April No-Spend Challenge ~ We're in the home stretch... - Page 19

[fairydoula]

I'm not understanding the icons and such but I'm going to give it a try, since I really want to save up money while we're both making decent money and we have jobs. So, my goals are to figure out our actual needs vs. frivolous spending and figure out where we could cut back and where we can't.

So, this is a practice run for me

Goals - spend less money and spend more wisely on food and other purchases
Clean out unnecessary items, donate or sell I suppose an item(s) per month would be a good idea. So for May I'm going to say I'll get rid of 40 items.
organize and clean house and kitchen - ridding our very tiny kitchen of items that we don't use.
Create workable budget and reduce spending and increase savings
Get Hubby on board... he's currently behaving like a donkey... very stubborn!!!

4/28 Pizza for kids $20 (want) Gasoline $10 (need)
4/29 Groceries $26 (need)
4/30

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Welcome Fairy Doula! The icons are just for fun, they help some of us keep track -- however you record on the thread is fine. Glad to have you with us.

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

01.. sos
02.. sos
03.. --- $14 snacks out with my daughter
04.. sos
05.. sos
06.. sos $10.55 McDonald's
07.. sos
08.. sos
09.. sos
10.. --- $28 shoes for my daughter
11.. --- $4 snacks
12.. sos
13.. sos $50 LLBean backpack and lunchboxes
14.. sos
15.. sos $15 book club dinner
16.. --- $50 contact lense appointment
17.. --- $30 girl haircuts
18.. --- $95 Keen Sandals, $11 workout shorts
19.. sos
20.. sos
21.. sos
22.. sos
23.. sos $11.61 Wendy's drive-thru
24.. --- $78 gift card, necklace repair, kid clothes, starbucks
25.. sos $18 starbucks (again), bagels
26.. sos $16 McDonald's drive-thru
27.. sos $150 running shoes, $360 contact lenses
28.. sos $23 coffee, fruit & banana bread for playdate this morning
29.. sos
30..

Goals for April

1. 21/30 Stay Out of Stores (sos)
2. 14/20 No Spend Days

[triscuitsmom]

Goals for the Month of April
1. No unplanned spending: 28/30
2. No eating out that isn't already planned for: 24/28
3. Bring in extra money: 0%
4. 450 items decluttered: 138/450
5. 13 days with exercise in them: 12/13

Key:
- No Spend or only planned spending
- Unplanned Spend
- All meals eaten at home or shared with friends/family but didn't cost us anything
- Planned eating out
- Ate outside of the house (unplanned)
- Decluttered stuff out of the house
- Exercise

Apr 20:
Apr 21:
Apr 22:
Apr 23:
Apr 24: x 4 (we bought pizza for supper... but after the day we had I'd call it worth it if not necessary)
Apr 25: x 5
Apr 26:
Apr 27:
Apr 28: x 22
Apr 29: x 60

[mommyto4grits]

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

April 1st- :
April 2nd- so not thrilled I spent money today, but dd did truly need some clothes, got great deals and stayed within a reasonable amount
April 3rd- was a bit of and
April 4th-
April 5th-7th- ON VACATION, x3
April 8th-
April 9th- $270 Vet bill for sick dog otherwise
April 10th- Ate Dinner Out
April 11th- if I don't buy more groceries for the next 10 days like planned Spent a ton at the grocery store, but shopped for more days than usual
April 12th-
April 13th- Not budgeted for but spend money at Dave Ramsey Live last night on the kids kit, and a few other things. We will use them and I am so excited after last night so I am giving yesterday a
April 14th-
April 15th- Bought a pair of clippers to do the dogs hair- cost $34- cost of the groomer for both of them ONCE $86!! So, money saved! Bought a new salad spinner, mine completely broke, and I use one all the time- so necessity in my book.
April 16th- Forgot 2 things at the store yesterday (but I did stick to my list today), and forgot to get dh's cousin a birthday present.
April 17th-
April 18th-
April 19th-
April 20th-
April 21st-
Will be on vacation April 22-25th- budget is $350
April 22nd-25th- Disney World Budget $350 Spent $425 still calling it a tons of walking so and I didn't drive my car so
April 26th-
April 27th-
April 28th-
April 29th-

[jewellz]

My key:
no spend day=
unnecessary spending=
no driving=
eat at home=
Used cloth diapers=

Goals:
1. Only go shopping/errands 0/8
2. Stretch out FS money=$0/$514
3. no eating out for lunches this month 0/0
4. major clean (and keep clean) 1 room per week, getting ready for baby's arrival 0/4

