~~September No-Spend Thread~~ We're in the HOME STRETCH....you can do it Mamas! - Page 9

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Hmmm...we are on day 7 and I've only had one no-spend day.

I need to do something to kick-start my no-spend mojo....I think I'm going to go out right now and get my purse and lock it in the filing cabinet.

That'll stop me.


01.. $4.99 Danish for party, SOS
02.. $45 fair food
03.. , SOS
04.. $5 Starbucks
05.. $5 Again with the Starbucks
06.. $17.50 Corn Dogs at the fair, SOS
07..
08..
09..
10..
11..
12..
13..
14..
15..

My goals:

1/20 No Spend Days
0/10 Let the Car Rest Days
3/20 Stay Out of the Stores SOS (this includes on-line shopping)

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin_Pie

it is absolutely official. I spend WAAAAAYYYYYY too much time on here

haha! You and me both!

Originally Posted by Ruthiegirl

Awwww.....thanks, Prudence. Sending an extra mortgage payment? That's fantastic!! That is my dream when I am done with school and working again.

I'd like to say I saved up that extra payment through diligence and thrift...but the truth of the matter is that was leftover money from our summer savings. That won't be happening again until NEXT year. haha!~

Originally Posted by trumpcard

Actually, my dream is to lower my grocery budget and then not need the whole thing!!

Mine too -- I bought that "Family Meals for $75 a week" book and I'm slowly reading through that thing. All my spending this month has been for FOOD -- junky take-out food. Clearly that is an area I need to work on.

The thing is -- my family eats so much. ALL.THE.TIME. I'm now appreciating my mother more and how much time she must have spent in the kitchen, in the grocery store, preparing and serving food. This mother thing -- it's work!

Originally Posted by Turquesa

3: $15.00 on a rocking horse. Trouble with garage sales is that you can still do unnecessary spending and justify it because it's cheap. .

Isn't that the TRUTH?????? I've scored some fabulous finds at garage sales, but I'm starting to think the savings have been offset by how much unecessary junk I've brought home. I can ALWAYS find something we need at a garage sale. This summer I started boycotting them. I don't think it is good for our bottom line to shop at them.

Originally Posted by SoulCakes

Haven't eaten out in 11 days, yay!

Go Mama!

Originally Posted by SoulCakes

Hollysmom has this zen no-spend business down pat.

She does! Holly we need some tips! You are having a fabulous month.

Originally Posted by VisionaryMom

That means we're a one-car family right now until at least December, depending on how quickly we can save money. I've never, ever had a car payment, but we will have to unless I can convince DH to wait it out. So I'm determined to make being a one-car family as painless as possible for him. On the plus side, the kids & I have limited spending options if we're at home! We'll only have the car once a week, and we will learn () to take the city bus once a week, which will cost 50 cents per ride. (Kids are free!)

We're a one car family too. It is tough some months, but doable for us. We too are on a busline. Good luck to you, Mama! December is just around the corner.

[Ruthiegirl]

We packed a lunch and hit the beach yesterday thinking it would be a no-spend day only to find that the beach now charges to park. Maybe because it was Labor Day?

Sept 4 --
Sept 5 --
Sept 6 -- 6.00 parking
Sept 7
Sept 8
Sept 9

Remaining grocery money -- 158.78

[trumpcard]

Originally Posted by Hollysmom

So far, so good.....

September
1 -
2 -
3 -
4 -
5 -
6 -

Still rockin' it!

Originally Posted by nina_yyc

1: $280 Costco
2: $65 Groceries, $30 raincoat for DD
3: $15 HFS - sugar & teething tablets for DS
4: no spend
5: no spend
6: no spend

$390/500

You're getting into the groove now!

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom

I'm now appreciating my mother more and how much time she must have spent in the kitchen, in the grocery store, preparing and serving food.

Oh, me too!


Monday would have been a no spend day but we were invited over to one of DH's colleagues house for dinner and we wanted to take a hostess gift. We picked up flowers on the way $10.45. We did get a meal and leftovers for my lunch today but Grrrr! on the spending on a day that should have been spend free! This is hard . . .

I also did NOT exercise which is really frustrating me. Must do better today.


Putting the flower expenditure in the budget category . . .

Meals Out: 0/2
Ice Cream 0/1
Week-Day Car Days 2/8
No-Spend 2/15
Budget $82.89/$400
Exercise 3/30

Unplanned Spending: $51.45

[spatulagirl]

KEY:

= No spend
= Necessary/budgeted spending
= Unnecessary/-non-budgeted spending

0/1 meals out
3/15 no spend days


1: DH spent $150 on a rim for his car so we can fix the flat tire
2: groceries
3: running errands and bought myself a milkshake. Spent $3.45
4: more groceries
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[Ruthiegirl]

Signing in early today. We spent the morning with friends, the kids are doing schoolwork now and we have soccer practice tonight, so no opportunity to spend any money. Keeping busy is good for the budget.


