~ February No-Spend Challenge ~ We're tracking our spending and trying to only buy the...

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

This is a support thread to help you ~not spend your money~.

Everyone is welcome to join and you can start tracking your spending at any time. It doesn't have to be February 1st.

The plan is simple (although tough to execute):

1. Vow not to spend any money on unnecessary purchases.

2. Come on here everyday and record your spending.

We all record our spending in different ways. There are no rules. You record and update however you would like -- pick a way that will help you spend the least amount of money.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please write an introductory message when you decide to join our thread. We would like to know:

a. Who you are

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) and

c. How you plan to get there

Good luck MDCers!! Keep that money in your wallet.

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

My Intro:

1. My name is Prudence and I'm a SAHM with three daughters. I track my spending because I need to be doing less of it...and seeing it all written out in black and tan on this computer screen helps to sober me up when I want to go on a spending spree. Coming on here every day keeps me accountable.

Giving myself an icon on this board rewards me like a gold star did back in kindergarten. I love to see no-spend days all lined up.

2. Financial goals: FINALLY our family is in good financial shape. I owe a LOT of this to the other MDCers on this board. This thread has given me a budget and given me some self-control when it comes to purchases.

My goal used to be to get out of debt (we are now and then it was to have a nice cushion of savings (we do so now my goal (and this is going to sound all zen but I'm like that...) is to be at peace with what we have right now in our lives.

I'm constantly wanting...more...more...MORE. And the things I want are inevitably just a hair too expensive for us.

I live in a really nice neighborhood, great schools, safe, cul-de-sac, in a house that is bigger than we need, with beautiful home furnishings and a huge fenced yard...yet most of my day is spent thinking about what we DON'T have.

I want a new couch, I want new lighting, new flooring, a pool, a deck...seriously the list is never ending.

So I'm trying to focus on contentment. On being satisfied with what we have.

My financial goal is to finally say: ENOUGH. We have what we need...it is time for me to enjoy these things and stop hunting and gathering more stuff.

3. My plan to get there: Post on this thread every day. Come on here and get as many no-spend icons as I can. When I'm not out shopping, I'm a lot happier. If I don't see it in a store, I don't know that I need it. I'm setting it as a goal for myself to stay out of the stores for a month. I want to spend my time this month loving on our home...cleaning it, organizing it, thinking about all the things we do have and playing with my children and my baby.

Concretely...I would like to have 20 no-spend days.

I'm also working on a diaperswappers addiction, so I would like to go the entire 28 days without ever visiting that website. I'm pretending there is a block on that website and I can't even type in diapersw...

Gas=Money...so I would like to drive the car less. I fail miserably at this goal usually, so I'm aiming pretty low. Let's say 5 no-drive days. That is usually all I can handle.

Good luck this month Ladies!!! I'll be on here every day rooting for you :

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

My previous months:

May 2007 = 19 no-spend days / $265 in unecessary spending
June = 19 /$394
July = 15 /$580
August = 19 /$451
September = 22 /$103
October = 20 /$203
November = 19 /$456
December 2007 = Fell off the wagon
January = 20 /$216
February = 21 /$190
March = 24 /$189
April = 19 /$402
May 2008 = 22 /$206
June = 27 /$23
July = 20 /$274
August = Fell Off the Wagon
September = 15 /$790
October = 18 /$909
November = 20 /$360
December 2008 = 20 /$611
January 2009=14 /$504

[ColoradoMama]

I'll be in for February for sure. I've got to come up with a good key for me though because I like to keep track of every penny which obviously includes necessary spending like energy bill, fuel, etc. I need pats on the back for my "no-spend" days though! I think maybe I'll use this guy for a necessary spend day and this guy : for a truly no-spend day! My husband was laid off from his job last week and while we are not at a place of financial hardship yet (still a ways off), I feel like the prudent thing to do is to live as if we are because that will keep that place even further off, make sense? I'm hoping dh will have a job in the next two weeks. Things are looking good in that respect. *fingers crossed* Anyhoo, TMI - sorry. My goal for Feb is to keep all unnecessary spending at bay and all necessary spending as small as possible - at least it gives me a sense of control over things!

