April 2011: Springing into No Buys

[Virgderon]

Another 0 day yay for me.

Running Total: Spent $210
$800 budget... $590 left
$0 Days: 7
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
April 12 : 12 ( 5 dinner at bowling, 7 at Walgreens)
April 13: 0

 

[wlake]

The worst kind of no buy today -- the kind due to a sick little one!

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!
4/12: $20 dinner out
4/13:


no buy days: 4/8
longest no buy streak: 3 days
meals out: 2/5 (not counting our trip!)
days since our last meal out: 1
longest no meals out streak: 10

 

[QVCshopper]

WLake, hope your little guy feels better soon!

Tomorrow won't be a no-buy as we really need food. I keep running out of food while the pile of laundry keeps growing...

5/10 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
4/12-$0
4/13-$0

 

[A.Mickey]

Running Total: Spent $334.61
$0 Days:5/13

Groceries ($240-$8/day)- $52.52
Eating Out ($210-$7/day)- $149.36
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)
12- $0
13- $16.05 (Walgreens-Groceries), $9.81 (Wendy's-Eating Out) $7.16 (Meijer-Groceries)


Budget: $1480....23%
Month: 12/30: 43%
No Buy: 5/13: 38%

My savings from coupons and sales: $522.72

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

 

[bigmama67]

OK, getting back into the swing of things...I have had 3 no-buy days so far (not great but better than I thought with everything that's been going on)...and halfway through the month I have spent $297.13 of my $600 grocery budget (this includes a large supply of training pants for DD), so I'm pretty satisfied with that! We had some one-time house expenses this month and fortunately were able to take care of those with some unexpected insurance money which came in. I have tuition to pay for my summer class, and we just put our tax refund to good use with new laptops.

I wish I weren't reading about Southwest lowering their fares for August, and I wish I hadn't learned about good friends of ours who up and went to US/IOA for Harry Potter on the spur of the moment last week! I am SO tempted to use what's left of our insurance money on a trip to Orlando...but I'm keeping my "big girl" panties on and thinking about how great it will be to go NEXT year, when I have (hopefully) finished my M.A. and have a teaching job lined up for the fall of 2012 (oh please oh please!)

It's 11:00 p.m. heading into Day 4 of Spring Break, and my 8 year old DS just called down to me that he's "wide awake!" I told him that if he doesn't keep it down, his father and 2 year old sister will be joining him, and none of us will be happy about that!

WLAKE, sorry you have a little one who isn't well!

QVC...what state do you live in? I was REALLY figuring on doing the Giant Hershey deal but apparently NJ residents aren't eligible? Is that right?

Life is good. Mostly. Onward and upward!

 

[QVCshopper]

QVC...what state do you live in? I was REALLY figuring on doing the Giant Hershey deal but apparently NJ residents aren't eligible? Is that right?

I live in PA, about 45 minutes outside of Philly. Kinda near Valley Forge Park. Anyway, yes, it's right. My rebate form said those states listed on the other thread. I sent my rebates in today with all 80 wrappers. 2 tix to my house and 2 tix to my in-laws. I don't think they will have names on them, but I'm not positive.

Also, I checked the SW flights, and they still weren't great out of Philly. I still wished I booked the kids play/stay deal, but we may or may not move (long story) so we thought we should save money. Oh, well. I'm hoping for a new deal!

Did you see in last month's thread what I wrote about Dutch Wonderland? You can get in free in late November when you donate 1 toy/person. I think it's usually opening weekend of Winter Wonderland. Hope that helps!

 

[nunzia]

$700 total
$100 Gas $60 left
$250 Groceries $180 left
$150 Entertainment/Eating Out $112 left
$100 Gifts $48 left
$100 Misc Household $35 left ( I can see this one will be a problem)

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
April 11: $5.00 memorial lily, $9.00 lunchout with DD
April 12: $7.00 Burger King, buy one get one whopper
April 13: $0

 

[charming23]

Calling today a $0 day early in order to stop me from going out and shopping. I am working on resumes and applications. I do have a job interview on saturday, so I am anxious about that.

