No Buy May! Welcome old and new savers!

Can I join you all? I've been seeing these threads forever, but never joined before.

DH and I have decided we really need to cut back on how much we spend. We have a bunch of bills to pay off, as well as both DH and DS have a lot of out of pocket medical expenses (DH needs dental stuff, DS has diabetes, and all of his pump supplies aren't covered by insurance). So far, I've just been looking at what we spend monthly, but this month, I want to start making some effort towards lowering that significantly.

I think for May, I want to limit spending (outside of the bills) to $1000. So far, I'm at $760.34. Some of that was a BIG BJs trip, which we end up doing about every 3 months for dog food, paper products, etc. If I really focus on not spending, I should make it to the end of the month on $250 left. We'll see how it goes.
 
Well, the weekend wasn't very good, spending-wise. I am going to try to do better this week.

5/1 $0
5/2 $0
5/3 $0
5/4 $0
5/5 $125 Target for household items, diapers, clothing and groceries, $100 Kroger groceries
5/6 $0
5/7 $63 at Children's Place, $6.50 thrift store, $2.50 lunch, $10 Dollar Tree
5/8 $37 Walmart shoes for DS and some fabric for curtains, $167 Sam's Club stock-up for the month, $7 Dollar Tree frozen vegetables
5/9 $40 lunch out for Mother's Day

5 of 11 no-buy days so far.
 
Not sure how to count yesterday. DH covered grocery shopping , and since we have seperate budgets , I guess I won't count it but my grocery total for the month won't be perfectly accurate. This is my first month, so I am a work in progress. :-)

Running Total: Spent $508
$900...$392 left
$0 Days:3
Goal is 10 or more!

Groceries- $150-50-15-8- 11= 66 left

May 1 76
May 2 233 ( DD birthday dinner, present and $100 for drivers license renewal)
May 3 0
May 4 0
May 5 37
May 6 70 ( dinner for 4 at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney - could have been worse but I had the restaurant.com coupon for $25 off)
May 7 0
May 8 53 ( shipping my daughters stuff from Disney College program to her - guess that counts as miscellaneous? And 8 bucks for groceries at the flea market)
May 9 39 ( Payless shoes, pop on sale and some beachy pictures I didn't really need. Hey, I'm a mom . It was Mothers day. )
 
Spending budget = $1000

“No Buy” days = 4/10

Running total spent = $687/$1000 (will be getting $40 back from Daunt and DMIL)

Coupon savings: $6.00


5/1 – $33 (lunch at Kings Dominion, including a refillable cup for the rest of the season)

5/2 - $55 (DH’s birthday lunch); $31 (deck sealant and a plant)

5/3 – NO BUY

5/4 - $120 (recital tickets and recital DVD order – I will get $40 back from my aunt and MIL for purchase of their tickets); $3.66(DD dinner at McDonald’s after dance); $47 (Lowe’s/Round up)

5/5 – NO BUY

5/6 - $35 (dr. appt.); $127 (grocery); $43 (Lowe’s-paint supplies, thompson’s water seal, American flag and flag pole)

5/7 - $100 (hair cut & color); 2.39(Ben Franklin – mini muffins tins); $66.50 (gas)

5/8 – $19.25 (movie w/DD); $4.20 (Claire’s Boutique)

5/9 – NO BUY

5/10 – NO BUY
 

Day ten, I finally got my work expenses so I went to fill my car up with fuel. It cost me £50 to fill it up! It's never been that much before, always in the 40's. Never mind. That £50 should last me a long time because I have no long journey's planned for a while. And I managed to hit £50.01 - a penny! So annoying!

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The rent also went out today, not sure if I was including this but I may as well for the first month of this exercise - it will help me when I'm budgeting for June.

Tonight is grocery shopping with James, he always pays for that so my only spends for today are my fuel and rent.


May 01 - £0
May 02 - £0
May 03 - £0
May 04 - £200.77 (£36.87 quarterly TV Licence Payment); (£39.26 monthly minimum Credit Card payment); (£34.65 monthly Car Insurance); (£75.00 monthly savings direct debit); (£14.99 monthly Lovefilm subscription);
May 05 - £0
May 06 - £11.00 (£6.50 taxi into the city); (£4.50 drinks);
May 07 - £27.00 (£27.00 disney pins);
May 08 - £0
May 09 - £0
May 10 - £295.01 (£50.01 Full tank of fuel); (£245 rent);

Total zero-spend days: 6
 
Budget for May is $555 with 12 no spend days.

