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

post #341 of 485

1/18/13 at 6:02pm

955 Posts. Joined 5/2008
Location: Texas
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Key:

No Spend/Paying Bills

Budgeted Spend

Unbudgeted Spend

Did Something Frugal at Home

**16/25 No Spend/Budgeted Spend Days**

**$480/$480 Grocery/Med Budget**

December 28: Paid rent, electric, water, adt, credit card and van payment for $1,232. But our van payment is now current so we're current on all bills!

December 29: We'll be spending the day with the inlaws.

December 30: Budgeted spend on pizza, we got home from out of town at dinner time and I needed to buy groceries! We also got some snacks for the road but my dad had given us "coke money" for the trip (I had gone to the store for him and he told me to keep the change).

December 31: Ah groceries. I spent $150 almost even on food, herbs, meds and wipies. My DH will be going to the other store here in a bit to get our milk and produce. My unbudgeted spend was a pair of sweat pants on sale for the little one who didn't have any (and it's cold enough he needs warm pants around the house). They were $4. I also got 3 packs of toss and go sippy cups for $6.

January 1: Well I was going to send DH to the post office but it's closed, so no spend!

January 2: Found out that when my dentist talked me into a "deep clean" it turned me into a periodontal patient and my insurance doesn't cover all periodontal cleanings so I have to go every 3 months to be tortured and can't stop being a periodontal patient until I "get better". Sigh. $30 copay for that today. $9 for stamps. $22 for paper kitchen items (plates/bowls/etc) and tissues because I'm trying to get over the flu and can't keep up with the house. Sigh.

January 3: I'm still getting over the flu and now DH has gastroenteritis (Lord help us) so another day inside until we have speech therapy at 1:30. We only have $50 left and I'm not touching it! Next pay period will be more challenging because I'll have more $$ available which makes it harder not to spend it! For my frugal thing done at home I made a quadruple batch of steel cut oats for breakfast and divided it into qt sized jars for quick breakfasts later this week. :)

January 4: Alright..*shame* I'll put the worst things first: Movie for the boys $10, donuts for breakfast $7 and workbooks from targets dollar section because we haven't been able to afford our home school curriculum yet $4. I also got floss (the string kind since the stick kind I've been using apparently don't work well) $3 and instant potatoes $4. Now to go hide in shame.

January 5: My oldest is autistic and tends to obsess over things. Lately it's been Christmas lights. Tonight is the last night that we have a local light display, it's 5.5 miles of lights. We have been at least 5 times since Thanksgiving. So I took the boys tonight and I don't feel bad. :) $10 So usually we eat oatmeal 3-4 times a week and sweeten it with maple syrup. Well real maple syrup is expensive, so today I cooked 3/4 c frozen berries with 1/4 c water and 2 T maple syrup. Blended it all together and voila, healthier "pink" oatmeal even yummier and cheaper.

January 6: Staying home today..marriage drama, 30 weeks pregnant, a 2 yo and a 4 yo..I'm worn out. :(

January 7: Today is my birthday and I'm feeling kind of down so I've decided that I want to go to starbucks later and get a tall drink and wander Target by myself for some peace. :) And my mom just told me she wants to send me an "e-gift card" so I don't have to buy it myself so yay! A no spend day! The e-giftcard thing is cool, you can email someone a giftcard and they just print it off and use it like a regular gift card!

January 8: Not much to tell!

January 9: Staying home today, it's cold and rainy. I think I'll make a big batch of breakfast food later.

January 10: Got some birthday money and got a couple things for myself and the boys but since it's not budgeted I'm not counting it. We also got enough for a year membership to the childrens museum so I'll be buying that on Monday!

January 11: Doing these next few days in advance, we'll be staying home except for church on Sunday and nothing to buy there!

January 12: A friend gave me her extra bountiful basket! I'm trying to keep my kids out of it so I can make strawberry/carrot muffins for snack. :)

January 13:

January 14: PAYDAY We are so spending money but it'll be budgeted..$465 on bills (cell/internet, insurance, adt), $250 on the gas card, $23 to the army for an overpay, $30 on haircuts for the kids, $45 on diapers, $55 on cloth pull ups, $80 for a years worth of laundry soap, $20 for school stuff, $70 savings for Christmas, $185 in our savings jar and $21 in the kids savings jar. Phew. I also have to go grocery shopping but I'll do that later this week. Speaking of which, I've increased our food budget so we can buy some meat in bulk.

January 15: I'm gonna take a spend day today. I have to get a new tea kettle. We drink hot beverages a lot. I drink hot lemon water in the mornings and hot chocolate at night (I get munchies and hot chocolate is so much cheaper than buying snack food!), DH makes instant coffee probably daily. I've been using a small pan but it's always dirty from cooking and I may sound lazy but when I want hot water I just want hot water, lol. I will go and just get that and also get our gas money on a gift card. I'm also irritated because I accidentally put twice the amount I was supposed to in our Xmas fund and it's ING so I can't transfer half of it back out until the 22nd. We're supposed to be going to the childrens museum in Austin but I don't know if the money will be there yet now thanks to my irresponsibility. Sigh. **Add to this DH just told me I had to order him a new birth certificate or he can lose his security clearance so that's $30. Dang it.* So now I'm not paying a couple things until that one payment to ING comes back in a week. Gah.

