No Buy May! Welcome old and new savers!

[wdwfan16]

5/1 - $0
5/2 - $0
5/4 - $0
5/6 - $0
5/10 - $0
5/11 - $0
5/12 - $0

 

[thebigkahuna]

Goal: 12 no spend days

5/1 and 5/2 - I spent money. Lets move on.
05-03 .65, soda $1.25, soda, $5.31 dinner
05-04 no spend!
05-05 no spend!
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! I went into Target for TWO things. Two things that did NOT total 40 dollars. impulse shopping anyone? oh well, I will do better tomorrow!
05-08 $4.04 bagel & an iced coffee
05-09 no spend & + $5.00!
05-10 $5.00 on lunch and around 12.00 at the drug store.
05-11 $11.00 earrings (not in any way needed or budgeted, but it's a present to myself because I PAID OFF MY CAR!!) around 10$ at the drug store, my allergies were in full force, and I barely made it through the day, $30.00 take away for dinner, I was in NO mood!

3 of 12 No Spend days!!

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

5/1 - $0
5/2 - $0
5/4 - $0
5/6 - $0
5/10 - $0
5/11 - $0
5/12 - $0

You have made my day. You and I are tied. You are sooooo good, and now I am very proud of myself!

 

[momto1]

My goals is 6 No Buy Days from May 9 - May 31.

5/9 - $1.15 for bedding plants. Use $5 credit for the rest.
5/10 - $42.40 for food
5/11 - $0

1/6 so far!
Lori

 

[mlulrich]

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)
May 11th - $0 (HOORAY)

total - 5/15 no-spend days!

 

[mlulrich]

I PAID OFF MY CAR!!)
They called me today to come pick up the title, which i will do this weekend. what a great feeling!

QUOTE]

Congratulations!!!! what a great accomplishment!

 

[thebeesknees]

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
5/11 $9 coffee with my Mom, $2 airport parking
5/12 $0 We got snow overnight, so I will not be out driving in it today!

7 of 11 no-buy days so far.

 

[QVCshopper]

My dryer died. Can we have a moment of silence for my budget for the month?

It was old, well, I think it was - it came with the house 12 years ago. So not an earth shattering surprise. I have clothes hanging everywhere to dry in the house!

Sorry about your dryer. If you have an IKEA near you, they sell this great clothes dryer that fits about a whole load of clothes. I often use that instead of my dryer b/c I'm trying to watch my utilities.

 

[DisneyCrafter]

Groceries: (Budget is $200...$92.02 left)

Gas: (Budget is $300...$150 left)

Extras: (Budget is $140...$91.89 left)

Medical: (Budget is $30)

5/1: $0
5/2: $5.08 (Groceries-Jewel), $25.47 (Groceries-Brookhaven), $16.35 (Groceries-Aldi), $4.28 (Groceries-Jewel)
5/3: $5.13 (Extras-Shipping)
5/4: $0
5/5: $2.56 (Extras-Shipping Mats.), $4.35 (Extras-Shipping)
5/6: $11.40 (Extras-Shipping)
5/7: $15.87 (Extras-Mother's Day Gifts) $6.79 (Groceries-Target), $19.00 (Extras-Bowling)
5/8: $7.73 (Groceries-Jewel), $3.85 (Groceries-Walts), $10.71 (Groceries-ALDI), $22.72 (Groceries-Brookhaven), $4.09 (Extras-Home Depot), $15.00 (Extras-Garage Sales)
5/9: $5.58 (Extras-Auntie Anne's), $60.34 (Extras-Vera Bradley)
5/10: $0
5/11: $0
5/12: $0

NO SPEND DAYS: 5/13

I still need 7 more days and the month is almost half over. I plan on a $0 for tomorrow. Not Friday, though, because I will get gas, give DH his gas money, and purchase our groceries for the week.

 

[charming23]

Forgot that I also stopped to get gas yesterday, so I am updating that. Today is a no buy as my allergies are driving me crazy and I am in no mood to go anywhere.

Grocery/Household: $200/ $96.84 Left
Gas/Car: $50/ $31.96 Left
Entertainment/Easting Out: $75/ $65.64 Left
Misc/Emergency: $75/ $41.69 left

Total: $400/ $236.13 Left

Goal of 15 no Buy days

8/15 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
5/11- $4.24 Panera, $11.01 at Target and $18.04 Gas
5/12- $0

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

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

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 ." 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!
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. 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!
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-$0 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.

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. 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. So, he came home and reminded me that this is only good for frivilous spending which gas in the car is not. 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. Needless to say, tomorrow will not be a $0

May 11-
Gas- $52.75
Groceries- $88.77
Rite Aid- Rx for DD10- $2.99
Arby's for me and DD8 (everyone else had dinner plans other places figured she deserved something out too)- $6
Field Trip (including dinner) for DD15- $10
Vacation Bible School Registration- $14
I took DD10 to the doctor for some serious allergy problems. We left with 2 Rx and 3 sample meds. The poor kid is having a reeally bad allergy season. Thankfully he game me everything he could as samples and on of the meds my DH uses so until I see if it works I am not filling hers. She also needed an antibiotic as she has an ear infection from all the fluid draining into her ear.

