You are all aware of our savings goal of $ 113,028.70 in 3 years. We are now in our 6th month of saving now since we are in November. The past five months we have been able to save a total of $29, 292.67. That leaves $83,736.03 to reach our goal over the next 2 and 1/2 years. However we would like to beef up our savings now and all next year to see how close we can get to saving that $ 83,736.03. I would really like to save it sooner rather than later.
We have 2 birthday gifts for our sons this month. I have my 2 sons, a daughter in law, and 2 grandchildren to give Christmas gifts to. We also had our quarterly pest control service come today. Yesterday, our snow plow guy came and collected the $500. for that service this winter. I had an expensive teeth cleaning yesterday- $268. which I paid in full. They no longer offer a dental plan. That was just for a cleaning. I told them no fluoride or varnish this time. They tried to do X rays. I told them no that they had done them last year and I only do those every two years. Then when my hygienist did my cleaning she said I had a little inflammation around 2 teeth. I told her I have had no problem or soreness. Well, she said she would like to do the varnish because that would help the inflammation. Then she said she would not charge me the $35. for it. I said fine. That saved me money. Their dental prices are way too high to begin with and any savings I can get I am thankful for. I also came home with a big bag of dental supplies including the GUM rubber picks. I love these. We have the money set aside for all of this to get us through the end of 2024.
So we will be saving every dime that we can in any way that we can. So you will see me posting any time we cut costs again and how we are doing it. That will start on Monday and go through all of next year. I hope at the end of next year to have really saved a lot of what we need by December 31st of 2025.
Are you working on any savings goals especially for the New Year? Feel free to share them with us.
Last week’s grocery haul was mainly a stock up haul. At Aldi’s I purchased 12 cans of pumpkin. I checked my stockpile and I had made a mistake in my inventory on how much pumpkin I had. I did not have enough to last until next year. The pumpkin was $ 1.15 a can so I paid $ 13.80 for it. The cashews were $ 10.49. Two boxes of tissues were $ 1.49 each for a total of $ 2.98. The Bangi Bangi and Sweet and Sour sauces were $ 1.39 each for a total of $ 5.56. The bag of pistachios was $4.49 and the 2 citrus sauces were $ 1.09 each totaling $ 6.67.
This is the rest of my Aldi’s order. I got 12 cans of fried apples with cinnamon. I usually make my own, However, we tried a can of these with our turkey dinner and Hubby loved them. Due to the fact that we do not keep a lot of apples in our home, these will be handy on days that I don’t have any. They were $ 1.99 each for a total of $ 23.88. I also picked up 4 avocados which I eat with my eggs and some kind of meat in the morning. They were on sale for $ .69 each so $ 2.76 for all. My total Aldi’s order came to $ 66.14.
Next I went to Dollar Tree where I purchased 4 – 2oz. bottles of A1 sauce for $ 1.25 each for a total of $5.00. That is cheaper than I can buy an 8 oz. bottle at Walmart. The Heinz 57 were also $1.25 so $ 2.50 for 2 bottles. We only use this in a few recipes so 2 will last me a year. I also bought 2 more toilet bowl cleaners for $ 2.50 for both. Total for all was $10.20.
Next stop was Walmart where I purchased 2 Mission Carb Balance tortillas for $ 2.44 each or $ 4.88 for both and 3 GV Taco Seasoning mixes for $.54 each or $ 1.62 for all. I also purchased 2 Wolf Brand Chili’s for $ 2.37 each for a total of $ 4.74, a 2 pack of cream cheese for $ 3.67, 1 Pillsbury Pizza Crust for $ 3.64, and a large GV Strawberry Yogurt for $ 2.56. The total for all was $ 21.11.
The last stop was Top’s where I purchased a multi pack of Chobani yogurt with a Free manufacturers coupon( savings of $5.99), a single serve Chobani yogurt with a Free coupon(savings of $ 1.69), 3 Smithfield ham steaks on sale for 3/$10., a Daisy pineapple cottage cheese for $ 1.34 minus a $.50 coupon was $ .84, Thomas English muffins on sale for $2.79, 2 Maxwell House coffee on B1G1F so a total of $ 18.99, 2 pepperoni on sale for B1G1F so a total of $ 3.99 for both, a LOL Fresh Butter taste spread for $ 2.19 minus a $.55/1 coupon that doubled for a total of $ 1.09 and a block of cheddar cheese for $ 2.19. My Top’s total was $ 39.89.
