**July No-Spend Challenge** - It's the last week of July! Finish strong!! - Page 2

[Scribe]

Originally Posted by avengingophelia

I'm buckling down this month too. My goals are:

$40/week fun money
$1,000/month to CC

Seems like it should be simple...

There are two goals/guidelines I forgot to add in there:
1 thrift trip/week
3 no-drive days/week

[monkey's mom]

I'm in again! :

Can't tell you how this challenge has improved our bottom line--both business and personal!!

I will continue to do more of same: STAY HOME!

Not driving, slowing down our lives, decluttering, playing in the yard/pool, working on the garden, sipping sun tea while watching the laundry blow on the line. THIS is why I moved to the country! Going to Target makes me feel deficient. And I'm not. We've got more than enough!

[emski4379]

Hi, I'm Emma. Mom to a 2.5 year old, and a newborn on the way. DH and I have some serious debt to pay off, and we need to buckle down.

My biggest thing is I need to stop buying kids clothing and kids stuff in general. Many times I'll find a great deal. I need to realize that DS and future DD will be just fine without the item, and despite being a good price, NOT BUY IT. I love to shop which is another problem.

I also need to keep a trict eye on our grocery spending. We're part of a CSA, so veggies are taken care of. We also have plenty of meat in the freezer. So really, I should only be buying dairy, fruit, and bread. I need to stick to that.

[onetwoten]

I'm in this month.

I'm having a hard time adjusting to needing to be frugal. I've always *been* pretty thrifty, but never needed to be, and I think I'm subconsciously fighting it by buying things in an attempt to convince myself I can. But since last September, we've bought a house, almost fully renoed it (including new fridge, bed, flooring, paint, washer, dryer, and an entire new bathroom), got married on 'cash' only- almost $12,000 OUCH!, just bought a new digital SLR camera so DH can find out if he can make photography a career and now we want to send DH to school in September- which would be approx $9000, and mean he's only working about 15-20 hours a week for 9 months. We have about $3500 in the bank right now- but owe $5000 on our car. The numbers just don't add up unfortunately.

The past few weeks have been very bad spending wise, so I'm needing some accountability and help reigning it in. My main goals this month are to make lunches at home and not shop for conveniece food, and to make more cheap meals. We're very accustomed to eating say chicken fingers and french fries, or steak and potatoes. We need to make more pasta, or rice, maybe even beans. I need help!!

[nadia105]

I'm in. I SAH with my 3 kids and really want to save $$ this summer b/c we have some things we are doing to the house and I want to take as little out of savings as possible. Plus, dd will be going to a private school starting in September and I want to have some money set aside in case my pt teaching job at the school doesn't cover 100% of her tuition.

I need to have concrete goals this month, b/c I haven't done very well with the ambiguous 'spend less'.

So, here are the goals (more to come, I'm sure):
12 true no spend days
$450 total food spending
$150 total misc household spending -- Target, etc. I'm hoping to come in lower, but I want to be realistic
$100 saved for dd's school

Back for more later....baby's attacking computer

Here are a few more:
Not to buy any Dr Pepper! It's horrible for the body and the budget.
Make $200 selling things we don't need to cover unexpected costs from last month
Make $100 with Pampered Chef and DON'T spend it on more PC stuff!

[CityChic]

Just bumping this up! Come on in

[Scribe]

Since tomorrow is Monday and my budget week is going to go Monday-Sunday, I am starting July tomorrow. It's going to be hard to curtail my spending as much as I need to, but I really have to do it this time. It is way past time to get serious about this.

[umbrella]

I have a lot of expenses in August, so minimizing spending in July is really a good idea. Both of my kids have their birthday in August, we're hosting a visitor mid-month, and we're taking a week-long trip to the other side of the country, at the end of the month.

I did already have plans to take the kids to the county fair this week, but I'm betting I can keep that pretty low. I already got the entrance tickets for free. Part of the fun is the crazy food, but we can have that be snacks and treats, not the meals for the day.

[scrapadoozer]

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

Hi, I'm Jenny. I am a SAHM to one lovely four year old girl.

I really hate having a balance on our credit card. We had $1100 worth of unexpected expenses that had to go on the card last month I have all but the last $400 paid off. I am hoping to be able to put at least $200 more down on it this month and obviously add no new charges as well.

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?

Stay out of the stores. Gas is so high we rarely make trips into town anyway so this one should be pretty easy.

Do instead of buy. I have so much swap sewing to get done this month. That should keep me quite busy.

Continue to eat at home/cook from scratch.


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?

23/31 No-Spend Days
$0/$100 Unnecessary Spending
$0/$250 Credit Card Debt

[JayGee]

I've been reading this thread for months, and July is my month to acutally DO IT! My problem is grocery shopping. Some weeks I go to the store every day, and it's always $30-$80 every time. So my goal for the month is to do a big grocery trip once every 10 days, and that's it. Also, to keep out of Target ! I am working towards 10 no-spend days in July.

We don't have debt, so that's good, but our checking account gets too low for comfort each month, and we aren't saving nearly as much as we could.

[p1gg1e]

I'm in! We hae vacation this month ( the first in 7 years!) but we will be setting a budget ( as soon as we know what we are going to spend!)

Food: $600 for the month ( includes eating out)
Gas: $60 for me

[mommygmb]

Hi. I would like to get in on this. I'm a sahm to 2 little girls(aged 6 and 4). I consider myself pretty thrifty, but we really need to buckle down and get some debts paid off...and just make better use of the money we budget. Our credit card spending is out of control, and most of it is unnecessary.