Auto $60
Eating Out/Entertainment $50 / $169
Giving $125 / $90 left
Groceries/Household Goods $230 / $198 left
Medical $15
Misc. $75 / $0 left

No spend days = 2 /12
Coupon savings $9
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5/1 Groceries $12; Entertainment $18 (movies)
5/2 Giving $25 (church) and $10 National Kidney Foundation of MI Walk
5/3 Eating Out $8 (coffee with my sister to plan our WDW trip in August)
5/4 $0 :thumbsup2
5/5 Misc. $72 (4 pair of capris for me)
5/6 Eating Out $11
5/7 $0 :thumbsup2
5/8 Groceries $16
5/9 Giving $25 (church); Groceries $4
5/10 Groceries $29; Misc. $3 (postage)
 
No Buy Days Goal: 3/12
Gas : 24$
Car repairs : 390$
Groceries : 120$
Eating out (and snacks) : 106$
Non-necessities : 50$

5/1 : 53$ (dress, stickers, beach bags for wedding favors, candy apple)
5/2 : 7$ (lunch)
5/3 : 45$ (groceries + dinner out)
5/4 : 0$
5/5 : 0$
5/6 : 124$ (wine + cat food)
5/7 : 390$ (car repairs :()
5/8 : 0$
5/9 : 24$ (gas)
5/10 : 50$ (groceries)
 
I haven't recorded in a few days, but I kept track of everything. Doing OK with this month's no-buy; seem to be on an every other day spending spree right now. But, I got 16 Gymborree items in perfect condition at the Goodwill yesterday--DD has quite the wardrobe for next year!

5/15

5/1-$18 Beach; $5 Panera Bread; $35 Ugg slippers for me!/library; found .01
5/2-$5 Tag Sale; $13 Food; $4 JCPenneys; $29 American Girl; $7 McDs; found .02
5/3-$0
5/4-$88.75 Wegmans/Redners (food); $35.75 Target; found .10
5/5-$0; found .01
5/6-$0; found .06

5/7-$36 Dinner; $2.35 Cookies; $6.35 Mall Food Court; $7.25 M-Day Gift
5/8-$0
5/9-$21 Wegmans; $4 Bird Seed; $4.75 Flower; $37 Goodwill
5/10-$0
 
Grocery/Household: $200/ $96.84 Left
Gas/Car: $50
Entertainment/Easting Out: $75/ $69.88 Left
Misc/Emergency: $75/ $52.70 left

Total: $400/ $269.42 Left

Goal of 15 no Buy days

7/15 No Buy

5/1- $44.19 Groceries for the week at Save-a-lot
5/2- $0
5/3- $22.30 Lane Bryant (a black cardigan shrug I had been looking for and I had 40% off), $5.12 At Auntie Anne's for lunch, $2.78 Save-a-lot because I forgot potatoes last saturday
5/4- $0
5/5- $0
5/6- $0
5/7- $56.19 Groceries
5/8- $0
5/9- $0
5/10- $0
 
Running Total: Spent $508
$900...$392 left
$0 Days:4
Goal is 10 or more!

Groceries- $150-50-15-8- 11= 66 left

May 1 76
May 2 233 ( DD birthday dinner, present and $100 for drivers license renewal)
May 3 0
May 4 0
May 5 37
May 6 70 ( dinner for 4 at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney - could have been worse but I had the restaurant.com coupon for $25 off)
May 7 0
May 8 53 ( shipping my daughters stuff from Disney College program to her - guess that counts as miscellaneous? And 8 bucks for groceries at the flea market)
May 9 39 ( Payless shoes, pop on sale and some beachy pictures I didn't really need. Hey, I'm a mom . It was Mothers day. )
May 10 0
 
May 1-
I am embarassed and sick to report the start to my month. I knew it was going to be a bad day today and tomorrow for that matter, but I feel sick about all we spent today.Opening Day for Softball always means pizza and hotdogs at the park. This year we opted to go get a whole pizza for the 5 of us to eat at the park.-$10 Slushies for the kids-$3.50
Dinner Date with Hubby-$35
Dinner for kids at home-$8
Gas-$44
MAJOR stocking up at Sam's-$459.96 (This included new fans since we are already melting here and don't have A/C, and new clothes for me as I have literally not enough shirts to last a week. I got 2 capris, 2 shorts and 5 shirts though tomorrow I will try them all on and some might go back. Also a new chair for me for when I am at softball and have an old, broken chair to sit on. Also, laundry supplies, etc.)
Total- $560.46 :eek:

May 2-
I started today bad, 8 minutes after midnight I spent $13 on eBay. I bought 3 pearl cages for my girls for when they do Pick a Pearl in EPCOT. They have never done it and want to very much this trip and while I think it is a great thing to do, the cost of setting 3 pearls was going to be pricey so here on DIS I learned about the Cinderella Carriage pearl cages and bought 3 of them. So, $13 on eBay but a savings in the end.
Dance pictures, videos and final tuition till fall $156.50*.
Groceries- Wegman's- $76.39
Walmart- Groceries, photo developing (Mother's Day gifts), medicine and makeup for dance photos- $44.85
Post Office (mailed 3 Mom's day packages)- $14.90
Total- $305.64
*I know some would cut the photos and videos but as frugal as I am I would not eat for a week to make up for them if I had to (glad I don't have to.) We are not allowed to videotape the recitals and the memory to me is worth the money. As for photos, I buy the basic packages just for me and take photos for the family with my own camera. But they just aren't as good. Again, the memory is worth the money to me. I have all their dance pictures displayed and they bring me great joy so it is worth it for me. I do not buy school photos, so this is the one time a year when I allow myself to buy photos of my kids.

May 3- FI-NAL-LY! $0 Rough start, but knew it was going to be. Now the weekend is gone and I am back on track!

May 4- $0 Today I thought I might have to spend, but I didn't. Tomorrow is DD10's chorus and band concert. She has black pants and a white shirt, but her black shoes are a little small. I said how I hated to buy new black shoes now with her foot growing so fast, by fall when she'd wear them again who knows if they'd fit. She offered to wear them more like a flip flop (heel over the back of the shoe) just for the performance since it is such a short time. I love my frugal kid! So, she tried them on, she said they didn't bother her at all. For a one hour performance, I am thrilled!

May 5- $0 So tonight is DD10's chorus and band concert. Many parents bring their kids flowers and I always did too for my older DD. I debated if I should or not but then my DH surprised me today with flowers (early) for Mother's Day. I called him to thank him and asked if he'd mind me taking a few of them for DD for her concert and he said "no, I figured you would ." :lovestruc So, she will be getting some of those to put in a vase in her room and I get another $0 day! Woo-Hoo! I love that man! :love:
We also often go out for Mexican on Cinco deMayo, but with dance, the concert and a first softball game for our kids tonight we will hardly have time to eat, let alone go out so this was a great savings too. Earlier today I made chicken enchiladas, coleslaw and cinnamon-pecan brownies (recipe from Family Fun on Facebook this morning for Cinco deMayo.) It is all ready to go and with some ice, fresh pineapple and coconut milk we will have it all with pina coladas and it will be a huge savings of money and time today!

May 6-$0 Well I did it, 4 days in a row. Yes we are out of milk. Yes we are out of bread. BUT, we survived. It was close. DH came home and saw dinner and his face said what his mouth wouldn't. I told him I'd go get some groceries and he said, "you won't eat this, what are you eating." I said leftovers from last night (chicken enchiladas) and he perked up. There was pleanty for both of us so we had that. The kids had pigs in a blanket (well, hot dogs in crescent rolls with cheese, that's what we called them, not sure that is what they are called), pasta salad, baked beans and corn. They thought it was a great dinner. :laughing: SO, there is peanty of pasta salad for lunches tomorrow and I will go grocery shopping in the morning (we have only bananas left for fruit and all the last of the veggies I had are in the pasta salad.) I am just happy to see we can survive without getting groceries every other day.

May 7- I can't tell you how bad I wanted to make 5 in a row. But, The family wanted to "eat" so, fine! :headache: :lmao:
Groceries- $138.25, higher then it should be and normally would be, but today is DH's monthly game day with his friends. They all bring junk food but DH is trying to be more healthy so asked me to make a veggie tray, so I did. So, double the veggies = $$, that stuff is not cheap. In the long run though it is a good investment.
Pizza and Movies with the kids- $12.15 pizza $2 Redbox
Total- $152.40

May 8-$0

May 9-Trying to decide how to record today. My DH says today doesn't count since the day was a gift. He said it comes out of his free to spend money that he gets each week. We went to lunch at Dave and Busters and the kids each got a $10 card with the eat and play deal, then we went to Dairy Queen for ice cream after. It was a treat of a day, we have never been before and it is over an hour away. Our plans were a picnic at the park but when we woke up to a snow covered ground we knew that was out. Also, the flowers he sent me were all but dead so we got a refund for them. Anyway, if I had to guess we spent probably $75 today but he tried to take me shopping too and I passed so he said I really did deserve a $0 day for that. :rotfl: I'm going to call it a half for now.

