~May No-Spend Challenge~ We're tracking our spending and trying hard to spend less. Come Join us! - Page 3

[HappyLittleHouse]

a. Who you are
SAHM with 3.5 yo DS and 8 mo DD.

b. Where you are going (your financial goals)
Build up the savings account and stop paying stupid overdraft fees because I'm not paying close enough attention.

c. How you plan to get there
Keep closer track on what is being spent and cut out frivolous spending. No overdraft fees!



Types of Spending:

Unbudgeted/Unnecessary Spending
Budgeted Spending
No Spending

1. $1,954.84 (AAA insurance renewal - paid 1 yr renters, 6 mo car), DMV car registration, groceries, rent) Expensive day, but no unnecessary spending!!
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5. $290 - preschool; $10 disposable diapers for my sick boy (diarrhea + cloth = ewwww)
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3/20 No Spend Days
1/5 Let the car rest days
3/20 Stay Out of the Stores

[rebeccalynn]

a. You are: Rebecca wife to J and sahm to dd1(4.5y), dd2(2.5y) and baby due in July. We are finally getting to a good place financially, but I do not want to blow it. We have a lot of "wants" that need to be done in small steps so that it does not blow our budget but sometimes that can be difficult.

b. Financial goals: to stay on budget!! We have tightened our budget this month and there are several unusual events that are going to try to pull us off budget if we do not really watch it. We are doing a couples series at church that is every week instead of every other week this month so we need $60 more for a babysitter this month than usual. DH's bday is also this month and I would like a babysitter & to take him out for dinner so that is another $60-$70 dollars. This means that we cannot not really spend any of the babysitting/dinning out money this month on anything but those items. We also did a little lawn/landscape work this month that was years over due but we need not to spend anything else on the lawn this month.

c. How you plan to get there?
1) No spending outside of the budget.
2) No eating out this month except for dh's bday (includes no lunches out).
3) Spend nothing on the lawn/landscape this month.

On budget - goal 31 days - 1/31 days
No eating out other than dh's bday - goal 31 days - 1/31 days
$0 spent on lawn/landscape this month - $0 as of 5-1

[beansmama]

Goal: Budgeted spending or no spending only!
:=no spending
=budgeted spending
=i totally suck

1) I bought a little bit of groceries today (fs), cleaning products and 2 photo albums ($4/each). I was out of "misc" cash, which is what the photo albums *should* have came out of, so I used laundry & toiletries money instead. It was technically "left over" money though (cash - we don't use debit, really)...so IMO this counts as budgeted!
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[granola_mom]

Good start to the month!

May 1- and : No spend, no drive day.

May goals:

1/20 No spend days
1/10 No drive days

$0/$500 groceries
$0/$100 home/garden
$0/$50 alcohol
$0/$100 gas/transportation
$0/$100 entertainment/hobbies/spending

No spend or only necessary, budgetted spending like groceries, day care, rent, gas, etc.
Budgeted personal expenses only, hobbies, entertainment, etc.
Frivolous spend!- includes going over budget for things like groceries or gas.
: No drive day!

[scrapadoozer]

05/01:

1/20 No spend days
$0/$100 Frivolous spending.
$0/$300 Paid on pellet stove.

[triscuitsmom]

This Month:
1. No Spend days - 0/15
2. No more than five unplanned spending days - 0/5
3. Exercise 20 days - 0/20
4. Get rid of 300 items around the house - 0/300

Key:
No Spend
Budgeted spending only
Unbudgeted spending

1: Bought groceries today

[kreyno4]

5/1 - $10 fast food Oops not a great start to the month!

No spend
: No drive

0/15 no spend
0/15 no drive
$185/400 groceries and household (carried over from April)
$10 not in budget

[PlayaMama]

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

[choosewisdom]

I want to play!

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom

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.

a. Laura mom to an awesome daughter, almost wife to an awesome guy, future mommy to some more awesome babies, nurse that no longer wants to work full-time.
b. Tires for the car, traveling for graduation, WDW in August, and, eventually, not working full-time.
c. After living for years on an extreme budget I went a little crazy over the last year. I am not certain I can ever go back to my extremes, but I do want to get back to some of my old ways, including showing my DF some more green ways of living and ways to curb our spending.

[dsaucone]

Busy month! Let's hope I can actually deal with it.
1 : DH PAY
2
3
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5
6
7
8 : PAY
9 mom visits
10
11
12 : 21st!
13
14
15 : PAY
16
17
18
19
20
21
22 : PAY
23
24
25
26
27
28
29 : PAY - sister visits
30
31

KEY/GOALS/TOTALS

No unncessary/unneeded spending 1

$0

: $263 left in budget.

Savings $18/$500

[turalis]

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.

