Feb No Buy! Short Month! We can do this!

[Where'sPiglet?]

1: $20.89 gas ($2.86/gallon)
2: $0!
3: $0!
4: $0!
5: $138.70 Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, SaveALot, Rouses, Winn-Dixie, Wendy's
6: $0!
7: $0!
8: $0!
9: $0!
10: $0!

$0 Days: 8
Spending: $159.59/$475= 34%
Days Passed: 10/28: 36%

Goal: To keep spending to within $475 for food, gas, and miscellaneous. I do not track bills; I only track "point of sale" transactions.

My spending and days passed percentages are back in alignment!

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Got my receipts and ready to put down totals!
2/3 No spend
2/4 Gas $27, $62 Grocery, $66 Shampoo
2/5 No Spend
2/6 No spend
2/7 $12 lunch, $35 Cat necessities
2/8 No spend
2/9 No spend
2/10 No spend!!
Hoping for a no spend tomorrow......

I have honestly cut my spending by at least 50-75+/- % comparing bank/credit card statements from August-December compared to last month and so far this month since joining here and having to post details. Love Love this board

That's great!

Also, you probably already know this, but if you want to quote your whole post to add to it as the month goes on, you need to go back to this post and click the edit button to remove the quote brackets from your prior post. The boards won't quote a quote that is within a quote.

Have a blessed day everyone! Bye the way, do any of you "Dave Ramsey"? I am just using the envelope idea. Just starting. Every dollar has a name, seems like an awesome mantra!

I follow most of his ideas. I am not as gazelle as some people. I don't do the full envelope idea, but I have found that if I spend only cash I do spend far less. I am only using a credit card for my gas, so I can pay at the pump. All the rest of my budget is going to cash only. It's so nice to have less transactions to track and it's so visually obvious. I don't use envelopes because I track my categories on the computer. I just put all the cash together in my wallet. I do have projected amounts for each category.

The other thing I like about not using credit cards is that the transaction is done at the time of sale. With a cc, I'm still paying for things I bought in December. I don't like to see that same transaction multiple times!

 

[SunnieRN]

I follow most of his ideas. I am not as gazelle as some people. I don't do the full envelope idea, but I have found that if I spend only cash I do spend far less. I am only using a credit card for my gas, so I can pay at the pump. All the rest of my budget is going to cash only. It's so nice to have less transactions to track and it's so visually obvious. I don't use envelopes because I track my categories on the computer. I just put all the cash together in my wallet. I do have projected amounts for each category.

The other thing I like about not using credit cards is that the transaction is done at the time of sale. With a cc, I'm still paying for things I bought in December. I don't like to see that same transaction multiple times!

I have medical debt to pay, before I try to pay anything else, but I think I really like the envelope idea. I am only using credit for gas and an occasional toy at TRU just to keep it open, but pay it off every month. Thank you for the help!

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

I have medical debt to pay, before I try to pay anything else, but I think I really like the envelope idea. I am only using credit for gas and an occasional toy at TRU just to keep it open, but pay it off every month. Thank you for the help!

There is a free forum called www.llnoe.com that is VERY gazelle. Each of Dave's baby steps has its own sub-forum. I rarely post over there, but I do lurk a lot because it helps keep me on track, and it helps to see what strategies other people are using. It's like this thread on steroids.

 

[SunnieRN]

There is a free forum called www.llnoe.com that is VERY gazelle. Each of Dave's baby steps has its own sub-forum. I rarely post over there, but I do lurk a lot because it helps keep me on track, and it helps to see what strategies other people are using. It's like this thread on steroids.

Thanks so much! I have EVERY penny accounted for, for 2011, with a healthy amount of savings, which I don't have and will hopefully pay off 3/4 of my medical debt this year. It's quite different than my normal, ok you have the money, buy it ideas. You ALWAYS inspire me! There is allowance for unforeseen circumstances, by juggling saving amounts, but hopefully that won't be a necessity! I am NOT gazelle however. Wish I were though!

 

[sandyh67]

Love this thread!
I know I am jumping in late- but this is perfect timing for me
We leave for WDW- AKV in 10 days and am really hoping to spend very little from now until we leave.

Did an inventory of food in our fridge/ freezer/ pantry today and did a final big trip to Wal-mart hoping to empty out our cupboards before the trip- so here is my list of expenses for today

$199 Wal-mart- groceries and treats for V-day for the kids as well as a few treats to surprise the kids with when we arrive at AKV
$38 Aldi
$22 dog food

Hoping to make tomorrow a no-spend day except for the $40 I took out in cash today to pay my daughters tutor tomorrow.

Since I have just 10 days to vacation I will set my goal at 5 no spend days until we leave

 

[Virgderon]

Happy birthday Charming! Hope you have a fabulous day!

