September No Buy - Holidays are Coming!

[tinkarooni]

September 1 - No Buy (day 1/18)
September 2 - scheduled shopping day $75.00/$500. Groceries
September 3- dog food bought
September 4 - Walmart .43. SAMs $34.00 so $108/$500 groceries spent.
September 5 - No Buy (day 2/18)

I have been cleaning out my house, listing things on Craigslist and Ebay and returning things to stores I have no need for. I now have a $256. credit to Bed Bath and Beyond for a crazy expensive coffee maker I won as a door prize, I have earned $300 from Craigslist, I have another big item sold for $1300. and I have an item I am shipping back to the company tomorrow that they are refunding me $226. The product I purchased was never used and never opened. They are mailing me back a refund check. While this isn't really important for this thread, it is important for the big picture. I absolutely refuse to bring anything else into the house that I have to do something with. I don't need anything. I don't want to maintain anything. I want less in my house. This is my mantra that will propel me towards many more No Buy days!

 

[stayhomemom77]

September

1-No Buy #1
2-spend--dinner out for the family
3-No Buy #2 (staying home and keeping my money to myself!!)
4-No Buy #3
5-No Buy #4
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4/20 days

 

[littledebbie335]

This is the first month that I have a Dave Ramsey-style budget written out, so I might as well hop on the no buy train! My goal is 15 no buy days. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

I gave myself $50 for eating out, and I've already spent $44. In 5 days. I think I've solved they mystery of where my money goes Goodbye, fancy coffee and fast food habits!

 

[jsmla]

We were on vacation in Key West September 1-4. We tried our best to keep spends down bit really didn't shoot for any kind of "No Buy" goal.

September
1 Key West
2 Key West
3 Key West
4 Key West

5 Grocery run-$30.25
We have a fairly well stocked freezer so I mostly picked up fresh things and a few sale stock up items. My trial budget is $70/ week, but I'm willing to go over while we have an extra person staying with us. I spent $30.25. Here's what I got minus one bag of store brand bakery Kaiser rolls (marked down to $.99) and two bags of frozen green peas @ $.88/each that somehow didn't make it into the picture.




Looks pretty average but this grocery run was a huge change from the last one.

I went to Albertson's, I normally shopped at Whole Foods and a very nice but slightly pricey local grocery.

I bought no organics and the only meat was a 24 oz pkg of bacon that will be used more as a seasoning than an entree. We're fairly well stocked with meat at the moment, VERY well stocked with pork loin and chops for some reason.

I bought 2 lbs of that weird pre shredded mozzarella (instead of fresh buffalo cheese) for $6 and froze it in 1 cup portions. (stock up item)

Red Delicious apples @ $1.69/lb instead of organic honeycrisps at more than twice the price.

Van Camp's Pork and Beans ($.49) instead of Bush's Best ($1.20) (stock up item)

I was pleased to see avocados at 3/$1. I usually pay a dollar each! The Rotel and cilantro were also on sale-I see guacamole in the near future!

I bought no salad greens-too pricey. I intended to look at our fruit stand but got soaked by one of our epic summer thunderstorms. Has anyone ever had success growing spinach, kale, leaf lettuce in the Deep South? I've only grown mustard greens and would love to hear about your tips and successes!

No milk, we have a friend who is still flooded out staying with us and she restocked the milk and bread while we were in Florida.


Other than the groceries my daily spend was $0

I used 3 of the Kaiser rolls, 4 small potatoes, and 1/4 of the green pepper along with tomatoes and spices from the pantry to make turkey sloppy joes and oven fries for dinner. The rest of the ingredients came from the freezer/pantry. We usually also have salad but I didn't have any, oops!

 

[tinkarooni]

September 1 - No Buy (day 1/18)
September 2 - scheduled shopping day $75.00/$500. Groceries
September 3- dog food bought
September 4 - Walmart .43. SAMs $34.00 so $108/$500 groceries spent.
September 5 - No Buy (day 2/18)

September 6 - No Buy (day 3/18) - Its only 11:20 AM here, but I'm calling it No Buy. I am lucky enough to work at home. So today I jumped out of bed, took a quick shower and put on my best work sweatpants. I am going no where today and spending nothing.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Joining in! It's a three paycheck month for both myself and DH and we're trying to put as much of those paychecks towards his car payment as possible. Not counting groceries and regular bills (phone, electric, mortgage).

