Step right up to September No Buy!

[arwood82]

I'm in this month. The past 2 months my budget has gotten out of control. I have to get back on track.

9/1: $93 (vacuum cleaner, new sheets, and my sons winter coat)
9/2: $0
9/3: $0
9/4: $21 (misc. essentials for home)

 

[LSU25]

I'm back too!! After not doing the no buy thread for the past 2 months... I NEED IT BACK I'm now 19+1 pregnant with the twins and counting down the days till we return to Disney World on Sept. 28th for 8 days. But with the twins coming and already planning ( vaguely) our return trip to WDW for their 2 y/o birthday. I need to save all the money I can...and I find no buy threads help tremendously.

This month is going to be a little weird though, My parents are in town for 3 weeks so they usually buy most things (groceries, out to eat, things for the kids) which is so nice and I could never thank them enough. But I don't really get my $100 budget envie money for the week so I don't "save" as much cash to go towards Disney/diapers & wipes haha its such a catch 22...

Also, we just opened an ING account for the Disney trip in 2 1/2 years. I know it seems SO far away but every little bit will help. All survey money and most of my saved weekly budget money will go into that account ( after we return from this Disney Trip.

9/1 -$0
9/2 -$0
9/3 - $0
9/4- $0

 

[carebee21]

09/01- $0
09/02- Budgeted Groceries; $0 otherwise
09/03- $0
09/04 $10 Starbucks gift cards

Well, I finally found a deal I couldn't resist online. Living Social is having a buy a $10 Starbucks giftcard for $5, so I bought two. Although we've pretty much cut Starbucks out, I'm sure at the very least they'll get used on Black Friday, so I'm just planning way ahead to save money

 

[skissugar]

9/1 - 2.99 ebook had to finish my series lol .... I did go grocery shopping for this pay period.. i alloted 500 and walked out under 200 for 2 weeks! will have to go back for milk but i really did save a lot more than i thought i would so i dont think the ebook was too much out of budget lol

9/2- 0

9/3- 0

9/4- donut shop run.. 10.00 in donuts and 20.00 at pizza place but it was my sons birthday and those were birthday treats.. I arleady had budgeted for this so I really spent $0 extra i guess

 

[staciepm]

This month I am just tracking no buy days. My goal is 15 no buy days to help encourage me to plan all stops. I will list what I spend to help me budget for next month.

9/1 $0
9/2 Walgreens $4.05 saved 14.48, BiLo 21.30 saved 37.29, Harris Teeter 39.62 saved 26.96
9/3 $0 Went to parents for late lunch!
9/4 $80 for $100 in gas cards HT, HT, Dollar Tree, Walmart, Piggly Wiggly

Total spent 62.64 Saved 78.73
No buy days 2/15

 

[reginaastralis]

I'm in! I need to be back on board, it's been a really long time since I've actively tracked our budget. It's in shambles.

We've all been back in school for two weeks, and it's nuts over here. The first week of school, our house got struck by lightning. Then, the following week Isaac came through. We didn't get much rain, but we got enough wind and rain (plus all the other rain this season) that we ended up with a hole in our roof. I'd laugh if I was watching someone else's life ... lol. So this weekend, I surprised my dd with a short weekend trip to the World. We needed it!

9/1 - $250 Target (clothes and room things for dd) $50 gas
9/2 - Disney!
9/3 - Disney!
9/4 - $13 at Target for pens and highlighters rolleyes and $4 at walmart for deodorant. Things to learn, even though I've lived here my whole life ... deodorant melts in the car when you leave your last stick in to go to the parks for the day. I know that $13 is kinda insane for pens, and I laughed at myself but I bought specific color coded pens to try to manage all of our crazy schedules (bf works two jobs, we're both in school full time, and dd is in a ton of activities). I want to go back to Disney just thinking about this, lol.

This month we're also going to the Keys for the weekend for a friends wedding, and I don't want to think about what this is going to cost us.

 

[::Snow_White::]

Ok, I take the "No food" back. I just realized I'll be going out a lot this month....so I'm just going to completely remove "Eating out for lunch" from my budget. No eating out for lunch this month!

Hey Kayla, living at home while in college is such a great money saver! When I was away for school, I just didn't eat much...not the best for my health but great for my budget! What concert did you buy tix for?

Absolutely, and commuting really isn't as expensive as it would be paying for rent, so why not?! I'm sure if I lived in an apt. I wouldn't eat as much, luckily most of my groceries get paid for by my parents so I think I eat a little too much.

The concert is Imagine Dragons and Awolnation! They are great.

WOOHOO!! Good job!!
I gave up soda cold Turkey on October 24 2011. And while I crave a soda every now and then I don't regret giving it up.
I feel so much better now.



Hey stranger!!!

Hey howdy hey!!

Guess I should really get my butt back over to the BL thread, huh? Still trying to balance school, work, and life so not exactly back on the wagon yet. Working on it though!

