January No Spend Challenge~ Ringing in the New Year with $$ in our Pockets!!! - Page 17

[sk8boarder15]

January Spending. 

NO SPEND - 

Budgeted Spending - 

Unquieted Spending - 

Dec 29 - 

Dec 30- 

Dec 31 - 

Jan 1-    

Jan 2 - 

Jan 3 - 

Jan 4- 

Jan 5 - 

Jan 6 - 

Jan 7- 

Jan 8 - 

Jan 9- 

Jan 10 - 

Jan 11 - 

Jan 12 - 

Jan 13- 

Jan 14 - 

Jan 15- 

Jan 16- 

Jan 17 - 

Been busy the last few days. Had lots of unbugeted spending. My DH bought dinner for my friend since it was his BDay. Nice, but it wasn't budgeted... Then the next day the dog need to go to the vet, he got sick AND his allergies are flaring. Finally getting him allergy tested, thats going to cost HUNDREDS... ughh... 

Today we managed to not buy anything though!!! Also did a cheep dinner! So something good after a few rough days. Tomorrow is date night our last budgeted meal out for the month! 

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Originally Posted by sk8boarder15 

DH bought dinner for my friend since it was his BDay. Nice, but it wasn't budgeted... Then the next day the dog need to go to the vet, he got sick AND his allergies are flaring. Finally getting him allergy tested, thats going to cost HUNDREDS... ughh... 

These are extremely KIND ways to spend your money though.  I believe in Karma.  Your kindness will come back to you.  And there are many people out there (many) who would never spend that kind of money to alleviate a dog's suffering.  He is a lucky dog and you are a good person.

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

I still have sick kiddos (day FIVE) but luckily my DH has offered to stay home with them this morning so I can get out of the house.

I'm going to the gym.

That is not all that exciting because that is where I work.  I'm going to work.

But I love my job so this is a happy thing for me -- I couldn't work all week and even though I wasn't spending money, I also wasn't earning any.

I'm looking forward to working with my clients and talking to adults and getting some exercise!

[LoveOurBabies]

Originally Posted by micah_mae_ 

Maybe that's why people say kids are so expensive!

Luckily DH didn't freak out like I thought he would (he has anger/depression issues). He took it apart, found out it was that the 2 yo put 4-5 dvds in there at one time. He got them out and is trying to put it back together. I'm enjoying the peace and quiet in the meantime. 

A laptop is way more important than a PS3 though, I would be upset in your shoes. I hope you can get it fixed/replaced soon, I know what a pain it is to not have a cpu! (One day my kids knocked my laptop off the table, breaking the harddrive and also messed up the charging port on my phone..good lord).

Hahaha! Now there's a perspective that never occured to me

That's good to hear that your dh was able to solve the issue I can't afford to get the screen replaced right now, so I'll have to live with it. I think my dh might pull it apart and see what he can do about the internal damage. I've had so much of my stuff broken by the kids now, that I no longer react.. It's more a flavor of the month type thing now.

[LoveOurBabies]

Originally Posted by sk8boarder15 

Then the next day the dog need to go to the vet, he got sick AND his allergies are flaring. Finally getting him allergy tested, thats going to cost HUNDREDS... ughh... 

I'm sorry to hear about your dog! Our pet isn't doing so well either.. we need to take him back to the vet and do some tests and we're looking at a $300 bill. I totally feel your pain right now.. Hope the vet finds out what's wrong with your dog. xxx

[Ruthiegirl]

Thought I would do a mid-month wrap-up to see where we stand for January.  We got our second paycheck of the month this morning, dh and I went over the budget, and here is what we came up with:

We will not make my 20% savings goal this paycheck, because we overspent on the following:

~~  grocery budget over by $70

~~  paycheck less due to taxes $25

~~  haircuts for dh and boys $48

~~  roof repair $150

~~  boiler cleaning $50

~~  birthday present $20

~~  shoes $20

~~  movie rentals/kindle buys $62

~~  travel $156

So, we have some leaks in our budget.  We decided to up the grocery budget.  Food for a family of 6 is a lot and I think I have been trying to keep things too lean.  We simply need to buy more food.  I can't change our taxes, so we just have to suck it up on that one.  All haircuts at home!  Good grief.  Home repairs are fine.  We tend to pay cash for what needs to be done and do as much as we can ourselves.  We pay very little to have work done on the house.  A birthday present is a fine way to spend a little money.  We added a 'gift' category to our budget.   Shoes are also fine.  We added a 'clothing/shoes' category to the budget.  The movie rentals and Kindle books are a disaster.  We must plug this hole!  I am going to remove our credit cards from our Kindle and Apple TV accounts if I can, so it is not so easy to spend money.  Redbox is off limits.  The travel money was used to visit my mom who was having surgery and needed help.  This was money well spent and I am not going to sweat it.  She is very ill and needs extra care.  

