No Buy January

[luvsmickeymouse]

Jan 1, no spending

Jan 2 no spending

Jan 3 spent $1.45 on coffee- BUT- I found the dollar so I only actually used 45 cents of my money.

 

[jenniferma]

I'm new on this thread too-- count me in! We returned quite a few things from xmas and used a $$ gift from my parents to cut our Visa bills down to around $350 (which is a great improvement) even though it was sort of depressing to do-- It needed to be done! Now if we can just stay on budget!

I am trying to ONLY spend money on groceries and necessities...

My only plan so far is to try and avoid stores like Target and the mall etc.. and we really want to limit eating out.

I used to try and buy ahead for next year (with my DD6) clothes, but I have been off for two years in a row with sizes, so I don't think I am going to do that this year. This should help..

My one splurge will be a camera for my birthday.. I have three kids under 6.. I really need a camera that works!

thanks everyone for tips!
Jen

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

Spent 147.50 on a propane bill to help an elderly lady that did not have the money. (Ok I don't regret this)

What a generous thing to do.

Today I got my oil changed and a haircut, both were planned expenditures. I spent more on the oil change than I had budgeted (their prices went up), but I spent less on the haircut plus DS decided he didn't want one, he wants me to trim it instead so it balanced out and I'm still in my budget.

I also called today and cut my newspaper down to Sunday only. I'm actually not sure how I ended up with it daily, but I've been too lazy to call so I've been paying for it . I also emailed a rewards place that my DH accidentally signed up for when he ordered me flowers (last June ), he can't call them and I don't know if they'll let me cancel it since it's in his name so I emailed in his name. I hope it works, that's $14.95 a month we've been paying.

 

[paulasillars]

What else is there to do that is free?

Not sure about where you live but I go to the library and get books out - hours of entertainment. Also some museums and gallerys are free. Also they are great in the winter so I don't have to heat the house

One thing I also do when I bored is to cook a big batch of something like stew/curry/casserole. That does the evening meal and then I freeze meal size portions for lunches and other quick meals to resist the get takeaway urge.

3rd Jan - survived doing the groceries by sticking pretty much to the list. I only slipped up twice and that was a couple of too good to miss deals. I got lots of snacky things to take to work to resist the temptation to buy junk - they are healthy snacks too. I also got a lot of dried fruits and nuts to make another batch of homemade muesli - I much prefer it to the store bought stuff, not to mention that it costs a lot less than a packet of junk cereal too.
Spent $2.50 at the library for a CD I had reserved and got another pile of books out.

4th Jan - Had lunch out with my Mum at the mall foodcourt - $8.50 - should have been $6.50 but the guy short changed me and I didn't notice until after we'd left - that's a good reminder to always check my change!
I also spent $4 on two new books by a New Zealand author at a thrift store which I have popped aside for gifts - one will be for my niece in the UK and the second most likely for a friend in California.

What I did to save money? - homemade muesli I think is a money saver and it certainly saves my waistline LOL
Borrowed a CD instead of buying it - if I like it that much, I'll budget for it. Lastly paid second hand prices for a new gift.

5th Jan - should be $0 day and on 6th Jan I'll go to the local market to get some cheap, fresh veges and eggs - they are half the price of the supermarket.

 

[Kate and Pete]

Okay, no money spent on 1/1 or 1/2 (thank goodness for snowstorms!!)

Today on the way home from work DH informed me his friend Todd was over working on patching some of our drywall that needed patching. And Todd needed help with a resume - sooo - free labor traded for resume help = $0! And instead of stopping and picking up a take out pizza, I ran by the grocery store - got a couple necessities and a frozen pizza - all well within this week's budget!

The tough part of the month for me will be 18th-21st, when I go to NY. However, I'm vowing not to buy ANYTHING - just take lots of photos of all the places I visit. Meals, flight, hotel are already taken care of!

Thanks for the thread - it's keeping me accountable!!

 

[vellamint]

Okay I am going to jump in here and try this too.

1/1 $0
1/2 $0
1/3 $91 gasoline (budgeted)
1/4 is going to be bad.....the dog has these warts that the vet said were nothing.....but now they are starting to bleed so to the vet tomorrow.....