The grocery total for all was $ 137.34. I did all of this in one day and I was exhausted.
I needed a quiet weekend to recuperate. We enjoyed some down time and the Buffalo Bills football game which we won in the last few seconds of the game with a 61 yard field goal by our kicker, Tyler Bass. A Buffalo Bills record was set with that.
An hour before Hubby was to grill 2 strip steaks for dinner, I got them out of the fridge to season them. The strong smell of vinegar hit me and I knew immediately they were bad. That is the second time in a year that I have gotten rotten meat from Top’s. I will not be buying any beef there again. I threw them out and went to my freezer and grabbed a bag of extra large shrimp. We had large shrimp cocktails for dinner. The thought to order in wasn’t even considered. I have enough food that we can do a quick meal when needed.
Yesterday, I had a Walmart order delivered for $ 114.+ I did not take pictures but they were mainly stock up items for the pantry. Eggs are becoming more and more in short supply across the country. Why? Who knows. I suppose it could be the bird flu. But I ordered another box of 60 count eggs for $10.48 so that we will not run out. I can’t imagine not having enough eggs to bake with during the holidays. So if you are low on eggs, get them while you still can. The other shortage that is rearing it’s ugly head is OTC drugs. Walmart is limiting people to 1 of each. So if you need anything for the winter cold season get them now. People are also asking where’s the Campbell soups?
Hopefully we are totally stocked up for the winter and will only need to get fresh stuff. I will be doing a challenge starting in January 2025 for groceries but more on that at a later time.
Did you get any good grocery deals this week?
Also a BIG REMINDER to go vote today if you haven’t already! Make sure you turn the ballot over to vote on the amendment. Don’t miss it. I am voting no because I do not believe it is a good thing for we Americans. It is time to put American citizens first.
I am always honest with you. We only saved $ 471.70 in October. The biggest reason is all the expenses we had to get our property ready for winter. We had Aqua Systems come and blow the lines out on our sprinkler system which was over $100 . The bill came for $ 648. for the trees that were taken down the end of September. We put a $ 500. deposit down on the railing that is being made for our back steps. We will owe another $1100. when the job is done.
We paid $ 200. in doctor bills and $70 in prescriptions for me.
We spent much more than we had been spending on groceries in order to stock up on food, household items, and OTC medicines for the winter. That was an extra $1000. I did not show any of this on this blog.
We needed many things for Eloise and I wanted to stock up on some food and litter for her for the winter. Chewy is very happy with my spending on her. Those bills came to $438. Pets are expensive as I am finding out.
I paid my domain charge for the blog for a year. Spectrum bills went up by around $10. a month. Our electric and natural gas bill went up.
We went out to eat twice. Those bills added up to $180.
We paid our Texas property taxes.
We sent a housewarming gift to friends of ours for $100. Hubby also sent $ 150. to Tunnels to Towers. He gives them money twice a year.
I spent $200. on clothes for me which is very unusual. However some of my things were getting threadbare. I also purchased a fit bit type watch to monitor my heart.
Hubby purchased a really good cover for our grill for the winter. We plan on using the grill weather permitting most of the winter. He also bought a large thick rubber mat to park the snowblower in the garage when we bring it up from the shed. We have a plow guy for the winter but not until December 1st. We may need to snow blow if we get snow in November. Fingers crossed we don’t have to.
We plan for all of these extras by saving money every month. However, once we put money into savings and investments, we do not like taking it back out. So these things we spent on this month came out of our checking account. That is what we try to do every month.
I expect some large expenses this month also. I have to get all of the monetary Christmas gifts ready for December. The same goes for both of my son’s birthdays.
We will have another large expense but I won’t talk about that until December.
With the exceptions of those expenses, we will be saving as much as possible in both November and December.
Did you save any money in your investments and savings in October? Ours was small but every little bit helps us get to our goal.
