~ March No-Spend Challenge ~ Budgeting our way to a pot of gold!

[Ruthiegirl]

This is a support thread to help you not spend your money.

Everyone is welcome to join and you can start tracking your spending at any time. It doesn't have to be March 1st. Now is a good time to start.

The plan is simple (although tough to execute):

1. Vow not to spend any money on unnecessary purchases.

2. Come on here and record your spending.

We all record our spending in different ways. There are no rules. You record and update however you would like -- pick a way that will help you spend the least amount of money.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please write an introductory message when you decide to join our thread. We would like to know:

a. Who you are

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) and

c. How you plan to get there

Good luck MDCers!! Keep that money in your wallet.

Edited by Ruthiegirl - 2/28/13 at 5:58am

[Ruthiegirl]

Okay, it's March all ready!   Spring is almost here and warmer weather and outdoor fun and oh yah...I am moving 3000 miles next month!  Holy crap.  I have to stay on track this month to get it all done.  

a. Who you are

I am Ruth, homeschooling mama to my four kiddos. 

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) 

We are moving and have not sold our house.   I need to be prepared to pay both our mortgage and rent next month.  Our moving costs are covered, but we will pay out of pocket and then get reimbursed.  So, a lot of money is going out of my account this month!

c. How you plan to get there

Knowing that we have big expenses coming, I need to keep our daily life very frugal and well-thought out.  Menu planning, free play dates, cheap activities and a tight budget are all in the plan.  

[micah_mae_]

We get our paychecks early so our "March" is actually February 28-March 28. Unfortunately we won't be able to pay our credit card payment on time..there's nothing I can cut to be able to pay it so I guess it'll have to wait. At least it'll only be 4 days late.

Oh and guess what? I'll be having a baby this month! 

Key:

No Spend/Paying Bills 

Budgeted Spend 

Unbudgeted Spend 

Did Something Frugal at Home 

So we are paid biweekly, I'm going to split my goals up. 

**0/7 No Spend/Budgeted Spend Days**

**$0/$60 Grocery/Diaper Budget**

**$110/$180 Gas**

February 28: I paid our car payment ($417) and insurance ($99), hopefully our rent payment goes through (first time paying it from our bank instead of through the realty company, we'll see..$675) and I'll be paying water (~$75?)

March 1: Carpet cleaning for the old house ($125). 

March 2:

March 3:

March 4:

March 5:

March 6:

March 7:

March 8:

March 9:

March 10:

March 11:

March 12:

March 13:

**0/8 No Spend/Budgeted Spend Days**

**0/$280 Grocery/Diaper Budget**

**0/$150 Gas**

March 14:

March 15:

March 16:

March 17:

March 18:

March 19:

March 20:

March 21:

March 22:

March 23:

March 24:

March 25:

March 26:

March 27:

March 28:

Edited by micah_mae_ - 2/28/13 at 10:16am

[Ruthiegirl]

Micah Mae -- I like your lay out.  I am stealing ideas!  

  No spend/Budgeted spend

   Unbudgeted Spend

Save 30% of paycheck

Groceries -- $300

Gas -- $60 for van, $45 for car

March 1

March 2

March 3

March 4

March 5

March 6

March 7   

March 8

March 9

March 10

March 11 

March 12

March 13

March 14

Save 50% of paycheck

Groceries -- $300

Gas -- $60 for van, $45 for car

 

March 15 

March 16

March 17

March 18

March 19

March 20

March 21

March 22 

March 23

March 24

March 25

March 26

March 27

March 28

Save 40% of paycheck

Groceries -- $200

Gas -- $60 for van

March 29 

March 30

April....

Edited by Ruthiegirl - 2/28/13 at 2:21pm

[Ruthiegirl]

Originally Posted by micah_mae_ 

Oh and guess what? I'll be having a baby this month! 

  So excited for you!

[micah_mae_]

Originally Posted by Ruthiegirl 

  So excited for you!

:D Thanks! We're pretty excited!

[SweetSilver]

a. Who you are  

I'm a homeschooling mom of 2 girls, 6 and 8.  I'm working less than I did last year, but we have a garden finally to work in, I am a leader in our new Girl Scout troop, which is keeping me busy, we have chickens and ducks arriving soon, and 4-H activities will start heating up as we start preparing for fair.  All in all, this will be an eventful spring.  DH is a professional gardener, and winter is mighty slim, but March will start firing up his schedule, though taxes and that stuff mean there will be no positive income until May.

b. Where you are going (your financial goals)

Our plan this year is to dial back spending on any major projects and build up our savings more.  We need to start saving for a vehicle as we will outgrow our Camry in a couple of years and we like to pay cash-- around $7000-$8000 I think will cover car and any repair expenses associated with buying a used car.  I want to make enough each month to keep the girls in gym, which keeps getting more expensive as they advance, and their every-other-week-shared riding lessons, plus visits to the pool and all that stuff.  I want to be able to eventually make enough to afford health insurance for dh and I.  An inheritance kicked us off our subsidized plan and we can't afford private, and the waiting list to return to that program is 3-5 years (we just finished year 1).

