January No Spend Challenge~ Ringing in the New Year with $$ in our Pockets!!! - Page 4

[LoveOurBabies]

Wednesday 2nd January

$63.14 spent on budgeted groceries

=$146.62 remaining for groceries this week

What I did today to save money:

Pre-cooked the normal mince and squeezed all the fat (to turn it into low fat mince without the hefty price tag), like the other day. Line dried more clothes. Scoured the sales, planned the meals for the rest of the week and spent a little more than I intended to for today but I covered a few meals. I still need to purchase roughly $70 worth of groceries tomorrow and then hopefully I'll bet set for all meals from now until Sunday night.
 

[wildmonkeys]

      Did something specific to save money

    No spend

  Made a conscious decision to spend

      Spent on budgeted/necessary item
   Blew it

1/2   $10 prescription for ds2   My mom doesn't like to cook with hambone so she gave me her's from Christmas dinner.  Will combine with some cheap pantry staples to make lentil soup and feed the whole family for a couple of dollars tonight. I also turned down the thermostat when the kids left for school.  We spent New Year's with friends whose oldest is about to start college and I am VERY motivated to find some extra money to set aside for college savings each month.

[melissel]

Originally Posted by wildmonkeys 

We spent New Year's with friends whose oldest is about to start college and I am VERY motivated to find some extra money to set aside for college savings each month.

Isn't this absolutely terrifying? It's been on my mind a lot lately, too. Costs at the (nearby, state) uni I went to have more than doubled, and I can't even imagine what they'll do in the next seven years. 

[Ruthiegirl]

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom 

RuthieGirl!!!!  Welcome back!!!! 

Thanks!!!   Nice to see you, too.  

[Ruthiegirl]

Okay, spending a bit today.  My youngest and I are flying out to see my mom...she has eye surgery scheduled tomorrow morning.  I bought some snacks for the flight and am packing lunch for myself and will find a water bottle to take with me.  My goal is to not spend any money at the airport.  I will need to pay for a taxi once we get there and have money set aside.  We will be gone for 5 days and it should be a frugal visit.  My mom will be laid up, recovering, so this is not really a fun trip for anyone.  Lots of time at home cooking and cleaning and looking after my mom and my 1 year old.  

  No spend

  Budgeted spend

   Unbudgeted Spend

  Do something frugal at home

January 1 --     lowered temperature on hot water heater

January 2 --     packed lunch for travel day, soaked beans

January 3

January 4 

January 5

January 6

January 7

January 8

January 9

My goals:

Save 50% of Jan 4th paycheck

Save 20% of Jan 18th paycheck

Do something frugal every day

Make every dollar matter

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom 

My Goal = 15  No-Spend days

My progress = 1 No-spend day so far

01..  $258 lessons for the kids

02.. 

03..

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[kathirynne]

a. Who you are  I am Kathirynne, SWOHM to 4 great kids, 2 of whom are at college

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) Immediate-term I need to buy a new washing machine, as mine is leaking and is on its last legs.  My brother is able to get me a really good deal (cost + 10%), so I just need to come up with the money.  My mid-range goal is to be able to pay all of my bills in the month that they are due and save enough to be able to pay for Christmas without having to use my Christmas bonus.  Longer term, I want to have (at least) 1 month's worth of expenses in Savings and to get completely out of debt.

and

c. How you plan to get there I have plotted out my budget for January and it works on paper.  (All of my bills paid AND $150 to put toward my washing machine).  My meals are planned out for the entire month of January, and I have a non-negotiable grocery list.  I am using an old check register to record EVERY. SINGLE. PENNY that I spend, in addition to regularly posting here.  I have a designated "change jar" to deposit all my loose change into, which will be used to pay for stocking stuffers in December.  I also have to remember to bring a lunch to work every day, rather than paying for lunch out.

My Key:

- no spend

- under budget

- budgeted spending

- ate lunch from home

- unexpected/unbudgeted

- over budget

- impulse buy

- worked on a homemade Christmas gift for at least 30 minutes

- made/found money

- made a deposit to the change jar

January 1: 1 yard fabric (to make a totebag for my daughter for her YW manuals): $5.39

                      "SNACKS" for The Little Miss  ($12.49 total - because I bought it at the convenience store....)

