April 2011: Springing into No Buys

[nunzia]

$700 total
$100 Gas $60 left
$250 Groceries $180 left
$150 Entertainment/Eating Out $128 left
$100 Gifts $68 left
$100 Misc Household $45 left

April 1: $15.00 gift (online Jedi game), $2.00 movie rental, $10.00 lunch out ( I am rounding)
April 2: $0
April 3: $20 DH gasoline. $59 Walmart...($8 gift, $8 Misc household garden, saved $8 in coupons) $7.00 Walgreens ( had a great coupon deal on M&Ms and those are for Easter so gifts $2 gift, the rest groceries. total coupons there $5.25)
April 4: $0
April 5: $3.00 (groceries for a recipe I wanted to try..first time using fresh ginger )
April 6: $3.00 Clone Wars Magazine for DGS, $40 for MP3 player for me..yikes..so is that household or gift? I'll say household
April 7: $10.00 groceries (sale stuff, mainly produce and fruit) $14.00 dinner out with DH & friends
April 8: $20.00 at Dollar Tree (which is what I get when I take DH and he finds his favorite cookie..so broken down into groceries, gift, household)
April 9: $20.00 gas ($3.67! whaaa?)

 

[charming23]

Ran a few errands this morning. I went to CVS, Giant Eagle, and Walgreen's.

April Budget (3/30-4/29)

Grocery/Household- $300/$193.43 left
Car/Gas- $50/$23.38 Left
Eating out- $50/$26.80 left
Misc/entertainment- $100/$52.64 left

Total- $500.00/$296.25 left

Goal of 15 No Buy Days

Week One
3/30- $0
3/31- $54.53 Grocery, $26.62 Gas, $3.32 misc, and $13.75 eating out
4/1- $15 Haircut and $13.05 Walgreens
4/2- $0
4/3- $10.21 Grocery and $6.59 Misc
4/4- $0
4/5- $0

Week Two
4/6- $18.44 Grocery and $9.45 eating out
4/7- $0
4/8- $2.99 Pepperidge Farm and $5.45 Walgreens
4/9- $0
4/10- $14.95 Grocery and $9.70 Misc
4/11
4/12

6/15 No Buy Days

Store and Coupon Savings-$61.94

 

[QVCshopper]

3/10 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

 

[Virgderon]

Today is a 0. I took a friend to the movies ( Source Code- very good!) . I had free tickets and you all know that I had candy in my purse.

Running Total: Spent $198
$800 budget... $602 left
$0 Days: 5
Goal is 8 or more!
coupon/sale savings : 56

Groceries budget- $250-19-7- 69-7-11 = 137 left

April 1: 19 ( groceries)
April 2: 0
April 3: 26 ( pop, razor, cleaning supplies, soup)
April 4: 0
April 5: 43 (14 Walgreens, 23 bowling banquet, 6 dinner at bowling)
April 6: 0
April 7: 69 ( Publix groceries)
April 8: 0
April 9: 41 ( 23 lunch, 11 Publix, 7 pop)
April 10 : 0

 

[angierae]

No buy days: 6/10
Groceries: $95.36/$240 (144.64 left)
Fuel: 20/$48
Eating out: 24.90/$44
Entertainment/Hobbies: 8.67/$52

Coupon running total for April: $13.24

4/1: $0
4/2: $0
4/3: $0
4/4: $2.10 (CVS. Got $50 worth of stuff between sales, coupons and Extrabucks, though.)
4/5: $14.90 @ Subway $8.67 @ 7-11 $20 @ Mobil
4/6: $10 @ Panera $51.34 @ Meijer
4/7: $0
4/8: $0
4/9: $41.92 groceries (3 different stores)
4/10: $0

I went for a 4.5 mile walk today to enjoy the 80 degree weather (rare for this far north this early!) and decided to wait to go to Meijer until tomorrow after dinner.

 

[ronnmel]

Yesterday was my bachelorette! It was a very busy day, but I was not the one paying for anything. I had a blast!
Today was my friend's baby shower, but I had already bought her gift, so that makes this a no-buy weekend.