I am also headed to a memorial tonight for a former teacher of mine. He was my band teacher from 6th to 12th grade and made a huge impact on my life.

April Budget (3/30-4/29)

Grocery/Household- $300/$110.05
Car/Gas- $50/$23.38 Left
Eating out- $50/$26.80 left
Misc/entertainment- $100/$44.04

Total- $500.00/$204.47

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- $0

Week Three
4/13- $8.60 Lane Bryant, $30.72 Marc's and $52.66 Giant Eagle
4/14- $0
4/15
4/16
4/17
4/18
4/19


9/15 No Buy Days

Store and Coupon Savings-$97.14

 

[angierae]

No buy days: 6/10
Groceries: $124.24/$240 (144.64 left)
Fuel: 40/$48
Eating out: 24.90/$44
Entertainment/Hobbies: 24.67/$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
4/11: $20 @ Mobil, $16.37 @ Kroger, $16 @ Amazon
4/12: $9.31 @ CVS during a walk with DH - cleaning supplies
4/13: $3.20 @ Kroger because I forgot my lunch so I stopped in on the way to work for a frozen dinner and a thing of apples and caramel

 

[superme80]

Yesterday was soooo not a No Buy Day...BUT I have budgeted $100 this week for groceries and I still have over $8.00 left!!!!!! Yeah go me!!!!

 

[SunnieRN]

Do any of you have home insurance plans for appliances, etc? I have two offers and not sure what to do.

April 8-22:

Goals:

Medical: $200
Groceries $200
Cash: $100 / $35
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. Didn't buy a car today, so $0
April 12: Well, got DeeDee today! Dodge Durango, big enough for the whole family AND the ADHD dog!! Has more stuff in it, then I know what to do with. I will probably need to up my no buys now. Ended up getting dinner out after I posted this, so $35.00.
April 13: $0!! Eating out of the freezer!
April 14: $0, but have to grocery shop tomorrow or the next day.

No Buy Goal 9 / 6 accomplished!!

 

[ronnmel]

Woke up on the wrong side of bed yesterday and forgot to pack my breakfast (I always eat at work), so I went down to the breakfast club and "donated" 2$ so I could have some milk and toast. I'm going to be honest and not count it as a 0$ day.

No Buy Days : 8/12
Gas : 40$ (max 120$???)
Groceries : 20$ (max 250$)
Eating out (and snacks) : 27$ (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)
04/12 : 20$ (groceries)
04/13 : 2$ (breakfast club)
04/14 : 0$

What a fun weekend!

Happy Birthday! Did you get those Imagineering Guide books? I have 4 of them....Disneyland, MK, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom. At some point I'll have to get MGM.

Please tell me the prices are posted in Canada in cents. Prices here are running $3.69/gallon. I know that is less than your prices, but it's high for here! I was paying 2.20ish not that long ago! I am really glad I usually go only through about 20-25 gallons of gas a month!

It was a very fun weekend indeed.

Yes, I bought the Imagineering Guide books. I already had Epcot, and this time bought Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Would have bought Animal Kingdom, but they didn't have it.

Yes, the price was in cents in Canada. So 1$ and 42.4 cents for 1 litre. I guess when the price is for a gallon, it goes up by a higher margin every time.

Happy birthday belatedly to ronmel. I could not get on the boards last night, I kept getting an error message.

Thanks.

I am so excited that your wedding is coming up Mel and hope your day is absolutely wonderful! You will be a beautiful bride.

Sorry I have been SO behind in everything. Every moment was spent car shopping the past few weeks. We knew what we wanted, but until yeaterday couldn't find the price we wanted, with the must haves and nothing extra. Hopefully I will be able to stay caught up!!

Bye the way, even though I know it doesn't actually work, and the arguments against it, Friday is 'don't buy gas day.' Worth a shot I guess?