This thread has been in the back of my mind all through December and after looking at our Christmas bills.....IM IN!! lol

 

[reginaastralis]

1/3 - Today wasn't a bad day at all. This morning, I spent $7 at Publix for cookies for Julie's class. The Publix yesterday only had Christmas decorated cookies, and the one on the way to school had "football" decorated cookies. They were decorated in the Buc's colors. We don't like football, but I laughed at that ... there aren't many to choose from, but luckily kids are't very picky.

Tonight I stopped at Walmart and spent $59. $40 of it on a giftcard for gas, $5 on candy, $5 on shampoo/soap, and then $8 on gifts for Julie. Part of the candy is for Valentine's day, but I bought her a pack of M&M's as well. I'm leaning towards getting her a Bitty Baby ... but that's not in the budget. It might be her half birthday present though.

Total Spending:
1/1 - $0
1/2 - $37
1/3 - $66

Tomorrow and the rest of the week should be $0's though. Woot!

 

[smiller]

1/3 - $5.14 at CVS for 8 SoyJoy bars. I'm planning on going back and getting 17 more for FREE by using coupons and ECBs. And I actually really like SoyJoy so I'm in luck! It's my mid-morning or mid-afternoon pick-me-up that I so often need at work.

I'm getting nervous about meeting my grocery budget for this month. I sure hope I can keep it under $80! I cut a few potential meals from my plan to save a few bucks. We'll see how it all works out.

 

[iggbees]

.

 

[eeyoresmom]

Hi everyone, since it's Friday lot's of us are getting paid today or yesterday. Just wanted to offer a little support toward everyones planning

 

[kandeebunny]

I *still* have strep (yep a week of it!) so today will again be a $0 day for me, it's been no fun, but great on the budget lol

 

[McDuck]

We did pretty good keeping groceries under budget--$31 at the Commissary and $21 at Sam's. Unfortunately, we ran out of a couple of sundries/meds so we've spent about $18 on razors and shaving cream. Other than that, though, we've been really good about not buying anything other than what we need over the last couple of days.

DH needs to get gas today, and I'll have to get an extra fill-up with having to drive back to NOLA tomorrow.

On the good news front, though, I got offered a contract position from my temp agency--just waiting to hear if the company they sent my resume to wants me. This would be great b/c so far it's been feast or famine (and mostly famine!) and this would be M-F!

 

[momx2]

Yesterday DH did spend some out of budget, but it was all things we needed/had to have, I just didn't budget for them. Here they are:

battery for downstairs phone (it was going dead after a few hours) $15;
microphone for DH's computer (has to have it to train for a job) $8;
headphones to plug in downstairs computer (my sanity as DD stays on barbie.com constantly) $8.
So total comes to $31, but must- haves. Everything else I spent was budgeted, $51.00 at grocery.

 

[mmfan53226]

Love reading the posts and see how everyone is doing. I am now keep this in the back of my mind when going into stores.

1/1 ~ $0
1/2 ~ $5.99 for milk, but I will take this out of my grocery budget for the week.
1/3 ~ $0
1/4 ~ Today I go to the bank to get my money for the week. I have to go grocery shopping (once my list is made before I go to the store, I am going to check out Alidi and see how they compare) and get gas in both cars. The good thing is that each of them are at 1/2 a tank. Amazing how the gas lasts when you stay at home.

The weekend will be hard. Although I did tell the kids this weekend we will be staying home and watching Underdog and playing games. DH said he would take them sledding before the snow melts.

Krystine

 

[Irin997]

Borrowed a CD instead of buying it - if I like it that much, I'll budget for it.

Thanks for the free ideas! As for your CD, if you like it so much, you can rip into you iTunes or Windows Media Player (or some other similar music manager program) and then burn a copy for yourself or download it to your mp3 player. I do this all the time for my iPod.

Jan 2: I posted this earlier as a $0 day but forgot that Netflix automatically charged the $17.xx for my subscription.

Jan 3: $0

Wow, I'm on a roll! But, it's almost the weekend and I need to buy a few essentials, such as bread, OJ, and figure out lunches for next week. I plan on sitting down tonight with the grocery store sale ads and making my menu for the week and a list of things I need from the store.

