~December No-Spend Challenge~ Climb up on the wagon with us -- start today! Newcomers welcome - Page 3

[Hollysmom]

December 1 - $10 Lunch
December 2 - $3 Breakfast
December 3 - $3 Breakfast, $8 lunch

So far December is a bust! Back on the wagon tomorrow!

Unbudgeted/Frivolous Spending: $24

[justamama]

Dec 1: $85 for Lunch and newborn diapers
Dec 2:
Dec 3: $17 going out with friends for dinner

[milosmomma]

12/1
12/2
12/3 Grocery- $23


DP saved me today! I slept all day (I work third shift) and when I got up there was no dinner plan and nothing defrosted. Jason said he'd pick something up...I was too weak to resist. I was sitting there feeling frustrated when Jason walked in with GROCERIES. This is huge, Jason is all about the ready-made/convenience foods. But today he bought rolls, cheese, roast beef & veggies (and eggnog ). I'm counting this as groceries (as opposed to daily spending) because we'll have stuff for lunches for the next few weeks and nothing was really "ready-made".

[_ktg_]

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom

"Money slips through our fingers in simple and subtle ways. We spend a little here on something forgettable, spend a little thre on an unimportant thing, and at the end of the month, it's panic time -- we're left with very little money. Spend a month keeping track of every penny that you spend, noting exactly how much you spent and what you spent it on...You'll find two things: The need to write your spending down makes you more vigilant against wasteful spending, and the end of the month review of your records will suprise you when you see how much of your spending was nonessential. Use that information as a springboard to see what you need to work on."

... Trent Hamm, Author of "365 Ways to Live Cheap" and founder of thesimpledollar.com

I love this quote! Its humbling to see the nonsense we spend $$ on at the end of the month, along with the total amount.

[_ktg_]

I'm back again - I fell off of tracking in November. It got a bit crazy with trying to track both myself & DH.

Who am I? I'm Kate, WOHM with DH as my SAH partner in crime and our 2 little boys (3 yo. & 11months)

Goals: Curb the exessive spending on things which either we should have budgeted for, or just not bought, as this will keep us from running into the red on our monthly budget. Also we're paying all cash for the holidays this year to keep us in line & on track

Dec Goals

3 - days of eating out (dinner)
12 - No spend days
500.00 - grocery budget
xxx - holiday budget (still working on this)

Key:
- No Spend
- Budgeted Spending
- unplanned spending
- Emergency unplanned spending

1 -
2 -
3 -
4 -

[dsaucone]

1 $7 breakfast and lunch at work
2
3 $21 eating out $2 at work
4

Totals&Goals
Lunch 1/22
$30

[justamama]

I work today, and have my dinner packed and ready to go, so I'm marking today as no-spend since I have nothing to buy and am not going anywhere that will give me the opportunity to spend (except to buy gas for my van, but that's essential and not counted here).

Dec 1: $85 for Lunch and newborn diapers
Dec 2:
Dec 3: $17 going out with friends for dinner
Dec 4:

[Snow Cherries]

Who I am - SAHM, married to an amazing man, with 2 wonderful boys, ages 7 and 1. I do work just a little outside the home in order to help make ends meet, but can bring my little one with me.

Goals - to get out of debt! We have credit card debt we're trying to pay down, plus several hospital bills we're still paying on from my c-section last year. It's overwhelming.

How we'll get there - I've been reducing our grocery bill each month considerably and am eventually hoping to bring it down to $300 per month. I'm ashamed to admit that we used to pay over $1000 per month on food between groceries and eating out back when I was working full time outside the home. So no more eating out (except a $5 pizza on Fridays which is a tradition we started with DS1 a couple of years ago) for me or DH. He's having a harder time adjusting than I am - probably because he's out all day and I am in the home. We're also trying to eliminate small mid week purchases which are often what kills our budget and I'm trying to drive less. So I'm hopping on the no spening wagon!

Key
No money spent
Necessary/planned purchase
Unnecessary spending
No driving day

1 -
2 -
3 - $12 on necessary (and on sale) groceries

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Ugh....the flu.

I feel awful...but staying home in bed is really good for the budget.

