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Oct No-Spend Challenge: End of the month is here. Hang on No-spenders Almost There! - Page 9  

post #161 of 1542
10/1/07 at 11:42pm
Can I just say how much it cracks me up that some mamas have "No Target" as a goal for the month?

Love it!
post #162 of 1542
10/1/07 at 11:42pm
Ashley, how much did you spend on groceries here? I just cannot believe people are eating for less than $100 a week.
post #163 of 1542
10/1/07 at 11:49pm
OCTOBER GOALS

1. $41.03 Reusable Bags.com, $108.01 New Cell Phone Bill


I had a 20% off coupon and left all our water bottles in NY, so I'm counting it as necessary. I added in a couple of shopping bags while we're at it, b/c just b/c we're kind of nomads right now, that doesn't mean we can't do our part to help mother Earth.






0/25 No Internet Shopping
$41.03/250 Discretionary Fund - used for anything and everything personal
0/7 Allowable Fast Food Trips (include coffee stops as a trip)
post #164 of 1542
10/2/07 at 12:24am
Oct 1: We did go to dinner and a movie, and had to stop and buy dd some flushable wipes and myself some cranberry tablets, but it had all been budgeted for.
post #165 of 1542
10/2/07 at 12:26am
Day 1: spent $28 on groceries, that's it
post #166 of 1542
10/2/07 at 12:27am
1 - 9.42 Target return, 163.65 groceries (usually has at least one "want", 31.17 household bought out of grocery budget

goals:
groceries (including pets) 194.82/600
no drive days 0/10
turn off tv more often
hang/rack dry laundry
heat/ac off as long as possible

sarah
post #167 of 1542
10/2/07 at 12:40am
Oct 1-17.00 lunch out: BUT there was a good reason. We have FLOORS! When I left to pick up Dd from school they were still installing them, and when I came back there was NO WAY we were going to be able to get in the house and eat with a house full of hammers/saws going and sawdust flying. We used to have hideous green 30+ year old carpet in the main level of our house, then from may on we've been walking on damaged subflooring. We now have oak, and they are beautiful I wil be out of the house tomorrow for about 10 hours or so, so I packed lunch and two snacks- also I've got a sigg of water chilling and my french press is at the ready so I'm feeling pretty positive about tomorrow.

GOALS(thanks to those with wise ideas!):

1.At least 16 days: 0/30
2.Pack snacks/water for outings/School: 1/30
3.At least two no-car days per week 0/8
4.NO library fines: month to date $0
5. Come here lots
6.Make lists and stick to them
7. Avoid buying my sweets and bake more. 0/5
8. earn at least 50.00 in sellables this month 0/50
9. tally of evil under 100

Acceptable spending:
Dd snowpants
Twin Sheets- Why did I give all of these away?? freecycle maybe?
lunch container (self) NEED THIS!
Sellable Items-
Meds for IVF round #3-I've got the go-ahead! meds happening soon!
tally of evil 17.00
post #168 of 1542
10/2/07 at 1:08am
Joining in for another month...last month we kind of disappeared into a spending fog, I'm not even sure what we bought. I know it included Starbucks! I justified it because I was putting in 12-14 hour days, but honestly, I could be making at home...which I am now.

I'm Jessica, WOHM to two great kiddos who I have the benefit of taking with me to work! Since I direct a child care center my tuition is also discounted heavily. We need to be saving all we can for a house right so that's why I'm here. Dp is awesome with finances and I need a little push in the right direction. Right now I hand three hundred a month to him so that he'll save it for me. If I put it in my savings acct. I'll just take it out later!

So, last moth having goals didn't really work for me. I think the layout where I keep track of every penny will work better. I do have two specific goals though. No more than five trips to Starbucks (I'll save these for trips out with friends or soemthing along those lines) and NO TARGET!! I did very well at the latter last moth. My grand total spent there was around $7 out of pocket. Super good! Starbucks got us big time though.

