No Spending in July ~ Want to save money? We'll help you. Please join us at any time. - Page 8

[meandk0610]

1 -
2 - i had to get necessities (dog meds & groceries), but the groceries were only 55 instead of the usual 80-100 so i think that's awesome.

i managed to stop dh from buying unnecessary stuff yesterday. he was taking a little long in Target (went to buy stain remover). i called him and sure enough he had some silly car wash thing in the cart and wanted to buy something else. i got him to put those back and he kept asking me, over and over, "do you want me to buy anything else?" hold tight to the money!

sarah

[Petersmamma]

I also wanted to add my caveats to this month....dh and I both have birthdays in early January and generally have crappy birthdays because it's right after the holidays. So, early in our relationship we started celebrating our Unbirthday on the third Saturday in July (which is annoying now since dh's job has him working every weekend, so we end up celebrating it during the week, but not forever!). We will probably go to the beach that day and we usually go into town (Galveston) and go to our favorite shop....the Christmas store....and get an ornament for our tree. Plus, we'll probably have some sort of dinner.

Oh, and I really, really, really want to redo our deck this month if we can swing it, so we'll be spending money on wood, possibly a truck rental to get the wood home (dh thinks it will be too big even for our neighbor's truck to haul, which I don't get but we'll see), renting a sander, and purchasing the stain. But this is also a "necessity" as our deck is really starting to be in bad shape and we like to spend time outside. I think the longer we put this off, the worse it will be and the more it will cost to do.

[jimblejamble]

I want to join this. I spent $3 today on lunch. I plan to bring my lunch to work from now on. For this month I will only spend money on gas for my car and my dad's birthday present (the 25th). No Blythe dolls, no yarn until I've used up all that I have now, no books, no movies, no more gadgets (I just got the 30 gb iPod last week). I was raised to be very frugal but after I got my job last summer I've become shop-happy. The ease of purchasing things online is so bad. You don't even have to get out your credit card if you shop from Amazon (free shipping & no tax is also very bad and makes spending more seem okay) or use PayPal, so it doesn't feel like spending actual money. But then the bank statement comes in...

[kerc]

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

I'm Kristin, mom to Erin (4.5), Leah (1.5) and wife of Erik. I'm finishing my phd in geology and am making my first : student loan payment this month for the three degrees I will have when I complete this.

2. Please tell us why you have decided to spend nothing (or spend significantly less) for the Month of July. Memorize these goals and recite them to yourself before all purchases.


a. I'd like to get off diet coke. I have a serious problem. I mean the stuff is like crack for me. I spend a fortune daily on soda.

b. I'd like to turn my coke-money into an extra student loan payment each month. And pay off early.

c. I'm in the process of putting my belongings together into my new house.I'm realizing how much junk we already have.


3. No spending is hard work. You need a plan. Please tell us your game plan -- how do you plan to approach no spending for a month?


a. make a list. I'm allowed to buy food/staple items on the list.

b. water water water

c. did I mention water drinking?

d. no drive-thrus

e. use it up, fix it, mend it, borrow it, or put it off until Aug 1.

[kerc]

Originally Posted by Petersmamma

I
Oh, and I really, really, really want to redo our deck this month if we can swing it, so we'll be spending money on wood, possibly a truck rental to get the wood home (dh thinks it will be too big even for our neighbor's truck to haul, which I don't get but we'll see), renting a sander, and purchasing the stain. But this is also a "necessity" as our deck is really starting to be in bad shape and we like to spend time outside. I think the longer we put this off, the worse it will be and the more it will cost to do.

Here it costs ~30 bucks to have menards/home depot deliver the wood for you. a smidge more if they use the crane or put it into your garage. Having used all three methods (pay for delivery, rent truck, borrow truck), I recommend paying for delivery for items like wood for a deck. Chances are good you need enough materials that you aren't going to be able to make it in one trip in a standard truck. Those repeat trips add up.

[phathui5]

I really wanted to stop at Taco Smell on the way home from the playground today and get chalupas. I resisted. Thought about how embarassed I would be to post it here and drove home. Thank you for this thread!

7/1-
7/2-

[phathui5]

celestialdreamer,

Why not put up a clothesline?

[Mom2Joseph]

oh my, where to begin!

Josie - welcome! Just jump right in and keep at it. Don't think of perfection, just strive to improve. You'll find quickly the areas you can really improve in...

CABLE/NETFLIX - can't remember who posted about this. I cancelled HBO a while ago, but we have replaced it with the Baby Channel (Please oh please oh please don't ask me to explain...: ) we can probably cancel it now. But no, we can't seem to do with out Noggin... *sigh* Actually, I wish we could ditch the cable because there are only a few shows we really watch.

July 1st - Nothing!
July 2nd - Nothing! I know, I know - I need the mattress cover. I've been trying to use old blankets as well as a mattress cover but I need WATERPROOF! It's getting nasty. Will count as necessity item and purchase with grocery/household money.

Today - instead of buying meat from the butcher I made dinner with pantry items a la hillbilly housewife. Lentil Pottage, Mac n Cheese, Honey Butter Carrots, fresh spinach. My DH and DS think they have died and gone to heaven.

oh and the big one - I don't have cancer! Talk about a money saver! It was a close call with the boobie C-word but I found out today I am a-ok. So, today was a good day.

Prudence....after a day like today, not sure I want another little one!

[tarheelbaby]

Very quickly since supper's almost done:

July 1-
July 2-

Got my errands done with no extra expenses. Today I've cleaned and have some clothes to take to Once Upon a Child and a bag to donate.