Sept 4 --
Sept 5 --
Sept 6 -- 6.00 parking
Sept 7 --
Sept 8
Sept 9

Remaining grocery money -- 85.81

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

I'm signing in early too.

Purse locked in the filing cabinet = not spending any money today.

I'm going now to take a nap while the baby naps. Sleeping women do not spend.


01.. $4.99 Danish for party, SOS
02.. $45 fair food
03.. , SOS
04.. $5 Starbucks
05.. $5 Again with the Starbucks
06.. $17.50 Corn Dogs at the fair, SOS
07.. , SOS
08..
09..
10..
11..
12..
13..
14..
15..

My goals:

2/20 No Spend Days
0/10 Let the Car Rest Days
4/20 Stay Out of the Stores SOS (this includes on-line shopping)

[Canadianne]

1. Spent the day with my sisters and only spent money that I had set aside in August for the day ($20.00). I also had enough left over from the $20.00 to cover supper with DH.
2.
3. Grocery shopping day. I spent more than normal for a two-week period but I'm trying to stock up for when the baby comes so I'm not too concerned.
4. Spent money. Didn't buy anything foolish...it just all added up to way more than I wanted it to.
5.
6. No stores were open so no money was spent. I think there should be a national holiday every week.
7. Just bought fuel today.


Key:
Complete No Spend Day:
No Unplanned Debit Card Use:
Budgeted Spending:

Tracking:
Complete No Spend Days: 3/10
No Unplanned Debit Card Use Days: 6/15
Dining Out: 1/10
Groceries: $134.87/$290.00

[ltlmrs]

I'll have to post the actual numbers tomorrow because I can't think straight right now.

I got ill today with a bad cold. Of course, I did not expect cold & flu season to start so very early, so I had nothing except chicken broth and echinacea tea at home. I have been intending on making the master tonic recipe and also getting some more aminos and vitamin c (which I didn't end up getting because I wanted acerola powder and they only had complexes with ascorbic acid), so I went to WF. The horseradish root alone cost $5 and of course, I couldn't get a small piece that I need: I had to get the whole thing. And the big jug of Bragg's cost like $15. And of course, we don't have a medical expense fund except for the insurance premium.

I think I will only put the amount I spent on groceries in the food category and the foods for the master tonic as well as the supplements will go in the miscellaneous. DH and I will just have to go without hair cuts this month (well, I haven't had a hair cut since I cut my hair short in May ). Next month I'll try to figure out some way to put aside a little bit of money for remedies because with cold and flu season I'll have plenty of "unexpected" expenses.

[nwmomof2]

1: $80 household
2: NS
3: food out $8, travel $97 (yikes)
4: food out $10
5: food out $7
6: gas $32, food out $16, household (gift) $25, groceries $116
7: yarn $9 - unplanned but necessary to finish the poncho I'm knitting for DD1
8:
9:

1/20 No-spend days
116/600 groceries
41/100 food out
2/10 Exercise days
1/4 Grocery shop 1 day/week only. No extra trips to stores.
0/0 No clothing purchases for me or kids
0/$500 in savings

[pitter_patter]

1 Groceries: $144.56
Target: $55.03 for dog and cat food, freezer bags and milk
2 0
3 0
4 $40 for winter clothes for the kids--darn those outlet sales!
5 0--on vacation at my dad's and didn't leave his property!
6 0--left my dad's and timed it right to not need any meals on the way home
7 $4 for a bagel and coffee
8
9
10

So far I'm doing much better than I would be in a typical month! I'm still going to be super nervous until payday but I think we will squeak by. I need to get some more winter things for the kids but I'm selling their outgrown things at a consignment sale the first weekend of October and I hope to use those funds to buy new clothes. My son has jeans and a few long sleeve shirts but my little girl finally grew (yay!) and needs a whole fall/winter wardrobe.



Goals:
1/5 days of no driving
0/2 dinners out
0/4 lunches out

[trumpcard]

Hurray for a no-spend day! Boo for a no exercise day!


