August No-Spend Challenge -- Congratulations no-spenders!!!! You made it to the end! - Page 45

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

I'd have this tattooed on my arm, but I'm trying not to spend.

[brennasmom]

Aug 22: s: Did use a free token in the cafeteria for b'fast but no $$ out of pocket. Will go straight home after work. NO SPENDING!!!

[MaddieMay]

I did not do well today. I spent about $50 on gas and dog food (budgeted) then in a weak moment, made a really stupid purchase for $1.67 to satisfy a craving. :

[Curlita]

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

I'm Erica, I live in Seattle, and I am a shopaholic. : I'm coming in at the tail end of the month, but plan on being part of the gang full force in September. We are expecting our second child and that is, of course, causing turmoil in or financial lives. I am facing the fact that I need to spend less and spend mindfully if I want to have a better quality of life.

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

We have gone through periods of budgetting well, saving, and staying out of debt, but my husband was out of work for almost a year and we have a lot of credit card debt. I have put off making a budget for the last year because it is so depressing. Without a budget we seem to muddle through okay, but I feel free to put impulse purchases on the credit card and my husband is frustrated with our lack of progress. I feel deprived when we live on a tight budget and then feel like I am entitled to reward myself for my suffering. This becomes a vicious cycle.

My goals are:
Not to add to our credit card debt
Reduce our grocery budget
Recreate my money habits

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?

--Follow the budget we've created
--Consider additional purchases and, if they are deemed acceptable, make an allowance for them in the budget rather than just putting them on the credit card and feeling furtive. Make the budget work for us as a tool instead of a blunt instrument!
--No more lattes! Drip coffee acceptable if I have cash on me.
--STAY AWAY FROM EBAY
--Seek support in resisting the urge to mindlessly buy things!!!

Today I spent:
$1.60 on coffee
$1.20 on M&Ms
Filled gas tank (acceptable spending)
I will also spend $3.75 to go swimming at the pool tonight (acceptable spending)
$5 on eBay bid I won

Today I also:
Cancelled a $100 Amazon order as soon as I paid bills and realized how little I could afford it.
Saved myself $13 a month by cancelling an online subscription that I can live without.

[liangel]

8/1-
8/2-
8/3-$12.39 Ingles (Personal Items)
8/4-$10.30- Lunch/Dinner out
8/5-
8/6- $3.55-McDonalds
8/7- $72- floormats for my new car (I want my car to stay clean!!!!!)
8/8-
8/9- $37 Nails (Manicure/Pedi)
8/10-$5-Bunko, $6.50-Movie
8/11-$11.52 CVS personal items.
8/12-
8/13-
8/14-
8/15-
8/16-
8/17-
8/18-
8/19-
8/20-
8/21-
8/22-$26 on ebay. Okay, so I caved and won Melrose Place Season 2. At least I didn't pay full price of $35 on Amazon.

[kalisis]

Aug 22 - $12 on lunch w/ a friend. $37 at Old Navy - pants for DS that were on sale and picked out two tees for myself, but then put them back. Yay!

Fessing up is good for me!

[mamimapster]

Originally Posted by maciascl

Aug 15...: $10 on Kucinich for Pres '08 bumperstickers, could be concidered a necessity :

So far I'm at everyother day

WHERE WHERRE DO I GET THESE? I voted for kucinich last time, and want to publicise him this time. He ROCKS!

[mamabeth]

Aug. 21- $40 over budget on consignment clothes for dd : but she does need them! plus $1.25 on a beverage
Aug. 22-

[SusannahM]

Aug 1 -
Aug 2 -
Aug 3 -
Aug 4 - $25 for double stroller, $3.14 for breakfast at Wendy's, $38.02 for gas
Aug 5 - $26.77 for gas, $6.40 for art supplies and a phone at Staples
Aug 6 -
Aug 7 -
Aug 8 - $29.75 for car inspection
Aug 9 -
Aug 10 - $14.53 on groceries
Aug 11 - $33.58 on groceries
Aug 12 - $8.52 on groceries, $2.75 on water
Aug 13 -
Aug 14 -
Aug 15 - $97.50 for health insurance, $6.16 for life insurance
Aug 16 -
Aug 17 - $38.45 for gas, $7.94 for training pants
Aug 18 -
Aug 19 - $59.36 for electricity, $14.15 for groceries, $2.67 at the Dollar Tree
Aug 20 -
Aug 21 - $50 for a wedding gift, $21.71 at Target
Aug 22 -

Total: $486.40

[frog]

OT: mamabeth, I am TOTALLY diggin' your blog. Thank you.

[anarchamama]

OK I'm in!

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

I'm Heather and I live in Manitoba. DH and I have a pretty good financial situation, we don't make a lot but recently consolidted our debt onto our mortgage which is still pretty low. But we have sworn not to acrue any more. So we are cracking the whip. We've been budgeting for about 7 months but need to be more serisu about not spending.

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

We don't want to accrue any more debt. We want to be able to afford to contine to make accelerated mortgage payments and still need money for my tuition. DH is a teacher and I SAH so we need to budget well. Also all our apliances are going to crap out int he next few years so we want to be prepared.

My goals are:
Not to accrue cc debt
Save for tuition
Reduce our food budget
Not make impulse buys

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?

