~~~No Spending in June~~~a support group...please join us at any time! - Page 24

[celestialdreamer]

Well, I'm going to have to join this thread, but I must admit its not by choice : There is literally NO money left over after Dh's paycheck which he just got yesterday I think I may even have to let a couple bills go late until the 1st when he gets paid again. Luckily I am stocked up on pantry supplies and we have a weekly share at a CSA, so I won't need to make a grocery run. I do have a bowl of change (probably $20 at least) that I may use late next week if we run out of ricemilk or stuff for Dh's lunches. I've been really trying to be good the last few months, but last pay period I just blew it with a bunch of little purchases that added up.

Once we are in July, I'll be joining that group too, but more by choice My goal is to make sure to only bring cash with me when I go grocery shopping that is to pay for the budgeted items on the meal plan. I think I may put my debit card in a sealed envelope so I'll think twice about using it for a random iced latte or snack. The only reason I *should* have the debit card in my purse in the first place is for gas or an emergency. I'm also going to make up a snack bag to bring with us places so we quit having to buy things when we are out. One of my kids always ends up starving even if we just ate. Mostly, I'm going to try to stay home and try to get my friends to come over to our place instead so I'm not using up gas or tempted to go into stores. Also, I'm going to put our box of disposable diapers (we use them for naps, bedtime and in the car) in the basement and then stash a few in the car. If I have to walk all the way to the basement to get a disposable, its easier to just throw a cloth diaper on ds at the changing table. I must admit I've been lazy and used the disposables way more than planned just because they were there. I can't afford it!

Anyway, I really am hoping to get some good support on this thread as I have absolutely no choice but to not spend at all right now.

[nadia105]

Welcome to abbylotus and celestial dreamer! It's not really fun when you have to do the no spend thing, but it seems a bit easier if you choose to do it, I think. We have about $30 or something left to get us to the 26th, but it seems okay since I am really choosing to stick to that. I haven't always made that choice in the past, and it feels good to do it now.

Remarkably, new babe and all, there has been almost no unnecessary spending here . It helps that we have had lots of meals brought over -- no food to buy and no tempting trips to the grocery store. It would also take something pretty good to make me want to pack up two toddlers and a newborn and go to a store to buy something.

I did buy some clothes for the kids from the huge Hanna 50% off sale online, but I have a separate amount of $$ budgeted for clothing, and I will be taking it out of there.

[nina_yyc]

hey no spend ladies! You guys are awesome - hang in there!

I haven't posted in forever - here's the update. For no-spending, this has been a pretty good month. My vice is social obligations - I put $50 on my credit card for dinner out with friends after our host cancelled a party at the last minute (SO worth it) and $10 buying the bride drinks at a stagette...which in my view is amazingly frugal for a stagette, considering I'm a bridesmaid and totally obligated to go. I brought the food, drank a bottle of wine that we already had, didn't drink at the club, and left on the early side. Other than that, I renewed my library card ($12) and bought groceries, bus tickets, and Starbucks (but only once.) :

Now the confessions....after a month of waiting for the government to review my EI claim ( they finally realized that the WAH work I'm doing is legal on parental leave and doesn't invalidate my claim (OBVIOUSLY!!: ) so I finally got paid!! After having $0.36 in my personal chequing account for most of the month I am now loaded. Unfortunately I live right off the best shopping street in town and I made the mistake of wandering into an antique dealer. Anyway, I found these absolutely gorgeous solid elm hand-joined hand-painted reproduction nightstands for $180 a piece. We do not have night stands. I actually think it's a pretty good price, considering you could easily spend $100 for particle board IKEA ones, and we don't currently have nightstands at all. It's a huge unbudgeted expense for people who are living on beans and rice but I'm very seriously tempted. DH liked them and thought it wasn't a bad price and if I insisted I know he'd let me pay for them out of our joint account.

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

June 1.. $8.50 diaper
June 2.. $13.00 garage sale
June 3.. $244.15 ticket
June 4..
June 5..
June 6..
June 7.. $18.00 state park pass
June 8..
June 9.. $4.34 McDonalds
June10..
June11..
June12..
June13..
June14..
June15.. $7.87 McDonald's
June16..
June17..
June18..
June19.. $67.00 swimsuits, $7.84 McDonald's
June20..
June21..

