January No Spend Challenge~ Ringing in the New Year with $$ in our Pockets!!! - Page 2

[FillingMyQuiver]

Wow!!  Welcome to all the new faces!! 

[melissel]

OK, I have armed myself with a meal plan for the next two weeks and coupons for our trip to Whole Foods today. Unfortunately, we're going dairy-free for at least a few weeks in January to see if it helps a few things around here, so I'm having to step outside my normal cheap recipes and will buy a few substitutes (coconut milk yogurt, alternative milks) until we get acclimated, and I'm committing to keeping a lot of fresh fruit and veggies in the house for my snack-crazy children. I'm hoping I can stay under our budget for this period!

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

I'm baaaaack!!!!

I'm tallying up December receipts and its not pretty...but I'm fired up to have a great January.  :)

[melissel]

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom 

I'm baaaaack!!!!

I'm tallying up December receipts and its not pretty...but I'm fired up to have a great January.  :)

I'm afraid to, but my credit card statement says it all  We pay it off in full every month, and we have the means to do this time as well, but dang. At least we're grandfathered into a good rewards program that will pay, in part, for our small family vacation this summer!

[daricsmami]

No spend: 

Budgeted expense: 

Unbudgeted, but necessary expense:

Unbudgeted, unnecessary, frivolous spending: 

December 29: no spend 

December 30: $99 day care bill (budgeted) 

[wildmonkeys]

Hi everyone! I am ready to get inspired and do better in January!

a. Self-employed WAH Mom to 3 boys (12, 9 & 5)

b. After years of SAH and just working a bit - I have really ramped up my work hours and want to make sure I am paying attention to our spending and saving during this transition.  We have worked hard at saving for the nearly 20 years we have been married and are in pretty good shape, but I want to keep making financial progress.

c. By continuing to be careful with our money.

      Did something specific to save money

    No spend

  Made a conscious decision to spend

      Spent on budgeted/necessary item
   Blew it
 

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Originally Posted by melissel 

I'm committing to keeping a lot of fresh fruit and veggies in the house for my snack-crazy children.

This is one of my new years resolutions as well.  No more crackers shaped like seafood.  More carrots and celery.

[wildmonkeys]

SkateBoarder - Just FYI - It doesn't hurt your credit if you pay off all of your debt on a credit card. It can hurt to close your credit card accounts, but not to lower your debt. 

[sk8boarder15]

Originally Posted by wildmonkeys 

SkateBoarder - Just FYI - It doesn't hurt your credit if you pay off all of your debt on a credit card. It can hurt to close your credit card accounts, but not to lower your debt. 

Then why did my mortgage banker tell me it did? 

What I think the case is, is that if they RUN your credit and the card has a zero balance as opposed to SOMETHING. They want to see credit debt on there, but not too much. I could be wrong. Can't wait for all this to be over! Our interest is WAY too high! 

[SweetSilver]

nm

[wildmonkeys]

I am not sure why you were told that...and there is a chance I could be wrong about your situation, but we have always paid our one credit card bill off in full each month and we are in our third house (with about our 6th mortgage because we have refinanced as rates have gone down over the years --- our first rate was over 10%!!!) and this has never hurt our credit scores. 

We did once take a ding on our credit when we briefly got a credit card to get a discount on furniture and then paid it off and closed it.  My friend, who is a realtor, said that not having credit/closing credit lines is a risk to your credit, but having limited open credit lines improves your credit.

[momma,mia]

I'm a single mother working full-time with kiddos 14, 8 and 5. I work at a school (not at my kiddos school) so our hours are very similar and summers are off.

I'm needing to budget better and it seems my "needs" aren't really needed.  I would like to look into other avenues to get the things I want such as trading, sharing, creating, recycling etc.  I'm tired of being so much of a consumer.  I would also like to eat more organic foods, so money may be spent more on healthier foods. 

My goals are to cut out much of our unnecessary spending and to use the natural resources we have available such as more water to drink instead of sweetened drinks, deer meat from my son's hunting, cow meat from our neighbor that I let use our pasture, frozen tomatoes and corn from neighbor.  I feel like I have more and healthier resources available that I am not using enough and that would also save us money!

[sk8boarder15]

January Spending. 

