~ February No-Spend Challenge ~ Come save with us, Valentines! - Page 4

[LoveOurBabies]

I'm just watching with interest as I won't be joining the daily update for february (my feb "month" is from the 15th Jan - 15th Feb anyway). I'm going through a bit of a rough patch (chronic sufferer of depression/anxiety and some weeks are worse than others) and I just needed to release one thing from that dreaded responsibility plate, so I thought I'd ease up for the rest of this month. I haven't been going on shopping sprees but I did go over our grocery budget (our budget was so tight that it required a lot of food prep everyday - some days I just don't have the fortitude for that on top of everything else), bought dd and ds some new tees and shorts ($40) (they have outgrown everything) and bought the kids their craft drawers ($60) that they've been wanting.. They have been busy making all sorts of stuff for 5 days straight, so I guess it's not all that bad. That's about it..

Everyone is doing GREAT! I really love reading the daily updates.

[melissel]

So I managed to save money today by not leaving the house after all! I wanted to go to Whole Foods, but I realized that what I needed could wait a bit, so we stayed home and rested and did schoolwork. I do need to get out tomorrow though--we have birthday gifts to buy, and groceries, and DD10 needs leggings from Target (where I'll also return a bunch of stuff). All of those things are planned and budgeted for (money from specific categories) though.

My frugal acts today were that I managed to use two tomatoes that I would normally have thrown away (the bottom halves were still good to use), I turned off a main power strip for most of the day, and I shut off an outdoor light that I've been keeping turned on at night after we had our house alarm go off in the middle of the night last week (and I had terrible nightmares afterward). I know my fear is irrational, so I went ahead and turned it off.
 

Key: 

No unplanned/unbudgeted spending: 

Unbudgeted spending: 

Ate at home all day: 

Did something mindfully frugal: 

No-unbudgeted-spending days: 2/15

2/1:  Bought lunch for kids at co-op because I didn't leave enough time to pack stuff *sigh*

2/2:  Bought snacks and drinks for kids at art class because I didn't leave enough time to pack stuff *sigh*

2/3:   Only bought a few groceries and necessary garden supplies (grow light bulbs, seed starting supplies, spring is coming, woohoo!). Funds for both came out of the appropriate budget categories.

2/4:   

2/5:

2/6:

2/7:

2/8: 

2/9: 

2/10: 

[melissel]

Originally Posted by LoveOurBabies 

I'm just watching with interest as I won't be joining the daily update for february (my feb "month" is from the 15th Jan - 15th Feb anyway). I'm going through a bit of a rough patch (chronic sufferer of depression/anxiety and some weeks are worse than others) and I just needed to release one thing from that dreaded responsibility plate, so I thought I'd ease up for the rest of this month. I haven't been going on shopping sprees but I did go over our grocery budget (our budget was so tight that it required a lot of food prep everyday - some days I just don't have the fortitude for that on top of everything else), bought dd and ds some new tees and shorts ($40) (they have outgrown everything) and bought the kids their craft drawers ($60) that they've been wanting.. They have been busy making all sorts of stuff for 5 days straight, so I guess it's not all that bad. That's about it..

Everyone is doing GREAT! I really love reading the daily updates.

 Take care of yourself, mama.

[CookiePie]

Originally Posted by LoveOurBabies 

I'm just watching with interest as I won't be joining the daily update for february (my feb "month" is from the 15th Jan - 15th Feb anyway). I'm going through a bit of a rough patch (chronic sufferer of depression/anxiety and some weeks are worse than others) and I just needed to release one thing from that dreaded responsibility plate, so I thought I'd ease up for the rest of this month. I haven't been going on shopping sprees but I did go over our grocery budget (our budget was so tight that it required a lot of food prep everyday - some days I just don't have the fortitude for that on top of everything else), bought dd and ds some new tees and shorts ($40) (they have outgrown everything) and bought the kids their craft drawers ($60) that they've been wanting.. They have been busy making all sorts of stuff for 5 days straight, so I guess it's not all that bad. That's about it..

Everyone is doing GREAT! I really love reading the daily updates.

I'm also a sufferer of anxiety, I had a rough time with it over the last couple months, it's no fun.  I'm sorry to hear that you are in a rough patch.  Take it easy on yourself Mama.

No spending       Budgeted spending    Did something to save $ or make extra $         Hung clothes on the line

  February 

01    Paid all bills in bill box, should cover the next 2 weeks!  (I got paid today!  I'm every other week, DH is every week)  Need some groceries, going to try to hold off until tomorrow.

