January month end check in

How crazy is it that January flew by so fast?! Every new month seem to go by faster than the last.  Here are my numbers for January.

Groceries/HBA/Cleaning

Produce market : $51.36

Aldi : 32.50

Dollar Tree : $3.00 (newspaper)

Kroger : $59.55

Meijer : $39.72

Sams : $487.82

Walmart : $74.12

Walgreens : $28.40

Total OOP : $776.47

Earnings 

$42.27 Ibotta + $27.25 KCB

Total earnings : $69.52

My earned drugstore rewards are not included in this amount.I count them when I spend it. 

My high Sams total was intentional. I did not want to make multiple trips to the store, so I decided to just stock up for February when I shopped during the last week of January. 

The grocery ads are so dismal. Sales are slims pickings and everything now cost way more. I find myself doing the bulk of my shopping at Sams and then just filling in the gaps at the other stores. Kroger has been really good sales wise, but darn if their cash back isn't a pain in the patoot. I, once again, didn't receive my latest KC and figured I had to contact CS again. It finally credited after 5 days. Oy vey!

I'm giving myself $200 grocery money for February. That might be too much, but the drugstores can throw me off, so I'm giving myself a generous amount. I also have $40 Walmart gcs, so we're in great shape, especially since Sams is done. I only need some select produce items and yogurt from Sams. Add in my KC and I have a total of $247.25 to spend this month. I can do this...lol

I haven't done any February shopping yet. I've made my shopping lists, but they are short ones. I'm trying to just cherry pick this month. I really don't want to go to the produce market since they have become pricey, but they have the best price on loose beets and leeks. I also want to see if I can get some $2 fruit boxes. 

MONEY EARNED (SIDE HUSTLE)

GCs Earned $25 (Mypoints)

Personal items (things we've had listed for the past 2 years) : $122.44

2022 Closet cleanout : $80.56

Big goal : $0

4K Challenge: $15.57

Total earnings : $243.57

Earnings are pretty decent for January. People are usually recovering from holiday shopping, so January is normally a ho-hum kinda sales month. 

I listed 24 items from my closet this month. Go me! 

I pulled & listed way more than that from DS's closet. He has so many things that no longer fit, so I needed to replace a few things. So much for no shopping, but such is life. I need to check on winter clearance to see what I can purchase now for next winter. 

Thank you to the reader who recommened Soma. I found a bunch of sleep shirts on sale, so I stocked up. Paid with my WHBM gc. I was rather disappointed when it arrived, because the fabric was similar to the new el cheapo fabric Walmart currently has. I know that this isn't normal Soma quality, because I've shopped with them for years. Then one of DS's items I purchased, had similar quality too. Recycled polyester. No frigging way.

I have a theory. I know that my theory is 99.9% correct. The world is still in a pandemic. Most of our manufacturing is outsourced. So when China and other eastern countries shut down due to covid, we couldn't get anything produced from there. So retailers had to find alternative sources to get their products manufactured. It's not like shopping can come to a standstill. So they've moved manufacturing to whatever other countries they could (more cheap labor though).  This is why you'll notice that most items are either too small or too big. They're not used to working with American measurements (I don't know why the US doesn't switch to the metric system. It's so much easier). 

Now remember that fabric also needs to be manufactured. If they don't have the raw materials, then you can't produce fabric. If you don't have fabric, you can't produce new clothes. I've noticed that several retailers now try to pay you for your old clothes. Those old items are then recycled to produce 'new' clothes that we are now paying exorbitant prices for. If you look at the tags on your new clothing, many will say 'recycled polyester'. Once again, I'm glad that I stocked up before this madness. I don't like cheap fabric. I want good quality. I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for cheap recycled junk. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad things aren't going to the landfill and are getting recycled. The part I hate is that we are being ripped off with crazy high prices for inferior quality products.

Eddie Bauer sent me another $10 gc and free shipping. So another item added to my collection. 

YTD Earnings :

GCs (point earning sites) : $25

Ibotta : $42.27

Personal items : $122.44

2021 Closet cleanout : $80.56

Big goal : $0

4K Drugstore challenge : $15.57

Total Earnings (excl Ibotta) : $258.84

YTD EXPENSES (Clothing/shoes/accessories, Christmas gifts)

OOP : $84.76 (DS only)

Christmas gifts : $3.18

Gift cards  purchased : $150.00

Gift card savings/bonuses :  $26.00

Total OOP $237.94

Total Christmas gc cash saved : $270.00 (this will be used to buy holiday gc gifts and Target gcs) 

YTD OOP (clothing/shoes/accessories, Christmas gifts) : $237.94

YTD Christmas OOP : 3.18 (I'm making a note of this to track how much I'm spending on Christmas)

YTD side hustle income (personal, closet cleanout, drugstore) : $218.57

YTD GC bonus/savings earned  : $26.00

YTD Clothing/Christmas  Balance : ($19.37)

Technically speaking, we're not really in the red. I've decided to add those purchased gcs amounts to our clothing expenses. I have a plan for it. More on that at another time. I purchased the gcs, because it added an extra $26 to my pocket. No complaints here. 

That was our expensive January. Crazy that I spent so much more money in January than I did in December.