~~ September No-Spend Challenge ~~ Our last week for this challenge...how are you doing? - Page 2

[major_mama11]

a. Who you are- I'm Kirstin, a mostly SAHM (working ~10 hrs per week) to two little ones. I've been doing the no-spend threads since Jan, and have found the accountability to be extremely helpful to meeting my budgeting goals.

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) – Goal one is to avoid having to work FT while my kiddos are little. Goal two is to pay off our car loan and mortgage early. I'm sure there are more goals than that, but it's 1 am and I'm too tired to think of them.

c. How you plan to get there – Follow Dave Ramsey's advice of “Live like no one else, so that later you can live like no one else.” Need to get back into using cash envelope system this month- have slipped back into using debit card for groceries, and I know I impulse buy more things that way. Also I need to get back into cooking from scratch more, for our health and for our budget. All the canning I sweated over last month has given me a new perspective on cooking- it suddenly doesn't seem like a hassle at all, compared to hours and hours of canning!

[major_mama11]

Originally Posted by dancebaraka

Quite literally & immediately, I am traveling to Taos, NM to study with Natalie Goldberg (one of my heros!) at the end of the month. I will take a writing retreat there. In China this summer, I completed my first book, which has been a huge process and milestone for me. This retreat in Taos will be my reboot after that experience to begin a new writing project.

Awesome! I just read Writing Down the Bones, and she is one of my heroes now, as well! Enjoy your time in NM!

[crunchy_mama]

a. Who you are Amanda- SAHM to 5 yo, 2yo, and one due Nov

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) and We need to save about $2200 between now and Dec on various things- including- the MW, backup OB- taxes and Christmas. I had a Christmas account but dh had unexpected surgery- so we were out $4300 for him this year- just mailed the last bill last week woohoo! Total for the birth for me should be about $1800- assuming no transfer. So- since we stupidly didn't set up an HSA based on the bad advice of his HR we took out savings paying for dh's med bills. Sticking to budget we should be able to save what we need to but it will be pretty tight- about 25% of dh's take home pay on top of the retirement savings we already have going(and extra going towards mortgage). Next year after the dust settles from this we hope to get a HSA account rolling- new car fund(plan to replace in maybe 5-6 yrs)- emergency fund up to 6 months expenses(currently at 3 months)- Christmas savings. I think that might be it

c. How you plan to get there
Being very conscious of our spending and very strict. However, keeping a little bit of fun in the budget- so that we are less inclined to blow it.

Spending Goals:
Groceries: $300 ($60 will be going straight to my friend for some bulk maple syrup I ordered months ago- this is a years supply)
Eating Out: $40
Allowance/ Fun Money: Me- $30- Dh- $40
House Improvement- $50
Misc- $50

These are the areas I will be tracking as they are the problem spots. We will be finishing the laundry room we just purchased the windows- most of which we used a GC. We still have a $140 GC to Home Depot which I hope covers most of this. However- I know that home improvement projects generally end up cost more than anticipated. I would like some cabinets for this room as well, but it doesn't look like that is in the budget. On the upside we already have the paint, light fixtures and trim for this room purchased. We will for sure need some boards for installing the window, sheetrock mud for patching up, a few pieces of floor trim and a piece of trim for the outside of the house. I hope that we can get the necessities within the $140 gc and $50 budget.


Home improvements have been the big money suck for us the past few years as we have been finishing the house. I am hoping that as this is the last room (upstairs anyway) that we are finishing that next year will be a bit easier on us. And we are all staying away from the hospital and dr's next year!!

[sarmis35]

Count me in this month!

I am Sarah, a SAHM to one dd age 2 1/2.

Our goal is to get out of debt. We are BURIED. But we are working the Dave Ramesy steps and hopefully making some progress.

I am planning to track spending on groceries. This is where I spend a ton of money unnecessarily. I want to cook at home six days a week in Sept. (which would be a huge improvement for us). and then have one day a week to order out or go out for something inexpensive.

Also not spending on anything unnecessary. I get needs and wants confused a lot. I also fall for sales thinking I am saving money by buying something I wouldn't have gotten anyway.

[Siennaflower]

I'm joining this month!

a. Who you are

I'm Danielle and I'm a SAHM to my 6yo dd and expecting dd#2 in November.