Type of spending
= budgeted spending
= not budgeted spending
= no spend

What the $ was spent on
: = $ spent on groceries
or : = $ spent on baby or cat
= $ spent on me

Grocery weeks:
May 3 - May 9: 0/100
May 10 - May 16: 0/100
May 17 - May 23: 0/100
May 24 - May 30: 0/100

Daily report:
5/1 -

[Smithie]

May 1: $2 pizza day at preschool, $295 preschool tuition, $300 mural in kids' bedroom
May 2: Mortgage paid ($250 to principal, $703.51 interest/property tax/escrow - ouch! I want to sell this stupid house! Damn you, Wall Street!) $4.56 overpriced yummy sugary coffee drink, $3 brownie breakfast for kids, $7 heirloom veggies seedlings, $10 gallon of local strawberries, $6.77 bananas and raw milk. Oh yeah, going to the Framer's Market saved me big $$ today

Expense categories:

Gas: 0/60
Cash: 0/200
Celebrations (kids' birthdays!): 0/300
Babysitter: 0/50
Clothing: 0/50
Preschool Tuition: 295/295
Entertainment: 0/50
Groceries: 16.77/300
Eating Out: 9.56/100
Gifts: 0/75
Grooming: 0/50
Holding Costs on house in Seattle: 703.51/704
Cleaner: 0/300
Garden: 7/50
Yard Guy: 0/70
Other household: 300/500
Insurance: 103.30/120
Tax: 0/475 set aside to pay state property taxes due in December
Cable: 0/98
Garbage: 0/53
Gas and Electric: 0/220
Internet and Phone: 0/89
Water: 0/43
Principal Payment on Seattle house: 250/250
Car Loan: 0/661.21

Total: 1581.84/4808 (this is the total amount of take-home $$$ for this month)
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Goals:

Get this household in the green for May!

[dsaucone]

1 : DH PAY
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8 : PAY
9 mom visits
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12 : 21st!
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15 : PAY
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22 : PAY
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29 : PAY - sister visits
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31

KEY/GOALS/TOTALS

No unncessary/unneeded spending 2

$0

: $194 left in budget.

Savings $18/$500

[dfunk98]

to those mamas who only buy whats on sale...

we are vegetarian, and i find that only 1/3 of what we eat is ever on sale. we just joined a csa and i plan on basing alot of our meals on those foods, once the season starts. however, what do i do about the rest? we try to eat mostly organic, including eggs and dairy, but my local grocery chain rarely runs sales on these foods and they're not really the kind of thing you can "stockpile", since they don't stay good forever. other than that, the store i shop at (stop and shop, here in ny) has their own brand of natural and/or organic foods (nature's promise) which i try to buy as much as possible since it is so reasonably priced and definitely comparable to the more well-know, but also very expensive brands.
anyway, i'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this, as this is where most of my spending goes awry, and i really want to keep it in check.
also, just check this out of my local library, thanks to all the great recommendations!!

[Alyantavid]

We're off to a bad start.

1-$23 dinner out
2-$18 gardening stuff
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Groceries - $300

[ColoradoMama]

= unbudgeted spending
= budgeted spending
= no spend

1 - paid bills and bought a few groceries
2 - bought a car seat, a few more groceries, and a treat that was budgeted (well, okay - we bought a trash can, but we had a gift card someone had given us, so we didn't spend anything!)

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

01.. , SOS
02.. $145 picture frames from Michael's
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My Goals:

1/20 No Spend Days
0/5 Let the car rest days :
1/31 Stay Out of the Stores SOS*

* I'm a recreational shopper and this month I'm trying to find other things to do besides shop. If I can go 31 days without setting foot in Walmart, any store at the mall, Target, Lowes, etc. I think it will help my budget tremendously. It will force me to find other things to do with my free time.

[Smithie]

"we try to eat mostly organic, including eggs and dairy, but my local grocery chain rarely runs sales on these foods and they're not really the kind of thing you can "stockpile", since they don't stay good forever..."

I get milk and eggs from a local farmer. I don't know if they're technically organic, but I can look at the animals and see that they're healthy and living on pasture, AND it's cheaper than industrial organics at the grocery store!"

Here is a link to a by-state directory of farmers selling raw milk. They often have a chicken business going on the side.

[kreyno4]

5/1 - $10 fast food Oops not a great start to the month!
5/2 - $20 raffle tickets at fundraiser, $7 grocery, $30 ordering food

No spend
: No drive

0/15 no spend
0/15 no drive
$192/400 groceries and household (carried over from April)
$60 not in budget ($40 dividend, $75 discussion board participation)

[dfunk98]

My Key-
No Spend
Necessary/Planned Spending
Unnecessary Spending
Sunday



5/1- $120 on vacation stuff
5/2- $33 Mother's Day stuff

Goal
No spend 0/14/30 days
Groceries/Household $0/$400
Savings $0/$100
Credit Cards $0/$300