What is awesome right now:

~~~  my outrageously detailed budget. I know where every penny goes.

~~~  my sweet husband is dedicated to our spending plan.

~~~  our savings cushion now, so we do not have to rely on credit cards as a safety net.

~~~  food and gas money are set aside, bills are covered. 

Okay, now for the rest of the month! 

[Ruthiegirl]

Originally Posted by LoveOurBabies 

 I've had so much of my stuff broken by the kids now, that I no longer react.. It's more a flavor of the month type thing now.

We have had a rash of breakage around here too.  I blame it on the rain.  My kids are so housebound and squirrely right now.  We have lost a lamp, my iPod screen is cracked, 2 bowls, and some shoes were left out in the rain.  

The kids need a good day outside to work out all the wiggles, so they can be indoors without tearing the place apart.  

[LoveOurBabies]

Friday 18th January:

$2.98 Sweet treats from grocery budget (allowed myself $20 out of the $1000 grocery budget)

$2.59 Usual groceries

$60.58 Gas for my car

$77.28 / $1000 Grocery budget (including $13.97 / $20 sweet treats budget)

$107.95 / $200 Gas budget

What I did today to save money:

Remembered to use my clipped coupon for gas

Resisted the (intense) urge to stop at McD's on the way to and way back home from visiting relatives (it didn't help that we passed by 14 of them)!!! I'm still aching for a McChicken..

[SweetSilver]

I like the idea of a mid-month summary.  This last week has been good with the groceries, I just wish the whole month had been like this.  We are eating out too much.  I'm making some mistakes--small mistakes, relatively, but they add up.  The girls' snack and treat fund seems to be working.  I get to say "yes" more often to their requests, and they have a budget wall they cannot go past.  $10 each per week seems to be a good amount--enough, but not too much.  The surplus goes into the family FUNfund.  We also put the proceeds of counting coins.  This makes it easier for me to say "yes" more often.  I like that.

We are awaiting word on the refinance on our house we are renting because we could not sell it (and it would have been a loss).  My fingers are crossed.    Our yearly income was dismal this year.  The only bright star to that was that perhaps in another year we can qualify for state-subsidized health insurance--dh and I are going without right now.  The waiting list is 3-5 years.  (Hopefully it is not so dismal that we get approved for the refinance--the loan is just 72,000, plus fees and taxes.)

/ = Excellent

 /  = Not so good

 / = Very, very bad

1.16 

1.17 Just some OJ and candy bars for dh.  I normally don't count those, but if they show up on the grocery store receipts, then I do.

Basic groceries= $526.50

Snacks and treats and eating out= $129.00

Groceries for homemade treats and celebrations= $35.25

=$690.75/ $920 for 5 weeks ending Sunday, 2.3

[micah_mae_]

Originally Posted by LoveOurBabies 

Hahaha! Now there's a perspective that never occured to me

That's good to hear that your dh was able to solve the issue I can't afford to get the screen replaced right now, so I'll have to live with it. I think my dh might pull it apart and see what he can do about the internal damage. I've had so much of my stuff broken by the kids now, that I no longer react.. It's more a flavor of the month type thing now.

Upon further investigation, the PS3 is unfixable. *shrugs* I like life without video games better, lol. Now to explain to the man how the tax return we expected will be $2K less than expected and after paying the midwife and moving we can't buy a new PS3. :roll:

I don't even blink when they break things. Just sigh and clean up. Sigh. 

[micah_mae_]

I like the idea of a mid month summary as well. :)

At the beginning of January our savings account balance was $0. Now it is $195. :)

Grocery budget was $480 and we probably spent closer to $550. We bought 20 lbs of free range/organic meat that was about $100 but we shouldn't have to buy meat again for a couple months. I'm going to keep track of how long it takes to go through it so I can budget for it better.

