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~~ October Spend-less Challenge: Witch way to wicked savings ~~

7K views 233 replies 19 participants last post by  StillMe 
#1 ·
This is a support thread to help you not spend your money.

Everyone is welcome to join and you can start tracking your spending at any time. It doesn't have to be October 1st. NOW is a good time to start.

The plan is simple (although tough to execute):

1. Vow not to spend any money on unnecessary purchases.

2. Come on here and record your spending. We all record our spending in different ways. There are no rules. You record and update however you would like -- pick a way that will help you spend the least amount of money.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please write an introductory message when you decide to join our thread. We would like to know:

a. Who you are

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) and

c. How you plan to get there

Good luck MDCers!! Keep that money in your wallet.
 
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#52 ·
10/1 -
:thumb
planned spending $37
:irked
unplanned spending $20 wine and sugar-filled things (I blame it on PMS!)

10/2 -
:thumb
planned spending $5 coffee, $68 groceries, $107 Costco, $140 REI, $72 DD's bday present

10/3 -
:love
no spend

10/4 -
:love
no spend

10/5 -
:love
no spend

10/6 -
:love
no spend

10/7 -
:thumb
planned spending $9 postage

The postage cost was for books sold on amazon, so I'll be getting that back when amazon transfers that money to my account. I almost went to Boulder today, where I definitely would have spent money. Instead, I decided to go for a hike, which was a much better choice! I almost decided to stop for coffee, but convinced myself that was a bad idea (because I'm trying to go to bed by 9:30 during the week) and I almost stopped to get a kombucha, but decided to make a smoothie at home instead. Yay for rational, logical thought instead of impulsiveness! :)
 
#53 ·
Key:

No unplanned/unbudgeted spending:
thumb.gif


Unbudgeted spending:
irked.gif


Ate at home all day:
yummy.gif


Did something mindfully frugal:
orngbiggrin.gif


----------------------

No-unbudgeted-spending days: 1/25

Mindfully frugal days: 0/25

10/6:
irked.gif
Dresses for girls: $59; Groceries: $45

10/7:
thumb.gif
yummy.gif


10/8:

10/9:

10/10:

(I cannot get rid of that gray bar
headscratch.gif
)
 
#54 ·
1
:D
Groceries/budgeted spending.

2
demon.gif
Minor unbudgeted spending (burp).

3
:D
:D
No spend. Only using a double-dude system instead of 3-- it was skewing the balance of happy dudes to devil dudes.

4
demon.gif
Minor unbudgeted spending/coffee

5
:D
Groceries and dh's birthday present.

6
demon.gif
demon.gif
Really shouldn't have

7
:D
:D
No spend

8
demon.gif
demon.gif
Really shouldn't have

Yesterday I thought we were just going in to the doctors. DD1 has been coughing and catching her breath. Turned out to be allergies, not complications from last week's illness. But off to the pharmacy, off to Burgerville to wait for the pharmacy (so yummy, but after yesterday, really really should not have). I did find dd2's last bday present on line--a green schleich dragon that the stores had sold out on clearance. It was her "anchor" present, and I didn't want to let that one slide unless I had no choice. Amazon still had it in stock.

So, I'm done for that birthday. Hopefully the next week will be better, because this has been dismal. Still, haven't been paying for gymnastics, so that's 180 bucks a month I'm not spending. Retreating to craigslist to post my housekeeping ad. I hate craigslist. Impatient, cheap-ass people (sorry if I offend). No luck with applications and one store I applied to is suddenly hiring to replace union workers in a walkout. Mmmm.... don't think so. Not that desperate. Yet.
 
#55 ·
nono.gif
Unnecessary,
shake.gif
Unbudgeted,
:innocent
Budgeted,
:Peace
No spend

Oct 1:
:Peace


Oct 2:
shake.gif
Ran out of some ingredients, $30. Tried drain cleaner to fix plumbing, $10

Oct 3:
:Peace


Oct 4:
:Peace


Oct 5:
shake.gif
No food or transportation, Burger King $9

Oct 6:
:innocent
Groceries, $10 over but stocked up on frozen veg, bought dog food

Oct 7:
:Peace
Only paid the bills

Augering and a hose bladder thing improved the drain a lot but it's a bit slow still. We will see. Roto rooter says $200 if they come out.
 
