August $0 Buy

[MickeyMomOfThree]

MickeyMomOfThree - can you share how you do so well at Chuck E Cheese. I went yesterday with the buy 40, get 60 free tokens, so it was $10. But, my "bonus" token cards always say with a food purchase. And how do you get free pizza? Thanks for your help, my kids love it there. We always get the $1-$1.50 ice cream from a vending machine there. Thanks!

Well, we are very lucky that our CEC accepts multiple coupons. This is what I used this trip.

3 -12 free tokens coupons off the CEC string cheese. It is the cheapest string cheese at the store including the store brand and each pack comes with 12 free tokens. You can use a max of 3 each time so 36 Free Tokens (The only place I can get it is at Walmart.)

3- 10 Free tokens off Minute Maid/Hi-C drink boxes. I don't often buy thee but I found a clearance on the Pink Lemonaid ones, 10 boxes for $.90 and 10 tokens on each so I bought 15 packs. I freeze them and use them on picnics and stuff as ice and then drinks. You can use 3 of them so 30 Free Tokens (Those are with food purchase, so you can buy $2 worth of fries and use them. I was prepared to do this if they didn't consider my free pizza a purchase but they did.)

I had the kids both bring their report cards, 15 tokens each so 30 Free Tokens.

I had a coupon for 20 Free tokens with food purchase I waas emailed so 20 Free Tokens.

The kids each did a reward calander for 10 tokens each so 20 Free Tokens.

Then they each used a sports reward certificate for 10 tokens each so 20 Free Tokens.

Finally, I don't usually have the free pizza coupon. We ran into a horrible CEC while on vacation and I spoke to the manager but he didn't take me very seriously so I sent an email and they did and for thanking me for the input they sent me 2 Guest Passes which are a large pizza of your choice, 4 drinks and 30 tokens, so I used one of those. When we eat but don't have the coupons (though I still have one for next time) I tend to use the $17 coupon on the string cheese wrapper. A large of your choice and 33 tokens and 4 drinks. We don't alwasy eat though, we often just go to play.

So that day I got the pizza and drinks (those I gave away, not sure if all CEC do this, but ours let you bring back the collector cups for free refills for life so we bring our cups for free drinks when we go) and 186 tokens. I put 100 away for another time and gave them the 86 but they didn't use them all so I put the rest of those away too.

The kids usually get an ice cream, but they like the ice cream cookie sandwich that is big so I buy one and cut it in half and it is pleanty. It is $2 now but still not too bad for the size.

Lately there has been the $9.99 cheese pizza coupon (if you don't have it I can email it to you.) We have used that a couple times too, it expires this month but our CEC takes outdated coupons so we should be good. My biggest weakness is the salad bar. Ours is beautiful, I have a hard time resisting, but I have been good.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Goals: 15 $0 Buy days
Max spending $500 for gas, food (groceries & eating out), and miscellaneous.

01 - $0! 1
02 - $0! 2
03 - $61.90 Breaux Mart, Amazon, Dollar Tree
04 - $10.86 Winn-Dixie
05 - $20.12 Chateau Orleans, Cane's
06 - $22.69 Snoball, gas
07 - $0! 3

Totals:
$0 Buy: 3/15...............20%
Spending: $115.57/500...23%
Days in Month: 7/31.......23%

Averages:
$500/31 days= $16.13
$115.57/7 days= $16.51

 

[ronnmel]

No Buy Days : 3/10
Gas : (Max 50$)
Groceries : 145$ (Max 200$)
Eating out (and snacks) : 69$ (Max 150$)
Non-necessities : 328$ (Max 400$.)