Tue 20th- spent too much money
goals=
1. 7/8
2. $459.31/$514
3.
4. 8/4

Wed 21st-
goals=
1. 7/8
2. $459.31/$514
3.
4. 8/4

Thur 22nd-
goals=
1. 8/8
2. $459.31/$514
3.
4. 8/4

Fri 23rd-
goals=
1. 8/8
2. $459.31/$514
3.
4. 8/4

Sat 24th-
goals=
1. 8/8
2. $459.31/$514
3.
4. 8/4

Sun 25th- spent too much money
goals=
1. 9/8
2. $514/$514
3.
4. 8/4

Mon 26th-
goals=
1. 10/8
2. $514/$514
3.
4. 8/4

Tue 27th-
goals=
1. 11/8
2. $514/$514
3.
4. 8/4

Wed 28th-
goals=
1. 12/8
2. $514/$514
3.
4. 8/4

Thur 29th-
goals=
1. 13/8
2. $514/$514
3.
4. 8/4

[scrapadoozer]

04/01
04/02
04/03
04/04
04/05
04/06
04/07
04/08
04/09
04/10 Icing spatula, hole punch & cotton candy $6.47
04/11
04/12
04/13
04/14 $2.10 outfit for DS, $6.50 diapers for ds (I forgot to bring enough cloth dipes from home! Grrrr!
04/15
04/16
04/17: $1.05 Cotton candy (I'm an addict lately! It's sooo not food though so this is frivolous)
04/18: DS's birthday party!
04/19:
04/20: My Sweet Baby's 1st Birthday!
04/21:
04/22:
04/23: $18 Circus admission & pink cotton candy!
04/24:
04/25:
04/26:
04/27:
04/28: $3.50 fabric
04/29: $10.87 Over budget for groceries

$48.49 Frivolously spent
23/20 No-spend days
28/30 Not buying clothes for my kids days
$76.30/$100 Son's birthday (this is for everything, including gifts & food.) CAME IN UNDER BUDGET!
13/10 Loads of laundry hung out to dry
$510.87/$500.00 Groceries *OVER BUDGET* :

[FillingMyQuiver]

Key:
no spend/ budgeted spending
unnecessary/ unbudgeted spending
hung laundry to dry

Goals for April
no spend days 25/20
eating out 3/3
hung laundry to dry 7/10


1.
2. ordered our homeschool curriculum for next year. I'm putting this here preemptively to encourage me to NOT SPEND when I go out later
3. $50 bread, eggs for dying, and the last of the Easter baskets things at WalMart
4.
5.
6. ordered the last of the things I need for DS1's dinosaur party, was able to stay under budget AND found an online coupon code to save on shipping, also ordered our sunblock/ bug spray for the year~ unprepared for how DS1's soccer practice being at 5:30pm would affect us and got McD's for dinner.
7.
8. ordered our math curriculum for next year, excited to get started planning next year's schooling
9. $15 on quick grocery trip
10. $$ at Costco, major grocery shop, overspent a bit on some snacks
11. $$ at party store. I only needed 1 thing, invitations, but of course the WHOLE family was w/ me, and DH saw a bunch of stuff he thought would be *great* for DS1's party : So we spent more than I planned on things I don't think we really needed
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22. McDonald's for lunch and pizza delivery for dinner (all within budget). We were out all day, stopped by my mom's and spent WAY too much time there.
23.
24. DS1's birthday party. Bought bags of sand for the "dino dig" at Home Depot, budgeted for.
25. DH got a haircut. Normally I cut his hair, but I was so tired from the party and he couldn't wait. Didn't really have the haircut budgeted for.
26. Putting this all here preemptively. We're not leaving the house at all and I'll be spending the day returning the house to pre-party conditions.
27. Off to soccer practice now with our sandwiches, apples, and juice boxes
28.
29.
30.

[triscuitsmom]

Goals for the Month of April
1. No unplanned spending: 29/30
2. No eating out that isn't already planned for: 25/28
3. Bring in extra money: 0%
4. 450 items decluttered: 298/450
5. 13 days with exercise in them: 13/13

Key:
- No Spend or only planned spending
- Unplanned Spend
- All meals eaten at home or shared with friends/family but didn't cost us anything
- Planned eating out
- Ate outside of the house (unplanned)
- Decluttered stuff out of the house
- Exercise

Apr 20:
Apr 21:
Apr 22:
Apr 23:
Apr 24: x 4 (we bought pizza for supper... but after the day we had I'd call it worth it if not necessary)
Apr 25: x 5
Apr 26:
Apr 27:
Apr 28: x 22
Apr 29: x 60
Apr 30: x 160

[triscuitsmom]

It's the end of a month. I didn't hit all of my goals but I'm overall I'd say moderately satisfied with the month. I only had one day with out of budget spending, but three "extra" eating out/ordering days (which came out of fun money but still we are trying to eat at home). I got another whack load of stuff out of the house this month and I'm going to aim for another 300 in May.