#56 ·
a. Who you are

I'm Becky. I'm in the middle of a career change and am currently unemployed. I have two kids, age 10 and 7 and am married. I'm a graduate student working to get my Masters and my teaching certificate. I made a pretty decent wage before, when I was working. However, almost 4 months of no income and a slower than it should have been adjustment to our new finances has left our savings completely depleted.

b. Where you are going (your financial goals) and

I finally got my first unemployment check today. However, in order to survive on unemployment we really have to stick to the budget. The immediate goal is to get some money back into savings.

c. How you plan to get there

My husband took the on-call phone for 2 weeks and he'll have it again for another week later this month. That should get us some money back into savings as long as we stick to the budget. Then if we stick to the budget from there on our we should slowly and painfully be able to build the savings a bit more in $10s and $20s. However, until he gets that check on the 15th we are completely out of money so no-spend days aren't really optional.

In order to stick to the budget we have to restrict ourselves to 1 shopping trip a week with a shopping list, no unnecessary out of town trips, and no eating out.

10/1 -
:loveeyes
Planned spending - Groceries and lunch with a friend. Should have watched our money and not scheduled the lunch, but still it was planned.

10/2 -
:loveeyes
Planned spending

10/3 -
duh.gif
Got my husbands check and got a bit too complacent having money again.

10/4 -
duh.gif
Magazine subsriptions auto renewal I forgot about

10/5 -
:loveeyes
Planned trip out of town got canceled. So used the planned gas money on some new jeans for the kids at the second hand store as well as some stuff to embellish and patch the hand-me-down jeans that little girl grew into. It turned really cold and little girl only had one pair of jeans without a hole in them, and big boy only had two pairs of pants at all.
duh.gif
Forgot to budget for a Birthday present for my son's best friend.

10/6 -
:clap
No spending, but only because I was out of money

10/7 -
duh.gif
Found some cash in my wallet, which was a blessing since my son remembered a project at school due the next day and I had to get supplies.

10/8 -
:loveeyes
Finally got my first unemployment check. I got groceries and filled both vehicles with gas and now I have $4 left until the 15th. So there isn't an option but for the next 6 days to be no-spend days. Really bummed because I promised my son a new book for finishing up two big projects at school and I'm going to have to renege on my promise. Tried to cancel a test I had scheduled and it turned out I don't need scheduled for Friday. Instructions said 50% refund if canceled within 3 days of test. Turns out once I cancelled I got the fine print that said that they don't count the day of cancelation or the test day so you really have to cancel 5 days before the test. So mad at myself for procrastinating on canceling due to some misplaced pride.
 
#58 ·
Did some more grocery shopping yesterday. Grocery budget remaining for the month...$758.62. This seems like a lot, I know, but I am feeding 6 hungry people. Today is looking like a no spend kind of day.

:thumb
No spend/budgeted spending

nono.gif
Un-budgeted spending

October 1 --
:thumb


October 2 --
:thumb


October 3 --
:thumb
12.22 snacks for soccer team

October 4 --
:thumb
169.00 new windshield for van,
nono.gif
21.00 taxi,
nono.gif
5.00 snacks

October 5 --
:thumb
61.00 few groceries, laundry detergent, tp, will need a few more things for this upcoming week

October 6 --
:thumb
40.07 gas for van

October 7 --
nono.gif
5.50 tea with dh,
:thumb
67.18 groceries, mostly meat and fruit for lunches.

October 8 --
:thumb


October 9

October 10

October 11
 
#60 ·
peace.gif
= No Spend

:innocent
= Budgeted Spending

shake.gif
= Necessary But Painful

nono.gif
= Un-budgeted Spending

October 1 -
:innocent
Gas

October 2 -
peace.gif


October 3 -
:innocent
Purse change purchase

October 4 -
:innocent
Special beers for hubby's B-day

October 5 -
shake.gif
The grocery bill was higher this week. It had to be, because hubby's only gifts really this year for his B-day are special meals.

October 6 -
:innocent
Forgotten groceries - but I rode my bike and saved some gas!

