March 2011 No-Spend Challenge -- The money you save is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

[jimblejamble]

This is a support thread to help you ~not spend your money~.

Everyone is welcome to join and you can start tracking your spending at any time. It doesn't have to be February 1st. Now is a good time to start.

The plan is simple (although tough to execute):

1. Vow not to spend any money on unnecessary purchases.

2. Come on here everyday and record your spending.

We all record our spending in different ways. There are no rules. You record and update however you would like -- pick a way that will help you spend the least amount of money.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please write an introductory message when you decide to join our thread. We would like to know:

a. Who you are

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) and

c. How you plan to get there

Good luck MDCers!! Keep that money in your wallet.

[jimblejamble]

I have rent, electric, gas, food, car gas, car payment, car insurance, and internet/phone (one payment in a bundle). I'm going to try to keep all my spending just to those for March! I'm starting to pay with cash for my food so I'm not tempted to buy goodies I don't need. I'm also going to try to limit my internet time to just 2 hours a day to save on electricity.

- Nothing spent
- Budgeted spending
- Splurge
- Exercised

1: $640 rent
2:
3: $50 (husband has drill this weekend and needed some snacks and things like red flashlights--yep, it has to be red, so our zillions of regular flashlights won't work, ugh! Oh and I saw a bolt of fabric for $5 that I really liked so into the cart it went... oops)
4:
5: : $15 Salad ingredients and birthday card for C's grandma's 89th birthday, Walked to the store for said salad ingredients
6:
7:
8:
9:
10: : $43 @ Sunflower Farmers Market
11:
12: : Needed cheese for the pizza I made tonight and ended up burning (uh, note to self, Broil and 500 degrees are very very different!)
13:
14: Happy Pi Day!
15:
16: : $25 @ Sunflower - SLC's grand opening = everything on sale and $5 off! I also know my husband ate lunch and got gas sometime during the past week...
17 - 27: See below.
28: : $45 @ Whole Foods, $35 electric bill auto-payment... also I haven't logged in in a few days so I don't remember what all was spent on the days above but I went grocery shopping on Saturday and last Wednesday, filled up the car with gas, and sent off a check for the car payment.
29:
30:
31:
Edited by jimblejamble - 4/1/11 at 2:03pm

[FillingMyQuiver]

double post

[FillingMyQuiver]

a.  I'm Jenn.  Pregnant, SAHM to 4 littles under 7yo, homeschooling 2 of them, trying to keep my sanity from day to day.

b.  DH and my financial goals are to be debt free.  We were on track at the beginning of 2010 to get it done, but then we let life get in the way.  We are now newly committed to putting every extra penny we have towards our debt (credit card and truck payment) or saving for our homebirth in April.

c.  * STAY OUT OF STORES!!!  This is our biggest culprit in spending.  We step into a store and BAM, we've spent $100 easily.

     * Cut our electric bill by hang drying as much laundry as possible.

     * Trim the food budget (or stay within it) by meal planning.  I have a hard time with this, and I'm not really sure why headscratch.gif  This should also keep us from eating out, the other major budget sucker.

     * DH and I are committing to the Compact.  We're going to take it month by month, but hopefully we'll stick to it for the whole year.  We really have ENOUGH and there is no reason for us to keep adding cr@p into our lives.

     * I've signed up for the 2011 in 2011 Decluttering Challenge and the 52 Projects Challenge.  The decluttering challenge will put things in perspective of what we have and what we actually *need*.  The 52 projects challenge will get me to use up the materials I have instead of going out and buying more crafting/ sewing/ knitting supplies.  Hopefully, both will help us hold onto our money tighter.

     * We already got our tax return in and that's book marked for our homebirth in April.  Now we need to start saving for our bulk meat order, buy a carseat for the new baby, and pay some medical bills that have come in from DS2's ER visit last month.

 

Key:

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

 
 

March Goals
no spend days  1/20
eating out  0/1
loads of laundry hung to dry  1/8

1.   

