Step right up to September No Buy!

[YukiPhnx]

Welcome back to the thread for the regulars and to any new posters!

Rules are simple: you decide what to track, how to track it and what your goals are. While many people choose to try for as many $0 days as possible (hence the "no buy" title), if some other target works for you, then go for it![Stole this intro from MomtoOne]

I like to do a bit of both, keeping within a budget as well as reaching a No buy goal. I also have "side" budgets of extra little things that I want to limit myself too. This month....NO MORE MAKE-UP. If I ever get anything from Sephora, it's to pick up a free gift (hooray for being VIB) or to buy a gift for someone else.

I'm also going to limit my Starbucks purchases...It'll cut down on my caffiene and misc spending!

I like to do mini 3-day budgets because I find it works really well for me. Feel free to steal this idea and make it your own!

Last month, I was able to save $180 towards my wedding/travel fund!

No buy: 0/15
Clothes: 0/3
Starbucks: 0/5
Eating out for lunch: 0/5

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$40

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$40

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$40

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$40

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$40

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$40

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$40

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$40

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$40

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$40

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I'm in!
My goals this month are no Starbucks and no Eating out. We can spend well over $1000 doing this in a single month.
I also plan to stick to a budget for groceries.
The only day we might have a struggle is the 22nd. DS16 has an all day Cross Country meet in Rhode Island. I'm going to have to come up with some kind of idea for lunch.

9/1 - $0 (kids are having a hard time already)
9/2 - $60 on lunch; $12.50 on dinner (taking that out of grocery budget)
9/3 - $0
9/4 - $0
9/5 - $0 +$14.85 on bottle redemption
9/6 - $0
9/7 - $17.85 Starbucks (lunch); $0.82 photos (trying to finish a scrapbook); $22.33 Digital scrapbook (first 20 pages were free, so 50% off)

Grocery budget for Week 1 - 200 -$8 +$107 savings, 1000 gas points= $1/gallon

9/8 - $120 cash for tolls, food and pocket money (100 for DH, 20 for me); $13 pizza
9/9
9/10
9/11
9/12
9/13
9/14
Dinner:
9/8 - Pork chops
9/9 - taco bake
9/10 -
9/11 -
9/12 - pot luck dinner at School
9/13 -
9/14 - pot roast with cooked apples
(need to find my notepad for the rest)
Grocery budget week 2 $150. DH won't be here so we are going to try to use what we have.

 

[YukiPhnx]

Great to see you here Buffy! Btw, I loved your son's poster!!! I totally want to put that up at my cubicle at work.

No Starbucks....wow...I'm just limiting myself to 1 a week now. Dunno if I could ever go cold-turkey. Those vanilla lattes man....

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I own a nespresso machine and DH taught me how to make Caramel Macchiatos at home.
One tube of 10 pods cost the same as one grande at Starbucks so I can save a fortune if I make them at home.
I will however miss the chicken sausage breakfast wrap.

If you want I can take a picture of the poster with the better camera so you can print it.

 

[patsal]

I am so in...my bank account is anemic...thank goodness school starts on Tuesday and I get paid on Wednesday...10 weeks with no pay has really drained the account!

9/1 $0
9/2 $0
9/3 $0
9/4
9/5
9/6
9/7

 

[skissugar]

I am in.. My goal is to not eat out, and to not spend outside the necessities (ie: groceries,gas etc)

 

[carebee21]

I want to join! I've been wanting to join for the past few months, but knew between my son being out of school and then getting ready for back to school, there would be all sorts of unbudgeted expenditures. Now that he's back in and we've purchased back to school clothes and supplies, I'm ready to get back to my budget.

We're have a huge move in a little over 9 months, so we've already cut everything way back to save for that. My goal is to really stick to that. No extra purchases at the store we don't need, no buying stuff I don't need online because it's a great deal and only homemade coffee. I'm trying to stick to only eating out once per month and for entertainment, we're really trying to stick to doing free/or really cheap like redbox type items.

Aside from groceries (which I'm not tracking) I hope my only expenditures this month are 1 birthday present for DS's friends birthday, putting down the deposit on DSs October birthday party and maybe buying Christmas presents if I see the perfect gift for a price that I'm not sure I can beat at Christmas (I already made a list of who to buy for and what they like, so if I can find it early, I might just have to make that purchase now.)

