with Burritos
7.  Subway sandwiches

  

The plan was kept to pretty much, except we had more leftovers than I thought, so the pork chops didn't happen.  They move to this week's menu.
    

Last week I made trips to 3 different local markets and spent $53.99 and 6 transactions at Rite-Aid(since Oct.1st)where I spent $3.29 total.
$57.28 down and $242.72 left in my October food budget.

Going into this week, in leftovers we have.........chili and spaghetti sauce w/meat.  I have some tomatoes from the garden to use up too.

Here is the plan for this week.........

1.  Lamb chops(freezer), steamed cabbage

2.  Rigatoni w/meat sauce(leftover), tossed salad(put my tomatoes in this)

3.  Meatloaf, butternut squash(use my tomatoes in sauce for the meatloaf)

4.  BLT sandwiches(have all ingredients-use my tomatoes)

5.  Pork Chops, Red Cabbage w/Apples
6.  Chili(leftover) over Rice
7.  New Leftovers


Food Waste--nothing.

What I need to buy this week.......nothing for this menu.  I bought the ground beef on Sat. and the red cabbage and squash 2 or 3 weeks ago at the farm stand.

The only items I want at my regular grocery stores this week are 4 items on sale-- a 2 lb. bag of shredded mozzarella, 12 cans of green chiles, 3 cans of clams and 1lb. of fresh trout.  That should come to $27 or thereabouts.

   

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?
Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten that week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week?
How much did you spend on food so far in September?

 

Sluggy

$24K Savings Challenge......September Update

Every year I keep a close eye on our monthly expenses and our monthly income.
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 amounts, plus taxes and medical/dental/vision premiums 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, annual etc.) and our variable bills(like food, eating out, clothing  etc.)  Anything left over once our monthly expenses are paid, I put aside into a Savings Challenge. 

For 2014 I am continuing my Yearly Savings Challenge.  I am raising the Goal amount slightly to $24,000 this year, $4K more than my goal for last year.

On to the September report.....

I have posted my September End of Month $24K $AVING$ CHALLENGE Totals.
Check out the Savings Challenge page tab at the top of the blog for the specific numbers HERE.

I have 2 goals each month.....
The 1st is to actually finish each month in the black and not the red.
The 2nd is to hit the targeted savings amount of $2,000.

I have to report that we finished up September with a good chunk of change.
The extra amount we ended the month of  September with?.......$2606.55.

Income

We had $2200.26 left over from our income after our monthly expenses were deducted.
 

Other monies received in September totaled $406.29.  This included interest made on non-retirement accounts, a per diem, 2 dividends and a refund on our car insurance after getting rid of the car early in September(the car insurance refund for the minivan will probably arrive sometime in October).

This brought us to our gain of $2,606.55.
Since we have no debt, this goes into savings.

Outgo

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

HERE are the GOOD THINGS

 

*  The water bill went down by $20.43 from August.
*  Cash spent went down by $170 from August.
*  The electric bill went down by $60.89 from August.
*  Cable and phone charges were approx. the same as last month.
*  The credit card bill(paid off in full each month) was low for us(under $1K).
 

HERE are the BAD THINGS

 

*  The school taxes(part of the property taxes)were due.
*  The quarterly garbage bill was due.

Clearly the Good outweighed the Bad this month.  Having all the kids out of the house helped our bottom line.

 

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

The 2014 GRAND TOTAL.....
With 9 months accounted for, our Savings Grand Total for 2014 is $17,023.83.

Our monthly average is $1,891.53 saved at this point in the year.
 

Only $6,976.17 Total left to meet the yearly goal and 3 months left to dig this up out of our income.
That comes out to an average of $2,325.39 for each of the next 3 months. 

Since I shoot for $2K savings per month and there are only 3 months left, we are $976.17 behind the eight ball, as we should have a full $18,000 saved to this point.  Not quite on schedule but REAL close!
October is our 2nd 2 paycheck month for 2014 so unless something runs off the tracks totally, we should be able to eek out enough savings in October to get a bit ahead of schedule.
  

 

Looking ahead for October......

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

*  We have no irregular bills due in October.

*  We will have our Reunion trip c/c bills due in October.  They came to $593.19. The current c/c bill is at $1189.91 and unless Hubs puts more gas charges on the c/c that will be the total owed since the bill closes in 4 days time from now.
 We will also incur more traveling bills this month but they won't be due until November's c/c bill(outside of the one night the hotel has already charged our card).

 

So how was your September financially?
  

Did you spend less than the income you had in September?
Did you stay within your budget or not?
Did you pay off any debts or put extra toward your mortgage principle or into savings in an emergency fund or a retirement account?

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

Sluggy