                              *1 dozen cookies (most of these will go in her lunchbox this week, so not a COMPLETE catastrophe)

                              *1 box snack crackers

                              *1 can aerosol cheese (don't judge LOL)

              

January 2:   Car Insurance: $57.01

              

                library fine: 10 cents

               copy job (enlarged a quilt block to make into a couch cushion as a Christmas gift): $1.30

January 3:

                packet of 6 tea bags for my desk at work:  $1.95

               

                 added 64 cents to the change jar (not a lot, but it's a start!)

January 4:

                

                

                I received a total of $130 unexpectedly from two different sources.  (Most of it will be invested in my new home business.)

January 5: shopping for the month: $242.03 (I won't bore you with all the details, but this is groceries and toiletries for the entire month for my entire family)

               JoAnn Fabric: $101.91 (fabric to make Christmas gifts, a birthday quilt for my daughter and start-up inventory for my new sideline totebag business)

January 6: tithing: $30

January 7: lunch to discuss business idea with my unofficial "life coach": $4.95

                self-inking inkstamp for my totebag business venture:  $16.95

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Edited by kathirynne - 1/7/13 at 2:54pm

[SweetSilver]

/ = Excellent

 /  = Not so good

 / = Very, very bad

12.31    Errand day.  Groceries/ eat out= $55/ $18/ $28

1.1    No spend.  Staying home.  Nothing's open.  But I'm taking it anyway.

1.2   Happy Veggie for now, because we kept snack and treat purchases to a minimum.  Azure Standard orders are monthly, so this is typically big.  This month's delivery was extra-big, with my order of whole chickens coming in.  (As a chicken owner, that sounds kind of weird worded like that.)  Hopefully though, with the cheaper prices than what I've been paying this past month for similar items at the co-op (I've been unable to get chicken or marionberries from Azure for 2 or 3 months now) and having found a cheaper, organic cheese, hopefully this will ease the pressure on our grocery budget a little. Co-op stop for a handful of items.  $211 basic groceries, $10.50 treats.  Total so far: $266 (basics)/$18 (groceries for homemade snacks and treats)/ $38.50 (snacks and treats).

$322.50/$920 for 5 weeks ending Sunday, 2.3.

[willfulmama]

Currently...

12/30 - Grocery shopping, budgeted $125 was hoping to get it under $100, but we got to $102.03. Not bad for a week of groceries + dog food.

12/31 - No spend!

1/01 - No spend!

1/02-  No spend!

Making chili and cornbread for dinner tonight. The winter is such a great time to eat well inexpensively -- soups, stews, chilis. I love it!

kathirynne - Do you have any tips for going to the grocery store just once a month? It came up on another forum I'm a part of and it's intriguing me. I guess my concern is that when we got home from the store, we'd feel food-rich and eat like maniacs.. only to have little left for the end of the month. What about fruits and veggies?

Once I get the boys to bed tonight, I'm going to sit down and plan out my next paycheck and what bills need to be paid. Yay, fun times! (I remember when I used to have time for hobbies...)

[micah_mae_]

Key:

No Spend/Paying Bills 

Budgeted Spend 

Unbudgeted Spend 

Did Something Frugal at Home 

**5/25 No Spend/Budgeted Spend Days**

**$180/$180 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.

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[daricsmami]

Originally Posted by daricsmami 

December 31: 

January 1:  and 

$14 on gas; I decided to use up the change in my house to buy gas for the next two days 

$92.05 on groceries and personal items (lotion, diapers). I let my oldest throw me off track and I bought two items that weren't on the list. Not a big deal, but I really wanted to stay at around $85. 

January 2:

I only brought lunch to work even though I worked a 12 hour day.  I'm getting off of work now; I'm going to zoom home as fast as I (legally) can so I won't be tempted to make a food detour...

[meandk0610]

a. Who you are:  sarah, mom to dd(7). we homeschool and i work PT as director for a local after school child care program where i can take my daughter. we're homesteading too!

