~December~ No-Spend Challenge -- Is your shopping finished? Time to come join us!

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

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 December 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.

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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.

Edited by Crunchy*VT*Mom - 11/30/12 at 11:34am

[SweetSilver]

a. Who you are

Homeschooling mom of 2 girls.  DH is a professional gardener and landscaper, so the work is seasonal.

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

For the next few months the goal is just hanging steady until after tax time.  If we can do that we will be in excellent shape.

c. How you plan to get there

Reducing spending across the board.  I have extreme difficulty with my grocery bill which is nearly all-organic and monstrous.  I don't go crazy on stupid purchases, food or otherwise, but even the little things add up.  

Especially this month I need to make do with what we have here and stick to the list!!!!!  This month I am going over the Christmas lists with dh instead of just keeping it in my head.  I am going to divide the grocery budget over each week to help stay on target.  

This is a terrible time of year for us.  Earnings are down, expenses exceed income, and we have birthdays and Christmas lined up one after another, then TAX TIME!!  I feel like a bear family that has to fatten up over the summer months to make it through winter and early spring on our fat reserves alone and emerge with enough energy to find food before I croak.

Must make lists.  Good lists.  Must stick to the lists!!!!!

[FillingMyQuiver]

Thanks for starting the new thread, Prudence!!

a.  I'm Jenn, homeschooling SAHM to 5 kiddos, due in January w/ #6 (our last).

b.  We're on track to being debt free.  We've been s-l-o-w-l-y progressing on it, it seems as though each time we take 2 steps forward, we also need to take 3 steps back But we're pressing on.

c.  We're still working on controlling our spending.  Our plan for the month:

~ STAY OUT OF STORES!!  This is our biggest $$ suck.  Our family can NOT go into a store for just 1 thing, we end up spending at least $100!!  We did really well keeping this under control in November and we're going to continue to work on staying out of stores.

~  Cooking at home as much as possible.  Being pregnant, I'm tired, the day gets away from me, and the next thing I know, I'm ordering take out.  We made great strides in our eating out in November and I'm really hoping to keep up the momentum.  It's expensive for our family of 7 to get take out or go out to eat.

~  Crafting.  I'm working on knocking things off my craft list for the holidays.  I'm done Christmas shopping, now I need to finish up the homemade stuff.  My goal is to work for at least 30min daily towards a gift or preparations for the baby (diapers, baby clothes, etc)

~  STICK TO THE BUDGET!!  DH has 2 dr appointments, DS2 has an eye dr appointment, and DH is taking our sons to a museum in DC on Saturday so he'll have to pay for parking.  We'll probably have a little extra spending on our food budget for the holidays, though I'm hoping to incorporate most of it into our normal grocery spending.

Goals for December

  20 No Spend days

20 days of crafting for at least 30min

[micah_mae_]

a. My name is Micah, mom to 2 boys with another on the way. Wife to a 6' string bean who out eats all of us together.

b. Need $1000 in the emergency fund, pay midwife ($2400 due in Feb), army travel debt ($1000-ish), moving fund ($2200, moving in Feb).

c. Homemade household stuff, no disposable stuff, food all from scratch including homemade yogurt and bread. Starbucks only with personal money once a week (horrid vice). Pinching pennies and such. Some of it can be tax refund money but I don't know how much were getting. Aiming for 20 no spend days.

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

I would soooooo love to know what your husband knows.  I think of gardeners and landscapers as artists creating their paintings with nature.  I wish I could do that.

re: grocery budget.  you can do it, Mama!

re: bear family.  We are in a similar situation...only the opposite.  DH is a teacher and he stops getting paid in May...and then isn't paid again until September 15th.  So we are storing up fat now to live off of in the summer.  Our financial situation looks rosy every month...until you realize that we need to sock a huge chunk of that into savings so we can live on it over the summer months.

Then summer is a lean lean time with NO income.  We make it though, every year.  But a big part of that is me being frugal now so we have that money later.

Originally Posted by SweetSilver 

Homeschooling mom of 2 girls.  DH is a professional gardener and landscaper, so the work is seasonal.

This is a terrible time of year for us.  Earnings are down, expenses exceed income, and we have birthdays and Christmas lined up one after another, then TAX TIME!!  I feel like a bear family that has to fatten up over the summer months to make it through winter and early spring on our fat reserves alone and emerge with enough energy to find food before I croak.