I have been having a lot of work issues and I am seriously stressed . I feel a little better today. I'm usually a very upbeat person, so this is unusual for me. I've decided to keep pursuing a new job- I want my work life to be as positive as my personal life.

I treated myself and bought Olay moisturizer and body wash today. I've been buying the cheap stuff for awhile, and I had a good coupon. It felt like the right time to be nice to myself.


Running Total: Spent $483
$1200 budget... 717 left
$0 Days: 3
Goal is 8 or more!
coupon/sale savings :61

Groceries budget- $250-25-14-45-31= 135 left

Feb. 1 : 45 (groceries and laundry detg, snacks for hockey game tonight, 10 for parking at hockey game tonight)
Feb. 2 : 0
Feb. 3: 24 (10 shipping DDs e-bay stuff, 14 pop and bread)
Feb. 4: 23 (Cracker Barrell)
Feb. 5: 250 (205 car repair, 45 groceries)
Feb. 6: 0
Feb. 7: 20 (dr. co-pay)
Feb. 8 : 62 (32 bowling, 6 food at bowling, 14 Walgreens pop & misc, 10 Walgreens prescription co-pay)
Feb. 9 : 0
feb. 10 : 58 (27 Walgreens, 31 Publix - got some good bogos today!)

 

[A.Mickey]

Running Total: Spent $888.48
$0 Days:3/10

Groceries ($252-$9/day)- $129.09
Eating Out ($196-$7/day)- $37.54
Misc. (Shopping/Entertainment) ($1008-$36/day) $620.85 $330 Planned left= $92 Great America, Have $224 left for Ohio Hotel, $14 Metra to see Musical[/COLOR]
Gas $200?- $25 (2/3), $48 (2/6), $28 (2/8) = $101

WEEK 1 BEGIN:
1- $12.68 (McDonald's-Eating Out), $21.04 (Walgreens-Groceries), $6.34 (Meijer-Groceries)
2- As much as I would like to go out, to get a few items at Dominick's before they are off sale, it is not happening. We got 22" of snow! Only emergency and medical vehicles are allowed on the road.
$0
3- $31.43 (Meijer-Groceries), $4.88 (McDonald's-Eating Out)
4- $0
5- $9.97 (CVS-Groceries), $5.99 (Dominick's-Groceries)
WEEK 2 BEGIN:
6- $2 (Dollar Tree-Papers), $6.37 (Meijer-Groceries), $3/bag, probably got over 50 kids books (Library Book Sale-Shopping), $12.95 (Walgreens-Groceries), $13.98 (Wendy's-Eating Out), $291.60 (Hotel for 2 nights St. Louis in July, staying right next to the arch and we can walk to Busch stadium for the U2 concert), $101.25 (Car Registration-Misc.)
7- $35 (Joe Caputo-Groceries)
8- $200 (Registration for Spring Classes for our 3 year old son and preschool in the fall)
9- $6 (McDonald's-Eating Out), $23 (Post Office-Misc. Needed to send in a DSLR lens that broke on our trip in December, it is still under warranty though, so hopefully this will save me money in the long run, and also bought a book of stamps)
10- $0
11- No Buy?
12-
WEEK 3 BEGIN:


Budget: $1656....54%
Month: 10/28: 36%
No Buy: 3/10: 30%

My savings from coupons and sales: $352.71

 

[3goofyboys]

I'm in again this month!

Welcome new faces, hope you love the thread!

I've shooting for a goal of 12 no-buys for the shorter month. This month both DH and I have birthdays, plus v-day so that ads some extra expenses. Thankfully, we aren't having major birthdays this year so no big parties and we never do anything big for v-day. We are planning on buying a new house in March or April, so we need to do some saving to prep for the extra moving expenses.

Feb 1 I like to start the month with a no buy, but no such luck today. $70 had to register the boys for soccer and swimming, but I found out I had a big credit on my account (yay for found money!) so that took care of half the bill, $60 groceries.


Feb 2 It was errand day today, so $$$! $170 groceries, $40 gas, $25 filed my taxes. Hopefully this will take care of any spending through early next week.


Feb 3 We got caught out unexpectedly at lunch time, so we had to hit Subway. I could have waited, but DH gets very cranky if he isn't fed on schedule ! $15 Subway.

Feb 4 $6 dinner with my parents, $23 gas

Feb 5 woo hoo! Finally a no buy day!


Feb 6

Feb 7 $21 lunch, $40 dinner, $89 paperwork that need to be ordered. I feel terrible that we had lunch AND dinner out today. But, we're in the middle of crazy loan/house stuff and after dealing with that and a preschool board meeting today plus babysitting a friend's little boy, I did not have cooking dinner in me!

