~ October No-Spend Challenge ~ The treat is having money in the bank. The trick is keeping it... - Page 3

[haurelia]

01.. Refrigerator repair DH was unable to do. Boo. Paid the due monthly bills as per my budget.
02.. Groceries as budgeted, plus apples at the farmer's market for saucing. (practiced gratitude after feeling sorry for myself for not being able to buy all the wonderful goodies I am coveting--that part is tough!)
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[averysmomma05]

Who you are: I am Emi SAHM/WAHM student mom to 2 daughters A and R. I am married to G 6 years now. I was in the September one but fell out.

Where I am going: I am hoping to save some money to build a emergency fund, and also to start paying off some debt (we have ALOT from a hospital bill) before they start to take us to court.

How I am going to get there: Stay out the stores,eat out less,spend less on things I don't need and try to spend less on grocery by meal planning more and not having to run and grab something.

Goals:

0/15 no spend days
0/25 cook at home
0/5 dinner out
0/$400 grocery
0/25 Work days (wah)
Save $100 for savings

Key:
No spend:
Cook at home:
Eat out:
Grocery:
Dinner out:
Work days:
Unneccessary spending:

2nd: Spent $1.49 on crackers for soup I made.

[SilverFish]

I'm going to join too!

I'm Rachel, SAHM to dd 7mos. I'm still adjusting to the SAH part, and am looking for ways to contribute financially to our household. We are comfortable financially, but a new baby, a job loss and major move, plus me not being able to find work all last year have combined to make things less comfortable than they should be. We are still trying to adjust from our relaxed days as a childless couple with plenty of income and no worries.


Short-term goals for OCT:
We need to work on unbudgeted spending. We aren't so good with the bigger items we "need." We research what we want, look for good prices, only buy good quality stuff, but completely neglect to actually plug that expense into our budget and see if it works that month. So a major goal will be to stick to our discretionary budget of $300.

Another goal is to come under my $400 grocery budget for the second month in a row, while ALSO sticking to our 4x eating out plan.

The final goal is to work on my income. The current plan is for me to go back to work as a teacher sometime next year, but I'd rather stay at home with my baby. The only way for me to do that is to find some supplementary income, either through my art, tutoring or something else I can do without putting dd in daycare.

1/15 no spend days
0/8 art/work days
1/4 eat-out days
unnecessary/unbudgeted spending

$140/$400 groceries
$103/$300 discretionary spending

1. groceries
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3. (blah. we just went out for a stroll to our art fair and got really hungry... the food we got wasn't even that good...)
4. library fines. is there anything worse than library fines? something that should be free except you were too lazy/disorganized BUT, i made a meal plan for the next week!
5. made my (hopefully) last ever diaper order today for $98.
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[Turquesa]

= No spend or budgeted spending
= Unnecessary/unbudgeted spending
= No-drive day
= Had tea today
= Hung clothes on the line.

1. Ran errands. Forgot to pack snacks. Crashed with hunger and went to TCBY. Ugh! What a start. But . . .
2. DH's haircut $16.00 (We really need to learn how to do this at home!), $20.00 cash last-minute groceries for dinner party.
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[applecider]

I'm in again.

1. I'm Sara. Two boys and a DP who works out of town every week.
2. My goals are just to save and pay down debt. Currently have mortgage (on which we owe more than the house is worth ), small student loan and motorcycle that I'm trying to convince DP to sell. He has said that I can go ahead and sell it, but we all know that if I did that, there would be some serious resentment.
3. Watch my spending carefully. Have a budget and stick to it so I can save. Mainly, I just want to track things here so I am more mindful about what I"m doing.

[applecider]

1. $17 tea/snacks
2. $20 groceries, $70 supplements, $28 gift

Whoa! Not off to a good start here. Got three birthdays this month too. Plus DPs parents' 40th anniversary. Yikes!

[mommyto4grits]

My Key:
Budgeted, planned spending (includes groceries, gas, other necessary or well planned items- NOT impulse items)
No Spend
No Drive
Impulse, Unnecessary Spending
Eat Out
Oct.1- Groceries, consumables, and gas
Oct.2- rest of grocery shopping DH and I had a date night, I think dinner was overpriced, but it was good. And DH got steak, which I never make.
Oct.3-

[melissel]

Originally Posted by FeelingBlessed

Please go right ahead + incorporate these concepts; it's wonderful to hear others running toward similar goals!

Kim

Thanks Kim, I can feel it making a difference already

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Today we paid our library fines and bought winter clothes at Lands End for DD8, who had very few hand-me-downs this year. However, I saved $30 with coupons (the equivalent of a free dress plus some extra!), narrowly escaped taking the starving kids out to dinner, and made $2 on another survey

Short-term goals:
No-spend days: 1/20
Grocery budget: $0/500
Weekly meal plans made: 0/4
Income from surveys/sales: $4
Daily save/earn money activity: 2/31

Legend:
No-spend day:
Planned spending only:
Unnecessary spending:
Practiced gratitude:

10/1:
10/2: (ate at home all day, completed a survey for $2)
10/3:
10/4:
10/5:
10/6:
10/7: (soccer sign-up fees)
10/8: (GS monthly fees)

[averysmomma05]

Who you are: I am Emi SAHM/WAHM student mom to 2 daughters A and R. I am married to G 6 years now. I was in the September one but fell out.

Where I am going: I am hoping to save some money to build a emergency fund, and also to start paying off some debt (we have ALOT from a hospital bill) before they start to take us to court.

How I am going to get there: Stay out the stores,eat out less,spend less on things I don't need and try to spend less on grocery by meal planning more and not having to run and grab something.

