~ October No-Spend Challenge ~ The treat is having money in the bank. The trick is keeping it... - Page 18

[_ktg_]

Goals:
11/12 - "no spend" days
3/3 - Eating Dinner out days

Spending Goals:
$502.00/500.00 for groceries
$24.00/100.00 for Halloween spending
$205 - Emergency Spending

Key:
- no spending
- budgeted spending
- unbugeted spending
- unbudgeted & emergency spending

October
1 -
2 -
3 - ($307 at Costco & $142 at the grocer)
4 - ($58 at Target) and $6 at goodwill for 3 movies for DSs- this might be a , but we had leftover $$ from our budgeted Target run. Just watch -This will come back & bite me later in the month.
5 -
6 - $25 co-pay & $10 for DS2's prescription re: staph/diaper rash
7 -
8 -
9 -
10 - $11 Farmer's Market I have to add another expense here $7.99 sidewalk chalk
11 - $33 for coffee beans
12 -
13 -
14 - $31 for groceries (per DH) & a big ole for me
15 -
16 -
17 - $6 for pumpkins/gourds & $2 for baby carrots
18 - target run $27 (though $8 were for halloween), chinese take-out for dinner $31
19 - $170 computer monitor (but its nice & pretty now!!)
20 -
21 - $25 co-pay & $10 for DS2 killer diaper rash
22 - $4.99 lunch out
23 - $9.99, I got donuts for my office (to boost morale!)
24 - $3.80 coffee
25 - $6.50 coffee & HC for DS; $20 for gas to GP house
26 - $3.48 for lunch at work
27 -
28 - $19.78 grocery items & $2.38 for a soda & popcorn
29 -
30 - $4.58 mandatory lunch out with boss. Hate this more because otherwise this would have been a no spend day easily!!
31 -

[scrapadoozer]

10/01:
10/02:
10/03: Chinese food $16.26
10/04:
10/05:
10/06:
10/07:
10/08:
10/09: Chinese food $19.05
10/10: Booze $6
10/11:
10/12:
10/13:
10/14:
10/15:
10/16:
10/17:
10/18:
10/19:
10/20:
10/21:
10/22:
10/23: Swap shipping $18
10/24: Fabric $18
10/25: Chinese food $16.80
10/26:
10/27:
10/28:
10/29:
10/30:
10/31:

25/20 No-spend days
$94.11/$100 Frivolous spending

[vivalamama]

yay! No Spend Day to finish off the month!!

no spend at all
spend in budget
unplanned spending

26- groceries
27- costco, unplanned lunch out
28-
29-
30- gas/pharmacy, excess spending on clothes-- ETA: carnival plan- fail.
31-

[major_mama11]

9/30- $4 milk. Story hour at library- free!
10/1-
2- $20 gas, $1 gift (new baby card), $4 bday party preparations, $102 groceries, $4 baby cereal :
3-
4 :
5- $6 birthday stuff, $10 groceries, $46 baby diapers ( couldn't pass up sale)
6 :
7 : :
8 :
9 :
10
11- : $405 Target ( $290 for carseat- which will last several years, $30 groceries, $10 shirts for DS, $30 shoes for DD, $10 breastmilk storage bags, $4 bday invites, : $10 DVD for DD that wasn't really necessary) :
12
13 $42 gas
14 :
15 $65 xmas gifts, $15 homeschool preschool items, $37 Jubilee bday gift (dd and nephew xmas DONE!)
16 : :
17 : :
18 $1.40 groceries (milk eggs etc bought with CVS gift card), $10 baby meds, $8 stamps
19 :
20 $35 Dollar Store ($12 groceries, $18 gifts, $5 birthday decorations)
21 : :
22 : :
23 $4 groceries, : $10 meds for horrible itchy weird skin allergy, :$3 coffee at work
24 $40 gas
25 : $2 breakfast at work
26
27:
28
29 $136 Aldi's stockup
30
31 $16 Dollar Store- mostly bday stuff due to feeling obligated to provide party favors

October goals:

Budgeted:
Groceries /household $299 / $360
Gas $102 / $100
Homeschool $15 / $20
Kid clothing & items- $40 / $20
Baby $60 / $30
Gifts $121 / $40 (may start xmas shopping)
Jubilee birthday prep! $43 / $30
Stupid medical bill $577 / $100- Paid in full! :
Carseat- $290 / $290
unbudgeted spending $26 / $20
No spend days 19 / 20 days

Other goals:
: Exercise 12 / 10
Declutter/ Deep clean 3 / 5
: Cook from scratch 8 / 5

Total budgeted =$620 (in categories I track)
Total spent = $737

$117 spent over budget for month


Never did get back to envelope system this month. No excuse for not getting cash out except just plain laziness. Clearly my categories mean nothing to me unless it's *real money*.

OK, enough beating myself up, on to November...

