Please Join us...No Spending in May...a support group

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

If someone has already started the NO SPENDING support thread for May then I'll delete this one...but if not....here goes!

Our goal is to spend money on NOTHING EXTRA for the month of May. Of course you'll have to pay for groceries and gas and such, but this thread is to support you as you try to spend nothing on non-essentials.

Anyone want to join me this month?

[Metta&Karuna]

Yes, I am in. thanks for starting this. I didn't have it together for April, but I must do it for May.

So ground rules are: only spend for groceries and gas. Anything else?

And given that May is my dd's b-day, is it cheating to buy her a present and pinata fillings today?

[scrapadoozer]

I need to do this. We spent too much last week...all month really. If only I can get DH to play along.

[babymakes3]

I'm in!! My DH's b-day is this month so I may have to break one day but other than that I'm in.

[KariAnn]

I wanna play! : I've already talked to dh and he is in too! We are also going to be doing a one car experiment for the month. If we can successfully and happily live with one car, we may sell the other and apply that car payment to the one we keep. Our only debt is our two vehicles ($650/month in payments alone). Our house is paid for and we have no credit cards. However, we have no savings. :

With Mother's Day coming up, do any of you have any suggestions for a gift for my mom? I would love to come up with something creative that doesn't involve much (any) money. Otherwise, I will have to cheat a tiny bit.

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Okay

I wasn't in the April group for this forum, so please excuse me if you already have gone through this...but for our May group (and if you are new and considering joining our group, please join in at ANY time...you don't have to be here May 1st):

1. Please introduce yourself and tell us anything you think it would help us to know about yourself.

2. Please tell us why you have decided to spend nothing (or spend significantly less) for the Month of May.

3. Please tell us your game plan -- what are your goals and how do you plan to approach no spending for a month?

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

1. My name is Prue and I live in Burlington, Vermont. I'm a SAHM and I have two daughters, 4 years and 2 years old.

2. Why I'm doing this -- Oh, the debt. We have HUGE credit card debt and my DH is a teacher so he stops being paid for the summer. Which means this is the last month he will have an income until September...ouch. It is pretty crucial for us that we save as much money as possible leading up to the summer.

Also #2 -- I'm trying to spend less money and be satisfied with what I have...I view not spending for a month as being sort of like Lent -- I hope to learn something from this experience.

3. My Game Plan: Whenever I want to buy something...I'm planning to come on here and tell you guys about it first. Hopefully you can talk me out of it.

Basically -- I'm begging you to talk me out of it! Please give me every reason you can think of for me to delay this purchase until June 1st (or preferably September 1st!)

Also...to stay positive...I'm going to start a chart that will look something like this:

May 1...
May 2...
May 3...

Hopefully by the end of the month I'll have thirty thumbs, and not thirty purchases on there.

I figure coming on here will keep me accountable!

[earthmama369]

Oh, I'm so in. We've both gotten really lazy on the budgeting this past month and we just don't have the room to do that. I know why -- it was an emotionally stressful month. Both kids have been sick, ds ended up in the emergency room with a medication reaction, followed by a pharmacy error opn his next round of meds, and when I'm stressed, I indulge -- coffees from the drivethrough, sweets, more grocery shopping than we could ever need in one month, etc.

So this month is dedicated to refinding my balance and finding a better way to deal with emotional stress.

I want to:
-park in the free lots and walk rather than park in the closer metered parking
-stick to our normal grocery budget and maybe even cut down on it to make up for April's impulsive stockpiling
-pay only our regular monthly bills and not do any impulse or unnecessary shopping

I like the idea of a daily thumbs-up chart.

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Junonia -- re: ground rules. You can set those for yourself. I'm trying not to spend money on anything but essentials -- which for me are groceries and gas, but please feel free to choose some other things too if you think you need to. The electric bill, for instance.

Kelly -- My DH's birthday is this month too. I'm brainstorming and trying to think of a way to celebrate without spending the coin. You and I will have to pool resources on this one. I was thinking maybe I would make him a special meal...any other ideas?