NO SPEND - 

Budgeted Spending - 

Unbudgeted Spending - 

Dec 29 - 

Dec 30-  

Today was NO SPEND!!! YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!! Not having money in the bank account sure helps us not spend though. LOL! DH got paid today and I get "paid" tomorrow, so I will be going to the grocery store tomorrow, and costco wednesday. 

[LoveOurBabies]

Monday 31st of December

$29.69 on budgeted groceries

= $249.76 remaining for groceries this week.

$40.00 on petrol

Unfortunately have to purchase petrol from the grocery budget for the next two weeks, so now $209.76 remaining for groceries this week.

What I did today to save money:

We had to go to the mall today to return something and I managed to control myself and get in and get out only with the items I had intended to buy (groceries). I hungrily walked up to the donut shop and said to myself "surely just one packet of donuts can't hurt?" and then I thought about how I'd have to write that expense down and put a cranky face next to it.. I don't like the thought of cranky faces in my daily update, so I walked away! I couldn't believe it as I walking away.. I usually tell myself "it's okay" or "just this once" - Not today I didn't!! I did this with two other items in the mall too. Felt pretty darn proud of myself afterwards. :)

Happy New Year to everyone!

[bmcneal]

Originally Posted by LoveOurBabies 

Monday 31st of December

$29.69 on budgeted groceries

= $249.76 remaining for groceries this week.

$40.00 on petrol

Unfortunately have to purchase petrol from the grocery budget for the next two weeks, so now $209.76 remaining for groceries this week.

What I did today to save money:

We had to go to the mall today to return something and I managed to control myself and get in and get out only with the items I had intended to buy (groceries). I hungrily walked up to the donut shop and said to myself "surely just one packet of donuts can't hurt?" and then I thought about how I'd have to write that expense down and put a cranky face next to it.. I don't like the thought of cranky faces in my daily update, so I walked away! I couldn't believe it as I walking away.. I usually tell myself "it's okay" or "just this once" - Not today I didn't!! I did this with two other items in the mall too. Felt pretty darn proud of myself afterwards. :)

Happy New Year to everyone!

Way to go! That's awesome!

[LoveOurBabies]

Originally Posted by bmcneal 

Way to go! That's awesome!

Thank you!!

[melissel]

Spent $295 of our $350 grocery budget at Whole Foods, but that includes ingredients for meal plans for the next two weeks, plus healthy snacks and some party food for tonight--all of which was planned for. With the exception of things like milk and maybe a few fresh veggies/fruit, we should be good until the next pay period.

Key: 

No frivolous/unbudgeted spending: 

Unbudgeted spending: 

Ate at home all day: 

12/30: 

12/31: 

1/1:

1/2:

1/3:

1/4:

1/5:

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Ahhh... blank slate.  Looks so nice.  We are, however, already planning to spend money tomorrow.

So my first day of 2013 will be spendy.

But that's okay.  I'm looking for progress, not perfection.

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom 

My Goal = 15  No-Spend days

My progress = 0 No-spend days so far

01..

02..

03..

04..

05..

06..

07..

08..

09..

10..

11..

12..

13..

14..

15..

16..

17..

18..

19..

20..

[FillingMyQuiver]

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom 

Ahhh... blank slate.  Looks so nice.  We are, however, already planning to spend money tomorrow.

So my first day of 2013 will be spendy.

Right there with ya, Prudence.  We have a trip to another Home Depot scheduled for tomorrow to pick up the remaining pieces of shelving our local store didn't have.

[tangozulu]

a. WOHM of 5 (ages 19, 13, 8, 6 and 2).

b. We make a good income and should be able to save and give according to our goals. However, I've lost my grip the last few months and have some catching up to do (credit card balance, plus behind on savings and giving). Also helping DD19 with college expenses and generally have some high set expenses. Have a weekend get-away planned with DH this month that I want to pay via cash flow.

c. Stick to grocery budget/cook from scratch. No recreational/shopping ahead (I'm a sucker for a bargain, but I just need to stay out of the non-grocery stores for a while). Pack work lunches. Pack snacks and water when going out with kids. Stay organized with work-related expenses so I don't end up "donating" to my company..! I had a lot of broke years, and I am very good at cutting expenses, cooking cheap meals, etc. when I need to be, just need to get into that routine.