May 10-$0 So today my zero spend pledge annoyed my DH a bit. So we were sitting at DD8's softball game and he was leaving to get DD10 at dance. I said jokingly that if I wasn't home by 8 to send help cause I was low on gas. (I had forgotten my cell phone.) So he left, I stayed and her game ran late. (supposed to end at 7:30, they didn't end till 8.) So I get home and he isn't here. I come in and my DD10 says dad went to get you. :lmao: I was like I WAS KIDDING! So I call him, sure enough he was on his way to get gas in the gas can for the lawn mower to bring it to me. :eek: So, he came home and reminded me that this is only good for frivilous spending which gas in the car is not. :rotfl: OK, I get it. See, I should have been fine till tomorrow when I planned an errend day. BUT, since we decided to head to Buffalo for Mother's Day (an hour away) instead of staying local, we used a bunch of gas and, well, I just wasn't thinking about getting gas yesterday. I was really only kidding about running out. YES, my light came on, but the game was 2 minutes away I was fine. Anyway, it was nice to see him worried about us and coming to be my hero, but I guess I should be careful when I joke too. :rolleyes1 Needless to say, tomorrow will not be a $0 :lmao::lmao::lmao:

$0 Spend Days This Month- 6.5/15 :yay: Longest Streak-4 Days in a Row! :yay:
Happy About Record Since Joining No Buy-
January-14 Days
February-13 Days
March-17 Days
April-15 Days
 
May 1st - $14 (trash & recycling), $43.05 (Kohl's)
May 2nd - $46.28 (CiCi's Pizzas)
May 3rd - $40.00 (gas)
May 4th - $0 (HOORAY)
May 5th - $2.12 (McD's)
May 6th - $50.09 (groceries), $23.24 (gas), $20.84 (Burger King)
May 7th - $53.68 (groceries), $35.01 (gas), $14.00 (carwash), $80 (Olive Garden)
May 8th - $0 (HOORAY)
May 9th - $0 (HOORAY - Happy Mother's Day!)
May 10th - $0 (HOORAY)

total - 4/15 no-spend days!
 
I'm gonna try and stay for the WHOLE month this time !!! That is my goal for now Hopefully I will have at least 12 no buy days, but I'm gonna REALLY work on staying accountable for the whole month... I get discouraged and quit So here goes...
May 1st- $20 garage saling (it was planned into the budget though )
- aprox. $4 for snow cones (not planned, but yummy )
- $16 for Prepaid Wireless Phone (budgeted and needed)
- $4 for Taco Bell (hubby)
May 2nd - $21 Walmart (the BIGGEST thing of TP I have EVER seen and other essentials.. (Not unneeded things, so not tooo bad Hope I can get a few $0 days though
May 3rd - $18 for McDonalds
- $12 for Museum of Transportation (Hubbies first day off work in a while )
- $20 for gas - Time with family - PRICELESS Hoping for a $0 day tomorrow cause we're STAYING home and CLEANING !!
- $7 at Walmart for Charcoal (but it was needed )
May 4th - $7.50 at Family Dollar and $14.00 at Deals (Both of these were for a Children's Church lesson, sooo not really unneeded I was proud of
myself for only buying the flashlights for the lesson
- $13.50 for Walmart (Diapers were on sale ... we didn't need them right now, but we ALWAYS need diapers )

The first 5 days of May total : $143.00
Needed items : $64.00 (without the diapers on sale - $77.50 (with the diapers )
Extras : $70 in just 5 days!!! (that's without the $21.50 for Children's Church items...)

May 5th - $0 Woohoo !!! My first one !!!!
May 6th - .76 cents at Shopping Save
- $1.77 Walmart Almost a $0 day :(
May 7th - $45 at Walmart for 2 b-day gifts, my mother's day present (veggies for my vegetable garden :) ), and some other needed items
May 8th - $20 on gas :( Would of been of $0 day :(
May 9th - $25 at Walmart ( do we see a BAD habit ???? :scared: ) needed items (nothing extra though :yay: )
May 10th - $6 at Walmart (AGAIN!!!) for dishwashing detergent and Borax (gonna try and save some money by making my own dishwashing and laundry detergent ;) ) Almost a $0 day, but needed that dishwashing detergent :(

The first 5 days of May total : $143.00
Needed items : $64.00 (without the diapers on sale - $77.50 (with the diapers )
Extras : $70 in just 5 days!!! (that's without the $21.50 for Children's Church items...)