09/01 - $0

 

[charming23]

I am in for this month. The past few months have gotten out of hand budget wise. Since I am working again I am not planning correctly.

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

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

We're have a huge move in a little over 9 months, so we've already cut everything way back to save for that. My goal is to really stick to that. No extra purchases at the store we don't need, no buying stuff I don't need online because it's a great deal and only homemade coffee. I'm trying to stick to only eating out once per month and for entertainment, we're really trying to stick to doing free/or really cheap like redbox type items.

A huge move as in moving houses?
Just remind yourself that everything you buy, you have to pack.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Had a $0 buy today. We did get haircuts but that was a budgeted item and they won't need them again for 3-4 months.
DH also went to the store because I was out of french fried onions and cream of mushroom soup but that just came out of the weekly grocery budget.

 

[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)

 

[staciepm]

I tried too much last month and totally was discouraged and stopped tracking. 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

Total spent 62.64 Saved 78.73
No buy days 1/15

 

[whoopsiedoodle]

I'm in! I had a big "discussion" with DH last night about my spending habits the last few months. He seems to think I may be going a little overboard! And I just found out that I have to come up with an extra $800 by the end of Jan for a sorority conference (I am their advisor so I have to pay my own way) on top of our DL trip at the end of Feb!! So I am going to start with no buy days and do my best to simply track what I spend. I want to have 15 no buys days this month and I already blew that out of the water yesterday!!

9/1- $50 (pizza, breakfast, farmers market)

 

[carebee21]

A huge move as in moving houses?
Just remind yourself that everything you buy, you have to pack.

Yep, we're moving from Las Vegas to Orlando next June. I keep telling myself that and that I'll have to get rid of most of it, as we're doing moving cubes with limited space but it's hard when you're used to clearance shopping and stocking up for next season and holidays early. I really have to ask myself if I'm going to use the item before we move and if I really need the item...

Today was a good day for me. I got up and went to the grocery store before DH and DS were up. That saved me money on groceries and hearing I'm hungry before grocery stopping and stopping to pick up something quick to eat. I'm doing laundry and housecleaning the rest of the day, so I know I won't be spending any more money today

Sept. 1- $0
Sept. 2- Bought groceries, $0 otherwise

 

[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 staying home and avoiding all sales as they are just tooo tempting

 

[charming23]

We spent the day out with my Aunt on a little road trip. We went to a fabulous brunch and hit up some farm stands.

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

 

[annsteere]

It is a hard month for me even to identify a target. "NO dumb spends" is pretty close.

A "dumb spend" is food outside the home, most everything I discover at Target and suddenly want to buy, etc. Yesterday I bought deck stain. Protecting our deck is a good spend.

I am exempting a trip to Orlando for a wedding. It is a budget trip (FF miles, staying with friends) but I'll need a rental car and some misc. extras like restaurant food.

I want to see how much of my $80 allowance I can still have in my pocket at the end of the month.

So, I'll track allowance spending and "dumb spends."

Total so far:
dumb spends: 0 spends, 0$
Allowance fun: 0/$80

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

blew no food out today.
We had to go get DS16 Cross Country spikes for races (budgeted item) but there was some big festival going on so we were out way later than we expected so we had to eat. I was starting to get shaky and a headache so I decided health was better than not spending money.

9/2 lunch $60

Ergh, right back on the band wagon though!

 

[MomToOne]

I'm back in! Same thing as always - I'm tracking only Eating Out/Junk Food/Vending Machine/General Impulse Food purchases. I'm shooting for a target of a total of $65 or less. That's $10 lower than last month's target - I figure I'll lower it by $10 a month until I hit a point where it just hurts too much to go any lower

Off to a good start....
9/1 - $0 Killed the urge to buy a "treat" while shopping by reminding myself there was a whole bag of Oreos I could eat once I got home
9/2 - $0 Stayed home and made cupcakes because I ate all the Oreos

Total: $0 (Goal < $65)

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

So apparently while I was on the phone with my brother, DH decided to go get pizza for dinner.
UH, what part of NO BUY do you not understand?!?!

So, I ate leftover beef casserole, the rest of them had pizza. Guess who's having left over pizza for lunch tomorrow?!? Yep, the 5 of them!!! I was no buy, he was not!

gonna have to go change my numbers again.
Maybe I'll take the $12.50 out of the grocery budget for the week.