Cautions for next batch.

I've noticed a couple of things that shouldn't be happening with my beer making process:

1. My efficiency is really poor.
2. It seems that I am bottling way less than 5 gallons of beer.

With my Irish red, I pulled out a gravity reading of 1.030 where it should have been 1.050. The Honey Basil was a better 1.042. I ended up throwing in a bunch of honey for the red to boost the sugar content because I don't want an ABV of 3%. I left the Honey Basil as it was and I pulled out an ABV of 4.6% for that one.
I have been struggling with hitting my target Mash temp. I'm going too low. I'm usually off about five degrees. The Cali B had a nice OG (still lower than it should be) but I hit the target temp. The other thing I don't do is stir the mash every 20 minutes. The web has paranoid me in believing that even the littlest bit of stirring will cause hot side aeration (tastes like wet cardboard). Hopefully some gentle stirring will release those sugars.
What I'm going to do different next time:
A. Stir every twenty minutes.
B. Use a 2:1 water to grain ratio.
C. Do not Mash Out.
D. Drain as slowly as possible.
E. Watch my temps carefully.

My next problem is the lack of beer. I didn't really pay close attention to the exact level of beer that reached the bottling bucket but it seems I'm missing about a gallon and a half. At least that was the problem with the Honey Basil. I added 5 ounces of dextrose to the bottling bucket thinking I was going to be bottling five gallons. Hopefully I don't get bottle bombs. That would blow.
I already marked the bottling bucket at the 5 gallon mark and will get a strip for the carboy.
A. Get a 6.5 Gallon boil going to get a 5.5 gallon batch.
B. Don't be afraid to top up with water if low.
C. Measure
D. Get a bigger funnel to pour the wort into carboy.
E. Waste less wort fluid into carboy