8/01 : 193$ (massage for 2 + ice cream)
8/02 : 0$
8/03 : 0$
8/04 : 213$ (clothes, work and wedding stuff, medication)
8/05 : 74$ (groceries & eating out)
8/06 : 0$
8/07 : 63$ (food + walmart)

 

[wdwobsessed]

Yesterday at the gas station, I went to use my Winn-Dixie Fuel Perks card for the first time. For every $50 you spend at W-D, you get a 5c per gallon credit at participating Shell stations. Well, my W-D receipt said I had earned 20c so far. The pump asked if I had a W-D FP card, and I said yes and swiped it. But it never took the 20c off! Regular price was 2.51/gallon, and that is what I was charged! I am hoping my 20c credit is still available the next time, since I didn't actually get the credit! I went to the Fuel Perks website; it said that "Your discount will then be displayed on the pump and the gas price will drop automatically."

My car has a full tank, but it was NOT a good trip to the gas station!

We have a similar deal here with Giant Food and Shell but it's 10c off for every $100 you spend.

I kind of had the same thing happen to me because I had 300 "points" saved up = $300 dollars which should have meant 30c per gallon off.

I only got 10c off. I hope my other 20c is still on there! It sounds like Shell does not have it's computers programmed correctly or something.

 

[wdwobsessed]

Hi all,

This is harder than I thought. I am going to have to work at it to get those 10 days!

Today I rushed out of the house to go to the studio and stopped to get a diet coke and some fruit/nut mix = $4.64 I also gassed up and that was $45.46. After work I was starving (I need to learn to pack) so I drove through wendy's $6 approx (I left receipt in car). I also stopped by Trader Joes for groceries = $56.25

This has been very insightful for me thus far.

I plan to have a no spend day tomorrow. Kids will be at their Dads the latter part of the day. Monday I have a massage scheduled so I KNOW I will be spending money that day. LOL. Gotta get in one tomorrow!

GOALS:

10 No Spend Days
1/10

Track all spending
7/31

August 1st - $5 Tip to Peapod Driver
August 2nd - $878 Car Registration renwal thanks to my ex.
August 3rd - $17.50 Fast Food / $86.28 Laundry / $4.33 Misc
August 4th - $0
August 5th - $1.06 McD's Iced Tea / $24 Pizza during staff meeting
August 6th - $4drinks/ $8.85 Lunch Kids / $111.50 Drs / $611 Barres / $17 Game Fly
August 7th - $4.64 Breakfast, $45.46 Gas, $6 Lunch, $56.25 Groceries


Totals
No Buy Days - 1 (finally!)
Misc Spending - $102.08
Vehicle - $878
Gas - $45.46
Eating Out/On The Run - $68.05
Grocery/Household - $66.78
Medical - $111.50 ($50 My fault)
Business Expenses - $611[/QUOTE]

 

[neatokimmo]

At the farmers market I got 4 pounds of pear tomatoes, 4 pounds of heirlooms, 6 eggplants, 11 cucumbers, 1 pound of okra, 1 pound of banana peppers, 2-3 pounds of new potatoes, 4 pounds of squash and 35 red/orange/yellow bell peppers for the freezer. All that for $27 and the farmers do no charge sales tax!

I also bought $2 of sodas for the three of us and spent $10 at old navy. Those darn tutu skirts were on sale for $10 and I had a $10 coupon and it is tax free weekend (our tax is 9.75%!) so I got two of them

8/7 - $39 (veggies, cokes and tutu skirts)
8/6 - zero
8/5 - 10.73 (lunch & breakfast)
8/4 - zero
8/3 - 33.81 (snacks, breakfast & groceries)
8/2 - zero
8/1 - $29.12 (Mom's birthday dinner)

 

[lougoofy]

8/06/10: $4.00 laundry,$1.50 bus fare, $6.35 vacation item (airborne), $6.35 batteries and a drink and $4.77 chinese food

also $4 drinks and $.80 soda

8/7/10: vacation time, not a lot spent Cab, hashbrowns, water, a few things from WEGMANS, a drink

No Souvenirs yet.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

I am happy to be back for the whole month after missing half of July! I am scaling back my goal since I want to do things (while inexpensive, not free) with the kids before they go back to school. I will try for 10 but won't be too upset if I don't reach it as long as I am good at keeping the costs down.