Follow the budget we've created
Stop spending when we run out of paycheck
Save 50 bucks from our abby bonus every month towards tuition
No using cc

I'm going to back trck to the 15th and start form there

15-Hardware store 5.98 for screws to finish building shelf, 7.98 on fries with dinner. :
16-33.54 groceries, 3.48 on donoughts :
17-146.98 groceries
18-10.02 dh spent on my bday present
19-32.00 on dinner and ice cream at my bday party. FIL gave me 50 bucks for my bday though so I bought us dinner with it.
18-
19
20-Chiropractor 5.25, lunch 9.16, stuff for the kids 12.25, I justified this as the last 20 of my bday $$, $8 ice cream for the kids :
21-
22-5$ ice cream for the kids :

[mrskennedy]

Made $16.02 extra today. It's going in my MT training fund.

[mrskennedy]

Hi Heather! Welcome to the big ol' thread!

[mrskennedy]

Originally Posted by Curlita

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

I'm Erica, I live in Seattle, and I am a shopaholic. : I'm coming in at the tail end of the month, but plan on being part of the gang full force in September. We are expecting our second child and that is, of course, causing turmoil in or financial lives. I am facing the fact that I need to spend less and spend mindfully if I want to have a better quality of life.

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

We have gone through periods of budgetting well, saving, and staying out of debt, but my husband was out of work for almost a year and we have a lot of credit card debt. I have put off making a budget for the last year because it is so depressing. Without a budget we seem to muddle through okay, but I feel free to put impulse purchases on the credit card and my husband is frustrated with our lack of progress. I feel deprived when we live on a tight budget and then feel like I am entitled to reward myself for my suffering. This becomes a vicious cycle.

My goals are:
Not to add to our credit card debt
Reduce our grocery budget
Recreate my money habits

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?

--Follow the budget we've created
--Consider additional purchases and, if they are deemed acceptable, make an allowance for them in the budget rather than just putting them on the credit card and feeling furtive. Make the budget work for us as a tool instead of a blunt instrument!
--No more lattes! Drip coffee acceptable if I have cash on me.
--STAY AWAY FROM EBAY
--Seek support in resisting the urge to mindlessly buy things!!!

Today I spent:
$1.60 on coffee
$1.20 on M&Ms
Filled gas tank (acceptable spending)
I will also spend $3.75 to go swimming at the pool tonight (acceptable spending)
$5 on eBay bid I won

Today I also:
Cancelled a $100 Amazon order as soon as I paid bills and realized how little I could afford it.
Saved myself $13 a month by cancelling an online subscription that I can live without.

God for you for canceling those, Erica! Welcome to the thread!

[mrskennedy]

Originally Posted by Nicole!

I did not do well today. I spent about $50 on gas and dog food (budgeted) then in a weak moment, made a really stupid purchase for $1.67 to satisfy a craving. :

[Om Girl]

August 1
August 2
August 3 $20.00 on a pretty new dress for August wedding!
August 4 $50.00 eating out
August 5
August 6
August 7
August 8
August 9 WE BOUGHT OUR HOUSE!

August 10
August 11 $25.00 on lunch and snacks
August 12 $15.00 on lunch
August 13
August 14 $3.45 for McD's for lunch
August 15 (budgeted 15.00 for bookclub dinner) $1.00 over budget! But it was my first "non-child" meal in...? and I had a glass of wine, on the house!

August 16 (Woop Woop deposited $$$$$ in the bank!)
August 17
August 18 $10.00 on baby shower present
August 19
August 20
August 21 $28.95 for a winter/down vest...(It's still in the bag, in the car with the receipt...I'm waiting for the 5 days to see if I still it)
August 22 $59.88 at Whole Foods on non-food items

So I've upgraded from spending money on food to spending money on material items :

[mrskennedy]

Glad you're back, anniej! I had a big problem with online shopping too, and it wasn't all that long ago...

[CityChic]

August 1
August 2
August 3
August 4 $10
August 5
August 6 $1.75
August 7 $2.35
August 8
August 9
August 10 $15
August 11 $50
August 12
August 13
August 14
August 15
August 16 $96
August 17
August 18 $50
August 19 $100
August 20 +$40 / -$20
August 21
August 22

So we haven't saved as much as I had hoped but we have not incurred any more debt so I am happy about that! Only a few more days to go!

Total Overspending - $305.10

[MommyHawk]

I'm late, but I'm getting geared up for September by posting here now!

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

I'm a SAHM, live on the East Coast, and it's getting rather expensive here lately! I have 2 kids, 2 dogs, a husband and am starting a small business of doing custom painting (which every time I start up I seem to get pregnant and have to stall for a few years...crossing my fingers! )

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

#1 reason: we have no savings and too much debt. Credit cards are evil!!! I want to have NO debt (minus the house note) and TONS of savings. We can never go on vacation unless my parents or my grandmother pays for it - I want us to be able to do at least one vacation a year - have yet to do this. Also, DH just took on a part time job in addition to his full time job, and I feel bad but who will watch the kids??!?! I'm not putting them in daycare to go into MORE debt...just so many reasons.

#2 reason: we have enough crap as it is! I try to purge every month, and it just seems to multiply! I want to minimalize as much as possible. That means, not buying anything new to add to the junk heap until I get all this crap out of here! And then ONLY what we really need (food, clothing, shelter) and a few additions only when totally necessary (entertainment, vacations, eating out). Honestly, how much stuff do we really need?!?

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?

Only purchase food, (clothing is ok??!?!) no, no clothing unless it is under $10 or on sale or thrift or hand me down, no credit cards! That's easy. I've locked them up! And remember that I am doing this so I can stay at home with my kids and that we are safe financially and my DH can stop his PT job and be home with us (and we can breath!!!)

[kalisis]

Yeah, it's just like, I don't know - it feels like not real money. It's so weird.