No Spend Challenge Update No. 3

As we enter into the final week, thank heavens, of the July No Spend Month Challenge, I must say that I am ready to be out from under the pressure...LOL!  It is much harder than you think to NOT SPEND MONEY.  What has happened to us??  Why does it seem so hard to not get what you want when you want it??  It is really making me more sick by the minute.

I remember as kids, my parents would take us to McDonald's for good report cards!!  We would be so excited and we would get the 99 cent hamburger, fries, and coke deal. Does anybody remember that??  NEVER a happy meal!!  It was a treat, a highlight, and it saddens me that our world has become one of convenience over special treats.

My eyes have been opened through this challenge, but truly, things just cost so much that if you don't view stuff as treats or special outings, you will absolutely go broke.  I took the girls to the movies Friday to see Ramona and Beezus...okay so good, if you don't believe me read here...ANYWAY, and it was $40.00!!!  Usually I don't buy movie theater food, and that was $14.00 of the $40.00, but I wanted it to be special treat so the girls did pick out a $6.00 candy!! BRUATL!!!

Anyway, I could go on forever about the brutalness of this overspending, bloodsucking, ALL ABOUT ME society that we live in, but you already know...here is how we are doing with the challenge!

Total Money Spent Outside of Regular Budget $211.17 so far this month:

• We spent $22.00 on fast food this week...getting better from the $35.00 last week, huh?  I will say that $16.00 of it was Taco Bell for supper one night...we had a craving and begged Daddy boy to take us and he did :)
• I spent $16.00 at Macy's on a hat that I just couldn't pass up.
• And we spent $40.00 at the movies on Friday.

Not bad, and still under the $250.00 challenge that everyone else set for themselves...I knew that my way of budgeting was better...lol!!

As far as my grocery budget goes, yeah I don't know.  I pretty much blew it because we were out of all of our toiletries and had resorted to using the razor and toothpaste that came home with us compliments of the Beau Rivage casino that me and big daddy snuck off to last weekend (ooh la la).  I had a slew of coupons all expiring at the end of the month so I did go to Walmart and stock up (something I haven't done in months).  I spent $85.00 at Walmart, but my total would've been $115.00 without my coupons and I have more toothpaste, razors, and shampoo than any human can use!!  Gotta do what you gotta do because seriously, CVS is not really my friend anymore...where are those ECB deals???

In case you missed my post about my new trial grocery budget, you can check it out here.  

This is what is left of my $400.00 grocery budget

• $213.00 at Sams on (week 1)
• $62.57 at Winn Dixie (week 1)
• $74.53 at Winn Dixie (week 2)
• $25.40 chicken feed (how brutal that their food has to come out of my budget)
• $87.43 Walmart (week 3)

I've got $-67.00 left to spend on groceries this month.  Uh, oh!!  Guess, we must starve!!!  I do still have tons of food from Sams at the beginning of the month and in my $87.00 I spent at Walmart, I did get a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk, so we are set!!

See you next week for my final update!! PRAISE BE!!