The second set of 5 days of May total : $142.50 (Saved .50 )
Needed items : $139.50
Extras : $45 ( I'm considering the 2 b-day presents and the mother's day presents for me as extras cause they weren't REALLY needed..

I still need to work on staying AWAY from Walmart or going in just ONE trip a week !!!!
 
butterflygirl3, I'm like you with Walmart, but with Target. In March, I didn't go for 21 days. That pretty much got me off my red cart addiction. Good luck! Stick with it--you'll get use to not shopping/consolidating soon enough. BTW-I see you have a garden. I have one, too. I've only spent $2.50 on it so far--mostly seeds from the dollar store and .25 cent strawberry plants from Lowes. I have lettuce growing already, plus squash and cucumbers. Trying tomatoes from seeds, but I doubt it will work. I even have a few strawberry buds. Have fun in the garden, it's lots of fun!
 
butterflygirl3, I'm like you with Walmart, but with Target. In March, I didn't go for 21 days. That pretty much got me off my red cart addiction. Good luck! Stick with it--you'll get use to not shopping/consolidating soon enough. BTW-I see you have a garden. I have one, too. I've only spent $2.50 on it so far--mostly seeds from the dollar store and .25 cent strawberry plants from Lowes. I have lettuce growing already, plus squash and cucumbers. Trying tomatoes from seeds, but I doubt it will work. I even have a few strawberry buds. Have fun in the garden, it's lots of fun!


OMG. I was just telling my mom yesterday that I haven't been to Target all month (and I'm not sure when the last time I went was). It's hard, because I love to just walk around Target, but I NEVER can resist spending. So far so good :)
 
Goal: 12 no spend days

5/1 and 5/2 - I spent money. Lets move on. :rotfl:
05-03 .65, soda $1.25, soda, $5.31 dinner
05-04 no spend! :thumbsup2
05-05 no spend! :thumbsup2
05-06 $14.05 dinner (late night at work :( ) $14.65 gift
05-07 $8.07 breakfast,$30.61 lunch for me & a co-worker (I owed her!), $40.59 Target, $13.06 dinner YIKES!:scared1: I went into Target for TWO things. Two things that did NOT total 40 dollars. :headache: impulse shopping anyone? oh well, I will do better tomorrow!
05-08 $4.04 bagel & an iced coffee
05-09 no spend & + $5.00! :thumbsup2
05-10 $5.00 on lunch and around 12.00 at the drug store.

3 of 12 No Spend days!!:wizard:
 
Welcome!! I can tell you that these threads have helped my spending a lot - one, by posting all my spending, I'm seeing where my "budget holes" are - that was a BIG eye opener for me!
Two, knowing that I could make a day a zero day, and knowing that I would be posting my spending here really helps keep it in check!
Its so nice that there are no hard & fast rules here - everyone does what works for them & I love that no one is ever negative! :goodvibes


Can I join you all? I've been seeing these threads forever, but never joined before.

DH and I have decided we really need to cut back on how much we spend. We have a bunch of bills to pay off, as well as both DH and DS have a lot of out of pocket medical expenses (DH needs dental stuff, DS has diabetes, and all of his pump supplies aren't covered by insurance). So far, I've just been looking at what we spend monthly, but this month, I want to start making some effort towards lowering that significantly.

I think for May, I want to limit spending (outside of the bills) to $1000. So far, I'm at $760.34. Some of that was a BIG BJs trip, which we end up doing about every 3 months for dog food, paper products, etc. If I really focus on not spending, I should make it to the end of the month on $250 left. We'll see how it goes.
 
5/1 $0
5/2 $0
5/3 $0
5/4 $0
5/5 $125 Target, $100 Kroger
5/6 $0
5/7 $63 Children's Place, $6.50 thrift store, $2.50 lunch, $10 Dollar Tree
5/8 $37 Walmart, $167 Sam's Club, $7 Dollar Tree
5/9 $40 lunch out for Mother's Day
5/10 $0

6 of 11 no-buy days so far.
 


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