Goals:

0/15 no spend days
1/25 cook at home
1/5 dinner out
1.49/$400 grocery
2/25 Work days (wah)
Save $100 for savings

Key:
No spend:
Cook at home:
Eat out:
Grocery:
Work days:
Unneccessary spending:

2nd: Spent $1.49 on crackers for soup I made.
3rd: Spent $13 at Subway,$2.16 for BK for kids,and $8 for husbands crap.

[haurelia]

=planned, budgeted spending
=unplanned, unbudgeted spending
=no drive day
=eat at home
=packed lunch/snack
clothes= hung clothes instead of dryer use
= practice gratitude


01.. Refrigerator repair DH was unable to do. Boo. Paid the due monthly bills as per my budget. clothes
02.. Groceries as budgeted, plus apples at the farmer's market for saucing. (practiced gratitude after feeling sorry for myself for not being able to buy all the wonderful goodies I am coveting--that part is tough!)
03.. Bought beer for dinner guests, which wasn't touched. Bah. (didn't drive!, and our family day out was a 2.5 hour hike that was LOVELY!) Talked with stepmom about a possible per diem RN job I might take ($400 a month if I work 1 day a week...hm)
04.., PLUS the most exciting part: DH stripped some scrap copper wire and sold it to the scrap yard for $160!!! Now we can start our snowshoe fund (we both want a pair). clothes
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[liangel]

My key:

- No spend at all

- necessary spending (gas, food, car stuff)

- Unnecessary Spending

10/1-

10/2- $5.50 Sonic

10/3-

[nina_yyc]

I revised my goals today. Decided to count the $80 gas/bus ticket money in my budget as a part of my personal spending. If I go over it will be coming out of my fun money, so I need to see the total.

I bought snacks on each of my first two days of work...bad, bad, bad. And yep, that's a $28 hair product on there...don't judge me, this is totally necessary! I have curly, frizzy, fine hair and I have tried to live without it before. Trying to use drugstore gel for curl control will make me cranky all month. And I got 10% off by bringing in the old bottle for recycling, so there.

On a positive note...I made chicken stock and froze it in small containers so I can save $ on groceries and DH's dad did a transmission flush for us.

1: $4 Tim Hortons
2: $64 gas, bus tickets, snack
3: $28 hair product

0/$750 household account
96/$205 personal account

[scrapadoozer]

10/01
10/02
10/03

3/20 No-spend days
3/31 Not buying clothes days
$0 Frivolously spent

[scrapadoozer]

Andrea- I hope your baby is feeling better!

[OkiMom]

Haven't posted in a few days. Combination of ickiness feeling and just pure busyness. I got so much done today though! I actually got 2 things checked off my to do list that have been on there forever! Tomorrow I have an ultrasound and prenatal appointment then I have to pick up a few things so I can work on Christmas/birthday gifts for the family.

01.. :P
02.. 19.00 thrift store (got some dress up clothes to go into the dress up trunk for the kids Christmas present, a changing pad, a bunch of toddler science books and DH picked up a brand new pair of cammie pants!), 60.00 baby clothes and a shower gifts for the 5 women I know due this month (thank goodness they had all Carters outfits 50% off!) 25.00 I got home and morning sickness was rearing its ugly head so DH was left in charge of dinner..
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No Spend:
Budget spend:
Oopsies:
Eat at home(): 4/29
No drive days(): 4/20
Pack a snack(): 5/31
Declutter my life days(): 5/25
Working on presents/clothing days (): 5/25
Food budget 25/400
DH budget- 0/150
DD2's birthday budget- 0/40.00
Christmas budget: 0/500
Baby budget: 30.00/????
Organization budget: 0/100
Thrift store budget: 19/40
Personal spending: 30.00/100

[Turquesa]

= No spend or budgeted spending
= Unnecessary/unbudgeted spending
= No-drive day
= Had tea today
= Hung clothes on the line.

1. Ran errands. Forgot to pack snacks. Crashed with hunger and went to TCBY. Ugh! What a start. But . . .
2. $20.00 wine for party, $16.00 haircut for DH
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[nadia105]

a. Who you are
I'm Nadia, mama to 3 plus one on the way in April.

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) and
We need to pay off some debt that we accumulated during our move in April. Between getting the old house ready and settling into the new one, a lot of money went out in a very short time and we need to get on top of it -- we've never had debt before!

c. How you plan to get there
A full no spend just doesn't work for me, but I will really aim to cut down on things like eating out (one of our biggest downfalls).

I went into Target today (my $100 store, I swear I should just pay $100 at the door) and only walked out with the 3 things I went in for, so that was a major victory.

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0/$200 eating out

[fustian]

1.
2. Groceries, gas, and $200 at the gardening centre on supplies.
3. and one more bag of clutter out the door!
4. Vaccinations for the dogs $200.

2/15 no spend days
0/$400 added to savings
2/5 bags of clutter gone

Legend:
No spend
Only planned/budgeted spending
Unnecessary / unplanned spending

[scrapadoozer]

I could not resist the corduroy guitar blazer for DS! I am not that strong!

10/01
10/02
10/03
10/04 $15 Handsome duds for DS.

3/20 No-spend days
3/31 Not buying clothes days
$15 Frivolously spent

[mommyto4grits]

My Key:
Budgeted, planned spending (includes groceries, gas, other necessary or well planned items- NOT impulse items)
No Spend
No Drive
Impulse, Unnecessary Spending
Eat Out
Oct.1- Groceries, consumables, and gas
Oct.2- rest of grocery shopping DH and I had a date night, I think dinner was overpriced, but it was good. And DH got steak, which I never make.
Oct.3-
Oct. 4-