No Buy Days : 7/12
Gas : 0$ (max 120$???)
Groceries : 0$ (max 250$)
Eating out (and snacks) : 25$ (max 100$)
Non-necessities : 17$ (max 200$)

04/01 : 0$
04/02 : 7$ (snack)
04/03 : 20$ (lunch + purse)
04/04 : 0$
04/05 : 0$
04/06 : 0$
04/07 : 15$ (gift bag + dinner)
04/08 : 0$
04/09 : 0$
04/10 : 0$

Ronmel, I can hardly wait to see pics of you in your dress!

I can hardly wait either!

 

[wlake]

We visited my MIL today, and she took us out for lunch. I'm not counting it towards our meals out as she treated and it's traditional for us to go out to lunch when we visit. Still, I feel like I have to confess!

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:
4/5:
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
4/10: $80 Trader Joe's (lots of snacks for our trip!), $13 bagels, $16 Walmart


no buy days: 2/8
longest no buy streak: 3 days
meals out: 1/5 (not counting our trip!)
days since our last meal out: 9
longest no meals out streak: 10

 

[Debbie]

Well, DH has already bought gas (didn't really need it), so today is a buy day, too.

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 ) 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
April 10: tip on brunch $5, gas to TO $15, shared lottery ticket with DSisters $35
April 11: gas $36

Gas: $101
Groceries/Household: $225
Drug co-pays/ medicine: $4
Misc: $323

No Buy days: 4/12

 

[nunzia]

$700 total
$100 Gas $60 left
$250 Groceries $180 left
$150 Entertainment/Eating Out $128 left
$100 Gifts $48 left
$100 Misc Household $40 left

April 1: $15.00 gift (online Jedi game), $2.00 movie rental, $10.00 lunch out ( I am rounding)
April 2: $0
April 3: $20 DH gasoline. $59 Walmart...($8 gift, $8 Misc household garden, saved $8 in coupons) $7.00 Walgreens ( had a great coupon deal on M&Ms and those are for Easter so gifts $2 gift, the rest groceries. total coupons there $5.25)
April 4: $0
April 5: $3.00 (groceries for a recipe I wanted to try..first time using fresh ginger )
April 6: $3.00 Clone Wars Magazine for DGS, $40 for MP3 player for me..yikes..so is that household or gift? I'll say household
April 7: $10.00 groceries (sale stuff, mainly produce and fruit) $14.00 dinner out with DH & friends
April 8: $20.00 at Dollar Tree (which is what I get when I take DH and he finds his favorite cookie..so broken down into groceries, gift, household)
April 9: $20.00 gas ($3.67! whaaa?)
April 10: $20.00 gift, $5.00 Tangled album download

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

Uggg, why am I haveing such a hard time getting back into this? I want to do it, but I just keep getting more behind. I did 15 solid months withouth missing and now I am 2 weeks almost missing.

April 9-$0 Hubby got home really tired so we stayed in.
April 10- Dh and I went to the ballgame. It was a beautiful day. Tickets were free but with parking and food we spent just under $20. I also went grocery shopping, and it was scary how high it was. I usually spend $100 a week, I spent $180!!!
Today is DH's actual b-day, so it will not be a no spend.

 

[jsmla]

Yesterday was very spendy! We went to the French Quarter Festival and tried lots of the food booths. Hubby had a few of the specialty drinks as well.

April 1-$0

April 2-$96.23

April 3-$0

April 4-$101.04

April 5-$0

April 6-$0

April 7-$20

April 8-$0

April 9-$6.00

April 10-$69.67 ($20.17 for breakfast at Trolley Stop Cafe, $.50 for parking, $5 for the streetcar, $44 at various food and beverage kiosks at the festival. Still, last year we spent the night so had the hotel $$ on top of our festival spends which were higher because I had a few drinks then too. I was DD this trip so I only had water )

Today will only be a no-buy if I stay at home-I'm out of gas. By the time we got back from New Orleans we were riding behind the E!

 

[SunnieRN]

Sorry, had work and home drama, so I'm a day behind, and a dollar short.

April 8-22:

Goals:

Medical: $200
Groceries $200
Cash: $100
No Buy Days: 9 (going out on a limb here. 9 of 14 sounds rough!)

April 8: $0 (off to a good start anyway!)
April 9: $0
April 10: $0
April 11: $ may be in the thousands, as we are car shopping today.

No Buy Goal 9 / 3 accomplished!!

 

[charming23]

Doing some things around the house today, so a $0 for me.