August 1-$0

August 2-$0 I needed a break from the kids tonight and hubby said let's go out for a banana split (we have been talking about how I have had many ice creams in my life but never a banana split.) So we were going to go but then I remembered I had my coupon from Coldstone for my free b-day ice cream, plus it was raining out so we went for the free ice cream and will have a banana split later in the week on a nicer day.

August 3- $157 Groceries We had NOTHING in the house. Plus $15 at the bread outlet. $1 Redbox for the kids, it was so hot today I wanted to stay in. I know that is awful, but it is the truth. $15 Japanese snacks for DD15 and her friends for their anime convention this weekend. (Somehow I am the only mom who ever buys it. ) $35 Home Depot yard/driveway stuff. $7 DH and I went out and shared a banana split. It was yummy! TRYING for a $0 day tomorrow. We have plans with friends but I think I may be able to pull it off. We are going to the free kids movie then lunch at Chuck E Cheese but I have coupons for free pizza and tokens so I may be able to pull it off. Course their salad bar calls me, it is so good, but I am going to try to resist!

August 4-$0+$17 in returns I did seriously good today! I am so happy I have to share. I took my girls to the free movie. It was Aliens in the Attic. It was soooo funny! The we went to Chuck E Cheese with friends. I had coupons and was able to get a large pizza and drinks and 30 tokens for free. The with other coupons and report cards I got another 100 tokens free and put half away for next time. They ate and played for 4.5 hours. Then we came home and made dinner. Then we went to family night at the local restaurant and they played and had fun and had ice cream with free coupons I had. So, we had an amazingly fun day and it cost me a big fat $0! (Oh, and I returned a couple things and got back $17 that was added to our Disney jar (the money was already spent so it goes in the jar.)

August 5- $60 co-pay (on it's own I wouldn't have counted it as I don't count medical, but for my own purposes I record it to remember where it all goes. That will also be $60 more towards our Disney jar as I save all flex pay checks and put them in the account.) Good news is, patching DD8's eye has worked and while we need to continue it, she doens't appear to need the eye surgery! Back to school make up and hair die for DD15 and make up for me and DD11 too, $65 at Ulta. Killer, but it will last them all yer and me several months. Then, $48 Goodwill, gotta love my DD15, she actually ASKS to go to Goodwill. This also included 2 Disney photo frames for me. One that is ceramic and all the Disney Dogs for $3 and a 2010 Disney World frame (I always buy one every trip anyway) for $2! Oh, and a brand new Disney World t-shirt for DD8. No, she didn't need it, but it was $2, and we were celebrating! Plus, the kid gets almost all hand me downs, not that this wasn't exactly, but close to new. Took the kids out to lunch, $9. Haircut for DD15, $14 with tip (I had a coupon.) DD8 had a laydate at the park and the kids were begging to go for ice cream but instead we went to Walmart and got a huge box of fudgepops for $350 (20 in a box) and they each bought a pack of $1 silly bandz, they said they'd pay for them but they were so good all day with all the running around that I let it slide, so total was $6 at Walmart. ETA- Ran back to Walmart. Forgot a few things I needed. DD has a wart, so needed meds, needed more hangars, needed Car Air Fresheners (see my fly in house thread!) and bought 6 of those, yes, our house smells good. And saw a complete Micky Mouse scrapbook set (only one left) on clearance for $10---uggg, oh and cheese, I always buy cheese when I go there, it is so much cheaper! Total, $41.

August 6-$0 I worked my buns off today and soooo wanted to not cook tonight. But, I made pancakes and they were easy and delicious and I didn't break the $0 day!