 

[IMALOVNDISNEY]

I'm back in this month. Failed terribly tracking last month. I have been out of work since the end of March, so I've been even more careful with all of my spending. Good thing I'm a frugal shopper.

Family of 3 w/1 dog...plus many drop ins. I tend to either feed others or pack up goodie bags of groceries for others in need.
When recording my spending I will always round up by $ amount. I don't include change.

Groceries/Household:$25.00/$200
Gas /$150 (I lowered this one due to no longer working)
Eat Out:$18.00 /$150 (raised DD's birthday)
Misc: /$200
No Buy Days: 2/15
Coupon savings: $3.00

09/01 $22.00 btwn Costco's and Shop Rite. We put together a last minute picnic with a few family members.

09/02-0- Went to Church and came back home. It was a nice lazy day.

09/03 $18.00 ordered out for pizza. Another lazy day.

09/04$3.00 for milk.

 

[IMALOVNDISNEY]

9/3 $0 spent

We cut cable tomorrow!!!

Good for you . We too live in CT and are seriously considering cutting out cable. Cox Cable is getting outrageous. Please keep us posted on this journey.

 

[whoopsiedoodle]

YAY! First NO BUY of the month!! Granted I haven't left the house all day, but I'll take it!

9/4- $0

 

[casper_jj11]

Hi everyone. I used to be a regular on the board a year or so ago and it was fantastic to get finances in order. I finally felt in control... and then life took over, we took vacation, etc and I stopped posting. Since then, I've left work for 2 years to stay home with the kids til my youngest is in school full time... and we did renos this past spring. And then DH took a pay cut. But we still took my parents to Disney as had been planned. What was everything under control with money left over to set aside in a savings account very quickly turned into have a very high line of credit (part renos and part overspending each month).

This past weekend we truly realized that we can't wait for me to go back to work in Sept 2013 to start paying off that line of credit. The interest rate is low but it needs to be taken care of now in case we run into an emergency of some kind. We do have wiggle room because we're paying way more than we need to for the mortgage to have it paid off faster but we don't want to change that. We have no credit card debt. We use them to get points but they're paid off each month... usually with income but as I mentioned, lately we've been spending too much so we've paid the cc with the line of credit if it was higher than it should be.

We got things under control last time by budgeting, keeping track and couponing (not as easy here in Canada as in the US). This time we're taking it further. I'm cancelling the cleaners (yeah, I know its a big perk and necessary when I was at work but now that I'm home, it makes sense that I do it), we're cancelling netflix, cancelling the newspapers, giving up my large Tim Horton's coffee each day. We're also not registering DS9 in extra hockey training (he's still in regular hockey) and the kids won't be getting one hot meal a week at school... guess I"ll have to buy a thermous and make it myself.... I so enjoyed having one day a week that I didn't have to make lunches Anyway, the plan is to cut spending significantly and start paying off that line of credit asap. With any luck, a big chunk of it will be paid by the time I actually go back to work.... wish me luck

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Hey howdy hey!!

Guess I should really get my butt back over to the BL thread, huh? Still trying to balance school, work, and life so not exactly back on the wagon yet. Working on it though!

No worries, we don't start until Friday but the new thread is up. Swing by when you can. We'll leave the light on for ya.

Good for you . We too live in CT and are seriously considering cutting out cable. Cox Cable is getting outrageous. Please keep us posted on this journey.

We have Comcast and they are robbing us blind!!
I'm trying to get caught up on the stuff I DVR'ed then it's gone by the end of the week.
The kids have already taken to watching stuff on Hulu and Amazon Instant Video. They are finding all kinds of things to watch. DS11 has taken a liking to Fraggle Rock.
I just need to learn how to work the remotes. LOL


****************************************

9/5 $0
Went grocery shopping but stayed almost within budget. The canned tomato deal pushed me over the edge. The big cans of Hunts were a $1 each (1/2 off!) so I bought 8, and got 100 gas points. We will use those for the big batch of chili we make for my dad's party in October.
But I saved $107 with coupons, sales, and the shopping bag credit. And I got 1000 gas points total!!! That's $1 off every gallon of gas, big deal when it's over $4 now.
I still have 1/2 a tank but that will probably be gone by next week.

And we should be set for groceries for at least 2 weeks, maybe more if I can keep the kids out of the snacks for school.

any tips on how to get produce costs down? We didn't get our garden in this year and it's killing me. I spent $60 on just produce.

OH, and I did bottle redemption today too. DS16 takes water bottles to school for sports and I banked $14.85!! 10 will go to milk tickets for the month for the little kids, the rest is going into the piggie bank for Disney.

 

[MomToOne]

(I'm tracking only Eating Out/Junk Food/Vending Machine/General Impulse Food purchases.)