For now, though, we need to just hang steady and try to keep our expenses as low as possible to keep from hemorrhaging. 

c. How you plan to get there

I'm not entirely sure how we are going to pull this off, since I am not looking for extra work.  That's a $3000 hit to our income.  Keep expenses low, no big projects this year, watch the (mostly organic) grocery budget intensely as this has been a huge issue for us and is one of the most adjustable expenses we have if we are careful (January was $1300!!!!  Higher than recent months by about $400, but that used to be typical).  

We are refinancing the house we were unable to sell and our now renting.  That is going to give us some breathing room, if we get it (I'm thinking we will), but for now most of that will go into savings for maintaining that house until we hit about $7000, after which we can start putting profits, if any, into our accounts.  I am not a slum lord!  We are not renting to make a profit, just to hold us over until we can sell it--maybe in 5 years?  So, when I had to buy a new fan for the stove, I got a nice one, even though it was an extra $150.  Makes a difference, I think, in how the tenants treat the house.

[delightedbutterfly]

a. Who you are: I'm delightedbutterfly, a SAHM to two beautiful girls and I do a bit of PT after school daycare. We live in North Western Canada where it's COLD and snowy 8+ months of the year. This is a recent change for us as we just moved here. So we've put out a lot of money last year and I'm hoping now that we have a decent base of winter gear and all the moving costs done with that we will be able to save a lot more this year. 

b. Where you are going (your financial goals): This year we'd like to save aggressively. Partly for retirement and partly for a couple vacations we'd like to take before thinking about expanding our family. Our longer term goal is to have a healthy savings account and be able to enjoy life on our terms a bit more. And our long long term goal is to be able to retire comfortably.

c. How you plan to get there: We have pretty much everything we need for a comfortable life. I'd like to focus on saving more and spending less. I know I will still buy the odd extra we don't need but I'd like to continue to remind myself more often that we can do without. Last year I did pretty well at not bringing anything into the house unless I knew exactly where it's "place" was going to be, or walking away from said item until I did know the place and telling myself that if it was meant to be it would still be there when I went back. I'd like to continue this on a more ruthless path as well as do another declutter now that we've moved and we're realizing that some items do not fit the new house.

I'm going to break it down by week and learn my budget/goals as I go as I haven't really budgeted in the past, I've always just "made" everything work somehow.

In Feb I learnt that I need to be more gentle on myself. I think I'm going to follow Crunch*VT*mama's lead and groceries will end up in the no spend category. I'm still trying to shop bigger, but for various reasons this isn't happening and I'm still at the grocery store almost every day and I fell off the Feb train because I was beating myself up over it. That and so many "extra" things crept up. I had to step away from the thread to stop fueling a settling depression! My goal this month is to be gentle on myself and work on spending less overall while working on figuring out the grocery thing.

[delightedbutterfly]

 = No/Budgeted Spending  = Unnecessary spending   = Exercised   = Ate all meals at home  = Made something new for dinner   = Did something Frugal

March

1:  

2:

3:

4:

5:

6:

7:

8:

9:

10:

11:

12:

13:

14:

15:

16:

17: 

18: Spring Break

19: SB

20: SB

21: SB

22: SB

23: SB

24: SB

25: SB

26: SB

27: SB

28: Easter Weekend/SB

29: EW/SB

30: EW/SB

31: EW/SB

Kids still need dentist appts

Dog still need regular vet appt (she ended up with an emergency one last month!)

Easter Goodies 

Some stuff I need to mail

Birthday present for a family member

Spring Break with the kids

[FillingMyQuiver]

a.  I'm Jenn, homeschooling SAHM to 6 kiddos.

b.  We're on track to being debt free.  We've been s-l-o-w-l-y progressing on it, it seems as though each time we take 2 steps forward, we also need to take 3 steps back But we're pressing on.  I would LOVE to have our CC debt paid off by the end of the year, but I'm not sure if that goal is too lofty or not.

c.  We're still working on controlling our spending .  Our plan for the month:

~ STAY OUT OF STORES!!  This is our biggest $$ suck.  Our family can NOT go into a store for just 1 thing, we end up spending at least $100!!  We've been doing really well keeping this under control and we're going to continue to work on staying out of stores.