Edited by FillingMyQuiver - 3/1/11 at 4:29pm

[three&me]

a. I'm Meg. SAHM of almost 4, all of whom have spring birthdays (=busy me) and our oldest is turning 5. We have big things planned this year (at least, I do :)) and wouldn't be able to do it without sticking to a budget.

b. Our goal is to pay off our credit cards, put money into savings and start education funds for the kids. We're still getting used to this new system of ours, but we're working on it. We filed our taxes today and our return will buy us a van, CASH, since we want to avoid a THIRD car payment (ugh) and a carseat for #4 due in April, pay off the last of our credit card debt, with the remainder going to our Roof Fund. We're not doing so well at living on a strict budget, but I'm trying to remind myself that we have enough JUNK in our already crowded house (& we've rented 3 dumpsters since last May to get rid of it...) and if we don't NEED it, and if it doesn't have a place to go, then I shouldn't be buying it.

c. 1 - We're starting to plan more of our meals to give our kids more healthy foods.

2 - I'm trying to hang dry more of our clothes. DH's work clothes are an exception, as are the cloth dipes.

3 - Grocery shopping with CASH - actually, doing any shopping with cash. Debiting is set to put $1 per transaction into savings, which while good it messes up my budget. I should really just turn off that feature, we're trying to pay down debt right now rather than put into savings.

I find it hard to say we have "no spend" days because DH & I have separate accounts. DHs paycheque goes into one, which pays the car payments, car insurance, gas, etc. Our baby bonus goes into a second account which pays household bills, groceries, and anything else that we've budgeted. When I say "no spend," I generally mean from "my" account, because DH gets gas a few times a week and I don't count that as unbudgeted or even as part of my own spending... If that makes sense.

Progress:

Credit cards: $607/2300 paid

Groceries: $0/410 ($135 milk + $50 bread =$225ish other groceries) <- this is for the next 5 weeks.

Savings: $0/300

March Goals:

No-Spend Days: 1/20

Take-Out: 0/1

Hang-Dry Laundry: 0/8

 = No-Spend Day

 = Budgeted Spending

 = Under budget!

 = Unbudgeted/Unnecessary spending

 = Hung laundry

1 

2

[crazyms]

Back again. Goal one is to actually come here and update throughout the month so I don't get banned from these challenges.

I'm a SAHM to two littles and married to hard working dh with our third debuting in April/May. My current challenge is to lower or cut the bills that we can and find ways to cut spending. We've revised our goals since Jan and Feb and I think this month should get us almost entirely on track where we want to be. One big budget culprit was eating out and I've been in the home cooking challenge as well to help with this. We did very well in Feb (although I didn't update much) so I hope that we can do as well this month. We also had gotten behind on some bills and so I'm going to get everything paid up this month so the bills are higher than we normally would have.

My goals for this month:

Pay off small finance note - $402.23

Cell provider swap to lower bill - estimated $420 including this month's bill, cancellation fee, new phone activation and monthly bill

Budget:

Bills                     $1220

Gas                     $500 (I'm putting this high and trying to get a better estimate this month on what it's really running us with dh's commute)

Groceries            $200 (Still have to work on my grocery list but have quite a bit on hand so going to try to get by with only this much more)

Household/Baby stuff/Misc.     $330 (have a list of things that are allowed and a budget for each)

Notes: We are also on the lookout to a new (to us) camper that we need. If we can find one this will be a budgeted spend. Our max amount to spend is $4000 on this but we're going to try to do less. We will also be remodeling/updating the camper to suit our needs once we get it but a budget will be made out in advance of any spending so there may be more budgeted items added later this month.

Monthly key:

  No spend

  Bad/unnecessary spend

  Budgeted spend

[Ravin]

Well, I'm on unpaid maternity leave. So our goal for March is to actually come up with Apr 1 rent. My last paycheck will cover our utilities and telecommunications bill, plus a check I have to send to cover my premiums for insurance at work while I'm on LOA, leaving less than $100. We have food stamps for food. Our other income sources are very limited--DH's unemployment plus his teensy paycheck for his work-study job, plus whatever DW#2 can come up with (usually around $300) and a bit of money BIL who lives with us chips in every month (usually around $200).

So, we pretty much have no money for gas, toiletries, etc., let alone anything else.