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Anyhoo, TMI - sorry

Misty -- I write a seven page intro and you feel like your little paragraph is TMI?

[WeasleyMum]

I'm In!

I've been waiting for this thread, because I want to join! :

Who I am: Weasleymum AKA Mara

My financial goals: DH and I are trying to get to where we're only spending one income (his) in preparation for our baby coming in May and my switch to SAHM-- that's the master goal. I'm hoping to get there by April: spend the next two months cutting back, saving, paying off debts, then in April and May use only DH's income and save mine entirely, while also getting used to the difference. Secondary goals include getting all cc debt and any other debts paid off by then as well.

How: February: What I've been doing for the past few weeks (I get paid weekly) has been to leave a certain amount of my paycheck in my checking account, withdrawing the rest in cash, and using that cash for groceries and household etc. It's been working really well, so I'm going to stick with that.

1. NO spending out of the checking account-- cash ONLY. Allowed exception: any medical/hospital bills that come in the mail.
2. NO credit-card use. Only allowed exception: one tank of gas today, hopefully will last all month.
3. Second two weeks of Feb: Increase the % of paycheck left behind in acct from 36% to 43%.
4. Pay total amount due on Discover card, from amount saved in checking, by Valentine's Day. PUT CARD AWAY.
5. Use all of bonus coming Feb. 13 towards either DH's credit card, mine, or both. ()
5. All dinners cooked at home except for two out.
6. All lunches brought from home! NO OVERPRICED CAFETERIA FOOD!

[ZanneMom]

I'm joining too.

a. Who you are: a full-time working mom and mother of a wonderful 2.5 son. DH works part-time, and has his own business part-time and teaches, so it seems that he is always working! We just bought a new (old) house last year and have a lot of renovation we would like to do, but not a lot of time or money. We went a little shopping crazy when we first bought the house and emptied out our savings account.

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) We are not bad off financiancially, but I'd like him to start putting some away for retirement. We also have some major home renovation that I know will be necessary in the next year or two (including new furnace and new roof), so I'd like to start saving for those. I also want to refinance soon and lock in a low fixed rate, since we currently are in a ARM. I'd also love to be able to complete renovation our horribly gross kitchen floors and counters next year.

c. How you plan to get there.

1. Cut out toy purchases (except for birthday & Christmas). Spend more time on DIY crafts
2. No new furniture
3. Cut back on Starbucks
4. Cut out eating out to twice a month
5. Turn the heat down more consistently at night
6. Save $200 month towards home renovation projects
7. Save $100 month towards retirement
8. No big vacations this year (we also went a little overboard last year) - only camping or staying with friends
9.Tomorrow's paycheck is a bonus paycheck which will go entirely towards our saving/refi.
10. Getting our food budget to $400 month (including eating out)

[Purple Sage]

I've been waiting for this thread, too.

1. I'm lemongrass, SAHM, due with baby #4 late February/early March, and slowly working toward becoming a WAHM.

2. Financial goals: To live very frugally on dh's small income, not acquire anymore debt, and begin to pay down the debt we already have. I would like to get to a place where we are comfortable on one income so that when I start working again we can use my income to pay off debt and start really saving.

3. Write down every single penny spent, eating only meals cooked at home, making foods from scratch, buying as many of our necessities used as possible, conserve as much energy & water as possible. And give up cable! :

[bwylde]

Another who has been waiting . I'm a SAHM/homeschooling mom to two kids and DH is a min wage part time sales clerk so things are tight even when it's good. We're getting a little behind financially because I'm been in a panic stock up mode and still reeling a bit from Christmas.