May 12- $0

$0 Spend Days This Month- 8/15 Longest Streak-4 Days in a Row!
Happy About Record Since Joining No Buy-
January-14 Days
February-13 Days
March-17 Days
April-15 Days

 

[MomToOne]

I'm catching up from the last few days. I've lost my passion temporarily on this due to several life issues all hitting at once (my father passed away this weekend, my brothers are fighting horribly over memorial service plans - grief does odd things to people - and I got the report back on my daughter's Speech and Language evaluation last month that FINALLY verified the problem I've been saying was there for years and now I need to set up additional testing and figure out therapies). But I'm going to keep trying to stay with the group, as much as a diversionary tactic as anything else:

(Due to my unique form of budgeting, my "month" runs 4/26-5/30)
4/26 $0
4/27 $0
4/28 $0
4/29 $16 Field Trip Fees
4/30 $44 Dinner Out
5/1 $31 DL Renewal, $26 Target, $14 FoodsCo, $2 Oroweat Bakery Store, $30 Cash to "Summer Fun" Stash
5/2 $0
5/3 $42 Gas, $12 Walmart, $15 Everyday Minerals
5/4 $15 Phone Topup
5/5 $0
5/6 $0
5/7 $0
5/8 $54 FoodsCo, $4 Oroweat Bakery Store, $22 Target
5/9 $12 CostCo
5/10 $0
5/11 $0
5/12 $0 (posting now so I have to make it come true!!)

Total Spent - 339/800
No Spend Days - 10/20

% Month Complete - 48.6%
% No Spend Days Goal Achieved - 50.0%
% Budget Spent - 42.4%

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

MomToOne, I am so sorry for everything you are going through, especially the loss of your dad.

 

[cherry-pops]

Another zero spend day! But I am planning a trip to London on June 4, so I'll need to book hotels and train tickets for that soon.

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);
May 11 - £0
May 12 - £0

Total zero-spend days: 8

 

[disney fan 2013]

My computer got a virus last month and I didn't get to finish on the thread! But I was able to stay under budget by $66.24 total and had 18 no-buy days! The only problem was that I went over on my gas budget a lot, so I am adding on to that and taking money out of my "going out" budget. My goal for this month is going to be 20 no-buy days. I really have my doubts about this, but I'm going to be trying very hard! So, this month's budget is:

$200 Gas ($133 left)
$100 Misc./Spending ($93.14 left)
$80 Groceries ($59.69 left)
$24 Movies ($18 Left)
$20 Going Out ($5.25 left)
20 No-Buy Days (8 so far)

5/1 - $33 Gas
5/2 - $0
5/3 - $0
5/4 - $6 Movies
5/5 - $0
5/6 - $0
5/7 - $0
5/8 - $0
5/9 - $0
5/10 - $34 gas
$20.31 groceries
$6.86 iTunes
5/11 - $14.75 food and parking at baseball game for me & DBF
5/12 - $0

27.1% of budget spent
38.71% through month
40% to no-buy goal

 

[QVCshopper]

MomToOne: sorry about your dad and siblings. My DD5 gets speech (among other therapies) if you have any questions.

As far as no-buy--getting a little frustrated this month. Not doing as well as I used to. Maybe I'm losing my no-buy zest?

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
5/11-$2 DH bagel/coffee; $20 Dunkin Donuts coffee; found .61
5/12-$15 YMCA Babysitting Card; $6.75 BK lunch; $13 Goodwill (must not go back...); $29 Wegmans (food/coffee); found .25

 

[MomToOne]

MomToOne, I am so sorry for everything you are going through, especially the loss of your dad.

MomToOne: sorry about your dad and siblings. My DD5 gets speech (among other therapies) if you have any questions.

Thanks gals. Looks like the siblings may be playing a bit nicer today, although I haven't spoken to the two most problematic characters yet. I love my family, but I have to say they are much easier to love from a distance.

As far as my daughter's speech evaluation goes, the problem isn't actually really a speech problem at all. All tests are pointing to a problem with her auditory memory, which is considered more on the language side of "speech and language". After a lot of phone calls and being referred from one clinic to another in circles today, I think I may have found a local audiologist to do a full Auditory Processing Disorder evaluation on her - but she's on vacation until June. Not many audiologists do the tests, since it's not a hearing problem per se, so they can be hard to find. I suspect therapy will be Fast ForWord or possibly some more old fashioned auditory memory training techniques, but those are just guesses on my part until we get this last eval done. I'm just happy to have someone validate what I've been saying for years about my daughter - the problems are subtle so all of her teachers have wanted to write the problems off as her not paying attention well enough or would say "she is a just little behind and will probably catch up on her own". That was despite my pointing out she was at particularly high risk for language issues like APD given her background (adopted internationally at 16 months) and I thought maybe something wasn't quite right since she just had to work a lot harder than the other kids to take in things. I kept telling them say the word and I'm ready to have her tested (she is my only child and so I didn't feel comfortable trying to identify "normal" from "close but not quite normal" development on my own). But then finally at the end of last year and a particulary miserable set of standardized testing results - which her teachers still wanted to excuse - I told them to heck with it, I was getting her tested!!

Oh my, that was long and had nothing to do with my budget! But it helps to vent anonymously into cyberspace sometimes!

 

[ronnmel]

No Buy Days Goal: 4/12
Gas : 24$
Car repairs : 390$
Groceries : 120$
Eating out (and snacks) : 110$
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)
5/11 : 4$ (fries)
5/12 : 0$

 

[Virgderon]

Running Total: Spent $541
$900...$359 left
$0 Days:4
Goal is 10 or more!

Groceries- $150-50-15-8- 11- 6= 60 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 11 27 ( random stuff, laundry detg, etc. Oh, and Cracker Jacks! I love freaking Cracker jacks. If I can't find room for those in budget, then I don't want a budget.)
May 12 6 ( so close! I bought carrot cake for DH's birthday today)

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

As far as no-buy--getting a little frustrated this month. Not doing as well as I used to. Maybe I'm losing my no-buy zest?

I think you may not be alone, used to be pages a day of people posting, now I see somedays I post 2 days worth on one page. Maybe, like us, May is a busy=expensive month for people with lots of activities coming to a close and lots of new ones starting up. Whatever it is, good luck getting back on track, and don't beat yourslef up too much, you still seem to be doing pretty good!