September No Buy!! FALL into savings!

[stayhomemom77]

Okay, okay! Technically September is more summer than fall, but back to school always signals fall for me and after a summer of over-expenditures...I REALLY, REALLY need to get my ducks in a row for our December vacation.

Rules are simple: You decide what categories you want to track and then report your progress here.

As for myself, I am planning to track, all grocery, gasoline and cash expenses made over the course of the month. If any of these budgets have money left over at the end of the month, I will put it towards our Christmas Disney trip.

I went on a HUGE shop this past Friday and stocked up on all sorts of things. Basically, I am giving myself $50 each Friday for milk and produce and the other odd item I may need. And another $50 each Friday for gasoline purchases. And finally, I have $75 in cash that needs to last the month. That is WAM (walking around money) for misc purchases, allowance for the kids and anything we wish to pay for that is not otherwise allocated in the budget.

So, without further ado...

Food $200
Gasoline $200
WAM $75
Goal: 22 No Buy Days

September
1-$0
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1/22

 

[Reginat]

Hi! Thank you for starting the No Buy thread.

My categories: Regular grocery spending is ok.
I have one prescription to fill, so a drug store trip is ok.
Gasoline is ok.
Regular bills are ok.

Goal category: cut recreational spending for the month. I have just caught up on my hobby needs, so my plan is to eliminate shoppertainment at Target, Walmart, Kmart, and the mall. Reality doesn't always match up with my plans, but I am going to give it a try!

My next Disney trip is this October, so I am going to try to Stay Strong all the way to time for my trip! My goal is to report once a week.

Sept 7 report: Compliant in not going to Target, Walmart, Kmart or the drug store this week. Today was very tempting. I was feeling the need for a Perk Up, and Target was near by, but I managed to Stay Strong, at least for today lol. I have encountered other temptations this week. I am hoping to continue the September No Buy through mid-October, so I have started my After Oct 15 shopping list. By the time I get to October 15, it should be time when it is ok for me to start buying things again, although I may want to spread out purchases to make the thrill last longer lol. My next goal is to continue another week of not going in Target, Walmart, Kmart or the mall, to Stay Safe on my No Buy plan. This challenge is Very, Very Exciting for me!!!!!

Sept 14 report. Compliant in not going to Target, Walmart, Kmart, or the mall this week. I did go to the drug store, but only got the prescription I was picking up. Saturday I had some temptation, but settled for getting some needed items at the grocery store. Sunday morning I felt some temptation, but kept my foot on the gas pedal and didn't take the exit for the store. The upcoming week looks good. Dad said we may need something at Walmart, but said he might be able to pick it up himself. 31 days until my Disney trip, yay! I am going to try to Stay Strong until then! This challenge really helps motivate me!

Sept 21 report + 2 Lessons for me. Compliant in not going to Target, Walmart, Kmart, or the mall this week. Lesson learned that for next Sept, I need to pre-plan a shopping day at the fabric store(s); it's a time of year that I feel like sewing and seeing what's new. It's not totally bad because sewing is a creative expression of my personality, but this year it wasn't planned so it felt kind of like messing up on my No Buy/ avoid recreational shopping plan. Lesson 2 is I have observed that most other people allow 4 or however many shopping days (+ budget) within each month, so I will have a more realistic perspective on participating when I try it again in the future. I will count this week as a success, as I enjoyed my fabric store trip, and I'm already sewing up fabric that I purchased.

Sept 28 report + Continuing Lessons. Compliant in not going to Target, Walmart, Kmart, or the mall this week, so I have met my technical goal for the month. Lesson continued for next Sept, the preplanned fabric store shopping may also extend to Ebay and Etsy. In other words, I did have some Ebay/ etsy fabric purchases this week. Even though there is nothing overly wrong with that, there are some elements of recreational shopping; next Sept by having purchases preplanned, the purchases can be in the Appropriate preplanned category. Continued Lesson #2 is to have a realistic inclusion of shopping days as part of the plan. Buying some dog food at Tractor Supply was not a slip, but then the day included buying some plastic horses -- that really blends over into the recreational shopping category, even though it wasn't at Walmart or wherever. So in Oct, preplanned shopping days will hopefully be flexible enough to allow the purchase of reasonable unexpected finds.

 

[GraceMonica]

I will track all my spending, which shouldn't be too hard because we stopped going out to eat and stopped spending on things we wanted and didn't really need.

Budget:
Groceries per week $100 (This is my max allotment, I strive to spend less than that each week. Its only the two of us and we just stocked up on chicken!)
Gas $50-$80 a month
Household goods $100 this month

I do see myself buying household goods this month. We just ran out of a few things, so its time to stock up for the next few months so that is something I need to account for!

Goals: 20 no buy days and save at least $300 for Disney this month.

September:
1... $0 so far so good!
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[artemis4]

August was a really expensive month here with homeschool curric purchases, auto insurance increase with a new driver, a custom butchered pig being ready, a major road trip and clothing. Back to basics for a while is my goal because I don't want to fall into spendy habits.