August 7- $22 Babysitting Course for DD11, she's now a certified babysitter. While she was there all day and DD15 had plans and DH had to work I had the day alone with DD8 and that is rare so I said we could do what she wanted. We built the free project at Home Depot. Had lunch at Taco Bell $5 (she had 3 things off the value menu and I had 2 and we both had water) and then we went home and watched Disney Channel and cuddled. Then we wrapped our coins ($120, we just did it a couple months ago so I didn't expect there to be so much!) Then we got a slush $1.50 and went to the park. Tonight we (DD11 and DD8 and me and DH) went bowling, with coupons it was $2 for all of us, but DH wanted "bowling alley" fries so those were $3.50. Then I wanted a sluch since DDslurped the whole one earlier up so my DH went to one of his restaurants (that he works at) and got me one for free tonight. Could have been a $0 day but since I rarely get time alone with DD8 I wanted her to do whatever she wanted. Turns out she's a cheap date like her momma!

August No Spend Days 4/10
******************************************************************

Happy About Record Since Joining No Buy-
January-14 Days
February-13 Days
March-17 Days
April-15 Days
May-15 Days
June-8 Days
July- 6 Days (only in town and only recorded half the month, probably had about 7-8 no buys while away)
Longest Streak-4 Days in a Row!

 

[Virgderon]

Hi all,

This is harder than I thought. I am going to have to work at it to get those 10 days!

Today I rushed out of the house to go to the studio and stopped to get a diet coke and some fruit/nut mix = $4.64 I also gassed up and that was $45.46. After work I was starving (I need to learn to pack) so I drove through wendy's $6 approx (I left receipt in car). I also stopped by Trader Joes for groceries = $56.25

This has been very insightful for me thus far.

August 6th - $4drinks/ $8.85 Lunch Kids / $111.50 Drs / $611 Barres / $17 Game Fly

[/QUOTE]

Hi- don't worry. The first month is all about learning what your habits are, and then you can start doing some fixes the 2nd month.

I don't want to bore any of the regulars who have heard this before, but for me the value of 0 spend is tracking my expenses and staying under budget, and the 0 spend days are just another tool to make that happen.

I noticed you counted the $611 you spent on barres for your studio. I'm not sure that I would have counted a business expense here- unless it comes out of your personal budget?

If I had to report big business expenses I might get disccouraged- we don't want you to get discouraged.

 

[loritemp]

geesh! I am a mess without my ATM. Have no idea what I am spending and where it is coming from. Need to check my bank statements and balance up again!!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!!

 

[thebigkahuna]

08-01 $0!
08-02 $0!
08-03 $0!
08-04 $6 & change on dinner.
08-05 $0!
08-06 $0!
08-07 $0!
08-08 $0!
08-09 Dentist today. Not *exactly* budgeted for. (and way more expensive than i thought it could ever be) I'm so glad I finally found a dentist I like! Because I dislike the dentist in general, I will probably treat myself to something after the appointment for being brave!!



Goal: 12
Met: 7 !
Days to go: 5

 

[Virgderon]

Wow BigKahuna! You mean business with the no spend days! Great job!

Today it is raining, so we went bowling with some free bowling coupons. On the way back, I got some soda and a couple newspapers. We did very well being cheap this weekend.

Running Total: Spent 96
$900 budget...$804 left
$0 Days: 4
Goal is 10 or more!
coupon/sale savings : 51

Groceries budget- $250-10-26-24-6= 184 left

August 1: 0
August 2: 22 (10 groceries, 12 misc)
August 3: 37 (26 groceries, 11 toiletries & cleaning supplies)
August 4: 0
August 5: 0 (spent a little money but it came from Dh's budget, so no spend for me)
August 6: 0
August 7: 24 ( groceries)
August 8: 13

 

[DisneyCrafter]

Talk about falling off the bandwagon! I'm back and I blame the craziness that is summer break! I need to get back on track because money is getting very tight and we have a Disney trip coming up in just under 2 months!

Goal: 15 $0 Days...3 so far!

Groceries: $78.75...$71.25 LEFT
Goal is $150 or less...

Gas: $124...$126 LEFT
Goal is $250 or less...