02    Bought groceries $141.  Spent a little more than I wanted to but it should last us a while.  Washed throw rugs & hung out to dry

03    I made a batch of hummus from the chick peas I froze last week.  We ate the whole batch with veggies.  Then I made a huge pot of chicken stock which I'm freezing for future use.  Then I made a huge pot of venison stock, which I turned into minestrone soup for tomorrow night.  I also made a batch of chocolate syrup since we were out & dd2 like chocolate milk 1 C water, 1 C cocoa powder, 2 C sugar.  Mix water & cocoa powder, until combined, add sugar.  Boil for 3 minutes.  Cool, store in fridge.  Make sure your pot is big enough so it doesn't boil over like mine did!!!  I don't want to step foot into the store again for at least another week, so I'm so glad that I remembered that I used to exclusively make my own chocolate syrup years ago so I dug out the recipe. 

04 

05   The only spending planned for today is paying admission to get into DD's game tonight.  I work late & usually they stop collecting around half time, so hopefully only DH will have to pay.  Going into work early, because I have so much to get done. 

06

07

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09   Working at my part time seasonal job today because they need help

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27 My B-day

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[granolamommie]

I am not very good at this.  I spent on snacks yesterday.  And then my accupuncture- but that was planned.  Tomorrow we have to get a storage unit (we are moving and need to get rid of some stuff that would be in a shed at the new place) and today I have a knitting class.....so I don't know that I will have a single $0 day until next week. 

[honeybee80]

2/1:  no spend 

2/2:  budgeted spending   $123 Costco, $50 grocery store, $23 Target

2/3:  no spend 

2/4:  no spend 

[Ruthiegirl]

Working on cleaning and decluttering today.  Cleaned a section of the garage as well.  I finally got rid of an awful old desk that has been hunkering in the garage for the past 5 years. Why do I hang on to old crap like that!?!?

Things are humming along nicely, no spending needed.  

  No spend

  Budgeted spend

   Unbudgeted Spend

 Exercised

February 1 -- 

February 2 --   groceries and birthday present

February 3 --  more groceries,  shower curtain and bathroom scale 

February 4 --  

February 5 -- 

February 6

February 7

February 8

February 9

February 10

My goals:

Save 20% of Feb 1st  paycheck -- 15% so far, holding 5% till heating bill is paid

Save 20% of Feb 15th paycheck

Save entire tax return

Make every dollar matter

[Sdelgadillo389]

No Spend
Budgeted Spend

Unbudgeted Spend

Meals At Home All Day

Something Frugal For The Day

Sewed For 30 Minutes Or More

Made/Found Money


February 1: - Paid $130 phone bill and DH $15 bank credit card bill - Got $40 refund check - Made reusable Swiffer WetJet pad and no heater use(warm day}

February 2: - Stayed home all day! - reused salsa jar, no heater use(warm day) and made bread sticks from scratch

February 3: - $45.62 for gas - Play date with grandparents and aunties, no heater, made spinach cheese bread this morning! I also got to pick up my serger and the rest of my fabric and patterns to start sewing again!

February 4: - Husband used his credit card and spent $20 on his stupid video game. - Made toddler skirts for my shop - Reused spray bottle and made natural orange cleaner!

February 5: - McDonald's for DH lunch $9.59  - Made $11.50 for being a mystery shopper for BestMark and made $20 for selling junk

My February Goals:

No Spend/Budgeted Days = 3/20
Sewing Days = 1/20
Frugal Days = 4/15
Meals At Home Days = 4/25

Gas = $45.62/$120

[petersac]

Checking in - today is a "no spend" day from the aspect that it's all reimbursable for work travel.  I did spend $25 on an impromptu lunch date with DH yesterday, so I get a frown for the 4th.

1 -

2 -

3 -

4 -

5 -

[SweetSilver]

February 5

 Grocery shopping today.  Freshened the girls' snack fund.  They are getting better about planning and choices.  They chose to skip DQ this week so they could bring home a stash of Jelly Bellies from the bulk section.  (Bummer.... I was hankerin' for a Heath Blizzard.  Found a single-serving Java Chip ice cream from the store.)

The next 2 days should be no-spend days, but I'm not sure enough to reward myself early.