I set up sinking funds for vehicle expenses and "personal" stuff (haircuts and dog food and toiletries).

We haven't eaten out though I have driven through twice. Much better than usual!

We have food enough to last to payday, gas on gas cards and bills are paid.

All in all I feel like we're making good progress. It's tough when it feels like we are poor but it's because money is in savings! That's good!

[JunebugsMom]

I also like the idea of a mid-month summary.  I am mainly concerned with our spending on food right now.  So far I have spent $339.42, which I am very happy with.  We are a family of 5.  This is the first month in a long time that I am keeping close track of our spending, but I think we have been around $1000/month.  I would love if I could get it to $700 or $800.  We live in a high COL area and we do buy a few specialty GF things for DS (bread, bagels).  Of course the above number doesn't count what DH spends on lunches M-F, but right now I am just worrying about tracking my spending and groceries. I am doing a big grocery trip today and hopefully that will last us almost until the end of the month.

What do the rest of you do about things like prescriptions, laundry soap, shampoo, etc.  Do you put that in your food budget?  Have a separate "other" budget?  I get good deals with coupons and discounts (I get 20% off everything at Rite Aid through the loyalty program), but we still seem to spend a lot at the drugstore every month.

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

I'm trying to spend money, but Amazon won't let me. 

Their website is down and I'm trying to buy MP3 tracks for one of my fitness classes...but they won't let me.

So I guess I'm earning a  no-spend for today.

I have plenty of music.  I need to delay this purchase for a week or so.

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom 

My Goal = 15  No-Spend days

My progress = 14 No-spend day so far

01..  $258 cross-country ski club for the kids

02.. 

03.. 

04.. 

05..  $40.09  Date Night

06.. 

07.. 

08.. 

09.. 

10.. 

11.. 

12.. 

13.. 

14.. 

15.. 

16..  $6 McDonald's

17..  $8 Buddhism book for Mothers

18.. 

19..

20..

[birdie.lee]

.

Edited by birdie.lee - 5/13/13 at 12:04pm

[Ruthiegirl]

Checking in early.  No spending, beautiful day, lots of time outside!  

So good to see everyone's mid-month wrap ups.  We are doing so well!

  No spend

  Budgeted spend

   Unbudgeted Spend

  Do something frugal at home

January 1 --     lowered temperature on hot water heater

January 2 --    $10.50 food at airport    soaked beans for dh and kids

January 3 -- 

January 4 -- 

January 5 --   

January 6 --   $3 tea at airport

January 7 --   well baby check up    soaking more beans for meals, lowered heat 2 degrees

January 8 --     delayed our grocery shopping for another day

January 9 --     delayed our grocery shopping for yet another day

January 10 --   grocery shopping 

January 11 --     shut down the heat due to warm temps

January 12 --     dh repaired kitchen faucet

January 13 -- 

January 14 --  $20 shoes, $20 birthday present, $30 haircuts

January 15 --   

January 16 -- 

January 17 --   grocery shopping 

January 18 -- 

January 19

January 20

January 21

January 22

January 23

January 24

January 25

My goals:

Save 50% of Jan 4th paycheck -- done!

Save 20% of Jan 18th paycheck -- nope, only made 16%

Do something frugal every day

Make every dollar matter

[delightedbutterfly]

 = No Spend   = Groceries/Gas/Ok spending  = Unnecessary spending   = Exercised   = Ate all meals at home

Jan 13:  $40.79 on groceries (although this was mostly "man" food) and he got me another Slurpee but must have paid cash  And I'm sending him out for dinner again (and not feeling guilty about it) because I do NOT have the energy to A)cook and B) face the mess in the kitchen from DH cooking over the last couple days... I cleaned the bathroom and did laundry today... my energy is GONE! Probably around $30... 

Jan 14: DH *did* come down with it late last night  so while he missed a day at work it looks like he is doing better! I'm sleeping in the guest bed again tonight... MUST make a *new* mattress in here a budget item, this one used to be my grandparents and it was an extra guest bed at my parents... I can't hazard to guess how old it is but it is horrible!!! However we didn't spend today, I still had my DC kid (mom figures he'll end up sick with this eventually anyways) and we ate all "meals" at home! 