9/1 - $0
9/2 - $0
9/3 - $0
9/4 - $0 Was tempted to take DD out to dinner to celebrate her surviving her first day of Middle School, but I went home and cooked instead. Now, today may be a different story, because I forgot to take any meat out of the freezer - we've been in a rush to get out the door the last few days because the new school starts half an hour earlier than the old one, and dinner planning has been the last thing on my mind!

Total: $0 (Goal < $65)

Diet Cokes: 0 (Goal: 0) My stomach is so messed up from stress at work that I can't even imagine drinking a soda right now....and my boss just tried to dump yet MORE work on me that was basically just a waste of time meant only to get one co-worker to stop whining. Oh boy did she get an earful on that one

 

[arwood82]

I'm in this month. The past 2 months my budget has gotten out of control. I have to get back on track.

9/1: $93 (vacuum cleaner, new sheets, and my sons winter coat)
9/2: $0
9/3: $0
9/4: $21 (misc. essentials for home)
9/5: $33 (lunch out for birthday and a few things i forgot on the grocery trip)

 

[charming23]

I stayed home sick today. I have some nasty cold/allergies/sinus thing going on. The good thing was I spent nothing.

My goals are:

2 nights eating out dinner
Only 1 lunch out per week
12 No buy days


9/1- $116.68 Groceries (I should be stocked up for the next two weeks) and $5 Dairy Queen
9/2- $41 Brunch at Mon Ami Winery, $5.60 in the gift shop, $11.90 fresh produce, and $5.51 save a lot
9/3- $0
9/4- $45.89 Target and $15.45 Gas
9/5- $0

 

[carebee21]

09/01- $0
09/02- Budgeted Groceries; $0 otherwise
09/03- $0
09/04 $10 Starbucks gift cards
09/05- $95 Disneystore.com, but it's coming out of the Christmas budget.

So thanks to the vinylmation sale on disneystore.com, I spent $95 dollars today However, my son loves vinylmations and collects them so he had a whole list he wanted. I bought some during the F&F sale to sock away for Christmas and these will go into that stash so the money is coming out of my Christmas budget. Now I'm completely done with vinylmations for Christmas and have only a couple more items to pick up for him for Christmas and I'm done with him altogether.

And whoever said they had Cox, I feel ya. We have cox here as well and they are so expensive. We called for promotions and lowered our bill by about $40/month a couple of months ago, but we still pay over $125/month for phone, cable and Internet with no special channels and no special phone features.

 

[IMALOVNDISNEY]

Family of 3 w/1 dog...plus many drop ins. I tend to either feed others or pack up goodie bags of groceries for others in need.
When recording my spending I will always round up by $ amount. I don't include change.

Groceries/Household:$101.00/$200
Gas $40/$150 (I lowered this one due to no longer working)
Eat Out:$18.00 /$150 (raised DD's birthday)
Misc: /$200
No Buy Days: 2/15
Coupon savings: $29.00

09/01 $22.00 btwn Costco's and Shop Rite. We put together a last minute picnic with a few family members.

09/02-0- Went to Church and came back home. It was a nice lazy day.

09/03 $18.00 ordered out for pizza. Another lazy day.

09/04$3.00 for milk.

09/05 $76.00 groceries, $40.00 gas

 

[whoopsiedoodle]

Went to Target tonight...nothing good comes after that sentence!!! I had to get diapers and they were offering a gift card when you bought 2 boxes plus I had a coupon and it was in the monthly budget. Oh and I needed cat food. And baby allergy meds. Oh and then since I got some gift cards I needed a new sweater! No really I did!! I needed it!!!

9/5- $88.89 (cat food, diapers, meds- all budgeted)
$7.55 (new sweater!)
$3.80 (snacks for the kiddos since they hadn't had dinner)

CURSE YOU TARGET!!!

 

[MomToOne]

So thanks to the vinylmation sale on disneystore.com, I spent $95 dollars today

Darn you Carebee21! Thanks to you pointing out the vinylmation sale, I just spent $20 at Disneystore.com. I had just sort of convinced myself DD12 really didn't need anymore and I wouldn't get her any for Christmas....but then................oh well.

But I'm not tracking that sort of spending here so I guess it doesn't count!

(I'm tracking only Eating Out/Junk Food/Vending Machine/General Impulse Food purchases.)

9/1 - $0
9/2 - $0
9/3 - $0
9/4 - $0
9/5 - $0 Managed to figure out something to cook at home for dinner after all!

Total: $0 (Goal < $65)

Diet Cokes: 0 (Goal: 0)

 

[carebee21]

Darn you Carebee21! Thanks to you pointing out the vinylmation sale, I just spent $20 at Disneystore.com. I had just sort of convinced myself DD12 really didn't need anymore and I wouldn't get her any for Christmas....but then................oh well.

I'm sorry

You have more willpower than I do though. First I had to make it $50 to get my Disney visa discount. Then I had to make it to $75 for the free shipping and then I kept right on going from there