**June No- Spend Challenge** - Less than a week to go! Let's finish strong!! - Page 3

[AngelBee]

:

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

1. My name is Prudence and I'm a SAHM with two little girls and a baby girl due any day. My DH is a teacher and so now that summer is here we are living on our savings for three months. So I want to be ~very~ conscious of where that money is going.

2. We paid a huge chunk of our credit card debt off the past six months, so my goal is to be debt free by January 2009.

I'm also trying to ~reduce~ the number of things in our home. I don't want to bring more things in, I want to get things OUT.

3. Plan for this month:

~ have baby and spend a lot of time at home savoring those first newborn weeks
~ drive not the car
~ stay out of the stores -- we have everything we need.


My previous months:

May= 19 no-spend days with $265 in unecessary spending
June = 19 /$394
July = 15 /$580
August = 19 /$451
September = 22 /$103
October = 20 /$203
November = 19 /$456
December = Fell off the wagon
January = 20 /$216
February = 21 /$190
March = 24 /$189
April = 19 /$402
May = 21 /$247

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

01..
02..
03..
04..
05..

Goals:

1/20 No spend days
0/30 Fast Food Free days
0/10 Let the car rest days
$0/$100 Unnecessary Spending

[mamimapster]

OK, here we go again-I was doing great in the first half of may, and then fell apart again.
June 1No Spend

June Goals:
No unbudget spend days goal 15/30,1/30
No Drive Days goal: 10/30,0/30-
No frivolous spending over 100 actual: 0/100
Sold items 5/50
Thrift/HB kit items: 0/40
Decluttering/organizing 20 min day 0/24 (allowing for 8mos preggo exhaustion!)
Grocery budget 0/375-Extra for price increase & extra person in household.
Baked/bulk cooking:0/13
Study/Daven daily goal 0/15
No Sweets 0/20

May a bust...
April a bust...
March:Nospend14/31,No Drive: 5/31,frivolous spending147.41/100,Sold items 57/50,Decluttering 18/26,Grocery 331.27/350,Bulk: 6/13, Study23/31
Feb:No spend 11/29,No Drive7/29,No frivolous spending: 127.01/100 Sold items 60/50,Decluttering 30 min day 11/26,Grocery budget 352.59/350 Baked/bulk cooking 7/1

[mackysmama]

This really started for me on Thursday, when my partner was paid. I've started the envelope system, went grocery shopping with my coupons and (and this is HUGE), had every meal at home this weekend. Our entertainment for the weekend was a trip to the beach so that was only gas, and I plan to make up for that by staying home a lot this week.

GOALS:
2/25 no unnecessary/budgeted spending
2/12 no gas days
stay within budget on groceries/spending/etc.
save my weekly spending to buy needed items
start an emergency fund
pay off homeowners claim
no debit card unless planned

1... , :
2... , :
3... , : $32 at Whole Foods, $7 at Farmer's Market, $100 at dentist for son, $190 to nature center for camp for son
4...
5...
6...
7...
8...
9...
10...

KEY
No unnecessary/over-budget spending
Unnecessary/over-budget spending
: no gas days
stayed within budget
: Groceries within budget

[Om Girl]

JUNE GOALS

• : 3/8 No Drive days
• : 6/8 Eat out days
• : 6/15 Kid centered days
• : 2/6 Work at home days
• : 1/12 YWCA days
• 5/15 No Spend days

6/1: Grand Old Day festival=$40.00. $50.00 gas. $15.00 on 2 pr. sunglasses
(CVS/ECB=FREE lip gloss!)
6/2: + : + : + :
6/3: $81.00 for work clothes, $100.59 for skin care (budgeted)

I got hired at a local yoga center tonight!

6/4: + : + :
6/5: + : + :
6/6: $36.99 for : grooming, $15.00 for :
6/7: $30.00 for :, $266.99 for DH's contacts & eye exam co-pays, $5.00 for fresh asparagas at the Farmer's Market
6/8: + :
6/9: $7.03 for Subway (I have serious food aversions and it sounded good) and we walked there! : + : + :
6/10: + : + : + : Biked for errands today and hung out with DD!
6/11: : Took DD to the Zoo/Conservatory ($1.00 donation for admission), packed a lunch, returned library books ontime, picked up class packet and did Target run with coupons! (budgeted)

[NewMama2007]

1. Please introduce yourself and tell us why you have decided to spend nothing (or spend significantly less) for the Month of June.
Hi, I'm Laura, mama to Audrey. We need a new front door, and decided to not spend in June/July to finance said door.