Jan 15: Finally got out of the house today. Slept better last night! Did horrible on the no spend... Bought myself and youngest breakfast out $17 and then spent  $69 on much needed fresh groceries and $30 on a home decor item, was supposed to be $35 but when I got there she told me to only give her $30... It's a local at home mom business and she makes amazing stuff, a total splurge yes but I had already agreed to purchase before the new year, she was just away until now. I'm taking the other $5 and putting it towards our EF 

Ok so basically this whole week has been a bust. I was still super sick on Wed and Thursday... only today (Friday) have I started to feel better at all...

Jan 16: bought myself a smoothie $4.48 basically anything to try and get something into me. Of course when I'm sick I crave c*ap food and trying to get *any* nutrition is hard. Spend $11.20 on a couple things my mom wanted me to pick up. I have to mail them to her so it's going to cost me postage too :(  Then I bought myself lunch $11.59 as I had some alone time as my youngest was at a playdate.

Jan 17: Still not feeling well. Spent $7 :) on DD's drop in gym fee. Then bought us lunch out at $12.61 and then we went and watched DD1's skating with her school and I bought us all smoothies afterwords $14.39. We then went grocery shopping $34.31.

Jan 18th: I'm FINALLY feeling about 85% better! And although I need a trip to a box store the roads are horrible at the moment so it's only been a school drop off/pick up kinda day. So yay!  and 

$144.10/$200 weekly grocery budget
$37/$?? weekly stuff budget
$0/$?? weekly gas budget
$90.07/$?? weekly eating out budget (would like this to be $50 a week to start, with a goal of $100 a month but that could be unrealistic)
$27.89/$50 monthly dog budget

[sk8boarder15]

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom 

These are extremely KIND ways to spend your money though.  I believe in Karma.  Your kindness will come back to you.  And there are many people out there (many) who would never spend that kind of money to alleviate a dog's suffering.  He is a lucky dog and you are a good person.

Thanks. I need to be reminded of that sometimes. My poor dog has been on and off meds for YEARS now and now its the worst its ever been. If you want to see him he has his own Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/AidenWolfhound His first appointment is tuesday and its $130 just to SEE the doctor and deicde what kind of testing he needs. I hear the testing runs about $500. I'm glad we have savings, to put towards him though. Just wanted to SAVE the savings. :P 

Tonight is date night and we are SPENDING money. But we do two BIG date nights a year one on Jan and one in July so this is def budgeted. :) 

[sk8boarder15]

Originally Posted by LoveOurBabies 

I'm sorry to hear about your dog! Our pet isn't doing so well either.. we need to take him back to the vet and do some tests and we're looking at a $300 bill. I totally feel your pain right now.. Hope the vet finds out what's wrong with your dog. xxx

Oh poor puppy! Our pets are family though its hard to see them sick! I hope your puppy gets better quick. We know he has allergies, we just don't know to what. We'e done elimination diets and they always help for a few weeks, then he gets sick again (mostly skin and ear issues). 

[SweetSilver]

Originally Posted by JunebugsMom 

What do the rest of you do about things like prescriptions, laundry soap, shampoo, etc.  Do you put that in your food budget?  Have a separate "other" budget?  I get good deals with coupons and discounts (I get 20% off everything at Rite Aid through the loyalty program), but we still seem to spend a lot at the drugstore every month.

We do not.  The food budget is the food budget only.  However, I do include normal eating out expenses, coffee stops.  Not included are special dinners out (like with visiting relatives) and food for large celebrations, usually birthday bashes.  Food for camping trips is also not included.  I mentioned that I don't add in dh's candy bars he buys regularly, unless they happen to be on the grocery store receipt.  Grocery receipts seem to be running around $900/mo (mostly organic), down from around $1200 last year.  Still trying to reduce that even further to $750-$800 most months.  

ETA:  almost forgot-- I don't budget for this( household expenses like you've described), because I hardly buy anything superfluous at all.  Anything I buy is necessary, though I do look for sales, etc. wherever possible.  Sometimes I keep track just to see, but I really don't see how I can reduce these expenses any more than I have.

[FillingMyQuiver]

Key

  No Spend/ Budgeted Spending

  Unbudgeted/ Unnecessary Spending

  Crafted for at least 30 minutres

1.    Not exactly how I wanted to start the year/ month, but all well.  Another $200 spent at Home Depot for more shelving for my kids' rooms, $40 spent at the grocery store while we continue to wrap our head around the food allergies.