October 7 -
peace.gif
 
#61 ·
No unplanned/unbudgeted spending:
thumb.gif


Unbudgeted spending:
irked.gif


Ate at home all day:
yummy.gif


Did something mindfully frugal:
orngbiggrin.gif


----------------------

No-unbudgeted-spending days: 1/25

Mindfully frugal days: 1/25

10/6:
irked.gif
Dresses for girls: $59; Groceries: $45

10/7:
thumb.gif
yummy.gif


10/8:
irked.gif
orngbiggrin.gif
Had to spend $11 at Office Depot; bought a protractor, some decent pencils, and two handheld pencil sharpeners (our electric one is pooping out). We had lunch out, but the girls paid for themselves and my cup of soup (they REALLY wanted Panera and had birthday money), so it was a no-spend lunch, at least. Made burgers for dinner and dug up and roasted the very last of our garden potatoes and beets. Oh, and I forgot my mindfully frugal act! I planted 32 cloves of garlic (to harvest next June), and I planted some greens in a last-ditch effort to have a fall crop. I'm 90% sure I waited too long, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try!

10/9:

10/10:
 
#62 ·
1.
:Sheepish
:treehugger
Unbudgeted but necessary, DH stopped at WM for half and half, pasta, and canning jars. Canned 13 quarts of applesauce and used the peels and cores to start 5, 1/2 gallon jars of apple scrap vinegar.

2.
:thumb


3.
:thumb


4.
:thumb


5.
:thumb
:treehugger
DD1 had a bake sale today, made oatmeal raisin cookies b/c I had all the ingredients on hand. Stopped at a local orchard that sells apple seconds by the bushel. Got 7 bushels of apples for $70, that's $10 a bushel or less than 25c/ lb!!! Also picked up pumpkins for the kids to paint for fall and for roasting and pureeing. Broke down 4 pumpkins and got 18 cups of puree for future baking.

6.
:Sheepish
:treehugger
Picked up more quart size canning jars for applesauce. Starting canning applesauce.

7.
:thumb
:treehugger
No spend, canned another batch of applesauce. Strained the apple scraps from the apple scrap vinegar, got over 1 gallon. It smells right, now I just need to let it ferment for 4-6 months.
 
#63 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by FillingMyQuiver View Post

Strained the apple scraps from the apple scrap vinegar, got over 1 gallon. It smells right, now I just need to let it ferment for 4-6 months.
Wow, how cool is that?! It never even occurred to me that you could make your own ACV!
 
#64 ·
10/1 -
:thumb
planned spending $37
:irked
unplanned spending $20 wine and sugar-filled things (I blame it on PMS!)

10/2 -
:thumb
planned spending $5 coffee, $68 groceries, $107 Costco, $140 REI, $72 DD's bday present

10/3 -
:love
no spend

10/4 -
:love
no spend

10/5 -
:love
no spend

10/6 -
:love
no spend

10/7 -
:thumb
planned spending $9 postage

10/8 -
:love
no spend
 
#65 ·
peace.gif
= No Spend

:innocent
= Budgeted Spending

shake.gif
= Necessary But Painful

nono.gif
= Un-budgeted Spending

October 1 -
:innocent
Gas

October 2 -
peace.gif


October 3 -
:innocent
Purse change purchase

October 4 -
:innocent
Special beers for hubby's B-day

October 5 -
shake.gif
The grocery bill was higher this week. It had to be, because hubby's only gifts really this year for his B-day are special meals.

October 6 -
:innocent
Forgotten groceries - but I rode my bike and saved some gas!

October 7 -
peace.gif


October 8 -
peace.gif
 
#66 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by melissel View Post

Wow, how cool is that?! It never even occurred to me that you could make your own ACV!
It is really cool!! This is my first time making it, so we'll see how it turns out. I use about 7 bushels of apples for saucing and hate just composting the peels and cores. I'm so glad I can use them for something else first. I'm not a fan of apple peel jelly, either.
 
#67 ·
1.
:Sheepish
:treehugger
Unbudgeted but necessary, DH stopped at WM for half and half, pasta, and canning jars. Canned 13 quarts of applesauce and used the peels and cores to start 5, 1/2 gallon jars of apple scrap vinegar.

2.
:thumb


3.
:thumb


4.
:thumb


5.
:thumb
:treehugger
DD1 had a bake sale today, made oatmeal raisin cookies b/c I had all the ingredients on hand. Stopped at a local orchard that sells apple seconds by the bushel. Got 7 bushels of apples for $70, that's $10 a bushel or less than 25c/ lb!!! Also picked up pumpkins for the kids to paint for fall and for roasting and pureeing. Broke down 4 pumpkins and got 18 cups of puree for future baking.