2. 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?

I would like, ideally, to only buy food and gas outside of bills this month.

To drive more economically - I do home visits for work in my personal car and tend to rush, so I need to plan more time to drive more fuel-efficiently, and only fuel up once/week.

3. Be specific! What are your goals? How many no spend days is right for you? Do you have a savings goal? Debt repayment goal?

Goals
25/30 No spend days (only shopping on grocery day - Sunday)
- and keep the weekly groceries under $70
Only fuel up once/week - keep the gas mileage down through responsible driving.
Stick with cloth diapering at home.

Today was groceries, and I went a wee bit over (too much food blog reading last night ), but it was all the fruit's fault (peaches, blueberries, mangoes,strawberries, oh my!). We meal plan, so all our meals/snacks for the week are taken care of.

We have to go get the printer cartridge refilled and buy paper - dh and I are both in grad school, and are both going this semester! It would be more expensive to print everything we needed at school and pay a nickel a page.

June 1:
June 2: budgeted - printer cartridge, rx
June 3:
June 4: DH signed up for a 5k
June 5:
June 6: (1/2 tank of gas for the week! Woot!)

[EljayMom]

Ok...for the first time, I'm in. I actually didn't realize it was June today until a minute ago. (I lost track and thought it was still May. Oops.) I've already blown one day, at least somewhat, because I went to JoAnn and bought unnecessary stuff (along with the sort-of-necessary stuff).

I'm Eljay, married to a student and SAHM of 3 (DS almost 7, DD 5 and DD 9 mo). DH is in his last year of school, doing rotations in various practice settings, and has had to cut his work hours because of it. Our income wasn't high to start with, and it's way down now. We'll be getting through the year on the student loans and the little bit he brings in, along with what we've managed to save ahead of time, so watching what we spend is critical. If we pay attention, we should be fine. If not...

My plan is to avoid shopping. I'm going to try to stay out of stores (and away from amazon.com) unless I actually need something, and to have a list. I'm going to try to find free or really inexpensive activities, and to combine trips out to save gas. If it gets really hot, we might take the trolley (costs $, but not much, and our car doesn't have AC) to the library; otherwise, we'll be driving there at least once a week. I'm also going to do a better job of meal planning, and try to get back to shopping grocery store sales in a more organized fashion.

I'm not sure what else to do...we already eat out very rarely, and DH packs his lunch. I guess I'll learn as I go along, and from the experts who have done this before.

[liangel]

My name is Tiffany and I have been doing this challenge since last August. My track record so far since then has been:

Aug '07-20/31 total no spend days
Sept- 18/30-total no spend days
Oct- 18/31- total no spend days
Nov-16/30- total no spend days
Dec-19/31-total no spend days
Jan-22/31- total no spend days
Feb-15/29-total no spend days
Mar-23/31-total no spend days
Apr-22/30-total no spend days
May-23/31-total no spend days

[liangel]

My key:

:= groceries
:=gas
=spending other than gas or groceries
=no money left my hands

6/1-

[heatherweh]

I'll post on here evry day so I don't spam the thread and make it 500 pages long...my intro is above...

I like your little emoticon keys. I'll do that too:

: =Bought groceries
=Spent discretionary money within budget
: =No drive day
=No spend day
=Unnecessary spending or went over budget

=Good day
= Bad day

June 1 = : $35
June 2 = $25
June 3 =

[scrapadoozer]

06/01

Goals
1/21 No spend days
0/$125 Unnecessary spending
0/$300 Car repair bill.

[eloquence]

Okay, let me do another post....

i messed up.

[eloquence]

I saw this thread after I spent money.


($ necessities/ $ not)


01.. $0/$20.47 (gifts)::
02.. $0/$0, ::::
03.. $0/$9.50 (late fees, movie rentals) ::
04.. $0/+$4.26 (returned two items I didn't need) :::
05.. $47.50 (groceries)/$0 :::
06..

GOALS:

1) track my spending and spend as little as possible or
2) walk my errands as much as possible aka: no drive :
3) NO TV NO COMPUTER GAMES
4) work outside in garden while kids play outside :
5) read to my kids every day
6) swim or play in river every day :
7) eat well and before 7pm :

[allborntogrow]

Hello!