[bwylde]

Ahhh!! I'm so behind all the posts already so I'm not going to read them all

I'm debating about buying an all-in-one printer. We don't need a printer but we could really use a scanner and the photocopy feature for our homeschooling. I am debating what is more cost effective; 10 cents a copy (8 cents each if I do 100 or more at a time, which isn't always convenient) or $85 for the printer. I may wait on it and hope it goes on sale again (ETA: I'm not sure how much I will be copying but it is more convenient to do it when I need to)

I start babysitting tomorrow. I won't be making much money at all (helping out relations in a tight spot) but I will be alloting my first pay to art supplies (after tithing of course ). I keep thinking of things I need and this way it won't be taking from our budget but it just extra money that we wouldn't normally of had.

July 1
July 2

[Daisie125]

I need help figuring out this whole cable/internet/phone thing...

We are cell only, we just went to cell only, no contract, but the phones were expencive, the service is great, and it's unlimited everything. We want to keep it. We currently have cable TV & cable internet. When I called to JUST get the internet, it would take away our multi service discount, and we would have ended up paying $5 less per month to get rid of our cable. It just wasn't worth it for $5 a month.

We are moving this month, and will be able to get cable TV and Internet for $59.99 per month guaranteed until 2010. If we skip the cable and go back to dialup, we will have to get a landline in addition to our cell phones, which will be at least $30 a month, plus dialup which is another $10 at least. So we would be paying $20 less to have crappy internet and nothing to watch on TV.

I'm trying to justify it in my head, and a $20 savings just seems like such a tiny amount to lose all of that. I want to be frugal, but to be honest, I like my TV, and my fast internet, and I'm sure I could squeeze $20 somewhere else. Any thoughts?

[Daisie125]

Originally Posted by bwylde

I'm debating about buying an all-in-one printer. We don't need a printer but we could really use a scanner and the photocopy feature for our homeschooling. I am debating what is more cost effective; 10 cents a copy (8 cents each if I do 100 or more at a time, which isn't always convenient) or $85 for the printer. I may wait on it and hope it goes on sale again.

Don't forget to take into account the cost of ink! It's REALLY expensive for some printers!

[bwylde]

Originally Posted by Daisie125

Don't forget to take into account the cost of ink! It's REALLY expensive for some printers!

I know. I'm calling my ink place tomorrow and see how much it would be. I also have tons of ink for refills if I am brave enough : . The sale ends tomorrow.

[scrapadoozer]

July 1
July 2

Nothing too eventful to report here. Invited some friends up for lunch and had a nice walk.

[HollyBearsMom]

7/1- nada woohoo!
7/2- a 94cents bottle of seltzer. My (pre-paid) gym was out of water!

tomorrow I am on the phone w/ the CC companies trying to either get them to settle for a lump sum or lower/eliminate our interest rate. Wish me luck!

[Petersmamma]

Originally Posted by kerc

Here it costs ~30 bucks to have menards/home depot deliver the wood for you. a smidge more if they use the crane or put it into your garage. Having used all three methods (pay for delivery, rent truck, borrow truck), I recommend paying for delivery for items like wood for a deck. Chances are good you need enough materials that you aren't going to be able to make it in one trip in a standard truck. Those repeat trips add up.

Thanks! That's a great idea....I will look into that.

Interestingly, when I went to find out how much it would cost to rent the sander, they told me that you put a deposit on a cc, but if you do it with a debit card they have to MAIL you back the deposit. How stupid is that??? We cut up all our cc's so we will be using a debit card and I suppose I will just insist that it is a cc since it has the Mastercard logo on it. Ridiculous!

And I'm getting my PhD too...in evolutionary biology. Fortunately, I'll only be paying student loans on ONE degree, as I haven't needed any loans during grad school!

Originally Posted by Mom2Joseph

July 1st - Nothing!
July 2nd - Nothing! I know, I know - I need the mattress cover. I've been trying to use old blankets as well as a mattress cover but I need WATERPROOF! It's getting nasty. Will count as necessity item and purchase with grocery/household money.

Today - instead of buying meat from the butcher I made dinner with pantry items a la hillbilly housewife. Lentil Pottage, Mac n Cheese, Honey Butter Carrots, fresh spinach. My DH and DS think they have died and gone to heaven.

oh and the big one - I don't have cancer! Talk about a money saver! It was a close call with the boobie C-word but I found out today I am a-ok. So, today was a good day.

First off, thank goodness!! Whew! How scary that must have been.

We JUST had an accident on the bed with the waterproof mattress pad....definitely cheaper than a new mattress!

That's great that your dh and ds think that meatless is so good.....my dh grudgingly eats dinner without meat, and ds often scorns my food since he gets many meals at dc and they are definitely more toddler friendly (read: junk) than what I normally cook.

[Miasmamma]

NAK- so excuse errors!

7/01: We were out of town, so I had planned for the expenses of eating out and going to the really big mall in Columbus. It really wasn't all that bad. About $100 total.

7/02: $60 at Krogers, $5 at post office

Hopefully I can really curtail spending the rest of the month. My birthday is Wed and we are celebrating on Sat, so there will be some expense for dinner items, but hopefully under $15.

[angelcollector1]

2 days.. no $ spent

[mackysmama]

July 1 - $78.35 at Whole Foods ($5.95 for gift, $6.20 for my lunch ); $19.95 on birthday gift, $30 on car gas (need to ask my partner for the total)
July 2 - $5.56 for dinner groceries (budgeted, special trip to the middle eastern deli)

Total: Unneccessary spending: $6.20
Budgeted spending: $127.66

Today was a GOOD day. I paid off all of our medical debt (about $550) and paid $700 toward credit cards. It feels great to make progress toward our goals.

[Beachlivnmom]

July 2 $74 in groceries which is under our budget. Yah!