So, regular bills, regular grocery and gas are okay. No clothes, no more new curric, no splurges. Dining out for the month limited to our upcoming overnight date and two other times. Limit drives to the city to two.

1 - $0
2 - paid all of our regular monthly bills, but nothing else $0
3 - $0
4 - $0, actually $130 ahead for the month. Our annual math subscription renews every Sept. (It's a planned expense we have budgeted for every Sept, so I didn't count it as new curric.) I just found it on a Homeschool Buyers Coop group buy, saving me $43 per child x 3 kids. Happy dance!

 

[charming23]

I am in for September. We are going to Disney February 5-12, 2015 and while the trip is already covered I want to have a nice budget for food, souveniers, and extra fun.

9/1- $28.02 Gas and $8.02 Dinner at work

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I'm in again.
I need to rein DH in, he's killing me!

I'm not going to even attempt to count yesterday because we hit the sales rack at target for clothes and bought our RV site for next season. So I will start with today.

9/2 -
9/3 -
9/4 -
9/5 -
9/6 -

 

[star72232]

I'm looking for 15 no buy days.

I'm not going to track regular bills or gas, but I will be tracking groceries and all other purchases.

September
1-$0

 

[stayhomemom77]

Food $200
Gasoline $200
WAM $75
Goal: 22 No Buy Days

September
1-$0
2-$0
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2/22

 

[EpiStitch]

Hi everyone! I've never done this no-buy thing before, but hopefully it will help me better stay on budget so I can pay off my credit card and start saving for a vacation!

Goal: 20 no-buy days

September
1-$12.95 for a cab to work since the buses weren't running
2-$0
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[melissalee]

I'm in!! I did great in July. My goal is 15-20 days of no buy!

 

[stayhomemom77]

Kids came home from school with some additional needs beyond the back to school stuff I bought in August! Since I had to spend money anyway (and we somehow ran out of milk two days early) I did my grocery shopping for the week. I have to make what I now have in the house last until the 12th.

Food $142.81
Gasoline $200
WAM $61
Goal: 22 No Buy Days

September
1-$0
2-$0
3-$10.00 school agendas, $1.85 Bulk Barn, $1.40 Dollar Store, $57.19 groceries, $0.75 Disney jar
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2/22

 

[EpiStitch]

Made it through today without spending money, hopefully I can make daily updates to help me stay on track!

Goal: 20 no-buy days

September
1-$12.95 for a cab to work since the buses weren't running
2-$0
3-$0
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[GraceMonica]

Groceries $400
Household goods $100
Gas $80
I'm going to add $50 miscellaneous

September:
1...$0 so far so good!
2...$0
3...$0
4...$0
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4/20 no buy days

 

[star72232]

I'm looking for 15 no buy days.

I'm not going to track regular bills or gas, but I will be tracking groceries and all other purchases.

total no buy days to date - 2/30

September
1-$0
2-$0
3-$7.50 (grocery store)
4-$16 (school agendas)

 

[EpiStitch]

Goal: 20 no-buy days

September
1-$12.95 for a cab to work since the buses weren't running
2-$0
3-$0
4-$3.58 cupcake truck
5-
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[stayhomemom77]

Food $142.81
Gasoline $200
WAM $61
Goal: 22 No Buy Days

September
1-$0
2-$0
3-$10.00 school agendas, $1.85 Bulk Barn, $1.40 Dollar Store, $57.19 groceries, $0.75 Disney jar
4-$0
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3/22

 

[charming23]

Spendy day today but I had a bunch of overtime on my paycheck that automatically went into savings.

9/1- $28.02 Gas and $8.02 Dinner at work
9/2- $0
9/3- $0
9/4- $0
9/5- $78.89 Old Navy, $125.32 target (groceries/household), $3.62 Starbucks, & $8.89 bakery



3/15 No buy days

 

[GraceMonica]

Remaining:
Groceries $300.24
Household goods $24.15
Gas $52.14
Miscellaneous $33.17

September:
1...$0 so far so good!
2...$0
3...$0
4...$0
5...Dinner @ Jimmy Johns $16.83, Gas $27.86, Household: $75.85, Grocery: $99.76 We went to Sam's Club and Walmart for it all. I am SHOCKED how much I stayed in budget. DH and I threw a bunch of stuff not on our list in the cart. It seemed to work out for us! Most of the stuff should last us most of the month! And if I don't buy anymore household items this month, the remainder will go in the Disney fund! I don't plan on spending any more money until next week! Let's see if I can hold off!

4/20 no buy days.

 

[Disneyluv111]

I'm in! We leave Feb 10th-18th 2015.

Budget for every month. I have this in an excel sheet!

Groceries: 300
Fuel: 150
Spending: 150
Eating out: 150
Entertainment: 150
Miscellaneous and Miscellaneous giving (to church/others): 200

September has been great so far because in-laws has been giving us food so that extra money saved. My husband's company has been treating him and his workers to food as well.
Our freezer is stocked, so we will have extras there too!

 

[EpiStitch]

Goal: 20 no-buy days

September
1-$12.95 for a cab to work since the buses weren't running
2-$0
3-$0
4-$3.58 cupcake truck
5-$0 One day at a time!
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