01..
02..
03..
04.. ,
05..
06..
07..
08..
09..
10..
11..
12..
13..
14..
15.. Payday

My Goals:

4/25 No Spend Days
1/5 Let the Car Rest Days

[mommyto4grits]

I am Vicki, I have done this for the last couple month's, and am so proud of myself!
Short Term Goals- Not to buy meaningless junk, save $300 towards a vacation coming up, have at least 2 No Spend days a week.

How I plan to do this....
Not eating out!! Once or twice a month for DH and I to have a date night, all of us out to eat only when "kids eat free". 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- been doing great on this. Having at least 2 no-drive days a week.

My key:
No Spend
No Driving
Budgeted Spending/Necessities/Thought Over Purchase
Unnecessary Spending
: Exercise Day

Groceries- $75

Dec 1-
Dec 2- :
Dec 3- :
Dec 4-

[Hollysmom]

December 1 - $10 Lunch
December 2 - $3 Breakfast
December 3 - $3 Breakfast, $8 lunch
December 4 -

Finally! A No Spend Day!

Unbudgeted/Frivolous Spending: $24
No Spend Days: 1

[quelindo]

12/1: $125 session with my energy worker
12/2:
12/3: $1.50 on eBay to buy coupons
12/4:

__________________________

My Key:
No Spending
Necessary Spending
Unnecessary spending
No Car Day

[quelindo]

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom

Ugh....the flu.

I feel awful...but staying home in bed is really good for the budget.

Feel better soon, Prudence!

[PlayaMama]

doing okay so far.

18/300 food
4.57/150 sundry (for this month only)
0/60 spending money

2/20 no spend
2/11 budgeted spend
unbudgeted spend

1
2 4.57 shorts ds
3
4 18.00 qdoba
5
6
7
8
9




dec 4
nov
oct
september 181.81 17
august 89.88 22
july 105.65 20
june 76.70 17
may 181.46 18
april 358.07 19
march 517.18 17 [/QUOTE]

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

From "Squandering Aimlessly: My Adventures in the American Marketplace" by David Brancaccio

When you do something often enough, it becomes second nature, automatic. "Unthinking" is another way to put it. A stand-up comedian once told me what happened after he won the "$100,000 Star Search" competition. "The money just went away," he confided. It wasn't stolen. It didn't work its way down his trouser leg through that hole he had been meaning to mend. He just found a few thousand things to buy that seemed like a good idea at the time but left little or no lasting impression."

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

That quote really struck me when I read it last night because this is what happens to me all the time!

Because of this thread, I know that in the past three months I have spent over $1,000 on stuff...$100 for an Isis vest, $140 on some Dansko clogs, $400 on a vita-mix, over $150 on scrapbooking supplies...right now I can remember what it was that I spent it on because I'm still using those things...but in six months?

Next year?

I won't remember and that money will have just gone away.

I really need to re-focus my thinking on money...how I spend it, why I spend it. I need to write out my long term financial goals and not let little purchases eat away at the money that should be going towards bigger things.

[justamama]

Having no money for anything and barely enough gas to get to work and home does well for this challenge, at least! Now if only I'd remembered to take time to pack food for my 12 hr shift before I came to work. I think my mom and her bf plan on bringing me dinner.

Dec 1: $85 for Lunch and newborn diapers
Dec 2:
Dec 3: $17 going out with friends for dinner
Dec 4:
Dec 5:

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

01..
02..
03..
04..
05..
06..
07..
08..
09..
10..
11..
12..
13..
14..
15.. Payday

My Goals:

5/25 No Spend Days
1/5 Let the Car Rest Days

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Having no money for anything and barely enough gas to get to work and home does well for this challenge,

Truth be told, that is what is going on here too. I waaaay overspent last month so now we are basically broke.

Which makes it very easy to no-spend.

I will NOT be dipping into our savings account again.

[akichan]

Thanks so much for those posts. I was just coming online to confess that I'm being "nickel and dime"ed to death! (or broke) In mourning that I can't buy my kids the "big things" for Christmas, I've spent the last week running around buying them every $5 or $10 "little thing" that I can find. And throwing gifts in there for myself, while I'm at it. Thinking I can drown my loneliness and sorrows by buying them what is essentially meaningless STUFF.

Is anyone handing out spankings this month?