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

Dh (military) was transferred unexpectedly to VA this spring so we had to pack up and move from TX. Problem is, our house back in TX hasn't sold yet. We got an offer and we're in escrow but the buyer wants us to cover his closing costs (5k) which means we need to save every.single.penny for the next two paydays (Sept 1st and 15th) in order to be able to do so by the closing date (tentatively the 24th although the buyer wants it sooner). It will literally be by the skin of our teeth. We wouldn't have agreed to this if we weren't basically desperate to sell the house. Right now between the mortgage in TX and rent here we are beyond broke.

c. How you plan to get there

The next two paydays we will pay bills and then ONLY buy essential groceries (milk, bread, eggs, etc) and put gas in the car (not the truck). It will be freezer/pantry scrounging and beans and rice and rice and beans this month. Dd starts school next week and I've thankfully already got all her supplies. She'll be taking the bus to save on gas, luckily she's really excited about it. I would have liked to get her a few more pairs of shorts but I'm just going to cut the legs off of some pants she has that fit her in the waist but are too short. So basically just make do as best as we can until we get that house sold!

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[Amys1st]

::
Hello! I love jumping in every few months or so to track these!!

I am Amy, sahmom to 2 dds aged 7 and 3 1/2. One is in 2nd grade and the other has preschool 3 times weekly. Now that we have the summer vacation under our belts, its time to get back in the groove.

Some things:
We are remodeling our master bathroom and closet area. We are also hoping to lay hardwood floors on the upper level of our home in the next 6 weeks.
We had been saving up and have managed to stay within the budget and most of everything is paid for with exception to 1K at home depot which will be paid off in 90 days.

We also had DH's pay period cycles change. He used to get paid twice a month, now its every two weeks. So instead of 24 checks, its now 26 payrolls so we get $400 less a month and 2 sort of extra checks instead a year. Since I have always had a payment schedule for over a decade, its easy and hard adjusting to this new system.


1 farmer's market $13 cash; pay for Re Ed at church $130
2 shopping for back to school jeans, socks, undies Kohls $107; Gap $44.80
3 Sushi date night and parents night @ school $48.00
4 payday;pay mortgage and car insurance and no other unplanned spending.
5 no spend day!
6 $10 church
7 $4.50 at pool snack bar. Last day!; groceries $64.02
8 $15 at farmer's market
9 $6.91 at McDonalds; 53.45 at Aldi.
10 $10.51 lunch out w a friend, we both were childless!! $26.72 at walgreens
11 $4.60 at Dairy Queen.
12 3 gift cards =$45 at target for bday party tomorrow,
13 $20 church
14 groceries $52.40
15 pay phone/net/tv bill
16 gas $30.12
17 Aldi and TJs $58.40
18 payday
19 no spend
20 church $20 and apple picking...
21 my mc due
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[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

If I am ~~really~~ aggressive with the walking and stroller this month, there are potentially 11 days where we could go without driving the car. 11 days.

So I'm going to set my goal at 9 no-drive days. Considering I usually set the goal at 5 and almost NEVER make that goal...I'm really stretching myself this month.

But September hasn't started yet, so I'm thinking big.

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My Goals:

0/20 No Spend days
0/9 Let the Car Rest days :

[dancebaraka]

Originally Posted by major_mama11

Awesome! I just read Writing Down the Bones, and she is one of my heroes now, as well! Enjoy your time in NM!

Isn't she wonderful.. thanks Mama.. this will be my first away time since dd was born. I feel nervous but beyond excited! I think it will be a very powerful experience for me. And I am sharing it with my sister who lives in Boulder..
:

[Leta]

I love the idea of a no-drive day. Hmm... DD has speech twice a week... we go the big library once a week... and I know I will need to go shopping (for food! I swear! ) alone twice this month... so I'm going to set myself a goal of 10 no-drive days in September.

I spent $4.50 today on a little notebook for DH to record his spending (I already have one), a two liter of diet Coke :, and a can of formula (I had a check for $11 off), because DH has been insisting that we need an emergency can.

(To be fair, the last time I left DS at home with DH, DS woke up and I had forgotten that I had no pumped milk in the freezer. I was home within 10 minutes after DS had woken up, but DH and DS were both pretty ticked off.)

So that Diet Coke was my last hurrah.

The good news is that we spent all of (drumroll please!) $136 on food in the month of August.

(And $17 of that was spent on a half case of og bacon that DH has been dreaming about for months. )

This is just food, as in things we can eat, that aren't prepared. Restaurant meals/snacks come out of a separate budget- the "treat" budget. I've always thought our "treat" habit was fine, the average we spend is $2 a day. But it seems like a lot when you consider that $60 is 45% of what we spent on actual food, not ice cream and cans of pop. But hey, that's why I'm here, right?