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Originally Posted by micah_mae_ 

a. My name is Micah, mom to 2 boys with another on the way. Wife to a 6' string bean who out eats all of us together.
b. Need $1000 in the emergency fund, pay midwife ($2400 due in Feb), army travel debt ($1000-ish), moving fund ($2200, moving in Feb).
c. Homemade household stuff, no disposable stuff, food all from scratch including homemade yogurt and bread. Starbucks only with personal money once a week (horrid vice). Pinching pennies and such. Some of it can be tax refund money but I don't know how much were getting. Aiming for 20 no spend days.

Welcome Micah!!

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

a. Who you are

My name is Prudence (which is kind of ironic, eh?) and I'm a SAHM and my DH is a teacher.   SAHM +Teacher = penny-watchers. 

b. Where you are going (your financial goals)

We've been doing Dave Ramsey's plan for the past few years and we are 14 days (yes, 14 days....  ) away from paying off our last debt.  Our second mortgage.  sooooo close....

c. How you plan to get there

1.  Just like Jenn -- STAYING OUT OF THE STORES.  That is HUGE for me.  If I'm not out there shopping, I'm not spending.  This includes on-line "stores".

2.  Track my spending -- I'm always looking for little leaks in our budget and tracking keeps me aware.

3.  Have 15 no-spend days.  If I can spend even half the month not out there buying stuff, we'll make it.
 

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

My goal for the month = 15 no-spend days 

My progress so far = 18 days 

01..  $166 ski stuff

02.. 

03..  $8.50 bagels

04.. 

05.. 

06..  $215 Christmas

07.. 

08..  $35 eating out

09.. 

10..  $50 more Christmas

11.. 

12..  

13.. 

14..  $20 more eating out 

15..  $7 hot cocoa + flowers

16.. 

17.. 

18..  $100 Christmas stuff

19.. 

20..  $23 Broken snow globes and breakfast

21..  $35  Alcohol for party

22.. 

23..  $35 ski

24..    (spent tons on groceries, but it was budgeted)

25.. 

26..   sledding = free

27..   huge snowstorm = shovelling = free

28.. 

29.. 

30..  $15 skiing

31..  $143  party food and alcohol for tonight

Edited by Crunchy*VT*Mom - 12/31/12 at 10:06am

[SweetSilver]

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom 

b. Where you are going (your financial goals)

We've been doing Dave Ramsey's plan for the past few years and we are 14 days (yes, 14 days....  ) away from paying off our last debt.  Our second mortgage.  sooooo close....
 

                    Excellent!  (BTW, that's champagne that you've had in the basement for over a year now, not from a bottle you've just purchased!)

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Originally Posted by SweetSilver 

                    Excellent!  (BTW, that's champagne that you've had in the basement for over a year now, not from a bottle you've just purchased!)

Ha!!!!  That was funny!

[FillingMyQuiver]

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom 

b. Where you are going (your financial goals)

We've been doing Dave Ramsey's plan for the past few years and we are 14 days (yes, 14 days....  ) away from paying off our last debt.  Our second mortgage.  sooooo close....
 

Prudence, THIS is inspiring!!  DH and I have struggled for quite a few years to get a handle on our credit card debt.  We were debt free 6 years ago, then we bought our house and our credit card balance has been slowly creeping up.  We would make considerable progress on it and then fall into a hole of spending.  Seeing you so close to your goal motivates me to keep my nose to the grindstone and continue working the babysteps.  We have about a year left before our credit card is paid off and then some months after that to pay off DH's car, but it's all within our grasp.  If we can continue to track and control our spending I KNOW it's completely doable.

[SweetSilver]

This month I am adding some smaller goals.  I'm going to post them a day or three in advance, and I get a Happy Little Dude-icon if I make it.

Last month I had about 12 No-spend days , and a handful of budgeted spending days .  I'm not even going to try to make a goal about # of days this-or-that because of the uncertainties of Christmas shopping, but I need to avoid  days.

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So, without further ado, here are the goals for the first 3 days of December:

12/1 Waldorf Winter Faire.  Plan to buy a $20-$25 activity card.  Lunch will be packed.  No other stops.

12/2 This will be a no-spend day

12/3 This will be a no spend day

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

You can do it, SweetSilver!  We'll be here to support you and help you avoid those oops days. 

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Kick-off is Tomorrow.  Come Join Us!

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Okay, not off to the best start.  But there was an internet deal and it was a great price for skiing at a local place.  so tomorrow is a new day...

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom 

My goal for the month = 15 no-spend days

My progress so far = 0 days

01..  $30 cross-country ski punchcard

02..