Kari Ann -- I'm trying to use our car less this month too. That is one of my other goals. Driving less. We live within walking distance of a gym, a library, the community pool, four major parks, DDs preschool...really I should be able to get by much more than I do without using the car. So much of my driving places is just habit. We gave up our second car in September. Congratulations on no CC debt and paying off your house!!

re: Ideas for a Mother's Day gift. For valentines day I took pictures of my two daughters holding up signs with letters that spelled out W-E L-O-V-E Y-O-U and tacked them to DH's door at his work. Then I made heart-shaped muffins for him and left them in his office as a surprise.

Do you have children? Would your mother appreciate something homemade by them? If you don't have children, could YOU make her something like a memory book...or even a heartfelt letter telling her all the things you appreciate about her? Perhaps a letter about all the things you admired about her mothering?

[E&Gmommy]

1. My name is Michelle, I'm a sahm who lives in n. CA with my dh and my 2 boys E (almost 4) and G (just turned 1) I do lots of crafting/sewing to keep myself occupied.

2. I want to try the no-spend May thing because I've been so sad about our finacial situation. We have very little in savings and just really need to get things moving in the right direction financially.

3. Our big problem is eating out. I'm hoping to meal plan and cook things ahead of time to make things easier. I'm going to look through the fourm to get some meal ideas Another thing is no more fabric/yarn nomatter how good the sale is lol I have enough projects to last way longer than a month.

[KariAnn]

Okay, here we go:

1. My name is Kari and I live in San Antonio, TX with my dh and dd. As of January 8th I became a SAHM again.

2. There are so many reasons I want to do this. Here are a few: to have a savings account (with money in it!), to set a good example for my 5yo who is already "buying" into consumerism, to force myself to deal with whatever I have going on at the time and not succumb to emotional spending, to actually set up and stick to a budget. I could keep going, but you get the idea.

3. The game plan is to talk to dh anytime I feel the urge to spend money. I'm also counting on you mamas to talk me out of buying also. If I'm on the computer, inevitably I'm looking at amazon, etsy, magic cabin, well, you get the idea. I'm going to be diligent about not going to those sites and instead come here or to blogs about living simply. My goal is to basically have money left over at the end of the month to put into our savings account!

Thanks for the thumbs up Prue, but really we don't deserve it. The house was my grandparents and was left to me. We have no credit card debt because we filed for bankruptcy two years ago. On a more positive note, we have not accumulated any more debt since then. And as for the Mother's Day gifts, I am going to get creative and come up with something. I'll let you know what I come up with and thanks so much for the ideas!

[1growingsprout]

1. Please introduce yourself and tell us anything you think it would help us to know about yourself.

2. Please tell us why you have decided to spend nothing (or spend significantly less) for the Month of May.

3. Please tell us your game plan -- what are your goals and how do you plan to approach no spending for a month?

1. Hi im 1growingsprout, SAHM to 6, soon to be 7 kiddo's. Dh just lost his job and we are looking at ZERO income until he gets another one. I hate 'employment at will' states

2. no spending... see #1

3. I plan to stay out of the grocery store... im doing more of a pantry challenge this month...


now for the good news: today i took all the kids to the park, we had a picnic and the older ones played... cost ZERO
one of our playpens broke today, i had one in reserves from the baby presents over the summer,: instead of using that, i returned it for $90 yes 90 CASH and got one on craigslist for $15... thats a $75 profit to me our newly aquired playpen doesnt have all the bells and whistles of the one i returned but honestly i have one that sets up like a bassenette and i just needed something to corral the kids in while i cook etc... i still have one in like new condition for this baby...

for dinner we had chicken and french fries (baked not fried) salad and some forgotten about girlscout cookies... cost, free from freezer....

i really need to organize and take inventory of my pantry...

[utopia760]

hey crucchie vt i live in vermotn too in vergennes where are u located?

[shellynnrn]

Yay! I am so ready to do this!!

Hi everyone I'm Michelle. I'm an on-call nurse for organ transplant. Work is all on call so I get to be home most of the time with the kids. I talked with dh a couple days ago about doing this. My inspiration was Diane Sawyer's report on global warming...I consider myself green already, but now I'm doing everything I can to be less of a consumer. Secondly my dh is looking for a new agency to work for and are savings are going down, down, down. We eat out constantly and my husband is a impulse shopper. Here's our plan:
1. STOP eating out. Plan a weekly menu, shop and cook ahead of time.