Also, a goal I have that is unrelated to No Spend but financially necessary is to pay my cc bills on time an push any extra money I can toward them. I'm horrible at paying before the due date even if I have the money. I forget. So my bills are due on the 13th and 27th and I will be making those asap.

Here goes:
Oct. 1st: $30 credit card bill
post #169 of 1542
10/2/07 at 1:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MeghansDad View Post
sorry to be off topic for a moment but..

have you looked in to filing a suit against the parants of said boys for medical bills you are now stuck with?
We are doing that right now. I was hoping that it wouldn't come to this, but obviously it had. The person I'm really sore with is me. I know I could have stopped this all last year when we recieved the summons. If I had shown up at court with the contract in my hand this all would have been over with. Instead I called the collection agency and then forgot about it. The silver lining in all of this is that I will never ever procrastinate on something like this again (and our finances will actually turn out better for it too, as long as I never forget this lesson).
post #170 of 1542
10/2/07 at 1:41am
10/01 +checking deposit/-$2.79 organic chocolate

NO CAR DAYS: 1/31
HOME COOK'n: 1/31

MSAX-Magnolia Bakery is SOOOO good! What a great reward for supporting a good cause!
post #171 of 1542
10/2/07 at 1:42am
$2 on wooden police car at flea market (Christmas gift so counting it as acceptable)
dinner out oh boy! forgot to add that to my list. I'll allow four times.


0/20 no spend days
1/4 eating out
post #172 of 1542
10/2/07 at 3:09am
Can I just say how freakin hilarious it is that it's only the first and there are already 9 pages in this thread?

Ok, i totally wussed out in August but I'm ready to be back in October...my goals are:

1. Don't spend more than $80 (me and DH combined) on "extras" (Ren Faire mostly)
2. Only 2 Costco runs allowed, and then only for produce and cheese
3. Only go to the regular grocery (Wild Oats) every other week for produce
4. No Azure order this month...the pantry is stocked and we're a little short because of DH's hours being cut so we can wait!

Oct 1st:
post #173 of 1542
10/2/07 at 3:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by liangel View Post
Oct 1- $9.51 for pity wine and some cheese snack sticks. The pity wine is because I got AF today. Not a good thing when you are trying to get pg!
It's Oct. 2 over here already and I know I have to do some grocery shopping today. That is absolutely reasonable, but I'm also going to the health food store, so here's my goal for today:
ONLY buy 1 soy yoghurt and 1 sandwich spread there. NO COOKIES!!!!!!!!

_/1 ....
post #174 of 1542
10/2/07 at 3:30am

hey, gimme a break, my pantry was bare!!!

Oct 1 - $138 diapers (budgeted), $83 groceries, $11 book.

$83/$440 groceries
$11/$25 entertaintment

Well, I knew there was some spendy stuff coming up this month and there you have it. I got a 15% coupon for a health food store at the breastfeeding challenge so I went and bought literally all the bulk foods I could carry. Tomorrow is 10% Tuesday at Safeway so I'm stocking up on my other non-perishables. I'm having second thoughts about the diapers - they are AIOs for the day home provider for when I go back to work. Now she didn't specifically say she wouldn't do prefolds, but DD is *very* wiggly so I thought it would be cruel and unusual to both parties. However when I budgeted for those I hadn't picked a day home provider yet, and I thought I'd be dealing with a reluctant cloth diaperer...our provider is pretty cool with the idea. I think I'm just going to acknowledge that it's a bit of a splurge, but not entirely frivilous, and enjoy it.
post #175 of 1542
10/2/07 at 3:41am
Hi everyone, I'm a married WOHM, my dh and I work opposite times of day so we have lots of chances to make good use of our time and shop and manage wisely! Whether we always do so, is another question!

We have plenty of debt and non-caught-up-on bills. We could be doing a lot better than we are.