Feb 8 Calling it early because the roads are awful and we're staying inside!

Feb 9 It's been a pricey couple of days! $64 moving supplies, $10 Inta Juice

Feb 10 $30 Home Depot-more boxes, $40 gas, $18 medical, $22 driver's license, $33 date night with DH

3/12 no buy days

 

[3goofyboys]

02/09 $18.00 in hospital caf food. There was a family emergency and spent the day and night at the hospital.
02/10 By 6:00am I had already spent $6.00 on juice, bagel, and a fruit cup Hospital caf food is outrageously expensive. I'm back home to shower and to pack up food to bring back up to the hospital.

Sending positive thoughts your way.

I am already reporting tomorrow as a $0/Exempt day since it is my birthday. We are going to head to the Rainforest at the zoo to look around and have lunch.

Happy Birthday

I think I'm only good at saving money, not spending it. Oh well.

I REALLY wish I had this problem !

I treated myself and bought Olay moisturizer and body wash today. I've been buying the cheap stuff for awhile, and I had a good coupon. It felt like the right time to be nice to myself.

Everyone deserves a treat sometimes. Hope work gets better.

 

[nunzia]

Feb 1- Gas $20, Walmart shopping trip during a snowstorm..ack: $106.89 (more than I expected to spend, but dogs have to eat and DH needs his beer) coupons: $8.45
2- $0 (even New Mexico was snowed in today)
3- took a friend visiting from Florida out for lunch $22.87, went to Dollar Tree for hash browns but got my DH his favorite cookies instead since they had no hash browns $5.00, ended up at Lowes for hash browns $1.99
4- $12.00..out for lunch with another friend
5- $0
6- $0
7- $0
8- $0 ( to be fair..I did buy a plane ticket for DH's trip to join me after Expo next year, but that wasn't an optional purchase and money came from trip account..I'm only counting optional things, food and gas, not things that are locked in stone)
9- Big spending day! DH medicine and gas: $20, groceries: $39, Leapfrog site,,they still have some DIDJ stuff on clearance and I bought DGS a Didj for Christmas and he loves it so needed to get stuff before it totally disappears, plus a charger to save on batteries, so $53, and DH had to buy materials to replace the pad to our bedroom carpet that got ruined during the big stupid freeze/thaw we had, so $166 ACK Coupons, $2.50 (PS edited to *** $4.90 to ship Valentines stuff to out of state grandkids..forgot to yesterday)
10- $0
11-
12-
13-
14-
15-
16-
17-
18-
19-
20-
21-
22-
23-
24-
25-
26-
27-
28-

6/12

 

[IMALOVNDISNEY]

Thank you. 3goofyboys... Think we're breaking out of ICU today.

 

[Tiggerish]

The February budget is $850 with 12 no spend days.

Auto $70 / $40 left
Eating Out/Entertainment $85 / $77 left
Giving $10
Groceries/Household Goods $250 /$247 left
Medical $25
Misc. $75 / $42 left
Set bills $335 / $144 left

I have two exceptions to my budget this month - - everything related to my cataract surgeries and an over night business trip (legal stuff) to Chicago.

No spend days goal of 12 / 6
Coupon savings $30.58
Christmas '11 running total = $8
---------------------------------------------------------------------

2/1 $0
2/2 $0
2/3 Auto $30 (gas); Groceries $3; Eating out $5
2/4 $0
2/4 Misc. $33 (birthday present for my brother-in-law)
2/6 Set bills $191 (Church, hosp., Dr. and dentist)
2/7 $0
2/8 $0
2/9 $3 Eating out
2/10 $0

 

[msmama]

]I'm going to go for 14 No Buys - half the month.

I'm also going to track spending this month (I already took $ out of the Feb budget, lol):
Groceries: 292/300 - 8 left lol
Car: 34/80 - 46 left
Dining out/Entertainment: 82/100 - 18 left
Gifts/Valentines: 110/100 - 10 over

(My goal grocery budget is actually 100 less than my actual grocery budget but I'm going to see what I can do). I also have a minor surgrey scheduled in the middle of the month so I'll have extra medical expenses, but hopefully a few no-buys while I'm at home recovering.

2/1 - 5 -met friend for coffee
2/2 - 0
2/3 - 0
2/4 - 97+9 - Target and Taco Bell
2/5 - 55+66+8 - Sale meat at Grocery store, Flowers for BFF and Quiznos
2/6 - 0
2/7 - 0 (if I call it now then I can't spend, right?)
2/8 - 0
2/9 - 50+60 (baby present and Tangled preorder and dinner out with soon to give birth friend)
2/10 - 0 (got Cash from the ATM but didn't spend it so I figure it counts as "No Buy")
2/11 -
2/12
2/13
2/14 - SURGERY
2/15
2/16
2/17
2/18
2/19
2/20
2/21
2/22
2/23
2/24
2/25
2/26
2/27
2/28

6/14 No Buy Days![/QUOTE]

Doing okay with the No Buys, but I'm blowing the budget. Although I consider it bad beginnning of he month budgeting on my part instead of spending too much.