[bwylde]

Nina. Just say no, ok? Repeat...No. No. No. If it's not a need, just say no

I'm having another no day. No spending . The kids did wonderfully at the dentist (no problems and DD has the most perfect teeth ). I also didn't have to pay today, which was a relief. I'm going to a painting class tonight but it's not costing me anything, other than the dollar set of brushes I bought ages ago. So no money is being spent today. I was tempted to take the kids out for a treat after being so good at the dentist, but instead brought them to the park for a little while.

DH and I were discussing yesterday's spending yesterday. He paid off the mastercard (we use this for everything as we get cash back on it but pay it off right away) and we got talking about how not that long ago we would spend that without even thinking about it. We are just so hyper aware of where all our money is going now and it really adds up to great savings when you cut out all the unnecessary spending.

June 1
June 2
June 3
June 4
June 5
June 6
June 7
June 8
June 9
June 10
June 11
June 12 :
June 13
June 14
June 15
June 16
June 17
June 18
June 19
June 20 :
June 21

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

One more week to go in our no-spend challenge!

Power through this last week!
(for those of you stopping with June)

Use this last week as a blueprint for your no-spend July!! (for those of us moving onto the next month)

Don't buy it! Don't buy it! You are having a great month.

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

it really adds up to great savings when you cut out all the unnecessary spending.

That is SO true.

I'm amazed at how much money we have left over when I consciously try not to buy little things here and there.

These challenges have helped our budget tremendously.

[Scribe]

I've pretty much blown it today. Bought juice, coffee, and lunch. I now have $12 to last until the end of the month, and I already have lunch plans for tomorrow. No good at all.

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Talk me out of a gymnastics party for my four year old at a gymnastics studio.

The fee for this party is over $200.

Remind me again of what your mother did for your fourth birthday party.

Remind me again of how four year olds think just riding tricycles in the driveway is high fun.

[meandk0610]

1 - 34 (2.50 for unnecessary fudge)
2 -
3 -
4 - 123 (90 for groceries and 33 for stuff for new dog. i'm hoping to get to the middle of next week before buying more groceries.)
5 - 26 more stuff for new dog
6 - 65 more groceries (b-day this weekend, some unnecessary stuff)
7 -
8 -
9 - 4 (petting zoo for dd's bday on 10)
10 - happy birthday to me & dd!
11 -
12 - 16 groceries, 55 more "groceries" after with hubby (includes gluten-free cookies, dark chocolate chips and m&m-like candies - all organic)
13 -
14 -
15 - 118 (103 groceries, including 7 for father's day cards, 6 stamps, 9 Chinese food for dh but he just got interviewed for 2 promotions, was offered one job & will have second interview for the other)
16 -
17 -
18 - 25 refill bags for the kitchen composter. i'm not organized enough to empty it every day.
19 -
20 - 274 groceries, crank shredder for cheese, girl-dog "diaper", supplements, basically everything was necessary or will be necessary soon

running total: 740

frugal progress: fans instead of a/c

sarah

[maggiemae]

Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom

Talk me out of a gymnastics party for my four year old at a gymnastics studio.

The fee for this party is over $200.

Remind me again of what your mother did for your fourth birthday party.

Remind me again of how four year olds think just riding tricycles in the driveway is high fun.

I think B-day parties are overrated. Yippee, you were born on this day! Anyway, my mom actually had neighborhood kids over and hosted a dress-up party. We did it on the outside patio and had cake (homemade, not the sick bakery kind) and ice cream. We have pictures of it and it looked like we had fun. I remember my brother who was 8 at the time dressed up as a girl. I was a baby and had a pacifier and bottle (ironic since my mom nursed me).

[bwylde]

Eeeekkk!! $200? That's a lotta moola!! At 4, running around a yard is their idea of fun . A big homemade cake is fun. Crazy silly games are fun. A $200 party is stressful. Every party I'm tempted to have a big party somewhere but I just can't spend the money.

BTW, I love your new (?) sig. When I last had McDonalds I kept thinking of things I read online about McD's, Fast Food Nation, and Supersize Me and everything I ate just tasted so fake and weird, even though I wanted more! I'd love to run over and get a sundae right now

[celestialdreamer]

I'm feeling more optimistic and empowered by deciding not to spend anything, rather than how I felt yesterday ( : : : : )

I have to go take a bunch of change in, then I need to pick up some cheese to top a casserole for a friend that has a newborn. This week is my turn to take meals to her and I'm glad I already had stuff set aside (except the cheese). I'm going to buy 2 boxes of gluten free pasta and the cheese with my $ from the change, and THATS IT! : I'm going to pay the bills this afternoon and balance the account (or the 3 cents that will be left in it LOL). I always want to be super frugal after doing that...