 =  Doin' just fine

 =  Spoiled no-spend, but necessary

 = Unnecessary spending due to poor planning

= No spend

Grocery target= $740

Remaining=$549

I can't have this be a perfect no-spend month.  I need these things:

Underwear

Girl Scout dues

Materials for chicken tractors

Camping reservation

Seeds and starts for the garden

Gymnastics tuition

4-H publications

Printer ink

[CookiePie]

Doing the meal planning & prepping & cooking some food on the weekends is helping so much!!!

[honeybee80]

Originally Posted by CookiePie 

Doing the meal planning & prepping & cooking some food on the weekends is helping so much!!!

This is KEY to the success of my food budget.  If I am not organized enough, I go over budget, guaranteed.

2/1:  no spend 

2/2:  budgeted spending   $123 Costco, $50 grocery store, $23 Target

2/3:  no spend 

2/4:  no spend 

2/5:  no spend 

[JunebugsMom]

2/5  $4.85 lunch (ok, in the budget).

[CookiePie]

I just reviewed my taxes and hit the send button!  We are getting $2,475 back but had to pay into state $182 bringing our return total to $2293.  That will certainly help a super tight month, when we would struggle to save. 

No spending       Budgeted spending    Did something to save $ or make extra $         Hung clothes on the line

  February 

01    Paid all bills in bill box, should cover the next 2 weeks!  (I got paid today!  I'm every other week, DH is every week)  Need some groceries, going to try to hold off until tomorrow.

02    Bought groceries $141.  Spent a little more than I wanted to but it should last us a while.  Washed throw rugs & hung out to dry

03    I made a batch of hummus from the chick peas I froze last week.  We ate the whole batch with veggies.  Then I made a huge pot of chicken stock which I'm freezing for future use.  Then I made a huge pot of venison stock, which I turned into minestrone soup for tomorrow night.  I also made a batch of chocolate syrup since we were out & dd2 like chocolate milk 1 C water, 1 C cocoa powder, 2 C sugar.  Mix water & cocoa powder, until combined, add sugar.  Boil for 3 minutes.  Cool, store in fridge.  Make sure your pot is big enough so it doesn't boil over like mine did!!!  I don't want to step foot into the store again for at least another week, so I'm so glad that I remembered that I used to exclusively make my own chocolate syrup years ago so I dug out the recipe. 

04 

05   The only spending planned for today is paying admission to get into DD's game tonight.  I didn't make it to the game because of work.  Dh paid to get in & he also picked up a loaf of sourdough from Panera to go with the soup $3.18!   Went in to work early, because I have so much to get done. 

06    As tempted as I am to go buy apples today I'm holding off (we have 2 left in the house), but we have other fruit!  Did taxes, our refund is on the way

07

08

09   Working at my part time seasonal job today because they need help I'm thankful because the way that our paydays line up this month, we are not going to be short.  This won't fix it, but every little bit helps.   

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27 My B-day

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[SweetSilver]

February 6

Staying home.  No spend today.  Hopefully tomorrow, too.

 =  Doin' just fine

 =  Spoiled no-spend, but necessary

 = Unnecessary spending due to poor planning

 = No spend

Grocery target= $740

Remaining=$549

I can't have this be a perfect no-spend month.  I need these things:

Underwear

Girl Scout dues

Materials for chicken tractors

Camping reservation

Seeds and starts for the garden

Gymnastics tuition

4-H publications

Printer ink

[Miasmamma]

I've been slacking a little on my reporting, but there were a few days in there where I couldn't decide if I was getting sick or not. I was not, so here it goes.

2/3: $12.89 at Kroger for last minute SuperBowl ingredients

2/4:  No spending!!

2/5: $15.83 for lunch and $6 for another gallon of milk, chicken broth and oats. Rather cheesed that I needed milk again!  I really need to break DD2 of her warm milk habit! I often wonder if she has something slightly sensory going on that she doesn't like cold things to drink. She will drink my tea or water, but prefers warm milk. She even asked me to warm up the apple juice we had! I'm okay with the $15 for lunch. It got us out of the house and gave the girls a chance to play for a while. We went to Chick-Fil-A. They played and I read. Bonus for everyone! Oh, and $21 for our Y membership, but that was budgeted so I'm good with it.

2/6: Today I have to get dog food, gas, and a few things to make GF pancakes for dinner. I was planning on leftovers for tonight, but I underestimated how much everyone would like what I made the past few days and now we don't have any leftovers! So, if I had to ballpark my expense for the day it would be $70 or so. We'll see once I get the receipts if I'm close!