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) and:  working on trying to stay current. i don't get paid when school is out so i'll have to keep the budget super tight due to time off for christmas/new year's break. it's already hand-to-mouth pretty much here so i'm not sure what's going to be able to bend.

c. How you plan to get there:  i already track everything. i have started rack drying as much as possible. i'm trying to do a load a day so that i don't get buried and too tempted to use the dryer. i'm drying things in the living room to help with humidity in the house (plus the fireplace is in the LR). the heat is down to 64 and i've been using the fireplace like crazy while we've been off work during break. i had several days where i only heard the house heater on about 3 times during the day because the fireplace had it so warm. i guess i may end up paying for it in wood if i can't find a way to find more free. we have a heater in the bedroom (i share with dd) that we'll put on 68 when we got to bed i tried putting this on 67 but i'm just too cold (i have fibromyalgia and adrenal fatigue). i started bringing a hot water bottle to bed also. ooh, i also cancelled netfli this month; we don't have any other tv except dvds.

key:

no spend-     

budgeted spend-       

over budget or not budgeted-   

hung clothes on line-

1/1:  

1/2:  

1/3:

1/4:

[melissel]

Originally Posted by micah_mae_ 

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. 

What?! I would not be happy about that 

[meandk0610]

Originally Posted by willfulmama 
kathirynne - Do you have any tips for going to the grocery store just once a month? It came up on another forum I'm a part of and it's intriguing me. I guess my concern is that when we got home from the store, we'd feel food-rich and eat like maniacs.. only to have little left for the end of the month. What about fruits and veggies?

i'd be interested in this too. i'm guessing that with fruit you could do berries, melons, pears, bananas (buy green), citrus, apples and eat them in order but i think it might be hard to keep to "the plan."

i'm super curious about veggies! do you eat frozen veggies the last half of the month? no salad? dd likes to eat raw veggies but broccoli, carrots and celery keep pretty well. hmmm, ideas...

maybe writing down what we actually eat (versus the menu plan) for a month and seeing if we could buy it all at once and work it out as above? maybe that would help me stay within my food stamps if i knew exactly where i was in the shopping and where my cut-off was.

[melissel]

I am very proud of myself today. I'm overhauling my barely existent organizational systems for the new year, and this involves "tickler" files (sounds so obscene, doesn't it?!), which are manila folders--one for each month--designed to hold papers and items that can't be dealt with now but will need attention in the future. My desk-like setup is in my kitchen, in full view, so I went online looking for pretty folders instead of the ratty, marked up manila ones I have now. I ended up with $37 worth of office supplies in my Staples cart  I even started to check out, and then I thought about our budget and having to come back here and report that I fell off the wagon hard on day TWO, of all things. And I closed my laptop and went and pulled out our extra scrapbooking paper and supplies. So far I've prettied up two manila folders, and I'll keep working until I have the other 10 re-covered too! I still do need one item from Staples (book rings to finish two late-delivery Christmas gifts), and I think I'm going to invest $1 in a mini stapler to keep in my kitchen "office." But I can live without all the rest of that stuff. 

It's been a long time since I told myself "You don't need that!" instead of "Oh, go ahead, you deserve that." 

Oh, and when I did all my meal planning for the next two weeks, I forgot to factor in the fact that we'll be eating dinner at my grandmother's pretty much every night for the next 7 days because we have family in town visiting. I'll have to freeze some stuff, but that will be a BIG help to our budget this pay period. So woohoo!

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]

Good luck, no-spenders!  I'm taking this challenge one day at a time.  So I'm hoping to hold strong for today. 

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Originally Posted by kathirynne 

I have plotted out my budget for January and it works on paper.  

Mine too, Kathirynne!  With NO wiggle room.  So I'm hoping to make it. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by willfulmama 

kathirynne - Do you have any tips for going to the grocery store just once a month? It came up on another forum I'm a part of and it's intriguing me. I guess my concern is that when we got home from the store, we'd feel food-rich and eat like maniacs.. only to have little left for the end of the month. What about fruits and veggies?

Same thing happens with me.  All the fun food is gone in the first week and by the end we are looking at beans and rice and disgruntled eaters.  I'm trying to figure out how I could make this work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by daricsmami 

I only brought lunch to work even though I worked a 12 hour day.  I'm getting off of work now; I'm going to zoom home as fast as I (legally) can so I won't be tempted to make a food detour...

 Good work, Mami.  I think so much of no-spending is just creating the HABIT of not spending.  once you do it a few times, you get used to skipping that food detour and it's not so hard.