~  Cooking at home as much as possible.  DH and I need to sit down and re-evaluate our food budget.  Costs are going up, our kids are getting bigger, and I think I've been in denial about how much we *really* need.  Luckily, this month marks the beginning of gardening season.  I've already started transplanting some onions and I'm continuing with wintersowing some seeds.  In about a week, the peas, lettuces, and greens will get planted.

~  STICK TO THE BUDGET!!  My 4 oldest children have dentist appointments this month and we have some scouting activities coming up.  We have a scout camping trip in April and need to acquire a tent large enough for our family and some other camping necessities.  My birthday is on the 20th and I'm trying to decide what to ask for; I tend toward the practical side of things. 

~  BE AWARE!!  We're trying to find our groove after having a new baby last month and I'm noticing it's costing us.  For instance, I'm not on top of the meal planning, so we're eating take out more, or I'm forgetting to reboot the laundry and leaving it in the washer too long, making me have to rewash it.

[kartwheels]

a. Who you are
Hi!  I'm Karen and I am a stay at home mom of one daughter who lives waaaay up in the mountains in Sequoia National Forest.  We make our own power and garden etc. and I have a couple of blogs that I am enjoying working on.

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) 

Our finances have recently become a mess due to our remote location and my DH's job fizzling out.  Because there aren't any kids or regular activities with kids anywhere near us, I drive the 3 hours (round trip) to get her into town for socializing.  The gas money is killing me and we just spend more money when we are there, it seems

c. How you plan to get there
This month I plan to organize my driving into 1 day per week.  My 5 year old DD and I are on a mission together to only spend money on the absolute necessities and also we are going to make it fun by saving every bit of packaging from any foods/bought items and make an art project out of them.  In exchange, I am going to spend 20 bucks on the activity of her choice.  We plan to don our aprons and bake our own bread to use up a big bag of flour that needs to get used and make a lot of soups out of dried beans, take photographs of it all and have fun.  I am looking forward to March :)

[SweetSilver]

The last day of the grocery week is this Sunday, so I'm adding today's (2/28) purchases to our total.  We have more to get on Saturday, just a bit, and then I'll know how we did!  March will have 4 weeks to account for as well (March 4- March 31).  I am figuring $185 per week, less our monthly Azure order, which gives us about $164 per week to hit $740.

I don't have much trouble with unnecessary spending on "stuff", not when things are this tight (not so come July!) so groceries are my #1 focus now.  Our organic budget can get sky high. 

DH just got home with more materials for the chicken tractors/ mobile greenhouses, and the cost is adding up.  I just hope with the lumber, etc. it won't be too bad.  We really need to keep expenses mellow again this month.

Grocery target= $740

Remaining=$47

 = # of weeks I've hit my target ($166, approximately)

I need these things this month:

CHICKS AND DUCKLINGS!!!!! 

Materials for chicken tractors: plastic, boards, pipe, connectors, brooder thermometers, extra heat lamp bulbs, etc.

Seeds: daikon

Photos from camera card

Herb starts, etc. for garden

Deposit for Girl Scout day camp (hopefully this will be waived with financial aid)

More pants for dd1

Materials to make dd1's dress design?

More 4-H publications

Edited by SweetSilver - 2/28/13 at 7:17pm

[honeybee80]

a. Who you are

I'm Ellen, WOHM to DD (9) and DS (7).  

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) and

I want to really just stick to a budget monthly and get my student loans paid off as soon as possible.  I would like to save money to buy a house or some land to build on some day, but I think putting more toward my student loans is a better choice right now.

c. How you plan to get there

Meal planning a month at a time, consolidating spending days into as few as possible, really thinking about purchases, and only buying what I really need or have thought through.  No more impulse spending!  I want to continue putting money into my sinking fund so that when little extra things come up that I need to spend money on, I don't have to take that money out of my regular monthly budget.  I'm having ACL surgery 3/20 and will be down and out for awhile after that, so I think I should have a pretty successful month financially.

[Natalie12]

I've been watching these threads for forever, time to join!

I'm Natalie, mom of a 7 and 8 year old, and WOHM. My goad is to track everything carefully this month, and to stay in budget.

I also have a goal of having at least 10 no spend days.

[fifasmama]

1. Wohm with a two year old. My husband stays home with her and i am the only income provider

2. Stay with in budget, no cc balance, pay down car debt, spend les than i earn. We have some new bills come up thhe last half of 2012 and itreally jas streched our budget

3. Make a precise budget every 2weeks when i get paid. Not shop recreationally. Unless allowance money has been budgeted. This will be tougher this month becIse i got my yearly bonis which is great bit i eant to use it carefully and not let it disappear.