[tarheelbaby]

Much, much better day today than yesterday.

June 1-
June 2-
June 3-
June 4- $30.41
June 5-
June 6-
June 7 - $36.91
June 8- $85
June 9-
June 10- $14.46
June 11-
June 12- $70.77
June 13- $40
June 14-
June 15-
June 16- $20
June 17-
June 18-
June 19- $5
June 20- $13.82
June 21-

Today is DS's birthday. So : Jacob
We've stayed at home today and just hung out. He wanted to make oatmeal raisin cookies so that's what we've done. Up for tomorrow--haircuts and some last minute shopping for his party on Saturday.

RE: Children's birthday parties. Hmm, well I LOVE children's birthday parties. I've never held one of DS's at a play place or anything like that*. I love coming up with a theme, figuring out decorations, food, etc. And for the most part, I can be frugal-ish with it. This year, we're having a big party at my parents' house. I did order food to be catered this year, but usually between my mom and I, we do all the food. (Between friends and family, there's going to be about 30-35 people at this party.) I'm taking almost every outside toy DS has for the kids to play with because seriously, to a 4 year old? Riding tricycles and doing the whale teeter-totter is great fun.


--Jen

*This is not to say I never would, because as children get older, stuff like bowling parties and skating parties, are so much fun. But for now, while he's littler, I like to keep it on the simpler side, especially since I combine family with friends. It would be different if it was just a friend party.

[dachshundqueen]

Going well.

Today went well. No spending. Not going out again that I am aware of.

Even with buying food for a birthday party for 9 people on Sunday I am still barely (maybe $1.00) under food budget for the week ($50.00). (FYI my food budget includes everything for the house..sadly)

Picnic lunch today with Uncle Ben = good times for toddler and no spending for me. I brought the lunch; he brought the soda I was craving, how nice.

The money to pay off the AmEx and the bulk of the student loan posts tonight so I'll be $10,000 out of the hole tomorrow morning....lovely!!

DH went to the ballpark and his dad bought him a beer....$6.50...ouch. At least it didn't come out of my pocket.

Found out I'm hosting another dinner party, joy, July 2nd, for 6.....joy of joys. At least I don't have to worry about my kid having a meltdown or eating something she's allergic to out to eat. My stepmom will probably kick in a few bucks ($20? - which should actually be MORE than enough to cover my costs, maybe $12?).

I like having a place to be accountable.

Also, NO NIGHTSTANDS, absolutely NO NIGHTSTANDS.

Secondly, NO GYMNASTICS PARTY.

Liz

[isosmom]

June 21: $15 coffee, $4 toy for ds

[scrapadoozer]

June 1
June 2
June 3
June 4
June 5
June 6 $13-fabric & storage bins
June 7
June 8
June 9 $8 -Wendy's & pillowform
June 10
June 11
June 12
June 13
June 14
June 15
June 16 $19- Chinese food
June 17
June 18
June 19
June 20
June 21

[nina_yyc]

Originally Posted by bwylde

Nina. Just say no, ok? Repeat...No. No. No. If it's not a need, just say no

Originally Posted by dachshundqueen

NO NIGHTSTANDS, absolutely NO NIGHTSTANDS.

And THIS is why I post here. Thanks ladies. I'm trying to resist!

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Secondly, NO GYMNASTICS PARTY

okay, okay...

I took a $50 rebate card that we got when we bought our washing machine and went down to Walmart and bought four bags of balloons, bubbles, tubs of sidewalk chalk, colorful plates, napkins, a table cloth, a big ole' bag of flour and a Wilton Cake Pan. cost=$46 total, so I still have $4 on the rebate card.

Two of my neighbors are contributing blow-up pools(four pools total) and we are going to set up sprinklers and have a backyard kiddie-pool party.

I'm going to make Carla's pizza dough and have cheese pizza and cupcakes (hence the big bag of flour).

I'll save the gymnastics party for when she is older and we are out of credit card debt.

Thanks Ladies!

[bwylde]

Glad to hear that you guys are resisting

Our car is fixed but not inspected yet. I'm hoping that's no more than $100 in little things. So it was $266, but dad said he would pay $200 : (I've always wanted to use that smilie!). It was soooo nice to hop into the car, turn it on and not hear it sound like a jet engine. I didn't realize how much I missed it until it was gone, especially today with homeschool group, the dentist and the park. Whew!! A lot of walking!