No Buy March

[dtr_angel]

I agree, it can be tricky. At first, I thought "great" an extra pay check I can stash the whole thing away." But for me it doesn't work that way. Some of my bills including my mortgage, auto insurance (things you really don't want to be late on) come due before my next check would arrive.

For example, my third April check comes on the 30th, but my next May check doesn't come until the 14th - but my mortage may be due on the 12th.

So, I pay ahead as much as I can - and make the "extra money" last into the next couple of months.

But I don't have it down to a science enough that I can totally budget months in advance. I would just look at your fixed bills for April, May & June and see how the "extra money" can best be spent or saved.

Yeah that will not work for me either because of gas & groceries. Since I budget $200 a month for groceries, and $150 for gas, that basically gives me $100/pay for groceries and $75/pay for gas. If I save the 3rd paycheck in April on the 29th, that means I will not have more grocery money from April 15th until May 13th when I get paid again.

I now have the regular bills like mortgage, water, electric down to a science, just trying to figure out the gas & groceries for April (yes I'm trying to plan ahead!)

 

[dtr_angel]

Goal - 10 no buy days
Budget
$200 - groceries/food - $92.06 left
$150 - gas - $125 left
Misc - $30 - $7.54 left

3/1 - $0!
3/2 - $1 groceries, $9.61 misc
3/3 - $6.16 groceries
3/4 - $25 gas
3/5 - $12.85 misc, $79.93 groceries
3/6 - $20.85 groceries
3/7 - $0!
3/8 - $0!

Goal - 10 no buy days
Budget
$200 - groceries/food - $92.06 left
$150 - gas - $125 left
Misc - $30 - $7.54 left

3/1 - $0!
3/2 - $1 groceries, $9.61 misc
3/3 - $6.16 groceries
3/4 - $25 gas
3/5 - $12.85 misc, $79.93 groceries
3/6 - $20.85 groceries
3/7 - $0!
3/8 - $0!
3/9 - $0!

 

[lougoofy]

3/8/10: $1.50 bus fare, $2.62 taco bell, $1.95 iced coffee and just under $20 entertainment

3/9/10: $4.25 laundry and $5.29 lunch at Wendy's

3/9/10: $16.04 groceries (Kroger's), 1 tv season dvd plus $2.65 traded for a season of a different tv show and $9.00 for drinks

 

[A.Mickey]

Running Total: Spent $216
$600...$410 left
$0 Days:3
Goal is 15 or more!

Groceries- $300...$182 left
Eating Out- $100...$63 left
Misc. (Shopping/Entertainment) $200...$139 left
I always round up to the nearest dollar.

1- $0
2- $8 (Groceries-Jewel)
3- $7 (Eating Out-McDonald's), $2 (Groceries-Jewel), $1 (Groceries-Walgreens)
4- $36 (Groceries-Meijer) $16 (Eating Out-Ikea), $59 (Shopping-Amazon Aaron Needs a Toddler Bed, he is almost 3!!)
5- $6 (Eating Out- Mario's), $1 (Groceries- Jewel)
6- $6 (Eating Out- McDonald's), $23 (Groceries- Joe Caputo), $10 (Groceries- Aldi), $13 (Groceries-Jewel), $2 (Shopping-Dollar Tree, for 2 Sunday Papers for the coupons!)
7- $0
8- $0
9- $2 (Eating Out- Wendy's), $18 (Groceries-Jewel), $6 (Groceries-Target)



$0 Days: 3/15: 20%
$600 Limit: $216 : 36%
Month: 8/31: 29%

My savings from coupons and sales: $312.94

 

[CherylA]

Clothing 50.00

Groceries 400.00
- 1.00 toast 3/1
- 25.10 coffee kcups 3/1
-13.60 s&s 3/1
-21.00 School lunch program 3/4
-2.50 milk 3/4
-18.69 M&M produce 3/4
-15.50 weight watchers bars @ meeting 3/4
-27.00 Target 3/4
-31.34 Adams grocery 3/5
-118.56 Costco 3/6
-11.96 S&S 3/6
-5.00 S&S 3/5
-2.70 milk 3/9
=106.05


House Upkeep/Decorating 40.00
-7.00 furnace air filters 3/4
=33.00

Misc Spending 140.00
-20.50 NH Register newspaper subscription 3/4
= 119.50

Gifts
35.00
-10.10 fruit salad M&M farms sis bday 3/6
=24.90

Entertainment
200.00
-110.00 dinner and drinks sis bday 3/5
-6.00 lunch 3/9
=84.00

4/9 no buy days (Mar 2nd) (Mar 3rd) (Mar 7th) (Mar 8th)
$417.45 remaining of $865 total budget

 

[thebigkahuna]

March 1st - $10.00 groceries. I forgot cheese!
March 2nd - $11.70 lunch, around $10.00 for dinner <--- eating out is one of my biggest expenses - I'm trying very hard to cut back in this area.
March 3rd - $0.00!
March 4th - Around $6.00 for dinner
March 5th - $30.60 Avon (I ordered this last month, but it just came in today)
March 6th - $16.00 worked late & bought dinner
March 7th - $61.00 Wal-Mart. Evil, evil Wal-Mart.
March 8th - $15.00 lunch
March 9th - $5.00 lunch, $13.00 movie & snacks


still at 1 of 15 days....