1- No buy.
2- Expensive, but necessary, day. Finally put tires on DH's car which it has needed since about March. Unnecessarily went to Mellow Mushroom for lunch, but we did get dinner out of that meal as well. Made a Target run but used gift cards to pay for my purchase
3- DH and I had a nice inexpensive date at a $2 movie theater to see Finding Dory. We did spring for ice cream afterwards though.
4- Unnecessary purchase of Chuy's for lunch.

 

[jsmla]

This is the first month that I have a Dave Ramsey-style budget written out, so I might as well hop on the no buy train! My goal is 15 no buy days. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

I gave myself $50 for eating out, and I've already spent $44. In 5 days. I think I've solved they mystery of where my money goes Goodbye, fancy coffee and fast food habits!

I'm afraid things like eating out and coffees are going to be my downfall as well. It's only Day 2 here and I had to spend way too much time convincing DH to eat breakfast at home and take a packed lunch to work. His total spends would probably have only been $15 but $15 X 6 = $90/week! Those are the kinds of things we've just never given a thought about.

 

[Lady Marie]

OK, reporting in after the weekend. It was almost as expected.

1- No Buy (Day 1)
2- T-shirt and cupcake @ Disney Springs
3- Ate lunch out
4- Ate Dinner out
5- Ate lunch out (unplanned.... decided not to leave MK early and ate in the park)
6- No Buy (Day 2)
7- No Buy (Day 3)

Now that Disney is over, looking forward to staying on track!

 

[tinkarooni]

Looks pretty average but this grocery run was a huge change from the last one.

I went to Albertson's, I normally shopped at Whole Foods and a very nice but slightly pricey local grocery.

I bought no organics and the only meat was a 24 oz pkg of bacon that will be used more as a seasoning than an entree. We're fairly well stocked with meat at the moment, VERY well stocked with pork loin and chops for some reason.

These were the same big changes I had to make a few months ago too. My food bill was crazy out of control before.

 

[stayhomemom77]

September

1-No Buy #1
2-spend--dinner out for the family
3-No Buy #2 (staying home and keeping my money to myself!!)
4-No Buy #3
5-No Buy #4
6-spend--dinner out again (had a coupon and money in the family fun budget) and a first day of school treat for the kids
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4/20 days

Not expecting to shop again until Monday and then only for milk and produce and to throw some gasoline in the car (which don't count for my no buy) so we'll see how it goes.

 

[star72232]

I need to join in too!

I'm counting all spending except gas and household monthly bills. Goal is to keep groceries at $175/week (6 people in the family).

1. Spend - lunch out and Tim Hortons on the way out of town for vacation
2. No spend 1/15
3. No spend 2/15
4. Spend - ice cream for the family
5. No spend 3/15
6. No spend 4/15

 

[tinkarooni]

September 1 - No Buy (day 1/18)
September 2 - scheduled shopping day $75.00/$500. Groceries
September 3- dog food bought
September 4 - Walmart .43. SAMs $34.00 so $108/$500 groceries spent.
September 5 - No Buy (day 2/18)
September 6 - No Buy (day 3/18)
September 7 - No Buy (day 4/18)

I came out ahead today, I did a little bartering with a neighbor today and traded something I was getting rid of for a couple dozen fresh eggs from her hens.
Woo Hoo!

 

[jsmla]

September 1-4 Vacation (Didn't participate in no-buy on these days.)
September 5-$30.25 at Albertson's for groceries
September 6-$0

We ate out of the freezer on Tuesday-pork chops, black-eyed peas and sweet potato casserole. Oatmeal this morning, DH missed his bacon and eggs! I'm using the green pepper some of the cilantro from Monday's grocery shop to make black beans for tonight. We'll have them with the tortillas and homemade guacamole, also from the grocery haul, probably with broccoli from the freezer.

 

[rznhal]

Hello Everyone!

Back from Disney...had a wonderful trip that just made me determined to save more so we can vacation as a family more often!!!

Goal: 10 days ( i think i did 5 last month)


Sept 1-6-Disney
7-Had absolutely nothing in the house for lunch lol.....$3 at Subway, $5 for a Hot n Ready pizza for kids' dinner
8-today's the day! i have lunch in the freezer, a free Dunkin Coffee if i get desperate....no spend here i come!!!!!!