[crazyms]

Yikes that's gonna be tight. Not a popular idea but... would it be possible to pay the rent instead of the utilities and telecommunications? If those bills are currently up to date then they should be able to go without getting paid for a month. I know here if the bill is current then you can let it get a month behind and it won't go for disconnect until the bill is released the next month (ie March's bill comes out, April comes out showing the past due bal, when they check meters for May's bill it is disconnected if March hasn't been paid). I'd go that route to try to make sure the rent got paid and then put what I could towards the utilities. If you already have food stamps and dh is on unemployment with you being on maternity leave too I'd check with the local charities and churches some of them in my area do utility assistance for a month on a needs basis. That might help you out or maybe applying for TANF for now.

[crazyms]

03/01: ($375/1220 bills; $20/$200 groceries; $30/500 gas)

03/02:

[FillingMyQuiver]

Key:

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

 
 

March Goals
no spend days  2/20
eating out  0/1
loads of laundry hung to dry  2/8

1.   

2.   

[alicewyf]

Hi all! I have been absent from MDC for a while but I really could use some motivation with not spending and saving.

a. I'm a SAHM of one 19-month-old precious little girl. We are planning on TTC by July so we really want to get our finances in order.

b. We are pretty lucky in that we have no debt aside from our mortgage. We are both pretty careful spenders for the most part, but our savings the past few months has been eaten away by things like emergency surgery for DH, new tires, A/C breakdown, pest control visits, etc. All necessary (to us) stuff, but it seems like it all came at once, around Christmas no less, so that made it worse. Our savings account was about halved during this time, and b/c of the stress we got used to eating out instead of cooking at home. I finally got us out of that rut a few weeks ago, and we've been eating at home every day, with about one meal a week eaten out. We do pretty well financially and are able to keep our heads above water, but we aren't able to save a lot, mainly b/c of our spending habits not being as good as they could be (though still not terrible...just definitely room for improvement). So basically, my goals are:

1. Rebuild our savings***

2. Open a Roth IRA for me (hubby already has one), and regularly contribute to them both, no matter how small the amount.

3. Finish setting up life insurance for me (already in process). Hubby already has life insurance.

4. Write up a will.

5. Start a college savings acct. for DD. She has a savings acct but I want a few more hundred dollars in there before we actually open a 529.

c. Some of these will be easy. The life insurance for me is already in progress. Writing a will won't actually be hard; I just need to sit down with our soon-to-be lawyer friend and get it done.

Our daughter's 529 will likely have to wait to be opened until her birthday when we get some more cash flow coming in specifically for her. I can also empty her incredibly heavy piggy bank at the grocery store one of these days to the coinstar and make a deposit to her savings. Also, several relatives have already opened 529 accounts for her so this is not terribly high priority atm, but I still want to do it.

***My main priority is rebuilding savings. There are a few things we can do to facilitate that: sell our third car (2001 Celica, anyone?). Sell my unused saddle (expensive Stubben, I am hoping to get a few hundred dollars at least). Perhaps start selling unwanted things on ebay? But most of all, to avoid the slow trickling down of our savings again, we need to change our habits. I have started clipping coupons and have done a meal plan for about a month now, and I'm getting better at working cooking into our day. We could do better on energy use, like turning lights off when we leave a room. We aren't to the point that we need to cut entertainment yet, but I'm open to closing our Netflix account and trying to downgrade our cell phone plans if necessary. So anyway, I guess I'll make one of those little calendar thingies like everyone else! I can tell already this is going to be great for accountability.

1. Paid mortgage. I overspent by about $7 while shopping . My husband got me a gift certificate to a store for my b-day, and they wouldn't let me put $.75 on my debit (tax), they only charge $5 and up. So...I overspent. Cooked dinner. Exercised. Bought a tea for $1.17 . Need to make my own tea.

2. I spent a fair bit of money at Home Depot today for the house, BUT it was all on a Christmas giftcard, so I'm not counting it. Also bought shoes at Target from a b-day giftcard (also not counted), and used a coupon. Cooked dinner. Exercised. Bought another tea . I also cancelled two magazines I was getting on Kindle after subscribing to a trial period. I forgot to cancel them so they started charging me...not a lot, but every bit counts!

3. Didn't spend any money from our account, but did spend from a gift card (Home Depot again, we are in the middle of a few projects). Husband did some budgeted spending at Target. Cooked dinner and exercised.