 

[hmack]

03/01 - 7.50 - school lunches for youngest dd
03/02 - 0
03/03 - $30 gas - $56.59 between Walgreens, Shaws & Hannaford.
03/04 - 0
03/05 - 0
03/06 - $30 gas - $37 Burlington Coat (but I got both my oldest DD's semi-formal dress and my youngest's easter dress) + $76 TJ Maxx (spring clothes) = $113 clothes - $13 Tim Hortons for lunch - $8 groceries
03/07 - $96 weekly groceries (pretty good for me), $13 Cold Stone Ice Cream
03/08 - $17 meeting DH for lunch, $6 groceries, $7.50 school lunch
03/09 - $40 gas - $15 dd fundraiser - $14 new book (this month's book club book)

Still only 3 no spend days !? I guess this is harder than I thought it would be.

 

[summersalt]

March 01 - $0.00
March 02 - $0.00
March 03 - $19.74 Groceries and Birthday Gift
March 04 - $0.00
March 05 - $0.00
March 06 - $236.32 Groceries, Gas and Household items
March 07 - $80 Love Offering at Church, Motorcycle Gas for DH, and Movies for DD
March 08 - $0.00
March 09 - $0.00

6 no buy days! I'm so proud.

 

[wdwfan16]

3/1 - $0
3/2 - $0
3/3 - $0
3/4 - $0
3/6 - $0
3/7 - $0
3/9 - $0
3/10 - $0

 

[thebeesknees]

3/1 $0
3/2 $0
3/3 $0
3/4 $0
3/5 $35 gas, $44 Dollar Tree for birthday party stuff for tomorrow, $6 lunch, $16 pictures for DD, $77 groceries
3/6 $22 groceries, $15 haircut for DD
3/7 $8 passport photo for DH, $165 Sam's Club groceries, etc.
3/8 $0
3/9 $4 Lands' End swimwear for DD
3/10 $185 passports for DH and DS (I forgot about this - thought it was going to be a $0 day today, too. Ouch!)

5 of 10 no-buy days so far.

 

[pjlla]

3/6 Costco - $314.xx (mostly grocery items)
Costco food court - $14.xx
Scrapbook Island - $9.xx
Shaw's - $75.xx (stuff Costco didn't have)

3/7 No money spent!!

3/8 Groceries (few things I forgot) - $30.xx
Redbox movie $1.xx

3/9 No money spent!!


With all of the groceries in the house now, I should be able to avoid a stop there for many, many days (except for milk, which we are low on....).

I will be sticking to my "no spend" days hard and fast.... because I just booked a short trip to WDW for DS and myself for May... and now I need to pay for it!! No more random trips to Target!! No stops at Dunkins! Need to save every penny to buy our park hoppers!!.......P

It looks like I am up to 6 "no spend" days so far for March.... not too bad... but the spending days....OOOH watch out!!

 

[fortheluvofpooh]

I haven't been keeping a tally on here as to what I have spent but I am proud to say that TODAY is my first $0.00 day. I never thought it would be so hard. But with the weather being so great we walk to/from the bus and preschool which is right by the candy store so we stop in for a lollypop which is .10 c each and I have 3 kiddos so on Mon, and Tues we spent .30c on each day. Not alot of money but still can't count it as a no spend day. Maybe tomorrow I will stop in and buy $1.50 worth for all of next week and keep them in the stroller so we don't have to spend .30c.

 

[CherylA]

Hubby suckered me into buying lunch out today

Clothing 50.00

Groceries 400.00
- 1.00 toast 3/1
- 25.10 coffee kcups 3/1
-13.60 s&s 3/1
-21.00 School lunch program 3/4
-2.50 milk 3/4
-18.69 M&M produce 3/4
-15.50 weight watchers bars @ meeting 3/4
-27.00 Target 3/4
-31.34 Adams grocery 3/5
-118.56 Costco 3/6
-11.96 S&S 3/6
-5.00 S&S 3/5
-2.70 milk 3/9
=106.05


House Upkeep/Decorating 40.00
-7.00 furnace air filters 3/4
=33.00

Misc Spending 140.00
-20.50 NH Register newspaper subscription 3/4
= 119.50

Gifts
35.00
-10.10 fruit salad M&M farms sis bday 3/6
=24.90

Entertainment
200.00
-110.00 dinner and drinks sis bday 3/5
-6.00 lunch 3/9
-9.5 lunch w hubby 3/10
= 74.50

4/9 no buy days (Mar 2nd) (Mar 3rd) (Mar 7th) (Mar 8th)
$407.95 remaining of $865 total budget

 

[lougoofy]

3/9/10: $16.04 groceries (Kroger's), 1 tv season dvd plus $2.65 traded for a season of a different tv show and $9.00 for drinks

3/10/10: $1.50 bus fare, $2.62 taco bell and $1.75 Borders (for iced coffee) and $.99 chips

 

[PeytonSdiz]

Goals = Spend $650 (or less) and have at least 15 $0 days. Also...to only eat out once this month. (Unless we go out of town to visit family, because then we basically have to eat fast food a little.)