[AprilMary]

Hi everyone I'm Jennifer, I am currently on mat leave with my 5month old DD - it's been amazing so far
I plan on returning to my job in September and DH will be leaving his job to stay at home with DD. We saved as much as we could after I became pregnant and was still working and we haven't had to touch it. it's about 2.5 months living expenses so its a bit of an EF.
Most of of what we are saving for involves vacations - we don't go on expensive holidays just camping etc but I'd love for my DH to be able to leave his job early and for us to spend the summer as a family. It'll be a challenge but I know we won't have this chance again.

I also want to start saving for a new dishwasher/fridge/stove combo deal as ours will eventually wear out.

I've already budgeted on paper for the next 8 months or so and I've saved everywhere I could so now I just need to make sure I stick to it and maybe save a little more:)
I've budgeted 100/week for food and I'd love to save there if I could - I'm currently gluten free for DD's eczema and DH and I are both vegetarians.

Feb 1 - no spend
Feb 2 - spent our budgeted entertainment $ mostly on food
Feb 3 - spent 60 online on DD's face cream and bamboobies nursing pads - better than $10/box disposables - frugal for sure
Feb 4 - no spend
Feb 5 - no spend
Feb 6 - went slightly over budget on groceries.
Feb 7 - no spend
Feb 8 - so far no spend, snowing like crazy so I doubt I'll be going anywhere
Feb 9 - spent our budgeted entertainment $$ on food again
Feb 10 - no spend so far
Feb 11 - spent 33 on GF pizza (from grocery budget but still not so great) Gluten free pizza is expensive!!!!
Feb 12 - likely no spend, staying home
Edited by AprilMary - 2/12/13 at 5:21am

[Ruthiegirl]

Used our membership to spend the day at the Science Center.  We packed lunch, but paid for parking, the bridge toll and $2 for my son to experience the hurricane wind tunnel -- spent a total of $15 for a full day of fun.  

  No spend

  Budgeted spend

   Unbudgeted Spend

 Exercised

February 1 -- 

February 2 --   groceries and birthday present

February 3 --  more groceries,  shower curtain and bathroom scale 

February 4 --  

February 5 -- 

February 6 --  field trip to science center

February 7

February 8

February 9

February 10

My goals:

Save 20% of Feb 1st  paycheck -- 15% so far, holding 5% till heating bill is paid

Save 20% of Feb 15th paycheck

Save entire tax return

Make every dollar matter

[Sdelgadillo389]

No Spend
Budgeted Spend

Unbudgeted Spend

Meals At Home All Day

Something Frugal For The Day

Sewed For 30 Minutes Or More

Made/Found Money


February 1: - Paid $130 phone bill and DH $15 bank credit card bill - Got $40 refund check - Made reusable Swiffer WetJet pad and no heater use(warm day}

February 2: - Stayed home all day! - reused salsa jar, no heater use(warm day) and made bread sticks from scratch

February 3: - $45.62 for gas - Play date with grandparents and aunties, no heater, made spinach cheese bread this morning! I also got to pick up my serger and the rest of my fabric and patterns to start sewing again!

February 4: - Husband used his credit card and spent $20 on his stupid video game. - Made toddler skirts for my shop - Reused spray bottle and made natural orange cleaner!

February 5: - McDonald's for DH lunch $9.59 - Made $11.50 for being a mystery shopper for BestMark and made $20 for selling junk

February 6: - Cut out boy and girl undies patterns

My February Goals:

No Spend/Budgeted Days = 4/20
Sewing Days = 2/20
Frugal Days = 4/15
Meals At Home Days = 5/25

Gas = $45.62/$120

[JunebugsMom]

2/6

Well today was pretty spendy but most of it could not be helped.  Baby had a minor procedure at the hospital which stressed everyone out.  $100 for copay, $8 for parking, $11 quick fast food lunch.

I did plan ahead somewhat and saved a few bucks.  I remembered to pack coffee and a granola bar in my bag first thing this morning so I wouldn't be tempted by the hospital coffee shop.  I also made a very inexpensive pantry meal (salmon burgers and baked potatoes).  I started on our taxes and it looks like we are actually getting a refund this year.

Just made a batch of oatmeal breakfast cookies since I don't want to buy more granola bars.  Of course these are healthier too so I hope the kids like them.  Soaking some dried chickpeas so I can cook them in the crockpot tomorrow.

Edited by JunebugsMom - 2/6/13 at 10:12pm