April Budget (3/30-4/29)

Grocery/Household- $300/$193.43 left
Car/Gas- $50/$23.38 Left
Eating out- $50/$26.80 left
Misc/entertainment- $100/$52.64 left

Total- $500.00/$296.25 left

Goal of 15 No Buy Days

Week One
3/30- $0
3/31- $54.53 Grocery, $26.62 Gas, $3.32 misc, and $13.75 eating out
4/1- $15 Haircut and $13.05 Walgreens
4/2- $0
4/3- $10.21 Grocery and $6.59 Misc
4/4- $0
4/5- $0

Week Two
4/6- $18.44 Grocery and $9.45 eating out
4/7- $0
4/8- $2.99 Pepperidge Farm and $5.45 Walgreens
4/9- $0
4/10- $14.95 Grocery and $9.70 Misc
4/11- $0
4/12

7/15 No Buy Days

Store and Coupon Savings-$61.94

 

[Virgderon]

MickeyMom, don't you dare give up on us.

Today is a 0. Many of my recent 0 days have been because I am collecting unemployment for several weeks instead of a normal paycheck, but it's actually very interesting what you can do if you have to. Now the question is how to be conservative like this when the paychecks start rolling in?

Running Total: Spent $198
$800 budget... $602 left
$0 Days: 6
Goal is 8 or more!
coupon/sale savings : 56

Groceries budget- $250-19-7- 69-7-11 = 137 left

April 1: 19 ( groceries)
April 2: 0
April 3: 26 ( pop, razor, cleaning supplies, soup)
April 4: 0
April 5: 43 (14 Walgreens, 23 bowling banquet, 6 dinner at bowling)
April 6: 0
April 7: 69 ( Publix groceries)
April 8: 0
April 9: 41 ( 23 lunch, 11 Publix, 7 pop)
April 10 : 0
April 11: 0

 

[A.Mickey]

Back from a really quick trip to Washington D.C. ate out a lot, but budgeted $200 for the trip and only spent $80 so pretty happy about that.

Running Total: Spent $301.59
$0 Days:4/13

Groceries ($240-$8/day)- $29.31
Eating Out ($210-$7/day)- $139.55
Misc. (Shopping/Entertainment) ($780-$26/day) $50.54
Gas $250- 4/2 $54.17 (3.89/gal), 4/5 $28.02 (3.89/gal) saw gas prices are up to $4.09 at some stations, so at a half tank so filled it up when I still saw gas prices at $3.89= $82.19

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)


Budget: $1480....20%
Month: 7/30: 37%
No Buy: 4/13: 31%

My savings from coupons and sales: $383.99

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

 

[QVCshopper]

OK, ladies. So, I spent $85 today on SODA. Isn't that insane? It's for that Hershey Park rebate deal, so I should get 4 tickets out of it, but boy the looks I got with that many 20-oz sodas in my cart... One adult ticket is over $50, so it should be a good deal as long as it works. SODA, though. What am I doing?

3/10 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

 

[wlake]

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:
4/5:
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: Finally, another no buy -- I was beginning to worry!


no buy days: 3/8
longest no buy streak: 3 days
meals out: 1/5 (not counting our trip!)
days since our last meal out: 10
longest no meals out streak: 10

 

[ronnmel]

Today it's my birthday so I treated myself to a new novel and two Disney Imagineering books.

Also had to buy gas before it shot up in price. It went up over 40 cents a litre in a few months.

No Buy Days : 7/12
Gas : 40$ (max 120$???)
Groceries : 0$ (max 250$)
Eating out (and snacks) : 25$ (max 100$)
Non-necessities : 44$ (max 200$)

04/01 : 0$
04/02 : 7$ (snack)
04/03 : 20$ (lunch + purse)
04/04 : 0$
04/05 : 0$
04/06 : 0$
04/07 : 15$ (gift bag + dinner)
04/08 : 0$
04/09 : 0$
04/10 : 0$
04/11 : 67$ (books + gas)

 

[bigmama67]

I'll be back tomorrow with updates; hope everyone is doing well! I took DS, DD, and DS' friend to the zoo, miniature golf and McDonald's today (LOVE spring break!) so it was spendy, especially because I renewed our zoo membership and it went up from $75 to $90 in one year! The place is worth it, but that's a BIG leap!

 

[charming23]

Happy Birthday, ronnmel. Hope your day was great.