I am so excited that it is June already.
We have one 5 year old son and another boy due in August. I joined the no spending club in May and was able to save $850 dollars in just one month!
Why am I not spending? We are trying to save as much as possible before the baby is born, and we also have some debt that I would like to pay off.
In May, I spent 81.81 unecessarily.
In June, hubby and I are committing to plan our grocery shopping more effectively so that we can do a large shopping and not be running to the store every other day. Also, I aim to have as many days where NO money is leaving my hands at all.
There are some budgeted baby expenses this month, and all the money I save in May will really help with that!!!
June didn't get off to the best start. My sister wanted to go out to lunch and I thought she was treating, but when the bill came she didn't have enough cash . . . anyway, I pitched in, but I'm going head first into a no spend week!!!

1: : $10 lunch w/ sister



Truly no spend!
: Groceries
Necessary or planned spending
: unnecessary spending
$0/$450 budgeted baby spending

[greenmamapagan]

I'm pleased that I made it home from my ap playgroup today without spending anything other than what I expected to (it's a start).
allborntogrow, I hope you don't mind if I copy your key:
Truly no spend!
:Groceries
Necessary or planned spending
:unnecessary spending

I did it woohoo!

June 2 (here)
June 3

[mumkenna&lucas]

I knew it was going to be a spend day today, but we only bought $8 in coffee and that was it! Very pleased about that, I thought there was going to be much more damage than that!

6/1 $8 coffee

June Spending Goals:
No Spend days: 0/30
No etsy/DS/ebay: 1/30
Non-necessary Spending: 8/400

[beansmama]

1. Please introduce yourself and tell us why you have decided to spend nothing (or spend significantly less) for the Month of June.

My name is Desiree...i'm a newly single mama and the only income i have is $200/mo in child support and about $125/mo from cleaning my moms house. Yes, i am currently unemployed. I live in a small town (less than 8k people), i don't know how to drive...there are not a lot of jobs currently. My savings is dwindling as i've gone a little more than nutso with the retail therapy...so mmy goal is to ONLY spend what i am "making"...and not dip into the savings. Oh - i do get $278 in foodstamps as well (and i live in my parents basement apartment, which is paid through july...blessing!).

2. 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?

I guess my only plan is to write a budget and stick to it. I will not dip into my savings unless it is a REAL EMERGENCY. And cute clothes at forever 21 isnt an emergency.

3. Be specific! What are your goals? How many no spend days is right for you? Do you have a savings goal? Debt repayment goal?

I want 30/30 no spend (out of my budget) days. My budget will allow some cash to blow on whatever...but i also want to put a lil away in savings...even if it can only be $25/mo. Something is better than nothing...right? And i don't currently have any debt.

[beansmama]

First day good!

6/1:

Goals:
1) Do not spend more than my income.
2) Save atleast $25/mo.

[soygurl]

1. Please introduce yourself and tell us why you have decided to spend nothing (or spend significantly less) for the Month of June.
My name is Kelsie. I'm single, and have one fur baby (my dog Brownie). I spend most of my money on food (I'm usually to tired to really cook so I waste a lot of $ on convenience foods), and other people. I have a really hard time saying no to my friends when having fun usually = spending money. I also spend WAY more than I'd like to on visits with my CASA kid "Jenny" (not her real name). I joined in January, and did fairly well; I TOTALLY lost it in February and never came back. It is TIME. I have a significant amount (for me anyway) of money saved right now, but a LOT of big expenses coming right up so I really need to work on not spending on unnecessary stuff.
2. 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?
Eeek! I really need to figure out some realistic goals for myself. I've found that if I'm too strict with myself I can't keep up with lasting progress.
3. Be specific! What are your goals? How many no spend days is right for you? Do you have a savings goal? Debt repayment goal?
I'm going to work on this later, but for right now, I'm hoping for 18 no-spend days, and some serious saving. Oh, and I need to fix my car, get it registered, pay off a medical bill, and I desperately need new clothes (or at least new to me, but I have really bad luck at thrift stores in this area)! Oh, and I'm going to set bike riding goals too! I'm thinking ride my bike to work at LEAST 2 (hopefully at least 3) days a week, and riding with my dog at least 4 times a week.
ETA: I also really need some firm spending limits for visits with Jenny. I need to try and find a way to keep our outings free/very cheap. I've been spending WAY too much!