Eating Out: $67.97...$32.03 LEFT (NO MORE EATING OUT IN AUGUST!!)
Goal is $100 or less (for August and September)

Misc.: $34.00 Vet, $5.00 Zoo, $8.36 JoAnn's, $12.00 DH Haircut = $59.36
Goal is $125...$65.64 LEFT

$0 Days:

8/1, 8/3, 8/5

 

[ronnmel]

No Buy Days : 4/10
Gas : (Max 50$)
Groceries : 145$ (Max 200$)
Eating out (and snacks) : 69$ (Max 150$)
Non-necessities : 328$ (Max 400$.)

8/01 : 193$ (massage for 2 + ice cream)
8/02 : 0$
8/03 : 0$
8/04 : 213$ (clothes, work and wedding stuff, medication)
8/05 : 74$ (groceries & eating out)
8/06 : 0$
8/07 : 63$ (food + walmart)
8/08 : 0$ Thanks to my lovely fiance who decided to pay for the movie rental and ice cream.

 

[SunnieRN]

August:

Groc $400 ($200 per pay period)
Eating Out $200 ($100 per pay period, this includes entertainment)
August birthdays $150 (to be complete!!)

Goal: 14 no spend days

8/1: $0
8/2: $0 (Have to go for a mammogram . but no co-pay!
8/3: $54 Groceries, savings $12.43; medication $60.00 (3 months of one med), $8.98, breakfast out after blood work, prior to grocery shopping.
8/4: $0 thank goodness. Work tomorrow also!!
8/5: $0 But Sat. a LEGO store opens in Austin and H&D's has tasting day, so have to try for another no-buy tomorrow!.
8/6: $0 and this was a hard one as I REALLY want to skip cooking tonight! But I want to go to Austin on Sunday (now), more!!
8/7: $31 Alright, I caved! My grandson asked, very sweetly I might add, for pizza, then a different one for Daddy, a 3rd for DD, and I really don't like pizza, so I ate a peanut butter sand!
8/8: $148.79 Lego Store; $17.89, lunch at the mall; $4.78 fruit and french bread. Great mall, had fun!

$0 Days: 5/14
Groc $: $400 - $54/$4.78
Eat Out $200 - $8.98/$31/$17.89
Aug Bd's $150 - $14.53

Good Luck everyone!!

 

[charming23]

Finally finished the last of my homework for the end of the summer semester and as long as I did not screw anything up on the finals I should have A's in both classes so another 4.0 this semester.

August Budget-

Groceries- $200/ $142.28 left
Household- $50
Gas- $50
Eating out/entertainment- $50/ $33.42 left
Misc- $50/ $40.12 left

total- $400/ $315.82 left

10 No buy Days

8/1- Out of town
8/2- Out of town
8/3- Out of town
8/4- $0
8/5- Dinner out $16.58 and $57.72 for groceries
8/6- $0
8/7- $9.88 Walgreen's
8/8- $0

3/10 No Buy Days

 

[QVCshopper]

MickeyMomOfThree - Thanks for the Chuck E Cheese tips. I'll have to use some of those... we went again because they have this machine my DD loves that puts her face on different cards. It's really cute!

No-buy days: 3/10
Spent: $337/$900 [not including gas/bills]

8/1 - $11 Gymboree; $50 Target; $4 DD; $11 Subway; $5.50 AA; $10 Wegmans
8/2 - $0
8/3 - $56.50 Wegmans; $2 Five Below
8/4 - $0
8/5 - $32.60 Walgreens; $.88 Post Office; $2 Dr Office
8/6 - $12.50 Chuck E Cheese; $6.50 McD; $8 Ice Cream Cookies!; $3.50 pretzels
8/7 - $9 Farmers Market; $6 Giant
8/8 - $6 PB Kids; $8 VS; $4 Disney; $4.50 Chuck E Cheese; $13 TJ; $12 Wegmans; $1 Hallmark; $18.50 Chinese Food; $22 Genuardis; $16 Napa Auto; $2 B&N
8/9 - $0

 

[pigletto]

Hope it is o.k. if I join in at this late hour. Anything squeezed from the household budget can go into the Disney mad money fund for our trip a the end of the month so I would like to keep track until we leave in 23 days
Today I did groceries for the next two weeks.

