Thanks Where'sPiglet for starting the August thread!!
You're welcome!
Add me to this list. We are going away very soon. Need to keep my budget in check. July I kind of went a little "wilder".
what do I do?? does that mean I have to buy my groceries all at once? or can I buy them at set times but keep to my total set??? Just making sure I have this right. I have a few normal bill payments plus an extra DVC. All help would be awesome.
Most people on here do not track their bills, but just what they are going out and spending - the things you have direct, immediate control over.
You can go to the
July thread to see how people did it last month. Most people quote themselves each day (their prior day's post), and then remove the [/QUOTE] brackets from around it so they will get a cumulative post as the month moves on. If you look at the first few pages of last month, and compare it to the last few pages, you can see what I mean.
You do not need to buy your groceries all at once. You just post your spending each day. Some days, you will have $0. For most people on this thread, the number of $0 Days ranges between about 8 and 16 days. To average it out, 10 $0 Days would mean you have a No Spend day every third day. To have 15, you'd have one every other day.
I track my spending and keep a running total as well as averages to help pace myself. I only track certain budget categories on here. I track ALL my categories for myself off-line, but I only post and track for the $0 Buy thread gas, food, and miscellaneous. Some people break their spending totals down on this thread by category and track running totals versus the category limit. I lump my running total versus my limit all together for this thread. I do keep the categories broken down on my off-line, master budget sheet, but I find that for myself, keeping it lump sum on the thread makes it easier for me.
My Goals for this month:
Goals: 15 $0 Buy days
Max spending $500 for gas, food (groceries & eating out), and miscellaneous.
Totals:
$0 Buy: 0/15...............0%
Spending: $0/500.........0%
Days in Month: 0/31......0%
Averages:
$500/31 days= $16.13 <If I want to stay below $500 for the month, I need to spend less than this amount per day, on average.
$0/0 days= $0.00
Not going anywhere today, so first day is a 0 spend....
so I need to save save save 
I am officially starting NOW (since I already went to Caribou this AM instead of making my own coffee) 
