April 2011: Springing into No Buys

Not the greatest month! It was tough with a vacation and a birthday. Here's to next month!

4/1: take out; $20 basket raffle for my school
4/2: $15 AC Moore (party gift), $30 gas, $12 Staples, $20 pharmacy
4/3: $66 groceries, I'm-not-admitting-how-much on a new bike for DS8 who had outgrown his badly. :)
4/4: :cool1:
4/5: :cool1:
4/6: DH went shopping while he was out of town -- I wouldn't ordinarily count it, but he bought me something I wanted!
4/7: $14 groceries (forgot I was the t-ball snack mom for this Sat., and once I'm in there, I seem to need at least one more thing)
4/8: $3 groceries (that I could have gotten last night had I thought of it!) and $21 basket raffle tickets
4/9: $40 Target, $50-something groceries, $51 Lands' End (clothes for me)
4/10: $80 Trader Joe's (lots of snacks for our trip!), $13 bagels, $16 Walmart
4/11: :cool1: Finally, another no buy -- I was beginning to worry!
4/12: $20 dinner out
4/13: :cool1:
4/14: $5 Walmart, $80 Target, $80 Kohls
4/15: lunch out (a huge treat!)
4/16 to 4/20: our DC trip :)
4/21: $50 groceries, $20 Dairy Queen cake for DS6! :)
4/22: meds and copay for DS6 (at least it's the day AFTER his birthday!), new glasses for DS8, and misc.
4/23: Target, grocery store, and Walmart, all things we could have done yesterday had we been better organized
4/24: :cool1:
4/25: book at Amazon, school lunches for boys
4/26: dinner out, shorts for me
4/27: :cool1:
4/28: ice cream!
4/29: :cool1:
4/30: Little League concession stand (we were at the field for 6 hours!), Walmart, BJ's, gas, iParty, Dick's Sporting Goods, Panera Bread for dinner, groceries. Ouch.


no buy days: 7/8
longest no buy streak: 3 days
meals out: 4/5 (not counting our trip!)
days since our last meal out: 0
longest no meals out streak: 10
 
Wrapping up the month. Totals give me something to shoot for in May.

My budget:
I will count all OTC purchases, but not the regularly budgeted and paid for bills like Church, heating, water, taxes etc.
I will not count DH's spending on his snacks, since he does that every day, and there is no way for me to keep track, anyway.
This month I have a couple of birthday gifts, and of course Easter candy. (not sure if I'm doing baskets or not....maybe just cash for each of 5 kids :scared1: ) My biggest goal is that I NOT spend as much as I did last month....that should be attainable, since last month was atrocious! Here's hoping for 12 no buy days.

April 1: $4 drug co-pay, grad pics for DD $172, gas $23
April 2: groceries $53 DDs phone needed replacing, and, since she was off to buy her shoes for her prom, I bought the phone...happy belated birthday....$101
April 3: $0
April 4: $0
April 5: Tuesday is DH's grocery day: $116
April 6: more groceries $26, gas $50
April 7: $0
April 8: $0
April 9: $30 groceries and it was ME, not DH this time :blush:
April 10: tip on brunch $5, gas to TO $15, shared lottery ticket with DSisters $35
April 11: gas $36
April 12: groceries $23
April 13: gas $30
April 14: $0
April 15: lottery ticket $5, contact lens (yes, ONE) $145
April 16: market groceries $13, Dollarama $50 (gift for DNephew, stuff for school, envelopes for home, and just...fun :blush: ), Bulk Barn (groceries and Easter candy)$37, Chapters gift + books for school $18, Costco-went in for milk for us, and chocolate bars for school (I sell stuff and the proceeds go to cancer), but the bill-NOT including the school chocolate-was $96 What was I thinking??? Oops, just read the bill......$33 of that was Easter CANDY....again....What was I thinking? :faint: Updating the $43 groceries DH bought after Church
April 17: Oops! I remembered that I bought DQ, so I have to add $5 to the misc category
April 18: gas $32, oil change $24 Cinnamon buns for the school review breakfast $11 groceries $10
April 19: groceries $20
April 20: $0
April 21: Bought tea at Tim's $2, gas $42, and the groceries were $93, but I had $90 in points to use, so.....groceries $3
April 22: Nothing open, I refuse to buy online tomorrow, so I can call $0:yay:
April 23: Picked up some groceries at our local grocery store. I bought 3 desserts, 2 blocks of cheese, meat for the freezer and other things $52. At the market I bought buns for tomorrow's meal $8 and flowers, just because $10. Gas $23 Should be done now until Monday!
April 24:
juggling_bunny.gif
$0
April 25: $0
April 26: groceries $15 + $12
April 27: KFC for dinner $29, gas $45
April 28: $0
April 29: $0 (end of those, since I know that we will be buying tomorrow....need cat food, deodorant, milk etc.
April 30: market shopping $14, groceries noted yesterday $35 (I didn't buy anything extra, although I might go back tomorrow (no tax day at the grocery store, so saves me 13%) and pick up some tablecloths.....mine have bitten the dust, and really need to be replaced. gas $40

Gas: $337
Groceries/Household: $675
Drug co-pays/medicine/lens: $149
Misc including gifts: $395
Easter candy: $55

No Buy days: 11/12
 
Just wrapping up the month... Lost my motivation toward the end, but still met my (low) no-buy goal.

Happy destination wedding to RonNMel!

