~May No-Spend Challenge~ We're tracking our spending and trying hard to spend less. Come Join us!

[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 May 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.

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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.

[mlec]

Sign me up!

a)I'm a sahm of 3 dc's 5 and under.

b)We're sick of renting dumps and want to own a SFH but don't have the $. Are saving to buy in a year or two.

c)SAVE SAVE SAVE. We're wasting so much money through disorganization so we need to focus on that first. And DISCIPLINE. I feel like I'm never going to have the $ to buy a home so it's hard for me to not waste $ on smaller things that I want that at least I can afford.

[Mama~Love]

N/M, maybe next month .

[Hollysmom]

I'm in again. I'm Kristine. WOHM to 3 girls. April was better than any other month so far, but May is always challenging. In addition to Mother's day we have dh's birthday, dd2's birthday and my birthday. Always end up with way to much cake

[nolansmummy]

Love seeing where the money goes- I'm in for may!

5/1 - - 7$ Target(Groceries)
5/2 - 0$ spent
5/3- - 10$ gas


Key:
No spending whatsoever-
Planned/Budgeted spending-
Totally unnecessary spending-

[beansmama]

Okay, okay. I really should do this.

I'm Desiree, a newly married sahm

As far as financial plans go, we are on the TMMO and I've set our "perfect" budget for may-june and would like to stick with it. We have about $1100 in debt left before we can start saving for our FFEF. According to my budgeting (hehe, i'm a total nerd) we will still have a little more than $400 in debt by the end of june. We could pay it all off - except we have a baby coming late July and have to take care of some non-TMMO expenses (car repairs and baby stuff).

I'm hoping that i'll be able to be frugal enough to have us totally debt free by the end of june - if we get our tax refund back, and DH works a little OT then it *might* happen. We'll see! We also have birthday's coming up, but they are ours - and i don't go all out for grown up parties, lol!

ANYWAY - We get $25 "entertainment" money every two weeks. Not much, I know...so this is still okay to spend, but my goal is if i didn't budget it, i'm not spending it.

So question - do i just keep updating THIS post, or do i post a new thread each day? Help? Lol.

See ya all soon

[Miasmamma]

I am in. DH and I just started taking Dave Ramsey's FPU classes through church and this thread will hopefully help me stay accountable! My goals are to spend nothing that isn't absolutely necessary. We do have one "major" expense this month and that is my cousin's wedding on the 16th. It's a 3 hour drive, so we'll pack snacks and/or lunch for the road, but we also have hotel reservations for that night. We are splitting the cost with my mom so it's not as bad as it could have been. I also need a new air conditioner compressor for my car, but I am hoping to find one at a junk yard rather than pay the $350 my mechanic quoted me. I would just let this go, but DD gets car sick when she gets too hot and having a new baby that can't regulate body temp yet is too much for me! I don't care about being hot, I love having the windows down! So I will start today...

4/30:
5/1: $122 for food stuff, gas and dog food; and the kicker, a $100 check to the ER that I had misread as being cleared was not, but it is now! There was also a $65 paypal deposit and DH returned some stuff he bought so hopefully that money will be returned soon.

[ChampagneBlossom]

I'm a SAHM of two. My husband is a student and we currently live off of his military benefits so money is really tight. Do-able, but very tight, and we haven't been very good with staying on budget. My mom has been giving us way too much freebie money and we've gotten spoiled, simply put. I really hate being even this dependent on her and want to be self-sufficient. I feel a lot of shame over accepting money from her. Lot of baggage and control issues. And my husband grew up poor but has never had to be accountable for any money spent so he has never learned self-control and really feels depressed if he can't blow his money on toys. I want to prove to him that we *can* do this!

Goals:
* Stay at home as much as possible.
* Use cash ONLY so we can really figure out where the money is going
* Keep fast food out of our lives completely

~*~*~*May*~*~*~

1. Spent -
Drove - 40 miles
2. Spent:
Household - 9.22/50
Children - 6.97/50 -
DH - 18.01/50
Groceries - 73.22/400 (59.48 This week, 13.74 Stockpile)
Family Treat Money - 10.92 / 70
Drove: 23 miles
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[Kidsndog]

Hi Everyone!
I'm a SAHM mom to four little ones aged seven and under and am expecting baby #5 in a few weeks.

We are "house rich & cash poor", and if I can not stick to our budget over the next few months we will have to move out of Toronto and to the suburbs - which would be a huge uproot of our lives.

I'm committing to daily tracking and buying only needed, NOT wanted purchases. It will be very hard to stick to our very tight budget, especially shopping with a newborn in tow and a sleep deprived brain, but I am determined to do it!