I am inspired to join the October challenge because I just got a very handsome Income Tax Refund (filed for 3 years at once...I hate paperwork and always procrastinate with anything to do with the government). So I really want to use the extra money wisely, not fritter it away, get some things TAKEN CARE OF! so we can move forward! That's my goal.

Our real black holes include Starbucks (I am a true caffeine addict, if I don't get my afternoon fix I get a screaming headache. But there's got to be a cheaper way to service this monkey on my back). Also overpriced quick dinners. There is really no excuse for not cooking a proper dinner every day!

I've already gotten a jump start on the 1st because today I did not spend one dime! Mainly because I had a stomach attack and had to go home early, so didn't shop at all and didn't buy a latte! DH bought some groceries (all sensible) and made us a good dinner, and DD and I baked a cake (all ingredients already on hand).

Tomorrow I have to buy a bus pass before work, that is in the budget. I forgot to get one today, but the bus driver was nice and let me use my Sept. pass, so I sort of saved $2.25!

Everyone's stories are very inspiring to me! Can't wait to see how well we handle things!
post #176 of 1542
10/2/07 at 4:12am

Oct 1

No spend!! Although it almost didn't happen as I need to make a knitpicks order for biz stuff as well as 2 books for gift ideas to use up all this single skein yarn I have. That will happen tomorrow.

I just remembered I am watching a pair of boots on ebay for my youngest DD to hopefully help keep her too long pants from dragging the ground, it is a need but I am hoping for a good deal!

Tomorrow is meal planning day as well and I am hoping to get all of my shopping done in one shot and spend only $200. I am going to have a baking day set aside to make soft pretzels, breads, bagels and attempt to make some snack foods. I also need to learn how to make yogurt as my 2 girls go thru it so fast and I know the store bought stuff is chock full of sugary ickiness. I am thinking Saturday will be a good day for this, so it's possible my grocery bill will be slightly higher buying some ingredients.
post #177 of 1542
10/2/07 at 5:35am
Oct 1:
Oct 2: : $42 at WalMart for baby shower gifts, a dress for dd, and face soap, $6.83 for photo developing at Walgreens. I think I'm taking the dress back, though, and that'll be $12.42 I get back plus tax.
post #178 of 1542
10/2/07 at 5:51am
10/1: No spending!

OCTOBER GOALS
1/10 actual no-spend days
0/100 in discretionary/preventable spending
0/5 lattes
0/0 unfunded credit card charges
*figure out how to cheaply accomodate late afternoon need to something sweet.... or overcome the need.
*get back to the budget and make it work
post #179 of 1542
10/2/07 at 7:19am
October 1

No spend days: 1/21
Eat at home days 1/27
Groceries $0/$300
Personal mad money $0/$50
DD's mad money $0/$20

I need to make an inventory of the food we have on hand so I don't buy a bunch of duplicates when we go shopping today. $300 a month for groceries is more than possible for us but I have to shop really smart.
post #180 of 1542
10/2/07 at 9:13am
Goals for today:

No spend
Make an extra cc payment
No grocery store, even though I'm out of my Odwalla bars... but I can live without them for a month!

Ok, I need some advice ladies...I am REALLY wanting to bid on this top from ebay...it's 9.99 right now...and I LOVE it...it's one that I would have forever and I have little clothing that fits me b/c I have lost a lot of weight in the last few months...I sold $70 worth of books on amazon yesterday...but I should put that toward cc....but I also have stuff selling on ebay...about 12 dollars so far....I got another top that I bought from ebay yesterday that I LOVE, too, but it is too small, so I am returning that for a $20 refund...ok, so what do you think...to buy or not to buy? The auction ends tomorrow...



Stats:

No spend days: 0/10
No grocery store days: 1/31
Use something from pantry or freezer: 1/31
Pay extra on cc: $678 woo-hoo!
Days using only cash:1/31
Eating Out: 0/200
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Mothering › Forums › Natural Family Living › The Mindful Home › Frugality & Finances › Oct No-Spend Challenge: End of the month is here. Hang on No-spenders Almost There!