03..

04..

05

06..

07..

08..

09..

10..

11..

12..

13..

14..

15..  PAY OFF our 2nd Mortgage. 

[mrstim]

A. Who you are
Amy, mother of two boys age 4 and 6. Gluten free vegan. Fighting to be frugal, I have a coupon and deal/shopping addiction that I have to be super careful to maintain.

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) and
we are debt free including the house and working to save as much as we can. Currently have 4 months saved and shooting for 1 years worth and then begin looking for land to start homesteading.

c. How you plan to get there
STOP SHOPPING. Stick to my budget.

I'm nervous.....this will be hard with Christmas!! We have a budget though of$600. I know I'll spend on that but I want this to help me control the $2 or $3 here and there that I'm frittering.


01..  $19 grocery purchase, tomatoes, cilantro, baby oil, pepper, mango, hairpins
02.. $2.04 DH wanted greens for lunch so I bought a can - resisted buying $20 of advent calendars (was $80) but even though a good deal we dont need them.
03..
04..
05
06..
07..
08..
09..
10..
11..
12..
13..
14..
15..
Edited by mrstim - 12/2/12 at 1:45pm

[FillingMyQuiver]

Key

  No Spend/ Budgeted Spending

  Un-budgeted/ Unnecessary Spending

  Crafted for at least 30 minutes

1.    Well today was a bust.  DH took the boys to a museum in DC and ended up spending $40 on lunch at the museum cafe.  My girls and I had a service project and I took them to McD's for lunch.  Neither of the eating out was budgeted for though, I don't know what I was thinking   Did some budgeted grocery shopping and fixed dinner at home, though.  Already planned tomorrow's dinner, too.

On the plus side of things, last night DH picked up a BEAUTIFUL headboard and bed frame from a family on our homeschool list that was free!!  YEAH!!  We could really use a headboard and some "polishing up" of our bedroom.  I also sewed up a shirt for DD1 to wear to the service project today.  The girls were supposed to wear red shirts and the one I originally thought DD1 would wear she has outgrown (didn't actually check that til yesterday afternoon ).  Thankfully I had the supplies on hand to make her a shirt in about 1 hr.  That's how long it would have taken me to load up the kids, drive to WalMart, find and buy the shirt, and drive home.  Since I had all the supplies from a previous project, the shirt was virtually free.  AND, once I add a finishing touch, it's going to double as her Christmas Eve party shirt!!  WooHoo, 2 birds, 1 stone

[SweetSilver]

This month I am adding some smaller goals.  I'm going to post them a day or three in advance, and I get a Happy Little Dude-icon if I make it.

Last month I had about 12 No-spend days , and a handful of budgeted spending days .  I'm not even going to try to make a goal about # of days this-or-that because of the uncertainties of Christmas shopping, but I need to avoid  days.

*************************************

Here's what actually happened:

12/1 Waldorf Winter Faire.  Plan to buy a $20-$25 activity card.  Lunch will be packed.  No other stops.

Yeah, ummmmmm........ prices went up.  Holy cow!  In a way, I'm totally OK with that.  That school puts on the most magical Winter Fair you can imagine.  We get to bring home a handful of beautiful handmade crafts, have a good playtime on the playground equipment (and I get to ogle all the hand-knitted hats and clothes everybody is wearing--how inspiring!).

Still, cost to Do It All went up to $35 .  And I ended up *not* resisting some clever felt acorn ornaments which were $2 apiece.  Bought 4, and I plan on collecting some acorn caps and making a few more of my own for holiday gifts.

So, not the worst day, but nevertheless, I did not earn my Dancing Banana.  I did not, however, deserve a big "OOPS"-icon.  I did manage to not make any other stops, and that was part of The Plan.  Packed our lunch, too.  So, not so bad.  

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Here are the goals for the next 3 days:

12/2 This will be a no-spend day

12/3 This will be a no spend day

12/4 This will be errand day.  Must make good lists.

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Welcome Amy!!!  You have the right spirit.  I'm jealous of your paid-for house...I hope to be there someday too!

Originally Posted by mrstim 

I'm nervous.....this will be hard with Christmas!! We have a budget though of$600. I know I'll spend on that but I want this to help me control the $2 or $3 here and there that I'm frittering.
 

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

SweetSilver - you can't blame yourself for them raising the price of admission.  No one expects you to turn heel and walk out the door because of that!  And $4 for felted acorns isn't that big of a splurge.  I think your banana can dance a little bit for that.