Best of all I *finally* got my butt in gear and hit my fitness goal

[Hollysmom]

1 $20 lunch with my sister ~ this was planned however not necessary
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 $20 skirts
9 $9 lunch, $14 water bottles for school fundraiser
10
11
12
13 $22 take out for the girls and I (dh was away for work)
14 $5 necklaces and flip flops for dd1's retro day at school
15 coffee $1
16 lunch $4, book $6
17
18
19 lunch $8
20
21 Breakfast $3
22
23 Misc snacks and spending $12
24
25
26 Coffee & lunch $12
27
28
29 food I didn't need to buy $10
30 breakfast $5


17/20 No Spend Days
Frivolous Spending: $151

Well I didn't meet my no spend goal and I spent way too much on food outside the house. May is a crazy birthday month for us, but I think I have it all budgeted for.

[mommyto4grits]

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

April 1st- :
April 2nd- so not thrilled I spent money today, but dd did truly need some clothes, got great deals and stayed within a reasonable amount
April 3rd- was a bit of and
April 4th-
April 5th-7th- ON VACATION, x3
April 8th-
April 9th- $270 Vet bill for sick dog otherwise
April 10th- Ate Dinner Out
April 11th- if I don't buy more groceries for the next 10 days like planned Spent a ton at the grocery store, but shopped for more days than usual
April 12th-
April 13th- Not budgeted for but spend money at Dave Ramsey Live last night on the kids kit, and a few other things. We will use them and I am so excited after last night so I am giving yesterday a
April 14th-
April 15th- Bought a pair of clippers to do the dogs hair- cost $34- cost of the groomer for both of them ONCE $86!! So, money saved! Bought a new salad spinner, mine completely broke, and I use one all the time- so necessity in my book.
April 16th- Forgot 2 things at the store yesterday (but I did stick to my list today), and forgot to get dh's cousin a birthday present.
April 17th-
April 18th-
April 19th-
April 20th-
April 21st-
Will be on vacation April 22-25th- budget is $350
April 22nd-25th- Disney World Budget $350 Spent $425 still calling it a tons of walking so and I didn't drive my car so
April 26th-
April 27th-
April 28th-
April 29th-
April 30th-

Fairly happy with spending this month, plan on doing even better in May.

[ambersrose]

no spend day =
no drive day =
budgeted spending =
unbudgeted spending =

1=missing ingredients for dinner caused a grocery run
2=
3=
4=
5=
6= fell sick again and bought lunch and dinner instead of cooking
7= snack for church meeting
8= took the car into the shop for what I thought would be a simple leaky hose but it turned out to be a major issue
9= ended up having to spend the night in the city while they figured out if they could get my car fixed quickly or not, had a free place to stay but had to buy lunch
10=, things have gotten a bit out of hand...
11= FINALLY!
12=
13= , took the kids for food after swimming lessons
14= took the dog to the vet
15=
16=
17=
18=
19= bought the baby big girl panties!
20= packed lunch for after swimming lessons!
21= went out for a much needed MNO
22= took the girls out to lunch but it was planned and budgeted for
23=
24= grocery shopping
25=
26= stayed out with the kids too long in the AM and had to grab lunch
27= repeat of yesterday grrrr.
28=
29=
30=

[scrapadoozer]

04/01
04/02
04/03
04/04
04/05
04/06
04/07
04/08
04/09
04/10 Icing spatula, hole punch & cotton candy $6.47
04/11
04/12
04/13
04/14 $2.10 outfit for DS, $6.50 diapers for ds (I forgot to bring enough cloth dipes from home! Grrrr!
04/15
04/16
04/17: $1.05 Cotton candy (I'm an addict lately! It's sooo not food though so this is frivolous)
04/18: DS's birthday party!
04/19:
04/20: My Sweet Baby's 1st Birthday!
04/21:
04/22:
04/23: $18 Circus admission & pink cotton candy!
04/24:
04/25:
04/26:
04/27:
04/28: $3.50 fabric
04/29: $10.87 Over budget for groceries
04/30:

$48.49 Frivolously spent
24/20 No-spend days
29/30 Not buying clothes for my kids days
$76.30/$100 Son's birthday (this is for everything, including gifts & food.) CAME IN UNDER BUDGET!
13/10 Loads of laundry hung out to dry
$510.87/$500.00 Groceries *OVER BUDGET* :

[thesimplelife25]

Key:
- no spend day
- made a credit card payment
- allowed meal out/take out
- meal out/take out outside of planned $ and # of meals
- earned money/gift card from completing a survey

1st-
2nd- , -$8320 towards credit cards
3rd- -$13.10 Wendy's, spent $55 on birthday gifts
4th-
5th- -$5 gift card to CVS from surveys -$25 mexican takeout
6th-
7th-
8th- -$25 on pizza, spent $1.99 on a show from itunes
9th- , -check for $5.80 from surveys
10th-
11th- bought necessary household items (paper products, cleaning supplies)
12th-
13th--$17 on dinner - gyros - forgot to use a coupon
14th-
15th- -$25 on mexican takeout
16th-
17th- , -$10 CVS gift card from completing surveys
18th- -$26 on lunch out with friends, -$225 towards credit cards, spent $100 on replacement part for our stroller and a new hard-drive to replace a crashed one
19th- , -$6.80 cash from completing surveys, -$1000 towards credit cards
20th-
21st- -dinner out, but used gift card, so not horrible because no money was spent!!, also bought my son some products for treating his eczema
22nd- , -$5 cash from completing surveys
23rd-
24th-
25th- $20 on baby items (formula, etc)
26th-
27th-
28th- -$10 on McD's
29th-
30th- , -$5 CVS gift card from surveys


Totals for the month:
20/17 no spend days
$9545/$8800 credit card payments
8/6 meals out/take out
$141.10/$100 money spent on meals out/take out
$37.60/$10 money/gift cards earned from surveys

[eirual]

1:
2:
3: (lunch out: a whopping $45!)
4:
5: ($33 on "stuff"- caulking, door stops, helmet for DS)
6:*
7:
8:
9:*
10:
11:*
12: (treat $1.77 small stuff $5.28)
13:
14:
15:
16: ($5 on a scarf for myself)
17: ($25 over budget on a night out for DH and me
18: ($1.50 tea, $15 burgers for lunch)
19:
20: ($35 on 55% off bras, advanced from May's clothing budget. I put off getting them this month in order for DH to get some clothes, then the 55% sale came on that I had been waiting for so went for them. I only get bras every 3 yrs or so.)
21
22: ($35 on shoes for DS and me)
23: (DH bought DS a bow for archery. He's going to work this weekend to pay it off. I'm not tracking DH though, he's usually a pretty bare-boned spender, so I'm marking today as since I had nothing to do with it.)
24: ($49 on pantry-building supplies)
25: ($10 on spray paint and BBQ brush, $15 on groceries for having guests for dinner....)
26: ($12.23 extra groceries)
27:
28:
29:
30:

[triscuitsmom]

Last night I had a guy come and pick up some freecycle stuff that I had forgotten I'd arranged for so I get to add another 41 things to my total for April

Goals for the Month of April
1. No unplanned spending: 29/30
2. No eating out that isn't already planned for: 25/28
3. Bring in extra money: 0%
4. 450 items decluttered: 339/450
5. 13 days with exercise in them: 13/13

Key:
- No Spend or only planned spending
- Unplanned Spend
- All meals eaten at home or shared with friends/family but didn't cost us anything
- Planned eating out
- Ate outside of the house (unplanned)
- Decluttered stuff out of the house
- Exercise

Apr 20:
Apr 21:
Apr 22:
Apr 23:
Apr 24: x 4 (we bought pizza for supper... but after the day we had I'd call it worth it if not necessary)
Apr 25: x 5
Apr 26:
Apr 27:
Apr 28: x 22
Apr 29: x 60
Apr 30: x 201

[jewellz]

My key:
no spend day=
unnecessary spending=
no driving=
eat at home=
Used cloth diapers=

Goals:
1. Only go shopping/errands 0/8
2. Stretch out FS money=$0/$514
3. no eating out for lunches this month 0/0
4. major clean (and keep clean) 1 room per week, getting ready for baby's arrival 0/4


FRI 30th-
goals=
1. 13/8
2. $514/$514
3.
4. 8/4

Overall I'm ok with April but May is going to be interesting with no money coming in.
Drove alot more but forgot to include drs appt and such.
FS did last longer and could have made it last even longer if not had pregnancy cravings.
We ate at home for all dinners and all but one lunch so that was good. Cleaned the whole house faster then expected, now just have to keep it clean till at least baby girl's been home for a little bit. Now onto May.