Originally Posted by melissel 

I am very proud of myself today. I'm overhauling my barely existent organizational systems for the new year, and this involves "tickler" files (sounds so obscene, doesn't it?!), which are manila folders--one for each month--designed to hold papers and items that can't be dealt with now but will need attention in the future. My desk-like setup is in my kitchen, in full view, so I went online looking for pretty folders instead of the ratty, marked up manila ones I have now. I ended up with $37 worth of office supplies in my Staples cart  I even started to check out, and then I thought about our budget and having to come back here and report that I fell off the wagon hard on day TWO, of all things. And I closed my laptop and went and pulled out our extra scrapbooking paper and supplies. So far I've prettied up two manila folders, and I'll keep working until I have the other 10 re-covered too! I still do need one item from Staples (book rings to finish two late-delivery Christmas gifts), and I think I'm going to invest $1 in a mini stapler to keep in my kitchen "office." But I can live without all the rest of that stuff. 

I LOVE stories like this.  Because everytime I get the urge to "organize" I have to catch myself because so often what I really want to do is go to Staples and spend money.  It is nice to hear that happens to other people too.  Glad you caught yourself and found a free solution at home.  Good work, Melissel!

[LoveOurBabies]

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom 

Still loving this idea.  Because it is positive instead of negative, and it keeps you focused on your progress.    I would do something like that too, except I'm not sure I ever do anything to save money -- other than not spend it. 

Thanks mama! It's definitely more of a motivation tool than anything else. A lot of households already line dry clothes and don't spend on superfluous items, so they are probably laughing at my 'money saving efforts' right now!! But writing it all down keeps me motivated to continue and do better. It doesn't have to be anything fancy... Even just walking away from a much wanted (but not needed) purchase is good enough to document in my books!

[LoveOurBabies]

Thursday 3rd January

$35.58 on budgeted groceries

=$111.04 remaining for groceries this week.

What I did today to save money:

Well today was interesting. I woke up to 2 boxes of sugary cereal that weren't in my kitchen last night. When I walked around looking all puzzled, DH said that he thought he would treat me to some chocolatey goodness for breakfast instead of my usual fare that is leftovers. I thanked him graciously, opened an empty plastic bag and placed those two boxes in it. I told DH that while I really appreciated the effort (and I was secretly aching to eat the contents), I simple couldn't keep them here. I didn't budget for them nor are they the healthiest option (I'm trying to lose weight). I went back to the store (had to run errands anyway) and returned the boxes for a refund.

Today, I also refused the usual fee that my butcher charges to remove the chicken drumstick skin and opted to do it myself at home. It wasn't a huge fee ($3), but as far as I'm concerned, any saving is a good saving. That's $3 that can go to actual food, rather than convenience.

Whilst I was at the mall, I returned an item for a refund. I purchased it 2 weeks ago and it was an upgrade to a previous item I still own (that works fine). I decided that there was no real need to upgrade other than it being 'nicer' (and essentially a pointless task if one were to continue this throughout life) and decided to go without and stick with the item I already had at home. Once I got my money back, I put it into the credit card to reduce the balance.

[LoveOurBabies]

Originally Posted by melissel 

I am very proud of myself today. I'm overhauling my barely existent organizational systems for the new year, and this involves "tickler" files (sounds so obscene, doesn't it?!), which are manila folders--one for each month--designed to hold papers and items that can't be dealt with now but will need attention in the future. My desk-like setup is in my kitchen, in full view, so I went online looking for pretty folders instead of the ratty, marked up manila ones I have now. I ended up with $37 worth of office supplies in my Staples cart  I even started to check out, and then I thought about our budget and having to come back here and report that I fell off the wagon hard on day TWO, of all things. And I closed my laptop and went and pulled out our extra scrapbooking paper and supplies. So far I've prettied up two manila folders, and I'll keep working until I have the other 10 re-covered too! I still do need one item from Staples (book rings to finish two late-delivery Christmas gifts), and I think I'm going to invest $1 in a mini stapler to keep in my kitchen "office." But I can live without all the rest of that stuff. 

It's been a long time since I told myself "You don't need that!" instead of "Oh, go ahead, you deserve that." 

Oh mama, I'm very proud of you too!!! This is awesome. It's so hard to tell yourself 'You don't need that' when you've told yourself the opposite for so long. I did that the other day and was immensely proud of my efforts too. Since then, it's become easier to just say no. Good on you for prettying up those manila folders and keeping your hard earned cash in your pocket!