No Buy January 2010

[Alice1386]

I am SO in for this year! I just wanted to say hi for now. I guess now I need to go look at my finances for the month. This month is going to need to be extra tight due to one great vacation a couple of weeks ago Oops

 

[Goofygirl17]

I'm in! I don't have a written budget but I really need to have as many $0 days as possible this month. We are going to have to buy a new car very soon so I'm going to try to save everywhere possible.

I'll have to go back and read all the posts for motivation!!

 

[samshane]

I need to join this! We leave for Disney Feb 2 and I don't want to spend anything other than absolutely necessary...

I will have $50-60 in business expenses (I work part-time out of my house and part-time at a college). I have been working of a few projects and need some more ink! I am running out...

But other than that I don't forsee anything extra (other than the regular bills that come up every month!)

I also want to limit my grocery budget to about $600 (including gas) for the entire month.

We want to have another $1500 put away for Disney before we leave - so I am going to try my hardest to cut everywhere I can and spend nothing... I *think* I can do it!

 

[IMALOVNDISNEY]

I am so in for this month. I fell off the wagon a few months back. I need the "No Spend" threads to keep me accountable. It's like WW for me.

My breakdown:
Groceries: $550 ($150 of this is for a large meat purchase that will last me atleast 3 months).

Gas: $160 My car only. DH drives a company van. They pay for all his gas

Entertainment/Eat Out: $150 tops. We have dinners scheduled, but, I already purchased gc's for these or have gotten gc's for Christmas. And have already purchased event tickets.

School lunches for DD: $50
Band trip to Boston $150

Total is $1,060.00
Goal for -0- spend days is 15

 

[kinntj]

I'm in! I started this past week in December to get ready. Out of 6 days, I had 2 $0 days, so that was good.

Expenses I see coming up are: Gymanstics $150, dance $33, company holiday party (drinks), pants and boots for me, and school lunches for DD7 (we do packed lunches, but I allow her to have 1 school lunch a week).

I'm hoping for 20 $0 days out of 31. Grocery allowance -$125-150 a week.

Now let's begin and see how we all do.

 

[cjackearl]

Hi All! I'm excited to join in this month. I need to spend some time tomorrow reworking some budget line items, so I'll come back and edit if need be, but for now our flexible spending looks like this:

Grocery, household and gas-$800
Entertainment-$75

As far as extras, I've got a $35 K-cup purchase, using the buy 2 boxes, get 2 free registration deal, to TRY to squeeze out of my grocery budget, but it might have to be extra. These will last us for a good long while.

We've also got a kid birthday, so probably another $15 for that.

I'm picking this number out of the air, but I'm going to try for 15 no spend days.

 

[NHMom4]

I have never tried this before so I will start light. 7 $0 days is my goal.

Jan. 1: about $130 for groceries
Jan. 2: $12 for birthday present, $5 for lunch

Total: $147

 

[annsteere]

I'm in!

Gas, Grocery, Eating out, Household budget for the month: $700 combined
doesn't matter how it breaks out as long as $700 is the limit

This makes sense to me. I'm always puzzled by people who list a budget number for gas. In my world, gas costs what it costs. If it is high, we need to eat more beans and less carry out.

Good luck to you.

 

[A.Mickey]

I have no solid idea how much we spend on what the last 8 months- shopping is all at supermarkets that sell everything so I need to figure out a working budget for two adults, a 6 year old and a toddler. My brother sent me to mint.com so I am using that to track everything we do.

Mint.com is awesome! I highly recommend it to anyone looking to get their finances in order! I started doing it last January and it really opened my eyes to see where I am financial and help me see what I was spending all my money on!

This year I need to get out of credit card debt and pay cash for the Podcast Cruise 2.0! I hope everyone sticks around this month! Last month it was getting kinda lonely!

 

[estherhead]

I'm in too. We're a family of 5. We've joined once before.

My goal is to have 15 $0.00 days.

I will be spending some money on a kids field trip tomorrow.

I will be spending about $200.00 on some kind of skiing/tubing day trip.

I will be spending about $500.00 at the end of the month on a 5 day anniversary cruise my dh & I are taking.

So those are my exceptions. Other than that I will follow my monthly budget which is so much more than many of you and yet still so hard for me to keep! I won't post the details here but if I can have 15 no buy days and keep to my own little budget I'll be THRILLED!