January 16: No more spending until I can fix the ING money issue, not even budgeted! Although I just remembered that I took out $100 to get the van fixed (we already bought the part) so I may just put that back in the bank until the other issue gets fixed then take the van in. The van can certainly wait, it's not emergent. .

January 17: About $5 for onions, garlic and ziplock bags for meat mixes.

January 18: I was craving PB Captain crunch for dinner. I know, I know, horrible. $11 for cereal. Tomorrow I pledge to have a no spend day.

January 19:

January 20:

January 21:

January 22:

January 23:

January 24:

January 25:

January 26:

January 27:

January 28:

January 29:

January 30:

post #342 of 485

1/18/13 at 7:54pm

1,075 Posts. Joined 1/2006
Location: San Diego, CA
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1/18

Groceries $115.03 (less than I expected to spend)

fast food sandwich for lunch

Frugal things: hung the diapers outside to dry. The grocery store had a great deal on chicken breasts so I bought a bunch and parceled out portions for the freezer. I have a pair of hand knit socks with holes on the bottom, so instead of throwing them out I cut off the foot and am reknitting it.

post #343 of 485

1/19/13 at 1:38am

phathui5
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Well, I successfully fought the temptation to order pizza from the couch today while I was sick, but dh (the sweet man) took the kids out to dinner on the way home from the library.

post #344 of 485

1/19/13 at 4:56am

404 Posts. Joined 12/2011
Location: In the kitchen
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Saturday 19th January:

$38.85 Take out for lunch picnic and dinner (we had guests over for both) - Going to take it out of groceries for this month

$3.87 Shampoo

$33.29 Usual groceries

$150 Farmers market

$30 Gas for dh's car (he has been doing a lot of driving)

$33 Lego that was on clearance In all fairness (yeah right), I've been wanting to get ds and dd these two duplo sets for a while, they had them on clearance and I thought it's now or never. I caved.

$303.29 / $1000 Grocery budget

$137.95 / $200 Gas budget

What I did today to save money:

Nothing.. In fact I feel pretty pissed off at myself for caving in with the Lego.. It's my weakness.

But.. I'm hoping that what we purchased at the farmers market today will last us all week in terms of fruit and vegetables. Now I just need to find some recipes to vary it all. All in all we did well at the FM today. We walked away with a 20lb box each of tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, zuchinni, cherries, figs, grapes, 8lbs onions, 3 bunches shallots, garlic, lettuce & eggplant... And now, we cook!

post #345 of 485

1/19/13 at 5:21am

828 Posts. Joined 1/2009
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No spending Budgeted spending Did something to save $ or make extra $ Hung clothes on the line

January

01

02 Groceries Bought lunch $5.31

03 Bought lunch out $5.31

04 Filled my tank with gas, paid for my DD's school sport fee, bought lunch $6.50, went out for dinner with a gift card DH won but went over by $35@

05 Exchanged a Christmas gift, for bras that I was in dire need of, found on clearance $5 each I got 4!!!! Bought Chinese $20

06

07 Bought a few things to make lunches during my lunch hour, also bought my lunch $6

08 Started reading DR, sat down to go through January spending & make some changes!

09 Bought groceries

10

11 Went to mall with my sister bought myself lunch $10

12 Bottled two dozen bottles of Kombucha & made two gallons of tea to brew more kombucha!

13 Got free tickets to local theater! Spent $14 on water & snacks

14 Picked up a few things from grocery store

15 Sending DH to the cheap grocery store today for a couple more things that will help to stretch the food that we already have!

16 Spent about $100 on Frontier Co-op, put $100 in savings account AND...PAID OFF FINAL CREDIT CARD FROM CHRISTMAS EXPENSES!!!! Yahoo!

The DR Debt Snowball method has served us well! We have had many bumps in the road and hiccups along the way, we didn't give up using CC's all together & I just started reading DR's book this month!

17

18

post #346 of 485

1/19/13 at 7:56am

3,371 Posts. Joined 6/2004
Location: Feet in the mud, head in the clouds
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Quote:

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.

I put it all in one groceries/household budget. This includes food and laundry detergent and soap and toilet paper and all the rest of the stuff we use around the house. To be honest, I use very little other than soap and comet (to scrub inside the toilets) in our house. Not because I am such an environmentalist...I am just too frugal to buy most stuff. My house seems as clean as anybody's and we very rarely get sick beyond a common cold.

I have not used the Rite Aid program, though I know a lot of people get really good deals through that store.

post #347 of 485

1/19/13 at 8:42am

3,191 Posts. Joined 4/2011
Location: A stone's throw from the Chehalis River
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/ = Excellent

/ = Not so good, but not so bad, either

/ = 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.