4. Paid off credit card from my birthday money (we pay off in full every month). We will not be spending any other money today.

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I'm excited to be here!

Edited by alicewyf - 3/4/11 at 10:13am

[crazyms]

Monthly key:

  No spend

  Bad/unnecessary spend

  Budgeted spend

03/01: ($375/1220 bills; $20/$200 groceries; $30/500 gas)

03/02: paid cell phone $75; Paid off our little finance note!! It was a little under $400 to pay off but it's done now! Yay!

[three&me]

Progress:

Credit cards: $607/2300 paid

Groceries: $0/410 ($135 milk + $50 bread =$225ish other groceries) <- this is for the next 5 weeks.

Savings: $0/300

March Goals:

No-Spend Days: 3/20

Take-Out: 0/1

Hang-Dry Laundry: 0/8

 = No-Spend Day

 = Budgeted Spending

 = Under budget!

 = Unbudgeted/Unnecessary spending

 = Hung laundry

1 

2 

3 

4

5

6

7

[beansmama]

a. Who you are

Desiree, SAHM to 2 kiddos. I don't drive - woot.

b. Where you are going (your financial goals)

Our current goal is to finish our FFEF by Septermber 1st. That's nearly $5,000 in 6 months. It's very do-able, but it'll be tight. Challenging myself to no-spend is what I need.

c. How you plan to get there
I rearranged our budget to squeeze out nearly every penny possible. We still get $50 for "fun" money every 2 weeks, as well as $40/misc...so there is so wiggle room, but not much. So, simply, I need to stick to my cash only budget and stop using my LOC on my ING card (which, I'm gonna call and ask to be removed, soon as I get un-lazy...whoops!).

3/1 -  no spend!

3/2 -  budget spending. $6 on fruit. We only have $6 to last us 9 days, but we have pretty much everything we need...so...yeah! Crossing fingers!

3/3 -  no spend! (okay, so the day isn't over yet, but I don't plan on going anywhere that requires my wallet - I'll update if I do!)
 

[FillingMyQuiver]

Key:

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

 
 

March Goals
no spend days  3/20
eating out  0/1
loads of laundry hung to dry  2/8

1.   

2.   

3. 

[beansmama]

3/1 -  no spend!

3/2 -  budget spending. $6 on fruit. We only have $6 to last us 9 days, but we have pretty much everything we need...so...yeah! Crossing fingers!

3/3 -  no spend! (okay, so the day isn't over yet, but I don't plan on going anywhere that requires my wallet - I'll update if I do!)

3/4 -  budget spending. $9.50 on fruit and bread. I actually had $8 left from the other day, not $6 like I stated above, and then I raided the change jar...which is cash - so I still say I did good, hehe!

P.S. Where are all my non-spendin' ladies today?
 

[FillingMyQuiver]

Key:

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

 
 

March Goals
no spend days  4/20
eating out  0/1
loads of laundry hung to dry  3/8

1.   

2.   

3. 

4.   

[beansmama]

3/1 -  no spend!

3/2 -  budget spending. $6 on fruit. We only have $6 to last us 9 days, but we have pretty much everything we need...so...yeah! Crossing fingers!

3/3 -  no spend! (okay, so the day isn't over yet, but I don't plan on going anywhere that requires my wallet - I'll update if I do!)

3/4 -  budget spending. $9.50 on fruit and bread. I actually had $8 left from the other day, not $6 like I stated above, and then I raided the change jar...which is cash - so I still say I did good, hehe!

3/5 -  no spend!
 

[FillingMyQuiver]

Key:

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

 
 

March Goals
no spend days  5/20
eating out  1/1
loads of laundry hung to dry  3/8

1.   

2.   

3. 

4.   

5.    "Quick" grocery stop, bought more than anticipated

6.    picked up new car seat for baby due next month, stopped for luch

[FillingMyQuiver]

Key:

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

 
 

March Goals
no spend days  6/20
eating out  1/1
loads of laundry hung to dry  4/8

1.   

2.   

3. 

4.   

5.    "Quick" grocery stop, bought more than anticipated

6.    picked up new car seat for baby due next month, stopped for lunch

7.