4/28-$4 McDs
4/29-$2.50 goodwill, $3 hallmark, $55 Wegmans, $3 staples
4/30-$10 maple syrup, $72 Nike, $5 sonic, $5 subway

10/10 no-buys

4/1-$23 Wegmans, $2 McD
4/2-$19 Wegmans, $5 Charity, $5 Amazon, $64 Lowes, $14 Target
4/3-$19 Chinese food
4/4-$0
4/5-$18 Mall food (+ Lego build), $21 Wegmans, $13.50 ACME
4/6-$0
4/7-$0
4/8-$24 Wegmans
4/9-$13.50 ACME, $21 Wegmans
4/10-$5 Tag Sale, $5 Subway, $3.50 Sonic
4/11-$8.80 Stamps, $84.80 Pepsi/Hershey Park deal, $23 Lands End
4/12-$0
4/13-$0
4/14-$70 Wegmans (food/Easter event), $9 PetSmart, $2 Doctor, $5 BK, $5 DD
4/15-$0
4/16-$11 Wegmans, $25 PetSmart, $4 Book Store, $5 Five Below, $11 Gertrude Hawk, $5 Subway, $4 Auntie Anns, $53 Disney Store
4/17-$60 Food
4/18-$0
4/19-$0
4/20-$0
4/21-4/23-spend
4/24-$0
4/25-$15 Target; $4 Sonic, $2 Wawa
4/26-$12 Target, $11 Great Clips
4/27-Wegmans
 

I think I finally have my budget figured out! Came in under budget overall, finally! Eating out was high because of my trip to D.C. and gas was crazy too, just going to get worse too, because all over around here it is hovering around $4.40 I was lucky to see it for $4.19 last night.

Running Total: Spent $1405.09
$0 Days:14/13

Groceries ($240-$8/day)- $148.19
Eating Out ($210-$7/day)- $278.01
Misc. (Shopping/Entertainment) ($780-$26/day) $666.70
Gas $250- 4/2 $54.17 (3.89/gal), 4/5 $28.02 (3.89/gal), 4/15 $65 (4.02/gal) saw gas prices are up to $4.25 at some stations, so filled up with cash for $4.02, 4/21 $43 (4.19/gal), 4/23 $74 ($4.19/gal) now both cars are full and won't need gas until next month, well we ended up needing gas last night 4/30 $48 (4.19/gal)= $312.19

1- $0
2- My son's 4th bday. $8.06 (Games-Misc.), $16.10 (Target-Misc.), $6.38 (Dollar Tree-Misc.), $11 (Dairy Queen-Eating Out)
3- $0
4- $0
5- $0
6- $16.81 (Walgreens-Groceries), $9.80 (McDonald's Eating Out)
7- $19.09 (Burger King- Eating Out-Our son really wanted to go here for some reason...maybe one too many commercials on TV during American Idol last night. I remember why we don't go here...yuck!), $7.89 (Meijer-Groceries...actually left my receipt there so I have no idea how much I saved off of sales, just know I saved $8 with coupons)
8- $2.88 (Dairy Queen-Eating Out), $6.40 (McDonald's-Eating Out), $7.91 (Doggery-Eating Out)
9- $10.44 (Panera-Eating Out), $35 (Maggiano's-Eating Out)
10- $2.88 (Dairy Queen-Eating Out), $8.29 (Au Bon Pain-Eating Out), $4.83 (McDonald's-Eating Out)
11- $21.03 (Portillo's-Eating Out), $20 (Video Game-Misc.), $4.61 (Target-Groceries)
12- $0
13- $16.05 (Walgreens-Groceries), $9.81 (Wendy's-Eating Out) $7.16 (Meijer-Groceries)
14- $0
15- $0
16- $7 (McDonald's-Eating Out), $4.19 (Dollar Tree- Misc.), $14.71 (Joe Caputo-Groceries), $5.99 (Trader Joe's-Groceries)
17- $19 (Parking-Misc.), $19 (Gene and Jude's-Eating Out), $6.77 (Walgreens-Groceries)
18- $0
19- $11.94 (Dominick's-Groceries), $7.96 (Jewel-Groceries), $2.51 (Meijer-Groceries)
20- $0
21- $0
22- $0
23- $3.23 (Wal-Mart-Groceries), $14.33 (Hot Dogz-Eating Out), $1.50 (Concessions-Eating Out), $9.01 (McDonald's-Eating Out),
24- $9.62 (Walgreens-Groceries), but got $12 in Register Rewards and a $2.50 rebate to send in.
25- $0
26- $586.12 (Car fixed-Needed new calipers, rotors and brake pads), $6.15 (Wendy's-Eating Out), $5.80 (Library Fines-Misc.), $14.82 (Joe Caputo-Groceries), $3.03 (Jewel-Groceries)
27- $4.98 (Trader Joe's-Groceries), $17.26 (Red Lobster-Eating Out), $5.20 (Jewel-Groceries)
28- $0
29- $0
30- $4.82 (Meijer-Groceries), $54.40 (Silver Spoon, Arby's, McDonald's and Dairy Queen-Eating Out)


Budget: $1480....95%
Month: 30/30: 100%

No Buy: 14/13: 108%

My savings from coupons and sales: $1026.84

Next Month: 6 month insurance premium ($300)....First month tuition for preschool ($203)....Broadway in Chicago Tickets ($318)

August: $300 Hotel Room for Cedar Point, October: ~$250 Rental Car
 














Save Up to 30% on Rooms at Walt Disney World!

Save up to 30% on rooms at select Disney Resorts Collection hotels when you stay 5 consecutive nights or longer in late summer and early fall. Plus, enjoy other savings for shorter stays.This offer is valid for stays most nights from August 1 to October 11, 2025.
CLICK HERE







New Posts







DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest

Back
Top