So my goals for the month are :
-no eating out(this is probably the hardest thing for us)
-removing credit cards from our wallets
-free entertainment only

I don't know that we'll actually save money, but I guess the main thing is to stop using the credit cards. And put a bigger amount of money towards debts instead of spending it on unnecessary things.

[crunchy_mama]

I am in again for July, June went really well, hoping to do even better this month. We need to save some extra money to make up for some extra expenses we had last month(and the month before) and build the savings back up. I am hoping if we really buckle down this month we can let up for next month.

Goals:
No drive days: 20- I think that I will have a few birthday parties to go to and 4th of July so I am trying to allow a few extra days- usually I only go 2x a week.

Groceries: $200

Eating Out: $50

$1 per week limit on treats from the grocery store.

No extra spending for me.

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

Ya'll...we paid over 10K on our credit card bill this past year

I've been doing these challenges for one year now...and I just tallied up how much we paid each month on our credit card. :

I owe it to these challenges and you other ladies keeping me honest about the spending. Thank you.

Last month was a stellar month, but alas that wasn't due to any resolutions on my part but rather babymooning and unexpected illness in the family...we were home almost the entire month.

For July my goals:

1. A good solid 20 days of no-spending
2. To use our park, museum, and pool passes -- already paid for, just waiting for us to use them.
3. To stay OUT OF THE STORES. We need nothing. To appreciate what we already have.

With an itty-bitty baby we are going to be driving more. It is sweat-awful hot in Vermont these days so I won't be strollering it with three children in tow...but hopefully all my car trips will be offset by lower grocery bills and no for-fun shopping.

Good luck to you all, ladies!!! Let's have a great money-saving month


My previous months:

May 2007 = 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 2008 = 22 /$206
June = 27 /$23

[Scribe]

OK, support needed already...

I have been asking for literally months for an answer as to whether or not I'm getting a raise in the new fiscal year. Today I finally got a "I need to talk to you about that, maybe tomorrow." Sounds ominous to me. I'm going to be really angry if I don't get a raise, and I'm also likely not going to be able to meet my debt-reduction goal.

This is me: ::

[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
June-19/30-total no spend days.

This month is DH b-day so I will be spending money for that-he wants me to make him a "baseball shaped cake with my Better Crocker bake and fill, plus his b-day present(s) and card.

Also, I have a planned get together with a few friends for dinner out, so that will be another spend day.

Also my dad's b-day, so will be getting him a card as well.

[liangel]

DH is so funny sometimes

Either that or he is on something. A few months ago he emailed me a link to what he wanted for his birthday. So I clicked on it and it was a NY Yankees jacket World Series Bomber jacket. It's really nice and it has all the years they won the WS and all kinds of things on the jacket. So I looked at the price and it was like $300!!!!! I laughed and said to him "I don't know where you think I work, but I certainly don't make enough money to buy a $300 jacket".
I work p/t and my hours vary so one week I may work 10 hours, another I may work 40. One pay check may be $600, the next maybe $250.

He also wants some kind of Yankee Stadium photograph. I forget what it actually is at the moment. I AM getting him that and ONLY that-well with some socks he desperately needs. He is certainly not getting no $300 jacket.

[liangel]

Originally Posted by avengingophelia

OK, support needed already...

I have been asking for literally months for an answer as to whether or not I'm getting a raise in the new fiscal year. Today I finally got a "I need to talk to you about that, maybe tomorrow." Sounds ominous to me. I'm going to be really angry if I don't get a raise, and I'm also likely not going to be able to meet my debt-reduction goal.

This is me: ::

Boy I remember those days. In my old job, at the end of every year my boss would hand me my bonus and say "You've done a great job, we 'll be raising your salary another $3,000". It got so I expected it every year. Well 9/11 hit and we had lay offs (not me though) and from 01-I think 04 there were no raises and barely a bonus. I almost fell over when my firm finally gave us raises. I hear you on the raise part. Every year '01, '02, '03, '04, I dreaded asking for a raise, cause I knew deep down what the answer was "No, it's not in the budget this year"

I hope you get it! Good luck

[carfreemama]

I'm in!

My name is Nancy and I'm a WAH mom of one little girl, 4.5 yo.

We're doing okay, but I want to get rid of my personal cc debt of several hundred dollars. My biggest weakness (I actually spend money on not much else) is food. We don't eat out, but I insist on organic (my dh says gold-plated) everything. I'm a sucker for things like fair-trade olive oil. Can't decide if that's a necessity, or not. But we can cut back by eating more of the things we should be eating anyway, like beans.

So the goal is to:
-eliminate useless waste, like library fines and cc interest
-reduce cafe expenditures even further
-look for free things to do with dd over the summer
-stay within budget for the farmers' market-$50 every Saturday plus about $30 from my own personal allowance would be my goal; this includes purchases destined for the dehydrator stock-up
-eliminate food waste
-cut out 1 magazine this month (Ow. Another major addiction)
-switch to energy-efficient lightbulbs and finally install a power bar for the computer
-conserve hot water

Other than that, we actually don't spend much on luxuries. We don't drive, don't eat out and generally don't buy new clothes.

Tomorrow is Canada Day here and there's lots of free stuff going on. We're going to take dd to a picnic and parade with free food and then go to the opening of the butterfly tent at the museum (we have a pass). So it's a great day to start!

Plus, I'm off to a great start today. The local Sobeys grocery had a free Canada Day barbeque so dh and I met up for that for lunch. Free date!

[Scribe]

Week 1:
Monday, June 30: no spend, no drive


Goals:
$40/week fun money
$1,000/month to CC
1 thrift trip/week
3 no-drive days/week