[Ruthiegirl]

Oct 1 --
Oct 2 --
Oct 3 -- 18.55 thrift store clothes
Oct 4 -- $20 campsite, $103 camping gear
Oct 5 --
Oct 6 --
Oct 7 --
Oct 8 -- 11.55 fast food
Oct 9 --
Oct 10 -- 20.00 gift
Oct 11 --
Oct 12 --
Oct 13 --
Oct 14 -- 10.00 coat and bookcase
Oct 15 --
Oct 16-19 -- travel, stayed within budget
Oct 20 --
Oct 21 --
Oct 22 -- 2.00 coffee
Oct 23 --
Oct 24 -- 5.00 merry-go-round and bridge toll
Oct 25 -- 34.73 hardware store
Oct 26 --
Oct 27 --
Oct 28 --
Oct 29 --
Oct 30 --
Oct 31 --



1800/2250.00 savings (extra paycheck this month)
587.84/600.00 groceries/household stuff

[sweetjasmine]

Legend:
Budgeted spend
No spend
Unplanned spend

October:
1.
2. a coworker's last day, we took her out to lunch. 9.18
3. gas 22.58, food 104.26, NFC 28.59, gladrags 58.57 (building up my supply). under cabinet water filtration system 56.02. wanted to get this next year but dh had to have it now cuz he has a buddy who can install it for us this coming weekend.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9. dinner out 31.78
10. food 65.61, NFC 22.80
11.
12.
13.
14. bought girl scout product from coworker 5.00
15.
16.
17. food 100.01, NFC 16.01, gas 21.59, sister's bday 20.00. household 44.11 (went a little crazy for kitchen supplies. in my defense i did need everything but really could have waited for most items!)
18. dad's airfare to fly out here for thanksgiving 375.00
19.
20.
21.
22.
23. dinner out 25.60
24. food including catfood 48.46, NFC 34.76, household 16.19
25.
26.
27. vending machine at work
28. ditto
29. ditto again. ack!! haven't adequately prepared my snacks for work this week
30.
31. food 73.23, NFC 35.32, household 33.35

[Hollysmom]

October 1 - ($10 Breakfast & Lunch)
October 2 - ($12 lunch)
October 3 - ($226 Groceries)
October 4 - ($40 Groceries)
October 5 -
October 6 - ($2 breakfast)
October 7 -
October 8 -
October 9 - ($17 breakfast & lunch)
October 10 - ($130 Groceries)
October 11 -
October 12 -
October 13 -
October 14 - ($13 lunch, $24 Halloween costume stuff)
October 15 -
October 16 - ($127 groceries, $6 breakfast)
October 17 -
October 18 -
October 19 - ($13 postage, $8 lunch)
October 20 - ($10 milk & bread, $7 fabric for halloween costume)
October 21 -
October 22 - ($40 groceries, $38 book & 2 magazines )
October 23 -
October 24 - ($172 groceries)
October 25 -
October 26 -
October 27 -
October 28 - ($9 lunch, $36 groceries, $8 Doll, $13 kids socks, $32 wine)
October 29 - ($20 going away lunch for a colleague, $5 lottery ticket, $47 produce)
October 30 -
October 31 - ($13 lunch, $105 groceries & household items)

My goals and key:

$933/$625 Groceries/Household items
$206/$100 Frivolous Spending (including lunches at work)
- No Spend
- Budgeted Spending
- Unbudgeted Spending


Well let's just say that October wasn't great and move on

[nina_yyc]

I totalled everything up last night and I don't have the numbers in front of me, but we were about $90 over our goal on household and $380 over my goal for personal spending. (I should get close to $200 back though when our health care plan pays out my chiro bills.)

Once I get the chiro money back I will not actually be *over* budget, since we've been undercontributing to savings and I also budget 10% for contingency, but clearly I need to do a better job of sticking to goals if we want to save any "real money."

The big expense this month was gifts. I bought a couple things for my mom going into surgery, bought some small items for an organization I was volunteering with, a birthday gift for a friend's child, hostess gifts for a weekend we stayed at a friend's, and an anniversary gift and dinner for my DH.

These items always come up unexpectedly and there's no item in my budget for gifts...even though there's Xmas, my mom, my dad, my DH, DD, and various little kid birthday items and bottles of wine for friends. Should this maybe become a 'line' item in my budget so I don't feel cheated out of money that is allocated for me? Or should I just admit that there is no money for 'me' and just pool my small amount of eating out/clothing money and include gifts in there?

I don't really know how we're going to cut back enough to cover my mat leave while keeping enough money aside for up-front daycare costs for when I go back to work.

[_ktg_]

October was the first month with a really nice written budget, and we did cash too and thought we were doing pretty good.

So we had some overages including some emergencies, especially towards the end, but DH just laid on me the grand total for the month:

$744.00


I'm just stunned right now and back to looking at our budget... sigh. Maybe its time to add more "no spending days" in November

[sweetjasmine]

Originally Posted by nina_yyc

The big expense this month was gifts. I bought a couple things for my mom going into surgery, bought some small items for an organization I was volunteering with, a birthday gift for a friend's child, hostess gifts for a weekend we stayed at a friend's, and an anniversary gift and dinner for my DH.

These items always come up unexpectedly and there's no item in my budget for gifts...even though there's Xmas, my mom, my dad, my DH, DD, and various little kid birthday items and bottles of wine for friends. Should this maybe become a 'line' item in my budget so I don't feel cheated out of money that is allocated for me? Or should I just admit that there is no money for 'me' and just pool my small amount of eating out/clothing money and include gifts in there?

nina_yyc, I would make those gift expenses a separate line item in your budget. I allocate a certain amount for gifts each month, well actually I've just begun doing that but I plan to roll anything left over in that area into Christmas spending money. If you separate it out from your "me" money then you won't feel cheated. If you can manage it I think its important to have a little extra for yourself.