No plans on really going anywhere this weekend except that Sunday I may be going golfing with my bf and his dad. If so, that's a $40 trip (unless dbf pays) that is out of budget. BUT, I rarely get to go golfing so it will be some needed fun.

 

[Deffenm]

1/3 - spent $24 at grocery store
1/4 - buying a few things at grocery store

These are all within the grocery budget. This is the first month I actually have a grocery budget and it is tough. I am so used to going to the store and just buying whatever and not worrying about how much I spent. This is a real eye opener.

We did budget $200 for a basement project but the boys want to play indoor soccer so I told my DH to pick because I did not budget for both. In the past I would have figured out how to pay for both but not anymore. So he picked soccer which is only $180 so I saved $20 this month.

Have a great on budget weekend!

 

[tinkarooni]

January 1 $57.00 Lowes - A budgeted home improvement item. This money came out of Home maintenance fund

January 2 - $0 (no driving either)
January 3- $0 (no driving)
January 4 - $0 (drove 1200 feet to the bus stop and back only)

Unfortunately I too have been sick and kids were out of school for vacation. It is great for the budget. Luckily I work at home so I've been trying not to drive anywhere. TGIF, my husband will take me out this weekend using his company car gas. I'm also trying to make it thru until 1-7-08 to grocery shop.

 

[Siouxstone]

Hello all! I can't believe how many posts we have and it's only the 4th! Or at least I think it is. The holidays have me so turned around, I have to keep looking at a calendar to know what day it is. To all of those playing for the first time, hang tough! The first month is hard and a big eye opener as to how much money you spend where. It's going to be okay, just keep plugging along.

I need to get gas sometime soon. I've done so little running around lately, I have no idea when I last got gas. (I live less than a mile from work and blocks from the grocery store.) I think DH may have even been the last one to put gas in my car and that was weeks ago. We drop DH's Saturn at the shop tomorrow and should get it back on Monday. I am hoping that they do not discover any other problems while it's in the shop. The shop we use is pretty good about sticking to the issue, but with 192K miles, we always kind of worry.

1/1-$0
1/2-groceries w/list
1/3-$0

I hope everyone has a great weekend. The first weekend can be very tough, just remember, you are tough, too!

 

[delmar411]

1/3 ~ DH spent $9 on tip for eating out, $50 to fill gas tank

1/4 ~ spent $15.89 at Goodwill on b-day gift for DH...not planned but it was a brand new Star Wars fighter ship thingy for $14.99 +tax and he is Star Wars obsessed. He's going to be thrilled

spent $17.21 at Target on:
chair for my computer desk~ cheaper than anything at Goodwill
bag of apples
2 small bins for organizing
wreath pull apart cake mold

The wreath cake mold was my impluse purchase but I'm thrilled with it and have no buyers remorse so I'm not going to worry about it.

So doing really good so far

ETA~ I forgot about my CVs trip today! LOL I normally don't spend but a dollar or so but I spent $16.72 today because I was all flustered since I forgot my wallet at home. I should have used another $14 in ECBs to bring my total down to less than $3. I hate getting all weirded out over things like forgetting my wallet. At least I was lucky and had just enough cash to cover it!

For my $16.72 I got:
9 12pks of soda (3 diet coke, 6 diet pepsi)
20 Soy Joy Bars
2 CVS toothbrushes
2 bags Dove Chocolates
3 bags Hershey's Kisses
3 coloring books for next Christmas
1 Similasen (sp?) dry eye relief
2 Essence of Beauty Lipglosses
2 gallons of milk
4 cans of Campbell's chicken noodle soup

I think that's it. It was $90+ before any coupons.

 

[brockscandy]

I feel bad for all of you out there who have been ill, but the upside is that you are saving money. Not so for our household. I took two of my daughters to the dr. yesterday - $140 and then their medicine cost another $65. I had to go to the eye doctor today - another $116. Other than that I have been so good about staying at home and eating - Not one Sonic Happy Hour out, gas, or groceries. In fact, I am so good with groceries that I can make it another week. We are going over to friends tonight for pizza and I am providing salad and dessert - all stuff I have here at home.

Good Luck over the weekend everyone. Hopefully we can make it home Sunday after church instead of hitting a restaurant.

Kandee