This month is nesessities only. I am only budgeting $20 a week for groceries, the fresh stuff like eggs, veggies and fruits. Medical is a necessity; DS is getting allergy testing on monday and dental surgery on Tuesday and DH will need his puffers, so those are necessities (DS may need meds, not sure yet). Car needs to be inspected and we need an oil change plus whatever other repairs it may need (it is not optional here and I refuse to take a chance of driving an uninspected car).

So basically our needs this month will end up costing us what we will save but that is basically the point. The rest will go into savings, if there is any, and I doubt it.

How am I going to accomplish my no-spend goals? I'm going to enjoy the things I like around the house, eat from our storage and use up things we haven't gotten around to. For Valentines, I'm going to suggest either an at home dinner (we have lobsters in the freezer ) or we can use a gift card from Christmas. Fortunately there are no other holidays and as far as I know, no birthdays this month.

I may not post much but I'll try very hard to be accountable!!

[Teenytoona]

HI Mommas! I don't really have a plan together, but I think I'm going to pop in an observe. I really don't have much money to spend, so that's good, but wanted to watch your tips and tricks for saving.


Hope you all don't mind.

Oh, I'm a WOHMomma married to a WAHD, right now we've got just the youngest in the house, but possibly soon we will have DSD#1 and DGS here too. My budget's really tight, but I just changed my withholding (on account of being officially married and mommed), so I'm planning on putting that in savings. Trouble is, when I spend I spend on grocery splurges.

The only things I hope to buy in Feb are DD's bday present, nephew's bday present and some seeds for the garden. Otherwise I hope to stick to my grocery budget and finally get some $$ socked away.

[becoming]

Hello again! I'm in again for February. I actually stuck with it all the way through January--my first whole month on the thread!

I didn't meet all my goals in January, but I'm proud of myself anyway. Here's hoping February will be even better.

a. Who you are - My name's Lindsay. I'm from rural north Louisiana. I'm a stay-at-home mama of three little ones, ages 7, 3, and 18 months. I work from home very part-time (around 14 hours/week) doing medical transcription. I'm married to Christopher, who works offshore in oil production.

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) - We are saving for a down payment on a house. We hope to have $25K in savings by December 31, 2009. We're at just above $7K currently. We just started saving in mid December, so we're doing better than great so far!

c. How you plan to get there - By sticking with this thread and hopefully meeting the following goals for February:

15 NO SPEND days
$600 or less on groceries/household expenses
$200 or less on eating out
$300 or less on spring/summer clothes for me & the kids
$125 or less on 6 gifts for Christmas 2009

I'm anticipating that the eating out goal will be the hardest for us. We spent almost $300 on eating out in January, and that was trying hard not to eat out much! Needless to say, we need to learn to keep our butts at HOME at mealtime! So that's my major challenge for February: Eating at home!

[becoming]

Prudence, I love your idea of making this month about staying home and loving our houses and kids instead of all the material things out in the world. I'm going to join you in that philosophy for February.

[Nemesis]

Hey, ladies! I am hoping I will keep up with this thread, I'm new to this thread and budgeting in general. Until recently, we have never had enough money left after bills to budget with, so that's a plus, I guess!


a. Who you are
I'm Nemesis, WAHM to 2 girls. We homeschool and DH is in grad school, graduating this summer. I make soap and sell some online, but mostly make money doing the farmer's market in the summer and a few art/craft shows.

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) and
This last year we finally paid off our credit cards!! And now we have no debt, except the student loans we will have to pay when DH graduates. We are working on savings/emergency fund to fund our move after school and in case it takes a while to get a decent job. We also have two cars that are on their lats legs, and we plan to replace them with one newer car in the next few years, hopefully.

c. How you plan to get there
DH and I have set a budget allowing us to have $200 for all unneccesary spending a month. This includes eating out, movies, gas, etc.. just the little stuff that comes up.
The rest will go into savings for our move. We are also trying to drive as little as possible to hopefully extend the life of our cars a bit.

[ColoradoMama]

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom

Misty -- I write a seven page intro and you feel like your little paragraph is TMI?

Hee hee - well.....