Thanks. I find it unbelievable that my wedding is now less than 3 weeks away. I'm ecstatic!

Congrats on the new car! And yes, I'll sort of be participating in the "don't buy gas" day. Like you said, it's worth a shot.

 

[QVCshopper]

Ahh, well. I needed a lot of food today; then my DS5 got 3 shots for his well visit, thus the trip to Dunkin Donuts to get him an iced coffee to cheer him up. The Burger King trip was to cheer up DD6 because I'm an awful mom who didn't have time to take her out to lunch before school... oh well. Tomorrow is another day.

5/10 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
4/12-$0
4/13-$0
4/14-$70 Wegmans (food/Easter event), $9 PetSmart, $2 Doctor, $5 BK, $5 DD

 

[Virgderon]

Wlake, sorry. Its tough to have a sick child. Boo. Sunnie, in my opinion it depends on how expensive the appliances are. I wouldn't buy one of those policies on a $250 dishwasher, but I would on a $3000 referigerator.

Running Total: Spent $224
$800 budget... $576 left
$0 Days: 7
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
April 12 : 12 ( 5 dinner at bowling, 7 at Walgreens)
April 13: 0
April 14 : 14 ( misc including People magazine. Couldn't help it. )

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

My goal is $400 for point of sale transactions.
This amount does not include health care spending or gas.

1 - $0
2 - $0
3 - $63.19 Rouses, Wendy's; $22.59 gas (3.48/g)
4 - $3.00 Subway
5 - $0
6 - $0
7 - $0
8 - $5.49 Burger King (2 meals)
9 - $112.41 Walmart, Walgreens
10 - $0
11 - $34.85 Winn-Dixie
12 - $0
13 - $1 Coke at work
14 - $0

Point of Sale Spending: $219.91/$400 = 55%
Gas Spending: $22.59
Total Spending: $242.50

Month: 14/30 = 47%
$0 Days: 8

 

[wlake]

Thanks for the well wishes for my son! He's much better and is going back to school tomorrow. Thank goodness -- we leave on Sat. for our DC trip!

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!
4/12: $20 dinner out
4/13:
4/14: $5 Walmart, $80 Target, $80 Kohls


no buy days: 4/8
longest no buy streak: 3 days
meals out: 2/5 (not counting our trip!)
days since our last meal out: 2
longest no meals out streak: 10

 

[bigmama67]

$53 on groceries today, $45 on gas, $11 at Home Depot and $6.90 at Ritas for ices/gelati.

My mom had a mild heart attack last night. I'm so torn between going up to Maine to see her in the hospital and knowing that she would hate that...we have a hotel booked for next Saturday & Sunday (4/23 and 4/24) anyhow but I wish I could find a way to get there sooner, alone. To top it all off, my brother and my husband are giving NO compassion and empathy at all. And my DD will NOT go to sleep.

 

[A.Mickey]

Running Total: Spent $334.61
$0 Days:6/13

Groceries ($240-$8/day)- $52.52
Eating Out ($210-$7/day)- $149.36
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)
12- $0
13- $16.05 (Walgreens-Groceries), $9.81 (Wendy's-Eating Out) $7.16 (Meijer-Groceries)
14- $0


Budget: $1480....23%
Month: 14/30: 47%
No Buy: 6/13: 46%

My savings from coupons and sales: $522.72

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

 

[A.Mickey]

Whoops double post

 

[superme80]

$53 on groceries today, $45 on gas, $11 at Home Depot and $6.90 at Ritas for ices/gelati.

My mom had a mild heart attack last night. I'm so torn between going up to Maine to see her in the hospital and knowing that she would hate that...we have a hotel booked for next Saturday & Sunday (4/23 and 4/24) anyhow but I wish I could find a way to get there sooner, alone. To top it all off, my brother and my husband are giving NO compassion and empathy at all. And my DD will NOT go to sleep.

I'm so sorry to hear that.
Just realized today was another no buy day. I cleaned house and had friends over. So I am at 6/10!