Realistically, we are going to spend more on food in September, because the farmer's market is overflowing with produce that we'll preserve. We're going to spend about $75 on onions, apples and potatoes for the cellar (50# of each), $12 on tomatoes to turn into a year's worth of marinara, plus a still uncertain amount on peppers and eggplant to freeze and the other odds and ends we'll need for the marinara. So that will be ~$100 right there. (If we can, I'm going to put off buying the onions, apples, and potatoes until October, because that way they won't have to keep as long, but we'll see.) This isn't stuff I'm going to skimp on, though, because that would be a false economy- this is how we'll keep our food bills from spiraling out of control in the winter months, when our garden isn't overflowing.

But considering we have property taxes and car insurance AND a higher than usual grocery bill to look at, I need this thread to keep me on track!

[scrapadoozer]

a. Who you are
I'm Jenny. SAHM to a 5.5 year old little girl and a 4 month old even littler boy.

b. Where you are going (your financial goals)
Well, I need to pay off DH's riding lawnmower. My goal is to put at least $600 on it this month. Once that is paid off, we need to buy pellets for the stove and build our savings back up. It's hard not to be overwhelmed.

c. How you plan to get there
I need to not shop and not eat out. Those are my biggest weaknesses. I'd love to go an entire month without shopping for anything but food and not eating out but I don't think DH would go for it. We'll see.

[CrunchyDoula]

Hello, my name is Jessica and I am a SAHM to our two kiddos, 3 years and 10 months. I am a Doula & CNA and looking for a night time job, but I'm not having much luck. My hubby is joining the Marines and will be leaving for bootcamp at the beginning of the year. In order for him to do that we have to prove that we have income to sustain us while he is gone. We have just under 10k in debt, which is weighing me down so badly!

I have a problem shopping at Goodwill, garage sales and gymbofriends . My goal is to not stop in those places AT ALL. I have all the kids fall clothing and if I lose 5-10lbs then I will fit back in my winter clothing, so I won't have to buy anything for myself.

I want to only spend what is needed! Nothing else that is unplanned. I need encouragement, motivation and accountability. It is hard to get that at home as I am the one who deals with all of the finances.

: is a no-spend day
: Unplanned/Unnecessary
Budgeted spending


September

1. Halloween Costume Event at Consignment Store $15 MAX
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4. Payday-Pay Storage, Cell Phone, Car Insurance
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[Honey693]

a. Who you are

I'm Crystal a SAHM to an (almost) 11 month old. I've done this challenge a few times, but only managed to keep track of things all the way through once.

b. Where you are going (your financial goals)

We're going to have to float my FIL some money (do not get me started on this, I'm pretty upset about it) and we just replaced our roof so I'd like to get our savings account up by at least 500 this month so I don't feel like we'll have nothing in there.

c. How you plan to get there

Max eating out twice this month and one date night, no more coffee runs (I'm awful with these), no new clothes, and cut grocery spending down

Groceries - 220/200-250
Gas - 81/125
Misc (includes mad money for the two of us, a date night, wedding gifts and whatever random things that aren't bills that come up) -441/350 wow did being in a wedding and doing all the girly stuff kill the budget this month.

September

1. Coffee run (argh) - 3, groceries - 10, wrench to put bike seat on - 15/bike helmet for boo - 32
2. reload starbucks card with money for the month - 12
3. gas - 21/bra - 13/coffee - 4
4. pedi/mani for wedding - 72
5. gift/card for wedding - 98/hair for wedding - 70
6. gas - 25/arbys - 5
7. white castle - 7
8. weight watchers - 55/target (groceries/diapers)- 62/pop -3
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10. groceries - 36/coffee - 4/dog food -35
11. gas -35 /coffee -3
12. apples -6 Christmas gift -3
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17. 3 - coffee
18. 4 - coffee/15 - groceries
19. 12 - lunch/49 - groceries
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[urchin_grey]

a. Who you are
I'm Carly! We're a family of 5 (my SO, our son, my sister, her son, and myself).

b. Where you are going (your financial goals)
My short term goal is to purchase a deep freezer! The freezer space we have now just isn't enough for my stockpiling habits. I want to try to live off of what food we have already this month, as much as possible. So I'm setting a food budget goal that is a bit less than what we normally spend. Long term, we need a new vehicle. I'm hoping that we'll be able to save up enough so that when we get our tax return, we'll be able to put a good down payment on the van I want.

c. How you plan to get there
I've been couponing and stock piling a lot lately, but this will be the first month that I'm really going to create a budget. I created an account on mint.com but since we wait tables and make our money a little at a time (in cash), it will kind of be a PITA to keep going to the bank every few days, but I'm going to make myself do it. I've already told SO that I'll be taking his money after all his shifts and he's only allowed to spend with his debit card so that I can track both of our spending on Mint.com. He's not too keen on the idea, but he understands why I'm doing it.