Meals Out: 0/2
Ice Cream 0/1
Week-Day Car Days 2/8
No-Spend 3/15
Budget $82.89/$400
Exercise 3/30

Unplanned Spending: $51.45

[melissel]

Hmm, I'm not sure what to call household purchases. We bought bedside table lamps and I'll need to buy bar stools for the kitchen. It's not exactly unnecessary spending, but I guess technically they're things we could live without if we had to? I think this issue is what always derails my participation in these threads! These were thoughtful purchases--DH and I discussed and decided these purchases would improve our lives, but they're not strictly necessities, and we didn't plan ahead for them. What do most of you consider these kinds of things?

[melissel]

Key:
No-spend day:
Only planned/necessary spending:
Unnecessary spending:

Grocery spending goal: $0/$200

9/1: ($100 on housewarming gift--yes, they're VERY good friends; $46 on a new power cord for my laptop, because my old one is nearly kaput)
9/2:
9/3: Spent $45 on gas for the car, $10 on a b-day gift, and $10 on wrapping supplies for b-day and housewarming gifts--all planned spending. I successfully managed to avoid buying drinks for the kids/Starbucks for me after a long park visit, so I'm proud of that!
9/4: Only planned spending today (picking up some needed school supply items at Office Depot), and less than I planned to boot (never made it to Staples).
9/5: Spent an extra $15 on champagne that we could have done without and $6 on scratch-off lottery tix for us when buying for grandmother's b-day card. Not a smart day
9/6: / Planned spending on DD's b-day dinner, and unplanned but intentional spending on nice (but cheap) bedside lamps for our newly cleaned and reorganized bedroom
9/7: Spent $15 on sandwiches and water to bring down to the spray park for a "not back to school" homeschooling outing because we had no bread in the house and I forgot the gallon of water I already had and was supposed to bring, grrrrr!

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Originally Posted by melissel

It's not exactly unnecessary spending, but I guess technically they're things we could live without if we had to? I think this issue is what always derails my participation in these threads!

No one expects your month to be perfect. I would chalk these up as unnecessary spending -- because bedside lamps and barstools are not needs -- but so what?

Everyone has a few unnecessary spending days.

I consider my no-spend month to be PERFECT if I have 20 no-spend days in the month.

Those other ten days I'm out there buying barstools and bedside lamps with the best of them. I just record it here and keep on moving.

Aim for a a large percentage of your month to be no-spend and you are winning.

[averysmomma05]

a. Who you are
I am Emi mom to 2 daughters Averi who is 5 and Rian who is 3. Married to hubby for going on 6 years.I tried this before and didn't get very far.

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) and
I want to start putting money in the savings account because at this point we spend to much every week and can't do that. We are sitting on a financial problem if something happens.
c. How you plan to get there
I plan to stay out the stores buying unnecessary things,work more on my WAH job to help hubby out more,making more homemade foods and not store bought and NO eating out this month.

Grocery budget:36/400
No spend days:1/20
No eating out days:2/25
work WAH days:0/25

Home cooked meals:
Budgeted spending:
Unbudgeted spending:
Work days:
No spend days:


1:
2:
3: not leaving the house today!
4:Can't remember
5:Can't remember
6:Can't remember
7:
8: Not leaving home today. Tomorrow is payday so will be spending.
9:
10:

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Fellow Moms over for coffee this morning, worked on a few of my tracks for my class (I teach aerobics), and now I'm cleaning my house and making dinner. A good no-spend day.

01.. $4.99 Danish for party, SOS
02.. $45 fair food
03.. , SOS
04.. $5 Starbucks
05.. $5 Again with the Starbucks
06.. $17.50 Corn Dogs at the fair, SOS
07.. , SOS
08.. , SOS
09..
10..
11..
12..
13..
14..
15..

My goals:

3/20 No Spend Days
0/10 Let the Car Rest Days
5/20 Stay Out of the Stores SOS (this includes on-line shopping)

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Welcome Emi!

[nina_yyc]

1: $280 Costco
2: $65 Groceries, $30 raincoat for DD
3: $15 HFS - sugar & teething tablets for DS
4: no spend
5: no spend
6: no spend
7: no spend

390/500

Not gonna last. Pantry is well stocked but out of soy milk, butter, and can't think of a lunch for playdate I'm hosting tomorrow. If I have $110 left for 22 days and I shop on average every 5 days, that means I need to spend $25 or less today. Eep.

[LilacRhodes]

Wow, I totally stink at this. I think I got through the first three days or something.... then got out of the habit (it wasn't really a habit yet, anyway).

But, I'm not ready to give up. I feel like a lot of the money I spend is being spent on things that we don't need/want as much as things I could afford if I wasn't spending it on the less-important things. This is always the case for me to some degree, whether finances are particularly tight or not.

OK, I need to go look for receipts. I may have to delete the last few days & just pick up again tomorrow.