 

[KibbyCat]

Great idea, Dawn. I had forgotten about the envelope thing. We did Dave Ramsey's course earlier this year and never got around to going cash-only. I think I'll adopt this method for my budget, leaving only my bill money in the bank account. Hopefully that will help me curb my unnecessary spending!

 

[luvsJack]

This makes sense to me. I'm always puzzled by people who list a budget number for gas. In my world, gas costs what it costs. If it is high, we need to eat more beans and less carry out.

Good luck to you.

I can answer that! for me anyway. Unless gas takes a HUGE jump, it cost about $40 to fill up my tank. Since gas varies a bit going up and down per gallon each week, it will even out to the same over the month. I fill up once a week on Sunday-and this tank does us for the week. Period. It helps to make us conserve and to combine trips to town. The only "extra" trip I have to make (other than daily work and school) is to dd's dance class each week, so after that its just a matter of making it last. Of, course there are things that come up and require an extra tank of gas but that doesn't happen very often.

 

[luvsJack]

Great idea, Dawn. I had forgotten about the envelope thing. We did Dave Ramsey's course earlier this year and never got around to going cash-only. I think I'll adopt this method for my budget, leaving only my bill money in the bank account. Hopefully that will help me curb my unnecessary spending!

I will be doing something similar this year too. And for some reason my debit card has stopped working (I guess the magnetic strip ) Dh fussed at me for not calling the bank, but I keep thinking this may be just what I need! That thing can just as dangerous as a credit card!!

 

[wdwfan16]

This makes sense to me. I'm always puzzled by people who list a budget number for gas. In my world, gas costs what it costs. If it is high, we need to eat more beans and less carry out.

Good luck to you.

We are like you. We gas up when needed. Maybe they live in a city and they only drive a short distance. We are not in a city so we drive to get to places. Today we will drive 30 miles to our friends house. We were invited yesterday so there was no way to budget for it. For work I know what DH and I spend but the extra driving is unpredictable.

I did this in October and November but not December. We were too busy to keep up. I only keep track of $0 days.

 

[Goofygirl17]

Okay, today will not be a true $0 day because I am planning on going to Border's and buying books. But, I am using my $5 borders bucks, a coupon, and my gift card I will also stop by CVS and get my $25 gc for a new rx that they ran out of the other day.

I do need to read the grocery flyers and make a list for the week.

 

[SnowWhite607]

I always seem to go over on groceries and eating out so these are the 2 catagories I am going to try to control (again). I bought groceries yesterday so I will just count them toward today.

DD also has her birthday this month so I am going to try to budget for party stuff - food and paper goods, etc.

Groceries (including paper products and cat stuff) - 400.00

Eating out - 200.00

Party for DD - 100.00

600.00 seems like a lot for groceries/eating out for 3 people, right?? But that does include breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks so..............??

My biggest challenge this year is to only buy things that I *NEED* and stop buying so much unnecessary stuff just becasue its on sale or whatever.

 

[Pooki]

I want to play! I want to play! We really need to get a grip on our spending, its absolutely absurd, and we do have a few pricey expenses coming up this year that we need to plan for. I want to start using cash as well for our expenses so we are more aware of not only how much we spent, but how much we have left! I may have to adjust the budget if I see its not fitting, but here is my plan so far:

Groceries: 0/500 (actually, $125/week)
Clothing: 0/100
Entertainment/Dining: 0/200
Misc: 0/100
Total Spent: 0/900
No Buy Days: 1/1

Day 1: $0! (Helps that everything is closed!)

 

[cjackearl]

The bad news= my DH forgot to tell me that his paycheck, which would normally be posted today, will be delayed until Monday and I didn't transfer any from savings since I didn't know.


The good news= 3 $0 days!! Unintentional counts too, right?

 

[KibbyCat]

My spending goal for the month is $1000, or $200 per week.

Gas/Groceries - $500 ($125/week)
Giving - $100 ($25/week)
Misc - $100 ($25/week)
Debt Reduction - $200 ($50/week)
Entertainment/Eating Out - $100 ($25/week)

I would like to have at least 10 $0 days

Jan 01 - $36 (Schwan's): Gas/Groceries $500 - $36 = $464 ($88 for the week)

 

[kinntj]

Happy New Year!!!

1/1 - $0