[ColoradoMama]

Originally Posted by becoming

Prudence, I love your idea of making this month about staying home and loving our houses and kids instead of all the material things out in the world. I'm going to join you in that philosophy for February.

Me, too - although there WILL have to be at least a minimal amount of chocolate involved. I do have some in the pantry though, so I can come up with something using that!

[scrapadoozer]

A. Who you are.
Jenny, SAHM to one little girl, due with another babe (of unknown sex) in April.

B. Where are you going.
Right now my primary goal is to pay for my prenatal care and the birth without decimating our very modest savings account. DH works in the landscape business and as you can imagine hours are cut in the northeast in the wintertime. This makes it all very difficult to achieve.

C. How you plan to get there.
Stick to the budget like my life depends on it.
No recreational shopping outside of weekly trips to the thrift store.
Enjoy organizing/improving my home and sewing for the baby with fabric that's already in my possession.

[Smithie]

a. Who you are
I'm A SAHM of 2 kids with another due in May!

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) and

We started a business this past year, and it's going well, but we are paying ourselves minimum wage (our other employees make excellent salaries ). We get $1200 in salary (once FSA contributions are taken out) plus some extra income from our rented house (the one we couldn't sell when the market tanked), and I'd like to live within our income so that we can continue to pay ourselves minimum wage for as long as it's best for the business.

c. How you plan to get there

Well, I could stop dropping $900/month on food! OK, it's not that bad, but I could really stand to get that figure under control. My other spending categories are not too bad, but across-the-board restraint is necessary to avoid draining our bank account month-by-month.

[Ruthiegirl]

Hey friends! I had a great time doing last month's challenge and am back for more.


a. Who you are

Ruth, stay-at-home, homeschooling mom to three kids.


b. Where you are going (your financial goals)


Our biggest goal -- no new debt.

Our next biggest goal -- $1000 to the CC each month.


c. How you plan to get there
I have $500 for groceries this month and $50 for gas. The rest of our bills are fairly steady. We get paid on the 6th and I plan to send on our $1000 payment right away and keep it tight for the rest of the month.


My goals:

No new debt!
1000 cc debt
500 groceries
200 food co-op (bulk goods)
50 gas



ETA -- just reviewing last month's budget. We spent a ton of money on food! And we ate out of the pantry a lot. I think I need to up my grocery budget to $500 (had been $400). I either overrun the budget or we literally go a little hungry, so clearly more money needs to go to filling the fridge.

I filled the tank today and that gas should last me 2 weeks. I added a gas category to my budget though to help me make sense of spending/driving habits.

I talked dh out of doing a date night for the next 4 months till we are out of cc debt. I love our night out, but we can really use the $50 right now.

[dsaucone]

a. Who you are
My name is Stephanie. I'm married to a SAHD, he's great. I'm a FT WOHM to 2 little loves.

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) and
We live paycheck to paycheck without an EF. We want to buy a house next year and have space of our own (for less than our current rent). We need to save some $ for a new car.

c. How you plan to get there
By not spending money at work! I can charge stuff to my badge and it's automatically deducted from my paycheck. I had a huge problem with this before going on maternity leave. I'm talking $60 every 2 weeks on food and snacks. I work 20 days this month so my goals will be based on that. I plan on putting anything over $100 from DH's PT job into our savings account. The $100 will be put into our checking along with my paycheck. We won't get any spending money until the end of the month when we're sure we have the money for it. I'll just repeat to myself while I'm out "Sure, I want _______, but I want that house way more!"

KEY/GOALS/TOTALS

No Spend 0/15

Grocery/Household/Gas/Bill Spending

: 0/$10 spent on badge at work

:Bring lunch from home 0/20

Savings 0/$300

$0.00

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

By not spending money at work! I can charge stuff to my badge and it's automatically deducted from my paycheck

Oooh Stephanie! That would be tough for me. I used to be in a work situation like that too and I always overspent because it didn't feel like spending...you know?