I just remembered i promised to take my daughter to target....so my no spend probability just went from a 90% to a 9%....lol but i can do it!!!!!!!!! Target does not control my destiny!!!!!!!!!

 

[DisneyMandC]

1- No buy.
2- Expensive, but necessary, day. Finally put tires on DH's car which it has needed since about March. Unnecessarily went to Mellow Mushroom for lunch, but we did get dinner out of that meal as well. Made a Target run but used gift cards to pay for my purchase
3- DH and I had a nice inexpensive date at a $2 movie theater to see Finding Dory. We did spring for ice cream afterwards though.
4- Unnecessary purchase of Chuy's for lunch.
5- No buy.
6- No buy.
7- No buy.

 

[jsmla]

September 1-4 Vacation (Didn't participate in no-buy on these days.)
September 5-$30.25 at Albertson's for groceries
September 6-$0
September 7-$0

I'm pretty proud of yesterday's no-spend. I spent a good part of the day sitting around at the Disaster Recovery Center waiting to apply for a recovery loan with the SBA. There were soooo many women in there with very young kids, no home and no job. It was sad, sad, sad and I really wanted to get a huge comfort sugar laden $5 iced mocha with whipped cream when I left. But I didn't. Baby steps.

We had this for dinner:



Cuban Style Black Beans with brown rice and toppings. I used the avocado and cilantro from my haul. Everything else is from the pantry/fridge including the purple onion and cherry tomatoes that somehow survived our vacation week. There was also shredded cheddar for those of us who don't have sky-high cholesterol numbers.

Headed back to Albertson's today for split chicken breasts at $.88/lb!

 

[tinkarooni]

September 1 - No Buy (day 1/18)
September 2 - scheduled shopping day $75.00/$500. Groceries
September 3- dog food bought
September 4 - Walmart .43. SAMs $34.00 so $108/$500 groceries spent.
September 5 - No Buy (day 2/18)
September 6 - No Buy (day 3/18)
September 7 - No Buy (day 4/18)
September 8 - No Buy (day 5/18)

This will be deja vu, but I traded with another neighbor for another dozen eggs. I see frittatas in our future. We are sticking to the meal plan and we had shrimp scampi over pasta. Shrimp was out of the freezer, parsley and green beans out of the garden. Nothing too exciting to report, except my 5th No Buy day. That's excitement enough for me.

 

[stayhomemom77]

September

1-No Buy #1
2-spend--dinner out for the family
3-No Buy #2 (staying home and keeping my money to myself!!)
4-No Buy #3
5-No Buy #4
6-spend--dinner out again (had a coupon and money in the family fun budget) and a first day of school treat for the kids
7-No Buy#5
8-No Buy #6
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6/20 days

 

[QVCshopper]

Hi! I'd like to join, mostly because my spending always goes out of whack when my kids are home from school. Anyway, I had 2 no-buy days last week (Tues & Wed), but that was still in August. I've done the no-buy years ago; I usually only count days where I spend nothing at all, so here goes:

Sun 9/4 - Day 1
Thur 9/8 - Day 2

Goal - 10 Days

 

[jsmla]

I didn't set a goal this month because I really have no idea what was a realistic one for us. I'll do one for October if we stick with it.

September 1-4 Vacation (Didn't participate in no-buy on these days.)
September 5-$30.25 at Albertson's for groceries
September 6-$0
September 7-$0
September 8-$20.02 at Albertson's (stocked up on chicken) and fruit stand.

Split chicken breasts were on sale at $.88/lb so I bought 4 family packs (around 16 lbs.) as well as a 1 lb package of dried lima beans at $.99 with a coupon. At the fruit stand I spent $1.93 on two HUGE green peppers and a purple onion. Salad is still too pricey.

Most of the chicken went into the freezer but I used two breasts along with celery and carrots from the fridge and rosemary that I grow on the patio to make a big pot of chicken stock. I used the cooked chicken, some of the stock and 1/2 lb andouille from the freezer to make chicken and sausage jambalaya for dinner. There's enough jambalaya for another meal as well as 2 quarts of chicken stock. I figured a rough estimate of the total cost was around $6.