1st = $0
2nd = $0
3rd = $94 (groceries)
4th = $0
5th = $0
6th = $17 (cookies) $31 (restaurant)
7th = $15 (car wash)
8th = $0
9th = $0
10th = $68 (groceries)

Total so far = $225

Zero dollar days so far = 6/15

 

[Debbie]

Mar 8: $22 groceries
Mar 9: $22 groceries + $32 gas (plus DD's birthday dinner, but that comes out of a different budget, thank heavens!)
Mar 10: $20 water softener salt +$34 groceries/Easter candy [beginnings]

No Buy Days: 2/10
Week 2:120/250
Week 1: 137/250

 

[Tiggerish]

Budget is a tight $475 for a long month.

Automobile $50
Eating Out/Entertainment $25 / $5 over
Giving $50 / $30 left
Groceries/Household Goods $200 / $139 left
Medical $25
Misc. $100 / $77 left
Easter Baskets $25
Coupon savings $19.14
_________________________________
3/1 $0
3/2 $0
3/3 Eating out $13; Groceries $2
3/4 $0
3/5 Groceries $44
3/6 $0
3/7 Giving $20, Eating out $4
3/8 $0
3/9 Groceries $17; Eating out $13
3/10 Misc. $23 (haircut and printer ink)

 

[QVCshopper]

Hoping for a no-buy tomorrow!

March 01 - $21.47 Target (cat food, snacks); $6.33 AC Moore (picture frames); found .01 cents
March 02 - $0; found .27 cents
March 03 - $8.46 BK (lunch); $10.14 Wegmans (food; ice cream); $50 (gift cards for March b-days); found .45 cents
March 04 - $0; found .07 cents
March 05 - $0; found .40 cents
March 06 - $8.46 Brusters (ice cream); found .12 cents
March 07 - $5 AG Doll Fashion Show (bear); $1.50 Chuck E Cheese (ice cream); $6 Wendy's (lunch); 10.60 Wegmans (food); found .11 cents
March 08 - $16 GreatClips (haircut); found .36 cents
March 09 - $0; found .31 cents
March 10 - $42.85 Wegmans (prescription, food, lunch); 19.62 gas for car; found .16 cents
March 11 -
March 12 -
March 13 -
March 14 -
March 15 -

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

I am enjoying reading everyone's posts. It's inspiring to see so many people having so many no spend days, and more so such overall low spending all together. I have cut our spending way down since I started recording it privately, maybe recording it now more publicly will help bring it down more. I hate that I am spending an average of $70 a day, maybe admitting it will help me to reduce it.


March 1 $0
March 2 $84 groceries, $109 dance tuition, $7 DH prescription
March 3 $5 Much needed HipHop Shoes (from the resale box at dance!)
March 4 $0
March 5 $0
March 6- Movie $49. Sam's Club $131. Taco Bell $14
March 7- Date With hubby $16 Red Robin, Gas $39.74, Wegman's $30.92 and Easter Basket things $26.88
March 8- $0
March 9- $0
March 10- $86 AP Test for DD15 (she better pass it!) $101.34 groceries $.50 ice cream treat (went to lunch with DD8)

Total Spent $700.38 in 10 days
# 0f $0 days- 5

 

[erikawolf2004]

Goals for Feb:
12 no buy days/did 9
Eating Out $250/$237
Groceries $450/$498
Shopping $200/$450(have a $17 credit from LeapFrog coming)($100 ebay sells)
Misc./Entertainment/Haircut&color $160/$294
Goal $1050/$1479 Actual

Goals for March:
8 no buy days
Eating out $400, more than normal because we are going on vacation
Groceries $450
Shopping $400 Vacation & DD's Birthday this month
Misc. $200
Birthday Party supplies and food $100
Total: $1550 I hope to be under this, but trying to be realistic at this point.

3/1 $144, $9 lunch, $42 Whole Foods, $40 Ebay, $53 Shutterfly book from Disney trip last Sept.
3/2 $0 1/8 ($28 Macy's return)
3/3 $13 lunch out
3/4 $65, $36 gifts for Austin Trip, $5 Donuts, $24 Pizza
3/5 $222, $66 Contacts, $51 TJMaxx(new sheets), $24 Michael's B-day supplies, $22 Party America B-day supplies, $53 buycostumes.com Party supplies and Gift($34) Macys, so bummed had to return the cutest pj's because they shrank, $10 lunch, $30 dinner out
3/6 $0 2/8
3/7 $125, $10 lunch, $115 Groceries
3/8 $60, $20 Starbucks, $10 lunch, $4 tortillas, $26 Princess & the Frog
3/9 $0 3/8
3/10 $64, $10 Starbucks, $12 lunch, $42 Target