 

[thebeesknees]

2/1 - $0
2/2 - $0
2/3 - $0
2/4 - $0
2/5 - $0
2/6 - $0
2/7 - $22 Dollar Tree, $66 Target, $13 Walmart, $3 McDonald's
2/8 - $200 Sam's Club
2/9 - $19 Walmart, $1 Dollar Tree, $17 Thrift Store
2/10 - $0
2/11 - $0

8 of 12 no-buy days so far.

 

[Tiggerish]

The February budget is $850 with 12 no spend days.

Auto $70 / $40 left
Eating Out/Entertainment $85 / $64 left
Giving $10
Groceries/Household Goods $250 /$235 left
Medical $25
Misc. $75 / $42 left
Set bills $335 / $144 left

I have two exceptions to my budget this month - - everything related to my cataract surgeries and an over night business trip (legal stuff) to Chicago.

No spend days goal of 12 / 6
Coupon savings $30.58
Christmas '11 running total = $8
---------------------------------------------------------------------

2/1 $0
2/2 $0
2/3 Auto $30 (gas); Groceries $3; Eating out $5
2/4 $0
2/4 Misc. $33 (birthday present for my brother-in-law)
2/6 Set bills $191 (Church, hosp., Dr. and dentist)
2/7 $0
2/8 $0
2/9 $3 Eating out
2/10 $0
2/11 Groceries $12; Eating out $13 (took my sister to lunch - I am working on her allowing me take her two girls to WDW in August and I just upped the offer to include the whole family so now the ball is in her court.)

 

[SunnieRN]

February goals: No spend days: 12
Food budget: Try for $200 for the rest of the month
Save: $800.00
Medical $150
Cash: $100 for 2 weeks, starting 2/11

Feb 1: $0
Feb 2: $62.50 Groceries
Feb 3: $0
Feb 4: $0
Fab 5: $40.00 prescription
Feb 6: $27.60 Chuck E Cheese, GM #2 birthday party
Feb 7: $0
Feb 8: $10 CEC to have lunch and use leftover tokens. (Money from spendable cash, last pay period. Payday 2/11 start over with $100/2 weeks)
Feb 9: I just got home from working 13 hours. I also have to go back to do it again in 9 1/2 hours. That is why I can post now and be 100% sure this will be a $0 day!! Sleep, eat and clean up for work.
Feb 10: $0
Feb 11: $92.00 groceries and Valentines Day; $90, Credit Cards (used 1 x mo. and paid off each month); $800.00 to savings; $103 to Med cushion; $142 Clothing cushion.

$0 Days: 6

 

[Virgderon]

My dd in Japan got engaged today. My mom had donated my grandmas diamond, and dd's fiance sent me a picture of a setting she liked and a check to go have the diamond put into a beautiful setting. We ended up having the ring custom made to look just like the picture, and he planned a whole day for her doing all her favorite things in Japan. Then he surprised her at the end of the day with the ring. She is very happy,and he is a wonderful young man. Love is wonderful, isnt it?

Running Total: Spent $499
$1200 budget... 701 left
$0 Days: 3
Goal is 8 or more!
coupon/sale savings :61

Groceries budget- $250-25-14-45-31= 135 left

Feb. 1 : 45 (groceries and laundry detg, snacks for hockey game tonight, 10 for parking at hockey game tonight)
Feb. 2 : 0
Feb. 3: 24 (10 shipping DDs e-bay stuff, 14 pop and bread)
Feb. 4: 23 (Cracker Barrell)
Feb. 5: 250 (205 car repair, 45 groceries)
Feb. 6: 0
Feb. 7: 20 (dr. co-pay)
Feb. 8 : 62 (32 bowling, 6 food at bowling, 14 Walgreens pop & misc, 10 Walgreens prescription co-pay)
Feb. 9 : 0
feb. 10 : 58 (27 Walgreens, 31 Publix - got some good bogos today!)
Feb. 11: 16 ( card and small gift for DH for Valentines day)

 

[QVCshopper]

Virgderon - Congrats for your DD! That's so sweet, right around Valentines Day, too.

As for my update, we didn't like the house today (home of a smoker) so we will continue to save. Thinking maybe we should stay put for now... Did spend today, but will update later.

 

[Tiggerish]

Virgderon - congradulations to your family. How wonderful and clever of him to involve her whole family, even long distance.