3/1 pay day! 6222 balance. Paid credit card off, 700! Moved 1000 to saving for trip to see my mon in fl at the end of april. Made extra and reqular carpayment to be a month ahead 500$ took out grocery cash for husband 160. Cat food and cheesesticks 16$ gas bill 62$ did not buy the sruffed animals my kid wanted to take.home. we have piles but she loves them. Promised to let her get one at the thrift store.
3/2 no spend!
3/2 thrift store 12$ got alot of.stuff for that though. $20 chicken food
3/3 big spending day but all budgeted. 350$ 30 thousand mile maintance on van. 20$ chiptle while we waited. $100 at walmart buying things from my list that i had put off till my bonus.
3/5 (lost a day in here somehlw npt sure what happened) $15 speech therapy planed. 83$ dental bill. From last year, they wanted to charge a four dollar conveince fee. No. Spending today. other
3/6 no spend. Speech canceled for weather, which is. Bad bu.t good for the budget
Edited by fifasmama - 3/6/13 at 3:15pm

[CookiePie]

Hello I'm Maria, Mama to 2 beautiful girls DD15 & DD9.  I started participating in the no-spend threads pretty loyally for the past few months and in that time we have finished paying off the last of our CC debt!  I also landed a new job in addition to my seasonal job, which helps tremendously!  I was looking for regular work for over a year!  I was afraid that once we had extra money coming in it would disappear as I've experienced that phenomenon in the past.  So we decided to set our budget even stricter than it had been in an attempt to actually begin saving for our future.  We use MINT.com as our budgeting software.  It is free and it puts all accounts into once place which makes life easy.  I had stopped using it for a long time because my accounts never seemed to update properly.  But it seems like they have worked out the bugs because I don't have that issue any longer. 

Since we have paid off the CC's, DH has started contributing to his 4O1k again for the company match, after having left it alone for a couple of years.  I just started my first retirement account with $3000 in a Roth IRA.  I'm planning on adding another $2,000 by April 15 for 2012.  Then we will open a Roth for DH in 2013 & we will contribute to both.  Our #1 goal is to max them both out every year!  Our goals also include paying off both of our vehicle loans.  Contributing to our Christmas Club account, because we always get caught up on this even though Christmas happens the same time every year!  We are also starting a vacation fund, because it has been years since we have done anything other than camp & we vowed that once the bills were paid & we were saving that we were going to work a trip in.  I feel like we have worked so hard to get here that a little reward is in the cards.  So we are working on ideas for a 2014 vacation.  We also need to work on our sinking/emergency/car replacement fund.  I'm not sure if I will leave this all lumped together into one account or if I will use separate accounts for these.  Any advice on that? 

I admit it is overwhelming looking at the long list of goals that we have.  I wish that we started saving when we were younger, but it seemed impossible.  I have learned so much about myself in this process!

[CookiePie]

  No spending      Budgeted spending    Not budgeted/went over budget    Did something to save $ or make extra $       Hung clothes out

    MARCH   

01  

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

10

[delightedbutterfly]

Originally Posted by delightedbutterfly 

 = No/Budgeted Spending  = Unnecessary spending   = Exercised   = Ate all meals at home  = Made something new for dinner   = Did something Frugal

March

1:  

Starting the month out on the right foot!

[Ruthiegirl]

Pay day!   Nice way to start the month.  

I paid the bills, filled my gas tank, transferred money to savings and grocery shopped.  I also picked up some socks for my son who had exactly one (!) pair that fit.  All within budget.  

Now, I need to make the food stretch for 1 week and the gas stretch for 2 weeks.  

  No spend/Budgeted spend

   Unbudgeted Spend

Save 30% of paycheck -- done!

Groceries -- $127/$300

Gas -- $60/$60 for van, $45 for car

March 1 --   groceries, gas, bills, and socks

March 2

March 3

March 4

March 5

March 6

March 7   

March 8

March 9

March 10

March 11 

March 12

March 13

March 14

[SweetSilver]

March 1

 Girls' first day of selling cookies.  Treated them to lunch (french fries) at a local diner--$24 with my sandwich and 2 lemonades+tip!!!  Yikes!  There's room in the remainder of this grocery period, but still..... phew!  Brought home a couple of cookie boxes for dh and I.

 = planned but painful

Grocery target= $740

Remaining=$15  One more shopping day left!

 = # of weeks I've hit my target ($166, approximately)

I need these things this month:

CHICKS AND DUCKLINGS!!!!! 

Materials for chicken tractors: plastic, boards, pipe, connectors, brooder thermometers, extra heat lamp bulbs, etc.

Seeds: daikon

Photos from camera card

Herb starts, etc. for garden

Deposit for Girl Scout day camp (hopefully this will be waived with financial aid)

More pants for dd1

Materials to make dd1's dress design?

More 4-H publications