Key:
No spend:
Budgeted spend:
Non-budgeted spend: :

Goals:
10/$250 Grocery Budget
0/$200 Freezer

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[Ruthiegirl]

Okay, I need to come clean with the library and pay off my late fines. I owe $9.30 which I guess is a lot since they have blocked me from the system. I am going to go pay it off today and hopefully will be back in their good graces.

Sept 1 -- 9.30 library fines, 32.40 homeschool stuff


September goals:

1100 savings
50 paint dining room
500 groceries
100 dd's birthday

[dfunk98]

I'm Danielle, SAHM to 2, one of whom is starting kindergarten next week!! I was REALLY off my game last month-I kinda dropped off the face of the Earth for a bit. I would really like to curb my spending.

My Key-
No Spend
Necessary/Planned Spending
Unnecessary Spending

Goal
No spend 0/10/30 days
Groceries/Household $0/$450

[milosmomma]

Helloooo!

I'm Jessica, WOHM to 2. DP & I just have too much debt. DP has absolutely no will-power, so we'll be working on that this month . My challenge in the past has been buying lunch at work....I'll continue to work on that. I'm starting a 4 month overnight rotation at work next Tuesday, so I'm thinking that'll give me a better opportunity to not spend (nothing is open in the middle of the night & I'll be sleeping all day). HOWEVER, my new schedule will probably mean that DS will have to go to daycare FT. We'll see how that all goes....

In August, I had 10 "spend days" so this month I'll be trying to beat that. I'll also be tracking my grocery budget just to keep a record.

I'm also going to encourage DP to really track his spending. He has NO idea how much he spends!!!

9/1 grocery- $36

[boatrat]

OK, I'm back in. I fell off a bit with my updates last month, but we stayed on track!

a. Who you are
Kelly, WOHM four days per week.

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) and
We want to rebuild our emergency fund to 6 months worth of expenses (we're at around 2 months now), then pay off our car.

c. How you plan to get there
Cutting back on unnecessary spending, trying to stay within our $500 budget for groceries. We're still in the middle of a huge landscaping project that we're paying for as we go, but hopefully these expenses will not be too large. Also, DS needs some *new* clothes and shoes. I'm trying to find these at thrift/clearance. My birthday is coming up this month, but I'm asking just for a date night with DH, no gifts.

- no spend
- budgeted spending
- unnecessary spending

9/1 ETA - not sure if this is a or a . Probably not the best start ever, but also not the worst. I spent $20 today on a new name brand suit for work, including jacket, pants and shirt (at a thrift store). I really needed a second suit, so while it was not truly an absolute necessity, it was a great deal on something that I need to have for work.

[dancebaraka]

Here we Go!

No Spend Days
+ income and other abundances
- money used
I also plan to check-in at the end of each week. I'll put thoughts & gratitude for my process there

Week One~

Sept.1
Sept.2
Sept.3 + $125 (sister owed me)
Sept.4 -88.23 (elec.bill)
Sept.5 + $80 (income) -62.60 (groceries, higher than usual b/c I am bringing a bunch of food to a friend tomorrow. I will earn a $15 Gift Card from this trip & before coupons & savings, my total was almost double this.. that feels good!)
Sept.6
Sept.7

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

My purse is locked in the filing cabinet and we do not need to drive anywhere until September 4th...can we do it? I hope so.

Both of my daughters' schools are within easy walking distance of our house, so is the library and some parks, and there is a big fair going on right across the street...we already have tickets for it.

So I'm setting my expectations high...we can go the next two days without driving.

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My Goals:

1/20 No Spend days
0/9 Let the Car Rest days :

[mommyto4grits]

I am Vicki, have 4 girls, and we have just paid off (almost all) the last of our debt. I will admit I impulse buy, and buy way more "stuff" than we need. I am much better than I use to be though.

Saving for short term goals right now, $1000 in savings by the end of the month. We have way to large of an income to be counting change out to by soup veggies, I have spent frivolously for way to long, it is a new month!

How I plan to do this....
Eating out once a week as our date night, preparing more foods from scratch,
buying necessities and really thinking about purchases outside of necessities (will wait 24 hours for anything over $10), "gasp" cutting out my paper towel addiction- we are going cloth

My key...
No Spend Day :
Necessities/Low Spend Day :
Over budget- frivolous spending :
Exercise Day :

Groceries- $700
Consumable's/Necessities- $150
Books- $50
Blow Money- $50

September 1st- : I did spend $2.20 on items for vegetable soup though