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

1.18 Big day out-- and family swim made us hungry! We bought a lot of snacks from the co-op.

1.19 No spend. Staying home. This might change--I might do some minor internet shopping for dd's birthday.

1.20 No spend.

Basic groceries= $554

Snacks and treats and eating out= $155

Groceries for homemade treats and celebrations= $37.50

=$746.50/ $920 for 5 weeks ending Sunday, 2.3 Doesn't look like I'm going to make this.

post #348 of 485

1/19/13 at 10:02am

1,053 Posts. Joined 11/2005
Location: MD
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Quote:

Originally Posted by meandk0610

key:

no spend -

budgeted spend -

over budget or not budgeted -

hung clothes on line -

used the fireplace at least part of the day -

new smiley - library fines -

1/1:

1/2:

1/3:

1/4: really woke up too late to do a good fire, though. I'm not sure it will be down to embers in time to close the flue before we go to work. So far, so good but I realized today that I need to buy my high-potency vitamins for my adrenal fatigue and I only have $10 for supplements this month due to school having been closed. Maybe I'll see what kind of multivitamin I can get for that at Costco and live with that until I save up money for the Dr. Rind or Dr. Wilson stuff.

1/5: not home

1/6: not home

1/7:

1/8:

1/9:

1/10:

1/11:

1/12:

1/13:

1/14:

1/15:

1/16: i used the dryer on one load of clothes to catch up a little. no late fee on the electric bill but OVER $11 IN LIBRARY FINES!!! we were there on 1/14 and librarian said we had stuff due on 1/15, did i want to renew. i said i would do it at home the next day. i go online 1/15 in the evening to renew and find out that we had stuff due on 1/14 THAT SHE DIDN'T MENTION and that put us over the renewal limit on BOTH accounts. so i had some things that were 2 days late and some things that were 1 day late. DVDs are still charged at $1 A DAY here so that's where they got us. i paid $4 to be able to check out some things on 1 account but will have to pay $8 to get the other account open to use again.

1/17:

1/18:

1/19: I will be using the dryer today to dry the blankets that we used in front of the fireplace sleeping on the floor when the power went out but not going out to spend. Kind of neat, though!

post #349 of 485

1/19/13 at 1:05pm

3,371 Posts. Joined 6/2004
Location: Feet in the mud, head in the clouds
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I was so ready to spend some money today. After a week of cold and rain, I really wanted to get out and go roller skating or ice skating or something! Just get me out of the house! Dh was awesome and packed a swim bag and we went for a swim at the YMCA for free. Good man!

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

post #350 of 485

1/19/13 at 3:01pm

596 Posts. Joined 6/2010
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.

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

post #351 of 485

1/19/13 at 3:50pm

Thread Starter

3,132 Posts. Joined 7/2004
Location: searching for my sanity
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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

19. $40 spent at grocery store, not budgeted. Going to try to work on serging pocket inserts and maybe some diapers for DD3. Will get 2 loaves of bread rising before bed for lunch tomorrow and hopefully gather supplies up to make soap, deodorant, and lotion bars tomorrow, too.

13/ 20 No Spend Days

6/ 20 Crafting Days

post #352 of 485

1/19/13 at 7:10pm

1,075 Posts. Joined 1/2006
Location: San Diego, CA
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1/19

$98 for 2 months of DD's dance class (budgeted).

Not much in the way of frugal activities today. Dh did ask me if I wanted take out for lunch but I said we should eat at home instead. I knit for 1 hour on my socks. I'm hoping that tonight I can start a loaf of bread for tomorrow's lunch. I wanted to do more baking this weekend but our dishwasher is broken (again) and I hate washing dishes!

post #353 of 485

1/19/13 at 8:02pm

2,351 Posts. Joined 6/2004
Location: NJ
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Key:

No frivolous/unbudgeted spending:

Unbudgeted spending:

Ate at home all day:

12/30:

12/31:

1/1:

1/2:

1/3: $15 at Starbucks

1/4: $9 in library fines

1/5:

1/6:

1/7: $60 on clothes, $15 on sneakers, and $20 on desk organizer

1/8: $40 on desk organizing supplies, $15 on pizza for dinner

1/9: $42 on black loafers, $2 library fine

1/10: $25 on lunch out

1/11: $25 on bagels and lunch, $25 on pizza for 6

1/12: $23 on Moe's for dinner

1/13:

1/14:

1/15:

1/16: $6 library fines, $38 dinner at Panera

1/17: $4 on gardening book, $7 on a quick lunch for starving kids

1/18: $4 on hot dogs at Costco in between activities

1/19:

1/20:

post #354 of 485

1/20/13 at 2:20pm

3,371 Posts. Joined 6/2004
Location: Feet in the mud, head in the clouds
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Awesome day at home, no money spent. Enjoyed the fine weather with a family bike ride.

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

post #355 of 485

1/20/13 at 2:49pm

955 Posts. Joined 5/2008
Location: Texas
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