6.
:Sheepish
:treehugger
Picked up more quart size canning jars for applesauce. Starting canning applesauce.

7.
:thumb
:treehugger
No spend, canned another batch of applesauce. Strained the apple scraps from the apple scrap vinegar, got over 1 gallon. It smells right, now I just need to let it ferment for 4-6 months.

8.
:thumb
:treehugger
Budgeted spend on delivery pizza. More applesauce in the canner. Downloaded a bunch of free kindle books.
 
#68 ·
No unplanned/unbudgeted spending:
thumb.gif


Unbudgeted spending:
irked.gif


Ate at home all day:
yummy.gif


Did something mindfully frugal:
orngbiggrin.gif


----------------------

No-unbudgeted-spending days: 1/25

Mindfully frugal days: 1/25

10/6:
irked.gif
Dresses for girls: $59; Groceries: $45

10/7:
thumb.gif
yummy.gif


10/8:
irked.gif
orngbiggrin.gif
Office Depot: $11; planted garlic and greens.

10/9:
irked.gif
Argh! Today is DH's day off and we had no breakfast supplies, so we ended up at the diner for breakfast ($34). Later I have to pay my library fine ($4), and I owe a friend $20 for DD's weekly homeschool class. I'll need to find a frugal act to offset the expenses!

10/10:
 
#70 ·
Another no-spend. The weather was glorious today, so I packed a picnic and took the younger kids to the playground for hours of running fun. My days are always so much easier when the weather is nice. I know it will get tougher as the winter rains come and we will be looking for cheap indoor ways to keep active. But for now, I'll take these sunny easy days.

:thumb
No spend/budgeted spending

nono.gif
Un-budgeted spending

October 1 --
:thumb


October 2 --
:thumb


October 3 --
:thumb
12.22 snacks for soccer team

October 4 --
:thumb
169.00 new windshield for van,
nono.gif
21.00 taxi,
nono.gif
5.00 snacks

October 5 --
:thumb
61.00 few groceries, laundry detergent, tp, will need a few more things for this upcoming week

October 6 --
:thumb
40.07 gas for van

October 7 --
nono.gif
5.50 tea with dh,
:thumb
67.18 groceries, mostly meat and fruit for lunches.

October 8 --
:thumb


October 9 --
:thumb


October 10

October 11
 
#71 ·
No Spend -
:thumb

Budgeted Spending -
:D


Un-Budgeted Spending -
:irked


Oct 1 -
:irked
- DH Spent $30 for a music downloading program... :/

Oct 2-
:D
- Spent $30 on two apple trees though an amazing program in our city (they will be planted Dec 7th)! And $5 on open Gym.

Oct 3-
:D
- Went out to dinner ($45) because my mom is in town, for now I'm going to call that budgeted, because we are doing great on groceries, If we go over our grocery budget at the end of the month well then.. We'll see when we get there. Also paid garbage bill and mortgage, waiting for those to clear.

Oct 4-
:D
Found great deal on compost and started a winter garden, cooked dinner for my extend family so we didn't need to eat out! 100$ on Groceries

Oct 5 -
:irked
My mom dragged me out to a bar... I made dinner for everyone, before but still felt like I should buy a drink. $4 for a beer! 0.0 I took it out of our grocery envelope and I'll try to save enough to make up for the $10 I spent total.

Oct 6-
:D
Ate out again, but it was cheep enough to come out of the food budget. My tummy wasn't happy though... Hoping Wednesday (the day my mom leaves!) is no spend!

Oct 7 -
:D


Oct 8 -
:D


Oct 9 -
:irked
Unbudgeted, but very necessary doctor visit. Found out my insurance doesn't cover ND's so now I have $300+ dollars to pay off with them. Payed $100 today....

As soon as I'm feeling pretty good about how we are doing something comes up, like all of us needing Dr. visits. :/ At least DH's new job is starting now so he will be bringing home a real pay check soon, which will be amazing... now if we can just sell that house in IL.