8/8 $80 groceries (using up what is already here),
$78 printer ink,a few school supplies and gas

8/9 $13.00 Passport photos
8/10 $97 Passport renewal fee
8/11 $0
8/12 $0
8/13 $0
8/14 $0
8/15 $40 gas
8/16 $ 0

 

[Priorityonecb]

I would like to really get on board with this in September (leading up to our trip leaving on 9/23) as a way to save for extra money for that. I am going to play along this month just to get the hang of it! I have no idea how many I should "aim" for this month, I will say 12. At our house, dh pays all the regular bills and I pay for groceries and "fun" out of my paycheck so I won't add in copays or bills.

August 1- $25 travel snacks on way to Myrtle Beach!
August 2- $10 rice name bracelet, $5 Frozen Hot chocolate
August 3- $0 day
August 4- $90 Dd swim with stingrays, $30 Planet Hollywood dinner
August 5- $0 day
August 6- $30 Back to school supplies $6 Subway lunch
August 7- $0 day!
August 8- $5 Wendy's drinks and snack while out running errands.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Goals: 15 $0 Buy days
Max spending $500 for gas, food (groceries & eating out), and miscellaneous.

01 - $0! 1
02 - $0! 2
03 - $61.90 Breaux Mart, Amazon, Dollar Tree
04 - $10.86 Winn-Dixie
05 - $20.12 Chateau Orleans, Cane's
06 - $22.69 Snoball, gas
07 - $0! 3
08 - $0! 4

Totals:
$0 Buy: 4/15...............27%
Spending: $115.57/500...23%
Days in Month: 8/31.......26%

Averages:
$500/31 days= $16.13
$115.57/8 days= $14.45 <<Woohoo! I'm below average right now!

I am off to a much better start this month than last!

We have a similar deal here with Giant Food and Shell but it's 10c off for every $100 you spend.

I kind of had the same thing happen to me because I had 300 "points" saved up = $300 dollars which should have meant 30c per gallon off.

I only got 10c off. I hope my other 20c is still on there! It sounds like Shell does not have it's computers programmed correctly or something.

I am going to Winn-Dixie tomorrow. I am going to have to check my receipt. If something is wrong, I'm going to call their number they have on their FAQ site.

Hi- don't worry. The first month is all about learning what your habits are, and then you can start doing some fixes the 2nd month.

I don't want to bore any of the regulars who have heard this before, but for me the value of 0 spend is tracking my expenses and staying under budget, and the 0 spend days are just another tool to make that happen.

I noticed you counted the $611 you spent on barres for your studio. I'm not sure that I would have counted a business expense here- unless it comes out of your personal budget?

If I had to report big business expenses I might get disccouraged- we don't want you to get discouraged.

I agree with this. I posted further up thread that I track several more categories on my master budget sheet for myself. I only post spending in categories that I tend to leak money in, and categories that are discretionary. I do not track vet bills or anything health related on here, because those are categories that I will dip into the emergency fund if necessary. I will not put things off in those categories (within reason).

08-01 $0!
08-02 $0!
08-03 $0!
08-04 $6 & change on dinner.
08-05 $0!
08-06 $0!
08-07 $0!
08-08 $0!
08-09 Dentist today. Not *exactly* budgeted for. (and way more expensive than i thought it could ever be) I'm so glad I finally found a dentist I like! Because I dislike the dentist in general, I will probably treat myself to something after the appointment for being brave!!

Goal: 12
Met: 7 !
Days to go: 5

You are doing awesome!

There are many people on this thread off to a great start this month!