[Miasmamma]

I am going to guess that this is not a necessity. I would really like it though. I make our bread and would love to make it quicker and simpler. I already checked and my library does not have a copy.

[tryingforbaby]

Alright I'm in again! Last month was very eye opening. I think that if I stay on target I can get one cc paid off plus more to another... but maybe not I will have a friend visiting for 10 days and that will most likely mean extra gas money, food, entertainment and 2 or 3 days in New Orleans.

[turalis]

a. I'm a mama to one little 8 month old boy and currently on mat-leave.

b. Get by on my very fixed and very reduced mat-leave salary while still helping DH with the bills and continuing to pay down my student loan debt.

c. Set up a budget, use the cash and envelope system, and record everything here. This will be my fourth month and now a morning doesn't feel complete if I haven't logged on to record my spending.

[dsaucone]

Originally Posted by beansmama

So question - do i just keep updating THIS post, or do i post a new thread each day? Help? Lol.

See ya all soon

A new one. Copy/Paste or
Quote your most recent post, update, take out the "quote" marks and post.

[dsaucone]

We broke into our house fund. It was totally house related. We had to pay a 5 year old crazy utility bill before we could get pre-qaulified. So here's to making up that money! We need to spend very minimally. By my calculations: We spend $300 on unnecessary items last month + we saved $200 from my paychecks. My goal is to save $500 this month. That's like a big portion of our income.
Whenever I make a purchase I'm going to attempt to put that much into the savings account. That way things will essentially be costing me double.

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KEY/GOALS/TOTALS

No unncessary/unneeded spending 0

$0

: $300 left in budget.

Savings $0/$500

[PlayaMama]

Originally Posted by Miasmamma

I am going to guess that this is not a necessity. I would really like it though. I make our bread and would love to make it quicker and simpler. I already checked and my library does not have a copy.

i love that book. i got it from the library however and i didn't feel the need to purchase it. do you use the new york times overnight bread recipe? it's essentially that plus a lot of variations.

and i'm totally in for may!!

i'm carrie and i have a spending problem. my goal this month is to stick to the budget and cut out co-oping. i spend so much money "saving" money that it doesn't make any sense. so, here goes...

0/600 groceries
0/100 pantry stocking
0/60 spending money
0/80 sundry

0/20 no spend days
0/5 budgeted spend
0/0 non-budgeted spend!!!!

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april 358.07 19
march 517.18 17

[major_mama11]

a. Who you are- Kirstin, a mostly SAHM (work very PT) to a 3-yr-old and to a soon to be newborn.

b. Goals- keep food and household spending as low as possible, in order to pay off car loan and get out of debt quickly. I love being able to be home with DD most days, and want to keep budget low enough that I can continue with this work schedule, since we will be homeschooling.

c. How you plan to get there- Cash envelope system is working well for me so far. DH pays the major bills, and I take out enough cash from my account each month to pay for groceries, household, and kid expenses such as clothing. Eventually I want to get more organized with meal planning and such, which I am sure would reduce our food spending, but not happening this month, since we will be having a new baby! This month will be all about survival.

I am going to put today's expenses on May, since our pantry is well-stocked and we will probably skip a week or two of grocery shopping this month.


4/30- $142 groceries, $21 gas


May key and goals:

Budgeted
Groceries /household $142 / $360
Gas $21 / $60
Homeschool $0 / $20
Kid clothing & items $0 / $20
New baby items- $0 / $40 for new baby expenses
: unbudgeted spending $0 / $20
No spend days 0 / 20 days
Declutter (so I will know what I have!) 0 / 5 days

[Alyantavid]

Ok I'm in again. I went over in April, but I actually stuck with a kept up the whole month. Hopefully I'll stay in budget this month.

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Groceries - $300

[kay4]

I'm in. Again. I've never made it a whole month though but I need to!!
I'm Kelly, sahm to 4 great kids :
My main goal right now (short term goal i guess) is to have Discover card paid off in 8 months. Started in March, May will be our 3rd month and we are doing great : We owed 4200 on it in March.


May is a big month here, Mother's Day, our wedding anniversary, hubby's b-day, my youngest dd birthday...so it will be challenging

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[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

My name is Prudence, I'm a SAHM to three girls and I'm trying very hard to pay off our mortgage early.

That is a very short version of what is normally a very long-winded intro from me.

[SolaSola]

HI I am Elisa, I am paying off $3500 in credit card debt and I have difficulty staying on a budget. I will track all my spending.



May -PAY DAY
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