Hey, anyone want a custom home in McHenry, IL??? Nope.... I thought so.
:(
 
#72 ·
I would like to join too if it is not too late. I really need to pay attention on how I spend and come up with a budget soon.We seem to always buy food or eat out when totally unnecessary. Need to change that asap.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

partytime.gif
- No Spend Day

:down
- Budgeted Spending

bag.gif
- Unnecessary Spending

gloomy.gif
- Unbudgeted but Necessary

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

October 1 --
bag.gif
Ate out.

October 2 --
bag.gif
Again, ate out.
:down
Paid a doctor's bill.

October 3 --
partytime.gif


October 4 --
partytime.gif


October 5 --
bag.gif
Failed to pack lunch for our trip to the beach, so we stopped at Taco Bell.
:down
Parking, some groceries and iron pills.

October 6 --
:down
Costco shopping (still building up our basic pantry after the last move), Farmer's Market, paid a bill.

October 7 --
:down
Ran across the road for some pickling spices and water I needed to make sour pickles and sauerkraut. Also picked up some Chocolate for Xmas

October 8 --
partytime.gif


October 9 --
:down
Two loads of laundry $10
 
#73 ·
10/1 -
:thumb
planned spending $37
:irked
unplanned spending $20 wine and sugar-filled things (I blame it on PMS!)

10/2 -
:thumb
planned spending $5 coffee, $68 groceries, $107 Costco, $140 REI, $72 DD's bday present

10/3 -
:love
no spend

10/4 -
:love
no spend

10/5 -
:love
no spend

10/6 -
:love
no spend

10/7 -
:thumb
planned spending $9 postage

10/8 -
:love
no spend

10/9 -
:love
no spend

I almost went and bought a new stapler for my classroom (the one I had broke today), but then I realized I can just bring the one I have at home. Spending avoided...yay! :)
 
#74 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by StillMe View Post

I would like to join too if it is not too late. I really need to pay attention on how I spend and come up with a budget soon.We seem to always buy food or eat out when totally unnecessary. Need to change that asap.
Everyone is welcome at any time, so......Welcome!
 
#75 ·
Ready to bow out, but I will stick with it. Most of the devilish spending has been snacks and eating out. I don't anticipate any big spending this month. But my, this is a devilish month!

1
:D
Groceries/budgeted spending.

2
demon.gif
Minor unbudgeted spending (burp).

3
:D
:D
No spend. Only using a double-dude system instead of 3-- it was skewing the balance of happy dudes to devil dudes.

4
demon.gif
Minor unbudgeted spending/coffee

5
:D
Groceries and dh's birthday present.

6
demon.gif
demon.gif
Really shouldn't have

7
:D
:D
No spend

8
demon.gif
demon.gif
Really shouldn't have

9
demon.gif
Mini-mart snacks

Does anyone have recommendations for fleece pants and vests? A nice balance between quality and cost is what I'm looking for for. Willing to pay slightly more to avoid crap (we use this stuff constantly) but I still need them reasonably priced. Favorites?
 
#76 ·
peace.gif
= No Spend

:innocent
= Budgeted Spending

shake.gif
= Necessary But Painful

nono.gif
= Un-budgeted Spending

October 1 -
:innocent
Gas

October 2 -
peace.gif


October 3 -
:innocent
Purse change purchase

October 4 -
:innocent
Special beers for hubby's B-day

October 5 -
shake.gif
The grocery bill was higher this week. It had to be, because hubby's only gifts really this year for his B-day are special meals.

October 6 -
:innocent
Forgotten groceries - but I rode my bike and saved some gas!

October 7 -
peace.gif


October 8 -
peace.gif


October 9 -
shrug.gif
Well, I bought a sewing pattern for Halloween costumes. This might be a bad idea on so many levels. First, I don't really know how to sew or have a sewing machine. I can borrow one, or go to someone's house and use theirs, but it's not the same. I have made my kids costumes before, but they were very scraped together, and my crafty friend and I made VERY simple patterns out of newspaper. I have never made a real piece of clothing from a real sewing pattern by my self. The other issue is that this won't likely save me any money. I've never bought pre-made costumes (takes half of the fun out of it, right?) but I did check the Goodwill and didn't find anything that worked. So here I am with a full time job outside the home, no sewing machine, three kids, one of whom is a nursling, and it's October 10th. Hmmmmm.
 
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