2. Now that the great weather is back, all laundry is out on the line.

3. We will purchase only Mother's day gifts for our mothers, other than that we are staying out of the mall!

4. Moving the thermostat on the central AC to 77 instead of 74-75.

5. Turning off the plug strip on all the tvs when not in use and unplugging all unecessary appliances. I heard even phone chargers pull energy when the phone isn't charging!

6. No Starbucks for a month. :

Good luck everyone. I know I'll need it.

[utopia760]

1. I am corri a sahm to 2 dc and a wife to dh. i live in vermont in a small appartment.

2. the reason we are not spending money is because we have a possible house coming our way the owner is holding the papers for us if we can get a bigger down payment.

3. simple BUY NOTHING. the only thing i should have an issue with is buying food/drinks that i dont need.

[CarenSwan]

1. My name is Caren and I'm a SAHM to my dd and wife to dh who quit his teaching job and will be looking for construction work.

2. Money is always tight, but will be tighter than ever soon. I am hoping to go to massage school in the fall so that I can have a "marketable skill" (I studied English and Sociology in undergrad... what do you do with that?). Dh wants to go to grad school after that, so we need to do some serious savings, and get out of a lot of credit card debt. Ouch!

3. I will spend money only on essential groceries and minimal gas. Some "luxuries" will be mailing a care package to my bf who's prego (just the shipping costs) and simple Mother's Day gifts if I can't figure out how to do them for free. We also have really good friends getting married, and will spend some $ on a gift for them. I will use my local library as much as possible instead of buying books on amazon.

Thanks for the support ladies! Make any last minute purchases now before May starts!

[ColoradoMama]

Hello everyone! I tried this last month and did pretty well. We found out that we really have an impulse spending problem! I really can't do a no spend month because there are a few things outside of essentials that we're planning on getting, but I am hoping to do a very low spend month and a stick to the budget or die month! Okay that's a little dramatic, but you get the point. I am really trying to get our grocery bill under control.

[meandk0610]

1. i'm sarah, SAHM to 22.5 month old dd.

2. dh used to be in management but got demoted last summer. since then we have been borrowing money from ILs to stay afloat.

3. we expect him to be promoted again this summer but the money from ILs will be cutting out. he's constantly on my case about "go get a job" & let his mommy take care of dd. however, since that IS my job, we will be renting out 2 of our bedrooms & i may try to do some in-home child care.

3b. i'm also an emotional spender. i'm going to control that this month.

sarah

[jennnk]

oh count me in.

I'm Jen, SAHM to Andy. We live in Seattle and George, the DH, works at Radio Shack & we found out yesterday that he's getting paid $3.80 less per hour than he was told he'd be getting when they transfered him up here:, so money is tighter than I thought it would be. I start nannying the week of May 21, but I won't get paid for a little while after that.

My big weakness is yarn. I have enough to last probably a year, yet with the shop just up the street, it's too easy to plan new projects.

But no more soy chai while I'm out on my walks, no yarn all month (too many projects going at once as it is!), and start that secret endeavor I've been thinking about to offset some prior spending!

[mamaheids]

Originally Posted by ColoradoMama

Hello everyone! I tried this last month and did pretty well. We found out that we really have an impulse spending problem! I really can't do a no spend month because there are a few things outside of essentials that we're planning on getting, but I am hoping to do a very low spend month and a stick to the budget or die month! Okay that's a little dramatic, but you get the point. I am really trying to get our grocery bill under control.

I too, like Colorado Mama, am hoping to do a very low spend month.
My name is Heidi and I SAHM to dd 13 mos. I am horrible at sticking to a budget. Things always seem to "come up". Things that I think are necessary(right now) but are not.
I hope to track my spending, do a pantry challenge and get my grocery bill under control, curb eating out and NOT SET FOOT IN TARGET! I can't seem to leave that place without spending at least $50.
DH 's and my dad's birthday are this month and so is SIL's and cousin's graduation, so we need to purchase a few gifts there.
DD needs some summer clothes- but I hope to purchase those all second hand (woohoo garage sale season) except for a pair of shoes. (The ones we bought her in March are almost too small already!)