2. 

3. 

4. 

5.    $$ bought DDs's birthday cake and ice cream for DS2.  Blew up the birth pool, gathered birth supplies, & put crib together.

6.    $75 at Home Depot.  Shelves are working out so well in the kids' rooms, DH and I decided to put some in our room.  Making split pea soup for after birth from a ham bone my mom saved.

7.      Frugal accomplishments for today:  started cutting out cloth wipes to sew for new baby, packed all our snacks and brought our water bottles to the 3hr meeting today that I had to take the kids w/ me to, cooked dinner at home even though I was exhausted after my meeting, including greens from our garden we have in a low tunnel, pulled out next size up clothes from storage for DD2 and DD3 (still need to go through DD3's drawers to pull out too small clothing, hopefully tomorrow)

8.    $17 spent at grocery store for milk, pasta, and a jar of sauce (not frugal, I usually make my own sauce, but hey, we didn't eat out ).  Frugal accomplishments for today:  went through DD3's clothes, separated all of the clothes I've pulled from the drawers the last few weeks and started a donation bag, raked half my front yard and moved the leaves into the garden beds, dug a trench and buried 5 gallons of kitchen scraps in one of the beds, brought our change to the coinstar machine and got an amazon gift card.

9.    $6 on an amazon grocery order for soy free chocolate chips, sorghum flour, and chia seeds.  Frugal accomplishments for today: used amazon gift card from yesterday for majority of amazon order, cut DS2's hair, ate all meals and snacks out of the pantry/ freezer

10.     Planned food shopping list for Saturday, cut cloth wipes from upcycled flannel sheet and towels, DH picked up our bulk foods co-op order last night so I was able to make a loaf of gluten-free bread  for lunch and muffins for breakfast, also eating dinner at home, started taxes, opened windows in house to get some fresh air in (we're in a warm streak), took the end of the loaf of bread I made and set it aside to make gluten free bread crumbs

11.    DH made a pretty big purchase today.  We put it on our CC and will pay it off next month b/c it was a last minute, completely unbudgeted purchase.  Also bought some groceries.  Frugal accomplishments for today: wintersowed 5 containers (3 onions and 2 broccoli) using seed starting soil from last year and jugs I've been saving.

12.   Did our big, once-a-month grocery shop.  Apparently I wasn't paying as close attention when I made my list b/c I ended up buying quite a bit of duplicates of things we didn't really need, though they can go in the stockpile now.  We overspent our food budget by about $90, but I'm not sure how much of that is food cost increases, allergen free ingredients that are slightly more expensive, or a just a general need to increase the food budget that I don't want to come to terms with, .

13.   Had to pick up mailing labels for a project for DD1's troop.  It wasn't in the budget, but I told my co-leader I'd take care of it.

14.   Pack meeting pot luck at scouts, except it was "Bring your fave pizza from your fave pizza place" night.  Ugh, we can't have pizza now because of DS2's allergies, so I packed sandwiches on homemade gluten-free bread and made gluten free rice krispie treats for dessert.  Picked up 50lbs of potatoes on the way home ($17).

15.   Set aside pieces from yesterday's bread loaves to use for breadcrumbs, finished cutting out rest of the upcycled baby wipes (over 6 dozen total, we totally need them, the wipes I'm using now are falling apart & some are approaching 8yrs old) hopefully I'll get them serged up tonight, made sure the hose/ siphon for the birth pool was clean, also started a crockpot full of chicken stock from 2 frozen carcasses

16.     Not going anywhere, no money should be spent.  We haven't seen the sun in about a week, we've had 3 days of rain, and we're all going stir crazy in this house.  Finished the 6 dozen cloth wipes, went through the wipe stash and pulled out the unusable ones, cut out the pieces to sew 2 wool pilot caps for the babe on the way

17.     Didn't leave the house, "they" were calling for snow (we've gotten none).  All meals eaten at home, DH worked from home so no gas usage, started sewing the wool pilot caps, started cutting some pocket inserts for DD3's Fuzzi Bunz (the ones we're using are falling apart).

18.     $45 spent at Five Guys for dinner.  Frugal things for the day: cut more pocket inserts for DD3's diapers, finished some leftovers for lunch, DH worked from home

13/ 20 No Spend Days

6/ 20 Crafting Days